Lost In Translation

Beyoglu

Beyoglu is an Istanbul neighborhood on the European side of Istanbul where I am staying that is known for the cafe, bars, and shopping there. Friday night I ate some great Turkish food at the modern Antiochia near the Tunnel metro.

While there I tried the Turkish signature alcoholic drink, raki, an aniseed-based (tastes like licorice) drink. Raki-water-ice=not bad, not as strong tasting as other types I've had in the past like ouzo.

I went with the durum kebab, which is a kebab in a wrap rather than a pita, it'sa bit lighter. They had really fresh ingredients, it was excellent.

Galata Tower at night.

Sunday breakfast: tea, orange juice, fried eggs and spicy Turkish sausage.

And followed by cheese cake, still hungry, so decided to cave in to the dessert.

There are cats everywhere, not sure if they are strays or whether they just don't let them in. Several of them look dirty and feral.

First stop, The Museum of Innocence, an actual place based on a novel written by Istanbul's favorite son, Nobel Prize winning novelist Orhan Pamuk. Now I feel compelled to read it. I have to say I agree with Pamuk's manifesto:

In “The Innocence of Objects,” a catalogue describing the creation of the novel-museum duo, Pamuk lays out a manifesto for museums. In it, Pamuk calls for exchanging “Large national museums such as the Louvre and the Hermitage” for “smaller, more individualistic, and cheaper” museums, taking “stories” in the place of “histories.” Instead, he writes, a museum should work in its capacity to “reveal the humanity of individuals.

 

The Whirling Dervish Museum.

Galata Tower.

There are some amazing views from the Tower.

SALT Galata.

Lunch: grilled Turkish meatballs with cheese.

Istanbul Modern.

Near Tophane, Ali Pasa Complex.

In Flight Films (To Istanbul)

Air travel often allows one to catch up on films missed and provides opportunities to see ones that you might have been unaware of. I finally decided to catch up with Christopher Nolan's critically acclaimed space thriller, Interstellar (2014). I've had chances to see it before on flights and was reluctant, because it seemed like a film that need to be seen on a larger screen format. However, I was put off by the almost three hour run time. I have to say that I was underwhelmed, all the pseudo-science concepts and talk-using Matthew McCounaughey to spout them doesn't make them go down any easier. It was at least an hour too long if not more, and seems to fail in every level of comparison to Alfonso Cuaron's 2013 Gravity: direction, special effects, acting, enjoyment, length, etc.

I caught a couple of gems that I was not aware of before. The first being a well-researched and important documentary from Robert Kenner, Merchants Of Doubt (2014). It is based on a book by Naomi Oreskes and Erick M. Conway that identifies parallels between the global warming controversy and earlier controversies between tobacco smoking, acid rain, and the hole in the ozone layer among others. However, it's not clear that even if you rationally reason with people, they continue to hold out for the slimmest of hope to believe something contrary to their core values. it should be required viewing in school in the US.

The other unknown gem was John Curran's 2013 biopic, Tracks, about female explorer Robyn Davidson's trek across the Australian outback with camels that was feature din National Geographic. It was based on her memoir that originated in the magazine article. Of course the film had amazing cinematography and standout performances from the leads, Mia Wasikowska (Davidson) and Adam Driver as the accompanying photographer, as well as the supporting cast. it makes me want to learn more about the original story.

Sultanahmet

The Million Stone marker from the Roman Empire.

The impressive Hagia Sofia.

Next up: the stunning Blue Mosque.

Next was the Basilica Cisterns.

Medusa.

Final stop, Topkapi Palace.

The Hippodrome.

Obelisk of Theodosius.

Spiral Column.

Little Hagia Sophia.

Today's lunch options in Sultanhmet.

Kebabs.

Minced stuffed eggplant with a mixed salad was the choice.

Istanbul-Arrival

I am staying in an Airbnb apartment, pictured on the right. Simple and cozy, but close to two trains and some attractions.

There was some sort of protest going on, hence, the riot police. It looked peaceful to me. It's funny the people that are always concerned about me going to places like Istanbul or South America, fail to realize it's more likely that I'll be shot in America than any of the places I visit. In fact, despite all the Muslims I saw wearing the hajab, the "muzzein" bellowing out, and the mosques dotting the city-it feels very western. Many people are drinking alcohol and I was a little taken aback by the McDonald's, Burger Kings, hotdog stands, Arby's, and Starbucks I saw Taksim. There's even a Shake Shack!

Tupac in Istanbul.

Lots of appetizing food on display. I'm looking forward to sampling as much as I can.

My light dinner after more than 11 hours in the air eating airplane food: mini pide (spicy sausage, mixed, and four cheese), which is like a cross between a pie and pizza with an Efes pilsner.

The next day on my way to the Tophane tram station I found this mural.

