My friend just reminded me that it's Madonna's 52nd birthday today! Well this calls for blasting, "Like a Prayer," and looking up old photos. Happy birthday Madame Ciccone, your life has made mine that much more joyous. This one is for you.
I have been packing and taking things up and down for the past 48 hours straight. Today, a cleaning service is cleaning (no kidding?) the new place and in the afternoon the second floor is getting buffed. Then tomorrow I'm packing the last minute stuff like kitchen and bathroom stuff and Wednesday the movers are taking all the heavy stuff down. Today I just have the books and DVDs and other odds and ends like the record player and printer to pack up. I've actually budgeted myself well in terms of buying new stuff and hiring people to help me out since my friends all work during the day and Elliot and my family aren't here to share the work. The new place is quite a bit bigger than my current apartment so I had to get another coffee table and couch, bed and bedside tables for the "guest" room (aka Mina and my parents' and probably Defne my cousin's room), dining room furniture, and various stuff for the three, yes you heard me, three bathrooms. I still need to get the bathroom stuff, and kitchen things because our plates and pots and pans are all wretchedly old and crappy but I'll take care of that after all the moving is done.
So everything gets moved on Wednesday, new furniture arrives Thursday and Friday, and cable and internet get connected on Thursday as well. I hope to have most everything done by Friday. Saturday I'll be taking a break to finally go to a book club meeting (I've been a member for so long and have been to maybe 2 meetings) and see some friends and hopefully next week I'll be getting pictures framed and up on the walls. That's always the most important thing for me, bare walls make me anxious. When all my artwork and posters are up, I immediately feel like I live there. All the furniture I got is pretty classic, it's the rugs and artwork that add all the color and make it more, "me." I hope I can make this new place as homey as my apartment. This apartment has been my favorite home in Boston. It always made me happy to come back to it and I'm kind of nervous that the new place is so big it won't have the same charm. I was going to leave all the decorating stuff until the end but I picked up a few pieces as I ran across them.
My current rug I love. I got another one because the new living room is huge.
This is for the second floor. It's not a floor so much as a loft space with a couple storage rooms and a bathroom. It would make a good "office" and rugs make empty spaces work.
Bedding for the guest bedroom. I always secretly loved this pattern but didn't really want it for myself so an extra bedroom provided the excuse.
This is for my room since my old duvet cover is really old and needs to be replaced. It's constellations and the reverse side is grey with white stars. I'm a nerd yes.
Nothing makes me calmer than lots of light. New Buddha lamp for my bedroom since I never had a bedside lamp in the old place.
Generally, I don't like bean bag chairs. But the splashes of color made this one kind of stand out. Plus, more sitting places are always welcome since we like to gather all our friends when we hang out with them.
I've also applied for three more jobs and am waiting to hear from them. Of course, in our non-responsive age I haven't received anything back but I'm giving it until Wednesday before I do any follow-up emails. One of the jobs was a part-time Marketing Assistant for a "spiritual" books publishing house and though it's a different job than I've applied to in the past, it sounds like it could be fun and a good experience so I'm really hoping to hear from them, as well as a pretty big name publishing house my friend tipped me off that had an opening for an editorial assistant. Augh, I'm intelligent, capable, and can do everything these jobs require (be organized? I make lists of my lists for crying out loud) but I just need them to crack open the door so I can wedge myself in.
Tomorrow, the new Iron Maiden record comes out but I got to listen to it a week ago and review it. It's Iron Maiden Sucks! day on MetalSucks tomorrow so all Maiden articles and reviews, all day. I contributed another piece about possible artwork Iron Maiden should use (the current one is their mascot, Eddie, in space. The artist is a different one than usual so it looks a little odd and there's been quite a lot of controversy over it. My ideas? Well, Sultan Eddie and Maharaja Eddie are among the many.
Hooray this is my 100th post! 100 different times I've sat down and wrote about 100 (or more) different thoughts and events. The title comes from a KISS song so what better to celebrate a milestone on my music-inspired (Madonna? Hello? Keep up.) blog than writing about music?
I wanted to to have a separate entry about the KISS show because it was such a fun and wonderful time. My Elliot came up from Austin to accompany me to it and more than just fulfilling his boyfriendly duties, it was a an extremely fun time with my best friend. When the show started with the flames and explosions he pulled me into a hug and said he secretly had always wanted to see KISS. Which is when I exclaimed that I had to. We both like some KISS songs here and there and though Detroit Rock City is my favorite moie, it's more because of all the other music in it and the theme of the plot that I love it, not becaue it involves KISS. But seeing them live is definitely a bucket list thing to do. The pure show of it all was breath-taking. It's obvious how well rehearsed they are but they make it look so spontaneous and fun. Sure Paul Stanley's strutting and cat-calling is nothing new, and everyone expects Gene to spit blood and spit fire but when they did do all those things, the crowd, including us, went crazy. They know what they have to do and they don't spare any energy or enthusiasm in delivering it.
