Bosphorus Chronıcle

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Bosphorus Chronıcle

IN THIS ISSUE
The Business of Robert College • 2
Interview with Cara Keyman • 2
Macs Have Arrived! • 3
Your Guide to League of Legends
World Championships • 7
Want to Speed up your PC? • 8
Farewell From Two Veterans • 8
Meet the Incoming Faculty • 4 - 6
2014 Basketball Championship • 9
A Full Review of the Latest Apple
Devices: The 6 series • 11
Pera: the Ultimate
Museum Experience • 15
From Pages to Theaters • 12
What is your favorite art-season?
Ours is FALL • 15
What’s on Screen? • 13 - 14
STATE OF SOUND • 16 - 19
DECEMBER 2014 Issue
Bosphorus Chronicle is the quarterly newspaper of Robert College
Changes at Robert College
İrem Deyneli
Zeynep
Karababa
Changes are always exciting, especially on our campus. This year
we encountered many interesting
changes in our school. If you missed
out on any of these changes, this article will help you catch up.
One of the biggest changes is the
library refurbishment. The library,
where most of us used to spend our
free periods or finals week studying, is under renovation. So now we
see an enormous glass panel when
climbing up the stairs to Gould 4th
floor. Because we students are the
primary users, our ideas about the
library are really important. We
asked some of you and we noticed
that some are looking forward to
the brand new library, while some
prefer the old version of the library.
“I really liked the old, nostalgic look
of the library. It used to have a very
historical atmosphere and it fit the
school’s historical landscape perfectly,” İdil Kara (RC’17) told us.
Another important change is the
new location of the CIP office. In
previous years, the CIP office used
to be a super tiny place where only
2 tables and a maximum of 4 people
could fit. Elif Abla from the CIP Office says, “Our office is definitely
larger and easier to have meetings.
The new office gets a lot of daylight
and we are of course loving it. We
definitely have more storage area,
which helps a lot. We were in the
heart of the school (Gould Hall)
and we still are, plus we are located
right across from the headmaster’s
office.” Another change that you
might have noticed is that Izzet
Abi, who we know as a counselor,
has joined the CIP office. From your
comments about the CIP office, everybody seems to like it.
This one is probably the most important change for people who
always get detention because of
wearing t-shirts at school. You may
have seen people in the hallways
wearing their new RC t-shirts, while
most of us are struggling with our
uncomfortable shirts and polo
shirts. As Deniz Keleş (RC’16) told
us, “The t-shirts are much more
comfortable than the polo shirts
and this way we have more options,
but they need to produce more.”
Many of you seem to agree. The
t-shirts are nearly sold out now;
only the larger sizes are available.
However, they say that the t-shirts
will arrive in about 2-3 months,
which doesn’t make sense since the
weather will be cold in about that
time. But again, being able to wear
the new RC t-shirts is still excit-
Students Studying at the Brand New Facilities of the School Library
ing. All of the students are pleased
about the shirts, so we asked if they
want to have an even more flexible
dress code. As İdil Kara also told us,
“Not having a dress code would be
better.”But Rengin Tarhan (RC’17)
told us, “It is nice to have options,
but a not having a dress code can be
dramatized and exaggerated at our
school, since not having a uniform
comes with too many options” and
most of you seem to agree.
Robert College is changing in both
some good ways and some bad
ways. Even if we, as the RC community, do not like these changes,
we shouldn’t forget this quote
from Yiğit Koçaş (RC’17), a Student
Council member. “Change is nice.
Change is beautiful.”
A New Color Scheme Feels a lot Roomier
Poems are Everywhere: “Şiir Sokakta”
Zeynep Ünsal
These days, you may come across
poems everywhere - on floors, walls,
banknotes, stairs, park benches,
handkerchiefs and ferries. As you can
see, they are literally everywhere!
The people who started this movement call it Şiir Sokakta, or ‘Street
Poetry’.
This phenomenon originally began
on a Facebook page called “İkinci
Yeni”, which is about a movement
started in the 50s, by famous Turkish
poets such as Cemal Süreya, Turgut
Uyar and Edip Cansever. They wrote
poems which ignored the usual
rules of poetry, and the owners of
the Facebook page wanted to introduce people to İkinci Yeni poets and
their poems. Fortunately, because
they wrote about subjects in a way
they wanted to, Turks liked this idea
of “non traditional poetry” and the
movement spread to Twitter and
Instagram. After a short time, every
type of poem was on the streets, not
just the ones that belong to the famous poets; people also wrote their
own poems where they wanted to
and shared them with other people
via social media with the hashtag:
#siirsokakta.
Virtually everyone enjoys encountering poetry on the streets every day.
Poems create variety in an ordinary
day. It also causes smiles on people’s
faces when they find little pieces of
paper with poems written on them.
Most importantly, it invites people to
the infinite world of poetry. It gives
them power to express themselves
even if they know nothing about
poetry.
Unfortunately, not everyone can find
poetry around their town or city. Şiir
december 2014 Issue
Sokakta spreads to many people’s
hearts even if they have no chance to
read poems on the streets but it has
not spread to every single corner of
Turkey. Luckily they can login to Instagram, Twitter or Facebook, read
the poems which have been written
or photographed and uploaded to
social media, because we all know
that sharing good poems bring good
feelings to people’s hearts.
Şiir Sokakta is also a chance for people who like writing poems, but are
too shy to share them with others. So
those people go out and write their
amateur poems where they want to
and they become the unknown poet
of other people’s inner worlds.
Because of the public nature of Şiir
Sokakta, some people unfortunately
either write poems that disturb some
readers or post their poems in a very
negative way that starts polluting
the walls and streets. There are also
some poems that are written on pri-
Defteri Kapat... Şiir Sokakta (Photo Courtesy of tumblr.com)
vate property, which deviate from
the aim of Şiir Sokakta.
Writing poems has to contribute to
a connective power, not be a reason
for people to fight about their private
property. That’s why people have to
take the road of writing poems with
love and a respect for the feeling of
poetry. Then, they have to go out
with their pens and poetry books
and start to decorate the walls of
the streets with the infinite love of
poetry.
Obviously there are some negative
side-effects of Şiir Sokakta and it has
BOSPHORUS CHRONICLE
caused some disagreement among
people. Nevertheless we have to admit that its aim was commendable
and for the most part it is carried out
without problems. Poetry was introduced to the streets to make people
happy in an unexpected way. Instead
of polluting the streets, Şiir Sokakta
initially took poems in the streets
and brought together people who
share the same ideas. And now there
are people in the street who are writing poems because they believe in
the beauty of poems and the healing
power of it.
1
Melisa
Saygın
Finally, the rudimentary bell resounds
within the ancient halls of Bogazici
University, and the undergraduates
leave the Business Department. Contrary to the common belief that they
acquired their knowledge of business
fully from Bogazici University, the basis
of the business department was established by Robert College in 1958.
Columbia University’s archive of Robert
College Records between 1858-1986,
show a society named “RC Business
Society” which started off as a business department at RC, and grew in
Bogazici University. Columbia University Records state: “In 1955 Dr. Duncan
Ballantine, President of Reed College,
was appointed by a joint presidential
search committee composed of RC and
ACG trustees. His mandate was to revitalize the academic programs at the
college,” and the curriculum was reorganized into three departments: the
Engineering School, the School of Busi-
ness Administration, and the School of
Science and Foreign Languages.
In the beginning of 1971, when the
division between Robert College and
Bogazici University was set, the Business Department remained in Bogazici
University. Thus the business department at Robert College faded from
existence.
Since then, Bogazici turned this Business Administration Society into the
Business Department. Does that mean
RC students have to wait until university to get educated about Business
Administration? No, fortunately, there
is the new RC Business Society!
According to interviews with a random
selection of RC students, 60 percent of
them think that the RC Business Society is a combination of Junior Achievement and Social Entrepreuneurship
Club, and 40 percent don’t even know
what it is. RCBS is a new yet populous
club with members from all levels,
working on a wide selection of projects. Many prestigious colleges have
business societies that are in cooperation with one another. Therefore, business societies function like building
blocks of colleges. Additionally, RCBS
THE BC STAFF
edıtors-ın-chıef
Ece Selin Timur
Tunahan Ekincikli
M. Miraç Süzgün
Deniz Şahintürk
sectıon edıtors
Tuvana Kankallı
Ayşe Leyla Ok
Ezgi Yazıcı
layout edıtor
advısors
M. Miraç Süzgün
Carolyn Callaghan
Robin Carnegy
layout Assistants
wrıters
Tuvana Kankallı
Ezgi Yazıcı
Tunahan Ekincikli
İdil Kara
Mert Akan
Publisher: Birmat Matbaacılık
***
RC adına sahibi ve yazı işlerinden
sorumlu müdürü: Güler Erdur
***
Bosphorus Chronicle is published
quarterly during the academic
year by Robert College students.
We welcome letters to the editor,
feedback, and articles by students.
However, we reserve the right to
edit all materials for reasons of appropriateness of length. Give your
submissions to the advisor or one
of the editors or send it to us via
e-mail. All photographs published
are taken by the writer unless otherwise credited.
How to contact us:
By mail: Robert College, Arnavutkoy
34345 Istanbul, Turkey.
By e-mail:
[email protected]
Yerel Süreli Yayın
2
Ali Berk Eroğlu
Ali Çataltepe
Arda Başaran
Ayşe Leyla Ok
Ayşe Esin Gezer
Ayşegül Ersin
Bilge Tatar
Burak Tunahan Ekincikli
Deniz Şahintürk
Ece Selin Timur
Ece Toprak
Ege Ersü
Ege İşkesen
Ekin Vardar
Elif Ece Acar (Guest Writer)
Ezgi Yazici
İdil Çetin
İdil Korkut
İrem Deyneli
Mehmetcan Özhan
Melis Şingin
Melisa Saygın
M. Miraç Süzgün
Oğuz Ceylan
Oktay Şen
Özsu Rişvanoğlu
Rabia İdil Demirelli
Roza Sürme Mızrak
Sinem Meydanlı
Şeyda Zeynep Ünsal
Tuvana Beliz Kankallı
Umut Deniz Dinç
Zeynep Karababa
Zeynep Naz Türkmen
Zeynep Nehir Türkarslan
Zeynep Sabuncu
is a great oppurtunity and a possible
transition for students who dream of
becoming the future leaders of our
society. RCBS welcomes the students
with voracious expectations from the
business world not just in the future,
but today as well!
For those who are interested in RCBS,
Bosphorus Chronicle interviewed Mr.
Cyrus Carter about the newly formed
club.
What are your aims and expectations of the RC Business Society?
We would like to re-establish this
club which existed a long time ago at
RC and moved to Bogazici University
when the schools merged in 1971. The
club should funciton as a venue for discussions about business and economics as well as providing an opportunity
for business leaders to share their ideas
with students. This club should be student-run and provide leadership and
organizational opportunities for our
students. I am merely an advisor, more
of a guide on the side.
Can you briefly explain the departments and positions in RC
Business Society?
Finance, Human Resources, Information Technologies and Dasign, Marketing, Public Relations.
We have our CEO (Törehan Kara), CIO
(Canberk Koporal, and CFO (Fırat Geyik)
How did you come up with the
idea of starting the RC Business
Society?
This was the brainchild of Törehan
Kara! He deserves all the credit.
Which activities differentiate
RCBS from the other clubs? For
example what is the difference
between RC Business Society and
RC Business Society
NEWS&OPINIONBOSPHORUSCHRONICLENEWS&OPINION
NEWSBOSPHORUSCHRONICLENEWSNEWSNEWS
The Business of Robert College
other entrepreneurship clubs such
as Junior Achievement?
It is a club of discussion and learning
about the worlds of finance, business,
etc. On the other hand, JA is entrepreneurial. Our club will invent itself
according to the creativity and motivation of its members.
What do you look for in prospective RC Business Society members?
Students should be interested in exploring the opportunities beyond engineering. We expect motivated team
players.
Do you think the RC Business Society benefits the RC community?
Yes, in the long term, I believe the
RCBS will provide an opportunity for
RC grads to visit their old school, give
back in a meaningful way and discover
our great students with remarkable
potential.
We would like to thank Mr.Carter, Törehan Kara, Canberk Koparal and Fırat
Geyik for starting the RC Business Society. If you would like to be a part of
RCBS, then we suggest starting to prepare for next year’s probable examination. As Harold S. Geneen once said,
“In the business world, everyone is
paid in two coins: cash and experience.
Take the experience first; the cash will
come later.” RCBS is here to help you to
experience the business world without
limitations!
Work Cited:
“Robert College Records, 1858-1986.” Co-
lumbia University Libraries Rare Book &
Manuscript Library. Columbia University,
n.d. Web. 12 Oct. 2014.
Interview with Cara Keyman
Elif Ece Acar
BC: How did you decide to become
a teacher (librarian)?
While studying for my undergraduate
degree, I worked in the university library at the circulation desk part-time
in the evenings. During the last few
hours of my shift I was alone with the
students and when they had a question they would come to ask me. I was
really good at helping them with their
research and I enjoyed learning about
all the topics that they were studying.
After I finished my degree, I had to decide what I wanted to do with my life.
I decided to return to school to complete my Masters in Library and Information Sciences at McGill University. I worked for a few years afterwards
at McGill and then at a Canadian government research center, but I realized that what I really wanted to do
was work with students. I was able
to complete a teaching diploma and
when I moved to Turkey with my husband, instead of working at a university I decided to work in schools as a
school librarian. I think that all teach-
BOSPHORUS CHRONICLE
ers would agree that when you work
in a school, every day is different. Students inspire me and keep me young!
BC: Which places have you visited
in Istanbul so far? Which one did
you like the most? Where were
you living and what were you doing before coming here?
I’ve lived in Istanbul for twelve years
so I’ve visited a lot of places, but I still
don’t know the Asian side very well.
Before coming here I was at Enka
Schools in Istanbul and before that I
was at Bilkent University International School.
BC: What is an interesting fact/
story about you that you want
the readers to know?
I originally planned to come to Turkey
for just one year. Guess what? I’m still
here 18 years later. I love Turkey.
BC: What are your favorite movie,
book and TV series?
I have a lot of favorite books and they
change over time, but two enduring
favorites are Frost in May by Antonia
White and A Little Princess by Frances
Hodgson Burnett. I received A Little
Princess from my mother when I was
in grade 5. The book was written in
1905 and she found me a first edition.
I read it and fell in love with the main
character, Sara Crowe, and this also
started my interest in old books. I like
good dramatic TV shows. My favorite
movie is The Shawshank Redemption
and my favorite movie soundtrack is
Basquait.
BC: What is the thing that you
miss the most? Do you have any
interests that you want to pursue
here in Robert College too?
I return to Canada often – so there is
not too much that I miss. I sometimes
have cravings for specific foods that I
can’t get in Turkey – like good Mexican food – but then I go to Canada or
abroad and my craving is satisfied.
The Head Librarian
JUNE 2012
Issue
december
2014
Issue
January 2008 Issue
NEWSNEWSNEWSBOSPHORUSCHRONICLENEWS
Macs Have Arrived!
Nehir Türkarslan
Özsu
Rişvanoğlu
A student at RC walks across Marble Hall, carrying his backpack,
which contains five notebooks, a
thousand-page chemistry book,
and a folder full of hundreds of
papers, while at the same time
carrying a thousand-page biology
book in his hands, just because he
likes to underline and take notes
on the book. He groans, and feels
old because of all the things he’s
carrying. Another student at RC
walks across Marble Hall, goes
into the canteen, gets his coffee
and opens his laptop, the only
thing that makes his backpack
useful.
BC: Nowadays, a lot of things
are changing in the school
technologically. When did this
innovation begin?
Mehmet Özdemir: Robert College
is one of the first schools to apply 1:1
BC: Can you tell us a little bit
about this project?
MÖ: For students, we had the decision that everyone would bring
their own computers. The school
was selling and promoting Lenovo’s. If we changed this too suddenly, we would get negative reactions from the teachers and the
students. So two years ago, we
sold both Macs and Samsungs.
BC: Is there a reason why you
started the change with students’ computers instead of
the teachers’?
MÖ: Yes, actually. When it comes
to changing something students
are more positive about it whereas teachers can be a little more re-
sistant to a new system.
BC: What changes did you
make last year?
MÖ: Last year, we sold mostly Macs at school. 109 out of 110
new students bought Mac’s and
only 1 student bought a Lenovo.
BC: And what about this year?
MÖ: At the beginning of this year,
we gave the teachers a survey.
They made the decision. Only 6
teachers wanted Windows.
BC: Why do you think teachers
mostly preferred Apple?
MÖ: Macs have more opportunities when it comes to education.
The books that are written by the
teachers will be prepared using
iBooks Author next year. Apple
products cause less trouble. You
don’t have to update them as often as a Windows computer. Turning it on and off takes significantly less time.
BC: Is there another school in
Turkey that has such a technological education system?
MÖ: We’re the only school in Turkey that let the teachers decide on
what they want. They choose and
the school buys them what they
prefer. It’s a very important part
of a great education.
BC: We also heard that Apple
TV’s are coming. Is that correct?
MÖ: Yes, we will buy them next
year. The teachers will be able to
project their computer screens
without the need of a cable. You
can’t do that with a Windows
computer. The best thing about it
is that students will also be able
to project their screens using the
Apple TV by just entering a password, without even leaving their
seats.
BC: This new system is great
but isn’t it a bit expensive?
MÖ: It wouldn’t be nice for teachers to use Lenovo’s when 90% of
the students are buying Mac’s. A
Mac cost three times a Lenovo did.
Now Mac is cheaper and its performance is so much better. Now the
only problem is that the teachers
will have to get used to them. It
was going to be either Windows 8
or Mac. The teachers would have
to get used to something new either way. This is also how we marketed them.
BC: Will there be trainings for
the teachers?
MÖ: Yes, of course. We already
gave the laptops to some teachers for them to figure the world of
Apple out on their own until everyone gets their Mac. When everyone gets theirs, there will be
training for each department and
for each teacher, if necessary.
BC: Do you have any other
plans for the future?
MÖ: We are planning to improve
the usage of iPad’s. We aim to prepare on the Macs and present on
the iPads. Apple TV is currently the
biggest change we’re looking forward to.
New Macs are just one of the
many changes in RC this year. Everybody is trying to get used to
these while they are dealing with
the rush of the daily life in RC. We
asked some teachers about their
experience with the new Macs
given to them.
BC: The new Macs were given to the Turkish department
first. You had plenty of time
with it, have you started using it?
Gül Soydan Koç: Yes, I really got
comfortable using the Mac. Some
keys and shortcuts were hard to
discover but in a short time I got
hold of them. At first I was nervous but then I played with it at
home and I even started using it
at school.
BC: If you compare the Lenovos and the Macs, which one
would you prefer?
Mr. Gee Looking Smart
GSK: I used to have a Lenovo and
I can’t say that I miss it. Macs are
much faster and easier to use.
BC: What do you think about
Apple TV?
