Michele Roohani

My friend Anahita Ghabaian, the owner of  Silk Road Gallery, invited  me to go and see her great photo collection at the Grand Palais. I went and discovered the most beautiful women of the world! I didn’t know many of the newcomers to the scene like Paolo Roversi:

The above photo reminds me of my friend, Maureen.

I liked his other-worldly portraits where even the nudes were not in your face!

A jewel of a photo for me was Brancusi’s Eileen on the bench of his studio; I have appreciated his sculptures for ever and his “sleeping muse” kept me company for years.

The highlight for me was the Silk Gallery’s Persian Women; I met the super talented Shadi Ghadirian with her new collection of Miss Butterfly (Shahparak khanom):

A graceful and delicate butterfly/woman gets trapped in the web of a spider…

I knew her for her “Ghajar” and “Like Everyday” collections:

The late Bahman Jalali’s “image of imagination” was watching me quietly from the wall:

Iranian photographers’ works are regularly presented to museums and other institutions everywhere thanks to the Silk Road Gallery ; I like Rana Javadi’s Termeh clad woman:

There was a gorgeous sun setting on Grand Palais that made everything glow in the golden hour; perfect for taking pictures!

After Iran I went to Africa starting from Egypt and Youssef Nabil’s taunting girls:

then to Morocco and Lalla Essaydi’s “I want to be Shirin Neshat when I grow up” image; there is something about the written text that fascinates me:

The great surprise were the other Africans like this beautiful portrait, by Soungalo Malé, of this girl in her sunday suit in 1960; she looks at you with modesty but elegance:

I fell in love with this vintage photo of Ian Berry’s African Collection; a small print that made me smile:

The energy of the place made me forget my aching feet so I plowed on…

I was happy to see Sissi Farassat’s  Andrea, swimming in a sea of sequins:

I love fashion photography and I wasn’t disappointed! Cathleen Naundorf’s Dior 2007 collection made me want to color it pink:

Kate Moss was omnipresent but I liked Annie Leibovitz’s protrait of hers (bellow); she is best friends with the camera and many of her portraits were shouting from multiple galleries!

I saw Leibovitz’s pilgrimage photos too and I loved them all; here is the one I like to include here with all its majesty:

On the other end of the spectrum was Chris Bucklow‘s a thousand points of light that reminded me of Castaneda’s Don Genaro!

I like big cities and skyscrapers so I easily connected with Gail Albert Halaban’s  “Dance studio” from her Out my window NY city collection. Put that on your wall and the whole world changes…

The sun was shining when I went in the Grand Palais,

and I came out when it was growing dark; the site of the Petit Palais in the Parisian “blue hour” was indeed majestic:

Visit the  Silk Road Gallery  here

The unfolding drama of the Greek tragedy has stunned the world , especially Europe who took the Greeks in and refused Turkey the key to the fortress Europe.

Who will survive it and which will be the winner of  the three major currencies for global dominance: the United states dollar, the Euro or the Chinese Reminbi ( Yuan)?

These are scary times people! The tricksters have been at it for the past couple of years and everybody’s scared…Scared of the U.S. economy, scared of the future of Euro, scared of Greece and the Latin European countries going down in flames and scared of the horrifying islamists! Do we really need more ghouls and demons?

There are no trick or treaters in Paris but I can’t help thinking about Halloweens in United States; I love this fun holiday and the whole tradition of choosing the pumpkins, carving them and waiting for little kids to come begging for candies.

The best halloween I’ve had was years ago in Salem Massachusetts; it was raining and the whole neighborhood was covered with gorgeous foliage (on the trees and on the ground). I am getting a bit nostalgic here so here is the last pumpkin I actually carved in California a couple of years ago:

I am getting used to Halloween in europe though—this year I actually bought some pumpkins whereas last year in Zurich I just made a poster for the occasion!

