MY BELOVED PORSCHE 911
Back in 2012 I was able to purchase my dream car, a Porsche Carrera 911.
14 years later, I said goodbye to that car last week. Just shy of 50,000 km on the odometer. In Porsche years, it was barely an infant. But something in my head kept telling me it was time to downsize, time to move on. Back in 2012, this was supposed to be the first of many 911’s. The salesperson at Pfaff Porsche convinced me my first 911 should be modest. No sports exhaust, S version or fancy Bose stereo. So I kept it to a reasonable minimum, sure that in a few years I would have the opportunity to move up the food chain.
Except that never happened. It’s not that I didn’t try. Some years ago Alice and I took a 2023 or 2024 911 out for a test drive on the highway. The car was gorgeous, but the technology had changed. The normally aspirated 6 cylinder was replaced with a mild turbo engine. And the noise in the cabin made having a regular conversation impossible without yelling at each other.
Porsche had moved on from the simplicity that made their cars so attractive. The new cars were bigger, more powerful and a lot more expensive. In the meantime, EV’s were knocking on the door to my heart, making the purchase of a petrol car all the more difficult.
How long is too long to own a car? I figure 14 years is plenty long enough. My sons are only interested in EV’s, so there was nothing keeping me from selling the car. Something that I’ve thought I should do for at least since Covid days when the value of my 911 was at its peak. Still, in 2026 I did okay. In all honesty its been the cheapest car I’ve ever owned. It held its value very well.
In non monetary terms, it’s a bit of a mixed bag. I won’t lie, the first few days not seeing it in the driveway left me sad. Did I make a mistake? This was my aspirational dream. How could I sell it? What dreams are left? Tough questions that I don’t have the answers to. Of course one might think this is the essence of shallowness. And that assessment might be right. A 911 was always the car of my dreams. Admittedly I worked my ass off for many years. The 911 was an affirmation of my hard work. And besides, I truly loved the way this car looked and drove. It really did put a smile on my face every time I drove it.
Still… I feel like I needed to push myself to be pragmatic. I’ve gotten many years of pleasure from my Porsche. If it’s not time for a new dream, it’s at least time to move beyond this phase of my life.
I week later, I still have moments of regret. The 911 is truly a special car. I don’t believe any car will mean as much to me in my life, not just for the way it drove, but the way it made me feel while driving it. It will always remain my beloved Porsche.
Istanbul
SHOT WITH THE FUJIFILM X-PRO3, XF27 F2.8, XF18-55 F2.8
We’ve been home a month now. Plenty of time… maybe too much time actually, between the trip and and being settled back to life in Toronto and writing this.
Istanbul was memorable. I’d say it was one of my favorite trips. It had a bit of everything; wonderful, warm people, delicious and flavourful food, a taste of at least two, maybe three seasons (from snow, to spring) and a sense of adventure that comes from being just a little out of one’s comfort zone.
Why Istanbul? It’s funny, when Alice and I are sharing (debating) cities we’d like to visit over the Christmas holidays a few cities came up. Some were too hot, or overcrowded and some were too cold (I’m not going to a place that’s actually colder than Toronto… although some days Istanbul was alarmingly close). Istanbul seemed to fit the bill for us, a little bit of an adventure but maybe (hopefully) not too much, a different culture and food. Sure, I’d always wanted to visit and this seemed like as good a time as any. Before I knew it, the flights were booked and that was that.
What did we see? Well, there were too many places and sites for this post and as much as I try as a photographer to “capture a moment”, the truth is that a lot of site seeing shots are nothing special to look at. Most of them are probably on my iPhone where they will stay for a very long time.
Istanbul is nothing if not a city of contrasts. The modern and the ancient. The very poor and the very rich. The hungry and the well fed. The smokers (just about all of the men) and the non-smokers (most of the women and children). The secular and the non secular.
It’s hard to imagine a city that is so overrun by shops selling decadent sweets, from baklava to Turkish delight. I didn’t get a handle if this was all for the tourists or a split with locals, but my gosh, the sweets were everywhere… a dentist and an Ozempic salesperson’s dream. Beside the assault on your taste buds and stomach, the visual beauty was really something to behold. The sweets are all geometrically lined up to show off their perfect shape and glistening “come hither” appeal. To say it was hard to resist is an understatement.
Istanbul is also a city of artisans. Whether it’s the guy in the window making delicious stuffed flatbread (Gozleme) or “dough with meat” (Lahmacun), the gorgeous ceramic shops or the hand made carpets hanging in the windows, Istanbul thrives on it’s traditional crafts. For a tourist, it’s as much eye candy as the actual eye candy.
