All stories about "Christy Quirk"

The plastic Santas and fake pine trees that appear in shops immediately after Halloween make Istanbul, a city with a negligible number of Christians, look a bit like a Muslim-owned Wal-Mart during the holiday season. To Turks, "Noel Bayram," as Christmas is called in Turkish, is indistinguishable from New Year's Eve. This year Kurban Bayram, the Feast of the Sacrifice and one of the most important events on the Muslim calendar, fell on the third week of December. So, this month, the merriment that typically accompanies the ritual sacrifice of millions of sheep and goats collides with the trashy frippery of the west's Christmas and the drunken revelry of New Year celebrations on December 31. Places to join the madness after the jump.

A rakı muhabbeti (affectionate conversation over rakı) with lots of friends is the ultimate Istanbul bonding experience. Hundreds of meyhanes (small taverns) crowd the narrow alleys around Nevizade and Asmalı Mescit Sokaks in Beyoglu, attracting noisy groups of Turks and expats alike toasting to friendship and prosperity every night of the week. While food is important to an evening's narrative, rakı is the central character.

While Azerbaijan's capital Baku may be in the news as the latest front line on the War on Terra, it's also well known for a preponderance of brothels that serve its population of horny foreign oil workers, horny oligarchs, and horny young local men who can't afford to get married. In fact, a general rule of thumb is that any bar that you have to walk downstairs to enter can be safely classified as a cat house. Considering this context, the Baku Radisson, one of only three major western hotel chains in the city, seems to be getting ahead of the competition with these advertisements on the baggage claim at the Baku Airport.

[Photo: Christy Quirk]

In an effort to cover the unserved market for T-shirts from nonexistent tours of the Arab world by western bands, graphic designer Brendan Donnelly has produced what he imagines a t-shirt from Joy Division's 1979 show in Damascus might look like. He's also translated classic Velvet Underground and Ramones tees into Arabic. In Men's Style, Donnelly lamented that "Blizzard of Ozz" didn't translate very well, so he had to settle for "Wizard of Oz." You don't need to scour used clothes bins in Beirut or Amman for the shirts. If you're brave enough to make the trip, they'll be available in January at Atrium in New York. Wear with pride on your next Southwest Airlines flight to Phoenix.

No one will blame you if you think the lowly kebab is a limited medium in which to practice culinary arts. Even the usual Turkish mezzes, which are always made with fresh ingredients, can start to taste the same after a while. If you feel like breaking out of your kebab rut and want to see what happens to ordinary meat on a stick in the hands of a master, get on the ferry for a short ride to Istanbul's Asian-side neighborhood of Kadiköy to try Çiya (Güneslibahçe Sokak 43/44).

WFMU's Beware of the Blog alerted us to RecordTurk, an online museum of Turkish album art from all eras and genres. The site's collection of Anadolu rock album covers, from bands that introduced rock 'n' roll to Turkey in the 1960s by combining western psychedelia and Turkish folk music, is particularly juicy. The blog has also dug up old videos from Anadolu rock pioneer and superstar Barış Manço.

The Times (UK) gave a shout-out to Istanbul's best chain restaurants and clubs this weekend. It's a perfect example of the kind of breathless article that gets written after a sponsored junket: no context, no insight, and very little that's actually new. Calling some of these places new might even verge on travel writing malpractice. The article, which also passes judgment on what's "hot," devotes considerable space shilling for the restaurant/bar/club 360. While 360's city view is unparalleled and stopping by for a drink is worthwhile, it opened in 2003, was smoking hot in 2005, and is now firmly on the tourist trail, having been featured multiple times in Time, Conde Nast Traveler, and even on this very site. After your overpriced meal, be sure to buy your t-shirt and key ring on your way out the door.

