Iran Executes Poet for ‘Waging War on God’

Hashem Shaabani, a writer who composed verse (mostly apolitical) in both Persian and Arabic, was convicted by a tribunal last July of “waging war on God” and “spreading corruption on Earth.” He is a member of Iran’s Arab minority and founder of an institute promoting Arab culture; two years ago he confessed on state television to “separatist terrorism.”

Valery Gergiev Talks to CNN on Gay Rights in Russia

“I myself question very much why the country needed something like this law. … I think it was seen internationally as a bad thing happening in Russia. I think in Russia, the view was different. The way people read this law is slightly different or sometimes very different.” (includes video and transcript)

Walking Through Istanbul With Orhan Pamuk

On a cloudy December afternoon, Joshua Hammer follows the Nobel laureate from his native Cihangir (once the Greek quarter, later a red-light district, now Turkey’s Greenwich Village) to a lunch cart in a muddy plaza on the Bosporus, across the Golden Horn and past the grand and faded buildings of the late Ottoman government, to a favorite hole-in-the-wall near the Fatih Mosque,

Of Course Philip Seymour Hoffman Died Like He Did. But Really…

“He often played creeps, but he rarely played them creepily. His metier was human loneliness — the terrible uncinematic kind that has very little to do with high-noon heroism and everything to do with everyday empathy — and the necessary curse of human self-knowledge.”

YouTube Has Paid $1 Billion To The Music Industry In Recent Years (But The Industry Isn’t Happy About It)

“I am concerned with YouTube entering the market because for YouTube everything is about dominance, and dominance is connected to destruction. I would rather prefer perhaps Google not being in music.”

Today’s Top AJBlog Posts 02.02.14

Philip Seymour Hoffman, R.I.P.
Source: About Last Night | Published on 2014-02-03

Hear Me Now: My WNYC Comments on MoMA’s Frank Lloyd Wright Show
Source: CultureGrrl | Published on 2014-02-02

How They Fly, How They Dive
Source: Dancebeat | Published on 2014-02-02

A violinist tells Milwaukee thief: Take care, the Strad needs to breathe
Source: Slipped Disc | Published on 2014-02-02

The Only Thing New in the World is the History You Don’t Know
Source: We The Audience | Published on 2014-02-02

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