It’s been quite the period since I ended the Jura festival on a musical high. I am currently in the humungous, humanity-teeming megalopolis of Turkey’s capital, formerly Constantinople, now Istanbul. My journey here began a week last Monday, when dropping my tent in a bin, I set off walking the 8 miles towards the ferry port from Jura. The second car that pass’d picked me up, & dropped me right at the port, leaving me a wee wait before the boat, the zippy crossing, & then a chance to warm up in the Islay port building, trainers snuggling to a radiator.
Daniel & Heidi turned up a wee while later, & after a lovely ferry crossing, & a long, lazy bus ride, we reach’d Glasgow. Most of the journey I spent playing inernet chess, which is about the only thing an party-infused Damo-mind can do. I mean, it has to do something, & epic poems dont write themselves you know, but after sessions like this, my thought-pools are like stagnant leftovers of storm-rain in the streets, with no rivers or gutters to fall into.
After staying on Daniel’s couch, the next day I spent 8 hours in the Mitchell Library, prepping the Silver Rose. I’ve been ruminating quite a lot recently on this second epic poem of mine, even coining a few new sonnets recently, & today I settl’d on its final form, at least sonnet-wise. I am going to go with the 14x14x14 motif – 14 lines make a sonnet, 14 sonnets make a sequanza, & 14 sequanzas make grand sequanza. Another way to look at it is that every sonnet is a star, every sezquanza is a constellation, & every grand sequanza is a galaxy. All the sonnets ever written together will then make the sonneverse.
As for my own prime galaxy of sonnets, the very best by the way, I really only have one 14 sonnet sequanza left to write – my trip to Troy. ‘Hiking on Hisarlik’ is the working title. I’ve already done Marching on Parnassus, in fact its the preceding sequanza, & Hisarlik Hill is where ancient Troy’s ruins were found by Albert Schliemann. In fact, I’ve a Flixbus heading to the very area late tomorrow, but I’m now getting ahead of myself.
Last Tuesday I’d left Glasgow about 5 PM, & made my way to Edinburgh, where my glasses had arrived from Campbeltown. They’d been posted to Spud’s, & we could have talked for hours, as we usually do, but in the end I set off about 9PM, & made my way to the airport via the tram. Once there, I found a reasonable spot to make a bed, utilising a seat from a coffee shop as a cushion – before being awoken, Auswizch style, by sirens & shouting at 3 AM.
By 7 AM I was on a flight to Weeze in Germany. It was a sunny landing, & I decided to walk to Kavaelear, about 7 k from the airport, picking some breakfast up from a village en route. Then it was into train-jumping mode – every penny helps, right? I’d realis’d on my last visit to the area that the ticketing is zonal, & Kavaelear is right on the edge of the border between two zones. The next stop was 6 minutes away, & if I could there safely I would, in fact, save 10 euros. Which I did. I could have stayed on the train all the way to Krefeld, I am sure, but not wanting to risk it, I got off, bought a ticket for 7 euros, waited half an hour, then preceeded to Krefeld.
So B-mann, a darling soul, a reyt old frind, who loves his tunes, & more importantly MY tunes, & was about to start recording ‘A Goan Love Song’. This set of songs I’d been writing all summer, mainly each evening on Sannox Beach gainihg new bits osmosis style from the sea. I then took the songs on a mini-tour in August; with gigs on Arran, in Edinburgh & here in Krefeld. I’d assembl’d a band for the Krefeld gig from local musicians, & they were all keen to contribute to the forthcoming recording session. That is, of course, after I’d laid down the guide tracks.
First things first, tho’, was a shower & clothes sterilisiation – I was honking. Then it was to work – the idea being not to use a robotic click-track, but to get ‘the vibe & the feel,’ which we certainly did, speeding up & slowing down all over the shop, & holding the morass together for the drummer by me doing a marathon clapping session at 3AM one morning. I mean, I’m pretty much a human metronome, but I was on rakes of energy drinks- they were only 3 euros for 4, & the shaman in me couldnt resist using this method as a way to get ‘the vibe & the feel’ into the music.
