Sinanation

Frank Sinatra once said “I want to wake up in a city that never sleeps” and pointed towards New York. Since then New York’s lights have never faded. 24 hours a day and 7 days a week there was one city that had something to do, someone to be with and some place to have fun. Sinatra might have gone a little too far.

There have been days when I thought the whole city was asleep. I would be comfortably positioned behind the TV, desperate yet unsuccessful to find a “partner-in-crime” or an event to take on the city. This was especially the case on Monday nights. Known as the nightmare of the workers, the first work day after an extremely peaceful and lazy Sunday had to have some kind of a plan to look forward to. Sinatra definitely forgot to mention that even in “the city that never sleeps” such plans are very hard to find.

This is where my friends Daniel and Derek Koch come in.

These two unbelievably driven event managers/promoters have been on the backstage of some of the best events I have been to in this city. I met them as waiters and watched them grow into managers of their own entertainment company, Day & Night. From happy hours, dinners to benefits, they have been working hard to make sure Sinatra’s lyrics rely on hard evidence. They decorated the dreams of women who brunched at Le Bilboquet on Saturdays. They amazed the gourmets with a delicious menu at their Jour et Nuit restaurant. They made sunglasses a fashion at Merkato 55 & Bijoux to hide from the sparkles fired up on Rose and Champagne bottles.

I fell in love with their model bouncers. I climbed on tables to dance to their DJs. We celebrated birthdays and we cried to farewells at their events. I have been there because they have never ceased to value personal attention.

They are still on fire Saturdays with their brunch at Revel in meatpacking, but I have been bugging both for a while to put together an event that can ease the pain of Mondays. The happy news came unexpectedly. They prepare to take on La Zarza (166 First Ave. between 10th and 11th st.) with two DJs from Madrid, Spain and a crowd that is ready to let it loose.

Hope to see you there. Party starts March 1st.

Normally I would recommend a private residence complex with concierge services, a sports center, private parking, swimming pools and security to a buyer in Istanbul, because the maintenance of a stand-alone home is a pain. Yet, I am inclined to bend the rule this once for this amazing antique penthouse located in Tarabya.

Type: 325m2 duplex penthouse in an ancient Istanbul building on the coast of the European Bosphorus. The apartment comes with 2 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, a sauna and a separate maid’s quarters.

The high ceiling living room houses  a mezzanine floor on top used as a home office, both overlooking the Tarabya Bay. The living room also opens to a considerably large terrace.

Price Tag: Approx. USD 2.3m

It all starts with a sympathetic nickname. It is a simple word that grabs attention and leads the other side to reply with a smiley face. It is the start of a conversation between two people thousands of miles away from each other.

How tempted we are to greet whenever he/she comes online. How driven we are to read that simple “ahahaha” on our screens. Chatting online is a tricky monster and we love it.

Assuming Skype is not around; there is no face to face or the comfort of a voice. The smiley face, the winking eye, the tongue and the red angry head can only give us a glimpse of how he/she really feels. The same goes for us. Are we falling down the chair with laughter when we type “HAHAHAHAHAHA”? Does he/she really want to hit us after typing “grrrrrr”? We love to exaggerate online. We are more daring and adventurous than we usually are. We are born with multiple senses to efficiently communicate. Yet when we are chatting online, we desperately try to get the same results by using a single sense.

We are in different settings, but together. One side can be in the bathroom doing nature’s duty while the other side can be sipping champagne at a black tie event. Who knows? One can even be hooking up with an ex-partner while flirting with someone else online. There are always a lot of variables in online chatting, but somehow both parties find a common ground to get into some of the most satisfactory conversations.

All is on record. Whatever we type and enter is saved inside the ultra intelligent computer or mobile phone. It remembers everything even if we don’t. And one can always get a full record of the cyber relationship. It is a risk we all take. We try to think a minute more before we type in anything. We think of the future implications of our answers. We are more planned than we would ever be if were to meet face to face.

Timely response is not customary. Sometimes he/she will reply within seconds and other times there won’t be a response. There will be times when the other side will text and we will not be able to get back on time. One shouldn’t wonder why. It is in the nature of chatting online to overpower one side. Sometimes a proper “goodnight” is customary and other times one party will just sign off without giving a proper warning.

It usually ends without a warning. It could be a careless “byeee” or a long farewell. It is the end of a conversation between two people thousands of miles away from each other.

Thanks to the rough winter days, I realized that I had to write about the ugliest, but still, the most successful fashion invention of our time. From a girl’s perspective these chubby boots might be the most comfortable walking gear, but from a guy’s they are a disaster. They take away the delicate silhouette of a woman’s feet and legs and turn them into chunky astronaut gears. I know they are just too comfortable to go out of fashion, but I had to put this thought out there. And to think they are worn during the hot summer days! What has this world come to?

