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I missed blogging

2009-03-02T11:58:00.004Z

It sounds like taking a sabbatical leave as it's been nearly 10 months since my last post. Don't know why, but I think I missed blogging, though I don't know if I can find some time - in between thesis writing, job seeking and choral singing - to post a few entries. Anyway, just to say, I am still here.

Herbie

2008-05-26T09:11:00.002Z

Today is Bank Holiday Monday and the weather is wet, wet and wet. Almosy all people across the UK musy have been disappointed as it is the beginning of the half-term break for students. Anyway, May is the month for spring rains here, I should complain if it would go on like this in June.

It was another busy week, committed wholly to domestic to-do list. On Saturday we at last ordered our sofas, paying almost a fortune! We bought them from an Italian furniture shop (which means, import products!) since the British sofas are extremely soft, thus unhealthy for your back and their sofa-beds are only for occasional use. Anyway, our stain-resistant sofa-bed's name is Herbie, and we think we won't regret having it after a year or so. On the same day, we also ordered our carpets - an unexpected cost for us since we have assumed that it would be the contractors who would deal with fitting the carpets. Except spoiling thousands of pounds and waiting for ages for deliveries (our sofas, for instance, will arrive no earlier than the third week of July), this home furnishing thing is fun! Now, it is the time to order the white goods.

Last week was also the Eurovision week and Mor ve Otesi's live performance was very well indeed. Russia won, eventually, with a nice, but not a winner song. The singer was Dima Bilan, again, who lost to the Finnish band Lordi a couple of years ago, and that year the Russian entry was much better I must say. Anyway, next year ESC is likely to be held in St. Petersburg. But, unless the current system is altered, there seems to be no fair competition. The contender Portugal's 13th place in this regard was the proof.

Countdown

2008-05-16T16:28:00.002Z

We can now start counting the days for the completion of our house buying. Yesterday, we were invited to the building site for measuring up for the curtains and carpets, etc. That means, it is less than a month left before we move in. The appointment had to be delayed for almost an hour due to some misunderstandings between our representative and the site manager, but we were eventually taken into the apartment. In the meantime, we had a chance to get acquainted with other people waiting for the same thing.

The ground floor has four flats, and six on each of the upper floors. On our floor (which is the first), we have a young British couple across us, a Far Eastern family next to them (with the lucky flat number 8!). Our neighbour next to us wasn't there yesterday. And at the end of the other side, we have a nurse from Spain (a Catalan from Barcelona), and across her flat, another nurse from Spain, a Galician (NW Spain) from Orense. Welcome to London! :-) By the way, the flat looked gorgeous to us. Everything is brand-new and very well thought. It is a mid-size flat, but every bit of it is no waste. We were so excited that although we brought two cameras with us, we forgot to take pics! I can't wait to get packed!

Saturday Night Hayfever

2008-05-06T10:13:00.003Z

We just overcome another busy period. (Translation, as I am convinced, is one of the most time-absorbing tasks!) Anyway, it is over now and we have four days to enjoy pure blue sky and warming sunshine! The only problem for me is the extremely high-level of pollen count. I take my allergy pills regularly, once a day at 8am, but sometimes even they can't help, making me take a shower twice a day to get rid of the tiny particules inside my hair.

The last few days were spent by dealing with our home PC, which was seriously infected by a spyware. It was like a malicious cancer. We could not delete it as it duplicated itself and within two days we would be unable to switch on our PC as the virus assigned itself as the administrator of the computer! I spent hours on the phone, talking to DELL Customer Services. Whatever we tried, we failed to retrieve our data and all we were left to do was to reboot the PC. After our last conversation, Sevi and I somehow found a way to be able to see our files and we copied them to a memory stick part by part, so we could save all our photos and word documents, including my doctoral files, etc. (Though the latter had many more back-ups...) Then we re-formatted the computer, downloaded everything again, and bought a brand-new Norton 360 2.0 software to protect it from any cyber-attacks. The virus (maxpaynowti.exe) that infected our PC had a Spanish origin, travelling to the UK just within a week, and London is one of the most vulnerable network centres concerning cyber-malice.

Apart from that, we are still waiting for a date to move in to our new flat. I feel like a caged migrant bird with the urge to fly. I simply want to pack things, decorate our rooms... I even have a DIY guidebook and am very determined to deal with any sort of problems!

