100% true.

Soon!

I love this for you! I hope the CDS knows I’m ready.

I really miss having a cat.

On my hols and went to Mass in Fishguard today. A wonderful surprise to see this small, exquisite window depicting St. Thérèse of Lisieux by #HarryClarke studios (1929) in the Church of the Holy Name R.C. #StainedGlassSunday

#stainedglass #netherlands

#stainedglass #netherlands

#stainedglass #netherlands

A thread even: #stainedglass #netherlands

In the Netherlands there is stained glass everywhere you look. #stainedglass

Recomposed by Max Richter: Vivaldi - The Four Seasons, The Unsung Collective YouTube video by The Unsung Collective

This piece of music unfailingly thrills and devastates me.

youtu.be/hLZ6c4ZLxUY

White woman with light blue hair on a light blue bike on a brick street in the Netherlands.

A minute after this picture was taken it occurred to me that living in Europe now makes up for having my 50th in lockdown. Not really related, but that’s my brain. Hope this lasts!

Stained glass window of a raven against a night sky.

This design got knocked off again. It’s *starting* to become less flattering.
#stainedglass

The admiration is mutual! We brought a small pallet of items and there are a couple of your pieces that made the trip.

And my wishing for people like you to move over here is entirely selfish.

I would urge you to come to the Netherlands because so much space is given to pedestrians and bikes, but the cars are also really aggro!

This is gonna sound weird but there is magic in Led Zeppelin’s music and I’m glad they got debauched enough to appeal to the old gods so I don’t have to.

I will miss cloud city!

Randall discovered that about Bunq! I am on the verge of ING so I’m waiting it out.

Randall pointing at the Den Haag sign, indicating war crime tribunals coming soon! 🤞

One of many public sculptures we saw, but this one was the spookiest.

Wonderful Amsterdam School architecture (I think)

A Portland friend was in town today so we we went to downtown Den Haag and hung out with them. Successful tram rides, icy wind, lots of stores and people out. We hung out at the library for a while because they had a cafe and it was a lovely 3rd space. Tired but no complaints.

White man standing on a sidewalk with two Dutch bicycles.

Today our landlords and neighbors hooked us up with free bikes! The neighbor is an older man who was a nuke power engineer in Germany until chernobyl happened. Our landlords are a project manager for the government and a camera operator for tv. They live downstairs from us.

Every immigrant already knows that life in a language you don’t understand is hard, *even* when most people are willing to try your language! Everything takes extra steps and mental processing. Everyone has been kind, but never being able to retreat to the familiar is a special kind of exhausting.

We are waiting for bank accounts, and until then we can’t access garbage service or parking permits or some purchases, so most of our time has just been walking to the local grocery and assembling IKEA furniture. And sleeping.

First week in NL done. This place is alternately storybook quaint, and modern. We live on a brick-paved street that’s like a little village with kids walking home from school, cats sunning themselves, and so many birds. A few blocks away are trams, cars, and insanely fast bike lanes.

Painting of a ship in the darkness. Full moon, cloudy. More ships in the far distance.

'Build then the ship of death, for you must take
the longest journey, to oblivion.'
-D. H. Lawrence

🎨Carl Bille
#WyrdWednesday

Mid-sleep insomnia used to mean a visit with what used to be called British Twitter (comedians!). Now it’s you people I miss and the end of the American experiment.

FAIRLIGHT BABY

THREAD: I got laid off from NYMag/Vulture after 14 years. The family lost 75% of income + medical. Now mzs.press bookstore, once a side project. is do-or-die for Judith & I. I feel weird telling you this because others are doing much worse. But if you could like or share this, we'd be so grateful!

For the record, I hate the term try-hard. Positive, unembarrassed interactions between humans are what I live for. But I can see how Europeans can see US culture in a saccharine bless-your-heart kind of way.

People at a coffee shop in Amsterdam

First proper morning in the Netherlands at a café in Schiphol station. I know I’m an American try-hard but a man just exchanged a smile with me and I’m thrilled! They don’t really do that here. Also there is a lovely loud British girl brazenly doing her makeup at the communal table.

You’re a trooper.