Added to iPod
October 29, 2008 | Filed Under Main, Music | 1 Comment
Tomorrow night I will be flying home for a very busy weekend in the States. It’s Christopher’s birthday, my Mom’s birthday and my nephew’s wedding. It’ll be good - I haven’t seen most of my family since I ran away to join the circus.
Prince – “1999” I actually had no Prince in my library.
The La’s Like the rest of you, I only know that one song – There She Goes. But actually this is a really strong album. I don’t know if I ever heard the whole thing before. I have heard the lead guy in the band has spent the last 20 years trying to perfect this record. What a total waste of talent…
Now these next two were suggested to me by an Irishman I met at a party recently. He had good taste.
Mono – “Waling Cloud and Deep Red Sky, Flag Fluttered and the Sun Shined” How’s that for a title? The sound is very similar to Explosions In The Sky, but those guys were from Texas and Mono is from Japan. They both came out at the same time. Very pretty stuff.
The Boredoms – “Vision Creation Newsun” Where do I begin? Adjectives: Percussive. Propulsive. Avant garde. Melodic. Sort of prog-rock (kind of). I don’t think I have ever heard anything like it. Check them out. Try driving with this playing in the car. It’s wild!
Six more days of election coverage! Vote early and often!
Sweet!
October 25, 2008 | Filed Under Main | No Comments
I found Candy Corn!
In Kuwait!!!
Happy Halloween, folks.
The Emirates Palace
October 24, 2008 | Filed Under Main | 2 Comments
I just came back from meetings in Abu Dhabi. My firm has an office there and they scheduled a semi-annual Executive Meeting. I had to make a presentation to the Executives about the financial system and where we are and where we’re going, so I needed my suit and a power point presentation (thank you IT and Marketing).
But the meeting wasn’t in the office. The meeting was held at the Emirates Palace Hotel.
http://www.emiratespalace.com/en/home/index.htm
Obviously, someone thinks we’re important (and there was only six people in the room). I had been to the Emirates Palace Hotel before. Early this summer, while I was in Abu Dhabi for other meetings, I went to a Picasso exhibit at the Hotel. But this time I got to walk around a bit… and some of that was unintentional. The place is huge! It is sprawling! It is LUXURY!!! The Palace was built and is owned by the government. The Emir has a few floors here. They have concerts here… somewhere (Christina Aguilera is playing tonight). And if you are staying here – you’ve got LOTS of cash. Too much in fact. Everything is gold and marble and there are antiques everywhere and high end shops and art exhibits and that’s just the first floor! There was one little sign in the front lobby that said gave the room number for my meeting and a feeble arrow pointing “that way”. It was akin to the sign on Route 34 in Colts Neck that tells you Atlantic City is straight ahead… somewhere. After a while of wandering the first floor, I tried an elevator. There are many elevators, but if you don’t have a room there they don’t move. Eventually, I asked a porter. He asked another porter and together, we ascertained that I was downstairs. After descending two floors down the escalators, I weaved around for another ten minutes before finding my room in the very expensive and attractive bowels of the Palace. After leaving the first floor, I rarely saw another living soul – except a butler or two.
Lovely place - but so was the hotel in “The Shining”.
Bloody Tourist
October 18, 2008 | Filed Under Main | 4 Comments
I wound up paying $10 for the picture and the bird seed.
Added to iPod
October 15, 2008 | Filed Under Music | No Comments
Jules was going to fall off the page, so I moved him here.
First – the ladies.
Sarah McLachlan – “Closer” The new greatest hits package.
Kate Bush – “Aerial” I didn’t even know she put out a new record. This is very ambitious and not totally successful, but there is good stuff abounding.
Rachel Sweet – “Fool Around” Hands up if you remember Rachel Sweet! The sixteen year old with a big voice circa 1978. This came out of Stiff Records and was produced by Nick Lowe and is STILL fun to listen to. I can hear a lot of Ms. Sweet in a number of today’s alterna-women singers.
Now – Istanbul. Mind you, I just picked these off the rack. Two I found in the Museum of Modern Art, the DJ stuff was suggested by the guy in the record store and one was actually playing at the time. So any info I giving you here has been researched… last night. In these tracks you hear violins, tablas, the oud, the ney, a zither, clarinets and various horns along with the standard instruments.
