Nobody Home

Note: 

This lyrics cannot be more appropriate right now.

I've got a little black book with my poems in 

Got a bag with toothbrush and comb in

When I'm good dog, they sometimes throw me a bone in

I got elastic bands keepin' my shoes on

Got those swollen-hand blues

I got thirteen channels of shit on the TV to choose from

I've got electric light

And I've got second sight

I got amazing powers of observation

And that is how I know

When I try to get through

On the telephone to you

There'll be nobody home

I've got the obligatory Hendrix perm

And the inevitable pinhole burns

All down my favorit satin shirt

I've got nicotine stains on my fingers

I've got a silver spoon on a chain

Got a grand piano to prop up my mortal remains

I got wild staring eyes

And I've got a strong urge to fly

But I got nowhere to fly to

Ooh, babe when you pick up the phone

There's still nobody home

I've got a pair of Gohills boots 

But I got fading roots

Nostalgic 80's pop

Playlist XXII.

1. "Somebody's watching me" Rockwell

2. "99 Luftballons" Nena

3. "Never ending story" Limahl

4. "Take on me" A-Ha

5. "Touch me" Samantha Fox

6. "Don't go" Yazoo

7. "Land of confusion" Genesis

8. "Rock me Amadeus" Falco

9 "You keep me hanging on" Kim Wilde
10. "Live is life" Opus

11. "All night long (all night)" Lionel Richie

12. "Caribbean Queen" Billy Ocean

13. "Karma Chameleon" Culture Club

14. "Forever Young" Alphaville

15. "Self Control" Laura Branigan

16. "Relax" Frankie Goes To Hollywood

17. "Cheri Cheri Lady" Modern Talking

18. "Walk like an Egyptian" Bangles

19. "Flashdance...What a Feeling" Irene Cara

20. "Beat it" Michael Jackson

Adieu!

Good bye my dear X-Cali, we had a good but relatively short run together. However, we did share some really good times...and some bad times. I will definitely cherish all those moments and surely hope that you will be in good hands in future. 

"Live long and prosper!" 

DL & JS

So two of my favorit talk show hosts are leaving; David Letterman is retiring tomorrow after 31 years on air and  Jon Stewart is soon leaving The Daily Show after 16 years and this makes me sad.

Their comedy and sense of humor appealed to me very much and I'm sure it is the case for many people as well. Eddie Vedder performed on Late Show last night and I found that the choice of the song was very appropriate. They will never be replaced for all those who enjoyed these two entertainers and their smart and somewhat twisted humor.

As Eddie Vedder once put it "Can't find a better man" indeed!

All Those Yesterdays: A letter from Pearl Jam to me

Don't you think you oughtta rest?
Don't you think you oughtta lay your head down?
Don't you think you want to sleep?
Don't you think you oughtta lay your head down tonight?

Don't you think you've done enough?
Oh, don't you think you've got enough, well maybe...
You don't think there's time to stop
There's time enough for you to lay your head down, tonight, tonight

Let it wash away
All those yesterdays

What are you running from?
Taking pills to get along
Creating walls to call your own
So no one catches? Drifting off and
Doing all the things we all do

Let them wash away
All those yesterdays
All those yesterdays
All those paper plates

You've got time, you've got time to escape
There's still time, it's no crime to escape
It's no crime to escape, it's no crime to escape
There's still time, so escape
It's no crime, crime...

God damn it, pure nostalgia!

Everybody hurts

When your day is long and the night
The night is yours alone
When you're sure you've had enough of this life, well hang on
Don't let yourself go
Everybody cries and everybody hurts sometimes

Sometimes everything is wrong
Now it's time to sing along
When your day is night alone (hold on, hold on)
If you feel like letting go (hold on)
When you think you've had too much of this life, well hang on

Everybody hurts
Take comfort in your friends
Everybody hurts
Don't throw your hand, oh, no!
Don't throw your hand
If you feel like you're alone, no, no, no, you are not alone

If you're on your own in this life
The days and nights are long
When you think you've had too much of this life to hang on

Well, everybody hurts sometimes
Everybody cries
And everybody hurts sometimes
And everybody hurts sometimes

So, hold on, hold on
Hold on, hold on
Hold on, hold on
(Hold on, hold on)

Everybody hurts
You are not alone


Words by R.E.M.

