Weg

As you all know, I interviewed Ephameron and Pieter van Oudheusden a while back about Weg, a graphic novel that Eva drew and Pieter wrote. Eva or Ephameron as she’s called is an oddity in the Flemish graphic novel scene seeing as she’s well, a girl and usually tells her stories solely with illustrations, making Weg her first actual graphic novel and worthy of another interview. I had already interviewed her last year about Art Trek, an annual art show above Mekanik, Belgium’s coolest comic book store.

Anyway, Weg tells the story of a young woman who is writing a children’s book and runs out of ideas. She decides to take a walk to clear her head. This all seems pretty straightforward but what makes this book so unusual is in fact the story that accompanies Eva’s characteristic fragile dreamlike drawings namely, a story about a bear and a little fox who embark on an unusual friendship. This unconventional combo of children’s tale and grown-up drawings create an uncanny atmosphere that requires a little input from the reader because things aren’t always what they seem.

Weg is a fast read but don’t be fooled by its odd simplicity as there as so much more lurking beneath the surface. Both artists truly excel in their own personal expertise and together they have created an unexpected gem filled with longing and bewilderment.

If you want to know more about their collaboration and the autobiographical aspects of the book, you’ll just have to read the actual interview which will probably kick ass! Or I hope at least since I spent most of the afternoon transcribing it. One thing’s for sure, it’s the first and only time (so far at least) that Pieter has been interviewed with Eva, talk about a scoop!

Running out of time

You may have noticed that my last blog posts aren’t as chronological as they used to be. I start writing one and usually get interrupted by

a) My mother who has been particularly clingy lately
b) My grandmother who doesn’t seem to understand she isn’t 20 anymore, bless her
And c) food that needs preparing and the concept of cleaning

For some reason I don’t seem to get anything done lately. This week I worked, did two interviews, visited my godchild, mother and grandmother who’d have a fit if they didn’t see me at least twice a week, went shopping for shoes and a coat seeing as I wasn’t really prepared for winter, did a lot of “speed reading” and yesterday, I spent the entire day grocery shopping and cleaning as it had been two weeks since I gave this place the once over. Disgusting, I know.

Today I wanted to blog about Ephameron’s book Weg and my graphic novel experiences, something I should have done last week but I kept on postponing it because I was too busy so technically it’s old news, like the high speed reading post. More about that some time next week (hopefully).

On my to do list for today (which will probably keep me occupied until the end of next week):

- Write a review of that Italian cook book (it was actually due Friday)
- Transcribe those two interviews
- Finish (and start) three articles
- "Read" Big Brother in Europe and The United States of McSweeneys by Tuesday
- Write short synopses of the books I nominated for the Groene Waterman Prize
- Bake the first batch of gingerbread men (only 500 more or so to go)
- Plan the holidays: lots of parties so lots of grocery and gift shopping plus the usual cooking and cleaning that has to be fit in somewhere
- Reanimate my social life which has been dangling on the verge of extinction
- Blog

If I get all of this done today, there is a god.

Thursday's trailer

I've loved that bear since I was 2 so I'm actually pretty psyched

High speed reading

Tomorrow (correction: yesterday) we’re getting together to create the longlist for the glamorous Groene Waterman prize which will be awarded to one very lucky bastard on 4th February 2011. The concept behind this prize is that we look for great books that have been published in Belgium in 2010 and that haven’t received much publicity despite their obvious brilliance. Now seeing as it’s my first time and I hardly ever read any books on philosophy, history, foreign cultures or countries for that matter, politics or non-fiction in general, it was a daunting task to nominate books other than Anglo-Saxon (popular) fiction seeing as that’s basically all I read making me a literary xenophobe if there ever was one.

