The Cute Cat

The cute cat Mic/ka staying over at our place ;-)

Dinosaur Jr live at Petrol (25-5-2006)

Rating:	★★★★
Category:	Other

When my (musical) dreams come true they tend to come true over and over again. Not that I mind but it is kind of weird...
It happened with the Pixies: a few years back I thought there was no chance to see them live EVER and now we've seen them live TWICE.
Same with Dinosaur Jr: I never thought I'd see them live in original line-up playing my favorite old songs but last year we did. And now a second time!!

This time it was in the Petrol, the hip new place in Antwerp. Luckily it's very easy to find and it is indeed a very nice place too. There were two supporting acts so Dinosaur Jr started quite late (23:00h). The first supporting act was The Hickey Underworld (Belgian), nothing really special. The second supporting act were The Drones (Australian), which was quite nice.

And then it was time for our three lovely nerdy alien freaks. Their gig wasn't as intense as the last one but some parts were certainly brilliant. It was a great pity that the sound sucked quite a lot: it was too loud and the bass-drum was still on Techno-sound (which doesn't work with Rock at all!). If the sound had been good you could have heard the important subtleness that is such a big part of the Dinosaur Jr sound a lot better.

But it was a great gig anyway and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. And we finally got our Dinosaur jr t-shirts ;-D
Site: Petrol

Procession!

Some images from the Hanswijkprocession (a yearly Maria procession), 21-5-2006 (Mark's birthday), Mechelen

Expo Théo van Rysselberghe (14-5-2006)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

Ok, I admit, it is definitely a luxury problem but Belgium has way too many impressive artists. There is too much interesting art here so some of those impressive artists aren't known outside Belgium or not even inside Belgium.
One of those artists many of you will never have heard about is Théo van Rysselberghe. And that's a pity so I'll tell you something about him:

He was born in Gent in 1862. He went to an art academy, exhibited at an early age, made some trips to Morocco. He painted many (society) portraits and landscapes (Bretagne, Belgian coast, Ardennes). He lived in France (Provence) for a long time and died there in 1926.
Next to Georges Seurat and Paul Signac he is the main representative of the Neo-Impressionism movement. Like them he also uses the Pointillism style but for a shorter while. Personally I find his art a bit more interesting than that of Seurat and Signac: better technique, nicer colours, more emotions...

This exhibit is particularly interesting because it's the first retrospective of his work (in Belgium). Many of the works are in private collections so you do not get to see them often either.
you can still see it until sunday may 21st. Info at Bozar

Expo Wiener Werkstätte & Palais Stoclet (14-5-2006)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

Het verlangen naar schoonheid / Le désir de la beauté / Yearning for beauty

Exhibit about the design of the Wiener Werkstätte and I think the title says it all: it's about beauty and the yearning for beautiful things.

What can you see?
- over a 1000 objects ranging from furniture to jewelry
- the start of modern design
- what a Gesammtkunstwerk means and feels like
- a view inside the amazing Palais Stoclet (it's in Brussels but you cannot visit it)
- some design (no real paintings!!) works by impressive Austrian names like Klimt, Schiele, Koloman Moser, Josef Hoffman and many others

We were impressed and are yearning to own some of these objects...

You can still visit the exhibit until sunday may the 28th. Info at Bozar

Inside Brussels / Brussel / Bruxelles

A view of Antwerp

Some pictures I took in Antwerp yesterday (12-5-2006) walking from the KMSKA (royal museum of arts) to the Mode Natie (fashion institute+museum)

FotoMuseum Antwerpen (12-5-2006)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

I'm not sure when I got bitten by the photography bug but I'm pretty sure there is one. I got my very own camera when I was 16 but I think I was bitten before that time. Or maybe I was just born this way...
Whichever way I am the sort of person that thoroughly enjoys looking at old camera's (yes I own several too), likes to read books with just photo's, cannot help but take (and see) pictures and loves seeing photo's in a museum.

Keeping this in mind the FotoMuseum in Antwerp is a little piece of my heaven. It's a nice quiet museum with usually very nice exhibits. It's spacious so you have enough room to really see everything. And I think I've recommended before to go there when there's several exhibit' because otherwise it's quite small.

Yesterday there were 4 different exhibits (and the fixed presentation of old camera's).
- A presentation of the collection: old and new pics, always interesting
- Roger Ballen: impressive surrealistic realistic work, his site
- Ed van der Elsken: retrospective of this well known Dutch documentary maker and photographer
- Press photography prize (in the gallery): some impressive news pics of the last year

Very enjoyable all! We'll surely be back for other exhibits ;-)
Their site: fotomuseum

Cannibal Kitchen I

mmm dinner!

A day at the zoo

A few pictures of our visit to Planckendael 6th of may 2006

The Terrible Toilet

Inevitable I'd say ;-)