Hof van Busleyden / Busleyden Court (Mechelen, 7-7-2006)

Rating:	★★★★
Category:	Other

It's always nice when a good thing is repeated. This year, like last year, you can visit several museums for free with your Werchter-combiticket-wristband. This year you get 48(!) museums in Belgium and the Netherlands for free! With the stamps you collect on your card you can also win a piece of art.
Time to get our first stamp!

One of the museums you can visit for a stamp is in Mechelen. The museum itself is actually always free but it's still nice to visit it.
As we live here we have visited the Busleyden Court loads of times already so we just went to get a stamp and to see if there was anything new there.

The Busleyden Court is a very nice and recently renovated 16th century 'house'. In this museum you can see historical objects related to Mechelen. Highlights of the museum are the Mechlin lace, the gold leather and the local pieces of art (paintings and statues).

If you visit this museum be sure to visit the other two free city-museums and the free exhibit in Lamot about city-views. There is usually some interesting exhibits and events going on in Mechelen so be sure to check out the tourist site before you visit us!


=> Busleyden / Amuseevous

=> tourist site Mechelen

Fire!

Rock Werchter 2006

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

Yes it's that time of year again! It's festival time!
So what did we see?


Thursday 29th of June

- the Deftones => a slow thundering wall of punk-metal sound
- Kaizers Orchestra => a few Gypsy-songs of these weird Norwegians
- Tool => when I grow up I want to be a Tool song
- Death cab for cutie => they're ok, not very exciting
- Manu Chao => party as expected, fun but nothing new here
- Red Hot Chili Peppers => great musicians! even though we'd rather hear older songs ;-)


Friday 30th of June

- Editors => I love them and they're great live!
- Clap your hands say yeah => I think they'll sound better on cd
- Elbow => very nice!
- Mogwai => another great wall of sound
- some Vitalic / Tiga => still ok ;-)
- Muse => I like things bombastic
- The Who => in the garden, far away (6km) it's ok ;-)


Saturday 1st of July

- Kaiser Chiefs => I predict a riot!
- An Pierlé & White Velvet => I love these fairy tales
- Calexico => americana at it's very best!
- Franz Ferdinand => didn't see them but heard them quite good, still very nice
- Goldfrapp => oh lalala erotic electro pop, I just have to love it ;-)
- Placebo => they're still doing fine too
- Sigur Rós => extremely brilliant fairytale soundtracks, I want to be a Sigur Rós song too!
- Deus => some songs to finish the day


Sunday 2nd of July

- Hooverphonic => sometimes you have to sing this song and I love it
- Depeche Mode => ah the memories! I'm taking a ride with my best friend (after the show, home hehe)

It was fun but hopefully next year it wont be so hot!

Die Obsession / L'Obsession / De Obsessie

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

Exhibit, Brussels, 17-6-2006

Austria is the current president of the European union. Not something you would normally notice but the cultural bureau of Austria has seized this opportunity to show us some of Austria's art.
I guess not many people are familiar with Austrian art except for maybe Klimt but a lot of other interesting and exciting artworks were made there.

Another exciting Austrian artist is Alfred Kubin. I hadn't heard of him either but his work is definitely worth a look.
He didn't only make exciting works he also collected them. The exhibit we saw in the city hall of Brussels (which is worth a visit anyway) included drawings of Kubin himself but also from his collection: James Ensor, Francisco de Goya (see pic), Paul Gauguin, Félicien Rops, Edvard Munch, Odilon Redon...
Many, many brilliant nightmarish dark drawings!

See Kubins work here

Fabre, Loketten, Brussel (17-6-2006)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

I guess this year is Fabre-year in Belgium because a major exhibit of his works has just started in Antwerp in two(!) museums.

Untill next weekend though you can still see some of his 3-d sketches/models for free in the Loketten (location: IJzerenkruisstraat/Rue de la croix de fer) in Brussels. Check it out!

Zulk een zalige zottigheid!

Fabre I

Loketten, Brussel, 17-6-2006

La Fée Verte