Drunk Enough to Say I Love You?

Read my review of Drunk Enough to Say I Love You
In a dream, in 2006, I abruptly opened a door where in the room I saw a large brown table. Under the table was GWB kissing a young blonde man in a suit. Embarrassed, he smiled and changed his position. I closed the door.
Caryl Churchill's play "Drunk Enough to Say I Love You?" is as if an exploration of my dream.

In "Drunk Enough to Say I Love You?" Churchill in a minimalistic form creates two characters Sam as a country and Guy as a man who falls in love with him, to lucidly portray her political view of our time. Although the play is short and contains of eight brief scenes, it takes the reader into a long journey through history of domination, invasion, covert operations to overthrowing governments by using certain torture technics as well as the usage of chemical and biological weapons to control most of the third world countries. Read more...

Watch an excerpt of the play produced in Berlin. In German.

Roger Sedarat on Iranian-American writing

Roger Sedarat, an Iranian American poet, the author of Dear Regime: Letters to the Islamic Republic, which won Ohio University Press's Hollis Summers' Prize, and Ghazal Games his collection of poems , recently wrote an article on Iranian-American writing in The Best American Poetry. He mentioned some publications by Iranian American writers and genuinely suggested the readers to "add on in the comments section with other recommendations."

In addition to teaching creative writing (poetry and literary translation) in the MFA program at Queens College, City University of New York, Sedarat also teaches and writes on such academic interests as 19th and 20th century American literature as well as Middle Eastern-American literature.

Gore Vidal's latest interview

Listen to the latest interview with greatest American author, playwright and political commentator: Gore Vidal

The Little Black Fish

The Little Black Fish That Created Big Waves
Listen to the story and "the journalist Negar Esfandiary who looks inside the covers of one of her favourite childhood books from Iran and discovers that the delightful tale of a little fish that leaves its little pond to swim to the sea is actually a powerful political allegory - one which caused major ripples which still reverberate to this day."

Read the story by Samad Behrangi in this link.

In your memory

Marc & I

Will you show me (even) in a delusional world, in a dream or reality, a "one" who can be as empathetic, responsible and tender as you?
Will you reveal your last whispering words to me?

How I learned English

"How I learned English" by Esmeralda Santiago
"The first phrase I learned in English was “I’m sorry, so sorry.” They were the only words I could make out in a song then popular on the radio. The rest of the verses were a mystery, a garble of vowels and consonants in a female voice quavering with remorse. I was thirteen and about to learn that love meant having to say you’re sorry over and over again...
Read More

Read a review of her new novel Conquistadora.
Read an excerpt of the book.

Jorge Luis Borges

"A book is not an isolated entity: it is a narration, an axis of innumerable narrations."
Jorge Luis Borges

Napoleon Sarkozy

Napoleon Sarkozy by Rodney Pike (rwpike)

Libya, a perspective...

I received this email today:

"We made this quick and dirty video at the beginning of the Libyan "civil war." It all progressed exactly as we predicted.

Lots and lots of picture of rag-tag "rebels" and ZERO pictures of the real military force doing all the heavy lifting (and bombing)...NATO (i.e. the Anglo-American oil conglomerate)

I was listening to the BBC last night and you would have thought the announcer was going to have an 'orgasm rhapsodizing about the "triumph of the people."

Who's going to get the oil and the rebuilding contracts? According to the New York Times, that's shrouded in the haze of mystery.

Uh huh...".
Read also this article

broadcasting treason

What does really make a person to become the voice of fascism?
Listen to On the Media on Mildred Gillars.

Mark Strand

Today I read a note on my dairy book dated February 1990 where I had attended a poetry reading by Mark Strand at Writer's Workshop at the University of Iowa. The reminiscence of that day made me read more about his poetry.

Everyone who has sold himself wants to buy himself back.
Nothing is done. The night
eats into their limbs
like a blight.
Everything dims.
The future is not what it used to be.
The graves are ready. The dead
shall inherit the dead.

Listen to some of his poems.

Honorable Mentions

Reading an excerpt of the play at ATHE Conference Friday August 12 at Palmer House, Chicago.

