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We’ve had many discussions on Traditional Persian Music (TPM) with musicians like Hamed Nikpay, Koroush Taghavi, and others as to why this type of music is strange to some of us younger Iranian-Americans living here… This time we brought a different perspective straight from Japan. A Japanese musicologist who plays the Santur, specializes in TPM, has written a book on it, and gone as deep as researching the performers mental state while improvising Iranian music!

Dr. Masato Tani, a Farsi speaking professor of ethnomusicology at Kobe University in Japan, joins us in a discussion about Iranian music and culture, where we talk about his experiences living in Iran as a student for 4 years, and what drew him into TPM and Santur.

Also joining us on the show is Roozbeh Nafisi, a Santur player with a unique and innovative style, who is now researching and studying ethnomusicology and composition on Santur in Tokyo, Japan. Yes, in Japan.

Here’s a video preview of Dr. Tani speaking in our show:

Dr. Tani’s Wikipedia Page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Masato_Tani

More info about Dr. Tani’s book (English translation coming soon):

“Music of Iran: Vocal Culture and Improvisation.” Tōkyō: Seidosha, 2007. 254, 14 p. ISBN 9784791763542

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A question for you! What brings you peace? Do you meditate using one of Deepak Chopra books or take long walks while trying to relieve the stress even if it is temporary? Or do you find Chocolate bars and Häagen-Dazs ice cream buckets as your stress relief remedy? Does peace and happiness go hand in hand?

The question of being in peace has motivated many to write books, give lectures, and even make profitable pills to help people in need to satisfy their inner self. In this week’s Iranican Live, we share our knowledge, life experiences, and simple ways to reach peace in plain Finglish. Although the title of this post may suggest otherwise, our research has repeatedly shown that achieving peace by judging, or benchmarking your individual achievements against others’, [what Iranians love to do,] is shallow and short-lived. So basically, if you spot a douche-bag, you are the douche-bag, and now so are we! Why is douche-bag so fun to say anyways?

ظاهراً همه ما به جز صدای زجر آور زنگ ساعت ۷ صبح،قبض‌های پرداخت نشده،امتحان‌های آخر ترم ،ایمیل‌های جواب داده نشده،وقت عقب افتاده دندانپزشکی‌ و …یک چیز مشترک دیگر هم داریم یا بهتره بگوییم یک چیز مشترک کم داریم:آرامش.

عکاس ها،خبر نگار ها،شبکه‌های خبر ساعت‌ها وقت خودشان و ما را میگیرند که نشان بدهند تو خاورمیانه صلح نیست اما هیچ خبر نگاری نیست که نبودن صلح را تو قالب آدم‌ها گزارش کند

.بعضی‌‌ها برای رسیدن به صلح درونی به هند میروند که یوگا کنند یا به آفریقا که به بچه‌های گرسنه کمک کنند

.بعضی‌‌ها می‌‌روند چین تا یک بچه را سر پرستی‌ کنند.بعضی‌‌ها راه دور را انتخاب نمی‌‌کنند فقط میروند تا سر خیابان و آبجو می‌‌خرند

بعضی‌‌ها پولشان را پس انداز میکنند تا به سرطانی‌ها کمک کنند

بعضی‌‌ها می‌‌نشینند مدیتت می‌‌کنند بعضی‌‌ها پا می‌‌شوند ورزش می‌‌کنند

بعضی‌‌ها تو میدان جنگ هم دلشان آرام هست اما

بعضی‌‌ها حتما باید بروند جزایر قناری تا آرام بشوند

.همهٔ این کارهایی‌ که می‌‌کنیم یا نمی‌‌کنیم یا می‌‌دونیم باید بکنیم اما هر روز می‌‌گوییم فردا، ما را به صلح نزدیک می‌‌کنند اما آیا ما راه‌های متفاوتی را انتخاب می‌‌کنیم چون آدم‌های متفاوتی هستیم یا چون میزان ارزشی که برای صلح درونی قأیلیم متفاوت است؟شما به صلح فکر می‌‌کنید ؟

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Clip of the Week, Ali’s Music Video, Wayne Dyer’s 10 tips, 5 Tips from Live Science,  Maral’s Cancer Relay Page

