The Photographer's Eye

While I was in Vienna, I had plenty of time for photography. I don't get much time when I'm in Ankara to go out and take photos, but taking photos is part of the package when you travel somewhere.

Nowadays, every teenager who gets their hands on a DSLR camera with a zoom lens thinks they are a "photographer", but taking photos isn' t just about capturing pretty moments; its about knowing how to capture them.

When DSLR cameras where nowhere to be found and all we had was SLR's, things were much different. You couldn't take 50 photos of something because you had 5 GB of storage, you had limited film and you couldn't see what your photo turned out like until you got the photos printed.

[caption id="attachment_181" align="alignright" width="198"] This a photo from the Stephansdom Church at Vienna, of the pipes of the church organ, taken with the cross-screen filter.[/caption]

You also needed to use different filters, like cross-screen, polarizing and diffusion filters, to get the special effects you can now produce with a swift move of your mouse. However, maybe to revert back to the old techniques is sometimes the best. When we found out that some of my dad's old filters he once got for his SLR worked on our new DSLR, we tried them one by one. Some of them didn't work out as well as the others; the diffusion filter didn't work because the camera couldn't deal with the center of the photo being clear and the rest blurred. However, one of them soon became my favorite: the cross-screen filter. What the cross-screen filter does is that it takes sources of light which are in the shape of a point, and turns each point into stars. Later, I discovered that the camera retouch menu has the "cross-screen" option as well, you can even choose how many sides the stars should have (!), but it just doesn't work as well as the filter itself.

If you want to take good photos, you constantly need to be searching: searching for different angles, frames, what you could use to give depth of field, how to frame your photo, for the perfect lighting or the perfect way to use the light you have; it is not all about lifting your camera and pressing the shutter release whenever you see something. Once you've done this long enough, you start to look at everything that comes your way much more differently and you find yourself thinking how you may photograph that particular moment or view; even if you don't have a camera with you; you delevlop the photographer's eye: your eye becomes the lens, your iris the aperture, your eyelids the shutter, your brain the LCD display, and the only limit is your imagination.

In the Steps of the Great Master

Two days ago, I visited the Mozarthaus in Vienna. It is a huge, old apartment building turned into a museum without changing much of it. You get an audio guide at the beginning of the tour, and the talking British guy guides you inside the building.

It has been my dream to see and walk where Mozart once lived for a very long time , with his children, his wife Constanze and his pet dog and bird, and what I felt once I finally got there cannot be described with words.

At one part of the tour, the guide asked you to "look out the window on your left". I turned, and saw a narrow, cobblestone street, wet because of the recent rain, with glamorous old buildings and apartments rising from each side. And then, the guide said: "This is the exact view Mozart saw when he looked out of this window."...

If you've ever been to Vienna, you know that the streets are pretty much the same as they were two hundred years ago, minus the infrequent souvenir shops and neon lights. So, what I saw that day out of the window of Mozart's apartment, what I see around me all the time when I'm walking down the streets, is what Mozart, Strauss, Beethoven, Schubert and Schönberg saw and got inspired by. It was the same River Danube as it is now which Schubert wrote his world-famous waltz after.

Realizing this at the windowsill of the Mozarthaus made the rest of my trip a whole lot more interesting, and made my journey in Vienna, in the steps of the great master, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and also many others, much, much more special.

Following Kanuni

Right now, I am at Esenboga Airport, Ankara, and I'm waiting to get on a plane and follow the steps of the longest lasting emperor of the Ottoman Empire, Kanuni Sultan Suleyman, to Vienna.

Kanuni leaded two Vienna sieges, although in the last one he didn't make it home alive. It is commonly known that there were two sieges on Vienna done by the Turks, but there was one more: Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Pasha took the lead on the last one and it resulted in long lasting wars between countries. Finally, the Turks were deflected from Vienna in 1683, never to return again.

So, today, I'm following the footsteps of Kanuni (only by a difference in height by 30000 feet) , to visit one of the most-wanted cities of Europe, the city of music and arts.

I will walk where Mozart, Beethoven, Schönberg, Brahms, Strauss and Berg once walked and I will relive their legacies.

I cannot wait to get to the capital of music, the city I've heard about since third grade, my first music history class, the city I've seen in the movies of the lives of great composers (which I've watched plenty of times), the city for once hundreds of people lost their lives to either protect or to conquer.

Far over, the misty mountains cold...

Do you know what is one of the best things that can happen? Your favorite book, the one you never get tired of reading, the one you base your blog theme on, is made into a movie, with Peter Jackson directing it, Martin Freeman in the lead role and with Howard Shore making the soundtrack. What more could I possibly want?

After reading the book twice and watching the trailer literally hundreds of times, I finally got to see The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey; the first of the three-movie series adapted from J.R.R. Tolkien's novel The Hobbit; the prequel to Lord of the Rings. It was magnificent, and I tried hard to hold back tears at some parts, but that's just me.

Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman), is just a little, non-adventurous hobbit living merrily in his hobbit hole in a monotone life; until Gandalf the wizard pays a visit to him. Gandalf invites him to "share in an adventure". At first, Bilbo refuses, but the next morning, at 11 o'clock, he goes with "Thorin and Company" to claim their "long forgotten gold". (Is it weird that I'm writing all these quotes from memory?)

The movie didn't stick entirely to the book, I won't tell anymore, but I could still say some parts of the movie with the actors, because it was entirely the same as the novel. The chapter names were cleverly weaved inside the dialogues, and Bilbo's hobbit hole was just as it was described by Tolkien. Usually when a novel is made into a motion picture, the people who have read the novel are disappointed because the way they pictured stuff in their heads doesn't match the movie. I don't know how Peter Jackson managed to do this, but I don't think any of the readers were disappointed after watching The Hobbit; everything was in place, everything was perfect.

