Art Signs

The Butchart Gardens (Summer 2007)

2010-04-30T00:38:00.001-07:00

The Butchart Gardens (Summer 2007)
Originally uploaded by M.Mortazavi

Music, Video and Creative "Mixing"

2009-05-16T16:40:00.001-07:00

I originally wrote this entry on October 3, 2004, and published it on blogs.sun.com.

Professor Lawrence Lessig of Stanford Law School, whose weblog is always worth a diligent read, points to some recent mixes (including this video mix by DJ Spooky and some musical mixes) and reports from the Wired Magazine's Creative Commons Concert. In the meantime, it may be worthwhile to check out some other pieces of music, particularly these songs. I'm not sure if these songs are released under CC, but still they sound quite wild and full of mixing of the Brechtian style.

One of the main arguments of Lessig's most recent book, Free Culture, is that burdening creative mixing with prohibitively strict copyright laws will have seriously adverse effects on all kinds of ceativity, particularly of the artistic kind. Ultimately, such a burden will stifle "free" evolution of culture. (I've written a short and still unfinished critique of the "free" in "free culture" here. Elsewhere, I have written regarding Lessig's view on the operating taboo against political discourse.)

Cat Stevens, Terror Suspect

2009-05-08T23:00:00.001-07:00

I originally wrote this entry on September 22, 2004, and published it on blogs.sun.com.

My wife (my best source of news) informs me that Cat Stevens (Yusuf Islam) was denied entry to the U.S. today.

Photo from: www.kyaz.com

Reports of this incident appear on Reuters, The International Herald Tribune, the BBC, The Malaysia Star, CNN, Washington Post, San Jose Mercury News, Seattle Post Intelligencer, The Australian, Gulf Daily News, NBC, U.S. Newswire, The Independent, Guardian, Culcutta Telegraph, Billboard, Houston Chronicle, Cat-Stevens.DE. . .

You may find more on this incidence on Yusuf Islam's web site: www.yusufislam.org.uk.

This should be about "Art," and I'm posting it under that category, but it belongs in its real unfolding to my "Society" category, a mismatch which simply demonstrates the limits of categorization.

When we deal with real-world events, they can only be understood in their totality and fail to fit into artificial digital divisions.

In the aftermath and in a wonderfully written essay for Asia Times Online, Maliha Masood, a graduate of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University started with Yusuf Islam's story and moved onto Rumi's popularity in the U.S.

To each sex its own door hammer!

2009-03-26T22:15:00.001-07:00

I originally wrote this entry on August 25, 2004, and published it on blogs.sun.com.

Proper greetings require prior identification of the person one greets before one opens the door for the purpose of greeting that person.

Electronics has solved this problem for apartment buildings. Curtains and little spying eye pieces on doors have done the same for detached homes. In some cases, when the detached home has a fence or a wall surrounding it, people may resort to electronics instead.

Matters stood differently when people lived quieter, more meditative lives.

	To the left, you can see a picture of the Boroujerdis' Mansion. It was built about 200 years ago by a famous merchant of Kashan, Iran, named Haj Seyed Jaefar Boroujerdi and bears great importance in view of its architectural style and paintings. The frescoes of this mansion were painted by Sani-ol-Molk Ghaffari Kashani (founder of a painting school in Iran) and the great Kamal-ol-Molk, the miniaturist. There are scores of these mansions in Kashan, many of them under repair and maintenance work.
	Women knocked on this door as they entered the Boroujerdis' mansion.
	. . . and men on this one . . . The two different door hammers make different sounds to inform the residents of the house so that appropriate welcome could be given and received. I distinctly remember our ancestral home in Ardabil, where I visited during the summers until I was 12 or 13. It had exactly the same two-hammer door panels, one for the ladies and one for the gentlemen. That ancestral home was sold when I came to the U.S. I visited it last summer. On the land, where the old house once stood, a monsterous (to me, not the builder) modern building had been erected. It was the 3rd house on the same land since its sale 25 years ago.
	One of the surviving side doors of the Boroujerdis' mansion has the same two-door, ladies' and gentlemen's sides.
	Negin, my daughter, hammers on the ladies' side of yet another door in Kashan.

