A Modern Vocabulary

Well, another wonderful, non-stop seven-day cycle has passed. This week I was fortuitously invited to a Sufi music concert (with much backstage hanging out), a new classical music ensemble's rehearsal (with several big name players, and a surprise visit by retired tanbur superstar Necdet Yaşar), and a doesn't-get-more-authentic "whirling dervish" event (Şeb-i Arûs) commemorating the death of 13th c. poet Rumi at the tomb of 16th c. Sufi poet saint Ümmi Sinan, whose modest shrine has been in the care of my friend Sinan Erdemsel's family - that is, the saint's own family - lo these 400 years. At these and yet other places I met with three ney players, a kanun player, an udist, a singer, and two tanbur players, and invited them all formally to participate in my research, and all were enthusiastic about it. So far I have about 16 classical musicians ready to work with me, and an invitation to do more recordings/interviews at the conservatory of Ege University in İzmir, a few hours down the Aegean coast. It's going to get very busy very soon, I think.

Which is one of the reasons I took some time out to leave that time-burnished world and spend a few hours at the Istanbul Modern (museum of art, that is), and catch what's happening in that scene. It's nestled in amongst mostly abandoned dockside warehouses (which it seems once to have been, très moderne) and has two floors; one with a permanent collection (mostly paintings, mostly 20th c. Turkish artists) and one for ever-changing exhibits. My favorites on the top floor were painter-poet Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu (who painted the lutenist at the top of this entry), and a sculpture by Tony Cragg. Down the staircase made of chain and bullet-proof glass with bullet holes, I found lots of avant garde photos (the classics: Cindy Sherman, Ed Ruscha, Birgit Jürgenssen, et al.), and several video installations, the best being four short films by Zbig Rybczynski, including his Oscar winning 1980 classic, Tango.

Ending the tour in the museum's really, really nice bar/café (best cup of jitter in town, incredible view of Topkapı Palace across the Bosporus, four kinds of bourbon, etc.), I made a vocabulary-building exercise of my notes on the titles of Turkish pieces. Now I will be able to drop into everyday conversation such gems as:

Capitalist Production Process: Private Property

The Land Where Strange Things Happen

A Schizophrenic Going for a Walk

I Advance Masked

Contemporary Monster

Ugly Faces

Straightjacket

Held Together by Water

Curiosity is an Instinct

and

We’re Like Fingerprints, Don’t Look Away

Finally, last night I had a delightful time at the birthday party of fellow Fulbright fellow Candace Weddle on the terrace of the gorgeous steel and glass Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations, whose view is also to die for... I'm sure we'll all tire of hearing that here, friends, but there's no tiring of seeing it - come visit, if you can.