Festival de Cannes - May 2011 - Nuri Bilge Ceylan

Mustafa Akyol: Faith versus tradition in Islam

The legend of 1900

I was in Hong Kong two days ago and there was nothing to do when i had to waiting for getting my visa till 4 on Tuesday in the afternoon. I did not have much time to visit some places like the Big Buddha and Ocean Park, so i just got around the city and mingled with the crowd. Only activity for me in HK was taking pictures and eat lunch and dinner alone in Turkish and Pakistani restaurants. Being alone during a trip is really awful and boring. You trying to enjoy but you could not do. Ah, i wish i went to HK with a friend and made some craziness while getting around the city. I actually like to travel alone but sometimes it may be so meaningless. dunno but i don't think i am willing to travel alone for later. I went to 'avenue of stars', got on the ferry, visit some well-known passages and shopping streets, watched the light performance across the river walked aimles on the streets.

In this post, i dont want to narrate my trip impressions. Instead, I want to speak of a great movie which i have seen when i was alone during the long nights of HK. I decided watch a movie before sleeping and my choice was 'the legend of 1900' which i had seen it accidently on the page of my friend's blog. The legend of 1900, it was really a fairly well movie that full of surprises. It is a first English language movie from an Italian director Giuseppe Tornatore and it has been starring by Tim Roth.

The movie starts with a deal between Max and a shopkeeper who is a music instruments seller.. Max is a musician in need and the only valuable thing he possess is an old trumpet and he has to pawn it to the shopkeeper.

It should be not so easy to leave from the thing you love most. For a musician, the most beloved belonging is his/her instrument. It is the most difficult thing for Max to pawn his trumpet and leave from it but there was nothing to do but selling it! Before pawning the trumpet, he asks to make a last playing and he plays a speacial piece which the shopkeeper has heard it before from a broken record. When Max starts to play, shopkeeper recognizes the song and ask how it is known by him as well. Max starts to tell the story of 1900 who is the owner of the piece.

Attention please! Contains plenty of spoiler! J

Kidding! Of course, i wont write a lot of spoiler here coz i recommend you all to watch the movie and see what will happen to 1900. Only the thing i want to say is that life of 1900 has passed in a ship from birth to death.

When Max tell the story of 1900 which you are gonna watch soon, i hope, the shopkeeper purchease his trumpet and give it back to him and say: ‘A good story's worth more than an old trumpet. ’

And Max takes back his trumpet and walks out into the rain while you cant help to burst into tears!

enjoy great jazz music

i can tell you many websites if you like music, i mean if you are an addict one. and how can be called when one is a music addict? musicholic or what? anyway, i dont have an idea on this.

as i said, i could recommend many websites for music addicts but on this post, i want to say only one, guys..it is jazzradio.com

because i wrote several posts on music, so this time i wont write anything about my music love and i wont recommend any other websites also.

as for jazzradio.com, you can listen any kind of jazz music here. like smooth jazz, guitar jazz, piano jazz, saxophone jazz and many others like paris cafe and timeless classics and blues.. click link written below and see the options. choose your best one and start to enjoy.

i, personally, like and listen smooth jazz as i listen others as well. some of my friends think that smooth jazz is played in the porn movies and some people think smooths jazz is a kind of jazz that listened only by the people who can not listen and dont like listen original jazz music..and some also say that smooths jazz is played only in hotel lobbies or maybe in restaurants..i dont care what people say about smooths jazz, i easily can say that smooths jazz is great, especially when you have to sit before pc for hours. A great way to relax when you feel that you are a geek before computer. coz today, you cant help to sit before computer and doing your works. this could last for hours and sometimes for days. so, music is best best solution to relax and image the outside while you cannot but sit in the room for a long time..it s also a good channel when you re reading a book..

anyway, if you dont like smooth jazz, try to listen paris cafe or timeless classics options.. you will find an option according to your music taste...have nice times.

JAZZRADIO.com - enjoy great jazz music

jasmine tea and prejudices against green tea

China. It is known as the motherland of tea. You can find any kind of tea there. Thousands of varieties of tea. I have never guessed that China is such famous for its tea. People (most of them) can not drink coffee and they got used to drink cola and other beverages in the near future. Speaking of people in history, tea should be the only drink that has been drunk and served. As a matter of fact, this custom has been maintaining till today. It doesnt matter where you go, and what part of China you have been, as soon as you sit, tea will be served.