All alone!

I am all away...the memories of the last extra wonderful trip seem just like a pleasant dream as if it never happened.

I am all away from the people that I want to be with at all times.

You are all in that mess, somewhere in your orbital and, I am all alone in this corridor.

It's cold and dark outside and nobody except me is in here...in this corridor...at work!

What am I doing here?

What are you doing there?

Why can't we be together...forever?

We can't!

We aren't!

We won't!

When I'm gone

There's another world inside of me

That you may never see

There're secrets in this life

That I can't hide

Somewhere in this darkness

There's a light that I can't find

Maybe it's too far away

Or maybe I'm just blind

So hold me when I'm gone

Right me when I'm wrong

Hold me when I'm scared

And love me when I'm gone

Everything I am

And everything in me

Wants to be the one 

You wanted me to be

I'll never let you down

Even if I could

I'd give up everything

If only for your good

So hold me when I'm here

Right me when I'm wrong

You can hold me when I'm scared

You won't always be here

So love me when I'm gone...

Words by 3 doors down

"The nights of wonder...with friends surrounded" just like the good ol' days

I'm at home...catching up with friends...hanging out with all my boys whom I have missed their company so badly in the past couple of years...reliving the good memories and having tons of - and I literally mean 'tons' of - pure, shear fun. Such an amazing feeling to be around the people that you truly love: close family and dear friends.

My spirits are high...so high...despite the low speed of the internet which is really annoying but I've got so many other things that keeps me happily busy.

I should do this more often...way more often!

Release

Pre-post: This post is dedicated to a great man whom we simply called "H.", may his even greater soul rest in peace.

"I see the world
Feel the chill
Which way to go
Windowsill
I see the words
On a rocking horse of time
I see the birds in the rain

Oh dear dad
Can you see me now?
I am myself
Like you somehow
I'll ride the wave
Where it takes me
I'll hold the pain
Release me

Oh dear dad
Can you see me now?
I am myself
Like you somehow
I'll wait up in the dark
For you to speak to me
I'll open up
Release me
Release me
Release me
Release me"

Words by Stone Gossard, Jeff Ament, Eddie Vedder, Mike McCready, Dave Krusen

Ten=20/2: 10 songs, 10 memories of myself and 'Tha Triangle'

10.
Exterior: Myself and AHF riding our bikes on a steep uphill on the way to AJ
Location: Somewhere in Abbas Abad, THR
Song: Last Kiss
"Where, oh where, can my baby be? 
The Lord took her away from me..."

9.
Interior: Non-stop reading the book "Bad as I wanna be" by Dennis Rodman while sitting at lectures, discovering new insights into NBA, basketball, life and more
Location: Lecture halls in SUT
Song: Alive
"And do I deserve to be?
Is that a question?
And if so...who answers....who answers..."

8.
Interior(inside the green): After hard fought street ball in the heat of the summer, AHF behind the wheel, he has rolled up his pant up to knees, AJK sitting in the back is singing
Location: Somewhere in streets of THR, heading my home
Song: Daughter
"Alone...listless...breakfast table in an otherwise empty room..."

7.
Interior: I am working out in front of TV showing channel V, inclined press
Location: My room, upstairs, home
Song: Rearviewmirror
"Saw things so much clearer
Once you, once you
Rear view mirror..."

6.
Interior: It's almost 3AM, we all are scattered in every corner of apartment, dead sleep one way or another, it's a bit cold, AJK pulls the carpet over himself to escape the chill
Location: Alim's place at the end of Apadana St.
Song: Call me a dog
"You tell me I'm low 'cause I've slept on the floor..."

5.
Interior: Red lamp shining over the jungle of writings on my wall, it's a Thursday night, a few tear drops fall
Location: My room, former Xerxes room
Song: Low light
"Voice blows by, low light
Car crash, low light
Can't wear my mask, your first, my last..."

4. Interior: AJK talking about basketball and drawing incoherent conclusions while singing in between
Location: Dressing room of the gym at SUT
Song: Indifference
"How much difference does it make?
How much difference does it make?"