The recent arrival of the Orient Express in Istanbul, combined with the opening of the Marmaray tunnel at some point in the distant future, is raising hopes of an uninterrupted rail connection between Europe and Asia via Istanbul. While many trains are dubbed the "Orient Express," few of them actually follow the route of the classic rail journey from Paris to Istanbul immortalized by Agatha Christie (Strasbourg to Vienna, anyone?). But for about $8,000, leisure travelers can still take an irregularly scheduled journey from Paris through Vienna, Budapest, and Bucharest in the historic hundred-year-old carriages. The completion of the $3 billion Marmaray Tunnel Project may mean, someday, that European train travelers could make it all the way to China without having to cross the Bosporus by boat.

Contemporary art lovers who like to deconstruct globalization and who also want to get far off Istanbul's beaten path should not miss the 10th Istanbul Biennial, which opens September 8 and runs through November 4. San Francisco-based Hou Hanru (recently interviewed in the Wall Street Journal), curated "Not Only Possible But Necessary: Optimism in the Age of Global Wars," which explores Istanbul's historical and future role as a cultural and economic crossroads. More than 100 artists and artist groups from 35 different countries will exhibit. Even if you don't understand the art, the unusual venue choices give a completely different perspective on the city.

While smart money has Iraq burning for a number of years to come, September is Baghdad is Burning month at the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art. If your local multi-mega-plex has "overlooked" some of the more trenchant documentaries about the fiasco, you can catch up in the Modern's comfy screening room all month long. Highlights of the program include critically acclaimed films such as Iraq in Fragments, The Prisoner, and Gunner Palace. It also features lesser-known, Arab-produced films like Return to the Land of Wonders (by Iraqi filmmaker Maysoon Pachachi) and Blood of My Brother. American experimental filmmaker Cynthia Madansky's PSA Project, a series of 15 war-related shorts, precede each feature.

Istanbul Museum of Modern Art [Official site]

When Istanbul's heat, humidity and smog become too much to bear, cheap and easy relief is only a walk downhill to the ferry docks. It's almost always 20 degrees cooler on the water, and the views of the city's famous Sultanahmet and Galata districts, especially at sunset, are brilliant. Whether up the Bosporus or Golden Horn, out to the Princes' Islands or a tour of shoreline villages, most rides cost about a dollar each and the boats hardly ever crash into large, stationary objects.

Anyone who expects find decent booze in a Muslim country is setting herself up for disappointment. The situation in Turkey is particularly bad, with the only beer available being the headache-inducing, chemical-laden swill sold by national brand Efes. Things are looking up, however. Taps Brewery, the only genuine brewpub in Turkey, actually produces its own beer under the supervision of a German brewmaster. The results -- a strong ale, a red ale, and a kolsch -- are as good as it gets in Turkey. There's a location in Istanbul's upscale Tesvikiye neighborhood (at Tesvikiye Cad., Atiye Sokak 5), which errs on the side of Eurotrash, and a newly opened location in the hopping Asmali Mescit area of Beyoglu (at Sumbul Sofyali Sokak 11). Show up early to get a sidewalk seat for prime people watching. "International" high-end pub grub is served, too.

Taps Brewery [Official site]

Third-world taxi drivers fully deserve the opprobrium heaped upon them. Unfortunately, the good eggs usually get painted with the same brush of rapacious thievery, with nary a chance to get a word in edgewise. Though ostensibly metered and regulated, Istanbul's hacks frequently revert to their traditional habits of applying the "night fare" to rides at 3 p.m., driving like glue-sniffing feral children, and interpreting the city's "smoke-free" ordinance to mean "keep the outside smoke-free by trapping it inside the taxi."

The Turks are usually the first to set up shop in the world's more unpleasant places, especially when there's an opportunity to make money in the hospitality or construction industries. The Turkish-owned Revan restaurant chain has been thriving in Arbil and Suleymaniye, Kurdistan (popularly known as Northern Iraq). With its outdoor garden and bow-tied waiters, the Suleymaniye branch looks like it could just as easily be in Scottsdale (pictured). This week, Revan's second Istanbul branch opens in a restored building in Pera, a neighborhood better known for nightclubs and splendid sunset views than IEDs. The kitchen specializes in Anatolian, Ottoman, and the oft-overlooked Mesopotamian cuisines. Try the tasty Zaza (an ethnic group native to greater Kurdistan) Harhar kebab, from a recipe the owner recalled from his childhood, and the great views of the Golden Horn. Revan's owner is eager to expand. Look for branches soon in Mecca, Jerusalem, and Beirut.

