If you’ve not yet heard the story of the ancient ice-age temple that has been uncovered near Şanlıurfa, it is most certainly worth reading about. This story has been developing in the press over several years, and I’m absolutely fascinated by the things they can learn from a settlement that existed 11,500 years ago. Visiting this place is definitely on my to-do list. Link

I didn’t get a great shot of this one (it was on a spectator at the marathon), but it says, “x-side eastside contest beware industrial play machines heed.”

I mentioned back in January that Emirhan had gone to China for ten days. E doesn’t particularly consider himself a photographer, but he did have a little point-and-shoot camera that he used sparingly whenever he got the opportunity. When he came back to Turkey, I asked if I could choose a few photos to edit, and the result is this set of remixes that has done nothing to quell my desire to see China. Link

Yesterday was the 5th Annual Runtalya Marathon, and I went out to cover it for the second time (last time was 2007). To say it was a day of ups and downs would be putting it lightly, but Emirhan was running, and so of course I wanted to be there to capture that.

There are stories and pictures and all that coming, but the short version is that he finished in just over five hours, very respectable for a first-timer. I’ll get the photos up as soon as I possibly can.

A couple of weeks ago I had the good fortune to spend a day on a boat while I worked on my various personal projects, and it was the most satisfying day of work I’d done in a long time. In fact, I liked it so much that when I got home, I decided to create an outdoor setup of my own. Now, a lot of my projects are musical, so it can be difficult to work out the logistics, but as I type this I’m out on my balcony, and I’ve made the decision to move out here sort of permanently, at least until June rolls around and it gets too hot to be outside.

It’s kind of nice to be surrounded by mountains and semi-fresh air. I’m spending some time this week getting a few candles and lights and decorations out here, kind of girling the place up a bit. If I’m going to stay out here, it has to be nice, end of story.

Well, it took a while, but I finally finished editing and uploading the Saklıkent photos from Valentine’s Day. There ended up being only 36 in total, but I’m really proud of them as a set, and I think they give an interesting peek into an important aspect of Turkey that most foreigners don’t even know exists: winter. The ski resort and village are only about 20km (12.5 miles) from the Mediterranean coast, and together they’re one of Antalya’s best-kept secrets. The word Saklıkent means “hidden town,” which is a pretty accurate description of this beautiful little village in the mountains. Link

In December I reported the sad demise of Bey Baba, which was not only one of my favourite local restaurants, but also the automatic go-to place for feeding hungry houseguests. I expressed concern that such a tiny little mom-n-pop wouldn’t have anything as fancy as fire insurance, but it appears I was wrong— less than three months after the fire, Bey Baba is back and better than ever. I had lunch there the other day when I was in the neighbourhood, and the food is exactly how it’s always been: perfect. Glad to see them doing well, and glad to have my favourite dürüm place back in business. GMH.

I go on a lot about Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s photography and filmmaking, and he is certainly renowned throughout Turkey, but most people don’t realise that his sister, Emine, is an accomplished photographer in her own right. Her work goes down another type of path— it’s haunting in a different way, as well as being a more cosmopolitan complement to Nuri’s heavy Turkish influences. Link

Here’s something I think is interesting in theory: a group of Turkish internet users has put together a Google map, which they are using as a venue to host a virtual protest march. The idea is to take a stand against internet censorship in Turkey, which isn’t as extreme as in some other countries, but still, slippery slope. According to the instructions, you’re supposed to put a marker on the map to represent yourself as a protester; when they reach a goal of one billion protesters (the actual map bears the typo “one trillion”— good luck with that), there’s going to be a pixel-by-pixel virtual march to the nation’s capital in Ankara.

While I agree that awareness is good, and that the internet is a great way to test things like this and get an idea of what sort of support is out there, in practical terms, exercises like this are futile unless they can be translated into real-life action. It’s this sort of lazy armchair activism, where people are happy to click on a link or change their Facebook status to the latest “support our cause” catchphrase, but if you ask people to put their money or their time where their mouse is, only a fraction would care enough to get out of their chairs and actually do something. Within a couple of days, everyone has forgotten again, so what exactly is the point?

I don’t think any of the policy-making bureaucracy in Ankara care in the least about an internet protest march, and to be honest most of them probably wouldn’t even understand what you were talking about if you tried to explain it. It just doesn’t affect them. Unless protest groups are willing to take the next step and move the protests off the screen and into the streets and voting booths, where lawmakers will actually have a chance of understanding what is happening, I’m afraid this is just wasted effort that could be put to better use. Link