Without any doubt, my favorite scene in the 169 minutes was the Riddles In The Dark part; where Bilbo and Gollum have a riddle contest in the goblin tunnels. It was beautiful, creepy, funny and it gave you goosebumps all at the same time. This part was also one of my favorite parts in the novel, but seeing it in IMAX and 3D with Gollum hissing "preciouss" and his huge, white, plate-like eyes staring down at you, took it to a whole new level.

So, my advice to you is to go and watch The Hobbit ASAP (but you MUST read the book first!)! Believe me, you never would've imagined that a humble tale of 13 dwarves, a hobbit and a wizard searching for their "long forgotten gold" could be brought into motion picture this beautifully. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will take you "Far over the misty mountains cold, Through dungeons deep, and caverns old."

"Destiny"

Destiny.

Fate.

"Will of God".

These are all excuses people make for the events which take place in their lives.

Every weekend, there is a TV show in which 4 couples compete with each other to win a car in the end. They play games, and to determine who wins the car out of the two finalist couples, they try to fit as many people as they can into the car in 4 minutes.

The host of the show asks how they feel about the competition just before they start the timer, and almost every couple puts an "Insha'Allah" and "this is fate" at the end of their speeches.

No, it is neither the will of god nor your fate which will decide how many people you fit into that car; it is how you use your time and your space: your mental ability.

 

I don't believe that anything is "destined" to happen.

If a terrorist bombs a school and children die, they were not "destined" to die, it was just an act of one reckless man who is blinded by his faith to his terrorist group.

If I get a low grade on my exam, it isn't destiny: it's because I didn't study or made stupid mistakes.

Two weeks ago, we went on a road trip, and I saw a car on the road; the dad driving, the mother at the front seat with their 2-3 year old child on her lap. Now, if they were to crash because of some reason and the child was to die, I'm sure that the parents would say "it was meant to happen", and "it is what God wants", when really, it was their fault that their child died.

About two years ago, a coal mine exploded in Zonguldak and 30 workers got trapped in there for days: none survived. What our prime minister had to say for this event was that "this is the fate which comes with this job". No, it's not fate. It's not destiny, nor is it "meant to happen". That coal mine exploded because someone didn't keep an eye on the level of methane in the air, not because 30 workers were meant to die on that day: no one deserves to die because of someone else's negligence.

Nothing happens because it is "written that way", or it is "meant to happen", or because some divine being wants it to happen that way. That child died because of the negligence of the parents. I got a low grade because I didn't study enough. 27 workers died in that coal mine because someone didn't do their work properly: if the necessary precautions were taken, if the workers were taught how to deal with emergencies, perhaps the death toll wouldn't be so high. It is people and people alone which shape their own and each others' lives, not another divine being. We make our own destiny.

Glockenspiel, Piano, Triangle, Violin...All the Same?

Several years ago, when I was younger, we would go to concerts and at all of these concerts, I would search for the piano on the stage. I didn't know that the classical orchestra didn't need to have a piano. Anyhow, when I couldn't find what I was looking for, I would start examining the other instruments, and almost every time,  I would tell my mom that an instrument (the xylophone, for example - an instrument which people always refer to as "practically the piano") is much easier to play than the "other instruments" (although in my head, I would be comparing it to the piano), and she would always tell me that every instrument is hard to play... I would nod, and return to my magical world of the bright, noisy, stuffy concert hall, although in my head, I would always be thinking: that is so not true!

For me, not every instrument is equally hard to play. They all have their secrets and special techniques, true, but to play the violin is different from playing the triangle (note here: I have heard somewhere that the triangle is the hardest instrument to play, I don't know if there's a truth to it, though :D ) . For example, to play the flute, you have to blow into the mouthpiece at a specific angle with a specific portion of the air you blow going in the mouthpiece, and a portion of it going out; and you get out of breath after playing two notes because you blow half of the air out of the flute. To play the clarinet requires less work, in my opinion, having played both of these instruments. Getting to produce a sound on the clarinet is the tough part, only at the beginning. After that, you blow in, of course, there is a special way to place it in your mouth and to blow in it. When you close the hole after the note C, you get a B, and when you open the hole above the note C, you get a D: it's not rocket science.

In my opinion, the hardest instruments to play are firstly, the violin, and then the piano. What makes the violin hard to play is that it doesn't have any frets, so how do you know where to put your finger if you want to get a G? Also, the fact that a poorly played violin is unbearable but a masterfully played one cleanses your soul makes the violin all the more interesting, and for me, hard to achieve perfection on.

The common belief is that "everyone can play the piano". You don't blow in it, sound comes out of it no matter what you do, you even have it on your iPhone! Do I even need to say that I stand strongly against this common belief?

This may sound biased coming from a 12-year piano player, but playing the piano is very, very hard. What most people can't get their minds around to is that playing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star with your index finger on a piano is not playing the piano. To play the piano, you need music theory, knowledge, insight and skill. What makes the piano such a hard instrument to play is the multitasking it takes to play a single piece. You have to follow the music for the right hand, the music for the left hand, try to match them, keep the tempo, while putting in the nuances and the expressions, and the foot pedals. When the pianoforte wasn't invented yet, people would write music for organs, which had several pedals which provided drones, think of all the work they had to do! And all of this is assuming that you're playing solo. If you're playing a piano concerto, along with all of these duties, you also have to watch the conductor and listen to the orchestra: and I'm not even going to talk about memorizing all the music. 

When I think back to the time my parents told me that every instrument has its own difficulties and I nodded, thinking "that is so not true", I realize that I still am the same person I was when I was seven, at least when it comes to these matters. So, do you still, honestly think that playing the glockenspiel is practically the same thing as playing the piano?

Old Photos and Yearbooks

Last weekend, I went to my dad's high school reunion. Some of the people I met hadn't seen my dad since high school, and when they saw each other, you could read both the happiness and the nostalgia from their faces.

The first question they asked each other was "What did you do?" . Some followed their dreams; the girl who sat at the back of the class and drew pictures in middle school became an artist and some chose wealth or job security over happiness; the guy who couldn't decide between the cinematic arts and mathematics became a mathematician. And some, stayed just the same; the guy in high school from which my dad and his friends hid all their notebooks from because he would tear paper out of them to make paper airplanes to throw out of the window of the classroom at the highest floor, has an airplane model collection now.

