Halloween and Iranians

This is an old post but still worth posting!

Have you ever noticed how Iranians like Halloween? It's like it is their own tradition! Some Iranians here don't care about Norouz as much as they care about Halloween.
I have never gone out on Halloweens. Seeing how drunk people try disparately to scare you is not very attractive for me. Plus, I have to come up with a costume too; a pain in ass!!
Anyways, I think I will try it next year just for the sake of it!

Curb your enthusiasm> Ultimate sarcasm!

Since I watched Whatever Works movie (you can find its post right below this one) I have been obsessed with sarcastic character of Larry David. Recently I came to know that he is the main character of a HBO TV series called "Curb your enthusiasm".
The show is all about his everyday life as a writer and comedian very similar to the famous Seinfeld show in which he was the main writer too.
I love this show. I just can't get enough of it. Apart from all, I think I am picking up his way of thinking too!
Highly suggested!

Whatever Works: A Reaction to the Randomness of Our Worthless Lives

Whatever works is about a man (Boris Yellnikoff) who believes in randomness in life. Whatever works right now is what to be embraced without thinking about the consequences. For this reason, he wants to get rid of his life in which everything should be planned ahead of time. Movie starts with a scene where he explains his wife about his intuition of life and complaining how their successful marriage and careers are against his ideology. In the end, while her wife is shocked by the reasoning, he jumps out of the window! Not being lucky enough, he doesn’t die but gets a chance to start the life he wants with no strings attached. No family, no job, not a single responsibility! He goes with the flow of life without any resistance.
Like most Woody Allen’s movies, the story has a narrator who is Boris himself. He even talks to the camera which I didn’t like that much. Overall, it’s a funny movie especially with extremely sarcastic remarks of Boris explaining his ideas to everyone who has an ear to listen whether it’s a child or an adult.
I think the movie is on a limited number of theaters in Los Angeles. I had to go to a small crappy theater where I had to knock on the entrance door to get in! Independence doesn’t pay, let’s hollywoodize ourselves!

Some quotes:
"My story is, whatever works as long as you don't hurt anybody. Any way you can filtch a little joy in this cruel and pointless life, that's my story."
"I happen to hate New Years celebrations. Everybody's desperate to have fun trying to celebrate in some pathetic little way. Celebrate what? a step closer to the grave? That's why I can't say enough times, whatever love you can get and give, whatever happiness you can filtch or provide, every temporary measure of grace -- whatever works! Don't kid yourself, it is by no means up to your human ingenuity, a bigger part of your existence is luck. Christ, you know the odds of your father's one sperm from the billions finding the single egg that made you? Don't think about it or you'll have a panic attack!"

Epitaphs

Searching clues for the future without grasping the past
wasting the present, though it's running by fast;
but the rivers flow
to join the seas forever

Frank Bornemann

Leonard Cohen Concert, Los Angeles

There are not a lot of concert which you can really enjoy these days but this one was an exception. Leonard Cohen's performance with his full orchestra was flawless. He sang almost all of his famous songs. From the 60's to recently released. Blue rain coat, lover lover lover, Take this waltz, Dance me to the end of love, I'm your man, ....
He has high respects for his musicians. He sits on his knees when the Spanish guitar player, plays a solo or bends briefly to each musician while introducing him/er.
Nokia Theater was packed although tickets were expensive. Those that were in the very end of the balcony were 84$ and from there, size of the whole stage is about 3 inches!
Leonard Cohen is having a worldwide concert tour this year. Don't miss it!

Jane's music

There are some songs that are like old friends. When I return to them after a while, they bring up the old memories as they go.
Some of these songs are composed by a German rock band named “Jane”. They are pretty famous in Iran for 70's rock savvies but not very well-known in the world of rock.
Guitar of Klaus Hess, keyboard of Manfred Wieczorke,... No pointless solos...“Together”, “Spain”, “Fire, water, earth, and air”, “Lord love”, “Expectation”, "meadow",...
Hmmmm!, Good old days!
This post is just a brief tribute to Jane. In the end, we were close friends for about a year or two. Besides, we still meet each other every now and then!
To read about the band and listen to the song “Spain” follow the link below:
http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=175
The music is usually categorized as Space Rock but I don’t like to compare it with that of Pink Floyd's. Personally, I believe music of Pink Floyd has had an incredible influence on many musicians but it’s not a scale to weigh other's music.

Great Nation Who Live In the Past

This year a group of Iranians celebrated the Persian new year (Nowrouz) in Pasargad were Cyrus the great is buried.
There is a nostalgic tendency among Persians/Iranians to look back to their nation’s prosperous past, 2500 years ago. The era when Persian Empire was the greatest power in the world and possessed a rich culture. For example, Cyrus Cylinder is considered the first human rights charter in history; Persepolis was built with paid labor (a fact that no American can handle)!...You can find lots of stories about those days in history that sound like ferry tales now.
The question is:
Why are we trying so hard to prove to the world that we had a rich culture thousands of years ago?What will the world think about us? That we have lost such power, culture and even dignity permanently from 2500 years ago up to now?
Past is gone. Let’s live in present and try building the future.

