Image to Fill Space: A Vintage VW Bug

It is hard to believe, but when I was a child circa 1977, my late father Mehmet Gokbudak, actually drove us from Frankfurt, West Germany, to Istanbul, Turkey. To my recollection, Austria, Hungary and Bulgaria were among the countries we drove.

And, of course, we drove through the former Yugoslavia (Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia), where we encountered some very hilly roads.
http://www.vwclub.org/

Soccer Week (8 of 8): Suppose They Gave a Soccer Game in Cyprus, and No One Cared (plus 11 European teams you've never heard of)

Hmm....we were going to post a photo of Trabzonspor's Turkish soccer player Yusuf Erdogan, but what we got were photos of Turkish Prime Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is about as popular amongst Turks abroad as Porky Pig cartoons are in Dubai (forgive the political humor).

At any rate, this image is of Marco Streller, the Swiss international and captain of the Swiss team Basel, which is ranked 51st in UEFA club standings. He kicked the winning goal for Basel in the Champions League. Basel went into London on Tuesday and shocked the global soccer community with a 2-1 win over Chelsea.

Our lead though is in reference to today's soccer game in Limassol, Cyprus, between traditional Turkish soccer power Trabzonspor and Appolon Limassol, the team that surprised Europe last year by reaching the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League.

Even though Cyprus is just across the sea from Turkey, Trabzonspor traveled quite a ways for the game as Trabzon is located in northwestern Turkey.

For those who feel asleep in your history class at Cornell University (next time we'll pick on Princeton), Turkey and Greece had a short, but ugly war over Cyprus in 1974. Even though I was four years old at the time, I remember the Cyprus War quite well, or at least as well as the Vietnam War, for my late father Mehmet Gokbudak hailed from Turkey.

Thankfully, no one on either side of my family died in Famagusta or Hanoi.

Before we get to the ten European soccer teams you've never heard of, let's look at some scores that will help you the blog-reader get through this entry:

UEFA Champions League:

Sociedad (Spain) 0 Shkhar Donesk (Ukraine) 2

Chelsea 1 Basel 2

Benfica (Portugal) 2 Anderlecht (Belgium) 0

UEFA Europa League:

Apollon 1 Trabzonspor 2

Dynamo Zagreb (Croatia) 1 Odessa (Ukraine) 2

PSV Eindhoven (Netherlands) 0 Ludogorets (Bulgaria) 2

Standard Liege (Belgium) 1 Esberg (Denmark)  2

Freiburg (Germany) 2 Liberec (Czech) 2...........tie game

Rubin Kazan (Russia) 5 Maribor (Slovenia) 2

Now here on the 11 teams you've never heard of:

1. Shakhtar Donetsk (Ukraine): This was considered the second biggest upset in the Champions League. Brazilian international Alex Teixeira scored both goals for the Ukrainian club in their 2-0 win in Spain).

2. Basel (Switzerland)

3. Benfica (Portugal): They are seemingly a team which always sneaks up on other teams in European play.

4. Anderlecht (Belgium)

5. Apollon Limassol (Cyprus): "The Daily Hurriyet," an English-langauge newspaper in Turkey said Trabzonspor won in 'Greek Cyprus,' but we don't like to get into politics here. Well, at least, not when we are writing about soccer. Gaston Sangoy (Argentina) scored for the Cypriot team in the team's close loss to Trabzonspor.

6. Trabzonspor (Turkey): This squad is one of only two teams outside of Istanbul that has won a Turkish domestics championship; Bursasapr from Bursa is the other team.

7.Dyanmo Zagreb (Croatia)

8. Ludogorets (Bulgaria): Amazingly enough Virgil Misidja a Dutch international player for this Bulgarian team kicked in the second goal in his native country today to help Ludo upset PSV Eindhoven 2-0.

9. Esberg (Denmark): Not to be confused with Swedish team Elfsborg, which is also in the Europa League, this Danish squad celebrated a road win in Belgium thanks to the game-winning goal from Musaga Bakenga, a Norwegian player of Congolese heritage.

10. Rubin Kazan: This team which plays in the Tartar region  of Russia boasts Gokdeniz Karadeniz, one of Turkey's better exports. Today, he scored a goal today in their win over Maribor of Slovenia.

