THE LEFT LANE
Art songs of Persia

Advertiser Staff and News Services

Parisa will sing classical Persian works at 7:30 tomorrow night.

But the music is a living form, created by the layering of new melodies and new interpretations by each successive master and student.

An oral tradition as well as an interpretive one, the preservation of radif is also largely dependent on the memory of its masters. Iranian radif vocalist Parisa, a student and teacher of the Persian art music for more than a decade, will perform a single concert at Doris Duke at the Academy at 7:30 tomorrow night. Tickets are $5 general and $3 for students, seniors, military and museum members. 532-8700.

TV pioneer wears lei

Sunday night's Emmys paid tribute to TV inventor Philo T. Farnsworth. Host Conan O'Brien acknowledged Farnsworth's 94-year-old widow, Elma "Pem" Farnsworth, who was in the audience and stood up to a round of applause for having been the first woman ever seen on television.

Keen-eyed Hawai'i viewers appreciated Farnsworth's fashion statement: Instead of the dazzling jewels worn by many around her, she sported a "Christina"-style orchid lei.

Farnsworth' first TV broadcast was Sept. 7, 1927, in his modest San Francisco lab.

Trick or treat — but not for unisex

No, Emily Litella, it's not trick or treat for unisex, it's trick or treat for UNICEF.

Even older than that "Saturday Night Live" Weekend Update sketch is the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund project, which puts Halloween to better use than plying children with more sugar than is good for them.

Last year, people in Hawai'i raised more than $23,000 — more than double the take of the year before. Order a free orange "Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF" box at www.unicefusa.org, call (800) 252-5437 or after Oct. 4, stop by McDonald's, Pier 1 or Sears Portrait Studios. And as for unisex, well ... never mind.