I started reading fictions again. That is a challenge for me, really! For years, my excuse was lack of time due to academic commitments and I seldom finish a book I start if it is not a page turner. The last book I could finish was "A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian" by Marina Lewycka. Then I tried hard to develop an interest in Vikram Seth's highly-recommended, yet to-me-disappointing "An Equal Music" and left it unfinished. Now I began to read Umberto Eco's debut work, The Name of the Rose and it is getting more and more interesting!

But, old interests hardly die out. At the age of almost 31, I still find myself looking meditatingly (or blankly, if you like) at my world atlas, journeying from place to place. The new weird thing about it is that whenever I look at a particular location for a long time, I go there in my night-dream. Last time it was Toledo in Spain. I don't know if the real Spanish town looks like what I dreamt, though... A sort of Clementine syndrome, I guess, though mine is not as adventurous as hers.

Delayed: "Autumnal vistas"

2008-04-22T13:37:00.000Z

I found an unpublished post of mine while persuing the list - unpublished probably because I thought I would write more about our Hungarian trip, but I must have then simply abandoned it due to lack of time. At least there are some pictures to share and some great times to recall.

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We have recently had our annual short break - this time to Hungary (as Turkey trips no longer give me the feeling of a good rest). We visited Budapest and nearby towns of Gödöllö (Empress Sisi's summer town) and Esztergom (Canterbury of Hungary - the religious centre of the country thirty mile northwest of Budapest, and of course, the place we know from our history books - Estergon). Lots of things to say, of course. But what fascinated me - apart from the architectural beauties -was the magnificent autumnal vistas. No need the mention how well the Danube beautifies the cities it splits up. Below are some of my favourite pictures:

Erszebet (Elisabeth) Park in Gödöllö

Fishermen's Bastion in Buda Old Town

Sunset on Maria Theresa Bridge (the official border between Hungary and Slovakia) with a background view of Esztergom Basilica and Castle

The Danube embankment with a background view of the Parliament on the Pest side

Enchantment of the colours... Just a couple of pictures to represent the beautiful trees of Margaret Island of the Danube

Ducks swmming in a pond in Budapest, whose surface is fogged due to warm spa water

View of the Danube at night (from the castle)

A year's plan

2008-04-21T08:48:00.002Z

It is simply unbelievable. We always hope for some leisure time, or somewhat normal pace of life, but something pops up! I know that it is what one should create for himself, but when I look back to the previous year, it is spent mainly by enjoyable, yet rather frequent long- and short-term visits by our relatives, families, friends, etc. and we really did not have intervals in between. Following our week-long trip to Budapest last autumn, I then isolated myself from everything to focus on writing my dissertation. And it was just a couple of weeks before the deadline that we were told about the result of our shared-ownership property application. Currently, we have a translation job which will occupy a whole fortnight. What next? Moving in to the new flat. Followed by my doctoral defence. Then the summer will be spent by revising my dissertation. In the meantime, I will start sending job applications and find a proper job by the end of this year, hopefully.

Well, is it comforting or slightly boring to know how to spend the rest of the year? The matter is that we have to wait, and wait, and wait for something to happen or finish and it sounds longer than usual when you know in advance what is next. Uncertainties create gray clusters in your life and you always yearn for the sunshine and since you know that it will show up eventually, it makes you even more impatient to wait for it. Mother says they are enjoying spring to the bits. Well, divide the temperatures by two or even three, and forget the sunshine, add some frequent showers, that is the good old British weather. :-]

From Prague to Bratislava

2008-04-15T12:14:00.003Z

Well, OK, this is not what I intended about the continuity of my posts, but academic commitments had to be immediately replaced by much-neglected domestic ones. We are about to complete our house buying and it is hard to describe how puzzling every step of it - reading the legal documents in English as well as comprehending the government's new stamp duty land tax policy, etc. The preliminary report that our solicitor prepared is thicker than the draft version of my dissertation! I think that is enough to explain the scope of the work being done. It is a huge thing here, property business, that is, which makes you pay thousands of pounds to a number of third parties who are dealing with the much-complicated procedures. Anyway, we are almost there. The only thing we want to know is the date for completion!

Meanwhile, having conquered the shopping malls in the city centre area, we started to have additional trips to farther districts of London. The big furniture stores are located in Croydon, and we spent our whole weekend visiting them one by one. And actually, we purchased a whole bedroom suit, bearing the series name "Prague". Timewise, it is tricky to make such bulky purchases here as the usual delivery period is eight weeks after you order! So, we hope we will have moved to the flat within that period, otherwise it will turn out to be another headache.

