the great land of persia: iran and its people

there are obviously a lot of adverse feelings surrounding iran. while most of these are directed towards the country's government, there are those few who relate the politics of those in charge with the people of the country. thankfully, there are those like rick steves (who has been working on a special edition for iran, a summary of which is here) and the bbc who seek to show the true side of this proud and colorful people, whose history goes back thousands of years and whose traditions and bright and lively. please check out the report, complete with slideshow, here.

a brief summary of the story:


Tehran - A tale of two cities?

The political mood in the bustling bazaars of the Iranian capital may be changing.

Iran's conservative non-reformist President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad faces re-election next year - and many of the country's senior figures are despairing of his record in power and looking for other potential candidates.

For Radio 4's From Our Own Correspondent, Hugh Sykes went to Tehran to gauge the feeling on the streets.

In the city's crowded bread shops and vegetable markets, he found many people wanting change.

i dearly hope to be able to return to iran one day.

a rock 'n' roll halloween

so... long time no post. it's not that i haven't had anything to tell y'all. there's tons of stuff going on - it's just getting the time to write it down and post! so here's a quick 'n' easy one to get me going. expect lots more in the next coupla days (hopefully).

the wondrous holiday of halloween is fast approaching. though it's not a big holiday in the uk, apparently it's huuuge over here, so i've spent the past dozen years playing catchup with the making of hella fun outfits and the overeating of sweets. i've been on a judy garland/liza minnelli kick for the past couple of halloweens (dorothy and cabaret) but while trying to prove to my of-little-faith hubby that queen is the best band in the world ever on a road trip to savannah this past weekend (i was my turn driving, it was my turn playing the music) a light dawned on me. ever since i was 11 or so (maybe younger) i'd always "quipped" (i use the term lightly, as this was pretty hilarious to pre-teen leila) that freddie mercury and i had three things in common:

1) we're both of persian descent
2) we both have a love of music
3) we both have a love of boys

ha! right? am i right?! ok, not exactly seinfeld, but pretty funny for an 11-year-old.

anyway, ready freddie's outfits have always been brilliantly rock 'n' roll, saucy and over the top. so, this is what i'm thinking of going with for halloween 2008.

naturally you gotta vision these outfits as tailored towards a lady (ie no chest area exposed and said chest is not hairy) but which of the three should i go with (last two are the same, one with the accompanying jacket)? i'm hoping to grab a unitard from american apparel and make it my own jumpsuit of awesomeness!

all regatored out

first of all, if any of you have not checked out regator, then do.

last night was regator's launch party. the location was the paste offices. the cheese was awesome. the wine was plenty. the tracks were groovy (thanks so the famous kissatlanta/decatur social club maverick preston craig for that). and of course the cause for celebration was brilliant. in honor of the occasion, here's a pic of me (left) and two mates (amanda and meg) with regator's mascot reg.



like i said, brilliant.

the coathangers find a home with suicide squeeze

the coathangers have always been incredibly endearing to me. they were the first band i put on the cover at southeast performer all the way back in july 2007 (the above image is from that shoot), they put on a great show and have brilliant songs that go from quirky punk to sweet pop. i love them.

now they have signed to the great suicide squeeze record label, who put our a 7-inch of theirs a while back which i actually bought (yup, i spent hard-earned cash on that, didn't try to blag it or anything). here's to hoping that the label will take the band onto even greater things. yay atlanta!

i've been cartooned!

the lovely guys from l.a. tool and die did this from a photo taken of me at wilmington's we fest in may. makes me feel so cool =)

the band is brilliant so if you haven't checked them out do. they just opened up for elf power. basically l.a. tool and die make hella fun, sometimes funny, brilliant music that i like to dance around to. case and point, "my brother in law," which is all about those guys who loved college radio in the '90s and refuse to move on. you know who you are. ha!