Kyrgyz Music Friday is a (sometimes) weekly feature in which I post a pop music video from an artist in Kyrgyzstan. It could be catchy, annoying, funny, insightful, brilliant, awful, or anything in between. It’s what’s playing on the radio, what all the cool kids are listening to these days. Kyrgyz Music Friday is not …
Monthly Archives: June 2013
Prince Islands
One day during our vacation in Istanbul, we took a ferry to Heybeliada, one of the Prince Islands. It was a gorgeously sunny day, the water was clear and plenty of strangers offered to hold Darwin during the boat ride, leaving me free to photograph the Bosphorus. Once on the island, we admired the charming …
the worst thing about Istanbul
This isn’t quite so relevant now, considering all that’s happening right now in Istanbul. The worst thing about Istanbul is the unnecessary use of force by the police against protestors. But during more peaceful times, this is what made me seethe with rage during my time in Istanbul. The costumed ice cream servers. I have …
Orto Sai haul
Do I love Orto Sai Bazaar because some of my closest friends go nearly every weekend, or because it is truly a source of amazing treasures? This is what I bought this weekend: A suitcase for 200 som. Look at those patterns! It is in decent shape, too. One of the latches is slightly crooked, …
Street art in Istanbul
Posting is going to be a bit Istanbul-centric for a bit for a few reasons. First, I decided I need to be better about posting the photos I take (if they’re any good, duh). I take the photos and decide not to delete them because I feel they’re worth sharing, so (here’s the great logic) …
Victory Day snapshots
Victory Day (May 9) is a hugely significant holiday in Central Asia, commemorating the end of World War II. Many Central Asians were sent to the front lines to fight, and the losses the region suffered is still somberly remembered every year. My new apartment is located near Victory Square, and when I took a …
Kyrgyz Music Friday
Kyrgyz Music Friday is a (sometimes) weekly feature in which I post a pop music video from an artist in Kyrgyzstan. It could be catchy, annoying, funny, insightful, brilliant, awful, or anything in between. It’s what’s playing on the radio, what all the cool kids are listening to these days. Kyrgyz Music Friday is not …
Soviet architecture exhibit
When I was in Istanbul, I had the opportunity to check out a photography exhibit on Soviet architecture at Salt Galata. It was a really interesting exhibit and was displayed in a creative way. I loved looking at the retro photographs and hunting for references to Kyrgyzstan (although it seems that Georgia, Ukraine, and [duh] …
searching for poppy fields
Convinced that it would most certainly be my last chance to photograph a giant field of blooming poppies, a friend and I made plans that we absolutely had to find them last weekend. The weather had been volatile all week, cold and rainy one day, blazing sunshine the next. Every weather website or app we …