Secondly, we are still waiting to be allowed to see the actual looking of our flat. Therefore we are unsure about the measurements of the rooms and it won't happen until the last week before the completion. Sevi and I made countless drawings by ourselves relying on the small, yet more or less accurate floor plan in the brochure, and allocated the furniture modules in the two bedrooms accordingly, which led us to discover, for instance, that we need a wardrobe with sliding doors due to lack of space. Then we realised that the suit we fancy has a slightly longer height than the standards, and we could not be sure if it would fit in our new flat. Our solution was awkward, but practical: We went to the site, picked one of our to-be-neighbours in another block (that was already completed) who was having a fag in the balcony and she kindly invited us to her flat to measure the ceiling height as well as the door width. The latter is also a big issue especially for sofas and sofa-beds as some products require wider doors for delivery.

Anyway, that is what we have been doing so far, not interesting for many. At least we did not miss Easter sales, buying what we wanted on the very last day. Besides, this sales thing sounds never ending, they always find a reason to offer another one.

In the meantime, I at last returned to the choir rehearsals. Missed singing a lot! We have a few concerts ahead, including a trip to Slovakia. The concert will be in a small town nearby Bratislava, but our hotel will be in the capital. Sevi will join me as well, and we decided to arrive there a few days earlier just to enjoy the city. After our trips to Vienna and Budapest, this completes the triangle. Prague has to wait for another year, except for the furnitures. :-P

On again, off again

2008-03-19T04:26:00.002Z

OK, this is it. I have to put a stop to this internet procrastination. No news-reading, no facebooking, no sleeping. I have a week left to submit my dissertation and the material at hand is like joke! This should be my last post until April. Will write again soon, hopefully as a free man!

Eight months later

2008-03-13T02:09:00.003Z

It seems my blog is sadly deserted by me. It's been almost eight months since my last post, and other than 'facebooking' I still have no time to collect my mind and write a few sensible things. The only mental break was the trip to Budapest where I felt myself again. Thesis-wise, I am left just a couple of weeks ahead before my ultimate deadline. The pressure kills me. In the meantime (cherry on top, it doesn't rain, it pours, choose whichever idiom you like, but) after a successful application thanks to Sevi's efforts, we are in the middle of purchasing a new flat in Greenwich through shared ownership, a government-backed scheme for first-time buyers. A loooong to-do list!

Heavy clouds, and more rain!

2007-07-02T09:44:00.000Z

I am very unwilling to see my blog being updated on monthly basis. Well, actually it reflects my general mood. I am somehow unable to catch up with things nowadays. O God, what happened my neatly-written to-do lists? I am not happy with my Sibelius writings, it is going rather too slow than I intended. There are other things to finish, such as my Turkey report for the choir, which should have been done weeks before. My cousin will arrive this Saturday for language course, so I need to tidy up my belongings. Moreover, weatherwise, we are having the worst summer of the last fifty years - the inaugural Sun is yet to appear. And, due to our visa expiry date, we had to postpone our intended bargain trip to Tuscany this October, and the Italian Embassy advises for a six-week-notice appointment for application. (By the way, it is pouring down again!) We were planning to stay in Pisa and Florence, and have day out trips to Siena and Lucca - the latter is Puccini's hometown. Anyway, a spring trip would be more reasonable. Perhaps, Budapest could be a nice substitute. (Now, before choosing destination, I first check the relevant embassy's visa page! The Hungarian one seems to be easy-going.)

Last few weeks were busy as usual. Last Saturday, together with Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and James and Jeanne Galway as the soloists, we accompanied Andrea Bocelli for his O2 concert. Although the programme consisted of overwhelmingly popular pieces, it was still very enjoyable. (At least, leaving my prejudices aside, I must admit that his voice is very impressive and strong, and his live performance was faultless.) This Wednesday, we will sing in an award ceremony. After that, only one concert is left, the one at Rochester Castle. Then, our busiest summer is over.

This year, we also had the chance to go to Wimbledon, and even managed to find a ticket to Court No. 1 to see the last fourty minutes of Andy Roddick's play. The rain had a few attempts to start, actually it managed to stop the games twice, but it is an inseparable part of the tradition. Lazy, crazy, rainy days of sum-mer...

These are a few of my favourite things

2007-06-12T21:48:00.000Z

I have been rather busy lately (as if I were otherwise!) Today, I rescheduled my writing plan, and faced with the bitter fact that time is scarcer than I thought, and I have to be very precise regarding my submissions. The definitive deadline is 21 January of next year. Well, I am not trying to raise my stress level, but a bit of adrenaline would even be helpful I suppose.

