Saturday night. Did you know that not ONLY was there the Amsterdam Burlesque Festival, but ALSO the Chocolate Burlesque, as part of the Chocolade Festival? Amazing!

I am getting pretty familiar with that circus tent over in the Houthaven... the older gentleman who seems to be the proprietor has been very sweet to me, as have the booze ladies. Other than them, I find myself chatting routinely (albeit briefly) with the lovely lady selling handmade pasties, Blanche Neige - one of the Swedish performers who happens to use the same hair dye as me and is a sweetheart too, and Armitage Shanks - one of the MCs and from Seattle too. Actually, last night he commented on the small contingent of performers from Seattle and when they hollered from the other side of the room, so did I. the people around me looked a little confused, but hey. I was drunk and having a good time. At least i was hollering WITH the performance. the people sitting near me spent a great deal of their evening conducting loud, drunken and disruptive conversations on a variety of other topics. I really hate it when people do that. It's actually one of the reasons i seldom go to the movies here anymore. I get tired of hearing all about various people's irritating boy/girl friend, boss, etc. while I'm trying to watch a film.

Anyway, tonight the late performance - the Internation Sexy Circus Sideshow - was sold out, so matt and I went only for the early show, the International "Anything Goes" Revue.

It was fantastic! Yay! I had a great time indeed, and sat much closer this time (I've been holding down a table at the back, but this time we sat right up in the 2nd row).

The biggest pleasant surprise of the evening: Equador the Wizard, from London. Surprised the hell out of me. I'll explain. I'm not really a big fan of the male strip performance. I used to go to quite a few at the Gay 90's back in the day (the 90's, actually...) and I never really got into it. And last night, the performance of Raoul Lala, although very nice (he's quite a dancer, i thought) was not really for me. Now, i DO like to have men onstage during burlesque. I think it's important to have the variety acts, the filling out of the show. Unfortunately, they've often been kind of lame (bad magicians or lame comedians). Tonight there were 2 male acts on stage, and I liked both (the other one sang and played a saw). But Equador's was pretty fucking hilarious!

He gets a big build up from Lady Marmalade, who MC'd the evening (I'm not usually a fan of hers, but tonight I thought she was excellent), in which we learn that he won some award for Tease, etc. etc... So we've all got some high expectations when he comes out on stage.

In a turban. And an abundance of facial hair. And sleight of hand involving handkerchiefs. At which point the people behind me start loudly muttering about how it's supposed to be sexy and that THIS isn't sexy. Well, it got interesting in short order, as he starts mixing sleight of uh, body... with stripping, some air guitar, light sabers, and hell I don't even remember what else. I found myself staring at his crotch wondering how he was going to cover it in the next moment. The guy was all over the place. the whole audience was laughing and hooting and completely in thrall. I wish my memory and writing skills were up to the task of telling you what Equador did, but basically - I'm a fan. Whoopee!



Not my favorite act, but pleasantly surprising none-the-less, was the final act, by Natsumi Scarlet. I've not liked her before when I saw her. She's usually pretty creative, but she's got this great muscular body and she's done weirdly overly-feminine things in the past that just don't work for me. I actually groaned when she was announced as the ending act tonight. And she strutted out in this white feather thing that was ok, but typical... but then she did some nice looking stuff on the ribbons hanging from the apex of the tent. I think she has found a style that shows her off to excellent result. Beautiful girl, and strong. This time we got to see it. I bet she could alternatively pull off a Carmen Miranda fruity thing, too. Just a side thought.

Matt's favorite of the night were the Bombshelly's. Apparently a sister act, although strangely matt and i think both of them looked very familiar and not very much like sisters, they did a "magic" act involving a bit of stripping (not much) and some text cards like from silent movies. It was a really good idea, and I think they were really fantastic. my only criticism is that I think they could work it up a bit. It was a little too understated. But an excellent idea, and I'd love to see them do it again, bigger brighter fewer clothes whatever...

