SAIC: Mojdeh

SOMETIMES YOU JUST FEEL...APRECIATED!

Sat, 16 Feb 2008 12:57:43 -0600

So my birthday itself didn't go as well as I'd hoped. I had a good crit, but the celebration of my birthday later on wasn't at all as I what I expected. - I didn't feel honored by the person I was with for the evening. _ However, my roommate & boyfriend totally came through for me yesterday. _ They'd planned a surprise party for me; which may seem like an uninteresting way to celebrate someone because it's so common. However my birthday's not normally celebrated much throughout my family and amongst my friends so I have NEVER experienced this kind of celebration! They went as far as to plan multiple phases! As if being decieved into coming to a group dinner wasn't enough of a heart attack for me! _ Let me back track and share with a little more detail. I'd asked my roommate if she wanted to go hang out on my birthday and she turned me down. In fact she turned me down and couldn't come up with a good excuse, she said she wanted to stay home and do homework (WHAT?...that's what I thought!). She then said she'd make it up to me by taking me out to dinner on friday...I was like (YES YOU WILL!)...so we hopped onto the CTA! _ We get to Reza's (one of my favorite Persian restaurants) and to my surprise, my other two roommates, nikki, my boyfriend, and my other band mate are all sitting around a table smiling (this is when the panic attack began - ha ha -I laugh about it now!). I must've said, "I'm still having a heart attack" a dozen times throughout dinner. My closest friend from back home came a little after I arrived. Then to my surprise that wasn't the end of the evening... _ We all piled into Amanda's car and when we arrived at "Phase 2" as they called it they had me close my eyes and...more surprises! They'd delivered me unto a laser tag place and when I walked inside, there were even MORE people there (Matt, Bibby, Kari + 1), Kari even wore a tie to honor me (I thought it was cute). When we were done running around like 12 year olds, we all piled into cabs/cars again and entered "PHASE 3"...yeah I didn't have any idea what was going on! _ We arrive at my apartment and AGAIN to my surprise...MORE PEOPLE! I was particularly delighted to see Karina! The plan for "Phase 3" was to watch a RIDICULOUS 80s movie "Breakin" (which I thoroughly enjoyed) and that all fed right into...PHASE 4 (they were crazy). _ "Phase 4" invovled everyone spending the night and when we woke up Mary made waffles for everyone! WHAT A DOLL!!!!! _ I WIN!

It's my birthday...I can do what I want to!

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 10:25:50 -0600

So today's my birthday and I am very excited about going to the Green Mill tonight! ...but before I can do that I have to finish my critique...ugh! - no I think the crit will be fine!

IT'S SETTLED!

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 05:52:43 -0600

Okay the fueds over a name for the band are over! We wanted to hold onto my name but also give the boys some credit too! So as a trio we are officially called THE MOJDEH PROJECT!

CHECK THIS! - More MOJDEH streaming on youtube

Sat, 26 Jan 2008 06:08:21 -0600

the first time Brian & I ever played "PacMan" Live! A taste of "Deeper"

WOOO HOO! I LOVE AMAZON.COM!

Sun, 20 Jan 2008 06:00:10 -0600

So if you haven't already figured out a few things about me by reading my blog. Allow me to summarize...MOJDEH = 1 part fine artist + 1 part folkcore musician + 1 part 80s/90s music obsessed mamma! _ What did I order off of amazon.com you ask...the double disc "History" album by MJ! YEAH! _ SO I OFFICIALLY HAVE A NEW FAVORITE SONG...both videos are terrible...but I'm going to share them anywayz! well it appears that the other regular video won't let me embed into this blog..so here's the remix version of that video....weeeee!

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 12:46:16 -0600

I almost forgot to post those images I promised. These are the images that I took of our band so that we'd have some group shots and some new individual head shots! I think they turned out rather well!

NEW YEAR...new video! :)

Tue, 01 Jan 2008 01:22:01 -0600

I've been having too much fun with youtube! But now instead of just getting sucked into everyone elses videos I've been posting my own!!! Check it out! About this time last year Brian (my percussion boy) & I performed at the Shoeshine Boy Showcase at Pontiac Cafe in Wicker Park! We rocked the house I promise! Here's a little taste of Thunder!

BEAT IT CHRISTMAS!

