We really appreciate Persians.
Not only do modern Iranians put up with one of the most unpredictable, unstable governments in the world, but they have millennia of culture to be proud of. A few recent items that have caught our attention:
- Mohammadreza Shajarian (video above), the grand old man of Persian classical music. The song in the video is Morgh-e Sahar, which you can read in translation here and hear an awesomely YouTubey one-man a cappella cover of here. (Kudos to Emad for switching so effortlessly between Western diatonic and Persian microtonal scales, and doing an awesome vocal impression of neys and tārs.)
- Persian food blogs! Fig and Quince and Turmeric and Saffron are both beautifully maintained and full of delicious recipes. (Amanda has her eye on some of that fig jam, and Ivan always is looking for new bean recipes. Who knew Persian food was so vegan-friendly?)
- This extremely charming three-minute video, called “Beautiful Iran.”
- Nasrin Sotoudeh and Jafar Panahi are two incredible human-rights activists; Panahi is a deeply subversive and fascinating filmmaker.
That last link was via Tehran Bureau, an excellent resource on Iranian culture, politics, economics, and society. RSS hounds can get their fix here.
Notes
-
givesomecharity likes this
-
fuckingmultiverse likes this
-
pflugerville likes this
-
wonkistan posted this