My other favorite (besides Equador) was the bathtub act... the performer (I can't decide from the photos off the website if she was Danica Lee, from Australia, or Charlette de Luxe, from Germany, and matt's not sure either) came in brushing her teeth, and then her song came on and she pretended to use a back brush as a microphone and danced around the stage. The phone rang a number of times, and she'd look irritated and do various things. I liked it because it is exactly the sort of thing i think we all do (minus the phone ringing, necessarily) when we're by ourselves and a favorite camp-it-up song comes on. well, i know i do things like that, anyway... :) matt said his only criticism is that she didn't involve the audience enough - he likes it best when they cue the audience a lot to "ooh and aah..." and holler. i think i agree with him that she could have definitely done a bit more of that, but i liked her act.

so... do i go tomorrow? hmmmm...
i'd like to, but i have to admit that it was actually hard to drag myself there tonight (i'm tired!), and i'm really needing some home time. i started going to the gym 2 weeks ago and i've been pretty enthusiastic about that, and we'll be practicing twice next week for the next contrast concert (sunday 6 december in rotterdam), and it's IDFA, so i'd like to see some films. but i'd also like to sit around the house in pj's. or i might just drag my ass off to the circus tent again...

ah, the choices. :) we'll see.

Friday I had the good fortune to attend BOTH of the shows. Here is the poster, by the way, as it's really cute.


Anyway, as i was saying, i saw 2 shows on saturday. the first was the British Burlesque Invasion International Debut, and the second the Royal Dutchess Burlesque Revue.

Sadly, i liked Thursday's performance by the newcomers better. This is not to say that all the performers on Friday weren't lovely and did a great job on their acts. Simply that i find i prefer the acts that either make me laugh or surprise me, and these more experienced ladies (and one gentleman) tended for more classic performances. Miss Beeby Rose, for example, is gorgeous - a beautiful voluptuous and talented performer (and organizer) and major cred to her for getting this scene moving here (I don't know a lot about the scene here, but she seems to be at the center of EVERYTHING i hear about) - but although her performance is as usual stunning and sexy, I don't find myself involved.

I routinely describe Pepper Minsky's charms to people. But she did her blue feather routine, and did it well, and I've seen it before. Possibly a couple of times. I'm not sure. I still love her, though - she's got the biggest widest smile with those glitter lips, and is very funny and engaging.

My (and Dick's) favorite of the whole evening was in the British first half, the very first act, one Ginger Blush, who pretended to be a construction worker and brought out all kinds of tools (measuring tape, pliers, a small hammer...) as part of her act. It was funny, she was sexy, and she surprised me when she pulled out that hammer.

My second favorite act was the opener to the Dutch act, when all the performers did a "little Dutch girl" routine that was adorable. In their little pinafores and white hats.

Speaking of the Royal Dutchess show, how many actual Dutchies were in it? There was Beeby Rose... but both Pepper Minsky and Lady Marmalade are American, i'm pretty sure. There was another female performer (whose name I didn't catch, and of whom I can't find any certain reference to on the website) and a male performer, Raoul Lala. That's one certain Nederlander out of 5. and who was that other woman, anyway?

last night matt and i rushed over to see the opening "gala" of the 1st ever amsterdam burlesque festival. it was newcomers-day, and i have to admit i wasn't really expecting much.

but i was wrong!

seriously, it was a very good evening. we got there about 7:30, acquired bubbly and arranged ourselves at a table along the back. mostly it's set up with very tightly packed wooden seats, and i didn't think that would be a comfortable way to spend the show, so we moved to the back. turns out the heaters were pointing right at those tables, and we sweltered there for a while before right before the show the heat vents were turned to face the wall instead of right at the seats.

the venue: in a very cute little circus tent "casablanca circus tent" on strandweg at the houthaven. it's small, it's quaint. i'm a little confused about their permanence in that location. but anyway.

the acts... what i remember clearly. the MC was very entertaining, even singing 2 numbers, including the closing "elephants on parade" which i thought was a little questionable, as he asked audience members to participate in pretending to be elephants. ok, whatever.

the first act was a "amy housewine" who pretended to be falling-down drunk, and somehow managed to strip, fall down a lot, and even lose her pasties. ha hah!

i don't remember everyone. there were some "taking ourselves a little too seriously" strip acts that were perfectly sexy and fine but not clever. but notably: i like the woman from leipzig who had a great 1920's (i think) era bathing suit and then hula hoop act. she was gorgeous, entertaining, sexy and creative. and yay on the outfit! i also liked the dutch woman who pretended to be a windup doll/puppet. excellent choice of music, outfit, and good movements. also good sense of humor. i told her afterwards that she was in my top 2 for the evening, and she told me how nervous she'd been. she's been taking lessons since february and was pretty excited. :)

there was also an australian woman who first pretended to be a man (which impressed matt, but i thought was kind of boring; matt thought it was a good job with the mannerisms) then moved on to a trapeze, where she stripped and climbed around. kudos for creativity and athleticism, even if it really didn't thrill me much.