Wheelchair Robots in Love

2009-03-22T13:26:00.001-07:00

I originally wrote this entry on August 16, 2004 and published it on blogs.sun.com.

Reuters television has posted a video report of some Wheelchair Robots in Love. The wheelchairs are designed by artist Mari Velonaki and developed by scientists from the Australian Centre of Field Robotics. (By the time you read this, the video may not be on the top of Reuters' video stack but you may be able to search and find it. If the links here don't get you to the video clips, look under the Life video series at Reuters Television.)

To each sex its own door hammer!

2009-03-22T13:11:00.001-07:00

I originally wrote this entry on August 10, 2004 and published it on blogs.sun.com.

Proper greetings require prior identification of the person one greets before one opens the door for the purpose of greeting that person.

Matters stood differently when people lived quieter, more meditative lives.

	To the left, you can see a picture of the Boroujerdis' Mansion. It was built about 200 years ago by a famous merchant of Kashan, Iran, named Haj Seyed Jaefar Boroujerdi and bears great importance in view of its architectural style and paintings. The frescoes of this mansion were painted by Sani-ol-Molk Ghaffari Kashani (founder of a painting school in Iran) and the great Kamal-ol-Molk, the miniaturist. There are scores of these mansions in Kashan, many of them under repair and maintenance work.
	Women knocked on this door as they entered the Boroujerdis' mansion.
	. . . and men on this one . . . The two different door hammers make different sounds to inform the residents of the house so that appropriate welcome could be given and received. I distinctly remember our ancestral home in Ardabil, where I visited during the summers until I was 12 or 13. It had exactly the same two-hammer door panels, one for the ladies and one for the gentlemen. That ancestral home was sold when I came to the U.S. I visited it last summer. On the land, where the old house once stood, a monsterous (to me, not the builder) modern building had been erected. It was the 3rd house on the same land since its sale 25 years ago.
	One of the surviving side doors of the Boroujerdis' mansion has the same two-door, ladies' and gentlemen's sides.
	Negin, my daughter, hammers on the ladies' side of yet another door in Kashan.

Henna Arts

2009-03-22T12:56:00.001-07:00

I originally wrote this entry on August 6, 2004 and published it on blogs.sun.com.

Catherine Cartwright-Jones of Kent State University has put together a brief but interesting history of henna. Her website also includes an encyclopedia of henna. Henna has now become part of the Americana with followers from New England to Hollywood.

Here's a picture of my daughter Yasmine on her 10th birthday. (Sunday 04-04-04, April 4, 2004. How uncommon is that?) The henna design on her hand is a rather simple pattern.

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Here's a picture of both my daughters (Negin is the 6-year-old) on the same day. On the top left corner, a friend of Yasmine's is drying her hennaed hand.

Economist Photo Essay on the Iranian Revolution

2009-02-28T18:46:00.000-08:00

The Economist has hosted a photo essay on the Iranian Revolution.

Modern Rendition of a Classical Theme

2009-01-30T08:58:00.000-08:00

Hamed Nikpay, a local Persian artist in the Bay Area, has rendered a modern poem in classical tradition on a Persian-Spanish instrumental fusion. You can watch the video below. (Links to the CD are given on YouTube.)

Emad Khorasani is the poet, and his poem is well-rooted in the classic "modern Persian" ("modern" as opposed to "middle" or "old" Persian of pre-8th century days).

Self and the Other

2008-07-11T22:27:00.001-07:00

In The Analects (or Lun Yü), one sees Confucius' developing various ideas about the self vs. the other. Here is an example:

The Master said, "If one learns from others but does not think, one will be bewildered. If, on the other hand, one thinks but does not learn from others, one will be in peril."

-The Analects, II.15, trans. by D. C. Lau.

