The colours on my balcony
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Friday, July 27, 2007
Garden of Delights (Antwerp, 22-7-2007)
| Rating: | ★★★★★ |
| Category: | Other |
We think that's quite true because all the objects were delightful and fun too!
Site of the design collective: L'Anverre
The exhibit is in the Koningin Fabiolazaal (site is Dutch!).
Exhibit can be visited un till 9-9-2007. The exhibit includes free water (with tastes like mint and lemon if you like) and many places to sit and relax
Rockoxhouse - Animal Fun (Antwerp, 22-7-2007)
| Rating: | ★★★★ |
| Category: | Other |
The animal exhibit was good fun (I got to pet the tail of an invisible dead squirrel ;-p) and it isn't expensive. Pity you cannot see the upper parts of the house.
Museum site: http://www.rockoxhuis.be/html/rockox_e1.html
Antwerp Animalized / O Dierbaar Antwerpen site: http://www.odierbaarantwerpen.be/programma.php?cat=expo
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
AMVC-Letterenhuis (Antwerp, 22-7-2007)
| Rating: | ★★★★ |
| Category: | Other |
You a get a very good idea of the history and culture of literature by just looking at all the photo's, book-covers and texts.
Very interesting even though I haven't read many of the authors. I'll probably come some day after I've read some more ;-)
The museum: http://museum.antwerpen.be/amvc_letterenhuis/
A free visit with: http://www.amuseevous.be/site/content/avmusea_detail.asp?mID=35&sub=deeln
Metamorphosis Naturalis (Antwerp, 22-7-2007)
| Rating: | ★★★★ |
| Category: | Other |
More animals in books. Very nice old (16th-19th century) books in extremely good condition. The colours of the images look so fresh! The works are combined with works from modern artists.
And another great chance to see this library.
Another special exhibit for http://www.odierbaarantwerpen.be/
Monday, July 23, 2007
MOMU / Bernhard Willhelm (Antwerp, 22-7-2007)
| Rating: | ★★★★★ |
| Category: | Other |
Every-one should totally experience this exhibit because it's so much fun!
I'm not going to tell too much about what you can see because it'll ruin your experience. Just expect a post-modern eclectic extreme kitsch fashion chaotic haunted house ;-)
A little bit about the designer: Bernhard Willhelm was born in 1972 in Germany, he studied in Antwerp, he likes the fantastic and the unexpected, he designed the clothes for Björks latest tour (including the costume for the cover for the cd "Volta").
Have fun at the exhibit!
Museum-site
free visit! Amuseevous
Museum Plantin-Moretus / Wondrous Animals on Paper (Antwerp, 22-7-2007)
| Rating: | ★★★★★ |
| Category: | Other |
* the museum is still great and you need to visit it at least once!
The museum site:
http://museum.antwerpen.be/plantin_moretus/index_eng.html
The site about the special exhibit: http://www.odierbaarantwerpen.be/programma.php?cat=expo
* many nice old books with animals and as a bonus some great natural wonders like shells and stuffed animals.
And it was a free visit! http://www.amuseevous.be/site/content/avmusea_detail.asp?mID=28&sub=deeln
Yay for amuseevous!
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Museums of the Far East (Brussels, 14-7-2007)
| Rating: | ★★★★★ |
| Category: | Other |
This museum is part of the museums for art and history (KMKG-MRAH) in Brussels. The other museums are great already but this one is really really special!
There is the Japanese tower which holds many Asian treasures and looks amazing on the inside. Sadly you cannot climb the whole tower but the outside is beautiful enough. There's a nice Bhuddistic garden around the tower too.
And then there is the Chinese pavilion which has so many sculptures and carvings on the outside you'll probably walk around it a few times before entering. The inside holds Chinese treasures and a very Baroque-Exotic-Art Nouveau inside. Even the bathrooms are worth a look!
And then there's another building holding a museum for Japanese art. The ceiling of this building is very nice, especially if you think this building was supposed to be a stable for carriages!
All the objects inside are perfect. There's not room for many but they are all beautiful. And anyway: there's so much to see outside and inside the buildings itself already!
And now you wonder what are these Asian structures doing here in Brussels anyway?? Well, king Leopold II saw buildings like these at a World Fair in Paris and liked them so much he wanted some himself . So he had them built (around 1900-10) on part of his domain in Brussels. Parts of the building even came from Japan and China to make them look as original as possible!