Apart from writing my dissertation, the choir has been keeping me very busy nowadays. Actually, we are having our most hectic summer this year. We had a recording session for the commemorative events marking the 25th anniversary of the Falklands War. The actual concert to be broadcast live on BBC will take place this Sunday at the Horse Guards Parade. Last Sunday, we sang at the Royal Festival Hall, reopening with a non-stop 48-hour musical weekend. We first performed in our ten-minute slot at noon and then all the choirs joined together to form a massive 1300-strong voices for an early-evening performance of the last movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony to the new English lyrics. In a couple weeks, we shall take stage for the reopening of the Millenium Dome, the notorious white elephant of London, which was at last refurbished and renamed as O2 Arena after its sponsor. There are more concerts to come… In the meantime, my cousin Özlem will be visiting us for a whole summer, during which she will attend a language course. After having Sevi’s cousin, Bora for an extended stay, I can say that we are quite experienced. So, more family commitments waiting for us.

We are trying our best to enjoy the cultural activities on offer. Here is a ‘Price and Prejudice’ episode: The last couple weeks saw our first theatre experience here in London – with Edward Albee’s play, The Lady from Dubuque. I admit that I have prejudice against theatre, I cannot help but desperately need music while watching a performance. (Perhaps that is why I like opera.) After I while, I usually find myself humming instead of paying attention to the words. This time, Maggie Smith’s presence lured us as we wanted to see one of our favourite Dames live on stage. A confession: I was hesitant before the performance if I would understand every conversation word by word (Again, perhaps that is why I prefer opera. He he!), but then it was extra nice to see that I no longer need to press the 888 subtitles to be on the safe side. Moreover, Haymarket Theatre offers discount tickets for the students available on the day of performance. What I had to do was to go there in the morning and purchase a couple of tickets. By this, they give you the opportunity to afford the 50-pound tickets (the first twelve rows) for just 20 pounds! So, no need to mention that our seats were fantastic! This week, they start a new play, starring David Suchet, renowned as Agatha Christie’s famous Belgian detective, Hercules Poirot. He will be making his appearance as Cardinal Benelli in a Vatican thriller, The Last Confession. I won’t miss it!

Well, being busy does not prevent us from playing an easy-yet-addictive online game, Travian. (Unpredictably enough, Sevi has a game monster hidden deep inside her heart and mind you once it is triggered!)

Referring back to the title of this post, time to conclude with a TVC that puts smile on our face every time we see. Cheers!

Migrating pink wild ducks

2007-05-21T06:51:00.000Z

Finally back from Turkey. As every other recent vacations of us, it was short, flying speedily in a hectic schedule. Mostly Izmir-based, we visited almost all relatives; and if you mean to do that, you are left with no spare time. As a married couple, I think that will be the general format for a while at least until people get used to the idea. Besides, whenever we go, there will always be someone who gave birth, who was engaged, or married, etc. No complaints anyway. After spending some time also in Balikesir, we went to Beylikdüzü for a couple of days, which is seemingly part of Istanbul, yet ‘far’ from being so. (Pun intended). Neither Sevi nor I could manage to meet with any of our friends, having had to postpone it to our September trip. (The reason for this second trip is about the change of my visa type due to marital status.) Well, we only hope to spend more time in Istanbul.

In the meantime, I ruined my holiday by not being able to finish my dissertation plan before our arrival. So I had to write it while in Balikesir, and it was gnawing my mind until it was all done. (Lesson #1: Never mix holiday and work.) My annual assessment meeting has had to be postponed until May 15th since I was late to submit my chapters and the schedules of my assessors could not allow a day before our trip. Thus, it was the subtle source of stress. (Lesson #2: Never postpone things as they have the potential to ruin your plans.) Combined with such elements of stress, I ate a lot throughout the whole stay, like a goldfish with no sense of fullness and unavoidably put some unwanted weight. (Lesson #3: Stop when you realize you eat more than you talk.)

As soon as we return, a busy week welcomed us. However, the highlight was Tuesday as I had my assessment meeting which went much better than I expected. To my surprise, before it started (slightly later than it was scheduled), my supervisor had an hour’s chat with me about my future career plans, talking about a possible academic career, and encouraging me for some part-time teaching experiences. Well, honestly, I have never felt that I would be skilled enough to pursue an academic career. The post-doc opportunities are very competitive and hard to obtain, but now I think why not giving a try. Anyway, this will need further discussions, but after an agonising six-month period, I am now convinced that I will be able to finish my degree, which feels good indeed.

