Toll Booth will be screened at MoMA from January 12th to the 18th every day except the 17th. Full schedule is available here. Tickets cost $12 each.

Washingtonians are getting a better deal: Free screening for everyone! But there will only be one screening, on January 14th at 2pm. More information can be found here and on the Facebook event page.

Tolga Karaçelik, director of the movie, will be present at the January 12th screening in New York and at the January 14th screening in Washington, D.C. He will be accompanied by actors Serkan Ercan, Zafer Diper, Nur Fettahoğlu, Nergis Öztürk, Sermet Yeşil, Büşra Pekin, producer Engin Yenidünya, and many others.

This movie is presented by the Global Film Initiative. Don’t forget to visit the official web page (sorry, Turkish only!).

Friday, June 17th was a day with a lot of clouds around New York City, and hours of heavy rain, all the way until 6:00pm! So much heavy rain forced the organizers to seriously consider canceling the event, but luckily the rain stopped before the scheduled start of Istanbulive. Zülfü Livaneli later mentioned in his talk that while he was leaving his hotel for the concert, he told his wife that he was not expecting a single person to show up for Istanbulive. More than 3,000 people did, and they didn’t regret it! Fans gathered at the SummerStage to have an amazing time with Manga, NY Gypsy All-Stars and Zülfü Livaneli.

Manga at the SummerStage

Manga performed their favorite Turkish songs such as Beni Benimle Bırak, Dünyanın Sonuna Doğmuşum, and Bir Kadın Çizeceksin. They also performed English songs including their famous Eurovision song We Could Be The Same which brought them the second place in Eurovision Song Contest in 2010.

After Manga, NY Gypsy All Stars took the stage and entertained the fans with traditional Balkan songs as well as songs from their upcoming album, planned to be released this September.

And lastly, Zülfü Livaneli took the stage. He started his concert with his song Merhaba which means Hello in Turkish, and greeted the audience. Livaneli’s concert included performances with special guests Al Di Meola, Lina Orfanos, Selloane Lekhoaba and Demet Sağıroğlu. It was another night where Livaneli fans attended his concert ‘to sing as well as to listen Livaneli songs’ as Livaneli describes. Thousands of fans sang along songs like Leylim Ley, Gün Olur, Sevda Değil, and Güneş Topla Benim İçin.

In the amazing atmosphere, a surprise birthday cake with candles was presented to Livaneli on stage for his upcoming 65th birthday. Livaneli thanked the audience for the great ‘birthday party’!

After the concert, Istanbulive after-party took place at Drom. Istanbulive fans had fun with NY Gypsy All-Stars on stage.

Turkish rock band Manga took the stage at Drom on Saturday, June 18th. Manga fans got to enjoy the songs of their favorite band one more time. After the concert, the group members mingled with the fans, so it was a great opportunity for the fans to get autographs and have their pictures taken with the band members.

Livaneli at Drom

On Sunday, June 19th, Zülfü Livaneli fans gathered at Drom this time for a special screening of the movie Veda. The movie, which is based on Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s life, was written and directed by Livaneli in 2010.  Right after the screening, a special performance of the scores of Veda and Bliss, the movie based on Livaneli’s international bestselling book, were performed. Afterwards the audience got the opportunity to have a Q&A session with Livaneli. The questions were about Livaneli’s books, movies, musical and political life, and current political climate in Turkey. After the Q&A session, the event ended with book signing of Bliss.

It was a very nice weekend full of music and culture. Turkspot team is already excited about the next year’s show!

Istanbulive II in 2010

Istanbulive is taking place tomorrow, Friday, June 17th, from 6pm to 10pm in Central Park. This year’s lineup includes Turkish rock band Manga, New York based ethnic band NY Gypsy All-Stars (read more on our earlier blog post), and finally legendary Turkish folk musician Zülfü Livaneli. Demet Sağıroğlu (and read more on her here) will also make a guest appearance.

The third of Istanbulive festivals is taking place on a Friday for the first time; but since it doesn’t start before 6pm, you can still make it to the Central Park on time to enjoy great music. Don’t forget, you can also grab something to eat at the festival area!

Don’t worry if you miss the show: NY Gypsy All-Stars will perform at Drom for an after-party; and Manga will follow the next day, June 18th, for another gig also at Drom. On Sunday, Zülfü Livaneli will appear at the same venue for a book-reading (Bliss) and a film-screening (Veda, in Turkish with English subtitles) as well as a Q&A.

