Happy Birthday, Ghazal !
Whatever you were dreaming of, my Dear, I wish you will get today.
And all the things that you are still waiting for, they might come later but still on time. The few ones that will never come were probably not important at all.
Make the best out of everything that you already got, Ghazal, it is so much and it is precious.
I wish you good luck with everything.
I hope that life provides you the same
amount of inspiration that you gave to me.
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Hello Michael!!
Thank you so much for your birthday wishes and the nice music! You are very talented, I liked the music.
I really hope everything is fine with you. I saw M. in Stockholm, he told me you are fine and that you are trying to publish. Good luck with that.
Wish you all the best.
Take care
/Ghazal
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Dear Ghazal,
It was so nice reading your messsage. I hope you had a wonderful birthday party and got all the flowers and beautiful presents that you liked and lovely guests.
Thank you so much, Asal, for your encouraging words about the guitar music. I”m not sure, if you really liked it or you just tried to say something nice. But in any case, your comment made me very happy.
Take Care, Michael
Dear Michael,
do you remember the CD you gave me last year with the compilation of some rock, pop and jazz music? In fact I never really had time to listen to it while I lived in the Helmholtz Guesthouse. Last year in Munich I was so busy with other things, with my MSc project and learning the complicate mouse genetics, I also felt homesick for Sweden and my parents and therefore only listened to persian music. And of course, every other free moment you have been around and drove with me to the river bank and the beach, to nice restaurants and music-clubs and theater and many more. It was a busy time, you know, and hence the CD compilation got somehow lost among many other silverplates with scientific stuff and photographs and lecture hand outs.
Today in the evening, my brother found this CD and was attracted by the hand written label on it: 20th century rock music. He put it into his stereo and turned on the volume, and there started a nice song, very easy listening style, but I never heard it before. My dad immediately listened up and called us all. He told us that this song “Bobby Brown goes Down” is by the great rock singer Frank Zappa, who already in 1979 foresaw that the so-called “islamic revolution” in his home Iran will end in a cultural dictatorship. My dad just asked me to send you his warmest regards for introducing this intelligent, brave and tallented musician to his daughter.
(and I have to say sorry for not listening to the music on the CD before).
Take Care, Michael, I hope you are doing fine.
/ghazal
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Ghazal, my dear,
I think me and your dad would have a lot in common, in particular if it comes to politics. Your dad, however was obviously much more strikt in his decisions, and left the totalitarian regime in Iran, whereas myself always tried to find a niche in the east-german pseudo-democracy. And Frank Zappa, whom we could easily listen to via west-Berlin radiostations, was part of the entertainment in this socio-political niche.
Frank Zappa was one of the most innovative and influential, but also controversal rock-musicians. His huge oevre covered jazz-rock classics like “Peaches in Regalia” , but also some top ten hits like “Don’t eat that yellow snow” and “Bobby Brown goes Down” from the 1979 album “Sheigh Sherbouti”.
Zappa always acknowledged his music being influenced by 20th century classic music, in particular by composers Igor Stravinsky and Edgar Varese. In 1970 Zappa met Zubin Mehta, conductor of LA Philharmony Orchestra and descendent of an indian Parsi family. Zappas Mothers of Invention and Mehtas Orchestra played together the concert 200 Motels
Even though his lyrics became more and more complex, and political messages woven into satirical stories, Zappa never led any doubt what he thought about the Washington establishment and religious bigotry. In the video to the fusion-jazz piece “You are what you is” he calls Ronald Reagan a president from hell. I was always wondering how Zappa, wouldn’t he have died too early in 1993, could bear to live in a country that 10 years later was lead and send to war by the lunatic George W. Bush. On September 19, 1985, Zappa testified before the United States Senate Commerce, Technology, and Transportation committee, attacking the “Parents Music Resource Center” (PMRC), a music organization co-founded by Tipper Gore, wife of then-senator Al Gore. The PMRC consisted of many wives of politicians, including the wives of five members of the committee, and was founded to address the issue of song lyrics with sexual or satanic content. Zappa saw their activities as on a path towards censorship. His high sensitivity for political oppression was seen during production of the 1979 triple LP Joe”s Garage, comprising a rock opera about the danger of political systems, the suppression of freedom of speech and music. Inspired in by the Islamic revolution that had made music illegal within its jurisdiction at the time, it also addressed the “strange relationship Americans have with sex and sexual frankness”.
