It had been on the Star's critics' pick for weeks. I wanted to see it, but I was ready to be disappointed. So many Iranian festival-movies had proved to be disappointing. It's amazing how all the critics and western art-house moviegoers love Iranian flicks ... and it used to be cool (and I guess still is) for us to like it too, it shows that we understand art movies, we are deep, philosophical, we get the hidden meaning, the bigger picture ... or do we?

To be honest, I don't think Iranian flicks are half as good as these people think they are ... TOO many looooong sequences, too slow a pace, too little converstation. True, it's minimalism, but not all minimalism is art ... or appealing for that matter.

Anyway, so I saw Crimson Gold tonight; Jafar Panahi's award winning and critically acclaimed film. I wasn't surprised ... it had all the same elements: slow pace, loooooong sequences of nothing happening (if the pizza is to be delivered to the fourth floor, they HAVE to show the guy walk up the stairs all the four floors, and as slowly as humanly possible.)

And that's the thing with Iranian movies. They start with so much of these long boring sequences, with so little conversation or dialogue that you get so bored, and then suddenly there's one scene, usually in an eye-pleasing upper class Tehran mansion, and there's very normal dialogue going on ... nothing special ... with mediocre to relatively good acting ... but the mere fact that there's *something* going on, makes you love that scene ... and since those are usually closer to the end, the impression left on you from the movie is a good one.

Like Kiarostami's "Taste of Cherry". So many shots of the guy driving ... doing nothing ... and then that conversation with the Turkish guy. It was nothing special, just a regular conversation, but since nothing had gone on before that, it became such a wonderful and enjoyable scene in the movie (I loved it anyway).

In any case, Crimson Gold wasn't a bad movie, but all those long sequences seriously made it boring ... like comparing it to Lost in Translation, nothing significant happened in that movie either. But you still never got bored. The soundtrack definitely helped, but it was generally so well-composed that when nothing happened you didn't get bored. But they never do that in Iranian movies ... sometimes it almost seems intentional. "Let's bore the viewers to death", seem to be the motto. So, yeah, had the boring scenes been cut off, it would have been a truly good movie.

By the way there were a few cool scenes as far as the Iranian viewers are concerned. One was of these paasdaars waiting outside this party, waiting for the party goers to come out and arresting them one by one. The way the "haaj agha" or cheif of the paasdars were portrayed was pretty cool (typical grumpy arrogant animal). Also, the main character drinks what seems to be a half-bottle of wine in the movie, and certainly gets drunk, which I think is a first in Iranian movies (well the movie is banned in Iran anyway, so ... wouldn't make much of a difference).

I've been sort of busy the past few days. I've done a couple of cartoons for the Varsity (coming out this Monday). I'm sort of an associate of the Varsity now; associate illustrator. I say "sort of" becuase they've never had such a position before, it's the first year and I'm kick-starting it, and it's sort of not an "official" position yet. I guess it just means I'll be doing more stuff for them this year and if I want to get more involved, I can coordinate all the other cartoonists and stuff - although there aren't many.

And I sort of do want to get more involved this year. I'm going to continue Project Legofish Vista, which kicked off late last year. It's like a pendaresque "Far side", if you will. The challenge will be to keep it up every week ...

I'm tempted to post the cartoons I've done for this issue on the sketchpad, but I really don't want to publish them here before the paper comes out, so, check back on Monday.

Tonight was the last of a short-lived series of jiggy (aka jeegar) nights with Reza and Pouria. We're definitely going to try and carry on the torch, but we both know it's not going to be the same without Pouria.

I can say, without any taarof and trying to be polite, that Pouria was one of the few people that I consider myself very fortunate to have been acquainted with in Toronto. He has accomplished so much, yet his modesty shields all of it, unless you really know him. His relaxed and chilled attitude is also what makes him unique - although as it goes he has a violent side, which I had the good fortune of never witnessing! On top of that, the guy oozes with knowledge, about anything and everything you can think of. I definitely owe it to Reza for introducing me to Pouria, and other great friends of his.

In any case, it's really a shame he's leaving Toronto ... and I find it truly unfortunate, for us, that he's leaving ... although I wish him the best of luck wherever he is.