In thirty years, I am going to see my friends in a reunion of some kind and they will have their children and wives or husbands with them. In thirty years, the couple of people with who I currently spend all my day with, who I see more than my parents somedays and who I share all my life with, may be strangers to me. When I recognized this, tears filled up my eyes and even the thought of not seeing my friend who I've known for 13 years now, became unthinkable.

But, let's be realistic: in thirty years, almost all of my classmates, my friends, the people I love spending time with, sit next to in class, have lockers next to, will be memories and photographs from old yearbook pages.

Supernatural

My new favorite TV series is Supernatural, produced by Eric Kripke and starring Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki, as two brothers who hunt monsters in the real world, taking on the family business. I know, I know, it sound very cheesy and if we're being honest, I thought it was cheesy and lame when I watched the first five or six episodes.

In every episode of Supernatural, the Winchester brothers hunt a new monster. But don't be fooled by the word "monster", they are creatures we know and love from our fairy tale books and lores. They hunt everything from vampires to Skinchangers, creatures which can take the form of anything they want to, and from angry spirts (they have to "salt and burn" the bones to get rid of the angry spirits) to raged Pagan gods because they have been ignored for a long time, looking for sacrifice.

What makes the series cool and enjoyable to watch is the fact that everything they hunt there, has a corresponding lore or tale here. Also, I really like the music they use and the references they make to popular culture.

In one of my favorite episodes of Supernatural, the Winchester brothers visit a town in which there is a "Mystery Spot", in which time travels differently - under normal circumstances, nothing more than a tourist trap. And, they are caught in a time warp. They keep on living the same Tuesday over and over again,  yes, like Groundhog Day, and Sam (Jared Padalecki), the little brother, has to watch his big brother Dean (Jensen Ackles) die everyday in every possible way. We later learn that this is the job of a Trickster, a creature which tricks people and has fun with the misfortune of others, trying to teach the Winchester brothers a lesson.

In another episode, the brothers stumble upon a Rabbit's Foot, the one that actually brings unbelievable good luck to whom possesses it, but dooms the person to bad luck, eventually killing them, when they lose the rabbit's foot. Sam gets kidnapped by rival hunters, and Dean comes to save him...with the rabbit's foot, here's what happens.

The cleverly written script, the constant change, the jokes, and the excellent acting are only a few of the reasons I love Supernatural. <3 So, have I convinced you to watch at least an episode of Supernatural?

 

Riding Camels Since...

Skyfall. It was in cinemas until a couple of weeks ago. Most critics liked it, it scored 8.1 in IMDB, I really liked it. The theater we saw Skyfall in was full, even though it was its third week. I'll bet most of the people in that theater went to Skyfall because they thought that it took place in Istanbul; this was one of the reasons we went to see it as well. What did we find? Five minutes of chasing scenes in narrow streets filled with street vendors, with the sound of Ezan, the Muslim call of prayer, in the back the whole time. Disappointed.

Taken 2. Was in cinemas until a month ago or so. A sequel to the movie Taken, taking part mostly in Istanbul, unlike Skyfall. However, I don't know how they achieved this, but the producers of Taken 2 had managed to portray Istanbul more "stereotyped" than the producers of Skyfall, even though they had two hours to do something with it. Again, we went to the movie because we found out that it took place in Istanbul, and we had time to kill. What did we find? Chasing scenes in narrow streets with women in chadors, street vendors, the same mosque shown over and over again, and again, "a man singing" (in Liam Neeson's words); Ezan, in the background the whole time. Again, disappointed.

I mean, it would take a lot of effort to show so little of Istanbul and its beauties in two hours when the whole movie takes place there. The Bosphorus was shown once, for literally two seconds. None of the historical artifacts where shown, even the chase scene inside the Grand Bazaar was crowded and showed very little of the beautiful place.

This orientalist view Hollywood producers have about Muslim countries unfortunately is transferred to the whole world through movies like Taken 2 and Skyfall. Skyfall was the better of the two, at least one chase scene took place on a highway. Anyway, if I was a person in living America, Brazil or Singapore who has never been to Turkey and I had watched both of these movies, going to Istanbul wouldn't seem so alluring to me.

It is this stereotyping that not only Hollywood producers have, but that other people also have, of Muslim countries or the countries of the Middle East that creates a misinformed, prejudiced public; it is this stereotyping that created children who ask their Turkish friend  they met in MUN whether they ride camels in Turkey.

 

Case and point. The setting for a scene in Skyfall.

Success

Yesterday, one of our teachers asked us what we think success means. Some said power,some said satisfaction, and one person said happiness. Happiness, I believe, is the building block of success. Sure, some successful people may not be happy with what they do, but I wouldn't call what they do "living". They may look successful from the outside, but I assure you they surely don't feel that way on the inside.

A week ago, we had a concert at our school. Performers from the Ankara State Opera and Ballet visited us and performed. I don't know if its because they were performing to families and children, or that they weren't singing the libretto of an opera to 500 people in Italian, they were very happy and were clearly enjoying what they were doing. Their enthusiasm also made the concert more enjoyable for everyone. I believe that the people who were successful in that auditorium last Friday were the performers, because I believe that if you don't enjoy what you're doing, you cannot succeed in it; and if, somehow, you manage to, it will be terribly hard...

Until IB, we were forced to take all of the courses. We had to take chemistry, biology, and Turkish literature among many other subjects. I detested studying biology: it seemed far too boring to me, and I didn't see the meaning behind memorizing names and definitions and passing a test; but I still did it, and got very high grades in biology. You may  say that I was "successful" in biology in the past two years, but if you ask me, I'd trade the many hours of biology classes to physics or economics everyday. Even in the IB, the biology students get very high grades in their tests. I'm only taking physics, and I can honestly say that it is NOT an easy course. Anyway, I know that if I switch to biology, I will definitely get higher grades, but I prefer the hard work and challenge of physics, because enjoying what I do is far more important than the grades I get.

