september 2018 finds comes a little bit late.
1. i’ve finally finished vernon subutex. it’s a must read portrait of present day france. read this interview for the author’s pov.
the trilogy has already been translated into several languages. it’s currently being transformed into a tv series with roman duris in the title role.
2. i also read bye bye blondie in september. i couldn’t put it down. it’s despentes’ best novel imo. the story of star-crossed punk lovers, 20 years later. i loved it!
i’ve just skipped through the homonymous film. directed by despentes herself, it features beatrice dalle and emmanuelle beart. it only barely resembles the original story and it’s not as good as the book.
3. i usually research what i like. by researching despentes i came across her former lesbian lover beatriz preciado. they were together 2005-2014. in 2014, beatriz started the process of becoming a male. he is currently known as paul b. preciado. he wrote a book about his self-administration of testosterone called testo yonqui. read this interview to find out more. i’ll look out for the book, maybe even try to read in spanish.
4. another fast read was en finir avec eddy bellegueule by edouard louis. i liked it, but be warned: it’s about his unhappy childhood.
5. i went through a couple of comics. le manuel du puceau, pascal brutal – plus fort que les plus forts and the first volume of la vie secrete de jeunes. riad sattouf is a favourite so i liked all three.
6. i’ve been watching vincent urban for a while. watch his latest video. it’s good. just like the rest of them.
7. christeene is probably the best communicator on insta i know. i love his videos and i know i’d give him a big hug if i ran into him! her?
8. very interesting read about the ugly underbelly of the fashion world.
9. if you ever wondered how they make those fabulous rain drop cakes.
10. we went to madrid for a weekend.
11. i really wanted to see this church. it’s one hour away from the city. but it was worth it.
12. another highlight was seeing gus van sant‘s retrospective at la casa encendida.
13. then, i spent a few days in santander. it was my second time. it’s a nice, quiet town on the northern coast, in cantabria.
14. last but not least, we spent a long weekend in porto.
15. ryanair cancelled our flight the night before the departure. so we changed it to a flight to santiago de compostela, in galicia. on our train ride to porto, we had a 3h layover in vigo. we lost one day in porto but saw 2 new places.
16. the main reason we went was to see anish kapoor‘s sculptures in the garden of fundacao serralves. luckily, we got to see a robert mappelthorpe show as well.
17. we took a guided tour of casa da musica by rem koolhas. well-worth it, very informative.
18. we went to the neighboring matosinhos, on the edge of the ocean. we saw two of alvaro siza’s works – the swimming pools and another structure on the coast that’s currently a michelin-starred restaurant. also, we went to the new casa da arquitectura. we discovered an interesting brazilian architect called leonardo finotti.
19. one of the most interesting articles i read this month is the life and art of wolfgang tillmans.
20. i found a so-called polyglossary. i took the time to go through it. be warned, it’s pretty comprehensive!
21. i leave you with the marias’ new ep. enjoy!
photo credits: little aesthete and copyright holders
video credits: copyright holders