11. Maribor (Slovenia): Today's lop-sided loss to Rubin Kazan was apparently closer than the score sheet indicates. Maribor is a competitive team from the former Yugoslavia and today the team saw a goal from Slovenian national Martin Milec.



http://www.turkeyfootball.blogspot.com

http://www.turkish-football.com

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com

http://www.trabzonspor.org.tr (in Turkish)

http://www.russianfootballnews.com

http://www.apollo.com.cy

http://www.uefa.com

Tilly Gokbudak is Moving to Bulgaria in August

All of us here at "The Daily Vampire" are pleased to announce that our managing editor Tilly Gokbudak, who happens to be me, is moving to Sofia, Bulgaria, to teach at the American College of Sofia.

He was accepted there for a full-time position teaching English, and Gokbudak will also travel to his late father Mehmet Gokbudak's native Turkey to assist elementary school teachers teach English in the provinces of Edirne, Tekirdag and Kiriklareli.

Turkey and Bulgaria share a common border, and there many ethnic Turks in Bulgaria.

But, we are happy to announce that this blog will not discontinue in any way.

Quote of the Week- Mustafa Kemal Ataturk

Yes, it has been a long time, but this blog is continuing on.

Today in honor of my late father Mehmet Gokbudak (1921-1983), we are quoting his personal hero Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who founded the modern Republic of Turkey in 1923. My father would have turned 92 on Jan.7th.

Here is the quote:

"Unless a nation's life faces peril, war is murder."

For Republic's Day, a Quote from Nazim Hikmet

One of the many great ironies about Turkey, my late father Mehmet Gokbudak's country and a nation I've visited 15 times, is that the great poet Nazim Hikmet (1902-1963), who was a communist who died in exile in the Soviet Union, is now the official national poet of Turkey!

Today, Hikmet is buried in Moscow (image above).

The Republic of Turkey was established by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk on this day in 1923, which was 89 years ago.

Here is a quote from Hikmet, who is honored here in America with the Nazim Hikmet Poetry Festival which is usually held in April:

"Living is no laughing matter. You must live with great seriousness like a squirrel for example_ I mean without looking for something beyond and above living, I mean living must be your whole occupation."

http://www.nazimhikmet.org.tv

http://www.nazimhikmetfestival.org

Silly Picture to Fill Space- A Vietnamese Pig

We noticed that some folks from Pakistan were checking out our blog today, which we really appreciate. Alas, this image might make them inclined to check the web page of "The Nation" (ironically a Pakistani nationalist publication called "The Nation" shares its' name with a very liberal magazine in America which features an always biting column from Eric Alterman).

I do actually sympathize with folks in Pakistan because my late Turkish father Mehmet Gokbudak forbade me to eat pork, but I was allowed to read "Green Eggs and Ham" by Dr. Seuss.

But, hopefully, they will still like us in Slovenia!

For those traveling through North Carolina, the town of Lexington, between Greensboro and Charlotte (well closer to Greensboro), is said to have some of the best barbecue in the South. And, Google recommends Speedy's Barbecue, which has a web site (speedysbbqinnc.com) and their phone number is (336) 248-2410. We have never eaten there ourselves.

Quote of the Week- Dr. Seuss

Since the Muslim holy month of Ramadan is coming to a close tomorrow, I have been reminded of many unusual culture clashes which occured in the living room as a child in the 1970s. Since my late father Mehmet Gokbudak was a Turkish immigrant, the decision to let me get a copy of the legendary Dr. Seuss book "Green Eggs and Ham"
(1960) could not have been an easy one. Alas, it has been misplaced over the years.

On a recent trip to the quaint town of Lewisburg, WVa, I had a chance to go to Open Book, an independent bookstore downtown, I noticed that all current editions of those classic Dr. Seuss books, which also include "Cat in the Hat" (1957) and "Hop on Pop" (1963) now retail for $9.95. And, there are Dr. Seuss neckties as well!

So, since "Green Eggs and Ham" is perhaps as likely to get translated into Turkish as Bill Griffith's "Zippy the Pinhead" comic strips, which are a novelty even here in America_ its country of origin, we have selected Dr. Seuss (1904-1991) as our subversive for this series of quotes from cultural radicals. And, this quip from Dr. Seuss, who has a memorial statue in his native Springfield, Mass., seems just like something that the likes of John Waters and R. Crumb would fully agree with:

"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."

SIDEBAR: We loved this tweet from Roger Ebert, the legendary Chicago movie critic who got me interested in quirky films like "Q-The Winged Serpent" when I was between 12-15 years old: "Never marry someone who doesn't love the same movies you love. Sooner or later, that person will not love you."

