TIDBITS
Soothing things for burnout (because I fucking need them)
G’day sexies,
It’s been a while, hasn’t it? I wish I were a robot in this techno-capitalist hellscape and could pump out essay after essay until my memory card went bust but alas, I am flesh and bone. This means that I can’t smash out a bajillion articles a year like a duracell bunny on MDMA (although I wish I could) and so I’ve been on a wee break.
In that time I’ve finished up some commissions, made good headway with my masters and started a new job, huzzah! It’s all been rather exciting but I am trying to squeeze in two person’s worth of a lifetime into one so I am running out of hours in the day. Something had to give. Unfortunately, it was my writing and this blog which I love so fucking much. But the break has been good. It’s forced me to realise that yes, I do need sleep, no, I should probably say no to that extra thing, it’s okay to rest.
Also I’m doing a little bit of rebranding! I really dig primary colours so expect to see more of that. I don’t really know anything about graphic design so that’s all I have to say about that.
So, what is this TIDBITS for you? Basically a very short compilation of the stuff that’s been getting me through this past month. And I’ll be honest, I’m still overwhelmed and I’m trying my best to get into a new groove, but these things take time. So please, instead of something large and taxing, enjoy this small little offering of links that are basically chicken soup for the soul:
To set the record straight I’m a Taurus Rising and a Virgo Moon. If you’re not into astrology then I suggest you leave now and no I won’t apologise for being into it! Let me give my life meaning lol!
Basically I love food and eating regularly. My entire life revolves around it. Once, I visited my sibling in hospital after a major surgery and I was 1.5 hours late for my lunch and I had to be escorted to the cafe for a toasted sandwich because I felt faint. Anyway, something that I’ve struggled with lately is having time for cooking and baking which is the only way I can meditate (my brain is like an anxious racehorse so the opportunities for my brain to go quiet are few and far between).
I’ve been sitting on an essay about food for a while which I hope to release in the next few months so I’ll save my amazing prose for then. In the meantime, this is what I’m eating on repeat:
Khichdi: You can find the vegan recipe over at Upbeet Anisha (I’m no longer vegan so I sub the vegan butter for ghee) as well as her Substack which I absolutely love! My mum and I try and cook this every Sunday as a way of using up leftover vegetables. Also we seem to have the immune-system constitutions of 19th century ladies prone to fainting on couches. This is like a hug in a pot plus has the added benefit of warming spices to kick the last of winter to the curb.
Easy butter bean stew: This popped up on my IG feed one day (thank you algorithm) and I swear to God this recipe by Bunch is fucking amazing. I also find it makes quite a lot so I usually mop up the leftovers with garlic rubbed toast and add in a fried or a poached egg or two. It makes it go further, plus it’s super yum as a breakfast option if you’re short on time. I’ve made it with chickpeas or with goat’s yoghurt and saffron. Whatever works!
Chicken and Rice Soup with Garlicky Chili Oil: I would say this is definitely more like Avgolemono than congee or Chicken Arroz Caldo but in classic western fashion, there’s no mention of source material (are we surprised) on the recipe website. It tastes super yum and I definitely cook this once a week since I love garlic so much (my grandfather apparently ate garlic and onion like apples so anything goes in my house). I use the leftover chilli oil on basically everything, especially the next recipe.
Tarka roasted cauliflower: Now I’ve never actually made this recipe in full, I usually just make some loosely inspired version of it depending on what I have in the fridge (today I made it with za’atar and sumac roasted pumpkin) but it is honestly the most delicious way to cook veggies. Plus I love Zena’s Kitchen, she’s easily my favourite foodie on IG, and I don’t think I’ve ever cooked a dud from her page. If I feel up to it I make the tarka but lately I’ve just been using that leftover chilli oil which works fine. I can’t have cow’s dairy either so I usually just mix coyo with salt, lemon and garlic and it’s a fine sub.
Banana muffins (GF): I have a lot of dietary reqs because of my chronic illness so finding snacks and such can sometimes be an arduous task. But I’ll keep this short and sweet by saying this was such an easy way of using up my leftovers and also having a yummy snack. I added chopped walnuts and Lindt dark choccie (because I’m fancy, obviously).
Reading has been a really funny one lately. I’ve kind of all but given up on fiction which is something I find ludicrous and bizarre but I’m experiencing so much ennui that I cannot bear to keep going! Perhaps it’s my Masters (and our lecturers did warn us about this) that we would find reading a forever changed experience and boy, oh boy, isn’t it just. If I’m not (subconsciously) analysing something I love then I’m inwardly critiquing something that I don’t and if it’s in between, I’m mentally editing to figure out where it could have gone better.
I’ve found reading non-fiction a lot easier because it gives my brain a break, plus I’ve read so many really incredible books this year and some really shit ones (and yes The Dispatch will be featuring a new review) that I kind of just want to live with the highs for a bit. Anyway, I’ve gone and eaten my words because I’ve read some really amazing things lately and in different formats too which have been very nourishing for my soul.
