"M"

Picture: Midwest Lotus

I often think how lonely you must have felt among your friends and relatives, the ghosts around you, while sitting on a chair observing them silently, scrupulously.
"Death" must have been your only true and comforting companion perhaps, when you were about to close your eyes... although you yearned for warmth of the sun, a tall coffee latte, and a genuine touch of a woman.
I always wonder what were your last thoughts?

A treat!

She ordered a tall vanilla latte with a tinge of mint flavor without feeling guilty!

Two Sisters

Two sisters in Tennessee Williams' play A Street Car named Desire

BLANCHE: No? I'd forgotten how quiet you were.
STELLA: You never did give me a chance to say much, Blanche. So I just got in the habit of being quiet around you.

Tariq Ali and the Obama syndrome

Tariq Ali speaks about his new book the Obama syndrome: Surrender at Home, War Abroad". on Democracy Now.

The Stranger

The Stranger...

The Bride of Acacias

I will have a reading performance of my play The Bride of Acacias at the University of Virginia in Chalottesville on September 27.
The play is a one woman show based on life of the prominent Iranian poet Forugh Farrokhzad, whose poetry made a significant impact on men and women in Iran.
Forugh in search of love and freedom begins a long journey through impossibilities. By taking a perilous path, she defines a new perception of humane politics and morality, explores her own model of womanhood, and the manifestation of women’s liberation.

I also had a reading of my play "the Doll behind the Curtain", a modern adaptation of Sadegh Hedayat's short story of the same title in Vancouver, Canada in September 3, 2010.

This play emphasizes a young man's fascination for a silent statue behind a boutique's window in Paris. Infatuated by her mysterious beauty, he pays all his saving to own this soulless mannequin. The play explores the complexity of love, sexuality and intimacy from the perspective of a man, torn in between tradition and modernity.

First Day of Class

My Fall semester starts with teaching Experimental Playwriting at SNL at DePaul University. We'll talk about the Art of Seeing, as we watch a scene of Hiroshima Mon Amour.

Writing

"Writing is the art of asking questions, not of answering or resolving them."
Roland Barthes

Ray Bradbury and remembering Fahrenheit 451

Ray Bradbury the author of unforgettable book "Fahrenheit 451" is celebrating his 90th birthday in Chicago. He is originally from Waukegan, Illinois.



Let's watch scenes from Fahrenheit 451, the movie based on this novel and directed by Farncois Truffaut.
A Discussion with Ray Bradbury on Fahrenheit 451

Claude Chabrol

Claude Chabrol died at the age of 80. He went behind the beautiful landscapes and homes of the bourgeoisie to lay bare the travails and turpitudes of the French....
Watch a scene from his version of Madame Bovary.

Régis Debray

"In a February 2007 op-ed in Le Monde, Régis Debray criticized the tendency of the whole French political class to move toward the right-wing of politics. He also deplored the influence of the "videosphere" on modern politics, which he claimed has a tendency to individualize everything, forgetting both past and future (although he praised the loss of the 1960s messianism), outside of any common national project. He criticized the new generation in politics as being competent but without character, and lacking ideas: "So they [think they] recruit philosophy with André Glucksmann or Bernard-Henri Lévy and literature with Christine Angot or Jean d'Ormesson". He called for a vote to the "left of the left," in order to attempt to block a modern "anti-politics" which has turned into political marketing."

Radio version of my play

Listen to the radio version of my play "The Doll Behind the Curtain" presented by Mahmoud Behrouzian and Roya Araynpad. Designed and produced by Hassan Fayyad. Look for the right side of the page.

Home

The officer looked at my passport, then at me and softly said: -You're going home?
-Yes. I said.
-Where is your home? He asked.
-Chicago... Evanston.
He smiled. Handed me my passport and kindly said: Welcome home!
-Thank you. I said.

As I walked down the hallway to get to my flight to Portland, then Chicago, I repeated home...home...home...I'm going "HOME"...And my eyes were filled with tears...and I wanted to embrace all the American passengers who were walking beside me.

The next day as I came back from my grocery shopping, buying some fruits and vegetables, I noticed a woman in the street standing by her car, opening the driver side door. She stopped, smiled at me and looked with admiration, then said: What a lovely dress!
I had my orange dress on. My groceries were silently attentive inside a pink bag around my right arm.
-Thank you...Thank you so much! I said spontaneously with a happy tone.
Then I continued walking a few more blocks.
A man was smoking. I didn't see him smoking first. As he passed by, I felt his presence and the smell of cigarette. He almost whispered with confidence and vulnerability at the same time: Hi beautiful!
I turned to see who this man was. That was when I saw him smoking. A young man immersed in thoughts, yet aware of his surrounding. He looked back.
I continued walking. And repeated to myself: Home...home....home...

The trees seemed blurry. The street foggy. The sun...clear and glittering...
I love my "home". I really do!

A New Crusade?

A new Crusade?

Watch interviews in Democracy Now.

!!!!

Gen David Petraeus said the action could cause problems "not just in Kabul, but everywhere in the world".

Max Blumenthal, Erich Fromm and Republican Gomorrah

Listen to Max Blumenthal in WBEZ Worldview on rise of extreme religious right wing, the cultural crisis and the importance of Erich Fromm's ideas on shaping his book "Republican Gomorrah".
"Journalist Max Blumenthal believes the "Republican Right" wants to de-legitimize the Obama Presidency. In his book, Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement that Shattered the Party, he writes that the GOP left its big-tent philosophy to cater to its extreme right wing. He also tells us about the disturbing dysfunction of those who funded and created the political blueprint for the Christian right."

Reading

Today I'll have a reading in Vancouver.