Wed, 26 Dec 2007 11:35:36 -0600

So generally speaking I am not a big fan of the Christmas holiday. I am totally fine with the fact that for those who are actually connected to the holiday for religious means - that holds great importance. My issue is the OVER abundance of it's hold on contemporary American media/consumer culture is what steams me!!!! In theory I shouldn't care because I don't actually celebrate any widely celebrated holiday during the season. However I become frustrated because there's no equality amongst holidays in the winter! I would be totally fine with Christmas and the madness that happens for 4 months if we saw Manoras and Kwanzaa decorations all over the place. Also, I'd like to see some Ramadan specials on TV and films about prominent Jewish people during the season and so on! I myself, am Baha'i so I don't have a holiday (of the gift giving/being extra loving) until the end of February. So in that regards none of these holidays effect me except for the fact that the current state of Hyper-Christmas feels more offensive than loving as an outsider! LETS GET SOME EQUALITY!!! I'd feel so much happier about the ridiculousness of the season! All that being said, for the sake of honoring my friends that do celebrate winter holidays I give half of my gifts durring this season but under the guise of "Festivus" (see the Seinfeld episode about this made-up holiday!). The bright side of participating this way is to make sure that I don't JUST receive gifts from Christian/Jewish friends but to also reciprocate. This year my roommate got real hilarious and got me a tshirt with the design from Michael Jackson's jacket from the "Beat It" video! Hilarious! So on that note...I share this excellent video from the King of Pop!

Quality time with the russian and the basket case!

Sat, 08 Dec 2007 01:18:36 -0600

So my band mates and I desperately needed some new images...so sure enough I was like..."Well why are we waiting around...I take self portraits anyway...I'll just take the photos!" _ Who knew that both of my band mates were such beauty queens! Ha ha! ...and I'm the only girl in the band! Love it! _ I'll post pics as soon as I've got em edited!

Santa Packs Are Coming...to your town

Sat, 01 Dec 2007 07:45:30 -0600

So...finals are approaching..not QUITE here yet...but approaching... which means.. the only thing keeping me from imploding are Santa Pack commercials & and caffeine! Save me! don't even ask why i love this jingle...but it's the only part of christmas that still makes me giddy!

Gobble Gobble Gobble!

Tue, 27 Nov 2007 09:17:23 -0600

I've been thinking about how interesting a holiday like Thanksgiving is. I grew up having very mixed appreciation for this American bred celebration! My family didn't always celebrate it because my mom is from Iran (so she doesn't necessarily have any connection to our celebration of pilgrims/native Americans), and my dad was generally apathetic about these things. So, early on I started to realize there's not necessarily importance in holidays. _ I'm fascinated by the process that we go through as children, first learning that this country was "discovered", then that the Pilgrims show up and the Native Americans lovingly share their means of agriculture and survival. Then we go on to realize...wait if there are "natives" that means that this country wasn't really discovered at all! Then finally we find out in middle school or high school that in fact the Pilgrims came and cheated these people out of their home and their land!. _ So I began to think about the fact as far as I can see that as a society built on immigration, we have settled here without really laying a positive foundation for our stay here. None of our national holidays are particularly genuine (with the exception of those that celebrate the attempts at unity - i.e. Martin Luther King day, etc). _ I'm thinking that it would be highly beneficial as a body of people, to start to address this and maybe over time find a way to step back and find new ways to appreciate ourselves as a community. Because I think that as a country we have the ability to be an example of broader unity - BECAUSE we're a country built on immigrated people! _ ..anyhow... just a rant...some thoughts...

OPENING FOR CHEVELLE

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 08:36:09 -0600

Friday afternoon the whole crew (band + roadies) packed up and drove to Milwaukee to open up for Chevelle (major label band from Chicago)! We were pretty pumped because the sound system would be awesome and we were looking forward to the energy of the audience! We had an excellent time driving up north for two and a half hours and then we stayed at the most hilarious hotel; they call it the HoJo! HA HA HA! ANYHOW...the crowed responded to us very well which made us really excited! Here are some photos!

Dancing baby + Persian Tunes = national pride!

Tue, 06 Nov 2007 10:32:04 -0600

really i think my subject says it all... ....speaking of subjects.... ...........i suggest you subject yourself to this video!!!!.... because i giggled so much when i saw it! ah ha ha ha ha ha...love it!

THRILLER! LIKE YOU'VE NEVER SEEN IT BEFORE!!

Sat, 27 Oct 2007 05:20:29 -0600

So it's obviously NO SECRET that I'm totally on a very bad video kick lately. Infact I'd go as far as to say that I'm addicted. Everyday I seem to find a way to find a video that makes me giggle or shocks me to turning my computer off, tucking it under my bed, running a mile away to just be far away from the bad chi that I'd just exposed myself to. BUT TODAY! Today I came home and on my front stoop were some classmates that live on the first floor of my apartment building, they were all dressed up for thier lil Halloween party and it all reminded me of - THRILLER ofcourse! By Michael Jackson. But ofcourse, in the process of looking for the real video...I found this one...which totally fulfills my love for REALLY AWEFUL worldy music that mimics our own pop!! ENJOY!!! AND FOR GOOD MEASURE...I share with you the craziest Indian music video I have ever seen in my life!!!!

JAPANESE METAL? OR A MAN THAT NEEDS THERAPY!?

Thu, 25 Oct 2007 05:48:01 -0600

YOU KNOW THE DEAL...but I'll tell you again anywayz. I'm very obsessed with finding videos of worldly musicians that are trying SO hard to mimic our already failed popular culture...and today...we have JAPANESE METAL!!! Enjoy!