Talk is Cheap

Sometimes things overdue become timely again and such is the case with this post.
Two Fridays ago, a local jazz band, Talk is Cheap, composed of three faculty members from the university gave a free concert in the library’s art gallery. It was a smashing combination and was the perfect break for a Friday afternoon. The concert was such a success that they are playing again tomorrow in the library (at 2 pm, I think, in case anyone local is reading this).
That is why I say the post is timely again.

The gallery is featuring the work of Abdurrahman Kaplan. I particularly like this picture because old men playing guitar-like instruments seems to be a universal art theme (see Picasso’s take, and Vermeer's take). I almost titled this post “Turkish Picasso” and thought about a whole diatribe on the collective unconscious of things but decided against it since all I know about the collective unconscious is the names Jung and Campbell and the universal myth of creation (I had an excellent course as an undergraduate in ancient astronomy and if I hadn’t already made up my mind to pursue psychology I think I would have rather liked archeoastronomy as a major).

Back to what is at hand: art and music. Having an intimate concert in an art gallery is a lovely thing. This was the first time I had attended any such gathering but if I ever own an art gallery, I would definitely work the art/music angle. It is amazing how spiritually lifting such an experience can be as a feast for the eyes and ears (especially given that often my ears are subjected to the monotony of a clacking keyboard and my eyes to a blinking cursor). What’s more, it is a great marketing ploy (not that this concert was about selling art). But I remember one spring break when S. and I went to San Francisco and in The Haight, there was a t-shirt/poster/bong shop playing Rubber Soul and I spent much more money in that shop that I would have spent had they been playing any other music.

Talk is Cheap is a great little ensemble and they played all sorts of jazz standards like “The Girl from Ipanema” and “Fly Me to the Moon” and more contemporary pieces of Nora Jones’.
Finally, Talk is Cheap plays every Sunday night at a local bar in Ankara which I do not know the name of but I am hoping that Erin (vocalist and pianist of Talk is Cheap) will post that information in the comments section… just in case anyone out there lives in Ankara or is planning to visit.