And he's not the only cool person that's leaving town. Stipe, our hilarious poker buddy is also bidding farewell to this city. Poker night is never going to be the same without him. Who is going to supply the comedy, or yell "I never lose" while pretending to knock over the table when his chips are down?

It really sucks ... Why can't the garbage people leave instead?

Ok ... you know how back in the days, way back, a lot of the content on the web were those horrible pages with backgrounds that made your eyes water and font colors that almost made you blind. Before the days of css, before anything like Dreamweaver or Frontpage was even made. When the novice didn't bother to learn tables and used "center" tags in a plane html page?

Well, I had one of those websites!!! Yeah it's been my deepest darkest secret ... but what the heck. In fact, in the old days, where hardly anyone had internet in Iran, and there was no Pendar.net or the thousand other sites that are stealing my name now, back in the days were there was no google, when you searched on Alta Vista or something for "Pendar", the first of the handful of results you got was "Pendar's Cool Website".

I had just came to Canada from the UAE, I was in high school and excited about this "world wide web". And even though I didnt know shit about making websites, I decided to build one. So I signed up for a free account on angelfire ... back in the good old days there were no pop-ups or ads either. It had a generic webpage generator, very funny, you just punched in the title and chose an ulgy background and there was this area you put in your text and it would pop out a horrible-looking page (funny it still works pretty much the same way)!

And I wasn't going to use generic buttons and graphics everyone else used those days, no way sir, I was going to design my OWN buttons. Of course I had no photoshop, corel, or anything. So I used good old MS PAINT (!!!!!), armed with the mouse, to make those nasty huge buttons. The main image I did with Autodesk Animator (OLLLLD school) .. which had then-fascinating features such as "color gradients".

Anyway, I haven't updated that site in 5 years, I think I only maintained it throughout high school and maybe a little bit in first year uni, and since then it's been gathering virtual dust. It was funny, I don't know why I was checking it out again today.

It's a funny document I think, evidence to my growing up. It's funny almost, how in so many ways my taste has changed (I can't believe I quoted Oprah on the quotes page !!!!!) and how in so many ways it hasn't.

I had totally forgotten about that page, til I got an email a few months ago from some guy, saying he had stumbled across it, after years of searching for the Mastercard Commercial theme song for the Ad that used to play during World Cup 98. The song was Era's Ameno ... and he had finally found it on my site (or at least found out who the song is from) and wanted to thank me.

It's like old teen pics everyone wants to hide and are ashamed of, but I guess after you grow old you don't mind them anymore, and show them to people. I'm still not that old, but I think it's time for this to come out of the closet.

The funniest thing now is reading people's entries on my guestbook. Too bad so many of them are "private", and only I can read them, but they are the best ones. Like this one from Pendar Sillwood in England:

"I was just doing a search for other Pendar's in the world. I don't know why I was so
surprised when I found that there are some!
What's the origin of yours? Mine is from an ancient English king (different spelling).
Adios."

Or this

i just wanted to let you know that i think you're a great guy and a perfect boyfriend!! you make me feel wonderful

You hear that ladies? ;) Hehe, how ironic.

I tried to do some other, more pioneering work as well. Shortly after I made this, I also made what was then the first and only Perisan MP3 music site. It was called Weekly Persian MP3, and at some point had acquired considerable traffic. Of course I wasn't looking to, nor did I ever, make any money from it. I just wanted to be the first person who does things, and I'm glad I was. I remember uploading an mp3 each week, which took me an hour or so with dialup, on the meager angelfire server. It was also my first/only experience with Flash. The main page used to look good, but at some point it got messed up and the header got to the horrible misaligned shape that it is now!

Anyway, so if you're ready for an eye-sore and a pop-up assault, check them out. (if you close the pop-up it reopens on every new page, so leave it open, or just use Google tool bar to kill all the pop ups)

Pendar's Cool Website
Weekly Persian MP3

Warning: this post contains spoilers. If you haven't seen Donnie Darko and you're planning to see it, stop reading.

Well I just saw DD, finally. It was an ok movie. borderline good, but not great. It was good in a sense that it made you think, very hard. It was also interesting that there's no way to understand the movie without going through the website, as there are new info, vital to understanding the movie, contained in the website. This is novel, which makes it rather cool.

