The Wrestler, a new film that tells the story of a retired professional wrestler Randy “The Ram” Robinson (played by Mickey Rourke) trying to make a comeback 20 years after his glory wrestling days, has pissed off some Iranian mullahs. One of the characters in the movie is a wrestler named the “Ayatollah”, which during a wrestling match scene, waves an Iranian flag and uses it to attack Rourke’s character. Then, Rourke’s character grabs the pole and snaps it in half and throws it into the crowd. Iran is accusing Hollywood, as they did last year for the movie “300″, of depicting Iranians as ugly and violent people. What do you think? Does Hollywood have a prejudice towards Iran? Or, is this just a movie and nothing more? Let us know in the comments. Continue reading →
Do you want to learn more about the Persian culture? Maybe, dig up some facts on Persian architecture, art, literature or geography? Well, head over to Encyclopedia Iranica, a project developed and maintained by the Center For Iranian Studies at Columbia University. Encyclopedia Iranica provides a breadth of information on Iran and has benefited from the expertise of over 1200 worldwide scholars.
Persian art has come a long way. Iranian artists inside and outside of Iran have showcased their art around the globe. Art, is also the vehicle that these artists are using to reach out to the world. Through their art, they are communicating the beauty of our culture and changing the way Iranians are viewed in the international community.
Xerxes Fine Arts, an art gallery based out of London, has posted many of these artists on their website. On the site you can find their contact information if you are interested in purchasing a piece. Here are some more images of paintings from Iranian artists: Continue reading →
The Farsi clock iPhone application is really cool, and very useful for those of us that want to stick to our roots and tell time in Farsi. You can have it for $.99. Continue reading →
Time-Life has partnered up with google to make available their photography archive since the 1750’s on Google image search. Most of the images were never published and are now available to the public for the first time. The archive has some amazing images from Iran. Most images have captions describing the image, the photographer and the date the photo was taken. Here are some of the images Continue reading →
On episode 3 of the The hit NBC show 30 Rock’s third season, Jenna (Jenna Maroney) wonders why Liz (Tina Fey) left a nightclub so early. Here is the scene (listen closely):
Wikipedia.org has a list of notable Iranian Americans on their List of Americans page. The list is of course incomplete, but it can continuously be updated by users. The list features names of notable Iranian Americans from the fields of academia, science, business and technology, politics, etc. It’s always amazing to see how far we have come as Iranian Americans. Here is the list from the Business and Technology category:
Anousheh Ansari, first female space tourist, leading telecommunication entrepreneur, and namesake of the X Prize
Hossein Eslambolchi, AT&T’s Chief Technology Officer and the President of Bell Labs.
Vartan Gregorian, President of The Carnegie Corporation of New York.
Omid Kordestani, Senior Vice President of Google
Manny Mashouf, founder and Chairman of bebe stores
Sam Nazarian, CEO of the SBE Entertaintment Group
Farzad Nazem, former CTO of Yahoo!
Pierre Omidyar, founder of e-Bay (born to Iranian parents).
Sina Tamaddon, Senior Vice President of Applications for Apple Computer.
Another Irani Online has posted a great recipe on how to make this delicious drink:
Directions for making around 4 cups:
1. Get yourself to an Iranian store and buy a pack of Tokhme Sharbati (these are the seeds of a particular kind of basil known sometimes as Mountain Basil in Iran)
2. Measure two heaping spoonfuls of the seeds and soak in enough water to cover the seeds by about 2 inches (you may want to first rinse the seeds in a fine colander in case there is any dust on the seeds; also I tend to way over do it with the seeds, you may want to adjust depending on how much seeds you like in the drink).
3. Let the seeds soak for 2-3 hours at room temperature; when they are ready, the seeds will plump up and look fuzzy, like they have a white furry halo around them.
4. Add four cups of water and sweeten with sugar and rosewater to taste. Chill in the refrigerator four a few hours, and then drink up.
In addition to being delicious, the seeds apparently have health benefits for one’s heart and nerves. Enjoy!
One of our favorite sites to visit is Bia2.com. A site that can satisfy all of your Persian entertainment needs in one place. Bia2.com offers a wide range of features including horoscopes, Persian radio, announcement of Persian events, chat rooms, streaming music videos, etc. But our favorite feature is their large catalogue of Persian music available at the tip of your fingertips. Artists range from new pop stars such as Kamran and Houman, to oldschool legends such as Farhad.
If you have gmail (we highly recommend that you do), then you can also sign up for Google Calendar. The free online shareable calendar service.
One of the greatest features that Google Calendar provides is its ability to add and share public calendars. You can share calendars with your friends and family. It also allows you to use calendars that other people have created, such as the Persian Cultural Holidays calendar. Here are step by step directions on how you can add the Persian Cultural Holidays calendar to your google calendar and set reminders to alert you of the upcoming holidays through your email. Continue reading →
