coincidence of Pont des Arts in Paris and Place des Arts in Montreal

A few months ago, when I was in Paris and I was walking in the streets, somewhere behind Notre Dame, I saw two young musicians who were playing John Lennon's "Imagine". I could say they didn't know Paris well enough and that they had just started their journey. I sat on the floor and listened. After a while, we started to talk and they turned out to be Czech. I told them how much I loved Prague and I had great memories during my 2 visits. They asked me what I wanted them to play and I said some folk Czech songs.

I then took them for a small tour around Rive Gauche, Place St Michel and finally to Pont des Arts, places where they could play and have more audience.
When we arrived at Pont des Arts, one of them said: "Wow! there's a party here". He was right. It was Saturday evening and as usual summer nights, this bridge was full of people who were sitting on it, eating, drinking and playing music.

After a few hours, we saw 2 other musicians who were playing tom-tom and accordion. The Czech guys started talking to them and one of them turned out to be from Montreal. I told him that I'm going to move to Montreal soon and we started talking. Then we all went down the bridge on the river bank where there were some more young musicians playing mostly tom-tom and so they played all together.
Here are 2 photos from that night. The rest you can see on my flickr page.

Today, after 3 months, without having any contact from the Montrealer, while walking my way in "Place des Arts" metro station in Montreal, I bumped into him!

What could be the probability of seeing someone you saw only once, in a place where it has a common word to the first place and that word happens to be "arts"?

Crazy world, isn't it?

Life in Paris II

Unlike what I thought in the first 4 months that I had arrived in Paris, she is one lively city where you can feel life in different aspects. In this post, I want to show you some of the frames of the street art scene in Paris. You can see more photos on my flickr set

Place Saint Michel is one of those places where you can find these sort of performers almost every evening.

Bastille was one of those other places where you could find street musicians and some of them were awesome.

This man was a painter who painted on the floor near Chatelet.

He changed his painting almost everyday!

Near Montmartre, there were street art performers,

as well as musicians. This was the first time I saw such an instrument. My friend told me it is called "saw". It was made of a thin layer of metal, as thin as a paper, and it had a sound similar to violin but higher. It's an American folk instrument having its roots in the 19th century but which has become worldwide from the 20th century. 
You might be surprised to know that Tom Waits, Sarah McLachlan, Penderecki and even Neutral Milk Hotel used this instrument in their music. If anyone has a video link of performance by these artists, please leave it as comment. 

This was in Paris XX. "One should not trust words". Do you agree?

Kiosk gig in Montreal

My next post on Paris will come after this one.

I'm back from Kiosk gig, the second one of their tour which has started on 5th of November. The first one was in Toronto and the rest is in Europe. Kisok will perform in Köln, Florence, Berlin, Hamburg, Amsterdam, Oslo, Gothenburg and Stockholm. Tara Kamangar, the dexterous musician is accompanying Kiosk at this tour and plays violin. 
Only after 2 weeks of my arrival in Montreal, I was lucky to get a ticket to this gig through my friend, since they were sold out.
I got to know this band in Tehran, 4 years ago. The first song I heard was "Eshgh-e sorat" which was apparently the most successful song of their second album. This album also had a song called "Amoo Asdollah", which made reference to the characters in the very famous book of "My uncle Napolean".  I soon got their debut album, and found my favorite song, "road to happiness" in it.

Kiosk released "Global zoo" in 2008 and "triple distilled" just recently.
Like always, Kiosk lyrics are mostly inspired by social realities and changes in Iran. Arash wittily makes allusions to proverbs; In the case of "Agha! Nigah dar", he refers to a hero of our childhood stories, and challenges the listeners by questioning the famous cliche of "Is wealth better or knowledge?"

Although the lyrics are Persian, the music speaks to a wide range of people from everywhere; there were quite a few non-Iranians at the concert as well. Just grasping the words "Tarzan" and "cheetah" in "ay ay" from "global zoo", is enough for them cuz the music itself tells the rest.

If I want to describe Kiosk music genre, I would say a mix of blues, jazz and gypsy. The gypsy tone is very much highlighted by Ardalan Payvar's accordion and Tara Kamangar's accompaniment by violin.
During some pieces, I was reminded of "Gogol Bordello", not that they are similar but because both have gypsy influence in their music.

