Category Archives: Isabel Harlaar

Erasure Poem: Where we think that information produces meaning, the opposite occurs

A while ago I shared an erasure poem with you that I made with a page from a book I thoroughly enjoyed. This poem is not at all a consequence of love, but of utter confusion. I don’t think I ever took longer to read a single page before I was assigned to read thisContinue reading “Erasure Poem: Where we think that information produces meaning, the opposite occurs”

Revolution in the Bed: In Defence of Sleep

Meet the white-crowned sparrow. Although it might look like any regular North American bird (albeit very cute and fluffy), the zonotrichia leucophrys has a distinguishing factor that sets it apart from our Dutch mus: its ability to stay awake for seven days during its migration. Over the past few years, various American universities and researchContinue reading “Revolution in the Bed: In Defence of Sleep”

A Smokey Haze: A Review of Inherent Vice

In 1970, Doc Sportello, a private investigator with a soft spot for pot smoking, receives a visit from his former girlfriend Shasta Fay Hepworth. As it turns out she wants him to help her out with a plot to kidnap her current boyfriend, real estate magnate Mickey Wolfmann, which Wolfmann’s wife and her boyfriend haveContinue reading “A Smokey Haze: A Review of Inherent Vice”

Books between the bicycles – Special bookstores of Amsterdam

Inspired by Tessel’s article on Ghent’s best bookstores, I planned on writing a similar guide on Berlin’s most scrumptious book deli’s after a recent weekend trip to the German capital. Turns out all the bookstores I wanted to visit were located exactly on the other side of Berlin than the neighbourhood I was staying inContinue reading “Books between the bicycles – Special bookstores of Amsterdam”

Philosophical Reveries and Tantalizing Guitars: A Review of 20,000 Days on Earth (Forsyth and Pollard, 2014)

While 20,000 Days on Earth starts off like any regular music documentary, the film, which gives us a peek into the daily life of Australian multi-talent Nick Cave, soon starts to blur the line between fiction and reality. In directors Forsyth and Pollard’s first feature-length film, Cave, who is mostly known as a musician butContinue reading “Philosophical Reveries and Tantalizing Guitars: A Review of 20,000 Days on Earth (Forsyth and Pollard, 2014)”

LAB111 & De Filmhallen

Great news for cinephiles: a couple of weeks ago, film theatres De Filmhallen and LAB111 opened their doors! Writer’s Block editor Isabel visited the cinemas and reported on the airy former tram storage and the eerie former pathological institute now both turned into a film fanatic’s paradise. Located in a former tram storage in theContinue reading “LAB111 & De Filmhallen”