Dervish Street Art

Traditional graffiti from the streets of Istanbul. Should I call this a graffiti or a wall painting? Or a mural? What is it supposed to depict? Who did it here, and why? So many questions...

The Ghosts of Pera

A beautiful neoclassical building in Istanbul's Pera district...

...this building almost certainly belonged to Turkish Greeks, until they were forcefully expelled between the period of persecution between the 50s and the late 60s. Now, Kurdish immigrants from the east run a number of bohemian cafes and bars in it.

Haunted in every corner by the losses it suffered in the past, life in Pera goes on.

Weird Fish

After a hiatus of two weeks, I'm back with more posts! Here is a green aquarium I saw in a shop in Turkey, full of weird fish. I can see at least two different species of catfish, and a cichlid. The ghost-like figure in the center is a Notopterid knifefish.

Here is one of the large, unidentified catfish in the tank.

...and here is its mouth. Aquaria have always fascinated me as a child; I could never know what to find in them, and there was always the chance of seeing something new and strange. Now I'm a bit more sad about them, for the fish in an aquarium invariably lead sad, captive lives.

The-O in Istanbul

More than two months ago, I attended an exhibition opening organized by my friend Mihda, seen above on the right-hand side. She runs URA, a gallery-space-thing in one of the busiest districts in Istanbul.

This exhibit in URA was devoted mostly to the documentaries of Bronwen-Parker Rhodes, who is an up-and coming director from London. Here she is.

I really liked her work, especially that one big video that chronicles the lives of some nerds who dress up, act and live like Tolkien-esque orcs.

There was also this one, which peeked into the life of an entomologist. For more of Bronwen's work, you can visit this link.

But arguably, the highlight of the opening night was an "art performance" by a certain The-O; a British-Cypriot performer. Admittedly, I had seen some very poor stuff peddled off as "performance" before in Istanbul, so I didn't have high hopes...

...but this show was really intense. And good.

Halfway through the show, I was viciously attacked by The-O. Here is a shot from my camera just then.

Using complicated Krav-Maga maneuvers, I redirected his attack to an unsuspecting group of Turkish art appreciators standing next to me.

At the end of the show, The-O suddenly dropped as if dead, and proceeded to lie comatose for the next hour.

...not even shock therapy, or being kicked by hot girls, could revive him.

At the end, however, he did move from his place as hunger pressed above all other needs. Mihda and some of our friends took The-O to a local Sutlac (Turkish pudding) place, resulting in a stranger artistic combination than anything that happened before in the night.

Charles Darwin

Only one year left until the bicentennial! Even though his ideas have been heavily built upon, and someone else would have certainly noticed evolution in the natural world had it not been for him, have a happy Darwin Day!

A Littoral Expedition in Bodrum

Every summer, one of my favorite hobbies is taking an afternoon stroll in the littoral zone, turning over stones just beneath the water's surface and meeting the strange creatures underneath...

...As I go along, I usually (and sadly,) find discarded plastic bottles, and use them to "bottle up" some of the more interesting creatures I encounter. I later take their photos in a makeshift studio, and release them back to the waters. Here then, are the results of the littoral photo-expedition I took in August, 2007, in the waters around Bitez beach, in Bodrum.

Here are two tiny juvenile sea urchins and the strange "red object" I found under a big rock.

The sea urchins seem to be the offspring of the common variety found all over the place.

But this... the mysterious "red object" leaves me completely clueless! I first thought it could be a very young sea cucumber, due to the strange sucker-like things protruding from its side. But it also looks like a weird polychaete worm, or a larva of one. Or maybe a flatworm? My best guess at this point is that it is an Aphroditomorph scale worm, but do those things even live in the Mediterranean? Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi, you are my only hope!

Next, we have a more familiar creature, one that occurs in plague-like densities around these parts.

Dancing around like five miniature serpents tied in a knot, these brittle stars are always an interesting sight.

These creatures appear to feed on seafloor detritus. Besides placing them in the group ophiurida, I cannot say anything about their genus or species.

Here is a common sight from Turkish beaches. Behold the bearded fireworm, Hermodice carunculata.(?)

Locally, these critters are known as "sea centipedes" and their scratching, sting is dreaded on every beach. They writhe around in pain and seem to suffer extremely when someone spits on them, thus explaining the local belief that "saliva is like acid to them." Don't worry, I didn't try it.

A close up of the fireworm's main weapons, the white tufts of stinging spikes.

I found a large variety of immature sea cucumbers under some larger stones. If you have been reading my blog for a while, you might remember my previous adventures with sea cucumbers. If you haven't, suffice it say that sea cucumbers are related to sea stars and brittle stars (see above,) and are awesome.

This was the first variety I encountered on the beaches of Bitez. I don't know exactly what any of these things might be, or if they are separate species. They sure looked different enough, so I gave them arbitrary nicknames.

I call this one "the mottled variety." Here is its underside, showing the multitudes of tube-feet.

This one, the "meatball variety," was almost certainly a member of the genus Holothuria.

Here is its top view...

...and bottom view.

Finally, the third kind of sea cucumber I encountered was the "spiny variety". Quite obviously, I named it so after its fleshy spikes, and dazzling spots.

Here is its underside, showing the tubular suction feet again, and also the bizarre green tentacles that surround its mouth. Although all sea cucumbers have these tentacles, only the spiny ones had them this big and this prominent.

Another trick these ones have up their sleeves is their ability to eject their intestines as sticky, string-like gooey filaments.

Here is what it did to my hand! No, that's not what it looks like.

I also found some crabs, again unidentifiable to my armchair scientific knowledge.

These thin, dark ones had long, heavy pincers on proportionally long-ish arms.

UPDATE!

My friends Jonas and Emile tell me that these are Anomuran porcelain crabs, relatives of hermit crabs and lobsters that are not true crabs, but just crab-shaped. Notice their six legs, as opposed to eight in true crabs.

While these larger, heavyset kinds had a peculiar kind of "fuzz" lining up their bodies.

Here it is on macro, showing the cowboy-style tassels closer-up. I don't know if this integument comes from the crab's body itself, or is a sort of symbiotic algae.

As the sun began to set, I found it difficult to go walking over slippery rocks, or photograph what I found under them. I thus returned my invertebrate friends to the sea, and their plastic holding bottles to the trash. I ended my day with an immense sense of satisfaction.

I know many natural history enthusiasts and specialists are reading my blog. If you can identify what exactly these creatures were, I'll be forever in your debt. (or something like that.)

Mystery Sticker

One morning in Asmalimescit, I saw these yellow "street art" graffiti stickers all over the place.

...a few streets later I found the guy who was responsible for them. He was so captivated by his work that he did not notice me snapping a photo from close by.