But I think it's also the reason the movie isn't great. Cuz if you don't know that you should check out the site, then there's no chance you can understand what the HELL went on in that movie. Also, MOST of the confusion about this movie arises not because it's hard to understand, but because there are vital information left out of the movie, and you are only to discover them from other sources, which in my opinion is not a very elegant way.

It's like, "Look ma, I made a movie no one will understand, Cuz I didn't tell show them this ..." The art in making a thought provoking and difficult-to-understand movie (like the Butterfly Effect), is to have it contain ALL the information, yet still be complex enough to make you think about it for hours before you get what happened. Leaving out clues from the movie and thus making it confusing doens't require much talent.

The most unforgiveable, I think, is the fact that we are never shown how Donnie "tears off" the engine from the plane, at the end. There are no clear clues in the whole movie that he has supernatural powers either. (there's only the axe in the school statues head, which is not terribly supernatural, and the little conversation between Donnie and the girl, where the girl says your name sounds like a superhero's and Donnie jokes, "what makes you think I'm not one?").

It is only by listening to the director's commentary on DVD, where he says "Oh and Donnie rips off the engine there (!!!!!!)" that you are to know what happened. Otherwise he's just sitting on the hill at the end, watching the engine fall off. And the fact that he did have supernatural powers to tear the engine off is even more ridiculous, while in the whole movie there was no manifest of his powers. Also, all the "living manipulators" and the "dead manipulators" or whatever, is only mentioned in the book on the website, and without it the movie doens't make a lot of sense.

Anyway, a decent attempt, solid acting, mediocre soundtrack, and a relatively simple storyline after you do all the reading. It is by far one of the better films that I have seen, but still lacks the punch to be called a true masterpiece. One funny thing is that when I read some of the reviews after watching the movie, it was funny how a lot of the reviewers who had obvioulsy not checked out the website, did not have a clue about what went on, and it's really funny to write a "review" about a movie when you didn't really understand it. Again, this reliance on external sources is a major weakness.

I am in the business of buying time.

WHAT a game .... WHAT a game. Absolutely unbelievable.

I was rooting for France from the beginning, I hate England. Bunch of rowdy animals who play with no class. First and foremost, Rooney is a HORRIBLE player. People like that don't deserve to be on ANY team, he has ZERO control over his temper, and probably has the mental capacity of an infant. And that was SUCH a dive, it should have NEVER been called a penalty. And WHAT a magnificent save by Barthez, he showed his class again.

But when nothing looked like france can break the deadlock and would hand over the game to England, Zidane proves why he's the world's best player. I mean, this is truly unbelievable. He is OFFICIALLY a GOD. ONE good setpiece, France only had a SINGLE good set piece in the whole game, and Zidane converts it. How good can you get? And then stupid mistake by the English defender, and Zidane converting the penalty deep into stoppage. Absolutely unbelievable.

The outnumbered french supporters in the pub totally outshouted the otherwise rowdy English fans.

Although it was sort of heartbreaking to see my former Brit team-mate leave the pub once the ref blew for the penalty, not even staying to see france take it - an act of a true loyal fan. I saw him sitting there smoking, almost with a tear in his eye when I was leaving. "Tough luck", I said. "It's bullshit that's what it is" he replied. "You saw the penalty huh? 2-1 Final score?". "Yeah" I replied ... "Better luck next time". "Nice seeing you" he said, smoking the cig.

But anyway, ANY team with an animal like Rooney in it deserves to lose.

Euro cup has kicked off ... 3 weeks of excitement in store. It's at times like these when you wish you had a TV, but luckily there are the locals sport bars and pubs, so if you need me you'll find me at O'gradys (at least until I find a better place).

Sitting there watching the first game today, I couldn't help but think about a couple of things. First, how i REALLY hope Iran wouldn't get eliminated so soon from the world cup quals (they lost 1-0 to Joran the other day), cuz it just would suck ... I want to experience world cup 98 again, with Iran in it ... or at least the second round of quals ...

Second, it's amazing how football brings people together. There were these Greek fans in the bar, they didn't know each other before the game, but after the game they were all hugging and high-fiving and everything.

Even around my office building, there are guys that I always see and only say hi to, but never really talk with. Well now, when we see each other we stop and discuss the games, wishing each other luck (well, they can't wish me luck cuz Iran's not involved, but they still recall all the Iran games they have seen, like Iran vs. Ireland).

