Safe as Houses.

Staying indoors?

Lately I’ve been wondering who the people who read this blog are.

Now, I know that a few of my friends read it more or less regularly, and they are the ones who leave comments, if they do. But unless the blogger statistics are lying to me (which I am not fully convinced they’re not), there are more of you.

Hello? How’s it going? Are you here frequently, or are these just coincidental hits followed by speedy and panicky retreats?

Who are you, where you’re from? What do you like? Where do you live?

I’m sometimes having a hard time writing into the void, so this is an attempt to probe and chart the unknown anonymity and fill it with faces and places. Drop me a note, will you?

Unadulterated pleasure.

I’m reading a book called Letters between Forster and Isherwood on Homosexuality and Literature, although the title is somewhat misleading, as the content of their letters isn’t at all restricted to those two themes, – mostly it’s just adorable invitations and attempts to meet up and then tragically missing each other, much like life in the twentyfirst century when your mobile phone battery is empty, but with the added tension of impending World War, and the increasing dilemma of how to deal with it on a personal level, both in very abstract and very, very real and specific ways, as in: “My lover is German, how on Earth is that going to work out???”. D:

I’m finding it wonderful and endlessly quotable. I think the personal memories and/or letters of literary people are my favourite thing to read by now, I don’t really know why. Obviously it’s because they’re always incredibly well written and witty, but what has happened to me + novels? I seem to be more and more interested in non-fiction. It’s strange. Is it a growing up thing? Can’t be, right? Adults do read fiction. Am I infested by a sort of high(er)-brow reality TV worm?
Anyway, you must bear with me whenever quotes from there crop up throughout my blog posts in the near future.

T., you must read the book!

“If you happen to be in Greece, please come and call. All you have to do is to get to Chalkis by train, then persuade some farmer to bring you as far as Chalia with his cart, from whence half an hour’s brisk donkey ride will bring you to the shore. From the shore you must shout very loud, and I will come over in a boat and fetch you.” 

Isherwood to Forster, 1933

On an unrelated note, I like these kids:

Impressions of Bulgaria, Part 4 (Food)

Before I will tell you any more ’bout Firenze, I’d like to get Bulgaria over and done with. So here’s the 4th and last batch of pictures, themed FOOD.
I admit that I was a bit worried about food, before I went to Bulgaria. It was right after my decision to turn vegetarian again, and I wasn’t really sure if the local cuisine would include an ample amount of vegetarian dishes or if I would have to live on bread and cheese alone (which isn’t per se such a bad thing). But it turned out, yes. Bulgarians do eat a lot of salad and their vegetables are wonderful. Most main dishes do contain meat, but there’s usually a way to somehow meander around them, and I never had to go to bed hungry. The contrary! Just one thing: it’s absolutely pointless if you ask the waiter at a restaurant if something contains meat. Meat seems to mean ‘a piece of meat’, so if something just contains minced meat or bacon, they will gladly assure you that it is a meat free dish.

First evening feast – Starters. Here we have the ever-present cucumbers and tomatoes, as well as Snezhanka Salad (the Bulgarian version of Tzatziki), some sort of Cream Cheese Paprika concoction (yum!) as well as Ljutenitsa (sauce of tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, etc.). All served on top of an enormous piece of flat bread, as you will see when you look closely enough.

First evening feast – Main course. Apart from the ubiquitous grilled chops which I didn’t have and which aren’t that interesting anyway, here we have a nice bean stew, and absolutely wonderful baby potatoes in a garlic-dill-sauce. How come I haven’t yet made these at home?! I remember writing that on my mental to do list as soon as I tasted them.

Chips from a ratty take-away in the middle of nowhere. Usually there would be grated white cheese (a manouri-like sort) on top of it, sadly not in this case. I did like the little salt cellar chef, though.

The typical Bulgarian flatbread called Parlenka. It’s sooooooo good.

So as I said, about one week before I went to Bulgaria, I had decided that I wouldn’t eat meat or fish any more. I do, however, make exceptions when I am by the seaside and I have it on good authority that the seafood is locally caught. This was the last time I had fish – we all shared a platter with an assortment of Black Sea fish, as well as these tiny fried anchovies, so-called tsatsas. They were absolutely worth overcoming my queasy qualms when it comes to swallowing fish whole. But it was fine, there was nothing unwelcome to be tasted. In fact, with a little lemon juice drizzled on top, and accopanied by Snezhanka Salad, they were delicious!

I’m a bit shocked that I never took a picture of a Shopska salad, which was indeed what I existed on mostly during my stay in Bulgaria. The recipe is always a little different, so it doesn’t get boring, but the main ingredients: cucumbers, tomatoes, grated white cheese on top. It’s all you need on a hot day, really. I love it.

Back From Firenze.

I have returned from Florence with a travel bag stuffed with new impressions and so much to blog about. I have no photos yet because most of them are on film, and Max has taken the digital camera away (;() so I cannot get right to work.

But, meanwhile, let me share two photo-booth-photos of postcards that show details in Michelangelo’s Night and Day sculptures from the tomb of Giuliano de’ Medici.


Details are the best.

By the way, the unfinished face of “Day” (not pictured) is one of the scariest and most fascinating things I have ever experienced in art. It is absolutely arresting to me.

I have lost my voice.

