Wrestling with the Tides

...
and that’s how I came to be here;
waiting in the never-ending corridors,
looking for a lost key,

buried in the unreachable time between two oceans,
dusty and wild from the invisible wrestling with the tides,
and the pain of a long-broken bone that won’t heal on its own!

That is how I came to be here!

October 2007, CA

Out of the Ordinary!

It is that time of the semester again; the time of missing notes, headaches, reading chunks of articles, scattered paper all over, empty toners, sick cats,...

One of my papers is due next week. That is the earliest. I hope to finish it by weekend. Don’t want to have much on my hands on December. But the research goes slowly. I feel like I am trapped in a loop. It is really not my style. I will be miserable until I find a way out of the loop.

I should fix BibiHureyh. I have already made an appointment to get an estimate for the repair of the monitor. Without the appointment it will get them 2 days to just give an estimate. I don't know how long it gets in other computer shops, I expected Apple to be faster.

My recent article for Peyk, Art & Healing; One step into Flutter, an exhibition by Connie Arismendi, is available on pdf (English section, Peyk 124). I haven’t got the copy of the magazine yet. That makes me wonder which side is not doing the job well, the sender or the post office in Austin.

But more important than my ordinary updates, is FRONTLINE report on Neda Agha Soltan’s death in Tehran. A Death in Tehran was aired last night, Nov.17th 2009, on PBS. Please watch it and share it with others. It's worth your time. (Introduction)

Bereket Music Group:

This semester Bereket, the UT Middle Eastern Ensemble, is working on traditional Arabic music. I have been playing with Bereket since spring 2009. This semester I am playing Daff. I originally play Santur. Our director for this program is Roberto Riggio. If you are in Austin join us for a night of Tarab, the ultimate musical joy in Arabic musical tradition. The admission is free. The performance will be this Thursday, Nov.12th at 7:30pm at Bates Recital Hall.

What is going on in Austin?

Art History-wise this is an energetic November:

Today is the first day of the Transnational Latin American Art Conference (the 1st International Research Forum for Graduate Students and Emerging Scholars.) It will be a 3-day conference with concentration of talks and panels on Saturday and Sunday. The papers will cover the trio continental connections in Latin American art (US, Europe, Latin America.)

Domestic-wise there is not so much energy left after too many energy-sucking issues; Zeitoon, my fat ginger cat, having heart problem was the breaking point of them all.