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Whether one likes Zappas very open political statements, denouncing the hypocrisis of the western moral standards and their corruption by the political system, or not, whether you think his language is sexist and chauvinistic or just right to fight the political correctness, one thing about him remains that nowbody can deny: That he was one, if not the most productive, independent, intelligent and influential musicians of the 20s century. It is sad that he died before experiencing how a new generation of iranians will reinstall freedom, music and creativity in Tehran. I”m sure he would have greeted the green movement with highest sympathy. Enjoy and share with your friends and family !
It is pitty you are so far now, so we cannot go to a concert this summer.
Hope for the future,
Enjoy anyhow, TAKE CARE, Ghazal
Michael
Anthony Weiner, highly praised democrate representative and candidate for N.Y. mayor resigned this week over his cyber-sex affair that is in the media since may. Mr Weiners activities outside his office duties, which involved sending explicit photographs of his most precious body areas to several femal followers through Twitter and Facebook are still difficult to judge in terms of their moral or political implications, both for his political peers and voters but even more for his wife Huma Abedin. Are they really as immoral as the Washington Times tries to makes us believe, or is this media outcry rather a hypocracy when it comes to our own secret phantasies, that we like to forbid to those who are paid with our tax money ? I”m wondering what would happened if Mr. Weiner would not have send his “Bulge” pictures and “Shaved Breast” pictures and testosteron-loaded short messages to younger ladies or university students, but to elder house-wives or congress representatives of the republicians ? Would have Mrs. Nancy Pelosi, congress speaker and his party fellow demanded his resignation with the same mercyless ? It is really hard to tell how much Mr. Weiner must be considered a liar and therefore banned from the political establishment, or whether he is a victim of the Big Brother media establishment, who is regularily searching for fresh blood to drink. I wont make any judgement here myself, I think it is about the people who voted for him as representative to decide over his future, and in particular it is about his wife Huma Abedin to consider if she wants to stay with him for the rest of their life.
What I like to suggest here, however is that Weiners affairs highlights the validity of an old issue: that of the erotic component that is related to power. In particular in the sphere of politics, that in Weiners case very simply ment that he had a sort of power over ~ 50 000 people that he represented of his New York district, power is easily gained by questionable personal qualities such as networking, bribing, lobbying. What comes with this political power is an ever increasing media presence, and it was especially the later that Anthony Weiner very obviously exploited for his cyber-sex relationships. If he would have used an anonymous user-name such as “dear-Mr-president” or “democrats-bulge” or “oral-bill” for his twitter and Facebook accounts, instead of clearly showing that it is Anthony Weiner here, your most appreciated and praised democrats futur NY mayor that sends you these steam-hot messages and pictures of his body parts, he would have received much less reponse for this, considering that the photos he send around showed a rather prude clerkes physiology (no tatoos or body piercings or scarves from gang fights or military combats). It was obviously this “added value” of offering his verbal sex and body pictures to young ladies in combination with the thrill of having all this “dirty stuff” with a guy whom the rest of the nation only knows as Mr. Super-Clean and everybodies darling. And for the failure of this attempt, i.e. exploiting a political function that has been given to somebody by his voters to attract femals for love affairs, I praise the public media who exposed this story.
Yesterday, I saw your face in this french documentary “Voices from Iran”, about the elections and post-election demonstrations in Tehran in June 2009. I saw your coward eyes under the black helmet, Basidj. Like all of the other black-dressed and heavily armed puppets of your leaders, you seemed to enjoy this feeling of total power over the students on the streets of Tehran, who had nothing else to defend against you than their T-shirts, canvas slipper and hand-written posters.
You felt so much superior, when you started to beat them and kick those who were already laying on the ground. You felt so powerful, fed with drugs by your fat and conscienceless commanders and equipped with the newest high-tech guns and tear-gas bullets and batons from the top weapons factories of the world. How did you felt, when you did your so-called job out there ? I guess you wanted to impress your commanders and the other members of your squad by the ruthlessness of your beating, by the precision of your shooting. But we all know that you are just a bloddy coward. You think you are strong in the moment when you torture and kill unarmed young people, mostly students, young women but also children and elder people. Did you felt satisfied for pleasing your coward commanders and the heads of this criminal gouvernment.
