Saba, Daydreaming

VIFF schedule is out...

2008-09-07T13:22:00.006-07:00

life is good again, and although I probably won't watch more than 4 or 5 movies, I can't help feeling excited about it.

view schedule here

Who would have thought

2008-09-03T14:32:00.004-07:00

...when we first started school some ten years ago, that we'd be here now? Who would have thought that those innocent, inexperienced and sometimes weird kids would end up being us? some of us never even became close friends until after graduation... but there was the intertwined web of human relationships that connected us all in unexpected ways. Over the years, people I knew in separate worlds ended up being best friends, partners, husbands and wives. Friends collided and overlapped with family. Some got distant and some got inseparable. Some got into rough patches, some glided on smoothly on their way. some found happiness in their own special way, some are still searching. I've seen my friends grow up and through them, I watched myself grow older. But I'm sure of one thing: they may not be innocent or inexperienced anymore, but most of them are still the same weird kids inside. I know I am.

من دیگه کم آوردم

2008-08-28T20:12:00.007-07:00

لطفا گیج زدن های خانم طاهره رحیمی را بخونید و حال کنید! آخه آدم چی میتونه بگه به زنی که همجنسای خودش رو اینقدر دست کم می گیره و ازدواج نکردنشون رو باعث ایجاد شرایط اضطراری می دونه؟

"...حتی اگر تمام عالم را به زن بدهند باز هم زن نمی تواند بپذیرد که شوهرش همسر دیگری اختیار کند چرا که این خلاف فطرت زن است. من معتقدم رضایت زن چه باشد و چه نباشد نه عقلی است و نه شرعی. ماده 23 که شرط رضایت زن را برداشته قانون بهتری است چرا که اگر قرار بر اجرای ازدواج مجدد باشد با مشت و لگد و زور هم که شده زن را مجبور به دادن رضایت می کنند پس رضایت زن معنا و مفهوم ندارد. ..." !!!!!!!!

گلرخ نفیسی این تصویر را به طاهره رحیمی تقدیم کرده: "...که بعد از خوندن مصاحبه ش تصویرش برای همیشه توی ذهنم ثبت شد تصویر آدمیزاد بیچاره ای که زنده بودن را هرگز تجربه نکرده.."

something totally irrelavant

2008-08-21T12:40:00.003-07:00

I am in the middle of making this presentation for a meeting tomorrow, and suddenly I get carried away by my daydreams as usual. remembering great moments spent with friends, I realize something obvious: love makes you drunk. and I don't mean the romantic kind. I mean the love your family and friends give you, and how it makes you feel light headed if you receive it intensely in a period of only a few weeks long.

How simple moments become colorful and simple conversations turn hysterically funny and simple plans sound exciting. It makes me wonder: do I miss the routine life I used to have back home, or do I miss the drunkenness that comes from overdosing on love and friendship?

I'd love to contemplate some more and come up with a theory, but the slides are waiting ... maybe later.

Hamoun in Vancouver

2008-07-30T15:24:00.002-07:00

In memory of Khosrow Shakibai, Hamoun is screening in Pacific Cinemateque in downtown Vancouver on Tuesday, August 12. Show starts at 7:00 p.m., doors open at 6:30. You can get your ticket at the door as far as I know. I will update you once I know more. You can also check out Cafe Radio's show for this week for more information.

Pink Martini, one of my all time favorites

2008-07-28T23:44:00.001-07:00

I have been meaning to write about Pink Martini for a long time. I heard them for the first time two years ago through a friend. I instantly fell in love with them... their work has this 1940's feel to it, but at the same time is fresh and young. Their melodies feel familiar, although the lyrics are original most of the time. Pink Martini is based in Portland, Oregan, but the founders of the band met at Harvard! The lead singer, "China Forbes" has this heavenly voice (you have to see her live to understand what I am saying!) that you just can't help but love.

Pink Martini's music is very international. they have songs in English, Spanish, French, Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese, and Arabic! I saw the band's performance live last month during Vancouver's international Jazz festival and all I can say is don't miss them if they every come around to your town!

