write to be heard
- Turkey’s Eurovision 2012 Song
We are going to be entering the Eurovision with a song sung by Can Bonomo who normally sings great songs but seems to have gone very wrong with this one, what a shame.
I do however LOVE Sweden’s entry by Loreen:
- Turkish Blogosphere: Koray Caner
Last month I had a photoshoot for Marks & Spencer at the Swissotel in Istanbul. They had the idea of throwing together a fashion bloggers pre-St Valentines PJ party organized by Gamze Biran (@Cindrella__) & Miray Ucar (@mirayucar) so that the girls could get acquainted with Marks & Spencer’s creations and quite possibly blog about them. I need to be honest in saying that I had no idea whatsoever that Turkey had produced such great fashion blogs and that they were already celebrities each on their own turf. The only male present at one point, apart from the Swissotel 5 star French chef, was Koray Caner. Let me start by saying that I had no idea who he was when I met and shot him at the soirée but I later on found out a little more about this young man and I have to admit liking what I read.
“Industrial Engineering graduate, awarded Digital Business Developer, a life-style / fashion blogger.. lives digital, thinks digital, never stops a minute.. wanna catch?
social.monster.digital.hero
You can check my LinkedIn profile in order to have more info about previous projects that I involved.”
Okay so don’t hit his about page to find out more about him, you won’t get very lucky apart from some general specs. What you can figure out by looking at his blog though is that he is a man who has taste. I find that reading about fashion from a man’s perspective gives you a different view into a world that I am so foreign to. He has appearances in the press, on TV and at world famous fashion shows so I think the Turkish blogosphere, the world wide web and Marc Jacob should keep a close eye on this one, he may be on a fast train to greatness.
I can’t say that I would be ready to start reading blogs about fashion tomorrow but koraycaner.com is entertaining and interesting enough to be bookmarked.
- Turkish “Home Art” Magazine January 2012 Edition
I was sent by some mysterious source (I suspect Avea – one of the mobile telecom companies) 2 copies of the Turkish “Home Art” magazine. I decided to make it the subject of this months dissection. Their tag line at the very top of the magazine cover states “Bu dergide gördüğünüz her şey Türkiye’de var!” which would translate as; everything shown in this magazine can be found in Turkey. I found this to be a great idea, there generally is no point in listing articles that are gorgeous but that can only be found at that small but charming shoppe on 34th street in the Amazonian Jungle (yes I know, there are no streets in the jungle, just making a point). Had I not read the tag line before going through the magazine then this would have probably not struck me as odd but within the pages that are clearly sponsored by “Yapi Kredi” (bank) Crystal card, you can find a gorgeous item by Benjamin Graindorge – a wooden bank – which is on sale where I ask you?
In Çukurcuma perhaps where all the cool and hype decoration items can be found? No. Oh, then it must be in Nişantaşı where every piece of overpriced design piece can be purchased?? God no. It’s on sale in Paris. The one located in France. At the “Ymer and Malta” gallery nonetheless. So.. Everything in this magazine can be found in Turkey except for.. Everything in this magazine. I would try and stay away from promises you cannot keep
I understand that it was part of the Yapı Kredi Crystal Card ad to drive home the point that you can have a 10% rebate on purchases made in Turkey and abroad but then try and list local items so as not to contradict yourself in your own magazine.There are a lot of infomercials. Infomercials always seem to be like being subliminal advertising that I dislike, I always feel like they are giving me information at a cost, trying to link the information given with a particular brand in my mind.
I really liked the segment written by Lütfiye Çetiner with “Teknik Nokta Mimarlık” which is a question/answer advice column where you can ask an architect – in this case being her – about your woes and architectural/design sorrows.
For the January edition they featured the house of one Rupert Smith who resides in South Africa and who has a house that would knock anyones socks off. Simply gorgeous. Albeit clustered, it seems like very organized and beautiful chaos. It was probably the nicest house in the whole magazine, especially if you count the small Versaille palace that was crammed in a very small space owned by Tuba Sayıl in Arnavutköy. I did however love her attic, which was very British with notes of blue, white and yellow.
However I must say that I did not understand their pink feature. It seemed like anything but pink. They put together objects of what seemed like a white nature and stuck a pink hue photoshop mask on top of it to make it look.. Pink. It confused me.
If you really want to read an interesting piece I suggest you browse to the end of the magazine (which in my opinion this piece should have been at the beginning or in the middle) where they feature designers who designed house hold objects inspired by music. They featured Onur Besen, Efecan Gürbüz, Ilanit Ovadya, Aslı Akdemir and Esin Hasgül. I suggest you google them and learn more about their designs because their work is very promising. The piece was written by Gülderen Tumba Genç and it was a great read.
Finally, I was actually surprised to find at the very end, a couple of pages where they featured gorgeous pictures by “Füsun Gümeli” and recipes by Quattro Cafe owner Figen Erduren. It did not make much sense to me as to why exactly a design magazine would have recipes amongst its pages but food sells as much as sex, so why not.
