Thursday, December 31, 2009

Unity


A Woman in the cold streets of Chicago sings for Rumi and dances on the snow:

I'm an atheist, secular and gnostic
I am Muslim and Hindu
I am Christian, Zoroastrian, and Jew
I'm Baha'i and YOU

I am of the West and the East, North and South
Of the ocean, and an earthly beast
I am a natural wonder
And from the stars yonder

Unity is what I sing, unity is what I speak
Unity is what I know, unity is what I seek

The Era of Tolerance?!


Iran’s police chief has warned anti-government protesters to stay off the streets and threatened, “The era of tolerance is over. Anyone attending such rallies will be crushed.” Read more in Democracy Now

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Seven Jewish Children, a Play for Gaza

In response to last year Israel’s bombing attack and ground invasion of the Gaza Strip which killed over thousand Palestinian and left many seriously injured, Caryl Churchill the prominent British playwright wrote a controversial play, “Seven Jewish Children” a play for Gaza.

Joel Simpson and I had a reading of it at Left forum in April 2009. And then I translated this play into Persian with the permission of author’s agent.

Read my Persian translation of the play:
در این نمایشنامه هیچ کودکی ظاهر نمی شود. شخصیت ها همه بزرگسال هستند. پدران و مادرانند. و ـ اگر تمایل داشته باشید ـ بستگان آن کودکان می توانند باشند. جملات بین شخصیت ها می توانند به هر گونه ای تقسیم بشوند. شخصیت ها در این صحنه های کوتاه مرتبا عوض می شوند و همان آدمهای قبلی نیستند. زمان نیز در هر صحنه ای تغییر می کند و حضور کودک در هر اپیزودی مربوط است به زمان ویژه و متفاوت رخداد حادثه. این نمایشنامه می تواند به وسیله بازیگران مختلف و متعددی اجرا بشود.
(1)

بهش بگو این فقط یه بازیه
بهش بگو این یه مسئله جدیه
اما نترسونش
More...
In continuing the conversation with Caryl Churchill several playwrights wrote plays in her style:
Seven Palestinian Children by Mirna Sakhleh
And
Seven Palestinian Children by Debora Margolin
Read also THE EIGHTH CHILD by Robbie Gringas and Israel Horovitz Play What Strong Fences Make as well.

Historia de un letrero

The Story of a Sign
This short story winner of the 2008 Cannes Festival shows how the kindness of strangers can have a big impact. Film produced by Alonso Alvarez Barreda

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Love Prevails over Conflict!

Today I received a touching email in Persian I do not know who is the writer of these words?! The sender made a beautiful comparison between Jacques-Louis_David's painting and the recent conflicts in the streets of Tehran depicted in the photo below:

The Intervention of the Sabine Women by Jacques Louis David


In the Streets of Tehran
تابلوی "میانجی‌گری زنان سابین" نقاشی محبوب من است، به شکلی غریبی دوستش دارم.

این نقاشی رنگ روغن را ژاک لویی داوید، نقاش فرانسوی، درسالهایی حول و حوش 1795 کشیده است. یعنی سالهای پس از حکومت وحشت و زمانی که فرانسه در حال جنگ با دیگر کشورهای اروپایی بود. داوید که خود به خاطر حمایت از روبسپیر در زندان بود بعد از دیدار همسر نومیدش به این فکر می‌افتد نقاشی بکشد برای دلداری دادن به او، برای اینکه بگوید عشق بر جنگ پیروز است.

هر بار که به این تصویر نگاه می‌کنم میان آن همه آشوب و بلوا تنها چیزی که نگاه مرا جذب می‌کند، "هرسیلیا" آن گیسو طلای سپیدپوش است و خطوط سنگی چهره اش.