I tried to be as diverse as possible in the genres of books I nominated but sadly, they're all English so I must try to work on that (another New Year’s resolution?). The only bit I sorta forgot about is that I had to read all of them by tomorrow because “It looks like fun” probably won't be enough to get them on the longlist. The result: high speed reading of several books at the same time. I’ve never been able to read more than one book at once so this has been quite a migraine inducing challenge. Luckily I had already read a few but here's my list:

The Believer interview book which as you all know, conjured up a lot of strong emotions. Despite its ignorant and idiotic Dutch translation, I'm an advocate of the book because I personally think it's interesting to hear authors talk about their craft but I also believe it's an important tool to introduce lesser known authors to the literary minded masses despite the scandalous censorship of the Dutch version which I won't go into, again.

Jimmy Corrigan by Chris Ware because I absolute love the story and it took us Belgians a decade to finally realize how wonderful it really is and translate it. Ware's illustrations are simply mind-blowing, accompanied by complex characters and a semi-autobiographical tale about a middle aged man who finally meets his father alternated with the wacky dreams of a young boy who wants to be a superhero.

Shaking Woman by Siri Hustvedt is an exploration of her tremors which she started getting a few years after her father's death. Although there proved to be nothing physically wrong with her, she wanted answers and started a voyage that took her deep into the heart of psychology, neurobiology and history. I've skimmed through it and I thought it was pretty interesting and refreshing, although her interior monologue style of writing sometimes bugged me.

The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ by Philip Pullman was an unexpected delight really. Pullman is a known atheist and tries to uncover the narrative aspect of the story by giving Jesus a twin called Christ who is a firm believer in God, the church and its doctrine. Jesus on the other hand, is just a good guy so Pullman questions which is more "Christian" being good to your fellow man or following a doctrine that isn't necessary divine.

The Lonely Polygamist by Brady Udall is a about a guy with 28 charming children and 4 headstrong wives. He's embarking on a very complicated midlife crisis and proves contrary to common belief that being a polygamist isn't all what it's cracked up to be. This novel is a big and multi-layered family epic filled with genuine emotion, an interesting subject and a tasty dollop of sarcasm, giving Franzen's Freedom a well deserved run for his money if you ask me.

Paris after the Liberation finally, by Anthony Beevor is an historical account of a very troubled period in history both politically, socially and intellectually. Now, what got me interested in this book was its focus on art namely, how the war had influenced the life and work of people such as Hemmingway, Picasso, Beckett, Sartre and de Beauvoir. I only read a few fragments so I guess I'm going to have to wing it with this one. Here's hoping nobody notices.

Crossing Border 2010

On Sunday I did the most blasphemous thing you can do: work. It was the Crossing Border festival in Antwerp, a casual gathering that unites music and literature and where there’s literature, there are books and where there are books, there’s the Groene Waterman.

It’s the second time that Crossing Border lights up our Arenberg Schouwburg with an eclectic mix of prose, poetry and well, punk. But what struck me the most was how laid back this festival was. People were just popping in one gig and out the next, artists were mingling with the mortals and Sam Cutler especially, kept on dropping by to say hi and buy more of his own books. As you do.

Sadly I didn’t see a lot of performances but I heard quite a few: BP Fallon and band (weird guy), Ganglians (way too much hair), Kisses (cheerful poppy beats) and Low, who I did manage to see but who are kinda overrated if you ask me.

Whenever I wasn’t selling books, I was fulfilling the second part of my duties: making sure the authors got to their book singing on time which isn’t easy and always has to be preceded by a little nicotine. Some authors like Sam Cutler, Scroobius Pip (whose performance I regretfully missed), Stephen Vizinczey and even John Cooper Clarke whose books were all out of print making him slightly redundant, were all there out of their own devices. The others, needed a little more help.

First up was DBC Pierre who talked about his alcohol induced past and his amazement when his first novel Vernon God Little won the Booker prize in 2003 and eventually ended talking about his crazy new book Lights out in Wonderland. I haven’t read any of his work but I’m sure going to give it a try seeing as he was very interesting and entertaining.

After the interview, I had to nonchalantly slip backstage aka claw my way through the crowd to eventually end up jumping up and down like an idiot in order to get his attention because he had no idea he had to sign some books. Luckily for me, he was very friendly and complacent after a cigarette which he smoked outside while blabbering about the moonlight as I stood there, freezing.

