david and delpha: our little istanbul life.
episode 1 - the Arrival
may, 30th, 2006

after a month staying with our gracious turkish friend canan, we found this great house, yes, a real 60 year old house with a big yard and garden. quite a rare and secluded little refuge from the concrete jungle of istanbul! and its really cheap. 2 bedrooms, living room, parlor and kithen and bath. it's just us upstairs and our new american friend, bob beer, in the downstairs unit so we have a lot of privacy. the sizable yard has a great garden that bob works on with vegetables, flowers and fig, mulberry, plum and fart(!) trees. 2 patio areas for nice outside meals and a couple of small shacks that we will use as workshop areas. right next to a mosque, we get the call to prayer loud and clear (5 times a day ya' know) as the minaret with speakers is about 30 meters from our window. fortunately the usual muezin(guy who sings the call to prayer) is a very beautiful singer and morning sunrise call in sabah makam is quite otherworldly. small downside is that i have been working very hard the last 2 months just to make it livable as it was in quite a state of disrepair. cleaning , painting, fixing toilet and water heater, etc. almost finished now and its shaped up to be a very comfortable pad. we have lots of animal friends that hang out in our yard. visiting cats we've named fluffer, truman, drippy, cremepuff, betty boop, cheetah, and brothers justin and vincent plus dozens more, almost makes up for lack of remus : ( . also seagulls, crows, red doves(that come and perch in our house when we leave the windows open), lizards, snakes, snails, bats, millipedes(awww), centipedes (ewww), scorpions(ahhh!) and a large mammal called martins. they are about 2 times as big as a squirrel, kind of a big weasel and come out only at night. sometimes they fight and its quite a strange screaming sound that they make.

our neighborhood is a typical family oriented area a bit outside of the touristed areas so life is more less experienced as a real istanbuler(?). these types of neighborhoods have a very small town feel, not what i expected of the city. the folks that work in the nearby cafes, bread and pastry shops, hardware store, supermarkets, water guy, etc. are super friendly and helpful and i often stop by and visit them just for fun when i can. there are 4 outdoor street markets within close walking distance 4 days a week. they are huge and a ton of fun, with everything you can imagine for sale with calls of 'buyrun, buyrun'(kind of a 'here it is come and get it') filling the air. i get most of our produce at these.

istanbul as a whole is also very enjoyable even though it is so incredibly large and over populated(15-20 million!). it is a great blend of old and new cultures. newer areas with ultra modern clubs, restaurants and shops are mixed with old neighborhoods and cultures from around turkey, thrace and greece. the people are wonderfully friendly, extremely generous and genuinely interested in why we are here. we check out live music very often and usually it is free. state funded concerts with the best players plus clubs that have people like selim sesler, one of the best gypsy roman clarinetists, and his band. we are slowly seeing the tourist sites. shopping out the ying yang of course. and the food and pastries... allah allah!

i am studying ud and makam w/ necati celik, perhaps the greatest living turkish oudist. he is extraordinarily generous, giving free classes and private lessons when i want them, plus hanging out at his house with his family and food. right now i am concentrating on excercises mostly plus a few saz samai and peshrevs. i am very pleased with my progress even though its been a short time and i have not yet even been able to devote much to it . darbuka/tabla lessons (in the newer modern turkish style!)are with an israeli named yinon muellam, who is a fabulously well rounded percussionist. he does african, mid east, persian and indian styles and is a very good composer as well as a great guy. again my progress is quite pleasing. amazing what a few lessons with greatness will achieve.

just finished a little tour of north eastern greece to renew my turkish visa. one must leave and come back every 3 months...hopefully will have a residence permit soon to avoid this. i traveled to thrace and macedonia with friend samuel who is studying clarinette with selim. playing on the streets for extra cash and the greeks are very generous with lots of old people and kidz stopping to boogie a little. most heartfelt tip we got was from a little gypsy kid(boy can they dance to a 9/8!). we are doing mostly gypsy roman turkish tunes which you just don't hear much in the states. the style is really great and very smooth with heavy beats. i am learning a bunch of new rhythms: lots of 9/8 variations, and more.

delpha is working very hard for an english teaching school and though somewhat difficult she is enjoying it. since ultimately she wants to be a teacher in the states, it is good experience for her.

best to you all, david (and delpha)

--------------------------------------

Delpha and David's Little Istanbul Existence
Episode 2 - Heat, Hijackings and Concert Halls
September 20th, 2006
(by david)

Our Life, My Wife

Life in general has settled in. We aren't partying as much as we did first off. :p I am practicing ud and darbuka many many hours a day and shopping, cooking, cleaning and normal life stuff. Basically making things cozy for the working wife.