In the meantime, I was assigned a free-lance task – reading a fiction which has quite a few Sibelian elements in it and checking whether the musical descriptions sound reasonable. Since the book is yet to be published, I cannot release the name of the book, nor that of the author, but reading it seems to be fun. I am also beginning to write the fourth chapter of my dissertation, and the choir’s concert schedule is very busy as well. There are also some administrative stuff waiting – I have to write a report for my meetings with the festival committees, so no time to stop and relax.

Below is a shot from a trip to Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, with my cousin-in-law Bora, which I like a lot. There was no plaque to read the flower’s name and no staff was available to ask, but I tend to call it ‘migrating pink wild ducks’ (though some of them seem to go towards the wrong direction!)

Just a quick note...

2007-04-24T04:16:00.000Z

...to say that I am off to have our early summer vacation in a couple of hours. Will try to check my blog, but it seems to be occasionally. Sevi was doing the dawn shift. I was trying to print my material hastily (academic dawn shift). What a last couple of days it was! Now our parents say they are preparing a busy schedule for us. No!!! I need a break. Will it be a holiday in any sense? Especially when I am yet to finish revising my dissertation plan?!

VIVA postponement!

2007-04-16T12:00:00.001Z

I am in Nottingham at the moment. Caught a morning train to submit my so-so finished chapters, and rushed into the computer room after topping up my print credits. In the meantime, I saw my supervisor, only to learn that the other assessor will not be able to commit before my travel to Turkey. Well, what can I say, after this embarrassing delay on my part, they have every right. Therefore, my VIVA was rescheduled for 16 May, Wednesday. Viva postponement! The good side of this is that it gave me at least a couple of days to make my chapters look more handsome. Especially the endnotes are horrible this time, definitely requiring rearrangement.

I want to sleep

2007-04-12T13:20:00.000Z

...Because I feel utterly exhausted! You know why? Once again, I missed my self-imposed deadlines to submit two chapters of my dissertation for this last year's assessment, thanks to my unnecessary meticulousness and uncontrollable fear for a probable downgrade (to MPhil). I know it is no help, but it is constantly gnawing my mind. Sevi says my work-in-porgress sounds far better than lat year's material though. Anyway, I can see the end now, and it seems very likely that I will have to have my VIVA meeting just the day before our departure to Izmir for a holiday. God, I NEED one. I hope my assessors will announce their decision as they did last year. They will say whether my studies so far are adequate to continue my research and finish writing the dissertation. What I am going to submit within a few days is just a quarter of the whole pack, so I cannot imagine how I shall tackle with the rest.

In the meantime, I was enjoying a few concerts we gave in the Royal Albert Hall, first the three Classical Spectacular concerts, and then our annual performance of Handel's Messiah. The latter went particularly well. Last year, it was my first time to sing it, so while tackling with all those baroque vocal ornamentations, you forget the musicality side. This year, since I knew the oratorio much better, I could enjoy singing it. It is quite a demanding piece, lasting for two and a half hours, and I felt extremely tired when the event finished.

By the way, after the concert, to my surprise (as I was told about that only a few days before the concert), I was introduced to our President, HRH the Duke of Kent, who made one of his rare appearances by attending the event. Well, all those BBC period dramas could be of help at last I must say, while addressing to His Highness. The reason for that acquaintance was my recent appointment as a new director to the Choir. (Edit: O-ops! I mean Board of Directors of the Choir, an administrative post!) Since last month, I have been acting as a member of Board. Funny though, it reminds me of my university music club years. This time a big, Royal one. :-)

Vertigo

2007-04-07T17:39:00.000Z

When I first listened to the Maltese entry for this year's ESC (OK, this post is meant to be blogwise as you are going to see), I was undecided whether I liked it or not, thanks to the YouTube videos with a very poor audio-quality before the promo clip was available. Yet I remember that when Olivia Lewis was announced as the winner, I was astonished - not actually by her landslide victory, but rather by the fact that it was her eleventh attempt to win the national final Maltasong! After an agonisingly long decade, she eventually succeeded! Well, she apparently tried hard, what a perseverance I must say! Frankly speaking, I used to say this a bit wryly, but not anymore. I have been reading her blog (she is the only Eurovision performer to keep a blog of her own), which is about her preparations for Helsinki. She is a very keen blogger, posting almost everyday, portraying a down-to-earth character, unlike many other Eurovision singers residing in their ivory towers. You cannot help but feel the sympathy and wish her all the best - and why not, a victory perhaps. With so many good songs it has been sending to Eurovision, Malta definitely deserves one. So does Olivia herself. Below is the promo clip of her song "Vertigo" for Helsinki.

