Living the Jetsetting Life - Thanksgiving in Shelton, UK

Thanks to my lovely Australian friends, I'm living the jet-setting life! I made my way back to London for four days to go north (Norwich to be exact) to some small town where we rented a manor house. The manor house was called "The Rectory," where Queen Elizabeth I played as a child. How could I miss a manor house fit for a queen???? Well, I didn't. I booked my flights, made my way to Liverpool Street Station right after landing in London, and dragged my jet-lagged ass over to Diss.

The weekend was fabulous, filled with good food, wonderful company of so many people, and me finally breaking out of my shell to sing in public! :) Check out the pics of the whole weekend. And I must bow down to Joyce's incredible organizational skills. Not only did she rent the house and arrange taxis for everyone, she also managed to order food and get it delivered to our door. I love you, Joycey!

http://picasaweb.google.com/ysolmaz/ManorHouseChristmasLondonNov2007

Enchante, mon chérie

Bon soir mis amis! Pour les quatre semaines, j’apprend le français. Je peux expliquer mon nom, prénom, âge, adresse, numéro de téléphone, etc. Par exemple, je m’appelle Yalin et j’ai vingt-quatre ans. J’habit a Chicago et je travaille a Morningstar. J’aime cuisiner, chanter, danser, et diner au restaurant. J’adore voyager a de divers pays.

So, what do you think of my French so far ? I’ve been taking beginners French classes in Chicago since the beginning of November. After 5 weeks, this is where I am! So exciting!! I’m going to continue taking classes in 2008 before I make my way back to London, so I’m somewhat fluent in French next time I go to Paris. Watch out Paris, I’m coming fully equipped next time!!

When will she grow up?...

OK, I absolutely love Amy Winehouse's voice, but when will she grow up? She's wasting her amazing voice by getting wasted or high all the time. Just listen to this video of her performing at EMA. It's disgusting...



And now listen to this, where she sings with Charlotte Church. Church actually sounds better than Winehouse...sad...!

Remembering 10 November 1938, 09:05

I can't hold my tears back as I watch original footage of Ataturk's ceremony. 69 years ago, the leader of the century closed his eyes and left the newly-founded Turkey on her own legs. Having been force-fed western values as the ultimate modern and best, I had forgotten how rich our heritage really is and how much of it we really should be proud of. Looking through the slideshow composed of pictures taken from the original ceremony, I can't help but feel like a traitor for leaving my country in pursuit of my personal gains and goals. I feel irresponsible and it makes me feel awful. This might be a foreign concept to a lot of people, and it might really be unique to countries that have formed out of nationalism at its peak, but it's something that I feel very strongly about: to contribute back to Turkey for what I've gained from my ancestors.

The one thing that makes me happy is that we, Turks, are now coming to our senses in terms of our identity. We don't accept ourselves as "third world" or "second-class" to the rest of the world anymore, which has been projected to us all the time we tried to make ourselves more modern. We are now at the brink of creating our kind of modern that lives hand-in-hand with our past. We are becoming independently modern. Looking at the pictures below, I almost feel like we're catching up with our past, which we had lost for some reason. It looks as if we were more modern back then than what we have become now. Regardless, I'm glad to hear half a million people visited Ataturk's mausoleum today in remembrance for all he started, lead, finished, and paved the way for.

Son, I'm Captain Jack Sparrow. Savvy?

...and then it was time for the scariest time of the year - Halloween! Having never celebrated Halloween before in my entire life, even though I've lived in the US for more than six years, I decided to make the most of my circumstances. I was in Chicago, it was Halloween, my sister was throwing a big Halloween party, I could invite my friends - what was I waiting for?!?

The inspiration struck me when my best friend in Chicago promptly reminded me of how much I look like Johnny Depp. ;) OK, she only said, with the right amount of make-up and some acting on my part, how convincing I would be as Jack Sparrow, but I took that to mean I'm as handsome as the Depp himself. It was on! I scouted all the seasonal Halloween stores in search of the costume and the wig/hat, and I could only find it an hour outside of Chicago.

After about a week and a half watching looped clips of Pirates of the Caribbean and studying the captain's make-up, I arrived at my sister's house a day before the party to start the preparations. My sister successfully completed the make-up and I was ready to flirt, get drunk and move my hands around like Jack while confusing others with my endless chatter.

...Friends... This is the day that you will ALWAYS remember as the day that you...
[backs up and trips over ledge]


If you want to see the complete set of pictures and an incredibly ridiculous video of me as Jack dancing to Christina Aguilera's "Ain't No Other Man," just go to the following online album:

http://picasaweb.google.com/ysolmaz/HalloweenPartyChicagoOct2007

So far Chicago

So, I've been back in the windy city for over three weeks now (good God, time flies by!) and I have been extra busy at work and off work. At work, I've been finalizing the training program my team will be going through along with holding the fort at my 'old' position. Off work, here's what I've been up to:

the Turkish 'gang'
As soon as I came back to Chicago, I found myself in the middle of a new Turkish 'gang.' This gang is so fun and outgoing that I've been out with them almost every single night. We end up hanging out at the same Turkish cafe, discussing politics, music, books, you name it! The recent tensions in Turkey is really worrying all of us so we end up talking about that for the majority of the time. To guide the smooth-flowing conversation, we get incredibly good Turkish food and bottomless wine until we leave the place. We usually stay there so late that the place is literally ours and ours only. We invite friends and all of a sudden, it's a spontaneous party! We can even close the place down- i.e. tomorrow we're throwing a pumpkin carving party at the cafe for us and our friends! I feel VIP, and I love it.