basically, i like the ones that are funny and/or very creative as well as the obvious sexy. hell, anyone on stage in a burlesque show is sexy in some way. if that's all there is, i'm not so enthusiastic.

i also spoke to a swedish woman who apparently will be doing a pig act during the saturday night circus, which is sold out. i'll be attending the early show (with matt) and if there are any tix available that night, we may get to see the circus as well.

tonight i'm going for a double-header: the first show is british invasion, the second royal dutchess (sic). i've already paid for the tix and i'm thrilled to be going.

for anyone here in amsterdam who's interested, the website is www.amsterdamburlesquefest.com

also notably there is a separate burlesque event on saturday night as part of the chocolate festival that's going on right now: Chocolate Burlesque. i can't remember the website, but it'll come up in a google search.

and for those of you not into burlesque, go enjoy IDFA. :)

short version:

1. last monday, work started on our windows and was making excellent progress when
2. around noon, a man from the city passed by, informed us we were missing one of the permits, and shut us down
3. matt came home and noticed that the windows that went in are the wrong windows (bar in middle preventing anything coming in and out of window - a problem when our stairs are too narrow as well)
4. our contractor came over and agreed that problem, and discussed his plan for dealing with the permit problem
5. wednesday night, our downstairs shop-neighbor came back from a week-long yoga retreat to find us shut down and scaffolding still in place around her store, and calls me to complain. i explain the situation to her
6. thursday, matt tried to get some things cleaned up around her shop and the contractor comes and moves the windows, which were stored in the passage way beside our house, to a slightly less in-the-way position
7. friday, continued negotiations with neighbor
8. saturday, same neighbor threatens to call the city and force us to take down our scaffolding so matt attempts to reason with her
9. sunday, matt has trouble sleeping (big surprise)
10. today monday, i first emailed an acquaintance who is a lawyer handling building laws etc., to see if he has any advice
11. then i called our bank to find out how to use our legal insurance protection thing to procure a lawyer for our 2 problems: permit issues and wrong window issues, just in case
12. then i called the insurance place, where i was told that we didn't have the right kind, which i knew MUST be wrong, so i called the bank again, and the bank called the insurance, and the insurance called me
13. the woman at insurance tells me that probably it IS a good idea to get them involved, and took my details, gave me a file number, and tells me that the lawyers will contact me within 2-3 days
14. in the meantime, our contractor is trying to sort out the problems, and matt is trying to deal with our neighbor.

seriously, though. stupid neighbor is NOT seeing the big picture here. taking away our scaffolding will not actually prevent it from ever going up again. one way or another we NEED new windows, so the work has to get done. causing us to get more fines and costs associated to the work will not help the project. helping the project might speed it up, and thus might benefit all of us, her included. whereas hindering us like this will probably cost us tens of thousands of euros and will still need to be done.

she also lied and said that the other neighbors from the passageway beside the house were complaining. i've spoken to a couple, and of course they find the scaffolding a little annoying, but understand that our house will look nicer, be less likely to leak into things that affect them, etc, once the work is done. mostly, they're pleased to see we're getting new windows, and think it's shitty that the city has stopped us. one of them even suggested we just keep on keeping on, and that usually the city will approve it anyway. (this is a bad idea, actually, but it's sweet of her to try and make us feel better.) another one said, when i apologized for the trouble, "oh, don't worry! it's no trouble for me! it's YOU that has the trouble! i hope things go a bit smoother!" very nice.

on friday, i joined the maastricht international women's cooking group for the first time in a few years. it was at my friend (& former neighbor) tina's house, and she's finnish. so we made finnish food, none of which i'm sure i can pronounce. i got on the train at 7:37 in the morning, arrived at her door at about 10:30 (it started at 10am), and we ate around 2 ish. afterwards, tina and nubia and i opened a bottle of wine and then after a glass nubia left and tina and i continued to chat and drink until late evening. it was really nice to see her and hang out with everyone. it had been so long, and i had a great time. here's my favorite thing we ate - karjalanpiirakat with munavoi (the munavoi is spread on top of the little almost cracker-like karjalanpiirakat).

