The hunt begins...HP7-part 1

It's no news that I'm a huge Harry Potter fan. I know all the books by heart and I mean it... I've read them over and over and have listened to the audio books multiple times and still can't get enough of it. It's a little obsessive, I know, but well that's me for you, an obsessive, magic-loving Harry Potter fan.

So you can imagine my excitement when the first part of the final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, came out as a movie this last weekend. I absolutely loved it, and I think it was the right move to split the book into two movies since a lot of details would have been missed otherwise. The dark mood of the books is so excellently translated into the movie with the slightly unsaturated colors and the soundtrack. And although I'm not a big fan of Daniel Radcliffe's acting, I have to admit he's gotten better, but not as good as Emma Watson who played Hermione's role to perfection in my opinion. Most of the important stuff from the book were included in the movie and although I knew what was going to happen every minute, I still managed to get chocked up at some points... ahhh, J.K.Rolling, how I adore the magical universe you've created. There was also this AMAZING little short animation about "the tale of the three brothers" (you know what it is if you've read the books) which you'll love undoubtedly. It's no surprise that I absolutely recommend this movie, but of course you're either already a fan and will watch it, or you're not and there's no chance you'll enjoy the movie anyway!

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the world according to Neil Gaiman

"It is a small world. You do not have to live in it particularly long to learn that for yourself. There is a theory that, in the whole world, there are only five hundred real people (the cast, as it were; all the rest of the people in the world, the theory suggests, are extras) and what is more, they all know each other. And it's true, or true as far as it goes. In reality the world is made of thousands upon thousands of groups of about five hundred people, all of whom will spend their lives bumping into each other, trying to avoid each other, and discovering each other in the same unlikely teashop in Vancouver. There is an unavoidability to this process. It's not even coincidence. It's just the way the world works, with no regard for individuals or propriety." --from Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman

it's so true!!

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Of vampires and zombies

having the great experience of watching six feet under previously from HBO, I was really excited about watching " True Blood", despite its vampire-falls-in-love-with-mortal-girl plot which inevitably reminds one of "twilight" (may all existing copies burn in a sudden and selective fire accident). Unfortunately I was disappointed!

Actually, the beginning of the series is pretty strong, The starting credits are just awesome with a song that goes really well with the images. And then you meet a few of the characters and it all seems very interesting. it's not until the third or fourth episode that you kind of realize that it's not really that well-made, and actings are not the best they could be and that some characters are constantly on your nerve. and in my case it took me six episodes to realize I don't want to watch this anymore. I might be tempted to follow the story though, just because I'm an addict like that and have to know what happens in the end. maybe I'll just read wikipedia! Anyway, it's a shame!

Here's the starting song by the way:

Title: Bad Things, By: Jace Everette

Also, I have been reading Pride and Prejudice, and zombies. So far, so good... it's funny, but not hilarious, yet!

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Jane Austen, yet again

Remember a few months ago when i was reading Jane Austen novels? For some reason, I just keep getting drawn to them again. Last week I started listening to the an audiobook of "Sense and Sensibility"... of course the whole thing was triggered by me turning on the TV one day to find the 1995 movie adaptation of the book showing on a channel. I realized I had forgotten the details of the story (surprising after so many times of reading it!!!) and would like a review. In order to avoid having to read a 5.0 kg book in bed (I have all of Austen novels in one giant binding), I decided to listen to the audiobook and it was such a great decision. I picked the version read by Nadia May, and absolutely loved it. She made me realize how to read the super long sentences in Austen's novels and make sense of what's going on in the dialogues.

I also think that after reading her novels time and time again, I am finally beginning to see the comedy in them, and find myself laughing quite often, which was not the case before! So yeah, another round of Austen novels in audio is probably on the way! :)

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Books etc.

"It is astonishing just how much of what we are can be tied to the beds we wake up in in the morning, and it is astonishing how fragile that can be." - Neil Gaiman

I'm listening to "Coraline" audio book by Neil Gaiman these days and it's kind of creepy! I'm liking it though. Probably I'll watch the movie too. So far, it sounds like exactly the kind of story Tim Burton would wanna make into a movie!