Confucius' Life Through His Own Words

2008-07-11T22:26:00.001-07:00

The Master said, "At fifteen I set my heart on learning; at thirty I took my stand; at forty I came to be free from doubts; at fifty I understood the Decree of Heaven; at sixty my ear was atuned; at seventy I followed my heart's desire without overstepping the line."
-The Analects, II.4, trans. by D. C. Lau.

What a glorious life !

References: Confucius, A Great Philosopher-Prophet

Simply Leaves

2008-05-29T21:44:00.001-07:00

Home, California (December 2006)
Originally uploaded by M.Mortazavi

Nature offers some of the best works of art ever.

What's Art

2008-05-03T23:17:00.001-07:00

The ancient Greek conception of "Art" is very similar to the more continuous Persian concept of "Honar" although, unfortunately, modern post-industrial notions of "Art" have corrupted the original meaning of both conceptions.

In the modern conception, "Art" is about consumption or purchase of something to be kept for purposes of display or pleasure of one form or another. In the ancient conception, it is primarily about a mode of knowing and doing that relates to skill and that can be acquired through simple repetition, as can be learned by a disciple from a master in any trade, but which does not exclude ability for individual "creativity," and in all senses, for productivity.

Often, the Persian--even in their more modern epoch--title their artists the Ostad or literally the "master," in the sense of the word that occurs when we speak of master and disciple or of mastery. Ostad is the one for whom you can be a disciple and one who has attained a level of individual creativity which distinguishes the ostad from all other. (In the same context, unfortunately, the word disciple has been used to refer to a zealot "follower," as if there's anything wrong with being a follower of a master. (See here.) But what I mean here, is "following" for the purpose of discovery and learning the skills of the master.)

You can be an ostad or a masterful artist in anything: playing soccer, writing programs, throwing a frisbee, painting or managing people. The important thing is mastering the art of whatever it is you're doing.


Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. 
We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, 
but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. 
We are what we repeatedly do. 
Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit. 
- Aristotle (student to Plato (student to Socrates))

The hunter prepares and meditates

2008-05-03T01:58:00.001-07:00

The hunter prepares and meditates
Originally uploaded by M.Mortazavi

What will she hunt?

A Corner for Art

2008-05-03T01:54:00.001-07:00

Tehran, Iran (Nov. 2006)
Originally uploaded by M.Mortazavi

In a busy city, art finds a little patch of land, a little corner, where it may show itself.

Bobak's Paintings, Tehran, Iran (Nov. 2006)

2008-05-03T01:50:00.001-07:00

Bobak's Paintings, Tehran, Iran (Nov. 2006)
Originally uploaded by M.Mortazavi

A painting on display in the artist's home.

Experimenting with New Ink

2008-03-28T21:54:00.001-07:00

Experimenting with New Ink
Originally uploaded by M.Mortazavi

The calligraphy says classical music. Once, when I was 7 or 8, I received two lessons from a master Persian calligrapher who used to work at my fathers' advertising company.

What is inside

2008-03-15T01:30:00.001-07:00

Tehran Bazaar (August, 2006)
Originally uploaded by M.Mortazavi

A design, even if it gives a glimpse of what is outside, can enclose the observer and make them focus on what is inside the object of observation, and what is inside them.

What is inside becomes central when one is enclosed properly.

Glasswork and Pottery

2008-03-11T02:49:00.001-07:00

Glasswork and Pottery (Tehran, July 2006)
Originally uploaded by M.Mortazavi

Most of these pieces are handmade.

The prices were incredible by international standards.

Glasswork and Pottery

2008-03-11T02:24:00.001-07:00

Glasswork and Pottery (Tehran, July 2006)
Originally uploaded by M.Mortazavi

A young artist in a northwestern suburb of Tehran makes the pottery shown in this photo.

Art of Mending

2008-01-27T22:59:00.001-08:00

Bazar, Ardabil, 2003
Originally uploaded by M.Mortazavi

He fixes tea pots and samovars.

