Dispatches since 2005
The journal
Announcements, new editions, travel, diving, cooking and the working life of a novelist — 272 entries, all of them here in full.
June 29, 2009 · 140 words
Standing By
The Iranian revolution has entered a grim and secret phase. Grim, because the news is of mass arrests, protests being smashed, demonstrators beaten. Secret, because the situation may be resolved— or not— by maneuvers within the Iranian power structure that are opaque to those of us in the West. Still, the c
Read entry →June 27, 2009 · 127 words
Art Film
Women as well as men, everyone watching this film will feel the dissolution of all their certainties, all their illusory grasp on the world… but after you fall into a brazen despair that the walls of reality have become toxic ice cream of a million flavors, you will gasp with a greater realization: that once [&he
Read entry →June 24, 2009 · 468 words
Hostage Facility
All the thinking I’ve been doing about Iran in the last week has brought to mind something that I always thought was kind of obvious, which is that Iran talks big and swaggers rather a lot for a country that has a built-in on-off switch. By which I mean Kharg Island. Kharg Island lies about […]
Read entry →June 24, 2009 · 592 words
Levy on Iran
Bernard-Henri Levy on Iran:Whatever happens from this point on, nothing will ever be the same in Tehran. Whatever happens, if the protest gains momentum or loses steam, if it ends up prevailing or if the regime succeeds in terrorizing it, he who should now only be called president-non-elect Ahmadinejad will only be an
Read entry →June 23, 2009 · 186 words
Another Long Day
Another long day trying to keep up with events in Iran. For those who wish to help Iranians and dissidents in other nations evade surveillance, check out the Tor Project. Originally a project of the U.S. Navy and now spun off into a freeware company, Tor— strangely sharing a name with the largest US science [&hel
Read entry →June 22, 2009 · 708 words
Outside Shot at an Oscar
The other day I found myself on the set of a low-budget film.In recent years I’ve become interested in video technology for the masses, and how nowadays you can not only make a YouTube video for the change you vacuum up from behind the sofa cushions, but an entire movie. I think the production budget […]
Read entry →June 19, 2009 · 878 words
Courage
I haven’t been posting for a couple days because, well, I have this life. I have friends, family, and a freakin’ job. All of this keeps getting in the way of my Internet! I realize this is overturning the natural order, but I’m all perverse that way. I’ve been following the Iranian revolution via the […]
Read entry →June 17, 2009 · 46 words
Mystery Pic
I was looking through the photo archives yesterday and found this. Which brings us to today’s puzzler. A genuine no-prize to the first person who tells me what this is. And— just for the record— “a leftover piece of Sixties psychedelia” is not the correct answer.
Read entry →June 15, 2009 · 463 words
Watching My Uncompleted Novel Go Down in Flames
Here we have a video of an Iranian paramilitary before and after he fired randomly into a crowd of protestors, killing at least one person. (Well, they did set fire to his building.) We can see his face. There are people watching this video who probably know where he lives, and who his parents and […]
Read entry →June 15, 2009 · 88 words
The Revolution, Televised
The revolution will not only be televised, it will be downloaded, remixed, Youtubed, Twittered, and set to a soundtrack by the Moody Blues. (Okay, I couldn’t bring myself to link to that last one.) On the unlikely chance that my Iranian revolutionary brethren are checking in at this moment, functioning proxy sites may
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