GSK: When they gave us the laptops they also mentioned the
Apple TV. I’m happy that it will
be easier for us to project our
screens. Projectors we use cause
problems most of the time and it
takes time to fix those problems.
Apple TV doesn’t require cables
and it’s fast.
BC: Have you started using
your new Mac?
Cyrus Carter: I had a Mac before
too so I can already use it well. I
bought my first Apple product
3 years ago. I was with the MUN
club and I ended up with an iPad
and a Mac. I wasn’t very happy
with the iPad at first, but I loved
my Mac right away. Since then, I
have been a fan of both iPad and
Mac. It is so much easier to teach
with. It’s functional, faster and
you have everything you need to
teach.
BC: When the IT asked the
teachers their choices, few of
the teachers chose Windows.
Why do you think some people
didn’t want a change?
CC: Maybe some people liked the
touch-screen and the tablet features of the Lenovos and they
didn’t want to buy Macs. I have
never used the touch-screen so I
never liked the Lenovos.
BC: What do you think about
the Apple TV’s coming?
CC: I’ve started using Apple TV a
few months ago so that’s not new
for me. It’s easy to use and perfect
for class. Finally I want to thank
the IT department for the Macs.
New Macs
december
JUNE 2012
2014
Issue
Issue
BOSPHORUS CHRONICLE
3
New Members of the RC Community
Barry Lucy -Art
Ece Toprak
Ezgi Yazıcı
Where were you living and
what were you doing before
coming here?
I lived in the U.S., teaching Art at
a large suburban public school in
Texas. I lived in the Florida Everglades and rescued manatees from
unscrupulous fashion photographers.
How did you decide to become
a teacher?
I was tired of being an astrophysicist. / To try to take over the world,
but failing that, to continue to be
a student. Now, I study students.
What is an interesting fact/
story about you that you want
the readers to know?
I am thirty-first in line to the British throne. /I am not thirty-first in
line to the British throne.
What are your favorite movie,
book and TV series?
Respectively, Harvey, A Confederacy of Dunces and The Red Skelton
Show.
Do you have any interests that
you want to pursue here in
Robert College too?
Cat ranching.
What is unique about you as
a teacher and why did you
choose the subject you teach?
I don’t feel particularly unique.
Actually, teaching art chose me. I
have a deviated septum. I chose
to teach microbiology to cure the
world of proximal interphalangeal
abnormalities.
Mr. Lucy getting creative with iPhoto
Robin Carnegy -English
a teacher?
I didn’t, teaching just sort of chose
me. I originally started working
in a small advertising agency in
Toronto, which sounds very glamorous and Mad Men-ish, but it
wasn’t, so I quit, sold everything
and went to Japan which I loved
beyond. When I think further on it,
it seems pretty natural that I’d become a teacher eventually; I simply adored school and loved learning things that my parents had no
clue about. I had to come back and
get another degree, and teach in
Canada for a while, but basically it
started in Japan.
Which places have you visited
in Istanbul so far? Which one
did you like the most?
I first came to Istanbul six years
ago so we did the usual tourist
things back then in Sultanahmet:
the Blue Mosque, Aya Sofia, The
Grand Bazaar, Topkapı Palace,
and also took a cruise up the Bosphorus. I fell in love in about two
seconds. Six years later, Istanbul
was still whispering in my ear to
come and stay, so I did. I have seen
more - especially of Arnavutkoy,
Ortakoy and Taksim, but the place
I love most is anywhere that I can
see the ‘other side’. Whether I’m on
the Asian side looking at Europe or
Europe looking at Asia - that gets
me every time. Maybe for you all
it’s ordinary, but I can’t get enough
of it.
book and TV series?
My first major ‘non kids’ movie was
Gone With the Wind—I saw it in
an old theatre on Eglinton Avenue
in Toronto, with red velvet curtains
and gorgeous chandeliers on the
ceiling, and an intermission. I had Robin Carnegy camping out on the street the night before Prince William and Kate Middleno idea movies could be that…
ton’s Royal Wedding
BIG. I was obsessed with it for the
next two years and it became a good too. So is the Godfather. And ity to speak English when I talk
really important springboard into The Usual Suspects. And American about him. My favorite TV series
my interest in films. My favorite Beauty. Oh, and The Sound of Mu- is West Wing (the Aaron Sorkin
movies, (I cannot choose just one) sic is excellent when you are feel- years). When I was a kid I loved
Little House on the Prairie. When
are The Fisher King, The Miracle ing bad.
Worker, All About Eve, The Phila- My favorite author is Louis de Mary went blind I walked around
delphia Story, The Third Man, Pan’s Bernieres. His trilogy is the best. I the house with my eyes closed for
Labyrinth, Notorious, and Casa- can’t talk about his books because a week and drove my parents bonblanca. Shawshank Redemption is they’re so good and I lose the abil- kers.
What is unique about you as
a teacher and why did you
choose the subject you teach?
A lot of English teachers want to
write novels, or actually write novels. I am an English teacher who
truly doesn’t like creative writing.
I like reading it, but I am simply
not good at writing creatively,
and think it should be left to those
with true talent. Gabriel Garcia
Marquez - there’s a good writer.
Fitzgerald, another one. Margaret
Atwood, Jane Austen - history is
filled with writers of brilliant novels and I am not one of them but
that’s okay – I have other talents.
I can write an essay well enough
and fairly quickly, but don’t enjoy
the revision process, so I try to
stick to just the one draft. I don’t
use a computer, but rather a clicky
pencil and legal sized lined paper.
Handwriting is good because I
have to think before I write. This
typing business makes me lazy. I
do love reading though, so that’s
why I chose English Literature.
Caitlin Dunne - English
How did you decide to become a
teacher?
years living and teaching in The
Bronx in New York City.
What is the thing that you miss
the most?
I decided to become a teacher in
response to one of my own teachers having an incredible impact
on the direction of my life. At the
time, I thought to myself, if this one
teacher could change my life for the
better than I should pay-it-forward
and hopefully have a similar impact
on a future student. Even if it was
only one student in my whole life, at
least I would have left this world a
little better than when I entered it.
book and TV series?
In terms of missing things I think
the things I miss the most are certain foods. Currently, I am missing
Mexican food. I was spoiled at my
previous school because we had
an amazing little hole-in-the-wall
Mexican restaurant that we would
go to two or three times a week.
It was amazing even by authentic
Mexican standards! In addition, I
find myself missing Dunkin Donuts
French Vanilla Coffee way more than
I should.
Where were you living and what
were you doing before coming
here?
Caitlin Dunne
4
Before coming to RC I spent eleven
BOSPHORUS CHRONICLE
I love my British detective series,
so at the moment I would say that
BBC’s Sherlock is my favorite series.
My favorite book of all time would
have to be Frank McCourt’s Angela’s
Ashes. In addition, I love reading
fantasy, science fiction, and historical fiction.
My favorite movie is a cheesy choice
but Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves,
despite Kevin Costner’s horrible attempt at an English accent would
have to be it.
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Çağdaş Yüksel - Geography
Photo courtesy of Çağdaş Yüksel
(Translated from Turkish)
How did you decide to become a teacher?
When I completed my undergraduate degree in geography
at the Literature Department in
Ege University, the title “Geographer” was typed on my diploma.
So I started looking for a job as
a “Geographer”. Limited opportunities for work, though, never
made the process easier. This
search led me to a non-thesis
master’s degree, and eventually
pedagogical formation (required
for teaching). And that is how
my teaching career has started.
coming here?
I had been working in Adapazarı
ENKA Schools.
What are your favorite movie, book and TV series?
I would like to answer this question through my subject. Jules
Verne’s “Journey to the Center
of the Earth” always takes my
breath away with its geographic
descriptions. My favorite movie
“Measuring the World” (2012) is
based on a geographer Alexander von Humboldt and a mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss.
The scientific approaches of the
era are successfully reflected to
the audience, so I would recommend this movie.
Ron Miller - Mathematics
coming here?
Before moving to Istanbul, I was
teaching mathematics at the International School of Düsseldorf, in
Germany.
book and TV series?
Unbearable Lightness of Being. TV
Series: Arrested Development.
the most? Do you have any interests that you want to pursue
here in Robert College too?
I miss riding my bicycle along the
airport runway in Düsseldorf, and
watching the airplanes land.
Movie: Step Brothers. Book: The
Mr. Miller sightseeing Istanbul with his wife.
Berna Adatoz - Mathematics
Berna Adatoz as Colin Edmonds’ student
a teacher?
After graduating from Robert College I studied mathematics at Bogazici University, which had been
my dream since I was a primary
school student. And when I was
a junior at Bogazici University, I
graduated from Istanbul University
State Conservatory Department of
Piano where I had been studying
since I was five. Following my graduation with a bachelors degree in
mathematics, I had two choices to
study for my masters degree: mathematics or music. I chose to start
with chamber music and it was just
about that time when I started to
give music history elective courses
at Isik University, which I would
be giving at Bogazici University in
seven years time. While teaching
music history, I realized something
that would change the course of
my life: one has to “educate oneself
on education” if one is an educator,
even at a university. So began my
journey as an educator and here I
am at my alma mater as a mathematics teacher!
the most? Do you have any interests that you want to pursue
here in Robert College, too?
Adatoz: To be back at the place
which has made you the real “you,”
trying to provide guidance to the
youngsters who are going along
the same path, to be working with
one’s own teachers as colleagues,
and constantly being filled with
numerous memories is one of the
most overwhelming and joyous
feelings one can taste. I would like
to share with you a very touching
moment I had when I came back
to my alma mater last August, this
time as a teacher.
This year is a year where I have the
chance to work with my some of
my most valuable teachers at RC
as colleagues, an amazing feeling.
One of these valuable teachers is
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Mr. Edmonds, and when I encountered him for the first time this
year, he told me that he had kept a
souvenir from me through all these
years and that he would send it to
me. That very same night I received
an e-mail from Mr. Edmonds with
this photo attached to it. Then a
ten-year-old conservatory student,
I had composed an “impromptu”
dedicated to Mr. Edmonds! And
stapled to the impromptu, there
I was, an RC Prep student, having
her photo taken with her English
teacher Mr. Edmonds.You cannot
imagine how moving this moment
was for me. Tuning time for my
piano has already come, and first
thing thereafter I’ll be playing the
impromptu and sending the sound
recording to my beloved teacher
Mr. Edmonds.
What makes you a unique
teacher?
As I’ve mentioned, I’m also a conservatory graduate and have been
living my second profession by
sometimes performing chamber music with fellow musicians,
sometimes playing the piano on
my own, and by giving music history elective courses at Bogazici
University. And of course let’s not
forget the concerts we attend!
However, there is one thing that
I’ve always wanted to do: sing!
Last year I started to work with the
tenor Kevork Tavtyan, but due to
our busy schedules we had to have
a break.
So, besides being a mathematics
teacher at RC, whenever possible
I would also love to work with the
music department and participate
in afterschool music studies, which
through all the seven years I spent
as a student at RC I was never able
to participate in, due to the fact
that I also had to practice piano
and on some days had to go to the
conservatory to attend my lessons.
It would also be most exciting if
we could work on interdisciplinary
projects with the music department--in fact, with the philosophy
teachers too, since mathematics,
music and philosophy are an inseparable trio!
I’ve always genuinely loved mathematics, since I was a little child, and
have felt incredible joy working
with mathematics. In fact, this was
the sole reason why studying pure
mathematics was my first choice in
the university entrance exam!
As to your second question, I believe it’s my students’ place to answer! What is it that makes them
enjoy our lessons so much?
Berna Adatoz’s Impromptu attached to her photo with Mr. Edmonds
BOSPHORUS CHRONICLE
5
Keeping Up with the Joneses
Bilge Tatar
Zeynep
Ünsal
At the beginning of the school year,
Robert College welcomed a new
couple, Mr. Jones, Ms. Kahle and
their lovely baby Eliza. Mr. Jones has
authored an experience-based book
in which he elaborately describes
how he met with Ms. Kahle and their
memories in Bulgaria. Ms. Kahle conveys her opinions about the Girls Soccer Team in RC and talks about her decision to become a biology teacher. As
you read on, you may uncover some
clues about the origins of their little
daughter Eliza’s name, and her future
career.
BC: You’ve been teaching at RC
for almost a month. When and
how did you decide to teach
here?
AJ: We asked Eliza where she wanted
to live, and we thought she said Robert College.
EK: We lived abroad for 4 years, in
Bulgaria and then in Ecuador, then
we went back to the States and got
married. We thought it would be a
good time to go abroad again. So
basically, we looked at schools where
they had science and English openings and when we found out about
RC, the more we learned, the more
we got excited about it.
AJ: We were looking for schools all
over the world. We’d both been to
Istanbul before and really liked it because when we lived in Bulgaria, we
could take the train here. When we
saw the openings at RC, I think both
of us thought Istanbul would be an
amazing place to live. If we were offered this job, I don’t think we could
say no. So we checked with Eliza, and
she agreed.
EK: Although it was kind of a funny
story, too. In January, we were going
to visit his grandmother who is 99
years old, so she could meet Eliza, for
the first time (AJ). On the way back
we ended up driving into a snowstorm and getting in a car accident
and getting stuck in Indianapolis, Indiana for three days in a hotel with a
3-month-old baby.
AJ: And we couldn’t leave because
there was so much snow.
EK: You couldn’t drive anywhere.
AJ: That’s when we got the job offer.
EK: We had to write back and say we
had just crashed our car and that we
were stuck in this hotel.
AJ: So we had to sign the contract
and send it back. But we didn’t have
any way to sign the contract; we just
had our phones. And I had to write
Mr. Jones and say, “We are stuck in a
snowstorm, can we have one more
day so we can get home, sign the
contract and send it back?”
6
Mr. Jones, Ms. Kahle and their lovely baby Eliza
BC: Some teachers stay at RC for
2 years and then go back to their
countries. Are you going to settle
here?
AJ: We signed the ten-year contract.
EK: One thing you have to know is
that Mr. Jones makes things up a lot.
AJ: Never on the basketball court,
though. (to interviewer) You could
write that as a joke.
EK: When we were thinking of going
abroad again, we didn’t want to go
somewhere for 2 years, because now
we have her (Eliza). We didn’t want to
be moving all the time, so we were
looking for someplace we could stay
for a long time. You never know how
things go, but we came here hoping
to stay longer.
BC: How does it feel to live outside of your country? Don’t you
ever want to go back?
AJ: We have committed several
crimes, and we no longer want to
return.
EK: I think for me there will always
be things I like and things I miss
about the other place. So, when we
are here, I miss being close to my
family, but when we are back in the
States, I miss the experience of trying
to learn a language, living abroad,
visiting places and seeing a different
culture.
AJ: The last 3 years in the States made
me realize that the US always will always be my home. But I feel a little
bit more at home in international
schools and the international teaching world. This feels a little bit more
like being a part of the campus and
being in a world where you are constantly interested in exploring and
learning a new language and being
challenged. That kind of life feels like
home.
BC: So you lived in Sofia for 2
years? We are curious about
your opinions and comparisons
between Istanbul and Sofia and
the schools.
AJ: Are you going to send this article
to the previous school? They may get
angry.
EK: Well, there are a lot of similarities
between the two schools. Because
the school in Bulgaria, which had an
entrance exam too, was also a really
old established school.
AJ: The schools are set up very similarly, so we felt comfortable coming
here because we were used to the
model of taking an exam in eighth
grade. People from all over the country wanted to go to that school, and
we had this really nice campus that
we were really proud of and a very
strong academic tradition. I would
say both schools are modeled the
same way, with the same ideas and
same goals, but RC is at a higher
level.
EK: But in terms of the cities, they are
very different. Istanbul is much bigger.
AJ: Sofia is still breaking out of the
old communism. Part of the city looks
new, developed and nice, and part of
the city still looks like the Soviets are
still in charge. I think the biggest difference is all the water here. Sofia is
the only capital city in Europe that
does not have a river. But after all,
Bulgaria was fascinating, and we really liked it.
BC: Can you tell us about your
book “Two Seasons in the Bubble?” How did you decide to write
it? What was your inspiration or
the power that pushed you into
writing this book?
AJ: The book is about my two years in
Bulgaria as a basketball coach and a
foreigner living in a very formal place.
I was writing a blog. It was about
daily life and kind of weird and exciting things happening. The people
who were reading the blog said, “You
should see if you could write a book,
because you write so much in this
blog.” I thought that would be a great,
but a series of blog entries is not a
book. If you want to write a book you
should have a unifying idea. I had an
incredible experience with my basketball team and when the second
season ended, it ended in a pretty
remarkable fashion that I won’t tell
you about, because you have to read
the book. I realized that if I was going
to write something, the unifying idea
was the basketball team, and if I was
going to try to explain what it was
like to be an American in Bulgaria,
that basketball would be a story to
BOSPHORUS CHRONICLE
tell. So after that was over, I sat down
and started writing.
BC: Do you have any goals to
achieve for the girls’ basketball
team?
AJ: It’s hard to say because I’m still
learning how basketball works here
in Robert College. But my biggest
goal is to build a programme that the
girls will be proud of, that the school
will be proud of. We have a team that
represents the best of the school,
how well we worked together, and
how well we played together. I don’t
have a numeric value to tell you, but
it has to be something that every
year, people in Robert College want
to be a part of.
BC to EK: You mentioned in your
Biology 1 Class that you were
a molecular biologist. Are you
happy with your decision about
teaching biology instead of being a molecular biologist?
EK: Before I started teaching, I worked
for the National Institute of Health in
the immunology lab and I was thinking about teaching or doing research.
I was going to either apply for a Ph.
D. (Doctor of Philosophy) programme
or teach. And I thought I had to figure
out if I wanted to teach before I started 6 years of a Ph.D. programme. I
am definitely happy with my decision. Being able to see something in
students, the people we worked with
and the teachers we met is wonderful
and that’s the big difference. The lab
is really interesting, but you just don’t
get to interact with as many people.
BC: You are the assistant coach
for the Lady Bobcats. Is this your
first time coaching?
EK: It is the first time I am coaching
soccer. I played soccer when I was
younger. And I coached softball, but
when I came here and was being
introduced, they were talking about
sports that I played, and coach Ms.
Seed Trujillo said that she was looking for an assistant coach. It was really fun to start playing soccer again.
The team is also really great.
BC: We were so happy to see you
on the stage for the Ice Bucket
Challenge. Are you happy to take
part in such an important event?
Do you think you created aware-
ness in RC Community?
EK: I thought there would be more
people who volunteered to do it.
I told Mr. Welch, “If you still need
more teachers to do it, I’ll do it.” Even
though there are so many causes that
we are willing to support, I think the
fact that they thought about something that is really catchy causes people to become more aware of this. It
is important to remember to donate
and support causes to make people
aware.
BC: Would you like to tell us how
you two met?
EK: We basically met because we
were both new teachers in the school
in Bulgaria. There was a small group
of American and Canadian teachers, so at first we were friends for a
while.