One interesting part in the concert was during "Bitarbiat", when the audience filled the gaps of the censored words loudly!

I managed to take some photos from the band tonight and I'm gonna share them with you here. To see all the photos, click on my flickr page, click on the slide show, below the search field and watch them.

Here's Ardalan Payvar, on accordion.

 

He also played on keyboard

Arash Sobhani, the founder of the band, also surprised the audience of Montreal, by singing a song from Leonard Cohen, the Montrealer artist and one of my favorite singers of all time. It was a nice gesture. 

 Shahrouz Molaei, the enthusiastic drummer of Kiosk.

Tara Kamangar, is initially pianist but she plays violin with Kiosk. Her artistry play, gave the whole performance, a remarkable charm.

Ali Kamali, the basist

and again Arash, who was really into it!

If you're in one of the tour destinations, don't miss their concert. And last but not least, after each song, the audience was asking for "yarom bia". But did Kiosk play this folkloric song or was just firing the audience up till the end of the concert and not quenching their thirst? You'll see...

Life in Paris I

Me: What do you advise? Any books to read? How can I become a good photographer?
Alfred: Just take photos, that's all I can tell you. You will not learn from books. You learn through the process of taking photos. Your photos should tell a story.
Reza: Take your camera with you everyday when you go to work. Get out half an hour earlier than you do and just take photos. When you come home, edit your photos you took on that day and get used to it.

And so that's what I did. I took my camera with me about 75% of the days and most of the photos I took, were on the way to and back from work.
I'm gonna share some of them with you here. You can click on the right of my blog to see more on my flickr page.

This is the one I shot on the first day that I took my camera to work with me. It was on the tram; I went 2 more stations after my stop to take it. The questioning look on the child's face is adorable. What do you think s/he asking?

In most big cities, people use metro on the daily basis and Paris is one of them. On this daily routine, some who travel a long distance, use this underground route and travel time, to sleep. This shows how people are sleep deprived and how city life has divested people from one of their basic needs.

This is another one, a poor woman, on the way back home at midnight. 

I think a river in a city, gives a totally different ambiance to it. There is a kind of liveliness that is brought by water, an inspiration for artists and a delightful peace for others who saunter by the river bank or stroll on the bridges. In the case of Paris, people would even sit on Pont des Arts, drink wine while enjoying their time with friends and socializing. 

Such a scene is something you can easily find in Paris, be it near the Seine, Bassin de l'Arsenail or Canal St Martin. 

As I said, not only near Seine, but also by Bassin de l'Arsenail, people, young and old, spend quality time together.

This one is also on the bank of Seine. Even seeing this scene made me feel peaceful.

"If your photos are not good enough, you're not close enough". This is what I remember of Robert Capa, when I see some of my photos, including this one. 

I'm gonna stop here since I have more posts with photos of Paris. Please let me know if you have trouble loading the page on my blog. 

Paris and friends

I never stayed in a city, or rather a country, long enough to really know the people and their culture; Paris was not an exception, although compared to my previous 2 destinations, my sojourn was a bit longer.

During the first 4 months of my arrival, I almost hated the city mostly because I was only traveling underground from school to my small studio apartment, and I had lots to study.

My dearest friend visited me for a month in November and stayed most of the time with me inside, so I could study. We went out every other day but then, apart from the touristic sites that we visited, I only knew 2 places: 1-Bastille with its famous rue de la Roquette, full of bars, pubs and restaurants and 2-Saint Michel with always crowded narrow streets of Rue de la Harpe and Rue de la Huchette.

I didn't even know Rue Saint-André des Arts which I discovered months later. So for those of you who live in Paris, you can imagine why I didn't like the city! I almost knew nowhere else.

After 4 months, I told myself, this city cannot be famous for nothing and so there is something wrong with me for not loving it. I set out to discover Paris. It was by jogging and biking that I fell in love with the city I lived in for one year.

The bouquinistes alongside the Seine, gave the city a special charm and attraction. The term bouquiniste does not only refer to secondhand booksellers, but also to those who sell postcards, prints and photos from the old city, though they're not limited to Paris and often contain photos from artists who visited Paris, especially Jim Morisson.

