#004: A fool for Autumn

Pop culture and home comforts for April

Mar 31, 2021

The front door

I have a bit of crush on Autumn, and in Australia I get to celebrate it twice: I pretend that Spring is also Autumn because that’s when the internet explodes into memes about pumpkin-spice-latte-drinkers and Halloween this and witchy that. And to be fair, it only takes a bit of imagination to feel Autumny in Spring; it’s cold, blustery, there’s a bit of sunshine that comes and goes on a whim, and it's chilly enough to be cosy. They are the in-between months, when the world lurches from one extreme to another. The adolescent seasons, if you will.

My point with all this is that you might notice an Autumny feel to this edition of The Brew because I am falling—ha—for it hard this year, and all the comfiest comforts and the poppiest cultures are happening in a big way, from cosy, creepy reads to hours spent knitting on the sofa. Bliss.

A gif of a tree with a dark trunk and orange leaves, the sun spilling through towards the viewer — *From Pinterest*

Library

Books

The Safe Place—Oh my glob this book. I read it in about two days, which would’ve been less if I didn’t have to like, work or eat or whatever. It’s full of sun and wine and obscene amounts of money and lounging by the pool, and it’s also atmospheric, creepy, and filled with a feeling that underneath all the glamour there something is very, very wrong…

I’ve written a full review for ArtsHub, but the book isn’t released until 27th April, so I can’t say too much more about it; I’ll post a link when the review is up.

A book cover looking along a turquoise pool towards a turquoise sky above a turquoise ocean, with deck chairs and trees along each side of the pool. Tagline reads: No phones, no outsiders, no escape, and the title is The Safe Place, Anna Downes — Come here for book covers that feature pools

Lounge

Rick & Morty—Ok, this show is not for everyone, and you may have only ever heard of it in the context of the toxic fandom that did terrible things when McD*nalds didn’t properly deliver on a food-based reference to the show several years ago. However, it is a witty cartoon for adults full of high-concept sci-fi explorations and trope-exploding that is enjoyable if you’re able to stomach a lot of intensely grotesque cartoon violence and people being horrible to each other.

I did not mean to re-watch this, but I needed something low-commitment on the TV while knitting and this was the first to come up on my list. Not a glowing endorsement, but sometimes we watch TV just to have something on.

A gif of Rick from Rick & Morty saying 'I always slay, queen', inside a house with smoke and flames on the right of the image — Sure you do sweetie. *From Giphy*

Movies

Death at a Funeral—This movie hasn’t aged terribly well, but it adequately fulfills the duty of out-of-control British black comedy. It’s almost worth it to see a very young Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones) and Rupert Graves (Sherlock; V for Vendetta), plus Alan Tudyk (Firefly) pretending to be tripping balls for nearly two hours; he clearly had the time of his life playing that part!

Music

Zoe Keating—Zoe is a Canadian cellist who creates incredible, intense, compelling, dream-like songs that vibrate your spine. She also created the theme music for the TV show Elementary (brilliant), which is how I discovered her work. When I’m writing or need to concentrate but also listen to music, she is my go-to. I have a whole playlist of her songs that I listened to on repeat when working on one of my manuscripts, and now when I hear those songs all I can think of is that story and those characters.

An image of a woman sitting on a stool in a dark grey room. She wears a deep red velvet dress, leather boots and torn red tights, a chunky black necklace, and has dark red dreadlocks. A cello sits between her knees — Lindsey Stirling’s older sister??

Kitchen & Garden

Food

Cream of zucchini soup—The version I base this off calls for 2 cloves of garlic and half an onion, to which I ask: why do you hate yourself?? Crank that flavour up! As such, my version calls for 3 onions and a shirt ton of garlic, which basically means: add as much damn garlic as you please.

Ingredients

2 tbs butter (olive oil for vegans)
3 medium zucchinis
3 onions
a shirt ton of garlic
8 cups of chicken stock
salt, pepper
sour cream (vegan alternative for vegans)
Parmesan to serve (as above)

Chop onions and garlic into chunks and saute in butter, then add zucchinis, also chopped into chunks. Season with salt and pepper, and when it’s all just a bit soft add the stock and boil until it’s cooked and reduced to as liquidy as you want it. Blend with a stick blender, add sour cream, and top with Parmesan if you like. Probably delicious with crusty buttered bread or cheese on toast—let me know!

Tea

Melbourne Breakfast—a T2 classic, this is a black tea infused with vanilla. Not just for tourists, it has almost 500 reviews on the T2 website and a rating of 4.7 stars (because we should always base decisions on a scale of 0-5). This tea is delicious, not really sweet, but smooth, tasty and enjoyable.

A picture of a grey cup and saucer filled with a dark liquid next to a square orange box with a dark green label on the front that says 'T2 Melbourne Breakfast', and in front is a teaspoon overflowing with loose leaf tea — You can practically smell the brew…

Fashion/Craft

The knitting continues. I’ve learnt another increase method, used several other colours, and developed a new callous on one of my fingers, so I guess it’s going good!

A gif of Gromit from A Close Shave, sitting in bed knitting a scarf on repeat — My knitting role model

And another thing…

Remember last time when I did the vital service of telling you about cottagecore? Well in this newsletter I’m here to tell you about Dark Academia. Have you ever heard of it?

Also according to Aesthetics Fandom (seriously, how had I not heard of this site??), ‘Dark Academia is an aesthetic that revolves around classic literature, the pursuit of self-discovery, and a general passion for knowledge and learning.’ Like Cottagecore, Dark Academia has a lot of sub-sets under it and exists largely for fashion and interior design pursuits.

Remember that blazer that I was raving about a few issues ago? Dark academic. See also: op-shop joy, professor chic, and old-timey business bad-ash.

A collection of items on a white background, including a grey pinstriped blazer over a black turtleneck and brown slacks; a candle in an old-fashioned brass holder; a black short-haired cat; a leatherbound journal; a stack of old books; an ivy plant spilling over its pot; a black lacy bra; a worn leather satchel; an old-fashioned camera; a cup of black coffee on a saucer; a pair of black Doc Marten boots; and several other small items that suggest a student — It screams over-funded uni student/1960s Oxford witch and I like it

The Brew is created and sent from the lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation and I acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which I live and work, and pay my respects to the Elders, past and present.

The Brew