Anniversary Against Anniversary

Happy Monday!

I am at work and waiting for my birthday cake for another 45 minutes. My boss is not here and it means someone else has bought it which is not a good sign. I just hope it is a chocolate cake!

Each year I have two anniversaries in a row in this month. First One is on the 5th which is anniversary of the worst day of my life till now. Second one is my birthday on the 6th.
Never mind. Life is too short. So, happy birthday to me!

By the way, There are only five days left to the weekend and you are already in the middle of the first one. So, be strong!

Take care,

Pooya

How to Choose an Alarm Clock

Whether you like it or not, there are times that you must be an early bird. For example, I have to wake up between 5 to 6 in the morning everyday to go to work, so for me it’s a must! There are things you need to know about waking up especially early. You need to have proper tools, mental and physical preparation. One of the most important tool is alarm clock. A good alarm clock is essential for you. You don’t want to be late every once in a while because your clock didn't go off. You better save your vacation days/sick leaves for better causes!
• You need to buy a reliable alarm clock which, as a matter of fact, should be digital. Forget about your grand Pa’s antique mechanical clock! Yes, it reminds you of him but when it doesn’t go off on time you will hate it and/or probably him for the rest of your life!
• A good alarm clock needs to have minimum buttons. Be careful: there are clocks with two or three buttons but if you mistakenly push the wrong one, the settings may change. Imagine you wake up earlier than you suppose to and want to check the time but push the set instead of the light button. Setting the clock back in the middle of the night is the biggest disaster for must-early-birds!
• There are nights when you simply cannot sleep well. At these times you develop series of obsessive episodes! One of them is being extremely sensitive to the light of clock’s LCD. To avoid this, try to find a clock with adjustable LCD light and take off wall clock's batteries before going to bed.
• Being dual powered is highly recommended especially if you do not have enough plug holes in the bedroom. You may plug the clock off during the day and forget to put it back again. In this case, most people will be aware of their mistake after 9 o’clock in the next morning!
• If you are a heavy sleeper or someone who always desires to sleep a little more, you need a snooze bottom too. Snooze helps you shut off the alarm for a short time so that you sleep a little more. However, snoozing only makes you more disappointed about waking up while doesn’t reduce your sleepiness at all.

There are fancy clocks in the market that while going off, spread scents, run or even fly. These are usually expensive for their unusual features but sometimes these features don’t work as you imagine or there are technical problems with their designs. So, be smart and spend your money on a quality product rather than a fancy one!

Happy Nowrooz and My New Year's Resolution

People usually do things better if they repeat them more and more. For me, it’s vice versa! I do things better the first time for some reason. This is the first time I am making new year’s resolutions! So I think I will try to make them happen better than the year after! Since, it is a good idea to announce your goals to others I will do so:
Define what I want from my life
Change my job
Work much more on music
Try to have a healthy life
Increase the number of my friends
Be less frank
Take it easy! (Yes, this is a resolution too and it’s not easy for me to accomplish)

Hang in there and see if I can do them or not. I bet I can.

Wake Up For Good

You may suddenly wake up in the middle of the night to:

1. drink water
2. eat
   
3. take off batteries from the annoying wall clock
   
4. become a groom

Vampires Are Better Than Humen

You probably know vampires. Those mysterious human-like creatures who live on people's blood.
- The way to keep them away from you is to hang lots of garlic cloves in your house. It shows how classy vampires are. Do you want to smell like garlic?No; neither do vampires.
-If you see a vampire you need to expose a bible or a cross to him/her. This stops the vampire to get closer to you. It shows how vampires are respectful toward people’s religious beliefs although they don't believe in God.
-If you want to kill a vampire you need to hammer a wooden knife into his/her heart. It shows how soft their hearts are that a wooden knife can tear them.
-Transylvania has been home to many vampires for thousand of years. It shows how they value their family, relatives and friends that they want to live close to them.
-A vampire never buys a new house or mansion. They don't want to by houses while they don’t make any money. So, they don't contribute in increasing the number of toxic assets. They prefer to live in their predecessor’s mansions from thousands of years ago. Do you know any human who can live in such old mansions with least construction standards? No internet or even electricity? Can you imagine that you cannot check your facebook ten times a day? additionally, you have to repair your old broken mansion every weekend. Painting and repairing corroded plumbing system to name a few. But vampires do all these. You know why? Because they are hard-working creatures.
What does people do to vampires? they kill them because they suck their blood. About a century ago, people even used to buy Vampire Killing Kits including garlic, wooden knives, some crosses and a bible. Some of these kits had pistol too just in case. You know how much the kit above costs now? 14,850$.
It’s worth mentioning that vampires are not ugly. It's how corporate media picture them to serve companies producing vampires killing kits and related products. Below is a sexy vampire for your consideration. No plastic surgery or fake boobes. Entirely natural!
My question is:
For vampires, human blood is tied into their very existence. In a world where we kill each other for less convincing reasons, Why should we hate vampires? Besides, have you ever heard a vampire commits homicide?