Dance Rehearsal

Continuing on my search for Iranian dance and dancers everywhere, recently I came across a reference to Khorshid Khanoom Dance Company in Montreal, Canada. My information search was not terribly fruitful, as I couldn’t find a website for the group. I did find out that the group was founded in 1988 by an Iranian woman named Aram Bayat[1], who is Choreographer and Director of the group. The short description I found of the group’s activities says: “Khorshid Khanoom dance group has taken upon itself the responsibility of introducing traditional and folkloric Iranian dance to the young generation of Iranian Canadians, to citizens of the host country (Motreal, Canada) and to the world.” Here’s a video clip[2] compiling several dance pieces they have performed. I particularly like the girls dancing in the rain.

I end an interesting week filled with new lessons, new friendships and deepened older friendships, and new developments (no, can’t tell you about them yet!). I am looking forward to the weekend which will be full of long-awaited visits, chats, kisses, and hugs with my siblings. I wish no less for you my friends. Have a good weekend—sleep all you want, eat and drink what and all you want, and hold and love all who matter to you. I will be taking a trip out of town for several days next week, and I might disappear from the internet radar for a while. Be good you all.

Photo of Khorshid Khanoom dancers Mehrnoosh and Catherine rehearsing May 30, 2007 in Montreal, by Mehrdad Ahari.

[1] See this article which talks about Ms. Bayat’s more recent activities in Monroe Community College.

[2] If you can’t access YouTube, the same clip is also available here, here, and here.

Debbie, Jon, Elvis, and Las Vegas

My friend Debbie married her boyfriend of 10 years, Jon, two Saturdays ago. In a very humorous approach to marriage, as only Americans can, the two of them and their family members went to Las Vegas, where they got married in a chapel with an Elvis impersonator performing the ceremony for them! I asked Debbie why she chose to get married this way and she said because she and her boyfriend Jon were tired of all the more traditional and lavish ceremonies they had attended and wanted something novel and memorable for their wedding. Whether it is in a chapel, a winery, a church, a hotel, a park, or a home, I think the most important thing is for two people to really love and trust each other and to know that they want to spend the rest of their lives together. Debbie and Jon are sure. I wish them all the best in their union.

Gift of Sight

As we drove up a freeway in Tehran, there was a bend in the road. When we finished the bend, all of a sudden we could see the majestic mountains to the north of Tehran, beautiful, tall, and breathtaking. Since my older son was seven and my younger son was four, we lived in Tehran, taking that freeway, making that bend, and seeing those mountains everyday. And almost everyday I would say: “Look you guys, look at those beautiful mountains, and look at those clouds above the mountains! Aren’t they beautiful?” As he grew older and went into the more challenging years of his life, my older son stopped answering me, or he would say something sarcastic, like: “Mom, how many times do you need to show us those same mountains? We have seen them before. They haven’t changed since the last time you pointed them out to us!” But I persevered. I said it again. When he was sixteen, one spring morning after rain had stopped and the sky had cleared, we were driving up a different freeway, facing the same mountains from a different angle, when he exclaimed: “Mom, look at those beautiful mountains! Isn’t it just the most breathtaking thing you have ever seen?” That was the day I knew he could “see.” He now sees the mountains, the trees, the clouds, the grass, and everything that needs to be seen, including beautiful babies and children which he once viewed with a complete lack of interest and disdain.

My younger son, The Traveler, who has obviously been subjected to the same torture growing up as my son, has started “seeing” things for the past year. Here’s a photograph he took one day last March when he was home by himself. I found it in the camera, among some other “experimental” pictures he had taken, and it is now one of my most valuable things in life—proof that this one, too, can now “see.”

Scattered Thoughts of a Scattered Mind...

.....I have been working on complicated projects at work--things that have to do with numbers and budgets and planning. I am starting to deliver my projects one by one this week, relieving myself of the stress, but by the time I finally go home every night, my brain is fried and I sit there in a more or less vegetative state (more so than usual!)

.....I am writing something about the university students who were arrested in Tehran. It is hard for me and it has made me break into sobs several times, abandoning writing it temporarily. Those beautiful young people should not be in prison. What kind of government intimidates, beats, arrests, imprisons and tortures their brightest, most passionate citizens? I am heartsick.

.....The Comcast guy came and my modem is finally fixed. I had to take another whole morning off for this, as last week's was a no-show, but at least I seem to have reliable internet service again. The technician was a kid, I swear, no more than 17! Good for him, as the last two Comcast technicians I had seen were complete inepts. I will call his supervisor to say something nice about him.

.....My son has officially started "borrowing" my car to go places. God help us all.

.....I am going to another Kiarostami movie tonight. Last Saturday's film, Bad Ma Ra Ba Khod Khahad Bord (The Wind Will Take Us Away), was interesting. I was late and managed to get the very last seat way in the front, where my neck hurt for the duration, but it was worth it. I love the simplicity in his movies. I love the children who play in his movies. It was touching. I laughed a bit, too. I'll go to as many as I can.

.....I might take a few days off work next week to visit with my brothers and sisters who are coming for a family reunion. We will try to go somewhere together. This is no small feat, I assure you, as some 30 people will have to be mobilized to "go" anywhere, even for a cup of coffee!

Never Say Never

Several years ago, I said I will never iron a man’s shirt again. I was going about, keeping perfectly loyal to that charming statement, feeling glib about it. My sons are required to wear shirts and ties to their work. As it turns out, every morning (including the weekends) I now volunteer to iron not one but two men’s shirts, to save time departing the house. I don’t mind the chore, as it is one of those favors we tend to do with love for our children, except that I have to live with that statement, which now feels like a foolish thing to have said. Slogans are worthless, when you think about it. We should qualify every slogan we pick by adding: “…unless I have to.” Sigh.