AJ: I was dating a Bulgarian girl and
she was dating a Bulgarian guy. So I
beat up the Bulgarian guy, it was a
death match.
EK: That’s not true. (AJ laughs) We
were good friends and then we realized we were more than friends.
AJ: It was more romantic, by the way.
So we realized that we were spending time more than when we did
with our Bulgarian boyfriend and
girlfriend so we thought maybe we
should get rid of the Bulgarian boyfriend and girlfriend and give it a try
ourselves. And after that, we went to
the US and got married.
BC to AJ: You always say that your
daughter has to love basketball.
What if she doesn’t like it when
she grows older?
AJ: Ms. Kahle loves hockey, and so
we have been arguing over whether
she would be a basketball or hockey
player. Just like whether she’d like
English or biology.
EK: But when we moved to Turkey
we both figured out it is more likely
she’ll play basketball rather than ice
hockey.
AJ: Actually, she can be whatever she
wants to be. That’s one of our goals:
having her experience many things.
But I’d still love it, if she played basketball.
BC: We would like to learn your
daughter’s name’s meaning.
EK: I don’t know if it means anything.
AJ: I feel guilty. Because all of the
Turks ask. Eliza’s name was a name
we like. Us Americans are boring.
We’ve gone through hundreds of
names and couldn’t agree on a name.
This was the one we both liked and
were okay with. And we didn’t decide till probably ten days before
she was born. So, pressure was on.
And we both said we didn’t want to
be arguing about this.
EK: And it is kind of the shortened
version of Elizabeth.
BC: Thank you. It was a pleasure to
interview you.
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CLUBS&SPORTSBOSPHORUSCHRONICLECLUBS&SPORTS
Your Guide to League of Legends World Championships
Oğuz Ceylan
Every MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) gamer has heard of League
of Legends. Some like it; some hate it.
From the West Coast of the Americas to
the Sea of Japan, all of those players
have one thing in common: Championships. In October, League of Legends
had its Season 4 World Championships
and if you missed it, there is no need
to worry, the Bosphorus Chronicle has
prepared a guide that will lead you
through all the matches.
From the Korean overlords to the
Brazilian and Turkish underdogs, the
teams list is as follows:
· South Korea (Najin White Shield,
Samsung Blue, and Samsung White),
· North America (Cloud 9, TSM, and
LMQ),
· Europe (SK, Fnatic, and Alliance),
· Taiwan (AHQ, Taipei Assassins),
· China (OMG, Star Horn Royal Club,
and Edward Gaming),
· Turkey (Dark Passage)
· Brazil (KaBuM! Gaming).
The group stages were held in Singapore, Taiwan, and South Korea. The
semifinals and finals were held at
Sangam Stadium, in South Korea and
were so popular on an international level that Imagine Dragons wrote a
special song “Warriors”. Furthermore,
the same group also performed live
in Sangam Stadium on the final day
of the championship. The 45,000 capacity stadium was full. Even though
the stadium was full, even more spectators preferred to watch the event
from Youtube, Twitch.tv, OnGameNet,
or from many more television and internet channels. In total, it is estimated that more than ten million people
were watching the finals live.
16 teams were placed in groups of 4
and each team played each other twice
in the group stage, making a total of 6
matches per team. First and second
place teams of each group qualified
for the bracket stage. Later, in a bracket stage, teams competed for the finals. The champion team’s award was
1 million US dollars, not including the
rewards from their sponsors and advertisements. After talking about the
tournament generally, let’s dive into
the group stages and take a look at the
teams and their quest for the trophy.
Group A
Samsung Galaxy White: Hailing from
Korea, this team was the absolute favorite of all professional players and
many fans. Imp, the ad carry, and
Mata, the support, are considered to
be the best players of their roles in
the world, with Looper, considered as
the best carry top laner in the world.
The first seed from Korea, they went
a perfect 6-0 in the group stage, with
a pentakill from Imp against Turkey’s
Dark Passage. They continued their
success going 3-1 against the second best North American team,TSM,
in a best of 5, then going 3-0 against
Samsung Galaxy Blue in the semifinals, their one and only rivals and sister team from Korea. SS Blue was considered the counter team of SS White,
as they always found a way to de-
feat White in the past. However, three
consecutive stomps of White against
SS Blue proved everyone wrong and
showed the world that SS White is indeed the greatest team. In the finals,
they crushed their way through SHRC
3-1 in a best of 5 and won the championship without leaving any doubt in
the world that they are indeed the best
team in the world and the Korean hype
train isn’t leaving the station for a long
long time.
Edward Gaming: From China, EDG was
the first seed from China; they defeated SHRC 2-1 in their regional finals to
secure a spot in the World Championships. They were placed in Group
A, and a favorite from qualification to
the bracket stage. EDG didn’t disappoint their fans and after winning the
tiebreaker with AHQ, they went to the
quarterfinals. Facing their Chinese rival
SHRC in the quarterfinals, EDG couldn’t
repeat their regional success and lost
to SHRC 2-3 after a very close best of
5 series, thus got eliminated from the
World Championships.
AHQ: From Taiwan, AHQ was the second seed after the Season 2 World
Champions, Taipei Assassins, losing
0-3 in a one sided match in the regional finals. AHQ was considered an underdog until their victory against EDG,
a fan-favorite Chinese team. This victory forced a tiebreaker between the
two teams, but AHQ wasn’t victorious
against their opposition EDG and they
failed to qualify to the finals.
Dark Passage: The only Turkish team
in the whole tournament, DP was the
first in the Turkish regionals and was
virtually uncontested by any team
in Turkey, and their winning of the
GamesCom Wildcard Tournament
gave them the ticket to the worlds.
However, this success proved very deceiving as the team went 0-6 in the
group stage and was eliminated with
the biggest losses in the entire tournament. The team disbanded shortly after their elimination.
Group B
Star Horn Royal Club: From China,
SHRC was second place in Season 3
World Championships, losing 0-3
against SKT T1 K in a decisive best of
5 series. However, after certain roster changes, such as transferring inSec
from KT Bullets and Zero from KT Arrows, the team looked really strong in
the World Championship. Despite certain problems such as communication,
since inSec and Zero was Korean and
the rest of team was Chinese, SHRC became the finalists after beating EDG
3-2. However, in the finals, they faced
a pumped up Samsung White, and although SHRC took game 3 successfully
with inSec’s surprising Rammus pick,
it just wasn’t enough and they lost to
the strong Korean team again, 3-1 this
time.
Team SoloMid: TSM was the first seed
from North America, defeating Cloud 9
3-2 in a close but very satisfying best
of 5 series where Cloud 9 was finally overthrown from their throne from
consecutive winnings of the regionals.
Their success continued in the group
stage as they went 4-2 in the group
stage, only losing to SHRC and SK once,
but their demise came in the quarter
finals. Facing Samsung White, everyone expected TSM to lose 3-0 to SSW.
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However, TSM surprised everyone by
winning 1 game and losing with a
score of 1-3. Even TSM didn’t expect to
win the series, therefore team left the
tournament happy.
SK Gaming: From Europe, SK Gaming was actually one of fans’ favourites until the suspension of their jungler, Svenskeren, who was actually
both the shotcaller and the best player in the team. The suspension was
from his racial slurs while he was ranking up in the Taiwanese server, and he
was punished with a fine of 25,000 US
dollars and more importantly, a three
match suspension from World Championships. After this incident, SK went
2-4 in the group stages, winning 2 of
the 3 matches after Svenskeren has returned, but it wasn’t enough to keep
their hopes alive and they got eliminated.
Taipei Assassins: The Season 2 World
Champions and the first seed from Taiwan, TPA was held in high regard before the group stages. However, the
team proved to be a total shadow of
its former glory and went 1-5 in the
group stage to be last place in Group
B.
Group C (aka the Group of Death)
LMQ: Hailing from North America,
LMQ was originally a Chinese team
in the bottom of the LPL, the Chinese
scene of League of Legends. After a
year in the NA Challenger series, this
team, with the leadership of their mid
laner Xiao Wei Xiao, secured a 2nd spot
in the NA LCS and was 3rd in the Summer Playoffs, securing the last spot
for Worlds in NA. They were placed in
Group C, which was called “Group of
Death” (for good reason) with Fnatic,
Samsung Blue and OMG. LMQ was the
least favorite of all these top tier teams
from their regions, but a 2-0 score in
the first day surprised many people.
However, their continuous defeats in
the next 4 games left them on the 3rd
spot.
FNATIC: Season 1 World Champions,
Season 3 3rd place, second seed from
Europe, Fnatic is one of the oldest and
strongest teams in the world. However, their inconsistency has always
been a major problem. For instance,
in 2014 EU LCS Spring Split; they went
from 7-0 to 7-8 in the next 8 games
and shocked the world. Their midlaner
xPeke was the prime example of this,
as on a good day he has beaten many
great midlaners but on a bad day, he
is a load heavier than rock for his team
that needs to be carried. This point was
proved again in the World Championships, as they beat Samsung Blue in
a perfect game but then continued
by losing to OMG only to be eliminated from the group stage with a 2-4
score.
Samsung Galaxy Blue: Sister team of
SSW, Samsung Blue was the second
seed from Korea, and also a fan and
professional favorite of many. They
proved to be strong by going 5-1, only
losing to Fnatic in a very heated game.
They continued their dominance by
beating the best team in North America, Cloud 9, 3-1 in a tactical fashion.
Their play style has always been different from the others in the world, as
they mostly relied on not personal skill,
but tactical decisions leading to a decisive dominance throughout the game.
Winning team: Samsung White, photo courtesy of lol.esportspedia.com
This has been the counter to SSW until the semifinals where SSW prepared
specifically for a week for the match.
This led to a 0-3 defeat in the hands of
SSW where Blue simply got crushed by
both the personal skills of White and
their vastly improved decision making,
but the surprising picks such as Varus
from SSB Deft, Galio from SSB Acorn
and Akali from SSW Looper made this
series much more entertaining.
OMG: From China, OMG was the third
seed from China and never were a runner for the trophy; however they surprised everyone by going 3-3 and
qualifying for the bracket stage. From
then, they faced Najin White Shield, a
fan-favourite Korean team. Everyone
expected this to be a 3-0 or 3-1 stomp
in the favor of NJWS, however, in one
of the biggest turnarounds in the history of League of Legends, they decisively defeated NJWS 3-0 and shocked
everyone. From then, they faced
SHRC, their old rival from China. In a
very exciting best of 5 series they lost
to SHRC 2-3 and got eliminated, but
they showed the world that the Korean teams, superior ones since Season
2, can be defeated easily.
Group D
Najin White Shield: 3rd seed from Korea, NJWS wasn’t even the favorite
team in Korea. They were expected to
be beaten by many professional analysts against SKT T1 K, during last season’s World Champions in the Korean regional finals. However, a surprise
3-0 stomp by NJWS shocked everyone
in South Korea and that victory sent
NJWS to the World Championships.
4-2 in group stages, NJWS looked pretty strong until they faced a pumped up
OMG who beat them badly, 0-3, and
got eliminated from the finals.
Cloud 9: From North America, C9 lost
to TSM in NA Regional Finals to go to
the World Championships as the second seed. Their playstyle is very similar to the Blue’s, with less personal
skill, and more tactical decisions. This
playstyle carried them throughout the
groups, and they went 4-2 to go out of
group stage. Their rivals in the quarterfinals were Samsung Blue, a very mechanically similar but a better team,
and after 4 close games, they lost 1-3,
but all of the games were more tactical
battles rather than just all-out fights,
thus making this series very enjoyable
and thrilling.
Alliance: First seed from Europe, Alliance finally threw Fnatic off their European throne and defeated them in the
regional finals 3-1 to go to the Worlds
as the best team in Europe. Their
games were very decisive; they even
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perfectly defeated NJWS, by giving
no kills, towers or objectives to NJWS.
However, their loss against the Brazilian team KaBuM!, which is the biggest
upset ever in the history of League of
Legends, and their loss of decisiveness
in the next games got them eliminated from the group stages as they went
3-3.
KaBuM! Gaming: The only Brazilian
team, they were in a a similar situation
to Dark Passage. Winning the International PAX Wildcard Tournament, they
went to the Worlds with no hope of
winning one game. But they did win,
and that one game actually sealed the
fate of a team, as the victory made
Alliance’s hopes of winning Worlds
crash and burn. That victory is all time
greatest single upset in the history of
League of Legends. They are remembered as the Wildcard team that won a
game against the European overlords,
and also closing the argument about
closing the Wildcard tournament (because it was thought that the Wildcard
teams were too weak).
The tournament ended with SSW winning the title and most people satisfied with the result. Thoughts? To be
honest, I think that this tournament
had the best games since the CLG.eu vs
Moscow 5 matches back in Season 2.
Just look at the games between SSW
and SSB; those games are considered
games to be examined and games to
teach lessons on, not just on mechanics, but also decision making, team
synergy, knowing the limits and using the enemy’s weaknesses well. For
such is the path to victory in any game,
whether it be DOTA 2, or let it be any
type of multi-person activity.
Abbreviations:
C9: Cloud 9
EDG: Edward Gaming
EU LCS: European League of Legends Championship Series
NA LCS: North American League of Legends
Championship Series
NJWS: Najin White Shield
SSW - Samsung Galaxy White
SSB- Samsung Galaxy Blue
SK - SK Gaming
SHRC: Star Horn Royal Club
TPA: Taipei Assassins
TSM: Team Solo Mid
Works Cited
TraceyLien. “League of Legends World
Championship Poised to Sell out 45K Seat
Stadium.” Polygon. Polygon, 1 Sept. 2014.
Web. 19 Oct. 2014.
“Riot - World Championship 2014.” Leaguepedia. Web. 19 Oct. 2014.
7
Farewell From Two Veterans: Li Na and Jens Voigt
Ayşegül Ersin
Last September two of the most beloved sportsmen in their fields announced their retirements from the
sport. They weren’t particularly successful; they weren’t legends in their
fields, but that doesn’t make them less
notable. One of them was an ambassador for the sport in her country, an
athlete who fought against devastating injuries until the age of 32, always
with a smile on her face and a positive
attitude in life. The other one even a
bigger fighter, an incorrigible attacker,
but known as the biggest loser in the
sport. Maybe it was their time at last,
and both said their goodbyes with
unforgettable achievements. Nonetheless, we as disciples of tennis and
cycling will never forget Li Na and Jens
Voigt.
Li Na
Li Na (or Na Li, if you prefer the nonChinese version), born in Wuhan, China in 1982, has won two Grand Slam
titles, played in two Grand Slam finals,
one Year End Championship final (last
year in İstanbul) and had a highest
ranking of World No. 2. She didn’t hold
any glamorous records and didn’t win
dozens of Grand Slam titles, but she is
the only Chinese player (ever) to win a
Grand Slam singles title. So we can say
that her influence on Chinese tennis is
considerable even though tennis is
not a very popular sport in China. According to Time after Li won her first
Grand Slam title, the French Open at
Roland Garros in 2011, 44% percent
of the Chinese viewers were in tears.
Although Roland Garros is the first
Grand Slam she has won, clay is her
worst surface. The Women’s Tennis
Association (WTA) describes Li as a
“baseliner who prefers hard courts”,
and there is not much to doubt about
this description since her most successful tournament is the Shenzhen
Open held in China, and her most successful Grand Slam is the Australian
Open. She played the semi finals in
2010, the final in 2011 and 2013, and
Li Na, tennis player (left); Jens Voigt, road cyclist (right) (Photo courtesy of wikimedia.com)
finally won the title in 2014. Overall
her winning percentage was 81%.
The 2013 Australian Open final was
a tragic story, however. She stormed
through the tournament, defeating seed after seed including Maria
Sharapova (World No. 2 at that time)
who held a record of losing only 9
games in the tournament. Unluckily in
the final Li Na slipped and fell twisting
her left ankle, and had a momentary
blackout. Similar injuries had occurred
to her during the 2011 Australian
Open final as well. Also throughout
her career she continuously suffered
knee injuries: her right knee in the
early years, and her left knee in the
recent years. This year her left knee
injury became chronic, and Li decided
to end her professional tennis career.
She said that even though her physiotherapists and doctors were doing a
great job these injuries and aging got
the better of her, and that she wasn’t
able to keep doing this anymore.
Apart from her professional life Li Na
was known to be a positive, warm
person. She didn’t get involved in the
gossip and speculation that follows
the women’s tennis circuit, nor did she
show disrespectful behavior to her rivals. She is remembered off-court as
a very fun person who playfully jokes
with the people around her all the
time, especially with her husband. We
know that she couldn’t sleep very well
during the 2011 Australian Open due
to her husband’s thundering snoring;
we know that her husband is actually
a nice person from this year’s Australian Open winner’s speech: “Thanks for
him for being my hitting partner, fixing the rackets and strings. So he does
a lot of job. Thanks a lot, you’re a nice
guy”; we know that sneezing means
four things in China: first someone
misses you, second someone hates
you, third someone really wants to see
you and fourth you are sick.
Last but not least an unforgettable
quote from her winner’s speech in
this year’s Australian Open (defined
as “brilliant” by the official Australian
Open YouTube channel): “Max, agent,
making me rich, thanks a lot.”
“Shut up time!”
Jens Voigt, born in East Germany in
1971, was a professional road cyclist,
and has the unique distinction of being most famous for not winning. Jensie isn’t a sportsman that you usually
come across. Maybe he was unlucky
throughout his career (for he has
only won three stages in grand tours
in twenty years of his professional
career), maybe he lacked the tactical
aspect or maybe he wasn’t a talented
athlete. Certainly that last part is not
accurate; he was a machine. He had
unbelievable energy and endurance.
Even as a 40-year-old Jens attacked
and surpassed a peloton of cyclists
who were in their early-thirties but
he got caught up in the last two kilometers or so, and finished the stage in
60th place, just like he did in his last
race, 2014 USA Pro Cycling Challenge.
“Maybe, in a bizarre way, it was fitting it ended like this. This is the story
of my life — from 20, 30, even 40
breakaways, maybe one works. This
was the typical breakaway, you give it
all, and you get caught. It was a perfect example of my career — you put
it all on the line, you’re taking risks in
looking stupid.” said Voigt maybe in a
disappointed tone, but always with a
spark in his eyes.
That is the type of person Jens Voigt is:
a fighter, optimistic, sincere. He never
gave up on attacking. He silenced his
rebelling body, said “Shut up legs!” or
“Shut up body, and do what I tell you”
at times. In 2010 during the Tour de
France’s 16th stage he crashed, completely destroying his bike. By the
time he finally got up, all of the riders
and team cars had already passed by.
When his team car contacted him and
asked him if he wanted a ride, Jens
said “No, no, I want to get to Paris give me some sort of bike!”. Of course,
he did the unexpected and borrowed
a children’s bicycle from the Tour de
France’s children’s program. The bike
was yellow with toe-clips and everything. In the end Jens actually finished
the stage with that bike in last place,
but he did finish it after all.
