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| This is a cupcake from Sugarbaby's. |
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| These are cupcakes from Crave. |
Sara
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Picture Of The Day
Sara
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Long time, no see!
Hey guys! It's been a while since I posted, I know. Sorry, sorry! I've had a rather introverted past few weeks.
This evening, I went to a film from the Iranian film festival at the MFAH. It was incredible. I came home and immediately wrote a review, which I'll post here. Please, please try to get to it and see it!
The Iranian Film Festival, the longest-running film festival at the Museum of Fine Arts, is currently showing at the MFAH and Rice University. I went to the MFAH in the evening of January 23 to view My Tehran For Sale, a film produced by Granaz Moussavi, a female Iranian director with a lineage of filmmaking.
I am not an expert of Iranian culture or politics -- not by far. My father grew up in Turkey, but I lived an American life, neon lights and drawled “y’alls” populating my existence. Of course, summers meant trips to Turkey, where I became familiar with the five-times-a-day muezzin and the taste of a foreign language, flowing words I couldn’t understand save for a few.
However My Tehran For Sale leapt beyond all generational and cultural gaps, seizing on the very humanity of the audience to captivate and hold our attention. I sat, still, watching scene after scene flash by on the big screen in front of me, and it became my world as I watched the main character live an underground, hidden, and yet public life in her native Iran.
Marzieh, the protagonist and a young actress in Tehran, has her deeply emotional work banned by the authorities and therefore leads what is stereotypically the ultimate public career -- acting -- behind a curtain. This film gives everyone an insight to the middle-class youth life that director Moussavi describes as one that “must be lead,” half in light, but half in the shadows of secret concert halls and raves, crowded apartments and whispered conversations, courtyards and alleyways.
Moussavi makes clear the need to depict not only the “glamorous” side of this underground culture (the private poetry readings between friends, the music and the food) but also the harder side of the need to conceal one’s entire existence. She tackles touchy subjects such as unwanted pregnancies, abortions, drugs and sexually transmitted diseases, playing them out well and completely without being overdone, flashy, or fake.
Though indeed her transitions between the dual world of night and day are smooth, her characters undergo obvious signs of emotional displacement. When things are brought to light, when the dreamy world of the night ends in favor of the sunrise, characters such as Marzieh are left to deal with an often harsh reality.
This is mirrored in the physical displacement of many Iranians that she portrays -- including not only Marzieh and her lover, but the anonymous crowds of Tehranians vying for visas. These characters are the ultimate symbol of duality with their juxtaposition of embrace of Iranian culture and longing for a physical refuge.
Through an incredibly seamless non-linear narrative, Moussavi foreshadows events and plot line without giving it away, not only tying the story completely together by the end, but also using the breaks between the chronologically-driven story as somewhat of a bridge between scenes, offering the viewer a respite from the passionate and intense story line without dead space.
Also adding to the rich artistic landscape of My Tehran For Sale was the soundtrack. Comprised of a combination of traditional folk songs and tracks that are themselves a part of the hidden Iranian life, the film showcased evocative melody after melody, heightening the viewer’s sense of and immersion in the culture. I found myself taking names of songs and musicians afterward in hopes of resurfacing these jewels of the international indie music scene.
With the question and answer session following the film came and onslaught of cultural roadblocks I hadn’t even thought of Moussavi as having to endure. Lists of permits and regulations hinder greatly the international distribution of films that, as this one does, deal with the culture in such a way that portrays “the authorities” as anything but benificent leaders. Moussavi, however, showed an optimistic face regarding these hindrances.
“I’m sure that even under such extreme circumstances,” Moussavi said, “the younger generation will be able to produce. There will be alternative ways.”
And as her protagonist, Marzieh, discovers in the film, Moussavi herself seems to embody the idea of hope through international communications, the sharing of films, music and ideas to bring together this global culture we all are a part of.
Sara
This evening, I went to a film from the Iranian film festival at the MFAH. It was incredible. I came home and immediately wrote a review, which I'll post here. Please, please try to get to it and see it!
The Iranian Film Festival, the longest-running film festival at the Museum of Fine Arts, is currently showing at the MFAH and Rice University. I went to the MFAH in the evening of January 23 to view My Tehran For Sale, a film produced by Granaz Moussavi, a female Iranian director with a lineage of filmmaking.
I am not an expert of Iranian culture or politics -- not by far. My father grew up in Turkey, but I lived an American life, neon lights and drawled “y’alls” populating my existence. Of course, summers meant trips to Turkey, where I became familiar with the five-times-a-day muezzin and the taste of a foreign language, flowing words I couldn’t understand save for a few.