I'm also reading "the book of vice" on the side. It's pretty interesting actually, although sometimes I forget the point of the book! maybe I'll figure things out in the last chapter. It's a book on "naughty" behavior of people and possible reasons behind it. There are chapters on lying, s e x, consumption, gambling, etc. Anyway, it's the kind of book that you never think of buying for yourself but is actually a very interesting and smooth read.

update - Ok, I finished Coraline and it was the most scary kids story I have ever read! and I can't believe that Tim Burton had nothing to do with the movie! It looks like exactly his kind of stuff!

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Jane Austen Marathon

While many chores are piling up waiting for me to attend to them, I have been spending my nights reading some of the Asten novels I had previously ignored: Mansfield Park, Persuasion, and Northanger Abbey. Reading Austen in English is exhausting for me. Having English as a second language and being used to more contemporary styles of writing, I have to read each sentence three times to understand the meaning (if I do understand, that is). While I personally don't find the writing amazing or anything, I find Jane Ausetn's morals very firm and clear. It seems as if she's got this image of a perfect person - how they should talk, think and act - and people who don't match this image are inevitably second-rate characters in her stories.

irrelevant note: it's snowing in Vancouver!

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Ok

So since my last post apparently was too depressing and made some friends think I am on the verge of suicide, I am writing here to declare I'm totally fine. Writing depressing stuff is a venting action for me, so I don't jump off a cliff. But Thanks for all your kind comments and your concerns anyway :) I appreciate it a lot.

Now let's talk about Twilight. I just got the book this weekend and finished it last night. It wasn't that long anyway. The reason I read it so quickly wasn't because it was absolutely amazing or anything like that. I just wanted to get it over with so I can go see the movie this weekend if i'd feel like it. I'm not sure if I would though! I had the impression that I was going to be reading another book that would make me as amazed and entertained as Harry Potter books did. But it was far from it. The book was really more romantic than adventurous and that's why I think it will appeal to a younger audience, or at least a less cynical one. To me, the book was missing something, not quite sure what though. I read it anyway, but can't recommend it to anyone strongly, unless they are a fan of fantasy genre and don't mind vampires falling in love and acting all good and noble.

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random stuff

So, I did finish "the Kite Runner"... the story was very captivating, and I enjoyed finding familiar stuff in Afghan world. kind of made me realize I didn't know much about Afghanistan after all! anyway, definitely recommend it, you don't need to be a hard-core fiction lover to enjoy this book. Maybe I'll wait a while before watching the movie though.

I also watched Santoori, the latest film by Darius Mehrjooee and I gotta say I was a bit disappointed. It definitely does not measure up to his previous films. I thought the acting was mainly ok, didn't like the soundtrack though, which is a shame since the movie is kind of about music. All on all, don't beat yourself up if you don't get a chance to watch it!

Still not feeling too excited about anything, this is just the freakin' cold I guess... I can't imagine living in a place that has a few months of winter as cold as this!!

Well, to wrap up(!!!) here's a song from Laleh Pourkarim I've been listening to a lot lately. She's got some really good songs, but this is the only one I own right now! enjoy!

Title: Live Tomorrow, By: Laleh

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Back to movies and more

I watched the Bourne ultimatum tonight and liked it for the most part. This was the third movie in the Bourne series and I thought it was better than the second one, but still not as good as the first movie. I'm a sucker for spy movies though, so I'm a little biased!

Although, I admit that most people in this movie are unbelievably invincible and don't get hurt after car crashes and fights! But well, it's Hollywood! If you've liked the other two movies, you'll like this one too.

I'm also listening to Harry Potter audio books, read by Jim Dale, and I'm absolutely loving it. He makes characters come alive with all the different accents he imitates and I'm reliving the experience! I'm a geek, I know!

Title: Extreme Ways, By: Moby

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Done...and done!