Because of his unexpected actions,
and fighting spirit Jens Voigt easily gained a permanent place in cycling fans’ hearts. He quickly spread
in social media, causing various fan
websites, and Twitter accounts to be
opened. Unfortunately, jensvoigtfacts.com is no longer updated since
Jens retired, but we can still enjoy the
Jens Voigt Soundboard both on our
computers, and smart phones. We can
still remember him with “I get paid to
hurt other people”, “I get paid to make
other people suffer on my wheel” or
“Mom, dad, where are you; what I’m
supposed to do here?”… Well, it’s
hard to explain when you don’t actually hear him speaking.
Voigt’s retirement was as sensational
as his career was. After competing
in the USA Pro Cycling Challenge, he
decided to pull a Jens Voigt and finish
his career with one last unforgettable
memory. Last month he announced
that he was going to try to break
the hour record in Velodrome Suisse,
Grenchen, Switzerland. In cycling, the
hour record is how many kilometers
a cyclist can ride in exactly one hour.
Usually cyclists attempt to break the
record towards the end of their career.
It is quite a different experience than a
typical road race because you are in an
indoors area, so the physics of racing
are very different. But most importantly you are all alone by yourself;
you are only competing against time.
It can be difficult to focus and keep
the same level for an entire hour. Eddy
Merckx (the first hour record-holder)
said that it was the hardest ride he
had to do in his entire life.
So Jens attempted the hour record on
September 18. Before the attempt he
said that it wouldn’t matter if doesn’t
win, he just wanted to have a good
story to tell his grandchildren. After
finishing he immediately announced
his retirement.
For many fans, it was no surprise when
he became the new record-holder at
the age of 43 with 51.115 kilometers,
the oldest cyclist to break the record.
Now he has the best story possible:
after all those years of attacking and
attacking but still not beating the
peloton, this time he beat his own
time with his very last attack.
Your Old Laptop Can Race With The Newest Models!
Oktay Şen
So, your PC got slower and you are
looking for a way to speed it up, you
have tried removing some programs
and unnecessary files, but it just won’t
cut it. Perhaps it is time for a hardware
change! Don’t let the word hardware
scare you though; this process is much
cheaper than buying a brand new
laptop, around 500 TL with my suggestions. If you are a Lenovo X220
user like most of the Robert College
community, I’ll also include some
insider tips that especially work with
this model. So let’s get started with
the basics.
8
Precautions
RAM (random-access memory) and
SSD (solid-state drive) are the only
pieces you can renew, as few laptops
support change of any other system
items. Buying a new RAM and an SSD
is as simple as a visit to a trustworthy
tech-store. This article will help you
decide if you need a renewal, (and if,
so on which parts), how these parts
function, and how to make sure you’re
purchasing an item that suits your system. However, this article does not include information for choosing a RAM
or SSD by yourself. A store assistant
could help you with that.
There are some things to consider before getting a hardware upgrade:
Change in hardware means you’re going to lose your laptop warranty, so
make sure your warranty has already
expired or that you do not consider it
a need.
The Computer Center will not help you
with the hardware change. The most
they can do is to send the laptop to the
manufacturer if there’s a problem.
Newer models do not support hardware change, since their back covers
do not have panels to access the RAM
or HDD. Flip your computer and see
if there are any panels that seem like
they could be removed. A Student
Tech Crew member could help you
locate these spots.
Changing your hardware is a cheap
short-term solution to speed problems. In the long run, buying a new
laptop with better hardware would
be a more lasting solution. This way
you can avoid any problems a change
in hardware could lead to.
BOSPHORUS CHRONICLE
Do not order any pieces online unless
you are highly knowledgeable on this
topic, even if you’re buying the RAM
I suggested for Lenovo X220 laptops.
It’s always best to see what you’re actually getting and whether or not it
works. Online shopping does not save
you much money anyway.
Do I Need a Hardware Change?
Before you decide if you need new
hardware, make sure that the slowness of your laptop is not caused by
another problem that is easier to
solve. If you only use your laptop for
Facebook or YouTube, yet your laptop
is slower, your laptop might be affected by a virus. If you suspect a virus,
please consult the nearest Student
Tech Crew member or the Computer
Center to get your laptop checked.
You might have a simpler solution, yet
a malfunctioning piece of hardware
could be the root of your problem
too. If you’re sure you do not have either of these problems, let’s discuss
which pieces will speed your laptop
up in certain situations. When you
run a lot of programs at once, or have
a lot of tabs open in your browser,
your laptop uses more RAM, so if you
multitask a lot, additional RAM space
will be helpful. SSD, however, makes
Windows, programs and files open
and save faster, and improves file
transfer speed. Windows always does
stuff with files in the background, so
getting an SSD will always make your
laptop feel a lot faster. In Robert College, while switching from class to
class, we frequently turn on and shut
down our laptops. SSDs will greatly
improve the time it takes to boot up
your laptop and start working. The
following section is about how these
components work and why they
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improve the speed of your laptop in
these circumstances.
Note 1: If you’re a gamer and complain about low FPS, extra RAM or an
SSD won’t help you. You need a better GPU, which means buying a new
laptop.
Note 2: If you have a 32 bit operating
system, your laptop won’t be able to
work with more than 4 GBs of RAM.
For more RAM, you need a 64 bit operating system. You can check this by
right-clicking on your computer icon
and clicking on Properties.
Note 3: To find out if you need more
RAM, open the Task Manager (Ctrl
+ Shift + Esc) and click on the performance tab. Have a look at the
Memory graph. It shows how much
of your RAM you’re currently using. In
your daily usage, if that graph comes
close to the top, it means you need
more RAM for it to work smoother. If it
stays around the middle or lower, the
amount of RAM you have is fine and
you probably don’t need more.
Note 4: If you decide to buy an SSD,
make sure you backup your files to
an external hard drive or the cloud,
because all of your files will be left in
your old HDD after changing it. You
also will need Computer Center’s help
to reinstall Windows on it.
How They Work
Whenever you run a program in your
computer, the program gets loaded
on your RAM while it’s starting up.
Then, as long as that program is running, it’s stored temporarily on your
RAM and when you finally close it,
the program is unloaded and there’s
now more room on your RAM for new
programs. Increasing the capacity of
your RAM lets you run more programs
at once, since there’ll be more space
for the programs to load up. Sounds
simple, but what does the HDD or SSD
have to do with this?
The HDD is the place where your
programs and personal data are permanently stored. When you run a program, the program is loaded onto the
RAM from the HDD. While a program
is loading up, time is spent reading the
data from the HDD and writing onto
the RAM. RAM is the storage type that
has the fastest reading and writing
speed amongst other types of storage,
so the time you spend opening up
programs is because of the HDD. Also,
when you run too many programs for
your RAM to handle, your computer
starts to use some of the HDD space
in addition to RAM. Since HDDs are
significantly slower than RAMs, your
system slows down. This is why SSD
is preferred to HDD. SSD’s are a newer
type of permanent storage for laptops
and PCs. They’re a lot faster than HDDs
and use less power, resulting in longer battery life. The only downside of
SSDs is less disk space, but if you’d like
to sacrifice some disk space for better
performance, we would strongly recommend getting an SSD.
Choosing and Buying
Time to pick your RAM and SSD! RAM
choice depends mainly on your system. There are a few variables to keep
in mind choosing a RAM, such as capacity, type, frequency, CAS latency,
and so on. If you try to choose RAM all
by yourself, you’ll find yourself quite
lost. Just bring your laptop to a computer store you trust and let the staff
choose a RAM for you. The RAM needs
to match your system, otherwise it
might not work. The things you need
to know are:
8 GBs of RAM is suitable for most users. However, if you’re a very highend user, you might need more than
that.
They might offer you RAMs with “better frequency”, “better CAS latency”,
etc. but you need to know that these
variables do not affect your RAM’s
speed much, since increasing one
variable usually means sacrificing
from another variable, resulting in the
same speed.
Always try to buy RAM in identical
pairs. Most laptops have two slots for
RAM and can use two RAM sticks at
once. However, those sticks have to
be identical for best performance. A
non-symmetrical RAM combination
means you’ll lose some of the performance that the better one would
provide.
If your laptop has one RAM stick and
has room for two (like in Lenovo X220
laptops) and you can’t find the exact
same RAM as the one already in your
system, make sure that their frequency, amount of pins and CAS latency are
the same. That’ll provide the same result as if these two RAMs were exactly
the same model.
When it comes to choosing SSDs,
you’ll have an easier time. Again,
you’ll need a computer store’s help
to choose an SSD, but compatibility
is easier. The only things that need to
match are the size of the SSD and the
type of input slot the SSD has, which
an assistant at the store should help
you with. Other than that, you need
to look at three variables: Capacity,
read/write speed and price. Obviously,
more capacity, more speed and fewer
prices are better. Just make sure you
get enough capacity for your personal
needs. We would recommend around
250 GB for most people, but if you
plan to download a lot, you might
consider 500 GB or more.
Last Words
The last thing to do is to insert the
RAM and SSD in your laptop, if the
store didn’t already do it for you. But
don’t worry; I’ve made a video tutorial
on how to do it for Lenovo X220. Here’s
the link: (bit.ly/RChardwaretutorial).
It is a simple process that only requires
a screwdriver. If your laptop is a different model, you can still watch the
video; the process is almost the same.
You can refer to your laptop’s manual
or find a video on YouTube that explains the process for your laptop.
f you’re a Lenovo X220 user, here’s the
RAM and SSD that’s compatible with
your laptop, including their approximate prices:
RAM: 1 x “Kingston 4GB 1333MHz
DDR3 CL9 Notebook Ram” (approx.
110 TL)
SSD: 1 x “Kingston 240GB HyperX
FURY Sata 3.0 Cache SSD (Read 500MB
/ Write 500MB)” (approx. 360 TL)
These are my purchases and they
worked for my X220, but still take
these recommendations with a grain
of salt. Even if our laptops are the same
model, their configuration might be
slightly different, so it’s still best to
trust the assistant at the store. Also,
these aren’t the only components that
work with this model, so don’t worry
if the components you buy aren’t the
same as above.
If you managed to read so far, you’re
ready to upgrade your laptop and
speed it up. If you’re still not convinced, there are lots of articles and
videos on the internet showing what
hardware change can really do. If you
have any questions, please don’t hesitate to e-mail me. I will do my best to
help you out.
Work Cited:
Clikes2004. How to Choose Good RAM
- 2014 Tutorial. YouTube, 28 Feb. 2013.
Web. 18 Oct. 2014.
Edwards, Nathan. “How To Choose an SSD
for Your Next PC Build.” Tested.com, 20
Dec. 2012. Web. 18 Oct. 2014.
Fuller, John. “Choosing RAM for Your
Desktop.” HowStuffWorks, 13 Feb. 2009.
Web. 18 Oct. 2014.
Krynin, Mark. “How Much Memory (RAM)
Should Your Laptop Have?” About, n.d.
Web. 18 Oct. 2014.
Monckton, Paul. “How to Choose an SSD
for Your PC or Laptop.” PC Advisor, 31 Dec.
12. Web. 18 Oct. 2014.
Steers, Kirk. “Hardware Tips: Choose the
Right Kind of Memory for Your System.”
PCWorld, 25 Nov. 2003. Web. 18 Oct.
2014.
Turkey at 2014 Basketball Championship
Melis Şingin
Berk Eroğlu
Everyone in Turkey looked forward
to the 2014 World Basketball
Championship. Our expectations of
the National Team were quite high.
We wanted to re-live the glory of
placing second in the 2010 championship. We trusted our team spirit,
players and coach, yet unfortunately some players chose not to play
for the national team. One of our
best players, Enes Kanter, had an
ankle injury. Yet, despite our injured
players and those who did not show
up, we had a new rising star on our
team: nineteen year-old Cedi Osma
from Anadolu Efes. Even though
he is only a year older than most
Robert College seniors, he showed
a splendid performance throughout
the tournament. He was a great
success, considering that he was
on the same team with Kerem
Gönlüm, who is 17 years older.
The squads of some of the teams
were filled with NBA stars. Our
squad was modest compared to the
U.S., Spain and Slovenia, but they
still had hope.
We played in Group C with the USA,
Ukraine, Finland, New Zealand and
the Dominican Republic. Of course,
the USA was favored to take first
place in the group, and Turkey was
favored to take second place. For
the first game day, our opponent
was New Zealand. It was a tough
match; with a comeback in the 4th
quarter, we won 76-73, starting
the tournament with a win. But
because of our inefficient game, our
fans became critical and started to
worry. For the second game of the
day, our opponent was the USA,
the dream team full of NBA players
and all-stars. However, with our
wise tactics and spirit, we played a
spectacular game. We were leading
by 5 points (40-35) at the end of
the first half, yet we had a 77-98
defeat. Though we didn’t win, all
of our players put their hearts in
the game and this was more than
enough. It was the closest score a
team could have against the USA in
the whole tournament. By the third
game day, we had an unexpected
loss against Ukraine, 64-58. On the
fourth game day, we had a terrible
game against Finland; however, we
didn’t lose control of the game. At
the last minute, their best player,
Petteri Koponen, missed both of his
free throws and Cenk Akyol scored a
last second 3-pointer, and the game
went into overtime. We played
more energetically, we showed our
soul, and we won the game 77-73.
At the last game of the group stage,
we really showed the world how
Turkey plays basketball by defeat-
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2014 Turkey Basketball Championship -photo courtesy of philstar.com
ing the Dominican Republic, 77-64,
and we finished the group stage
in second place, as predicted by
numerous basketball authorities.
At the knockout stage, our first
opponent was Australia. With 5
NBA players, Australia had the best
squad in its history. We knew it was
going to be a tough game, but our
players were up for a challenge. Our
shooter Emir Preldzic didn’t play
until the fourth quarater. With his
last second 3-point shot, we won,
65-64. At the end of the match,
his team mates jumped over him
to celebrate and fans screamed
his name with joy. We were in the
quarter finals!
Our next opponent was Lithuania.
Their squad was better than ours,
and they performed really well
throughout the tournament. We
had to play our best game to beat
Lithuania. We believed in our players and Turkey’s spirit. For the first
period, everything went fine, and
we were leading by 5 points. Our
defense worked and we were taking
all the rebounds and blocking their
shots.
However, during the last period
our players got so tired that our
shield went down. We made lots of
BOSPHORUS CHRONICLE
fouls, and Lithuania found a way to
bring us down. Their scorer Seibutis
played amazingly during the fourth
quarter, and Lithuania won, 73-61.
We couldn’t get to the semifinals,
but at least we were satisfied that
we played in the quarter-finals,
knowing that our players gave it
everything.
With a heavy heart, we were eliminated from 2014 World Basketball
Championship. Thanks to our
Turkish National Team, even if we
couldn’t make it to the semi-finals,
we have great memories, and we
will all remember this tournament.
9
FEATURESBOSPHORUSCHRONICLEFEATURES
Inside RC IT
Ali Çataltepe
They’re there for us every time our
laptops break. Whenever a projector
goes faulty or a cable stops working, they rush over to help us. Our
IT department plays an important
role in our educational lives, laboring under the figurative hood of the
sprawling academic enterprise that
is Robert College. They do so much
for us, yet what do we really know
about them? Do we ever ask ourselves what the constructive man
who just came in and entered those
few commands that fixed the insystem pop-up ads does other than
that? Or how many issues, similar
and different, he must tediously
struggle to solve for the remainder
of the day? As always, the proletarian laborers which oil and turn the
gears of the system are overlooked
and taken for granted. They will not
be unappreciated any longer, however, as the Bosphorus Chronicle’s
endless quest for truth unveils the
hitherto unknown facets of the life
of an RC IT team member.
To begin, what is their daily work
routine? What do they do aside
from drop in to solve issues at the
request of distressed teachers, students and administrators? Turns
out, “solving technological issues
encountered by students and faculty” is one of the biggest parts of the
job, according to Muhammed Resul
Ertuğrul of the RC IT Department.
No surprise there. There’s more to it
than that, however, as Mr. Ertuğrul
adds that “following developments
in the field of educational technology” also comprises a significant portion of the department’s everyday
duties. Given the speed at which
the venerable field of education is
adapting, testing, assimilating and
discarding various semiconductorbased methods of passing knowledge from teacher to student, this
is only what should be expected.
Robert College would be undeserving of its name if it made no effort
to stay at the top. Metin Ferhatoğlu,
the head of the IT department and
a staff member here since 1998,
adds overseeing the activities of
the Student Tech Crew, maintaining
and running the network (including
managing the transparent integration of two Internet service providers into the single Wi-Fi network
“tsunami”), and educating faculty
members and staff on the usage of
technology and its integration with
the curriculum to the list.
Speaking of educating others on
how to use technology, what does
our very own Geek Squad do (and
plan to do) in that respect? Sure,
students can manage reasonably
on their own, having been born into
the Information Age, but what of
the faculty? Burcu Aybat, Education
Technology Coordinator, advocates
an individualistic teaching process
“differentiated on a teacher-byteacher basis.” The department has
acknowledged that there is no onesize-fits all approach to such a complicated problem, and has opted for
a multi-layered, interconnected, individualistic approach instead, embodied in the twice-a-year Teachers
Teaching Teachers (TTT) meeting
on campus, Personal Learning Networks (PLNs), and various online
courses hosted by Edx, Coursera and
the American School of Bombay,
coupled with stringent minimum
proficiency standards. Ms. Aybat
summarizes the TTT conference as
“teachers sharing their own methods for integrating technology into
education for the benefit of their
Staff Photo
colleagues.” This is usually done
by way of 35 to 40 twenty-minute
presentations by staff and faculty members, addressed to their
peers. The PLN is a departmentencouraged approach to learning,
adherents of which are expected
to consider their personal needs,
the standards set by their training
programs, and the requirements of
the faculty when pursuing technological education of their own volition. “There is no uniform, perfect
method for teaching our staff how
to use technology in the field, so
these are our solutions,” Mrs. Aybat
concludes.
While it is a given that students can
use technology easily for everyday
tasks, the IT department still thinks
that there are things to be done
for them, too. “Time must not be
wasted with teaching students only
the basics of technology,” is what
both Mr. Ferhatoğlu and Mrs. Aybat
say on the topic. While educating
the student body on how to use
technology, they wish for emphasis to be placed upon creative and
goal-oriented usage, rather than
menial tasks. Mrs. Aybat points out
that clubs and other extracurricular
activities are great mediums that
show RC students how to use the
hardware at their disposal professionally. Mrs. Aybat is sure that “if
we focus on problem-solving and
creativity, technological proficiency
will follow.”
Of course, the IT department is affiliated with the entire student body
in some way or another, but what of
those it is closest to? How well do
their arms and legs, our very own
Student Tech Crew, do their job?
How much load have they lifted off
the department’s shoulders? As it
turns out, quite a lot. Even a couple
of students with basic technical
training, when present in every
classroom, speed things up quite
a bit. “They save us the trouble of
having to go to every classroom for
simple problems,” Mr. Ertuğrul says.
