Category Archives: Uncategorized

Vigen or Viguen: popular Armenian-Iranian artist

Leave a reply
Vigen.jpg

Vigen, born Vigen Derderian (November 23, 1929 – October 26, 2003), known as “Sultan of Pop” and “Sultan of Persian jazz”, was an immensely popular Iranian pop music singer and actor, well known throughout the Near East.

Vigen’s innovative and upbeat style of music had a great influence on paving the way for a new genre of Iranian music, influenced by Western European and Latin American styles.

Among his notable songs are Chera nemiraghsi? (Why you are not dancing?), Mahtab (Moonlight), Lala’ee (Lullaby), and Zane Irooni take (Iranian woman is unique). Ref: Wikipedia

Iran Heritage Foundation’s Norouz Gala 2014 in London

Leave a reply

Iran Heritage Foundation invites you to celebrate The Persian New Year NOROUZ with its legendary hospitality on Saturday 22nd March 2014 at The Grosvenor House, Park Lane, London W1K 7TN. Featuring: Rising Star Rana Mansour.

About Rana Mansour
Rana Mansour has performed her original song entitled “No Place Like Home” on Bravo TV’s hit show The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. A Finalist of the VH1 ‘Song of the Year’ Competition, Rana earned her Bachelor’s in Music with honors at the acclaimed Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. Currently, Rana lives in Los Angeles where she is working on releasing her first Persian album with producer Erwin Khachikian (Serj Tankian) while also continuing to pursue her music career in the American market with their new project ‘The Animates‘. The Animates released their first single ‘IN mY hEAd‘ in January 2014.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpP8suJDeIE

In Memoriam of Dr. Akbar Ghahary: well known inventor and philanthropist

Leave a reply

socialinform's avatarRemarkable people with Iranian roots

Dr. Ghahary received his master’s in mechanical design and engineering from Aria Mehr University in Iran and his Ph.D., in 1983, in thermoset plastics composition and design in affiliation with Lowell University of Massachusetts. He is well-known for his expertise in polymer design and composites and owns many US and international patents, mostly in polymers and advanced composites. As CEO of Safas Corporation, he created Granicoat (R), the award-winning product that Safas Corporation manufactures and markets worldwide.
A strong supporter of the younger generation of Iranian Americans, Dr. Ghahary was instrumental in funding and promoting PAAIA’s Capitol Hill Internship Program (CHIP).

Ref: http://www.payvand.com/news/14/feb/1188.html

View original post

Manuchehr Mohammadi honored by UNESCO for “outstanding contribution to the promotion and preservation of cultural diversity through film,”

1 Reply
Iranian film The Painting Pool’s producer Manuchehr Mohammadi has been honored by UNESCO during a ceremony held in the capital city of Tehran.

The Painting Pool won the UNESCO Award for “outstanding contribution to the promotion and preservation of cultural diversity through film,” the APSA jury had earlier commented on the film at the award ceremony in Brisbane in December 2013.
APSA is endorsed by UNESCO, with which it shares a common goal of fostering cultural diversity and promoting mutual understanding, dialogue and peace.
The annual Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA) is an international cultural initiative of the State Government of Queensland, Australia, through Events Queensland, to honor and promote the films, actors, directors, and cultures of Asia-Pacific to a global audience.

 

http://presstv.com/detail/2014/02/22/351786

Iran and its Youth: A Series of Dialogues

Leave a reply
 

Source: The Global Dialogue on the Future of Iran

The Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto is pleased to present a series of interactive conversations that will take place in Berlin, Toronto, London, and Silicon Valley – all live online – during the first week of March 2014. These discussions will bring together experts, thought-leaders, media, and entrepreneurs from the international Iranian community together virtually with youth inside Iran to share a broad range of views on Iran’s future.

Each of these events will be broadcast live in Farsi and will address topics that specifically matter to Iranian youth: technological innovation, entrepreneurship, news and media, information and communication, civil society, and more. Each of these dialogue themes were informed by an online survey conducted with over 19,000 Iranians inside Iran. Learn more about each city and its topic below.

Connect with us and watch the event! Share your opinion on the Global Dialogue’s social media pages! And most importantly, participate in the discussion – ask anything.

Hamed Nikpay and International ensemble performing Persian-Flamenco fusion in London

1 Reply

Image

A couple of weeks ago I was in London with a great Persian singer and multi-instrumentalist called Hamed Nikpay to play a show and do a live in-studio recording for the BBC Persia channel. The show was at Cadogan Hall in Chelsea, and the recording session was at one of London’s famous rehearsal and recording studios, Premises Studios and was for the BBC’s Persian channel.

I had never played with Hamed before (or with any Persian musicians – except for a few rehearsals and a little warm-up gig we did in L.A. before we left), but he always has a flamenco guitarist with him (usually my good friend Alfredo Cáceres, who couldn’t make these dates), as he likes the vibe that gives. I don’t know much about Persian music, but apparently this is fusion and that’s the sound he likes, and it certainly sounds right. The musical director was sax player Farzin Farhadi, the percussionist was Greg Ellis , 

and the bass player was Eric Klerks, who besides being a great bass player is the one of the guitarists with the Magic Band. There were also two dancers – Paris-based Persian dancer Sharokh Moshkin Ghalam and Paris-based flamenco dancer Karen Gonzales.

