Our summer has been pretty quiet, which is why I’m combining my July and August updates. Our vacation was back in early May so we didn’t have any plans for the rest of the season. Our next big thing is out annual Staycation which we take to coincide with the Philadelphia Film Festival in October.
As usual, we at least had some food adventures, the most notable being our visit to Miss Rachel’s Pantry, which is a vegan restaurant in South Philadelphia. We had been wanting to try it for a while, but it’s open only a handful of nights and there is only 1 seating. It’s a small space so reservations are hard to come by. Luckily, Holly was available to make a reservation when their options went live for July.
It’s located in a renovated garage, and they had the large door open. They also require proof of vaccination so we felt comfortable going there.
We went on Italian night. It’s also a BYOB so we brought a couple bottles of Italian wine to enjoy with our meal.
We also went to Twenty Manning which we hadn’t been to since before the pandemic. In the meantime, they changed their approach from bistro fare to a menu that’s more Middle Eastern. Although we liked the previous incarnation (then known as Twenty Manning Grill), we often found their menu a bit heavy for us so we were curious to try the new version. We liked it enough to go there twice in July. We ordered several of the same dishes each time so this is a combined gallery from both visits.
Photography
July and August were pretty hot so we didn’t get out for many walks. We did get out for one nice walk to see the Ferris wheel at Eakins Oval which I already posted about.
I went out on my own a couple of times, once at lunchtime and one morning before I started work with 2 different film cameras. I finished the rolls in each but haven’t yet gotten them developed and scanned.
Drawing
I continued working on some of the reference photos that were included with the Learn To Draw: A Beginner’s Guide To Sketching Anything! tutorial from Skillshare that I had started back in June.
Writing
I finished a draft of a new short story over the past couple of months. I’m planning, in the fall, to resume trying to find homes for some of my stories. My last publication was back in December and I would really like to continue building my list of publications.
Reading
Books
I read 2 books in July and 2 in August.
In July, I finally finished my Thomas Pynchon re-read, which I began back in 2018 and last attended to about 1 year ago when I read Inherent Vice, by reading Bleeding Edge. I should admit that this wasn’t a complete re-read since I skipped Slow Learner, a collection of his early short stories.
I also finally got around to reading a novel by Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood. I have been a fan of his short stories for a while and have been wanting to read one of his novels. I realize Norwegian Wood is not necessarily representative of his usual work but knew it is one of his most popular books so decided to give it a try. I enjoyed it as much as his short stories and am looking forward to getting into more of his works.
In August, I re-read Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer. I’ve read this numerous times, but this was this first time in several years. It was fun getting reacquainted.
I also read Olivia Laing’s The Trip to Echo Spring: On Writers and Drinking. I read her The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone and absolutely loved it and had been meaning to get to some of her other works. Glad I finally picked up The Trip to Echo Spring which covers the relationships that F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Tennessee Williams, John Cheever, John Berryman, and Raymond Carver had with alcohol. It is amazing the degree to which these writers succumbed to alcoholism. Also amazing that they were able to produce the works they had while battling addiction.
Laing uses her discussion of these writers to examine the role alcohol had within her own family.
Books Read in 2022
So far in 2022, I’ve read 22 books:
- The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
- Book, They Might Be Giants, Paul Sahre, Brian Karlsson
- All About Me!: My Remarkable Life in Show Business, Mel Brooks (Kindle book)
- The Photographer’s Eye, John Szarkowski
- Harlem Shuffle, Colson Whitehead (Kindle book)
- Our Country Friends, Gary Shteyngart
- My Name Is Asher Lev, Chaim Potok
- Crossroads, Jonathan Franzen
- South of Somewhere, Robert V. Camuto
- The Promise, Damon Galgut (Kindle book)
- A Visit from the Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan
- After New Formalism, Annie Finch, ed. (Library book)
- The Candy House, Jennifer Egan
- The New Woman Behind the Camera, various authors
- Sea of Tranquility, Emily St. John Mandel
- Joan is Okay, Weike Wang (Kindle book)
- East of Eden, John Steinbeck
- Free Love, Tessa Hadley (Kindle book)
- Bleeding Edge, Thomas Pynchon
- Norwegian Wood, Haruki Murakami
- Tropic of Cancer, Henry Miller
- The Trip to Echo Spring, Olivia Laing
This Creative Midlife Posts in 2022
- December 2021 Update
- Canon AE-1 with Ilford Delta 3200
- Canon Rebel 2000 with Kodak Color Plus
- Christmas Light Box Photos
- January 2022 Update
- Minolta Autopak 450Ex with Lomography Lobster
- New Nikon Z fc!
- Schuylkill River Trail Outing with my Nikon Z fc
- E.M. Cioran on Aging
- February 2022 Update
- Long Birthday Weekend 2022
- Year Two of Pandemic Life
- First Film Photos of 2022
- March 2022 Update
- 2022 Camera Inventory
- Minolta Hi-Matic 11 with Ilford Delta 100
- Canon Rebel 2000 with Lomography Color 800
- Planning a Vacation
- April 2022 Update
- Minolta XE with Lomochrome Purple
- Olympus XA in Carmel California
- May 2022 Update
- The Arizona Part of Our Vacation
- 2022 California Vacation Part 1
- 2022 California Vacation Part 2
- 2022 California Vacation Part 3
- Did My Olympus XA Survive Vacation?
- June 2022 Update
- Canon AE-1 with Kodak Pro Image
- Favorite Photos from the 1st Half of 2022
- August Walk with My Canon EOS 5D Mark IV
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