Unfortunately, some ongoing technical difficulties (!) have resulted in me not being able to upload music for this post. I waited a few days, but decided to post this without a sample song. It was pretty hard for me to pick a favorite song anyway. You can go on you tube and listen to whatever is available from Pink Martini and pick your own favorite. (do not miss out on songs from their latest album)

My Batman Marathon

2008-07-26T22:07:00.005-07:00

I can not believe I had missed on such a great movie! (great movies I have to say now)

I spent the last 6 hours of my day watching Batman begins and the Dark Knight basically back to back. I watched the first one on DVD, hoping to understand what all these hard core fans were talking about. How could a Batman movie be this good?! and I was surprised (in a good way) and loved the movie so much that decided to devote a Saturday afternoon and go see the sequel. What I loved about both movies is how no one character steals the scene. There are maybe 10 different characters that are all important to the dynamics of the story, and they are all so well developed, and well acted too.

I absolutely loved Batman begins because of the background it gives on Batman and how he became who he is. The fact that Batman is a human like everyone else that learns to be a hero is something that separates him from other superheros like Superman or Spiderman. He's more like James Bond, with better morals!

And Christian Bale was awesome. Let's face it, you can only act so much when you have a mask on your face, and I think in all the un-masked scenes he was pretty good. The Dark Knight had more of the masked Batman in it, so I can't really say much about Christian Bale's acting, but I thought Aron Eckhart did a great job in the movie.

I recommend both movies strongly. There's a reason they've got such high ratings on imdb.

The not-so-imaginary future of Earth, if we keep on living like this!

2008-07-17T10:32:00.004-07:00

...or, the adventures of the cutest (and the only) robot on Earth! This would somehow summarize the story of the movie I watched last night: Wall.E.

Wall.E is so cute, you'll find yourself aw-ing all through the movie! It is amazing that the only words he says is his own and Eve's (the white super-robot) name, and yet you can feel all sorts of emotions in these words, depending on the situation! Apart from all the funny and romantic and cute moments that happen in the film, what interested me the most was how the movie showed the future of Earth, all covered in garbage (and clearly as a result of crazy consumption' you could see the remains of huge supermarkets and gas stations, etc), and also the future of Earth people, who were living with the most advanced technologies imaginable and yet their lives were so empty. I am not trying to read too much into this film, but I honestly think it's a great thing if kids' cartoons occasionally have a message as well!!

All in all, I had a great time watching Wall.E and so recommend it to everyone. I haven't met a single person that hasn't liked it.

Another awesome thing about last night was the short Pixar animation that preceded Wall.E: Presto. It was one of the funniest short animations I had seen. You can see a sneak preview here. The whole film is a comical fight between a magician and his bunny who wants a carrot, but can not get it.

hmmmm, oh, ok, I also watched Shortbus a few days ago. Not at all what I had expected. Except for crazy s e x scenes, I couldn't understand what all the excitement was about!

my most unfavorite chocolate flavor:

2008-07-16T16:22:00.002-07:00

mix of chocolate and mint! urgh!

days go by

2008-07-13T23:38:00.002-07:00

... and nothing really changes. nothing progresses. nothing happens.

It's all nice and sunny in Vancouver. Hope all is well with you.

whiningly yours,

S.

a note to listeners (!)

2008-07-01T13:58:00.002-07:00

ok, I've read up a lot on this whole autostart thing in FireFox and apparently for some reason FF doesn't recognize autostart=false and I couldn't find a quick answer anywhere. however, Mozilla now offers an add-on called "Stop Autoplay" that you can install and forever live autoplay-free. I hope you either use IE or install this add-on and never have to open this page again to music being autoplayed!

I thought that you were wise

2008-07-01T13:30:00.004-07:00

... but you were otherwise.

Title: Otherwise, By: Morcheeba

Yet another return

2008-06-16T14:09:00.002-07:00

It gets kind of exhausting starting over again every time you go home and come back. Less motivation every time, at least for me. Not that I didn't miss Vancouver with its supply of Oxygen(!), cold breeze, and beautiful daily sceneries. It's just that I think I miss Tehran more.