In life after college, this situation comes up again; only, grades are then your income, and your classes is your job. After going to that concert and seeing how much those people enjoyed themselves when they were on stage, I realized that I wouldn't be happy at all if I went and studied mechanical engineering and stopped working with music. Right then, I knew that in the race between mechanical or electrical engineering and music in my head, music just took the lead. Even though I know that I may not earn as much as an electrical engineer, I know that I will be much, much happier if I studied music; and with happiness, comes success.

Cell

I've recently been reading Stephen King's novel, Cell. In Cell, some kind of pulse gets transmitted from all of the cellphones at the same time, and this pulse turns everyone who picks up their cellphone into a brainless zombie-carnivorous and wild, resurfacing the id- and as they later find out, not brainless at all. Don't worry, I haven't finished the book yet, so no spoilers!

This pulse is caused by a chain reaction. One person gets a phone call, turns into Mr. Zombie, stumbles onto the street, some other normal person sees this and reaches for his/her cellphone to call for help, and the cycle begins once again.

Later on in the novel, when the protagonist and his friends (still not transformed), try to get out of the city, they realise how important cellphones have become in their lives; and the novel was written in 2006.

Now, imagine. With all the smartphones and the tablet pc's that literally grew on people, if something like The Pulse really happenned now, what would happen? Probably, Stephen King would have trouble finding any protagonists.

I'm not going to go off in tangents about the harms of radioactivity and cell towers, but with our current addiction to technology, our future doesn't seem very bright. All we can do is to hope that nobody's, especially no terrorist's, mind works like Stephen King's...

Classical Music

What comes to your mind when someone says 'classical music'? Most people think of posh, elite people who sit around in their million dollar homes, sipping their expensive scotch, reading Yacht Monthly, with what they call 'classical music' playing in the background. What they do not realize is that, classical music, whether they recognise it or not, makes up a big part of our lives.

The music we hear playing in the background everytime Sylvester chases Tweety, or Tom chases Jerry, is The Flight of the Bumblebee by Rimsky Korsakov.

The main theme of Stanley Kubrick's famous movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, Also Sprach Zarasthura ( the one with the timpany playing), is actually a composition by Richard Strauss.

The universal funeral march, is actually a piece composed by Frederic Chopin.

You know the melody of the alphabet? And of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star? That was composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

So, contrary to common belief, not only conservatory students or posh people listen to classical music. I doubt that without Binchois, Bach, Mozart or Chopin, there would any music today.


By the way, people who listen to and love classical music can also listen to other types of music, like hard rock or metal (experience speaking). Don't be prejudiced. ;)

Remember, Remember...

Remember, remember,

The fifth of November.

The Gunpowder treason and plot,

I know of no reason,

Why the Gunpowder treason

Should ever be forgot!

Today is the fifth of November. Approximately 400 years ago, the House of Lords in England were tried to be blown up by men who didn't support the king back then, King James I. Guy Fawkes, responsible for planting the gunpowder beneath the House of Lords, just before the opening night of the Parliament, was caught, and his accomplices, hearing of his capture, ran away, so the Gunpowder Plot was never carried out.

Not that I have much interest in the event itself, but what really makes this day interesting for me is the way it was portrayed in the movie V for Vendetta, starring Hugo Weaving and Natalie Portman. One of my most favorite movies that I've watched over and over again, V for Vendetta takes place in a parallel future, in an England ruled by totalitarianism, and in which all of the arts are banned. V, aims to finish what Guy Fawkes started, and soon, Evey, a girl she rescues from the Fingermen, becomes involved in his plot as well.

One of the reasons I love the movie is how music is embedded in it. At the beginning of the movie, V claims to hear music, Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture, when he is blowing up a church. The music also plays through the streets of London.

My favorite quote from the movie is; when Creedy (the "bad guy") and his men shoot V, and he is still standing, Creedy asks him why he still hasn't died. V's response to this question is: "Beneath this mask, Mr. Creedy, there is an idea. And ideas are bulletproof."

Body Worlds

Today, I went to see the Body Worlds exhibit by Gunther von Hagens. Today, I got to see every tiny piece of muscle inside my arm, and how we do the stuff we do and how the things we take for granted really happen.  Today, I saw how wonderful the human body actually is.

Of course, amidst all my excitement and the biology-at-work, some people didn't fail to surprise me. I heard a group of university students, touring the exhibit and talking among themselves, looking at the arm and leg muscles and saying, "what a miraculous piece of work God has created".

....

The youth of today and the leaders of tomorrow, the supposedly young, bright, children of the 21st century, the "children of technology" and modern science, the future inventors of cures for incurable diseases, seeing the human body, how it works, as a piece of God's work, is just not right. As much as I respect their beliefs, I would expect a student majoring in medicine to be a tad more realistic, objective and, well, "scientific" when it comes to biology and human lives.

But, just as John Lennon said, "imagine there's no religion", we can do nothing but imagine a world without religion blunting the corners. Despite all the facts modern scientists have provided us with, religion, the art of not inquiring, always finds a hole somewhere in all the theories and the logic and the science, to ooze through...

 

A Book That'll Steal Your Heart

I know, it's a bit outdated and all that, but once the novel on the Bestsellers rack of all the bookstores, The Book Thief, still is one of my favorite novels. 

