‘Beijing’ by Patrick Watson
This is fantastical. 
Keepin’ it gully Tuesday.
Art by Bansky.
Music by DJ Shadow, Midnight in a Perfect World.
Iranians shouting ‘God is Great’ from their roofs in defiance of a government that stole their election. The same was done during the 1979 Iranian revolution in support of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the father of the modern Iranian political state.
There is hope in Iran.
The most influential clerical group in Iran - the Association of Researchers and Teachers of Qum - released a statement today calling the recent presidential elections illegitimate, thereby placing the religious authority in Iran in direct odds with supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. You can read the statement here if your Farsi is any good.
It’s difficult to gauge the impact this will have on the government’s ability to manipulate the crisis to bludgeon its enemies. Until this statement, it certainly seemed they would have a free hand in squelching dissent, be it violently or false trial/imprisonment. As the NYTimes article quotes:
“This crack in the clerical establishment and the fact they are siding with the people and Moussavi in my view is the most historic crack in the 30 years of the Islamic republic,” said Abbas Milani, director of the Iranian Studies Program at Stanford University. “Remember they are going against an election verified and sanctified by Khamenei.”
Teheran Broadcast via the now banned Rooyce.com reports on what this may potentially mean:
The source also claimed that half of the Assembly of Experts were supporting the idea of declaring a “leadership counsel” (instead of a one person leadership). He said, “the brief summary of these meetings is that at this time the most reasonable solution is the resignation of President Ahmadinejad,” and added, “the Supreme Leader is the spiritual father to all the people and not solely to a special group; however, it seems that Ayatollah Khamenei has chosen to be the latter.” The source deferred to answer whether the Assembly will soon hold a special session in Qom.
In other words, Khamenei needs to watch his back. He may be where the buck stops now, but his grip on power is tenuous. Something to watch in the coming days is what actions, if any, the religious council in Qom will take against Khamenei, if they dare. The council does have the power to sack Khamenei should they deem it in the interests of Iran. Qom (pop. 1.5 mil.) is the religious and spiritual epicenter in Iran that essentially canonized Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the father of the revolution, and whose leaders Ahmedenijad has courted. The clerical establishment there is not monolithic and is comprised of every shade of liberal and conservative, which gives their unified statement all the more force.
Robin Wright provides useful intel on the beef between Khamenei and the religious power center in Qom over his designation as the all “supreme” head of the Iranian state. Not everyone in Qom is too pleased with the increasing power concentrated in his role and this just may be the political crisis to wrest control away from Khamenei and anyone who potentially may follow him (Rafsanjani?). However, the all powerful Revolutionary Guards operate at the behest of Khamenei - as they already have to violently suppress protesters - so any move against Khamenei risks political fragmentation of the current power structure in Iran or even the Revolutionary Guards itself.
What is certain: Ahmedenijad and Khamenei enjoy less political legitimacy than at any point since the disputed election. And their plan to manage the election crisis will not be effectuated by sweeping the issue under the rug and flipping the script on Mousavi and pro-democracy supporters. What is to be seen is whether Khamenei will challenge the very source of his legitimacy in Qom that views the election as a farce, or compromise his and/or Ahmedenijad’s stranglehold on political power in Iran.
Happy Liberation Day.
7.4.09: Adams Morgan, DC
Music by Tapis Rough, Le Reveur (Thievery Corporation Remix).
The David House
True story. The famous sitar player Daniel refers to is none other than Ravi Shanker who was on tour in America and needed a place to crash for a gig the next night.
From the moment we had to pull a string to ring the door bell I knew we were in for an interesting encounter.
I met the most interesting man tonight. He looked like a stoned santa claus - this older portly old fart with a walrus sized mustache. Lightning fast wit, and a pleasant absentmindedness - at one point he was telling a story and abruptly to think out loud ‘Well, I shouldn’t be telling you this story’ after which he delved right back into the story he began.
