Istanbul

This months program is a collection of five animations made by artist Gökhan Okur.
Working mainly as an illustrator, Okur experimented by adding time to his illustrations.

His animation Last train ride was featured in our first edition of the festival in 2006. We’re proud to welcome him back with the première of his latest work: "Off the phone".

http://www.streamingfestival.com/program/gokhan_okur.php

http://www.gokhanokur.com

we went to the Gar Musichall during my last trip to Istanbul. they have bellydancers, Anatolian folk dancing and other traditional dances. this girl moved so fast yet stood still - I don't know how she did it. but my favourites were the men in black with their precise moves - one walked en pointe!!

23/05/2008

after the dancing a singer sang songs from different nations in their native language. and people from the audience danced on the stage. most danced their country's traditional dance. I wondered what Australia's national dance was. when he sang an Australian song it was Waltzing Matilda. this must be how we're seen overseas. the audience were mostly an older crowd - there were a lot of tour buses outside so I'm guessing most people were in tour groups. they all looked like they were having such a great time. I hope I can look that happy and enjoy dancing at their age! it was great to see them enjoying their dances & dancing. now.. I just need to discover what the Australian dance is..

more photos @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/aliak_com/tags/bellydance

this is the page you receive should you try to access YouTube whilst in Turkey. at first I thought it was a problem with the hotel internet connection in Istanbul, but I could (almost) read / understand some of the text of the message. and I googled it and found many articles about it from 2007. and there's an updated 2008 wikipedia entry saying this is the second ban.

Agit - (pron. aught ??) Kurdish women wailing in music. traditional in Eastern Turkey

book (Andrew bought) - "Journey of a Sufi musician"

other music styles : Fasil, Arabesque music

music of Turkey wikipedia entry