Absolute Random Nonsense

Parisa Tashakori is an award-winning Iranian graphic designer and educator specializing in branding design and visual communication. Tashakori has collaborated with ad agencies, publishers, art centers, and design festivals worldwide, providing visual branding, workshops, and lectures. While Tashakori has applied her skills across various industries, her true passion lies in projects related to art and culture, as well as those with a social and environmental focus. "They were arresting everyone and anyone", she explained, for politics, hair covering, whatever excuse they could find. She did not see her reason of arrest or her activism as extraordinary, but she exhibited signs that her behavior was outside of social norms. When she returned home from college, her family was shocked at how political she had become. Parisa explained the circumstances of her arrest and torture in mechanical terms, as if she were explaining a historical event that happened to other people. She la...

My introduction to the 80s was a McDonalds calendar that we got in December of 1978. For each month it had a coded phrase that you could read if you used the decoder tool. For December, with the year coming to a close, it included a message that said "See you in 1980". I might be confusing this with a different calendar because looking at pictures online of the McDonalds calendar I don't see it on the December page. Or perhaps it was on a different page of it. My last memory in the 80s was approximately November 20th, 1989.  As  we sat in chemistry class waiting for the professor to arrive, I began talking to Arash, a classmate from high school and an equally passionate soccer fan. We went over the games that were scheduled the day before and discussed possible outcomes and the subsequent impact on World Cup qualification. He asked me if the US had made it and I told him they had had a game with Trinidad and Tobago that would determine their fate. I also (incorrectly) add...

Elina Shirazi is a multi-lingual Iranian journalist and Washington, DC based correspondent for NewsNation. Her previous experience included working for Fox News Channel.  “My father was on the very last Pan Am flight to leave the capital following the Iranian Revolution of 1979. A full flight of over 200 Iranians who landed in a foreign country not knowing the language, leaving everything and everyone that they knew behind. He was sent away alone, by parents who saw no other way to save him and give him a better future. My mother was a refugee who fled across Europe with her five siblings before they finally reached the U.S. Growing up with their stories, I’ve always understood that for Iranians, home is often something you’re forced to carry with you. Also, my life could have been completely different had they stayed.” 

In the late 80s and early 90s, before leaving Iran, I read Chariots of the Gods, The Gold of the Gods, The Teachings of Don Juan and other ones that dealt with non-ordinary realities and allegorical work. Later on, thinking back to that time, I kept remembering the sentence "When life is too short, we live it too long" but I couldn't figure out which book it came from. I eventually caved in and googled it.  I discovered it was from Samantha Fox's 1987 song My True Devotion.  

Two more Barca Residency Academy talents have been called up to the U.S. Soccer U-15 Boys National Team for an upcoming training camp taking place March 16-23rd in West Palm Beach, FL. Forward Arman Alagha and goalkeeper London Stern have been named to the 24-player camp roster, once again continuing Barca’s strong representation within the national team system. The camp is led by U.S. U-15 Boys’ National Team head coach Brady Short and is a part of the Federation’s continued focus on the U.S. Way philosophy. An initiative that emphasizes increased programming for Youth National Teams to create more opportunities for young players to advance through the pathway to the senior National Team, with the goal of representing their country at a world championship. This is Alagha and Stern’s first USYNT call-up at this level, the result of their strong seasons and continued work U.S. Soccer Talent ID Centers.  Arman is a technical and versatile attacker who can play centrally or out w...

When I was in the second grade, one time at a gathering at our house, a teenage boy asked another one if they were a girl. When the girl responded yes, the boy asked that she prove it. Everyone snickered although I didn't quite understand the punchline. When I went back to school I tried the joke on a girl in class. The first one just brushed me off. The second one, Liz, held her face in her hands and pretended to cry. I told her that did not prove it. I'm not sure what response I would have found acceptable.  

Sahar Delijani is an Iranian author. Her internationally acclaimed debut novel, Children of the Jacaranda Tree, has been translated into 32 languages and published in more than 75 countries. She was born in Evin Prison in Tehran, while both her parents were detained as leftist political activists. Delijani, her older brother and her cousin were raised by her grandparents and aunt until their parents' release. "I was born in Iran in 1983, four years after the revolution. Both my parents were secular, leftist political activists. In 1983, my parents were arrested, along with my uncles and aunt. My mother was pregnant with me when she was taken. I was born in Evin Prison, in a hospital affiliated with it. My mother kept me with her for about a month before I was handed to my grandparents. They raised me, my 2-year-old brother, Rouzbeh, and our cousin, Siavash—who was also born in prison—until our parents were released.  " I think that there is probably no difference, from th...

During the 2026 World Cup group play, teams entered the field as Alan Parsons' song Sirius played. My introduction to the song was in the 80s and also for a sports program as it frequently would be used in sports clip montages. At the time I imagined it would be good music to the scene in The Omen where the father is sifting through Damian's hair and discovers the 666 birthmark.  

Two faculty members at Central Washington University recently promoted an outdoor camp restricted to black, Indigenous, and people of color, reasoning that they haven’t had the same opportunities to experience the outdoors as other races. A video posted to X by Libs of TikTok features the two faculty members, Assistant Professor Hannah Shamloo and Science Outreach and Education Coordinator Nicolaus Zentner, promoting the “Rock and Role” event. Professor Zentner is shown saying, “So is this open to everybody? Not really.” “There’s a growing number of people who are younger and are from much more diverse backgrounds who typically don’t go to those events for a bunch of reasons, so this is a BIPOC community event,” Zentner added. Professor Shamloo said The Bronze Chapter, the host organization for Rock and Role, aims to “increase participation of BIPOC members in the outdoors.” "There is always a part of me that wants to reveal this other side of my culture—the culture I was raised w...