Braindroppings

Jolly jolly good! Those couple of years in England have been very influential I see, much more so than your longer years among the uncultured yanks... I am sure folks from the Foreign Office find this amuzing. "O my dear!" Step lively then... Have you come accross Madonna on your Marco Polo travels? Long live Her Majesty's Islamic Republic....

What the hell does that suppose to mean? What does this have to do with the Islamic republic at all. If you are refering to my "Britishisms", it has nothing to do with Madonna. Dude, you know that I spent some of my earlier years in England and I have always had the Britishisms. I did not learn my English in America, and I am not sure why everyone here finds it offensive when people don't speak English with the Standard North American accent! Did I speak any different when you knew me in Heidelberg????

Well, yes indeed, if you really want to know: Despite the narrative you seem to have constructed for yourself based on childhood visits to the UK, you did not have a swirlingly affected middle class accent when I met you in person. You basically spoke with a mixture of American college and fresh off the boat uptown Tehrani accents then. I know how it is with accents though. Whenever I used to go to Isfahan in the summer, for instance, by the end of the summer I would have a lightly noticable Isfahani twang too. But you live in Westwood for crying out loud dude, or mate, and attend UCLA and have done your undergrad in Texas... that's why I said that little MA sojourn in London has been really something. I was just trying to imagine your community college students and what they must think of an IR Iranian's posh oxbridge wanna be intonations... well for one thing it might sound pretentious... But I don't know... To me it just sounds weird to sport an accent of a place one is neither a resident of, nor a citizen... Which brings me to the Brits way of colonizing to the bone to the extent that just like in Salman Rushdie novels, you actually think they hold you to be their equal or something... and that reminded me of Kharrazi having a laugh with Straw... He also could try to be middle class... or maybe he holds himself to be more... I don't know... No matter what, I am not sure what the Standard North American accent might be... but that would be pushing it a bit also... Anyway, carry on, good show.

Khodadad, I am not trying to be offensive... Please do take note of that... I just would rather say what I think than not... Do continue with the audio... There is still a bit of Persian there that I enjoy hearing...

Khodadad, hearing your voice put a smile on my face. :) No, there was nothing funny about your audio blog! I smiled because I was happy to hear someone that I think of as a friend. I am trying to remember when you first wrote a comment to me at Pinkfloydish. I think that it may be almost two years ago! So I am happy to hear you after all this time! :)

I was surprised by how you pronounced your first name. I didn't realize that the "K" was silent. No doubt all Iranians know that, but it was interesting to me. I do not have a lot of experience with hearing English spoken with an Iranian accent. I had a good friend in college who was Iranian. At the time I knew him, he had lived abroad for more than ten years, partly in Europe and partly in the U.S. Your accent is similar to his in some ways, but different in others. No surprise there, I suppose. Anyway, I find your spoken voice to be quite comfortably listenable. So, I would be happy to listen to more of your bodacious audio blogs in the future! :)

I am very curious what kind of software and equipment was required to make your audio blog. I think that I might like to try it myself (although I might have to prepare a script first!). Please let me know what I would need to do this myself. Thanks!