If you were lucky enough to attend school in Iran; starting around 3rd grade in elementary school, almost every year you would face a dilemma and had to write a piece on “whether education is better or wealth?!” Of course being in school and following the path of education, everyone chose education over wealth and wrote page after page of how wonderful it is to be learned and how it is only through academic knowledge and degrees that one can accumulate wealth. In an article written by Ali Sarzaeem in Iran’s Economic World newspaper, an interesting observation was presented claiming that back in the old days of Iran and most other countries, children were taken into the work force at an early age and most of them lost the chance to continue their education. To discourage this trend and encourage young students to pursue education this bias topic was presented to them every year. To this day such cliché is being discussed in Iranian schools, and we chose to discuss it among ourselves.

سوال آشنایی است.احتمالا از زمانی‌ که امیر کبیر مدرسه دارلفنون را تأسیس کرد موضوع انشائ اجدادمان هم بوده .همه ما هم فکر می‌‌کنیم جوابش را می‌‌دانیم اما واقعیت این است که یا جوابش برای خودمان هم معلوم نیست ،یا معلوم هست اما مجبور می‌‌شویم جاهای مختلف  جواب‌های مختلف بهش بدهیم.مثلا اگر تو دبستان موضوع انشائ می‌‌نوشتیم ثروت بهتر است مجبور می‌‌شدیم تابستان را در راه تحصیل علم بگذرانیم.سال‌های آخر دبیرستان پدر و مادر‌هایمان تشویقمان می‌‌کنند که علم را انتخاب کنیم و به دانشگاه برویم اما اگر رشتهٔ فلسفه یا تاریخ را انتخاب کنیم از ما می‌پرسند که بچه پس چطور می‌‌خواهی‌ پولدار بشی‌؟اگر وارث نبوغ بوعلی سینا و دانشجوی دانشگاه برکلی باشیم باعث افتخار همه هستیم اما اگر نابغه ولی‌ پولدار نباشیم نمی‌‌توانیم به خواستگاری یه دختر ایرانی‌ خوشگل بریم.یعنی‌ می‌‌توانیم  بریم اما جواب خانواده دختر به این سوال قطعاً ثروت خواهد بود.آیا دانش برای ما ایرانیان فرهیختهٔ مهاجر جز میان بری نیست در جاده داشته ها؟ آیا ما بچه‌های ایرانی‌ یا نیمه ایرانی‌ که باید دکتر بشیم یا حداقل مهندس تا والدینمان راضی‌ باشند جوابی‌ برای این سوال داریم؟ شاید بهتر باشد صورت مساله را تغییر بدهیم.جهل بدتر است یا فقر؟

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سعدی: ز عقل اندیشه ها زاید که مردم را بفرسابد گرت آسودگی باید برو عاشق شو ای عاقل

Our afternoon-nap-taking-homeboy Saadi says:

“The [logical] mind bares thoughts that wares people out. If you want to be at ease, go fall in love [use your heart], [you] wise one.”

Do you agree with Saadi? Do you actually practice this concept? Everywhere or only in some contexts? Take the Iranican Live Poll. A few people we’ve talked to say they’ve been BURNED adopting this philosophy in their romantic relationships. What’s your experience been like?

Iman and Shahed are not around, but Elnaz (favoring Logic) followed by Kaveh (favoring Heart) have this to say.

Head:
We all know people who break up over the most random and stupid things. They start the relationship thinking “you make me sooooo happy” and then expect to be happy 100% of the time…PLEASE do not fool yourselves…you will not be happy 100% of the time…but the minute people using only heart and emotion feel unhappy, they don’t want it anymore, and they want out.

Using your heart is at times behaving without thinking and can and WILL get you into a lot of trouble. Hence, when people say “you put your foot in your mouth” or what not.

They say “change your thoughts, change your life”, that the mind has the power to change everything. We ultimately have the power to use our mind to make things better and even worse for ourselves. What you think about expands, and what you think about you draw into your life whether you want it or not. The mind even to some level, controls your emotions, or can be used to control your emotions. Like getting over someone…how do you get over someone? You decide one day that it’s over…you’re gonna move on and you get over it. - Elnaz

Heart:
I’ve realized that you will never know the answers to some things. By accepting this, it’s much easier to make decisions using your heart. Why do you want something, it doesn’t matter really why, because you want it and that’s what matters.