Films!!!!!
Approaching the Christmas and New Year's season, there are films galore in the cinemas, and I'm enjoying only paying $10 to see these film, instead of 10 pounds! I'm loving the dollar. So far, I've seen:

• Lars and the Real Girl (highly recommended, really touching and ingenious)
• Dan in Real Life (feel good comedy starring Steve Carell)
• the Darjeeling Limited (Wes Anderson style awkwardly funny comedy)
• the Heartbrake Kid (horrendous film featuring Ben Stiller)

Chic and trendy
Thanks to my new work colleagues and the no-cover majority of Chicago entertainment spots, I've been to incredibly chic and trendy restaurants and bars. Thought-out decoration, tasty food, good wine and reasonable prices. I'm rediscovering Chicago! Below are pics from a few of the places I've been to.

De La Costa Restaurant

Carnivale

Japonais

A Weekend in the Italian Fashion Capital

I spent the last weekend in September in Milan, the fashion capital of Italy. I had to visit the Milan office for work the following Mon and Tue anyways, and considering I had a friend there, I decided to spend the weekend exploring Milan for the first time in my life.

To recap, I loved the food, the people, and the weather! I have always loved Italian food and believe me, I took advantage of my trip in that respect. And the people....oh, the people! They're so lovely, friendly, and hospitable. I remember fighting to pay for my meals during my trip as my hosts, friend or work colleage, would not let me pay for food at all. And finally, the weather! It was warm but not humid; in other words, I was there for the best fall weather to show off my best looking fall clothes.

Day 1:
- Checking into my boutique hotel on Via de Amicis near the Cadorna Stazione.
- Exploring the Duomo and the Castello di Milano
- Having some gelato (pistacchio and tiramisu flavours!)
- Meeting up with Maria in front of the Galleria
- Walking around with Maria towards the canals in the south of the city
- Having aperativo for 5 EUR each (all you can eat good Italian food including one cocktail...too good to believe, I know!)
- Having dinner with Maria's friends near the Centrale Stazione. Good, cheap food and the best lemon sorbet I've had in my life.

Day 2:
- Sleeping in until 11am; relaxing!
- Having a cafe macchiato and a brioche near the hotel
- Walking around towards the Brera district to visit some museums
- Having THE Italian lunch, including antipasto, primi, secondi, fruit, desert, coffee and wine. Most expensive lunch ever!
- Taking a long-needed nap at the hotel before meeting up with Maria for another aperativo session.
- Having some red wine and pretending to understand Italian while Maria's friends get into heated conversations at the local bar

The next two days were mostly spent at the office (very productive two days with the Italian team!) and eating out with the Italian team. I had the best mozzarella di bufala, pasta, pizza, fish and meat, along with great conversation and jokes. I'm considering moving to Italy! Seriously!

Artistic Genius?

There are days when I wonder if I am an artistic genius being wasted at an independent financial research company. I mean, who can belt Fallin' as well as I can or sketch the Daliesque charcoal drawings that I'm famous among my friends for? What about these photos below? I mean even the titles shout "artistic genius!!"

Blue Essence (Sep 2007, Paris)

Fascination (Sep 2007, Frankfurt)

Honestly, I should really be an artist. :P

the Dam on the Amstel

...and in such fashion Amsterdam was named. Having the opportunity to go there for work, I planned to spend the weekend there as well to explore as much of "the Venice of the north" as possible. I got there on a Friday night from Frankfurt, which I visited also for work. (P.S. Frankfurt has nothing special that would make it a tourist destination. It literally has five historic buildings left as almost the whole city was destroyed by bombs and artillery fire during WWII. Although my hotel was snazzy... you have to ask me about that when you see me. A little snippet: it was called the Innside Premium Suites located right downtown and with elevators that take you straight to your suite. Nice!)

Without further ado, here are the pics if you'd like to skip to the good stuff.

http://picasaweb.google.com/ysolmaz/AmsterdamNetherlandsSep2007

Day 1:
- Having traditional Dutch sweet pea soup with smoked ham at De Roode Leeuw. Excellent, albeit a bit simple and hearty meal.
- Visiting the Van Gogh Museum and learning he had a fascination with Japanese prints! (Did any of you know this?)
- Pretending to be Alexis (my friend who lives in Amsterdam) at the Rijksmuseum to get in for free (she has a museum pass); although the guy rejected me saying the card didn't belong to me because I wasn't a girl... Ummm.. yea. Had to pay 10 Euros to see a reduced collection that didn't even include the Kitchen Maid by Vermeer. I was pissed off! Don't go to the Rijksmuseum until 2009, when they reopen. In its full glory, it's supposed to rival the Louvre...right...
- Biking around Vondelpark with Alexis; I kept on using my trusty rental bike for four straight days to get around everywhere! You also get to shout, push and ring your bell at lame people walking around in your cycle path. It's fun! ;)
- Trying the traditional bitterballen, balls of unidentified meat fried and served with mustard. Yum! I have a nice picture of it in my gallery (testing the macro setting of my camera for the first time!)
- Having drinks with Alexis' friends and then going to a birthday dinner.
- Visiting the Red Light District and then having some more drinks.

Day 2:
- Waking up at 11:30am...
- Being a bit disappointed by the Anne Frank House after having waited almost an hour to get in. The actual rooms where they lived in hiding for so long are moving and emotional (you see the pencil marks they've made on the wall to see how much they've grown), but there is not one exhibition exploring racial/religious prejudice. It could be much more interesting if they could hold temporary exhibitions in the rest of the space there.
- Having bacon and apple pancakes with stroop (Ozlem, you're right. Stroop basically imitates the Turkish syrup known as pekmez. You stealing cowards! :P) It was a delicious mix though, I must admit.
- Taking a canal boat tour, which was really fun. See the pictures!
- Having a few drinks with Alexis and her friends
- Eating some good ol' Italian food, because I needed a break from the exploration and a return to the familiar

Day 3 and Day 4 were mostly spent at the office, which is in the suburbs of Amsterdam where ABN AMRO and Fortis are located. My last wonderful surprise in this city of canals was the incredibly cheap price of the trains to the airport from the city center. 3,40 Euros!!! Now that's cheap... You hear that price Heathrow Express?????

Next stop: MILANOOOOO!!!!! :D

Gotta love Family Guy!