رومولوس و مردانش که روم را بنیان نهاد در میان خود زن نداشتند، به میان قوم همسایه خود "سابینها" رفتند تا اجازه بگیرند با زنان آن قوم وصلت کنند. مردان سابین به آنها اجازه ندادند. مردان رومی اهالی سابین را به جشنی در روم دعوت کردند و در میانه جشن زنان را ربودند و مردان را راندند.

این زنها با مردان رومی وصلت کردند و صاحب اولاد شدند سالها بعد در جنگی دیگر قوم سابین به انتقام به رومیان حمله می‌برد. زنان سابین میانجی می‌شوند که بین دو قوم آشتی بر پا کنند. در نقاشی داوید هرسیلیا دختر پادشاه سابین‌ها، همسر رومولوس را می‌بینید که بین پدر و شوهر خود ایستاده است.

به گمان من شبیه این اتفاق در سال 57 افتاد. انقلاب جشنی بود که زنانگی سرزمین مرا فریب داد، ربود و بلعید. مثل همیشه جاهل بود که این قدرت ازلی و ابدی نابود‌شدنی نیست، آنقدر صبر می‌کند تا دوباره از جایی سر برآورد. از جایی میانه عکس دوم. من در این عکس "هرسیلیا" را می‌بینم که از خون و جنگ مردان خسته شده و آشتی می‌طلبد.

از این روست که می‌گویم این جنبش به خشونت کشیده نمی‌شود تا وقتی که این زن در میانه ایستاده است.

این زن فریب و نیرنگ و ربوده شدن را تجربه کرده است دوباره اشتباه 57 را تکرار نمی‌کند، سنگ پرت نمی‌کند، خون نمی‌ریزد، چریک نمی‌شود، سلاح به دست نمی‌گیرد، دعوت به جشن خشونت را لبیک نمی گوید. این زن با سپیدی دستهای خود، با آفتاب گیسوانش این سرزمین را سبز می‌کند.

می‌دانم که می‌دانی وقتی می‌گویم زن منظورم این نیست که مردان سبز ما نه، و فقط زنها، من از ظهور دوباره انرژی زنانه حرف می‌زنم، از قدرتی که این جنبش را پیش می‌برد، قدرتی که از تعقل، مهربانی، کفایت، مدارا و شیردلی مادری نیرو می‌گیرد و مردان وطنم را لبخند به لب و روسری به سر می‌کند.

من از سهراب و مادرش حرف می‌زنم.

من از نوجوانی حرف می‌زنم که پریشب در خانه خودش خوابید و دیشب در بازداشتگاه اطلاعات بود و امشب نمی‌دانم کجاست. من از خشمی حرف می‌زنم که در من شعله می‌کشید تمام امروز، وقتی با مادرش حرف می‌زدم و از تلاشم برای اینکه خشم را تبدیل کنم به صبر و امید مبادا که مسخ شوم مباد که آنها شوم.



"After David’s wife visited him in jail, he conceived the idea of telling the story of the Sabine Women. The Sabine Women Enforcing Peace by Running between the Combatants, also called The Intervention of the Sabine Women is said to have been painted to honor his wife, with the theme being love prevailing over conflict. The painting was also seen as a plea for the people to reunite after the bloodshed of the revolution.

This work also brought him to the attention of Napoleon. The story for the painting is as follows: "The Romans have abducted the daughters of their neighbors, the Sabines. To avenge this abduction, the Sabines attacked Rome, although not immediately—since Hersilia, the daughter of Tatius, the leader of the Sabines, had been married to Romulus, the Roman leader, and then had two children by him in the interim. Here we see Hersilia between her father and husband as she adjures the warriors on both sides not to take wives away from their husbands or mothers away from their children. The other Sabine Women join in her exhortations." During this time, the martyrs of the revolution were taken from the Pantheon and buried in common ground, and revolutionary statues were destroyed. When he was finally released to the country, France had changed. His wife managed to get David released from prison, and he wrote letters to his former wife, and told her he never ceased loving her."

Monday, December 28, 2009

"What is essential is invisible to the eye"

My review on "Stitches" by David Small



David Small: ...I intended something truer to my own experience, growing up surrounded by x-rays. At six I knew that x-rays were pictures of the secret places inside us. I imagined myself going down into those shadowy places and finding--what? I don’t know. A better world, I suppose. That is what I had in mind but, as I said, I have no problem at all with the Alice reference.
In an interview with Amazon.com



David Small in his graphic memoir “Stitches” is the explorer of the deepest of human’s inner life. He tells his heartrending story about his illness and the process of being used for scientific experimentation by the “Soldiers of science” and their modern weapon X-Rays. He mockingly portrays these Nazi-like soldiers as “heroic men featured in the ads in Life magazine” (p 27) and their message that the miraculous X-Rays which could see through everything even metals would cure anything. The result of this experimentation is that he develops cancer then loses his voice after the procedure: “I soon learned, when you have no voice, you don’t exist.” (P212)

Demonstrating this terrifying scientific experimentation, Small is forced to take a journey into the enigmatic world of unknowns, digging irresistibly for the truth. Through his painful invisibility, despite the loss of his youth, Small discovers a magnetic voice inside him. Poetry of drawing! Through his empowering voice, his invisibility becomes visible in the eyes of those who know the art of seeing. His voice becomes essential as Antoine de Saint-Exupery describes in the Little Prince: “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye”.



The subversive and subjective elements in “Stitches” remind us Francisco Goya’s paintings with social truths as images in this book of art could be reminiscent of our own life in the essence. The connection is clear and representative by one’s sensitive memory of childhood with a symbolic centipede shape stitches running down one’s neck. A lonely soul who dreams Gilgamesh- like dreams and nightmares, imagining a fetus running after you, looking at forbidden books, falling in love with characters in the particular books…and standing up for your own truth.
Although Small describes the tragedy of his own life in relation with his family, but it can be expanded to a broader perspective, a broad reader and to a larger humanity such as those who live under tyrannical societies, those living in wars, being invaded by foreign sources, even prisoners who are treated as strangers in this world.

The novel punches you repeatedly with effective punch lines such as: “I gave you cancer”, “Your mother doesn’t love you” and “Do you know what our utility bill is going to look like?” Or the illustration of sound languages in his alienated house: the slamming of kitchen cupboard doors Whap, Whap by his mother…or the sound of his father pounding on the punching bag: “Pocketa, pocketa….and Ted beating on his drum: Bum, Bum, Bum…and his own language, getting sick.

“Stitches” has many layers. It brings to mind great literature such as Woyzeck, the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Little Prince and Charles Dickens’ stories…More than anything else it resonates the story of our own life.

Sunday, December 27, 2009

A political movement based on thoughts or emotions!

A brief report on the streets of Tehran!

Where does this opposition movement go when there is still no strong grass root organization with clear goals?

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Gore Vidal: Snapshots in History’s Glare



Today Gore Vidal the greatest prominent thinker of our time was interviewed in the Leonard Lopate Show where he discussed his life and career. His visual memoir Gore Vidal: Snapshots in History’s Glare includes photographs, letters, manuscripts, and other selections from his vast personal archives.

Watch or Listen to some of his interviews.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

why must it be that men are bored?


Jacques Brel wrote this song in 1963 for a movie. It's title comes from a quote from Pascal that a king without diversions (un roi sans divertissements) is miserable. Brel asks:
Why must it be that men are bored?

Monday, December 21, 2009

Another blow to Iranian reform....

Yesterday, Grand ayatollah Hosein Ali Montazeri passed away at his home in the Iranian holy city of Qom, without question delivering another serious blow to hopes for internal reform to the Iranian political system. Montazeri leaves behind him a decidedly mixed legacy, and a very interesting set of questions about the immediate and long-term consequences of his absence from the Iranian political scene.

Montazeri was one of the most senior clerical figures in all of Shiite Islam, and also one of the original architects of the concept of villayat e-faqih (rule by jurisprudential scholars) most powerfully advanced by Ayatollah Khomeini.