Of course we played tourist and visited the Hagia Sophia Mosque, the Blue Mosque as we as the Grand Bazaar and the Basilica Cistern. The real highlight of Istanbul though was taking the ferries and getting lost in the streets that didn’t seem to end with fascinating history and neighbourhoods. The Ara Guler Museum was also a highlight with the Robert Capa photography exhibit. I’d say it was particularly well done.
So that was it. Eleven days, more km’s walked than I thought possible. We were strengthened by the never ending hill climbing and cat watching (yes, they are everywhere). There was so much to see, so much to experience and so much to eat. Turkey in the summer may be next.
RANDOM-ISH OCTOBER PICS
SHOT WITH THE FUJIFILM X-PRO3, XF35 F1.4, XF27 F2.8
Without sounding too self absorbed… I’m making a little bit of an effort to post more on this blog, if not for my own good, then at least for the sake of trying to get my money’s worth from my yearly Squarespace subscription. Yeah, the guilt is real.
Picking up the camera continues to be a bit of daily mental wrestling match, something which exists completely in my head. “Yes, pick up the camera. No the lights no good, forget about it”. That sort of thing. By the way, as I type this at 4:50 pm, the sky has just turned the most incredible blue color with the clouds varying shades of grey/blue and snow white. Too bad I’m typing this or I’d go pick up my camera ;-)
There are many areas in my life that I can say I have the most incredible amount of discipline. Funny, because I was a completely lazy kid. Somehow I figured out that in order to be good at something you need to “wash and repeat”. Great, but in my brain there are so many tired reasons for leaving the camera at home or on the shelf.
Oh and did I forget to mention for about a month my one and only camera was at Fujifilm getting the ribbon for the LCD replaced. I know, I still had my iPhone.
So here we are, it’s early November and I’m digging through some of my images from the fall. They were created when I was winning some mental battles and picked up the camera. It’s really not all that hard. One foot in front of the other, wash & repeat.
another angle
SHOT WITH THE FUJIFILM X-PRO3, XF35 F1.4
The lesson I keep needing to relearn is to just let go… let my mind and my camera do its thing. You can never be sure if what the camera will capture will be complete rubbish or if it will be something with some potential.
A couple of weeks back Alice and I went to our favourite local pizza joint… Alice did the driving. It was that time of daylight that was just holding on, dusk was in full momentary flight. 10 minutes later and neither of the first two images would have been possible.
In truth, I had left my camera on manual mode from some recent experimentation and neither of the first images are anywhere near in focus. And maybe that’s why I find them so interesting. So yes, a happy mistake. On this day I’d like to think I was channeling my inner Saul Leiter, a photographer who’s black and white and color work I greatly admire.
The last two images were taken inside North of Brooklyn pizza on Geary Ave. By then, I figured out my earlier “mistake” but like the first two images, on this day I was inspired by the negative space. And of course all of these shots are done in 1:1 format, another current obsession. I’m not sure why but I find I can imagine the images with more clarity when I get rid of the clutter of a wider aspect ratio.
On this day, at this hour, I allowed my brain to look at the world from another angle. I’m very grateful that I did.
MUNICH-VIENNA
A few images from our (now) annual trek to Munich to attend and exhibit at the Munich High End Show followed by a few days relaxing and walking the streets of Vienna.
SHOT WITH THE FUJIFILM X-PRO3, XF 27MM
MY MOM ANN
The phone rings; it’s 7:00 am, I’m still groggy from sleep. A voice on the other end introduces themselves as nurse so and so, from the hospital. My mother has just passed away. A call I was not unprepared for, but it still hits you like a hammer. I immediately call my sister Susan who is already at work and let her know. I can still feel the vibration of her wailing, the guttural, primal cry of a wounded soul. Susan has just lost her best friend. It’s time to get up to the hospital and make arrangements. It’s December 20th, three days before our family’s flight to Tokyo.
One of my often used sayings is everything in life has a beginning a middle and an end. While I wasn’t there for my mother’s beginning, I can safely say I was certainly there for much of the middle and most definitely at the end.
This visual story is an accounting of the final weeks of my mother Ann’s life. During the first week of December, she suffered a devastating stroke that left her unable to speak and unable to swallow. At the time, we were hopeful it was just a minor setback, perhaps another urinary tract infection, perhaps something else not too serious. We didn’t realize that the stroke she suffered and the next few weeks would be her end story.
As I write this it’s now approaching May, over four months since those early days in December. Many of the images I took I’m not really comfortable in sharing. Nor do I think, if my mother was alive, she would want to be remembered in that way. To honour her and her memory, these images I hope will give you visual cues to what we experienced. It was a brutally difficult time for our all of us. My mother was the beloved matriarch of our clan and knowing that we would never have another chat, another laugh, another hug was and still is a painful thought.
