Sinanation

Name: Musa Yesil

Nickname: Robin, Moses Green, Mark Green, Eggman

Notable Appearance: Van Diesel look-alike with a somewhat fatter and wider nose

Can’t do without: Flashy neon color sunglasses, blackberry, BBM, cocktail mixers, Hypnotic alcoholic drink, Cannon digital camera, taking photos, sarcasm, indiscreet jokes, pranks, Ziynet Sali – Pshedelia, white & light blue shirts, Ziploc bags used as trash bags in the car, Celebrating the festivals of loved ones, using navigation while driving in Manhattan, linen pants, Converse by Varvatos, coats with long & thick collars, thin gloves, red towels and red decorative pieces in the bathroom, disco lights at home, Alka-Seltzer, updating photo albums on Facebook, charm bracelets, constantly changing the tightness of his snowboard shoes

Notable Hobbies: Socializing, snoring, snowboarding, watching failed & discontinued TV shows on DVD, talking to strangers when drunk, preparing shots, pairing each glass of alcohol with a glass of water, getting pictures on parked bikes when drunk, searching exclusive social events/parties on ASMALLWORLD, reading every issue of GQ and saving its interesting pages for future reference, snowboarding, traveling, tanning

Notable Weakness: His own feet, mushrooms

Favorite Quote: “Yuru git!”, “Evvvvlaaadim”, “Igrenc insan”, “Insan insani ceker” and  “Have you been to club M?”

Last Seen: Felix NYC, La Esquina NYC, Alkent Istanbul, Panama, Vermont, Colorado, Sushi Samba Seven NYC, Marumi Sushi NYC, Pastis NYC, Revel NYC

Given that I am a big Aston Martin fan, I had to write about One-77 at some point before its expected delivery in October 2009. Like many of its ancestors One-77 has a handcrafted aluminum body with a V12 engine. What makes this vicious new model so special is that its top speed is expected to be over 320 km with a jump to 100 km in 3.5 seconds. Aston Martin will produce only 77 of this amazing car. The price is estimated to be above USD 1m. Who can dare take something this precious into traffic!

80% of the Turkish songs are plain sad and at least 70% are based on love. Even if the lyrics are full of happy and energetic words the singer somehow finds a way to turn everything around. The voice is lowered and the time taken to pronounce each word is maximized. The singer is longing for something unreachable. There is no exit and hope. 5 minutes of misery and pain.

You can tell how a Turkish song will turn out from the first 2 seconds. If there is an active beat or voice making the introduction, you should be ready to dance and feel really pumped up. Otherwise you have to prepare to revisit all your previous heartbreaks, longings and mistakes.

The answer to this generic blue theme in most of the Turkish songs could be hidden in our culture. Our mystical approach to love, the regularity of long-distance relationships, the importance of family approval in dating and marriage, the presence of god in being saved from love pain, the flirtatious nature of Mediterranean men mixed with the Ottoman obsession of possession and the orientalist and extremely emotional Turkish women are all ingredients in the songs we have been listening to. Below is an example from Niran Unsal’s new album. The song’s name is “Aklim hep sende” (“I am always thinking of you”) sang together with Ozcan Deniz.

Sana birsey olur diye aklim hep sende (I am constantly thinking of you thinking something will happen to you)

Ruyalarin bile benim goz hapsimde (Even your dreams are under my surveillance)

Senle yanan yurek usumezmis omrunce (The heart that burns for you will never grow cold)

Benim obur yanim bedelsin sen herseye (My other half you are worth everything)

Bensiz gunlerini sen unut artik (Forget about your days before me)

The truth is that our language and singers as a couple are just too good in blue. They capture our vulnerabilities right at the core, decorating them with multiple instruments and giving us all the reasons to listen to them whenever we are in need to interpret our emotions. No matter what, all such songs should still have cautions on their album covers: “Not recommended to be listened to when alone”, “In order to avoid misery please skip songs 2, 4 and 6″ and even “Could cause desire to commit suicide if listened to repeatedly within a 2-hour frame”.