Bye-bye hep-pi-niz*

2007-03-20T13:13:00.000Z

My time plan for this year's VIVA has been suffering from an extremely serious backlog. Now the imperative deadline is the post-Easter. I already feel embarrassed for the unorganised nature of my chapters and my inability to meet the deadlines, but hey, this has to be finished whatever the result is. Man, how long has it been since the last project I was able to finish on time! I have a growing fear of failure this year. Insecurity must be the worst thing to tackle with as it brings anxiety, and anxiety brings sleepiness (not –lessness in my case.) Well, I rely on Bach remedy herbal drops though its effect has to be neutralised by caffeine overdose!

Well, it is supposed to be a 15-mnt lunch break and I mean it. By the way, some good news blogwise. No more Eurovision this year. First, I am unwilling to spend my time to write critiques of the contenders. There are so many now (a record forty-two entries for 2007!) and I really have no time to do so. Second, I have been sick of ESC-nerd-ness nowadays, including myself, I think it’d better stay as an ignorable hobby and should bother nobody else. Perhaps Metin Alp will have its independent blog one day, but I do not wish to indulge my spring posts into this particular subject. The only thing I can say for Helsinki 2007 is that it will be an open competition. Other than Turkey and the UK, I personally hope Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Lithuania and Serbia (in alphabetical order) will do well this year (well, a too-optimistic wish though) as I enjoy listening to their entries below. (The Lithuanian entry reminds me of the care-free days I used to order a double-cheese toast and tea with milk in Kuzey Kantin while Kral TV used to be watched as loudly as possible. Also, every time I watch the Serbian clip, the performer reminds me of Verda, our beloved Ychorus-mate.)

Anyway... It seems highly probable that this is my last post until the VIVA. Hope everything goes well. Stay tuned.

* Hepiniz means "all of you" in Turkish. The line is from Yilmaz Erdogan's movie "Organize Isler". The mafia guy sends the rival gang to a torture session with this Beatles-inspired pun [Bye-bye happiness].

GEORGIA
Song: My story
Performer: Sopho Khalvashi

GERMANY
Song: Frauen regieren die Welt (Women reign the World)
Performer: Roger Cicero (Live performance)

HUNGARY
Song: Unsubstantial blues
Performer: Magdi Rúzsa

LITHUANIA
Song: Love or leave
Performer: 4Fun (Live performance)

SERBIA
Song: Molitva (Prayer)
Performer: Marija Šerifovic

80s come back

2007-03-10T01:31:00.000Z

Sevi and I spent a couple of hours perusing some videos from the 80s, mostly animations from our childhood era - from Esteban and Yakari to Clemantine and Candy. For the latter, we randomly selected this episode to watch and were pretty surprised. I did not remember anything about that cartoon, all I knew was that my sister used to fancy it a lot, singing the song that goes like: "Seker Kiz Candy, Anthony'le evlendi. Bunu gören Lisa kiskancliktan geberdi." When you watch it, you realise that it is almost traumatising for children thanks to its over-dramatic soap-opera plot about a servant-turned-to-be-a-member-of-the-aristocracy, tackling with love triangles, blinking fetishisingly big crying-you-a-river eyes with all the tones of the blue while admiring the ridiculously-feminine-nosed aristocratic boys. Well, if Candy was unhealthily dramatic, Clematine was equally scary, Yakari was uber-silly and Esteban was full of deathbed confessions. Funny though, that was our times...

Sey Kitap Se Kerim

2007-03-09T12:32:00.000Z

Just a couple of hours ago, Kenan Dogulu has announced his song for Helsinki which is titled Shake it Up Sekerim (Shekerim - Sweety). It is neither admirable nor bad. Perhaps sounds a bit too fabric in an attempt of creating the winning formula - used in his latest hit Cakkidi and also in Sertab Erener's Every Way That I Can. Since Turkey is among the last few countries to share its song publicly, the expectations among Euro-fans were extremely high, and people are now undecided whether they like it or not. The important thing is how it would sound live. (It should.) Besides, it is far far better than Sibel Tüzün's Süperstar, so if she managed to come the 11th in the finals (thanks partly to the votes of the Turkish diaspora), then why not Dogulu? But, first replace those horrible clothes with likable ones!

