Global Graffiti

The Anchor Wars

[2.May.06] :. Their best anchors gone, now, their viewership bailing for Internet sources, US network news programs find themselves drifting.

We Meet Again, Mr… Bond?

[8.Mar.06] :. Will audiences bond with the new blond bond? Or will this Bond bomb?

What Keeps Me Burning

[29.Sep.05] :. We've all got to die someday. 'Till then, why not light(en) up?

Iran: Dancing in the Spotlight

[25.Jul.05] :. A joke among Iranian exiles is that since the revolution, Iran takes one step forward and three steps back. With Ahmadinejad's election, it appears Iran is doing this shuffle, again.

Don’t Shoot the Messenger

[1.Jun.05] :. Taghizadeh defends Al Jazeera, the best source for news from and for the Arab world.

Another Royal Mess

[30.Mar.05] :. A tale of a man who will probably never be king and his bride, who couldn't care less if she were made queen.

Iranian-American Like Me

[19.Jan.05] :. Prudish by American standards, we are slightly wayward by Iranian ones; nationalistic according to Americans, we are politically aloof according to Iranian elders; culturally proud by Iranian measures, we are often considered snobbish by American interpretations.

Crouching Tiger: The Republicans’ Duplicitous Position on Iran

[22.Sep.04] :. Ayatollah Khomeini's regime had, in effect, manipulated the results of the 1980 US elections by ensuring Reagan's victory. Such on-again/off-again, under-the-table 'I'll scratch your back, you scratch mine' politics continue to this day.

The Politics of a Pill

[28.Jul.04] :. It's time the morning after pill was taken out of the pharmacist's closet.

Presidential Showdown: “Southern Efficiency” vs. “Northern Charm”?

[26.May.04] :. In the 2004 US Presidential Elections, voters are faced with two northerners, but one is posing as an adopted southerner that everyone seems to have forgotten was adopted. Yet the façade of the 'northerner' vs. the 'southerner' and all the implicated strengths and weaknesses of those identities prevails, and history gives 'em each a 50/50 chance of winning.

15 Minutes of Less-Than Perfect, or Romantic, Fame

[7.Apr.04] :. Eerily mirroring the Internet's romance boom in the '90s, which saw the whopping rise of users flocking to matchmaking and personals websites, television has now cashed in on the demand-for-romance phenomenon by stepping in as matchmaker extraordinaire... with, more often than not, painful results.

Reign of Doom: Iran’s Revolution Turns 25

[4.Feb.04] :. 25 years later, the Revolution in Iran still reverberates; sending shockwaves through the bones of the exiled.

The Kennedy Mystique, 40 Years Later

[19.Nov.03] :. The popular notion of the 'Kennedy curse' has preoccupied America for some time.

Warning: You’ve Been Flash Mobbed!

[1.Oct.03] :. The Dadaists were doing this in Zurich in 1916 . . .

Catch Them If You Can

[7.Aug.03] :. Why would someone who obviously has enough talent to be hired by a venerable institution feel the need to ruin themselves, and more importantly, shame the institution with which they are affiliated?

Remembering the Rat Pack: When “Cool” Was King

[4.Jun.03] :. Global Graffiti -- Remembering the Rat Pack: When 'Cool' Was King -- We're amid a full-force revival of that 'make me a Martini and put on a Sinatra record' era of the Rat Pack years.

Washington Watch: Greetings from the City of Power

[9.Apr.03] :. My attempts to take pictures of the barricaded street in front of the State Department are immediately stopped when a guard curtly informed me that photos are forbidden.

You’re So Bleedin’ Bourgeois!

[29.Jan.03] :. No other conversation garners as much chit chat and enjoyment amongst not only the French, but most Europeans, as the plight of the frowned-upon bourgeoisie.

San Francisco Daze

[30.Oct.02] :. The myths of the Summer of Love, Haight-Ashbury, and the cafes and bars of North Beach where the Beats proved that anyone incapable of rhyming poetry was cool, continuously lure thousands who cling to the nostalgia the city offers so readily.

Admit You’re Happy, Dammit

[28.Aug.02] :. Receiving several queries from members who felt that they had been discriminated at their workplace for being 'too happy' (one can only imagine what happy feats incurred the wrath of their employers), Johnson also contacted the ACLU in efforts to curb happiness discrimination.