This is the month I finally returned to Turkey after what felt like ages away, and enthusiastically resettled into my Istanbul life.
Best Of The Month
Before the pandemic hit, my friend Ozge and I were going on regular hamam adventures, with a goal to experience as many different hamams in as many parts of the city as possible. Of course, Covid paused that, but this month we finally went back! And it was as wonderful as ever. Here’s to many more hamam adventures going forward.
I’m almost never in Istanbul for Christmas, but this year I was, which meant: Christmas parties! I went to three, two which were fairly small and one that was a bit larger, and all of them were great fun and no one caught Omicron.
Also, my regular swimming at the municipality pool picked up again, and it’s just such a lovely part of my week.
Worst Of The Month
I had so much work to finish when I returned to Istanbul, and I was so jetlagged, that I honestly worried I would never sleep again. I walked until my feet blistered, I drank coffee until my hands shook. But I finished it all! And eventually, I slept.
What I’ve Loved
Reads: I raced through the last three Jackson Brodie novels by Kate Atkinson, after reading the first two at a fairly leisurely pace. Something about the combination of violence and poetic language, darkness and humor, really appeals to me. Recommended.
Music: There is one song that has dominated my personal soundtrack this month, and it is “Jet” by Wings, which is an absolute banger. Hillary and I became obsessed before I left California and I’ve been bopping to it all month.
TV/Movies: I missed movie theaters so much, so one of the pleasures of December has been frequent trips to the cinema. I saw The French Dispatch and absolutely loved it— if you’re a Wes Anderson person, I think you will too.
Podcasts: I loved the swing dance episode of Rough Translation— as a former lindy hopper, it’s a topic I’ve found fascinating for a long time. The Radiohead episode of Throughline was also wonderful, mostly because it pulled Kid A back into my regular music rotation.
And I adored The Evening Rocket, Jill Lepore’s limited series about Elon Musk and sci-fi literature.
The Film Files
Hillary and I always try to do some photographic thing when I’m in California, so we went simple this time: we bought a big container of bubbles and shot some pictures in the backyard when the light was perfect. It was great fun, I think I’m going to shoot people blowing bubbles more often.
I also finished up a double exposure roll that I initially shot last year on New Years. This year’s layer was of blurry Christmas lights over the portraits of already shot, and the whole roll looks great.
I also spent a night shooting at my favorite Kadikoy cocktail bar, Fahri Konsolos, with some high speed black and white film I’ve had hanging around for ages. One roll was a bust but the other one was great!
Ephemera
Thanks to an inspirational conversation with my friend Burak (and some gifted art supplies), I’ve gotten back to drawing and painting. Winter is always a nice season for it anyway, and I’ve enjoyed reconnecting with that particular skill.
Upcoming
Now that I’m back, I plan to stay in Turkey! Maybe at some point I’ll leave İstanbul, but it’s just so nice to be here right now.
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