And the flying! There was so much flying. Gene flew up above the stage into the rafters by the lights to perform a song while glaring, Paul flew out into the audience to sing a song from among us, and the Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer, though not as big stars, had plenty of gravity-defying movements happening underneath them. The second guitarist and drummer were raised up and down on-stage so they could have their moments too and the backdrop and screens flashed the entire time with occasional glimpses of past KISS shows. I seriously jumped every time there was an explosion. Okay, not every time but several times.
During the encores Paul Stanley, the singer, paused to commend all the families there. There truly were so many parents with their kids and the kids were legitimately happy to be there. One girl behind me corrected her dad on a KISS song and a little boy in front of my stood on his chair, clapped, screamed, sang, and raised the devil horns all throughout the show. When the young KISS Army was applauded on-stage, the boy's dad lifted him up so everyone could cheer. That kid will probably never, ever forget that night. He's a KISS fan for life. Haha, what little boy wouldn't be? All those explosions and BOOMS and fire and other pyrotechnics.
There was a small presentation during the encores as well. One dollar from every ticket sold was donated to a fund that helped men and women coming home from duty to get back on their feet. Of course, when there's a group of Americans and the slightest mention of country the chanting of, "USA, USA, USA," will undoubtedly ensue (rolls eyes). But, I have to say this wasn't just another instance of blowing steam up the military's ass. They made a good point about the people who came back broken physically and spiritually and how they were greeted by a government that didn't know how to treat them. That's a cause I can support. I'm glad I could help, in a tiny way, this fund and they raised over $90,000 that night.
I don't think I would've had as much fun at this show with anyone else. Well, my little sister and cousins are a blast to to go to concerts with too but they weren't here. My boyfriend is a music dork just like me and we get goosebumps and awed just being in the same area as one of our bands. I went to Judas Priest, Van Halen, and AC/DC with him as well as Iron Maiden and Alice Cooper and we'll probably always go to shows and in the immortal words of KISS, "rock 'n' roll all niiii-iiight," together. Even when we're 85 and deaf and can barely move, we'll be out there croaking out the words. Pending all our bands are alive.
Blackberry camera is so terrible compared to my Turkish Nokia.
On Friday, Egg and I arrived in Boston around 8 pm. I realized, in Germany where our connecting flight was, that I'd forgotten her papers in Istanbul so I was definitely holding my breath as we walked by the customs guards. I put her case on the cart and hoped they'd just think it was another bag and we sailed right through. Not that they've really stopped me before, the one other time I traveled back with Egglet they just asked to see her, checked her eyes to make sure she was healthy, and didn't do much but glance at her papers. But, I didn't want to risk it. Good news for us but bad news for America; I could've been carrying a rabid zombie psycho cat that was hellbent on destruction and no one would've been the wiser. But a rabid zombie psycho cat probably would've made a fuss unlike my Eggalita who just kind of sat there watching the world. She was such a good girl. Except, she got bored or fed up or something near the end of the trip because the last couple hours she kept trying to dig herself out of her case. She mewed and pawed so much I finally had to unzip the case and hold her a bit (without letting the stewardesses see that she was out). I popped her back in after fixing her blankets but she wasn't having any of it. But other than that, she just quietly slept all the way back.
The airport was a mess in Istanbul and the crowd and heat and the slow movement of the passport control line finally made me snap at the guy working. I felt bad but come on, an hour waiting in line to get through passport control is ridiculous. It wasn't the official's fault and I do regret taking it out on him but our airport needs to wake up and get moving. There is no need to have empty control booths and no air conditioning.
Elliot arrived from Austin Texas, where his work has sent him for the next month and a half, about an hour after I did and after he cuddled and said his hellos to Miss Egg (and vice versa, she went running to him meowing in this hilarious scratchy voice that made her sound like an old lady), he sent a message off to one of our friends casually inquiring what he and the others were up to. We tried not to give away too much and when we showed up at their door there was plenty of excited cheering. And this was a huge ego boost; there was an even louder bellow when I walked in after him. I've missed my friends and I can't even begin to describe how delighted they made me when they each personally told me how good happy they were I was back.
