November is often the month that gets split between Turkey and the US, and this year was no exception.
Best Of The Month
Early in November, I realized I’d barely seen any of the Istanbul Biennial, so my friend Bradley and I set out to remedy that. What made the day particularly special, though, is that we zipped around the city on Bradley’s motor scooter, which made the whole thing feel like a grand adventure.
I went to a ball thanks to an invitation from a friend at the American Consulate, and though the event itself was strange, preparing and wearing ball gown and drinking bottomless wine was certainly fun.
At the end of the month, we went on a family wine tasting trip in Sonoma, which isn’t exactly the best way to get over jetlag, but was still a lot of fun.
Worst Of The Month
Speaking of jet lag… it really always sucks. This time was easier than others, but I still fell asleep sitting up on a couch multiple times.
I want to put it out of my mind, but the Istiklal bombing early in the month was truly awful, and brought back a lot of latent bad feelings from 2016, when this sort of thing was happening frequently.
Right before I left Turkey, I decided to change my Turkish SIM card to an e-sim, which seems like a good idea— and is in the long term— but it knocked my phone offline for the day before I flew, which was very stressful.
And a friend, neighbor, and member of my little Kadikoy family, Slobodan, died this November. He was old and had cancer and it was not completely unexpected, but it was still very sad for all of us.
What I’m Loving
Reads: I read The Ink Black Heart by Robert Galbraith (aka JK Rowling), and I’m reluctant to include it in the “loving” category because so much of it annoyed me and JK Rowling is so vile, but I generally enjoy these Strike mysteries and I couldn’t stop reading it, so, in the category it goes.
Music: I loved the album The Muslim Highlife of Alhaji Waziri Oshomah, especially the song “Jealousy”. I also loved the songs “Mass and Mustiness” by Favourite People and “El Rey” by D Smoke.
TV/Movies: I saw some great movies this month, including Glass Onion during the one week it was playing in theaters. I can’t recommend it enough, I love the Knives Out series.
I also saw a couple of movies at the Sinematek in Kadikoy. I loved Picnic at Hanging Rock, a slow strange horror movie where very little happens, and Videodrome, definitely one of the stranger films I’ve seen this year but excellent for it.
Podcasts: I listened to the series Death of an Artist about Ana Mendieta, the artist who fell from a 34th story window in the 80s and was probably murdered by her husband, the artist Carl Andre. It’s gripping and delves into the museums who have continued to display Andre throughout the years, and the rise of support for the memory of Ana.
The Film Files
I finally got some film developed that I shot in October of double exposures of Julius and Istanbul. And they are lovely!
Ephemera
I got the see the print version of our Hey Barista story, and it’s beautiful!
Upcoming
December starts in California California and ends in Istanbul. I’ll spend Christmas and New Years in Turkey… it’s party season!
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