an evening at cafe istanbul

One of the fireplaces in the house actually WORKS and yesterday we had the chimney sweeper come in to prepare the fireplace for the season. (I expected more of a Mary Poppins experience and was sadly disappointed at the mundane process.) Once he left, Wilson immediately got some logs from out back and lit a fire. It was gorgeous! And what did I do? I sat directly in front of it and.... ate ice cream. Yep. Enigma, I tell you!

In the evening, I got together with my friend Jeff. We grabbed some pizza at Spak Brothers, which is a small pizza joint in Bloomfield that specializes in vegetarian pizza. You know, they carry the fake meats and all that jazz. :-) So we had an onion, green pepper, veggie pepperoni pizza and drank local Red Ribbon soda.




We may have also gotten our nerd on and played pinball. Oh yeah. One of the flippers kept jamming and messing up our style. But it was totally fun.


Then, we went to Larryville (Lawrenceville) to Cafe Istanbul to see an instrumental progressive psychedelic band from NYC called Consider the Source. I'd never heard of them before, but Jeff said they were pretty cool. They just finished a tour through Israel and Istanbul, hence their appearance at Cafe Istanbul. I'd also never been to this cafe before, and I was completely *swooned* by the traditional Turkish venue. Just look at this place!



I kept saying to Jeff, "Can I just move in here?" Look at the gorgeous material, the triangle pillows, the wooden tables...



No such thing as chairs in this place. Everyone sat on stools or pillows to watch the band play. Consider the Source is pretty awesome, by the way. I'm not used to listening to instrumental bands, but I found it really helped me appreciate the artistry of the music. They have a fantastic way of manipulating sounds and making it sound like more than a three person band. You could also see the passion move through their body and express itself through their face as they placed. The mark of a true musician, for sure.



Evidence of an evening well spent. We split the bottle and it was gone by half way through the concert. Bully Hill's "Love Goat." A bit sweeter of a red than I normally like, but still good!



Could not get enough of the venue. I loved the combination of the different prints and colors. The blues, red, and golds gave such a royal atmosphere and I kind of felt like some sort of indie Turkish royalty sitting there. *smile*

Hand stamp approved! And a sweet detail of one of the prints.

I can't forget to show you the wall!