SIDEBAR TWO: We also loved this bumper sticker that we saw in Roanoke, Va., today: "I would rather Phish than work." This is in reference to the musical improv band Phish, which formed in Burlington, Vermont, in 1993. They broke up in 2004, but reunited in 2009. Phish will be performing from Sept. 2-4 in Commerce City, Colo.

Special Quote of the Week_ Giuseppe Verdi

Today, we conclude our quips from famous Italians in honor of the 150th anniversary of Italy's unification with a quote from opera composer Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) who wrote many of my favorite operas, including "Rigoletto" (1851), "La traviata"
(1853) and "Aida" (1871).

But, since my name is actually Attila Gokbudak (I go by Tilly Gokbudak) and I was in fact named after Attila the Hun, I have to quote Verdi since he penned the opera "Attila" (1846). My late father Mehmet Gokbudak was, in fact, a serious history buff and yes, he actually admired Attila the Hun. He also admired Suleyman the Magnificient, but I'm thankful he didn't choose that option (going through school being named Magilla Gorilla Attila after the famous cartoon character Magilla Gorilla was torture enough).

Earlier this year, the Utah Symphony produced Verdi's last opera "Falstaff" (1893) earlier this year. Verdi also composed two operas that were based on William Shakespeare plays, including his version of "Macbeth" (1847) and "Otello" (1887), based on "Othello."

An interesting thing I found out regarding Attila the Hun and pop culture is that he was played by two different actors, Anthony Quinn and Jack Palance, in two different films in 1954.

And, ironically enough my first name is often misspelled whenever I'm in Turkey as it is spelled Atilla over there, but it is spelled Attila in Hungary where Attila the Hun reigned.

In other opera news, NPR's "The World" reported yesterday that Antonio Vivaldi's 'lost opera' "L'Unione della Pace e di Marte" will be performed this week in the Czech Republic for the first time in 284 years.

Here is the quote from Verdi:

"You may have the universe if I have Italy."

SIDEBAR: The NPR show "Marketplace" which was broadcasting from the Aspen Ideas Festival in Aspen, Colo., reported that the local newspaper "The Aspen Times" mentioned that the city's tap water won a blind taste test over Dasani and Fiji.

There is also an annual International Bottle Water Tasting Festival in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia, each year. In February, the winner of the contest was the Canadian bottle water Muskoka Springs.

Father's Day Kitsch

For me, Father's Day is about remembering my father Mehmet Gokbudak (1921-1983) and my second stepfather Donald Sullivan (1918-2003).

The two men had some similarities as my father liked to collect knives and he frequently wore orange Elmer Fudd hunters caps even though to my knowledge baba (the Turkish word for father) never hunted himself. He also had a fascinated with gun shops.

Donald really, really liked guns, and our political differences on gun control could at times be a sensitive matter. Although we both loved western films, I remember a time when we sat down together to watch a Hopalong Cassidy movie on tv. And, on Father's Day one year, Donald almost cried when he stood up as a 'father' on my behalf during a Salem Avalanche game (now the team is the Salem Red Sox). Since Donald had no children of his own, he cherished being a father figure for my sister and I.

My father had other interests which remain a bit pecuilar to this day. Though he rarely drank beer, though I believe he drank a few Efes Pilsen brews when he was back in Turkey, he loved German beer drinking songs and he had many lp records of those songs, some of which we recently rediscovered. Donald, on the other hand, had little use for Germany as he was a World War II veteran who had seen action in countries like Germany, Belgium and France.

My father's game of choice was soccer, and he rooted for GalataSaray though we didn't have the advantage of watching Turkish soccer games on tv via satellite in the 1970s and early 1980s as many Turkish families can today.

Baba was also not to found of the tv sitcom "Happy Days," which I watched regularly. He considered The Fonz to be subversive because he defied authority, and at times, there was actually a de facto ban on "Happy Days." For me, this simply meant, that I would simply watch the show whenever I was at a friend's house. And, reruns of the show also aired in the afternoon when he wasn't home.

My father also enjoyed classical music, especially accordian tunes, leather belts,
'70s floppy hats, playing the Turkish saz, riiding his bicycle all over town and the Laurel and Hardy short films that he saw at cinemas in Istanbul when he was a teenager.

Besides guns, Donald also liked trains, hot dogs, yard sales, watching airplanes take off and land as well as fishing.

Donald was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, but his family moved to Columbus, Ohio, where he resided on Minnesota Street. He was honorably discharged from the Army in 1948.

Though I am very different from both of them in oh so many ways, I miss them both every day. And, on Father's Day, I prefer to think of how fortunate I was to have them in my life rather than mourn the fact that they are no longer around.