The shortest month somehow felt long this year, maybe because time continues to be sort of irrelevant and, thanks to continuing curfews in Turkey, not completely in my control. Or perhaps it’s because we had SO MUCH weather in 28 short days that every week felt like a visit from a different month. Either way, we’re nearing the end of the first pandemic year, and maybe I am subconsciously trying to slow it all down.
Best Of The Month
After four years without proper snow, we finally got a whole WEEK of gorgeous snowstorms in Istanbul. My apartment has big floor to ceiling windows, and I have been aching to watch a snowstorm from home, so I finally got my wish. It was so beautiful and somehow gave my spirits a lift. I hated snow when I lived in Boston, but I adore it here… maybe because it’s such a rare treat. I made a playlist for watching snow, which you can find here.
My residency renewal process quickly picked up this month after a January of nervous waiting, so that was a huge relief.
Worst Of The Month
The weekend lockdowns and nightly curfews finally started wearing on me this month. It gets harder as the days are getting longer and I want to be able to choose when I go outside. Hopefully by springtime the restrictions will be mostly lifted and I can enjoy my weekends outside.
Even though my residency process was mostly smooth, there was a days-long drama to get my rental contract notarized… and in the end, they didn’t even need the document.
What I’m Loving
Reads: My friend Helene lent me O Jerusalem by Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins last year and then gently nudged me to actually read it, and I’m glad she did– it’s quite a book! It looks at the battle for Jerusalem and the founding of Israel through the eyes of Jews, Arabs, the British, and more; the perspective constantly shifts so a huge number of people become the protagonist from a few paragraphs or pages. The sheer number of people they must have interviewed for this book! It was written in the 70’s, and it made me wish there was a modern day follow-up, because so much has happened in that intractable conflict since then. I knew very little about this history before I read the book, it made me curious to learn more.
I also read The Idiot by Elif Batuman, which made me nostalgic for Cambridge and also brought me back to the weird angst of starting college… though I think my friends and I were a bit more fun than the very serious protagonist of this novel.
Music: Do you think people are drawn to happy dancey music in hard times? Because I’ve been listening to some disco gems recently and they are pure joy. The song “Feels Like I’m In Love” by Kelly Marie has me dancing all over my apartment all the time. I also loved “Look Over Your Shoulder” by Busta Rhymes featuring Kendrick Lamar.
Movies/TV: Inspired by a movie I saw last month, I finally watched Night Of The Hunter, a strange, eerie, wonderful film from 1955. I can’t recommend it enough.
I also watched Minari, a recent release about a Korean-American family trying to start a farm in Arkansas. It’s a beautiful film, and the grandma character is the scene-stealer, she’s the best.
Podcasts: I binged I’m Not A Monster, a podcast about an American woman who joined ISIS and then tried to escape, and whether or not she was a willing participant or forced to follow her husband. It’s fascinating.
I’m excited for the return of Cautionary Tales, which launched its brand new season at the end of the month. I’ve also loved Suave, a podcast about a man who was imprisoned for life for a crime he committed as a teenager, and his friendship with a journalist. The journalist is an executive producer of this podcast, and it explores some of the ethical issues around this… it’s about the criminal justice system, but it’s also about journalism, and the gray zones of befriending your sources. And another podcast that deals with journalism is the Capital Gazette series from Embedded, about the shooting at that newsroom and what happened afterwards.
I’m still working my way through the entire archive of You’re Wrong About; this month, my favorite was the Tipper Gore episode featuring the senate hearings on porn rock and the testimony of Twisted Sister’s Dee Snider, which is excellent.
I listened to the Bon Appetit episodes from Reply All before the controversy around it cancelled the rest of the series. I hope they find a way to release the last two episodes, hopefully in a way that can acknowledge their own culpability in the issues the series addresses.
And I loved the Octavia Butler from Throughline, especially after reading Parable of the Sower in December. I look forward to reading more of her books in the future.
The Film Files
A year after we first talked about it, my friend Masha and I launched a fun collaborative project, featuring her stunning wearable floral arrangements and my photography. We did our first photoshoot in February, and plan to do one a month.
I also started a mini-project out of lockdown boredom that I’m calling Inside/Outside. Basically, I shot a roll of analog self-portraits over a weekend lockdown, and then spent the next five days of freedom shooting a double exposure layer outside in the world. And it kind of worked! It feels good to be creative, even when I can’t actually leave the house.
Ephemera
I am an adult because I get so much joy out of framing stuff? Continuing to beautify and decorate my lovely apartment still makes me so happy, even if it’s a simple thing.
Upcoming
I’ll go on a small weekend trip out of Istanbul in the beginning of March, but otherwise, there’s not much planned! I’m hoping for more small Turkey trips as the weather warms up and restrictions ease, but we shall see.
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