belgianwaffle

Reading etc.

1st birthday


Posted in: Reading etc.

Today is my blog anniversary but I am of course keeping my blog a deep dark secret.  You, however, may congratulate me for my tenacity etc. etc.

Comments
lauren35

on 13 December 2004 at 22:40

Many happy blog returns of the day & joyeuse blogiversaire

NorahSplog

on 13 December 2004 at 23:56

Happy Blirthday Dear Waffle x

Mikeachim

on 14 December 2004 at 01:42

Happy blogday, Lady of the Waffle.

Friar Tuck

on 14 December 2004 at 03:10

We’re supposed to congratulate you for your tentacles?! Why?

Friar Tuck

on 14 December 2004 at 03:17

You should have told them about the time you hiked across the Amazon jungle carrying nothing but an extra pair of socks and a compass. It’s probably as true as that “half a novel” crap.

UndercoverCookie

on 14 December 2004 at 11:09

*sings* Happy Birthday dear blog
Happy Birthday dear blog
it and I share a biiiiiirthdaaaaaaay
hye, that makes your blog a sagittarius.

poggle

on 14 December 2004 at 12:05

Besides – you are in the process of co-authoring a masterpiece yourself, waffle …….

stroppycow

on 14 December 2004 at 21:35

Happy blogiversary.

belgianwaffle

on 14 December 2004 at 23:03

Oooh, thank you all so much for your blog birthday wishes, you are kind.
on 16 December 2004 at 11:50

Missed it. As with so much else these days. Ah well, here’s a rue de Tr?ves special…. 1
Sweetie(s) given

belgianwaffle

on 16 December 2004 at 22:50

Ooh Jack a sweetie, you are kind. I like your use of the accent on Treves. Do you get to come to this part of the world a bit then?

A slight backlog


Posted in: Mr. Waffle, Reading etc.

Mr. W : Have you read “American Pastoral” yet?

Me: No, it’s on the bedside table.

Mr. W: But, it’s been there for years.  Philip Roth has written two more books in the time that book’s been sitting on your bedside table.

Culture Vultures


Posted in: Reading etc.

In the morning we went to an exhibition on tattoos. It also threw in some alarming body piercings for good measure. In the afternoon we took in an exhibition on 25 typical Bruxellois. It included a profile of a Madam Pipi. I feel this is not a profession which is well known in the anglophone world. We were led to this by the admirable Thierry who is my source of information on all that is going on in the Belgian capital.  Finally, we went to an exhibition of pre-colombian art which was sponsored by my bank and we got in free. I think that this was the first time I got something for nothing from my bank, so let’s celebrate that. The exhibition featured quite a number of large stone phalluses and I couldn’t help feeling the mother and teenage son team making their way round weren’t having a great time with these.

Comments
belgianwaffle

on 13 November 2004 at 22:03

Stop being all American. We know what you Bush lovers are like.

Friar Tuck

on 14 November 2004 at 19:40

Touch?!

LRB personals


Posted in: Reading etc.

It’s been a while since we’ve had one of these. How about this:

“Don’t reply to this ad if you are now or have ever been a T.A. reservist. Orienteering is neither big nor clever, and no-one in your department at work ever calls you captain. You know who you are. F., 36. Box no. 20/13″I see that the mean old editorial staff are not giving out the bottle of champagne for best ad this week as “this issue is the first of the LRB’s 25th Anniversary editions. As a result advertisers are asked to get over themselves for uno momento whilst we keep this issue’s champagne for an office jolly.”

Comments
poggle

on 11 November 2004 at 14:50

Yes. What she said.

Bobble

on 11 November 2004 at 15:37

Thirded.

Beth

(Homepage)

on 11 November 2004 at 16:49

How topical – want the list of things in this post that I didn’t understand? 🙂

belgianwaffle

on 12 November 2004 at 12:57

Actually to be fair to the personals in the LRB, they are all wonderful. Hilarious. They should sell them separately. Beth, I suspect you are baffled by the TA which is the territorial army, I think. Further guesswork here but could it correspond to US reservists?

Art for the masses


Posted in: Reading etc.

Well, last week saw the arrival of M who has spent the past couple of years working in Gaza. I haven’t seen much of him recently as it’s a long way from Gaza to Brussels and I was reluctant to visit him as I felt I owed it to my baby daughter to have her mother survive her infancy. So there was much rejoicing on his arrival in the capital of Europe.