Almost 18 hours of reading and I've reached the end of my adventures with Harry Potter (spoiler alert: don't open the link if you're planning to read the book)... and yes, I cried some during the last two hours or so!! There will be no more of it... an appropriate ending for a great story. Down with the Dark Lord and stuff...

Now, with no more Harry Potter battles to come, all I'm looking forward to is (hopefully) an awesome performance by Miss Dolores O'Riordan tomorrow night!

Title: Ordinary day, By: Dolores O'Riordan

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So I'm back

I finally decided to blog! It's pretty hard after you stop for a while...

1. I had the greatest time back home if you ignore the fact that my suitcase got lost on the way there, and took two weeks to get found! Since all my shoes (favorite ones too) and pants were in that suitcase, I spent two weeks without any shoes or pants! God bless same-size sisters :)

2. Nothing is better than having original Kaleh-Pache or Dizy in the right place and with the right people.

3. Never go to Iran during the exams period. No one will give a damn how long you've been away; those tests have to be written!

4. I started and finished His dark materials series by Philip Pullman on my trip. I think it's great that he introduces this awesome practical strong female character into the fantasy world. The movie is coming out in December and I for one will go watch it as soon as it is screened. I'm still a big Potter fan though!

5. Dubai must have degraded by like a million percent since the last time I've been there; I definitely won't recommend it to anyone, at least not the old part of Dubai where everyone used to go. Explore new areas if you decide to go.

6. One Iranian movie never to watch: Parkway
One Iranian movie to maybe watch if you have time: neghaab
I missed out on Khoonbaazi, and Santoori wasn't out yet. Those two should have been good movies.

7. Heathrow is as crazy as you can imagine an airport to be... avoid it at all costs!

8. London is the coolest city ever (I'm exaggerating, of course!) ... especially if you have cool friends like Bahman and Aydin to make sure you see everywhere in only three days!

9. Harry Potter and Order of The Phoenix is exactly what you expect, a Hollywood movie, not badly made but not a masterpiece either... lots of side stories were cut out but there's really no other way to make the movie I guess... you'll like it if you're a Potter fan, but not nearly as much as you liked the book.

10. I discovered Rana Frahan in Iran, she is this Iranian Blues singer who lives in New York... I think she's awesome.

11. I missed Vancouver while I was away, and well it's a pretty hard city not to miss... but honestly, nowhere feels like home without your family next to you.

12. I know this was not a real post, but I'm jet lagged and a bit homesick still... give me a break.

Title: Drunk in love, By: Rana Frahan

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Another book and a movie too!

I am absolutely loving "A Confederacy of Dunces", a great novel about this super comic character in New Orleans. It was published in 1980 and won the Pulitzer prize in 1981, 11 years after the author's death! Check out the Wikipedia link for the book.

It was a little slow at the beginning, and difficult to understand... especially because of all the strange southern way of people talking. But after the first 20-30 pages, you'll fall in love with Ignatius Reilly, and will start laughing out loud when he interacts with people around him. Not an easy book to read, but definitely worth the time and effort!

Oh, and by the way, I watched Y tu mama tambien (I know, it's a shame I waited so long to watch it!) and liked it a lot. It definitely has not been made for general public though; man, I was happy I was watching it by myself! Nonetheless, a great movie and I absolutely love Maribel Verdu... amazing actress.

Still in the state of panic by the way!

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Another interesting book

So i got loads of books for my birthday, which is just awesome... and I'm reading a few of them together so I'm all confused. But one that is very interesting is "the curious incident of the dog at the night-time" by Mark Haddon. It tells the story of this young boy with "special needs" who decides to solve a murder mystery by himself. I'm half way through and am enjoying it very much. Here's a passage i liked in the book, so far:

"And father said,"Christopher, do you understand that I love you?"
And I said "yes", because loving someone is helping them when they get into trouble, and looking after them, and telling them the truth, and Father looks after me when I get into trouble,[...],and he looks after me by cooking meals for me, and he always tells me the truth, which means that he loves me."

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Still Douglas Adams...

I'm in love with the guy... I mean literally. I would marry him any day, if he returns to life, that is.

