The first time I saw him on stage three years ago, I was mesmerized. His long jet-black hair lashed to and fro with each spin. At this particular performance some dance pieces seemed to magically suspend and stretch in time, while other pieces seemed to zap me and vanish in...

We all have heard it when we talk to our girlfriends, somehow in mid-conversation the cursed word slips out -- "I feel like I am not good enough". While in the gym, we are fretting about work, while working we are thinking about how we missed the last bake sale...

I only had 48 hours to spend in one of my favorites cities, and I already knew how those two days would play out. Imagine, The Great Race, only with no other contestants but me, and the great wilderness -- the bustling streets of New York with its legions of...

You never expect to run into your mother in certain places: a nightclub, a concert, or at one of those juice-detox bars that are springing up everywhere in Los Angeles. But how about in the middle of an intersection on Crescent Drive in Beverly Hills? I mean, I really ran...

While the Middle-East is rocked with unprecedented unrest, Los Angeles seems to have welcomed goodwill ambassadors from Iran -- well, that is, in the form of an alternative-classical Persian-jazz band by the name of Dang Show.

"The peace and liberty that we all...

Last week I was having lunch with a longtime friend, who happens to be a professor of Political Science. We chuckled over how differently we register the world around us. "I look at things more from a broad, economic or political angle, you know," she said, tapping me on the...

When she wasn't giggling, she talked in a rapid-fire, sing-song register. And her voice -- her voice carried a slight raspy edge. We constantly whispered in each other's ears and wrote notes to each other in the middle of class.

Although the courtyard in front of the strict and...

The subject line in the e-mail read, "Flamenco Dance Show -- Come at Your Own Risk!" That is exactly how I sent my digital invitation to my upcoming flamenco recital. And of course, there are other liabilities that my friends and family have to consider with me in the performance:...

If the Mediterranean Islands were members of a family, Sardinia would be the glamorous one whose personality overshadows all her siblings. Saying, "I'm spending my summer holiday in Sardinia" definitely carries a certain cache of sophistication. Indeed, many tourists are willing to spend over two thousand dollars a night to...

I hadn't felt this way about a film since I was 10 years old, sitting in a packed and darkened theatre, watching Stars Wars. At that moment, even as a little child, I felt I was witnessing a story that was larger than life. Yesterday, I was once again stunned...

The girl's screaming snapped me back to reality, and the first thing that popped in my head is that I had probably scared her away. Then I realized that the crowd was roaring with laughter. Apparently the vendor had tied a string to the dead manta ray's tail, and as...

I followed the reflexologist inside, sat, and as I bent over to take off my boots, she said, "You have beautiful hair." I wanted to say, "That's because my left pinky toe is very healthy." Instead, I just smiled and thanked her. "Yeah," she said, "I had hair like that...

It was already near midnight and drizzling when my plane landed in the Seattle airport. Walking out of the baggage claim area, I was surprised to see a very pretty woman in her 30s holding up a sign with my name on it. I know I shouldn't stereotype, but I...

How can one not take notice of a show called Suicide Bombers in Love? Arien Valizadeh's first gallery show in San Francisco is a daring and provocative exploration of politics, sexuality, and subversion of stereotypes in the Iranian culture--all recontextualized within the western iconographic vocabulary. Valizadeh transposes the visual language...

"What I am about to do is the greatest discovery in the art world," the man next to me declared at the dinner table. I always imagined those who spend their lives on quests to uncover priceless, long-lost treasures to resemble an Indiana Jones character--the swash buckling type, wearing a...

About two years ago I was having lunch at a local sushi restaurant with a group of friends. Suzanne, who happens to be an arts patron and connoisseur, was dipping her spicy tuna roll in soy sauce, when she looked up and said, "Guess what guys? I am going up...

Last week Paris was abuzz with Fashion Week and the opening of 2 extraordinary exhibits: the first ever retrospective of Yves Saint Laurent's entire work over four decades at the Petit Palais, and a showing of Lucian Freud's paintings and engravings for the past five decades at the Centre Pompidou....

There has been a flurry of media attention at the Irvine campus of the University of California because of the growing tension between its Jewish and Muslim Students. Most recently, this animosity came to a head on February 8th, when Israeli Ambassador, Michael Oren was invited by several sponsors, including...

Fashionistas put their names on long lists for the latest "it" handbag of the season. Travelistas search for the "go-to" destinations, ones that hopefully will run the course of more than just a season.

My latest travel destination, however, is the vortex of both worlds--the fashionista-glamorous set and the adventurous-bohemian...