All-in-all we spent 3 out of 4 nights on it, big sessions power’d by booze & the aforementioned energy drinks. B-Mann didn’t indulge in the ‘energy drinks’, actually, prefering the booze to keep a a sharp head, but there was a lot of work to do, & it needed fuelling. We ended, up in the end, with 12 originals & 3 covers – Living Darfur, Pump Up The Jam & Bittersweet Symphony. While we were recording, B-Mann’s girlfriend contributed her muse-like qualities, with a lyrical suggestion here, & a dance session there. She will be singing on the album at some point.
After the first session, once we’d finish’d the recording, I proceeded to play 4 hours of dance music for them, which they fully appreciated, allowing me to hone my DJ set. This is something which has been evolving for years now. I nibble at it sometimes, but Im just waiting for the universe to present me with the perfect spot to really work on it. I will be ereturning to Krefeld to finish the album, so perhaps it will be there…
Krefeld is a ‘grower’ – its a nice place really, made better by its Mediotech library thingy, a lovely building with big computers with unlimited free usage & microsoft word. This allowed me to publish a Shakespeare paper on Academia, & set off a discussion about Shakespeare’s Grand Tour, 1585-88. It’s a great way to write longer papers, by serialising them in the discussion boxes on a paper, & this one’s already pulling the Oxfordians out (people who believe that Shakespeare was the Earl of Oxford) in angry rebuttals of my studies! The plan is to finish the Chisper Effect this winter as well- I’ve done the Arthurian section, & the Picts recently using the same process. Just Jesus, Shakespeare, Homer & the Hyksos to go!
On the last night, after making everyone a curry, including the bass player, who was OCD-dog-with-a-bone angry about us having laid down some of the tunes too fast (I was on energy drinks), he brought out Spinal Tap Two on memory stick – a reyt film! Then it was an earlyish bed-time, follow’d by a broken sleep, then realising my laptop time was an hour behind, that the real time was 6.30, & I’d better be on my way to Turkey.
Catching the 7.30 out of Krefeld, I decided to jump the trains again, which I did, 2 trains all the way to the airport. A skytrain & a security check later, I was waiting for the 10.25 flight to Istanbul. Turns out there were 2 flights to Istanbul at the same time & I was waiting at the wrong one. Cue mad dash & me making my gate with a couple of minutes to spare. I’m like, fer fucks sake Damo – then I’m like, I could probaly do with a good kip, that was one epic session of music.
3 hours later I was in Turkey for the first time ever. The coach into the centre cost 367 Turkish lira, about £7. I was sat by a reyt sound Turkish Kurd call’d Ali, who has his own business in Switerland & just buzzes about the world spending his profits. Nice guy, he gave me several tips – SE Turkey is the best for me if I want sun & cheap living; & don’t say anything political, or buy weed – there’s undercover cops everywhere. He also taught me a few words in Turkish;
Tishay-kular = thanks
mahaba = hello
gula gula = goodbye smiling
nakadar – how much
The meeting led to my first sonnet of the tour;
I enter’d Istanbul by Pegasus
& Turkeye has become a nest for us
Who wrestle westwards on a breathless pen
Like lanterns drawing phantoms from a fen –
I meet a Kurdish gentleman, Ali
By name, who marks the world by salary
& warn’d me off political comment
Or buying weed, else off to cells soon sent
To linger there, unless a six month purse
Of wages sent to break my living curse –
Now, turn’d, he, on subjects more discerning
Finish’d with a flurry-full of learning
Words for thank-you, farewell, how much, hello,
Then, hugging, parted we – what a fellow!
