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Mid-August Citylog
By TehranAvenue Team
info@tehranavenue.com
September 2005
به فارسی بخوانيم
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Bag Lady, Swamp, The Dead Man

We were on the way to the cinematic compound. It was early morning and we were in good spirits. As we were waiting for the traffic light; a bag lady was going from car to car. By the time Jamshid reached into his pocket, she had left. We continued on our journey and the bag lady was forgotten. I was feeling dim and I didn’t know why. “Swamp” – an old Iranian pop song – was playing over the car speakers. I was feeling teary. I made myself busy so that no one could see my eyes. I was not quite in a mood to explain what was wrong with me. There was traffic near the compound. In the front, I notice a pair of navy blue sneaker with a streak of red splattered on them, flung far from each other on the ground. Further away, a man's body could be seen laying on the pavement. His coat had been thrown over his body with a bit of his bloody head showing.

We kept silence until we reached the compound. I was thinking: “Maybe if we had given money to that bag lady, we could've save the man’s life”.

The Electronic Highways

The humongous TV screen in Danshju Park shows to what extent our authorities care about: 1/ The jobless senior citizen huddled in parks, 2/The Street Kids selling gums to drivers behind the red light, 3/ The on the bum young man just been given food by his mother, 4/ The poor man being given a share of the modern world. On the other hand, such a TV screen should probably not to be for: A/ Fulltime open kitchen housewives, B/ Shopping mall cosmeticized girls, C/ Peeping Tom Cruz street slick boys on wheels.

At the same time, the luminescent billboard on VANAK Square – business' great gift to the city – demonstrates: 1) The city apparatus' with-it attitude towards technology, 2) The triumph of salesmanship in better penetrating citizens, 3) The godsend free gas use of electricity ready to export.

Enrichment is back on line, The Gulf is reclaimed by Persians, we stand at the gates of the Great Civilization.

No Seat

Thirty to 40 years ago, when there were not as many vehicles around, especially in remote towns, and people had to journey on foot far and wide, bus drivers made passengers sit on each other's heads for the lack of space. Maybe this motivated taxi drivers, too. Instead of seating 3 passengers in their cabs they sat 5. "We can’t call them taxis," said an official in charge of the city taxi service a few years back, "they are more like microbuses."

It seems that this approach has been imitated by one of the city's cultural places as well – the CITY THEATER. Last night, I went to see An Account of the Predicaments of Master Navid Makan and His Wife, Engineer Rokhshid Farzin with some friends (see http://www.tehranavenue.com/article.php?id=444). I was surprised to see “Ticket Without Seat” rubber stamped on my ticket. At first I thought it a mistake, but then, when I stepped onto the balcony, were my No Seat was, I realized that they had intentionally sold more tickets than seats. 

On On-Hold Phone Melodies

If you try to call an office related to the Ministry of Defense, while you are waiting for the operator to connect you to a room, you will hear the soundtrack of {Ebrahim Hatamikia}'s From Karkhe to Rhein clumsily recorded and played over the speaker.

- Therefore, If you call Water & Waste Organization, you must hear "Love Rains"
- Any movie studios: “Godfather Part I”
- Religious departments: ”Haj Mansur”
- Center for the Publication of Works of Music: “Black Is the Color of Love”

This way, It is easy to imagine that:

- In Physical Education Organization: Remixed voice of a sports announcer
- Lock & Latchkey shops: “Oh mommy! Don’t close the door”
- Hotels & guesthouses: ”House Party" by Marjan
- Pilgrimage travel agencies:” We were pilgriming together last year”
- Melli Shoe Store : The National Anthem
- Home to the mentally ill: ” Bread & the Clown”

In the same way, the chosen on-hold melody for the center of Police Emergencies (110) will be a short part of “Imam Ali TV series” (The name “Ali” is numerologically equivalent to 110) .

Suppose that the use of behind-the-line melodies is replacing a secretary's smile, then grand music of “Imam Ali TV series” with the dreadful sounds of the percussion instrument daf causes plenty of anxiety to a caller of a police station.

The recommended on-hold melody for Police Emergencies:

Hi darling, darling, hi. Love you and mad about you plain and simple.

“Sound Lasts Forever”

I still like to tune to PAYAM Radio at nights. Hearing music and sound in that state between consciousness and sleep makes loosens me up. Besides, near dawn, I can open my eyes to the morning call for prayer in Bayat-e Turk mode by {Moazaenzade Ardabili}, God bless his voice.

Of late, though, I have been hearing music that at some point in time was considered unsuitable for public broadcasting. The so called Iran's "Sultan of Jazz," the late {Vigen}'s voice came on one night and took me by surprise:

Oh, your heart is of the shining sun,
Mine of darkness,
The burial ground of all my desires.

Here is one from the late {Farhad}:

Houses are empty, shops are locked,
tar and kamancheh play no more,
Dead are being carried in every alleyway.

Or even the sound of the late {Fereydon Foroughi}.

The mentioned three have left this world for another over the past several years.  In our mortal world only the sound of those long gone have the right to be broadcast.



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