In 2011 Jane Chambers Awards my play "Maryam’s Pregnancy" (4 F, 1 M: 90 Minutes) received Honorable Mentions.
It's described by the judges: "In this audacious nine- scene play, an adult Maryam and the “actress” who present her vie over the best way to represent the seventeen year old Maryam’s traumatic journey of unwanted, out –of-wedlock pregnancy, attempted abortion, and hiding during the escalating fear and terror of Iran-Iraq War. The play revisions the Rapunzel fairytale and evokes Pirandello’s metatheatre pierced by a poetics of cruelty as it stages the seventeen year-old’s struggle for agency amid dire gender prohibitions, dramatically-loaded circumstance, and a love-hate journey with her mother, who both condemns and helps to preserve her. For bold audiences."

silence is the perfect water

An excerpt of a poem by Philip Levine: “He Would Never Use One Word Where None Would Do”

Fact is, silence is the perfect water:
unlike rain it falls from no clouds
to wash our minds, to ease our tired eyes,
to give heart to the thin blades of grass
fighting through the concrete for even air
dirtied by our endless stream of words.

Riot in Britain

Watch a 1970's film on institutional racism to get one aspect of many on what's going on in Britain today...
British Public opinion from the 1970's saying there are too many people here, we're being swamped.

Just Laughing!

On Thursday, August 4, I was invited to attend a discussion with Chicago-based director and producer Joe Sedelmaier, one of Advertising Age’s “Top 100 People of the Century” at Energy BBDO. Joe is best recognized as the man behind some of TV's most well-known and honored commercials, including Wendy’s “Where's the Beef?” and FedEx’s “Fast Talking Man.” 

Joe began his career as an ad agency creative in Chicago, where he also started producing and directing short films, including the award-winning “Mrofnoc” and “Because, That’s Why.” In 1967, he launched his own production studio where he developed international repute directing comical TV spots for clients including Alaska Airlines, Mr. Coffee, AAMCO, Avis, Tang, Wendy’s, and Federal Express. Joe’s idiosyncratic work created a unique genre of advertising featuring the most unlikely, one-of-a-kind non-actors.

Joe’s commercial work has been recognized by the Clio Awards, Cannes Lions, One Show, Chicago Film Festival, Art Directors of New York, Communication Arts, Britain’s D&AD, and Hollywood MBA. In 2000, Joe was inducted into the New York Art Directors Club Hall of Fame. More recently, his film “Openminds” was an official selection in the 2003 Sundance Film Festival.

Joe’s work is iconic, dynamic, and instantly recognizable. Nearly 30 years later, people are still wondering, “Where's the beef?”

Women Hurt Most by Debt Deal Cuts to Medicare, Social Security, Tuition

Women Hurt Most by Debt Deal Cuts to Medicare, Social Security, Tuition

Watch or read in Democracy Now

Sunflower Under the Thunderstorm

"A woman born for love. A man born to love her. A timeless moment in a world gone mad."

As I read in an interview that "Francesco Speroni, a leading member of the Northern League, the junior partner in Berlusconi's conservative coalition, said: "Breivik's ideas are in defense of western civilization," I remember this quote once again that "We learn from history that we learn nothing from history!"

Italian neorealism Cinema after World War II, illustrated a humanistic picture of life during war. Today I watched "Sunflower" a movie directed by Vittorio De Sica in 1970, acted by Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni.
Paralleled with the last scene as thunderstorm dramatized moments of love, loss and bitterness, behind the windows in my friend's house in Evanston, thunderstorm started to shook the trees...We still had power...Reality blended with artistic expression of fragmented history!
After the movie we preferred not to talk about it. It revived memories which are unknown to those who lack curiosity and knowledge of the past. I wanted to walk home alone under the heavy rain in the empty streets. It was a cathartic feeling absorbing the power of art while thinking what will wait for us in near future! Will sunflower seeds remember how their ancestors grew on mass graves?

Watch clip 3 of Sunflower in Italian language.
And the last Scene...

From Oslo

Jennifer Moi from Oslo, Norway interviewed kaveh Adel on the recent incident and his LOVE FOR NORWAY.

The Art of Listening in Playback Theatre

In Bob Edwards show you would listen to Jonathan Fox explaining his experimentation on the art of listening to human stories. "Playback Theatre is a unique experience, both for the audience and the performers. There’s no script, no set, no costumes. The scenes come from stories told by the audience. The founder of Playback Theatre, Jonathan Fox, says those stories can be about anything — no drama is required. The actors listen intently, and then perform the story with improvised movement, words and music. The performance makes the story part of a universal, shared experience."

Why Leaders Lie

"In his new book, Why Leaders Lie: The Truth About Lying in International Politics, political scientist John Mearsheimer poses that provocative question of when is it justified, or not, for leaders to lie to other leaders, to other nations or to their own citizens.

Mearsheimer is regarded as one of the foremost realist thinkers on foreign policy. He’s renowned for his book on offensive realism called, The Tragedy of Great Power Politics, and a few years ago he attracted great attention for co-authoring the book, The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy."
Listen to the interview in WBEZ World View