Sweet as Aspartame*

Wierd Al Yankovic was in Champaign yesterday. His concert was quit fun. I specifically liked his parody of James Blunt titled "you're pitiful!", it was so funny. Read a bout the debate about the song here and you can download it from there too. Well he did many parodies that didn't get me much because i didn't know the original versions. But the american kids there were quite enjoying themselves. Here's some of his songs i liked: His White and Nerdy is my brother's all time favorite! Amish Paradise is good too! Look at this Trapped in Drive through cartoon clip, it's looong but very funny. His We all have Cellphones is quite hilarious too, and everybody were pulling out their cellphones and waiving them, quite a view in the dark assembly hall. His stage performance of the song Albauerque is quite exciting, in the part where he is in the doughnout shop asking for different doughnots (look at minute 4:50), he included all the different possible berry doughnots: strawberry, rasberry, blueberry, cranberry, blackberry, gooseberry , loganberry, and... Halle Berry!!!

* "Sweet as Aspartame" is directly from one of Wierd Al's lyrics. He referred to his girl being sweet as aspartame! And so was his concert yesterday, not a real one, but a sweet substitute.

Mist and the Moonlight

"When the moon hits your eye, like a big pizza pie that's amore..."
It was a full moon tonight, and such a beautiful one. I went out earlier in the evening, and the moon was in a wonderful bloom in the clear night sky. Now a few minutes ago i went out again to rent a movie, and the city is covered in a thick white mist. I walked literally in the clouds to the blockbuster.

P.S. Thanks for your comments on the previous post. I guess i'll keep it open for a while before i count the votes:)

What do you think?

What do you think the baby in the picture feels like? A friend of mine who shared the photo believes that the baby is suffering. I on the contrary say that he is amazed and quite happy. So we said I post the picture here and see what you guys think? Is the blue eye baby gonna laugh or cry after the kissing is over?:)
Please comment!

Motherland

I went out to buy some bread. The weather outside was delightful. I didn't want to drive back home. It was one of those nights that you like to just take a long walk with a friend and let the calm of the dark velvety sky and the singing of jeerjeeraks(!) soak into you. I thought if i were in Iran i would call up this and that friend and we would go to Park-Jamshidiye... And thus the thoughts came back to me again. The homeland. Where your school buddies whom you can call up late in the evening are.

My dear friend Nazy has asked me to write about "Vatan". For a person like me, who is hanging in between two countries, this is a sensitive topic to write about. I now can't name either of these two counties as a land i belong to. I was born and raised in Iran. If I like it or not, my mindset has formed there. My values, my insights, my way of living.

However there were many things about Iran that made me feel like a cast away there. Things that don't happen to you in US. In Iran, your daily encounters are often tough and hurtful. People are often harsh to you, the doorman, the taxi drivers, the bank clerk, the secratary, the sales associate, ... . You have no space there, any minutes you should expect anybody to come and confront you for how you walk, how you talk, how you are. In Iran you grow up to learn how to hide your thoughts, how to fade into the crowd, how to suppress your opinion. In Iran you're robbed out of excitements, out of laughs, out of colors, out of music and out of silly small things that make a package called youth.

Perhaps these feelings are personal, perhaps now the kids in iran experience a happier life. Perhaps iran is "nice"r since the gloomy day i left it. But i can't let go of the feeling that the people i see around me here, are more like me. I feel less of a cast aways in this country that is not my homeland.

Family

Family... you don't often realize what a huge source of constant care and love they are to you till for any reason you're robbed out of it. My parents left for Iran today. My mom stayed here for almost 5 months. I turned on the tv to kill the silence, Emmy's red carpet interviews are on, and i'm thinking how much my mom would like watching this...
Tonight my small apartment looks and feels cold and blue.

Haale

Oh my adored,
you set me on fire.
Now come,
see the smoke
rising high off me.


I'm not sure if it was solely the magic of the powerful lyrics of Rumi and Hafez in their original words, or her music also had a say, but i very much enjoyed Haale's performance at Highdive tonight. I actually had been to her concert in the World Bank for the Iranian New Year last March. But tonight, in the cozy nightclub of our small town, her music touched me deep.

Haale's upcoming performances in Midwest:
FRI SEP 14 MADISON WORLD MUSIC FESTIVAL Memorial Theater at Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison WI
SAT SEP 15 CHICAGO WORLD MUSIC FESTIVAL Venue TBA, Chicago IL
SUN SEP 16 GLOBAL UNION FESTIVAL Alverno Presents/Alverno College, Milwaukee WI

A Musical Babel

I went to a concert in our university today. It was a duet for Tar (a classic persian instrument) and Piano . Somehow the music to me felt like a troubled relationship. The Tar was talking in its own language and the Piano was sincerely trying to sing along, but sounded dull and irrelevant. Listening to the Piano's desperate struggle was kinda heartbreaking.

Those were the days, my friend*

Morning. I open my eyes. Look at the radio clock in the bookshelf in front of my bed. Reach for my laptop. Adjust my pillows. Stay beneath the sheets, checking my emails, blogs, and feed reader. And the news hit me. Pavarotti is dead. Sad, sad way to start a day.

* I looked to find his performance of "Those were the days". I had it on tape in my car in Iran, and used to shout along with his heavenly voice while driving...:)