We watched a movie and ended up at a new bar which was kind of hipster central but not as bad as our old bar. Better music too, Queen was played. At around midnight Elliot noticed I was falling asleep in my chair (at this point I'd been awake for exactly 24 hours, I didn't sleep on either plane), so we said our good-byes and left. There was a pretty cartoony thump when I finally got home and passed out on my bed.
Oh, the reason I didn't sleep on the plane? I was too busy watching the best movie ever; How to Train Your Dragon. It is probably the best Dreamworks animated movie. The main dragon called Toothless the Night Fury reminded me of Egg and all the characters and creatures were just amazing. Elliot didn't want to beleve it surpassed Kung Fu Panda, his Dreamworks movie of choice. I admit, it's a pretty close tie. Heh, as Elliot put it, it's so obvious what our tastes are; he likes martial arts and weird animals so he goes with Kung Fu Panda while I love mythology and weird animals so I get How to Train Your Dragon. But come on! Animated Vikings punching dragons and then having them as pets!
Saturday morning, my darling boyfriend and I lazed around the house and played with our little kitty. The previous animated movie discussion propelled us to buy Kung Fu Panda so we had our customary before concert meal of Thai food while watching it. Oh yes, concert. The doors were ridiculously early so we set off around 4 to catch the commuter rail up to Mansfield to see... KISS!
God, it was such a good show. So. Good. It was everything you expect from a KISS show. Explosions and fire and blood and I reviewed it for MetalSucks so you can go ahead and read it here. I think it merits it's own post too though, so I'll save it for later.
It was a weirdly family-oriented show, so many parents with their kids, so we didn't think we could really hitchhike back. Calm down, I don't mean standing at the side of the road with out thumbs out. At another Mansfield show, Judas Priest, Elliot and I ddn't have a ride back (my cousin had dropped us off and the commuter rail stopped at some stupdly early hour like 10 pm) so we stood in the parking lot yelling/asking if anyone was going back to Boston. A nice couple gave us a ride back. They were so weird though. She had a thing for sprinklers and after they dropped us off they made plans to go run through them, while he was a hippie who didn't like metal, who went to a Judas Priest show. Nice couple, just odd. Anyway, we didn't think families with kids would voluntarily pick up strangers so we took a 70$ cab ride back to Boston and for the second night in a row, I passed out as soon as my head hit the pillow.
Sunday, since Elliot was leaving early in the afternoon, we decided to go have some Indian food at our pace, India Quality. I don't know why but we always end up there right before one of us gets on a plane. My diet wasn't strictly followed this weekend but I wasn't too bad and right now I'm trying to stick to it as best as I can. I have fruits and veggies and salad and I just need to get my body used to be being back in Boston because I know I'm retaining water; I feel heavier if that makes sense. But, my dietician allowed Indian food so I just didnt have the bread which is a big deal for me. Turkish/Iranian girl who loves Indian food not eating naan? Unheard of.
It was a little sad saying bye-bye to my Elliot but I'll see him soon. At least he's only one timezone away and still in the same country. This was the most fun weekend I've had in a long time and I'm really happy he came up, it wouldn't have been the same without him. This week has been so busy so far, and it's only Tuesday. I went to the apartment walk-through and closing, took measurements, got all the new furniture settled for the new place, arranged movers, contacted a painter and floor buffer, got in touch with a cleaning service, arranged electricity transfers of service as well as cable, contacted landlady about problems in the current apartment and assured my bank my identity hadn't been stolen due to the sudden increase of activity on my card. I even managed to get to the gym today! I cheated a bit with dinner because I'm not supposed to mix carbohydrates and meat and I had (whole wheat) spaghetti and meatballs, but I kept the portion small.
I'm getting a little paranoid and nervous about my whole diet issues because it's beyond just losing weight. After all those tests and countless tubes of drawn blood, and even a thyroid x-ray (it's in the throat. I don't know why I never knew that but your thyroid is in your throat) my doctor said I had the beginnings of diabetes and my thyroid was not working properly. I had a couple of setback this week; didn't eat quite as well as I should have and had maybe too many sugary things because EVERYTHING has sugar in it. Though I probably shouldn't have sneaked a couple of Gummi Bears. Sugar is now my sworn enemy and I can't have it unless it's naturally in fruit and even then I have to have nuts like almonds or hazelnuts with it so my system doesn't go crazy. I lost almost 4 kilos in a month at home and I just don't want my efforts to go to waste, as well as my health. But by being careful and going to the gym I think I'll manage.