“Bosphorus Night 2” – Various artists put together by Turkish DJ Suat Ateşdaği. Suat is a pioneer in the music industry out here, having worked many of the big clubs and even starting the first Turkish dance radio station. It is very disco with Turkish instruments and vocals. You can dance to it! I’ll give is an 85, Dick.
Ferhat Albayrak – “Techno-Logic” A great mix of techno stuff from one of the young… Turks in the business.
Mercan Dede- “800” Mercan Dede is a also known as DJ Arkin Allen. This record won Best World Album for 2008 from WOMEX (World Music Expo). He is pretty well known in music circles. His discs can be found on iTunes and I even had a composition of his from another techno disc. It is a very chill record, incorporating folk music, beats and ambient sounds (even a rap in Turkish). Very nice.
Cahit Berkay & Grup Zan – “Toprak” This is rock mixed with traditional. Sounds a great deal like the Irish band Boiled In Lead, but there are no vocals. I can’t find anything for this band that isn’t in Turkish but they have been playing for 42 years! (Maybe they are the Turkish Stones..) Anyway, the album rocks!
Brooklyn Funk Essentials – “Watcha Playin’” Way back in the 90s, I was introduced to one of my favorite albums of all time, “In The Buzz Bag” by the Brooklyn Funk Essentials. This was an amazing mix of R&B, funk, reggae, beats and all played with a group of Turkish musicians sitting in and adding the cultural vibe. The whole album was centered around Istanbul. It works in so many ways – you just have to hear it. I didn’t even know they made any other records. This is their first in eight years and though it doesn’t have the highs or the energy of “Buzz Bag”, it is still great music and worth a listen.
Moving Day
October 10, 2008 | Filed Under Main | 3 Comments
I am in a new apartment. I moved from my three bedroom in Salmiya to a one bedroom in Salwa. I haven’t changed apartments in over twenty years… but I still have the moves! Four trips in a little Mitsubishi and done before 6pm. Granted, I came here in three suitcases, but you accumulate stuff when you’ve been somewhere for nine months (and are looking at longer…). Thank God I don’t have albums to deal with anymore…
It’s a good thing. My old place was a bit beat (and too big), the traffic noise was killing me and there are three construction sites surrounding me. This place is in a more residential area and it’s a pretty new building. I have a roof apartment and I can just walk out my door and still see the water. Plus – most of the tenants are expats – some Brit, Australians and a Canadian couple. Best of all – there is a pool!! (Wish I had that this summer)
Tomorrow, I’ll unpack.
Palin… briefly
October 8, 2008 | Filed Under Main, Politics | 9 Comments
Sarah Palin is nothing but one of those “golly-gosh-set-a-spell-have-a-beer-let’s-shoot-somethin’” local bumpkins the either party brings out every few years when they need a gimmick to win. She is an old, well worn political hack-trick who usually has about as much substance as tissue paper. It is extremely cynical and very annoying… but sometimes dangerous. I would refer you all to the classic 1950’s film with Andy Griffith called “A Face In The Crowd”. She is as much “one of us” as Britney Spears. I wouldn’t have either one as an acquaintance… let alone, you know, leader of the Free World.
Back in the Q
October 6, 2008 | Filed Under Main | 2 Comments
Too short
Too short
Too short
Not the flying, of course. With the layover on the trip there and missing my flight out of Doha on the way back, the trips came to somewhere around 24 hours.
But the city is special and I had the best time. On Saturday, I did go over to the Asian side. Took a short ferry ride across the Bosphorus to Üsküdar and just bopped around for a while. I had no plans except to be there, so I just walked around, bought some bread and some honey and came back. On the way back, we passed the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art, which is right on the water. So I trekked over the Galata Bridge to the museum. There were signs everywhere for a Dali exhibit and I assumed it would be there. I was wrong but the museum was excellent! Turkey produced some fine artists, including a very talented crop of surrealists and abstract painters form the 40s through the 70s. There were also great mixed media pieces, some wild video installations and a whole photography section (with some non-Turkish artists like Cindy Sherman represented). Spent a few hours there, went home to change and spent the night back on Istikal Caddesi. (Did I tell you how you get to Taksim Square? You walk straight up hill – like almost vertically straight up hill. And coming down is straight down hill. Don’t know how cars do it, let alone middle-aged men.)