I think the above image says it all. Part of the new season’s inspiration comes from a movie of huge and ugly monsters.

I had to share this quote as it grabs onto my inner feelings about the city “that never sleeps”, the city that has been my home for more than 3 years. It is a short paragraph with much longer meanings written by my dear friend, Nichol Alexander, for his descriptive piece on Johnny’s Bar (90 Greenwich Ave., between Jane and W. 12th St.), his favorite place in Manhattan.

I was born in NY. And I love it. But I also know enough to know, it’s a fucking horrible city, drowning in a pestilence of unsustainable capitalist angst. Velvet ropes holding back the 20 year old sluts in short dresses trying to fuck the next partner at Goldman, meatheads and uberhipsters chasing a pair of legs or a purer line of powder in the bathroom. The streets are crowded by ceaseless illusions. Strippers on stages. Restless competition. A neverending stream of unforgivable trespasses. Infinite objectification, specialization, untraceable trends; it is a city designed to destroy love and make simplicity complicated and everything commercial.

You can find the whole article at The Bar I Drink At.

Dedicated readers already know how I feel about luxury yachts (The thing about yachts…). Yet, once in a while a design comes out that just sweeps my feet away. That is the case with Sycara IV. Although I am against the idea of not finding a unique name for a new yacht, I am a big fan of this 46m beauty that was releases into water in November 2009.

Sycara IV was built by Wisconsin-based Burger Boat Company, which is known for manufacturing personalized 23m to 60m yachts for high net worth individuals. Among the numerous productions of the company, Sycara IV is the first of its kind. It was built of the car dealer mogul, Ray Catena and is a replicate of the luxury yachts found in 1920s (such as famous financier, J.P. Morgan Jr.’s private yacht Corsair IV, which was wrecked in 1949 and the Turkish Republic’s founder, Ataturk’s Savarona).

Corsair IV was constructed in Maine at the beginning of the Great Depression for USD 2.5m (or about USD 60m in today’s currency). Measuring 2,142 gross tons, with a registered length of 300 feet and overall length of 343 feet, the Corsair IV was the largest yacht ever built in the U.S. Designed in the traditional piratical look of Morgan yachts, Corsair IV was long, dark, heavy underneath – paler and suaver in the superstructure….when JP Morgan Sr. was asked how much it cost to operate a boat that size. His quick response: “Sir, if you have to ask that question, you can’t afford it.”

While most of today’s mega yachts resemble space ships cruising on water, Sycara IV takes today’s technology back to designs where craftsmanship and hands-on detailing were a part of the long journey that brought together an exquisite cruiser. Even its tender, Miss Sydney, was especially built by the retired workers of Elco (Electric Launch Company), known for producing some of the most popular small wooden yachts of 1920s.

I am a big fan of its exterior, but would certainly cut down on some of the wood used inside. A simpler white/softer painting (like the kitchen) and some comfortable modern furniture would make this yacht one of my most favorites.

Laetitia entered into my world in high school without any warning. The French Goddess was in every magazine imaginable. She was this mature girl who looked magically inexperienced and naive. Besides her large teeth, Leatitia was flawless. She posed in front of native African tribesmen in tiny bikinis and went wild in remote beaches for the Pirelli calendars. She derailed Asterix with her plump lips and perky boobs in the French movie, Asterix & Obelix. France ran after her for Marianne in 1999. She had three children since then and got engaged to the Italian Actor, Stefano Accorsi. Despite all the changes in her personal life, I can’t view Leatita as a wife nor a mother. I might have taken her wall posters off, but I think her legacy will always be stuck in my mind.

We all know about the cliche interview questions. My favorite is “Tell me about your weakness.” I mean who the hell would want to tell the person who could be his/her employer in the near future about his/her weakness. In a desperate attempt to avoid looking like a total loser we all try to bend and manipulate our answer to this very sensitive, unwelcoming, but extremely necessary question. So the test here becomes not the answer itself, but how well one turns around an extremely negative angle and presents it as something that can be fixed in no time.

Despite the fact that it doesn’t apply to any interview, my ideal answer to the weakness question would be “understanding and intelligently using family tie terms in Turkish.” It might look like an easy job from an English speaker’s point of view. We can all handle aunt, uncle, husband’s sister and wife’s sister pretty easily. Yet, things get a little more complicated in Turkish. Each term gets a separate name for the two sides of the family: mother/wife vs. father/husband.