I plung’d into Istanbul, proceeding down a very long, shop-lined Oxford St style thoroughfare, towards a famous military tower. Thus led me to a bridge, over which I travell’d from one continent to another over the Bosphorus. Then it was this crazy massive maze of a grand bazaar, I mean its endless, myriads of shops all selling pretty much all the same things; clothes, shoes, & tat! Istanbul, the global emporium between east & west, at the end of the Silk Road & the start of the capitalist empires, is essentially one massive shopping centre.
I found my ‘hotel’ in a rough triad of streets not far from the harbour. The guy at the desk was furious I was there, & on showing him my air bb credentials was given a room – which certainly wasnt the one I’d pay for. Im still a superhost on airrbb, so I know how to play this, I should get my money back, especially after photographing the sheets to show that they hadnt been changed in at least one visit – hairs & dirt everywhere.
Jeesh, welcome to Turkey. The light didnt work, the TV didnt work, but the hot water did & the table lamp worked, & after turning all the bedding inside out, at least there was some semblance of cleanliness. Thank God I brought the throw with me all the way from Campbeltown.
There is also a nearby mosque blaring out psychedelic calls to prayer, 5 times a day, & at 5 am, but the biggest drawback is that there is no wi-fi at the hotel, & no internet on my phone. I’m 21st century cut-off. Through yesterday (& now), I ended up getting coffees & brews to use their wi-fi to get online – its massively important, especially when youre travelling. Still, once I get to Greece I can use my normal internet, etc, & phone folk, so that pretty much settles in which direction I’ll be heading. SE Turkey sounds nice, but I need to write.
Yesterday was my first full day in Istanbul, which I spent on the Shakespeare-in-Istanbul mission. It meant hacking my way through the metro system, topping up my ‘Instanbul card’ as I did so – its about 35 lira per ride, 70p. I eventually found the Ottoman Archives, & went through an induction system that gave me a shiny card with my photo on it – a great souvenir.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get what I wanted, a chat with an academic, & was just told to type words in English into a computer system. I knew this was the wrong way of going about things, but sometimes the journey is the destination. Shakespeare can wait, but I’m now in Turkey heading for Troy, & the completion of my second epic poem, a sonnet of which will now read;
DETERMINATION
Sent onwards by a whim, & a fancy
That Shakespeare Europe tour’d with William Stanley
I plung’d into the madd’ning labyrinthine
Megacity metro, sign by sacred sign
Names shone like glow-worms sufi saints employ,
Thro’ Yenakapi, Mecidiyekoy
Then Kagithane, an office there I made
In the Ottoman Archives – walls display’d
Maps of empire, huge & hung, from the Balkans
To Persia, banners flew like falcons –
I sat, & stopp’d, unhappy foreign fool,
Helpless, but sensing somewhere, still, some jewel
Will solve this mystery – I’d need a guide –
But, at least, I’d pluck’d a sonnet, from the ride!
So that’s 3 sonnets in a 24 hour period. That’s good. The one previous was an amalgamation of my grand bazaar experience, & wandering round the centre of ‘European’ Istanbul, where the university is & the great tombs of Sultans. The sonnet reads;
BREACHING KAPALCARSI
O polymartic world emporium!
Where west meets east upon a nexus point
That are these grand bazaars, centaurean
Man-horse vaulting great continents, unjoint
By slender Bosphorus, where Constantine
Imagin’d his glorious, eternal
Bastion, to confound the grim design
Of eastern hordesmen, roaring infernal;
Alas, for him & his, the Sultans slung
A line of arms round all, to choke Greek words
From whence the Sultans kept forever young,
By pristeen mausaulea, streams of birds
Appear, peer down each immaculate dome
Agree, ’tis more spectacular than Rome.
So there we are, its now the next day, I am currently having a Turkish coffee for £2, which is mainly powder at the bottom, but using the internet to get this lot uploaded. It all feeds into each other, the sonneterring, the blogging, the music, at the end of which I’m gonna have some beautiful pieces. But its totally front line shit, man, Ive spent most of teh morning avoiding being price-stung – but that did get me to the market where I got fair prices for fruit & salad veg, which has served as my first meal of the day…
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