Well, not exactly Tehran , but I miss life in Tehran. I miss my parents, and brother and sister and grandparents, and uncles and aunts and cousins and the few friends that are still there. I miss being spoiled for nothing, and being appreciated simply because I'm part of a family. I can not believe I am thinking all this now, while two years ago I was doing just fine. It's probably the PhD taking its toll.

All this said, I had a blast in Tehran. I spent most of my time with my family but ended up taking two trips to Taleghan and also Rasht/Masooleh area. I felt the real summer heat for a while before coming back and wearing the exact same coat I was wearing all winter and carrying an umbrella everywhere.

movie report:

1. Dayere Zangi: definitely watch it. a great work for a first-time feature film director. very funny and smart.

2. Kung fu Panda: that chubby panda is the cutest and the movie is pretty funny. my favorite quote: "There is no charge for awesomeness... or attractiveness".

3. Sex and the city: please don't watch this movie, even if you liked the series! It was soooo long, had no solid storyline, and messed up all the good memories I had from the show. I'm very disappointed!

random point: Madonna's tickets are sold out and I, being on vacation, totally missed it. Now I either have to pay $300 for a ticket or sit home and feel sory for myself. I always wanted to see her live.

vacation

2008-05-03T10:05:00.002-07:00

I haven't been writing much lately so I guess it really doesn't matter if I say this, but I am going back home for a few weeks, don't wait up! :D

mental note to self

2008-04-25T15:15:00.002-07:00

"when you finally graduate and get a job with e real income, remember to take your student friends (if you still have student friends, of course) out and buy them dinner! it's a very nice gesture!" :)

women and s e x uality

2008-04-18T17:14:00.002-07:00

there has been this discussion going on in Iranian blogs on women's point of view in s e x and their stories. It has become a heated debate! I personally think it's about time women write about this stuff. This post has quite a few links that you can check out and see what you think.

The day that just wasn't mine!

2008-04-15T20:09:00.002-07:00

So today was just one of those days... I woke up, and thought to myself: "hmmm, I should bike to school today!"... happy with my super-athletic self (!) I started preparing for the 15 minute journey!!! I made my lunch, took a change of clothes, got my gloves, helmet, bike lights, and my phone's hands-free. I went to the bike room, got the bike out, and went out the door, guess what?! I left my keys inside the bike room... and I'm outside, no-one's home, and there is no freakin' way I can get in!... after waiting around for some time hoping that someone comes out of the building, finally this guy let me in. anyway, that 15 minute trip stretched to one hour just like that!... then I had to go to the library at some point to get some articles copied. I had only 4 dollars, and no copy card. Turns out you need $1 deposit to get a copy card and then each page costs you 12c!!! (it's outrageous!)... and there is no other way to recharge your card except for $1 and $2 coins! Long story short, I could not copy even one article fully (they had to be soooo long!) and had to walk back all across the campus empty-handed!!! and last but not least, I left school in a hurry and when I got home, guess what happened? I HAD LEFT MY KEYS IN THE OFFICE!!!! life can be so freakin' ironic sometimes!!!

Give it up for Bob!

2008-04-08T21:21:00.003-07:00

Bob Dylan wins this year's Special Pulitzer prize! :)

Just a link

2008-04-07T11:18:00.005-07:00

so this post is about a month late, and you might have already known about this, but I just found out, thanks to pooya. Apparently, radio Zamaneh had this online festival for international women's day: "the forbidden voice of woman" (my translation, of course!)... it's got some good and some not-very-good music from Iranian women working as musicians worldwide. Take a look if you haven't already.

funny blog

2008-04-02T11:56:00.005-07:00

I found this really funny blog yesterday: stuff white people like. I have read a number of their posts and some of them are hilarious! The writers (Christian Lander, and Myles Valentin) criticize - in a satirical way - the interests of what they call "white people", which mostly are just the ones that think too highly of themselves or consider themselves educated and above-average (including myself! while reading the posts I realized half the stuff they mention is true about me, and I don't think I'm considered white!). Some of the interests for example include: Asian girls (my favorite!), San Francisco, non-profit organizations, Recycling, ... .