My very frightening but prescient Holloween post of 3 years ago:

Trick-or-Treat, a blood red Halloween

Halloween in Darfur

On a happier note, watch the great Peanuts Pumpkin story here.

Steve Jobs will be remembered everyday by millions of people for a long long time…

I have been wanting to write about my Kindle ever since I got it two years ago; the following is how the Kindle and I feel about each other.

I absolutely love my Kindle! I thought that as a bibliophile, I will hate any e-reader but I can’t find any fault with this quiet, light, patient, non-demanding, treasure chest of a library that goes from my purse to my bed table and travels everywhere with me from a crowded café in Paris to my quiet bed table.

It lets me highlight any passage in the book which I can print later; I don’t even have to open a dictionary to see the meaning of a word – my kindle whispers it in my eyes…My sneaky Kindle lets me read a sampler of the books I am interested in and only then gently pushes me into making money for Amazon…

Now it’s my Kindle’s turn to talk about me:

Hello, my name is Kindle Bezos and I am to tell you how my  mommy, Michele loves me. I am a spoiled, pampered, well loved little gadget; Michele lost my brother but she bought me one day later. She loves me and my dad, Jeff!

*She hugs me and kisses me to make the world jealous…

*She loves it that I am not a battery vampire like her iPad .

*She learned my instructions quickly (I am easy) and she types on me with patience and she talks to me often in 3 languages!

*She loves it that I can communicate easily with the mothership and get her almost any book her little heart desires; she likes the good deals I broker for her and I am working on showing her my French side (no luck on any Persian titles showing up on my screen soon!)

*She takes care of me – I even have a great polka dotted cover! She downloads almost everything I suggest to her (Papa Jeff will be happy with me if I succeed to make her read the New York Times on me!)

I don’t like it when:

a) She highlights long passages (sometimes I want to shout so she stops before underlining the whole damned book).

b) She stops often for a word’s definition (I am expecting that from my foreign owners; they always exhaust me with the dictionary…)

All this said, nothing comes close to a real library which I had in a previous life:

Those old friends are sitting in a storage room in Los Angeles and waiting for me to go and rescue them!

I love my Kindle but in defense of books, watch this very funny clip here.

The best commercial for Kindle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hg7bYEZ6e8&NR=1

I heard from Bahram, my mentor and friend, that he has lost his cousin, Hossein Ziai, director of Iranian Studies at UCLA. This post is an homage to a great scholar.

Nezami Ganjavi the great 12th century Persian poet is considered the greatest romantic epic poet in Iranian literature. Haft Paykar (seven portraits or seven beauties) is the story of Bahram V, the Sassanid king who falls in love with seven princesses from the seven different countries.  Each is associated with a different color, planet and virtue. The King searches for the princesses and wins them as his brides.

He orders his architect, Shideh, to build seven domed structures in seven different colors for each of his new brides.  The buildings are to be astrologically linked with a specific planet, color and day of the week. The princesses take up residence in the splendid pavilions. On each visit, the king visits the princesses on successive days of the week. Each princess relates to the king a story matching the mood of her respective color and they teach him about the seven virtues of Patience, Truth, Faith, Passion, Serenity, Fairness and Devotion to God.

This first one is on Saturday (Shanbeh) when he visits Farouk, the daughter of the of Rajah of India. She wears black and she teaches the king about Patience:

Each princess tells the king a tale, an engaging story containing a moral lesson.On Sunday (Yek-Shanbeh) Bahram visits Homay, the daughter of the Roman Caesar; she wears yellow. My Persian friends can read the titles that tells the day of the week and the color. The Princess of the Yellow Dome teaches the value of Honesty.

Nezami wrote sensuous poetry; the main one is the Panj Ganj or Khamseh. The story of Bahram Gur (Bahram the hunter) is one of the 5 stories of this epic poem.

