Raathi Chota

In her latest novel, Turkey’s preeminent female writer spins an epic tale spanning nearly a century in the life of the Ottoman Empire. In 1540, twelve-year-old Jahan arrives in Istanbul. As an animal tamer in the sultan’s menagerie, he looks after the exceptionally smart elephant Chota and befriends (and falls for) the sultan’s beautiful daughter, Princess Mihrimah.

Nella Istanbul del XVI secolo, in un caleidoscopio di personaggi storici e immaginari, Jahan è un mahout bugiardo e opportunista, un ragazzino scaltro di origini oscure. Arrivato via nave nella città delle sette colline per accompagnare Chota, l'elefante bianco che lo Scià dell'Hindustan ha mandato in dono al Sultano Suleiman, la sua vita dovrebbe restare confinata nel serraglio, fra tigri, leoni, gazzelle e giraffe. Jahan dovrebbe rimanere per sempre relegato al rango di servitore privilegiato, dedito alle cure di Chota, il pachiderma che adorna con la sua stravaganza lo zoo privato del palazzo reale. E invece il caso lo conduce ad attirare l'attenzione di Sinan, il Capo architetto reale, che ne fa uno dei suoi apprendisti.

Acclaimed as a “creative force,” cellist and composer Chris Votek, who is one of LA’s most in demand studio artists and composers, is celebrating the release of Memories of a Shadow, on MicroFest Records, with a concert on March 5 at the Pico Union Project.

Cheap, disposable, often with poor audio quality but with great visuals, flexi discs were vinyl’s poorer cousin in the pre-digital age. Given away with magazines or sent out by advertisers, they were a splashy way of getting your message heard. Pressed onto laminated card or thin, wobbly plastic, these discs extolled the virtues of washing powders, beers, and banks. Specially commissioned tunes took as their unlikely subjects shoe shops, bakers, and even dentists. This book brings together over 150 images of the most remarkable British flexi discs from the 1950s to the early 1990s, chronicling the varied and sometimes bizarre uses of these flimsy records, and the result is a fascinating archive of post-war design and advertising ingenuity.