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