23. The Ardennes edition

20 August 2023

A brief dispatch from the Ardennes, where I spent the first of three weeks of holiday over the past few days in a modest cabin near the village of Martelange. According to its Wikipedia page, this village is known for two things. First, there are many liquor stores and petrol stations, because Martelange lies on the Luxembourg border. This lets everyone take advantage of the low excise duties. And in 1967 a French tanker carrying 45,000 litres of liquefied gas exploded there. It caused enormous devastation and dozens of deaths and injuries.

Made with Midjourney.

I.

In the peaceful camping forest not far from there, I finished reading Emma Cline’s latest novel: The Guest. The book is about Alex, a young woman who uses her charms to always end up living with wealthy older men. For a while she seems to have found her luck with Simon, until she messes it up and is thrown out of his villa.

Alex refuses to accept the end of the relationship and suspects it will all work out. If she just gives it a few days. We follow her through those days as she manipulates wealthy people for a place to stay. People with money usually have no worries at all, but then they fall for the young seductress who cleverly exploits that. But the downward spiral has begun. Her past is catching up with her and her future collapses with every step she takes. She drags everyone down with her.

Sometimes Cline goes a little too far and you wonder at the choices characters make. Or something happens that is a little too convenient. When all’s said and done, everyone is terrible. And yet you keep reading. I’m already looking forward to Cline’s next novel. Her style is crystal clear, enchanting and gripping. She showed that with her debut too, The Girls, about a Charles Manson-like cult. One of my favourite books.

II.

At home I have a coffee machine that grinds fresh beans, filters and pours with the push of a button. On camping trips I like to put a little more work and love into it. An AeroPress is one such pleasant coffee maker.

But this past week, the Bialetti Moka Express has won back my heart. The screwing together of the parts, the weight of it, the design, the measuring of the coffee grounds: it’s super simple but you fall in love with it immediately. And it makes excellent coffee.

Back home I fell into a small rabbit hole of coffee makers and machines. I found the YouTube channel of James Hoffmann, a British coffee enthusiast who knows what he’s talking about. I subscribed straight away after watching this short series on moka pots. It begins with a history lesson on the Bialetti Moka Pot, and subsequent episodes take a deep dive into temperatures and techniques.

III.

Here follows a brief photo report from the Ardennes (and a bit of Luxembourg). It’s almost a shame there was mobile coverage, because there was no wifi. You can’t be forced hard enough to cut yourself off from the rest of the world in order to recharge.

(If it were up to me I’d spend entire days reading, but it is good to be forced to take in the surroundings every now and then.)

A midweek stay in a forest cabin.

This is how you know you’re in Martelange.

Blogger looks at trees.

Where nothing grows.

More summer reading — I was expecting something a bit more punk in Spider-Punk.

Best view of the week.

Dam fine.

Twin Peaks.

PS.

On the website Clone-a Lisa you have one minute to repaint the Mona Lisa with three brushes and eight colours. My best effort yielded a score of 71.5 percent. Not only is it a fun game, you also immediately learn to look more closely at how the painting is constructed.

I’ve enjoyed Scott Pilgrim twice already. First as a comic, then again as a film adaptation. And soon I get to do it once more. Netflix is releasing an animated series around the character Scott Pilgrim at the end of this year, who once again battles seven evil exes to win the heart of Ramona Flowers. Looks amazing.

A round of new music. The National surprises with two new tracks: Space Invader (seven minutes!) and Alphabet City.

On Jon Batiste’s latest album there is a wonderfully beautiful song with Lana Del Rey: Life Lesson.

The Smile has released a video of Bending Hectic at the Montreux Jazz Festival. First time live, the ink barely dry from writing, it sounds like this:

YouTuber Jarvis Johnson put on his VR headset and spent a week in Horizon Worlds, Meta’s Metaverse. That became a hallucinatory experience and pretty much exactly what you’d expect.

Thank you for reading! Subscribe to this newsletter and receive it every Sunday for free in your mailbox.