Get On The Wheel!: In the Blink of an Eye

In the last week- The eastern Black Sea towns, with the dark clouds and rain always possible; And the music- none of it in 4/4 it seemed -5/4, 7/4, 9/8- was exciting, fast. They are still proud of the heritage associated with the kemence and tulum, and you hear it everywhere. The rhythms are fascinating and I felt like in a trance sometimes.
But...I started to get a little bit concerned about money- Turkey is not as affordable as I thought it would be. So while in Rize, I caught a bus, then another, until a day and a half later, I'm in Diyarbakir. Now I'm in the southeast, where there is a Kurdish majority and a more Arabic influence, and ready to head into Syria in a week or so. But for now I slow down and reflect...

The tea filled hills, and rain of Rize.

I love this instrument, the kemence. Like our country fiddle on crack. It is the local folk music, but unlike being relegated to the past, everybody listens to it.

Black Sea rain, never far away in this season.

It strikes me how slow people walk here. It's more of an amble. But when they drive they seem to think they're in a video game. They have vehicular schzizophrenia I think.

Me and the ladies just checkin it out.

Old Seljcuk mosque in Erzurum with the cold hills behind.

I don't know, for public art this stuff is graphic, and caught my eye. It was of course a war and independence memorial, in Erzurum.

War dance, Turkish style. And of course, Ataturk is watching. Damn, does he rest?

Erzurum in the early morning, it was cold in these mountains. Smoke from chimneys filled the air.

Yes, Evis rent a car. I'm telling! We got a lawsuit. And it's no big deal for guys to go down the street holding arms here. Not that different from San Francisco, sure, but for different reasons. It is very different from the U.S.- whole different idea of private space.