Was it really 11 summers ago... ?!

Summer of 1996. About 20 of us sat in the hidden basement of the old Tokyo Rose, the now-defunct but forever legendary Charlottesville sushi restaurant-stroke-indie-hipster dive, watching Chan Marshall with her back to us, nervously strumming on her guitar and avoiding eye contact with the already enamored crowd. Sounding like a goddess. Wearing a Hanes T-shirt and Chucks.

Her voice was nothing short of mesmerizing. When I began to intern at Matador Records a year later, I'd occasionally see her out at gigs in NYC and through friends of friends, especially the Louisville, KY crowd. She always felt more like "one of us" than "one of them".

In the spring of 2003, her album You Are Free became the soundtrack of that era in my life, a season full of marathon, 8-hour long Saturday printmaking and lithography sessions, surfing in Brazil and the momentous decision to leave McKinsey and return to U.Va. after five long years.

The two most recent shows I saw her play were in London, June 2006 at the Barbican and again in November at the Roundhouse. JBD was there both times, and they must have been memorable in some way, as he now lists her among his favorites on Facebook...

So, I just had to smile when I saw this headline on BBC news a few minutes ago: Singer Power Wins US Music Prize.

I guess all I can say is it's about time.

To properly wish Jamie B.D. a happy birthday as he turns a young 31 today, I thought I'd give him a long-overdue "feature" and introduce him to my virtual blog world.

It would be impossible to sum up our adventures in these few lines... to try and describe the person who has been to the ends of the earth with me, whether it was broadcasting back to the UK via satellite from the side of the High Atlas in Morocco or narrowly avoiding crumbling, rocky death-traps at 13,000 feet in Northern Pakistan, placing our lives in the hands of Inayet, our godsend of a mountain guide and general all-around superhero.

Suffice it to say that Jamie is a 21st century renaissance man in every sense of the term: he is as comfortable reading Virgil's Aeneid in the original as he is climbing a Himalayan peak or chatting to one of his Year 10 students about the latest grime remix to come out of East London. And, for the record, he makes a mean creme brulee.

For all of these reasons, and countless more, here's wishing Jamie a fabulous birthday and many, many more...

xx

The spotlight is on my dear friend Lukas Birk as he delivers his cutting-edge art-meets-technology installations at the Dana Centre's Take It Away DIY media festival all of this week.

If you are in London, don't miss it!! Tickets are free and it is sure to blow you away. Check out the Human Tool project and stay for the talk on his film/photography book/art/website on tourism in Afghanistan, a collection of work entitled Kafkanistan (made with our friend and collaborator Sean Foley).

And if you think you recognize the girl in the burqa, you are absolutely right. ;)

To make up for the month-long hiatus I have taken from this site (more on that later), I offer fun images from this past "bank holiday"(i.e. long) weekend, spent relaxing with dear friend Miss Laura aka "Laurinha" Baker as she breezed through London on the tail end of a European business trip. Having just visited Madrid, Prague, Bratislava and Berlin, she decided that a chilled-out weekend of good food and great conversation in London was all she needed. Although the weather was less than sunny and our grand plans to spend a leisurely Saturday tanning at the new London Fields Lido were thwarted, we managed to find other creative ways to amuse ourselves.

Can't wait to see Laura again...

And perhaps this will inspire other faraway friends to make it out here.

xx

Hot off the presses come these additional photos (gracias Gaby!) from the 2007 Nordic Challenge, which was a 4-day long cross-country skiing adventure through the beautiful mountains of central Norway (in and around Finse, Giterygghytta and Raggsteindalen).

Just to be very clear, it may look like it was all fun and games, but please believe me when I say that it was A LOT OF HARD WORK. Norwegian mountains are a truly rugged and spectacular environment and have no mercy (you may have read about the two Scottish youths who lost their lives in Norway a few weeks ago? Well, that was about 7km from where we were).

This year, I came home with 2 black toes, blisters on both shoulders and a rather large bruise on my left thigh! And it was all to raise awareness and sponsorship funds for the Offscreen Education Programme and its 2008 Student Expedition which will bring 8 Middle-Eastern students to the UK, as a reflexive answer to this year's UK student expedition to the Middle East.

It is still not too late to sponsor me, so please drop me a line to help this very worthwhile cause!!! Every last $ (or £) helps, so do get in touch and help spread the word of tolerance and global understanding TODAY! [ok, I'll get off my soapbox now]

Enjoy the photos!

xx

I have been friends with Aurelie since we were 5 years old. She is like an honorary Shirzad, a sister for life. You may recall seeing her on this site during my visit back home in November.

