In Democracy We Trust!!

What's the difference between Democratic and Dictatorial societies?
Watch this video on demonstration in Barcelona!

Art

Art in Exile a talk by Shirin Neshat in Ted.
Watch also the whole version of El empleo (the employment) by Santiago Bou Grasso. Here is an an excerpt of it.

A list of some observation

In a corner, it's warm.
A glance leaves an imprint on anything it's dwelt on.
Water is glass's most public form.
Man is more frightening than its skeleton.
A nowhere winter evening with wine. A black
porch resists an osier's stiff assaults.
Fixed on an elbow, the body bulks
like a glacier's debris, a moraine of sorts.
A millennium hence, they'll no doubt expose
a fossil bivalve propped behind this gauze
cloth, with the print of lips under the print of fringe,
mumbling "Good night" to a window hinge.


By Joseph Brodsky

Swan

Swan again....

Speaking Persian with American Accent

Alan Eyre, the Persian-language spokesperson in President Obama's administration is being interviewed by BBC. More than anything else I was drawn to the way he speaks Persian. Interesting.

Distant Voices, Still Lives

"Distant Voices, Still Lives" a forgotten masterpiece by Terence Davies.

Mandaeism

Today I learned about a religion which has been existed in southern Iraq and Iran for a long time.
"Mandaeism is a monotheistic religion with a strongly dualistic worldview which has historically been practiced primarily around the lower Karun, Euphrates and Tigris and the rivers that surround part of southern Iraq and Khuzestan Province in Iran.

Mandeans seem to be indigenous to Mesopotamia and are certainly of Pre Arab and Pre Islamic origin.
In the Shahnameh (Persian for "Book of Kings"), written by Ferdowsi Toosi referred to a man named Mardas, an Amir lived about 800 years ago in the southwest of Iran (dasht-e savaran-e neizeh gozar) who seems to be one of the mandaecs, because he prayed to god after washing himself all the time especially at dawn. This religion also is called Moghtaseleh means "those who wash themselves a lot" (Ghosl in Arabic means Bathing) The term comes from Classical Mandaic Mandaiia and appears in Neo-Mandaic as Mandeyānā.".
Watch this clip.

Hilda

Last night I attended a reading of Hilda, an astonishing play by Marie Nduaye the French playwright. I would call Hilda a modern adaptation of The Maids by Jean Genet. Basically a different take on the real incident happened in France in 1933 as the result of the exploitation of the workers. Watching the play at Alliance Francaise de Chicago, as the second reading of The International Voices Project was an extraordinary experience which I will write about it soon.

Watch a clip from The Maid directed by Christopher Miles an adaptation of Jean Genet's play.

Exploding Watermelons in protest!

Watermelons of all countries, UNITE!
One hundred suicide bursting watermelons exploded themselves as an act of protest!
Watermelons are exploding in fields in China's Jiangsu province, after farmers apparently misuse chemicals intended to accelerate the fruit's growth.

Long Live Watermelons!

After Life is a Fairy story.

Stephen Hawkins speaks about death:
"I have lived with the prospect of an early death for the last 49 years. I'm not afraid of death, but I'm in no hurry to die. I have so much I want to do first. I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark."

Long Live Donkeys!

Long live donkeys!

The Aleph by Paulo Coelho

The Aleph by Paulo Coelho
Read an excerpt of this novel.

Priya Sher writes:

The Aleph is Paulo Coelho’s hugely anticipated new book, releasing worldwide in 2011. It has already been published in Portuguese in Brazil and since its release in July 2010 has stayed firmly in the top 10 bestseller lists. Readers of the book include the Brazilian President Lula Da Silva.

The Aleph is a journey into Paulo Coelho’s soul; past, present and future. In his blog he writes:

‘The 3rd sacred road is called Road to Jerusalem. Again, you don’t need to go to Jerusalem, but you have to travel in space and time. The only task I was given was: stay away from home for the next 4 months. I went to several countries, but the epiphany happened while crossing Asia in the Transiberian train (15 days, 7 different time zones, 9.2528 kms from Moscow to Vladivostok). I was traveling with a Turkish girl, Hilal (not her real name), for reasons that you are going to discover in the book. This point where time and space converge is called “The Aleph”(J.L.Borges has a wonderful short story about this point). Therefore, this is the title of my new book: “The Aleph”.’
Watch this video based on his novel. Visit his page on Facebook.

The Aleph by Jorge Luis Borges

Read The Aleph by Jorge Luis Borges. A short story I have been fascinated with for a long time.

Read an excerpt of the story: :"Does this Aleph exist in the heart of a stone? Did I see it there in the cellar when I saw all things, and have I now forgotten it? Our minds are porous and forgetfulness seeps in; I myself am distorting and losing, under the wearing away of the years, the face of Beatriz."

"In Borges's story, the Aleph is a point in space that contains all other points. Anyone who gazes into it can see everything in the universe from every angle simultaneously, without distortion, overlapping or confusion. The story continues the theme of infinity found in several of Borges's other works, such as The Book of Sand."
Read more...

19

Nineteen by Paul Hardcastle.

In 1965 Vietnam seemed like just another foreign war,
but it wasn't.
It was different in many ways, as so were those that did the fighting.
In World War II the average age of the combat soldier was 26...
In Vietnam he was 19.
In inininininin Vietnam he was 19.

(TV announcer's voice)
The shooting and fighting of the past two weeks continued today
25 miles west of Saigon
I really wasn't sure what was going on (Vet's Voice)

Nininini Nineteen, 19, Ni-nineteen 19
19,19,19,19
Read the rest of lyrics.

The Blue Danube in the Time of War

Thank you Johann strauss II for your beautiful waltz The Blue Danube.

ignorance

"Our number one enemy is ignorance."
Julian Assange