I have not been writing anything of substance during the last few months.
And indeed, it’s been years since I felt I had anything to say.
The question is, what am I so scared about? The answer is, I’m “scared” of not being good enough. “Scared” of my thoughts being too unoriginal, or not well enough put. “Scared” that my taste in things is so bad that I don’t even know which of my thoughts are worth saying out loud or writing down, and which aren’t. A while ago, someone or other has told me – relating to a completely different subject, but that is irrelevant – that I’m not really as great as I seem to think, and it just won’t leave me alone. I am constantly comparing myself to others, and concluding that I’m not fit to hold a candle to them. Why are they so much better than me? Envy turns into resentment, and I turn into a bitter cynical misanthrope. Then at times, I tell myself that this whole blogging thing is nothing but a narcissistic, specular, exhibitionist circus world that I don’t think I want to participate in anyways. And fear not, I think the same of the real world, in general, too. From time to time.

Also, I assume, I’ve lost something, and that is time to reflect. Time in which I am alone with myself, left to marinate in my own essence, so to speak. I don’t think everyone is like that, but for me, when I am with another person, or other persons (a lot), I forget myself a bit. I start existing exclusively in the space between me and the other person. I am de-centered. I put myself out into the creative commons. And I lose my own grip on myself.
The above, for some reason, has made it impossible to write anything that is in any way profound, because I don’t even think profoundly. I don’t have to. Everything just trinkles past, in an everlong, inconsequential stream
There might be other reasons as well. But those I dare not think, because they are inacceptable.

This is why there have been only pictures, lately.
And nothing interesting.
Sometimes I read things, and then I think, well, obviously. I’ve thought of that before.
But I didn’t write it down. Perhaps because I was too self-conscious and thought it wasn’t that impressive to begin with. But more likely because I was simply too lazy to put the thoughts into words.

tl;dr?
Pictures were taken in and outside of Westlicht gallery, Vienna.
Have a nice day.

Impressions of Bulgaria, Part 3 (Random Town and Country)

Impressions of Bulgaria, Part 2 (Churches and Walls)

As I went to Bulgaria as a part of an art history field trip, most of our time was spent looking at brickwork, buildings and battlements. And of course churches. Especially the brickwork on churches.

Sibylle Bergemann

If I was in Berlin, or had a chance to go any time soon, I’d love to see the Sibylle Bergemann exhibition ”Polaroids” at the C/O.

“I am interested in the margin of the world, not the center. For me, it is the non-interchangable that is crucial. When something in the faces or landscapes is not quite right.”
Sibylle Bergemann

(How perfect is that last photo of a girl on a swing in the Mauerpark? I am absolutely in love with it.)

Something for the Weekend

Things I enjoyed this weekend:

• Picking up the first, tiny, red apples that had fallen from the trees – We’ll be juicing them soon!
• Engaging barter trade – I gave my friend’s family a bottle of home made apricot syrup and received a pound of bacon and home grown tomatoes and peppers in return. (I think the swap was a bit uneven, I might have to bring a few more bottles next time.)
• Going for a long run with my mum (or make that, having gone for a long run, because running is just one of the things that I cannot really enjoy doing, but do them entirely for the great feeling of having done them) and then swimming across the lake and back. Yay!
• Reading more and more about Kara Walker and her disconcerting scissor cut art ...
• Apricot cake!
• A Saturday night of videos and Scrabble ... A Sunday night of getting drunk and not getting into a concert and sitting around outside discussing the world’s problems.

And here are some pictures.

Impressions of Bulgaria, Part 1 (Soviet Aesthetics)

A Rainy Picture.

Max.

Summer Food: Tofu Chili Wraps

A while ago, Max and I made these Tofu Chili Wraps, a nice, vegetarian alternative to meaty Burritos. I really love making these in the summer, because sometimes, even though it’s really hot, I don’t want to forego cooked meals altogether, and this recipe is a nice sort of in-between option that can be varied freely on a scale from fresh and salady to hot and filling.
Strange though, if you look at traditional cuisines, spicy food and hot weather don’t seem to be a contradiction. In fact, spicy food seems to be expecially popular in countries with a hot climate? I’ve been wondering for a while if there’s some hidden logic to it, or some underlying scientific reason, so if anybody has a clue, enlighten me.

Anyways - tofu chili wraps: I’ll tell you how we made them, although there’s basically nothing to it - you more or less just have to throw all the ingredients into a frying pan, and then roll them up in a tortilla with some lettuce and sour cream.
Another reason why this is a good recipe for the summer - minimize the time spent in a stuffy kitchen - maximize the time spent outside in the sun or immersed in a lake.
So here are the basic ingredients:

Ingredients:
1 block of firm tofu, cut into small cubes
1 onion, chopped finely
1 small can of sweet corn
1 small can of kidney beans
200g mushrooms (optional, because not a typical ingredient of chili, but I think we had some left over in the fridge, and I am ever happy to improvise. In my kitchen, supply usually influences demand. I encourage you to do the same and utilise whatever leftover vegetable you have that goes well in chili - especially bell peppers or green beans, but also courgettes, carrots, whatever you like!)
1 cup tomato puree
1/2 tsp chili powder (you can use fresh chilis as well, although I'm not sure of the equivalent amount in terms of spiciness)
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 tsp cumin
fresh parsley, chopped
salt, pepper to taste

Classic pan-fry procedure: Heat oil in a frying pan, add onions, fry until golden, add crushed garlic and tofu, fry until browned and a bit crispy (it’s no problem if it breaks into smaller bits). Add sweet corn and kidney beans along with the tomato puree and cook for about 7 minutes. Season.
Ready.

Line some tortillas with some lettuce (and maybe some sliced cucumbers, carrots, and other crudités if you desire), add filling and sour cream, and voila.
Perfect summer food.

If only we tried.

Cites could have lungs.