Delpha is still working a lot as an English teacher and has found her groove with that, although the company and people she work for are more or less hopelessly incompetent. She also has been teaching some Raks Sharqi bellydance classes and workshops at a dance studio. She taught a 2 day workshop to 14 Korean ladies who she says were really good. How funny it all is, an American living in Istanbul teaching Egyptian dance to Koreans! She is also taking Roman dance lessons regularly and doing really well with that. Delpha goes to a Roman(gypsy) neighborhood to meet her teacher Reyhan who has her over for hours at a time. First they drink cay, then socialize, then dance, then eat dinner. Everything here is like this, a very drawn out process. You don't just stop by to do something and leave. And because Delpha is out a lot in the real world her Turkish language skills are doing pretty well, mine has suffered as a result of sitting by myself in a room most of the day. But man am I good at buying beans and tomatoes at the market.

I had a few rough weeks at the end of July and August. First I had to do taxes(filed for extension), then got food poisoning, then my back/neck went out from carrying a refilled gas tank for our stove, then I got sick and just when I thought it was better...got sick again. All in the worst heat of the season. So that's my pity party. Fortunately, my spirits are, amazingly, still good and I am greatly looking forward to the coolness that is coming.

The Summer

...wasn't actually as bad temperature wise as we expected, although in a city of concrete and brick it gets pretty uncomfortable, even in the 80's. Fortunately it didn't get over 90 much, though we had very few showers to cool things off, which are apparently normal here. Now we are absolutely entering autumn as the days are only getting to 80 and the we can sleep at night again. I can't complain too much about all this cuz I got to stay home in our little garden oasis(see episode 1) where often it felt a good 5 to 10 degrees cooler than on the street. Delpha is the one who had to go out everyday into the city, or, 'the hammam without water and massage' as we like to call it. God bless her sweaty soul!

Visa Border Run Number 2

Had to go to Greece again to renew my Turkish visa. And was informed at the border that, "One time okay. Two time okay. No three time." The Turks are actually clamping down on infinite visa renewal residency! So now I have to get my residence permit which is a bit of a hassle cuz you gotta go to the government offices and they are NO fun. Unless you like overcrowded, unventilated, unorderly chaos and mayhem with old ladies pushing you out of your spot in line whenever they get the chance. Then it's great!

Oh yeah, the run itself was nice. Got to go with my new friend Peter Jaques who is a really cool, clarinet and trumpet player from the S.F. Bay area. We went to the magical and mystical(ooooh) island of Samothraki. A very out of the way island in the Agean Sea. A cult that became quite fashionable formed there about 3,000 years ago. They built a bunch of stuff that is now falling down. But it was still cool to look at 'The Valley of The Great Gods". The island had almost no foriegn tourists, just Greeks. Typical island stuff to do. It's an okay enough place if you like - yawn - hiking to gorgeous waterfalls, hot spring baths, meandering through ancient villages, swimming in the sea, drinking ouzo, beautiful sunsets and bikini clad women everywhere. Come to think of it, I guess there were some men there too... Really though, it is an outstanding place. The highest of the island mountains(1600 meters) and the nicest one I've been to. And on the way to the boat, I got to meet one of my darbuka heroes who was just getting off. Misirli Ahmet is one of the hottest players in Turkey right now. I just happened to recognize him, got his number, and will be doing some lessons soon. Check out his 'Mel de Cabra' cd. It will blow you mind !

And I didn't get to tell ya'll about the last visa run very much. One crazy thing that happened was that we(Samuel the clarinetist and I) were playing on a busy shopping street one beautiful day in Kavala, Greece. People were dropping cash into our hat left and right, even when we stopped to take a break! We had had no problems playing on the streets. Sometimes people would nicely ask us to move after we had been in a spot for an hour but that was it. Well all of a sudden a police car pulls up, two cops get out and walk over to us. We keep playing. They tell us to stop. We say okay and start packing up our stuff and begin to walk away. "No, no" they say. "you must come with us. Where are you from?" So we say we are from the states. They take our packs and put them in the trunk, and us in the back of the car. On the the way to the big house we find that one of the policemen knows English and tells us. Some business owner complained so they 'have' to take us in and run our passports. Yeah, you never know, we could be some of those internationally wanted musicians or something! So basically we spend about an hour hangin' out in what was about the most fun and relaxing police station I've ever been in. The English speaking cop says that he's been to Oregon and wants to move there, so we chat a bunch. Everyone is looking at us wondering what our crime was. Finally after the passport check, they realize we are not real criminals but they are a little hung up on us having had a hat out for tips. Fortunately, Samuel had takin' most of the cash out right before we got busted, so when they looked in our hat that they had confiscated, there was only about 5 euros in like 10 and 20 cent pieces. They just rolled their eyes, gave us the hat back and said. "No play for money in Greece. You go." Okay guys, have a nice day!