I just spotted this on YouTube. Apparently, Brian and Stewie from Family Guy, the TV animated series, opened the Emmys this year. They mock pretty much every TV show out there including, but not limited to, the Sopranos, Scrubs, and Desperate Housewives. You have to watch this because they show the reaction of the shows' stars throughout the video: priceless!!!

Yeni Anayasa Taslagi - the new Turkish civil constitution draft released

Arkadaslar, NTVMSNBC'nin websitesi Ergun Özbudun ve ekibinin AKP için hazırladığı yeni anayasa taslaginin tum metnini yayinlamis bulunuyor. Bence gidip bir okumakta yarar var...

http://www.ntvmsnbc.com/news/419856.asp

Guys, the Turkish news agency NTVMSNBC has posted the full body of the new civil constitution draft on its website. It might be worth checking it out to see what's in store for us. Same link as above, however, the link is in Turkish.

A Theatrical Week

This week has been a theatrical week indeed - first, I saw A Disappearing Number by Complicite and then In Celebration at the Duke of York Theatre. All I can say is that London is the land of the best and the mediocre theatre in the world, respectively.

A Disappearing Number by Complicite
I was awed by the sheer creativity and imagination of this production, from the use of multimedia projections to the intricate script. Scenes are so seamlessly connected that the viewer has the feeling of watching a film. More than one time I found myself staring at the stage the same way I stare at a film screen - to see every detail of the image.

The play is essentially a biography of one of the world's greatest mathematicians, Srinivasa Ramanujan, who contributed to the field of mathematics immensely during the First World War. Ramanujan is the mathematician that introduced the famous equation n/0=∞, where n stands for any number; meaning any number divided by 0 equals infinity. However, the play actually tells the story of four people, combining fact and fiction gracefully to emphasize its ideas of beauty, simplicity, nature and mathematics. After all, nature is full of complex mathematical patterns; we all look at them, but how many of us really see them. It also deals with "imagination and the nature of infinity; about what is continuous and what permanent; how we are attached to the past and how we affect the future; how we create and how we love."

The acting, the staging, the music, the dance, the script - this is an extremely well done play. I would recommend it without any hesitation. In fact, if you're reading this and you're in London, you have to buy tickets now!

In Celebration
And then there was this play... It got somewhat good reviews and Orland Bloom is in it for cryin' out loud! I had to see this!

Boy, was I disappointed. First of all, the script is uninspiring and almost annoying. All characters seem like they have something to resolve with each other, but they never do! All of this tension just bubbles onto the surface creating a lot of expectation and just dies down as the lights go down on the stage. Nothing surfaces, no reconciliations are made, so no climax. The script is either one of the best real-life scripts due to its lack of dramatic resolution or one of the worst examples of theatre where there is no urgency to make the audience care about these characters or watch their lives for 2,5 hours.

Another disappointing fact is that Orlando Bloom has about 50 words during the whole play. He is cast as the silent brother, who holds so much potential to be the turning point of the play due to his mysterious silence, but gets reduced to a non-central character since nothing happens. Yes, that was the theme of this play: NOTHING HAPPENS!

Don't pay 30 quid to see it!

Turks of Obieland Reunite in Paris

I know it's hard to believe, but yes, we actually did a reunion after almost a year, planned hastily and randomly, as is the Turkish custom. :P We should really be featured as a testimonial for facebook or something because this whole thing originated through a harmless wall post by Asli and then we found ourselves in Paris in a week and a half's time. Unfortunately, that meant that not the whole gang could be there. Frankly, we missed many of the Turkish gang from Oberlin when Asli, Zeynep and I were in Paris eating our duck confit in honey sauce and drinking beaujolais wine. ;) No, we really did! It would have been an all-out party then! Before I get into the details, here's where you can find the pics:

http://picasaweb.google.com/ysolmaz/ObieReunionParisSep2007

Day 1:
- Opening my hotel door to greet Asli in French "Bon soir mon cherie!!"
- Drinking Asli's bordeaux while catching up at the hotel
- Meeting Zeynep and Evrim right in front of the jazz club where Evrim was about to sing that night, the Sunside Sunset Club
- Having our only bad dinner in Paris with Asli, but the conversation was titillating. :)
- Sneaking into the jazz club without paying the 22 Euro cover fee thanks to Zeynep. We were about an hour and a half late which might have helped as well...
- Spending some time at the bar with a colleague of mine from work who had decided to come to the concert
- Hanging out at the jazz bar until about 2 am, talking with Evrim and the rest in between the times she was singing
- Not finding a freakin' cab in Paris at night to get back to the hotel!!! Seriously, what the hell was that about? We wasted an hour trying to find a cab, but the only cars on the streets were full cabs. We ended up taking a night bus to the hotel instead... fabulous? NO! The only thing that made it worthwhile was Asli's comment: "Now I understand what Carrie Bradshaw had to go through in NYC!" Hhahaha

Day 2:
- Meeting Zeynep for some cafe au lait and pain au chocolat at the Latin Quarter. Basking in the lovely morning sun while chatting it up.
- Walking north towards Ile de la Cite where we visited Notre Dame
- Onto the Louvre, the Champs Elysees and the Louis Vuitton store
- Walking at Le Marais part of Paris, shopping at boutiques, people watching, which became my favorite way of spending time in Paris since everyone's so damn good-looking
- Having an absolutely fantastic dinner near the modern Opera building at Bastille.
- Heading back to the jazz club to hang out with the jazz cats one more time!

Day 3:
- Having breakfast (cafe, orange juice and pain au chocolat accompanied by a nutella crepe!) just south of Notre Dame
- Walking through Paris, le Marais towards Etienne Marcel to check out the Paul & Joe store. Huy, I'm not that impressed... I liked the store Et Vous more!
- Stumbling upon the cutest streets and the most local of cafes, restaurants
- Making our way to Montmarte for a second-hand market, meeting cute sellers at the market, who were so cute we actually bought stuff! ;)
- Visiting Sacre Coeur and listening to the guitar players at the foot steps
- Being awed by the panorama of Paris...
- Having a long dinner at Restaurant Montorgueil - highly recommended! Get the pork and some creme brulee to finish things off. I'm not even mentioning the red wine since it's a given.