Each fix has its own way.

The pots may be fixed by not only cementing but also bracing with wire and narrow bands of steal.

This mending is a kind of art.

Art at 8

2008-01-25T00:13:00.001-08:00

Wiesbaden, Germany (Summer 2006)
Originally uploaded by M.Mortazavi

My 8-old-daughter took this picture from an architectural model built by her uncle.

I never knew she took this ...

Only as I started to organize photographs from 2006, did it get loaded on Flickr, and only because I wanted to blog about it, did I notice it properly.

Art at 8.

She is done!

2008-01-21T01:50:00.001-08:00

Tehran Bazar (2005)
Originally uploaded by M.Mortazavi

She is done for the day.

She wonders if she accomplished what she had come for.

Did she buy the right piece? She wonders and walks starting slowly and then more briskly.

She is done for the day but others are still looking

Art on Tea Pots

2008-01-21T01:44:00.001-08:00

Tehran Bazar (2005)
Originally uploaded by M.Mortazavi

The art on the tea pots may be art but he sells what he can, and is less concerned about the art than about what sells and what customers seem to prefer.

Variety serves a larger market but causes inventory problems and fluctuations.

The tea pot is, for the most part, its own package. It is a container after all.

A good days work brings a good days pay.

Material and Ideas

2008-01-20T09:33:00.001-08:00

Art Gallery, Tehran (2005)
Originally uploaded by M.Mortazavi

Artists in Iran are having a great bonanza.

Why?

I think it is because the circumstances are conducive to concentration on one's work.

The materials, ideas and tools fuse together in their abundance and limitations and create well-defined paths for the artists to view before herself or himself.

The pieces here were being shown in a gallery in Tehran in the summer of 2005.

Sometimes Pictures ...

2007-08-10T22:52:00.001-07:00

Sometimes, pictures can tell or cover-up whole stories—more than any news report or any press conference can.

In the English-speaking world, John Berger, more than any art critique I know, has shown how pictures and looking can disclose a great deal about events, people and places. (See his Ways of Seeing and class of the same name by Professor Lori Landay at UC Berkeley.)

When I write this entry, i.e. during lunch hour on August 8, 2007, two of the three pictures above are less than 24 hours old.

What do these pictures tell you?

Once, The Movie

2007-07-27T23:14:00.000-07:00

Don't let the trailers fool you. Once, a movie from Ireland, casts a cinematic glimpse at the passion and art of music making. It refreshes the concept of the musical cinema while weaving multiple stories about separation—the enigma and engine of all art and drama (to restate a maxim first stated by the British art critique John Berger.)

Once mixes music and movement ("movie" = a little thing capturing movement) to appeal to the intelligence of its viewers. It "is," and "is not," simply a wonderful musical. It "is" because it is a movie with music and about music. It "is not" because it defies the Hollywood tradition of the musical containing large amounts of dance although it fills the space with simple movements of everyday life.

If you like music, play an instrument, have been separated from instruments or people you love, or have made music with others, you shouldn't miss it. For more comments about the movie, see here. Other sources include: an NPR interview. It is also worth reading the official Once press kit to see how this John Carney movie came together.

Once: Winner of 2007 Sundance Film Festival, World Cinema Audience Award, Dramatic. Excellent piece of work. "R" rating for some use of four-letter words but no sex and no violence. A great story, very creative composition and magnificent music presented in a simple space.

Other sources and reviews: Washington Post (w/ three songs for listening), About.com, Washington Post, again, ("For 'Once,' A Musical Strikes the Right Cord" and "Breaking into Song, Bursting with Ideas"), Associated Press ("'Once' deconstructs and reinvents the movie musical intimately, brilliantly"), International Herald Tribune, ...

