Absolute Random Nonsense

Born to Iranian parents, Ashkan Karbasfrooshan spent some of his childhood in Spain before arriving in Montreal age six.  "Not losing sight of our privilege, we left Tehran somewhat comfortably in 1983 thanks to my father’s occupation for the Spanish embassy. We moved to Madrid, Spain. A year later, we settled in Montreal. I grew up in Canada from the age of 6. While my Nurture vs Nature manifest traits of Persian culture, I grew up as Canadian as someone who’d move to the country at such a young age." He grew up and lived all across Montreal. He ended up enrolling in Concordia’s business program, though he said he also had a keen interest in humanities. For work, he imagined becoming an investment banker. “I was really good at finance, but because of the dot.com crash and being ‘Ashkan Karbasfrooshan from Montreal,’ it wasn’t like Goldman Sachs from Wall Street was going to go: ‘Oh, let’s hire this kid.’ But I said: ‘The internet is the future. Just go work at a startup.’” A...

Tehran Von Ghasri, is a comedian, actor, writer, host with a personality and charm that’s larger than life.  Tehran is a Washington DC native and Los Angeles transplant, born to an Iranian immigrant father and an African-American mother.  Adding to his eclectic roots is the mixture of Jewish, Christian, Muslim, and Zoroastrian grandparents. Tehran and his comedy are as international, inclusive, and culturally diverse as they come.  Armed with degrees in Politics & Communications, a Masters in Econ, and a Law Degree, Tehran combines academics with street smarts to bring comedy, social commentary, and social activism alive on stage in the most fun and humorous of ways.   "I've heard the 'What are you' question my whole life. So my father is Iranian and my mother is African American. I am born and raised in Washington, DC. My father originally did not teach me Farsi. He was practicing his English. He wanted to learn English and so he spoke to me in English. And...

In the 9th grade Ali Shahbazyar brought me an English text and asked me if I could translate the poem. I took it home and went over it and translated it as best as I could. Others at home also heard it and commented on it particularly the line "Run, rabbit, run, dig that hole, forget the sun, when, at last, the work is done, don't sit down, it's time to dig another one". The next day after I returned it to him he gave me another poem that seemed to be about time.  Almost 40 years later I remembered part of the lyrics and decided to google the poems. I discovered that neither one was a poem but rather they were two Pink Floyd songs (Breathe and Time). Furthermore I realized the instrumental opening part of Time was used in the radio show تقویم تاریخ although that I also didn't discover until recently.

Mahyar Rahmatian defines himself as an AI artist who draws from his other artistic inspirations including poetry, animation, video, and music. He describes his artistic background as quite multidisciplinary, “blending photography’s keen observation, poetry’s soul and symbolism, animation’s storytelling, and music’s sense of rhythm when I work with AI.” He uses AI as a primary medium, but shares a common foundation with traditional artists - a foundation built on diverse artistic inspirations, intention, personal vision, and a love for creative expression.

In the summer of 1996, having graduated from college, I took a summer job for the Bridge Program which gave incoming engineering freshmen a taste of what was to come in the freshman courses. After the summer, the program director, Teresa, kept me on board for the new school year where two nights a week I would tutor engineering students and on weekends I would instruct middle school students in pre-engineering classes.  In the spring of 1997 I applied for the summer Bridge Program but did not hear back for a while. I finally decided to go and ask in person. The secretary told me that the positions had already been filled. She asked if I wanted to talk to Teresa about it but I declined. As I walked away I thought to myself she probably would have rather given the position to current college students. But then again that did not prevent her from hiring me the summer before or throughout the year. I had recently bought the Neurotic Outsiders' debut (and only) self titled album with it...

Peiman Tousinejad was on People's Court. He was being sued for damaging the floor of the plaintiff's home when delivering furniture. He claimed he was present during the delivery and no damage was seen or expressed at the time. The judge ruled against him for $450.  

One time when playing scrabble in shomal, a player indicated to me that they could make the work quiet or quite with their letters. Fast forward to the summer of 1984 where when coming back from McDonalds without making a purchase of 99 cent chicken McNuggets (due to only having a dollar and not accounting for tax) the person I was with asked me why we were coming back. I told him quiet and then followed it up with quite and kept alternating between the two. Years later I converted the chant into a dance track at a much faster pace for booty shakes.  

