Kafka, Pink, Nacht, and Soroush

1. My older son is learning some things about what it means to own a car. Enough said on that topic, I had to give him a ride to the train station after a long time this morning. As I pulled into my parking spot in Berkeley, I called him to see if he had made it on the 7:30 train. He had, but he didn’t want to talk about trains (which less than 2 hours ago was all he had wanted to talk about). Instead, he wanted to talk about Kafka, which he is reading right now, and as reading Kafka goes, he is shocked and a little frightened by what he is reading. In between the things he was saying he said: “I read my first Kafka story when I was 15. It was in a book of short horror stories you bought me. What was going through your mind when you bought that collection of dark stories for me? What if I’m permanently damaged as a result of my exposure to Kafka when I was only 15?!” I told him to keep on reading his Kafka, until he has read them all, and then he should read some other books which I’ll tell him about later, and then see some ballets and operas which I will also recommend, before he is done. He said: “Done with what?” I said to him: “What you need to be a good date, where you can talk about a broad range of topics and things.” For the first time, he didn’t tell me to mind my own business.

2. I’m going to an event on Thursday. If you live in this area, I highly recommend your attendance. Foreign policy: Future of American-Iranian relations; Thursday, November 15 7:30-9 p.m. 2060 Valley Life Sciences Bldg., UC Berkeley. Here's the lecture description: "Regardless of sanctions and diplomatic alienation, Iran has not backed down from the claim that it has a right to its own nuclear program. As tensions heat up and the our position in the Middle East grows more complicated, we are faced with a number of choices. Michael Nacht, dean of the Goldman School of Public Policy, and Darren Zook, professor of International and Area Studies, will discuss the the probable and preferable futures of American-Iranian relations."

3. My friend, Dr. Zari Taheri, has sent me the link to this song by Pink. It's called "Dear Mr. President." Here are the lyrics.

4. Dr. Abdolkarim Soroush will be giving a lecture on "Molana va Ghiaymate Eshgh" at Oakland's Islamic Cultural Center of Northern Califonia on Saturday November 17, 2007at 6:30PM. The program is in Farsi. ICCNC's address is 1433 Madison Avenue, Oakland, CA.

5. Tomorrow at 12:00 noon, there will be a protest by Iranians against a possible US attack on Iran at UC Berkeley's Sproul Plaza. It will last for one hour. I am attending this protest. If you live in this area, come join us.