I haven't had time to update my Weblog here, I've been working on setting up the weblog at the Project 300 website, and I just finished a first version of that. I invite you to check it out here.

check it out here.

check out this E!online article about Project 300, our artistic protest to movie 300.

I have been simply overwhelmed by the massive response to project 300. In the past 3 days I have received close to 1,200 comments and emails. Many people have submitted their art, while others have suggested ways to improve the site.

Already there has been some great art posted (+). Despite what some have suggested, project 300 is neither retaliatory nor confrontational. It is a collaborative endeavor aimed at showing the artistic side of Persians you normally don't see in the media, specially these days. 300 was just an excuse to bring Persian artists together, perhaps project 300 will serve as the foundation on which to build a thriving and active artistic community.

300 opens today, and like many comic book fans I can't wait to see it for its stunning art. However, like many Persians I'm not thrilled with its portrayal of the great Persian army as barbaric snarling beasts. In recent days some have talked about different forms of protest to this movie. A better idea (one which I have already proposed on my Persian weblog) might be doing a collaborative art project: 300 from a persian perspective. Basically I have called upon all Persian artists to submit art with the theme of "ancient Persia", so we can gather all of these in one site and show the world (and comic fans) the face of ancient Persians from our own perspective. And to make sure that the world does really see it, I've orchestrated a campaign to bring up our gallery page to the top of search results. The site is 300themovie.info. If you are an artist, or just think the idea is cool you can participate by either submitting your art (email it to submit@300themovie.info), or by helping to bring the page to the top of the rankings by linking to that page on your blog or website. Make sure you ONLY use the phrase "300 the movie" to link to it, like this:

<a href="http://300themovie.info">300 the movie </a>