May was a month out of time. I spent most of the month in California, my first spring trip to that state and a perfect time to escape Turkey’s escalating lockdowns.
Best Of The Month
The main reason I went to California in May was to get vaccinated. Mission accomplished. I had basically no side effects, and the vaccination itself took up so little time that it felt like an afterthought to the month’s joys. But it was the point!
I took advantage of this unusual spring visit to the California to visit Yosemite with my family. I went when I was a child and I’ve been begging to go back since my parents moved to the Bay Area, it was such a treat to hike along the waterfalls at this splendid national park.
Generally, all this bonus time with my family, and especially my fabulous sister, was a highlight of the month. Hillary has spent so much of the last year at my parents’ house, but she came back just to hang out with me and I am so grateful.
We immediately picked back up with our lap swimming at the local pool, and it felt so good to stretch my muscles and my brain in that way.
And of course, by some stroke of luck, I managed to escape the entire monthlong lockdown in Istanbul. Lucky lucky me.
Worst Of The Month
Though the month was generally blissful, I did nearly go flying off the front of my bike and probably sprained the toe that stopped my forward momentum, which took weeks to heal.
What I’m Loving
Reads: With access to the public library again, I took out the sequel to a book I read in December: Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Talents. Oh my. The first book felt prescient but the second is uncanny, with a presidential candidate whose slogan is “Make America Great Again”, an America where people are put in camps and children are separated from their parents, and news that is delivered in short digital (Twitter-like?!) dispatches. She wrote this book in 1998!!!!!!!!
I also dug an old Dick Francis novel called Reflex out of the closet (it was great and the only one of his books I vaguely remembered, even though I have read DOZENS of his horse racing-adjacent mysteries). I also took a John Le Carre novel (A Most Wanted Man) out from the library… and didn’t realize until I was writing this blog post that it was turned into a movie, and I have totally seen that movie. Whoops. Anyway, it was a month of great genre fiction, basically.
Music: The silliest place to find a great jam for your summer playlist might be Shazaming a song in an Old Navy, but that’s how Keep It Comin’ Love by KC and the Sunshine Band ended up in high rotation for me, and I have no regrets. I’ve also loved the song Dance Without Fear by Rebel ACA.
Movies/TV: I watched all of the series The Americans, and it was so wonderful straight through, thrilling and moving and melancholy. I recommend it most highly.
Podcasts: Jill Lepore’s podcast The Last Archive is consistently good, but this season has been really special. Same goes for Cautionary Tales— somehow each season is better than the one before.
The Film Files
I didn’t shoot much in May, but I did finish up a roll doubles that Hillary and began in December— I still need to get it developed.
Ephemera
I’ve been reading this series of articles on Stereogum about every single Billboard number one hit and they are really fascinating and well-written, it’s become a small obsession.
Also, I appeared on a friend’s podcast… the sound quality isn’t great but maybe you’ll enjoy listening to our chat!
Upcoming
I plan to stay in Turkey for the rest of the summer, but I will take at least one trip out of Istanbul this month. Hopefully it will be a delightful summer!
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