Captain

South Korea started her car industry lunge at the same time Iran did. They improved day by day, but we produced that junk product over and over for more than 30 years and we were proud to call it our national automobile. Koreans developed other industries and we developed ideologies. The result is that today we are a great market for Korean cars and electronic goods. I use a Korean monitor on my desktop. Korea is a symbol of economic development for Iranian economists.

During 1996 Asian Cup our national football team defeated Korea 6 - 2, that was a great achievement because even in football we have been always behind them. The man of the match was today's best scorer of the whole football history in the world: Ali Daei, who scored 4 of 6 goals.

Daei has had the undeniable position as the team captain till the last FIFA World Cup 2006 in Germany. But that wasn't easy for him to hold the position. As he got more and more famous he became the target of the most envious critics inside Iran. From one side he became the best scorer of all time with 100+ goals in international matches, but from the other side he was cruelly criticized by the media because he had some deficiencies during some matches and the media and people following them wanted him to retire. Finally all pressures made the national team coaches to omit the long term captain from the list.

He didn't gave up. As he was playing in a mediocre team in Iranian Premiere League, he accepted to coach that team in the middle of the season, and in the end, that mediocre team was the champion of the league with Ali Daei's last goal. He abandoned playing football with glory and with all the envious people who always tried to destroy him.

I once read somewhere describing Daei's personality, it said: "He is the kind of men that has plans for everything, except for his death". And I saw him in an interview when he was asked: "Is there anything in the world that you like to exchange football with it?" and he said: "I exchange football with every good thing in the world. Football is just a small part of my life, I've got many other plans and issues that I like to follow, football isn't my everything."

He is the man of his plans and fighting for his plans.

Non-Linear World

11:14 (2003)
IMDB
Directed by: Greg Marcks
My Rate: 4/5

We have a famous and beautiful poem in Persian literature, I can't remind the poet's name. It tells the story of an eagle that spreads its wings and flies to find something to hunt, but is hit itself by a hunter's arrow. During falling down the eagle looks at its wing and the arrow and finds his own feather at the tail of the arrow, it sighs:
"At who we should protest? We're responsible for what happens to ourselves." (the whole effect and beauty of the story is in the Persian the poet has used, and you can't find any of that in my translation!).

Most of the time these effects are not so apparent as that eagle observed, because the universe is so complicated. The nature is curved and non linear, that's why works of art that follow the style of nature are more affecting. 11:14 adheres the same scheme. A very simple story told in a non-linear way, from different points of view of different observers and effectors. this kind of narration is supported with some butterfly effect philosophy make an incredible movie from a young and independent director. I can compare the narration to the way of "21 Grams", (but in a more simple way, 21 Grams was much more complicated), and the character design to Tarantino's characters with all their stupidities.

Move It!

It's always the matter of time Mr Shellman! So move it!

The Girl In Scarlet

Schindler's List (1993)
IMDB
My Rate: 5/5
Directed by: Steven Spielberg

Oskar Schindler is a German businessman who comes to Poland in the first days of occupation by the Germans in 1939. During the evacuation of jews from the cities, he picks some of them for labour to establish a factory producing utensils for the German army. His factory then becomes a refuge for the fugitive jews who prefer labour to death. Watching the Holocaust happening, shocks Schindler and makes him to spend all the money he has gathered from the factory to buy jews' lives from SS officers by bribing them and saving the jews from being slaughtered in Auschwitz concentration camp.

It's in black and white mostly, except that deeply affecting scene when Schindler watches the slaughter from a vantage point and he sees a little girl in scarlet dress running for her life and the only coloured thing in the scene in the little girl. Very touching. The film has many of these emotional peaks showing that how people suffer and what war has done to them...

Behind any war, is some stupidity and behind the stupidity is some ideology. In 1945, when Germany is defeated, a Russian soldier enters the camp and with the Russian accent tells them: "You are liberated by the Soviet army!". Yes, liberated but bound to another ideology that supports killing of the people for another purpose, another kind of groove, another 45 years for another ideology, and then another.

How many do we need?

Which One's Pink?