Next was the highlight of my evening at least, Michael Madsen who was so unbelievably nice and even a little shy, bless him. He was supposed to be interviewed by Anna Luyten about his poetry but Anna soon proved that she wasn’t a match for the big guy. She was unprepared (even called him Richard, twice) and tried to be coy but he wasn’t having any of it.


The interview itself was terrible but god, was it good. Everyone who “knows” Madsen, knows what to expect from him: he doesn’t take any crap, he’s to the point and tells it like it is so Luyten’s pseudo intellectual psycho-babble didn’t exactly agree with him and almost had her in tears at one point but hey, his fans loved it. He also read some of his poetry which actually sounded more like snapshots of certain events and emotions so they weren’t exactly great but when he reads them, it sounds like poetry to me.

Afterwards, I got him and his lovely wife Deanna from stage and took him out for, what else a cigarette, while his wife got some drinks. “Take care of him” she said to me. Well, he’s twice my size but I’ll protect him. Outside he was greeted by some fans and talked out the interview, his future plans as a director and about the great people he’d met at Crossing Border. I hope that includes me.

Back inside he signed lots of books (including mine) and posed for dozen of pictures (several including lil’ old me). It was the perfect end to a great night. Oh if and you're wondering who's in that picture: Sam Cutler, Louis Behre (the organizer) and Madsen duh.

Stressy Saturdays

I’ve had a pretty hectic day to say the least:

• took my grandmother to the Carrefour which took ages because it’s her idea of Disneyland. And for some reason, whenever we lose track of her, she always ends up oogling the meat!?!
• did the washing up, the litter tray and watered our plants aka the miniature rainforest
• had a quick bite to eat while watching Nigella’s kitchen
• headed off to the Groene Waterman to bring the scones I baked yesterday afternoon for their high tea which was a lot of fun

• went to the comic book store (Mekanik) were the lovely Sara planned on giving me a crash course in Flemish graphic novels. Some customers also recognized me as the “Groene Waterman’s baker” which was really funny
• scheduled an interview with Ephemaron at Mekanik who was busy signing her first graphic novel, Weg
• went home and am now in the process of doing some more research on Pieter van Oudheusden, the co-creator of Weg, who has decided to join us for the interview. Talk about last minute stress!

Next on my to-do list: shower, prepare dinner, do the interview, put on my pyjamas and watch some much deserved telly.

Thursday's trailer

Required Reading

Two weeks ago, I finally got the go-ahead for my very own bookpage at Flanders Today. Yippee! Once a month I will be bringing you the best Flemish fiction accompanied by an interview or event and a bookstore that’s definitely worth a visit, or that’s the plan anyway. The first bookpage (due 22/12) will be dedicated to the bold and blossoming genre of the graphic novel. The pumpkin was very excited indeed.

Although I’ve read many graphic novels over the past few years, mainly under the influence of the pumpkin, I actually don’t know that much about the genre. What were its roots? When did it become mainstream? Who are the major players? I know several authors whose works fill our bountiful bookcases and I also know the difference between a graphic novel and a comic book but, that’s not enough really to tackles such a meaty subject so I’m doing some research (as you can see in my Currently Reading).

I have to admit that I’ve been pleasantly surprised by what I’ve encountered so far and will probably encounter the next few days, seeing as the mailman now brings me beautiful bundles of joy almost daily. Poor guy, his back must be killing him.

While I’m discovering loads of fascinating new authors (more about them later) and making the necessary tax deductable expenses, I’m also laying the foundations of my next article which will focus on contemporary Flemish graphic exploits in general and Ephemaron in particular.