What to offer my dearest and oldest friend who turns 31 today (seeing as I missed her bash at Happy Ending in NYC last night)?!

How about some really silly, slightly embarrassing and definitely entertaining photos? This session was taken with my MacBook Pro webcam during our recent family reunion in the Bahamas (more "real" photos from that trip coming soon, I promise!). It all started when the girls (Aurelie, my cousin Anahita, and friend Stephanie) were looking through some images from the Antarctica trip, and it turned into a full-on rock'n'roll riot.

So, Aur, happiest of birthdays to you my sweet and many many more.

Ah, Norway the land of the vikings! Tusen Takk (literally a thousand thanks) to you, your mountains, your snow and ice, for supplying the perfect conditions for our 2007 Nordic Challenge.

And what an amazing journey it was. For starters, our group was smaller this year, and benefited from the guiding wisdom and leadership of Stephen, Halvard and Sinova (from Norway) and Ivan (from Slovakia, currently living in Bergen), as well as the lifetime cross-country power duo Mama Stapleton and Tante Inga (Stephen's aunt).

I will write more about the route and various cabins along the way, but I just received these pictures from fellow Nordic Challenger Gabriel from Spain and wanted to post them immediately. I was quite lucky, as Gaby and I wound up skiing much of the route together because of our pace and stride, and he had his camera on him the whole time! So, there are many Gaby and Marjan (and just Marjan) shots! The joke was that my mom would love him for this!

More stories to come!

xx

OK, I still have packing to do and I need to be out of here in the next 45 minutes, so this will be short and sweet.

I am off to the mountains of central Norway to bust a move on cross-country skis for 4 excruciatingly long days, all in the hopes to raise funds for the Offscreen Education Programme, which many of you know I have been involved with for the last year or so.

Check out my thoughts from last year's challenge, and please drop me an email if you care to donate anything at all to this really amazing organization and my skiing efforts. I'll tell you how!

Wish me luck... I hear it's brutally cold at the moment, with 4 meters of snow (that's 12 feet!!).

That is all it takes to go to Al Gore's website and fill out an electronic postcard on the topic of global warming. which he will then "personally deliver" to the U.S. Congress in Washington, D.C. on March 21, 2007.

This is no longer about politics or agendas. This is about getting as many voices heard as possible, NOW. Global warming is real and it is not going away. We need to help get the message out and put pressure on all of our governments if we hope to win this uphill battle against climate change.

Please do your part now. There are about 24 hours left...

Wowee...

Am I really back? It is hard to imagine that I have been home, safe and sound at the Shirzad compound in Madison, New Jersey for the past 2 days... hibernating in good old suburbia and spending quality time with my parents and grandmother. It is harder yet to attempt to convey in coherent terms my emotions regarding the IAE5 Expedition to Antarctica.

I guess there are experiences in life where it helps to have "been there" and in some ways this was one of them. Although it lasted only 3 weeks in total, it felt like an eternity. The dramatic nature of the actual journey to Antarctica and the trials and tribulations of merely getting there lengthened the feel of time and space. The uniqueness of the landscape, immeasurable in its beauty and raw power, constantly offered fresh perspective on life as well as infinite opportunities to rediscover harmony with one's surroundings. Most importantly, the people sharing the journey and the countless laughs and inspirational moments we experienced rendered real time a fairly meaningless entity, and expedition time the only acceptable standard to measure the profundity of our moments. You could say that expedition time, like dog years, has a slightly exponential feel to it.

The friendships forged on this trip are for life. It feels strange, even now, to be back in the real world and not have my sister-in-arms Tiffany to play with or call out to ("Girlie, let's dance!"), or Kyle to pretty much do everything with, including debating the merits of observational film (not to worry - more of that to come, somehow somewhere). Luckily, I will be seeing some of these amazing characters soon, like wonderful Nicky back in London in a few weeks time, dearest Joanne in Cardiff and the Norwegian Dream Team Toby and Knut in Finse, Norway at the end of March. And I just know I will visit Becky and the gang in California before the year is up... and last but not least, John Luck in D.C. who is the hippest photographer and writer around.

I guess this is all to say that the 2041 expedition was fantastic. It was also fantastically overwhelming and might take a bit of time to process and share properly. So hang tight while I organize some images in the coming days and attempt to gather my impressions of this Great Continent. These first pictures are just a glimpse at our friends and a bit of scenery. Plenty yet to come...

xx