Dune - Frank Herbert - A brief review

Although I was never much interested any kind science fiction novels I came across Dune simply by boredom. I was fed up with current political news and I wanted to immerse myself in something apart from the reality of every day life.

I think I made a good choice by picking up Dune. I finished the book and quickly realised that this is not simply about science fiction but also a reflection of the world we are in.  Dune has themes of politics, corruption , genetics, wars and so on. One does not usually expect such an abundance of heavy theme in a science fiction book but here it was and I enjoyed it immensely.

The first Dune book was written in 1965. From what I gather from the net the book was an instant hit. Dune was followed by a series of following stories however none of them were able to reach the success of the first one. There are many links and blogs dedicated to Dune. The links are below.

Whenever I told my friends that I was reading Dune, a feeling of nostalgia hit them. Many told me that they read the book when they were little. Many of them played the PC- game Dune , which looks like a prequel to any of the C&C games. Nevertheless everyone I know remembers the Dune as a childhood memory which is good but also a reminder that how late I am  = )

A day ago I finished God Emperor: Dune . I liked the book however some of the parts was excruciating to read. The flow of the story was slow. There were too many details which did not seem to make sense but in the end it all came together.  God Emperor may not be the first book to advise to anyone who did not read Dune first. However given the background of II. Leto the story was sad and confusing at the same time. I think i will take a break from Dune by reading a different book and proceed with the series afterwards.  This is not to say this is a bad book but it is a difficult read.

I should also add that Dune borrows Arabic terms and Fremen is loosely based on Arabic people. It could be striking for a Western reader to see some Turkish / Arabic words used in the book but it does not have the same affect on me since I am Turkish and I really know the real meaning of the words and the terms that are used in the book.

I will update this entry with as much as possible.
For now this is it.

Chapterhouse:Dune Goodreads Reviews

Dune Novels

Dune Artwork on Pinterest


Ersin.

Children of Men

Children of Men is one of the masterpieces of cinema history. There are too many to count reviews over the internet. However my favorite one is laid out by Nerdwriter1.

Apart from all Hollywood blockbuster movies this is the one I come back for the left out details.

What I think the most important aspect of Children of Men is that the story is told on the background. While there is a linear story , there are also a lot of well-thought out images, messages, icons in the background.

I took a bunch of screenshots of my favorite scenes. Enjoy.

Fretless Guitar / A brief summary of links

I walked into my luthier's work place one day and suddenly said "I want a fretless guitar".

I do not why I said it nor what pushed me to say it. It may be because I have listened this album of Erkan Oğur a countless times, and also have watched Spanish Improvisations of Cenk Erdoğan, whom I follow on social media regularly.( Yes instead of stalking ex's I follow bearded men playing guitars) Also some videos of  Sinan Cem Eroğlu, who I am taking guitar lessons from now, may have pushed me to take on fretless guitar lessons.

Now that I can barely play a few songs and I can jam around with few chord alterations but I am nowhere near to the artists I am following. I hope one day that I will be able to master the instrument to arrange and play any song I want on fretless guitar. It is indeed a beautiful instrument. Also a side note; you cannot learn it off the internet. It's that difficult. If you are interested you should contact the artists and request them to teach you the fretless otherwise it will take an immense amount of time.

Here's my favorite videos;

Cenk Erdoğan

Gilad Weiss

Sinan Cem Eroğlu

Erkan Oğur

Deserfest 2017 / Berlin

       Starting from 2014 I attended Berlin Desertfest festival regularly until 2016. In 2016, it was sold-out. Being a regular metal head who buys tickets at the very last minute I was a quite bit of surprised. In 2016 I missed Electric Wizard but I made it up by watching the almighty Sleep in 2017.  It was worth every euro paid, every km that was flown and every hurt in my muscles while I was waiting for them to play.  

      

      The only downside of Berlin Desertfest was there were four stages. Two of them were two-minute walk from the main and the foyer stage. Being the greedy guy I am, I wanted to see all of the bands. That did not happen.  So I had to stick with what I know. I chose the bands which were most familiar to me. Although this was not tiresome as the previous years I immensely enjoyed watching my favorite bands play. I hate to pick favorites but John Garcia ruled the stage. When they played Thumb, I lost it.  

      Anyway long story short go and check out Desertfest. I have met immense amount of people and made quite bit of friends.  Although they were not the best at organizing this year I am still happy to meet old friends and meet new ones.

In Cassiopeia ( one of the other venues) I was watching an ear wrenching karaoke show after the Sleep show . A South American girl started talking a mm from my ear, shouting and asking if I wanted to sing “ Children of Grave” with her. I nodded and smiled.  “No.” I said. “I will not sing Children of Grave with you, it’s difficult and you will sound so bad. I am not ready to embarrass myself on stage...yet”  Quickly investigating and finding out that she has a boyfriend I became more disinterested but nevertheless I wanted to see how much she sounded bad while singing the song. 

