Live Miniature

This video from ShahreMa TV shows Master Alijanpour (one of Master Mahmoud Farshchian's students, living in Toronto) paint a quick but very beautiful miniature.

Happy Norooz 86

عمو نوروز و ننه سرما

Persepolis Recreated

This is a clip from the documentary Persepolis Recreated:



This trailer is the first 9 minutes of the actual video with a narrator:



The real Xerxes mentioned in "300" vs the history is also in both videos (the person behind the king - i.e. Darius the great - with similar outfit).

A similar project is 3D Parse.

Misconceptions about Iran

A very interesting article on Misconceptions about Iran from a Wikipedia user.

"300" vs the history

You've probably heard of the movie "300" which is coming to theatres tomorrow. The movie, which is about the Battle of Thermopylae between the Greek and the Persians is closely based on a comic book by Frank Miller (the author of Sin City).
Update: What I said below is not correct since according to Wikipedia, the director has claimed the movie is 90% historically accurate!!
While neither the book nor the comic book specifically mention anything about being based on a true story - and they're nothing like the really or what is documented of it - the movie does somehow give the audience the impression of an epic movie based on the history of Persian-Greek wars and because the movie is extremely inaccurate showing Persians as savages and ogres I thought I should include a few links to historical facts, namely:
- gary leupp- 300, A RACIST AND INSULTING MOVIEAdded April 03, 07
- History and the Movie “300”
- the Wikipedia Discussion of the movie
- and Xerxes of Persia
- Also see: 300 the movie (A nice collection of artwork and articles related to "300" and ancient Persia).

One thing to add, according to history, Xerxes (son of Darius the great) was nothing like his father or Cyrus the great... however he was not a pierced savage either!

* In the picture above, Xerxes is the prince and not the king yet. In the full picture shows him standing behind his father Darius.

* You may also want to see the video in one of my previous posts (In Search of Cyrus The Great) that explains greek authors have introduced Persians as savages.

- Even the Greek are outraged: Sparta? No. This is madness (Added on March 15 from The Toronto Star)

- I posted some very interesting videos of the Persepolis (including Xerxes) in Persepolis Recreated.

Persian Piano Clip

I found this while looking for random music videos on YouTube. Enjoy.