Cappuccino and I: The Chronicle of A Love Affair

It was a warm spring afternoon when I first gazed upon her brown and beige face, the beauty that radiated from her, the grace, the paralysing charm, the arresting elegance. Was she African, you ask, hence the brown face? Nay, I tell thee, but she came from Persia, the land of legends, that eastern land who has captured the imagination of men and women since the time immortal! Yes, the Persian beauty with an Italian name!

They have asked me to write a piece about Cappuccino and tell how I feel about it. The request came wrapped in a charming package of what Persians stylishly call “Taarof”, and can be crudely, but rather accurately, translated as “lip service”. Write in English, the request commanded, and have it ready by Tuesday, it added further. Well, it is Sunday, and Tuesday is not far into the future. But hey, the Managing Editor has taken time from her precious schedule to email this author! what privilege! And who dares to turn away such request? Let it not be! A chance to be published in such a sophisticated journal with so amazingly high circulation!

That is the first thing I feel about Cappuccino: when they need you to write something, they give you only two days to do it! Maybe because I am a backup writer, like the army reserve, or the reserves in a soccer game? Anyway, somewhere in the back of my head, in that grey spot called “the unconscious”, I associate “Cappuccino” with “Rush”. As the author of the esteemed weblog, Rushed Surveys, I shall not be complaining though, life is like that!

I know Cappuccino as a team effort. I know many of its writers personally, although some of them wish I didn’t know them. Cappuccino is the embodiment of what I myself had in mind, of course I thought of publishing it on paper! In this sense, Cappuccino is also the embodiment of what internet can offer: a medium of contact and a place to express ideas without being tested for living up to the standards!

I can judge Cappuccino on two grounds. One is the grounds of familiarity; I was present at some of the meetings, I tried to be come a regular author, and I befriended some of its writers. On these grounds, I tend to judge the whole publication with a favour bias. I like it, I read some of its columns every week, usually the ones whose authors I know, even if they are not good. In this case, it is more like a weblog, I am just following the thought process of my friends.

On the other hand, I can judge Cappuccino on strictly professional grounds. I like the design, although the colour choices are a tad on the grim side. I like the report part, and I like the idea of devoting whole issues to a particular subject, despite the fact that they sometimes look too cliché. I particularly appreciate the role Cappuccino is playing as a chronicler of current history. Bringing in issues that concern everyday life of the people and reports on social matters (sex, drugs, women’s issues, etc.) is truly valuable. A professional look at the art of cinema, and a very particular brand of humour also add to the diversity of the publication, and make it truly readable.

This diversity is possibly the weakness of the work as well. Certain elements in the publication obviously want Cappuccino to be about current events, but there also is the usual poetic outbursts of your average Iranian, your need to write stories, and the universal appeal of gossip! So, from a very dry point of view, Cappuccino is confusing, and also makes you feel as if the publication is generally confused!

Now that we are done with the formal assessment part, let’s talk about Cappuccino in more human terms. Where do I see Cappuccino going? I think Cappuccino is a great team effort, and it is playing a great role in the politicised atmosphere of Iran. I don’t think it is going to last forever; it is not going to be the London Times of the internet world. However, it is a great breeding ground for aspiring journalists and promising writers. Even now some of its staff are established journalists, and it is obvious that others are preparing themselves for a bigger world. So, I don’t see Cappuccino as an internet publication reaching its one hundredth anniversary, but I do think that the bond that Cappuccino has created would survive, and “the Cappuccino Team”, the successful journalists and writers of tomorrow, will always stay as the Cappuccino Team, and I hope I can always stay friends with them. Good luck fellows!

Khodadad Rezakhani
9 June 2003
Berkeley, California

خداداد رضاخاني