Nazi Germany. 1939. A small girl called Liesel, and a whole lot of love, friendship, sorrow and death. The novel The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak, is narrated by Death, which brings in a new perspective. Liesel is a nine-year old girl living on Himmel Street with a foster family. Her brother has died in front of her eyes on the way to Himmel Street, while her parents have been taken away to a concentration camp. Liesel has nightmares every night about the death of his brother, and Hans Hubermann (a.k.a. Papa) comes along every night to comfort her. They  start reading the first book that Liesel stole, from one of the gravediggers at her brother’s funeral, The Gravediggers Handbook. As each night passes with some vocabulary lessons, one day a Jew which has escaped from Stuttgard arrives at Himmel Street and knocks on their door. Since Papa, Hans Hubermann, has promised the Jew’s mother to help, the Hubermann family take this “jew fist-fighter”, Max, to their basement and look after him. Everything goes perfectly until one day, when a death march to a concentration camp passes from Himmel Street. Papa brakes into the line and gives one of the Jews a piece of bread, which leads into him being punished and causes Max, the “jew fist-fighter” to leave home. Later in that month, Hans Hubermann gets sent away to the army. After a while he returns, Himmel Street gets bombed and the novel ends with an ironic twist. The Book Thief has incredible descriptions scattered here and there, among love, hate,friendship and death, which makes this novel a piece of literature that everyone should read.

The character descriptions that made every page sparkle are one of the highlights of this book. The author describes Papa as a tall, gentle men with metallic-grey, silver eyes. Papa also plays the accordion, and according to Liesel, “He makes the accordion breathe.”Towards the end of the book, Liesel imagines Papa playing the accordion, and the author describes him as the following: “He stood and strapped it on in the alps of broken houses. There were silver eyes. There was a cigarette slouched  on his lips. He even made a mistake and laughed in lovely hindsight.” The metaphors spread everywhere and the use of literary devices make this passage unforgetable. “The alps of the broken houses”, “cigarette slouched on his lips” are just a few. The phrase “silver eyes” is repeated multiple times throughout the novel, but is never seems to bore the reader. On the other hand, Rosa Hubermann has “cardboard lips”, and she has a fiery attitude, mostly to the people she loves. Max Vandenburg is “the struggler”, the “jewish fist-fighter”. Another example of spectacular description is, “From a Himmel Street window, he wrote, the stars set fire to my eyes.” The quote pretty much explains itself. These are the lines that Max Vandenburg wrote, after seeing the stars again after a long period of time spent in the basement. Could this phrase get any better?

The storyline and characters being so close to reality makes this novel even more stunning. The friendship between Liesel and Rudy Steiner, the boy who lives next door, is like a piece of chocolate, it sweetens the bitter-sweet taste of the novel. The two best friends, eat, sleep, steal and live together. They have a very strong bond in between; they were together through thick and thin, war and peace, happiness and sorrow. Rudy helps Liesel to steal books from the Mayor’s library, and they later find out that the wife of the Mayor has been leaving the window of the library open on purpose. When Liesel was delivering Mama’s laundry for the Mayor, the wife of the Mayor would always invite her into the library and Liesel would read books there. The Mayor decided to end Mama’s service of laundry, but that didn’t stop Liesel from reading. She kept going back there with Rudy steal books. Also the events going on in the background are one of the bases of the novel. The war, Liesel’s school, issues with Max, Papa’s children coming home are only some of the underlying events in the novel that makes it seem more close to us. One important message that the novel tells us is that all German’s aren’t “bad”, as supported in almost all novels about the Second World War. Even the angry Rosa Hubermann that opposes every thought of her husband doesn’t oppose the thought of hiding a Jew.

One last thing about the novel I find very original is the chapter names, and that at the beginning of every chapter there is a list of what the chapter includes. Also, throughout the story the author has some bulletpoints that are sometimes very amusing, and sometimes very thought-provoking. These small points made by Death, or by the author, can express lots of ideas in a short sentence. They are the “acid” in the book, which make this novel unique, and for me, one of my favorite ones.

Markus Zusak has succeded in writing a unique, one-of-a-kind novel that will leave its impression on you for a long time. This page-turner, with its character descriptions, developing and close to reality story-line and its small bullet points, question & answers scattered here and there, and the love, friendship and death binded so tight, is a must-read and will make many eyes brim. One last thing I can say is that, The Book Thief stole my heart.

 

Happy Bayram! (Sorry Sheeps!)

Today, and the following three days, are Bayram, days of celebration, in  Islam. The Turkish name for these celebrations is "Kurban Bayramı", meaning the sacrifice celebration. From the name of it, I think you get gist of what goes on around the world in Muslim countries in these four days. Just so you get the full picture, let me make it clear: the followers of Islam, slaughter lambs and cattles all over the cities, on the roads and in their backyards, and then people eat the meat of the lamb which they have just slaughtered two-three hours ago with their own hands, and claim that the blood that has been shed shows their worship, and they donate some of the meat to poor people. So, undoubtedly, a question comes to mind: if the whole point was to help poor people, why not just donate money or clothes, or do charity work, rather than cutting the throats of lambs in the middle of the streets?

Here's the origin story of Kurban Bayramı:

Abraham wants to show his dedication to his religion, so he asks God what he can do. In return, God tells him to sacrifice his oldest son. Abraham takes his son to the edge of a cliff, and just when he is about to cut his son's throat, his son in his grip gets replaced by a lamb, and Abraham sacrifices that.

Come to think of it, besides all the blood bath, Kurban Bayramı is actually a nice holiday. During  Kurban Bayramı, the younger members of the families visit their elders, the poor people receive money and meat, distant relatives meet, and most importantly, there is no school :) . But really, if all the blood bath and the sacrifices could be done in more hygienic and civilized ways, or not done at all, Kurban Bayramı could really mean very nice things.

Every single Kurban Bayramı, in Turkey, at the end of the first day of bayram (which is like the most important day), in the news, we see the streets of less developed cities covered in blood, cattles, cows and lambs roaming on highways, escaping from captivity, inexperienced butcher wanna-be people who cut their hands off trying to cut the animals they just bought after long and tiresome negotiations. Even though Kurban Bayramı is an opportunity for people to do some charity and to reunite with their family members, and is driven by religion, what people do to animals just to show their devotion to their religion is not acceptable. I mean, I'm not a vegetarian, but there are surely way more hygienic and less painful ways, for the animals, to show your dedication to your beliefs and donate meat or money to non-governmental organizations.  Kurban Bayramı is a happy, happy day for us, but a sad, sad day for sheep...

