title, what title?

I've been interested in Nina Simone's music lately after reading this article about this interesting artist: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2016/03/10/fierce-courage-nina-simone/ Trained to be a classical pianist, she was refused entry to conservatory in the segregated USA. When she was making money singing the blues, she interspersed Bach and Beethoven in popular tunes. What she was really good at was being really honest about the rotten state of the country. Take this part from her song Missisipi Goddamn: Oh but this whole country is full of lies You're all gonna die and die like flies I don't trust you any more ... ... You don't have to live next to me Just give me my equality Everybody knows about Mississippi Everybody knows about Alabama Everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam Still rings true... My interest her gotten a new level after listening to her Dylan covers, which she takes to a whole different level...

Tarih'in akışının bizi götürdüğü yönü ilerleme olarak adlandırmayı bırakalı çok uzun zaman oldu. Tarih'in kör bir kendini tekrardan ibaret olduğunu da düşünmüyorum. 1970'lerden beri Mark Twain'e atfedilen "tarih kendini tekrar etmese de kendi ile kafiyelidir" - "history does not repeat itself, but it certainly rhymes" sözü şu an tarihin akışı ile ilgili düşüncelerimi en  iyi anlatan söz durumunda. Dünya'nın geçirdiği bu çalkantılı günleri 1848 Avrupa Devrimleri'ne benzeten yazılar okuyorum birkaç zamandır. Türkiye'nin geçirdiği günler bana daha çok şu aralar okumaya başladığım Goya'nın hayatı nedeniyle 1808-1823 arası İspanyol tarihini hatırlatıyor. Fransız Devrimi'nin Gaspçısı Napoleon tarafından işgal edilen İspanya'nın başına Napoleon'un kardeşi kral olarak getirilir. Bu dönemde Goya'nın da içinde bulunduğu aydınlar Fransız İhtilali'nin rüzgarı ile bu gelişmeyi desteklerler. Taa ki 1808 yılının 2 Mayısında F...

"Nobel barış ödülünü geri veriyoruz" - AB'nin insan iadesi politikalarının ölümlere neden olduğunu kabul ettikten sonra AB Komisyon Başkanı Jean-Claude Junker   Nazi'ler gizlice falafel yer.  Tilki akıllıyken aptal'a yatar, Nazi tam tersini yapar. (Favorim)  Kendine güvene olmayanın milletine güvenmeye ihtiyacı vardır.  Hiçbir insan yasa-dışı değildir.  Bir bankacı, bir bulvar gazetesi okuruna ve bir mülteci 20 bisküvi'nin olduğu bir masa etrafında otururlar. Banker 19 bisküvi'yi yer ve bulvar gazetesi okuruna döner: "Dikkat et, mülteci bisküvini elinden alacak!" Beyninizi açın, ırkçılığı kapatın. Dies Irea adlı Alman Ad-Busting grubu'nun son günlerde ırkçı saldırıların sıkça yaşandığı Alman şehri Freital'da sergilediği akıl dolu (dolayısıyla ırkçılık boşu) anti-reklamlar. Kaynak https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dies-Irae/352841264901019?sk=timeline http://www.sp...

Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen - Wenn mein Schatz Hochzeit macht Yollara düşmüş bir Delikanlı'nın Şarkıları -  Sevgilim Evlendiğinde (Nikah Masası) Tatlı sevgilim evlendiğinde, Mutlu bir düğün ile gelin gittiğinde, En acı günüm olacak! Odama, küçük karanlık odama kaçıp, Sevgilime, O tatlı sevgilime ağlayacağım... Mavi çicek, solma sakın! Tatlı kuş, Söyle şarkını yeşim çimenlerde, Ne güzel bir dünya bu, Ne güzel! Ne güzel! Söylemeyin şarkınızı! Açmayın çiçeklerinizi! Sussun tüm şarkılar! Gece olsun ve uykuya dalayım bir an önce, Acımı düşünerek, Acımı... Doğumgünün kutlu olsun Mahler!

The boy with the thorn in his side, Behind the hatred there lies, A murderous desire for love, How can they look into my eyes And still they don't believe me ? How can they hear me say those words, Still they don't believe me ? And if they don't believe me now, Will they ever believe me ? And if they don't believe me now, Will they ever, they ever, believe me ? Just a write down a sudden, perhaps fleeting, association between two works of art that I particularly like.

The song that kicked open Bruce Springsteen's mind (link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRu66l3QI_U ) finally has an official video (link: http://www.wired.com/underwire/2013/11/bob-dylan-rolling-stone-video/ ). And what a video it is! Created by the digital Agency Interlude this is an interactive TV with 16 channels, with all the people on the screen are singing Like a Rolling stone. Having an award winning film director as a son can come handy sometimes (link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Dylan ). I love the fact that one of the channels is History Channel with Pawn Stars on it. If you want to share my joy do watch this video (link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32NWr5RKDRg ) Dylan was many things over the years. Among the many faces he had, the one I associate the most is his Existentialist era (i.m.h.o.). After Visions of Johanna, like a Rolling Stone is his most iconic from this era. A world where everyone is singing Like a Rolling Stone reminded me of another ...