And when you saw how the bullets from your guns made the streets turn red, didn”t you thought that this is more thrilling than your ego-shooter computer game ? And how does it feel if you kick your steel-armed boots into the belly of somebody whom you first chained feets and arms with a cable ? Does it gives you an emotional blow to imagine how the steel covers of your boots causes pain and internal bleeding in the person laying on the ground in front of you ? Did you considered kicking again and again, not just to score higher at your commanders record, but also to repeat this image of how your stupid steel boots so easily destroy the head of an intelligent young man or girl ? And later, when you throwed those who were wounded and could not escape anymore onto pick-ups and trucks to bring them to Evin Prison or Ghezel Hesar, I’m sure you knew that this was not a journey for medical treatment or recovery, but to further harras and rape and kill them. And if you later saw the pictures of Neda Agha-Soltan and Sohrab Arabi, cowardly killed by you and your commrades, how long did those pictures appeared in your dreams, before you got rid of them with more drugs and blood-money and more violence ?
But you should know, Basidj, that what you did 2009 on Tohid square wont be forgotten. You turned a peaceful demonstration into a blood shed. The hundred thousands that walked the streets those days, wearing green T-shirts and green shawls did not had enough phantasy to think that this day might end up in violence. The girls had put on their most beautiful jewelery and make-up and the men kept their expensive lap-tops with them in their bags. People were sure that this day would demonstrate the power of a peaceful political change and give hope for a better future of this country . The people on the streets felt the dawn of a grey period of political speechlessness, and they were hoping to meet some of the political leaders to discuss the future of the country after the elections.
The millions who gave their vote in the 2009 election and later formed an endless band of the green movement in the streets of Tehran, they wont forget that their hope for a peaceful move was turned into a violent nightmare by Basidj cowards just like you. And the next time when they meet you on the same streets, don”t expect any more unarmed young intellectuals. The next time, Basidj, you will be attacked, there wont be an option for peaceful settlement any more. And when the magazin of your automatic gun is empty, and you again killed and wounded the first twenty of the protesters, than there will come another twenty and another twenty and the same to each other of your Basidj commrades. There will be hundred thousands again coming out of the universities, of the restaurants and shops and beauty-salons, from all the places they escaped to in 2009, when they had to run away from your guns and butons. But this time they wont run away any more, and they dont want to talk to you any more, but they will attack you and kill you. And then, the streets of Tehran will turn red again, but this time it will be your damned blood.
And if somebody will throw your dead corpse into the gateway of your house, there wont be anybody crying tears for your death. Your mother will come out at night and bring you corpse to the waste bin of the garden, together with the chicken-heads and rotten carrots and the bad smelling polo from last week. Your parents will be ashamed of you, there will be no mourning for you. And for all the cowardize of your life, Basidj, your children will forget your name. To avoid that others would point with fingers on them, they will tell everybody that they don’t know who their father was. Your name will be forgotten in a new, free Iran. And only the history text books will know a precise number of nameless Basidj cowards. And you will have been one of them, not more, but also not less.
In 1934 the world celebrated the great persian poet Ferdosi, who was born 1000 years ago and gave us the iranian national epos Shanahme. The journal Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft published on this occasion a report about the official reception of the German Orient Society in Berlin. A state counciler Dr. Wiegand highlighted the similar spirit one feels in Ferdosis epos and in the german sagas.
Irans head of economic affairs, Mr. Ali Aghamohammadi, surprised the whole IT community today by announcing the recent ground-breaking development from the Basiji telecommunication workshop: The new Internet 3.0 with implemented Halal Option.
At the end of an IRNA press-conference in Teheran he entered the stage in his usual black business suit and started his speech with the words:
“One more thing: Iran will soon create an internet that conforms to Islamic principles and to improve its communication and trade links with the world.”
This next-generation Internet (termed Net 3.0) will include the following advanced features:
1.) Computers will work only if their screen is turned eastward, therefore facing Mekka.
2.) The internet data transmission will be interrupted 5 times a day precisely as determined by the Ajatollah Chamenei to allow everybody to attend the prayer.
3.) Computer mouse will be replaced by a computer lamb, since the first is not mentioned in the Quran as a halal creature.
4.) Before switching on, computer plugs have to be washed thoroughly under running water.
5.) The bus-size will be limitted to 11 bit. The 12th bit will be added only upon arrival of the Mahdi.
6.) Each computer will come with a chemical spray to clean it off StuxNet-Virus.
To read how the community of iranian bloggers welcomes this new announcement, klick here.