Hamed Nikpay

My interview with Hamed Nikpay was published in Peyk’s Issue 110. Peyk is the publication of Persian Cultural Center in San Diego. You can look at that piece here for the Farsi text (Page 17) and here for the English text (also on Page 17). I had promised it in May when I had a post about this young artist. In the meantime, you can watch and listen to Hamed here, here and here (his website also has selections of his music). One thing I can say about Hamed Nikpay—in addition to his beautiful voice and music, this young man also has an impressive personality, full of hope, excitement and passion, and his honesty and optimism are sparkling and contagious. Those of you who live around here, don’t lose a chance to go see him onstage when he has a concert sometime later this summer. He is electric!

Capoeira

So, O.K. It might appear that I’m having entirely too much fun in my life! All I can say is that yes, that’s partly true! I am blessed to be living in a place where so much can be seen and done if you only make a small effort, like step out to lunch at 12:00 noon! But I should also like to add (in a whining, whimpering voice) that I could either be lazy and skip these events, or just go see them and never report them! These days I carry a camera in my purse all the time, and try to have some level of discipline about writing my short reports quickly, before I forget what happened! So, I should get some credit for my effort and for sharing with you!

Yesterday at lunchtime I watched the first of a series of performances taking place in downtown Berkeley on the sidewalk throughout the month of July. The Downtown Berkeley Association is sponsoring the event, and each week there will be a different appearance by groups playing a variety of different music, from jazz and blues to Latin American. Yesterday’s event was performed by United Capoeira Artists, who provided an exciting performance of Capoeira and Brazilian folklore music, directed by Mestre Acordeón. This was an interesting performance. The participants, who were of all ages, were doing a special kind of martial art in a very peaceful and playful way (smiling all the time!), to the beat of a beautiful and exciting music played by a large group of musicians who would take turns to play music, sing, and dance the martial art dance of Capoeira. It was amazing! You can go look at their site here, and watch a short clip of the Berkeley Capoeira Cafe here, and once inside you will also hear a bit of their music. I think someday I will go check them out, as their martial art/dance seemed to be a very joyful way to exercise and concentrate.

I wish you all a very relaxing and happy weekend. Be good to yourselves and to those around you.

Abbas Kiarostami's Works in Berkeley

I am so excited! Starting this Sunday, July 8th, there will be an exhibition of Abbas Kiarostami's photography in UC Berkeley's Art Museum. This is to compliment his film series which will also be featured in UC Berkeley's Pacific Film Archives, capturing each stage of the director's remarkable career. Many of Kiarostami's films, especially his rarely screened early works made for the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults, will be shown. I guess now you know how I'll be spending my leisure time for the next two months! As I go and learn, I'll post my findings here. I can't wait to see the sweet and easy dialogues of love he has in his "Under the Olive Trees" again. I can't wait to look at the world through his optimistic and hopeful eyes. I can't wait to see the films I have never seen before. I'm so excited! If you live in this area, mark your calendars and go. You won't regret it.

Found the photo here.

Phone Call In The Car

“…Mom, what are you doing?” “I’m writing.” “That’s funny, it sounded like you were in your car, driving.” “I am in my car, driving, and writing…in my head.”

Independence Day

“I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them but to inform their discretion.” Thomas Jefferson Today is July 4th, which is Independence Day in the US. This is a national holiday in which Americans celebrate America’s independence from British rule. In cities and towns across America, there are celebrations and spectacular fireworks on this day. I wished I could encourage all politicians in the world, including contemporary American politicians, to go back and to read Thomas Jefferson’s writings and thinking about government, people, and politics. I believe he was a genius most of whose thinking is even more relevant today, globally, than when it was originally written. Happy Fourth of July!

Photo from: http://www.bigfoto.com/themes/fireworks/index.htm

White Mulberries (Toot)

Take a moment to look at my most favorite fruit in the world! These are white berries (toot sefid), grown on multi-branched leafy trees in Tehran, most notably in the suburb of Kan. They are quite possibly the sweetest fruits on earth, incomparable to anything else. Once a year in late spring and early summer, they are presented all over Tehran, heaped on huge round platters. Since I was a child, I never knew when to stop once I got started eating them one by one at an unbelievable pace and speed! Though it’s more practical to buy them in a shop, the best way to eat them is picking them fresh off the tree. I remember the ceremony of picking berries in Tehran. A big cloth was spread around the tree trunk, and someone would beat the tree with a large stick, helping the ripe berries fall onto the cloth, where waiting children would rush to have their pick! I miss the fruit, and I miss seeing them in shops, where bees would fly all over them, finding it hard to part with this, the sweetest fruit in the world.

Photo by Parviz Forghani, Iranian.com

Free Ali Farahbakhsh

Once a month now since April, I pull out his picture and talk about him. This is so sad, and it feels so inadequate. Can you for a moment imagine yourself in his place? A young journalist in the area of economics, returning from a workshop abroad, being arrested at the airport and sent to solitary confinement, wrongly accused, tried, sentenced and imprisoned for over seven months, deprived of basic human rights. His elderly parents are going crazy with worry (his father served as a judge himself for 30 years) and his young wife and toddler son are fending for themselves. Last month there was news of his deteriorating physical and mental health in prison. I can do nothing for him, but to remember him, and to remind the few people who come to visit me here that Ali Farahbakhsh is a prisoner of conscience, and must not be forgotten. This is something I wrote about him in April. Photo From Hanif Mazrooee’s Blog