On the first of July, I posted a picture on Instagram of myself atop a giant rock on our Lycian hike, with the caption: “Bring it on, July. I’m ready for you.”
July, I was wrong. I was not ready for you.
The first half of the month was regular summer bliss; the second half felt like a completely different world.
Best Of The Month
July started out so well, with joyful July 4th BBQs, summer dinners with close friends, and my cousin’s weeklong visit. We jetted to Kabak and Pamukkale for a long weekend (which, honestly, is barely enough time to visit both places), saw an amazing concert at an old shoe factory up the Bosphorus, and ate our way through the city. She left the morning of July 15.
Worst Of The Month
The night of July 15th is when everything went to hell.
Pre-coup and post-coup feel like two completely different emotional worlds. I was supposed to go on a day-long urban hike with a friend on the 16th, and he’s the one who called me to wake me up and tell me that the hike was off, there was a coup. (Possibly one of the stranger calls I’ve ever received; I was so out of it that I tried to insist we go hiking anyway. Cooler heads–his–prevailed.) That night was the most scared I’ve ever been in Turkey.
Unrelated to all of that, I found out that my main long term job is ending in August. So if you have any leads for more freelance work, lemme know…
Things I’m Loving
Reads: I read two Jon Krakauer books this month, Into Thin Air and Into The Wild. I much preferred Into Thin Air, which details the author’s experience of the deadly Mt. Everest climbing season of 1996. It’s riveting. I’m convinced that you have to be insane to climb Mt. Everest. (These articles from the BBC are a good companion to the book.)
Music: I already knew a few Ebo Taylor songs from my Analog Africa obsession, but I heard this song “Love and Death” at our camp in Kabak and it ear-wormed its way into my brain.
Also, that concert up the Bosphorus featured Ibeyi and Kamasi Washington and I quickly was hooked on both. Kamasi’s hypnotic jazz ended up being the frenetic soundtrack to the sad post-coup days.
And here’s something new: a playlist for this month, featuring the above three artists and a few more.
Movies: I rarely stay in and watch movies alone– I always feel like there’s more I could be doing– but I felt so depleted and sad after the failed coup that I decided I needed to watch something completely frivolous. The 2003 movie Down With Love was all that and more: frothy, silly, colorful, with Ewan McGregor at peak cute.
The Film Files
I haven’t used my analog camera for the back half of the month, but I shot some in the beginning and am just waiting to get the rolls back!
Ephemera
I’ve mentioned The Mixup in a few previous monthly round-ups… Well, it’s finally opened! The show will be at the Space Debris Art gallery in Karakoy until August 13; if you’re in Istanbul, check it out.
Upcoming
Tomorrow, I fly to the USA! I’m visiting Boston (and NYC) for two weeks and it will be my first time out of Turkey since the end of March. I’m excited to visit my old home city and eat all the oysters and see my family. However, I also feel reluctant to leave Turkey– seeing how quickly things can change this month has left a lingering fear that the country I leave could be very different than the one I return to. I think this trip will be a good mental rest for me, though.
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