I finished the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy tonight at 7:00 pm and was on my way back from the bookstore with the second book in the series by 7:30! The second book is The Restaurant at the End of the Universe and starts like this:

"There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable.

There is another theory which states that this has already happened."

I hope it will be as interesting as the first book.

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Trying hard here...

So I'm stuffed with soup and salad (and yes, that's possible!) and feeling a little light-headed from the wine I had, trying really hard to come up with something to write. I think it must be a disease or something. I even watched a movie and didn't feel like writing about it! Don't know what's wrong, but I'm going to give it a shot anyway. I watched Stranger than fiction... didn't hate it, but didn't love it either. Can't seem to understand the point of the movie, but then again, who says movies should have a point!? I liked most of the movie though. Can't really tell you what it's about because it doesn't make any sense. You don't have to watch it in the theater, wait for the DVD. Dustin Huffman and Emma Thompson are great in it though, as always.

I guess what keeps me excited these days though (except for the thought of Wednesday when I'm officially done with my finals)is The Hitchhiker's Guide to Galaxy. Absolutely genius! Thanks to Shahin, I now own the first book in Douglas Adams's sci-fi series and I have to tell you, it's quite the funniest book I've read in a LONG time. If you're against sci-fi you should skip this whole paragraph totally. I tried watching the movie that was made based on this book in 2005 and couldn't understand why it was such a big deal. Scenes made no sense whatsoever. I basically stopped watching halfway through the movie. Now I know that the whole point is to read the book and laugh at the author's wired scientific British sense of humor. I mean the guy knows how to write funny nonsense... The book is about this two characters (a human and a human-like creature from another planet) who starts this adventurous journey in the galaxy after Earth gets demolished because there is a need to build a hyperspatial express route through the star system! It probably sounds lame but you gotta try it.

here's a paragraph from the book (there are so many good ones, I can't really choose from!). Omitted parts are replaced with [...].

"[...]a sperm whale had suddenly been called to existence several miles above the surface of an alien planet.

[...]

this is a complete record of its thought from the moment it began its life till the moment it ended it.

Ah...what's happening? it thought.
Er,excuse me, who am I?
Hello?
Why am I here? What's my purpose in life?
What do I mean by who am I?
Calm down, get a grip now [...]

And hey, what about this whistling roaring sound going past what I'm suddenly going to call my head? Perhaps I can call that...wind! [...] it must be something very important because there certainly seems to be a hell of a lot of it.

[...]

And wow, what's this thing suddenly coming towards me very fast? Very very fast. So big and flat and round, it needs a big wide sounding name like... ow... ound... round... ground! That's it! That's a good name - ground!
I wonder if it will be friends with me?

And the rest, after a sudden wet thud, was silence."

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Zorro

So I'm just gonna pretend that World Cup is not happening right now... honestly, don't you think it's boring? You never get any surprises...You know! Brazil always wins and Iran... well...NEVER wins!

I know, I know... I'm bitter... but well, it's just the World Cup! guess we have a lot more to be worried about right now, with what happened with women protesting in Tehran last week. I'm not exactly the most interested person in politics you may meet, but I definitely was shocked and disgusted by what happened to them. Can't do much but hope those arrested would be released soon.

I'm reading Zorro right now, by one and only Isabel Allende and so far it's pretty good. It's her retelling of the legend of Zorro and is quite interesting. If the English translated version flows so well, I can't imagine how the Spanish version might be.

hmmm, yeah this was basically to say that I still exist... will write more later (as in SOON)... Stay tuned!

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Night

I finished reading Night, by Elie Wiesel, and I am impressed, and disgusted at the same time. He's a survivor of the Jewish concentration camps during WWII, and this book is the story of his survival.

You hear and read about all that Nazi regime did and you see all these movies and documentaries, but every time it has the same effect, at least for me. How could they be so blind and inhumane? Just look at the picture below! Wiesel is the 7th person from the left, on the second row. Do these people really look like people to you? they're nothing but bone and skin, with probably no soul too. How can you survive such horrendous conditions and still have a soul?