"I kept thinking, 'How do you make a modern musical?' " Carney said. "Then it became clear that I could do it just like a small indie art-house movie, very naturalistically. I could create a world where it's O.K. to break into song, without an orchestra coming up out of nowhere."
...
The film was completed in 17 days for $150,000, most of which was paid for by the Irish Film Board. The title originally referred to a planned scene in which the two characters made love, but just once. After the actors objected to Carney's idea ("So predictable," Irglova said), the scene wasn't filmed. Now the title, Carney says, refers to fellow Irishmen and women he would encounter in bars: "They say, 'Once I do this, then it'll be great.' But they never do it. It's a great Irish tradition of vacillating."
...
At Sundance the film was bought for a modest $500,000 by Fox Searchlight Pictures, which in some ways is hoping to repeat the success of "Garden State," a film the company bought at that festival in 2004. Like that film "Once" is a modest, low-key movie that incorporates haunting indie rock. Hansard's ache-in-heart ballads are comparable to the songs of the Shins, the indie band whose songs played a prominent role in "Garden State."
...
Carney hopes that the ambiguous relationship at the core of the film will also resonate with viewers. "It's the ones who are gone who haunt you for the rest of your life," he said. "Instead of saying, 'I love you' or 'I miss you,' they just disappear."

Here's a TV review:

A video recording of a full interview with Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova:

Once

2007-07-22T15:34:00.001-07:00

Once, the movie, casts a cinematic glimpse at the passion and art of music making and refreshes the concept of music as part of cinema. At its core, we have multiple tiers and stories about separation—the enigma and engine of all drama according to John Berger, the British artist.

Once mixes music to appeal to the intelligence of its viewers. It "is," and "is not," simply a wonderful musical. It "is" because it is a movie with music and about music. It "is not" because it defies the Hollywood tradition of the musical containing large amounts of dance although it fills the space with simple body movements of everyday life to complement the music.

If you like music, play an instrument, have been separated from instruments or people you love, or have made music with others, you shouldn't miss it.

Multiple Dimensions

2007-06-21T00:02:00.001-07:00

Tonight, I finally finished watching Kevin Kline's Hamlet, and as I was going back and forth across various scenes, I was immersed in the fullness of the subtlties in this production, not in its theatricality but in the superb delivery of its performance.

While, in recent years, multiple renditions of Hamlet have kept arriving on DVD --and I have seen several of them over the years-- the best so far, must be Kline's. It was apprantely recorded in a New York Shakespeare festival and released in 1990 under the Broadway Theatre Archive series. By compaison, Kenneth Branagh's 1996 Hamlet, a movie and not such a bad Hamlet, proves to be a rather weak cinematic imitation of Kline's theatric production. (I will not even touch on Mel Gibson's Hamlet, which is even more poorly done, again, by comparison.)

It is the logic of Hamlet --or rather what we know of it-- that any good theatric production must preserve and propagate to the audience. The visual fanfare of cinematic productions (Gibson's and to a lesser extent Branagh's) which obscure that logic. It is as if the visual display pleases the eye but deafens the ears (the heart?) to the story. In describing the logic of Hamlet, Lajos Egri says it right:

Literature has many tridimensional characters--Hamlet, for instance. We not only know his age, his appearance, his state of health; we can easily surmise his idiosyncrasies. His background, his sociology, give impetus to the play. We know the political situation at the time, the relationship between his parents, the events that have gone before and the effect they have had upon him. We know his personal premise, and its motivation. We know his psychology, and we can see clearly how it results from his physical and sociological make-up. In short, we know Hamlet as we can never hope to know ourselves.

In a good play, every scene works to advance the story and its premise. Not an extra word. Not an extra move.

If One Day -- Agheh Ye Rooz

2007-06-03T13:01:00.000-07:00

Here's a very ineresting rendition of Faramarz Aslani's "If One Day ..." (Agheh Ye Rooz) by a singer from Canada:

Unfortunately, nothing is said about the name or motivation of this singer to sing this 1970s Persian song. However, her rendition produces an amazing tonality, which no singer I know has produced for Aalani's work.

At this point, I hope she will produce other Persian songs.

