Dinosaur Jr AB Brussels 25-8-2005

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Music
Genre:	Alternative Rock
Artist:	Dinosaur Jr

Welcome to the world of geeks, freaks and aliens!
Welcome to the wall of sound that is Dinosaur Jr!

Another band I never thought I'd see live, let alone in original line up. But life has it's ways and here we are and here they are: J. Mascis, Lou Barlow and drummer Emmett Murphy (Murph).

J.Mascis slightly broken voice makes me want to hug him especially when he sings things like "Why wont you be my friend?". Poor lonely alien...

Their music makes me happy; happy about my geekiness; happy to be a freak like them; happy to have my own lovely geek here with me who sings Dinosaur Jr lyrics to me ;-D.

To quote Dinosaur Jr singing a Cure song: "Just like heaven!"

Maanrock (20-8-2005)

Rating:	★★★★
Category:	Music
Genre:	Other
Artist:	various

Five-minute-walk-from-home-festival!!
And you can stand right in front of the stage without much trouble ;-)
And last but not least: it doesn't cost anything!!!

This year we saw:

- Stash: very nice! Good show too.
- Das Pop: funny, the 80's have never looked closer
- Daan: still brilliant ofcourse (it MUST be the name ;-D)
- a part of Think of One: nice party!

I wonder what artists we can see next year....

Pukkelpop (Friday 19-8-2005)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Music
Genre:	Other
Artist:	various

Woohoo!! another festival and another chance to see the Pixies! Life can be brilliant sometimes...

The day started with a lot of rain and even more rain on the way to the festival but all our combined prayers to the weather gods (and any other powers related) must have worked because it did not rain again once we were on the festival terrain. The sun and later the moon even rejoiced us with their presence!

The Festival:
- The Posies: hey, I do know that song!
- a piece of Zornik (which is quite tasty)
- poffertjes: even tastier ;-)
- Ellen Alien: we need more electro aliens!
- Nightwish: Viking dwarves and an opera singer who makes it sound so easy
- Fisherspooner: still biggest ego ever, no gold underwear this time sadly
- Marilyn Manson: always nice to watch
- Goldfrapp: oh lalala electro pop!
- Stereo mcs: deep down and dirty ( they played after the Pixies btw)

PIXIES!!!
Not so long ago we thought we would never ever see them live and now here we are: the second time!! Still simply brilliant, simply divine! And this time there was a full moon shining on them ;-D
Good night Charles, good night Kim, good night David, good night Joey!

A day of Perfect Clouds 3

CHAPTER I part 3

"Great," I thought as I lay on the bed ", talking mirrors!" I wondered what I should do now. I could ofcourse ignore the mirrors but I am way too curious for that. Mirrors writing you messages isn't something that happens everyday so I decided I should at least find out the how and why of it.

How does one talk to a mirror? It or whatever was using the mirrors could obviously see me but could it hear me? It's not easy to just start talking if you have just woken up and haven't said anything yet for lack of listeners. Maybe I should just write something on my side of the mirror?

Yes, that seemed like the best thing to do. I got up from the bed to look for some lipstick. Normally I don't use any but I have some theatre make up lying around for picture purposes. And it seemed like the best thing to use because it is easy to wipe off again. It took me some rummaging through my stuff on the bedroom table but at last I found some purplish lipstick.

Now what should I write? "Hello" seemed rather stupid by now so I decided to be blunt and go right for "Who are you?". I wrote it on the Baroque mirror next to the bed and waited for things to happen, sitting on the side of the bed...

Nid&Sancy live at Marktrock

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Music
Genre:	Other
Artist:	Nid&Sancy 13-8-2005 Vismarkt Leuven

A few weeks back I heard that Belgium is good at recycling. In Europe it's the country were most things are recycled. Well, last night I've seen another perfect example of Belgian recycling ;-D

Nid&Sancy recycle music, especially dance from the last two decades in the best possible way. This blonde electro-techno version of the Kills (what, don't know them? check them out!) is so full of energy and creativity you cannot do anything but thoroughly enjoy their show and their music.

So if you're into recycling check them out => http://www.nidandsancy.com/

Their next gig is on thursday 18th at Pukkelpop btw so if you are going there don't forget to check them out!

Calaveras

Art by José Guadalupe Posada

Mexico = limitless inspiration

(Mexican) Votive paintings / Retablos

more inspiring art

Live at the Lokerse Feesten 8-8-2005

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Music
Genre:	Other
Artist:	Sisters of Mercy

The god of Goth has honoured us with his presence and brought his musicians with him for us to enjoy some of their music. He may be older and definitely balder today but he can still teach Goths today a lesson or two about music. Without any make up or fancy clothing he is still scarier than a scarecrow and darker than the prince of darkness himself.
Thank you my Sisters of Mercy for making me fly in the night...

And god bowed down to us and told us to enjoy ourselves (and who are we to argue with that?)

Live at the Lokerse Feesten 8-8-2005

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Music
Genre:	Other
Artist:	Vive la Fête

Woohoo!! Tous les jours de fête!!

If you ever get a chance to see this brilliant Belgian band live do not hesitate to do so. It's a tasty mix between eighties new wave, poppy sixties french songs and electro. Songs in french have never sounded nor looked better, funnier, cuter, sexier...

What? Never heard them yet? Well, check their site: www.vivelafete.be
lots of music and pictures for you to enjoy!

Bat Conservation International

http://www.batcon.org
The site for bat-lovers worldwide!