Kenan Muştu, IT team member,
concurs that “the STC has helped
solve many in-class technological issues.” Interestingly enough,
the area in which the STC operates
most, namely issues experienced
by instructors during class, was not
originally something it was sup-
cameras allow you to carry and
record videos wherever you want,
even in water. If you don’t wish to
carry a camera in your hands all the
time, you may use one of the many
accessories available. With these
accessories, you can plug your camera on a dog, on an instrument, on
your chest, head, wrist, or on your
surfboard. Basically, GoPro cameras can be plugged in nearly every
place, and they are so durable that
you can record high quality videos
in various weather conditions.
In previous years, only a few technology companies went public in
the stock market. Most believe
that this was due to the rise of
smartphones. Being so functional,
smartphones replaced most of the
daily used gadgets. Different from
many technology companies, GoPro sells something smartphones
cannot easily replace: memories.
Alongside the camera itself, GoPro
actually sells the memories of skiing, swimming, surfing and many
more actions not easily captured
by a simple smartphone. This strategy, called “plain-folk” technique in
advertisement, engages consumers to buy a product in a way that
customers trust the product since
it’s used by many ‘ordinary’ people,
like you and me. GoPro shows people recording happy moments with
their cameras. When customers see
ads of professional looking photographs with smiling people enjoying life, they decide to buy GoPro
posed to concern itself with. “The
STC, originally intended to ease the
load created by student issues, has
also helped out teachers as well,”
comments Mr. Ferhatoğlu.
Now to the heart of the matter. How
do our tech support team members,
who work hard for this school’s benefit day in and day out, feel about
the level of appreciation they get
from the rest of the school? The
answer is, amazingly, “They appreciate us enough,” according to Mr.
Muştu and Mr. Ertuğrul. In fact, if
the words of Mr. Ferhatoğlu are to
be believed, “it’s not very important
to us, so long as our labor bears
fruit. We want to transform education, and with this team, we believe
we can succeed.” Commendably
selfless.
Now you know what an IT team
member does in a day. Now you
know their struggles, and the pains
and plans they go through in order
to ensure technology is used properly on campus. Now you know
how diligently they labor, seeking
not attention, but results. Now you
know who keeps this school up and
running.
GoPro’s Success
Mehmet
Can Özcan
GoPro is a well known company,
which manufactures action cameras that are used to take pictures
or shoot videos in extreme cases.
One may ask, “What is the difference between a normal and an
action camera?” Action cameras
differ from normal cameras in the
sense that they are more compact
and durable. These cameras are
designed to be light, wearable and
mountable on several surfaces so
that they can be worn, for example,
on helmets or tanks, and used in a
variety of places like airplanes, in
sea while skydiving or swimming.
GoPros’ products can capture HD ,
Full HD and UltraHD videos. In the
recent years, these cameras became
really popular. In fact, GoPro’s share
price increased by 36 percent from
24$ in initial public offering on the
10
stock market. Of course, this success of the company did not happen suddenly and magically, there
are three main reasons that triggered these changes: its interface’s
simplicity, physical properties and
brand strategy.
Having a simple and friendly interface is very important for brands
because no consumer wants to
use a complicated device. After all,
simplicity is the key to successes of
many technological giants of the
world, such as Microsoft and Apple.
GoPro is emulating the paths of
these successful companies with
its new, simple interface. Anyone,
even an amateur photographer, can
easily take a photo or record a video
and the camera’s software enables
you to edit photographs with a tap
so that you don’t need to know how
to use Adobe Photoshop or other
photo-editing programs.
GoPro’s models are so light that they
weigh only 88-grams, whereas an
average apple weighs 200-grams.
The physical properties of GoPro
BOSPHORUS CHRONICLE
Photo Courtesy of Ebay.co.uk
cameras.
Hopefully, you may now attribute
GoPro’s success in the technology
industry by looking at the above
reasons and conclude that the company’s rise in popularity did not
happen suddenly, but it will certainly continue in that direction.
JUNE 2012
Issue
december
2014
Issue
January 2008 Issue
FEATURESBOSPHORUSCHRONICLEFEATURES
Are they really “Bigger than Bigger”? : iPhone 6 & 6 Plus Review
Arda Başaran
Tunahan
Ekincikli
It has been more than 2 years
since the death of Steve Jobs,
founder and previous CEO of
Apple Computer. Some technology enthusiasts view him as
a revolutionary; on the other
hand, some view him as an opportunist. These people might
not agree on a single viewpoint;
however, they would certainly
agree with Steve Jobs’ insistence on a minimal screen size.
All the iPhones, including the
4s, came with a 3.5-inch display. However, with the introduction of iPhone 5, the screen
size has increased. The change
has been a dramatic one.
Apple surprised most of the
iPhone fans by introducing two
different iPhone models, the
new iPhone 6 & iPhone 6 Plus.
The iPhone 6 comes with a 4.7
inch display with 720p resolution, and iPhone 6 Plus comes
with a 5.5 inch display with
1080p resolution. These iPhone
models are markedly different
from their ancestors, since it is
the first time Apple has used a
big display. Even though it is
the first time, Apple was very
confident with the new iPhone
models. In fact, “bigger than
bigger” is posted on the site of
Apple USA. Since “new iPhones”
is a really popular topic on
the Internet, The Bosphorus
Chronicle decided to review
the new iPhones at the Apple
Store / Zorlu Center to find out
if iPhone 6 and 6 Plus are only
bigger, or also better.
Design
When we held iPhone 6 and 6
Plus in our hands, the first thing
we realized was how thin and
light these models are. iPhone
6 is only 6.9 mm thick, with a
weight of 129 g. Compared to
6; the 6 Plus model is 7.1 mm
thick, and weighs 172 g. Considering that iPhone 5/5s was
7.6 mm thick and 112 g, Apple
spent a lot of time making these
models thin and light. This thin-
ness of the iPhone models is really handy if you use your phone
on a daily basis; however, Apple
also had to make some sacrifices for really thin phones. The
camera lens at the back creates
a bulge, popping out of the aluminum unibody. Even though
the camera lens is made of sapphire, this design makes your
camera more vulnerable compared to the previous models.
The second major element in
iPhone 6 models’ new design
is construction quality. These
models are made of an aluminum unibody that feels really solid and premium in your
hand. The durable glass panel
on the front joins to the aluminum frame at the back seamlessly and creates a curve at the
edges of screen. Compared to
the iPhone 4 and 5 series, Apple
adopted a curved design language, just like at the original
iPhone, to make it easy to use
in one hand. However, there are
certain disadvantages of design
of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. Even
though the aluminum finish
is perfect, the phones are also
slippery. We nearly dropped an
iPhone 6 while conducting our
review. The aluminum panel is
also not a good choice in terms
of durability. Aluminum is a
soft metal: therefore, it is not
hard to scratch or bend. On the
Internet a lot of people have
complained about the scratches
on their iPhones. In fact, we
were able to spot a scratch on
one of the iPhones at the Apple
Store, which of course makes
you question how durable these
iPhones are.
Furthermore, some people have
reported that their iPhones are
bendable. This bending problem became really popular on
social media, causing a lot of
people to change their minds
about buying an iPhone 6. However, if the phones are used with
covers, bending and scratching
should not be a major issue.
Hardware
The biggest change in the
iPhone 6 models is the display
size. The iPhone 6 comes with
a 4.7-inch screen that has a
resolution of 720p, on the other
hand, iPhone 6 Plus has a 5.5
inch display with 1080p resolution. The difference in resolution may make you hesitate
when selecting a model; how-
iPhone 6 & 6 Plus (Photo Courtesy of Wired.co.uk)
december 2014 Issue
ever, in daily usage it does not
really matter. Both the iPhone
6 and 6 Plus have really sharp
screens; we were not able to
distinguish one from the other.
The screens in iPhone 6 models
are selected as the second best
phone screens by Display Mate,
proving that the color accuracy
and contrast of these models
are really successful.
In terms of the processor, the
iPhone 6 and 6 Plus have the
brand new A8 chips, running
at 1.4 GHz. Phones are also
empowered with 1GB of RAM,
which is really efficient, considering the optimizations of iOS
8. Besides the processor, there
is a brand new “motion sensor”, M8, which measures how
fast you move, what distance
you travel and even your elevation. Most of the sites on the
Internet indicate that usage of
a distinct motion sensor really
helps health apps to measure
accurate data.
Software
Since the first generation
iPhone, one of the strongest
reasons for buying an iPhone
was its iOS operating system.
For years, its user-friendly interface and stability made iOS
one of the best systems in the
world, if not the best. Stability
is one of the major points of
software, and if you don’t want
your phone to run slow months
later, iOS might be a better
choice. There are excellent Android phones on the market,
perhaps with even better hardware, but iOS is far better in
stability.
The iPhone 6 series comes with
iOS 8, the newest iOS version.
In design, we don’t see much
difference between iOS 7 and
iOS 8 (at least, not as much as
between iOS 6 and iOS 7). Most
of the innovations of iOS 8 were
with its applications. With iOS
8, iPhones have a new application called “Health.” This application helps you to keep track
of a variety of data, from your
nutritional intake to your sleep.
There are some updates on old
applications as well. You can
search your photos now, and
there are some more editing options. You can record time-lapse
videos on your iPhone, which
helps you to reduce hours of
video into seconds. Also, there
are a few adjustments on the
general design, like answering messages on lock screen,
making iOS even easier to use.
These small updates may seem
relatively unimportant, but
it’s good that you don’t need
a third-party application to do
certain things on your phone.
With iOS 8, Apple introduced a
new electronic payment system
called Apple Pay (you might
be familiar with the term electronic payment if you ever used
PayPal). Their motto is “Your
Wallet, Without The Wallet.” So
with this new system, you will
be able to sync your credit cards
with your iPhone. Then, you’ll
be able to pay online, but you
might change your mind if you
consider what happened recently with iCloud. After all,
Apple might secure your bank
accounts as it secured renowned
people’s photos.
Camera
The cameras on the iPhone 6
and 6 Plus remain at 8 megapixels. The new sensor has an
aperture of f/2.2 and 1.5 micron pixels. This improvement
helps users to take better pictures in low light. The improved
sensor also effects video. Now,
iPhone 6 can take 1080p videos
at 60fps, and slow motion (240
fps) videos with a resolution of
720p.
There are improvements in software as well. New modes in the
camera application help you
control every shot with more
adjustments. With exposure
control, now you can adjust the
light for every picture you take.
Timer Mode lets you take pictures after a countdown of 5-10
seconds. Furthermore, the cinematic video stabilization makes
the videos you take smooth, as
if you are using a professional
camera.
Battery Life
iPhones are not known for their
“everlasting battery life”. This
fact makes every single iPhone
user carry a charger in her backpack. The need to charge your
phone wherever there is a plug
available has earned the iPhone
the nickname“wall huggers.”
One of the biggest expectations
for the new phone was a better
battery life. Based on the tests
made by Engadget, iPhone 6’s
battery lasts for another 1-1.5
hours in daily usage, which is
an improvement. Compared to
iPhone 6 model, 6 Plus has an
impressive battery life. Including a 2915 mAH battery, iPhone
6 Plus lasts for 1.5-2 days with
daily usage, which is a really exciting, considering battery life
of the previous iPhone models.
Price
The much-debated issue of the
iPhones is their price. Every
time a new iPhone comes out,
consumers ask”Will it be worth
its cost?” The iPhone 6 starts at
2349 TL, while iPhone 6 Plus
starts at 2649 TL. You should be
aware that these are the prices
for 16 GB models; if you want to
get 128 GB, you probably would
have to pay an additional 3000
TL. `let’s see what you get with
3000 TL:
A brand-new iPhone 6 with
128 GB memory (sorry but you
can’t get the Plus model, it costs
more)
PlayStation 4 + Samsung Galaxy Note 3
Monster Notebook (and you can
keep 500 TL!)
5 days of holiday in a 5-Star Hotel
6000 bananas
Overall
The Bosphorus Chronicle was
impressed that these models
are so thin, light, fast and very
well built. The iPhone 6 and 6
Plus are two of the best smartphones available on the market.
However, there are certain aspects that might make people
hesitate to buy this phone,
especially price and battery
life. If you are an iPhone 4/4s
or an old Android phone user,
the upgrade might be logical;
however, if you currently have
the iPhone 5/5s, then we do not
recommend upgrading to these
models.
Works Cited
“Bigger than Bigger.” Apple.com.9
Sept. 2014. Web. 16 Sept. 2014.
Molen, Bran. “iPhone 6 and 6 Plus
review.” Engadget.com. 16 Sept.
2014. Web. 19 Sept. 2014.
“Apple iPhone 6 & 6 Plus.” Wired.
com. n.d. Web. 24 Sept. 2014.
“iPhone 6 Sizes.” Recode.net. n.d.
Web. 26 Sept. 2014.
iPhone 5s & 6 & 6 Plus Sizes (Photo Courtesy of Recode.net)
BOSPHORUS CHRONICLE
11
ARTS&ENTERTAINMENTBOSPHORUSCHRONICLE
From Pages To Theaters
Ekin Vardar
Sinem
Meydanlı
This year, the movie theaters
were filled with book to film
adaptations such as “The Fault
in Our Stars”, “Divergent”, “The
Maze Runner”, “Gone Girl”, “If I
Stay”, and “The Vampire Academy”. We at Bosphorus Chronicle
decided to write about some of
these movies; of course we had
to write about “The Giver”, since
most of the Robert College students have read it.
Mockingjay Part 1 (Hunger
Games)
Release Date: November 21,
2014
The first two books of Hunger
Games series were listed in the
New York Times Bestsellers and
after they were adapted to the
big screen, they became even
more popular. The last movie
“Mockingjay” is going to be in
theaters on November 21st.
For “Mockingjay”, the producers
decided to separate it into two
movies like they did on Harry
Potter Deathly Hallows and
the Twilight series. In the first
part of the Mockingjay, Katniss
Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) is
now the face of the rebellion.
After the last Hunger Games
nothing is the same. The Capitol has Peeta (Josh Hutcherson)
and District 12 is destroyed. The
heroine Katniss is trying to give
hope to the people on the other
districts and trying to save Peeta from the Capitol with help of
her friends.
“Mockingjay Part 1” will be
much more slow paced unlike
Catching Fire or Hunger Games
which were full of action. In
this movie audiences will get to
see the life around District 13,
and how Katniss handles being
the icon for rebellion. They will
also see favourite motifs such as
Katniss’s bow and arrow skills
throughout the movie when she
is fighting against the Capitol.
The Fault In Our Stars
It was January 2012 when the
captivating story of a 16 yearold girl with terminal cancer
entered the lives of the readers.
Not long after that, it became
a worldwide trend and people
started reading TFIOS everywhere, and at Robert College
it was popular especially during Sustained Silent Reading
time. The book’s success also
increased the interest in John
Green’s other books.
Hazel Lancaster is a 16 year-old
cancer-patient. She attends a
cancer patient’s support group
at her mother’s request. Her life
changes when she meets Augustus Waters, a former cancer
patient in the support group
meeting. Augustus approaches
to Hazel by saying she looks
like Natalie Portman from V for
Vendetta. When Hazel says she
never saw the movie, Augustus
invites her over to watch it and
this scene becomes the start
of their friendship which turns
into romance and their love
story unfolds.
The movie version of the novel
came to the big screens in the
last week of June in Turkey.
When the movie ended, one
could see a crowd of people
leaving the movie theater in
tears. The movie didn’t have too
many significant differences
from the book, yet some of the
scenes in the book were cut
out. It is undeniable that one of
the main reasons that it was a
popular movie was that the new
heartthrob Ansel Elgort had
the role of another heartthrob
Augustus Waters. Overall, the
movie was successfully adapted
to the big screen.
Divergent
“Divergent” is a trilogy by the
author Veronica Roth. It’s currently popular to write dystopian futuristic novels with a
strong female protagonist and
this one is also on the list as
well. The story takes place in
a dystopian Chicago where tomorrow’s people have decided
that it is best to live in five different factions to ensure peace
among the community: Erudite
the smart, Abnegation the selfless, Dauntless the brave, Am-
Photo Courtesyof spinoff.com
ity the peaceful and Candor
the honest. Every 16 year-old
in the community takes a test
that will determine the right
faction for them but Beatrice
Prior, the protagonist, gets a
different result than others. In
a sudden decision Abnegation
born Beatrice chooses Dauntless, the brave. As her community changes, the society faces
a new arising problem. Beatrice
is forced to choose where she
stands when she finds herself in
the middle of the problem.
The movie “Divergent” was released on March 21, 2014 in the
United States. Shailene Woodley, who is almost in every teen
movie that was released in 2014
including The Fault in Our Stars,
portrayed the main character
Tris. Theo James plays Four,
Tris’s instructor in Dauntless.
There were also many other
teen stars who were a part of
the movie, such as Ansel Elgort
and Miles Teller.
Viewers generally had mixed
reviews; some of them liked
the movie and some of them
thought it was horrible. Having
a huge fandom like “Divergent”
results an inevitable high expectations. It is more than likely
that fans had precise opinions
on what characters should look
like and how they should act.
A few of the characters were
just like how we imagined they
would be. For example Tris’s
other Dauntless instructor, Eric
was portrayed by Jai Courtney
and his role was the exact representation of what we thought
Eric would look like. Also, Theo
James was almost the perfect
choice for the character even
though Four’s age in the movie
wasn’t fitting with the character in the book. Overall, it can
be said that the producers did
a good job adapting the movie
from the novels, and we look
forward to the next installment.
The Giver
Photo Courtesy of CourtesyOfWhitneyupdate.com (Photo by Savannah Houdek)
12
“The perfect society”, a utopian
concept, is wished by many
people. The differences, the
hatred, the racism, the poverty
BOSPHORUS CHRONICLE
and all the other problems of
society are ‘removed’ to form
the perfect society in The Giver,
a Newberry award winning novel by Lois Lowry. The main character Jonas was a part of this
so-called perfect society. The
community assigned everybody
jobs, families and children. Everyone was living in peace and
order.
In the beginning of the book,
12 year old Jonas is chosen to
have an important role in the
community. In a world where
questioning isn’t allowed, Jonas’s actions determine the fate
of the society. “The Giver” was
read by most of the students in
Robert College as a part of their
Prep year. Word choice, themes,
symbols were examined by most
of the students here. As fellow
students who also had to write
pages and pages about “The Giver”, we watched “The Giver” as if
it was our own personal novel
that had been adapted into a
movie. Therefore we had great
expectations of the movie. Before we get into what we think
about the movie, we went to
see a few Core English teachers
and asked them why they chose
“The Giver” to teach this book in
the Prep Year.
Mr. Light’s answer was that the
students were interested in this
book because of the dystopian
world it portrayed. He also said
that it was easily accessible
since it classifies as a young
adult book.
Ms. Hoffman said that “The
Giver” was taught in RC as long
as she can remember and she
described it as a tradition. She
stated that the main reason it
was taught is because the topic
of utopia and the perfect world
made it easy to compare the
idea to our world as it was the
topic of the unit. Ms. Hoffman
also mentioned that the reading level of the book was suitable for the students and it had
a very high interest level.