Revan [Official site]

-- Christy Quirk

Istanbul is a relatively easy city for vegetarians, as long as they aren't too picky or get all vegan about it. Nearly every lokanta and meyhane serves a variety of meat-free mezzes (starters), and vegetables can be skewered and cooked over a flame just as easily as greasy lamb. However, should you need to get your veg on, there are a number of places that will cater to your high maintenance dietary needs.

NPR's Ivan Watson, based in Istanbul, simultaneously struck a blow against the clichés of touristic Istanbul and the hype of Eurotash Istanbul by reporting on Karakoy Lokantasi. The restaurant is eminently Turkish: good local food, fair prices, and a hospitable, low-key atmosphere. It's in the center of the city, so it's accessible to visitors; yet it's away from the tourist paths of Beyoglu, so it's delightfully attitude-free. Should you be in the neighborhood and crave specialties from the Black Sea region -- especially those made from beans -- try out Fasuli, which is a few blocks farther up the Bosporus. What Istanbul lacks in international cuisines it amply makes up for in specialties from Turkey's regions, and one of the joys of eating out is sampling unusual regional dishes. The owner of Fasuli brings his beans, as well as other key ingredients like calf meat, butter, and rice, from small towns on eastern Turkey's Black Sea coast. The place is booked solid with boisterous, good-natured groups of Turks on the weekends, so be sure to make reservations. When you're done, walk across the street and choose among a dozen nargileh cafes, where you can sit outside on a giant bean bag, playing backgammon and listening to the prayer calls and boat horns all night long.

Karakoy Lokantasi [NPR]
Fasuli [Today's Zaman]

-- Christy Quirk

The key to a satisfying life abroad is never wanting what you can't have. In a Muslim culture, deprivation comes in several forms, but the most painful is the absence of pork and all its hamtastic by-products. For those who believe that there's nothing that can't be improved by wrapping it in bacon, or for those who, from time to time, get hangovers, this presents a serious challenge. When you're really achin' for some bacon in Istanbul, go find the Kozmaoglu Greek butcher tucked between a busy Shell station and a concertina wire-ensnared Greek Orthodox Church. It's deep in a decrepit neighborhood that's home to Gypsies and Kurds. The homemade peppercorn-encrusted homemade salami (so very delish), sausage, bacon, hams, and chops have been satisfying the neighborhood's remaining Greeks and infidel expats since 1962. Should you want to push the propriety envelope even further, they have a nice selection of Italian wines as well.

Kozmaoglu [Official site, in Turkish]
Pigging Out [Time Out Istanbul]

-- Christy Quirk

If you missed the chance to see Turkish-born "Tripe Artist" Pinar Yolacan's "Perishables" show at the Rivington Arms, in early 2005, hurry to the Yapi Kredi Art and Culture Gallery on Istiklal Caddesi in Istanbul's Beyoglu district before March 28th. Yolacan "confronts western feminine beauty archetypes" by photographing elderly women draped in folds of tripe that in some cases rather effectively "replicate the lax look of their own aged skin." However, if a photo of your grandmother wearing a necklace of chicken heads or a scarf made of intestines makes you consider the "otherness of eastern beauty" rather than want to throw up on the floor, you're a more sophisticated art connoisseur than I am.

Pinar Yolacan
Yapi Kredi Art and Culture Gallery
Yolacan interview:

[Text: Christy Quirk]

Previously: Istanbul's India Obsession, Over Sideways, Under On A Magic Carpet Ride, Istanbul Street Style, The Sonic Garden of Babylon

Lonely Planet has announced the winner of its three minute video competition "Great Moments in Travel." Most of the runners up provide evidence that there's a special place in hell for people who bring video cameras on their travels, which is why the winner stands out from the crowd. Like all the great travel epics, it features dramatic re-enactment, parental folly and medieval headgear. Equally impressive is that the director/star is not a drooling fool after spending a year driving around Europe with his parents and sister in a pop-top VW camper van. Also, check out the interview with the middle aged, black New York Cabbie who moonlights singing Frank Zappa a cappella. Only an Australian operation would find that sheep video entertaining.