Wrestling has always played a significant role in Afsoon Roshanzamir’s life. Being born in Iran in the early 70s, wrestling was and still is the national sport. Her father was a wrestler and always wanted a son to follow in his footsteps. Although  Afsoon , MSPT, ’00, was an only child, her father believed she could do anything a boy could do. His mindset was more progressive from the rest of the country, as men and women didn’t have equal opportunities. Throughout her childhood,  Afsoon ’s father would teach her wrestling moves in their living room, and he would let her win wrestling matches against him while her mom refereed. Afsoon ’s home life was a stark contrast to the outside environment. First, the revolution happened, and women were very limited in what they could do. Then, Iran went to war with its neighboring country, Iraq. This was a very scary time for  Afsoon . She would be relaxing at home, and suddenly a siren would go off – she had to rush to the basement...

In 1989 a program was shown on TV that showed David Copperfield walking through the Great Wall of China. The following day everyone at school was talking about it including Mr. Ghamisi during algebra class. He explained to us that there are certain bacteria that can only exist in 2 dimensions and thus if we picked them up from the surface they are on, moved them through the 3rd dimension, and placed them on a different part of the surface, they would not be able to understand what had happened. He then mentioned David Copperfield was doing the same thing by accessing and traveling through the 4th dimension. Years later I would learn that David Copperfield was a magician.  

Olivia Abtahi is a proud Iranian-Argentinian American. Her debut novel, Perfectly Parvin, was published in 2021, receiving the SCBWI Golden Kite Honor, YALSA Odyssey Honor, and numerous starred reviews. Parvin, the protagonist, is a half-Iranian, 14-year-old girl living in the unsettling years of the Trump administration and has just been dumped by her first boyfriend for being “too much.” She is too loud, too rambunctious, and too Persian. She decides to get a boyfriend and undertakes a change. She begins to act like women in rom coms; she waxes her hair, stops eating hot Cheetos, and smiles more, and talks less.  Perfectly Parvin  tackles a variety of issues, but the most prevalent ones in this novel are portrayed in Abtahi’s efforts to address anti-Iranian sentiment and the pressures of “whitewashing” oneself to fit in.  Abtahi sees herself in Parvin. “Parvin and I are a lot alike, but I think Parvin is so much cooler than I ever was. She puts herself on t...

Every once a while I song gets stuck in my head and I keep replaying it. Having first arrived in the US I still would randomly get songs I knew from Iran playing in my head. About a month or so after my arrival I was playing Sega with a relative and I realized the song now in my head was something I had picked up in the US. The first song on repeat in my head after leaving Iran was Richard Marx's "Keep Coming Back."  

Arian Moayed is an Iranian-American actor, screenwriter, and director. Moayed received two Tony Award nominations for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his performances as an Iraqi gardener in Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo (2011) and a domineering husband A Doll's House (2023), and two Primetime Emmy Award nominations for his role as slimy private equity investor Stewy Hosseini in HBO's Succession. Arian Moayed was born in Tehran, Iran. His father is a banker by profession. His parents emigrated from Iran in 1986. The family settled in Glenview, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, when Moayed was five years old.  “For anyone to say, ‘This is how Iranians should be and do — that’s insanity,” Arian says. “I don’t want to tell you how to live in Kansas City. Like, I’m not going to tell Kansas City what barbecue is about.” The Iranians in the cast of Waterwall's Hamlet have been joking, “ Hamlet is so Iranian.” It’s true for us," says Arian. In that first moment when Hamlet ...

Towards the end of the summer, we were informed that in order to enroll in Nikan’s middle school, we were to pass an entrance exam. This would be similar to our previous finals although all questions would be multiple-choice. There wasn’t much studying to do given the vast amount of material that it covered so the best option was to simply go with what we had learned and knew. The morning of the exam I was dropped off rather early and as I stood in the schoolyard scoping out the new environment and the few students- all new - already there, one of them seemed familiar to me. Apparently the feeling was mutual as he looked at me and waved me over. It was Bijan. I hadn’t seen him in about a year but we picked up where we had left off. We talked about all of the people we had known (I told him Hamid was also attending this school to which he responded, “The vomit guy?”) and funny things that had happened to us in the past which in itself completely eased any tension we were feeling prior...

