Modern Cowboy

DOWN IN THE VALLEY Set in the present-day San Fernando Valley, this movie revolves around a delusional man who believes he's a cowboy and the relationship that he starts with a rebellious young woman. Tobe, A young girl, (played by Evan Rachel Wood), is on her way to the beach with some friends, when she falls in love with a modern cowboy, Harlan (played by Edward Norton), who is working at the local gas-station. Tobes father (David Morse) is against the affair between his younger daughter an the elder Harlan. He soon starts an open hostility towards Harklan and even threatens him several times with a gun. When Harlan comes along Tobes house to take her away from the violent father, the two have a short argument during which Harlan injures Tobe with his revolver, from which a bullet is released accidentally. Tobe falls into coma for several days, and Harlan runs away on a white horse together with Tobes little brother. Tobes father starts a hunt and when he finds Harlan, he shots him dead in a tragic show down. Modern Times are not made for romantic modern cowboys.

The value of long words and of pictures

Ghazal my Dear, When we met two years ago and exchanged e-mails and messages after work, I was initially worried why you write everything in this short format, like an emergency SMS. This was such a contrast to the endless sentences I got used to write to you. You asked me what would be the longest word I could imagine, and I found it today in the Munich subway. 

The entire title (in an non-hyphenated form) would be
BEDÜRFNISANSTALTENBENUTZUNGSORDNUNG.
The proper english translation would be
“Regulations for the usage of public lavoratories“.
But if I try Google Translator, look what comes out:
“proper use of information on nursing homes need” (What a total confusion !)

Are long words, or long texts in general, a potential source for a severe misunderstanding ?  Is it really better to use pictures instead, as you prefer to do, to guarantee an easier reception of the message ? Does a picture really says more than a thousand words ?

I think that you are indeed a very visual person, Ghazal, this I understoud when I saw how quickly you answered an e-mail that contains some pictures or even a video sequence. You know what is funny: that in general men are considered to be more visual, whereas woman are more verbal. Woman are considered to love through their ears, meaning they respond very much to words, to nice talks and romantic stories and in particular to verbal compliments and charming speach. Men, in contrast, are considered to be much more influenced by images. They like and love what they see. In this sense, Ghazal, you carry a bit of males psychology in your soul. You respond to visual sensations. And in contrast to this, you are not typical female in the sense that verbal compliments, charming words that praise your beauty or your talent or your inspiring character, they are all not very appealing to you. To such words, whether they are told you in a personal talk or they are written in an e-mail, you seem to be very resistant. This is a pure, scientific observation, my Dear, and I could pretend that is has little to do with my own feelings for you. I could pretend that I am just interested to understand you, and find out what makes you happy (in addition to chocolate and fast cars, of course ) I can not even be sure that you still read to this point of my e-mail, maybe you have already deleted the mail as soon as you realized that it is too much focused on youself. And I am afraid that you even dont like to hear any words that have to do with you at all, whether these are words that praise your beauty or words that pretend to be of pure professional or psychological interest. What appears to be a conflict of communication is that for me visual information is not so important. If I see a picture of somebody, I instictively distrust this picture. I know how little it tells about the person. If I see a picture of you today, it is only important for me to remember how you have been here 2 years ago. It helps me to remember your deep, dark voice, your laughter, how you used to move smoothly like a cat. I can close my eyes, and immediately I recall how your face began to smile in certain situations. But if I see a picture of you today, I might think that “well, Ghazal was probably working hard these days when the picture was shot. She looks a bit tired”. But at the same time I know that you still would move the same way along the corridor, and it still would be the same smile or the same laughter that breaks out of you when I tell you some silly stories. And you still would speak with the same dark voice, and your eyes would still focus to something that is lightyears far away form our world. So what is so difficult to understand for me is that words are so meaningless for you, and at the same time you cannot imagine what all of these words end endless mails could be good for. I have to tell you, Ghazal, I have no answer for this myself. I just can say that for me words are a way of getting along with imaginations, fantasies, thoughts, with the conflict between reality and dreams. For you, maybe words dont help. But I doubt that pictures help a lot. And think pictures only produce more fantasies, and the conflict to reality becomes even bigger. But maybe I am right when I believe that you use music, to discover another reality. Music, of course, is also another type of language, and maybe you understand the music as a language, with tunes and melodies who are like words, that please your ears. Maybe I overinterprete some cultural aspects here, when I say that Persia had the richest poetry of all cultures, and that poetry is much more than words, but very close to songs. So it would be natural, that if your parents tought you poetry in childhood, you developed a special sense for lyrics. And the simple prosaic language that I used to use is simply to uncivilized for you. Ghazal, my Dear, maybe you remember I always run into problems with my lectures extending the maximum allowed time. I’m afraid its the same with my e-mails. I’m afraid you already fall asleep after reading the first 10 lines of it (like some students do after 10 min lecture). Therefore I have to wake you up with some more hard facts: I hope that you will have nice and relaxing and recovering time in August. I hope that life and people treat you very well and you enjoy every second of your free time. Hopefully, we will manage to visit Israel this year. Marina has some relatives there, our son learned hebrew in school (with very bad marks, of course, but at least he could serve me as a translator), and I will hopefully have soon a colaboration with a group in tel Aviv. The stupid thing is, that to visit Iran next year together with Omid, I will have to get a new passport, because Iran does not permit entrance visa to people, who have already a visa stamp from Israel. Isn’t this stupid, Ghazal ??? I hope that this is the old generations laws, and the future will see people more tolerant (like you). best greetings Take Care Michael