i'm writing about this because it's a much nicer subject than the latest construction news on the house. bleh. :)

Wow.
That was really a fantastic show.  I wasn't sure.  I listened to them a lot when i was a teenager (my first boyfriend was really into them).  i bought the tickets a few months ago and had been going back and forth ever since on whether it was a good idea or not.  I knew matt wouldn't like them, which i'm still sure of, and so i took the biggest technical music geek i know, dick.

so there are four men on stage: one on harmonica, piano and once some kind of pipe; one on bass guitar; one (bela himself) on banjo; and one (the guy with the pirate hat) on some strange instrument that i hesitate to accurately describe - a "synthetic drum guitar???"  Anyway, they stood on stage and jammed and jammed for about 2 hours.

i am not really that kind of geek, so there were periods of time when i zoned out a little, but most of the time i was just amazed by what they were doing.  i couldn't believe how well that guy could play the harmonica.  the harmonica!!!  he was amazing.  everyone was extremely talented, of course, and everyone had their solo opportunity, but i think i was most intrigued by the harmonica bit.  and the weird ass instrument pirate guy was playing.  what the hell was that?

dick, as a music geek of the first order, was thoroughly entranced.  staring and staring and bopping around a little and swaying.  :) it's nice to take someone along to something and then see them appreciate it THAT much.  his exact words afterwards were: "wow.  i've never seen anything like that!"

anyway, that's all i'm going to say.  it was amazing.  i'm glad to have seen them.  and for those of you who are now curious what they are, uh:  jazz,  i guess.  with banjo.  :)  i kind of suck with classifications.

well, first off, i'd like to say that EVERYONE in the band was super nice.  really really really nice.  most of them were exhausted, having had 3 hours sleep then a 6 hour drive to get to zaandam.  they were unloading when i showed up with my little box and got a little in people's way.  sound check went badly - they only got to do 1 1/2 songs, the violin wasn't able to be hooked up with the various effects he likes, i don't even know what else went wrong, just that plenty did go wrong.

but... they were troopers.  seriously.  i heard one person backstage complaining about somebody being a bit snitty, but i wasn't even sure who it was.  i missed the beginning of the story - it could even have been someone from the venue itself.  i have no idea.  the person telling the story even said they thought it was a miscommunication. 

the show itself was wonderful.  the imagery, the performances... i was really impressed.  here's a band i've been listening to for many many years, and it was really great to see them live... and seeing them live, i thought they did a super job.  i actually was so enraptured that i'm afraid i'm lacking a bit for details.  sorry.  the dancers looked fantastic and their costumes were really stunning.  i liked when one kept getting just a tad off and watching the other for cues.  it didn't detract at all, just made it more touchable, in a way.  i thought the violin sounded fantastic, even without the effects, and i was really impressed by how much he managed to make it a performance, too.  i personally think it's a bit difficult to move much while playing.  a little swaying, ok, but he managed some really nice larger moves, which enhanced his overall appearance nicely.  i was impressed with how the little smears of makeup everyone had looked so much more interesting onstage than off.  good thing to remember.  i liked that there were mohawks, dreads and long flowy hair all onstage.  :)  i remember thinking during a couple of songs that i didn't know that they were really interesting and i should remember something about them in order to buy them after, but ... uh... i don't.

after, i was planning on heading out, but ended up going back upstairs with troy and nienke to hang out in the large dressing room.  again, i say:  everyone was really really sweet.  i pulled a total fan-girl on monica.  couldn't help it, i got caught up in the moment.  but really - she's wonderful.  talked a bit with everyone, but they all looked so sleepy i felt bad for being there.  after a while i said i was going and troy and nienke very sweetly came with me so i didn't have to go alone.  i was exhausted too.  long day, but really fun. 

oh, and before i forget:  everyone in schwarzblut was also really nice.  extremely friendly.  i wish i'd seen their show.  i pulled a slight faux pas by not really being familiar with their music.  i was asked how it was going with the remix contrast is doing for one of their songs, and though i know it's happening, i don't even know the song.  i haven't heard it.  i felt really bad for not having made sure i was familiar with it in advance.  i did listen to a bunch of their stuff about a month ago, to find out who they were, etc., but i forgot which song patrick and rene are remixing.  oops.  i'll have to find out later...  bad bad sharon.