Not long after we read the
books the dystopian world of
“The Giver” was adapted to
the big screen. Having distinguished actors and actresses
like 18 time nominee and 3
time Oscar winner Meryl Streep
and Oscar winner Jeff Bridges
made a splash in cinema industry. However when the movie
came out on 15 August 2014,
it was a huge disappointment
for the people who already read
the book. As it happens almost
every book to film adaptation,
the film producers didn’t stick
to the book and made it just
another teen movie. Unlike the
book, the movie was not successful at portraying the strict
and the repressive ambiance in
The Community. The protagonist, Jonas is only 12 years old
in the book, but in the movie
he is portrayed by Brenton
Thwaites who is a 25 year-old
actor playing a ‘graduate’ of 18.
Seeing an adult actor playing
a character that was originally
a child took away the purity of
Jonas’s character. Therefore, the
movie was unable to give us the
atmosphere that the book gave
us since it drifts apart from the
storyline.
Regardless of the adaptation,
is always a thrill to see popular
young adult books become movies. Whether it is liked or not
not, seeing these page-turners
acted out by popular actresses
and actors has always made
the fans of the book anxiously
wait for the movies to come to
the theaters. Even though most
of the books that were turned
into movies this year were quite
successful, we suggest that it
is always the best to read the
book, before the movie. In some
cases, what the readers imagine
will be better than what they
expect to see on the big screen
but we are glad that most of
these movies were almost as
perfect as the majority of readers imagined they would be.
Work Cited:
“The Fault In Our Stars.” Wikipedia.
14 Oct. 2014. Web. 12 Oct. 2014.
“Divergent.” Wikipedia. 15 Oct.
2014. Web. 12 Oct. 2014.
“Meryl Streep Awards.” IMDb.
IMDb.com. Web.
“Jeff Bridges Awards.” IMDb. IMDb.
com. Web.
JUNE 2012
Issue
december
2014
Issue
January 2008 Issue
Suits: A Show of Law and Laughter
Ege İşkesen
The pilot episode of the TV show
Suits debuted in June 2011. If you
haven’t watched it yet, you might
have some preconceptions about
the show. You may think that yet
another TV program about a law
firm in New York will be neither
exciting nor interesting. If you are
a fan of the series, however, such
assumptions would have disappeared quickly and as you keep
watching the show, you realize that
Suits is unique in many ways. Here
are some reasons why Suits is one
of the best shows airing in today’s
television, and should be watched
by everyone.
First of all, Suits has an intriguing
cast of characters. Gabriel Macht
plays Harvey Specter who is one
of the best lawyers in New York,
and the actor seems to be a perfect
match for his role. In the show, Harvey Specter, of the Pearson-Hardman law firm aims to win his cases
and to get the sympathy of the ones
around him. Since he does anything
to be successful in life, he appears
to be an audacious character. For
instance, he hires Mike Ross, a
college-dropout, even though only
Harvard graduates can be hired to
work for his firm. The show develops their relationship as they win
cases, while trying to hide the truth
about Mike.
Mike Ross is the associate of Harvey Specter. Even if they don’t get
along well at first, after some time,
they become a great team, enjoying many successes. By Season 4,
Mike cuts deals and wins cases but
realizes that he will not be famous
or credited as one of the best lawyers in the city since his law career
is based on a massive falsehood and
that he is not actually a law-school
graduate. He decides to leave
Pearson-Hardman, and becomes a
partner at an investment banking
company. However, Mike’s new position soon draws him into conflict
with his old law firm.
The creator of the show, Aaron
Korsh, makes complicated legal
deals and arguments understandable and thrilling for the audience
to watch, even if they don’t have
legal expertise. Other than the
law-based side of the show, there
are other interesting parts. A series
of flashbacks helps the audience
to discover every character’s background story and their weak sides.
Aaron Korsh created an interesting
story for each character and it engages people to watch and learn
more. Moreover, there are some
funny jokes and moments embedded in arguments which definitely
entertains its audience.
Overall, if you would like to watch
a realistic show that contains fun,
excitement and drama, you should
definitely watch Suits. Be ready to
be shocked or to laugh. Until now,
only four seasons have aired. The
fans of the show are waiting for
the 5th season which doesn’t have
a definite premiere date yet, but set
Photo Courtesy of Tv.yahoo.com
for summer 2015. You have enough
time to start watching and catch up
Suits.
Orange Is The New Black: Through a Feminist Lens
Tuvana
Kankallı
“The more I have spoken about
feminism, the more I have realized
that fighting for women’s rights
has too often become synonymous
with ‘man-hating’,” says Goodwill
Ambassador Emma Watson on her
speech about gender equality at the
United Nations. Feminism comes up
frequently in our daily lives, but we
should not relate feminism with
“man-hating.” Media, politics and
social institutions have been trying
to redefine feminism and correct
misconceptions. Orange is the New
Black, Netflix’s hit show, is the latest
ground of discussion for feminist
comments and attacks. The show is
targeted by critics for taking place
in a women’s prison, and for focusing on interactions between women and on female sexuality. The association of Orange is the New Black
with feminism evokes the question:
“Can a TV show demonstrate one
particular ideology fully?”
When criticizing Orange is the New
Black, the first thing that comes
to mind is the Bechdel test, which
argues that a work of fiction can
be free of gender bias only if at any
time it features two women talking
about something besides a man.
Orange is the New Black successfully
passes the test. In today’s television
and movie industry, it’s hard to find
a work of fiction that is not gender
biased. However, how fitting is it to
praise a show and declare it feminist, just because it passes an overgeneralizing test? This is where the
ideology shadows the show itself.
The show is about women and their
struggle, yet labeling it would only
increase the opposing arguments.
At this point, two counter arguments can be formed:
(i) The series commends feminism
by its realistic display of relations
between women and of prison life.
It’s an accurate demonstration of re-
ality and the show does not accommodate any gender biases.
(ii) The series cannot be seen as a
fully pro-feminist TV show since
gender-biased perspectives can be
seen throughout the episodes.
Both of these arguments can be
proven by different aspects of the
show. Orange is the New Black
does show female inmates’ lives
overtly. For example, the romantic
relationship between two female
characters, Alex and Piper, is shown
realistically. The audience sees the
Piper’s inner predicaments and
witnesses how she deals with her
essential dilemmas. Besides the
show’s fictitious world, one of the
writers, Laura Morelli, discovered
her own homosexuality as she was
writing the show. Morelli’s discovery suggests that the show presents
an accurate image so that the viewers can make their own discoveries.
This accuracy is often associated
with feminism, due to the concept
of equality, which is defended by
the ideology.
On the other hand Orange is the New
Black shows nude women, considered to be “beautiful” and “desirable” based on 21st century norms.
Also, the men are often portrayed in
a biased fashion. For instance, the
moment we see male inmates, the
individuality of the male characters
are veiled by their sexuality. Rather
than focusing on egalitarian feminism, stereotypically binding sex
with male characters violates the
main notion of the ideology.
are watching the same episode
for the thousandth time.
music. Even though we don’t
hear Eminem’s single “Guts
Over Fear” until the credits,
the movie’s soundtrack makes
some scenes bearable.
In our media-ruled society, ideologies show up in many ways. However, it’s usually impossible to attain one specific ideology in a work
of entertainment that wasn’t created for that particular purpose. The
show stands between feminist and
gender-biased perspectives. Aside
from the grave discussions around
feminism, Orange is the New Black
is loved by many.
The cast of Orange is the New Black (Photo Courtesy of imdb.com)
The Equalizer Movie Review
Arda Başaran
Tunahan Ekincikli
“The two most important days
of your life are the day you were
born and the day you find out
why.” - Mark Twain
The Equalizer opened on September 26, starring Denzel
Washington, who is known for
Training Day, American Gangster
and Inside Man. The soundtrack
is by Eminem and Sia. We BC
writers saw the movie and here
is our critique.
Story
The main character of The
Equalizer ,Robert McCall (Denzel Washington), is a retired
intelligence agent. He tries to
avoid his previous life by adopting new daily routines that any
ordinary man has. He works at
a hardware store, reads books,
and goes to the same diner
every day to drink tea, but
he fails to stay out of trouble.
At the diner he meets a girl,
Teri (Chloë Grace Moretz), who
obliges Robert to use his spyskills once again.
The story reminds us of many
different productions that we
have watched before, but this
is not the main reason why it’s
so cliché. The movie is some
kind of remake of the namesake TV series that was on air
between 1985-1989; still, the
story makes you feel like you
JUNE 2012
Issue
december
2014
Issue
Character Development
The main character and a
side character might be the
only two in the movie who go
through any substantial development. Even the villain is not
introduced properly. There are
characters that we don’t get
to see until the end of the film
and there are characters that
show up for only few scenes.
The only exception is Robert
McCall, but thanks to his cliché
background story what we get
from his character is quite expected.
Music
If there is one thing that we
liked about this movie, it’s the
Visual Effects
This is where the movie drives
off the cliff. There are two
scenes that we couldn’t resist.
The first one is when Robert
goes into action for the first
time. There is a slow-motion
effect in the film (similar to the
one in “Sherlock Holmes: Game
of Shadows,” but way worse)
which is intended to emphasize
how Robert McCall analyses all
of his targets and the surroundings so he can plan how he is
going to take them out. The
idea is good, but in practice
what you get is a scene that
BOSPHORUS CHRONICLE
lasts forever. It takes minutes
before he gets to the act and all
the emphasis turns into boredom.
The other scene is an explosion
scene in which the CGI is just
too obvious. The scene yells
out the audience that it is just
an animation. You might also
wonder how supernatural Robert McCall walks out unharmed
from an explosion that melts
metal. Other than these issues,
the rest of the visual effects
were average. However, we
have to warn you that there are
quite violent scenes that might
make you uncomfortable.
To be honest, the movie trailer
excited us the first time we
watched it. However, we were
disappointed when we left the
13
theater. Maybe we expected
too much, maybe the movie
truly wasn’t that good, but we
couldn’t find the quality that
we were looking for. Even Denzel Washington couldn’t make
us like the movie. There are
rumors on the Internet that a
sequel is planned; we hope the
next movie will be a lot better,
or else it will be another way to
waste money.
Cons
Pros
- Some of the scenes are way
too long
- Background music on scenes
are great + soundtrack
- Solid beginning (only for 15
minutes)
- Cast
- Effective life lessons (although so cliché, makes you
enjoy the beginning of the
film)
- Too much violence
- A lot of cliché moments like
“Cool guys do not look at explosions.”
- Story is weak, ending is very
predictable
- Absence of some of the character developments
- Slow-motion effects
Works Cited
“Denzel Washington.” IMDb. IMDb.
com, n.d. Web. 19 Oct. 2014.
“The Equalizer (2014)” IMDb.
IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 19 Oct.
2014.
Photo Courtesy of Movieboozer.com
The Walking Dead Returns
Zeynep
Sabuncu
Hunt or be hunted, which one
would you choose? When there
is a vast number corpses waiting
outside to eat your flesh and anything that is edible, you probably
wouldn’t have a chance to think.
Despite the extended description
of the gruesome zombie daily life,
coping with this kind of dilemma is
necessary for the character Nick and
his friends.
“They just keep coming, more and
more, as if rising from the very earth.
Not zombies–Walking Dead viewers.” (Times)
Even though zombies might not be
your type, you might have heard of
the all-time popular series called
The Walking Dead (TWD). It is so
widely watched that Time Magazine
surveyed the reasons of TWD’s everlasting popularity for four seasons.
The statistics show that The AMC
series has been the “No. 1 Show” on
TV for adults between the ages 1849 for the past two years and it has
continued to break its own viewership records for four seasons and
beyond. The first episode of the 5th
season earned a total 22.372 million viewers. The setting, make-up
and cast successfully created and
reflected the extremely violent environment in the new 5th season.
Zombies were rambling around,
searching for some fresh flesh to
eat, while survivors were searching
for each other and fighting against
their enemies.
The Walking Dead, season 4, contained the usual incidents, but
season 5 brings some changes. In
the first episode of the new season, some ground-breaking effects are used. When Carol causes
an explosion that sets fire to parts
of Terminus and zombies start to
burn and walk, the episode seems
like the movie The Ghost Rider. We
also discover that the inhabitants
of Terminus are cannibals. After
these incidents, our main survivors
escape from Terminus and set off on
a journey to Washington in order to
cure the illness.
Now, 22 million viewers are bursting with excitement to see the
second episode of The Walking
Dead, season 5. For potential new
viewers of the show, Bosphorus
Photo Courtesy of Moviepilot.com
Chronicle has a friendly reminder:
The Walking Dead consists of a superfluous amount of blood and brutality. Therefore, if you are afraid of
watching these violent scenes, you
should not turn on the television
on Monday nights. As The Walking Dead pilot episode says:“Don’t
Open, Dead Inside.”
Farewell To Friends
Rabia İdil
Demirelli
Despite their fans’wishes, they
are not reuniting. Fans all over the
world expected a reunion after the
release of a fake poster, but the
show’s producers denied it. For the
ones who have no idea what I am
talking about, it has been twenty
years since Friends first aired; for
ten years, it always kept its unique
humor.
About a year ago, a convincing
poster was leaked on the Internet
about the cast’s expected reunion.
That one poster convinced all the
fans that a new episode called “The
One with Reunion” would soon air,
and within a couple of minutes of
the leak, the Internet started to
shake with fans’ desire. According
to Lisa Kudrow’s (Phoebe’s) interview with Conan O’Brien posted on
YouTube, even Kudrow thought that
14
there was going to be a reunion; she
was hurt because others didn’t tell
her about it, until she learned the
truth from a third party (“Lisa Kudrow Says”).
The cast may not reunite, but every
year their fans keep growing and
growing. It takes one episode to
become addicted to the show and
to recommend it to everybody that
you see. Friends was such a successful comedy that even today it
remains one of the best comedies
ever, including its final episode.
The show’s humor was so effective
that even 20 years later it remains
fresh.
Although the characters were with
us for ten years, there are still
some small facts that shock many
Friends-olics. For instance, the
series was originally going to be
named Insomnia Café or Friends Like
Us or Six of One, but the directors
chose Friends at the last moment.
Its name is one of the simplest
beauties because Friends sounds
pretty much perfect, doesn’t it? This
is just a beginning: According to
Buzzfeed, when the show was written, the characters Joey and Monica
were intended to be the main love
interest and Courtney Cox was going to play the character Rachel.
However, looking at the cast now,
every decision that the creators of
Friends have made seems perfectly
fitting. In fact, it might be hard for
a Friends fan to dream of another
Monica saying ‘I know!’ or another
couple who complaining that they
were on a break!
The cast misses the show as well
as fans. That’s why they have accepted requests from Ellen Degeneres and Jimmy Kimmel to hold
mini reunions. Nevertheless, no
more than three cast members appear in any of the small reunions.
Unfortunately, there is not enough
interest to start shooting the show
again. Also, David Schwimmer commented that there won’t be any reunion by saying, “I really liked how
the show ended. It was kind of a
perfect ending. I can’t see any good
reason to revisit it” (“David Schwimmer”).
BOSPHORUS CHRONICLE
Photo Courtesy of Sencrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com
Friends gave us moments of laugh- “David Schwimmer on ‘Friends’ Reter and unforgettable memories. union.” Youtube. Web. 15 Oct. 2014.
Our hearts will always be broken
that the show ended, but we will
always have a solid smile when we
hear a reference to Friends - whether they reunite or not.
Works Cited:
“Lisa Kudrow Says There Will Never Be
A ‘Friends’ Reunion.” YouTube. Web. 15
Oct. 2014.
“13 Things You Probably Didn’t Know
about Friends.” Buzzfeed. n.d. Web. 15
Oct. 2014.
JUNE 2012
Issue
december
2014
Issue
January 2008 Issue
A Celebration of Self-Expression Through Art in Pera
Deniz
Şahintürk
“Language of the Wall: Graffiti/
Street Art,” an exhibition that boldly
took on a controversial issue in art,
was hosted this year by Istanbul’s
Pera Museum, August 13-October
5. The exhibition’s curator, Roxane
Ayral, was inspired by her encounters with graffiti art during the 13
years she lived in Paris, and so she
organized this exhibition with the
contributions of 22 graffiti artists
from different places around the
world. The exhibition covered the
works of renowned graffiti artists like Futura, Carlos Mare, Cope
2, Turbo, Wyne, JonOne, Tilt, Mist,
Psyckoze, Craig Costello (aka KR),
Herakut, Logan Hicks, C215, Suiko,
Evol, Gaia, Tabone, Funk, No More
Lies, as well as the work of two
photographers.
In one of her interviews, Roxane
Ayral mentioned that what excites
her the most about graffiti is the
freedom that comes with it. “It’s a
work that is created without getting anybody’s permission. It shows
the artist’s personal freedom. Leaving a work you have spent countless
hours and effort on just there means
giving it freedom. It’s a way of saying ‘Give me the freedom I’m giving to my artwork,’” says Ayral. The
artists taking part in this exhibition
were given the very thing that Ayral
admires about graffiti--freedom to
create. Not only were they given
permission to decorate the walls
of the museum as they wished, but
also permission to work on 8 specific locations throughout Istanbul.
Visitors were given maps of these
locations so that they could view
these works, too.
Almost everyone more or less
knows what graffiti is, yet they
may still ask what really makes it so
special? Graffiti has been the topic
of various debates. While some define it as art, others try to discard it
as simple vandalism. Made usually
using spray paint and marker, today
graffiti is considered a punishable
crime in many countries.
Even though it has gained recognition during modern times, graffiti
actually has a history that reaches
back to Ancient Greece, Egypt and
the Roman Empire.The oldest example of graffiti is found in the
ancient city of Ephesus, Turkey. Depicting a hand marked with a heart
and an arrow in it, this old graffiti is
thought to be an ancient advertisement for prostitution. Even though
modern graffiti has gained fame
and recognition with the emergence of hip-hop, it has existed
since 1920s. It became widely produced during the 60s and 70s as a
subpart of hip-hop and punk styles,
and it gained universal recognition
in the 80s. An exhibition of graffiti
opened in Rome in 1979, giving it a
solid classification as artwork rather
than plain vandalism.
The artists participating in the ex-
the Sims is much more fun with the
new version. First of all, the new
push and pull skill saves your life.
You can pick an entire room and
move it anywhere in the house and
resize your Sims’ body and house
with only a single click. On top of
these features, there is the new
emotions system: they were present in older Sims releases, however
The Sims 4 goes beyond only showing an emotion: the new feature
also opens up new opportunities
and makes your Sims’ life more interesting; in fact, he may even die
of excessive feelings.
In addition to these major additions, there are so many minor but
significant features added to game
that make it more enjoyable and
exciting. One of the most significant new features is having group
conversations beyond the usual
dialogue between two Sims. According to Sims fans, this is a very
important feature of Sims, making
the game appear to be more natural. With the addition of ghosts in
October 2014, players can also see
ghosts as “non-playable” characters and even ask them to join the
household. Once a ghosts becomes
“playable,” it becomes like other
living Sims characters and can get
married with other Sims, have a
family or get a job.