servus & salam

On Sunday the video and photo-exhibition "Servus and Salam - An Insight Iran" open at a Munich church. During his one-year long odyssee through the country, the producer and video-artist Dominik Fuhrmann had collected really amazing pictures of landscapes, people and sceneries. They all left the visitors with the impression to have seen something that is usually ignored by the official media and political reports. Big thanks to this young German film-maker for his excellent work. The exhibition will be open till August 15th 2012 at Maximillian church (just a few meters away from the Isar riverside, about 3 km upstream from the place where peoples use to have a camp fire).

صندلی‌های پر کلیسای سنت ماکسی‌میلیان مونیخ در شب افتتاحیه نشان از استقبال گرم آلمانی‌ها و ایرانی‌ها داشت

During the vernisage of the exhibition, one of the most famous persian (sufi ?) dancers, his derwish highness Mr. Shahrokh Moshkin Ghalam, gave a mindblowing presentation of his arts.

 

شاهرخ مشکین قلم، هنرمند پرآوازه ایرانی زمانی که از اجرای چنین نمایشگاهی با خبر می‌شود، آمادگی خود را برای اجرای برنامه‌ای بدون دریافت هزینه در شب افتتاحیه اعلام می‌کند

شاهرخ مشکین قلم به بندیکت می‌گوید چون «در پی ارائه تصویری انسانی از میهنش است» او نیز حاضر به همراهی با وی است.

And Hadi Alizadeh, famous for his percussion music, filled the catholic church with a quite unorthodox sound.

هادی علیزاده دیگر هنرمند ایرانی از اجراکنندگان برنامه در شب افتتاحیه نمایشگاه \"نگاهی به ایران\" در کلیسای سنت ماکسی‌میلیان مونیخ بود.

At the beginning, however, there was a sort of "sales-fair" of several world religions. Buddhists, Moslems, Jews, Catholics and even some Bahai all got a 15 min slot to present their faith. It never was so obvious to me that all these religions are mainly interested in attracting new followers, and distracting them from the competitor faith. And I have to say:  For me they all used the same empty words. In particular if the issue of an open terrorist regime like the one in Tehran was ever present. A regime that not only oppresses, tortures and kills every political opposition or ever free intellectual spirit, but that is equally dictatorian and intolerant against people of other faith (in particular the Bahai, which are systematically arrested and sentenced to death by the Ahmadenijad regime).
I had a bit a problem, how acceptible it is to show beautiful picture of a beautiful country and its sympathic people, but without mentioning anything about the gouvernment, that has occupied this country, tortures its free spirit with a awful, inhuman islamo-fascist ideology and keeps the best people in virtual political hostage.

    

رانی ادری، گرافیست اسرائیلی و مبتکر کمیین \"اسرائیل ایران را دوست دارد\"، نیز وقتی از هدف  بندیکت برای نشان دادن تصاویری از زندگی مردم ایران آگاه می‌شود، به او می‌گوید که هر دو در یک راه قدم برداشته‌اند و می‌پذیرد که برای افتتاح نمایشگاه از تل آویو به مونیخ سفر ‌کند.

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Island in the stream

Ghazal my Dear, do you recall this place ? It was dark at night two years ago, and we had a camp fire there, and the river had less water, so we could enter what now looks like an island. You tough me the arts of flipping flat pebbles over the water surface, and when we went home later at night there were hundreds of fireflies that made the nocturnal sky looks like your hair. This year it is still pretty chilly, fireflies are still waiting for warmer days. The lonely fisher-man has to wear a wet-suit. But surely, later at night there will be camp-fires again, and people who wade through the water to gather with their friends. 

Pebble Island in Isar river, north of Oberföhring reservoir

Take Care,

Michael