Turkish Hijackings

No this isn't a terrorist plot. It's our name for what happens when you a make plans with a well meaning Turk, yet you did not quite really understand(and maybe they didn't either) what those plans were exactly. A few times now we've gone for a, let's call it a 'field trip', and ended up just this side of timbuktoo. One example: We met this great Roman (gypsy ) family. The father is a prominent teacher of dance and wonderful choreographer and their 14 yr. old son is an up and coming superstar drummer, having already been a performer with the Turkish equivilent to that big Irish group River Dance. So we thought we were going to their house which was "nearby", for some dance and drum lessons. We ended up driving around for 2 hours, finally arriving at some private elementary school !? Um, okay. So we go up into one of the classrooms and there are about 30 little kids, looking very cute with big darbukas(drums) on their laps which way outsized them, and banging the hell out of 'em. Then our friend Naci, who we realized was their teacher, pulls out some huge oversized rhythm charts and they all start playing these really cool percussion arrangements! Then as quickly as it started, they all got up and ran out.... so we sat there with the son, Baris, and had 'tost', turkish grilled cheese sandwiches. I then got to have my first public performance in Turkey! Naci comes back in and grabs me and Baris, takes us down to the schools theater where there are hundreds of family members of these little kids. Apparently this was their year end festivities. So we played a few little impromptu tunes for them. Then Delpha and I got to sit and watch the entire ceremony, teachers getting their gifts from the students, students getting their diplomas... all accompanied by piped-in Turkish pop music, oh, and frequent chorus's of Queen's 'We Are the Champions'. after 7 hours or so, we finally got back home....

Ataturk Concert Hall, Here I Come

I met my Turkish friend Halil in our ud class. He is a really great guy, an excellent player, and working on being a lawyer. We frequently go out for cay(tea) or something after our ud class. One day he calls me up (his English is very good), and says that he plays with a group of people and they need a percussionist for a little performance. He tells me they are medical students and are having a little ceremony for their graduation. So we go to this hospital/teaching facility where they go to school, down in the basement to the 'music club' room, and have a few days of practice sessions. A nice little ensemble with ud, kanoun, ney, a vocalist, and me on drums, we are playing Turkish 'Sharki' or songs. Kind of classical in nature, old popular tunes.

The night before we were to perform, I asked them, "So, we'll meet here in the morning ?".
"Oh, no" they say, "go to Taksim Square"(the really big, main hub of town).
"Um, why?", I reply.
"Do you know the Ataturk Concert Hall?" they ask (Ataturk being the George Washington of modern Turkey).
"Yes", I say, getting nervous. "Is it around that area?" I naively ask.
"Oh no, THAT is where we are playing."
"Wait a minute....you mean the 1,000 seat concert hall that my Master Ud Teacher Necati Celik plays in?" asks I.
"No.", they say, "The 1,500 seat hall that is behind that one."
How do Shaggy say? ZOINKS!

Well it was a more than a packed house, barely was there standing room available. 300 med students were graduating and this culture is so family oriented, every person of their extended families, from every nook and cranny of Turkey came. And ALL of them had cameras and videocams. You wanna talk about paparozzi? When we walked out on stage, and during our whole 20 minute performance, it was a solid wall of flash bulbs. Now I know how Tarkan, the Turkish pop star, feels !!

Documentary

My friend Lara and I were talking a few months ago and she said something about taking lots of pictures for a slide show and that got things kickin' around in my head. So I've commenced work on a documentary of the current master musicians of traditional Turkish music. It will be a photo and audio essay featuring interviews with the current great players and their music, plus a photographic overview of life in general in modern Istanbul. I just got a new camera to do the work and have been going out and shooting. It's a lot of fun and soon I'll start doing the interviews and recordings. Hopefully I can get the post production done by 2008, and start taking the presentation out to do lectures at schools, universities and community groups.

Music Stuff

I was out buying some saz to ship to the states and happened to ask the owner of the shop if he knew a kaba zourna teacher(that's a really big one, Zourna= very cranky oboe!). So he calls this guy and I meet him at one of these old man sitting around playing cards and fiendishly smoking ciggies places. He is a full time musician, speaks English, has great contacts and can and will teach me zourna, but also mey/duduk(a soft sweet melancholy double reed) and davul(bass drum). For free! He says he doesn't really like to play zourna(but is always hired to do it) or teach but he will take me on as a hobby as a favor to this saz shop guy. Pure dumb luck. So we are going out soon to get me some instruments. And I always wanted to try mey but I can't do everything, can I? But he says I should start with that cuz its easier to blow, it's quieter(!) and it fingers the same as zourna. So it's a good transition into the big z. It also seems his contacts will make him a great source for my documentary, which he thinks is cool. His story is interesting too. His grandfather was a real asik. Like the classic saz playin' folk singers...and his grandfather also wrote poetry, one of his pieces was turned into a big orchestrated song by Arif Sag, one of Turkeys most popular saz players.