On world poetry day I listed some of my favorite poets. To my shame I forgot to add the great American poet Allen Ginsberg to the list. In my biannual "I've-got-to-update-my-mobile-playlist" routine, I format my mobile memory -I am sooo happy not being shackled to itunes btw-  and sift through my music library, looking for new discoveries and re-affirm the classics which are always included in the list. The unusual, one-time duet of the Clash and Allen Ginsberg titled "The Capitol Air" is one of those classics. Ginsberg sings one of his acerbic social critiques with the Clash in the background. I found out recently that this delightful punk rock-poetry coming together was not one time. In 1982 movie Poetry in Motion 20 contemporary American poets sang their poems. Ginsberg was once again reciting his poems with punk rock in the background. I had quoted the Turkish singer/songwriter Sezen Aksu in my entry for World Poetry day: Poetry is dying out...

Being the geek I am, I insisted on our library to be arranged alphabetically. Randomly, two books about Sean Penn and Caravaggio landed next to each other. So to celebrate two great artists, here is my favorite Carravagio painting: And my favorite Sean Penn film:

When a great musician saw the potential of vinyl long plays in distributing music cheaply and efficiently, he remarked something in the line of "I can't imagine all the crap that will be produced and sold under the name of music." Unfortunately, I cannot recall who made this remark. But history proved he was right. However, the technological improvements that started with LPs had an effect not only on the quality of the music. Even timeless compositions such as Mahler's Sixth or Stravinsky's Agon had to suffer. Trying to get rid of the musical Whiggist in me, I sometimes imagine myself listening to the compositions as someone who lived around the time they were first composed. This Gedankenexperiment showed me that LPs and mp3s stole from us something that I call the "wow efect."  Imagine your favorite composition, or the song. Imagine you heard it for the first time, when a orchestra or the band came to your town, and you were struck by the composition ...

Milton Babbit would have been a perfect hate figure for the Tee Party supporters in USA, had he published his famous essay "Who cares if you listen?" today. He was arguing that the lack of laymen listeners appreciation of advanced music which was -quoting Babbitt- "made by/for/to specialists," something inevitable, even welcome. He refuted the populistic call for truce between popular and specialist music "There is no such thing as 'serious' and 'popular' music." There is only 'good' and 'bad' music." with this: As a public service, let me offer those who still patiently await the revelation of the criteria of Absolute Good an alternative criterion which possesses, at least, the virtue of immediate and irrefutable applicability: "There is no such thing as 'serious' and 'popular' music. There is only music whose title begins with the letter 'X,' and music whose title does not." He wa...

I am a late comer to the hip hop music. I am not talking about the over-commercialized, and in some sense travesty of a music modern hip hop. I am talking about hip hop back in the days when music was used to carry a message and the aesthetic understanding of a culture. My favorite these days is "A Tribe Called Quest". Just like I expect from a true classic, their debut album "People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm" sounds as if was made a few years back. This is IMHO due to its timeless qualities. Here are two of my favorites: The Luck of Lucien (The Frenchman) Youthful Expression

"-You unbeliever, You, who dared to doubt the Son of God, You are sentenced, You must now feel his blood, His flesh and his gut." He, who dared to doubt the Son of God, Has his fingers in that sacred cut, And the unbeliever, the doubter, At this holy sight,he cannot look at. "-Their eyes, their eyes, Of those without the courage to doubt, Are so vicious, and are filled with doubt, My trembling fingers, It's what they are looking at, And not the Son of God " I went to the Gemäldegalerie 2 weeks ago. I was lucky to experience four more Caravaggio paintings, since there was a Caravvagio exhibition. The painting that touched me the most was "The Incredulity of Saint Thomas." The story is like this:After the resurrection of the Christ, Thomas the Apostle doubts that Christ was raised from the death. Christ makes him touch his still open crucification wounds, to convince him. For me what is shining out of this painting is not the inc...

Dylan is a child of the north. He was born in the northernmost end of the Highway 61, Duluth Minnesota. Raised in Hibing, Minesota, he attended University of Minnesota for a few semesters. He went to join the Village in the Big City, and the rest is history. Yet, he has a thing for the American South(West). Romance In Durango, Senor, Stuck in Mobile with Memphis Blues, and If You Ever Go to Houston from his most recent album all carry a certain feeling of a hot and moist mystery with them. But in all of his Southern songs, Brownsville Girl is the most perplexing and addictive. It is a 11 minute southern saga, a real jewel out of what some call the worst album in Dylan's discography. It is a mix of three different stories: a Gregory Peck western, the story of the narrator's old love affair with a modern day Bonnie, a.k.a the Brownsville Girl, and the road story of the narrator and his current love. The stories mix seamlessly in this lovely song, in which characters of the ...