The Labels, The Internet and the Artist

2007-05-21T16:21:00.001-07:00

Internet, as a giant copy and distribution machine, may and should continue to afford artists with greater autonomy well into the future. Reports of musicians' success in using this copy-and-distribution tool continue to pour in.

For example, Wall Street Journal's John Jurgensen writes about how musicians use the Internet to promote their work ("Singers Bypass Lables for Prime-Time Exposure," May 17, 2007, WSJ, B1). The report focuses on the case of singer and musician Ingrid Michaelson, "a 26-year-old Staten Island native who ... was discovered on MySpace by a management company that specializes in finding little-known acts and placing their works in soundtracks for TV shows, commercials, movies and videogames."

Many shows will only pay unsigned artists about $1,000 for the use of their music on TV, while artists on major labels might garner more than $30,000. Since she has been signed to Secret Road [Music Services, not a label], Ms. Michaelson has been paid up to $15,000 each time her music has been featured on a show or commercial, according to someone familiar with the deals. Secret Road says its cut of Ms. Michaelson's income is in keeping with industry standards of between 15% and 20%.
TV, of course, has become an increasingly powerful force for driving music sales. Apart from "American Idol" and "Saturday Night Live," possibly the most coveted TV slots for musicians are on "Grey's Anatomy," which has helped make songs like "How to Save a Life" by the Fray into top sellers on iTunes. A finale spot on "Grey's" is considered a particularly plum slot. Last year, the finale allowed Scottish band Snow Patrol to break through to a broad audience and played a role in making its featured song, "Chasing Cars," a hit.
Because Ms. Michaelson doesn't have a record-label contract, she stands to make substantially more from online sales of her music. For each 99-cent sale on iTunes, Ms. Michaelson grosses 63 cents, compared with perhaps 10 or 15 cents that typical major-label artists receives via their label. So far she has sold about 60,000 copies of her songs on iTunes and other digital stores. Ms. Michaelson is pouring most of her profits into pressing her own CDs and T-shirts, hiring a marketing company to produce promotional podcasts and setting up distribution for her CDS.

The fact that much good music today is discovered on the Internet before it ever makes it to the labels demonstrates that the labels need to reconsider their full "supply chain" and continue to review their policies and rules governing the protection and distribution of cultural content they come to license ("for a limited time").

On the same day as the report above, The Wall Street Journal also reported a significant move away from DRM which indicates the labels are recognizing the role of the Internet as a means to build networks of fans for artists through low-cost copy-and-distribution of content:

EMI Group PLC, the world's third-largest recorded-music company by sales (and the fourth-largest in the U.S. market) announced yesterday it would license its catalog to Amazon's DRM-free service. The three other major music companies haven't said publicly whether they expect to play ball with Amazon, but people close to all three companies said they don't expect to license content to Amazon in the near future. That means consumers shopping for downloads on Amazon will be able to buy tracks from EMI artists like Norah Jones and Coldplay, but are unlikely to be able to find music by most other major artists, including, for instance, each of the top-10 selling albums last week. Another complication: Apple's iTunes is moving toward offering music without copy protection, and also plans to release EMI's catalog in that format.

Much of the early use of DRM technologies has focused on limiting the power of digital copy and distribution of content.

Architecture without Architects

2007-04-22T12:08:00.001-07:00

Ahmad Kavousian took this photographs from the village of Masule in 1975. (Thanks go to Pooya for his Flickr contact list.)

The Largest Carpet in the World

2007-04-08T23:11:00.000-07:00

One record for largest carpet in the world is being outweaved by another.

Slide Show of Local Persian New Year

2007-03-29T00:09:00.000-07:00

Palo Alto Weekly photographer, Marjan Sadoughi, has put together a slide show of local Persian New Year (Norouz) celebrations.

In the American West: Photographs by Richard Avedon

2007-02-19T00:35:00.001-08:00

The 20th-anniversary exhibition of In the American West: Photographs by Richard Avedon ends at the Cantor Arts Center after a national tour.

