Today's Picture

I witnessed this scene today while coming out our apartment. I like the guy on top who really looks at ease.

Road Trip

Today we went to Bozüyük for the day. Ekin's cousin's husband's father passed away so we went there to visit and present our condoleances. I didn't get to take many photos since I drove all the way on and back. Here are some photos I took on the ferry on the on. It took us 4 hours in the morning and 3 and a half hours on the way back by taking the north road.

Walk in the Balat District

Holidays

The holidays have started last Saturday and are going to last until next Friday for some, until next Sunday for others. We usually go somewhere but this time we decided not to.
So what is this holiday about? ...

Happy Birthday Serap

Holidays

Today, Holidays are starting, for me. It started actually last night for those who don't work on Saturdays. This holiday is called the Kurban Bayramı, literally meaning "the festival of sacrifice". Eid al-Adha in Arabic, is a religious festival celebrated by Muslims worldwide as a commemoration of Ibrahim's (Abraham's) willingness to sacrifice his son Ismael for Allah. However, God provided a ram in place once Ibrahim demonstrated his willingness to follow God's commands. The festivities last for three days or more depending on the country. Eid al-Adha occurs the day after the pilgrims conducting Hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia by Muslims worldwide, descend from Mount Arafat. It happens to be approximately 70 days after the end of the month of Ramadan. (source : wikipedia).
So Everybody buy a sheep or bull and have it killed in a religious way. In the suburbs or poor districts they would do that on the pavement which is actually forbidden since the city have reserved places to do that. The butcher comes and read some verses from the Quran and then cut the animal's throat. Then the animal is prepared and cooked immediately.
Some people would distribute the food to poor people. More modern poople or let's say people who aren't that keen to religion would donate money to different organizations such as the Red Crescent (equivalent of the Red Cross in Muslim countries) which seems more proper to me.

At Zübeyde's with Daniel & Abdoul

Daniel is here, visiting from Germany, and Abdoul is here visiting from France, so we all met up at Zübeyde's place.

Today's Picture

Books

I fınally got my books I ordered from the Internet.



First of all thanks a lot to my friend Noah Scalin for signing his book SKULLS and sending it to me. Holidays are approaching, it's a great gift for everyone. SKULLS is a gathering of some skulls Noah did for his project Skulladay where he created one skull, every day for one year. You can buy it through IndieBound, Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble or Powell's Books. It has a nice embossed cover by the way and I would recommend it to anyone.






Second book is "New York September 11". A hardcover book with photos taken by photographers of the Magnum Agency. I had seen this book during an exhibition in Istanbul at the Museum of modern Arts and I really liked some of the photos in it. Like the one from photographer Susan Meiselas of the sculpture park near the WTC covered with debris.






The third one is from artist Shepard Fairey, E Pluribus Venom (hardcover). The title could be translated as "Out of many, Poison". This book gathers some of the artworks Fairey produced and presented at his exhibition in the summer 2007 at the Jonathan Levine gallery.
E Pluribus Venom is derived from "E Pluribus Unumi" (Out of Many, One), a motto adopted by the U.S. Government appearing on U.S. currency. In his work, Fairey questions the symbols and methods of the U.S. and of the American dream and also those who oppose blind nationalism and war.
Fairey uses many different styles as currency motifs, blend of Art Nouveau, revolutionary propaganda styles to support pacifism.

My 11th 15 mn of Fame

Presenting the point & shoot digital camera Olympus mju 1030SW on Teknosohbet.tv

A.R.O.G. Photos

Cem Yilmaz as Arif









The blurry guy standing up in the front is A.R.O.G.'s actor/scenarist/producer Cem Yilmaz.









The movie theater entrance in the Kanyon mall center.

A.R.O.G.

Thanks to the Sinevidyon team (Özgür and Eren) today I had the opportunity to be among the first to watch the new comedy from Cem Yilmaz at the premiere for the Press.
A.R.O.G. is the second "episode" after the first movie : G.O.R.A.
In Gora Cam Yilmaz played the hero : Arif, a young Turk was captured by extraterrestrials from the planet GORA, fell in love with one of them and defeated the evil commander-in-chief Logar (aslo played by Cem Yilmaz). In A.R.OG. Commander Logar comes back and sends Arif 1 million years ago at the time of dinosaurs where he meets people from the A.R.O.G. tribe this time. Cem Yilmaz plays three different characters in this movie, Arif, Commander Logar and Kaaya leader of the A.R.O.G tribe.

I was afraid that he wouldn't be that funny since they overwhelmed us with commercials, advertising of all sorts. But I wasn't disappointed at all. It was a pretty good and funny movie. They apparently spend 8 million (or maybe 9) dollars to do this film but I'm pretty sure they spent most of it in commercials and in post production. The special effects are in fact pretty good for a Turkish production. The costumes and the decors were really nice too. As for the picture itself, it had a very good quality, the colors, the lighting were very good. A movie to watch absolutely, especially if you're a fan of Cem Yilmaz; if you don't like him you won't like like him here either.

The casting is actually pretty good with almost the same actors from G.O.R.A. : Ozan Güven (played the Robot in G.O.R.A.), Özkan Uğur (comedian and musician - from the MFÖ music band), Özge Özberk and the beautiful singer Nil Karaibrahimgil in her first appearance on the big screen.

Just for your information : The movie is coming out on December the 5th in Turkey as well as in 8 other European countries (Germany, Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Denmark, U.K. and France). It has been distributed with 400 copies here and 160 copies in Europe.

Today's Picture

This dog lives in my parents' street and is named "Beyaz" meaning "White". He's been there for at least 8 years but I don't know how old he is.

Twisting Falling Sliding

I forgot to tell you but the other night it was raining pretty hard and since during the day the weather was pretty nice, all I had was a T-shirt. I decided to run toward the car, but as I came at the corner of the street, I slipped, twisted my right knee a bit and landed on my right side - smashing my photo camera that was in my right pants pocket - and landed on my right elbow. I felt like a footballer sliding in the grass to celebrate scoring a goal. Only, I landed on the pavement. I was soaked. I have a bruise on my elbow and on my hip which is pretty rare for me. The last time I bruised was when I got hit by a car 10 years ago ;)

Here is the camera, still working perfectly by the way :

World AIDS Day