This custom is so similar to ours in Anatolia. but the tea we serve is black tea. Any place you go, you will find only one kind of tea and one serving method: black tea in a special tea-cup with two pieces of sugar.

If you read the book, yes, I would love another of glass of tea, which contents the letters of an American woman and her adventures in Turkey, you will see so clearly the interesting customs of Turks and our tea serving habits. -I would love to write a post about this book but it has not finished yet-.

Here, I want to give point to the similarity of our culture but i should add also that tea was not a part of our culture. Instead, coffee has been drunk during the Ottoman era. But today, it is known that coffee belongs to American culture and tea is a part of our Anatolian culture. Intermixed cultural habits. Anyway.

ah, I was talking about tea and China. Getting back to subject, it is very little known that even the word we use for tea in Turkish comes from Chinese. 'Cha' is used to refer tea in China and we use 'çay' to refer and they pronounce almost same. History of tea in Turkey can not pass one hundred years while it is thousands years in Chinese history.

When i was in China, probably thousands of cups of tea has been served to me and i might to drink only ten cups of them, maybe less. I have been there more than five years and drunk just little of green tea? It is so hard to imagine it but that is the truth. Unfortunately.

I have never thought about it till i move to Taiwan.

I got used to drink Jasmine tea after went to Taiwan.. I ve never drunk it before but I am drinking it now with pleasure. When i got used to drink green tea, I figured out that I couldn't drink it only because it came to very bitter to me. Coz I have added a lot of sugar in my tea and I could drink only if i did so.

At first, I tried to drink jasmine tea by adding a little sugar and later on, it came to very strange to drink sweet. It is a bit bitter but you can feel the real taste of it. I still can not drink black tea without adding sugar but it s not same for green tea.

Green tea is more healthy and more tasteful. Since start to drink green tea instead of black, I have been criticized by the Turkish people around me. They are getting angry (of course not seriously) to me just because i drop to follow our own Anatolian culture. I insistently tell them that tea is not a part of our culture as i mentioned below, if you pull me to drink coffee, that can be acceptable but if it is black at issue, you don't have any right to criticize. :)

"There's A Soldier In All Of Us"

elections and methods

The new communication technologies and human-oriented media have power to affect the process of political campaigns directly. Due to existence of the new communication technologies, people can reach all kinds of information with just a click. Voters want to know everything about the candidates such as which party the candidate belong to, what his/her promises and what is the detail of his/her campaign. So, it can be said easily that politicians who considering the influence of the internet on the society, become more successful in elections. Internet is the best way to reach to voters. Most of parties and candidates are aware of that reality and use this way to spread their campaigns. On the other hand, a new media has emerged with the communication technologies alongside the old media in recent years. Netizens frequently use this media and it plays an important role in elections: Blogs. Due to its simplicity updating and becoming also an easy way to exchanging information, blogs can be counted as the most ideal media tool of nowadays. So, social media is the cheapest and fastest way to reach the voters directly and therefore, blogs that offered by these technologies, play an important role in current events and also in elections. The best example of the issue is 2008 United States presidential election. In this election, millions of voters signed to Obama and McCain blogs by writing their opinions and comments. I think we can get the importance of the blogs better and better if we can see clearly how blogs kept an A lot of information and communication technologies are being used in the process of political communication and usage rate is increasing every passing day. Especially if it used properly, internet is the best way to send unlimited messages and reach unlimited people to obtain better results. New communication technologies offer blogs in recent years and it is known as ‘internet blog’. Blogs have simple structures and could be updated everyday. They are the best and simple platforms to discuss all election campaigns. During the United States presidential election in 2008, both Obama and McCain actively used their blogs and connected directly to millions of voters. and it was seen and proved that the blogs are so effective on the decision of voters. so, politicians which use social media and blogs effectively, can reach more people and can announce all campaigns. to use social media and blogs will bring more success to u, and you know what amigo, it s no matter which field you are in. ;)