Istanbul, Turkey Jilted by YouTube, Lost in Turkey

Landed in Istanbul at midnight. Luggage went missing en route. My hard drive with all the raw dancing footage is either in Chicago or London. After 24 hours, the baggage folks in Istanbul have no idea.

Got to the hotel, met Patrik and Jonas, the Swedish commercial guys.

The hotel is fancy and luxurious and there is an enormous transvestite who stands at the corner outside. So there’s that.

Went to bed by 1am. Up at 5am to catch a flight down to Fethiye on the southern coast for a day of bad dancing.

The landing was aborted due to freakish winds that threatened to flip the plane on its side. Esra, our production assistant and translator, made use of the vomit bag.

Instead of landing at Fethiye (in Turkish: "land of the fused eyebrow"), the pilot took us to a safer airstrip in Antalya ("land of the very old ringtones"), three hours away by car. We hired a guy to drive us back, but not before stopping at a local strip mall to re-clothe me. Having no luggage, I'd been wearing the same clothes for about 60 hours. I put together a crude approximation of my dancing uniform, by way of Billabong and Quiksilver.

…at least I didn’t smell so bad.

We drove all afternoon, stopping to set up in front of random patches of the stark Turkish countryside. I danced with a goat. I danced on a boat.

It was cold and rainy and I was tired.

We got to Fethiye with some daylight left. I danced in a set of ancient tombs carved into a mountainside.

There was slippery climbing required, but Patrik and Jonas are experienced mountaineers – must be a Swedish thing – and they helped me up.

By dinner time, whatever auxiliary fuel I was running on ran out. In the lead-up to this trip, I've had a lot of late nights making preparations for the imminent start of the new video. Most of the sleep I've gotten has been in short patches of a couple hours. It finally caught up and I was a corpse on the flight back to Istanbul.

Tomorrow is the big event; a dance with 50 Turkish men on a rooftop overlooking the Hagia Sophia. It’s an odd change being strictly a performer on this Swedish TV commercial thing. I don’t have to plan or orchestrate anything – I just dance where they tell me. It’s been my own weird little personal hobby for so long, I hadn’t considered what it would be like to hand that over. It’s kind of nice, actually. Not for one of my own videos, mind you, but for this side project, it’s okay.

The voting just closed on the YouTube awards. The dancing video was nominated for "Most Creative Video." I was mildly flattered and intrigued when I heard about it a week ago. Then when I learned I was ranking second in the voting, I got a wee bit more interested.

...okay, I’ll cop to checking the polls every chance I got. And I was deliriously happy when the video jumped up to the top spot for a few days. But it dropped back down the day before the voting closed – which was about an hour ago – and I’m pretty sure the award went to Ok Go for their treadmill video.

If it hadn’t been so close, I wouldn’t be disappointed. But seeing it at the top got me excited. The awards are being given out in New York on Monday, and it would’ve been neat to meet the AskaNinja guys, Terra Naomi, and the world’s most adorable puppy.

It also would’ve been neat to kick the Free Hugs guy in the balls.

…man, that guy really needs to get kicked in the balls.

But when I step back a bit – I mean, empirically speaking – the Ok Go video was amazing. The category is called “Most Creative,” and there’s no way I can compete on those terms. As far as that adjective is concerned, there’s no contest. The victory was just. If the category had been "Most Frequent Flyer Miles Earned," then it would be a different story.

So I was down for a bit. But then I remembered the whole awards concept is totally arbitrary and meaningless and I felt a little better.

In fact, I’ll say I’m completely content if the Ok Go guys would go ahead and kick Free Hugs guy in the balls for me.

Comments

[Stephan]

Hey Matt, care to elaborate on kicking in the nuts of the Free Hugs guy?

Glad you're enjoying yourself anyway :p

[James]

What would you have asked the ninja?

