Levent - ProfilesArchive

About Me

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Who or What is Levent?

I make my living as the web design and development manager for a ski holdings company, designing web sites for ski mountains and terrain parks. I also run my own little web design shop. It's called Up With It , named after Miles Davis's last album from the 70's, before he lost it (physically, musically, and mentally).

The site is also the defacto new home to my radio show. Shhhh. Peaceful. I've finally created a separate site for this - check it out right here. Take a listen and let me know what you think.

I live in Troy, NY, with my beautiful girlfriend. I am a brother and an uncle. I am also a musician. Click here to download an mp3 of a song I wrote, recorded, and played the instruments on. If you like it, please let me know. There's LOTS more.

My Interests

Music:

Music /////////
Music is a very important part of my life. My tastes run far and wide. These days I have been listening to a lot of jazz and soul. They finally remastered the Sly and the Family Stone catalog. Fresh! That and lots of music by and/or featuring empowered, angry black women. When I get sick of all my music I listen to the most impenetrable, borderline unlistenable Miles Davis shit from 1970 to 1974. That tends to reset everything.

Movies:

Film /////////
I like movies. I'll defer to D. Fagen and W. Becker for a description of my thoughts on film:

"That's right. Eisenstein, Renoir, Rene Clair, Bunuel, Kurosawa, Fellini, Godard, Tarkovsky, Ophuls the Elder, Blake Edwards, Ophuls the Younger, you name it. Sat there, dug it. "

Couldn't have said it better myself. Add to that list these bad boys: Bernardo Bertolucci, Wong Kar-Wai, Martin Scorsese, Jim Jarmusch, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Terry Gilliam, Wim Wenders, Spike Lee, Stan Brakhage (my professor at CU), Robert Altman, Godfrey Reggio, the Brothers Quay, Jan Svankmajer, Nicolas Roeg, PT Anderson, Spike Jonze, Michel Gondry, Stanley Kubrick, The Coen Brothers, Terence Malick, and it goes on and on.

Books:

Quality Lit /////////
Henry Miller is probably my favorite writer. Here are my other favorites: Vladimir Nabokov, Thomas Pynchon, Paul Bowles, Rick Moody, Yukio Mishima, Haruki Murakami, Martin Amis, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, JD Salinger, Peter Handke, Roald Dahl, John Barth, Orhan Pamuk. I love the New Yorker magazine, and Wax Poetics is the shit.

My Blog

Superbad!

Man, I absolutely loved it. Go see it - it's a classic.
Posted by Levent on Sun, 19 Aug 2007 07:09:00 PST

Say a word for Bergman and Antonioni...

Wow, two of the greats now gone. I feel like a bastard for thinking Antonioni had already departed...I was always more of a Persona guy than a Wild Strawberries guy...and always preferred L'Avve...
Posted by Levent on Tue, 31 Jul 2007 10:18:00 PST

Erowid

Erowid has, for me, long been a somewhat sobering resource on the subject of legal and illegal psychoactive chemicals. If you're planning on experimenting, I highly recommend consulting it....
Posted by Levent on Thu, 28 Jun 2007 05:09:00 PST

Not Coming to a Theater Near You

Seeking out some reviews in an effort to find closure after seeing "Sweet Movie" (by far the most disgusting movie I've ever seen, and I'm actively trying to figure out how to UNsee it...any suggestio...
Posted by Levent on Sun, 24 Jun 2007 06:43:00 PST

The Films of Alejandro Jodorowsky

So Alejandro Jodorowsky and old school music thug Allen Klein finally buried the hatchet. Their long-standing feud has, until now, held up the commercial release of Jodorowsky's surreal masterpi...
Posted by Levent on Sun, 20 May 2007 08:30:00 PST

Trapped in the Closet

I was in Florida when I first heard R. Kelly's amazing Trapped in the Closet on the radio - the whole god damn thing! Here's a video of R. Kelly himself, sitting and marvelling at his creation.&...
Posted by Levent on Sun, 13 May 2007 06:16:00 PST

Buddha Machine

I finally received my FM3 Buddha Machine in the mail yesterday. It's a cheap looking little plastic box, maybe 2 x 3 inches, with a small speaker, headphone jack, power/volume dial, and a button...
Posted by Levent on Tue, 08 May 2007 09:01:00 PST

The Holy Mountain

If you're in NYC and a fan of bizarre films, do yourself a favor and go see one of the most imaginative, bizarre films I've ever seen - "The Holy Mountain." It's playing at the IFC.
Posted by Levent on Wed, 18 Apr 2007 01:17:00 PST

Neu Musik!

Straight from Germany, suckas! I just received 2 very nice cds from Sonar Kollektiv. Thief's Sunchild, a long awaited and overdue acoustic/electronic project from Jazzanova offshoot Extend...
Posted by Levent on Wed, 11 Apr 2007 07:33:00 PST

The Rain Song

Led Zeppelin's Rain Song still kills me...every...time...I...hear...it.
Posted by Levent on Thu, 05 Apr 2007 06:23:00 PST