It's not a very long story, so I suggest you take the time and read it. The story was written in Yiddish and the new edition has been translated to English by Wiesel's wife. I felt that the writing style was not particularly great, but maybe it was because of what was lost in translation.

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Movies and books, again!

I used to be a big fan of Judie Foster a few years ago... when she came back with Flight Plan last year, I was really disappointed I couldn't find a chance to watch it in a theater. However, after watching it last night, I'm kind of glad it didn't happen. It wasn't horribly bad, but still, it could be a lot better. I honestly didn't think that the final 3-4 minutes were really necessary and fading out into the white light was just too cheesy. Other than that, it was an ok movie and I think anyone can enjoy it as a rental DVD.

And while I was flying to Toronto last week, they actually showed "Memoirs of a Geisha" during the flight... I have to say I was impressed. I absolutely loved the movie and the soundtrack. It was a very well made movie. Apparently if you've read the book before, you might not enjoy it as much. I haven't read the book so I can't comment on that really. The acting was very good and the main actress was really really cute!

I have also started reading "Freakonomics" for my book club this month and so far (midway through the second chapter) have liked it a lot. There has been a lot said about it recently and I always wondered what it could be. Apparently, it's a new way of looking at the "hidden side of everything" as the authors put it. It's not about economics, but more on how to use it to explore different aspects of day to day life. I'll let you know how it turns out to be when I'm done reading it.

It was a lovely day and I can't believe I had to stay at school for a stupid invigilation instead of joining my friends on a trip to Victoria! I spent the last five hours (of a Friday evening, by the way!) marking the final exams of an economics course! ...LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSEEEEER!

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Lolita

"Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta."

-from Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (beginning paragraph)

I have always believed in the importance of beginnings. You can tell right away if a book is worth reading by looking at the beginning paragraph. So when I started reading Lolita, I knew it was going to be a great experience... (I don't think when a novel is this well-known you actually need to worry about the starting paragraph, but anyway...). I was deeply and truly sorry that sometimes I couldn't fully drown in reading, because I needed to go look up a word in the dictionary! This is when it truly sucks not to be super-fluent in English. Especially when you know that Nabokov, himself, wrote this in English as his second language! (I think I should be sent to jail for, even remotely, comparing myself to Nabokov in any way)


I don't need to say much about this book, just find it, read it, and see for yourself. (watch out for the content though, I'm not taking any responsibility if you happen to hate the whole idea behind the story!)

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Sizdeh-Be-Dar

It is finally Sizdeh-be-dar; eid is officially over!...I went out for just a little while, tied up a knot using the grass, and enjoyed the marvelous view and the great weather.


I'm reading Life of Pi now, a novel by Yann Martel and winner of the 2002 Man Booker Prize. So far, it's been more than just interesting... it's supposed to be "a story that makes you believe in God". And I have to admit, it's written in a very captive manner; you just sink in and don't want to leave it aside until it's finished. I'm NOT saying that it would definitely change your belief system, but it certainly has a very refreshing point of view towards religion and God. There's this one chapter that's just HILARIOUS; three wise men from different religions (Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity) start this super-funny argument in defense of their respective religions. I had tears in my eyes, reading what stupid reasons they were coming up with to prove their points. Anyway, you should definitely read this book, whether you are a strong believer, an extremist atheist, or still undecided! I can guarantee that you'll get at least, if nothing else, a good laugh out of it. (By the way, I haven't finished the book yet; I know the story turns more serious later...so, don't expect a comic book!)

And here's a small section from the book that I liked:

" I can well imagine an atheist's last words:"White, white! L-L-Love! My God!" - and the deathbed leap of faith. Whereas the agnostic, if he stays true to his reasonable self, if he stays beholden to dry, yeastless factuality, might try to explain the warm light bathing him by saying, "Possibly a f-f-failing oxygenation of the b-b-brain," and, to the very end, lack imagination and miss the better story."

-Yann Martel , Life of Pi

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