EDIT: It seems that two third of Turkish public is disappointed with the song, according to the polls opened by major newspapers. (Well, I think this is another new unnecessary trend!) When you peruse the reader comments, you see that the Turkish complex of inferiority has not been resolved (at least, concerning the Eurovision Song Contest). I think this has become an inseparable part of our culture - harsh criticism without any reasonable cause. Actually, even accepting TRT's offer deserves to be appreciated as participating the ESC has the occasional potential to be a career disaster for the singer. (Also, nobody recalls the criticism that Sertab Erener had received before the contest.) I hate to see that we do not praise participating, we always aspire to win. This reminded me of the slight disappointment in the press when Süreyya Ayhan won her first medal in athletism. It was not a gold medal, but silver one and it has been announced not as a big achievement (she was the first one to win any medal in her discipline in the entire history of Turkish athletism), but rather a chance of victory sadly missed. There seems to be excessively crowded block of critics against Dogulu, so, I felt the sympathy towards him and wish him the best of luck - he may even keep that golden jacket if he wants.

Console me

2007-03-08T02:08:00.000Z

Had a day trip to Nottingham on Monday to meet my supervisor and attend one of the departmental colloquia. The meeting was very refreshing and a big boost for me. Also, I have issued several books from our music library – those I was using at the British Library as having them 24/7 will be much more practical during my writing process. With a rather blurry deadline, I am now continuing to type my second chapter with some new ideas. I am in a good mood.

Roughly speaking, the colloquium that I audited was about music, Turkey and Islam in the Eurovision Song Contest. The lecture was delivered by an American scholar whose fondness of ESC, as he told us, dates back to his childhood spent in Jerusalem. The topic seems to have sounded interesting enough that the room was entirely full. A confession: since I heard the subject matter, I was a bit concerned – or, perhaps biased about – the possible bias of Western scholars who tend to have a rather romanticised and exoticised perception of whatever Eastern.

I am afraid I was not wrong. Within its own context, the paper was well delivered and triggered a valuable debate on several issues, but it sounded me extremely subjective and intentional based on inadequately justified ‘facts’. It did not take too long for me to realise that what was referred Islamic was actually meant to refer to Turkish, Arabic or Middle Eastern elements. I also found it ironic enough to relate such elements with a religion which does not very welcome any music or musical instruments with few exceptions. The way they were exemplified was more problematic: the ‘Islamic’ vocal technique that was adopted by Tarkan for the middle section of his hit song, ‘Simarik’, or the ‘Turkish’ star on the chest of the last year’s Bosnian Eurovision contestant (to me symbolising that of the Bosnian flag - or even a yearning for the old days of Yugoslavia and its red star), or the French entry of 2003 (sung by Louisa) with a refrain that repeats the ‘Arabic’ name of the woman Leila (to me, first a Persian name; besides there was no name at all as in fact the singer was simply murmuring a nonsense lay lay la) or the battle of superiority between the Turkish zurna and the Armenian düdük (assuming genocidal connotations) in last year’s Armenian debut (to me reclaiming its national cultural heritage in Anatolia) and the like. Together with our Turkish lecturer, we found ourselves as the Turkish contingency to explain some of these issues. I did not try very hard though as I was in the mood that what was expected just happened. Or from a similar point of view, should I have argued for the beautiful 'Christian' vocal technique of Celine Dion's Oscar-winning performance for the soundtrack of Titanic and the symbolisation of Jesus Christ's crucifiction by the Di Caprio-Winslet on the edge of the deck?

Presumably, all of us are do the same thing when it comes to write about another culture. I have realised that when I travelled to Helsinki and that nature is not a fascinating subject to the Finns. Under the Anglo-American reputation of Sibelius, I was apparently - and exaggeratingly - romanticising the influence of nature on his music. That is simply not the case for his natives - and something they find unoriginal and boring just like the Turkish delight stereotype.

