All She Left

She ordered a cup of coffee and sat down.  It was a calm afternoon.  No calls, no texts, no posts.  She didn't check her emails all day.
The coffee was bitter, exactly how she liked it.  She added just a couple drops of milk and stirred, watching the dark brown turning into milky brown swirls of coffee and milk.

She was looking forward to her afternoon drink at the local cafe, yearning the smell of coffee most of the day that day.  Now she earned it; waiting.
Soaking in the aroma, she sipped her drink savoring the taste.  It was a dense drink.  Full of colors even though looking like just a bland cup of coffee to the naked eyes.
She closed her eyes briefly taking a deep breath.  Then, she opened her smart phone and paused a few moments.  There was a forbidden world out there.  The forbidden heart.  Back to reality.  She locked it again.
She got up and walked out the door, leaving the finished cup of coffee and all that was left on the table.

Arash the Archer by Bayzai - The Play Reading at Stanford

The story of Arash the Archer has been rewritten in the modern Persian by Bahram Bayzai about half a century ago.  It was performed at Stanford last night, directed by Bayzai himself for the first time.
The endearing mythology of Arash the Archer is about this hero, Arash, whose heroic act indicated the border of Iran when it was invaded by non Iranians of the time, called Touranians.  At the time, Touranians had taken over a vast land of Iran's, many killed and many lands destroyed.  To end the blood shed it was agreed that the war would end and the land would be depicted by Arash's landing of a single shot of an arrow. Arash hence climbed the Damavand, the tallest mountain in northern Iran, and shot a single arrow that was shot beyond any ordinary man could have shot.  There are different versions of how long the shot arrow was travelling in the air or how far it landed or whether it landed at all.
Bayzai's rendition of the story is written in the form of a screenplay and is somewhat different than the ones written in the ancient Shahnameh or the modern retelling of the story by Sivash Kasrai. In Bayzai's rendition, Arash was a simple man who was not a proper archer; he was betrayed by both Iranians and Aniranians. Yet, he honored the peace pledge, climbed the Damavand, and shot the arrow not by the strength of his elbow, but by the strength of his willpower.  The arrow has never landed and no one has seen him descending from Damavand since.
Bayzai's screenplay was directed by others and was screened a few times already.  However, it was directed by himself for the first time and played last night at Stanford.  It was not a real "play", but a "play reading" in fact. There were only two actors who literally narrated the actual screenplay, and they did a unique and fantastic job in my opinion.
Mojdeh Shamsaei and Mohsen Namjoo "played" the screenplay by reading it, seated at all time, depicting different scenes and characters using different ton of their voice.  It was really a different version of acting.  The fundamental difference of this version compared to a real "play" for me was how the play reading needed a good deal of attention to be comprehended.  There was hardly any visual clues, any motion, any change of color or light even.  It was all reading, demanding the audience to pay attention to the words and intonations.  It needed some getting used to.  But after a while, it was easier to follow and imagining the scenes.
The play reading is repeated tonight at Stanford.

Mojdeh Shamsaei, Mohsen Namjoo, Bahram Bayzai

Notes from a Woman with a Bump - Maternity Photography

This one was one that I was not too sure about.  In the end, we decided to do it.  After all, this might be our last chance with a bump and this bump, thank God, looks pretty nice.
It was a fun session actually despite my hesitations at first.  A tried to be a good sport and when not acting silly looked pretty awesome.  M seemed to have some fun too even though I know it was too long a session for him.
We will see our photos in two weeks.  In the mean time, I do recommend the experience.  I think timing it right is the key.  I wanted to have full round belly but not swollen hands.  So end of week 33 worked out pretty nicely, at least from a couple sneak peeks into the results.

Iran and America Through a Different Lense

A photographer from New York embarked a journey to Iran in December.  I admire his vision and his fact-finding nature in not limiting himself to political media to learn about Iran, especially at this time out of all times.

Enjoy his blog as I absolutely enjoyed every word and every picture!

Turquoise Howz

I want to build howz, a fountain.  I want to bring in those blue turquoise mosaics and decorate my howz inch by inch.  Those mosaics that are baked in a local shop deep in the bazaar, and painted the perfect smooth color of turquoise by the artistic fingers of an old man. I want to buy the smallest mosaics, and carry them all the way from that land of my grandparents and build a fountain in the middle of my garden.  I want my children to remember the color of blue such that it was in those ancient fountains in the middle of those gardens.  I want to build a turquoise blue fountain.

Old Old Songs

Old old songs are those that in my parent's collections were called "old songs".  Just for the sake of it!




Darvish, Golpa