It seems like New Yorkers will enjoy a highly memorable weekend. Why don’t you start relaxing with a song by Zülfü Livaneli:

First, a few words on Drom NYC… This Turkish-owned and operated club offers a both cozy and chic atmosphere – doesn’t sound like your usual combination, right? The place caters to different crowds; featuring concerts and performances by soul&funk, electric, jazz artists and bands as well as famous Turkish performers (see the list of artists). Besides the glamorous musical experience, kudos to the interior designer of this place – nice bar area with a decent dance floor and stylish seating area with comfy seats and ottomans all around the place. We didn’t dine here, however according to their website, the kitchen offers Tapas style Turkish and Mediterranean dining. All in all, the ambiance is very pleasant.

Now, more on the stars of the night… Demet Sağıroğlu is a well-known singer in Turkey, a very beautiful, strong voice which we were fortunate to experience live! Demet started her music career as the back vocal to Kayahan, considered one of the masters of the Turkish pop music. Later in 1994, she released her first album, ‘Kınalı Bebek’, an immediate and long-lasting success. Listen to the most popular song from this album with the most brilliant music video of its time!

Demet’s live performance is really worth watching, her singing is very soft and smooth and very adaptable to the band’s style.

Talking about the band… Wowww! NY Gypsy All-Stars is a wonderful combination of very talented musicians from Greece to Macedonia to Turkey and to Brooklyn. The lead of the group, Ismail Lumanovski, is a notable virtuosic clarinet genius. He is accompanied by Tamer Pınarbaşı, the fingers behind the beautiful Quanun; Panagiotis Andreou, the 2010 ‘Best Latin Jazz Bassist’; Jason Linder, the keyboard player who is also a composer and an arranger; and finally Engin Günaydın, the drummer who we got to meet in person and tried to trick into performing in the DC area

NY Gypsy All-Stars’ music, as the name implies, is Gypsy style – a theme from the Balkans and Eastern Europe. Hence, the melodies are very familiar to the Turkish crowd. One amazing fact is that they played almost all night long and never lost their energy and enthusiasm. During our conversation with Demet Sağıroğlu (yeah, we got to chat with her, too!!), she also expressed her admiration towards the band. That’s probably why she ended up going back to the stage after her gig. NY Gypsy All-Stars is one impressive band we’ll be keeping an eye on, for sure!

maSKott, spun out from Kargo and formed by Koray Candemir and Serkan Çeliköz, will be performing in New York on April 22nd and in Boston on April 23rd. After performing in Seattle last year, they had a series of concerts in Turkey December through February. Now they will be entertaining their fans in the North East.

Down in the South, Hadise, who represented Turkey in 2009 at the Eurovision Song Contest with Düm Tek Tek, will play a gig at Hallandale, Florida on April 21st. She recently released a new album called ‘Aşk Kaç Beden Giyer?’ and will be introducing her new songs at this concert.

Now little bit of trivia:

• maSKott members live in Seattle, WA, when they are not in Istanbul.
• Kargo, Candemir and Çeliköz’s previous band, partnered with Mirkelam and released an album named RRDP in 2010.
• Hadise was born in Belgium.
• Hadise was in the USA last year when the Turkish National Soccer Team played friendlies in the USA. She even sang the Turkish National Anthem before one of these games.

You can tube maSKott’s latest video Melekler Şehri right here:

Photo by Madison Priest

Back in October, we reported that Pera Mediterranean Brasserie would be rolling out its food truck in New York City. Since then it attracted many people. Actually, people liked it so much that it was declared to be the Food Truck of the Week by Huffington Post. Congratulations Pera!

I must admit, we didn’t get a chance to eat there yet. But I now know what I’ll be getting next time I am in the Tavern on the Green area: lavender and honey roasted chicken and smoked lamb (both in zucchini pancake), complete with baklava and some Turkish Coffee.

Did you eat Pera’s Turkish Tacos yet? Share your experience with us.

Big thanks to Istanbul Eats for the tip.

The play, written by Ayşe Eldek-Richardson, is based on ‘Gazi’nin Hüzünlü Aşığı‘, a novel by Nehir Roggendorf. The play is directed by Zishan Uğurlu.