What Went Wrong?

Only a couple thousand years ago, the Arab world was populated with alchemists, mathematicians, and philosophers who have had huge contributions to our current bank of knowledge in science, math or philosophy. Al-Farabi was recognized as The Second Teacher, Aristotle being The First Teacher. Al-Khwarizmi created and started using the "zero" for the first time. Jabir Ibn-Hayyan discovered the hydrochloric acid. Ibn-Sina identified the nerve cells and what they do to transmit pain, among many other discoveries. All of these important men lived in the same era; approximately around the years 800-1200. So, what went wrong? What turned the Arab world into being recognized as " a very rich public with lots of oil"? The answer to these questions is the same for every question which seeks the reason behind a stop in development, a misunderstanding, or any war; it is religion.

But blaming it strictly on religion isn't fair. Religion, if used in certain ways, could unite people instead of pitting them against each other. Dogmatism and strict religion was what caused these advancements by the Arabic scientists to stop, because Islam was already there when these discoveries took place; what wasn't there was dogmatism.

And we shouldn't be putting the whole load on Islam. Unfortunately, Islam is recognized as a very strict religion with no means or what-so-ever with science and logical thinking, and is related with violence. If you were to take an objective stance in the case, however, you would see that all religions can be bent, stretched, understood or portrayed differently, and it is very easy to manipulate people using religion.

So, I guess it is safe to say that what caused the "knowledge spring" of the Arab world to stop one thousand years ago, was not specifically Islam or religion, but that it was dogmatism and inside-the-box thinking or not thinking at all, which has, and will continue to, ruin and stop many nations and civilizations from reaching freedom or enlightenment.

The Cure: Music.

Bob Marley said that "one good thing about music (is) when it hits you, you feel no pain." Plus, I believe that music is that healer of the human soul. Not everyone has to be able to play an instrument or know the history of Western music to be able to appreciate and "love" music; but it goes without saying that if you do know these things, you surely will appreciate and enjoy it more.

Today, we had an awfully hard math quiz, and I wasn't feeling very well when I got on the bus. The first thing I did was to start listening to music, (Savior, by Rise Against-great song, by the way), cranked up the volume and tried not to think about anything else. I decided that when I got home, I would play my new pieces on the piano.

The magical thing about playing an instrument is that, whether you like it or not, you become absorbed in it and when you play something, all you can think about is the music. As you get more experience and learn the piece you're playing very well, you will realize that you are able to think other things while playing the instruments-and you will also find out that you don't want to think about other things. So, when I got home and sat by the piano, played the first few notes of Chopin's Polonaise in A flat major, even though I can only play it at one tenth the original speed right now, my day started to get much, much better...

 

"Music heals and feeds the soul" -Turkish Proverb

The Intelligent Animal

HUMAN

Dictionary Definition: A human being, esp. a person as distinguished from an animal or (in science fiction) an alien.

Religious Definition: God's most elaborate creation.

Matrix Definition: A virus.

So, what are we? Are we animals? Are we the most superior species? I believe that only one of the previous definitions are correct. Humans, are indeed very much like viruses, as it was stated in the movie The Matrix, by an Agent. He said, "Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus." Humans, arrogant little beings which dominate the world and effectively destroy it, is what we are.

What differentiates us from animals is our arrogance and our vulnerability. We don't have tails to restore our balance, we can't run as fast as a cheetah, we don't have sharp claws like a lion to protect ourselves. Without our technological widgets -and by technological widgets I don't only mean things which run on electricity, but any of our inventions from the wheel to the F16 planes- we would be completely vulnerable. Our only tool is our brains and that is what we use in order to survive. We build houses, barracks, tanks, guns, nuclear power stations, spaceships, all with one single and main resource: our brain, therefore our intelligence.

Humans, who have made it a habit to compete in everything, have found a way to measure who is smart and who is not; by an I.Q. test. But what can be said about the reliability of these I.Q. tests? Is intelligence made up of only solving math problems and completing patterns and finding the missing piece? I don't think so. As far as I'm concerned, people may be "intelligent" in different areas; some may be intelligent in music, like Bach, some may be intelligent in math, like Pythagoras, while some may be intelligent in the visual arts, like Monet. I believe that you can't measure intelligence, not in a way that it is a 100 % reliable and true. So, my suggestion is to forget about who is smarter and who can divide a polynomial equation faster and just to go on with our lives.

Humans are complicated machines. They feel emotions, they feel sadness, they feel pity, they feel (or at least some do) empathy, yet at the same time they keep on killing each other over matters of surreal things, over the belief of beings we don't know that exist. As smart as we may seem, I can assure you, we're also that much stupid. Lions kill each other to get the prey or the food, we kill each other to prove that a certain way of thought is true and all others are false.

Humans have created and invented all they have invented to be able to make up for their vulnerability. We invented electricity because before its invention, at night, we could be left at dark by a gust of wind with a tiger spying on us, who can see much, much better than us in the dark. Then came bulbs and electricty, then came night vision goggles; and this invention process will go on, until nothing natural is left on earth.  Humans, the "intelligent" animals, will continue to destroy their habitat and each other until the end of time; now, where's the intelligence in that?

My First Composition

I wrote my first composition in 2010.I first composed it as a song, inspired by Orhan Veli's poem Gün Doğuyor, meaning "The Day is Dawning", but then I converted it to an instrumental piece. The moment I finished the piece, I knew that I would want to do this again and again. Creating something from scratch, and for once, being on the other side, the side of  Beethoven and John Lennon and listening to a complete piece of music, knowing every single note in it is simply a feeling that cannot be described fully by words. This is one of my favorite poems by Orhan Veli, and here are its first and last stanzas (the city, in this case is Istanbul):

The tongues of the nights are being unraveled,

The shadows are scattering off into the depths.

Taking the magic of puzzles,

The day dawns over the city.

 

And like a rush of sea,

The day dawns over the city.

