Asa, Sade and McLaughlin, de Lucia, Al di Meola

Hi!

The music you gave me was not the type of music i usually listen to. Friday night in san francisco…. it was only intruments??right? I have never heard it before. Asa and Sade. I liked Sade more. Some of Sades songs i liked actually. they were calm and nice. so i guess hmm.. that sade is from the new generation, so from 21th century and Asa i really didnt like.. tried to listen and enjoy but couldnt really. Asa is then from 20th century. Am I right?
My parents mostly listened to michael jackson modern talking during my childhood i remember, and persian music.dont hitnk they listened to friday night in san francisco.:)

Thank you for the music. you did not have to do this.

yees, football is not so fun. only if there is someone you want to win! then you can watch the game when that country is playing.. otherwise it is not so fun.

see you

/Ghazal

Books ripped to Pieces by Cats Claws

Ghazal, my dear,

What can I say ? For sure you defend your position with great verve, of course you have your experience with books, I have mine. For sure, we probably read different sorts of books. Strange enough, if I would read once again the type of books that I liked when I was in your age, I probably would be bored in a similar way you are.
Sometimes I get books as a present that are so bad that I burn them in an open fire. But with other books I could completely forget time and place and escape into another world. Once beeing back from there, I may see the real world with different eyes.

Your last e-mail reminded me of a cat, that everybody only knows for its lovely purring voice. And suddenly, this cat stands up, starts hissing and shows it claws. At the end, it is not the purring cat that earns our respekt, but the one who can defend its position. Well done.

Good night

Michael

Purring Cat starts hissing

dear michael,

finally u got my email right.
i dont like to read.i think its boring. but i have tried. i start to read some pages and then i never open the book again. other things are more interesting than the book. but you are right. it is good to read. and my parents like to read.

yes i booked the ticket to sweden. i will go on friday. it is not for the food! it is because my mum really wanted me there for my birthday. but i am not planning on going to sweden again soon.
yes maybe we can go to ikea on wednesday. i will ask chrysi too, think she wanted to go there before.

see you tomorrow and have a good night.

/ghazal

Books and Food

Dear Ghazal,

It would be a blunt lie to say that I only write you now to check if my computer finally understands that there is a difference between an _ and an . in your mail address.
I checked today which e-mails were sent to this wrong address over the last weeks, and these were probably about 10. If I put them all together, they read like a diary.
I want to thank you once again for translating this difficult article by Gustafsson. If I would not know all the places that he describes, I would probably consider the text hard to understand same as you did.
I am a bit afraid that you are now a bit discouraged from reading more by this excellent author. But you should try. I remember the first book that I got from him was “The Tennisplayer”, I red it in the 80s while studying. It is a very entertaining story about the life at an american university. I found it in a bookshop in a small village, because books from western authors were always sold-out in big cities.
Ghazal, did you really said today that you don”t read books ? This cannot be, sorry, I don”t believe you. You are much to smart, and I”m sure that your parents consider books very important. Ancient Persia was a centre of knowledge written down in books and stored in libraries, and this was for two reasons: to warship the beauty of life, nature and man (in poetry) and to improve human knowledge (in scientific, medical and philosophic books). This was all done in Persia at a time, when in europe only dogmatism and religious intollerance was ruling the spiritual life. Ghazal, I”m really not trying to cheer you, but without the books that were kept in the libraries in Damaskus, Bagdad or Isfahan, we would lack a lot of our current knowledge.
Do you already have your ticket to Sweden ? I guess you are leaving on Friday, right ? I got the impression, that you go home quite regular every 3 weeks. Don”t tell me that you have to go because all your food has finished, therefore you have to visit your mom to get a fresh supply. Your poor parents might think that life in Germany is so dreadful and you suffer from malnutrition. I”d like to drive you to the IKEA pizza-corner before you go to Sweden, so at least you can tell everybody that pizzas are quite the same here and there. Whats about tomorrow afternoon or Wednesday ?

I hope you don”t find my messages somehow annoying. I don”t want to interfere with your life if you think I should not. I only want to entertain you, hoping that some of my stories are so silly that they make you laugh. If this happens, I would be completely satisfied.

