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30.5.11

Munich Tourists and Shoppers Sign Declaration for a Free Iran

The Munich Association for a Free Iran organized a rally to protest against political oppression in Iran and inform about the raising numbers of its victims. Visitors of the city and people comming for Saturday shopping stoped at the Stachus square to see the photographs of people who were imprisoned and humilated for the crime of fighting for liberation of their country. Reading about several individual cases of torture and oppression, many of the passers-by signed a declaration demanding immediate release of all political prisoners, end of violence, torture and killing of political activists. Next to Frankfurt and Berlin, Munich was always one of the main destinations of political refugees from Iran in Germany.

کانون ایرانیان آزادیخواه مونیخ /آلمان

20.5.11

SADE - WORLD TOUR 2011

Ghazal Dear,
I think I was waiting for this event since 25 years. It was in 1986 that somebody working in a Leipzig record shop gave me the first SADE record, "Diamond Live" as a birthday present. It was one of the few musics from the west that by some reason made their way into the east-german shops (in very limitted edition of course). I wrote you last year, that her music was like a revelation for me, opening phantasies into a world so different from the daily university life at the physics institute. And for you, who obviously never heard her music befor, the relaxed and tempting sound and her amazing voice appeared astonishing contemporary. If asked to guess her age, you came up with somebody of your generation. But in fact she is 53 now.
When I fell in love with her music 25 years ago, I never thought that there might ever be the chance to hear her live. But tonight, more or less by lucky chance, I finally had this chance. After my 50s birthday party was coming to an end, at 11 pm, I decided to give it a trial, knowing that she is playing tonight during her 2011 world tour in the Munich Olympia Hall (just below the Olympia TV tower that we climed up last summer).
Although the concert was already running since an hour, I managed to sneak in, even without a ticket. The concert was great, a lot of new songs that I did not heard before. Unfortunately, only very few from her recent album Soldier of Love.
I don"t know if it would be correct to say that I was waiting impatiently since 25 years to see her in a concert. Probably not. I went to lot of other music that I enjoyed a lot since then. But the love for her sound remained somewhere in the long-term memory. Everything else that came and go during this quarter of a century could not diminish this fascination. And I"m sure the same will happen for everything that I feel for you.

Take Care, my Dear
michael

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hi michael,

How did you managed to get into the Olympia-Hall at such an event ? Sade played in Stockholm during her 2011 World tour on the 10th of May, but when I saw the adverts all tickets were sold out. There were tickets for the equivalent of 180 € available on the black market, but this would be too much for me.
Did she played the one song that we heard on the radio while driving to Ikea last year ? I cant remember the title any more, but it was something like extra-ordinary love. I liked her music when I listened to it last year and when you let me guess from which year it was. I thought it is very new, maybe too new for me to know already. But then you told me that her debut album was 1984, so as you suggested there was really a good chance that I was listening to her first hits in-utero. I could imagine my mom would have loved her songs a lot when she was pregnant with me :-), rather than the Jazz-music that you send last year.

I hope that Sade will play in Sweden again. Next time I will try to get in, with a ticket or without one: just teach me please how to slip in without one.

Hope you keep the memories of this concert for a long time,
take care
/ghazal

8.5.11

Firdausi and the Germans

In 1934 the world celebrated the great persian poet Ferdosi, who was born 1000 years ago and gave us the iranian national epos Shanahme. The journal Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft published on this occasion a report about the official reception of the German Orient Society in Berlin. A state counciler Dr. Wiegand highlighted the similar spirit one feels in Ferdosis epos and in the german sagas.

6.5.11

Natural Confusion

Ghazal my dear,
I hope you don”t mind me adding to our long lasting conversation and exchange of ideas some external thoughts. A witty blogger at Iranian.com (called ComraidsConcubine) posted this dialogue and therefore in a most intelligent way paraphrased the wide-spread ignorance about nations and cultures.
confused
If you want to read more of Comraids Concubine thoughts, go to her blog in english or in persian.
Take Care, enjoy the evening
Michael