However My Tehran For Sale leapt beyond all generational and cultural gaps, seizing on the very humanity of the audience to captivate and hold our attention. I sat, still, watching scene after scene flash by on the big screen in front of me, and it became my world as I watched the main character live an underground, hidden, and yet public life in her native Iran.
Marzieh, the protagonist and a young actress in Tehran, has her deeply emotional work banned by the authorities and therefore leads what is stereotypically the ultimate public career -- acting -- behind a curtain. This film gives everyone an insight to the middle-class youth life that director Moussavi describes as one that “must be lead,” half in light, but half in the shadows of secret concert halls and raves, crowded apartments and whispered conversations, courtyards and alleyways.
Moussavi makes clear the need to depict not only the “glamorous” side of this underground culture (the private poetry readings between friends, the music and the food) but also the harder side of the need to conceal one’s entire existence. She tackles touchy subjects such as unwanted pregnancies, abortions, drugs and sexually transmitted diseases, playing them out well and completely without being overdone, flashy, or fake.
Though indeed her transitions between the dual world of night and day are smooth, her characters undergo obvious signs of emotional displacement. When things are brought to light, when the dreamy world of the night ends in favor of the sunrise, characters such as Marzieh are left to deal with an often harsh reality.
This is mirrored in the physical displacement of many Iranians that she portrays -- including not only Marzieh and her lover, but the anonymous crowds of Tehranians vying for visas. These characters are the ultimate symbol of duality with their juxtaposition of embrace of Iranian culture and longing for a physical refuge.
Through an incredibly seamless non-linear narrative, Moussavi foreshadows events and plot line without giving it away, not only tying the story completely together by the end, but also using the breaks between the chronologically-driven story as somewhat of a bridge between scenes, offering the viewer a respite from the passionate and intense story line without dead space.
Also adding to the rich artistic landscape of My Tehran For Sale was the soundtrack. Comprised of a combination of traditional folk songs and tracks that are themselves a part of the hidden Iranian life, the film showcased evocative melody after melody, heightening the viewer’s sense of and immersion in the culture. I found myself taking names of songs and musicians afterward in hopes of resurfacing these jewels of the international indie music scene.
With the question and answer session following the film came and onslaught of cultural roadblocks I hadn’t even thought of Moussavi as having to endure. Lists of permits and regulations hinder greatly the international distribution of films that, as this one does, deal with the culture in such a way that portrays “the authorities” as anything but benificent leaders. Moussavi, however, showed an optimistic face regarding these hindrances.
“I’m sure that even under such extreme circumstances,” Moussavi said, “the younger generation will be able to produce. There will be alternative ways.”
And as her protagonist, Marzieh, discovers in the film, Moussavi herself seems to embody the idea of hope through international communications, the sharing of films, music and ideas to bring together this global culture we all are a part of.
Sara
Friday, January 7, 2011
Houston ISD does something right, yet again! (Also, I'm proficient in the art of sarcasm)
Auditors from Magnet Schools of America recently came out with a report concerning HISD’s various Magnet programs. In this already highly controversial report, the auditors propose that Magnet standing – and funding – of approximately half of such schools participating be cut by the end of next school year. A total of 55 out of 113 schools, including Bellaire, Lamar, and Westside, would become regular neighborhood schools, while other programs such as DeBakey High School for Health Professions, Barbara Jordan High School for Careers, and High School for Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice would remain magnet and receive increased funding.
The level of hypocrisy in this report is incredible. Pages and pages are spent glorifying the wonders of making available tens of different programs for interested students, before MSA (Magnet Schools of America) switches tactics altogether and swears by the fact that every school need to be good enough so that students will be satisfied with their own neighborhood schools. The report claims that it needs funds to further availability of said programs, before slipping in that unless something drastic can be done, it plans on shutting down magnet programs in not only “uninterested” schools, but also overpopulated and often high achieving schools.
One of the most worrisome examples of high achieving schools that will possibly close their doors to magnet students is Bellaire High School, located in a historically white neighborhood and drawing from a vast, recently redistricted area in order to balance diversity.