If you’re thinking about it too much, then you’re rationalizing your heart and what you want. Some things are meant to be simple, go with your gut once you know yourself. The caveat being once you know yourself and in our generation it appears that the new saying 30 is the new 20 is holding to be true. In marriages the divorce rate is much reduced at people who marry at 30 then 20. That is my advice. - Kaveh

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Iranican Live Airs Every Other Wednesday at 7PM PST on RadioJavan.com

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Have you ever tried to explain to your non-eastern friends what Gheyrat is? What do you say? We weren’t able to find a direct translation to it, but what is obvious is that women in general seek ‘protection’ and whether it’s the protection from predatory animals in our hunter gatherer ancestors, or it’s because of all the Superman, and Batman cartoons and movies we’ve watched growing up, men are wired to protect and women are wired to get turned on by that. Okay, but Gheyrat goes beyond just physical protection, so if you want to make her want you like there is no tomorrow, an ‘inappropriate’ flirt/touch from another guy to your girl, needs to be dealt with ‘appropriately’. Don’t ask me to define appropriate because I can’t, so let’s move on.org

The more I think about it, the more being ‘Gheyrati’ sounds like being extremely against Sexual Harassment. Stay with me, If I remember my High School lecture correctly Sexual Harassment is unwanted sexual attention the only difference here is that the person that decides what’s unwanted here is the person who’s doing the ‘protecting’ and not the person on the receiving end of the flirt.

If you were left more confused about Gheyrat than when you started reading this blog, just know that it makes for good round of charades.

Links: Dating Iranican Style

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یکسال از روزی که رفتیم پای صندوقهای رأی و رأی ندادیم گذشت.یکسال از هیاهوی‌های خیابانهای تهران گذشت.یکسال از سوگ ندا‌ها گذشت.پارسال همین موقع‌ها بود که با هر امیلی که می‌‌آمد راه می‌‌افتادیم یه گوشه تو سن فرانسیسکو  یا سن خوزه یا هرجا که بودیم داد میزدیم آهای رأی من کو؟ آهای آدمهای مهد آزادی رأی ما را دزدیدن.خون ندا‌ها ، غیرت مردم ایران،شجاعت جوان‌های ایرانی‌ تأثیر خودش را گذشت.اما صدای ما چی‌؟ به گوش کسی‌ رسید؟جوانهای ایران ما را از خودشون می‌‌دنند؟آیا ما خواسته‌های آنها را به جهان منعکس می‌کنیم یا فقط فکر می‌کنیم که داریم کاری می‌کنیم ؟

Now, let’s get to Movie Hype in General. Believe me, if you’re a girl, you have an easier time understanding why guys camp out for Star-Wars like it’s Yosemite National Park, than guys trying to understand how in the name of Zeus’s Pie Hole, girls are mind-numbed and sometimes sweaty after watching a movie about a girl who’s in a love triangle between a chest-flashing werewolf and a hair-straightener using vampire. A girl on YouTube explained unrealistic fantasy romance novels/movies to what pornography is to guys. Well, when you put it that way, it just clicks. On the show Shahed, Ali, Mahvash and Iman also discuss Sex and the City.

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32k Quality:

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Two years ago, a group of Iranian-American volunteers from the San Francisco Bay Area started to broadcast a show from a humble second bedroom in Menlo Park to the mothership: RadioJavan.com. Their goal: To explore issues affecting “Generation Iranian-American” with different perspectives, while promoting unity through dialogue and tolerance.

Two years and FIFTY-FOUR shows later we have fulfilled that mission (and then some) and we ain’t stoppin’ now.

Make sure to check out all our shows here: http://www.iranican.com/blog/?cat=3

(If you have a mobile device, you can quickly access our podcasts via iranican.com/iPhone )

In our Second Anniversary show, we step back and reminisce on some of the best moments on Iranican Live, after we discuss the current controversy surrounding the Benyamin Concerts in the U.S., and Ostad Shajarian’s new political edge after the airing of a BBC documentary about him.

Tune in every other Wednesday nights, 7PM PST / 10PM EST on RadioJavan.com, and remember to always try to see the other side of every issue.