If you live in the Bay Area, as I do, or if visiting here, I highly recommend that you make it to Cantor for this exhibition which will end on May 6, 2007.

Cantor Art Center has sponsored a lecture on the work for this Thursday, February 22, at 6:30 pm.

The Wind Carpet

2007-02-16T09:23:00.000-08:00

If you want to learn about carpets, and the social art of weaving, the Japanese-Iranian movie, The Wind Carpet will give you a wonderful glimplse. This movie appeared some years ago at the London Film Festival.

Snow Flakes

2007-01-28T16:25:00.001-08:00

Small tourist towns such as South Lake Tahoe, near where I was
fortunate enough to ski with my wife and daughters over the Chirstmas
holidays, can still sustain independent and small businesses such as
the Neighbors Bookstore.

We went there to supplement the books we had bought or borrowed from
libraries back home--one must have alternatives to skiing when snow
pack is insufficient. In the very small but
well-stocked drama section, I was yet again fortunate enough to find and
buy the single copy of Lajos Egri's The Art of Dramatic Writing: Its Basis in The Creative Interpretation of Human Motives that still stood on the half full shelves.

I found this passage particularly apt given how it started:

Science will tell you that no two snowflakes have ever been discovered to be identical. The slightest disturbance in the atmosphere, the direction of the wind, the position of the falling snowflake, will alter the pattern. Thus there is endless variety in their design. The same law governs us all. Whether one's father is always kind, or only kind occasionally, or kind but once, or never kind, will profoundly affect one's development. And if the paternal kindness coincided with one's happiest and most contented moments, it might pass unrecognized. Every move hinges upon the peculiar circumstances of the given moment.

There you have it -- lots of philosophy packed into a fragment from one paragraph by Egri, found on a cold snowy night in South Lake Tahoe with no laptop in sight.

Notes:

For the physics of snow crystals, see here.

Box Office Hit in Iran

2007-01-28T16:19:00.000-08:00

The Persian (Iranian) box office hit of last year was Tahmineh Milani's Cease Fire.

Auctioning Master Painters' Drawings

2007-01-28T11:25:00.000-08:00

Souren Melikian of International Herald Tribune reviews Sotheby's and Christie's recent auction of work by master painters such as Goya, Federico Barocci, Camillo Procaccini, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Aelbert Cuyp, Hans Baldung Grien and Rembrandt: "Old Master drawings have at last fully come into their own as an independent art form. Sadly, this is happening at the very time when they are about to make a final exit from the market."

Goya's young maid sweeping a tavern sold for $1.04 million at Sotheby's.

Little Mosque on the Prairie

2007-01-21T11:51:00.000-08:00

Zarqa Nawaz

U.S. TV broadcasters continue to debate the desirability of Zarqa Nawaz' Little Mosque on the Prairie before showing it to their American audience.

In the meantime, you can find torrents for Little Mosque here. To load these torrents, consider Azureus which has a great Java torrent client fit for various platforms.

Last time I checked, the "swarms" for these torrents were quite large, composed of several hundreds. Most peers were complete and sharing, and download rates were very high. So, the whole thing can probably be down-loaded in less than 1 hour, perhaps in 1/2 an hour if the number of peers continue to be large.

I've included YouTube renditions of the first episode below.

Apparently, this first episode of Nawaz' little sitcom has become the most watched Canadian sitcom episode ever. The ads are mixed in. (The second and third episodes seem to have been broadcast in Canada but cannot yet be found on YouTube.)

Iranian Artists Organization

2006-08-01T20:43:00.000-07:00

Here's the home of the Iranian Artists Organization.

The actual building is also worth a visit, even for kids. Here, one is riding a bronze horse standing at the front door of the main building.

Art Signs Begins

2006-07-28T17:05:00.000-07:00

Here, I'll begin posting about art--plays, paintings, sculpture, urban dwellings, performance, furniture, architecture, etc.