Middlemarch, by George Eliot: I picked up Middlemarch on a whim from the library thinking I’d flick through and probably shelve it when life got too difficult. But I should have known that picking up a 19th century novel usually has the opposite effect. It’s the kind of book that has me gasping so loud on the train that a woman turned around and shushed me (idk why but Regency and Victorian novels actually render me a public menace, the drama is unmatched!). Anyway this is such a sharp, funny, deeply profound book that considers its characters deeply. It’s an absolute must read and I’m only more delighted because I knew nothing about it prior.
Snow Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek by The New York Times: Funnily enough this was a required reading for one of my courses for uni on interactive prose and poetry. We’re exploring the fraught boundary line between the written and the screen, the analog and the digital and this text was set last week. I spent over an hour reading this on my laptop (best digital experience for those interested) and then spent another hour catatonic on the couch shifting between crying pathetically and then staring at the wall. An amazing piece of journalism that definitively changed the game.
The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien audiobook (narrated by Andy Serkis): Holy shit I am an audiobook convert. I was never much into them until I listened to War and Peace narrated by Thandiwe Newton whose performance single handedly converted me to a Tolstoy lover. I usually reserve audiobooks for things I’m daunted by or want to read but just don’t have the time to commit. I’m a huge LOTR fan, absolutely adored The Hobbit, but I’ve just have never been able to crack the trilogy and so Andy Serkis comes to the rescue! He’s an incredible narrator and brings Tolkien’s prose to life so that Mum and I eagerly await our Baggins’ Bedtime Stories. It’s also nice to hear Elvish spoken instead of me doing some bastardised version in my head (although yes, I can recite the entire ‘A Hymn to Elbereth’ by heart, no I won’t do it now unless— 👀).
Moon Wrasse by Willo Drummond: I’m including this one even though it’s on my TBR shelf since she’s my favourite poet and also one of my lecturers (I’m waiting on my copy to arrive). Willo has taught me more about poetry in six months than I’ve learned over a lifetime and from what I’ve read, this book of poetry is going to absolutely devastate me. Take it from other writers better than me: ‘Moon Wrasse is bounteous, sinuous and queer, haunting in its embrace of grief, shifting identities, and transformation at both personal and planetary levels,’ Jill Jones.
Unsurprisingly, I haven’t had much time for watching stuff lately, and being able to spend a weekend on the couch binge-watching TV is frankly a luxury for me at this point in time. However, I have been able to sneak in a night or two here and there where I can just switch off and relax. It’s why having this three week break from social media has been sorely needed— I can begin to feel like a human again instead of this fractured self with one eye on a task and the other on my phone.
Deadloch: I obviously have to start off with plugging the article I wrote on Read, Watch, Binge! And if you want a review of why I loved it so much and am grabbing people by the lapel and shaking the shit out of them, head over via the link to read it.
Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Vinterberg: I was in desperate need for some period romance and all I can say is holy shit Matthias Schoenaerts, I’m going to learn Flemish for you as quick as humanly possible. While not being a perfect film (I think this is a broader issue of trying to fit such dense and complex novels into two hours instead of doing them as a mini series so the plot can feel a bit sudden and jarring) I really enjoyed how lived-in this film felt. And I think that’s a direct reflection of the strong direction by Vinterberg: the entire film felt sensory, tactile and my heart ached during some scenes with Schoenaerts and Michael Sheen. Also why haven’t we realised by now that men in red coats are EVIL???
Psycho-Pass: I’ve got two books on my shelf that I’m desperate to read; the first is Man Made by Tracey Spicer about the inherent sexism of AI, the second is Machines Behaving Badly by Toby Walsh who, whilst taking a broader look at artificial intelligence, delves into structural racism and sexism within technology. Indeed, Abeba Birhane’s essay: The Impossibility of Automating Ambiguity and Belinda J. Dunstan’s work on the dark history of robot bodies are all brilliant academic critiques that underpin the story of Psycho-Pass. I will caution a big TW for SV and general violence, however, it is a damning and timely exposé on the uses and abuses of technology by governments and the ways in which they oppress marginalised peoples.
The Matildas: The World at Our Feet: Watching this was kind of a mistake because I was already in a hyperfixation hole on the Matildas and so losing to England in the semis kind of sent me off the deep end (cue me sobbing in my shower like in an emo music video). But the documentary is a brilliant underdog affair that makes you root for the girls like nothing else.
Remains of the Day by James Ivory: Yes this is the same Remains of the Day written by Kazuo Ishiguro which won the Booker Prize in 1988 and the movie is heart achingly brilliant. I think what I love about Ishiguro so much (and why he’s one of my favourite authors of all time) is his restraint. I know that I talk about restraint all the time but it really is what separates good writers from great writers and seeing his prose elevated on screen by marvellous acting made it such a beautiful and painful watching experience. Also anything that is a sharp critique of class relations always gets my tick of approval.
Alright folks, that’s it! I’m currently working on releasing The Dispatch soon-ish (it’s a big one) as well as some other commissions that I’m excited to reveal soon but in the meantime, stay sexy, stay connected, go outside and talk to folks in your community and go and eat the damn thing you’re craving.
such a coincidence that I wrote a little bit about khichdi this week and then stumbled upon my recipe right here! love these tidbits :)
If you ever learn Flemish, please teach me how you did it, because 4 years living here I still struggle a lot. So hard! But at least is not German