Just another dent in the damage…

It’s been a long time coming… After months of complaining about having nothing to do I now find myself in an awkward position working two jobs with little more than two days off every two weeks to try and muster enough spare change to throw at my ridiculous water bills etc. Once used to the soul destroying activity that is tidying tidy library shelves life isn’t actually so bad. My time will come right? That perfect job IS just round the corner right? I didn’t just waste a year of my life studying to qualify as an Information Professional right? I will earn loads of money one day right? Who knows.

Do I think my hard work was worth it? I sure do. I got a distinction (top grade) for that wonderful thesis of mine! Opening that little white envelop to confirm my fate sure was nerve-racking. But I did it and I did it well. So stick that in your hippy pipe and smoke it Ms Webber, bet you regret hating on my ideas now huh!! It IS possible to write a decent dissertation about Iranian weblogs without being able to speak Persian! So now I have it confirmed that I actually did a good job of it I’m thinking of making a pdf version open access for all you other researchers to pick apart, to critique, to plagarise, to argue with but more importantly to enjoy. Or at least I hope you’ll enjoy it but for now… I’m off to Turkey and Syria on a much needed break from the shite English weather and overwhelming commercialised ‘Christmas spirit’. Scrooge I hear you say? Where?

I’ve waited so long to be able to write this… Last night I went to see Persepolis. Its film premiere took place at London’s BFI cinema complex, which is about 200 miles from home. A long way to travel just to go the cinema hey? And we were half an hour late. No matter, the hour and fifteen minutes that we did manage to see was amazing. Much much better than I ever expected in fact.

As a humanist interpretation of the Islamic Revolution it seems to put a face on the realities of war for those lucky ones, like me, that have never experienced such tragedy and find it difficult to relate to life under an Islamic government, no matter how much is read or absorbed during a two-week holiday. The film was one of the few films I’ve ever seen that brought a tear to my eye. It’s not like I have a heart of stone or anything – I just don’t cry at films very often. But then a second later I’d be in fits of laughter. Also of note is the awesome soundtrack used. It was so fitting and helped propel the narrative flow much better than dialogue alone. Below is a short trailer that includes my favourite bit (the leg waxing). The quality is pretty bad but you get the picture :)

One more thing – I heard Sean Penn is to voice Anoosh in the English version. Does anyone have anymore info on this adaptation? I’m happy enough with the French version though to be honest.