Bikhooneh for the Holidays
The time between Thanksgiving and January 1st growing up was usually a cozy time of the year. My birthday also falls in the beginning of December, so I nestle in nicely with the cold temps and warm up with intimate moments with family and friends.In recent years those family and friends have dwindled as my bank account did. Then again, I never really had many to begin with. But after my father left my hometown at the beginning of this century I knew that it would be a long time 'til I would re-establish the feeling of having a home.
Being a Good Sumerian
We live in a DIY or DIE kind of world these days, and being an independent child of the 'alternative' 90s I wholeheartedly embrace that fact. I was that kid putting out Zines and shooting Public Access shows. Today, with all the self-publishing and -producing tools at your fingertips it would be a crime to not take advantage of that landscape right now.
I guess that's what Nasim Pedrad's cousin Bo Mirosseni was also thinking when he made an "unofficial" music video for a band he likes, Sleigh Bells. It wasn't authorized by anyone, so he presumably funded it himself. Teaming up with his choreographer Ramin Shakibaei, they took a chance and scored by the video going viral. He went rogue in that MIA sorta way.
![Maya [Explicit]](http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=B003UP3VY4&tag=vizitothevest-20)
To quote Mirosseni from his Twitter feed: "If you love the internets the internets will love you." Just trying to be a Good Sumerian, I mean Samaritan, and help promote a fellow Iranian-American director's work I went ahead and showed some love since he was retweeting acknowledgment left and right. Networking is the name of the game, too.
Instead I got caught in a web of deceit, plagiarized by a wicked spambot that stole and republished my tweet in its entirety without attribution, landing the content on their unauthorized domain -- which they're trying to bribe Nasim Pedrad's management into buying. And what does Bo Mirosseni do? He unknowingly RT's the spambot's tweet.
I did a bit of research and track down the goon behind the spambot and the leeching website. I emailed this fellow, a Canadian living in Ontario named Josh Grobar -- who unknowingly and idiotically made his name and contact info public in the WHOIS directory -- who replied with a blackmailing email that I don't see fit publishing here.
I should take a chill pill, and perhaps take some time learning about the copyrights and wrongs of our new media marketplace. Whatever that means.
I guess that's what Nasim Pedrad's cousin Bo Mirosseni was also thinking when he made an "unofficial" music video for a band he likes, Sleigh Bells. It wasn't authorized by anyone, so he presumably funded it himself. Teaming up with his choreographer Ramin Shakibaei, they took a chance and scored by the video going viral. He went rogue in that MIA sorta way.
To quote Mirosseni from his Twitter feed: "If you love the internets the internets will love you." Just trying to be a Good Sumerian, I mean Samaritan, and help promote a fellow Iranian-American director's work I went ahead and showed some love since he was retweeting acknowledgment left and right. Networking is the name of the game, too.Instead I got caught in a web of deceit, plagiarized by a wicked spambot that stole and republished my tweet in its entirety without attribution, landing the content on their unauthorized domain -- which they're trying to bribe Nasim Pedrad's management into buying. And what does Bo Mirosseni do? He unknowingly RT's the spambot's tweet.
I did a bit of research and track down the goon behind the spambot and the leeching website. I emailed this fellow, a Canadian living in Ontario named Josh Grobar -- who unknowingly and idiotically made his name and contact info public in the WHOIS directory -- who replied with a blackmailing email that I don't see fit publishing here.
I should take a chill pill, and perhaps take some time learning about the copyrights and wrongs of our new media marketplace. Whatever that means.
The Entreprenoors
In this digital age, it's the revenge of the nerds who are status-updating all the way the way to the bank. Now the millenial generation steeped in iThis and myThat has gotten the Hollywood treatment with 'The Social Network' about Facebook entrepreneur-turned-emperor Mark Zuckerberg.The flick about virtual reality is virtually devoid of Asian geeks, who've played a significant role as architects of Web 2.0 and 'Social Media'. Iranians, Indians and Orientals (can we still say that?) have been a big part of the new Silicon Valley, from execs to engineers.
