Philly Sunset
9 Oct 2022

September 2022 Update

by | posted in: Photography, Reading | 0

After a particularly hot summer, we started getting better weather in September. The month started off hot, moderated a bit, and then took a sudden turn to autumn weather actually on the equinox. I’m not sure I’ve ever experienced such a decisive turn to autumn before. We went from days in the upper 80s and low 90s to upper 60s and low 70s, which was quite welcome.

Photography

The better weather meant more getting out and, specifically, more getting out on photo walks. I already posted about some of those outings:

I still have a couple of rolls of film from September to post about, and I have some digital photos I haven’t posted yet. I mentioned in my Minolta X-700 post that when I finished the roll of Kodak Tri-X, I shot some more photos with my Nikon Z fc and my 18-140mm f/3.5-6.3 lens.

I took these photos at the Cherry Street Pier and on our walk home from there.

Benjamin Franklin Bridge as Seen from Cherry Street Pier
Benjamin Franklin Bridge as Seen from Cherry Street Pier
Cherry Street Pier
Yarn Art at Cherry Street Pier
Benjamin Franklin Bridge as Seen from Cherry Street Pier
Society Hill Building Construction
Society Hill Towers
Bricks
House Detail
House Detail
The Church of Saint Luke and The Epiphany
The Church of Saint Luke and The Epiphany

I also shot a nice sunset out our apartment window one evening with the Z fc and the same lens.

Philly Sunset
Philly Sunset
Philly Sunset
Philly Sunset
Philly Sunset
Philly Sunset
Philly Sunset
Philly Sunset
Sunset Plane
Sunset Plane

Reading

Books

I had recently read and loved Olivia Laing’s The Trip to Echo Spring. A couple of years ago, I had read and loved her The Lonely City. Enjoying those 2 non-fiction works made me curious about her fiction, so I downloaded a copy of Crudo to my Kindle. About a third of the way through, I was liking it so much, I also bought the paperback which was a wise choice. While reading the Kindle version, I hadn’t realized there were source notes at the end, which were quite revelatory.

The book is a unique mix of memoir and biography, specifically that of Kathy Acker. The narrator’s name is Kathy and some of the narration is taking directly from Acker’s works, but much of the plot is drawn from Laing’s life. It’s a difficult book to categorize as fiction since it relies so heavily on people’s lives, but it’s not exactly memoir nor biography. It’s set during the first year of the Trump administration and really captures the angst of the time. A truly intriguing book.

Over the past 3 years or so, I have been working my way through many of Shakespeare’s plays and, this month, I finished As You Like It. The last comedy I read was Twelfth Night. They make for interesting companion pieces since they both involved mistaken identities specifically due to women dressed as men, or, in the case of As You Like It, a woman dressed as a man pretending to be a woman.

Prior to reading White Noise this month, the other Don Delillo novels I’ve read were Great Jones Street, Underworld, Zero K, and The Silence. I somehow circumnavigated his most famous works. I admit to finally getting around to White Noise since a movie version of it is on its way. I tend to like Noah Baumbach’s movies so I am curious about the movie version. That said, after reading the book, I’m dubious as to how well it will translate to the screen. It’s a bit disjointed with 3 somewhat distinct sections. That works fine in a novel. It will be interesting to see how they can wrangle that into a single movie. None of the actors look like the main characters, but I can certainly hear Adam Driver, Greta Gerwig, and Don Cheadle delivering the dialog.

After all that relatively heavy reading, I ended the month with a couple lighter books.

I’m a fan of Abbey Sy’s YouTube channel so I was interested in picking up her latest book, The Art of the Travel Journal. As someone who has been interesting in journaling for some time, the book came across as a bit rudimentary, but it would be a great book for someone just starting to get interested.

I also read The Sweetness of Doing Nothing by Sophie Minchilli which is a really enjoyable book about finding the pleasurable in everyday life. It feeds into a stereotype of Italians just sitting around eating food, drinking wine, and hanging out with family and friends. It may be a bit romanticized, but it was certainly a pleasant read.

September 2022 Reading Update
September 2022 Reading Update

Books Read in 2022

So far in 2022, I’ve read 27 books:

This Creative Midlife Posts in 2022

Disclaimers: Comments are moderated. Some links, such as those to Amazon, are affiliate links, through which, I may gain a small commission.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *