Despite several attempts I could not go back to writing and I did not hear from my professors. Because there are sections that need more work, my readers' feedback could be overwhelming. I have to do some preemptive work, but so far I could not do. I did some more reading. I did have a look interview transcriptions. I did have a look blog archives I could not use yet but I could not go back to writing. I will try to re-start this week. In the mean time, my Houston trip is set: 1 December- 23 December. My defense is on 8 December. Beşiktaş plays against Fenerbahçe on 7 December. I will not be able attend the game and I hope the result will not be too disappointing.

a new find. a cafe for reading with a great decoration. credit goes to Deniz who took me this cafe last Saturday. It is just opposite of German Hospital in Taksim:
Erciyes Kitabevi & Cafe
Sıraselviler Cad. Şen apt. No: 32/2 Sıraselviler Cad. Taksim/Beyoğlu Istanbul

I am expecting some revisions so that I will use that time in Houston after the defense. I am not planning to travel a lot but to stay in Houston. I have a few friends that still live there so they will be enough to socialize. My businesman friend Ayhan will provide me a car and an apartment to stay.

My mood is not much different from the mood I first went to US back in August 2001. Lemme not see any Turks or Muslims around though I know there will be lots around in Houston, too.

What do I do with my life? I had of course broken my promise not to spend time for Beşiktaş. There are social relations that cannot be easily broken. When the time comes, people call me and rituals of pre-game call even people do not call me. I am already involved in developing the Beşiktaş fan club at Bilgi.  and in an hour the team play against Trabzonspor and I will be watching the game. I had even planned to go to Trabzon but decided not to in the last minute.

Here is my latest album selection for driving:

Divine Intervention [EXPLICIT LYRICS]
~ Slayer

Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace
~ Foo Fighters

The Reminder
~ Feist

No World Order
~ Gamma Ray


I now all into Battlestar Galactica: Season 3
Spend most of last night watching it.

Slowly I read pieces from
Two Bits: The Cultural Significance of Free Software (2008) by Christopher Kelty

Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer

Automobilities (Published in association with Theory, Culture & Society) by Mike Featherstone, Nigel Thrift, and John Urry (Hardcover - Jul 12, 2005)

and I still feel anxious.

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Turkey's Nobel laureate Pamuk to release new novel

World-famous Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk, who was awarded with the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2006, focuses on love as well as details in daily life in his latest novel 'Masumiyet Muzesi', (the Museum of Innocence)."

 

Originally published on October 20, 2006

 

Continue reading "New Orhan Pamuk novel released today and Erkan republishes his piece on Pamuk novels" »

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I remember once linking to Cris Kelty's Two Bits: The Cultural Significance of Free Software( by Christopher M. Kelty) but now i began reading it and i would like to recommend it again. Prof. Kelty is in my dissertation committee but more than that he is the one who encouraged me to start this blog! So readers of the blog should pay their tributes to him:) One of the experimental aspects of Two Bits is that Cris put all the book online. It has its own site and anticipates future collaborations: The book can be downloaded here:

Two Bits

 

I have just started to read. So I am still in the very first chapters. But I thank God that I don't need to lie. This is really an exciting book to read for me!

In a related issue, there is a good discussion in the last issue of Cultural Anthropology. The title sums up the subject matter of discussion. However, this needs subscription.

ANTHROPOLOGY OF/IN CIRCULATION: The Future of Open Access and Scholarly Societies

Speaking of Cultural Anthropology, check out the journal website...

Two Bits in Interview Form

By ckelty

For those of you who’d like to know more about my book, but want it presented in a more convenient question and answer form, the media theorist and activist Geert Lovink just posted an email interview he did with me. It has some of the best questions I’ve been asked, and it means I’m in good company amongst the other interviewees. The original is on Geert’s site, Networked Cultures. I will also be making a few changes to my profile page, which the attentive reader might glean from this interview, also re-posted at twobits.net

In "Great Diagrams in Anthropology, Linguistics, & Social Theory"

Continue reading ""Two Bits"" »

Posted by erkan at 12:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I am very disappointed when a respected author, scholar etc expresses his/her dislike with the web.

 

Updike piece will be found below. In the mean time, someone notified me of a new research network site. For the interested parties:

here, membership free until sometime.

oh boy, I am tired. 

Continue reading ""Has Updike's Hatred for the Web Hurt His Writing?" »

Posted by erkan at 07:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Annotated bibliography on HTS, Minerva, and PRISP

By llwynn

I’ve been working on an article on the relationship between anthropology and the military, and Nikki Kuper, an honours student in our department, has been thinking about doing her honours thesis project on the Human Terrain System. So together, Nikki and I decided to put together an annotated bibliography of sources on the Human Terrain System, Minerva, and PRISP and post them here to Culture Matters so that others can benefit from them.

If you know of any resources or links that aren’t listed below (or if you spot any mistakes), please send me an e-mail (lisa.wynn[at]mq.edu.au) and we’ll add them to our list and credit you with the contribution.

–L.L. Wynn and Nikki Kuper

Continue reading ""Annotated bibliography on HTS, Minerva, and PRISP" »

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 But also Mahmoud Darwish died and it was anniversary of Thomas Mann's death. Unfortunately, I haven't read these two authors yet. Çetin is a fan of Mann and i believe at one moment I should read him..

On This Day (12 August)

1955:

German novelist and Nobel Prize winner Thomas Mann died near Zürich, Switzerland.

Mahmoud Darwish: The laureate of the wretched of the earth.

By Mick Hall

To the left of this page is a short piece taken from a poem by Mahmoud Darwish, the Palestinian poet who died last week. Like that other great progressive poet Nazim Hikmat, Darwish found it impossible not to join the struggle for human emancipation and by doing so gave a voice to those who were engaged in that struggle; or suffering under the yoke of the oppressor. In tribute to Mahmoud I have republished below a short article by the writer Ahdaf Soueif. In the coming weeks I hope to publish the odd poem by the above mentioned poets and others who sided with the masses.

funeral at Gazi Neighbourhood. VIA

But the big news was the death of Dursun Karataş because of cancer. He was in hiding in Europe for years and he was the leader of the notarious DHKPC. PKK is known to Westerners but as a Turkish radical armed left wing illegal organization DHKP is less known to others, I assume. It lived out its heydas in late 80s, early 90s and lost the sympathy of many radicals when some suspicious internal killings began to happen. Now mysterious and legendary Dursun Karataş may have helped security forces in killing his own wife at that time. We might never know what happened but in early 1990s, Turkish police got many DHKP leaders and since then the organization started its efforts to reorganize in Istanbul's mostly Alevite shanty neighbourhoods. Gazi Neighbourhood is a well know stronghold for the group. The assassination of a member of Sabanci family was the ultimate suspicious act of the organization and it is already cited in the Ergenekon case.Before his assassination, Mr. Özdemir Sabancı was giving speeches about a free society and was supporting Kurds to have more rights....

Whatever happens at the top, what I was mostly interested in this group was their constant attempt to innovate self-techniques in order to create a revolutionary subject. I believe this group went beyond all leftist groups in working with the self. The measures was sometimes beyond humane standards. I will never forgive myself for not saving a 30-something page document/guide they had released about becoming a revolutionary subject. All their rituals, death fast ceremonies, performative public acts, fetishism with sacrifice and death etc could be studied sociologically.

Continue reading "When Erkan was working to re-active the blog, DHKPC leader died..." »

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