Tiny Tea Dispatch #011

Well, let’s face it, you’re not exactly…. “normal”, are you?
It’s not exactly a “normal” world, is it?

Welcome to the final days of the 30th anniversary of the 1989 movie classic ‘Batman’! Because if you have to celebrate one thing this year, what else would it be?

~~ Watch report ~~

Good news everyone! 3 watches have left the watchbox since the last dispatch! No no, let’s not even acknowledge how 3 new watches snuck their way into the collection instead. The important thing is that 1) nobody got hurt and 2) I don’t have enough money to buy expensive ones.

I now have a very diverse set of ‘Turtles’ (the fan-given name for this model’s case shape):

• Batman: Starting with the black case of a limited edition Seiko, I was able to create the watch mod I’ve had on my mind for a while: one that represents Tim Burton’s Batman film. Original parts, except for the crow and bezel. This is my favorite so far.
• Bronze: the watch case actually comes from a Turtle homage by Heimdallr but I’m replacing the insides by authentic Seiko parts. Still waiting on the dial and hand set, it’s on back-order and should come in February. I messed around with ammonia and salt to get some interesting decolorization. This is my other favorite.
• Save The Ocean: this is the sibling of the Samurai watch I bought this past summer. A beautiful black & blue dial. Definitely my favorite!

Never rub another man’s rhubarb!

~~ Food~~

No hot sauces to show off at the moment. I was a smidge too late to make a Christmas themed sauce, unfortunately. Maybe next year. However, I did dry & put away the many different peppers that were given to me this summer. All ready to go into into new sauces and dishes. Oh, Booo gave me some smoked Chipotle peppers as well. They smell amazing! We used some of it in her cupcakes for a chocolate-peppers-orange combo.

Talking of spices, I tried my hand at making ‘pumpkin bread’. While delicious, it’s clearly a cake and not bread at all! It did get me thinking about ‘speculaaskruiden’.
Roughly translated, ‘speculaas’ are spiced biscuits and this is the spice mix used to make them. People in Belgium (and otherwise outside of the Netherlands) will know a variation of this called ‘speculoos’ (note the spelling difference). This is essentially the cheaper Belgian variant. It traditionally contains mostly cinnamon and sugar – presumably because we didn’t have access to the others spices at affordable prices, like the Dutch had in the olden days. The company Biscoff/Lotus sells these caramelised biscuits all over the world but if you are ever in the Netherlands or Belgium, I would recommend trying to get your hands on spekulaas or speculoos from a local bakery instead.

The origins are seen as Dutch but you can also find it in some areas of Germany and even the north of France (Wikipedia told me so anyway). The spices consist mostly of cardamom, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg and one or two other ingredients coming from India when the Dutch ruled much of the world. But since the mix comes back in Indian cuisine (eg. in Chai), I think we can safely say India should get more credit here.
I only recently found out that ‘spekulaaskruiden’ even reached the USA, which makes sense given how many Dutch ended up there. What Americans call ‘pumpkin spice’, looks like it’s derived from the same mix. And pumpkin bread/ginger bread in turn is a relative of the Dutch ‘peperkoek’.
There is a fascinating book to be written about the international reach and use of ‘speculaaskruiden’, if there hasn’t been already.

You ever dance with the devil in the pale moonlight?

~~ Art and technology ~~

Do you remember the CD-rom? Somewhere in the late 90’s and early 2000’s, you couldn’t buy a magazine without getting one of those shiny discs for free. Things got so bad, people started looking into alternative uses for them. But every now and they you would find a real gem, as I did back in 1998. That year, a newspaper gave away a CD-rom about surrealist painter Magritte. If you don’t know him, do an internet search and take a shot every time you see a pipe that is not a pipe. An extra shot when you come across Pierce Brosnan or Robin Williams. Come back when you sober up.

This CD-rom was an extraordinarily well-built exploration of Magritte’s life and work. I’m not quite sure how to explain it. There were several ways to navigate the program: by the visual themes, through a biography, through a catalogue of works, or just instinctively clicking through whatever visuals and text popped up. All the while 2 narrators lended voice to the fragments, accompanied by specially composed music and sounds. It was quite the experience. But since we live in the future now, a lot of the old CD-roms don’t work on modern computers anymore. The technology is outdated and, hell, most devices don’t even have a CD-drive. So no more Magritte Experience for anyone 🙁 Except for the fact that Emulators exist. Turns out you can just emulate MacOS 7, 8 and 9 on recent Mac or Linux machine using Sheepshaver + find some old CD-rom reading software people ripped and put online for posterity.

Aside from the dithering of the images, it’s just the same as I remember. I can’t wrap my head around all the lovely things we’ve probably already lost simply because concepts like this don’t get ported to new technologies. I’m thinking of screen-recording several walkthroughs and throwing it on YouTube so at least this doesn’t end up being forgotten as well.

What are you?!
I’m Batman

~~ Endings ~~

As the year comes to a close, I’m reflecting on things lost or left behind. Like that Magritte CD-rom, or the old Batman movies, it can be fun to revisit something that brought us joy in the past. As long as you don’t get stuck in nostalgia. We rewatched the Burton Batman movies this year and came to the conclusion that they really haven’t aged well. So as movies and cultural icons, I’m happy with them staying in the last century. I have no need to keep revisiting them. But the look of it, the gadgetry and the music are still very much my jam. As are the aesthetics of the 2nd Burton Batman and the animated series that followed. So I’m carrying some of that with me into 2020.

There are bigger losses as well, of course. The upcoming month will mark the second year since my sister passing away and the 6th since our mother did so as well. I’m sure many of you have similar experiences that can make the holiday season a challenge. I hope you have found something to hang on and look forward to in the new year. For me, it’s gratitude for the things that really went my way: I’m lucky to have an awesome girlfriend, an energetic dog, a couple of friends and a list of other stuff I won’t bore you with.

~~ Beginnings ~~

I try not to plan or talk about new creative ideas much anymore, as they often end up in Limbo, but I’m still making things out here:

• “Transmissions from the void”, a small sci-fi project about a grumpy space traveler. Updates 3 times a week until I’m done with it. I have at least a month’s worth of entries ready at this point. Follow that link to read more.
• I will do some reformatting and restructuring of this newsletter. An attempt at more regular writing, as I talked about a season or so ago.

There is plenty more to talk about when it comes to the past year, or even the past few months, but let’s look forward to new horizons instead. Grab yourself a nice drink and hold on to who and what you love. You’re doing the best you can and you can do this.

See you in the new year!

~~ Links ~~

• https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0155267/
• https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105629/
• http://www.hintsandthings.com/musichall/cdroms.htm
• https://emaculation.com/doku.php/sheepshaver_mac_os_x_setup
• macintoshrepository.org/
• https://transmissions.rembo.me/