Then it was back to London on the Eurostar. I can't wait to do another reunion where more of us can join! It was fun, nostalgic and energizing at the same time. I felt like Asli, Zeynep and I never stopped hanging out; when we came together in Paris, it was as if we had been together since the day we all left Oberlin. So reassuring!

Asli, Zeyrek- Allah razi olsun! Muthis zaman gecirdim; umarim sizler de ayni benim gibi eglenmisinizdir.

An Encounter with Orhan Pamuk

At one of the autumn literature talks that recently commenced at the Southbank Centre, I got the chance to listen to Orhan Pamuk live for the first time. He read a few excepts from his new book 'Other Colours' and then answered some questions from the audience and the editor-in-chief of the Guardian. After this lovely encounter, my respect for Pamuk grew considerably.

Even though he is a controversial and, I believe, an overly-politicized figure, not just in Turkey, but in the milieu of the western world, his ideas are modern, crisp, and surprisingly non-political. He just happens to say what he believes in and thus becomes a media-embroidered political figure ("because it sells"). At the end of the day, he's a fiction writer, who has been inspired by Proust, Dostoevsky, and Tolstoy. Among his books, Snow is the only one that could be considered a modern political study of Turkey, which he has declared as his first and last political novel. All his other books are pure fiction dealing with the medieval Istanbul and Europe, which continue to inspire him.

His sense of Turkishness emits from being very proud with our history but not in an extremely nationalistic manner, that would hinder any contemporary understanding of our identity. He is OK with accepting the past and moving on, so as to get rid of the 'shame' that fuels the 'absolute pride,' as he put it. He compared Turkey's westernization with that of Japan and offered his ideas on how successful these drastic changes can be where they are brought from the top to the people in the span of a few years. I don't want people to misunderstand this: He never questioned Atatürk and his ideals, but commented on how the manner in which Turkey acquired these western values is contributing to the current political trends in Turkey.

Above all the qualities he demonstrated during the talk though, his sense of humor was the best. To a question coming from a student who's writing her doctorate on his books, he replied: "Why don't you send your blank doctorate pages and I'll fill them in for you."

Below are some of the questions that popped up in my head as I was packing for Paris that night:

- Do you think that Turkey is becoming the leader of modern Islam, and do you think that the western world wants Turkey to assume this leadership to fix their work in the Middle East?

- Did you appreciate Turkish culture and values more when you left Turkey to live abroad?

I applaud Pamuk once again.

Memories are made of this

Huy, I apologize for stealing your phrase, but that's what came to my mind when I started digging deeper and deeper into my Gmail archive tonight. I uncovered pictures, jokes, phrases, you name it! I laughed, I reminisced, I missed... In short, I was nostalgic all of a sudden. I've prepared a special album just for this occasion since it made me recall my life in frames without the need of a near-death experience. Hail Gmail!!

Oh, and I also realized that I don't use this smiley enough anymore (:D) so expect it to appear in anywhere ranging from e-mails to postcards soon.

:D

http://picasaweb.google.com/ysolmaz/MemoriesAreMadeOfThis

the Flying Trapeze

Due to popular demand, I'm posting the video of me doing the flying trapeze for the first time. It happens to be in front of the Tate Modern on a fine summer afternoon late Aug 2006. My original idea was to get this filmed and to send it off to my best friend in Chicago as a post Sex-and-the-City souvenir.

Even though I'm afraid of heights, the only part that was scary was climbing the stairs bit. Once you get hold of the trapeze and start swinging, it's just pure fun! I was having such a blast that I didn't want to get off and tried to speed up. The French instructor wasn't very fond of that idea so my ambitions to become a professional flying trapeze Turk ended in vain, but not without a final somersault! :) Watch the video already!

The make-over of a first lady

So, as I read on BBC recently, our new first lady will be given a make-over. Now that Abdullah Gul is appointed to the Turkish presidency, all eyes are on his wife more than ever before as she wears the headscarf, which has caused huge rifts in Turkish society between the devout Muslims and the strict seculars. (Side note: I HATE it when the foreign press refers to the Turkish secularists as the elite stratosphere of Turkish society. First of all, there's nothing elite about my family. Some of my family members can't even afford to buy a car, which is a must-have in Turkey. Also, I think everyone's mistaking secularism for atheism. Many muslims are still secular. If someone is a devout muslim, that doesn't mean they can't be secular...It also pisses me off royally when the foreign press use images of women in bikinis to represent secularism and a poor, hungry kid to represent the Muslim population in Turkey. Reminder to all: 98% of Turks are Muslims, including the ones wearing the freakin' bikinis...)

To get back to the point, apparently a Turkish designer (who lives in Vienna..ahem..I wonder why...?) is now designing new looks for Hayrunisa Gul, so she can be as stylish as Audrey Hepburn in the '20s. The designer, Atil Kutoglu, says that he wants to bring back the glamour of the 20s and 30s to modernize Gul's look. Now, I do like the idea of modernizing the headscarf and making it more like a fashion accessory to ease it for the Western stares, but doesn't this prove that even the Guls themselves don't feel comfortable with the traditional headscarf... what does that tell you?

Maybe Erdogan and Gul have really changed and become modern muslim seculars, and now they're slowly trying to shake off the image that they created so boldly when they were together with Necmettin Erbakan. They're trying to shake off their islamist image from those days, but therein lies the problem: no one believes them, because no one trusts them. They shouldn't really be surprised at this though. These are men who said that democracy was a tool to get what they really want, but that it wasn't essential. Now how am I supposed to trust them? Maybe they think that if they modernize the headscarf, I'll be fooled by the Louise Vuitton or Vera Wang headscarf my new first lady wears. And I'll say to them "It's not the cloth that matters, but what ideology lies beneath it." Now, can they change that?

