عص

Source: behzadgolpayegani.com

The mirrors' dome

Another work of my late uncle, I have been spending endless hours staring at this.

I don't wanna die without any scars

He also said: "How much can you know about yourself if you have never been into a fight?"

From the book "Movies R Fun" by Josh Cooley.

A cleaner

From the book "Movies R Fun" by Josh Cooley.

Stars above stars

This is my most favorite work of my late uncle who passed away years ago.

Source: behzadgolpayegani.com

Twins at the end of the corridor

From the book "Movies R Fun" by Josh Cooley.

Letter neck

Source: www.farzadonline.com

Associations

Home to me is not a house

Filled with family faces; 

Home is where I slide in free

By rounding all the bases. 

A tie to me is not

Clothing like a hat;

It means the game is even up

And I wish I were at bat.

Words by Eve Merriam, painting by Leroy Neiman.

At the bottom of the hole

Source: swipelife.com: Inappropriate Golden Books: Movies R, Fun by Josh Cooley

Lezaj*

After ca 10 months of laziness and mental battle, I convinced myself (read was forced!) to head to the gym and started work out at a gym just a walking distance away from my home. I had passed by there many times and from the look outside, I tell you it wasn't that pretty. When I went in and signed up, I realized that in this case, one could easily judge the book by its cover. In fact, it was much worse. A not-so-big worn out and crappy gym with old equipments and most notably, a revolting stench. It reminded me of Lezaj very much, a gym that I used to go very close to my home back in the days. They play very loud music which could be annoying at times. None of these, bothered me at all as opposed to my previous gym which was the most expensive one in town and I was very unhappy with. As a matter of fact, I kind of like it because:

1. It is Lezaj in every sense! So there is a sort of nostalgic touch to it.

2. It has all the basic equipments for all the fundamental exercises that I like to do.

3. Due to the vast macho/hardcore atmosphere governing the place, they play mostly heavy metal and rock music which is more than fine with me. Yesterday I was about to leave the place when Rammstein songs came up, I stayed a bit longer and add some abs!

All in all, I am quite happy to have left the state of sloth or sponge as we used to say, I just hope that consistency doesn't fade away.

*Lezaj is the name of a gym taken from "Quick and Flupke" series by Hergé. Just for the sake of nostalgia, I put one episode of them below, unfortunately I could not find the one with the gym.

Vater und sohn 3

An iconic scene

Source: swipelife.com: Inappropriate Golden Books: Movies R, Fun by Josh Cooley

Vater und sohn 2

Poetic hair

Source: www.farzadonline.com

Vater und sohn

When I was about 8-9 years old, my brother, who happened to be my number one enemy back then- typical!, did something quite uncanny and gave me a birthday present: a book called "The stories of me and my father" in 3 volumes. It was the collection of strips by German cartoonist Erich Ohser aka E.O. Plauen and dealt with short adventures of a father and his son Eric. It was a wordless feature but, I believe for the first time, they had written the short plot in Persian on the opposite page. The father, even though depicted as a rough violent man with thick mustache and supposedly short temper was extremely light-hearted and kind in nature, the kid was a bit of small devil on surface but deep inside he was very thoughtful and sympathetic. They both had a established set of values like fairness in treating others, standing up for one's right, mutual respect and compassion and etc. Their small adventures had a moral lessen hidden behind them. The whole strip was educating, rich, amusing, funny and innocent - a perfect gift for a kid of that age. I enjoyed that book immensely and grew close to those characters. I remember that at the end of the 3rd volume, as an end was inevitable, their creator decided to send them to the sky (heaven): they walk into to the air as they are holding hands and eventually, the father becomes the face of the moon with a gentle smile while the son turns into the tiny little star beside him and thus, they become immortal forever. This sweet ending was incredibly tragic for me and made me cry a lot - and I still do when I think about it...I really had to battle through tears when writing this! I read in the introduction of that book about the cartoonist himself, that he was arrested for expressing anti Nazi opinions and committed suicide just before his trial. Had he not done that he would have possibly faced the death sentence anyhow. This also contributed more tragedy to the series ending...and even more tears as a result! Needless to say, I was -and still am as mentioned before- touched profoundly by this invaluable piece of artwork for children and this short note, is hereby meant to pay homage that great work. I am going to put some of these adventures in here every now and then to continue with my tribute -though it may be cut short as I don't have my books anymore :(- without intentionally conforming to copyright issues since the sources of them are possibly various places on the internet and it's hard to keep track them. I hope that it is understood that I mean well.

I remember that, on the back cover of the book, there was a small picture of Ohser during work while his young son, presumably at the same age of Eric, watching by. That truly showed their gentle relationship of a father and his son. I have always maintained that there is something special in the relationship of fathers and their sons and yet, I have much difficulty to pinpoint it with words. One small attempt in this sense would be a series of letters that a father carved on handmade radio and gave it to his son in the movie "Men of Honor" which read: "ASNF: A son never forgets!"

I to U via H

Source: www.farzadonline.com

A tribute

I am not sure but I think I dreamed of my late uncle the other night which writing this note inevitable. I barely remember him, he passed away when I was 10 after a long fight with a disease that had left him paralyzed for years. It's just very faint memories of him that are left from him with me. Well that, and his paintings and some other artworks which Lord knows its whereabouts, that is the artworks that survived his fire attack, you know he burned all his paintings once on the roof of his house and filmed it, why? Long story...

All I know is that he was a caring father, a loyal friend and a loving brother in his own particular artistic way. This is well confirmed by his best and closest friend; My father!

His younger son i.e. my cousin is now carrying his torch with his graphic works as well as his music. I would have loved to have access to his works (preferably digital) and put them here every now and then for myself but his official website is under construction for the time being so I have to settle with my cousin's work for the time being, something which I regard equally fascinating. I will try to put at least one work per month here just to remind myself of something thoughtful and beautiful in the form of visual art.

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