Month: July 2002

This Washington Post review caught my eye:
“In the standard list of artistic masterpieces, [the Hamzanama] may not ring a bell. Even the most dedicated museum-goers don’t know about the lavishly illustrated manuscript executed for Akbar, great Mughal emperor of India in the 16th century. But they should. And some day they all may, if a breathtaking, groundbreaking show at the Smithsonian’s Sackler Gallery has the ripple effect it ought to.”
The Hamzanama, Heroic in Deed
If you’re in DC, you can see the exhibit at the Sackler Gallery. For the rest of us, this online intro will have to do. The snapshots of the Hamzanama are breathtakingly gorgeous.

They don’t put that in the Islamic Revolution brochures: Iran has a huge prostitution problem. The war with Iraq created thousands of war widows, many of whom have no other way of making a living in a society with an already high unemployment rate. The government is at a loss what to do, so their latest idea is licensed “decency houses.”
The Revolution did bring a higher literacy rate and greater social justice for the lower classes, but at what cost?

I’ve had a crippling back pain since last Saturday. I have a tendency to slouch when I’m working at the laptop and I must have pulled something. I can’t get in and out of my car, I can’t pick up stuff from the floor, or go about anything without pain shooting in the lumbar area. I hope the chiropractor can do something for me tomorrow. I had to miss one yoga class and I’d hate to miss another.

I went to a reading at Dutton’s bookstore tonight where Jean Harfenist read from her story collection A Brief History of the Flood, which won rave reviews, including from the New York Times’ Michiko Kakutani. The excerpts she read were excellent and I’m getting the book. Please check out her book and support a local author!