The play will be preceded by an auction to raise funds for TARTE. The items featured in this auction include jewelery, a designer dress, a gift card for a workout at Serious Strength Studios, and a hand-painted bowl.

The play is on Friday, January 28, at the Symphony Space at the Upper West Side, NYC. It starts at 8.15pm. Click here to purchase your tickets.

The restaurant was sold out for the late night celebrations. There was even an earlier session for people who could not reserve a table for the late night session or who decided to celebrate the New Year’s earlier.

The program included performances by a band, a belly dancer, and a singer, and loads of delicious food. The band, called Hasan Isakkut Ensemble, is composed of two Turkish musicians, an Argentinian musician, and a Greek musician. They play the kanun, a base, a drum (that looks like a stool!), and the guitar. The whole experience resembled a well-performed fasıl night.

During the performance of the Hasan Isakkut Ensemble, a belly dancer showed up and performed the best belly dancing performance we saw for over 5 years. She danced for about 15 minutes.

Then came Suzan Aktay (linked page under construction). Technically she sang live, although she just sang over pre-recorded sound tracks without any band members. Her sole companion was her DJ/sister to play the next sound track using an MP3 player. The songs were quite nice, but they could not make up for the missing live instruments.

Fortunately, Hasan Isakkut Ensemble took the stage again and played for the rest of the night. The live music continued until about 3am with lots of people dancing on the dance floor.

Now let me talk about the food – oh the food! We started with some bread along with yogurt and pepper based sauces. These were followed by cold appetizers: shepherd’s salad, cacık, hummus, roasted eggplants, and ezme salad. We were just getting over the shock of having so much delicious appetizers when our server brought us the hot appetizers! Sigara böreği, Arnavut Ciğer (pan-fried liver), and Calamari. All of the appetizers were delicious – as in we were really impressed how delicious they were.

After the appetizers, we picked a main dish from a list of about 12 options. We picked çöp şiş (thin-sliced lamb kebab) and mixed grill. They were pretty good, but by the time we started our main dishes, we were already full. So we couldn’t fully enjoy the main dishes… Our quest for good food continued through a large plate of fresh fruits and ended with baklava (which was OK, but not the best we had). We should also not forget the Turkish coffee and the loose leaf tea we had.

Trivia:

• A La Turka was used to be called Sultan.
• Hasan Isakkut has lived in New York since 1989. He has been a professional musician all this time.
• The song embedded below by Hasan Isakkut was covered by Muazzez Ersoy.
• Hasan Isakkut’s album is available on Amazon.
• Suzan Aktay always wanted to release an album in Turkey, which she did! The album is called Mucize.

Here is a song by Hasan Isakkut: “İnan hala seviyorum”

The instruments that will be used at the performance range from Bağlama and Daf to Ney and Zurna. The group played at a similar performance last year in Ankara with the participation of the USA Ambassador to Turkey of the time, James Jeffrey. The performance was deemed a success.

The concert is on December 20th and starts at 7.30pm. At this point, however, it is not very clear how you can purchase tickets.

More information about the group and the venue:

• The group is led by former ATAA President Ercüment Kılıç. His wife, Melda Kuyucu Kılıç, is the lead singer of the group.
• Turkish audience is familiar with the Carnegie Hall. Earlier this year, Sezen Aksu performed at the Carnegie Hall. Before that, Sertab Erener and Fahir Atakoğlu performed at the same venue about 3 years ago.
• The group has 12 members: 11 men and the female lead singer.
• Group’s two albums, “Santa Claus is From Turkey” and “From Turkey With Love”, will be distributed in the USA for educational purposes.

He will first perform in Arlington, VA, at The Salsa Room on December 15th. The next performance will take place two days later, on December 17th, at Slaviya in Washington, D.C.’s Adams Morgan neighborhood. Then he will move north to New Jersey to perform at La Quinta Hotel in Secaucus on December 18th. The next day, December 19th, he will perform at the LQ Club in New York City.

The concerts are organized by Us Productions. For tickets and more information click here!

Now a short trivia:

• Volkan Konak calls himself “The Son of the North” (Kuzeyin Oğlu)
• His father died of cancer. Konak blamed the Chernobyl Disaster for his father’s passing away. Following his father’s and his musician friend Kazım Koyuncu‘s deaths, he lead his own research into the effects of the disaster in the Turkish Black Sea region (related news story in Turkish).
• He provides fellowship to some 50 students (related story from his official website in Turkish).