Book Reviews

I still haven’t finished this month’s book club book, shame on me, but I have to admit that I really like Jhumpa Lahiri’s collection of short stories about Indian immigrants trying to find their way in the USA, despite that I’m not really a fan of the genre. Unaccustomed Earth is a powerful piece of fiction. Needless to say, I’m not only tremendously behind on my reading but also on my book blogging as well. Here are a few books that have kept me company the past few weeks (excluding my daily dose of cook books):

Freedom by Jonathan Franzen took me ages to finish. All the hype surrounding this novel (“best book of the year” and “The great American novel”) made me really curious despite the fact that I wasn’t that impressed by his previous so-called-masterpiece The Corrections. Freedom, for me, was mediocre at best. Granted, Franzen is an exceptional writer and the scope of his novel is baffling but the core story is simply boring and filled with lame whining characters. Impressive, sure. Entertaining, I think not. It’s clear why people love his work; it’s filled with beautiful sentences that intertwine several profound and contemporary issues. Plus the critics adore him and nobody in their right mind would doubt them, right? To me Franzen is like Impressionism, stunning at first glance but when you take a closer look, it’s one big mess.


In Lucia’s Eyes or Een Schitterend Gebrek in Dutch, was recommended to me by a customer who insisted that it was the most beautiful novel she had ever read. I gave Arthur Japin’s book a go so I could say that I’ve read at least two Dutch novels this year, the other being Sprakeloos by Tom Lanoye which conjured up the same feelings as Freedom did (pretentious, overrated and bland). Anyway, Lucia tells the story of Cassanova’s first love and the hardships she has to overcome in a world filled with poverty, prostitution and smallpox. Although it was slightly predictable, I did enjoy the story and the atmosphere. It’s sentimental, dramatic and great fun for a rainy day. Japin hasn’t won me over just yet butvhe has convinced me to give Dutch literature another go. Maybe I’ll make it one of my new year’s resolutions, who knows? The only downside for me about reading in Dutch, is that it takes me twice as long. Strange but true.

Heartburn by Nora Ephron (director of movies such as You’ve got mail, Julie and Julia and When Harry met Sally) was short, bittersweet and just ok. Nigella Lawson raved about it but I’ll definitely think twice before I take any reading tips from a TV chef again. She should stick to cooking and I shouldn’t be so gullible. Heartburn is semi-autobiographical and tells the tale of Rachel, a cookery writer, who discovers that her husband is in love with another woman while she is seven months pregnant. It is a confessional tale filled with loss, revenge and several recipes. You get the picture.

Baking: the next generation

I’m trying to buy less cook books because our kitchen now contains more books than it does food. So instead of window shopping at the Book Depository, I now spend a lot of time at http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/ as I realized that all the recipes of my favorites TV chefs are on there. I usually buy the book whenever I love one of their shows but now, I just copy paste the recipes to my recipe file. No more clutter and not a penny wasted. How cool is that?

The website naturally isn’t as comprehensive as a book but I never make every recipe in there, so who cares. Consider this the highlights. And Nigella, Sophie, The Hairy Bikers, Delia, Jamie, Raymond, Michel, you name them, the gangs all there.

Now in my ongoing quest for (free) culinary inspiration and cultivation, I also stumbled across some new baking trends that are trying to banish the ever so scrumptious cupcake from its sweet and succulent throne.

Our first contender is the whoopee pie. I can’t help but smile whenever I pronounce it. Just like the cupcake, this trend started in the USA and is slowly but surely conquering the UK. It kinda looks like a macaron and was originally just two chocolate cakes with marshmallow filling. Yum yum.

But if you prefer some folklore, Amish women would apparently bake these back in the day and put them in the farmers' lunchboxes. When farmers would find these treats in their lunch, they would shout "Whoopie!"

What it boils down to, is that the whoopee pie a deliciously soft and sweet cream-filled treat that comes in wide variety of flavors and colors: red velvet, green tea, pumpkin with a tangy cream cheese filling, oatmeal and even maple-bacon buttercream.

Our next contender was created by Angie Dudley, who the baking bloggers among us probably know as Bakerella. She started out with our beloved cupcake and turned it into something original, fun and oh so pretty, the cake pop aka a cute little cake on a stick.

Although the concept is quite simple, her results are truly outstanding ranging from decorated balls to robots, baby chicks and even piglets. They may seem like a lot of work but trust me, it’s a piece of cake and a perfect bite sized portion of ingenuity to brighten up any get-together.

