I am from a city called Mashhad, country of Iran. Mashhad was an odd place for me to grow up, because even though it’s the largest religious city in Iran, I didn’t exactly feel that religious mindset. Of course in school there was a fair part of the education devoted to making us religious, giving us all the Islamic teachings. But as a child I grew up in a very urban, Chicago-like environment, where there were kids running around, you know, and bikes.
Ehsan Ghoreishi, 32, is a cabdriver, musician, and filmmaker. He’s the accordionist in Black Bear Combo and has his own musical project, the unclassifiable Bad Mashadi. —Tal Rosenberg
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I came here when I was 20 years old. Two weeks after I arrived I had my first-ever job in my life: I started working at Dominick’s. I was a bag boy and a cart boy. I met a bike messenger at Dominick’s. I asked him what he does—I just liked how he walked in with his bike and his gear—and I ended up doing it, because I wanted to get out of that Dominick’s environment. So I became a bike messenger after that, for three years.
I drove for another couple years, and then I reenrolled to school, to Columbia College, for sound design. I was 27.
← Tara D., the gallerist