well, if you're in amsterdam or nearby, you should come out to see me play tomorrow, for the first time on stage!

doors are at 3:30, Schwarzblut goes on at 4, we go on at 4:45, then Faith and the Muse at 6pm.  so, easy to get back to amsterdam by train afterward - no need for the night bus!  yay!

am i nervous?  yes... but mostly i don't think so until i find i'm not asleep yet.  :)

hi... i'm not sure i remember very well.  the phone rang at 3am, and it took me a few seconds to realize it was the phone ringing and not my alarm going off (i was thinking: "what? did i set my alarm on a saturday?").  then i answered it.  it was my stepdad, cey (pronounced "jay" in case you're wondering) updating me on my mom.  he thought i'd be awake rocking out - hahahahahah!  anyway, apparently mom's fine.  the result of the examinations was that her heart is fine, no weirdness, no clotting, no problems.  he didn't know anything about anything related to vitamin k. the only thing they found was something to do with her gall bladder (sorry- remember i WAS asleep and quite groggy), and there will be surgery later this month (i think).  she's going home today.

yay!  good news!

right.  i woke up earlier than expected today - matt's phone was ringing and he was downstairs watching blake's 7 - and chose to stay up and drink coffee because tomorrow i have to be out the door relatively early and therefore asleep tonight relatively early, so it seemed a good idea.  now, however, i'm extremely jittery (a bit TOO MUCH coffee, if that's possible) and need to go feed dick's cat and pick up a new pair of tights - all of mine seem to be filled with varying degrees of holes.

i'll be posting other stuff later today - i have a few things to mention (concert tomorrow, for example). 

so i WAS going to post this funny flyer that i found in my mailbox yesterday, with commentary... but instead, i'll mention something else:
yesterday, i got a cryptic email from my stepdad (oh yes, i'm posting about it, buddy, like it or not!) that "don't worry - but mom's in the hospital - probably a heart attack."  my reaction was to immediately try to reach him for more details, which i got... basically, that she'd gone in with pains in her back and arms during the night, and that he was just home briefly before going back again.

no news again until about an hour ago, when i got another message, that it was indeed a heart attack and that there were "weird blood things" and that she was still there for more tests.

i'm told that 3-5 days is normal, while they sort out proper doses of drugs, make sure everything's really ok, etc.

so i called her in the hospital.  apparently she's got too much vitamin k and she's puking all the drugs they're giving her.  so she's tired and crabby, but she's ok in general.

anyway, that's what's up...

i dressed up as arimbi, one of the indonesian wayang puppets (not the shadow puppets, the ones with sticks and batik skirts).  matt dressed as a green variation of frankenstein, although i tried to tell him that i think only the cartoon frankenstein was green.

people seemed to find us confusing.  they thought we were:sigh. 

pictures if i find any.  bunches of tourists took my pic, but i'm not sure if anyone i actually know did.  wait, that's not true... i'm sure someone did.  well, hopefully they'll send me one.

anyway, it was a fun time even if i was exhausted.  we started by walking past winston kingdom and collecting pepijn for a drink at getto.  then we went back to winston kingdom to see the vulgarettes play.  hung out outside for a long time, then headed to a couchsurfing party on handboogstraat, which was super lame, but we got to see tami and gian's great costumes, then we went to korsakoff for a while, and ended up at maloe melo for a long time.

note:  the ONLY person who recognized my costume was mano (sp?) whom we met while at korsakoff but ended up chatting more with at maloe melo - as it turns out he (and muriel) are friends of friends.  funny small world.

ah, returned at last from breakfast and book shopping.  here are my latest acquisitions, in order of discovery:

in the "bargain crime & sci-fi/fantasy" section:

• Drood, by Dan Simmons - I enjoyed his Ilium and Olympos, and may well have read others in the list of his previous books, but am having a hard time remembering.  This is an historical thriller, "what really happened to charles dickens during his final days."  We'll see, I guess.  I like historical novels of all bents, especially when they get really off the historical track.  Like for example, Inglourious Basterds... not a novel, but my appreciation is the same.
• Sister Time, by John Ringo & Julie Cochran - It's been a while since I've read anything by John Ringo, but I like to always buy at least one cheap sci-fi or fantasy or both book on every book-shopping trip, since I consider them the delicious sour gummies of my book enjoyment. 
• Cally's War, by the same - I realized that Sister Time was a sequel.  Had to get the first one.
• My Boring-Ass Life, by Kevin Smith - just because.  no explanation necessary.  But I don't know why this was in this particular bargain section.