Although the latest version has
promising new features, at least
eighty-nine features are no longer
available. Swimming pools and cars
are not in the Sims world anymore;
neither are toddlers. These changes
diverge from the game’s initial concept: simulating real life.
Other features remain in the game,
but in a worse way: job opportunities and floor levels are limited, the
towns and the houses are smaller
and at some parts, and the game
is significantly slower. Be prepared:
even when you go to the next door,
a loading screen will show up. EA
will hopefully improve these criticized elements of the new Sims 4.
It is rumored that the swimming
pools are going to be return in November and new careers will be
available in December.
Overall, the transition from The Sims
3 to The Sims 4 is a little bit tough for
Sims fans. Although the new game
has so many big improvements,
like the new emotions system, the
building houses and customizing
Sims tools, they are not easy to get
used to. Despite both negative and
positive criticism, The Sims 4 will
give a fun time for all the users who
are ready to simulate real life on
their computer screens.
Works Cited:
“89 Features Missing From The Sims
4 That Will Piss You Off.” Gamebreaker Video Game News Videos
Reviews and Community. N.p., n.d.
Web. 18 Oct. 2014.
“Free Pools, Ghosts, and Star Wars
Costumes for The Sims 4.” Metro.
N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Oct. 2014.
“The Sims 4 Review.” GameSpot.
N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Oct. 2014.
“The Sims 4 Review.” Metro. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 18 Oct. 2014.
“Free Pools, Ghosts, and Star Wars
Costumes for The Sims 4.” Metro.
N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Oct. 2014.
Joan Miro
Istanbul Modern introduced the
exhibition “One Hundred Years of
Love,” celebrating 100 years of Turkish cinema on the tenth anniversary of the gallery. This researched
exhibition focuses on the history of
Turkish cinema starting from 1914.
The exhibition shows the Turkish
audience’s first encounter with cinema. You can easily tell that these
moments were magical, surprising
and impressive for the audience.
“One Hundred Years of Love” uses
sources that show our cinema history like posters, photographs, box office reports, gala invitations, newspaper clippings, advertisements,
and autographed photos of actress
and actors. The exhibition makes
you feel like the audience felt the
moment saw they their first movies. Although this exhibition ended
on November 4th, İstanbul Modern
contains other exhibitions like “Past
and Future,” “Plurivocality,” and
“Various States of Love,”which are
also worth a visit.
Arter has an exhibition called “The
Roving Eye: Contemporary Art from
Southeast Asia.” It is a group exhibition that presents more than 40
masterpieces by 36 artists. The exhibition is organized by Iola Lenzi,
a curator and researcher who focuses on Southeast Asia, especially
Singapore. This exhibition displays
the Southeast Asian culture and the
tension caused by the separation
of the region’s countries, through
materials and media that these
countries generally use. The exhibition aims to be inclusive of its audience. For example, you can play
table tennis, play piano, draw or try
on some slippers or a crown in the
exhibition. The exhibition protests
the “You cannot touch!” policy of
most art galleries. Some videos
and photographs found in the ex-
hibition help the audience to better
visualize daily life in Asia. “The Roving Eye” shows the improvement of
Southeast Asia from 1970 until today from an objective perspective.
Arter is located in İstiklal and the
exhibition can be visited until January 4th, 2015.
Finally, the exhibition “Orientalism
in Polish Art” can be found in Pera
Museum. This exhibition is about
orientalist trends in Polish art, such
as drawing and graphic arts. this
exhibition will go on until January
18th, 2015. Also, Salt Gallery in
Istiklal is running some workshops
for high school students on art and
architecture.
Visiting an art gallery is an entertaining and educational way to
spend the weekend, and Istanbul
is full of amazing art galleries. All
you need to do is choose where to
begin!
hibition represented differing nationalities and backgrounds, which
gave the exhibition an all the more
universal quality. Also, two special artists joined the exhibition-photographers Martha Cooper and
Henry Chalfant. Their contributions
functioned as a delightful journey
through the history and significance of graffiti as an art form.
Vandalism, art, or simply beautiful -
Sims 4 You
İdil Çetin
For the last few months, Electronic
Arts (EA) has been teasing us with
some introductory videos and photos of their brand-new The Sims
4, promising a big sensation in
the game industry with countless
amazing new features compared to
its predecessors. Now that the endless waiting has come to an end, we
can have a better view of the game
which received mostly positive reviews from both its fans and critics.
Here are some of the main changes
made in Sims 4:
Building houses and customizing
Autumn: The Season of Art
Zeynep
Karababa
Although school days are filled with
waking up very early, studying really hard and taking exams, there
is a question in on every student’s
mind: What should we do this
weekend? There are lots of cultural
activities in Istanbul, including visiting art galleries currently exhibiting famous artists’ works. Here are
some suggestions:
Sakıp Sabancı Museum is hosting
the Catalan painter and sculptor
Joan Miró’s masterpieces. The exhibition, named “Joan Miró, Women,
Birds, Stars,” is really comprehensive. You will find that Miró’s works
correspond to his age of maturity.
Inspired by Mediterranean people,
Miró focused on the themes listed
in the exhibition title: women,
birds, stars. In the exhibition you
can see very colorful paintings,
sculptures and ceramics. Miró’s
work reflects the energy and vitality of the Mediterranean region
through bright colors. Miró’s taste in
art resembles many other famous
artists from Barcelona such as Pablo
Picasso and Salvador Dali. In the exhibition documentary about Miró’s
life, his friends, his country and
his response to the political events
in the world’s media can also be
viewed. With this documentary, the
audience gets a glimpse of Miró’s
secret life. Sakıp Sabancı Museum
is in Emirgan and the exhibition will
remain on display until February
1st, 2015.
“I want to apply colors like words
that shape poems, like notes that
shape music.”
JUNE 2012
Issue
december
2014
Issue
BOSPHORUS CHRONICLE
15
STATEOFSOUNDBOSPHORUSCHRONICLESTATEOFSOUND
The Shape of Post - Rock to Come
Cem Töre
Gökçam
It is not easy to define when a
genre starts and when a genre
ends, but this feature will try to
give a perspective on the past and
the future of the genre called “post
rock,” mainly because of an album
that was released in 2014 that
might significantly change the
direction this critically acclaimed
genre is taking. The name itself
covers a broad range of musical
styles, meaning many of the bands
and albums that will be mentioned below have arguable postrock status.
For a start, if there is one, one may
need to go back to an album that
is perhaps one of the greatest and
most unique albums in music history: Slint’s Spiderland. The album
features long tracks, dragged-out
riffs, layered tracks, clean drum
sounds, heavy breakdowns and
Brian McMahan’s iconic spoken
word vocals--pretty much everything that was against the glam
metal trends of the 80s. McMahan, the lead singer, actually sings
once throughout this entire LP, on
the song “Washer”. The record sold
very little and the band dissolved
afterwards, yet the album became
one of the most iconic albums of
the American underground and
helped pioneer many bands and
more importantly, a genre. The album was very slow and unfriendly
to most of its audience, but it was
one of the biggest inspirations to
many artists who changed the
scene in the upcoming years.
Slint and other bands like Talk Talk
(which was originally an 80s New
Wave band that famously made
two very critically acclaimed albums, Garden of Eden and Laughing Stock, in the late 80s-early
90s), Tortoise, Bark Psychosis,
Disco Inferno and Pram make up
what is generally referred to as the
first wave of post rock. Two critical releases here around the same
time can be seen as the milestones
for the birth of second-wave postrock, the music most people think
of when they hear the term. One
Album art of “To Be Kind”
of them is Tortoise’s second full
length LP, “Millions Now Living
Will Never Die”, and on the other
side of the Atlantic the debut of
the Scottish band Mogwai, Young
Team. The change was signified
by two huge differences from the
past: one, the songs were more
drawn out, even longer, more instrumental; and two,the “build up
to a crescendo” formula Slint occasionally used, along with many
other techniques on Spiderland,
defined the sound of pretty much
every post-rock record up to this
point.
Since 1996, albums that are commonly defined both as some of
the best works of the genre and
as some of the best works of the
decades since were released.
Sigur Ros’ Agaetis Byrjun featured
lead singer Jonsi’s trademark falsetto vocals, bowed guitars and
an ethereal sound Pitchfork once
defined as “pre-whatever comes
this century.” Godspeed You! Black
Emperor’s Lift Your Skinny Fists like
Antennas to Heaven featured four
twenty-minute tracks that built
up slowly to glorious crescendos
of shoegaze guitars, experimental
drum fills and many more.
The problem, however, is that like
every other development in music,
music genres get old as more people try to recreate them and sometimes fail. In the last five years or
so, post-rock basically went no-
where. Bands like Explosions in the
Sky, Caspian, 65daysofstatic and
even Sigur Ros in their later releases felt like they simply used the
“money-making formula”: slow
build up for 7 minutes, a reverbedguitar crescendo, rinse and repeat.
One of the most exciting genres
in the near past, which was supposed to be the music of the new
millennium, became the origin of
some of the most outdated albums
by formerly beloved bands. This is
where a band I deliberately never
mentioned up to this point enters
the discussion:
Swans were an experimental/
dark-ambient/no wave/post-rock/
noise/post-punk/ post-everything
band; originally active from 1982
to 1997.Their first few LPs are
some of the heaviest music records
ever released; Filth and especially
Cop were composed of distorted
guitars on heavy drumming and
there was basically no melody after all, just the lead singer Michael
Gira screaming and barking over
industrial noises. Towards the end
of the decade, Swans developed a
new sound, still very heavy and industrial but also groundbreaking.
Albums like Soundtracks for the
Blind, Public Castration is a Good
Idea, and The Great Annihilator
were all very experimental records,
but they were so radio-unfriendly
that the albums weren’t really appreciated by most listeners for a
long while. The ones that did ap-
A group photo of the band “Swans”
16
BOSPHORUS CHRONICLE
preciate it, however, were the musicians of the post-rock scene who
were looking for new inspirations.
The music Swans made was the
most unique, and the majority of
the hardcore/punk rock tendencies
of the second-wave stemmed from
their work.
It is not the best generalization
to make, but the creative block of
second-wave post rock somewhat
coincides with the ending of the
group. This is the main reason why
Swans reforming in 2010 was big
news after 13 years. Their albums
were fully appreciated and rightfully canonized by then, and the
return of Swans was quickly followed up with their first album
release in 2012: The Seer.
The record was exactly what the
scene needed: the album quickly
got heavy critical acclaim, and
their new primal, ferocious, layered sound was praised by almost
everyone. Like the previous releases, the album was two hours long
and featured a 33 minute long
track in the middle of everything
else. It was an intense experience
that demanded full concentration, because Swans still sounded
completely different from other
bands. The sound was more listener-friendly than ever, and this
wasn’t a bad thing at all. The songs
felt right; the primitive nature of
Gira’s vocals and the instruments
were finally feeling cohesive. The
album was a huge revelation in
terms of musical ideas, but The
Seer always felt a bit incomplete,
a bit empty. The work was original,
it had the moments where perfect
instrumentation met Swans-like
intensity and produced perhaps
some of the best music of the new
decade. However, some moments
felt dragged out, inconclusive,
too long and too noisy, and many
other subtly negative adjectives
preceded by the word “too.”This
was a brilliant effort, but it always
felt like it could be improved.
On May 12, 2014 all of this and
then some more thankfully happened. Swans released their second full length LP: To Be Kind. The
sound of this album resembled
The Seer, but it felt fuller in every aspect. The drum fills were
amazing, distorted guitars were
complemented by everything from
trumpets to xylophones to bells to
dulcimers, and songs had amazing structures that went beyond
the “build up, explode, fade out”
nature of contemporary post rock.
What made To Be Kind an amazing album, however, was how all
of these were used as devices to
a greater experiment. It was the
first fully developed work of a
completely innovative approach
to music. Michael Gira, apart from
providing many instruments to
the record, gives one of the most
intense vocal performances on an
album. He sings, speaks, screams,
howls, chants and even barks to
complete all of these songs, which
is especially impressive considering vocals in today’s post rock are
a very rare occasion.
All of this, the originality and the
execution of To Be Kind, raises a
question: Is this the long awaited
third wave of post-rock? The genre,
which was born against the simple
structure of glam metal and punk
rock evolved into a search for minimalism and simplicity, but now
it might be the time for the circle
to complete itself. To Be Kind is an
expression of the frustrations the
great musicians of today have with
today’s music, yet only time can
tell how a record praised today can
turn itself into something greater
and more permanent.
“Swans” performing live
december 2014 Issue
January 2008 Issue
alt-J - This is All Yours
Baha Aydın
Nara is a flatland island in the
southern part of Japan and a place
of spiritual energy devoid of the
chaotic nature of the country’s
commerce-driven cityscape. Literally meaning flatland in kanji, one
of the Japanese writing systems
which adopted Chinese characters,
Nara is a beacon of Zen philosophy,
featuring eight still intact temples
and shrines, and it is on UNESCO’s
World Heritage Site list. It is only fitting for the Leeds originated band
alt-J to steer their artistic direction
toward a sense of orientalism in
Zen mantra. The intro’s arrangement of high-key back vocals and
ghostly vocals, accompanied by a
distinctly eastern sound of flutes
and strings, followed by yet another
intro,“Arrival in Nara,” and its soft,
acoustic sound immediately delivers alt-J’s standpoint.
Unfortunately, all these thematic
foundations are left behind on
paper, and the execution is an utter
mess of scattered ideas and halfcomplete approaches. The idea of
a “flatland album” with a spiritual
aspect crumbles across the board,
with the group’s failed attempts
to incorporate synth-beats, elitist
referencing, and even hipster-esque
efforts to stand-out and be witty.
“Hunger of the Pine” is the pinnacle
of the album’s failure, featuring a
senseless, repeated sample of Miley
“ Left to Right: Green, Newman, Unger-Hamilton”
their sophomore album. The band,
marketed as the “new Radiohead,”
has seen notable success and
favorable reviews with their debut
An Awesome Wave, which featured
references to not only notable
works of fiction relatively known
by the western audiences, namely
American Psycho (Bloodflood) ,
Léon (Matilda) , and Where the Wild
Things Are (Breezeblocks); but also
alluded to the Indo-China wars and
the tragic tale of the war photographer couple in the closer “Taro.”
Following the same pattern, alt-J
attempts to connect to the spiritual
aspects of Nara thematically and
tries to impress the audience lyrically in This is All Yours.
Audibly, however, the two albums
definitely differ when it comes
to their approach to sound and
technical delivery. Whereas the
first album had a focus on striking,
iconic moments in each and every
song, such as the beginning of
Fitzpleasure or the ending of Breezeblocks, this album focuses more
on the establishment of a laid-back
mood. It constructs the baseline
of the theme on the premise of a
journey--a journey to and from
Nara. Regarding the etymology of
the word Nara, the album itself is
a subversion of the band’s debut
of schizophrenic, chaotic sound;
This is All Yours as a whole is an
atmospheric flatland, set apart from
any chaos and embedded with a
Cyrus’ corny “I’m a female rebel” and
trying to couple it with the lines of
French poet Alfred de Musset from
his “L’espoir en Dieu”. In a similar
manner, the song that follows the
mysticism of Nara is a grotesque
call for sex, that doesn’t even come
close to the appreciation of the
mood the album initially was able
to set. The supplementary instrumentation is heavy, rather off-beat
and heavily off-theme. The band
attempts to return to its chaotic
roots, but falls quite short.
The fact that these two songs
were the initial singles released
for the promotion of the album
doesn’t help, either. The lack in
lyrical capabilities of the group is
evident, especially in “Every Other
Freckle.”“Yes, I’m gonna’ roll around
you /Like a cat rolls around sawdusted patios” raises not interest
or fascination, but only question
marks. Sure, the group has seen
success with internal references to
their sex jargon in Fitzpleasure, but
the main reason it worked was the
connection it had to the book Last
Exit to Brooklyn. In This is All Yours,
however, even the references and
allusions are seemingly out of place,
placed just to be placed, with the
hopes of repeating prior success. In
fact, there is no need to search for
musical or lyrical complexity where
there is admittedly none. Frontman
Joe Newman has stated that following complaints about “the first two
december 2014 Issue
singles not being catchy enough,”
the group went into the studio, and
wrote and recorded “Left Hand Free”
in just a day. Again, this song takes
the label “generic” to the next level
while contributing nothing to the
supposed theme of the album.
Perhaps the burden of failure
lies not on the band, but on the
reviewer, myself, for forcing my
viewpoint on the not-yet-proven
premise of the album being a flatland, and it is in fact the continuation of the chaotic nature of the
infamous triangle. However, if the
aim was to recreate the mood, the
sound and obviously the success of
An Awesome Wave, the album yet
again falls short of that aim as well.
Both lyrically and soundwise, the
album mostly lacks the key aspect
that allowed its precedent praise:
the striking, iconic moments. While
the album fails to create a thematic
flatland, it has also unfortunately
dropped the quintessence of the
debut, thereby missing a chance to
be on par with it.
There could be multiple reasons for
the overall lack of success on this
follow-up project, but I conclude
that it lies mainly on two factors that significantly altered the
creative process of the album in a
negative direction. Before anything
else, I should state that comparing the two albums of the group is
unjust, as the band that produced
An Awesome Wave is not the same
as the band who produced This is All
Yours. The departure of the guitar/
bass player and forming member
Gwil Sainsbury definitely changed a
few dynamics across the band. Given the conditions the group formed,
trying to play quietly in their dorms
and therefore forgoing natural bass
sounds and later using electronic
beats that later on formed the
familiar alt-J sound, Sainsbury
(along with Newman) was the
creative source for the band’s sound
and lyrics. His contributions on
the debut were exceptionally well
executed, most prominently his
innovative solo on “Taro,” a reversed
guitar track that could be replicated
live by playing with duct-tape! The
lack of his creative input seems to
have definitely hurt the band along
the way.
Building up on the establishment of
the “alt-J sound,” and the situation that indie music as a whole
is currently in right now, there is
also a factor of industrial pressure
that can’t be omitted from the
band’s narrative. The beginning of
the millennium was dominated by
Radiohead, yet now there is a void,
an uncertainty as to where exactly
the sound is going and how it will
evolve through the second decade.
Seeing as how alt-J has been the
go-to band when in search of something both witty and trippy, it filled
a gaping hole in the industry while
also being able to remain powerful
throughout its sound. Since 2010,
there still wasn’t a comparable act;
groups like Muse, Arcade Fire or
Arctic Monkeys, and even Mumford
& Sons are on so divergent lanes,
so that the aesthetics of alt-J are
unmatched. Therefore, as we
conclude this half of the century,
This is All Yours had to make an
impact. It had to be defining, a
paragon of the genre in a sense.
