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.

I know I keep going on about the wild colours of our winter golden hours, but they’re just so ridiculously beautiful that I can’t help sharing again and again.

Sulu yemek does literally mean “watery food,” which doesn’t make it sound nearly as appetising as it really is. Basically sulu yemek refers to the less fancy elements of Turkish home cooking, many of which are liquid-based: beans in sauce, stews, soups, that sort of thing. Great winter food, basically.

Oddly, this picture was taken in Kemer, and although I’m very familiar with Çorbacı Mehmet, I don’t remember ever seeing that part of the sign. Clearly I block a lot of things out.

Photo courtesy of Kate.

Photo courtesy of Thomas Åsen

I’m always intrigued at how extensive the spread of Turkish culture is, especially throughout Asia. Today I stumbled upon these photos of a Turkish mosque in Harbin, in the Heilongjiang province of China.

The thing that surprised me a little is that this mosque doesn’t look anything like what I would expect a “Turkish” mosque to look like. The design is very different. It’s beautiful, though.

The sign in front of the mosque reveals a couple of interesting tidbits:

Ah. “The designer was Y.P. Ridanov.” So I wonder in what sense it’s Turkish— just that local Turks worshipped there? I’d be curious to hear more about this mosque, or any similar Turkish mosques in China, if anyone knows anything about them.

Many thanks to felibrilu for the great photos.

Those who have been here a while will remember that before I lived in Antalya, I came from a little town about 40km up the road called Kemer.

I hadn’t been there in a couple of years, so I decided to pay a visit.

Much has changed… like this empty lot, which used to be the apartments where I lived.

The bus station is now a clock tower.

New things are popping up everywhere. I hardly recognised the place.

Some things never change, though.

The place still has its charms, even though it’s not really the same as when I lived there.

Still though… nostalgia can be a powerful thing.

VIEW THE FULL SET HERE.

Last night I watched a film called 鬼域 (Re-cycle). This movie will mess with your head— I can’t recommend it enough. The Pang Brothers managed to recreate the exact look and feel of nightmares, mixed with a little bit of bad acid trip. It’s beautiful. And terrifying. I love the idea of there being a dimension where all the abandoned, discarded, neglected, and rejected things live. They managed to do creepy without corny.

And there was an excellent plot twist at the end.

Apparently there were people who complained that the film was basically pro-life propaganda, but in the end I think what the Pang Brothers said on that subject was sufficient— aborted babies were just one of about five zillion things that lived in the alternate dimension, but of course people conveniently ignore the other 4.99 zillion things when they see aborted fetuses and are determined to get their panties in a twist about it. Personally, had I not known about the controversy beforehand, the thought of it being pro-life evangelism never would have entered my mind. It was just a story about a woman struggling with decisions she made in her past… lots of decisions in lots of different areas of her life. It was also about the decisions other people made regarding her. Very complex film.

So many colour ideas: green, yellow, cyan, orange. Sometimes separate, sometimes paired, sometimes all together. A really, really beautiful film to watch.

If you’re looking for this film online, it can be a little bit difficult to locate because of the name. The transliterated title is Gwai Wik— you can view the IMDB page here, or add it to your NetFlix queue.