Moving on to the Sci-Fi/Fantasy new arrivals:

• Butcher Bird, by Richard Kadrey - I was struck first by the nice graphics on the spine.  Then the quote on the front from Wiliam Gibson: "If this novel had been rendered in oil or acrylic, it would be kicking world-class lowbrow ass in multi-page spreads in Juxtapoz or on the walls of La Luz de Jesus.  Go for it.  The man is mad, in every best way."  I decided to simply take Bill's advice.

On to the Sci-Fi/Fantasy main section:

• Makers, by Cory Doctorow - I started reading this online, through Creative Commons.  Was really enjoying it.  Saw it on the shelf, so picked it up.

Decided to leave my usual haunt in the bookshop and GO UPSTAIRS, to the general fiction and non-fiction:

• A Time to Dance, A Time to Die - The Extraordinary Storyof the Dancing Plague of 1518, by John Waller - ooooh, it's about St. Vitus' Dance.  I know next to nothing about this, and the first couple of pages drew me right in.
• Hegemony or Survival - America's Quest for Global Dominance, by Noam Chomsky - As a former philosophy and linguistics major, I was a big fan of Chomsky, on both fronts.  It's been a while since I've read anything by him, so I thought I'd check out a more recent work (comparatively speaking - this was first published in 2003).
• God is not Great - How Religion Poisons Everything, by Christopher Hitchens - It was right below the Chomsky section, in bright yellow.  The title's great.  It was enough for me.

i feel like the weekend must already be over, i've been so busy.
my weekends, if all goes well, start on thursday night.  so i have all friday to add to my weekend.

thursday i went to ivo & marieke's to see a movie and eat previously-frozen pizzas.  the movie was The Visitor, and was really very excellent.  i recommend it.
friday i made a huge list of craft objects i needed and went to the cuypmarkt to buy them.  took a large chunk of the day.
friday night i worked on said craft projects, then went to beer club at cafe de wildeman, where i proceeded to drink 6 or so bokbiers, and act drunk and ridiculous.  also went to the burger bar to feast on heaven.
saturday i attempted to proceed with said craft projects, to much failure, practiced my keyboard parts, and watched some season 3 west wing while continuing to work on the projects (that are not going well at this moment).  i also tried on a bunch of my clothes to try and decide what i should wear for the first concert... ha.
saturday night matt and troy came back from prepping their american breakfast stuff, and we hung out, carved jack-o-lanterns, and watched John Carpenter's The Thing, which was surprisingly quite good.
today i have been emailing people, and now am meeting anne at the breakfast cafe, then will go to the american book center to re-stock, then will work on projects/practice/etc., then will try to join the derby dames for skate practice, then will go to nicola's for dinner.  somewhere in there i will also call my dad.

when i list things like that, it doesn't seem like i've done as much as i feel like i've done this weekend.
oops.  gotta go.  anne's waiting now...

i think most of you here in amsterdam already know about one of the things i'm spending a lot of time on lately, so i haven't yet posted about it.  but i'm having a lot of fun, and getting pretty excited about upcoming shows, so i thought maybe it was time to post the flyers.  and the websites:  www.contrast-site.nl and www.myspace.com/contrastnl.

Choosing My Religion

Turkish Reality TV Show Aims to Convert Non-Believers

By Daniel Steinvorth in Istanbul

A new reality television show has rabbis, priests, imams and monks trying to make non-believers pious. The Vatican is reportedly sending a priest, a Buddhist monk has been recruited and atheists who convert will win a trip to a holy site. The Muslim religious authority in Turkey is not amused.

Channel T is not exactly one of the major players in the Turkish television business. And the niche station, tucked away in a commercial area of Istanbul, has made headlines primarily because of the woman who runs it, Seyhan Soylu. Often simply called "Sisi" by the press, the 36 year old is a former police officer and journalist, a transsexual and the enfant terrible of Turkey.

At 20, the son of a diplomat and graduate of a police academy had a sex change operation. At 22, Sisi appeared on the cover page of an issue of Playboy, and since then she has developed an interest in politics on a bigger scale. As an employee of "state services," Soylu allegedly took part in the overthrow of fundamentalist Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan in 1997. Last September, the eloquent blonde with the tattooed upper arms was even arrested and briefly detained on suspicion of membership in Ergenekon, a shadowy, ultra-nationalist organization Ankara believes has plotted to overthrow the government.