Lonely Planets 3 Minute Videos

[Christy Quirk]

Previously: Stalinist Priapus Palace Preserved in Poland, BBC's Top Gear Gets the Borat Treatment in Alabama, Shake and Baku, Istanbul's India Obsession

Just last week, Warsaw's biggest icon/eyesore -= The Place of Science and Culture and Science -- was granted historic status, thus protecting it from the rapacious developers reshaping downtown Warsaw and Poles for whom the 754 foot socialist-realist skyscraper is a daily reminder of Poland's years as a Soviet vassal and who want it torn down. Commissioned by Stalin as a "gift" to the Poles and completed in 1955, the Palace was modeled on similar buildings in Moscow. It hosted a number of notable Party congresses as well as a Rolling Stones concert in 1967. These days, aside from a cinema, theater, swimming pool and lots of crystal chandeliers, its one million square feet of space is largely empty. Recent arrival Kafe Kulturalna, however, is quickly becoming the hottest venue in town for independent music and arty fartsy stuff. Kafe Kulturalna has created a pro-Palace-preservation constituency, most of whom weren't yet born when the Palace's Plac Defilad was filled with Soviet tanks and rock-throwing Poles. Ah, don't worry Mom. The kids are all right.

Poland Palace Preserved
Kafe Kulturalna, [in Polish]

[Text: Christy Quirk]

Previously: Pic of the Day: Polish Cheerleaders, Once the Bronx of Warsaw, Praga is Now Its LES, It's Actually Warmer Inside the Ice Bar, Warsaw Bebop

Top Gear is the BBC's top rated automotive program(me) and its three hosts have taken on their toughest assignment yet -- a roadtrip from Miami to New Orleans . The three cheeky monkeys each have been given $1000 to buy used cars and they best the can come up with are a camaro, a white Dodge Ram and a Cadillac. Ever mindful that "Americans have begun mating with vegetables" they elect to keep a low profile by spray painting "NASCAR sucks" and "Hillary for President" across their boots. Um, by boots we mean trunk though this is just the beginning of an onslaught of cultural missed connections that at once makes one despise and pity ones fellow Americans, an appropriate feeling for Valentine's Day. The trio get in a confrontation with locals at an Alabaman petrol station [around 4:13 in the video] at which they feign surprise. On the blogs of one of the hosts, James May writes, "We'd been warned by some American modernists - i.e. Californians - that the southerners wouldn't take kindly to any of our light mockery of the things they hold dear - Bush, heterosexuality, NASCAR, Country and Western, short hair...But I never really believed they would take it quite that badly." Strange because earlier in the program, May explains to the audience, "Saying Nascar sucks is like punching someone in the face." Yeah, the hicks are homophobic rednecks but these guys are fucking twats.

See the video after the jump! (Or at least until YouTube rolls over for the BBC)

Top Gear [BBC]

[Text: Christy Quirk]

Previously: Mixing Business, Pleasure and Naked Forecasters, Aerial Tramways and Gondolas of the World, Classic Cars in Manahatta

Stretching the elastic definition of "boutique hotel" to the very edge of credibility, the Sultan Inn recently opened in Baku. Its rooms boast the obligatory plasma screens, authentic Azeri carpets and 24 hour wireless - the latter most likely existing only in the realm of fantasy. The good news is that it's Turkish operated, which means it might exceed local service and quality standards (a tallest-building-in-Topeka scenario). Overlooking the old city and the Caspian, its tastefully designed and stupidly named Floor 3 Terrace restaurant has arguably the best location in the city for an evening drink, and the Turkopean food isn't that bad either. Rates start at about $160 for a "standard small room."

Sultan Inn
Where the Fuck is Baku?

