Looking back at the fourth quarter of 2023

The last quarter of the year is coming to a close, and with it all of 2023. So though this is a quarterly look back, being the last of the year it’s also a chance to reflect on the entire year. It’s been a tough one both for personal reasons and because of the various stressors of work. But there’ve also been some very good times, moments to appreciate the beauty of the world, of family and of friends. So try to remember that despite the difficulty any moment may entail, there’s almost always something positive we can pull from it, and there will almost assuredly be more enjoyable moments yet to come.

And with those thoughts, I hope you enjoy this little look back at the final quarter of 2023.

Photography

Overall I’ve been happy with what I’ve created, though being who I am, I’m always thinking I could have done more, been more diligent, strove to see more creatively, etc. I don’t beat myself up about it, but I use it as a way to keep striving, to keep improving. One specific area I’d like to improve is upkeep of both my website and online store. Looking back I realize I posted very few photos to my store this year. And my website and blog have had the exact same look for many, many years, with exactly the same photos in the galleries. I’d very much like to take the time to freshen things up a bit, perhaps try some new themes, but at least post new photos to the galleries and store. This is a goal for 2024.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this look back at the posts I published in the final quarter of 2023. And please keep coming back to the blog, as I still have a post with my favorite books and films in 2023 planned before the year ends, and I’ll share my favorite photos of 2023 very early next year.

Reading

This is another quarter where the majority of my reading was in the form of listening to audiobooks. I do prefer sitting down with an old fashioned paper book but there are times I just don’t manage to do that as often as I’d like, and in those times I find its much easier to listen to an audiobook.

Interestingly, this was also the first time in what I believe to be decades that I checked out and read a book from the local library instead of purchasing it (Daring to Look). I certainly don’t expect to stop buying books anytime soon, but I’d like to continue visiting the library from time to time.

The books I consumed this quarter (paper, ebook, and audio).

Here’s the full list of books: The Girl Beneath the Sea (Undersea Investigation Unit #1) by Andrew Mayne (2020), Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (2020), The September House by Carissa Orlando (2023), The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty (1971), The Burglar Who Liked to Quote Kipling by Lawrence Block (1979), Pandora by Susan Stokes-Chapman (2022), Edges (Inverted Frontier #1) by Linda Nagata (2019), Silver (Inverted Frontier #2) by Linda Nagata (2019), The Sittaford Mystery by Agatha Christie (1931), Reminiscences of a Stock Operator by Edwin Lefèvre (1923), Daring to Look: Dorothea Lange’s Photographs and Reports from the Field by Anne Whiston Spirn (2008), Baptism by Fire (Witcher #3) by Andrzej Sapkowski (1996).

And of those, my favorites were:

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

Piranesi was a delightful little piece of magic. It felt like a mysterious and elusive story, very different from others I’ve read, and I’m not quite certain how to describe it.

The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty

For Halloween I decided to reread The Exorcist, but this time in audiobook form and read by the author. Not all authors make great narrators, but William Peter Blatty was excellent. He had just the right sort of voice to do this horror story justice.

Edges and Silver (Inverted Frontier) by Linda Nagata

Linda Nagata’s Inverted Frontier series is just the sort of science fiction story I enjoy, in the far future extrapolating what humanity might become, and all the various obstacles to survival they might encounter.

Movies & Anime

Favorite, or notable, films I watched this quarter.

As during the previous quarter, I watched far more movies than I typically do and too many to list here so I’ll stick to those that made the most impact on me.

There were a number of movies I enjoyed rewatching but really only for nostalgic reasons as they didn’t seem particularly good movies on a rewatch. I’m thinking about films I enjoyed as a kid, like Battle Beyond the Stars (1980), Space Raiders (1983), Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone (1983), Ice Pirates (1984), Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977), and Damnation Alley (1977).

Then there were those I rewatched that I felt held up over time, movies I still really enjoyed this time around. These seemed more often movies I watched as a teen or later rather than as a kid, movies like The Terminator (1984), The Lost Boys (1987), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), and Evolution (2001).

There were also a number of movies that were new to me. I enjoyed the likes of Monsters (2010) and The Invisible (2007). I watched two quirky films by a favorite director, Luc Besson: The Family (2013) and The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec (2010).

And finally, my absolute favorite movie of the quarter was Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022). What a wild, crazy, insane ride full of completely mind-boggling nonsense, and yet with a plot line weaving through it all and messages that somehow managed to resonate with me. This is one I will very likely rewatch, probably multiple times.

Music

This quarter I discovered music by artists new to me, and also heard new music by artists I already know and love. For the most part, the music I’ve selected this quarter is on the lighter side, especially compared to some things I’ve shared in the past. But before we get to the lighter fare let’s try the following:

Two Steps From Hell - Impossible Live @ Wacken

I stumbled across this song and it became an instant favorite. Two Steps From Hell seems to have started less as a musical group and more a company that writes music for movie trailers, so it has that epic theatrical sound to it. They grew enough of a following that they release their music on albums and even go on tour, and to Wacken, of all places!

milet - Hey Song

And now for something a little lighter, a Japanese pop song by a musician I’ve mentioned here a couple times before, a song all about feeling good, smiling, just living your life and being happy about it. An example of the lyrics are “Your smile is the best thing in the world.” A simple line but I love it. You know those people in your life where just a single smile from them is enough to completely brighten your day? That’s what this song does for me.

Ichika Nito & Marty Friedman - Live at Takasaki City Theatre 23 July 2023

This is a trio of songs performed live by two guitarists whose work I’ve enjoyed for a while now. The two have very different styles and playing together have smoothly merged those styles in a wonderfully harmonious way. They play two of Ichika Nito’s compositions, Reflection and COLOURS, and end with such a beautiful arrangement of Pachelbel’s Canon, one of my all time favorite songs.

One Voice Children’s Choir - Warm

And finally, a beautiful song for the winter season. And a song of hope.

Life

This was another quarter greatly influenced by the death of my mother in early August. Sometimes while sitting and watching a movie I’ll find tears forming as my thoughts drift back to her. Other times I’ll smile at a happy memory that surfaces. I’ve walked through stores and thought, I should get this for mom, before snapping back to reality. The holidays are different now. Not bad, just different. I find it’s a slow process getting used to these differences. And work has been busy and stressful, as it sometimes can be, but I’m very thankful the majority of the stressful moments waited until after my mother passed, giving me a little time to recover.

One of the positive aspects of the quarter has been my continued weekly dinners with my family, now just the three of us. And my father and I have continued getting together as often as we can to either walk in the woods or sometimes drive across the state to visit people and places we enjoy.

And of course, there’s the great interactions with all of you, though this quarter I’m still struggling to respond in a timely manner to all the comments you’re kind enough to leave on my blog. I very much appreciate hearing from you and I promise I’m working on getting back to personally responding to them. If I could focus enough to stop watching so many movies I’m sure I could become much more productive. 😄

I hope you’ve had both a good quarter and a good year, and that despite any hardships you’ve gone through that you’ve found moments of peace and reasons to stay positive. Thank you so much for all your support and for spending a little of your time with me. I wish you all the best in the coming year.

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