For breakfast I finally got to sample menmen, a spicy eggs dish that burned the roof of my mouth due to the "actual heat," not the spices. Now I know better.

Dolphin phone booth near the tram.

Views from the tram.

Kimukatsu

Kimukatsu is a solid tonkatsu (fried pork cutlet) option in Ebisu. It is made with 25 layers of pork deep fried. This time I got the cheese lunch set with cabbage salad, rice, miso soup and pickles for ¥1980. It's not a traditional style of tonkatsu, but tasty all the same. 

Zatoichi And The Doomed Man

Zatoichi And The Doomed Man (1965) is the eleventh film overall in the series and second of three released in 1965. The director Kazuo Mori also previously directed the second film, New Tale Of Zatoichi. In this film, Zatoichi agrees to help a condemned man he meet sin prison despite the fact that helping people also leads to trouble for Zatocihi. Along the way, he meets mendicant monk Hyakutaro (Kanbi Fujiyama) who provides much comic relief and he assumes Zatoichi's identity for various grafting scheme sot get food, drink, and women from yakuza bosses. Some of Zatoichi's feats of greatness include winning a bow and arrow shooting contest using his hearing, cutting a month in two, not to mention the slaughter of a slew of faceless henchmen. Mori does a good job of using the location shots through out the film to show the ocean and the fishing village where Zatoichi tries to save the doomed man from his unlawful fate.

Porco Rosso

Porco Rosso is yakitori restaurant down the street from my apartment that I've been meaning to visit for a while since it is fairly new. Ironically, the shop name is taken from a Hayato Miyazaki animation of the same name. The cartoon is about a bounty hunter who was turned into a pig, so you'd think their specialty would be pork rather than chicken, however I had the pork tempura with ponzu and grated radish for my lunch. It comes with three salads (green, bean sprout, hijiki) and miso soup for the reasonable price of ¥880, tasty and healthy. I'll be back to try some of the other lunch specials and perhaps at night to try their yakitori. It also seems to be the right time to see the animated film as well.

Beau Travail

Claire Denis' Beau Travail (1999) has been hailed as one of the best films of the 1990s and was discussed in Mark Cousin's The Story of Film. It is a loose adaptation of Herman Melville's great novella Bully Budd. The film is narrated by Sergeant Galoup (Denis Lavant), the movie's equivalent of Claggart, the malevolent officer who destroys an innocent sailor in Melville's allegorical novella. However, this film is set in a French Foreign Legion outpost in the East African enclave of Djibouti, and instead of a soldier we have a legionnaire, Gilles Sentain (Grégoire Colin). This is no convectional film, Denis edits striking images and sequences together with a score that adds to the drama and poetry of the film-especially the operatic pieces. There is a striking coda at the end of the film that shows Galoup having a moment of joy and release dancing solo to a pop song in a disco, which in Cousin's series Denis says that she derived inspiration form Yasujiro Ozu's coda in Late Spring, where Shukichi (Chisshu Ryu) slowly peels an apple with a knife in his now empty home after his daughter has been married. I do not quite see the connection, but admit that it is an effective coda and leaves the viewer musing about what has happened to the principals in the film.

Log Road Daikanyama

Log Road Daikanyama is a new area that is now where the Toyoko line used to run through Daikanyama-it is now below ground. It is a lovely space that has been landscaped with care and houses a craft beer restaurant, Spring Valley Brewery, Fred Segal clothing stores that also have a coffee shop, as well as a food truck with soft drinks, booze, and food. The last space has been decided.

Garden House Craft is the new tenant and it has a great terrace-it is a cool place to hang out and drink coffee, read, surf the internet, etc.

It is also a deli and I had the really delicious Reuben sandwich, which was great-gourmet bread, cheese, meat, sauerkraut, etc..., but not cheap at ¥1700.

Aparajito

Aparajito (1956) is the second installment in Satayjit Ray's Apu Trilogy, an adaptation of a novel about the life of a Bengali boy, Apu (as an adolescent: Smaran Ghosal). This story picks up when his family moves to Benares along the banks of the holy Ganges river. Soon after they arrive his father dies and he moves with his mother to the town of Mansapota, a village in Bengal where some relatives live and he is trained to be a priest like his father. He asks to be educated and excels and is offered a scholarship in Calcutta. He fights with his mother, but she relents. While studying she becomes ill and dies before he can return to have his last moments with her-and he is deeply grieved by the fact. It is a simple story rendered in a beautiful cinematic fashion through framing, strategic zooms and editing, as well as other innovative techniques that are punctuated by an exotic Indian musical score. There is a great scene where the boy's father dies and Ray cuts to birds scattering in the skies. Throughout the film the viewer is treated to all sorts of village life from a variety of traditions and religions. Later in the film the viewer sees images of Calcutta that no longer exist. A moving and fascinating film.