Good Night Michael

Rewiring the Connection

Hi Ghazal, my dear,

When I received your e-mail tonight I realized that I must be a bit more careful in asking you for a favor. It was so nice that you helped me with the article by Gustafsson, but I feel guilty now that you spend your free time of the weekend for this. Unfortunately, I had absolutely no clue that the article about Berlin was written in such an philosophic language. You said that many words you have never heard before – I guess these are solely the Berlin-specific names of buildings, theaters, places etc. Usually, Mr. Gustafsson writes in a very poetic language for my feeling, as long as it has to do with his own life. But since he also worked as lecturer for philosophy in Texas and in Schweden, he probably switches for essays to a more theoretical and abstract language (like this in the article).
I don”t know how popular he is in his home country Schweden, maybe he is seen there as a difficult writer, not the one to become a bestseller. And I”m also afraid that his books are more appealing for male readers, he rarely writes about people that live a simple, happy life. Usually the figures in his books suffer a bit from the modern life and society, but they don”t fight against this situation, instead trying to get around this conflict by fleeing into a world of dreams and memories. Although this kind of literature is not mainstream, I tell you he will get the Nobel Prize. I hope he has still many years to live and write.

I was so relieved reading that you made a trip to Salzburg and exploited the sunny Saturday for this. Did you met Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart there ? Sometimes an actor from the famous Salzburger Theater dresses up and walks through the city. Did you visited one of the amazing austrian Coffe-Houses ? These are the second home of many austrian writers and intellectuals and the breedingplace of their books. They like the special atmosphere there of a public place, that at the same time gave them an anonymous shelter.

I told you that we went to the concert of Greenday Friday night, that was me, my son and Iria. Iria met their friends, who came over from UK only to hear the group. Therefore most of the time I was alone with my son. For him it was the first big concert, before he was listening to music only from the computer or from his mobile phone. There were approx.40 000 people and it was very hot, I mean the spirit. It was a warm summer night, with a lot of show and firework. I have to admitt, that I am probably addicted to good music, and this Band from the US was very very good (I still regret that I only asked you by e-mail to come. It would have been much better just to grab your hand and take you to the concert !!). The music by Greenday has an absolute non-commercial base, it is very political, very strong without compromise. I”ll try to get some and bring it you.

I”m sure our communication will be a bit easier now that you told me I must take more attention to your correct e-mail address. Ghazal, its not exaggerating, but I send maybe one message every day the last weeks, obviously to a wrongly spelled hotmail-box of yours, and now have to realize that they all ended up somewhere in the cyber-labyrinth. I think I have them all still as copy on my computer, and if you want I can put them all on a CD for you. What a chaos. I probably confused your name at the hotmail-address with the same at the helmholtz-address (which comes with an . between first and last name, not with space). Strange enough, neither of the messages with the wrong hotmail-address came back with an error-message. I have to write and complaine to the hotmail-people: This can not just cause a privat confusion, but who knows, maybe if politicians exchange there letter through hotmail and things go awkful, this might cause international crisis, economic decline and violent confrontations. Sorry, I”m talking silly things.

Sleep well, see you tomorrow

Michael

Lars Gustafsson, Music and a wrong Mail-Address

Dear Michael

Yesterday was a wonderful day, I went to Salzburg with chrysi and some other flatmates.Today I just rested. So you were in the institute.
Actually it is not that hot in the guesthouse. Just sometimes.
Thank you for the suggestion of going to the castle though, you really like the castle!

I think you are sending to the wrong email address. my address is: ghazal_f@hotmail.com
I listened to your music, thank you. It was a bit different for me but it was nice.
Yes Chrysi found one lake in Unterschleissheim she said. But this week it will rain.

I tried to translate the text you wanted me to translate. It was hard. some of the words I had never heard.I attached it.

Take care and see you tomorrow.

Regards
Ghazal F.

A Castle at the Beach

Dear Ghazal,

I hope you had a nice day today. In case you want to go swimming, there are two lakes that are pretty clean. One is in Feldmoching, the other in Fasanerie. I also saw one on the map in Unterschleissheim, but don”t know it myself. According to the map, there should be a beach too.
I have something to do in the institute tomorrow. In case you still want to visit castle Oberschleissheim, it would be a pleasure for me to interrupt my work and meet you there.

It is probably quite hot in your appartment now. If you want, you might take one of the vents from the institute on Monday to the guesthouse.

Good night Michael

PS: I”m not sure, but I have probably sent some mails in the past to a wrong address at hotmail. Do you have a . in your hotmail address between first and family name ? It might be that some messages did not reach you, because my computer at home has problems with the .-key.