After hearing her sing I have to tell you this; She should be water boarded and put on trial on United Nations Committee for violating such a beautiful song. Anyway Karaoke sucks. But I managed to save one guy from her and got me a free cd. It’s from a band called Distant Sun. It does not sound too bad. So short lesson from this story is you can save a buddy from a drunk attention seeking girl and you can get a free cd. It’s a possibility. So be on the watch.

See you guys next year!

                                                                 

                                                                   

                                                             

                                         


                                                           



                                                         

                                                                

                                       

                                        John Garcia
                   

                                                   

                                          Bongzilla

                                       

                            Wolves in the Throne Room

Slug Salt Lava / From the Deep

                     Above is the Youtube link for the new Slug Salt Lava song; From the Deep.
                 

ILTIZ - Lakshimaurmites

Looking for something creepy and down right depressing?
Iltiz is a one-man scary riffage hailing from Sweden.



Stalk the band here;
http://iltiz.bandcamp.com/album/lakshimaurmites

Constantine (2005) ve Gündüz Vassaf - Kısa bir yazı

Constantine (2005)

“ Kilisenin egemenliğine, hiyerarşisine ve katı inançlarına uymak zorunda olan sanatçının, özel dünyasını yansıtma olanağı oldukça kısıtlıdır. Yaratıcı gücünü ancak cehennemde gösterebilir o. Kutsal figür ve sahneleri resmederken kendini sınırlar, cehennemi çizerken ise sınırsızdır, özgürdür, yaratıcılığın duvarları yoktur.”

Cehenneme Övgü, Gündüz Vassaf ( sayfa 27)

Filmde çocukken gördüğü iblislere tahammül edemediği için intihar eden ve resmi olarak iki dakika ölü kalan ancak bu süre içinde cehennemde bir “ömür” geçiren Constantine’nin yeniden cennete kabul için verdiği son mücadeleye tanık oluyoruz. Anlatılan Katolik inancına göre intihar eden birinin cehenneme gideceği ve Tanrı’nın evi olan Cennet’e asla kabul edilmeyeceği belirtilir. Constantine bunu bilerek ömrü boyunca elindeki bütün imkanları kullanarak Cennet’e tekrar girmeye çalışmış , Cehennem’in bütün melezlerine karşı amansız bir savaş vermiştir. Şeytanlar ve melekler Dünya’ya giremezler. Mücadelelerini melez adını verdiklerini yarı şeytan yarı insan veya yarın melek yarı insan varlıklarla verirler. Bunu bilen ve nefret eden Constantine ömrü boyunca verdiği mücadelenin verdiği stresten sigara içerek kurtulmanın yolunu aramıştır. Ancak bu alışkanlığı ona pahalıya mal olmuş , kanser olmuştur. Günleri sayılıdır ve Şeytan’ ın oğlu Mamnon Dünya’ya cehennemi getirmenin yollarını bulmak üzeredir.

Constatine’nin evreninde cennet ve cehennem gerçektir.  Savaş her yerdedir, cehennemin görselleri zengindir. İşkencenin sonsuz çeşidi vardır. İnsanlar panikten delirmiş bir vaziyette kafatası olmayan şeytanlar tarafından parçalanmaktadır. Olabilecek her şeyin en kötüsü cehennemde vücut bulmuştur. Ölenler diriltilip tekrar öldürülmekte ve intihar edenler tekrar tekrar aynı yaşamaktadırlar. Cehennemi yüzeyi ise atom bombası atılmış bir şehrin tasviridir.  Cehennemde hava o kadar sıcaktır ki etraftaki bütün cisimler erime halindedir.  Cehennem bir savaştır ve kaybeden insanlardır.

Peki ya cennet? Cennet bulutların üstünde sadece silueti olan silik bir şehirdir. İster Hristiyan kültür olsun ister başka bir kültür olsun cennet hem vardır hem de uzakta ve tasvir edilemezdir. Bu yüzden cennet sıkıcıdır. Halbuki Cehennem korkunç ve izlemesi çok eğlencelidir.  Aynı Gündüz Vassaf’ın anlattığı gibi sanatçılar cehennem denince yaratıcılıklarının sınırlarını zorlamışlar, adeta yeni bir dünya yaratmışlardır. Cennet ise ulaşılmak istenen ama asla tasvir edilmeyen bir şehirdir. Belki harika bir yerdir kim bilebilir? İlginç olan herkesin cenneti değil neden cehennemi merak ettiğidir. Bu soru hala geçerliliğini korumaktadır.

 Ersin

 Constantine: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0360486/?ref_=nv_sr_3

Cehenneme Övgü : http://www.kitapyurdu.com/kitap/cehenneme-ovgu-gundelik-hayatta-totalitarizm/18063.html