So ... anyway, football is great ...

damn site was down for days ... and right when Hoder gave a link to my zero-7 pics in his linkdooni !!! What an embarassment ... bloody no good host. I Floccinaucinihilipilificate it.

I finally sat down and watched the finale of Frasier (and Friends, last night). I don't have a TV, and I'm happy about that. I keep hating it more and more whenever I go back to Vancouver or to a friend's house where there is one and I watch it.

But that doesn't mean EVERYthing on TV is crap, and there are a few shows I miss. Back when I used to watch TV, Frasier was my favorite. It was just SO refreshing to see a smart, relatively sophisticated, funny show with such well-developed and layered characters - all of them this much lovable. To have an eloquent - yet not over the top - and classy character played on TV was such a delight, and the dynamic relationship between Frasier and Niles, and between them and their Dad (played by John Mahoney, which I think is a PHENOMENAL actor and deserves more recognition) was fantastic.

Anyway, I thought the Finale was superb, a great ending to a legendery TV show, which probably due to the limitations of the American viewers intellect never got the legendery status it deserved.

I finally managed to get my hands on Afterlife's "Speck of Gold" which came out a few days ago. I read this review before listening to the album, and I didn't want to believe it.

Disappointing is an understatement for this record ... I can't believe they could ever produce such a dull and mediocre record, there's not a single track that stands out ... goodbye, Afterlife.

I'm back in Toronto. Vancouver was great, I really wish I had stayed longer. An eventful trip. There was my brother's graduation from med school. It was also the first time after a long while that we were all together (my family I mean), so that was awesome. Spending time with my Dad, and my Mom ... super ... I also got the greatest gift I have EVER gotten. My brother brought me two authentic Samurai swords from his trip to Japan. They are absolutely amazing, I couldn't let go of them for the first few days ... it's seriously the best thing I've ever gotten, so thanks Vandad :)

But a week was way too short. I couldn't spend as much time as I wanted to with my great family and my awesome friends. I really should have planned for a longer trip from the beginning, but it was too late to change it when I was there. Still, I got to see pretty much all my good friends. Medz, Pej, Omar, Arash, Faraz, Dean, B., and of course my gorgeous gal Ayeh.

It's sort of funny, Cuz pretty much all of us have graduated now, and I have no idea where we'd see each other the next time we meet. I don't know if they all be still in Vancouver the next time I visit. Anyway, thanks again to everyone ... I'll be posting the pictures from the trip on the photoblog ...

And here's a song to cheer myself up ...

Hey there Mister Blue
We're so pleased to be with you

Ok, here are the pictures and some videos for the Zero 7 concert in Vancouver. It was at the Commodore Ballroom, which is a much bigger (and IMO better) venue than Toronto's Opera House.

The crowd in Vancouver were decent, surprisingly sizeable number of Persians though! The gig itself was magnificent, as ever.

Trip is winding down, and this place has become a boring travelog, not that this post is going to be any different. More sushi with Dean yesterday ... can't get enough of Vancouver Sushi really. I don't have photoshop on this PC so I can't resize the pictures I've taken and post them just yet. What else? Not much I guess, I'm gonna head down and take some pictures from downtown, this place is a living post card. I'll stop by Don't Show The Elephant and get some Lavender tea as well :)

Too many things to blog, really.

Yesterday: After 6 months of not having touched a vehicle,Drove a car gave my final road test and got rid of the stupid class 7 (G2 in Toronto lingo) license to get my class 5 (G). Stupid graduated licensing. Thanks to bro for being patient as his whole day was wasted. Oh and btw tried some Arian food, pretty good, me like.

Went to the zero 7 concert again in the evening. I enjoyed it no less than last time, in the company of very special people. I took a ton of pics and even a few video clips this time, they really deserve an entry of their own though, so stay tuned.

Today: Attended bro's (Dr. bro's I guess) graduation ceremony. Then stayed for the next procession and saw a lot of my buddies and acquaintances graduate, including the mighty Deaner boy, Omar, and of course Granaz. Congrats to all of you guys.

Going out for dinner with family tonight, and maybe later some heavy celebrating with Omar and Co.

Tomorrow, more celebration with Deanerboy, maybe an outing with Ayeh (ladie's night anyone?) and other amusing activities.