*August is by far the busiest month in Bodrum so small wonder that a virtual tsunami of art happenings is on the agenda. On Tuesday 12 Aug. an ensemble famous in the past, the group Boney M, will perform in the Bodrum Antique Amphitheater, to be followed in the same venue by Sertab Erener & Fahir Atakoğlu (15 Aug.) and Yalin (16 Aug.) – the latter are Turkish entertainers well-worth seeing. *August 15^th marks the opening performance of the 6^th Bodrum International Ballet Festival with the staging of Carmina Burana by the Turkish State Opera & Ballet Company in the Bodrum Castle. *Also on Aug. 15 a long-resident local painter, Tülin Bingöl, opens her exhibition (together with daughter Sibel) at the Gümüşlük Municipal Art Gallery (inset: by Tülin). *Want to know what Bodrum looked like of old? Don’t miss the photo exhibit (15-31 Aug.) compiled by the Bodrum Ajans Publishing Group in the forecourt of the Bodrum Castle. *The Cashmere Lounge (across from Bodrum Marina) hosts an exhibition by Ilham Evrenoglu (14-24 Aug), while Trança Art Gallery (on Cumhuriyet Str.) features art by Murat Tolga. *The Marmara Bodrum Hotel hosts an exhibition by Remzi Iren and Hikmet Cetinkaya (ethnographic subjects and poppies, respectively), while *Kempinski Hotel Bodrum exhibits a painting exhibition on the theme of “Sea & Dance” by Gülçin Anil.

**While celebs of the entertainment industry continue to favor their old stomping grounds of Türkbükü where they can be glimpsed readily, political VIPs seem to flock to the Rixos Hotel in privacy. That’s where Syrian President Bashar Assad stayed before paparazzi photos published in Syria reportedly caused him to beat a premature retreat. The Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, also a guest in Rixos, was a paparazzi lens target too, even though the PM’s villa is enveloped in gauze, but Turkish President Gül managed to evade reporters by going on a Blue Cruise sailing gulet.

***How many times can the wheel be invented or America discovered? For years various studies have analyzed Bodrum’s needs for the future, the most exhaustive being the Bodrum Habitat symposium. Now a Group of 12 individuals determined that 1) touts bothering tourists, 2) a culture/art camp for youth and 3) a Bodrum language school are three projects for which application for funding should be made to the EU. Really?!?!