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Saturday, December 19, 2009

The Power of Determination

The power of will...The power of determination...The power of Art...
Me and Tanja dancing!

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Time!


"Time passes, and little by little everything that we have spoken in falsehood becomes true."
Marcel Proust

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Truth and Lies


One who does not know the truth is only a fool. One who knows the truth and calls it a lie is a criminal.

Bertolt Brech

Monday, December 14, 2009

!!!


In the streets of Copenhagen, Mr. Death's horse speaks deeper than thousand words! Look at his/her profound eyes and graceful silence!

Friday, December 11, 2009

Howard Zinn


"They're willing to let people think about mild reforms and little changes, and incremental changes, but they don't want people to think that we could actually transform this country."

Howard Zinn in an interview in Bill Moyers Journal

BILL MOYERS: There's a long tradition in America of people power, and no one has done more to document it than the historian, Howard Zinn. Listen to this paragraph from his most famous book. Quote: "If democracy were to be given any meaning, if it were to go beyond the limits of capitalism and nationalism, this would not come, if history were any guide, from the top. It would come through citizen's movements, educating, organizing, agitating, striking, boycotting, demonstrating, threatening those in power with disruption of the stability they needed." This son of a working class family got a job in the Brooklyn shipyards and then flew as a bombardier during World War II. He went to NYU on the G.I. Bill, taught history at Spellman College in Atlanta, where he was first active in the Civil Rights movement, and then became a professor of political science at Boston University.

There, he and his students sought a more down-to-earth way of looking at American history. And when no book could provide it, Zinn decided to write one. Since his publication in 1980, "A People's History of the United States" has sold more than two million copies. This Sunday night, the History Channel will premiere a 90-minute special, "The People Speak" based on Howard Zinn's book. It was produced by Zinn along with Matt Damon, Josh Brolin, Chris Moore and Anthony Arnove.

"You push us"

George Goehl, whose organization National People's Action helped organize the protests and Heather Booth of Americans for Financial Reform join Bill Moyers on the JOURNAL to explain why people are angry with the banks, and what they believe community groups can change across the country and in Washington, D.C.
......................
BILL MOYERS: So, as we heard here time and again, they cling to the audacity of hope.

BRENDA LABLANC: When enough people get active, things will happen. I think Obama will act if people will push him. But we've got to push him. He said that himself, he said, "You push us." And I think we're ready to do that.

GEORGE GOEHL: The one thing we have, our own political currency, is people. And people are ready to hit the streets. Today is a beginning of a much larger set of mobilizations that are going to take place all across the country. We're just getting' started.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Nostalgia


"Kiss" by Gustav Klimt
Listen to Je t'aime moi non plus.
In 1969 Serge Gainsbourg wrote this notorious song and recorded as a duet with Jane Birkin. It appeared on the pair's joint album "Jane Birkin Serge Gainsbourg".
And ...Listen to Je suis venu te dire que je m'en vais (1973)
Here is an English translation of the song. "I came here to say I'm going away"!
Read the lyrics of the song.

Monday, December 7, 2009

Friday, December 4, 2009

Violence Begets Violence!

Director Oliver Stone in Bill Moyers Journal
........
BILL MOYERS: What do you mean empire?

OLIVER STONE: We have an empire. We have soldiers in 120 nations all around the world. We have bases north of Afghanistan as you know-- it changes monthly. But Kazakhstan, Kurdistan, Turkmenistan. All these names. We have rings around Soviet Russia, practically. We've built in Latvia. We put NATO back in America has grown huge since the-- especially since the end of the Cold War. We expanded into the East. NATO was never supposed to go East. Do you remember that? NATO was for Western Europe. It was never supposed to go East. Clinton took it to Poland, to Czechoslovakia. Hungary. Bush expanded it. The Russians have a beef with us. And you know, rightly so. We became very big after l989. Bigger than we were. And now we're going to pay the price. The decision by Obama, although it seems minor, 30,000 men. I think it's major. I think this is very ominous. And I don't know that this time, because coming off the recession of where we are now. It doesn't make sense. It's like piling bricks on a donkey. You pile them so high, the donkey is going to collapse.

