You can call me SL, this is about living.


doorman dressed as a werewolf
Upper East Side Manhattan, NY from my 2009 archive

October 31, 2011

Happy Halloween!

Costumes, pumpkin carving, school parties, trick-or-treating, pumpkin smashing, and toilet papering houses. Minus the pumpkin smashing, I left that to the teenage boys, that about sums up Halloween growing up in a small town year after year.

The only costumes of mine I can recall before the age of eighteen were a pumpkin, a clown with mismatched shoes and a metallic wig, a ghost made from a sheet that was stained around the mouth from a lollipop I ate, and my own interpretation of Minnie Mouse. None of them were very good, handmade by me with very limited resources. I always dreaded the question, "What are you?" I envied the other kids in their store bought, easy to decipher costumes.

The Swede loves Halloween. One year, he decided to join friends at a party at the last minute. I went out to run errands, and he stayed home to make a quick costume. Several hours later, I returned to a seven foot bottle of "Two Buck Chuck", sewn from industrial grade green felt, complete with label, in my living room.

He ended up winning "Best Fabrication" in the costume contest and was gifted with a pen that has the video game Tetris attached to the top. The bottle costume is long gone, but the cheap pen remains. We have never used it as a pen but have spent hours squinting and playing Tetris on a 1 1/8 inch x 1 1/4 inch monitor (yes, I measured it).

archives: Miscellaneous
pigeons in front of The New Mosque (Yeni Camii)
Istanbul, Turkey from my 2011 archive

boy proudly holding a captured pigeon on top of the City Walls in Edirnekapi
Istanbul, Turkey from my 2011 archive

pigeons in Taksim Square
Istanbul, Turkey from my 2011 archive

pigeons roosting on The Column of Constantine (Çemberlitas Sütunu)
Istanbul, Turkey from my 2011 archive

pigeons at Topkapi Palace (Topkapi Sarayi)
Istanbul, Turkey from my 2011 archive

October 20, 2011

Pigeons

Many urban dwellers equate pigeons to rats, referring to them as "rats with wings." Pigeons like rodents and roaches are adaptable, resilient, pesky, and have the ability to survive severe conditions. I have come to feel more affection for pigeons than I have in the past, but to say that I really like them is a stretch. I see them as another entity in the background of urban life, similar to taxis, shouting persons, or fire truck sirens. More despised on my list are seagulls.

(Years ago, one actually had the audacity to swoop down, brush my shoulder, and take a bite from my ice cream cone, while I stood observing sea lions at Pier 39 in San Francisco. My fingers remained intact but my cone did not and that annoyed me. It had been Häagen-Dazs. Unforgiveable.)

The people of Istanbul seem to embrace, rather than reject the massive flocks of pigeons that congregate on and around every major monument. Pigeon feed is sold and purchased outside many mosques and buildings noticeably lack anti-roosting spikes. Mary Poppins and the song and scenes from "Feed the Birds" runs through my mind and so does the threat of being hit by pigeon poop.

Italians say it is good luck to get pooped on, and my brother-in-law once received a dose of "good luck" while we waited to get a glimpse of Pope John Paul II in Saint Peter's Square in Rome. My brother-in-law thought it was double the luck, being christened by a "papal pigeon."

archives: Miscellaneous, Travel
Artist Unknown
Istanbul, Turkey from my 2011 archive

October 12, 2011

Street Art continued...

Surprisingly, there is very little Street Art in Istanbul. I imagined beautiful stylized patterns and Arabic script. A complete naive fantasy. Nevertheless, for a major urban city, I would expect a lot more graffiti.

The little amount of graffiti I have seen seems to be done by a handful of artists. This Istanbul version of "The Eye" is not exceptionally skillful, but the artist is committed to it which I respect. It is a bit fun and happy with its accentuated eyelashes and whimsical line quality. I found it in abundance on a quaint sloping cobblestone street that focuses on selling musical instruments.

Taking an early morning walk gave me an opportunity to see the work on various roll gates that would otherwise be hidden during shopping hours.

archives: Street Art, Travel
cat napping in the Eminönü District
Istanbul, Turkey from my 2011 archive

cat napping in the Eminönü District
Istanbul, Turkey from my 2011 archive

October 5, 2011

Space

With a population of more than 8 million people in New York City, I often find myself needing a little personal space. Unfortunately my needs are rarely met. Just when I think I have found a quiet spot, the moment is shattered by a honking horn, or someone shouting, or some other city noise.

Istanbul has a population of over 13 million people. That is 5 million more individuals that need space of their own. If you count stray cats and dogs into their population, the sum could easily reach 20 million. Purely a guess. How can you estimate the number of strays?

Cats being the agile creatures they are, are found in the unlikeliest of places and here is one who looked like it had finally found a place of its own. Nestled in the shade of a metal roof, I almost missed the ginger haired beauty in the bright midday sun. But luckily for me, it did catch my eye, and I stood there for several minutes gushing over its cuteness and snapping photos. The cat stirred, likely thinking that if it remained still, the annoying paparazza tourist would eventually go away.

archives: Miscellaneous, Travel
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