Thursday's trailer

Charles Burns

Today was the last day of the Boekenbeurs and it was insane! It’s an official holiday in Belgium and the weather’s terrible so the Boekenbeurs was The place to be, well 22000 people thought so at least. You could barely breathe in there, let alone move.


The reason we endured such crimes against humanity, was so my pumpkin could revel in the presence of greatness aka Charles Burns who was being interviewed about his latest graphic novel X’ed out and why it shows so much resemblance to our very own Tintin, among other things. It was actually quite interesting, even for a non-devotee like myself. I’m definitely going to give his new book a go when the good people of the Book Depository drop it in the mail.

Although I thought his previous book Black Hole was a little weird, I have to admit that I was very impressed by his style and imagination. But I prefer his portraits that always grace the cover of The Believer magazine.


Despite the relatively intimate turn-out at the interview, the crowd at the signing session was insane and seeing as the pumpkin doesn’t like waiting in line, we skipped the autograph and personalized drawing which was a shame really. Still, seventy plus people times ten minutes a person, you do the math.

Happy happy joy joy

On November 21st I'll have the pleasure to escort Michael Madsen and Sam Cutler during the Crossing Border festival in Antwerp. I am sooo excited, seriously. Ok, I had to Google Sam first but Michael Madsen, Oh My God! He was so yummy as Mr. Blonde in Reservoir Dogs. Sadly the years and pounds haven't been kind to him but who cares. I'm going to be mingling with Mr. Blonde!

Why we read what we read

Why we read what we read is the ideal book for everyone who loves fiction and occasionally wants to dabble in the shallow realms of non-fiction. Like the title suggests, it explores what lures us to some titles while others are just destined to be forgotten. Their aim is to "provide a glimpse into the current state of the national psyche by looking closely at the books Americans buy, specifically those books they have bought in the greatest numbers since 1990 because these books resonate with broad segments of the reading public."

It is, as the subtitle suggests, a very opinionated book but the passion and perseverance of these authors didn't bother me. Although some of their conclusions were plain weird, even offensive, I loved reading this book and saw the humor in their snide remarks regarding the American literary public or lack there off. The only downside to this book is the abundance of figures and statistics that creates the illusion that you are reading a well researched bundle of joy. Nobody needs that many sales figures, trust me.

In a nutshell, this book has several chapters, each with its own genre: self-help books, romance, thrillers, religion, fiction, politics and The Da Vinci Code for the sole reason that is was a poor re-enactment of Dan Brown's Angels and Demons. Nobody apparently noticed and the legend was born. Go figure.

It's an interesting and enlightening read. By using several summaries and analyses, it will start you thinking about the books you've read and what they say about you. I now know more about John Gray's Woman are from Venus and Men are from Mars than I'd ever want to but hey, it was fun none the less. It will also introduces us Europeans to some lesser known "bestsellers" while once again proving our cultural differences.

Movies, anyone?

I occurred to me that it’s been ages since I’ve done any movie related posts which I used to do quite often. I still watch tons of movies (at least five a week) but ever since we got Belgacom TV, they’re mostly stupid comedies because my sweet pea loves them, old favorites which I’ve seen dozens of times before or blockbusters which I refused to watch in the cinema on account that they were destined to be lame.

And it also pains me to admit it that I rarely go to the cinema these days. I maybe went ten times or so this year which might seem a lot to some, but I used to go two or three times a week. I just don’t get out as much as I used to I guess. Then there’s also the fact that my love for the motion picture has had some strong competition lately from shows like True Blood, Mad Men, Dexter and Flight of the Conchords.

Anyway, here are some favorites from the past few months:

Synecdoche NY, the directorial debut of Charlie Kaufman (who I simply adore) starring the always amazing Philip Seymour Hoffman as a tormented theater director who creates an alternate New York on stage as his magnum opus and then slowly sees his life disguised as his play unravel, quite literally. It’s a strange yet beautiful and mildly depressing movie packed with stunning performances, mindboggling depth and haunting imagery.