That's been the classic vexing debate after Pink Floyd's break up, between Roger and David's fans. The question comes from what Roger had heard in a convention in the early days of Pink Floyd. Someone had asked: "Oh by the way, which one's Pink?" thinking that Pink Floyd is a band member name. That made Roger to write Have A Cigar later for Wish You Were Here Album. A song about fame, fortune, money, and "riding the gravy train" in music industry.

Thanks to my introducer to Pink Floyd, he gave me the video of a cover band called "The Australian Pink Floyd". A pack of very talented Australian guys who could make themselves the most prominent and serious cover band, at least the only one that I know. The video is their concert in Liverpool in 2004. They have covered the whole Dark Side of the Moon and a bunch of other songs incredibly great in a big stage imitating all those post-Roger concerts style. The audience were enjoying themselves completely because although the music was greatly performing, the men behind the microphones were not the legendary official band members, so one could just say: shout and scream, who cares? This ain't Pink Floyd! The same idea was supported by the band themselves! They had replaced the classical pig with a funny giant kangaroo dancing during One of These Days (that scary song)!!! That made me laugh about an hour insanely! I enjoyed it a lot.

What I'm thinking now, is what Roger was saying in Live At Pompeii video. Answering questions about the expensive and unique equipments they used to perform their music, he said:

RW: This is the question of using the tools available when they are available! And more and more now there's all kinds of electronic goodies which are available for people like us to use. If we can be bothered and we can be bothered... It's like saying give a man a Les Paul guitar and he becomes Eric Clapton, you know, and it's not true! Give a man an amplifier and a synthesizer and he doesn't become whoever, he doesn't become us... I'd like to say if we were at a gig, it could be nice sometimes to say: Go on then, there it is, get stuck in! In fact open the show, it's gonna be 4000 people in here in half an hour, get out there and knock them out man, and then they'd say: Oh but we don't know the equipment and need time to rehearse! So we'd say: So did we about four or five years ... if people come to a concert and they don't like it, they don't come again!

and in another argument:

RW: Steve you're good at your job, but you could never produce a record so it's silly of you to try!

Steve: No rubbish! if you take a crappy enough group with only twelve songs...

RW: that's not we're talking about!

Steve: We're talking about producing works of art, or Pink Floyd records! That's 0.01 percent of the market, there's plenty of other crap going on!

RW: We are not talking about it at all, we're talking about a record producer who is in charge of a recording session. In order to be in charge of a recording session you need to have a minimal, not minimal, you need to have a fairly extensive knowledge of what the equipment is about and what music is about and what rock and roll's about, well steve knows what rock and roll's about but he got no idea of what the equipment is about, he's got very little idea in terms of technicalities, he knows what he likes.

Steve: Plenty of people have produced very successful records on that basis!

RW: Who?

...

RW: All Im' saying is in the finished article the only thing that's important is whether it moves you or not, there's nothing else as that important.

Easy Movie

View From The Top (2003)
IMDB
Directed by: Bruno Barreto
My Rate: 3/5

After a hard day arguing with a "dog", and after my fit of hatred was put out by listening to Animals, it was the time to bring my attitude back on track, probably by watching an easy movie. My random choice was successful and surprisingly supporting the idea that I'm reading a lot these days: having clear and detailed vision of your future goal and strive to get it.

Donna (Gwyneth Paltrow) is a small town girl always wished to see the world but she never had a chance to even leave that small town. After a break up with her boyfriend, she incidentally watches a famous and successful stewardess in TV, and that sparks a will in her heart to gain whatever she wishes. It's a simple, easy and delighting romantic comedy. I liked it.

The Virtuous And The Vicious

Volver (Return) (2006)
IMDB
Directed by: Pedro Almodovar
My Rate: 5/5

Raimunda (Penelope Cruz) is a maid, she lives in Madrid with her husband, Paco and daughter, Paula. Her parents are both dead in a fire accident in the suburbs of Madrid, where they used to live. She has an old and ill aunt left there and comes over her from time to time.

Paco is the only male character in the movie! All other main characters are females! In the first glance it seems very feministic. The brave woman's life who tries to come over really big problems. Women are the ones who "govern" everything by their natural senses: love, hate, envy, motherhood and smelling! (There's a reference to that in the movie) in contrast with the men are the ones who only look for alcohol and sex no matter with who. But looking more deeply and optimistically, it seems like a tribute to motherhood and the mother's natural tendency to raise and protect.