Chocolaterie De Burg

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

We found the perfect chocolates!!! You will never have tasted better ones, trust me, I have tried many ;-)

If you have ever seen the movie Chocolat or read the book you have to try these! After tasting only one you will understand the book / movie soooo much better! The taste is simply divine and takes you to chocolate heaven instantly ;-D

The address: Chocolaterie De Burg, Burg 15 (almost next to the H.Blood Basilica!), Brugge.

Pickelporno (video art) by Pipilotti Rist

Rating:	★★★★
Category:	Other

Also in Bruges they have the anual Corpus cultural event. It features all kinds of exhibits and other cultural events about the human body. One of the exhibits (between skin and orgasm) ended this sunday so we went to take a look. One of the best works was the video Pickelporno by Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist.

I always like the art of Pipilotti Rist: it's eerie, funny and pretty.
And this video did everything it was supposed to do: it made you horny, which is rather unique for an artistic collage video in which you only see close ups of body parts turning round and round, hands touching close up flesh, weird colours, close ups of fruit, lava streams...
But somehow your belly reacts to it on a basic level: the music, the images, the colors; it just works!!

some interesting sites: www.pipilottirist.net,
http://www.emaf.de/distribution/show-film.php?filmID=23 (you can order the video)

Holy Blood Basilica (Brugge)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

Slightly hidden in a corner of the marketplace in front of Bruges city hall is one of Belgium's most impressive churches. It's not that it's so big; you'd hardly notice it if it wasn't for the gold statues on it's front.
The lower chapel is still mostly in it's original early 12th century Roman state. It's rather dark, grey and sober but still impressive.

But what a difference with the upper chapel! Originally built in the 12th century but rebuilt in the 15th century in Gothic style it was sadly destroyed during the French Revolution. But lucky for us: it was rebuilt in it's original gothic state in the 19th century. And it's just as impressive as the Sainte Chapelle in Paris! The walls are all decorated, gold shimmers everywhere and the glass windows are bright and colorfull. Not one part of the upperchapel is undecorated!

If you want to see and know more about the church, it's history and the relic they built it for (the blood of Christ is in a vial in a reliquary in the church!!) visit the site
www.holyblood.org(it has several languages!)

A day of perfect clouds 2

 Chapter I part 2

Coming back from the loo I looked at myself in the bathroom mirror. My face looked normal enough so nothing different there. A bit sleepy maybe and...

Oh my God!!

Letters had just appeared on the mirror surface!  Well, not the actual surface but more the other side of the mirror.. "Good Morning" it said, backwards, in what looked like red lipstick. Touching the mirror convinced me the lipstick was not on my side of the mirror. Suddenly the letters where wiped away by an unseen hand or cloth. "Hihi", the mirror wrote. Backwards. And in red lipstick again.

This convinced me I most certainly had not properly woken up and I went back into the bedroom. I opened the curtains to see what kind of day it was. Perfect woolly white clouds gathered around the cathedral towers that stood out against a clear blue sky.

I turned to lay on the bed for a little while and in doing so looked at the small Baroque mirror next to my bed. "Boo" it said. Backwards. And this time it looked like black lipstick...

 

A day of perfect clouds 1

 Chapter I  part 1

Waking up is never easy. Especially when you are dreaming of..., well, yes dreaming of what exactly? I knew I had been dreaming but every time I thought I rememberred it was gone again. Every time I tried to look at a dream image it hid itself behind other thoughts, never giving me a good enough look to recognize it. And the impossibility to remember this dream wasn't the only thing! I had this strange feeling something else had changed. Nothing in the room looked different though but something felt different...                                                                   

That was the whole problem this morning: something was definitely different but what?

Well, I still had to get out of bed no matter what lay waiting for me this day. I had to go to the loo some time. Sometimes being practical makes you bolder than you would normally be. So I got up, still half sleeping, and walked to the bathroom. Whatever was awaiting me this day would have to wait untill I had properly woken up...

Inspiring Art

Painting by John Willian Waterhouse, 1892

Some great paintings that inspire me ;-D

Gothic Labyrinth

http://pluto.scs.ryerson.ca/~monica/index.html
Learn about the writers of the great Gothic novels!

Mark Ryden

http://www.markryden.com/index.html
Pretty eerie art..I love it ;-D

Explore the Abyss

http://www.exploretheabyss.com/index.htm
Pictures, info and books on deep sea exploring&creatures

Creatures

Just found by scientists underneath the Northpole ice near Alaska. Isn't it cute??

Churches & Treasure

The tower of our big gothic cathedral and yes I can see it from our appartment too ;-D

Churches + Cathedral Liège

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

If you ever get to visit Liège (Luik) be sure not to miss it's many beautiful churches. It's a pity that only some can be visited but luckily the ones that are accessable to the public are very much worth a visit!

There is ofcourse the big cathedral with it's brilliant treasure room. Never have I seen such a golden glow in one room! The relic-bust of st-Lambert is such a masterpiece and so enormous you cannot help but gaze at it.

And then there's the church of st-John the evangelist (around 980), built according to the octagonal groundplan of the cathedral in Aachen (800). This is the oldest church of Liège and it still has it's original towers!!
A nice elderly lady gave us a tour in dutch(!) and told us all the interesting stories. The church needs money for the restoration of the towers so don't forget to visit and spend some money on cards!!

Most churches in Liège also have nice dark&romantic cloisters (halls around an inner garden of a monastery); the perfect place to sit and contemplate the beauty of life.

And when you are tired and hungry of all these treasures sit and eat smoked salmon on toast in the Danish Tavern (near the cathedral). It's well worth it's money!