I really can't say which quartier was my favorite. Quartier Latin was the place I visited often. Le Marais, the Jewish district which was also full of Gay bars, was my other favorite place since it was the only lively place on Sundays where everywhere else were closed.

Marais was full of Jewish delis, restaurants and pastry shops. "Sacha et fils" was both a deli and pastry shop with marvelous Eastern European buffet and delicious Vatrouchkas (cheese cakes). In front of it was another restaurant, deli and pastry shop called "Chez Marianne". The good thing about it was that you could go and sit inside the restaurant with its cozy ambiance, with tens of bottles of wine, piled one on the other, in the wall hole near the tables. You could also sit outside if it was not cold and enjoy your meal with fine wine, while sometimes listening to street musicians like this man who played piano incessantly, for almost 2 hours.

Here's a photo of Nazgol, after we had eaten in Chez Marianne.

Unfortunately I didn't have a chance to take more photos of her, she was always traveling! She has one amazing, nonpareil look; wild is the word.
Apart from places where you could indulge yourself in food, there were plenty of galleries in Marais where you could spend hours enjoying different genres of art.

I also met these 2 young girls while walking in Marais one night; Rachel and Jade, who were kind enough to let me take some photos of them.

Here's a candid shot of Jade:

Paris 20, was the place I discovered during the "fête des artistes". The following photos are from this festival in Belleville and Ménilmontant.

Mouffetard was another lovely quartier, where I spent the last 2 weeks of my stay in Paris, with a friend who hosted me. Here she is, Mahka, while she's walking down the narrow streets of Mouffetard, paved with cobblestones. 

Here are 2 more photos I took from her, a day when we were walking around Rive Gauche.

I like the red of her cardigan which stands out in the photo.

I like the black and white photo of her as well, with a bit different setting.

And here is one I took on the "Jour de Patrimoine", the Heritage Day, near Rive Gauche.

On this day, I went out with Hasty, my closest friend in Paris, who also hosted me for a few days. We enjoyed tasting wine, cheese and pastry specialties on the side of the Seine.  I also wanted to take some photos of her. Here are some I came up with.

And my most beautiful friend in Paris, Nastaran, with her ravishing look and seductive eyes.

We went to Jardin du Luxembourg on a sunny day in summer. Isn't she stunning?

I have to confess I was stressed during the time I was shooting her. I am definitely not good at directing people on how to pose. It's because I found myself mostly interested in documentary and on the spot photography. I asked my friends for a photo shoot cuz I wanted to have a go at figurative photography as well. But for that, a good photographer is the one who makes her subject feel at ease and comfortable and I am not yet strong in that as my friend Dominique, who does a different type of photography but has become really good in it, in just a few months.

Apart from narrow streets in old cities, I have a keen interest in old doors!

And lastly, sweet Marcia, a writer I met about a month before I left Paris.

We met in a cafe near Shakespeare bookshop close to Notre Dame.  This homey bookshop was one of my favorite places as well. Inside, there was an old typewriter, a piano and cushions all over for visitors to take their time and leaf through the books.

I think this post got really long and I hope most of you made it till the end!

I will have more photos from Paris which I will post soon. Stay tuned!

At last free

I will never forget the feeling I had 3 days ago, when I left the research lab I was working at, for 6 months. I felt tremendously light to have stopped carrying a burden in the past year.  A colleague of mine who also became a friend, listened to my story one day, following my complaint about why people in this lab, talk about technical issues even at lunch. Topics like how much the packet loss, bit rate and ping from their iPhone or home ADSL remote connection to office network was, or talking incessantly on technical papers. This was beyond my imagination to talk about these issues at lunch break and when I asked few of them: “where did you go for music festival last night?”, the answers were : “I was working from home”, “ which festival?”, “I was watching TV” , “I’m not interested in music”!

I tried asking the similar questions on films and current events to start a conversation but most of the times it was in vain. So unlike the conversations I had with my friends and colleagues in Iran and Lebanon, on current events, politics, music, films and books, which made our time fruitful and interesting everyday at lunch, at this research lab, I just went to have my lunch as fast as possible to come back to work. In Iran and Lebanon, lunch times sometimes turned into heated conversations but we all enjoyed it, cuz we were exchanging ideas, discussed our stance and sometimes realized that our stance needed to be changed.