So Here's a Funny Li'l Story About Flying Around the World

When we were about to depart for Istanbul in February, we were sitting on the tarmac in Minneapolis. I, feeling a Monty Python-esque moment, said to Delpha "Wouldn't it be funny if somebody just started puking BEFORE the plane started moving? Like they couldn't even think about possible turbulence without getting sick". HA. HA. Well...the night before we left Amsterdam we ate at a funky little hippie veggie place that i wasn't feeling very good about. The food was good but, being a restaurant worker for too many years, I just had a feeling... Well, while we were getting in line to board the next morn, and without getting into too much detail, I suddenly had to excuse myself...like a few times over. I thought all was okay when we got onto the plane. But after being seated and waiting on the tarmac, irony reared it's oh so ugly head, and I had to scramble for the happy bags. "Wouldn't it be funny?!" Oh it was hilarious. Let me say, KLM is a wonderful airline and quickly responded with hot towels and such. They offered me some soothing beverages and a seat in first class(I told them it was food poisoning), but I assured them all was okay now. Well it wasn't. So then they more or less forced us to first class which was almost empty. I guess the people around me in the cramped coach couldn't take it or something. Worked out well, Delpha got a full meal, drinks and ice cream, and I got to lay down over 3 luxurious first class seats! So if you ever wanna get into the nice seats but don't have the $, you now know how to do it.

Perspective on Turkish Bombings

You may have heard about the recent bombings in Turkey. Well this is one downside to life here. There is a long standing problem between the government and a small radical wing of the Kurdish revolutionary group, the PKK. They randomly bomb things, usually a garbage dumpster and sometimes a bus or dolmus(little bus or van). Usually they are actually targeting normal Turks and trying to scare them, now they are also aiming at tourists in the resort areas as well. We are always watching the situation so don't be worried for us. It's kind of like being worried about your safety in Portland because you heard someone got murdered in Los Angeles. It's a big country and city and the chances of being in the wrong place at the wrong time are pretty small. That said, if things did get worse, we'd probably take a break.

Infestation

We have had numerous uninvited visitors in our house. Mice, millipedes, ants, sensars/martins(big weasel like things), geckos, etc. But a few weeks ago we kept hearing the crying of baby somethings nearby. The city is full of cats so figured it must be that somebody had a batch near. But it was driving us crazy cuz they sounded sooo close but we couldn't find them. So one day I am practicing my darbuka, really crankin' away, and I keep hearing crying. I stop to look out the window and decide that I'm gonna go find 'em NOW, come hell or high water. But just then I see a little head poking out from behind a mattress we have against the wall! And there is one of the neighborhood cats, 'Cheetah' we call her. Upon further inspection I found that she had brought her 5 little ones into my music room and was nursing them there. Since we normally leave the windows open, she climbed the stairs, went out the stairway window, and walked the ledge over to my room, with every baby. She has since moved them thrice, once to the top of the steps, and when they started moving around, to the bottom of the underside of the steps, now they live in the yard behind us...

D and D

No we are not sitting around with role playing games. Delpha and I are quickly approaching our first wedding anniversary! Most people don't know that on October 5th of last year, we got legally married in the Bijou Cafe in Portland over a little lunch. Of course we had our ceremony and party on December 30th. So here we are...I just wanted to say that for a guy who never thought about marriage, I never expected it could be this good! We are very much in love and are enjoying our lives together greatly. I am a lucky guy.

That's it for now, much love to ya'll. Be in touch and have a happy autumn!
David (and Delpha)

----------------------------------------

February 2007

(little)Life Update from David and Delpha

Many people have written lately asking about our return, as we had previously stated that we'd be returning to Portland in early summer. Well, we have decided to stay in Istanbul for one more year! The main reasons are of course that we are enjoying our lives and studies here and just aren't quite ready for this adventure to be over. Plus, we made it through the winter in our coal heated home, and the sunny and warm part of the year - and the tulips - are coming real soon!

The extra time will allow Delpha to delve deeper into her study and understanding of Turkish Rom(gypsy) dance and culture. And because of the work of Delpha and our friends Janet and Jessiah, their dance teacher Reyhan is gaining exposure, with students visiting from all over the planet to learn from her. And in April, Reyhan will be making her very first trip to the U.S.A. to teach a workshop!

Of course I'll also be continuing my work with percussion and ud, with hopes of challenging myself(and others!) with the playing of zurna. I am also threatening to again pick up the instrument of my youth, trombone, in order to play Turkish Roman music. They are already using trumpet and sax, so the trombone should fit right in and is actually very well suited to this style of music. This extra year will also allow me to do a more thorough job with my 'Sights and Sounds' documentary.

Thank you all for your emails and support. We miss you and the community of Portland, but know that we are well, and should come back better and stronger than ever and looking forward to sharing what we have experienced.

Best to you all,

David(and Delpha)