At Facebook headquarters in the heart of Palo Alto -- where soc.culture.iranian was launched -- there's plenty of Persian making things happen. Like Niloofar Nafici and her husband Navid Mansourian, two twentysomethings who harnessed the power of Social Media activism during the #IranElection wave last year. Then earlier this year they organized a Norouz feast at Facebook HQs. I've corralled several of these tech-heads on a Twitter List.
The only racial/ethnic minority character in the film is played a white dude of Italian heritage, as this WSJ article referenced by Roger Ebert points out. Some of those same South Asians are complaining about the forthcoming Freddie Mercury project in the works that cast Sascha Baron Cohen for the role of the Queen frontman. SBC has Persian roots, thus has Mercury inside him. So we won't touch that one.
Manucher United
Earlier this year, I got a Facebook friend request from a long lost uncle Manucher. It was one of a slew of such advances from relatives on Facebook that made my presence on that infringing social networking service feel even more awkward.
As an adult I've never hung out with this amoo, having briefly chatted with once by accident over the phone earlier this year. It was your typical overly-polite, underwhelming conversation I have with older Persians that think I'm not worth their time. A lof of haal-ahvaal. To try and break the ice I found some common ground with an old standby: "So, football-o mibeeni? Who do you think is gonna win the Vorld Kup this summer?"
It works every time. As a fubol supporter myself I know the ins and outs, how to weave it into a conversation like Didier Drogba splits a defense with a delicate pass forward. But Manuchehr would be a challenge. He's spent the last two decades "serving" as a religious missionary on a small scenic island out in the middle of the Pacific, raising not one but two families after a messy divorce and remarriage and running a small computer business on the archipelago. Believe it or not, he's the second uncle I know to go this route. Maybe I'll talk about the other one next time.
I never thought he'd be a fan of any sports, or many forms of entertainment. I found this out first hand during the first time I met him, back in 1991. He was stopping over on his trans-atlantic flight and spent a couple of days at our house. I was your typical thirteen year old boy with posters of athletes on my bedroom wall. Manuchehr was given the upstairs tour by my mother, and I began to feel the discomfort that comes when you know a mustached Iranian man is about to judge you.
TO BE CONTINUED...
As an adult I've never hung out with this amoo, having briefly chatted with once by accident over the phone earlier this year. It was your typical overly-polite, underwhelming conversation I have with older Persians that think I'm not worth their time. A lof of haal-ahvaal. To try and break the ice I found some common ground with an old standby: "So, football-o mibeeni? Who do you think is gonna win the Vorld Kup this summer?"
It works every time. As a fubol supporter myself I know the ins and outs, how to weave it into a conversation like Didier Drogba splits a defense with a delicate pass forward. But Manuchehr would be a challenge. He's spent the last two decades "serving" as a religious missionary on a small scenic island out in the middle of the Pacific, raising not one but two families after a messy divorce and remarriage and running a small computer business on the archipelago. Believe it or not, he's the second uncle I know to go this route. Maybe I'll talk about the other one next time.
I never thought he'd be a fan of any sports, or many forms of entertainment. I found this out first hand during the first time I met him, back in 1991. He was stopping over on his trans-atlantic flight and spent a couple of days at our house. I was your typical thirteen year old boy with posters of athletes on my bedroom wall. Manuchehr was given the upstairs tour by my mother, and I began to feel the discomfort that comes when you know a mustached Iranian man is about to judge you.
TO BE CONTINUED...
Another No-Show
Earlier this afternoon ABC Adding insult to injury, tonight Disney -- ABC's parent company -- held the Los Angeles premiere of 'Prince of Persia', its 300-pound gorilla of guerilla warfare in desert. TENKS GOD they didn't roll the red carpet at Mann's in Vestvood Village, like they usually do, and held it at Mann's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood instead.
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| photo © NBC |
It's not all bad news for Persians at this year's Upfronts. Nasim Pedrad was one of NBC's featured players, which means she's primed for picking in the future. Perhaps a sitcom, perhaps a dotcom -- I'll keep climbing the latter.
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