Middelburg, Zeeland, Netherlands

Lange Jan (Long John)


The city were my parents live nowadays. Very Pretty and near the sea ;-)

Magnapop (Het Depot, Leuven, 21-4-2006)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

"OPEN THE DOOR!!"

Magnapop is a band from Atlanta, Georgia most of us will remember from the early and late 1990's. They were never very big and have only made 4 albums (one last year) so it's not weird if you've never heard of them or only remember one or two songs. There's two guys, one on bass/vocals and one on drums, and two girls, one lead singer and one on guitar/vocals. They look very normal, very un-rock&roll, especially the lead singer.


But never ever let that fool you! The singer may look like a slightly overweight blond pixie in long-sleeves but just remember another slightly overweight Pixie called Kim Deal.
And what about her sister Kelly who knits handbags while waiting for their gigs to begin? They don't sound very Rock&Roll either do they? But they totally rock and so does Linda Hopper from Magnapop!

Our unlikely rock-chick has a very distinct voice which always sounds as if she is smiling about something. Even when she is singing things like "all of my friends are dying" or "died in a car, in a crash".
I'm still not sure what most songs are about but somehow the songs open a world which is nice to be in even if people are dying. You can scream and feel good about it ;-)

All in all it was a great gig: all of the musicians were playing well, they were clearly having fun, the sound was good, all our favorites were played, we had comfy seats (yes seats, I think 'Het Depot' used to be a cinema, it certainly looked like one!)...
all was perfect and we enjoyed the evening.

Now if you'll excuse me I have to go and bake a cake: the Breeders and Magnapop are coming over for a tea party so we can talk about knitting handbags and self-made Christmas cards ;-p

Hear and see Magnapop here

The Surrealist's Bathroom

enter and enjoy ;-)

Freaky Fridge

Some-one once told me that the contents of ones fridge tell a lot about a person...

Welgevormd (well-formed) Lamot Mechelen (8-4-2006)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

The main reason for me to want to visit this exhibit is that it is in one of the same rooms used for the "Women of distinction"-exhibit. And as I used to work in them it is of course interesting to see them in a different light.
And today we quite literally did because the room was soooo much lighter. We used to call this "the dark room" because all the walls where black and there wasn't much light in it either. The room is actually called 'Scala' and is one of the many exhibit and conference rooms in the Lamot-building.

The exhibit now showing is about sculptures from Mechelen from between 1780 and 1850. In another city museum they are showing some sketches from the sculptors but here there are only sculptures.
The sculptors used to be quite well-known in their days but are virtually un-known nowadays. Most of them have worked in other countries.

We didn't expect much of these mainly Baroque sculptures but the quality of the works was of such excellence that it was indeed a very beautiful and surprising experience.
A nice extra is the fact that you can get really close to the works and terracotta 'sketches' and you are allowed to take pictures as well.

If you visit Lamot you must of course also visit the 'treasure-room' of the heritage center. In this room they show 'treasures' from Mechelen and tell you something interesting about their history and meaning to Mechelen.

At the moment also exhibited are the 'giants'. These more than human sized dolls are used in processions every 25 years. They and other giants from Belgium, France and Spain are now part of the Unesco world heritage and this is your chance to see them! There will only be another 'giant' procession in 2013.

More (Dutch!) info:
- on the exhibit Welgevormd / Well-formed
- my pics from the exhibit
- the heritage center and the giants

Well-formed (Welgevormd)

love godess with son


Exhibit Lamot Mechelen. Sculptures from Mechelen 1780-1850.

Church of the Beguines

Baroque church with original interior from 1629-1647, Mechelen, Belgium.

Joy Division => Dead Souls (31-3-2006)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

I'm pretty sure most of you have heard something about Joy Division. Which is remarkable in itself because they only made two albums and existed only an odd three years. And it was ages ago too!

I myself was only 6 years old the first time they played in Belgium (16 oct.1979 in Brussels). They did some gigs in the Netherlands and Belgium in January 1980 but obviously I was still too young to go to any of those.
And then, without me ever having heard them, Ian killed himself minimizing my changes of ever seeing them live.

When I finally discovered the joys of Joy Division Ian had been dead for many years. Luckily I also love New Order so I could at least see part of this brilliant band live some day (last year at Rockwerchter). I thoroughly enjoyed that, especially when they did two Joy Division songs.

I thought my experiences of hearing Joy Division live had ended there but luckily yesterday we had a chance to experience what we couldn't have in 1980.

Dead Souls came remarkably close to what a Joy Division gig must have been like in 1980. With my eyes closed in the dark and extremely hot room I could dream myself a dream of seeing an obscure new punk band live in 1977-1980 and being blown away by the sound, the performance, the voice...

Sadly for any-one who didn't see them and would love it: this was their last gig (well, most probably). But you can probably see and hear some live Joy Division and Dead Souls on these sites:

Joy Division: http://members.aol.com/lwtua/joydiv.htm
Dead Souls: http://www.deadsouls.be/