1. My interview with Homa Sarshar, the Iranian Barbara Walters, went really well. It’s so cool to talk to someone who does what you want to do and, in her case, has been doing it successfully for more than 40 years. She was really gracious. Now I have to transcribe our conversation, which always blows, but it’s better transcribing later than typing furiously during an interview. I will link to it here when it’s done.
2. Friday I am scheduled to meet with Ardeshir Farah, the Iranian Eric Clapton. They are not musically similar - the shorthand is just because they both play guitar and are both famous. Except Ardeshir Farah is not annoying whereas Eric Clapton is, if only because Clapton’s song Layla (video) gets stuck in your head and won’t get out. Also: I once heard a Christianized version of the song at church youth camp, in which the name Layla was replaced with the name Jesus. As in “Jesus, got me on my knees / Jesus, begging you, Lord please”. Obviously, that’s forever ruined the song for me. So I’m looking forward to meeting with Ardeshir Farah, and not Eric Clapton.
3. The best thing about covering a community that is small and not mainstream is easy access to its titans. It would take me about ten million years to get an interview with Barbara Walters or Eric Clapton, and they are probably so jaded that it wouldn’t make a difference and it would be much more difficult to build a rapport quickly - something that I think is really necessary to do a good interview. (After all, it’s just a conversation. Sometimes a very, very complicated conversation, but a conversation nonetheless.) Iranians are not as visible in the press (at least, not for the right reasons, not when they’re doing really great work, etc.) and as a result, I think they are much more open and giving. And I rarely ever have to talk to a publicist or press person… it’s awesome. I’m sure it also doesn’t hurt that I’m very young and I’m nice; I think it inspires some trust, maybe, and it means that basically just smiling and giving people my business card has been enough to get them to agree to talk to me. Knock on wood.
4. Video… I have this awesome project in mind and did an initial video that went really well except for my camera being an ass and messing up the audio. So I’m chalking that up to a test run and now I’m buying a new camera. Good times.
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