A Boston Night: Dorothy Parker, Mood + Memory

Black and white photo of antique cars on a Boston street at night.

It always surprises me when I hear about people not knowing what they like. The older I get, the more I see that this life journey is about self-discovery.

If you’re looking to become better acquainted with yourself, blogging is one way. Looking back on over ten years of writing and taking pictures, I’ve noticed themes.

I see what topics interest me based on what I’ve blogged about. Food is a huge one. Yogafull moons, birthdays, Boston and astrology are some more.

From using Instagram, the themes are even more pronounced because it’s mostly only pictures. I’ve noticed that I’m interested in all phases of the moonflowers, trees, the sky and clouds. Based on these themes, I’m surprised I haven’t gone full Wiccca!

Anyway, one thing I have always been fascinated by since childhood is nightfall. That transition from day to night. When the sun is setting and the moon is rising. It’s so beautiful and feels magical to me. Maybe because I was born at night? I don’t know.

This morning, as I was catching up on some of my favorite blogs, I found this picture on Instagram by Yolanda Edwards. Based on the comments, it appears to be a Citroen parked by a storefront — a quiet evening in Paris and could not be more lovely.

Her picture immediately reminded me of the picture above. Probably one of my favorite pictures. I took it in Boston back in 2007 and wrote a post about it. Below is a quote from the post.

When I thought of Dorothy Parker’s poetry and life, it reminded me of those films, so I thought that I would adapt the film noir genre to a new genre of blog post. The post noir. Noir is black in French and I couldn’t help but think of my prior post about the color black. It all seemed to fit.

I took some night pictures around the city and converted them to black and white to try and get that same noir feeling. I was hoping for something special. Out of the blue, these two old cars appeared the two nights in a row that I was taking pictures, so I was able to take a bunch of shots of them. It was almost surreal. Like the cars just appeared from a different time. I’m sure there is a very rational explanation to it, but I like the mystery.

As I was looking at these old posts, I wondered if I could post this in time for Dorothy Parker‘s birthday.  Her birthday is August 22nd, and she would be 123, so the timing is just right.

Also, stay tuned for an Instagram photography project that I will be announcing soon. If you look at themes in this post, there are some bread crumbs. Any guesses?

Until then, an early Happy Birthday Dorothy Parker!

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