So perhaps it comes as no surprise that Sisi also happens to be the force behind the country's most controversial television program. For weeks, a reality show dreamed up by the head of Channel T and called "Tövbekarlar yarisiyor" ("Penitents Compete") has been at the center of public discussion. The show focuses on 12 atheists and several religious dignitaries, including a Catholic and an Orthodox priest, a Muslim imam, a Jewish rabbi and a Buddhist monk.

Religious Authority: "A Debasement of Religion"

For eight weeks, the clerics, acting independently of one another, will try to convert the atheist candidates to their respective faiths. The program will include face-to-face conversations, group question-and-answer sessions and visits to mosques and churches. If the holy men manage to convert a participant, the participant wins a trip to the applicable holy site. A freshly minted Muslim will make a pilgrimage to Mecca at the station's expense, a Jew will go to Jerusalem, a Catholic to the Vatican and a Buddhist to Tibet.

It sounds like a joke, but the show's creators at Channel T are perfectly serious. "We selected our 12 atheists from more than 200 applications. We already have a commitment from the Vatican, which plans to send us a priest," says Soylu in her office in Istanbul's Güngören neighborhood. A rabbi and a Buddhist monk have also been recruited. Initially, the station had difficulty signing on a representative of Islam, but it eventually found a Tunisian imam willing to tackle the challenge.

Soylu says the religious authority had been hesitant about permitting a Turkish imam on the show, but that's putting it mildly. The Office of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) in Ankara reacted angrily to Channel T's announcement about the planned program. "Not a single imam" would participate in this "frippery," outraged Diyanet President Ali Bardakoglu said in a TV interview. The show, he said, is nothing but a "fatal error" and, what's more, represents a "debasement of religion."

Mustafa Çagrici, the supreme mufti of Istanbul, who, like Bardakoglu, is among the more moderate voices in Turkish Islam, fears the demise of the Eastern world. Experimenting with god, he says heatedly, is detrimental to public harmony.

"We Want to Help People Find God"

Soylu, who sees herself as a "devout Muslim with non-dogmatic views" in a country with a population in which 99 percent share the same faith, has launched a counterattack. "Where is the problem? We don't want to incite a religious war," she says. "We want to help people find God."

If the program does indeed end up offending religious sensibilities, the station can expect to be slapped with a fine by the agency that regulates the Turkish media. In the worst case scenario, it could face the loss of its license.

Ironically, Turkey's media watchdogs have been dealing with increasingly absurd programs for some time now. In the battle for viewers, Turkish channels are outdoing each other with distasteful programs like "Ver coskuyu" ("Come On, Give Me What You've Got"), in which candidates are showered with small bugs or given electric shocks while singing a song. In another show, which has been accused of sexism, a man faces off against 50 blonde women in a test of knowledge -- eventually he wins, exposing the blondes as intellectually inferior.

Sisi's show about atheists and religion is relatively harmless by comparison. Turkish sociologist Nilüfer Narli even feels that it satisfies a social need: the "growing curiosity about other religions." Meanwhile, it remains unclear when exactly "Penitents Compete" will air. The station had announced a September premier at first, but now an advisor to Channel T says that it will not be launched before October -- after Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting.

That much consideration is a must.

Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan

so, hazenstraat (where we live) is officially now the 10th street.  our shopkeepers had festivities today, which are still going on.  we went down for a long while - had a few drinks, chatted with a whole lot of neighbors.  a  couple of friends came by and helped take off the wooden floorboards of our roof so that it's ready for construction work.  i tried to get some work done on a few personal things, but was only partially successful.

tonight we're going to cafe mono for a subgenius party.  i missed the last one, which was apparently in the winston kingdom and involved stage acts and everything.  don't know where they'd put that in mono, so i suspect it's just an excuse to enjoy drinking with likemindedly freaky folks.  so off we go.  i'm hoping that if mono is still ignoring the smoking ban, that at least the excessive "in your face" has worn off.  last time i was there it was painfully smoky and i couldn't breathe.  literally.  i left pretty early.