 

Our Sinister Friends

Everyday, when I come home, I wash my hands, grab a bite or two, sit down and do my homework, and then play the piano. If I try to change one of these “rituals”, my afternoon would be messed up and I probably wouldn't be able to do the things that I needed to do. These things we call habits are the parts of our personalities which make us unique; they complete the emptiness in our lives and distinguish us from each other. However, they may be easily compared to addictions- even though they are not at all the same; at first, they seem harmless and just like normal sets of actions, but when you realize that you’re doing them all the time –and that is, if you do  realize it- they are very, very hard to get rid of.

What do we understand when we say habit? Habits are actions we have to do in order to keep on living the way we are living currently. They are things we accomplish or say, sometimes without thinking about them. For example, we say “Afiyet Olsun” in Turkish when we are leaving the dinner table. You might say that that is not a habit, but a tradition: but if you trace the traditions back in time, you will see that all traditions actually come from habits. Okonkwo eating bowls of food made by each of his wives, is his habit, which has sprung from his roots, his traditions. Also, saying “Afiyet Olsun”, is also a habit of me, enforced by our traditions and the Turkish culture. Sometimes, when traditions become habits, they become too strong to deny.

Sometimes, habits start out as something we have to do, like wearing a tie to work; but as time passes, this act may grow on someone and they may start to wear ties when going to the market or out for a walk. In the harvesting season, Okonkwo wakes up every morning to go out and do work on the farm. After this long session of continuous work everyday, when the dry season arrives, Okonkwo finds himself to be craving for something to do and to work on. His work, to harvest yams, to tend his farm, has become one of his habits and once that is taken away from him, he feels empty and useless. This is also the reason why control freaks and people with OCD's get so attached to their habits; they need things to fill up their lives and to go according to plan.

Habits are the actions we take, the things we say which make us human and unique. They are like a new pets we have; first, they feel out of place, but then they grow on us and fit in. A habit may be to look at the corridor when you hear someone's footsteps, expecting them, even though that someone may be deceased, or to eat three bowls of food every night. They may be considered to be sinister, they sneak up on us and find their places in our personality,become our "friends", and then they grow on us, making it very hard to get rid of them - if we ever want to.

A Shower in the Audition Room

Today, I watched Woody Allen's new movie, To Rome with Love. I cannot say that I liked it very much, but it does have some nice points. The movie contains four different stories, each taking place in Rome. One of these stories is about a girl tourist from New York and an Italian lawyer who meet in Rome and decide to marry each other. Another story connected to this one is that the parents of the girl (her father played by Woody Allen,Jerry, a failed ex-specialist in the music record industry and the staging of operas) come to meet their in-laws. Jerry hears the boy's father, Giancarlo, singing in the shower and recognizes that he has a beautiful voice and talent, so he takes him to an audition. However, he sings very poorly at his audition, so when Jerry puts on operas starring Giancarlo, he sets up a shower on the stage and Giancarlo sings in the shower, during the show.

This got me thinking on why we can do something perfectly on our own, until we decide to go and show it to someone. When we solve math questions at home, practicing for the exam, we seem to do okay. But when it comes to the actual exam, we seem to write 4x3=7 and blank out on the formulas we need to use. Most people relate this to getting excited.

For me, except in the case of tests, it seems to be the opposite - for most of the time.  I seem to play the most difficult passages of a piece perfectly on stage, while I couldn't get them correct, not even once, at home. But with the sea of people looking at you, the blaring white spot lights, your sheet music neatly laid out side-by-side on the note stand of the piano, this doesn't work all the time.

Even though adrenaline and excitement can push us to do stuff normally out of our reach, they can do the opposite as well - and they do, for most of the time. Everyone sings their audition piece beautifully in the shower, everyone solves the complicated problem at one try at home, everyone can balance the fork on their nose when no one is looking, but the moment one person flicks their eyes at you, all of your extraordinary talents seem to vanish. Only, if only, we could have a shower in the audition room.

 

The Art of Sound and Silence

Last night, I went to listen to Fazıl Say, one of Turkey's -probably also the world's- most talented musicians. The way he played with the piano, as if it was his sole jewel and his slave, the way he just got into his music, seeming to be completely isolated from the world. And just as I thought this, it all clicked. Maybe the reason why people create music is to isolate themselves from the world, from their problems; and not just to "express themselves".

So why do we have such different kinds of music? During  a period of one hour, Say played: his own compositions, in one of which he held the strings of the piano to make it sound like the Turkish instrument saz, the Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven, Summertime by Gershwin (with his own jazzy modifications), and Chopin's Nocturne No.20, in C# minor. At the end of the concert, I thought the only thing missing was a bit of Beatles and Queen.  In his own compositions, he strives to reflect a thought, reflect İstanbul, for instance. In the Moonlight Sonata, Beethoven struggles to imitate moonlight, both its soft, delicate touch (the first movement) and its harsh, bright shine (the third movement). Gershwin gives a smooth yet bouncy, melodic yet not-sounding-quite-right feeling in Summertime, with syncopation and many, many accidentals. Chopin, on the other hand, is melodic, smooth and flowing, fitting exactly the definition of "nocturne", which is "night music".

All of these different kinds of music represent their composers and their way of shutting the rest of the world out and going on a journey. While some choose to paint and some choose to act, these masterminds, from Bach to Freddie Mercury, John Lennon to Chopin, Bartok to Axl Rose, choose to forget, and help us, the listeners/musicians, to forget, using music; the art of skillfully using both sound, and silence.

 

 

The Blue Pill or the Red Pill?

One of the most famous movies of all time, The Matrix, is one of my favorites.Not just because it is innovative and presents completely new thoughts, but because it leaves the audience thinking for a while.

The main character, Neo, is offered a choice: either to see what the Matrix is and to learn what exactly the world he's living in is, or to go on with his life. When you think about it, we face similar questions everyday, even though they may be at smaller scales. When the newspaper is sitting on the table while you are eating breakfast, you may choose to read it and get to know more about the world you're living in and about other people, or you may choose not to.

