The guy who thought up this concept? I can’t even imagine how fired he is. It would almost be funny were it not for THY’s abysmal safety record.

Seen at Failblog.

“Don’t step on the grass.” It’s the only grass we have left.

I’ve seen this kind of thing many times before: the English version describes the price as 2 million, but the Turkish version spells out the words “entrance one million.” Basically it’s a tax on not being able to read Turkish, which annoys many foreigners, but I’ve always found it kind of funny.

I’ve got a few photos that people have sent me over the past few months. Quite a few of them are hilarious, so I thought I’d start sharing them.

Fantastic twofer: “Buy one original cassette or CD, get a pirated one free!”

Well, it’s official… I’m going to be photographing a home birth later this month. This all came along very unexpectedly, and I couldn’t be more excited.

Having no children of my own and never having attended a birth in any capacity, this is going to be all about firsts for me. I’m slated to be there from the time the contractions start, all the way through the birth and the baby’s first few hours, so this should be a real test of my stamina as a photographer.

It’s kind of silly to post about this now, since I don’t really have a lot of details yet, but rest assured more information will be forthcoming. Right now I’m just excited and a little bit stunned.

I couldn’t resist posting this. I have no idea whom to credit for the photo, because I just ran across it in one of those e-mail forwards. But I thought you’d probably appreciate it, even though it’s pirated and slightly off-topic.

Anyone who has known me for more than five minutes knows I’m a firm believer in the power of Creative Commons music releases. In fact, I love CC music so much that I review albums over at Frostclick just to help support the community. One thing I’ve been frustrated about in past years, however, is the lack of any decent Turkish CC releases. Don’t get me wrong, I can deal with Turkish pop as well as the next person… up to a point. Of course, there are those kids out there who would rather die than go pop, and thus was born the Turkish independent death metal scene… which I can also tolerate up to a point. My tastes in metal tend toward the old-school.

The last time I did any in-depth checking, which was a couple of years ago, pretty much all the Turkish CC music I found was thrashy. Meh.

Then a couple of days ago it occurred to me to look again, specifically for artists in Turkey, and I’m pleasantly surprised at how much things have developed. There are at least half a dozen genres to choose from now, including trip-hop, disco, and post-rock.

Today I unearthed a little gem called Limited Hope, by an artist called Fuzzy Deal.

It’s a little trippy, a little nu-loungey, and completely chilled. Check it out:

If you like what you hear, you can download the album here. Creative Commons releases are free, available to everyone, and 100% legal. Enjoy.

Fish Story has absolutely everything I love in a film. I can’t really tell you what it’s about in a few simple words, (A) because that would be like trying to sum up Pulp Fiction in a few simple words, and (B) because I don’t want to risk ruining it for you. In fact, if you can get a copy of this movie and force yourself not to read the attached blurb or the synopsis on the back of the box, that would probably be best. Let yourself be completely surprised.

Just trust me, this one’s a winner. Definitely the best film I’ve seen so far in 2010, and even if I count all the films I saw in 2009, it would still easily be in the top five. Maybe even still number one.

IMDB (warning: if you read more than a sentence or two on this page the plot will get spoiled pretty quickly)

NETFLIX (again, be careful what you read, because you can’t un-ring that bell)

Nowadays I’m so used to the juxtaposition of wealth and poverty in the Antalya old town, it was starting to get where I was walking past scenes like this and not even noticing. Time to slow down a little bit. Eventually they’re going to “beautify” Kaleiçi by removing all the old and glossing up the new, so if I want this stuff to be remembered, I’d better document it now.

Emirhan just got back from ten days in China… although I’ll admit to some degree of envy, I still feel like we just barely got back from Thailand, so I was actually more than happy to sit this one out.

He brought back lots of stuff… lots.

Hair sticks! Gorgeous.

I chose the topaz one.

A Chinese tea mug for him…

…and one for me.

Beautiful silk and cashmere pashminas.

I have a whole family of little guys, and this is my latest one.

Apparently it’s pretty cold in Beijing. He was thankful for the opportunity to go, but I think he’s also glad to be back in Turkey.