English
Français
Deutsch
Italiano
Español
ONLY BE ISTANBULITE
Only-Be Istanbulite
Coffee and Fortunes in Modern Istanbul
An essential part of any visit to Istanbul is experiencing the thick aromatic charm of Turkish coffee, or kahve, as it is known in Turkey. As you sit in the exotic city streets, sipping the strong liquid from brightly decorated little cups, you will be tasting the source of a long cultural tradition that has grown since coffee was introduced to the Ottoman Empire in the 1500s. Turkish coffee differs from European and Antipodean brews in the way it is served. Boiled slowly in a little pot called a cezve, and often spiced with cinnamon or cardamom, the result is a fragrant cup of half-liquid and half silty-grind (that you don’t drink). Traditionally, young girls would be taught the art of coffee preparation for the eventual day that potential husbands would come to ask for their hand. Folklore tells that if the coffee was served salty, a girl was not impressed by her intended, and if the coffee was served extra sweet, she agreed with the proposal. It is also told that the judgement would be passed in the opposite direction, with a girl’s suitability as a wife depending heavily on the taste and presentation on the brew. Coffee has also long served an important role in the everyday life of Turks, being a pillar of hospitality, a sign of well-wishes and an ice-breaking beverage before that start a serious discussion. It is also served when people meet with friends, when men play the nationally-loved game of backgammon and when women gather to eat sweets. Evolved from these social gatherings, is the game of telling fortunes in the remaining...
Tony Bennett in Istanbul
What´s being a solo artist about? Today, it seems that music doesn´t know what making someone fall in love with style and seduction is. All male singers of today know little about true love conquests. On the other hand, however, they know a lot about big cars, bling and little elegance when dressing. Living in the nostalgia of the past, in that past where everything was better, is also not very convenient when it comes to art, music or culture. However, we can´t stop looking back when we see people like Justin Bieber, the current heartthrob for many teenagers around the world. Justin Bieber is simply a caricature of the pop and R&B singer. This sort of androgynous character wants to be one of the Backstreet Boys without being in any band. From the bad quality of his songs to the tediousness of sensitive teenage love with no depth, Justin Bieber is one of the worst products of the current pop music industry. However, youth must not be a reason for despair facing the best contemporary music. Being young or not is not an excuse for having bad taste, on the contrary. If we think about Tony Bennett and his early days, we´ll realise that this master of pop, soul and jazz was involved in art at a very young age and in a much more serious way. Born and raised in New York, Tony Bennett isn´t just a jazz, pop and soul singer but also a very talented painter. His life has been filled with dreams and adventures; as well as singing since a very young age, he was...
Burhan Dogançay in Istanbul
In the westernized and lively Beyoglu district, known for its famous nightlife, art galleries and seductive combination of neoclassical and art nouveau buildings, there is a splendid five-storey building from the middle of the second half of the nineteenth century, which most rooms, are dedicated to the work of Burthan Dogançay, one of the most important Turkish artists from the twentieth-century whose work revolves around the observation of the walls of hundred large cities around the world, which he has visited during his life. The impression left on him from these walls at the time he looked at them, was later materialized in the form of paintings, prints, photographs, tapestries and sculptures. Until the 23rd of September, Istanbul Modern, the Museum of Modern Art in Istanbul, also located in Beyoglu, opens a major retrospective of Burthan Dogançay curated by Levent Çal?ko?lu coinciding with the first 50 years since he began to develop his fascinating work Indeed, Burhan Dogançay began his particular and captivating exploration of contemporary urban culture, through the walls of the cities he visited during the early sixties. His attitude is similar to the one that an anthropologist that studies in detail the insight, without giving signs of a remote culture, only makes him look carefully to examine the present on the vertical surfaces of contemporary cities: from Posters or tatters once abused by the rustling and time to political slogans, declarations of love spontaneous, lyrical, bawdy sexual references, newspaper clippings glued to the walls, graffiti or various slogans. These are all items that he later organized through different techniques and styles that reproduce in any way...