He was showing me his house because I saw an ad for it on craig’s list. When he hurriedly brought me into his house I was immediately in awe. His house was like a parade of memories and facinating oddities. Completely disorganized and full of what he called “junk,” his house had this unusual charm that is the hallmark of the prolific and the enlightened. I went to see the house with Ahmed who is originally from Bengali and before we got past the hallway he gestured towards the couch and announced that he had a great story about Bangladesh and we needed to hear it. As we took our seats on his ancient couches among a faint but clearly discernable cloud of brown dust, a young man and his wife walked in the room a bit disoriented, and began to ask David (stoned santa) how they should proceed to view the house.
David interrupted them, “Ok - here’s what I want you to do (so many people here I don’t know what to do): go up to the third floor and look at anything you want.”
He then told us a story about when one of the most famous sitar players from Bengali came to stay in his beach house that he owned in Rehoboth. Apparently they had a bit of a rat problem at the time (this is when he paused to note out loud that he probably shouldn’t be telling us this story), and one night as the sitar player was playing late at night with a friend the grandmother rat came out of her hiding place to say hello. The player and his friend just kept on playing as the grandma rat just sat in plain sight not too far from where they sat. They mentioned it offhand to David the next day, and at this point David belts out a laugh at the idea that the rat just came out to hear them play and stayed up late listening to them.
David told us that the previous tenant who was leaving suggested some edits to David’s craig’s list ad - David indignantly told us he was a writer by trade and he’d be damned if his ad was modified by anyone, so they decided to have a contest to see whose ad would fare better.
“So far,” he admitted, “most of the people who came by responded to the tenant’s ad.”
David told us that he was a retired attorney, former Washington DC tourguide, and currently a writer. Ahmed was full of questions for him, but I think I was just so overwhelmed by how much was going on with this guy and his house - I felt like I was in a movie and I didn’t want to interrupt or break the suspension of disbelief.
The other couple comes back from their visit to the third floor and don’t seem to impressed. So then its our turn to go upstairs. I’ve never seen so much art in a house in my life. Well first of all - this place was an old gothic style house with 3 levels and one of the creakiest stairwells you’ve ever set foot on. There was art that was his, alot of portaits that were not his, trinkets from all over the world, and charming oddities like a pink wig on a bust of Winston Churchill. So much character! It was like a museum of his life.
I couldn’t help but start to imagine what living there in his house with him would be like. He lived with his wife, and apparently a young woman and her son had moved in two weeks ago and they were playing in the backyard. From the looks of it the previous three tenants who lived upstairs were grad students, and their rooms displayed some interesting grad-studentish character - PALED in comparison with the rest of the house and especially David’s room.
One of the other folks who had wandered in was sitting down with David and asking what sort of rules did he have in the house. I looked around the walls and back at David and I smirked knowing how he would respond. He’s a quaker! Dude - as long as everyone is happy and respectful in general its all gravy. The guy who asked him clarified and said - “Ok so if I brought some people back late night and we listened to music and hung out, would that be a problem?”
David laughed and said he would probably be in the backyard with his wife smoking dope. He grunted and put his finger to his lips as if he had accidentally said that.
I really wanted to explore the option of moving in to David’s house, but he said that dogs probably wouldn’t be ok and squashed that idea. At any rate… it was really interesting to meet him and walk through his museum. It reminded me a little of my Aunt Blanche who has a house kind of like that, and a character to match - but thats another story entirely.
It made me really think about what makes some of us interesting people and what makes most of us boring. It threw me for a loop that he was an attorney at one point, which makes me wonder even more… Did he have an epiphany when he retired? Was he always like this? His house showed years and years of things places he has been, cultures that he’s studied all around the world - do people grow up like that? Do they slowly change from being normal boring people to suddenly interesting people?
What makes us interesting?
via emperorsnewclothes
Like Stevens, like Palin?
If you thought Palin’s announcement to resign from the governorship of Alaska was fishy, you’re not the only one. Notwithstanding the perplexing decision, her choice of words and rambling delivery were odd even by her own standards.
According to Bradblog, possible federal indictments might explain the real reasons behind her decision to quit.