The Wrestler has it all really. Micky Rourke is simply stunning as the worn out wrestler Randy "The Ram" Robinson who is trying to keep his sad and lonesome life (not his mention his body) together. He is training for one last big match but destiny steps in and gives him some painfully unexpected blows. I loved the characters, Marissa Tomei as the stripper Cassidy is equally great and heartfelt, and the atmosphere. Darren Aronofsky once again, show us who’s the man.

Junebug is a comedy – drama about an art dealer who goes to a small town in North Carolina to meet her husband’s family and to secretly make a deal with a local painter. The story is very simple and serene but the characters are wonderful little nuggets of vitality and defeat. Amy Adams especially, is quite simply brilliant as the overenthusiastic and highly pregnant Ashley who is the heart of this painfully perfect family feast.

Brick is a contemporary neo-noir film that won the Special Jury Prize for Originality of Vision at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. Based on the hardboiled detective stories of Dashiell Hammett, this movie is set in suburbia and deals with the disappearance and death of Emily, Joseph Gordon Levitt’s girlfriend who got tied up in some freaky shit. The plot, characterization and dialogue are classic noir combined with simple yet brooding visual effects.

The Fantastic Mr. Fox is based on one of Roald Dahl’s children’s books. It was directed by Wes Anderson who I don’t particularly like really. Sure his movies are original, vibrant and have some very odd characters; they just don’t work for me. I guess he’s a bit too absurd for my taste. Anyway, voiced by George Clooney and Meryl Streep among many others, this is an awesome and very funny movie!

Coraline was directed by Henry Selick who also brought us The Nightmare before Christmas and The Corpse Bride. Based on one of my favorite stories by Neill Gaiman, he did a sublime job in bringing this scary children’s story, about a girl who finds a door in her new house that leads her to an alternate and supposedly better reality, to the screen and making it even scarier than it already is. I truly loved it!

Thursday's trailer

Michael Cunningham

Today I voluntarily went to the boekenbeurs to attend the interview with Pulitzer Prize winning author Michael Cunningham who I actually only know from his novel The Hours. But hey, how often does a Pulitzer Prize winning author visit antwerp? My thoughts exactly.

What started out as a nonchalant visit ended up in a casual yet unexpected chat with Cunningham (he is so nice!) and a signed copy of his latest novel, By Nightfall. Needless to say, I had a very good afternoon.

The interview was really interesting. He talked about his book naturally, the New York art scene, writing, Thomas Mann, our perception of beauty and I could just go on really. It was very inspiring and I love hearing authors talk about their craft.

I was so impressed in fact, that I immediately went down to Sterling and bought the book! I can't wait to read it.

Dead untill Dark

Seeing as it was Halloween this weekend, I decided to indulge in some scary stories. My True Blood boxed set has been seductively staring at me for a few weeks now so I thought, what the hell. I keep putting it off because I already know what happens in the first three books, thanks to one of the best TV shows ever. Yet seeing as I’m dying to know what happens next and they haven’t even started filming season four, I decided to read the books. It’s kinda stupid to start with book four as I’m told that the novels are slightly different, so started with Dead until Dark like a good girl.

Now I didn’t expect this, but I was completely blown away by how incredibly awful these books (or the first one at least) are and not in a good way. To say it was trashy would actually be a compliment, just imagine Jackie Collins with vampires. The show is eons better than the books, trust me. Charlaine Harris’ novels are filled with idiotic dialogue, lack any character development, things just randomly happen without ever being explained and her writing makes me want to give Stephanie Meyer a Nobel Prize for vampire fiction. It’s that bad!

The only thing that makes reading her books remotely worthwhile is, once again, the show. With that in mind, the books become tolerable and mildly pleasant because you know the characters (thank you Alan Ball) and actually care about all the freaky shit that happens. Without it, they’re just a waste of trees. I never thought I’d say this, but the TV show adds more character development, depth and atmosphere than Harris could possibly conjure up in several lifetimes.

I’m going to continue reading the series because I’m a masochist and just so darn curious, but honestly I cannot believe that such mediocre drivel could be turned into one of the most provocative and exciting shows on TV right now. Seriously, Alan Ball is a genius!