This blog is actually very popular. I think they are pretty new (since their archive doesn't go before January 2008) but have already had over 20 million hits!!! and Target has in fact recently bought them to use their blog for promotional purposes! anyway, thought you might enjoy their posts as well! :)

Mostly Martha

2008-03-28T18:29:00.004-07:00

I never got to see no reservation when it was in theaters, but yesterday I watched the original German movie that it was based on: Mostly Martha. The movie is about this angry chef who suddenly is responsible for raising her niece and during the process gets to know herself better.

I really liked it, and since I like Martina Gedeck better than Catherine Zeta-Jones, I bet I wouldn't like the Hollywood version as much. It's got some sad moments, but in general is a happy movie and has one of those happy endings that you know is only possible in fairy tales. But still, worth watching, especially if you're into food!

Norouz and the inevitable urge to post something

2008-03-25T19:16:00.004-07:00

well, i thought about writing something about how great Norouz is and about coming of the spring and blooming of the flowers and so on... but it's kind of too late now, and so I just say Happy New Year!

Now to continue on with the usual(!) stuff in this blog: I have seen a lot of movies during the past few weeks, and here's a quick rundown of the ones I remember.

The Jane Austen Book Club: an absolute favorite... instantly went up right beside "Love Actually"... watched it twice already and will watch it again anytime! A super melo romantic comedy that's also smart for a change. And no, you don't have to have read the Austen books to enjoy this movie, although you may like it better if you have.

The accused: I can't believe I had not watched this before. Jodie Foster is absolutely amazing! deserved the Oscar for sure. The movie is about this girl who gets gang raped and then tries to get justice on her side. I thought it was well-made and so definitely recommend it!

Bitter moon: hmmmm, here's one movie I didn't like as much as I had expected! And I have to blame the lead actress (Emmanuelle Seigner) since she was just so not believable! Peter Coyote on the other hand was too good to believe! The movie tells the story of a couple whose relationship changes drastically from passionately loving each other to a completely hateful state. I thought the story was interesting, but didn't exactly love it. so all on all, it wasn't a masterpiece in my opinion but i know many people disagree! also beware that you probably don't want to watch this with kids in the room :)

Superbad: :D one of the funniest movies I have watched in a while... I know, I know, it looks like there are a million movies made about high school kids and they're all lame... but you gotta watch this one! I think it's one of the best among movies that are made about North American high school life style! do not even trust the trailer, because it made me not wanna watch the movie... i was actually forced to watch it but am so glad it happened! a great choice for when you feel like laughing at a not-so-deep comedy.

hmmm, can't remember anything else that was significant! have to go cool dinner now. So, later...

snapping out

2008-03-16T20:53:00.002-07:00

It happened one rainy afternoon in a downtown coffee shop, while talking to a friend. She had just started complaining again when it suddenly hit her: she was complaining, AGAIN!

There is a time to snap out of everything: love, hate, excitement, boredom... and apparently even emptiness!

Not that she's suddenly all happiness and energy. She's definitely not jumping up and down. But maybe she'll pick up her camera after ages and takes a few photos, maybe she'll start writing more often...maybe she'll even start planning a trip.

Everyone has the right to feel down every once in a while, right? sometimes it just takes a long time to feel better.

seasonal depression and more

2008-03-05T21:43:00.004-08:00

Well, it's pretty obvious that I can not think of anything to write anymore! It's mainly because I'm feeling like Sh** most of the time, and when I don't, I'm usually outside doing something else! I don't know if it's the fact that I'm going to miss yet another "eid" with my family, or is it the PhD stuff not going too well, or what? all I know is that I can not think of anything fun to write about!!! I even watched a couple of good movies, but still nothing!

emptiness prevails... at least for now.

"- What have we always said is the most important thing?

2008-02-21T23:44:00.003-08:00

- Breakfast?

- family."

(dialog between Michael Bluth and his son from Arrested Development, pilot episode)

... it's so true!