tomorrow i will HAVE TO SERIOUSLY buckle down.  there's a shitload of stuff to do, and i've spent most of today shindigging.  :) 

updating... i've been very busy, doing various things.  here are a few of them:

allergy testing - again.  results (preliminary) tomorrow, but it seems like i've reacted to a bunch.  the german doctor said in dutch to his colleagues, while examining the initial reactions on my back, "this is an ideal canditate for this type of examination..." while enumerating the many locations where i'd reacted.  should be an interesting meeting tomorrow.

work.  just very busy.  did you really want to hear about it? 

flamenco.  i've chosen to stay in the beginner's classes again, for the lower stress level.  otherwise it's going fine.  i bought a large strip of vinyl at the flooring store the other day, so that i can lay it on the floor and practice at home.  this is pretty exciting, since the nails on the bottoms of flamenco shoes had been previously the main reason i never do.

band.  i'm doing live keyboards for contrast while their usual member is away on a long trip.  first show is nov 8th, 2nd act before faith and the muse.  so we've been practicing!  this week i finally was able to take the keyboard home with me so that i can get some more intense time to work on it.  i think it's going pretty well so far...

house.  nothing significant since the party, although this weekend we need to get the wooden parts off of the roof and move things on each floor in order to clear space so the contractors can work on the windows.  i'm not sure why the roof needs to be done THIS weekend, since to my knowledge, they haven't even given us the bid yet for that part.  but they start on the windows next week.

travel & visitor.  i went to paris for my birthday (right after the wonderful party) and then matt's mom was here for a week. 

social.  soundgarden, friends/neighbors dropping in, movies (i saw public enemies - kind of disappointing, even if johnny depp IS a hottie).

there's definitely more, but for the life of me i can't remember what.  in the evenings, to unwind, we watch downloaded tv series.  we're in season 3 of weeds right now.

this weekend, in addition to the things mentioned above, my old assistant paloma is dj'ing at cafe schiller on friday, so i hope to go; saturday is the hazenstraat celebration of being the 10th street - so the 10th of the 10th; and sunday a friend from maastricht, sofia, will be in town, so i hope to see her for a while.

next weekend, matt and i will fly to lyon to see our friends annemette and steen, and we'll drive with them to carcassone for the weekend.  yay, french food with danish buddies!

there's the quick summary for today.  :) or this month, whichever...

At work, I see examples of this grammatical error ALL THE TIME.  I don't mind it too much when it's verbal, but it drives me crazy when it's written.  And so...

If you can't say, "the white one belongs to I," then you can't say "the white one belongs to Emma and I," either.  I think we can all agree that you can't say the first example.  Therefore, you can't say the second either.  It's not really all that difficult.  I believe we all learned it when we were about 6 years old.

But just to get grammatical on your asses, "I" is a subject, which performs the action of the verb, and "me" is an object, which receives the action.

Best regards,

me.

ps. no, this is not actually directed at anyone here...  unless you deserve it.

on my walk home yesterday, i took a different path than usual through the vondelpark.  and saw what looked like CHICKEN OF THE WOODS, otherwise known as SULPHUR SHELF.  yum.  i didn't look too closely, because there's nothing that looks remotely like it (that's orange like that) and i didn't have a knife with me.  i didn't want to bring attention to it.  i've found it here in the netherlands 2 other times so far.  the first time was in maastricht, where i found 2 patches, picked one, was stopped in the park by a park maintenance guy, who told me that it's poisonous (yes, but only in some people), and the next day both trees on which i'd found it had been mercilessly chopped.

the 2nd time was also in the vondelpark, about a year ago, but when i went to pick it up less than an hour later, it wasn't there anymore.  so i was very nervous it wouldn't be there this morning.  but it was!!!!

i didn't take a picture, because i wanted to be quickly in and out of there, but here's what it looks like, for those who don't know it.  delicious sauteed with butter and salt. 



yum yum yum.  i can't wait for dinner tonight!!!!

i'm feeling very good... this week i decided to try and understand my finances a bit.  my colleague who does the accounting recommended her financial guy, and i called him.  he was just over to get an overview of our situation, mortgage, insurances, etc. etc....  he'll contact me next week with his recommendations.  it would be cool if i've got anything i could invest now, with the market so low.  then i could be rich!!!  :) kidding, kidding, but it's nice to be trying to get a handle on another of these confusing life things.  it's important since i don't have any kind of pension yet, for example.