Goldfest Tuborg Festival in Istanbul
Istanbul is a city that continues to grow, both in diversity of spaces and tourist attractions, as well as in its ability to attract new cultures. The highly cosmopolitan Istanbul is becoming year after year in one of the most visited around the world. The capital of Turkey offers such a diversity of travel, that no matter what your favorite interest or travel intention, in Istanbul you’ll find what you´re looking to unplug from the daily routine and discover a great, unique and attractive city. If you´re looking for history, Istanbul´s museums, palaces, mosques and streets will give you full immersion in tradition and the most remote history. If you´re looking for contemporary art, new galleries and museums have the best art made in Turkey and other places of the East, Europe and the world. For culinary travelers, there is no better place to try international delicacies than this important city. For music lovers, genres such as jazz, rap, pop, traditional music and other many rhythms are easily found in exotic Istanbul. If you love Rock, you’ll have to come this summer to Tuborg Goldfest. Among the participants of this important rock festival will be Guns N’ Roses, Evanescence, Godsmack, Apocalyptica, Within Tempation, In Flames, Sebnem Fehra, Pentagram, Redd, Lacuna Coil, Ugly Kid Joe, Skindred, Heaven Shall Burn, Aylin Aslim, Dio Disciples, Malt, Erdem Yener, Sweet Savage, Foma, Nefes, Gren, Planeur, Ayse Saran and Gurcan Ersoy, a more than impressive program full of second to none performances during three days: the 4th, 6th, and 7th of July. It should be noted that this is mainly a festival dedicated to...
Two Door Cinema Club and Metronomy Concert in Istanbul
Talking about indie is like talking about God: everyone has an opinion, everyone thinks they know something about it, everyone knows about its possible existence and everyone has felt its presence at some point in their lives. In the same way, nobody knows exactly what it´s about, where it´s found, how it´s listened to, for who he works and whether all of that is important. Indie spreads around the world like an unresolved dilemma, produced, elaborated and commercially exploited more and more all the time. The word ´indie´ has lost its meaning: the independence of the music industry. Indie today is transmitted to a much larger and diverse crowd, which is definitely something positive. However, indie has lost its danger and the aesthetic experimentation that saw it rise over 40 years ago. And so, the indie market has expanded on all the continents, and bands such as Two Door Cinema Club and Metronomy have an almost universal audience. This phenomenon is a result of the impact of the social networks. Both bands began their career towards stardom in the early part of this century. Metronomy, since 1999 to be precise, created an elegant electro-pop sound since its first recordings. With three studio albums and one remix one, Metronomy is the most elegant pop that you can listen to today. A sound made with seductive guitar and bass, the voice of their singer Joseph Mount and his Italian-Mafia-style falsettos mix with the synthesizer, keyboard and electronic sounds. Its recent album, ´The English Riviera´ (2011) is still receiving praise from all the music critics. The history of Two Door Cinema Club...
Duran Duran in Istanbul
On the 9th of July, at the Maçka Küçükçiftlik Park in Istanbul, you can watch the British rock band Duran Duran live on tour to promote their new album, ´All You Need is Now´. Duran Duran is the British band that best represents the 80s New Wave, and it´s made up today by John and Roger Taylor (vocals and bass), Simon Le Bon (vocals), Dominic Brown (guitar) and Nick Rhodes (keyboard and drums). Their trademark badge was their glamorous performances on stage that were reproduced in the videos. This differentiated them from various bands that brought punk aesthetics. This attracted many young girls, becoming a commercial phenomenon of the time. However, it´s not all been marketing and glamour for Duran Duran, since they´re an excellent music band that was formed with the intention of being a band with the energy of the Sex Pistols but with danceable rhythms like David Bowie and Roxy Music. They achieved this in great terms and that´s where a large part of their success lies. Their name comes from the film Barbarella (1968), directed by Roger Vadim, where the villain is called Mr. Duran Duran. The sci-fi film starring Jane Fonda was considered very daring, since it had a high erotic content for the time. The early days of the band were difficult. They played at night and worked during the day as concierges, waiters or DJs. In 1981 their first album was released, with a homonymous title. The single ´Planet Earth´ reached #12 in the British Top 20 Chart. The single that strongly reached the top spots was ´Girls On Film´, reaching #5 in...