You can see some of the great photos shot for the BBC at Cadogan Hall here, and you can see some of my not-so-amazing photos of the trip in the gallery below. Here’s a video that has some interviews with the guys in Farsi and some good footage of the show.

http://www.guitarsalon.com/blog/?p=4690#more-4690

Photos: University Dissertation Presented On The Wall!

Leave a reply

Image

6 Iranian women (Bita, Elham, Mahzad, Setayesh, Simin, Zahra), who are university students majoring in Graphics, did their dissertation by doing a painting on the outside wall of a sports club in Tehran. Here are snapshots of the women at work and their amazing work of art!

check more cool photos:

http://www.payvand.com/news/14/jan/1187.html

Iran-Israel a viral TED Video by Ronny Edry

Leave a reply

Also consider that the people in Iran are living in a dictatorship, which strongly limits their freedom of speech. Still for every Israeli love-message there was an iranian response.

This is the reality. the reality is not what politicians make up, like what you can read in the following article by the Christian Science Monitor:

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2011/1108/Imminent-Iran-nuclear-threat-A-timeline-of-warnings-since-1979/Israel-paints-Iran-as-Enemy-No.-1-1992

Hairless hero: Iranian teacher shaves head in solidarity with bullied pupil

1 Reply

Image

When Iranian schoolteacher Ali Mohammadian noticed that one of his students was being bullied after going bald as a result of a mysterious illness, he decided to show solidarity and shave his own hair. In no time, his entire class shaved their heads and the bullying stopped.

Now, Mohammadian, who teaches at Sheikh Shaltoot’s elementary school in Marivan, a Kurdish city in the west of Iran, has become a national hero.

Read more:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2014/jan/28/iranian-teacher-hero-shaving-head-solidarity-bullied-pupil

Kart track in Iran

Leave a reply

Parand International Kart Racing Complex is situated approximately 35 km southwest of Tehran.

Image

A woman on second place:

Image

Celebrating the day with some music:Image

http://www.uskowioniran.com/2013/11/parand-international-kart-racing-complex.html

Photos: Socrates play performed in Tehran

Leave a reply

Image

enjoy more cool and surprising pictures at:

http://www.payvand.com/news/13/dec/1082.html

Photos: Snow in Ardabil

Leave a reply

Ardabil is about 70 km (43 mi) from the Caspian Sea, and 210 km from the city of Tabriz. It has an average altitude of 1,263 metres (4,144 ft)

The name Ardabil comes from the Zoroastrian name of “Artawila”, which means a holy place. Ardabil is the center of Ardabil Province. At the 2011 census, its population was 564,365, in 156,324 families, where the dominant majority are ethnic Azeris.

See more cool and surprising photos at:

http://www.payvand.com/news/13/dec/1086.html

Snow_in_ardabil_Oldtimer

 

Photos: Saint Stepanous Monastery in Jolfa, Iran

Leave a reply

Iran’s East and West Azerbaijan Provinces are host to the oldest churches in Iran. Among the most significant are the Tatavous Vank ( St. Tatavous Cathedral), which is also called the Ghara Kelissa (the black monastery). This is located at the Siahcheshmeh (Ghara-Eini) border area south of Makou.

There is also the Saint Stepanous Monastery, which stands 24 kilometers south of East Azarbaijan’s Jolfa town. The general structure mostly resembles Armenian and Georgian architecture and the inside of the building is adorned with beautiful paintings by Honatanian, a renowned Armenian artist. Hayk Ajimian, an Armenian scholar and historian, recorded that the church was originally built in the ninth century AD, but repeated earthquakes completely eroded the previous structure. The church was rebuilt during the rule of Shah Abbas the Second.

Source: Payvand News of Iran

Ehsan Ghaem-Maghami – the Iranian chess grand master who won against Anatoly Karpov and set a guiness world record in chess

Leave a reply

socialinform's avatarRemarkable people with Iranian roots

Ehsan Ghaem-Maghami (born 11 January 1982) is a chess grandmaster (2000) from Iran. On the September 2011 FIDE list, he has an Elo rating of 2583. He is a bachelor of law and now is studying sports management at the University of Tehran.

In 2004, he came first in the Kish GM Tournament. In 2009, he won a 20-game combined match (four classical, four rapid and twelve blitz games) against Anatoly Karpov, played with a special rule: play to mate or dead draw.

The new Guinness record holder for simultaneous chess games (614 opponents and has achieved 97.5% score points) which was held in Tehran on 10th FEB 2011.

He was the most successful chess player in 2004 in regard to increasing the most rating points and playing the most number of games and tournaments, which is registered by the World Chess Federation (FIDE).

Source: Wikipedia | Ehsan Ghaem-Maghami

View original post