There are deeply hidden family secrets which are concealed from one generation to another, but a chain of events makes them unrevealed and that's the motive of the film. So that's very hard to have a review of it withough letting the cat out of the bag, but I won't do that. Watch yourself and enjoy it because in addition to the interesting story, it has great shots, great angles, bold and stirring colours and everything to make it a French film, although it's Spanish.

Get Busy Living, Or Get Busy Dying

The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
IMDB
Directed by: Frank Darabont
My Rate: 5/5

Everything is in the chain. Good things come in your good times, when you look for motivation, it will find its way to you. The Shawshank Redemption is the story of Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) an innocent banker accused for the murder of his wife and her lover, and sentenced to spend the rest of his life in Shawshank prison. The prison shows the teeth in the first night to him and all other new comers. When one of them couldn't help crying after the lights out, the guards beat him to death!

The hard labour, ruthless wardens, rapists, and the solitary cells are enough to make everybody break down, but:

[spoiler]
Andy never gives up, he uses his abilities to make it a better place to live for other prisoners, he asks for financial aid for organising a prison library by writing a letter per week to charity organisations for 5 years, until they accept to help him with a 200$ check, but he won't be satisfied by it and starts to write two letters per week to beg for more aid!

He gives useful financial advices to the guards and that makes him known to the prison warden. The warden makes him his consultee to perform money laundry for him! That gives great power to Andy, although he is humiliated as a criminal by the warden. But Andy has bigger plans in his mind...
[/spoiler]

This is a story of hope and endeavour. Although it's ficition but who cares as long as it's beautiful and motivating? Andy says in a scene to his friend, Red (Morgan Freeman): Get busy living, or get busy dying. The world was very cruel and unfair to him but he chose the first option.

Respect and WCs

As I came to Austria, I created a blog and published an article (I wouldn't call it a "great article") about surprising things that I found in this country with the following picture:

The text said more or less:

"It's incredible that nobody ever had the simple idea of printing in toilet paper something different from flowers or stripes. It's a channel for spreading ideas or knowledge, or at least, that may have thought the manufacturer of the roll in the picture.

Question: In which year were the first football world cup held?
Answer: 1930

This roll is a monograph on football. I have to confess that when I found it, I unrolled a couple of meters, just to read some questions more. I left it as I found it. Sure you'd have done the same. It's tempting"

Later on, it was Monkey who proposed that such trifles (or -french-based synonym bagatelles) make a difference between modern, open minded countries and developing countries. Respecting the knowledge, and respecting each other is the basis to produce more intelligent citizens and a better society.

I do agree.

Inventing History

My father was a radio buff before his illness and old age could take that interest from him. That habit gave us the chance to always have those foreign radios sounds spread in our house every morning before we leave for school or every night when he got back from work. So during the war years we had the chance to listen to BBC, VOA and DW before we know anything about satellite TV channels, and they had become a pre-school-have-to-listen-everyday besides Pink Floyd's Time intro in The Calendar of History programme from the national radio.

Speaking about history, VOA Persian radio channel, had a history section too, which used to review some important events in the United States history happened in the same day. I can never forget the day the anchor said that: "today is the day Mr X brought the WC indoors for the first time in US history, and from then people started to build their WCs inside their houses"! I remind how much we laughed for the matter me and my brother. How important that could be to be written down in the history pages of a big country?!

Now speaking about 300 the movie, offended as any other Iranians by a country with 200 years of history with history books god knows how much thicker than ours having 7000 years of art (not history), and humiliated recently in Dubai, a country with less than 30 years of history, scanning my eye like a potential criminal or smuggler as an arrival welcome, I say that's all our own fault! Our own failure!

It's the matter of self respect. If you do not respect yourself, you shouldn't expect it from the others, how powerful it may be over you (US) or how panicked (UAE) it could be from you, if Iranians learn to respect each other, other things can get better. I bet there's no way out and I don't see any sign of it.

P.S. To know more about toilets, bathrooms, and WCs and their relationship to the self respect, I encourage my friend Gog to put an English copy of that great article about Austrian Toilets. Thanks in advance Gog.