This episode reminded me of another scholar, Martin Stokes, whose book The Arabesk Debate has fascinated me in terms of its accuracy and originality. I have encountered his book while perusing the integrated catalogue of the British Library and could not help but typed one of the lyrics of his musical examples that he had provided in the appendix part:

Console the lover [Bir teselli ver]
whom you have driven crazy. [yarattigin mecnuna]
Only lovers understand the lover’s state [Sevenin halinden sevenler anlar]
Come and see my pitiful state [Gel gör su halimi]
Console me [Bir teselli ver]
If there is someone else between us [Aramizda baska biri var ise]
give me back my purest love [tertemiz askimi bana geri ver]
I am already an addict of every grief [Ben zaten her acinin tiryakisi olmusum]
I am drunk with my life-long endless torment [Ömür boyu bitmeyen derdimle sarhosum]
I cannot smile my love [Gülemem sevdigim]
I cannot live without you [Ben sensiz yasayamam]
What do I need but your love? [Bana ne gerek senin askindan baska]
What do I need? [Bana ne gerek]
Even if your love was poison I would still drink it [Askin zehir olsa yine icerim]
Even if you lead me to my death, [Yolun ecel olsa]
I would not be afraid, to follow [Korkmam gecerim]
If only you said ‘I love you’ [Yeter ki sevdim de]
with this love [ben bu ask ile]
I would laugh at all troubles of this world. [dünyanin kahrina gülüp gecerim.]
(Translation: Emine Gürsoy-Nakali and Saliha Paker)

The point is that it is almost impossible to delineate the cultural connotations of the lyrics ciphered with some untranslatable words and phrases such as mecnun, tiryaki, kahir and ecel which are widely used in the musical culture of Arabesk. You can hear the hit song by Orhan Gencebay here.

Although in poetic terms, the lyrics are hard to swallow, my unachievable project would be to commission, say:
1) an Icelandic pop music composer to set the English translation to music [having been persuaded that his work will be the only existing version]
2) an American country music composer to do the same
3) an Egyptian composer to set the Arabic translation to music
4) a Portuguese fado composer to do the same for the Portuguese translation
5) A classical music composer to set the lyrics to music with piano accompaniment [He would choose the language. German would be interesting] or what about writing an instrumental piece etc?
The outcome should be quite weird, but equally interesting.

A la Schoenberg

2007-03-04T13:45:00.000Z

Well, OK, I am not spending my whole time by perusing the YouTube clips, but we were told about this one by our cat-loving parents yesterday and I can say that Nora is definitely better than me concerning the pianistic skills. :-) She definitely has a style! [By the way, the pupil's piece is Bach's Minuet - the first piece I learned to play.]

Moment musicaux

2007-03-01T12:16:00.000Z

These are the two clips from Notre Dame de Paris the musical that I've been watching recently again and again. Frankly speaking I am not into musicals, and I dislike tenor voices at all [for instance, the tenderly voice of the character Phoebus (esas oglan) from the same act] not because my voice is baritone, but this one makes me utterly jealous! The vocal is Bruno Pelletier, a Canadian singer from Quebec. He plays the narrator Gringiore in the play, and definitely steals the show. French has never sounded so musical... Ignore the subtitles - without them I am more convinced that music transcends words. [By the way, YouTube provides all the clips, so if you are interested, check the rest as well.]

Act 1 Song 1: Le Temps des Cathedrales

Act 2 Song 15: Lune

Ritorna vincitor!

2007-02-24T17:40:00.000Z

Hey, YouTube is full of surprises! I haven't realised that I could find so much stuff! The excerpt is 'Ritorna vincitor', the titular protagonist's first aria from Verdi's Aida. The performer is Turkish soprano Leyla Gencer in Verona arena. It is my first time watching her! Exciting! Now is the time to have a majestic return to my paper.

Milk is a singular word

2007-02-12T09:05:00.000Z

By the end of this week, I will hopefully have finished my first chapter and resume the second one. Then it will be the time to ask Sevi's help to better the grammar of my writing and polish its vocabulary. Busy days ahead...

A lovely way to spend a Saturday

2007-02-03T17:35:00.000Z

Having a lovely Saturday. The unseasonable sunshine was luring enough to take us outside for a casual walk – something we could not do for the last couple of months. Apart from the weekly shopping, we went to the borough library and issued a dozen of CDs, reflecting a quite an eclectic choice which includes Julie London’s enchanting album ‘About the Blues’; an ethnic album of Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, (a Pakistani virtuoso who plays a woodwind instrument - still among to-be-listened); a Persian album complied by a Turkish musicologist; and Merlin, a three-act opera by Isaac Albeniz, set to an English libretto – the only choice by me. Ah, I am so slow when it comes to peruse the shelves whereas Sevi was amazingly speedier than Speedy Gonzales.

I got an extension for my last-year VIVA, so the new deadline is 1 March. Slightly relieved, but still nervous. But, as I understood – or rediscovered the Americas – no productivity is possible without some leisure time. Now, let’s get back to work.