3. Interior: We are all dead tired after the calf muscle exercises, lying on the floor all of us
Location: Weight room at SUT
Song: Why go
"Why go home?
Why go home?
Why go home..."

2. Interior: All of us enjoying highlight dunks by Shawn Kemp and never stopping to be amazed
Song: Go
"Suck...blood...touch...please, tunnel vision...tuck...time...see..
Please, please please...
Don't go on me
Don't go on me
Don't go on me
Don't go on me
Please..."

1. Interior: AHF is just back from Cypress and we're all gathered in my room, he brought us the Temple of the Dog CD
Location: My room, former Xerxes room
Song: Hunger strike
"I don't mind stealing bread from the mouths of decadence
But I can't feed on the powerless when my cup's already overfilled
But it's on the table the fire is cooking
And they're farming babies, while the slaves are working
The blood is on the table and their mouths are choking
But I'm growing hungry

I don't mind stealing bread from the mouths of decadence

But I can't feed on the powerless when my cup's already overfilled

But it's on the table the fire is cooking

And they're farming babies, while the slaves are working

The blood is on the table and their mouths are choking

But I'm growing hungry (Growing hungry)

I'm growing hungry (Growing hungry)

I'm growing hungry (Growing hungry)

I'm growing hungry (Growing hungry)

I'm growing hungry (Growing hungry)

I'm growing hungry (Growing hungry)

I don't mind stealing bread (I don't mind)

I don't mind stealing bread

I'm growing hungry (Growing hungry)

I'm growing hungry (Growing hungry)"

5 years again!

Five years past the day that I finished at CTH -that day!- and yet I find myself at CTH again by pure coincidence. Good thing that little by little, not only I don't have some of those nostalgic feelings but also I feel quite happy to have moved on or rather moved 'out'.

One should always look forward, looking back, however useful every once in a while, only reduces the pace but it is not constructive.

Such a strange feeling

Almost ten years ago, I was living in an otherwise empty student room with one window facing the hotel that I am staying in now. Since I did not have a computer at home, I used to come all the way to this hotel to use the Yahoo! messenger on the PC in the lobby of the hotel to chat with one special one for hours past midnight.

Ahh...those days...those early days that surprisingly do not seem so far away now...if I only knew what I know now...

To KG, when he was a little boy

Metallica in Ullevi on May 30, 2004

Playlist XI.

1. "The Ecstasy of Gold" by Ennio Morricone

2. "Blackened" 

3. "Fuel"

4. "Harvester of Sorrow" 

5. "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)" 

6. "Frantic"

7. "For Whom the Bell Tolls"

8. "I Disappear" 

9. "St. Anger" 

10. "Sad But True" 

11. "Creeping Death"

12. "Battery"

13. "Wherever I May Roam" 

14. "Nothing Else Matters" 

15. "Master of Puppets" 

16. "One" 

17. "Enter Sandman" 

18. "Leper Messiah" 

19. "Seek & Destroy"

Cold water

Memory: After a hard fought basketball game, I used to head to the shower room at the back of the locker room and seldom took a shower there. Instead, I opened the tap and let the water ran till it got cold (this was a pleasant waiting) and I drank endlessly from it "the way that camels close in on water!" I then washed my face, arms up to elbow, armpits and back of my neck, the drops of cold water ran down my body...an amazing uncomfortable feeling. Slowly I dried myself and without saying much words, I let myself sink very smoothly into a state of mental stand-by and never said much while others were usually making a lot of noise by talking trash or pure nonsense with the never-ending voice of gym caretaker in the background bugging us to leave the locker room ASAP since it was either too late and he wanted to catch his ride home or it was ladies' practice.

After heading out from the gym, we crammed in a few cars there were available and went some place to grab a bite and chill out; to sip slowly a large cold drink which tasted as sweet as victory.

