A Gilded Planet

Ataturk: The Biography of the founder of Modern Turkey by Andrew Mango My rating: 3 of 5 stars Andrew Mango's biography of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk is a very informative and serviceable portrait of the founder of the modern Republic of Turkey. Mango clearly admires Atatürk and does not try too much to hide his feelings about the man, though clearly he set out to write a book that would clear away some of the mythology that has grown up around the figure of Atatürk in Turkey over the years. At times, his tendency to frame every episode in Atatürk's life as a legend in need of revision to reflect historical evidence and realism can be irksome. Before reading this book, I knew very little about Atatürk, and so I had little interest in hearing about every apocryphal anecdote and rumor followed by Mango's judgement about their relative believability. The book was most effective when it explored the Turkish War of Independence and early formative years of the new Turkish...

On May 22nd, we visited the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art and saw lots of works by many different 20th century Turkish painters and artists. I was pleasantly surprised by the number of female artists that were represented. A few of the artists represented were not Turkish but had worked in Istanbul or Turkey at some point and so their work was being exhibited. Some of my favorites included Fahrelnissa Zeid, Eren Eyüboğlu, Yüksel Arslan and the American Jennifer Steinkamp. The view from outside the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art After the museum we found a small gallery exhibiting new works by the American artist Mel Bochner. His work had a pungent, garish irony to it. Then we left to find lunch. We explored (and by explored I mean we got a bit lost in) some of the narrow side streets of the Beyoğlu district. But getting lost is part of it. In the alleyways, we saw men playing backgammon and drinking tea. For Turkish men of a certain age, this seems to be the primary pasti...

Cappadocia has awakened my inner Indiana Jones. Cappadocia is a remarkable and strange landscape infested with secret worlds, hermetic and sacred, and unlocking their magical wonders constitutes a job for only the most intrepid of archaeologist-adventurers. In a terrain of volcanic anomaly, in underground cities and cathedrals built into caves, we vanquished the the most terrible of our fears. We met loneliness, despair and anguish with curiosity, wonder and braggadocio. I'll begin again. On May 25th, we explored Derinkuyu, the biggest underground city in Cappadocia. There are dozens of underground settlements in Cappadocia, though most are very small and only able to house a few families. The underground city of Derinkuyu is by far the most fascinating thing I've seen on this trip. Derinkuyu stretches deep beneath the earth. The thirteenth level is over 300 feet underneath the surface of the earth. Only the first eight levels are safe to visit. When we reached the...

The abandoned front of Smokey Joe's Artemis Restaurant  Don't go to Faliraki. Ever. It is one of the worst towns I've ever been to in Greece or anywhere else. Faliraki is on the eastern coast of the Greek island of Rhodes. It is infested with the dreary remnants of the most outlandish kitsch and sleaze. On one block you will find the Tiger Tiger Strip Club, on the next Bedrock - a Flintstones themed 'family restaurant - and on the block after that, an abandoned amusement park of horrifying clown faces that looks like it comes straight out of a monster reincarnation of Coney Island. The town is studded with massive, overpriced resorts that aspire to luxury but could never achieve such a thing in the place they are located. Everyone looks like they are taking their last vacation ever before they have to pack it in and face the cruel justice of death. Faliraki: Where the Fun Never Stops Killing You You would never know you're in Greece. All sig...