December was another month split between the US and Turkey, and it’s always nice to have these times they straddle the two countries that mean the most to me. The end of the year is always sort of bright and sort of melancholy, and I leaned into that.
Best Of The Month
I returned to LA for the first time in three years, so many of the month’s highlights come from that trip. I missed it! I much prefer Los Angeles to the the Bay Area, believe it or not.
One particular highlight of LA was going to the LA Philharmonic to see them perform some of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker and some of Duke Ellington’s riff on Tchaikovsky’s nutcracker. I almost cried, it was so beautiful and fantastic, and my sister kept shooting little looks at me when she caught me humming along. I was in music heaven.
We also had a couple good midnight dinners in LA, including Korean at a rowdy spot after the concert, and BLTs at Canter’s (very nonkosher) deli after a movie.
Upon returning to Istanbul, there were so many holiday parties, including a night of chaos karaoke and at least four Christmas celebrations, it was wonderful.
Worst Of The Month
A complicated friendship ended unexpectedly, which was devastating.
What I’m Loving
Reads: I spent all of December rereading the Ellery Queen paperbacks at my parents’ house. No regrets.
Music: I loved the songs “É Isso Ai” by Doris Monteiro and “I Believe In You” by Kylie Minogue this month— perfect songs to dance to.
Movies/TV: Hillary and I saw a double feature at the New Bev in LA of Hardcore and Trackdown, two sort of silly movies with similar themes. Hardcore was the better of the two (it’s a Paul Schrader film) but Trackdown was (unintentionally) funnier.
Podcasts: I listened to “The Farming Game” episode of The Last Archive on a plane and it was really fascinating.
The Film Files
I mostly shot with my simple use camera this month, a sort of reusable disposable camera that is easy to carry to parties and shoot with little thought.
Ephemera
I bought too many books in California because I am an addict. Most of them even made it back to Istanbul!
Upcoming
January will probably be all Istanbul as I work on some bureaucracy and settled back into my life here.
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