Brooks Fun Ride

  Hello again. Today i'd like to talk about what we did last sunday. Gizmo, Culu and i woke up very early and rode on our bikes to cath a ferry to Kadikoy. The reason why we went there is to join other bikers for the "Brooks Fan Ride".

  Brooks is the company who are producing the best saddles in the world. I will never need one but i think Culu and Gizmo like to have them one day. 

  People were already gathering in front of the ferry station at 9.30 and signing up there names to win a Brooks saddle at the end of the ride.

  More than 80 bikers attended to the "Brooks Fan Ride". The event's organized by Turkey first ever touring bike shop called "Bisiklet Gezgini". Culu get almost all his equipment for our South-East Asia tour from this shop situated at the anatolian side of Istanbul. The shop often organize touring events and weekly speeches. Four great person are running passionately the shop and giving assistance. They are the only shop in Turkey where you can find Ortlieb pannier bags for long term touring. For more information please check: http://www.bisikletgezgini.com/ 

   We attract immediately the attention of all these people and some dogs hanging around. One of them even joined us during the ride.

  We were ready after all for a two hours ride at the Asian shore side.

It's a nice feeling to have such a huge crew to ride with. At least cars respects you more.

  It's Gizmo's first ride with such a huge crowd and her new bike. She was the one who enjoys the most i suppose. The best of all is now Culu, me and herself can ride all together. During the ride i didn't leave her alone with my barking whenever we come close. 

  At the end of the tour people met up at the shop for the lottery and some snacks. The British company Brooks was giving surprise gifts to the attendants after the warm welcoming brunch.

  I was working hard to find some scraps on the ground but luckily Culu gave my lunch before i starve to death.

  Everybody including Gizmo and Culu was so excited to hear the results of the lottery but not me.

We didn't get the grand prize Brooks saddles this time but still having fun.

  After the ceremony, winners get their prizes and we get in the shop to collect the last equipments we might need on our journey to South-East Asia starting next week. The shop is just like a heaven for tour bikers or even campers. They have a wide range of best quality products for cycling. And the people are the warmest and helpful people we met so far. That was our sunday. If you want to check how was the ride just click on the video below. See you soon.

Brooks Fun Ride from uluc ali kilic on Vimeo.

Another Loud Night

 Yo! As i told you before, we had a lot of jam happening these days at the atolyeah. Here is another brutally loud one. I slept like a baby when boys were playing my lullaby. I warn you guys set your volume carefully before watching. Hope you enjoy.

 watch the video below to see why he's laughing

    atolyeah from uluc ali kilic on Vimeo.

Last Sessions At Atolyeah

 Hey guys. During our trip we will be posting some music we perform. I am starting this sub category by posting this session. Yesterday night two great musicians drop by us to jam a little bit for one of the last jam sessions in our sanctuary. Some of you might know the atolyeah. This place was Culu's painting workshop and also our music studio. Before leaving this magical place we are trying to benefit from all the aspects of it. Anyway, yesterday they had this session and i wanted to share a piece from it. Culu says "it's a great privilege to play with such a talented musicians." he was working his ass off to catch their groove. I kinda like what they were doing and enjoy most of it. I hope you'll like it.

click the link below to see the video:

https://vimeo.com/109707736

Lemmy's Route For The Next Four Months

  Yiakshamlaaa! This evening i took Culu to my fellow man Eren's studio close by the gallery where Culu is having his solo exhibition. Ever since i got inside the place i have this feeling of writing to the blog and researching about Thailand. It's a great place to focus on the travel we are about to start. Then i told him:
  - Dude! We only have 14 days left to our journey and we still didn't post any hints about the voyage. What is it in your mind?
Culu says:
  - Okay bro. Let me draw you a simple map of our next 4 months real quick.
  He didn't postpone my request and quickly draw a rough plan of our most probable route.
He says:
  - This route is not a certain one. The reason i am drawing it is to put some goals in front of us to achieve and make us move to some specific place where we need to be in four months.
Lemmy: Where are you planning to be in four months mate?
Culu: Dude we need to be in Laos border before our visas expire.
  Then he told me about our visa conditions a bit. When we arrive Bangkok on the 5th of November. We will directly get a monthly visa but we need to extend it to 3 months in order to travel in Thailand without a deadline.
He says:
  - It will allow us enough time to see crazy inland, most sacred old cities and the hill tribes close by the Myanmar boarder. If we can get the visas from Chiang Mai (north-east of Thailand) We can get in to Laos where we can travel only a month before we get in to Thailand again for another 3 months.
  Sounds like a hell of a plan to me. Now i get him more why he was spending that much time on his computer to plan every inch of the trip. The paper work is too important in one of those trips guys. Cuz for some countries we would need to get the visas before we arrive to the boarders. At least it is a must for me since i am a dog. But Culu already got collected all the paper work and vaccinations for me. We don't think we will have too much difficulties. Anyway, here is what Culu draw this evening. We will see how much we can stick to the plan. By the way our route mostly will be drawn by our actions. Which means we won't go the place we are going from the quickest way. We are welcoming all the coincidences, luck, action and the good spirits into our journey.

Lemmy Went Nuts in Souq

  

  At the end of the weekend we went to check this monthly event called souq. It's basically a flea market which takes place once in a month in Karakoy Kulah. People come here to collect new items from a wide option range. On the street they have some stalls of food and antiques, like old cameras, vintage vinyls. Inside the building you have tons of cloths hanging from coat racks, some jewellery stalls. Here's some info about the event  http://www.souqkarakoy.com/   There we saw my good old friend Xena in between the stalls while i was wondering what were all these people doing there. She was pregnant and i didn't got chance to see the babies. There was only one  left to hang out but to seeing Xena particularly made me quite happy. You can check how happy i am by clicking on the video below.

lemmy_went_nuts from uluc ali kilic on Vimeo.

Paintings Are On The Walls

  It's been a while that i wasn't writing because we were busy with setting up Culu's exhibition. His letest works are now on the walls of that gallery called 311 Artworks in İstanbul. The works can be seen until the 26th of october. The opening was entertaining though. Quite a lot of people showed up and we hang out until late at night. 

  I only invited my mate Lupus. Lupus is a good friend of ours. Here you see Enis and Lupus waiting for the gallery to open. He helped us a lot while we were installing the works. It's good to know that you have someone trustful around when you need. He seems like he enjoyed the night as much as i did.

Culu seems happy by Lupus's company

   Many artist friends of Culu attended the opening like Genco Gülan. He is especially an important character for Culu's art career cuz he is the one who first introduced Istanbul art scene to him. If you want more information about Genco, go check his website:   www.gencogulan.com/

Nazlı Tarcan was taking the photos during the show. She the cute blonde one on the left.

 Meric Kara was one of the attendants. She was enjoying the only video work of Culu in this exhibition.

 

This painting confuse our mate Taylan von Aygar big time. He'd be never the same after looking at this painting.

 Another painter in the exhibition. Mr.Yusa Yalcintas. He will be huge soon i believe.

  Gunes Terkol was sucking the last drops of the legendary punch. She is a great artist too also a member of Ha Za Vu Zu, an artists collective which Culu also took part in some of their performances last year.

  Well guys another solo show of Culu is happening in town now and it seems like this is our last mission in Istanbul before we take of to Thailand. In two weeks we will be starting our biggest adventure with Culu and we will be feeding this blog with many different topics and subjects. We are now ending a chapter here and start to another one. Thanx for all your support since now and see you on the next post.

J-Fest Nights

  Due to some technical problems i couldn't upload too many videos on the blog but we have solved it finally. Here you have two videos from j-fest which i have been editing with my bare paws.

  Here is a session of Culu and his friends at the jam night.

9th J-Fest Has Ended

  What an incredible week it was folks. After having two weeks of preparation and a weekful of juggling we finally got back to Istanbul yesterday night and i have a lot to talk about and share with you all. This post will be mostly filled with the highlights of the amazing festival to document it for next generations. Culu and i most probably wont be at the 10th one, so that's why it was a special one for both of us.

