Istanbul

I recently attended the Istanbul Independent Film Festival. This is my MySpace friend Efekan whom I looked up when I was there. He is an art student who works in ceramics. I bought him the hat.

Efekan accompanied me to the classic Turkish Baths, or Hammam, in the Old City, where we were thumped, bumped, twisted like pretzels and fricaseed by big fat Turkish men. Then they wrapped us up and hung us out to dry.

Me doing my Mother Theresa imitation.

These are some cute Turkish boys I met and partied with. The one in the middle is Aykan. He's a hot queer activist.
John Cameron Mitchell was on the jury of the film festival, and he and I dj'd one night at a festival party. It was fun. JCM was travelling with legendary cinematographer Bobby Bukowski, whom I hadn't seen since a party in Gus Van Sant's trailer on the set of Psycho on the Universal Lot.

This is a big scary upside down statue of Medusa sitting in water in an underground cistern. Don't look at it or you will turn into Sharon Stone.
Istanbul is full of grand mosques.