Some headscarf alternatives from Vera Wang follow.

Bank Holiday Weekend in Stockholm

Stockholm is a lovely city, from the sights to the people, from the its interconnected waterways to its wondrous skies with the puffiest clouds and a perfect sunlight that lasts for more than 14 hours a day. And might I add that all Swedes are handsome/beautiful and very stylish.

I arranged my trip to Stockholm to attend my friends' wedding. Jimmy and Lena decided it was time to make it all official so there I was on Arlanda Express on a Friday afternoon making my way into the center of Stockholm.

First of all, I should mention my hotel, which looked like it was a cruise ship. This meant awful carpeting, single beds, doors and corridor lighting that would rival that of any dirty cruise ship... the doors even opened out into the corridor...weird... Although this could not make my trip miserable because the city and her people are just downright lovely (even the concierge at the hotel!). Pictures can be found at the following link:

http://picasaweb.google.com/ysolmaz/StockholmSwedenAug2007

Day 1:
- Walking along Gotgatan street in Sodermalm to reach Gamla Stan, the old town. Along the way, we saw the famous restaurant Gondolen, which is suspended in the air between a shopping mall and the Katarina elevator.
- Having delicious cakes and coffee at Gamla Stan's oldest coffee house, Sundbergs Konditori. Highly recommended!
- Getting lost in Gamla Stan's tiny alley ways. Gozde, you would love this place! One of the alley ways is just under 1m wide!
- Walking towards Normalm, capturing many shots of hot air balloons making their way over Stockholm.
- Having dinner and drinks at this local restaurant mostly frequented by Swedes. We were brought here by Tobias' friends. Good food, good beer, good company.

Day 2:
- Meeting Joyce at Chokladkoppen for the city's best hot chocolate, gossiping and exchanging stories about many of the people who are reading this. Hahah!
- Giving Joyce a tour of Gamla Stan (having explored the small island the day before, I had become an expert on its alleyways). Shopping for goods with moose on them and Christmas decorations.
- Getting dressed up for the church wedding at 2pm. I was blown away by how good-looking all of Jimmy and Lena's friends and relatives were. I couldn't live in Stockholm because I'd be perpetually single due to the stiff competition.
- My first church wedding!! Check out the pics.
- Having champagne at Hotel Rival, which is owned by one of ABBA's members.
- Mingling with the guests at the nearby palace where the dinner took place, oozing intelligence. ;)
- Laughing at jokes and speeches even when they were in Swedish, dancing wild with Natasa, breaking two glasses, kissing Jimmy after a host of women in line, seeing Jimmy shed a tear for the first time.
- Ending the night with some tunnbrödsrulle (Swedish drunken food consisting of a sausage and mashed potatoes in a rolled up pita cone) and some Pilsner beer.
- Slowly making my way back to the hotel at 4am in the morning...

Day 3:
- Having brunch with the newly-weds near the Vasamuseet (might I add this was at 1pm...I could barely wake up.)
- Being awed by the Vasamuseet...check the pics, really! Seeing a 17th century warship is a bit geeky but god damn, it's cool!
- Walking along the Strandvagen to the docks where I caught one of the boats to see the canals and waterways of Stockholm. Natasa came with me and ended up paying to take a nap on the boat. :P
- Meeting Joyce at the best restaurant in Normalm, called Sturehof. Dining on five different kinds of herring, lobster soup with cheese, and grilled turbot with baby potatoes and a creamy sauce. All in all, great food, wonderful company.

Day 4:
- Meeting the Morningstar gang, Jimmy and Lena for a boat trip to the archipelago, mainly Vaxholm and some of the outlying islands.
- Lunching on board with Swedish meatballs, pear cider and traditional Swedish ice cream.
- The lunch was so good, we decided to stay on the ship instead of getting off and made our way back to Stockholm. Total of 3 hours or so.
- Walking around in Kungsholmen, seeing the City Hall and having a cinnamon bun and coffee at Thelins Konditori.
- Dining at the Royal Opera house with salted salmon and baby potatoes, while chatting with a Swedish couple sitting next to me, Ulf and Rositta. Getting a free pear cider from the Italian bartender. ;)
- Shopping at Hugo Boss!!!!!!
- Watching "Knocked Up" with a bunch of Swedish high school students; it was quite the experience!! :D

Then it was back on Arlanda Express to catch the plane to Heathrow. I would definitely come back to Stockholm again, mostly because of the people. Swedes are very beautiful, friendly, stylish, yet they still manage to be modest. Make sure Stockholm is on your list of places to see!!

Viva la Espana!!!

I must admit this was the most fun vacation I've had in a long time. Nel and I planned a fabulous 12 days around Madrid, Valencia and Barcelona, during which we went to the beaches (obviously!), ate a lot of choricitos and empanadas, met a lot of interesting people, made friends with a few Italians (lovely people!), saw a flamenco show, got pick-pocketed at Sagrada Familia, biked for six hours straight in Valencia, went clubbing in Barcelona and got VIP treatment thanks to Nel's connections!

All in all, it was a success! Check out the pics at http://picasaweb.google.com/ysolmaz

Nel, we have to plan a new trip!

A Very Short Story

Inspired by the Kronos Quartet Concert at the Barbican, 29th July 2007, featuring Wu Man

The pipa shone with a cold blue, almost ethereal, light, bathing the whole stage in stillness. Nothing had felt more alone than sensing the resounding notes all around me at that moment, vibrating, almost echoing in the empty space around me. At that moment, I knew I was alone.

The quartet continued playing...

I breathed in and out with each movement of the viola bow. I would stop breathing when they ceased brushing their bows against their strings. I was partly glad and partly sad about this connection. The viola slowed down in anticipation of the end of the piece, dragging out the last four notes of the last musical phrase, aptly titled "Royal Funeral." I counted as the viola player moved his bow in precise time steps, as I breathed in and out. One. Two. Three. Four.