[Berna]

Such an interesting coincidence for my regular boring life!
I learned about you, and your video just half an hour ago.."Such great experiences, a great video, what a brave person" i thought. "Hmm, let's check the pwrsonal website, too." The site opens:Shock shock shock!!" What? Is he in Istanbul??Is he here? I should definitely invite him to my university(Koc University), he should share the things he lived during his trips with us, in a conference or something"...But the excitement did not last long, "he already left here, damn"
Anyways, I think you are living in the dreams of millions of people, Matt.

I hope you will have fun in my country.

[Jeff]

Hey Matt. So did ya get your luggage back yet or still waiting on that? Glad to see that someone else things the Free Hug guy should be booted lol. Keep up the good work and excited to see the commercial.
Take care,
Jeff

[Daniel]

Ná, your video is more like a Cannes thing...

[Daniel]

PS: use your Canon, not the crappy Motorola.

[Rich]

I wonder how many people will understand that kicking the "Free Hugs" guy in the nuts is a joke?

Anyway, now that you can get 4GB zip drive cards for a song have you thought about backing up your stuff and carrying that little zip drive in a separate place? I know that's not really how you operate, but maybe it would be worth your while? You never did get that lost footage back from when your laptop was stolen, did you?

All the best,

Rich

[Amy]

It's a shame yours wasn't under Most Inspirational, because it is!

I signed up for your dance tour 2007! Come up to the Okanagan. We have wine :D

You have inspired me, I'll be watching your blog. i need to travel more. And do goofy stuff.

[durali]

Hey man, I wish I could do it.. Anyway, I am from istanbul and i wish all the best for you. HAve a nice trips and of course, enjoy this beautiful country...Turkey, and of course, Istanbul, where east and west meet here.

[Mitch]

Meh, I got sick of the Ok Go video after seeing it two or three times. Yours stays fresh.

Oh yeah, it's awesome to see that you're travelling again!

[Katie]

you provide me with great procrastination material. and i thank you, oh so much, for that. hope you meet me in Uruguay this summer!

[megu]

Turkey is a great country to visit. It would take more than a year if you ever wanted to see all the historical places from east to west.

I'm glad you've seen some of it.

Did you know that Turkey has the only country that has mosque, church and synagogue all together in the same square?

[Matt Fullerton]

What Notre Dame is really like:

It took me a while to feel better about myself because of the initial shock over all this. This isn't my fault, and I refuse to be a victim. The truth is that there is a problem with the students, not me. To put this together, takes an unbelievable amount of time, energy and resources. The only reason why was boredom. I once was quoted as saying that going there was like death. I stand by that. There's nothing to do, the education is brutal and you don't get rewarded as much as you think you do unless you are lucky. It's true. You hated the fact that I was happy with myself and I was a public school boy who had a personality. That was the reason why I choose to hang out with the non notre dame students. I couldn't stand talking to most of you because it was talking to a brick wall. Let's be honest. Everyone was stunned that I left today, but why? It's barely a top twenty school, and everyone knows it. It's not good enough to be ivy league and it never will be. In fact, Northern has just as good as an accounting program with the benefit of having interesting people. If you look at the cost benefit analysis, you would have to be nuts to go to Notre Dame, and I think that's part of the problem. It's overrated. Just like the football team. It's a myth. If you ask anyone how great it is to be there, they say it's the best four years of their lives, which is sad. They simply don't know any better. I'm the one who is stunned that you people can't see this. You should be embarassed, but no one will talk about it because it means that all those years of going to the right schools was for nothing. The worst part of it is that your kids will probably go there too.

Dana Gates was overrated as well and everyone knows it. She had to hide behind a myth, so I would be interested in her. It's true and everyone knows that. What kind of guy would let his girlfriend obessive over another man, not a sane one. If she was so great, why not just go tell me to my face. The problem was that she didn't have anything to offer. Congratulations, there is more to life than just cheap sex. However, if you don't know any better than maybe you think that.