The magazine seems to cater to an upper class with reviews for brands like Jacadi and Villeroy-Boch. They do feature some IKEA but I would not go looking for any Koçtaş in there
- Written Contract
This hereby is a written contract by one Ece Kocak to Efe Moral and Idil Jans promising that she shall blog more.
“Ece Koçak @ecekocak cok baski olustu uzerimde Tesekkur ediyorum bu tesvikler icin. Tamamdir, daha cok yazacagim.”noter tastiklidir, aslı yerine geçer falan filan. End of baskı.
- GQ Magazine now in Turkey
We have a highly censoring entity in Turkey called RTUK – Radyo Televizyon Üst Kurulu – they are there to supervise TV and Radio stations to make sure the content they broadcast is compliant with the views of AKP..err I meant compliant with their strict rules. At some point I remember they had forbidden to broadcast ads of sausages during night time because they deemed that those who were too poor to buy sausages would feel terrible when viewing the ads. Anyhow.. GQ started publishing in Turkey. Looking at their cover I suppose that they are not under the supervision of RTUK, but the way the minds of this country are headed nowadays, I’m pretty sure that it will be sold at news stands under cellophane wrap, like a dirty porno magazine. Nevertheless, welcome to Turkey dear GQ, may you turn many a man on with your salacious but ironic and witty commentary. Oh and well done for using my favorite Turkish actress on your first cover, I approve.
- Milou
This little puppy here – and I call him puppy affectionately because honestly he’s far from being a puppy anymore – is Milou. Just a year ago this little man came back from Cesme with me to Istanbul and we haven’t left each others side ever since. Well apart from short stints at his fathers house when I had to travel. He’s a rescue. His mother had given birth to a whole litter in our garden in Izmir but most of them did not survive. When I went to Cesme for a couple of days I noticed that he had become rather sick, and after nursing him back to health, I decided that I did not want him to stay alone in Cesme and risk the same fate as his brothers and sisters.
Now Milou is a very important detail of my life because we still pretty much spend all our time together, that is, when I’m not working. Be it pouring or snowing or sunny weather, we always make our walk to the park, on a daily basis, where he is now uber famous and where everybody loves him. His preferred activity is to drive me crazy by sniffing every cm of the park as to slow me down to a turtle like walk which obviously prolongues our park time. He loves playing with other dogs, something that his brother “Buster” (now in Spain) taught him rather well. Once he spots a second canine presence around the park, it’s like a magnet is switched on and I am propelled to where the new dog is. He is so strong that I fear one day I will end up on the ground, dragged by a play-crazed pup-dog.
I sometimes have a hard time restraining myself when I see other owners pulling their dog back and say “oh she/he is scared of other dogs” when it is clear that their four legged companion really wants to play with Milou and that the only one scared is the actual owner. I fear that a dog with owners like that will end up mirroring their owners fear and thus perhaps be scared as a result of it.
Don’t even get me started on those who do not pick up after their dogs.. I have to admit that I was grossed out by the idea myself and that I had to be taught to turn it into a habit, but I now find it rather gross when owners let their dog litter a park instead of simply carrying a plastic bag with them, which is such an easy solution to a massive problem.
I live in Arnavutkoy and there are no parks here that I can take Milou to, but I do make the walk every day to Kurucesme with him and it’s a quite short and pleasent one. There is no way I would let him off his leash there because there are too many cars driving by at fast speed but otherwise he seems to enjoy the grass quite a bit. They have surrounded a very small area with barriers so that we can unleash our dogs in there but it is so dirty that none of my dogs are even willing to go near it. Nothing like the dog park in Bebek which is amazingly clean and spacious, they even thought of adding a space where the owners can sit and enjoy the lovely weather as the dogs play together. Kuddos! The third place where I like to take him when I can and which was where we used to take the dogs before all hell broke lose, is the “Aykut Barka Deprem Parki” which is in Ulus. Dog owners from the area show up there around 5-6pm with their dogs and they are all set free so that they can play together at their hearts content. It’s far from traffic and completely closed off so there is no risk of dogs getting hit by cars. A lovely place to bring your dog, they love the experience.
All in all, this little man has saved my sanity and cleared my mind of many a dark thoughts, this is what unconditional love is all about. They live to make you happy, eat, play and sleep, all in that order hopefully
- This song reminds me of you.
Shot to the heart and you’re to blame, you give love a bad name.
I played my part and you played your game, you give love a bad name.
- Fire & Ice
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire,
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice
I think I know enough of hate,
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice. – Robert Frost
- Wishes
Sometimes, all that you are left with as a last resort is to wish upon a shining star.
To close your eyes, to hold your breath, to feel your faith surround you and your will leave your body and attempt to reach the highest, shiniest star there is, in hopes that it will grant you your hearts desire.
When all you are left with is the ability to wish, then do not waste it, use it wisely.
When all you are left with is the possibility to wish, then do not hesitate, wish for forgiveness, wish for love, wish for peace, wish for wisdom.
There is enough light in those stars to fuel an eternity of wishes as long as we know to wish hard and sincerely enough.
Tonight, I wish with all my heart. I wish with all my being. I wish with all my soul.
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