Istanbul #3

The muzzein wakes us at 5:15. The call is almost irresistible. I want to climb to the blue mosque, to see if that prayer would change my life. Armand (spelled Armagan) resists it well enough.

After the tour and the gigantic expenditure, met Armand for drinks at a place called Sofa. A French girl named Estelle rounded out the group. Estelle is studying ethno-musicology and will visit some important Turkish musicologist today. Her English was uncertain, but she was charming, and, I thought, brave to be out and about on her own, accepting invitations from likes of Armand. One of the waiters at Sofa is handsome Adam (spelled Adem) , who is a stage star looking for a stage. He laments the lack of interest in Istanbul for live theater. He had an invitation from Michael Mayer, the American director, to take a role in Smash. I forget now why he was unable to accept. Armand failed at getting a visa for the US because he is unwed and unpropertied; maybe Adam ran into the same problem. I told Adam to start his own theater and MAKE Istanbul rejoice in it. We are to meet tomorrow and talk about it all. He showed me a photo of himself done up for a role, and he looked like GQ’s version of Ghengis Khan. The muzzein wakes me a little early for my trip to Troy, but it allows me to bring the record up to date.