So that colleague of mine told me that these people have passion for what they do, so they don’t look at it from your perspective. I said: “I know they have passion, it’s just that I don’t understand this passion. I’m alien to it. Look at yourself, you are also passionate about your research but you have interests like psychology. We talked several times on Jungian and Freudian experiments. I’m just saying how can people be so directional? That I don’t understand. Perhaps they ask the opposite question from themselves about me.”

He said: “you have to have a goal in your life. Do what makes you feel good. If this doesn’t interest you, you should change and the sooner, the better. It’s like keeping a stock in the hope of getting increased value but it just doesn’t grow, at best, it stays there or drops a great deal. It’s lost then. That’s your life.”

The way he put it, was truly meaningful and real. Suddenly many similar things came to my mind; an unforgettable moment in “Papillon” when he dreamed of being judged:

“Your crime is the most terrible crime a human being can commit. I accuse you of a wasted life.” 

A verse in “modest mouse” song, “ocean breathes softly” was echoing in my head: “you wasted life, why wouldn’t you waste death”

And finally what a friend told me after his concert, while we were telling each other our stories: “ Follow your heart Acey”

…

Yes, I’m gonna follow my heart!

The Travelling Band

It was last week, around this time, that I received the Parisian newsletter, the most informative newsletter of the  events, specially music gigs, in Paris for each day of the week. The recommendations so far were good.

While tackling with the codes I was writing, I gave myself a few minutes break to check out the events. The first event was "The Travelling Band" from Manchester. I clicked on the link to listen to their music on their myspace page. Boy it was awesome. I listened to the songs there, and when it came to "sweet city", I played it a few times in a row. I went back to check when they were performing in Paris. It was the same night!

My friend and I arrived at the venue at the supposed starting time but the show started an hour later. I am not a music critic so I don't intend to write a review or report.  I can only tell, that their music, although not old, but brings a sense of nostalgia and evokes a feeling of lightness, the kind that makes you so carefree, that you want it not to end.

The ebb and flow in "hindsight" and "screaming is something",  made me feel somewhere in the clouds. The melancholic tune of "Lanes of names", adds to the mystique aura of this song which turned into a chirpy tune after a few minutes.

Another feature of their music which I found quite appealing was unpredictability. Just at the moment, when the listeners were mesmerized by the mellow sounds, the band, deftly brought them out of their spellbound reverie. This was vivid in the performance of "Jess come over" followed by "only waiting" 

The zestful keyboard play by Jo,  Nick's vim and vigor on drums, Adam's virtuosic guitar play, accompanied by scintillating harmonies made their performance unforgettable. 

Perhaps the most memorable song for me from that night was "on the rails". The words still echo in my mind: "If I don't see you on that train, see you on the other side"

Radio Tehran

My friend told me in February, that they're gonna have a gig in London. I booked my train ticket the next day. Both as a friend and a fan, I was excited to be present at their gig, knowing they had put much effort into getting it done. I wrote this report for their official website few days after the gig, but for some reason the site is not up yet. So I asked Ali if I could publish it on my blog and he was positive.

After 5 months, this cannot really be called a report! But I thought it was a way I could appreciate their effort for the album which I took pleasure in listening to.

So here is the report. The photos are taken by my friend Dominique Bader.

Chaarshanbe-suri was a good excuse to gather young Iranians in London, though not for traditional fireworks. Attendees enjoyed a blend of artistic events culminating in a special musical debut by Radio Tehran, featuring Ali Azimi, lead vocalist, and Pedram Afshin, lead guitarist. The band's drummer Payam Hashemi and bass player Hesam Garshasbi unfortunately couldn’t leave Iran in time to make it to the gig. They were very much missed.

The band put a couple of their songs on their myspace page just ten days before the gig. Around 3000 internet fans visited that week- time enough for some fans to learn the lyrics by heart and sing along during the band's performance.

They began with “Gelayeh” (Complaints). The starting guitar melody fills the aura of this song by haze and may be it wasn’t the expected opening choice. However, the rich sound of Maral's cello carried this piece with its elegant ornamentation.