The images take us from the early days when my mom was still alert and seemingly aware of her surroundings to the day of her passing on December 20, 2023.
Besides our family members, my mom had the constant and loving care from her primary caregivers Roxie and Margie, two people who are heroes in my book. And of course the many wonderful doctors and nurses and support staff at Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital.
As an epilogue, I can only say I hope that I have as many people surrounding me in my final days as my mother had. While there were many years where I can admit to us having our differences, I can also say that the final years, with her memory and health declining, were the most happy between us. They say that people with dementia can go one of two ways; they can become angry and bitter or they can become loving and caring. My mother was definitely in the latter camp. Her genuine joy in seeing us when we entered her apartment every Sunday was heartwarming. She expressed to us how important we were to her and how much she appreciated us being in her life. There was nothing that was left unsaid.
All of us, my wife Alice as well as our sons Maximilian and Solomon witnessed on a weekly basis the love of a kind, caring and grateful women. She was lovingly referred to by our sons as “The Bubinator”. I don’t think she was fond of that nickname but it definitely captured something of the iconic status she had in our family.
Jewish people say “May her memory be a blessing”. We were definitely blessed having such a loving person in our life. I hope the images speak for themselves and give you a sense of those weeks up at Cortellucci.
We made it to our flight to Tokyo. I kept reminding myself, it’s what my mom would have wanted. Thanks mom.
SHOT WITH THE FUJIFILM X-PRO3, XF 27MM, XF35MM F2
Ann Kahn: 1929 - 2024
JAPAN - TOKYO - PART II
Ten days, and an earthquake later, we arrived back in Tokyo for the final few days of our trip. There were so many special moments of our second stay in Tokyo. Our ryokan, the Yuenbettai Daita was mere steps from the train station. I guess you could describe the Yuenbettai Daita as being a modern interpretation of a ryokan. It felt like a ryokan re-invented. The area (city) that it’s in is called Setagaya which quickly became my new favorite place in Japan. Coming from Toronto where developers rule the roost and seem to have only one priority and that’s to line their bank accounts, Setagaya is a community where the developers would actually want to live there. It’s urban design by really smart, talented people.
So onto the highlights. We had a super delicious pour over coffee experience on the first part of our Tokyo trip @binyacoffeeten but on the advise of my friend and official coffee aficionado Len, we found our way about 15 minutes from our ryokan to @bearpondespresso which I quickly found out, roasts and serves beans that are simply out of this world. I think we went there three days in a row to get our daily fix, each time buying more beans and trinkets to bring home. I can’t recommend them enough. The only thing missing was the owner, Katsu San was away during that week so we didn’t get to watch the master at work.
Another highlight of the trip was our time with Alice’s cousin Peter and his family. On our first day back in Tokyo Peter took us to a Harry Potter exhibition where according to Peter, there is very fresh and very reasonable sushi. It sounded just way too touristy for me, but when in Rome. So apparently other folks know about this particular spot. 2-1/2 hours later we finally sat down to eat and oh my, it was just outstanding. And so reasonably priced you can’t believe the value. For about ¥3,800 (about $38 CAD) I ate enough super fresh sushi to totally fill me up. And we got to watch Peter’s spectacular son Ken (nicknamed Natto Boy for a reason) wolf down enough natto to choke a horse. The kid’s amazing (and super cute).
On the last day and final hours of our stay in Tokyo (and Setagaya) we went back to Bear Pond for yet another hit of caffeine and wandered around the area looking for a quick lunch before the train ride to Haneda Airport. A few feet from our coffee spot we noticed a line was forming by a tiny shop. It was only 11:30 am. Our internet savvy sons looked the spot up and found out it was a Michelin rated hand pulled noodle shop. So we got in line which, not surprisingly moved along pretty briskly… it is a noodle shop after all. I think we all ordered hand pulled noodles with wontons (our family has a thing for wontons) and we were not disappointed. As far as last meals go, we definitely went out with a bang. It was simple and delicious. End of story.
To wrap this up, there’s really no way to include all of the fun things we did in Japan. I haven’t even described the Jazz Kissa’s (Jazz BigBoy being a highlight) or the record shopping at disc union - @discunionshinjukijazz. Nor the terrific omakaze dinner we had with our Japanese distributors for @uberlight. Not to mention the 15,000 + steps we did every day to explore this amazing country.
Sometimes after a long journey you feel exhausted, almost ready for another vacation. The exact opposite has happened after this trip. Japan was exactly the tonic that we all needed. We are already thinking about our next Japan adventure (hopefully without the earthquake drama). It might be time to start learning some Japanese. Until next time, Sayonara.
SHOT WITH THE FUJIFILM X-PRO3, XF 27mm
TOKYO PART II IN COLOR