I cannot say that I am a supporter of the quote "Ignorance is bliss", which is exactly what Cypher says to an Agent, when Cypher says to him that he wants to go back to sleep and keep on living in the Matrix. Well, sometimes not knowing something may make you feel better, but in the long run, that forgotten fact that you neglected a long time ago may come back and haunt you.

Whether it was intended or not, the movie The Matrix is very similar to Plato's Allegory of the Cave. The people living in the Matrix are the ones chained up in the cave, the person who got out of the cave is Morpheus, going back into the cave, trying to free some more people, and the cave is The Matrix, in which everyone is actually living in a made-up world, being told what to feel and what to think.

One cannot help but wonder whether we may actually be living in a similar simulated world, after all, we cannot know if we are or not.  Watching The Matrix just gets the wheels  in your head turning, and you face the question you face again and again, whether to keep thinking and searching for the answers or not to, whether to take the blue pill or the red pill.

Loki at the Market

People have believed in many things since they have been created; in "trees of life", in a "feather of truth", in a god of war with a hammer, in a dog-headed god of the dead. These mighty heroes of the early times and their stories are what we call mythology.

But why do we need to believe in something? Because people are  vulnerable. They can be destroyed by a gust of wind, a rush of water, so they need somebody or something else to believe in - or blame it on.

Since neither of one us has lived in Ancient Egypt and has seen Anubis with their own eyes, we cannot know whether he existed. For all we know, Loki could have been strolling around a market in one of his famous disguises, among the tradesmen, the slaves, the animals for sale, and of course, the people.

Most people regard mythology as legends. And that is what they are, but how do we know that? From hieroglyphs? From ancient texts? From cave paintings? No, we don't know it, we just assume it, maybe because it doesn't seem logical, or maybe its just too juicy and too rich for our brains. Au contraire, we should believe in them since they were written down. That's what we do today when we go to the library and read something in a book, we believe it because it is written in a book. But we can be sure of something: the people back then had very, very, large imaginations not fastened tight by facts and logic, but set free by belief and their ability to think; think outside the box, think outside their world, towards the "tree of life" and the "world of the dead"...

Touching = Existence?

Besides sight, one of the senses we most rely on is touching. Some people say that they need to see something to believe it, while some are fine with the rumors about it. The brain works in mysterious ways and we don't know what's going on beneath the layers of skin and muscle at the tips of our fingers. However, our most reliable sense is touching, because when you can feel something with your own fingers, you know it exists... Right? But what about music? And the dramatic arts? Sure, you can touch the cold, slippery and white surface of  the G # key of a piano, you can pluck the strings of a violin or guitar, but can you really "touch" music? And, if you can't, does it really mean that it doesn't exist?

This is were it falls apart, and this happens with all the senses. Sometimes you are so sure that you heard someone call your name, when they really didn't, that you cannot believe that it was just your imagination. So to generalize the senses, and to say that totally depending on one would be fine is not right.

Touching is probably the most limited of our senses. You need to reach, touch and feel, while with eyes, you just look and your brain does the work for you. However, it is certainly the most tempting one. Most of the children get in trouble for touching things that they are not supposed to touch, like the vase on the top shelf, or the very expensive miniature replica of the Titanic. I mean, which one of us didn't reach out to touch the sarcophagus in the Natural History Museum, standing so appealingly behind a red velvet rope that says clearly: "Do NOT Touch"?

Our fingers connect us to the world in a much different way compared to our other senses. They can feel the harsh texture of a tree bark, the smooth, runny water, the plastic keyboard... And we know that these things exist, because? Because we can touch them. But for the things we cannot touch, our other senses come to help us. We can't touch music, but our ears come to our rescue and thus allow us to experience one of the most beautiful things in the world. So not all things are solid, not all things have a texture. Some things, we just cannot touch. Even though touching something may mean it that it exists, not being able to touch something doesn't mean that it doesn't exist. This shows that one of our five senses, touching, can only do so much for us and is not completely reliable.

 

The Reins of Your Mind

"Intelligence offends by its very nature, thinking annoys the people in the cave."Simone Weil

Sometimes, one cannot help but wonder what the world would be like if we couldn’t think. In fact, the only thing which separates us from animals is our brain and our ability to think beyond the id, beyond our basic needs and wants, towards the greater good or the benefit of the others. While some people strive for knowledge and believe that there is not end to it, some people, those who choose to live in the dark, find thinking and knowledge extremely irritating.

Knowledge may be regarded as a guiding light throughout our life. It helps us in every step of our lives; when we shop we know the best place to buy the goods, when we want to eat we know the best restaurant etc. However, knowing things doesn’t make one intelligent, or thoughtful. What people are truly against to is intelligence and thinking, which are both incredible processes of the mind forcing us to push the limits of our imagination. People who are happy with their current style of living, their current bank of “knowledge”, don’t want to disturb the happy illusion of the perfect life, so they refuse to think and they get annoyed by anyone who knows and thinks more than them. This is the true nature of knowledge. Unfortunately, no matter how hard people with different thoughts and more intelligence than the others try to enlighten the people in their surroundings, most of the time they feel as if they are talking to a wall: a wall which has a mind of its own, but refuses to use it.

The biggest example of how people find other people who know more than them or have more solid ideas annoying is the constant battle between religion and science. While the scientists say persistently that the number of suns just like ours in the whole universe –which expands drastically even as you read this- is equal to the number of tiny sand grains in all of the beaches on the world, religious people insist on saying that, for example, “God –or who/what they believe in- has created it all just for humans”. These are people who live in the cave of ignorance, darkened and isolated by their ignorance, refusing even to accept the ray of sun coming in through the small opening, which, if wanted, could be widened to let more sun, more knowledge, more people, more creativity and thinking in. Thinking, hypothesizing, and contemplating are actions taken by those who are in the sun, by those of us who have once and for all accomplished to get out of that cave of ignorance and to unleash the reins of their mind.