Freedom

Well, it seems a little early to be using the term 'new' as we've not yet passed Christmas, but hey, it's the first of December already and I'm planning radio shows for the new year, looking forward to building on every seed I planted this year, and so I don't know about you, but it feels so new and vital to me already.

How are we feeling as Christmas approaches? It's an interesting time because I can bet a million to one that as good as the year has treated you, as good you are feeling about Christmas coming.

For us, to be honest it's a lot of travelling between 3 sets of parents, but it beats one large family do, where we eat too much, feel caged in and squabble. Luckily I've never had one of those. Perhaps you're luckier than me and escaping to say, work with tigers in Africa this Christmas? Ive looked into it, it's a real option!

Yesterday I walked past the law courts, and I saw this man coming out. He caught my eye because we was bouyant and laughing unreservedly to himself. He was wearing a grey tracksuit and jacket and gave a few 'whoops' while muttering "free man". As he came out the gates I saw he had a sack-sized, transparent bag full of clothes and a prayer mat in his other hand, I couldn't help it I'd a huge smile on my face to mirror his. I said "What's going on?" He said "I just got out of prison today, I'm a free man". We laughed and I recalled working in a women's prison once, they wore the same grey tracksuits. I said "It feels good freedom, make the most of it and do some good things now you're out!" "Sure will" he said, then pointed to the ground "Whoo! look! Pavement!"

I thought about freedom and the fight we put up, even virtually, for others. What can more important than our freedom, what if health if you are jailed or confined in way that won't let you enjoy your health? Iran's young Iranian community and friends raised hundreds of pounds last Sunday at an event put on by my radio show Six Pillars to Persia. This was serendipity knocking again, keeping me thinking globally and outside the box of human rights in Iran, to man's freedom to live out his life, in general.

Everything suddenly felt very new, very real, and completely alive.

About Our Event, Sunday

How Times Only Shift a Little, While Everything Stays Relatively the Same!

( EARTHQUAKE IN IRAN )

Bani Adam - Some Laid Back Iranian Electronica and Fusion Folk

"Bani Adam" are the first words from a famous poem by Persia poet Saadi.....

Join us on 29th Nov at the underground bunker that is Ginglik, Shepherd's Bush for everything from Irish Iranian comedy to 70s disco funk, all in support of Amnesty.

	Sunday, November 29, 2009
Time:	7:00pm - 11:45pm
Location:	Downstairs at the Ginglik Nightclub
Street:	1, Shepherd's Bush Green
City/Town:	London, United Kingdom

Description

Doors open 7pm
First act at 8pm
£5 on the door
Food served
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The Ginglik underground bar is directly in front of Shepherd's Bush tube station in the middle of the green as you cross the road to reach the West 12 Shopping Centre.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Iranian-Irish comedian Patrick Monahan
Noname - fusion Jazz
Roshi and Pars Radio - electronica folk
The Sliding Rule- guitar poetry by Nima Tehranchi
Poetry in English - Soussan Farrokhnia
70's Iranian disco - Fari Bradley
Projections from Iran - Omid Salehi
Special Guest
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In aid of Amnesty International

http://www.patrickmonahan.co.uk/
http://www.myspace.com/theslidingrule
http://www.myspace.com/roshisongs
http://www.iranian.com/salehi.html
70's Iranian music sounds like:
http://www.myspace.com/persianfunk
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Organised by Six Pillars to Persia radio show, on Resonance 104.4FM
http://www.tinyurl.com/sixpillarstopersia

Get your tickets in advance from: http://www.wegottickets.com/event/64436

See some of Amnesty's work in Iran: http://www.amnesty.org/en/region/iran

More info about the event

Fari Bradley: sharia law? No thanks. One Law for All - Saturday in Hyde Park

Fari Bradley: sharia law? No thanks. One Law for All - Saturday in Hyde Park

sharia law? No thanks. One Law for All - Saturday in Hyde Park

Supporting a campaign for more information about sharia law in the UK, and stopping violence against women.

It goes on you know, while we're sipping tea.

Mainly speakers, but there's a few of us using music.

Check the One Law for All website HERE

Human Rights Event for Iran - 29th November Shepherd's Bush

Bani Adam is the first line from a famous poem by Saadi.

Please join us for this night of leftfield electronica and performing arts from the Iranian diaspora, in support for human rights in Iran, all profits go to Amnesty.
Get your tickets in advance here:
http://www.wegottickets.com/event/64436

What was the Frieze?

This year a fleeting look at an unstable market, some desperate businessmen, a few real artists.

While the Zoo art fair has undergone considerable change, the Frieze has teetered, and regains its balance. Sales were so low last year that most feel galleries were 'playing safe' in choosing this year's art. Certainly it took me three visits to our Resonancefm booth, before I saw anything on the aisles that made me feel more than despair, or worse: numb.

Grayson Perry's tapestry, pictured, and some other choice pieces reminded me that artists are shrewd social commentators, and magicians at delivery, as much in fine art as in the other arts subjects.

A talk by film-maker Agnes Varda really made the weekend, while other talks spurred on by the recession: Art and The New Deal, stir some interest while other fall flat declaring "we are out of ideas, or we are so into ourselves and have
forgotten that you are not."

Overall there were less works that required an audience, less interventions, less fun which left the Frieze feeling like less of an event. The Zoo on the other hand featured sound pieces by Richard Strange, in a real east-end depot, as opposed to the Frieze's odd choice for the after party: a psuedo-arts-depot recreated in the downstairs of an exclusive Mayfair restaurant, complete with agressive bouncers and dining elite. The very reality of the Zoo and mimicking by the Frieze has left us laughing, for life imitating art has never been so complicated.


Local fast food shop in Hoxton High market.

165 Reasons to Travel This Month

Living in London has its price and we do it because we love the culture here, even if we don't love the pace. Often there is the feeling that if something hasn't come to show in London it's not worth seeing; we are the centre of the universe. So it's not a familiar feeling when you want to see something so badly that you feel the need to travel.


Here's a collection of photographs showing in Paris, that beyond language tell an intimate story of the minds and hearts of the Iranian people over generations. Between the last three generations Iran has changed so much that it is as if we come from different countries altogether. My mother for example, never had to cover her hair growing up, and now for the next generation there is no choice.

Coinciding with the second edition of the Photoquai biennial, Quai Branly museum documents Iranian photography in an exhibition of the genre through the last 165 years. The exhibition takes viewers on a journey from the turn of the 19th Century, with the portraits of the Qajar era (1800s) and photo studio boom in Iran at the time of Reza Shah Pahlavi (1970s), up to the most recent contemporary works by major Iranian photographers.

"Photography in Iran, which begins during the reign of the Shah (king) in the Qajar era with portraits of the traditional aristocracy, blooms now with the work of photojournalists and documentary makers wishing to show the world the upheavals and dramas which affect their people.

The images are typically often symbolic, always poetic at some levels as is fitting a country for whom poetry is a rich, spoken legacy. The images reflect the very identity of Iranian people, their history and their way of apprehending the world.

Today, young artists revisit the codes of this medium, developing an artistic slant to photography or continuing the documentary work of their elders."