If you are looking to spend time away from the city within the city, South Street  Seaport close to Wall St. is where you should head to during summer. Pier 17 to be exact.  It is hard to imagine how a weekend place like this could have evolved next to one of the most vicious business centers in the world. Yet, South Street Seaport proves to be a gem isolated from overcrowded Manhattan streets, honks, hot-dog stands and traffic.

Water Taxi Beach right next to the pier gets you as close to a real beach in Manhattan with a handful of sand spread below wooden tables and chairs, some music to clean out the ears and the views of the contaminated East River, the Brooklyn Bridge and Brooklyn. It is hard to deny that the currently bankrupt General Growth Properties, Inc. built Pier 17 as a tourist attraction with numerous souvenir shops and restaurants that serve anything from seafood to poultry. If that idea does not really apply to you you can find a better range of shops and food places beyond the pier away from the water side. Some beer, fries and mini burgers are a good break at the Heartland Brewery & Beer Hall. Pizzas at UNO Chicago Grill are delicious. Taking the water taxi over to the Brooklyn side is always an option.

For more info visit www.southstreetseaport.com

Name: Tara Erer

Nickname: Dude

Notable Appearance: Tiny feet, long hair

Can’t do without: Yellow, movies, flats, Ray-Ban aviators, the Oscars, Hollywood gossip blogs, tattoos, film festivals, Magnolia Bakery red velvet cake, oldies music

Notable Hobbies: Watching movies, playing guitar, organizing events, trying out new restaurants

Notable Weakness: Swimming through large waves

Favorite Quote: “My bikini is gone!”, “En iyi” and “Dude bisey sorucam”

Last Seen: Union Square NYC, Hamptons, New York, Southside SoHo, Lucca Bar Istanbul, South of Turkey, Cannes

To tell you the truth I didn’t know much about Annie Leibovitz until the media and most recently the New York Magazine got a hold of her financial problems. Apparently I was impressed with her photography all along, having seen the covers of Vanity Fair and other ad campaigns.

Long story short Ms. Leibovitz is a very successful photographer who has not managed her finances as well as her work. Her story reveals a simple fact and a rather questionable conflict. The simple fact: Not all of us are good financiers and most of us are blessed with only one great ability. For Ms. Leibovitz that is photography. The rather questionable conflict: Once we reach a certain amount of fame and credibility we tend to forget about the concept of money and how easily dispensable it is (One is exactly the same as millions. It is so hard to keep and so easy to spend.). Over-consumed with fame and over-assured by credibility we try to find solitude in the private part of our lives, usually through luxury and the things we have been yearning for the most.

When Sarah (Leibovitz’s daughter) started eating solid food, a rigorous journaling policy was instituted, in which every bite and bowel movement was to be committed to an unlined black notebook purchased from the Swedish stationer Ordning & Reda. Kellum regularly ordered replacement books from Stockholm so that the journaling could easily continue from one book to another. Once, when an order got lost in customs, Leibovitz insisted on having two notebooks sent from Stockholm via a special type of courier service called “quicking.” It was essentially like buying a seat for a parcel on the next plane. The shipping cost alone came to $800.

The effects of fame and credibility are more visible in the case of an artist who excels in a solitary world of imagination. The true artist works to create a vision, not to earn his/her way in life. Acumen, insight and support are what an artist yearns for. Approval is appreciated. Fame and money are only the by-products of a natural cycle.  In reality, one can’t and shouldn’t be able to value a completely subjective work he/she has put his/her heart and soul into. A photo for Leibovitz might be valued at millions by her, but it will be much less for Conde Nast, which has commissioned it.