Now the buildings are owned by the Belgian state and since a few years we can visit them again.
If you want to know more about the history of the buildings you should definitely visit them because there's a lot more interesting information to find in the museum itself ;-)
Museum-site (Dutch and French only) here
Another free visit with werchter-amuseevous!
http://www.amuseevous.be/site/content/avmusea_detail.asp?mID=23&sub=deeln
Pictures: Asian Arts
Castle Gaasbeek (near Brussels, 8-7-2007)
| Rating: | ★★★★★ |
| Category: | Other |
Originally this was a medieval castle but the last owner, the marquise Arconati Visconti, had it renovated in the late nineteenth century. Now it's a very nice mix of neo-gothic and neo-renaissance styles. But the greatest thing is that the inside of he castle is totally furnished. Every room has great paintings, furniture, oak doors with marvellous carvings, beautiful tiles and many many other treasures. You can walk around in all the rooms for many hours and not get bored!
And that's just the castle! There's also a very large garden with many old trees, a big pond, other old buildings, an orchard and of course a restaurant where you can taste some great Belgian food (try the Belgian cherry beer called "Kriek" which is a specialty of the region!).
So if you want to have a great day outside, filled with nature, culture, architecture and other delicacies check out these sites:
- http://www.kasteelvangaasbeek.be/
- http://www.amuseevous.be/site/content/avmusea_detail.asp?mID=3&sub=deeln
(free visit with werchter-amuseevous!!)
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
RockWerchter 2007 (28-6 un till 1-7)
| Rating: | ★★★★★ |
| Category: | Other |
Day One (thursday the 28th of june)
17:00-17:40 Billy Talent
A nice enough Canadian punk-rockband which best song either irritates you immensely or makes you strangely happy (I'm in the last category btw).
18:05-18:55 Zornik
Belgian band with a great new album, very good live, enjoyable Muse-like songs.
19:35-20:35 Air
Totally relaxing!
21:00-22:00 Marilyn Manson
So much better than the last time! I enjoyed the show, the songs, the atmosphere... and even the new songs worked well live.
22:35-23:50 Björk
Amazing as always! Great show, funny costumes and dancing, fantastic voice, great musicians as "band", brilliant songs and sounds.
22:45-0:00 Beastie Boys
Mark went to see them and he said they were great. I only saw two songs which were ok but the sound sucked!
0:30-2:00 Muse
Still one of the greatest live bands ever and the songs of their latest album are great too! And the classics are...well, classics right?
Day Two (friday the 29th of june)
16:25-17:25 Kaiser Chiefs
Their music makes me want to sit in a real English pub and have a cold pint of beer, some juicy pie and watch some football on the telly ;-)
18:00-19:00 Bloc Party
Completely different but still brilliantly British. This band has such a great sound!
19:35-20:35 Queens of the Stone Age
Their music rocks and they keep getting better live.
21:10-22:20 Arctic Monkeys
Cute little monkey-boys making quite good music. They'll keep getting better I think.
23:00-0:30 Pearl Jam
Loads of nostalgia but the songs just don't have the same impact any more. Great performance though.
Day Three (saturday the 30th of june)
15:05-16:05 Amy Winehouse
Even drunk she has a fantastic voice and her band sounded great (and sober ;-p). Very special lady!
16:40-17:40 Snow Patrol
Great band, great performance even-though it seems they keep losing luggage at our airport every-time they play in Belgium.
18:15-19:15 The Killers
Definitely the best thing to ever come out of Las Vegas! Quite an experience!
19:30-20:45 Arno
A great Belgian performer, perfect company for our dinner ;-)
19:55-21:10 Peter Gabriel
Real decent music, great songwriter, great performer and he can even dance ;-)
21:20-22:35 The Good, the Bad and the Queen
I'm not wild about it but it would probably have sounded a hell of a lot better with good sound and quiet people!
23:10-0:25 LCD Soundsystem
Wow! Now this IS something to get wild about! Very danceable and fun electronic-rock-noise-music mix.
Day Four (sunday the 1st of july)
15:25-16:25 Maxïmo Park
Nice enough but not very exciting.
15:45-16:45 The Kooks
Nice, very English (heavy accent!), rock-music. Enjoyable ;-)
17:20-18:20 Interpol
Absolutely brilliant! Such beautiful songs and so perfectly performed! Wow!
18:20-19:10 Frank Black
Un-comparable! No-one can scream and moan like Frank Black. And a good performance too ;-)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)