BILL MOYERS: What would you have said to the President before he made his decision if you could have talked to him?

OLIVER STONE: Don't sell out, man. I mean, the generals got you. You get into the presidency, and I think it's a trap. I would imagine you would know from Lyndon Johnson's experience. And he himself is on his tapes, was talking about the need to win in Vietnam. He-- although in his bones, I think that Lyndon Johnson knew he could not win there. Billions of dollars were spent in Vietnam. Huge waste of money and people got rich off the war. They always do. I always-- when I think of war, I think of money and patriotism. And Obama went out of his way to say that-- to read Vietnam into this was false history. I disagree completely, we always heard the story that the Vietnamese, if we didn't stop them in Vietnam, the dominoes would fall. Thailand would be next. Malaysia and so forth. And they would come, communism would come to the shores of California. And we hear it again and again.

BILL MOYERS: But it is also a fact that Afghanistan is where much of the attack was planned on 9/11. That did change the reality. Don't you think?

OLIVER STONE: No Afghanistan is just like Texas. It's just endless scrub. I don't think it means much. I think Pakistan is where the ballgame is. Afghanistan-- is ridiculous to go to war there. It's like a wasteland. I mean, the people are fighters. These people have been-- they resisted the British, the Russians. They-- I've often felt we are paralleling the Soviet Union. We fought the Soviet Union so hard from l945 on. And when they finally crumbled in 1991, it seems that our fate will follow the same course. I don't know why, it felt like we're locked. If your enemy dies, you may go on for a few years, but somehow we have the same sickness. There's no way people from the mainland of America can go over there and not intrude on these people. Just the fact to even walk into a village with our uniforms and our guns is an intrusion on their way of life. And it's an offense. The way we- if a soldier looks at a woman in a certain way, you know, they take offense. The-- the mentality is quite different than ours. We don't- it's another culture completely. And I don't understand why Obama, who knows about culture and he has an Indonesian background, too, I don't under- I'm shocked that he could look to force. No good will come of using force in a foreign land. Read or Watch more...

Thursday, December 3, 2009

A B or not a B?

A B or not a B?

Where Words Prevail not, Violence Prevails!

One of Cicely Berry's favorite quotes is from Thomas Kyd’s play The Spanish Tragedy: “Where words prevail not, violence prevails.”
Where Words Prevail is a documentary which explores the widely acclaimed work of Cicely Berry, Voice Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC). Her voice techniques are invaluable to actors and directors who are performing classical plays in today’s theater. From rehearsals at the RSC in Stratford-on-Avon, to workshops and Master Classes in Seoul, New York, Moscow and the slums of Rio de Janeiro, her work is documented in diverse languages, producing new understanding in the power of voice, language and communications.
Her influence has extended into other areas as well, including film and politics. Having coached prominent politicians on effective public speaking, Berry asserts that the political sound byte is now “destroying democratic debate.”

This war MUST end!

"This time, the tears Obama has inspired are not tears of joy.
He is brilliant and eloquent. But last night he spoke of 30,000 troops and $30 billion for escalating a war.
A war that will do nothing to protect our security.
A war that will result in the deaths of thousands of Americans and Afghans.
A war that will eat up resources that should be going to jobs, homes, schools, health care.
A war that will hurt rather than help the people of Afghanistan.
Join us in the work ahead to work to stop the funding for this war.
We CANNOT remain on the sidelines anymore. This war MUST end.
Join us in the work ahead to work to stop the funding.
Sign the petition to tell Congress we cannot afford a war that does not make us safer."

Yours,
Robert Greenwald
and the Brave New Foundation team