The weather here was been unseasonably sunny and bright for the past couple of days. You might say good for you, but i had a hard time sleeping in the morning. The shinny daylight would come in through my bedroom curtains and wake me up early in the morning. Yesterday i was glad to wake up to a cloady gloomy day around noon:) Everything has its own place.
I spent hours in the kitchen today cooking for a small party i'm having tomorrow. It's been a while for me since i cooked, real cooking. It's almost a year that i have adaopted a healthy eating diet, preparing low fat meals, whole grains, ... . And you know that style, although good for you, doesn't much go inline with a real Persian kitchen. So today i cut myself a break, i cooked the old style, using Kermanshahi butter and fried onions in my stew. I made Mirzaghasemi the authentic Rashti style, frying the barbecued eggplants... . My friend came over and made hummus, not cutting back on tahini and olive oil. We poured exactly the amount of oil required for the cake into the batter. I frosted it with real good melted chocolate. I enjoyed my time in the kitchen.
It's Christmas eve. I'm home alone, still recovering from my cold. PBS is having the Mormon Tabernacle Choir on, and next is the Boston Pops (photo above). Christmas to me means music, and lot and lots of it, it's a happy season:)
Freezing rain in the city for a couple of days and now the trees are all ice covered. In the dim light of the cloudy days they look like beautifully made crystals. I look at them with the peace of mind knowing the bare branches are in their winter sleep and probably wouldn't feel the cold ice all over their skin. The same ice that has been a feast to my eyes past few days. The grass however is still green, but that too is covered in a layer of thin ice. It's like somebody has carefully laid a sheer fragile throw over them to protect them from the cold. This icy green is something i had never seen before.
I went to the opera of La Boheme in our Krannert Center today. I don't have a classical music education, but there is something about opera that gets me. The direct exposure to the music that comes not from a man-made instrument, but from flesh and blood. This was actually my second experience of a live opera. The other one was Oedipus a couple of years ago. Although the performers of Oedipus were well known, and La Boheme was produced by the theather department in UIUC, but I liked it better.This video is really interesting. I ran into it in a
friend's gmail status. It's a part of a TED talk.
You might think the song is tailored to work that
way... it could have, but the idea of Reverse Speech
is that even in the statements we make, there
are words and phrases spoken unconsciously that are
revealed only when our recorded speech is played in
reverse.
A famouse example is Neil Armstrong's "That's one
small step for man" , which in reverse would sound
like "Man will space walk." Read more about it here
and here.I remember in one episode of The Simpsons,
they showed a popular teenagers rock band playing a song
which in reverse would read "Join the Army"!
Post Script: by writing this post i didn't mean that i totally believe or support
this Reverse Speech theory. It was a new thing to me and i found it interesting.
Now whether we speak words unconscionably, is something i look skeptical to as well.
It's Halloween again.
Except for in reality i'm too scared of insects, too worried to catch a cold, too afraid of being out alone in dark... So all together it adds up to a no no. But hey, it's a fantasy; you don't need to get real! And now that we're fantasizing can i please have this song played on the background too?:)
"When the moon hits your eye, like a big pizza pie that's amore..."
If you happen to pass by downtown Indianapolis, go and get an educated sandwich from Indianapolis Teachers Association coffeeshop!!! They are closed on Sundays though:)
I so much enjoy driving on Saturday mornings in the boring midwest roads! Guess why? Well, i've gave it out already:))) In case you didn't know, -seriously is there anyone who doesn't know?;) - Car Talk is a radio talk show on NPR broadcasted on Saturdays. There are two brothers hosting the show, taking questions about car problems from callers. And they are soooooooooooooooooooo funny. I have absolutely zero knowledge and inerest in car mechanics, but i love their show. And it specially is even more enjoyable when you're driving while listening. If you have not listened to their program, do it once for me:) You're missing some good fun. Okay here's a taste: At the end of their show they introduce their crew. The complete list can be found here. Pick up a few names and try reading it aloud for a couple of times, you're going to laugh. Who do you think "Haywood Jabuzoff" could be?..... Customer Car Care Representative!!!
Oh my life is changing everyday
Every possible way
Though my dreams,
it’s never quite as it seems
Did you ever stop to think what a great thing this everchagingness* of life is? Lets you dream big and bigger...
Today is the anniversary of my arrival to US. Four years have passed. I look back at the girl who arrived in O'hare with two big suitcases and a bigger spirit to explore the brave new world. She saw new things, made new friends, tasted new tastes, learned new customs, fell in love, had her heart broken, played a fool, acted wisely, stood up, struggled, learned, cried, laughed, and still keeps looking forward.
Oh, I don't even know where to start. The Simpsons Movie was incredible. From its first second with Fox's logo, till the very last with the Springfield national anthem (yes, they have an anthem now!). It was as delicious as a scoop of your most favorite icecream, good till the last drop:DAside from its lyrics, I like the melody of this song alot. A couple of months ago i went to a jazz concert and they played a plain jazz version of Hey Jude. I wish I could post that here instead. It was a great performance.
Zion made a big impression on me, perhaps because it was the first national park we visited, or perhaps because of the color red, I like red :) But seriously it was beautiful. Imagine a road passing along a valley surrounded by red stone mountains with green dots on them, add to the view a beautiful blue sky with some happy white cloads in it. Here are some pictures. The funny thing was that the asphalt on the road was also red!
we stopped for the night in Mammoth lake. It's a popular sky resort, so in the off season the business was slow and the town looked empty, but no regrets, cause we discovered a very good European style bakery in town with the most decedents pastries and the absolute best macaroons i had ever had. Here's the picture of the place. If you ever got to go there, check that out and bring me some too!
I liked this state. It kinda looks like Iran. Mountainous with dry weather.The road from Denver towards west very much resembles the Chaloos road in Iran which passes the Alborz mountains in the North. Only the road was cleaner and safer and there were less shaggy venders cabins alongside the
road.
Aida, the musical was on our campus tonight. I enjoyed it much. Boy, I'm so much into musicals! This was my third, and I still long to see one on a real theater. (The ones on campus don't count, they are simplified versions!) Anyway, you could really hear Elton John in the solos, even his voice's ups and downs. My favorite song was "Fortune favors the brave". Here's a version on youtube. And the dances were good too.
It could have been me, teaching an early morning class, being shut in face by a mad man carrying a gun, raging into my classroom. I could criticize the law that legalizes firearms in US, but I don't feel like arguing right now. Today's incident in Virginia Tech campus awoke some old feeling in me. What I thoughts I had overcame for quite some years now. Feeling insecure. Knowing that your life or your loved ones' life could come to an end at any second. The insecurity that roots from growing up as a kid in mid 80's under the terror of Iraqis bombardments of Iranian cities.