The Democratic Stain

I voted for the first time in my life and they marked my index finder with ink, as they always do, to make sure one person doesn't vote a second time to skew the election results. I will carry that stain now for god knows how long and will always be reminded that half of my country doesn't seem to care about secularism as much as I do.

Even though AKP, the mildly islamist party as it's known in the west, hasn't introduced any islamist agenda during its governance so far, they have also never sworn to protect the secular roots of my country. This is where the core of the issue lies. If AKP had stood by secularism while trying to be the modern islamists that they are, the country might be more at ease. This leaves especially the army at an awkward situation. The people have chosen AKP also to send a message to the army: 'Don't interfere with politics anymore.' I firmly believe in this response and applaud the message that's sent, but people should also keep in mind the reasons for the army to be cautious.

In any case, the early elections were a good and healthy sign of democratic life in Turkey. I just hope that AKP uses their proven support by the people to further Turkey's modern aims instead of slowly taking it back towards an islamic republic, which is the nightmare for many, including me.

Refreshingly Frightening - despite a 1973 release date

Don't Look Now (1973) - dir. Nicolas Roeg - 4 stars

I got the opportunity to see this incredible horror film from 1973 on the big screen thanks to the BFI. It was part of the Julie Christie month, but the film really shines due to Donald Sutherland's acting, the refreshingly frightening script, visuals and audio. This film makes many recent horror films look child's play, and this is an incredible accomplishment considering the film doesn't rely on special effects, heavy make-up or a Japanese script.

It all starts when an American couple, the Baxters, lose their girl in their own backyard as she drowns in the river in her red rain cloak. Taunted by this horrific event, the couple move to Venice to recover. Unfortunately, two old ladies in Venice, one of whom claims to be psychic, don't leave the couple in peace. The ladies' ominous claims of seeing their deceased daughter drives Christie's character into half madness whereas it throws Sutherland's character into more dangerous territory.

The brilliancy of the film is in its cinematography, for which it received a BAFTA award, and editing. The setting, Venice, is used to full effect in the film as every shot is carefully planned out with the city in mind. The juxtaposition of Sutherland's character with the gargoyles of the church he's reconstructing are fantastic. As for the editing, it's highlighted to most meaningful impact in perhaps one of the best sequences I've seen in my entire life. As the Baxters are recovering from their daughter's death, there comes a time when they eventually feel 'fine enough' to embrace life by finally acknowledging each other sexually for the first time since their loss. In this sequence, the images of the couple taking their clothes off and embracing each other naked is intertwined with shots of them getting dressed up. This editing technique in this sequence almost visually proves that the Baxters can only start putting on their new clothes and hence their new life by first taking them off and accepting each other again as man and wife.

This beautifully shot film is surprising in its script and really frightening. Director Roeg doesn't use any cheap scares and special effects to get the job done. He actually relies on the script, acting, locale, cinematography and editing to do the job. I wish more modern directors would follow Roeg's lead and create more refreshingly frightening films.

Ne olucak bu Turkiye'nin hali...

The title above in Turkish means "What's going to become of Turkey..."

I'm extremely worried about the political future of my country. I'm not afraid of the AKP Party as many would expect me to, because I don't see them as a threat. I'm more afraid of the power of the military and the absolute secularism that we have enforced on our people, both of which enrage millions, fueling the divisions that already exist within our society.

We are all forgetting that Turkey is a majority Muslim country. The headscarf is a religious symbol, as much as the cross is, so I don't understand why we ban them but not the cross in state buildings and educational facilities. The ban simply gives anti-secularists more power and reasoning for their cause. If we were to allow the headscarf everywhere, we would destroy their logic and thus part of their recruitment strategy. Plus, if we are a secular democracy, then anyone should be able to present themselves in the manner they deem most appropriate. Banning something like a headscarf simply does not go hand in hand with democracy.

The army is not helping either. If we are supposed to be a secular democracy, then why butt in all the time. If this country will be what its citizens want it to be, then don't interfere in the political realm. Doing so again fuels the anti-secularists' debate and may even back-fire. I think the army should recede back from politics.

However, solving these two issues wouldn't help in a significant way, at least not until people can safely defend their candidacy. I read today that one of the independent candidates for Istanbul was shot dead. How does anyone, including the army, expect democracy to function when such acts still go on to threaten new blood and ideas in politics. If people are this easily and silently taken care of, I think we have a bigger threat in Turkey than the AKP Party for the secular democratic traditions of our country.

Nothing special, besides the special effects

Spiderman 3 (2007) - dir. Sam Raimi - 3 stars

Not too much to say here, but there aren't too many expectations either. Let's face it. We're simply expecting a good ride with the third installment of Spiderman, and in my opinion, it delivers this perfect Hollywood ride. It has good special effects, very funny scenes, not one but two super evil characters and a mighty boss fight that reunites some old friends. If you liked the first two (both by Raimi as well), you will definitely like the third one.

Btw, the more I thought about a title for this film's review, the more I was convinced that I had it right all along. As my Serbian friends typically say about their weekends, this film was 'nooooothing special.'

Same, same but different

the Painted Veil (2006) - dir. John Curran - 3.5 stars

The Thai have a saying for things that are essentially the same but somewhat different in some aspect. As I was walking along the aisles toward the exit after the film credits rolled, I couldn't help but be reminded of this phrase that so perfectly describes Curran's latest. The Painted Veil is the love story that is same, same but different.

What makes it essentially different are the surroundings in which this love flourishes and the levels of character growth that's usually missing from such romantic dramas. A remote Chinese village beset by cholera is not the most enviable setting where love can easily flourish, but this situation actually pushes the characters into coming to terms with their own core personalities, which in turn encourages mutual respect and love between a married couple who hasn't felt much of either for each other until then. Having said that, the character development goes beyond allowing love and respect but actually changes the characters forever personally, not just in relation to each other, and so has a deeper impact for the end of the film. I must say I'm very pleased with the depth of character development that Curran offers. It's a breath of fresh air for a romantic drama.