We who are

We who are not as others

We who are not as others

We who are not as others

We who are not as others

We who are not as others

We who are not as others

We who are not as others

We who are not as others

In the flesh

Back in the days, Pink Floyd and The Wall were incredibly popular at home, everyone liked them and even those who couldn't spell their name or their tracks were spraying Pink Floyd on the walls. This wide popularity which I regarded to be genuinely shallow led me to dislike or rather hating them without even listening to their music for once. This and the fact that my brother and my musical idol wrote something on my wall but that's a whole another story. Anyhow, in the early days of my university, a good friend of mine aka mzmk_ir, who was much into Pink, gave me a print out of the lyrics of The Wall album and a worn cassette and insisted that I gave it a shot. I was reluctant at first but  finally I gave in and...well, as cheezy as it sounds, the rest is history.

Now many years have passed since I started listening to Pink and many many unforgettable moments have been created throughout the years that are associated one way or another with Pink Floyd. Tonight, I am going to see Roger Waters play The Wall (for a last time?) and I know that when I hear the last solo of "Comfortably Numb", I will be crying out loud with each and every one of these people right beside me:

Xerxes_g

Mazda

Farah

mzmk_ir: Thank you again for showing me the light!

Amin Feiz

babak4

bsrod

sagmehr

lolo

Alim

Chewie

p.kh
aghahe
Soord

dadasha

k-me

Said B

Parsa & Farzad

Peyman & Mazi S

Ishtinbil

Stephon S

Gharach

Shirzadi

FFaili

KAZZ
ARNouri
PTL
The boys of mtl-75

And many more which just don't pop into my mind at the moment, it's gonna be a blast y'all!

My fantasy baseball team

Shagging in the outfield during BP is slow and boring job but at the same time, it gives you some time to contemplate. I normally get drowned in my own thoughts and here's one of them: What if I could replace everyone in this team with 'my guys'? That would have been mainly my friends who were related one way or another to basketball. What if we all played baseball instead and formed a so-called "doostan" baseball team? So without further ado here's the line-up of such fantasy team:

1. Pitcher: AHF: Simply because he is the only one with solid pitching experience. McVich would be the relief pitcher or closer but his arsenal is limited. We need more pitchers and the fact that our pitching staff is not so deep would be an eminent weakness of our team.

2. Catcher: AJK aka Chewbacca: He would be one of the few or the only catcher who throws with left, yet another one of his mysteries! He is capable of stopping the runners on home plate and with a good left arm, he can throw straight to 2nd to burn the stealing runners. His knowledge of the game and being able to call the game correctly is a given and more importantly, he can/does establish a good chemistry with the man on the mound.

3. 1st base: Ghajar: He is also an obvious choice, one of the power sluggers in the team who fits perfectly well for 1st base.

4. 2nd base: Mani: Here I had a hard time to find the right person but I think he will do very well in this roll. He is short and fast and we definitely could use some fast runners on the offensive end. He covers his area well and doesn't need to have a very strong arm as he throws mainly to 1st or 2nd.

5. 3rd base: Myself: I put myself in my favorite position and I have a good on and off the game contact with all the infielders and pitcher and catcher.

6. Short stop: Shirzadi: Again, difficult to find a suitable person here but Shirzadi's agility and many other capabilities as well as his unselfishness and game vision leaves me with no other better choice.

7. Left field: Kamran Nejad: Because he is a lefty and the slowness of outfield activity fits his character.

8. Center field: Farah: Another power hitter in center with good arm to throw to 2, 3 and home.

9. Right field: Mazda: 2nd fast runner in the roster and a righty.

1st base coach: Ffaili: Functions mostly as a moral support and is in synch with 3rd base coach.

3rd base coach/batting coach: Fkhaleghi: He is the perfect person to take advantage of every tiny mistake by the opponents, read their game and give the orders accordingly.

Pitching coach: BTourani: I don't think I need to say anything here.

Manager: Kavoos: Tobacco chewing, short tempered and extremely foul-mouthed manager with little knowledge of the game and is in constant fight with umpires, gets tossed out frequently and kills each and every one of us on practices with conditioning drills and hard labor, he is JUST PERFECT for us.

Batting order:

1. Mani

2. Mazda

3. Ghajar

4. Myself

5. Shirzadi

6. AHF

7. Nejad

8. Farah

9. Chewi

In the dugout:

ATN (OF)

Hesam Z (OF/DH)

Nima (OF)

McVich (P, IN/OF)