Yasmine Dubois, known professionally as Lafawndah (also known as KUKII) is not like 50 other artists within a one-mile radius. Her music draws from wildly unpredictable influences – devotional songs, ambient electronica, the British singer Sade, Iranian folk music and the films of Robert Altman have each had their moment – and refracts them through her own experimental pop sensibilities. She was born in Paris to an Iranian mother and an Egyptian father. She grew up in Paris and Tehran and is now based in London. Lafawndah’s lyrics are deceptive. Take Town Crier from Tan, which sounds as if it might be about an abusive relationship. In some ways it is, but the relationship is instead between a state and its citizens, inspired by her experience of returning to Iran in 2011 around the time of the Green Movement protests. “I want songs to start with intimacy and then as you listen you begin to understand there is more at play,” she says. “It’s hard to suddenly go into bi...

In Spring of 1993 I took a job working at Jonathon's in UConn's Student Union every Friday night from 6:00pm until closing (around 1:00am). My first night there as I looked over the lines of people waiting for food or just socializing, Richard Marx's "Endless Summer Nights" kept playing in my head. The following week in a similar scene Go West's "King of Wishful Thinking" did the same. One night I noticed a girl being carried around on a guy's back. At first due to their comfortable behavior concerning their surroundings I assumed they were older than me but when I thought about it, I figured that given that I was 21 at the time, the odds of this being true was only 25%.  

A Santa-suited gunman who killed six people on Christmas morning was the estranged husband of one of the victims and the father of two teenagers who died in the massacre. Aziz Yazdanpanah, 56, showed up to his estranged wife's apartment on Christmas morning dressed like St. Nick and opened fire shortly after the family had unwrapped presents. Yazdanpanah then killed himself. The six victims were identified by ABC affiliate WFAA as: Nasrin Rahmaty, 55, who was Yazdanpanah's wife; Nona Yazdanpanah, 19, his daughter; Ali Yazdanpanah, 15, his son; Zohreh Rahmaty, 58, his sister-in-law; Hossein Zarei, 59, his brother-in-law; and Sahra Zarei, 22, his niece. Zarei owned a popular Dallas, Texas, ranch and was well known in the Iranian-American community, according to WFAA. On Christmas Eve, the family hosted a party at the ranch. The gunman was not invited. Police received a 911 call, which initially sounded like silence, Sgt. Roger Eberling said. After listening to the call again, Ebe...

After I left Iran I heard that our cat stayed around for a while before leaving. I found it odd because even though it felt closest to me, it still received attention (and food) from other family members so i didn't understand why he chose to leave. It was only when I thought about it further that I realized he had been just as devastated as I would have been had he one day simply disappeared.  

A California woman is mourning the loss of her husband, who drowned over the weekend while  saving his 7-year-old son’s life after their kayak capsized.  “He was a very loving person,” Mojgan Manafi said of her spouse Hadi Ahmadi, 55, according to The Press Enterprise. “If he didn’t have anything, he was still willing to help people. He was such a great dad. He was such a great husband." According to a news release from California State Parks, tragedy struck on Saturday, Dec. 6, at Lake Perris State Recreation Area in Riverside County. Authorities responded to reports of screaming and people in distress in the water near Moreno Beach, the department said, sharing that a father and son were kayaking when their vessel capsized.   Neither individual was wearing a life jacket at the time, though there was a vest in the kayak, according to the department. “State Park peace officers quickly arrived on scene via patrol vessel and immediately recovered the man, who was uncon...

Darren’s puzzled look told Kurt that maybe he should have opted for the long version of the events. “Kurt, this is very unusual.   I’m not sure if I would feel comfortable just handing out that kind of money to you.   We have never had this kind of relationship before and it’s just a bit odd.   It’s not something I can make a decision on right on the spot.   You need to explain to me what exactly is going on.   And this really isn’t the proper place to be having such a discussion.”   Darren motioned at the children he held. “Look Darren, I really can’t explain. Just trust me on this, I need this money really bad.   Like I said I’ll pay you back and then some.   Just do this one thing for me.” “Kurt this whole conversation is a tad bit bizarre and quite frankly this isn’t the time or place for us to be having it.”   Behind him the sound of conversations, laughter and music morphed into one inaudible din.   “Kurt I’m sorry but I r...