M is always taking me to operas. He loves opera. Despite my best efforts, I do not love opera. I can’t help it, I try and I try but as far as I’m concerned, a day without opera is just fine. So we went to Aida, described by M as “fabulous Aida that everybody loves”. Not everybody, oh it was alright I suppose. But Aida and Ramades were very fat and as they stood at the front of the stage clutching each other’s chubby little hands, I was irresistibly reminded of the teletubbies.  And then Aida is so feeble. Ramades is sentenced to death (which is entirely her fault) and walled up in a tomb.  Guess who’s secreted herself in the tomb so that they can die together (I’m sorry, if I’m ruining the punchline for you).  Surely, the least she could have done was hidden outside and tried to get him out. Opera. Pshaw.

A trip to Ghent for the day was much more to my taste.  We spent quite a while looking at art and were able to entertain ourselves and nauseate passers-by with conversations along the following lines:

Me: Of course, I love the Flemish Primitives…

M: I think you’ll find that’s early Netherlandish

Me: Sorry, I’m so used to thinking in French.

M: Yes, well, look at the jewel like intensity of those colours.

Me: Yes, I feel that this is the peak of achievement of the Netherlandish school.  Those imports from Italy often don’t work.

M: Are you talking about the Caravaggisti?

Me: Well, no, they’re fine, I’m really thinking about Northern Mannerism.

M: Of course, the Northern baroque, one thinks of Rubens…

And so on. No truly.  We can’t help ourselves.  We’re made for each other. It was fabulous to see him.

Comments
Bobble

on 29 October 2004 at 13:38

Ah, but the Cortona school of Futurists *sighs*…

belgianwaffle

on 29 October 2004 at 13:58

PFT, fat birds indeed, when one things of the monumentality of Rubens’ work, the solid presence of his figures and his daring Titianesque use of colour…you see once you start this kind of thing, it is very hard to stop..
Bobble, well, clearly anything after the Flemish primitives, is bound to be a let down and those futurists, really, I don’t know. Of course, Italy is clearly very proud of the futurists but frankly, not sure that Boccioni merits his place on the 20 cents in the same way that Botticelli deserves the 10 cent place…and, you know, I could go on like this for hours unless I am stopped by the forces of reason.

Bobble

on 29 October 2004 at 14:07

I am off to my preferred artist’s show on this Saturday: Raphael. His transfiguration… *wordless*

silveretta

on 29 October 2004 at 14:59

How come we never get any of that classy kind of talk on this blog?
O.

Beth

(Homepage)

on 29 October 2004 at 21:05

My husband refuses to go to art galleries with me because I talk like that for hours. He does the same thing with hair bands. No idea how we ever got together.
on 29 October 2004 at 22:25

An amazing coincidence where he works, considering his name eh? Worked out quite well…imagine the confusion if he worked in Ballinspittle or somewhere…

belgianwaffle

on 01 November 2004 at 19:15

Bobble, lucky, lucky you. Silver, start blogging again, I miss your puns. Will I start a separate category for arty talk? Beth, well, that’s perfect because when you have children, he can take them to look at hair bands and you can go to galleries. Locotes, indeed.

Vote early, vote often


Posted in: Reading etc.

So, do you want to vote?  Not from the US, not a problem.  Vote here.
And in other US election tat, I found this, which I really rather like.

Comments
Locotes

on 28 October 2004 at 13:22

Well the Irish vote is certainly pretty certain – 94%!
I know this leaves me open to horrendous amounts of abuse, but my 100% anti-Bush stance has actually wavered over the last few weeks. I think I’m one of those that has slightly overdosed on Michael Moore-type over-stated opinions. A few documentaries lately (on various channels) have shown very interesting histories on both candidates. Right now, I’m wondering what Kerry would actually bring to the job, and if Iraq hadn’t gone so pear-shaped, would Bush actually be viewed as a reasonably decent president?

poggle

on 28 October 2004 at 13:42

Wash your mouth out with soap Locotes. Bush and ‘reasonably decent’ in the same sentence? Oh please. 😉

Locotes

on 28 October 2004 at 13:48

I was just amazed I could write ‘anti-Bush’ and keep a straight face. It’s so not me…
😉

dmts

on 28 October 2004 at 13:59

I am really surprised that Switzerland had voted Kerry with 91%

poggle

on 28 October 2004 at 14:02

Maybe someone’s having a laugh, H – you can, after all, say you come from anywhere on that list.

belgianwaffle

on 28 October 2004 at 21:19

Or maybe the Swiss are pro-Kerry. Who knows what the inner working of the Swiss mind are? Did Kerry go to finishing school in CH?

Friar Tuck

on 29 October 2004 at 00:03

Can one really believe there are dozens of Monsignori in the Vatican sitting at their computers in black cassocks with violet piping “voting” for the U.S. President? On the other hand, the result-60% for Kerry, 39% for Bush-closely matches what noted Vaticanista John Allen concluded from his informal poll. Molto interessante!

belgianwaffle

on 29 October 2004 at 13:15

Well, FT, as you well know, they are a very computer literate crowd in the Vatican.