Monday (Do-Shanbeh) is Naz Pari‘s turn; she is the daughter of the king of Khwarazm, in green; when, at the end of each episode, Bahram embraces a princess, he also embraces her culture, her traditions, her teachings. Naz Pari teaches the king about the value of Faith.

The ladies in waiting are deliciously painted in these works;  they are delicate, exquisite:

On Tuesday (Seh-Shanbeh), the king visits his other princess, Nasrin Nush, the daughter of the king of the Slavs, who is wearing red. His red Russian queen of Tuesdays is a “honeyed apple, sweet and rosy-hued.”

The Red Princess is all about passion, and her story is about a fiery Warrior Maiden who cannot find her equal in a man.

Wednesday (Ch’har-Shanbeh) is Azaryun’s turn; she is the daughter of the king of Morocco, in blue:

Bahram spends Thursday (Panj-Shanbeh) night with Yaghma Naz, the daughter of the Khaqan of the Turks; she wears a saffran colored dress:

Last but not least, Bahram visits on Friday (Jom’eh) , Dorosti, the Iranian princess from the House of Kay Kavus; she wears white.

Thus Bahram progresses from Saturday to Friday, from black to white, from darkness to illumination. When he finally emerges from the palace of the Persian Princess of the White Dome, it is the first day of Spring – Nowruz – the beginning of the New Year.

The idea of glorifying a king who had seven wives troubled me a bit but then I remembered that it was written 800 years ago…

I made these images from the archives of the National Library of France here.

I absolutely adore the work of Tapio Wirkkala, the Finnish glass designer I discovered a couple of weeks ago. Glass may be great as a medium but in the hands of this artist, it becomes magical…

We’ve all seen  some of his designs like the Finlandia vodka bottles but he’s a poet when his work comes done to a less commercial level. I had a great time in the Decoratif Arts museum of Paris.

I had the advantage of a great view to Paris — check the Eiffel tower’s reflection in Wirkkala’s five Murano glass bottles’ window:

There were some funny glass (and wood) sculptures like Richard Meitner’s fish:

I was pleasantly surprised by the Czech artist, Libuše Niklová (1934–1981), a famous toy designer. From the 1950s to the 1980s, Niklová created toys like the inflatable animals and dolls (I had one clone of it in Tehran with a little bell in it!)

“She had the brilliant idea of using flexible pleated piping that squeals when pressed. The result was her “accordion” toys: a cat, dog, goat and lion that can be taken apart and reassembled like a construction game.”

Check out her toys links at the end of the post; you’ll have fun.

As long as I was with the funny stuff, Snoopy always makes me smile:

His creator, Charles Schulz, famously said:

“Yesterday I was a dog. Today I’m a dog. Tomorrow I’ll probably still be a dog. Sigh! There’s so little hope for advancement.”

I saw one of the first huge ad posters for The laughing cow or “La Vache Qui Rit” cheese:

The permanent collection of this museum has a rich array of chairs:

from Mies van der Rohe‘s Barcelona chair to Ron Arad’s folding one:

Olivier Mourgue designed his well-known classic Djinn chairs (1965) made famous by ’2001: A Space Odyssey’ by Stanley Kubrick. Stanley Kubrick created a futuristic rotating Hilton hotel in Space. In it, the Djinn chairs received their lasting moment of fame. Olivier Mourgue named the chairs ‘Djinn” which in Muslim legend, is a spirit often capable of assuming human or animal form and exercising supernatural influence over people (Genie in English):

Do you remember the beautiful scene of the Hilton Lobby in Space Odyssey?

I should stop before I make this post about Kubrick!

I also liked this statue of wood and nails by Janine Janet, made for a window of Balenciaga in Paris in 1959; It’s called the queen:

One of the best things about this underrated museum is its breathtaking views of Paris; I kept running from one window to the next!

I took all of these pictures with my android phone and this is the proof:

Last but not least, my favorite view from the building is this one looking down at Place des Pyamides:

the museum’s site here.

the cute toys here.

Tapio Wirkkala here.