40th Istanbul Music Festival
Travelling to Istanbul is an experience that all traveller should live. Walking around Istanbul in the summer is walking around one of the oldest cities in the west and east, under an intense sun and blue skies with fresh wind and many people going from one place to the other, both locals and tourists. Parks, narrow streets, restaurants, bars and food al fresco, bazaars and mosques can be found in a city that every year modernizes itself a little bit more. Important cultures such as the Roman, the Egyptian and the Greek have passed through Istanbul. The rich Turkish culture, as well as fantasy stories and indescribable beauty, has known how to be dynamic facing the historic, social and economic changes that Istanbul is going through. Today, the contemporary Istanbul that the traveller can see is a city of ever-changing nuances, international culture and a lot of contemporary and modern art. This way, Istanbul promotes itself in culture as a meeting point between all nations, showing that its potential as an emerging metropolis is definitive. Of an already cosmopolitan character, many say that Istanbul is the New York of the East. With a constant migration from all parts of the world, the cultural diversity of this city grows year after year and presents us with a new international crowd that seeks art, music and culture. Among the most important cultural events of the year we can find the Istanbul Music Festival, whose 40th edition takes place this year, 2012. Promoted by the Foundation for the Culture and Arts of Istanbul (ISKV), this music festival is an essential experience if you´re visiting...
Megadeth concert in Istanbul
In the early eighties, four young drunk and heartless guys, fans of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, decided to form the fastest rock n roll band of all time. With basis of blues and rock n roll speeded to the limits and influenced by the “speed” of Motorhead, the Misfits’ punk and musicianship of the English Diamond Head, the four wild drunken boys became Metallica, the most emblematic band of the Bay Area scene of San Francisco. In an age where all you saw on MTV and playing on the radio was “hair metal” of the worst quality, Metallica was a kick in the ass to all those pretty boys bands dressed in leather, with makeup and long dyed hair. Dave Mustaine was one of those anomalous young rockers, probably the most innovative guitarist of that particular time in California, which also influenced by the sounds of contemporary jazz, he managed to create much faster and progressions blues patterns and invent his famous chord, the “spider chord,” a new way to play “power chords” in a much more versatile and fast way. Unfortunately, due to excessive drinking of the red haired Mustaine, the other band members ended up getting fed up with his aggressive outbursts, instability and violence, so they chose to kick him out of the group and replace him with Kirk Hamett, guitarist also thrashers Exodus. Incensed by the rejection of his previously best friends, Mustaine formed a new monster of thrash metal in 1983: Megadeth. In 1985 they realeased their first album, “Killing is my Business … and Business is Good”, which showed that...
Discover the Beyoğlu district of Istanbul
Çiçek Pasaj? (literally Flower Passage in Turkish), originally called the Cité de Péra, is a famous historic passage (galleria or arcade) on ?stiklal Avenue in the Beyo?lu district of Istanbul, which is most famous for its bars, restaurants, and night clubs. In short, you can call it the heart of Istanbul that attracts the people. According to a recent poll, the Flower Passage is the first thing that comes to one’s mind when they think of Beyo?lu. Initially florists inhabited Çiçek Pasaj?, but gradually the florists and other residents of the flats moved out and only the name of the passage survived. What you can find now in the “Flower Passage” are 9 restaurants and each evening the tables are filled with locals and foreigners who come to have an entertaining evening, eating, laughing and enjoying each other’s company with plates of meze (one of the typical plates), traditional kebaps, seafood, desserts, and glass after glass of Turkish rak? which is a famous traditional alcoholic beverage in Turkey. Of course, beer and wine are not missing. The standards of the restaurants are similar, my favorite one is Seviç. It is an old one where frequent visitors to this day have mostly been journalists, novelists and artists. Even if you don’t plan to have dinner there, almost every night it’s very authentic and enjoyable with musicians playing typical instruments and singing songs, with nice meze plates and Turkish Raki. In 1997, a famous journalist said the following about the Flower Passage: “The Flower Passage, the first stop during evenings in Beyoglu,…before you go home you can take a nap and...