The next week will be more packing up and moving and getting new apartment stuff organized. Tomorrow I'm going to start packing up the books and movies and my clothes and try to sort out all the itty bitty junk stuff (I have two of those stacked drawer sets filled with junk) and organize/get rid of it. Right now I'm relaxing on my couch with my kitty curled up so close, her butt is squished on me and watching Dazed and Confused. It's kind of fitting well with this post with the amount of classic rock, including KISS, songs it has. I like it a lot though it makes me nostalgic for a time and events I've nothing to do with. Trying to get laid while partying the summer before your freshmen (or senior depending on the characters) in the '70s? Yeah, not me. Here's some tumblr inspiration since this is a pretty long, all-text post.
I don't know if anyone outside my family does this but when we love, love, love a song, we will play it non-stop over and over again, days on end. Then we'll get sick of it but return back to the routine a day later. I've burned myself off so many songs that way but after I suck every bit of life I can out of it, I always come back months later and most remain among my top favorites. Right now the two songs I'm alternating between are Tarkan- Öp and Lady Gaga- Alejandro. Tarkan's song is obvious why, especially after last weekend but honestly, it confused me to that I like Lady Gaga. Logically, she's everything I don't like in music/artists; faux edginess and art school hipsterism combined to deliberately cause controversy with songs that aren't anything to write home about. But... she's SO damn catchy and I just appreciate her aesthetic. She's not boring. Doesn't even come close to Madonna, as some seem to think, but she's working an industry to her liking and making a name for herself, and a shit-ton of money so good for her. And she also got to make out with the Swedish Sunset (S)triplets* and Alexander Skarsgaard in her videos so there's that bit of envy. Oh, that's another thing. She makes music videos. They have stories and budgets and set-ups and scenes. She makes them mini-movies which is what they ought to be. Actually, that might be the biggest thing. She's a pop star in the truest sense of the word. She doesn't spare anything when it comes to her image whether it be a concert, a video, or a public appearance.
*Guess which one is Gaga!
Here are my sister's pictures from the Tarkan show as well as the video for, "Alejandro," which is excellent. It's so weird and sexual and she's so androgynously ugly that it basically is modern art; no one gets it. She does draw a lot of inspiration from Madonna though, that much is clear.
I can't believe it's time to go back to Boston. The last couple weeks I alternated between urging time to go by faster because I was bored and wishing it would slow down because I was in a blind panic about leaving. Tomorrow, Egglet and I are setting off back towards our second home to finish up the summer and hopefully usher in a beautiful fall. It's always fall that makes me think of new beginnings, not spring. I guess it's because I associated it with going back to school for so long that I will never get out of that mindset. It's my favorite time of year and I hope it will bring all the good and happiness everyone deserves, as well as a blessed cool breeze.
But before I go, I should probably write about some other adventures. Last weekend we managed the third one-day-travel-for-a-concert event of the summer. My mom, sister, cousin and I came back from Bodrum on Saturday, went to a concert that night, and then the three of us minus the cousin went back to Bodrum early the next day. The concert? Why, Tarkan of course.
Tarkan is probably one of the most beloved Turkish pop acts. He's quite popular around Europe too but he's been in our lives in particular since we were little, little girls. He was the standard to which my sister measured all men. If someone was cool and passed muster, she called him Tarkan. She was like three at the time but still, there isn't anyone quite like him. My mom might be his biggest fan. Which leads me to believe he's gay because her bond with gay men is like the Ninja Turtles with Splinter. They look to her for approval and guidance. We believe she's building an army and will take over the world quite fabulously soon. She would vehemently disagree with this though. Tarkan is a unique being who appeals to all women, young and old. But I digress. Apparently we, ahem my sister, used to go on about Tarkan so much, my grandfather asked my cousin who this Tarkan fellow was. I didn't know that story and we were all laughing when my cousin told it at dinner where we all met up before the show. We all like various Turkish pop and rock and I have many Turkish songs and bands scattered here and there on my iPod, but Tarkan unites us all haha. He's like the Turkish Madonna. I'd say Michael Jackson but it just doesn't seem right. He's our Madonna like Ajda Pekkan is our Cher and Serdar Ortac is our... Ricky Martin? Back when he still mattered.
