That´s actually a great idea, what do you make your ice cream from in the ice cream maker? 

I will agree with you this book was written extremely well. So well that I had could not like Kemal at all throughout the whole book. He showed himself to be not only very weak and obsessive, but a bit of a sick stocker too. He ruined Fusun´s life. He followed her and played the older Uncle who basically gave her candy ( freedom from her parents by letting her use his secret flat ) She eventually did loved him and was enthanced with him to the point of them sleeping together. May I mention the typical Turkish dog he was engaged to a society girl at the time. He was much older and wiser than her and to me it seemed almost a pedofile/incest act the way he won her over. No wonder in the end she drove a car into a brick wall and ended her life. He interferred with her life and succeed to make sure she was as unhappy as he was. One would think he killed what he loved and who loved him, another  point of view he destroyed what he could not have.

Story evoked the typical Turkish accepted  lifestyle where a guy can screw around but a girl is tainted if she sleeps with a man who does not become her husband.

I too have read many of Orhan Pamuk books but I also like Elif Shafak, her books also give great detail to the lives of Turkish people in a different perspective. You can find them in Turkish or English. I am not sure how many other languages they have been translated into yet.

Endülüs´te Raks
Dance in Andalusia

Zil, şal ve gül. Bu bahçede raksın bütün hızı...
Şevk akşamında Endülüs üç defa kırmızı...
Bell, shawl and rose. All the speed of dance in this garden....
It is three times red in the night of desire.

Aşkın sihirli şarkısı yüzlerce dildedir.
İspanya neş´esiyle bu akşam bu zildedir.
Magical song of the love is in hundreds of languages.
Spain with its all joy is now in this bell.

Yelpaze çevrilir gibi birden dönüşleri,
İşveyle devriliş, saçılış, örtünüşleri...
Their sudden spins like turning a fan
Their overturns, opening and convering themselves with coquetry

Her rengi istemez gözümüz şimdi aldadır;
İspanya dalga dalga bu akşam bu şaldadır.
Our eyes dont want all colours, they are now on red;
Spain is in this shawl wave on wave  this evening 

Alnında halka halkadır aşüfte kâkülü,
Göğsünde yosma Gırnata´nın en güzel gülü...
Her lascivious bangs are curly on her forehead,
On her breast is the most beautiful rose of loose Granada

Altın kadeh her elde, güneş her gönüldedir
İspanya varlığıyla bu akşam bu güldedir.
Golden cup is in every hand, sun is in every heart
Spain with its existance is in this rose this evening.

Raks ortasında bir durup oynar, yürür gibi;
Bir baş çevirmesiyle bakar öldürür gibi...
In the middle of the dance she stops and dance like she walks
She looks with a movement of head like she kills.

Gül tenli, kor dudaklı, kömür gözlü, sürmeli...
Şeytan diyor ki, sarmalı, yüz kerre öpmeli...
A skin like rose, lips like ember, eyes like coal, blackened with kohl
Devil says, she should be hugged, she should be kissed hundred times.

 Gözler kamaştıran şala, meftun eden güle,
Her kalbi dolduran zile, her sineden: "Ole!"
For the shawl that dazzles eyes, for the rose that makes you crazy
For the bell that fills every heart, from all chests "Ole!" 


                                                                    Yahya Kemal Beyatlı (1884- 1958)

İSTANBUL LYCRA

I am sure you are all familiar with LYCRA. Check out İstabul LYCRA, while in İstanbul.

You might even meet the inventor himself, if you are lucky.

Ice cream binging is a BAD idea, even if it seems good at the moment and even if it´s the best ice cream in the world that you can have. DON´T DO IT! 

There is nothing heroic about following orders without thinking. Soldiers do not protect, they harm. They are paid killers. That isn´t honorable.

We may join armies thinking of being a hero and great heroic acts but we are reduce in time to nothing more than a tool for the goverment to order around.

In order to kill, on must cease to see individual human beings - reduce them to an abstraction " the enemy " even if they are woman/children.

Even in the entertainment world seldom are the bad guys shown at home with their loving family and children. It is easy to cheer on the death of a caricature verses a 3-dimensional person.

How can you even begin to think being a soldier is honorable. Even when you are not in a time of being sent out to kill for some political adgenda it is not a fun career.

There are more than 200 countries in the world with military cemeteries packed full of dead soldiers who were convinced they were helping to create a more peaceful and safer world. And yet the fighting continues because of corrupt politics.....

I disagree with you.

Hacivat and Karagoz is much better as it is. It is eastern, it is ours and  ´Karagoz and Hacivat´ has much more than just a visual 5 mins show. People wont remember x factor performances in 2 years time, but we will always remember Hacivat and Karagoz.

What kept us from developing KARAGÖZ HACİVAT into something like this ?

Siz daha demokratikleşmediniz mi ?

Left side : King of Belgium taking his kids to school

Right side: Turkish Priminister going to his office

the guy is like a walking panic machine

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