Istanbul

Every morning I took the tram and the bus and was thinking what I will write here for this trip. Unfortunately it seems that I only have nice thoughts when I am not in front of a computer.

The story, therefore, will be told in pictures.



First day in the bazaar. I laugh and wish I could take everything I see with me.



The vue from the conference. The early morning with the beautiful light. The sea, ah the sea.



The 'blasphemy'. I loved seeing the arabic inscriptions from the Koran in Hagia Sophia. It looks as if this is a place where anyone could feel close to God.



The night is the same everywhere in Mediterranean: light and loud.



The old and new Istanbul.

I want to come back here soon.

Seeing double

I'm is Istanbul, blogging from me hotel room. When I took the taxi to come here, I thought I was seeing double: I thought I was in Athens! I know it is a tremendous cliché but it's true! We look the same, the greeks and the turks and our cities look the same. And they're in love with my name! It is Turkish so they always ask me if I am from here.

I'll write more about this beautiful city.
For the time being: long live the enemies of the state!

Why I love this country

After a day of pouring rain, it is almost ironic that I'm writing a post with this title, but this is Friday after all and this is the day that I get constantly reminded why I like where I live. It is the day of Jonathan Ross and Jools Holland and tonight the latter kicked ass. If you're not living in the UK, then perhaps you don't know the eccentric Jools with the über eclectic music taste. Tonight started slow, with Coldplay in the studio, who after a slow start played the song of the night: 42, singing...

Those who are dead are not dead
They’re just living in my head
And since I fell for that spell
I am living there as well
Oh..

Time is so short and I’m sure
There must be something more

Amazing lyrics, I think, ones that I haven't listened for so long.
And then the true hidden jems of the show step in, Sia and Amy LaVere. Listening to them reminds me why it's important to let yourself be impressed by stuff you've never listened to before. Comfort of the known is nice, but newness, well newness is what it's all about.





Very different performances, but oh so sincere...
So, well done UK, God save the Queen.

Impoliteness

I would like to propose a game to everyone who is interested (I hope that at least Lady V is): what are the funniest/nicest and rudest quotes from movies (or perhaps real life) we have ever heard? I thought of this game because I've always wondered how rude language can sometimes be so strangely interesting and cool (I do realise I'm sounding like an adolescent here. Alas, it's the truth).

Here are some pieces of impoliteness that I've always loved:

- You pathetic rebound fuck, now get your patchouli stink out of my store! Move it, lard ass, now! Dumb motherfucker.. - High Fidelity

- You mean, let me understand this cause, ya know maybe it's me, I'm a little fucked up maybe, but I'm funny how, I mean funny like I'm a clown, I amuse you? I make you laugh, I'm here to fuckin' amuse you? What do you mean funny, funny how? How am I funny? - Good Fellas, what a classic!

- I'm a mushroom-cloud-layin' motherfucker, motherfucker! Every time my fingers touch brain, I'm Superfly T.N.T., I'm the Guns of the Navarone! - Pulp Fiction

-Dios mio, man. You pull any of your crazy shit with us, you flash a piece out on the lanes, I'll take it away from you, stick it up your ass and pull the fucking trigger 'til it goes "click." - Big Lebowski (and while we're at it, nobody fucks with the Jesus)

And, if you allow me an ultimate piece of impoliteness, let me share with you a piece of advice that I've heard a Northern English girl say to another Northern English girl in a Northern English pub many years ago: 'I wouldn't shag him if I had your fanny'. Precious. This has made me laugh for at least ten years. Gotta love the English language.

Enough impoliteness for now, I have to go celebrate the day when my country became a Republic. If you want to share your impoliteness with me, though, my linguist soul thanks you in advance.

Labels

It is a universally admitted truth that labels are bad. And I don't just mean clothes that cost thousands and look silly. I mean labels we put on people. It is funny to think that language constraints the way we think: people are labeled as 'nice' or 'nasty', 'clever' or stupid' and more annoyingly the destructively 'sensitive' or 'strong', 'opinionated', 'feisty' and so on. There are two problems with these labels however.

The first one is that they are useless. Nobody is simply 'feisty' or 'shy'. People are multi-faceted beings with a bit of everything. Not to mention the fact that nobody knows one's true character unless put in a certain situation and been requested to adapt. Nobody knows what he or she is capable of, until they face a situation that makes them exceed their own limits. Also there are so many subtle characterizations that cannot fit one label. Being feisty is one thing but how do you call a person who is feisty most of the times but a true wimp in front of their parents? I have a trait that I don't know how to describe: when I am waiting for the bus to go to work, I get quite nervous if I don't know where I am going to sit. I then try to look inside the bus when I'm queueing next to it and find a seat in advance, so that when I get in I can march decisively towards that seat, without looking insecure or something. How do you call that? I guess one could argue that this is a instance of some other clearer trait of my character, but I don't think so.

The second problem has to do with the actual accuracy of these labels. It seems to me that most of them are superimposed on us by others and are almost always wrong. Once, when you're three, someone thinks you're shy and that label chases you around till you die. Actually, sometimes people actually behave according to these superimposed fake labels, they start believing them and consider them the best way to view themselves. They make decisions according to them, that are usually wrong and torment them for life and can perhaps never be reversed. And all of that because some idiot once made a comment about one's character...

I think people have to actively oppose this. People should be forced to reinvent and reinterpret themselves in a daily basis. Otherwise you run the risk of being a label freak, and nobody wants that!

Nobody can eat fifty eggs or: jump off the roof, Maggie, jump off it.

Good man, it seems. Great actor.

Confidence (and lack thereof)

Where do people find confidence these days? If you are in academia, or even worse in academia and looking for a job, it is all about rejection. Papers gets rejected, job applications go to waste, conference presentations fail to impress. It often seems that this whole hoop-la is only about balancing with oneself. One would think that we would know how to do that since we've gone through a PhD process, a process that (according to my wise friend D) puts you opposite your own mediocrity. We're all mediocre yet when we apply for something we need to persuade people that we are the best. And that exactly is the drama of academics: we know we are mediocre but we have to persuade ourselves and others that we are the next best thing since sliced bread (is this an awesome expression or what?)

The question is where do we find the confidence to do that? From the mirror? - News on that front are not always uplifting.
From the job itself? - As I said failure is an everyday thing.
From teaching? - Well, yes, because sometimes, my students are all I have to get some strength. With their funny little fake-tanned faces looking up at me, nodding along to what I say. Making them understand the crazy things I work on is sometimes what I have to make myself feel better. Is that a bad thing? Am I putting this whole thing down?