Take Care

Lars Gustafsson says “Long lives free Berlin”

Dear Ghazal,

I hope you have a nice weekend. Have you planned something ? In case you have a free minute, you might do me a little favor. There is an swedish writer, Lars Gustafsson, whom I like a lot and read everything available (some experts think, that he should be the next nobel prize winner for literature). He also has an Blog on the internet, that I found recently. Although he fluently writes english and german as well, most of his Blog articles are in swedish. There is one article, I would be interested to understand it, but it is swedish.
I vaguely understand the title that probably means “Long lives the free Berlin” (Gustafsson lived in Berlin for some years). The link to this Blog article is here .
For you it must be easy to read this article. I would be very pleased if you could tell me something like its essence. It does not need to be immediately, do it whenever you have nothing better to do (You see, I take it already for granted that there will be a moment at all when you have nothing better to do. It might be, that translating an article is the least you wanted to waste your time with).

In case you change your mind about the Greenday concert, just give me a call (0173-9009656). We will start our odyssee at about 6.30 or 7 p.m. tonight. But if you want to join later, I can always come back to pick you up.

Michael

Eternal Music

Hi Ghazal,

Did you enjoyed the music that I gave you ? I don”t know if it matches your taste. The “Friday Night in San Francisco” concert was recorded in 1983, and was very popular than and still is considered a mile-stone in popular music, although it is rarely played nowadays in radio. But I think when you were born, it was always on air. There is a theory saying that music, that was around during somebodies early childhood influences your taste for the rest of your life. Maybe you know that there is one hypothesis saying that even the unborn embryo in the mothers womb is already very much exposed to sounds coming from the outside, and that there is an unconscious memory to the music from this prenatal period of life. If this is true, than you might like this “Friday Night in San Francisco”, assuming that your mom listened to it when she was pregnant with you.
The other two records are by singers that belong to two different generations. One made her big debute also about 25 years ago, the other is much younger (first appearance on stage in 2008). I would be very curious if you can tell who of the two (one is Asa and the other is Sade) is from the 20th century and who is from 21st. Of course you might click on their webpages (which are also stored on the CD) and look it up.

Yours Michael

PS: These hype around Football World-Championship is awful, don”t you think so ? How can get people so occupied by the question which nation kicks a ball more frequently. I have the battle for a ball every morning with my dog, but would not build my whole mental energy around this game.

Persian Blogosphere

To: iraniansblog@gmail.com

I would highly appreciate if you would add my blog to your directory.
I called it “Letter to an Persian Cat”

If you will see, it is totally un-political, it has to do with cats (mainly as an aphorism), and I am not iranian nor had I ever the chance to visit your country. Why do I want you anyhow to add it to your list ?

It is the record of an utopia that I almost lost my mind in during summer 2010 (I guess many people in Iran also think of a free Iran, that is currently an utopia). It has to do with the encounter between me, a university teacher and scientist and a student, who was born in Sweden to Iranian parents. I have to admitt, that I feel a strong attraction to her, but try to keep it on an spiritual base (Ha ha, I can hear your laughter).
Any how, you might say it is a story of an unlucky love like there are millions elsewhere in the world. The reason, though, why this blog should be listed is the following: I know your struggle for freedom in Iran, and I very much feel with you. I remember I went through a quite similar time in 1988/1989 in east Germany / GDR. I was pretty much involved in the movement for liberalisation and against the oppression by the single ruling party and the secret service. Looking back from now to these two years, I have the feeling that they were a wasted time of my life: I don”t remember a single book that I red, no concert or theater I went to, no long friendship or love-affairs. These two years were completely devoted (and lost) to a political fight againts idiots like the police, secret service, party officials. I can tell you, I was happy when everything was over (although the new west-german rulers were also a shame) and I had time again and regained mental power for the real important things in live, for culture, music, love, philosophy, for my job as a scientist, and the possibility to reflect about us, the universe, and where we all came from and why we fall in love.
Political fight is sometimes unavoidable (like in Iran right now), but be carefull not to turn it into the most important purpose of your life.
After it will be over, and I hope of course with a new tolerant gouvernment, remember the old values of Persia: arts, poetry, music and science.
Than I”m absolutely positive your country will have a great future. And try to settle your controversy with Israel. If both of you find a peaceful relation, this will be a strong alliance, and nobody in middle-east will dare to fool you, not the US nor the arabs.

Good luck, Take Care

Yours “Radius of the Persian Cat”

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