Hello. Today’s letter is heavy on distraction and light on anything else: design, urban fantasy, Emma, a lot of random things that have taken my mind off things. 
Here in Vienna, this past week has been exceptionally difficult. I’ve been thinking about what to say about it, but honestly, I have nothing right now – except that there has never been a better time to sign the Black Voices Volksbegehren if you’re Austria-based. 

Article: The Tyranny of Terrazzo. Will the millennial aesthetic ever end? by Molly Fischer, published by The Cut in March 2020; Welcome to Airspace. How Silicon Valley helps spread the same sterile aesthetic across the world by Kyle Chayka, published by The Verge in August 2016
The last café I visited before the second lockdown started was a fairly new one in the city centre; I had to walk through the interior and downstairs to the loos, and when I made it back outside to our table, safe from the mouthbreathers happily sharing a small, overdesigned indoor space, we talked a bit about how London-y the place looked and felt: minimalist, grey, weird exposed lightbulbs. Vienna still has relatively few of these places, but they’re on the rise, as were the number of tourists, at least before this year. Both Molly Fischer and Kyle Chayka write well about how social media influences design sensibilities and taste. As someone whose interior design taste was entirely shaped by the Carl Larsson prints I had in my childhood bedroom, I can’t necessarily relate, but then again I’m sure that Larsson was the influencer of the early 1900s, so maybe there isn’t much difference. In any case, wouldn’t you like to live here?

Film: Emma (2020), directed by Autumn de Wilde
The latest Emma adaptation was written by Eleanor Catton (if you haven’t read her novel The Luminaries, you’re in for an absolute treat!). I wouldn’t call it a total success – I’m not a fan of some of the casting and it is possibly a bit too stylish and slapstick-y for my taste. On the other hand, funny is what I need right now and so I rewatched it a couple of weeks ago. It really leans into the absurdity of a lot of Austen’s set-ups, which I love, and it doesn’t try to make Emma likeable, which I also love. 

Book: Call Down The Hawk by Maggie Stiefvater (2019)
Two or three times a year, I turn to YA to give my reading brain a break. Ironically, it often turns out to be more affecting than literary fiction. Call Down The Hawk, the first book in YA-author Maggie Stiefvater’s latest series, is an urban fantasy spin-off from her Raven Cycle series (which I & 2014 tumblr loved) and aimed at a general audience. The premise is simple enough: some people can dream things into reality, and other people hunt them for it. If that sounds a bit boring, don’t worry: Stiefvater is great at mood and character, and this series is shaping up to be an absorbing and only mildly sad mystery crime trilogy with lots of soul-searching and growing up. I’m desperate for the next book.

Other: Working through it
Here are some things that I did to work through the shock, grief, anger and exasperation after a terror attack (that was followed, and made worse by, much stupid comment.) Sharing these mindless activities in case it's useful:
- I made a pasta bake (I make mine with courgettes & tomatoes) while listening to this BBC Radio 4 series about Napoleon & myths with the biographer and full-time Napoleon stan Andrew Roberts; his is one of the most ludicrous readings of history I have ever encountered and so I spent an hour complaining to myself. I don't usually do the cooking, but the combination of stirring and swearing proved to be the perfect distraction. 
- I watched hours of the Austrian national broadcaster’s weather panorama. This is on in the mornings and shows you what the weather is like in various regions, accompanied by traditional folk music. Many of these are now available on youtube if you’d like to travel to Austrian mountains and lakes. Or you could just look up Alphorn music on youtube – surely the biggest divide between how ridiculous an instrument looks and how beautifully melancholy it sounds.
- I went through a lot of general knowledge crosswords while watching the enormously kitschy 1950s classic Sissi (a sure sign that I was losing it – but if you, too, want to watch a young Romy Schneider rebel and stand up for the Hungarians, you can stream all the films here). The crosswords were pulled from the stack of unread Viennese newspapers on our kitchen table, but I might print out Prospect Magazine's the Generalist now that I've run out. Any good general crossword recommendations, let me know! (No cryptics please.)
- I baked an apple pear crisp (with oats; no recipe, just wing it); I soaked in the bath, several times, with tea; I listened to a lot of folk and country-adjacent music.

That's it. Until next time!