Spring evokes in us a feeling of sheer delight with anticipation and we’re thrilled to hear the song “Bahar” (Spring). This song starts lively but a mysterious tone soon follows which is the prelude to Ali’s yearning for spring. He is not just waiting for Bahar as an excuse to forget the years passed. Ali fears his season is over and he hasn’t accomplished anything. He is looking for a change; “my season is colorful and this song is a prelude to it”, and thus “Bahar” is outpourings of longings, worries and hopes. The lush piano soundscape, which embellished the second verse of the song in their album version, was missing in their live performance. Still, this song was either, if not the best of the show, certainly second best , next to Eshtabah.

Then there was “Change”, the only English song in their gig, which brought smiles to the faces of some non-Iranians in the audience, curious to know about Iranian alternative music.

A mellow arpeggio played dexterously by Pedram, commences “Eshtebah” (Mistake), a magnetic song with touching lyrics. “Eshtebah” enthralled everyone, even more so when Ali started singing into a megaphone. I was reminded of Tom Waits’ “Chocolate Jesus”, not that there is any similarity between these songs but the sheer use of the megaphone was an attraction by itself, magnified by people singing the verses along with him. It was as if the microphone alone wasn’t loud enough to convey his message to the crowd. He used the megaphone to emphasize his news; he is broken hearted! “If love is a lantern, you won’t even see as much as the blinds ”. The song then advances with a brimming hook, accompanied both by the back vocals and the crowd.

“To Nemiduni” (You Don’t Know) was perhaps the catchiest song of the night, and it added some dance grooves to their performance. The exuberant crowd frolicked to the jaunty tunes. Ali’s frisky turning back to Kambiz Shaygan, the drummer, while playing with verve caused the crowd to cheer joyously.

They closed with perhaps their most rebellious song, “Tatilat” (Vacation). It starts with a mystifying timbre, gearing us up to hear the words. Ali uses a beautiful metaphor for his life, “the green apple of my life fell into the stream of water”. The mellifluous guitar melody gives way to Ali’s belting out the rest of the song starting with “forget about tomorrow, your colleagues are all insane”.

A cheer from the crowd after “Tatilat”, asked for an encore. Some asked for Bahar and some for “Payiz” (Fall). It seemed I was not the only one engrossed by Payiz. But Ali chose neither. Instead he played “Aghaye Past” (Mr Mean), with keyboard accompanied by cello. This simple composition is reminiscent of the Beatles “Mean Mr. Mustard”. Perhaps after “Khabnama” (Insomnia), which had the most Beatlish tone color, this was the only other song of this character. In spite of this resemblance, Radio Tehran has quite an original sound. Its music comes from the heart and its words are lucidly delicate. The most remarkable feature of their music is how elegantly they incorporate the simple and meaningful Persian lyrics into rock music, something which most Iranian rock bands have failed to achieve.

After buying their album, I realized that “Change” and “Aghaye Past” are not included. I am wondering how many more songs the band has in the can for their future album. Is their next album hovering on the heels of 88?

Dengue Fever

Lately I have been so fascinated with an American Cambodian psychedelic rock band named "Dengue Fever".  I realized that since 4 months ago that I got to know them, whenever I started listening to them, the player went through the songs over and over without making me tired of the music.

Not understanding a single Cambodian word, I was surprised how profound music itself can be. The penetrating voice of Chhom Nimol, although not merry but joyfully takes us to the mysterious Khmer world through songs like "New year's Eve". This song is most probably a cover of a song originally by "Ros Sereysothea" which knocked "Ethan Hotlzman" (the band keyboard player) sideways when he heard it on a pick up truck while hitchhiking in Cambodia.

Chhom's voice has a strong diversity and can make you sleepwalking when listening to "Flowers" or "Genjer Genjer". When I read what happened to people including musicians during Pol Pot's regime, when any form of creativity was viewed as decadence, and nearly 2 million people got killed, I understood why in these two songs, Chhom's voice is so infused with pain.

Lastly, I realized why the song  "One thousand tears of a Tarantula" is so turbulently psychedelic. It was written about one of the singers who was allegedly executed by the Khmer Rouge after being forced to strip naked and walk in circles, singing for her captors.

Don't miss their music on the following direct links: Myspace Dengue Fever, Ilike Dengue Fever, Dengue Fever youtube channel, Dengue Fever in allmusic.There is also a trailer of "sleepwalking through the Mekong" which is interesting.

For more about Cambodian musical renaissance, you can read "A voice from the killing fields" by Nik Cohn at Guardian.