I guess I won't be wrong if I say that Bob Dylan's artistic output is perhaps one of the largest in the contemporary music history. Thus one shouldn't be surprised to find interesting Dylan selections such as "Favorite Dylan Songs Starting with C" in the Internet. His website ( link to the website ), which has an incredible list of his songs, might give you an idea of about the sheer volume of his output. So from time to time I discover new favorites out of this collection. The song Series of Dreams is a voyage through well you know what, in which Dylan has no intention of telling anything specific, but just wants to paint the walls of a long and winding cave with the images. This beautiful song did not make it to any albums. I first heard it on his Greatest Hits collection a month or so ago, and was struck by it. Recently I came across an alternate version in his latest Bootleg Series Releases Tell Tale Signs. I have to say the alternate version is even be...

A very important date has slipped my mind during the World Cup.  7th of July was the 150th birthday of one of the three classical music composers that have captured my imagination the most. Gustav Mahler was born 150 years ago in a small Bohemian town - in the original meaning of the word- to Jewish parents. His incredible journey filled with personal tragedies, anti-Semitic hostilities and a constant struggle with himself about the worth of his work ended 61 years later in Vienna. He left the world 10 Symphonies, and many symphonic Songs. It was him, who brought the etiquette to the Opera experience during his stints at the Vienna and New York Opera Houses. He was perhaps the first Opera producer, in the real sense of the word, working closely with the stunning fin de siècle artists of Vienna. His music is seen by authorities as a key transition from the Romantic era to the 20th century contemporary classical music. After fierce censoring during Nazi years, his music made a comeb...

At the core of evolution lies the natural selection, which is an algorithm more than anything. There are many units that have different properties, which are distributed randomly in the beginning. All of them get to reproduce themselves, albeit with an efficiency that is related with the suitability of their inherited properties to the environment in which they are reproducing. It's all that simple. I'd like to share two possible applications of this algorithm in two widely separated, yet very interesting fields. Quantum Darwinism : It is a mystery, why the infinite number of ways a quantum states that a particle can be in manifests itself as a single classical state. In plain words, why don't we see two versions of ourselves in the mirror - until we look at the mirror, but that's another exciting story -, where as this may be the case for photons or atoms. One possible solution to this question invokes the natural selection algorithm a la Darwin. They postulate that th...

Scotland may not have its own proper army. No worries. Their guitar army rocks! And now, they are releasing a concert film in August. The best would be to drown yourself in noise in an actual concert, but watching this clip from the film, and imagining how it would sound in dolby surround sound, I think Mogwai in a cinema is the second best option... Mogwai - Mogwai Fear Satan from La Blogotheque on Vimeo .

I seriously think humanities delusion of self-importance and arrogance will be its end. These two fantastic videos allow me to demonstrate my point. This video demonstrates the proportions of the Earth, the Sun, the Solar System, Milky Way, other galaxies, and the known Universe. I don't think any human language has a word capable describing how small our planet earth is (*). Seen from a cosmic scale, our little blue world is vanishingly insignificant. This is the first part of mans misplaced notion of self-importance. If our world were the only significant object in the Universe, humanity might have been justified in feeling important. After all, we would be the "owners" of the universe. But this is not the case, we are the inhabitants of an insignificant rock formation in the universe, which is unspeakably bigger in scale. However, it is precisely this spatial insignificance that makes this rock formation revolving around the sun so important. As far as we know, we are ...

The Boy and The Girl fall in love. The Girl leaves the boy. The Boy is angry, and dreams of the Tirl suffering to ease his pain. An archetypal love story, which found its way into the repertoire of many singer/song-writers. Three of my favorites' approach to the story shows a lot about their character. First, the Boss. Bruce Springsteen's 1980 album River contains one of his best songs Point Blank. The hero sees his old lover on the streets and she doesn't say hi. The boss writes her a song how she is becoming just another lost soul of the society. He is sad for her, and sings her one the best lines in pop music history describing the sad nature of human condition: "Do you still say your prayers little darlin' do you go to bed at night Prayin' that tomorrow, everything will be alright But tomorrow's fall in number in number one by one You wake up and you're dying you don't even know what from" Lou Reed on the other side is certain that Sally ...

I used to wake up with Nothing But Flowers by Talking Heads back in the states. I found a new favorite wake up song. Iggy Pop's Lust For Life. I've been listening to Iggy Pop lately, and am amazed by the depth of his seemingly basic lyrics. A social critique is hard to miss in his songs. This is not surprising, considering he may well be the only Rock'n'Roll artist to have published in a scholars magazine about Roman History. The piece is short , yet entertaining.