Mother/Wife Side:
Aunt = Teyze
Uncle =Dayi
Wife’s Sister = Baldiz
Wife’s Brother = Kayin
Wife’s Sister’s Husband = Bacanak
Wife’s Mother = Kaynana

Father/Husband Side:
Aunt = Hala
Uncle = Amca
Husband’s Sister = Gorumce
Husband’s Mother = Kaynana

These are the few terms that I am aware of. I confess that it has been a nightmare to use them correctly and understand their meaning (especially when listening to someone who has already devoured all the terms and  casually sprinkles each on sentences while talking about weddings and family).

The Camelback trip was made possible by artandseek and Delta Brands.

What to expect: Camelback is the closest Alpine skiing spot for New Yorkers. The best thing about it is the night skiing that keeps the slopes open until 10 pm. After 5.30 pm half of the skiers on the mountain will disappear and you will have the place to yourself. With that in mind, I still recommend you don’t go to Camelback with huge expectations. There will be a lot of beginners (especially beginner snowboarders) and little children spread around the mountain. The longest slope you are going to be on will take approx. 4-6 minutes to ski down depending on your speed. A regular blue slope in Colorado or Vermont will take at least 10 minutes. Make sure you check the weather the very last minute to guarantee you won’t be stuck in Camelback in rain (like we once did…Action Movie? Probably not…)

Getting there: The drive will take 1.5 hours from Manhattan. Adhere to the speed limits (which are unnecessarily strict) as numerous police cars are on the lurk hidden behind unexpected spots.

Where to stay: I recommend you drive in the morning and get back to the city after a day of skiing. If you stay on the slopes until very late and are too lazy to drive back, then the best lodging is at The Chateau (www.chateauresort.com) and its rates start at USD 117 during the weekends.

Recommended Slopes: We enjoyed the far left side of the mountain during the crowded morning and transferred to the right in the late afternoon. Pharaoh (or as we call it “Ulus 29″), Nile Mile, Rocket and Marjie’s Delight are the favorites. At some point the lines got so annoying that we switched to the Raceway lift, which didn’t take us as high as the others, but enabled us to enjoy a much shorter line. We skied down the Pocono Raceway a few times until we were once again ready for the long lines.

Where to eat: Ski down to Glen Lodge for lunch. The top floor has waiter service and the floors below that are self-serve. The chicken quesadilla and the waffle fries are the most delicious pairings on the menu. Most-expected from the American entertainment culture, the Cameltop cafe at the top of the Sullivan Express closes at 6 pm unlike the slopes. It is a shame as it would be the best break spot for any night skier. If you have the energy, go to Thirsty Camel apres-ski for drinks. There is a live band that sings anything from Lady Gaga to Barry White songs during the weekend. I tell you now that it will be a one-of-a-kind experience for any New Yorker. The locals (beyond their 30s) there seem to be excessive drinkers that let it really loose on the dance floor.

I wasn’t around when they were using smoke or training pigeons to deliver messages. Telegraph lost its popularity by 1960s. Telephones and e-mail were already ruling the communication world by the time I made it out of my mother’s womb. As my friend, Musa Yesil revealed recently, nowadays we can not imagine waiting for a message’s delivery beyond a few minutes.

As part of the new bright generation, we all become avid users of the Internet and cell phones. They are our most advanced and common tools of communication. When we are kids, we receive fake computers and pillows shaped in phones as gifts. A real cell phone is glued to our  hands when we are old enough to go out without our parents. We are so content with their functionality that most of us do not even have landlines installed inside the apartments. We are all a few clicks and dial tones away from each other, no matter where we are. Although with the advancements in technology, we no longer have to wait more than a few seconds to deliver a message, we are still constrained by the incentives of the side receiving the message to get a reply. We willingly lower the speed of the technology because we are too slow, lazy, ignorant or busy to catch up with it or are too proud to obey its non-mistaken strict work ethic. We take our time and delay the reply for an acceptable duration based on the person and the device that delivered the message. Although it is hard to predict some variables of the equation, it is easy to calculate the appropriate delay for replying to a message based on its technology source. Here are the accepted delays for today’s most common tools of communication:

E-mail: 3-4 days. Replying too fast means you are either too interested or too desperate.
Call: 1-2 days. It is acceptable to call back in a day or so as being on a call usually requires both parties’ full attention. Picking up and saying you’ll call back whenever you are free is always the most appropriate option (although most of us avoid it almost always).
Text message: A few minutes to a few hours. Beyond a few hours means you are just annoyed and not interested (given that you do not have a reasonable excuse).
BBM: First of all thanks to the (D) for delivered and (R) for read, you are not left much room to play around. To delay the reply you will have to avoid clicking on the message. That way it will appear as (D) until you feel like you want to reply and continue the conversation. There is no excuse if you read and decide not to reply within a few minutes. The message you are sending is pretty obvious when that happens.