People want to go to this school. They are crowding it so they can take courses from teachers in subjects they find interesting. Language magnet students are flocking to Bellaire in efforts to learn what they want to learn. This report claims so adamantly that it recognizes the importance of magnet schools as motivation for attendance and high performance. According to the report, the MSA is trying hard to figure out how to better the Magnet schools of Houston. And then, when too many people want to be at such a good school, they’re just going to shut it down entirely, leaving those driven, language-savvy students out in the cold to their often underfunded and uninteresting neighborhood schools.
Bellaire is one of the top schools in not only the district or state, but the country. The high-achieving magnet students contribute to that greatly. It should be shocking to the community that the district is even debating cutting funding from a school that, despite being so lauded, still has many kinks to work out.
By cutting funding at Bellaire, the school board seems to think that will allow other schools the opportunity to find their ways up to a similar level as this esteemed high school, one of the top hundred in the country. What they don’t seem to realize is that it will just bring Bellaire down to the other schools’ levels – considering the quality of our public school system as is, and the level of Bellaire itself, we really can’t afford such a loss on the part of the district.
The report carefully states that it needs to give schools whose magnet programs will be cut time to get used to the new “level of funding” (meaning, lack thereof). However, at the very end of the report it makes mention of how this will be done – after one year (the 2011 school year) at 40% of current funding, magnet-associated funding will be cut altogether. That’s barely enough time, not even considering how under-funded schools are as is.
Also, what about relocation or reinstatement of these programs in other schools? The report makes no mention of what to do with Bellaire’s language program or Lamar’s business program or Lee’s modern humanities program. Cutting these programs altogether goes against the founding principles of the MSA itself to provide diversity both in student body and available subject matter.
With a mere “remove Magnet designation” typed callously in a tiny box, this report is totally disregarding the fact that magnet students add tremendously to not only the performance and attendance averages of the schools (as the report states itself!) but the vivacity and culture of said schools. If this funding cut does indeed occur, Houston Independent School District definitely won’t be the same – and probably for the worse.
Sara
The level of hypocrisy in this report is incredible. Pages and pages are spent glorifying the wonders of making available tens of different programs for interested students, before MSA (Magnet Schools of America) switches tactics altogether and swears by the fact that every school need to be good enough so that students will be satisfied with their own neighborhood schools. The report claims that it needs funds to further availability of said programs, before slipping in that unless something drastic can be done, it plans on shutting down magnet programs in not only “uninterested” schools, but also overpopulated and often high achieving schools.
One of the most worrisome examples of high achieving schools that will possibly close their doors to magnet students is Bellaire High School, located in a historically white neighborhood and drawing from a vast, recently redistricted area in order to balance diversity.
People want to go to this school. They are crowding it so they can take courses from teachers in subjects they find interesting. Language magnet students are flocking to Bellaire in efforts to learn what they want to learn. This report claims so adamantly that it recognizes the importance of magnet schools as motivation for attendance and high performance. According to the report, the MSA is trying hard to figure out how to better the Magnet schools of Houston. And then, when too many people want to be at such a good school, they’re just going to shut it down entirely, leaving those driven, language-savvy students out in the cold to their often underfunded and uninteresting neighborhood schools.
Bellaire is one of the top schools in not only the district or state, but the country. The high-achieving magnet students contribute to that greatly. It should be shocking to the community that the district is even debating cutting funding from a school that, despite being so lauded, still has many kinks to work out.
By cutting funding at Bellaire, the school board seems to think that will allow other schools the opportunity to find their ways up to a similar level as this esteemed high school, one of the top hundred in the country. What they don’t seem to realize is that it will just bring Bellaire down to the other schools’ levels – considering the quality of our public school system as is, and the level of Bellaire itself, we really can’t afford such a loss on the part of the district.
The report carefully states that it needs to give schools whose magnet programs will be cut time to get used to the new “level of funding” (meaning, lack thereof). However, at the very end of the report it makes mention of how this will be done – after one year (the 2011 school year) at 40% of current funding, magnet-associated funding will be cut altogether. That’s barely enough time, not even considering how under-funded schools are as is.
Also, what about relocation or reinstatement of these programs in other schools? The report makes no mention of what to do with Bellaire’s language program or Lamar’s business program or Lee’s modern humanities program. Cutting these programs altogether goes against the founding principles of the MSA itself to provide diversity both in student body and available subject matter.
With a mere “remove Magnet designation” typed callously in a tiny box, this report is totally disregarding the fact that magnet students add tremendously to not only the performance and attendance averages of the schools (as the report states itself!) but the vivacity and culture of said schools. If this funding cut does indeed occur, Houston Independent School District definitely won’t be the same – and probably for the worse.
Sara
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