Accardi was stunned by the number of work prints Leibovitz would order, and apparently so was Condé Nast. After Accardi printed 300 oversize work prints of a Roseanne Barr shoot and billed Vanity Fair some $15,000, he received a letter from Graydon Carter himself, informing him that after this job, he’d be paid for no more than 50 such prints. “Like I was going to tell Annie that?” Accardi says with a laugh. “She would’ve boxed my ears.”

It is clear that Annie Leibovitz is going through rough times because her abstract world of vision and art finally clashed with the sharp realities of our capitalist world. It is suffice to say that she is only human and it could have happened and will happen to anyone as long as this rather questionable conflict exists in our universe. Let’s just hope that we will always have loved ones around us who will poke us and ring the alarm bells (hopefully before it is too late) once we lose focus and rationality.

If you have time I recommend you read the New York Magazine article “How Could This Happen to Annie Leibovitz” at http://nymag.com/fashion/09/fall/58346/

Broke the fear of going to overcrowded NYC theatres and Saw District 9 this week. It was certainly different than any other sci-fi movie I have seen. The movie starts as a documentary, showing the interviews of a bunch of people about their reactions to something the audience has not yet been introduced to. It then transforms into a movie with a lot of action and “what next”. The question is clear “what if there are aliens and what if they turn out to be what we have never expected?”

Until now we have always imagined creatures beyond this world to be superior to humankind. Better vision, bigger brains, stronger 6th senses, healthier bodies, better standards… We have been expecting them as the teachers to a world of wonders beyond our imagination. District 9 breaks the precedent.

From the start it is the aliens that are vulnerable. They are forced to do an emergency land on Earth because their ship is damaged and they are desperatly in need for help. The awe and respect the people of Johannesbourg have towards these prune-like creatures who arrive in a massive ship from space is lost once they find out the bad, unhealthy conditions (at least for humans) they live in. Their ugly appearance  and appetite to eat anything (even out of the garbage) surpasses the value of their intelligence to humans. The clash of two kinds and the desperate attempts of the minorities for survival is revealed. From that point everything is doomed to get worse until one transforms into the other kind and sees the world from a completely different point of view.

Similar to cartoons I have always enjoyed good horror and thriller movies. With dimmed lights and total focus they isolate you from anything else but their mysterious plots. I have to admit that the sound effects really get to me. So 80% of the time I will have my ears plugged against the maxed out volume.  With a special request from Miss Deniz Aksoy who has unwillingly endured and accompanied me through long horror movie nights, I make my list of the best thriller/horror movies out there.

1. The Strangers (2008)
2. The Ring (2002)
3. Sixth Sense (1999)
4. Gothika (2003)
5. Paranormal Activity (2009)
6. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
7. The Descent (2005)
8. Quarantine (2008)
9. What Lies Beneath (2000)
10. The Fourth Kind (2009)
11. El Orfanato (The Orphanage) (2007)
12. The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005)
13. The Blair Witch Project (1999)

And I expect these movies to be in the list soon:

• Shutter Island (2009)
• The Poughkeepsie Tapes (2007)

Buy The Strangers DVD on Amazon

Name: Selim Aykut

Nickname: Faykut

Notable Appearance: Long arms, flat back, constantly changing hair length and beard style

Can’t do without: Mavi Jeans slogan t-shirts, gently curved “shield-wrap” framed Ray-Ban aviators, World of Warcraft, Eksi Sozluk (www.sourtimes.com), computers, technology, TV series

Notable Hobbies: Grilling, taking showers with girlfriend, advertising, philosophy, connecting gadgets to other gadgets

Notable Weakness: Champagne

Favorite Quote: “Over and out”

Last Seen: Bianca NYC, Zekeriyakoy, Istanbul, SoHo NYC, BestBuy NYC

This Audrey Tatou-look-alike DJ from Sydney, Australia is really talented. The set I am posting below is from her Ibiza days. Apparently she is now residing in Berlin, working to get her solo extende play (EP) out. I hope she stops by New York or Istanbul one day. Enjoy the Ibiza mix from July 2007.