At Riddim Bar

Nope, these are not scans from one of H.R. Giger's amazing books.

"If not, then what?" You might ask. Well, these pictures are all on walls.

And the walls belong to one of Istanbul's largest and oldest rock bars, Kemancı.

These murals were painted here by one of the students of Galip Tekin, one of Turkey's most famous fantastic comic artists, who ran this place as a "hobby." Some hobby!

Kemancı used to cover three whole floors, with different concerts and music on each. These intricately copied paintings decorate the stairs between different floors.

They are all reproductions, but these pictures were so good that a local legend soon grew, that Giger had painted them himself, and what's more, these pictures were the originals!

Of course, something later happened that put these images slightly out of context.

That "something" was R&B music. As hardcore rock and metal music lost its audience in Turkey to newer genres, Kemancı became an unsustainable venture. The establishment first sold one, then two, then all floors off to a new R&B club called Riddim.

In the initial days of this partition, a slight tension grew between the heavy metal fans and R&B revelers that went to the different clubs in the same building. The Kemanci crowd obviously hated losing ground to what they saw as their polar opposites and played only ultra-hard metal hits to annoy Riddim. This, of course, only hastened Kemanci's demise.

So now Kemanci is Riddim, and sizzling rap hits echo off the same walls that once rang with Metallica and Slayer. The beautiful pictures have been left untouched by Kemanci's new owners, so now people like me can enjoy the doubled pleasure of grinding with hot chicks while admiring quality reproductions of top fantastic artworks. Rock on!