Sunday morning, I went out into the park on last time. The usual phalanx of tourist groups had already begun, taking turns at the statues and learning history in various languages from their guides (this time, there was actually an American group). The last bit of fun was riding in a little shuttle van as it scurried up and down through the barely passable, intensely winding streets picking up airport passengers from the beehive of hotels around me. That thing should be a ride at Disney…
So – I sit here drinking my Turkish apple tea… and remember I didn’t get in until four this morning and still went to work. ‘Nite.
Istanbul stuff
October 3, 2008 | Filed Under Main | 3 Comments
There are no squirrels in Istanbul. Instead, they have cats. Cats everywhere! These cats are healthy looking and very pet-able – as opposed to the grimy, feral variety in Kuwait. But make no mistake – these guys are scavengers. They are there to con you out of that sandwich. (But they are sooo cute…)
I have come to the conclusion that – like Paris – you can’t really have a bad meal here. Everything is fresh, the bread is good, the tomatoes are excellent and the fish was caught today. Even the local beer is good. If you’re thirsty, get some fresh squeezed pomegranate juice. It’s not fancy, but it IS tasty.
Sofia was nice to visit, but it is hard to have a spiritual moment when the place is PACKED WITH BLOODY TOURISTS!! I know – I’m a tourist, too. But there is something different between a few hundred of us passing through in a day and busloads of 50-60 German or Japanese (toss in whatever country) tourists descending like locust every 30 minutes! Every piece of major antiquity will be ground to dust under this stampede of little tourist feet. Then I watched them pile into the restaurant I had lunch in, following their leaders. I have never seen so many humans in herds before in my life. It was sad and terrifying.
Lastly, I think I have mentioned here that I am not a shopper. If you too are not a shopper, do not go to the Grand Bazaar. This place is for professionals only. There are a billion small shops stuffed into a labyrinth of old tunnels. Nothing exists in nature that you cannot buy here. My head spins when I go into Shop Rite. I damn near passed out before I found daylight once again.
Day Two
October 2, 2008 | Filed Under Main | No Comments
There is nothing like walk walk walking around a foreign city. You can only see another country from street level. That’s where the people and the food are. And there is so much to do in Istanbul, all you can do is close your eyes and start.
I didn’t yesterday when I got in because I had begun my flight at 11PM the previous night and had an eight hour layover in Doha. Sleeping in chairs and the plane just didn’t cut it, so a nap was the first order of business. Turned out my hotel (very quaint, very simple and I may be the youngest person staying here) is right in the heart of tourism. Groups from many countries walk behind their leader, following the flag from one spot to another. I wonder if the guides ever swap flags to confuse their entourage? I am staying right between the two mosques – the Blue Mosque and Sofia – and just across from the Obelisk, all of which looked lovely in the morning from the roof terrace having breakfast. The Sea of Marmara is off to the other side. I did go out yesterday to eat a traditional kebab (kebap) dinner with a beer (Efes Pilsner) and the traditional liqueur, Raki (like Ouzo). Then, I nearly got talked into buying a beautiful Turkish carpet for $6000. Beware the sneaky hard sell out here. It is hard to get away.
Today was about jumping on the tram and heading out of Sultanahmet, crossing the Galata Bridge and walking up the huge hill to Taksim Square. I was looking for a music club and it seemed to be the “hip” section of town. (Found the club but there is nothing much on the docket for this weekend. Story of my life…) Took a walk down Istiklal Caddesi where there are many stores. Mostly the usual suspects. But I found a nice wine bar for lunch and a record store - Mephisto -where one of the workers pointed me to some Turkish techno and rock music. If you keep walking down Istiklal, you come back to the Galata Bridge and catch the tram. The walk gets VERY steep down the hill. Narrow, crowded and steep. However, that is where all the music shops are and it was again one of those times where I cursed my black heart for not being able to play an instrument. The stuff in the windows – guitars, violins, mandolins, balalaikas – were just incredible! Store after store after store. I’m definitely coming back this way again.
Have to tell you – there is no way to get more than a glimpse of Istanbul in four days. I may not even make it to the Asian side. Tomorrow, I will see the mosques and maybe the Grand Bazaar. Saturday I should probably travel down the Bosphorus. We’ll see….