çok awesome

I am just going to quote this entire brief news report (via KS's facebook) because it needs to be enjoyed in its totality:

A mishap Thursday caused some mosques in the Black Sea province of Trabzon to broadcast a love song instead of the call to prayer for the noon prayers.

According to reports, all mosques are connected to a central system from which the call to prayer is broadcast to all mosques. On Thursday at noon, the people of Trabzon were greeted by Geçtiğim dikenli aşk yollarında, elimden bir kırık saz geldi geçti (On the thorny roads of love I tread, I got hold of a broken saz), sung by Zeki Müren, a highly respected Turkish singer, composer and poet who died in 1996. While he dressed effeminately, wearing large, ornate rings and heavy make-up, especially in the later years of his life, he never confirmed or denied the public rumors that he was gay.

According to reports, Müren's song was heard for three minutes, before the call to prayer began.

Officials from the Trabzon mufti's office said the mishap occurred due to a technical problem.

God, I miss Turkey.

(nb: While the style of Turkish classical music that Zeki Müren performed doesn't do much for me, his work is wildly popular, and he was widely embraced as a national treasure in his lifetime. If he lived in Brooklyn today he'd probably be referred to as genderqueer, but I just sort of think of him as sui generis. This 1984 clip is a pretty remarkable example.)