The Munich Association for a Free Iran organized a rally to protest against political oppression in Iran and inform about the raising numbers of its victims. Visitors of the city and people comming for Saturday shopping stoped at the Stachus square to see the photographs of people who were imprisoned and humilated for the crime of fighting for liberation of their country. Reading about several individual cases of torture and oppression, many of the passers-by signed a declaration demanding immediate release of all political prisoners, end of violence, torture and killing of political activists. Next to Frankfurt and Berlin, Munich was always one of the main destinations of political refugees from Iran in Germany.
Ghazal Dear, I think I was waiting for this event since 25 years. It was in 1986 that somebody working in a Leipzig record shop gave me the first SADE record, “Diamond Live” as a birthday present. It was one of the few musics from the west that by some reason made their way into the east-german shops (in very limitted edition of course). I wrote you last year, that her music was like a revelation for me, opening phantasies into a world so different from the daily university life at the physics institute. And for you, who obviously never heard her music befor, the relaxed and tempting sound and her amazing voice appeared astonishing contemporary. If asked to guess her age, you came up with somebody of your generation. But in fact she is 53 now.
When I fall in love with her music 25 years ago, I never thought that there might be the chance to hear her live. But tonight, more or less by lucky chance, I finally had this chance. After my 50s birthday party was coming to an end, at 11 pm, I decided to give it a trial, knowing that she is playing tonight during her 2011 world tour in the Munich Olympia Hall (just below the Olympia TV tower that we climed up last summer).
Although the concert was already running since an hour, I managed to sneak in, even without a ticket. The concert was great, a lot of new songs that I did heard before. Unfortunately, only very few from her recent album Soldier of Love.
I don”t know if it would be correct to say that I was waiting impatiently since 25 years to see her in a concert. Probably not. I went to lot of other music that I enjoyed a lot since then. But the love for her sound remained somewhere in the long-term memory. Everything else that came and go during this quarter of a century could not diminish this fascination. And I”m sure the same will happen for everything that I feel for you.
Take Care
Michael
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hi michael,
How did you managed to get into the Olympia-Hall at such an event ? Sade played in Stockholm during her 2011 World tour on the 10th of May, but when I saw the adverts all tickets were sold out. There were tickets for the equivalent of 180 € available on the black market, but this would be too much for me.
Did she played the one song that we heard on the radio while driving to Ikea last year ? I cant remember the title any more, but it was something like extra-ordinary love. I liked her music when I listened to it last year and when you let me guess from which year it was. I thought it is very new, maybe too new for me to know already. But then you told me that her debut album was 1984, so as you suggested there was really a good chance that I was listening to her first hits in-utero.
I could imagine my mom would have loved her songs a lot when she was pregnant with me , rather than the Jazz-music that you send last year.
I hope that Sade will play in Sweden again. Next time I will try to get in, with a ticket or without one: just teach me please how to slip in without one.
Hope you keep the memories of this concert for a long time,
take care
/ghazal
Ghazal my dear,
I hope you don”t mind me adding to our long lasting conversation and exchange of ideas some external thoughts. A witty blogger at Iranian.com (called ComraidsConcubine) posted this dialogue and therefore in a most intelligent way paraphrased the wide-spread ignorance about nations and cultures.
Hi Michael,
When somebody through facebook forwarded this sequence of nocturnal images from Teheran to me, I was almost prompted to ask if this is really the same place one knows from the news headlines of protests or from Ahadis movie “Green Wave”.
Suddenly, it look more like a tourist promo for Beirut. Even during my last visit to Teheran in 2008, I have not seen the city in such glamour like here in this Youtube scenes.
but suddenly, at around 3:22 min a very short picture showed a neon-sign pointing to a “Hotel Evin”, that convinced me it is Iran. Would like to know, is there really a Hotel in Teheran that carries the same name as the prison notorious for all the violence ? Which hotel owner would call its business after a place of death and violence ? And who are the customers booking in a hotel with this name ?
I heard the most horrible reports about Evin and other prisons, people in particular political prisoners are tortured there with pure saddism using physical and psychic violence in the most inhuman manner. People are killed there systematically. I feel anger imagine somebodies calls a hotel after this place of horror. When we visited last year with Shava the concentration camp near Munich (think it was called Dachau), at least people respected the memory of all those who lost their lives there. Nobody would consider calling a Hotel after this place Dachau, don”t you think so ?
Hope everything is fine with you, Take Care
/ghazal
, rather than the Jazz-music that you send last year.