Cheap sex is one example of how people are nuts there. Let's talk about the practice of visiting other guys at night. Visiting is a practice that isn't spoken where the older guys mock homosexually rape the young guys when they first get in the dorms. I don't even have to say that is wrong.

I'm done thinking about this, and I am done dealing with. At the end of the day, because it costs so much to get in, no one wants to admit it, but the school is overrated. That's why I left.

[jdhosky]

OK, no dancing scenes at Notre Dame then.

[maria]

And when are you coming to Spain?? xDDD you have to visit so many countries still :X Go to Andalucia!!!! we´ll be waiting for you!! XD

[Marky Mark]

Hey Matt!

I envey your travels! I just returned last month from a 30 day safari tour from Johannesburg to Nairobi. I came across your 'Dancing' video when I saw you were dancing on Dune 45 in Sossusvlei, Namibia, such an awesome sunrise there isn't it?

I hope you can fit Zanzibar into your new trip, it is such an incredible island archepelago. Go to Nungwi at the northern tip if you can.

Best Regards,

Mark

[Terry]

Matt, are you gay?

[ShushKebab]

Ever thought of a trip to Hong Kong?

[Candace Kowal]

You had my vote Matt!

And I still can't believe you got beat by treadmills.

Pretty much my friends and I are astonished [in the worst way] by this.

I'm really happy to be reading your travels and adventures for the third video in a row!

Take care of yourself Matt!!!

Best of luck to you buddy!

[Rogério]

text in English

Hi, my name is Rogério and lives, in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil... being that I saw its video in youtube and liked very and stow thinking if you ja had the idea to be in Brazil and to film varios famous places as: Beach of Copacabana, Christ Redentor, Bread of Açucar etc. It is the said idea well ok I hug.

============================================================

texto em Português

ola, meu nome é Rogério e moro no Rio de Janeiro, Brasil... sendo que eu vi seu video no youtube e gostei muito e estive pensando se você ja teve a idéia de estar no brasil e filmar varios lugares famosos como : Praia de Copacabana, Cristo Redentor, Pão de Açucar etc.

Bem fica a idéia dita

ok

abraço.

[Caitlin Hill]

Why do you want the free hugs guy to get kicked in the balls?
He's a fellow aussie mate, I don't want to have to tackle ya to protect him : P
I'm just joking of course...kick as much as you want...but why???

Caitlin

[Nuria]

Hi Matt!

I’m green with envy! I want to travel around the world like you but my house mortgage does not let me go :-(

Enjoy your travel and remember visit Spain (Madrid, Toledo, Sevilla and Santiago de Compostela to be precise) :-D

Best regards!

Nuria.

[mara]

congrats! when ull come to croatia and dance on walls of dubrovnik?

[Bud]

Matt,

Just leaving a comment to say that so far the new design of the site looks great. It seems that a lot of it is still in the works and getting tweaked here and there, but overall, it looks awesome and the whole early 20th century explorer theme really works well together. Nice job to you and whoever else has been working on it.

Safe travels,
Bud

[Michael]

Baggage lost in London? That's standard not exceptional (my balance: four flights via London, twice baggage got lost)

Michael

[Janet]

Like the new web design....

[Mitch]

Hey, new layout! I like the background, but miss the old photo montage at the top.

[Gabi]

Hi! I liked your video better than the Go thing... I think you shouldn´t agree that the other guys were more creative. It was a close thing, I think your as much a winner as the other guys. I am not used to click alleatory for videos in You Tube, but your video called my attention and I saw it many times. It´s happy. It makes us feel good. I hope you´re enjoying the new trip... Update this journal so that we can get news about you. Hugs.

[Tyler]

Any interest in doing this in a Comfy Sack? I need some creative advertising and I have a bad ass product that fits your video gaming image. Let me know.

[Trip]

I voted for your video, Matt!

Hope you are having some fun.

[jason]

Bla Bla. This is getting old.