This eventual yet doomed love affair is portrayed in a very mature manner by the two brilliant actors, Naomi Watts and Edward Norton. Although I must say I am willing to fore go Watts' somewhat disappointing British accent, especially during the first half of the film (I guess she got better as the shoot continued or I just got used to her accent), just because of her beautiful and graceful depiction of her character. She truly is a great actress who can match Norton's proven range of characters any day.

The last thing I want to mention is the cinematography. This film is simply beautiful and graceful in its imagery. The effective use of wide screen aspect ratios bring out the beauty of the Chinese countryside while Curran's close-ups delve deep into the eyes -and thoughts- of Kitty and Walter. All in all, the Painted Veil is a film that's worthwhile to watch because it delivers its story extremely well.

Grisebach's Latest is Overrated

Sehnsucht (2006) - dir. Valeska Grisebach - 2.5 stars

The only reason I went to see Sehnsucht (English title Longing) is because the British Film Institute went a long way to describe how unexpectedly good Grisebach's film was. Having a membership to the BFI, it didn't take me too long to buy into it. However, the film is slow and the script too predictable.

Given the film's shortcomings, the acting is top notch. The psyche of each character is revealed perfectly through the subtle and silent depictions of each of the main actors. The actors actually manage to create a perfect sense of disillusionment, so well done that the viewer completely believes that these characters are real and regular. Perhaps, this ordinary feeling that dominates the acting is what makes it so successful.

I will definitely watch out for Grisebach's next release, even though I didn't like Sehnsucht as much as the BFI did. I still see the glimmer of a potentially great director in her and I'll be waiting for her greatest film yet. This can't be it.

It's time for a new short film

I was watching the short film that my friend and I made almost two years ago (the Facade - May 2005) as my senior year cinema project, when a great idea for a film struck me! I immediately wrote my ideas in my new Moleskin notebook (gotta have one!) and as a consequence of getting too excited couldn't even sleep.

I've been waiting to make a new film for the longest time now. It has been one of those itches that I mean to scratch but never get to because of work. This time, the idea hit me so naturally that I have the whole film rolling inside my head already. I've started writing the preliminary script, and then with the help of a friend, I want to finish the storyboard stage by mid-September. I'll try and shoot the film in as few days as possible since I have to rent the equipment this time. We're not in college anymore! No free digital cameras, lighting, editing machines... ahh, I miss it already.

If anyone's interested in helping in any way or collaborating, let me know!

Godard and Truffaut Would Be Proud

Dans Paris (2006) - dir. Christophe Honoré - 4.5 stars

Since the success of the French New Wave in the 50s and 60s, many film-makers, mostly French, have tried to pay homage to the great minds behind the movement. Godard and Truffaut's distinctive styles have inspired countless fans to bring something similar to the big screen time and time again, to achieve that playful approach of the New Wave to any material, no matter how serious it is. Honoré clearly not only appreciates the New Wave and its auteurs but also has a deep understanding of what makes the movement so popular, especially in recent times. As a result, he successfully presents us with something more than a tribute with his latest Dans Paris.

The film is mainly about a depressed man, Paul, who is having a very hard time coming to terms with himself, with what he wants and most importantly with the woman whom he loves. His brother, Jonathan, is the mischievous wild spirit who tries to help him in his own way, while in the meantime kissing naught but three girls over the course of it. This is where the playful treatment of the subject comes to its best, as the film proves that life goes on and you can still get laid no matter what!

The story may be about these brothers, but the central character of the film makes her appearance in the first few minutes of the film: the city of Paris. Paris is not just the city these odd characters are living in. It's their tumor and savior. The city is suffocating yet it breathes life into this depressed man, as he recovers in his cocoon of a bedroom. In fact, the film starts and ends in Paul's bedroom.

The New Wave aspects of the film are obvious from the beginning, as Jonathan addresses the audience, reminding them that he is not the main character of the film despite the obvious connections one would make by seeing him first. This playful address reminds the viewer of Godard's À bout de souffle (1960) and Bande à Part (1964) where Godard's characters acknowledge the existence of the viewer by not only talking directly to it but also by bowing and going through a dance number.

Even though Honoré doesn't reinvent the wheel, he successfully manages to pull together a film that lives and breathes New Wave aesthetics, acting, script and spirit. It's worth applauding him just for the fine execution of New Wave theories for the 21st century audience.

Highly Stylistic Portrait of a British Family

Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988) - dir. Terence Davies - 3.5 stars

Davies' autobiographical film was essentially shot as two separate films at different times with the same actors. The partition is made very clear as the parts are titled separately within the film. The first part, 'Distant Voices,' covers the tightly-knit family's memories of the father of the house. Most of the memories depict how the family stuck together throughout years of violence inflicted by the father. It also serves in developing the characters, but paints a pretty stereotypical violent father role. The second part, 'Still Lives,' mainly focuses on the lives of the family's remaining members after the father's death. It is not a hopeful final part to the film, as it highlights that all the other members have gotten into their own terror-inflicted households. Escaping from one violent household, only to become the main actress of one's own violent household.

As the title suggests, the film stylistically feels very still, like a selection of family portraits that come alive and provide snippets of information about the family. Davies doesn't try too hard to tie these small informational pieces together and leaves it up to the viewer to make sense out of the whole picture. Having said that, it is quite easy to tie the knots and arrive at the overall meaning. Going back to the stylistic aspects of the film, the use of extremely smooth camera work feels very modern, even in our time. The stylistic weight is so prominent in the film that the work comes off as mainly an art piece, rather than a fictional, realistic story-telling device.

Another interesting aspect of the film was the extensive use of music to convey a sense of melancholy and drive the plot. The majority of the script consists of traditional British songs, which seem preferred over dialogs. Coupled with the camera work and the highly stylistic mise-en-scene, the music completes the atmospheric value of the film. Even though it's not the best film I've seen, it is a film that "comes as close to poetry on film as possible" as one of IMDB's users suggest. Davies should be more prominently touted as one of Britain's best film makers.