Perhaps this expectation drove the
band to attempt to reach out to all
these different stylistic elements,
trying to blend them all together
for a unifying theory of music; but it
resulted in not being able to handle
all the different threads and ripping
apart their loom.
The album wasn’t exactly devoid of
strengths or moments to appreciate. The album’s first firm, wellrounded piece, “Choice Kingdom,”
retains all of the delta-signed
band’s well praised qualities,
whether it’s the simple yet witty
lyrics, or instrumental arrangements that don’t take a heavy toll
on the mind, but instead allow you
to drift along with the song. These
qualities are again mirrored in the
song “Pusher,” showing that the
band was at least able to build on
their ability to write slower pieces,
a category that only had “Matilda”
as a successful example so far. The
dual vocals on “Warm Foothills”
work well and shows how adaptable Newman’s vocal range is. The
sion demonstrates the peak of the
group’s musical talent for creating
these build-ups, while guitar/bass
arrangements makes one forget the
departure of Sainsbury, taking the
throne of “Taro” as the band’s best
work so far.
Deserving a special mention here is
the sequel to the penultimate song
of the debut An Awesome Wave
and also the namesake of its title,
“Bloodflood” and now “Bloodflood
II.” The lyrical narrative of blood
heating up, suffocation, adrenaline,
knife fights and assassinations
reflect upon not just a simple story
but a universal truth that the flow
of life carries onward. The repeated
bird species Quela is a red, small
creature, the most common bird on
the planet, and it resembles just the
image of blood. Although they are
exterminated en masse, they tend
to populate even more, reflecting
the cycle of life and death. This
beautiful connection is taken a step
further with the return of Fitzpleasure’s great lyrics on Mandela boys
becoming Mandela men, and the
band delivers a great sequel to
an already powerful piece in their
discography.
Overall, it saddens me to say that
This is All Yours is an artistic failure
for the band. Will it cost them any
Album art of “This is All Yours”
duality of female and male vocals
has seen notable success in the past
few years, with its most prominent
example being the Icelandic folk
band Of Monsters & Men. Apart
from these achievements, the
album arguably features the band’s
best piece yet, “The Gospel of John
Hurt.” The song hits every item on
the checklist for the band: clever
lyricism, the build-up, the crescendos, and that “iconic moment.” A
biblical allusion to the ascended
Jeremiah, and the chest burst of
John Hurt, an Alien reference to
the same image of being able
to let go of one’s earthly tether,
connect way back to the ethereal
theme of the album. The percus-
BOSPHORUS CHRONICLE
reputation, fame or even money?
Probably not, as the album has so
many baits and hit-potential to
climb up the radio and billboard
charts. Nevertheless, the scattered
nature of the album is evident to
the naked ear, and the lack of this
“genius” factor in most of their
lyrics raises certain red flags. Surely,
the album hits certain points with
confidence and achieved success, but the overall lack of focus
concerns me for the future path the
band will take. Having their symbol
as the symbol of change, delta,
should mean something, and while
they have definitely changed in
four years, it is hard to say it was a
change for the good.
17
The Ringo Jets - The Ringo Jets
Baha Aydın
The Turkish rock and indie music
scene, at its best, is pretentious.
Apart from the groups that have
taken a pop oriented approach or
established themselves already,
the remaining bands are struggling
to either burst out of their shells to
find fame or they still haven’t found
the proper direction to head for.
Considering how hard it has become
for a band to form and hold on to
a fan base, the key factor to success lies with having a distinct yet
firm sound. Of all the aspiring Turkish bands, a modest trio has been
able to triumph above the rest in a
relatively short period of time. The
band that has opted to delve into
the refined rock sound, has written
and performed in English and has
managed to tour Europe over the
success of their self-titled debut is:
“The Ringo Jets”.
The Ringo Jets, who abridge themselves as TRJ, are very clear about
who they are: A Rock’n’Roll band.
The Turkish music scene was thrown
off-beat when an indie band called
“Buyuk Ev Ablukada” reached out
to massive audiences with heavily
metaphorical lyrics and an alterna-
Album art of “The Ringo Jets”
tive sound; as a result, most other
newly forming groups tried to imitate the Karakoy originated group.
This led to a period of stagnation
where fans have only seen a couple
of noteworthy bands that raced
along the same file as Buyuk Ev, yet
never managed to quite catch them.
The alternative/indie obsession took
over dramatically, and the pure
sound of rock and roll was veiled
under the prejudice that it wasn’t as
complex or clever as the alternative
genre. However, The Ringo Jets burst
right out of this shroud and have
shown that there are still things to
be done for the progression of the
Turkish music scene.
The album isn’t necessarily flawless
or original, though these facts don’t
prove to be problematic or create
a mundane feeling. The album at
times resembles the works of ZZ Top,
Guns and Roses, or Nirvana a bit too
closely, yet the modern approach is
definitely understandable and most
of the time, it simply works like
clockwork. The album is predictable,
sure, but there is nothing wrong in
the concept of expecting awesome
and receiving awesome. The songs
are short, constantly upbeat, high
tempo, high power, and directly
resemble the frenetic energy of the
seventies and eighties. The supposed “soul of the rock’n’roll” is obviously a myth, yet if there ever was
such a concept, this album most assuredly encapsulates it.
The band’s overall attitude and
stance is also noteworthy. The song
“Spring of War” is a clear allusion the
Left to Right: Deniz, Lale, Tarkan”
The Ringo Jets performing
Gezi Protests, and the music video
of the said song is a well-directed
satire that depicts the events prior
to and after the protests. “Shake
Your Hips” is a synthesis between
the stereotypically Anatolian 9/8
beat with Western new era music,
something only done by Massive Attack’s “Inertia Creeps” that reached
relevant success. The fact that the
band also opted to work with a local record store called Rainbow 45
in Kadıköy to get their album on LP
is also praiseworthy, as the group is
demonstrating exemplary behavior
for music as a whole to grow and
develop.
Of all the upcoming bands from Turkey, The Ringo Jets is definitely the
one to keep a close eye on. They are
archetypal yet unpredictable, predictable yet original, and they surely
have a firm and established stance.
They know who they are, they know
what they are doing, and so should
you.
Songs of Innocence: Remarkable Album or Industry Statement?
Kaan Ertaş
One morning on your way to school,
you may have found a strange album
amidst your music library, seemingly bought by you. You are not the
only one perplexed, as millions of
iTunes customers worldwide were
shocked to see an album by an 80’s
Irish rock band magically appear in
their iTunes library on a September
morning. This wasn’t just some accidental download, but more a controversial attempt to revolutionize
music industry.
The rock legends U2 teamed up with
the technology giant Apple, also
currently controversial with issues
regarding privacy, to release the
album “Songs of Innocence”, solely
18
digitally. Moreover, the album that
was automatically inserted to the
libraries of more than 500 million
iTunes customers was completely
free. The intention was that users,
who were to find a free album out
of nowhere, would gladly accept the
album as a gift. Bono, the frontman
to the group, stated in an interview
that he wanted to see artists’ reach
measured by how much they’re
listened to, by whatever medium
or method. The album’s placement
in personal iTunes accounts aimed
to show that the band’s aim was
not solely to generate revenues,
however, Bono later admitted that
the band was paid by Apple for the
album, adding, “I don’t believe in
free music. Music is a sacrament.” In
fact, the album was put on physical
release in CD and LP format on October 14th, 2014.
the pioneering action, Apple was
highly supportive of the cause. The
album, made available to half a
billion iTunes users globally, was
downloaded by 26 million users and
“experienced” by 81 million people,
Being the platform provider for
BOSPHORUS CHRONICLE
as phrased by the company press
release. The album was marketed
by the CEO Tim Cook as the largest
album release of all time. “It is great
to participate in something that is
music history,” he remarked.
Although done in good faith, not all
went to plan in this severely cynical
world we live in. Thus the album,
while regarded by some as an okay
and rather personable release by
the band after a 5-year absence,
The band’s promotional posters after the release of “Songs of Innocence”
december 2014 Issue
January 2008 Issue
was regarded as abysmal by many
and generated furious remarks all
over the social media. After receiving countless complaints from its
users, Apple had to release a removing tool for the album to retain customer satisfaction, even partially.
Customers who despised the album
or for some reason wanted no U2
songs in their library were provided
with a dedicated webpage providing step-by-step instructions. U2
answered complaints, emphasizing
the fact that a lot of work has been
put into the album, remaining unapologetic. Bassist Adam Clayton
said of the Twitter reviews: “It’s like
everyone’s vomiting whatever their
first impression is.”
The album is personal in content
and light in sound. Songs in the
tracklist reference certain incidents
and people that have had an effect
on band members. The opening
track for the album, “The Miracle
(Of Joey Ramone)”, also being the
song performed in the Apple event,
dates back to the failed attempt to
enter a Ramones concert and reveals
Bono’s vocal influence. “Iris (Hold Me
Close)” is about Bono’s mother, who
passed away when he was 14. “This
Is Where You Can Reach Me Now” is
a song dedicated to Joe Strummer,
an early influence in their political
approach to music. Simply put, the
album serves as an homage to musical influences and life changing
occurrences.
political issues as well throughout
his career. First glimpses of this activist spirit can be seen through the
band’s record “War”which was released in 1982.
It is a shared interest in music and
a way of the company thanking the
customers that encouraged Apple to
host such an event. Furthermore, U2
has signaled future collaborations
with Apple for the purpose of innovating the way music is listened to
and viewed. These sorts of missions
are not new to the band, as Bono
has been known to be a political
activist and has been involved with
No action is influential if not controversial in the first place. The release
of “Songs of Innocence” was surely
controversial. After all, a major
backlash is how all actions for the
better are received in their debut.
The music industry has yet to see the
impact but as things stand now, the
album is a gift to all music-lovers
and a potential game-changer in its
respected field.
The band is anticipating the release of an upcoming companion
album, “Songs of Experience”, but
the release method or Apple’s collaborative essence to the successor
is unbeknownst to the media. As the
name suggests, this album will most
probably contain the heavier tunes
among the two.
Album art of “Songs of Innocence”
100% Fest: Soundgarden and Massive Attack
Esin Gezer
On 6-7 June, just before summer
break, two big bands came to Turkey. It was a very exciting event for
people who seek grunge, alternative and indie rock. The Seattle band
“Soundgarden” and the band I feel
‘unfinished sympathy’ for: “Massive
Attack” played to a sell-out crowd.
It was the best concert I’ve been to
recently. The festival area had an
alluring spirit: It was two days of
nonstop excellent music. On the first
day, Soundgarden gave an unforgettable performance on stage. Despite
his old age, the frontman, Chris Cornell, sang all the songs like they had
been recorded in a studio. “Spoon-
man” and “Superunknown” were
perhaps the favorite songs of the
concert. To tell you the truth, rock
lovers missed a lot by not coming to
this concert and they will regret it.
Soundgarden played most of its
well-known songs from the great album Superunknown and the setlist
choice was inspiring. However, it
seemed that I did not have the same
experience as the audience. Except
for the song “Black Hole Sun”, the
audience didn’t have the spirit of
a concert crowd, but even though
they may have looked bored, the
band maintaıned their energy.
Above all, Cornell was very sincere
to his Turkish audience. He was not
like the dull and impersonal singers
who just go up to the stage and sing.
He chatted with his fans in between
two songs and proved that he is not
like the others. Everyone hopes to
december 2014 Issue
see them in Turkey again with a better audience in the following years.
The other band that performed in
the “100% FEST” and honored their
fans was Massive Attack. There were
some technical problems, and it was
challenging for them to keep the
pace with the atmosphere because
of the lack of sound in the first three
songs. After they fixed the amplifier,
however, everything improved. Like
most of the audience, I didn’t want
them to stop playing and could have
stayed all night, but they left the
stage without playing “Karmacoma”
which was somewhat disappointing.
screens. In my opinion, it was a bit
unnecessary and pretentious. Just
because a band lives at the other
end of the world, they shouldn’t
protest about our country without
really knowing the details of it. I
think the band should not have used
The surprise of the day was in the
songs “Inertia Creeps” and “Splitting The Atom”. While the band sang
them, the names of the people who
died during the Gezi Parkı protest
and Soma were displayed on the
BOSPHORUS CHRONICLE
these protests as a part of the performance.
Overall, it was a phenomenal concert by two talented bands, who
showed Turkish audiences that they
may be getting older, but they can
still rock.
Soundgarden on stage
19
Harry Potter Themed Freeboard
Tuvana Kankallı
M. Miraç
Süzgün
Let’s welcome freedom of speech,
the superiority of imagination, and
the mystery of the most unanswerable questions! For those who have
not yet heard of it, or do not remember what it is, Freeboard is a Bosphorus Chronicle tradition where
everyone has the chance to express
their thoughts, free their imagination, and be heard! In this most unlimitedly creative corner of BC, you
can dig into the deepest thoughts
of your imaginative subconscious
without having your motives or
ideas questioned or restricted.
Here’s how it works: for a couple of
weeks, we go around asking people
selected questions for the issue, and
the most extraordinary responses
we get are published in this corner.
Starting with this issue, we decided
to focus on a different theme on
which to base our questions. Let’s
see what members of the Robert
College community have to say
about one of the 21st century’s
most popular book and film series
that several generations were raised
with: Harry Potter. Even if you are
one of the people who hasn’t read
or watched the series, Bosphorus
Chronicle assures you that you will
enjoy each one of these ludicrous
answers.
If you had an invisibility cloak,
where would you go and why?
Merril Hope-Brown: Sit in Deniz
Baysal’s music lessons and make
rude noises.
Ferhat Karademir (RC’16): Gym during the finals. Helping people cheat,
or causing some distraction.
Andrew LaRaia: I would go to places
that I wasn’t supposed to go.
Justin Christensen: Sorry but I
haven’t read or watched the Harry
Potter series.
(Students at the Writing Center: Really, Mr. Christensen?
Justin Christensen: Yes, I mean I
haven’t seen the books or the movies;
but years ago, my brother had a girlfriend and we used to call her Harry
Potter since she was wearing round
Harry Potterish glasses... Anyways,
who told you I had an invisibility
cloak?!)
Umutcan Gölbaşı (RC’15): Where
any teenage boy in his right mind
would. The candy store.
Reagan Light: That’s dangerous.
The person who has it would probably go eavesdropping and people
wouldn’t even know they were being watched.
Tayfun Gür (RC’16): I’d get into the
cafeteria without waiting in line of
course.
Aslı Erkan (RC’19): I would go into
the Teachers’ Lounge.
Whom would you give it to if you
had a chance to give your Marauder’s map?
Merril Hope-Brown: Anyone in the
Arts Department so I don’t have to
go into my classes and they could
cover for me. Preferably Deniz Baysal.
Margaret Halıcıoğlu: I would keep it
for myself.
Emre Fırat: I would give it to my wife
so that she would know where I am
all the times and understand when I
am coming to home, etc.
Cem Nesiri (RC’19): I would give it
to Ms. Halıcıoğlu so that she can see
where everyone is.
Ferhat Karademir (RC’16): Gym
during the finals. Helping people
cheat,or causing some distraction.
Andrew LaRaia: I’d give it to anyone
who is overly obsessed with Harry
Potter for them to find their way to
better books.
Umutcan Gölbaşı (RC’15): Turkish
politicians.
Aslı Erkan (RC’19): The staff members who has the keys to unlock the
lockers.
Justin Christensen: Definitely not to
the person who told you I had an invisibility cloak.
Reagan Light: I would keep it for
myself.
Tayfun Gür (RC’16): I would sell it to
Ms. Halıcıoğlu at a reasonable price.
If you had a chance to use Avada
Kedavra (The Killing Curse), who
would you use it on? Why?
Merril Hope-Brown: Minister Cornelius Fudge. But in real life I don’t
think you should publish who I’d
choose.
Margaret Halıcıoğlu: I wouldn’t kill
anyone.
Ferhat Karademir (RC’16):I don’t
think I’d need magic to kill people.
“Magic don’t kill people, people kill
people.”
Andrew LaRaia: I’d only use in on
someone to save many lives.
Justin Christensen: I’m not violent.
Reagan Light: I would use the Killing
Curse on the students who do not do
Preps Answering Our Questions
20
BOSPHORUS CHRONICLE
their homework.
Zeynep Nur Sözer (RC’19): Bellatrix
Lestrange.
Which course would you take if Robert College had a similar education
system to Hogwarts’?
Merril Hope-Brown: Dark Arts
course.
Andrew LaRaia: “How to Win
Friends” and “Influence People” by
Lenny Bruce.
Emre Fırat: Magical Creatures.
Aslı Erkan (RC’19): Potions.
Ferhat Karademir (RC’16): Whichever Mr. Gee was teaching.
Margaret Halıcıoğlu: The idea of
levitation intrigues me, so I would
take Dark Arts.
Zeynep Nur Sözer (RC’19): Transfigurations since it’s an useful skill during a battle.
Who would you choose to marry?
Ron or Harry? Why?
Merril Hope-Brown: I’d choose Harry-because Ron is annoying.
Tayfun Gür (RC’16): Why not marry
both? İmam nikahı with Ron, state
marriage with Harry. After all, one is
the kind of boy to have fun with, the
other is the kind to marry.
Andrew LaRaia: Can I marry Hermione?
Zeynep Nur Sözer (RC’19): Ron, because Weasley is our king.
Aslı Erkan (RC’19): Harry, because
Ron is naive.
Emre Fırat: Ron because Harry is
a more dominant character; so I
wouldn’t get along with Harry in a
long term relationship.
Cem Nesiri (RC’19): Ron, because
he’s taller and is a ginger.
Umutcan Gölbaşı (RC’15): Ron —
we’d have ginger babies. Harry is
more like someone you’d have fun
with. Also, “put a ring on Ron” has a
ring to it.
Reagan Light: Ron is more of a goofball whereas Harry is the rockstar.
I’d choose Ron since he’s just a good
natured person and crazy.
Ferhat Karademir (RC’16): Of course
Harry. Who on earth would marry
Ron?
If you would given a chance to
change only one thing in the series,
what would it be?
Merril Hope-Brown: I’d make the
last book of the series less dark since
it’s very dark for children.
Andrew LaRaia: I’d make it about a
little rock band from down under
with a lot of heart and a lead guitarist in a little boys school uniform
who left the world thunderstruck.
Margaret Halıcıoğlu: I would add
more female characters who are influential and powerful. The series is
mostly male focused.
Emre Fırat: I would kill Harry because he shared a part of his soul
with Voldemort and when he died,
Harry should have died too.
Aslı Erkan (RC’19): Harrys’ parents
would have resurrected.
Cem Nesiri (RC’19): I would have
killed Harry Potter or the whole cast.
Reagan Light: Death of Fred Weasley
was very sad because the idea of a
twin left alone is devastating.
Umutcan Gölbaşı (RC’15): Give Harry
a gun and Voldemort a nose.
Ferhat Karademir (RC’16): Add a
character with a mohawk. Punkwizards would be the new trend.
Emre Fırat Holding His Magic Wand
December
2009 Issue
december 2014

Bosphorus Chronıcle

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