I'd been to a previous Tarkan concert a few years ago and he's had some albums out but none that were "official," I'd say. Meaning, they didn't make as big a splash. He had an English album out too but I never listened to that nor the previous album. The new record came out on Thursday, three days before the show, so we bought it to get a taste and it was classic Tarkan; well-written and often introspective lyrics, bouncy fun beats, and a loooot of a la Turca rhythms. We had decided to make a ladies night of it so it was us, my aunt, another cousin, a family friend, two of my mom's and our friends from her work and one of their daughters. Altogether, we were ten ladies. But since it was Tarkan the entire arena was basically all ladies. I swear there was so much estrogen in the air that our periods probably all synced up at the pivotal moment when the curtains went up. Though funny side comment: the house lights dimmed right when there was a commercial for um, sanitary napkins, showing on the big screens flanking the stage so it totally looked like an audience of women were cheering for pads.
I kid though, there were some men; they were either forced to be there or gay. The concert itself was amazing. We didn't sit down once and we screamed ourselves stupid. At the end, the sweat was just dripping off of us and nobody had a voice left. He sang a bunch of the old favorites like, "Acayipsin," which my sister used to sing before she could talk and my childhood favorite, "Gül Döktüm Yollarına." He also performed a bunch of songs from my favorite album Karma. Aaaand, I realized he dresses like me; tight pants, t-shirt, vest with shiny things on it. We have excellent taste Monsieur Tarkan.
He has such a charismatic air though. You know how people say that some have "it?" That certain star quality that you can't manufacture? He has it. He looks at the audience and plays up to them and has his little dance moves and his stage banter is so cute, it's almost like he's too humble to accept all this love and joy. He always thanks his fans for coming and tries to play down his popularity and if it's an act, it's a damn good one because he blushes and grins and looks genuinely delighted and surprised that so many people are screaming for him and for his music. He's just so charming and personable. He mistook a lady in the audience for someone else (both famous) and he looked so abashed and kind of grinned in embarrassment. It's okay Tarkan, to quote the woman next to my mom, "They all look alike anyway, they all go to the same surgeon." I personally don't think it's all an act because after he sang one of his most popular songs, "Kuzu, Kuzu," the audience started chanting, "BIR DAHA BIR DAHA," which means one more time, one more time. He just went, "Again? Okay, if you really want to," shrugged to his band and sang it again! And EVERYONE basically went crazy. So did we. Not to mention, almost everyone knew the words to the songs from the new album and he had to pause mid-song to exclaim, "The record just came out three days ago, how do you know this?" The arena wasn't that big but they sold 6,000 tickets. For two nights. That's 12,000 people. They sold tickets for the stairs because the seats ran out!
He took a 20 minute break mid-show which, as demanding show-goers, we were kind of surprised about, but he freakin' worked for us that night. He jazzed up his songs (especially, "Hüp," which we almost didn't recognize) to make them more concert-y like Madonna does and he sang about 4 encores after 2 relentless curtain calls and had even the reluctant husbands and boyfriends standing up and clapping. There was a picture published the next day that showed the audience; everyone had their hands up, were on their feet and smiling hugely. My mom is in the picture too and we had a Where's Waldo? moment when we found her amidst all the faces! It's our tradition to scream his name at shows and by God, did we scream. All the rows around us actually turned to look at us. Lungs of steel I tell you, pure steel. He didn't play one of my favorite, "Sen Baskasin," and he sang a couple songs from the new album several times but I can't really blame him, he has to sell records. At the end, we finally collapsed in the car in a mess of limbs and sweat. It was probably around 35 degrees Celsius, even at night, with rainforest-like humidity and we did not stop moving. Only for you Tarkan, will I grin and bear that, only for you. Because even heavy metal girls like to dance.
It's been quite an interesting summer in terms of music. I traveled to three different cities in three different countries and saw six different shows. There was Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood in Istanbul, the opening of the Istanbul International Music Festival with the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra at Hagia Irine in the old section of Istanbul, and re-known 27-year-old Chinese pianist extraordinaire Lang Lang. There was Mercan Dede, traditional Turkish music mixed with modern electronica, featuring Elif Safak in Brussels. There was our orchestra again in Salzburg, and finally, Tarkan. Last, and definitely not least, I'll be heading back to Boston, the fourth city, in time to see lucky number seven; KISS. That's a pretty diverse range of music but I think it sums up my tastes pretty well. Just maybe add a bit more Madonna in there.
This is my favorite song off the new record. It's a fan-made video but I have been listening to it non-stop. I love the lyrics and if you know Turkish, you should really listen to them.
Bahahahaha, so this is what extreme exhaustion makes me do. Some people drink, some people party the night away, others simply pass out. Allow me to introduce my new creation;