[Text: Christy Quirk Photo: Smartsog/TripAdvisor]

Previously: Baku Loses

Turkish photography got a boost last week when Istanbul joined ranks with New York, Frankfurt, Sao Paolo, Melbourne, Solms, Tokyo and Vienna to become the 8th city to host aLeica Photo Gallery. The Istanbul Photography Center cut the deal with Leica to host the gallery and is celebrating its opening with an exhibition by the famed Brazilian photojournalist Sebastiao Salgado entitled "India" through March 24th. The IPC opened in 2003 with an exhibit by native son and noted Leica-user Ara Guler and houses a studio, darkroom and café. One of Director Mehmet Kismet's goals is to expose the next generation of Turkish photographers to high quality work and give them space to exhibit their stuff.

Istanbul Photography CEnter
Tarlabaşı Bulvarı No. 272

[Text: Christy Quirk Photo: Sebastiao Salgado]

Previously: Over, Sideways and Under on a Magic Carpet Ride, Istanbul Street Style, Istanbul's Photo Epidemic

It's wrong to think that the only Russian fashion to have swept America is animal prints, tampon-string revealing skirts and tracksuits. Step aside Devushkas, because Daily Candy has declared Babushka fashion ascendant. Recall the good times of the Great Patriotic War and the gulag as you haul your coal upstairs and slaughter the chickens in your authentic Valenki babushka galoshes. They're a steal at $80 a pair - about the monthly pension of your average babushka, who has been wearing hers with love since the Brezhnev era. These do nothing to disabuse your average stiletto-clad Devushka of her firmly-held notion that American women dress like peasants but do confirm our longstanding view that Daily Candy is part of a larger post-Commie conspiracy.

Daily Candy

[Text: Christy Quirk Photo: Carpetblogger/Flickr]

Previously: Body Shop and Gourmet grocers Come to Moscow, Moscow's Bon Restaurant: Another Starck Creation, Snowsquare Moscow Blog, The Peasants are Revolting, Abandoned Moscow

Walking down Istanbul's Istiklal Caddesi in the early evening is an exercise in avoidance: hopping over recumbent street dogs, dodging perfume peddlers, leaping out of the way of the recently reinstated street cars and evading packs of horny young men in from the village. Obstacles aside, it's the best place to assess the strengths and weaknesses of Istanbul's eclectic street fashion scene, as Elle recently discovered. For every walking tent (chador), there are at least 20 young women in tight denim and excessive accessories, pierced hipsters with multi-hued hairstyles and svelte boys in skinny trousers. The new trend-spotting and review site, Istanbul Street Style documents street fashion do's and don'ts in an around the greater Beyoglu area, from the swish center of local couture in Nisantasi, to the gay-friendly Cihangir to the back alley ateliers of Cukurcuma. It also runs interviews with local up-and-coming designers and trend-setters who give the heads up on hot new shops and studios.

Istanbul Street Style

[Text: Christy Quirk]

Previously: The Sonic Garden of Babylon, Istanbul Photo Epidemic, Markiz Patisserie, Istanbul Visited By the Froogs, $100 in Istanbul, Luxe Guides Go European, Transhit Security Administration

Should you want to catch up on trends in Roma electronica or the new hotness in Turkish hip hop, look no farther than the Babylon club in Istanbul's pulsating Beyoglu district. With a vibrant schedule that has included everyone from Turkish Jazz vocalist Sertab Erener to American alt-country band Lambchop to the Balkanantolian Collective, Babylon rocks the casbah. The Brazilian Girls have a gig scheduled this February. Explore the surrounding Asmalimescit neighborhood's array of excellent restaurants (Asmalimescit Balikcisi for seafood and art, or the popular Refik tavern for quality mezze and Black Sea specialties) for pre-show snacks and post-show drinks.

Babylon
Refik: Asmalimescit Cad. Sofyali Sok. No: 10/1
Asmalimescit Balikcisi: Asmalimescit Mah. Sofyali Sk. No:5/A

[Text: /">Christy Quirk Photo: Edwin Gardner/Flickr]

Previously: Istanbul Photo Epidemic, Markiz Patisserie, Istanbul Visited By the Froogs, $100 in Istanbul, Luxe Guides Go European, Transhit Security Administration