a friend of mine suggested that i go see the movie half a life (halbes leben in original) which is a documentary about homosexuals living in istanbul. the movie has not been released in turkey yet (chances are, it will not be released in the near future. maybe we’ll have to wait for outistanbul, gay and lesbian films festival). from the website: “homosexuals are only tolerated in turkey, as long as they stay invisible… the film offers five personal stories of turkish queers who do not want to hide any longer.”

A statue of Oguz Aral, the founding father of the Turkish comics magazine tradition during the last quarter of the XXth century, was opened in Cihangir Park yesterday, on the first anniversary of his death from a heart attack

It was a frustrating surprise to me when I heard last week that the successful rock singer Aylin Aslim’s song Güldünya was censored and prohibited by TRT, Turkey’s government-ruled television and radio corporation…

The song’s lyrics are protesting the murder (or the killing in the name of family honor) of Güldünya Tören in February 2004…

As many people keep on ignoring the severe reality, at least a third of all women in Turkey are estimated to be victims of physical violence within their families…

The famous Formula pilot David Coulthard was on the Bosphorus Bridge on Sunday. This was meant as a publicity drive for the Istanbul Grand Prix, which will start on August, 19th. He thus became the first formula pilot to drive from Asia to Europe and then from Europe to Asia in fifteen minutes.

I watched the show on TV and could not help but feel embarrassed of the huge cracks on the asphalt of the bridge. Then Coulthard said that he could not drive fast enough because of the cracks. Kudos to the organizers. Well, then he declared that he made a test drive on the Istanbul Formula track and liked it. We formula lovers cannot wait to watch the races.

probably many have read about this in the local papers around the globe. in Van, a city in eastern Turkey, one sheep jumps off a cliff, is followed by the others and all of a
sudden, 450 sheep are perished and the herdsmen can do nothing, but watch the sheep, a total of 1500, committing suicide one after the other. a perfect example of herding instinct at work, the incident is both tragic and unbelievably zany.

our thoughts and hearts are with our fellow metrobloggers in london and all londoners who survived the blasts. back in november 2003, two suicide bombings hit british targets in istanbul and many innocent civilians were victimised. we could do nothing but feel helpless and mad back then and can do nothing now, but send our condolences to our friends who have been posting about the events on metroblogging london.

3 new cities were added to the metroblog community last week, Lahore from Pakistan being the 30th. The two others are Berlin and Philadelphia A warm welcome to all the new cities and especially to Berlin, the 4th European city on the community along with London, Vienna and Istanbul and the European city with the largest Turkish population outside Turkey.

the ferryboat (vapur in Turkish) is the best and most enjoyable way to travel in Istanbul across the Bosphorus and to the Princes’ Islands. The modern and speedy sea bus catamarans provide an alternative in the rush hours, but they cannot compete with the the scenic joy of the open air decks on ferries, where one can enjoy the view drinking Turkish tea and feed the sea gulls flying along. Although I do not usually drink tea or pay attention to the sea gulls, I love the ferryboats, the sine qua non of Istanbul. Last month, the rumor that ido, the sea bus company operating the ferryboats, would replace the old boats with new, modern ones spread and the ferryboat lovers started a web page to call for protest. thousands of people signed and left notes, shared anecdotes and protested but, due to technical difficulties those cannot be viewed at the moment and my entry becomes kind of obsolete, so i post a photo of a ferry travelling between the islands and bostanci.