    

  That's Nahit, Culu's good friend while he was practising in the first days of the festival. He was constantly asking questions about our relationship with Culu cuz he and his girlfriend got a puppy called "Pepper" and he wants to know how we are getting along that well with Culu. I've learned later that his girlfriend changed her mind at the last minute and stayed at home to take care of Pepper instead of coming together to the festival. What a pity. Anyways, i hope i will meet Pepper one day. 

  You can't believe how much is happening around during the daytime in the "green area". That's the place where jugglers can practice, learning new tricks, giving workshops to each other or simply watch what's happening. There also was a music tent where anyone can join and play live music to accelerate the vibe.

At the music tent you can always find an instrument or somebody busy with playing already. Three guys from Ankara were with us at the festival and they were incredible. Never say no to play even it is very late at night. Jamming and howling with them was so much fun.

  Here you see Culu practicing doubles with clubs early in the morning.

  Culu was giving a workshop about how to convert the festival badges into a flipbook. The festival badge is an item which indicates that you are part of the festival. This year's one is a little empty booklet. So Culu decided to fill it up with some drawings to animate it.

   Badge production at the workshop.

  The third day of the festival is the time for juggling games. Here you see everybody's eagerly waiting for the games to start with my whistle. The games are one of the main events of the festival.

   Limbo is a very good start to the games. Like every year people got eliminated when the stick goes down. My mate Serdar had a good beginning but that was it.

 Limbo winner Till

 Club balancing

Two finalists Rob and Till still keep on going even naked.

 Hand stand takes place after club balancing and this years winner is again Gokhan on the far left.

Legendary team "Serefsizler" trying so hard to win the game.

 Our friend Yavru performed his own songs with the guys on the little stage we set up next to the bar in sundance. Canberk on drums, Günes on bass, Taylan von Aygar on cello and Kamil on udu. This stage was used as a jamming space on the next days.

The dome called kubbe's state after the contemporary dancer Mihran Tomasyan's one man performance.

  At the fourth day i was keen to play some frisbee while people are enjoying the day on the green area. Then Eda came and play with me a little. 

With her help i was improving my jumping skills.

 An ordinary day from the green area

 Culu and Efe

Our team "serefsizler" unexpectedly loose the volleyclub game at the first round.

 One of the night jams

  Big dome at night. That dome was the main practice space at night where people juggle and play. "The Gala Show" is also taking place here at the last night of the festival.

   We were waiting for the jugglers to light their toys at the fire night. It was a chilly night that one, so i sneak in Culu's hoody to warm up a little during the show.

                                                                      these three photos taken by Onur Kawthar

  These kids never stop playing with fire during that night.

  At the last day of the festival Gizmo suddenly got clicked and start juggling three balls. It is a wonderful feeling to achieve something you want to do. I am proud of Gizmo by finishing the festival with something in her pocket. After practicing for a while Culu, Gizmo and i leave the green area for the gala show meeting. Culu and Gizmo were the stage hands during the show with Lea.

  The preparations of the show held on the big dome with all the performers and the sound and light crew. Everything has to be so precise and in time, so under my surveillance the guys were studying their homework very well.

   Of course i was inspecting every single detail on stage. 

   Me and Culu were having a nap while the performers were making their finishing touches to their acts. Somehow every year at the gala night Poseidon's heavy storms hit the festival. But luckily this year it is just passing by us with a gorgeous view outside the tent.

   Two of the musicians of the night: Cagri and Johannes

   Culu was acting weird at the backstage while waiting for his part to come.

I've found a corner at the backstage to chill a bit during the gala cuz there will be a party afterwards. 

   Here you see me still chilling in Alpacook's arms. He was the one who is feeding all the volunteers with his delicious meals. He will also be joining us in Thailand on our journey later on.

  I can't find the true words to describe the effort and respect we had before, during and after the festival. We met with so much great souls that our hearts were connected forever. The level of friendship and solidarity was so high that i believe with such a big family there's no obstacle we can remove of the path. I don't know when me and Culu will see this huge family back but we know that they will be living within our souls wherever we go. We will miss you all guys.

  Well folks, that was the ninth turkish juggling convention. It was one of the best we had since the beginning. And this was the first time we tried our new camera we'll be using on our south east asia trip. It wasn't the best result we were expecting but we will get better using this technology soon, i promise.