Sunshine completely misses what it could be, ends up a meaningless sci-fi

Sunshine (2007) - dir. Danny Boyle - 1.5 stars

After creating such sensations as Trainspotting and 28 Days Later, Boyle now joins the crowd of directors who should be ashamed of themselves.

Sunshine has some moments that give hope to the viewer that something clever and unique is about to happen for the sci-fi genre. The relation of God, space and madness pave the way for very interesting ideas for the film, but Boyle doesn't explore any of them. Only hinting at this potential brilliance hurts the film even more, agitating the viewer. The seeds of these moments are quickly crushed under unimaginative writing, a huge anti-climax and the appearance of one of film history's least explored villains. The sad thing is that this villain could have profited the film exponentially if explored in depth and not only used as an excuse for violence to accelerate the plot.

It is very obvious that Alex Garland, also writer of 28 Days Later, got trapped within the Hollywood confines of the sci-fi genre, where the characters die in order of importance and don't develop at all, where one of the characters is weak and another a complete tough soldier, where the plot twist is completely predictable, and where the story is oriented towards the action and occasional suspense. As a typical Hollywood sci-fi, special effects take precedence over everything else in the film and do not add any additional meaning. Special effects do help the viewers visualize things better, but when overused, they take over the film and suffocate it.

Sounds familiar, doesn't it? Trust me, you have seen this all before. Boyle offers nothing new to the table, which is unfortunate given his previous success that charted him as a promising director. I am prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt just because I believe the mishap is completely script-driven. What I can't forgive Boyle for is how he accepted to shoot this film, given the horrible script.

Nair does it again.

Namesake (2006) - dir. Mira Nair - 4 stars

The screen adaptation of Jhumpa Lahiri's Pulitzer-winning novel is cradled to success in Mira Nair's skillful hands. Just like she did in 'Monsoon Wedding,' Nair achieves an excellent balance of giving enough screen time to each of the story's characters, allowing them all to develop, change and grow throughout the film. The issues of identity, family, culture, immigration, and the idea of 'home' all get tackled within the same heart-warming 122 minutes. Amazingly, the film doesn't suffocate by the density of neither issue, as it doesn't focus on the issues themselves, more so on the journey of the characters within these issues. This is a film that must be seen.

My personal reaction to the film was on a family/home perspective. As an immigrant who has lived in the United States and now lives in the UK, I felt a deep connection to the characters who were experiencing a different sort of loneliness. No matter how well we adapt to our new environments and blend into the cultures of our hosts, how much at home do we really feel? Further to that argument, what do we call our 'home?' We don't feel completely at home in our home country, not do we feel at home at our host country. We belong to both worlds and never feel at home in neither. We might convince ourselves that we have completely adapted, but we never fully do. Our kind of people are the chameleons of this world: those who are both happy and sad at the same time.

Yes, the world is going through globalisation and there is such a thing now as a 'world citizen,' but how satisfying is it really to be such a citizen? Our identities are mostly constructed out of a sense of belonging to a certain group, be it familial, national, religious, or otherwise. If we can't define ourselves within the limits of one of these concepts, how can we identify ourselves? And if we truly are world citizens, why do we still crave to identify ourselves within the confines of preset identities- Turkish, Muslim, European, etc. Is it because it's easier or because human nature needs a certain level of comfort that these established identities can provide? Consider the following by Yi-Fu Tuan:

"Singing together, working together against tangible adversaries, melds us into one whole: we become members of the community, embedded in place. By contrast, thinking--especially thinking of the reflective, ironic, quizzical mode, which is a luxury of affluent societies--threatens to isolate us from our immediate group and home. As vulnerable beings who yearn at times for total immersion, to sing in unison (eyes closed) with others of our kind, this sense of isolation--of being a unique individual--can be felt as a deep loss. Thinking, however, yields a twofold gain: although it isolates us from our immediate group it can link us both seriously and playfully to the cosmos--to strangers in other places and times; and it enables us to accept a human condition that we have always been tempted by fear and anxiety to deny, namely, the impermanence of our state wherever we are, our ultimate homelessness. A cosmopolite is one who considers the gain greater than the loss. Having seen something of the splendid spaces, he or she (like Mole [in The Wind in the Willows]) will not want to return, permanently, to the ambiguous safeness of the hearth."

The film also made me question my relationship with my parents and family back in Turkey. I have been living away from them for so long, I realized how much I've started to grow apart from them. The film was sort of a waking call for me to realize my roots -my family- and pay respect to those people who have worked, sacrificed and died so that I can be here with this knowledge. I owe them my life and I pay them my respects.

This has been a fairly personal review of the film, but it just speaks to the power of the connection this film achieves with its viewers. Nair is a genius who can strike different variations of our hearts' chords within a span of two hours, just like real life can.

Strong Performances Highlight Von Donnersmarck's Latest

Das Leben der Anderen (2006) - dir. Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck - 4.5 stars

It's no surprise that Von Donnersmarck's latest film won the best foreign language film award at the Oscars this year, among 33 other international wins. Everything from the convincing and natural acting to the atmospheric mise-en-scene provided by the sets, costumes and camera work, the film portrays a vivid picture of East Germany before the fall of the Berlin Wall.

In particular, Ulrich Mühe and Sebastian Koch shine through as the best actors of European cinema so far in 2007, Koch reappearing on the silver screen after his successful part in last year's Zwartboek (Verhoeven). Mühe's acting is so brilliant that, even though he is a man of few words, you know exactly what he's going through. His character is extremely powerful, literally all-knowing. During the surveillance, he ends up becoming more than a spectator of other people's lives and transforms in reaction to what's happening around him, becoming a 'good man.'

The film might appear to be a historic drama, but it really questions the nature of man- the 'good man.' Is there such a thing as a 'good man' when our biggest incentive is our envy of others, when we want what they have? Are there any good deeds that are purely for good? Von Donnersmarck's characters answer these questions in a bitter-sweet end that will remain in my memory forever and regain my hope that the fable of the 'good man' can be true.