Ha!

Has the Large Hadron Collider destroyed the world yet?

Infatuation #30: An eternity after Lowlands

download: Late Of The Pier - Space And The Woods

Oops, i haven't been very active for sometime here... well, i suppose i've been busy going to Berlin and stuff, but now i'm back. With one of the highlights of the last Lowlands festival for me: Late Of The Pier. Imagine Duran Duran and Gary Numan time travelling from 1981 to the present day, gone wrong. In my book, that's a recipe for the most interesting album of the year. You might as well enjoy it! In November they'll be performing in Paradiso on London Calling.

En dan Banksy weer

Spike Jonze's Ikea spot

Spike Jonze, bekend van Bj�rk en Beastie Boys clips en de klassieker Being John Malkovich (alweer bijna 10 jaar oud mensen!) verdient ��k zijn geld met reclamemaken. Zo maakte hij spotjes voor Gap, Adidas en zelfs Ikea. Die zijn door de mensen van YouTube al voor ons klaargezet, en de laatste heb ik dan weer klaargezet voor jullie. Briljante reclame.

Cut Copy @ Rotown ✭✭✭✭✩

Bijna was het aan me voorbijgegaan, het optreden van Cut Copy gisteravond in Rotown. Gelukkig is er altijd last.fm om me op de hoogte te houden van de tourschema's van mijn favoriete bands, en dat Cut Copy daar bij hoort, is ook wel duidelijk. Beetje vreemde plek voor de band, dat Rotown, aangezien ze door o.a. Pitchfork behoorlijk gehyperd worden... maar schijnbaar zijn Nederlanders dan toch echt ongevoelig voor schaamteloos popperige 3-minuut liedjes met een randje. Anders hadden ze wel in de Melkweg, of nog liever, in Tivoli gestaan.

Gelukkig is Rotown een tof zaaltje, hooguit wat te smal waardoor relatief weinig mensen goed zicht hebben op wat er op het podium gebeurt. Het concert was uitverkocht, dus dringen was het zeker, en dansen werd beperkt tot het knikken van het hoofd, wilde je niet bij elke beweging met je hand een bil raken of op iemands voeten gaan staan. Er was genoeg reden om flink te knikken met m'n hoofd, want vanaf het begin hakte Cut Copy er lekker op los. Nobody Lost, Nobody Found vloeide over in Far Away (yay! mijn favoriet) en zo volgde eigenlijk het complete laatste album in hapklare brokken, met af en toe wat nummers van hun eerste album, wat ik (nog) niet ken. Een korte show, iets langer als 60 minuten, maar vlammend.

Waarom dan toch geen 5 sterren? Het enige vreemde aan de show was dat de band het niet (meer) gewend leek te zijn in zo'n klein zaaltje te staan. In Amerika hebben ze met groot succes de zomerfestival getourd, en dan sta je ineens weer voor 100 man te spelen. Dus hard "How is everybody doing?!" roepen, terwijl je net zo snel iedereen de handen schud, hoeft dan niet echt. Dus de volgende keer zelfde show, zullen we zeggen in de HMH?

August Mixtape: An Elaborate Dream

For August, the mixtape theme was a bit more special than usual. My mixtape partner got to choose which artist in my last.fm top 10 i should create a 'crash course' for her for, and i got the option to do it either for Duran Duran (that would've been too easy), Patrick Wolf (might still do that one) or Nine Inch Nails - which seemed and turned out to be the most interesting one for myself as well. Trent Reznor's band has been quite prolific the last few years, and i had a hard time immersing myself fully in the music, also because those last few albums, on first listenings, didn't really open themselves up... which they did now that i've had to listen to them for this mixtape!

I chose to pick the more poppier songs from NIN's back catalogue, mainly because for anyone not familiar with their sound, it would be a softer transition. What surprised me though, that there were plenty of easy accessible songs to choose from... so NIN isn't as radical in their sound as even i thought. Plus, their more aggresive songs all pretty much sound the same, so in my opinion it gives a better overview the many facets of NIN's sound by putting the 'hits' in a mix than the 'underground' songs. And what surprised me too, is how consistent in sound NIN has been for over 20 years almost. You could question the production on a track like Sin (from their first album Pretty Hate Machine), but everything after that could just as well have been recorded in 2008 or in 1992. That's could be called quite an accomplishment! Tracklisting is like this:

Something I Can Never Have
March Of The Pigs
Only
Sin
Closer
The Day The World Went Away
Meet Your Master
Lights in the Sky
La Mer
Into The Void
1,000,000
A Warm Place
Suck
Right Where It Belongs
Hurt

Download it here. It's 84,6 MB, 66 min. long. Enjoy it, pigs!

The Dark Knight ✭✭✭✭✭

The second night at the Edinburgh Odeon we went to the new Batman movie, which was shown on a proper big screen. Good, because it's an action movie like no other, that makes all other action flicks seem slowpaced and non-realistic. Much like the first 'new' Batman movie made the same kind of statement, but this sequel tops that. Although the action sequences weren't that much more spectacular... it's the acting that made the movie. And ofcourse, especially what Heath Ledger did as the Joker. You could question if it's over the top and in a few years time we'll probably all agree that it was. The effect it has on the movie though is that you're horrified by his actions, but compelled to look how twisted it is. It really makes Jack Nicholson's Joker look like a... eh... clown?

X-Files: I Want To Believe [2008] ✭✭✭✭✩

During the last days of our holiday in Scotland, we ended up in Edinburgh... and however marvelous the city looked at night, or how peaceful the Highlands were, after two weeks surrounded by nothing but sheep we needed to recharge ourselves with fluffy western popculture. As soon as we spotted the local Odeon Cinema we knew we were in the right place. Went there two nights in a row, the X-Files movie was the first one. It might be just a one-off, slightly longer episode... but all the ingredients that made the series good, were there. Real good supporting actors, lots of spooky clues that lead to a spooky finale, and ofcourse those two cute geeks, Mulder and Scully.

Terug van weggeweest

Het heeft hier een tijdje stilgelegen, maar dat had helemaal te maken met onze vakantie in Schotland, om preciezer te zijn The Isle Of Skye. Als je me nog niet hebt horen orakelen over geweldig mooi het daar was, wacht maar af... en tot die tijd kan je alvast de foto's bekijken.

Infatuation #29: 4 weeks to Lowlands

download: Tricky - Bacative

Just i was experiencing a Tricky flashback... listened to some of his classic tracks last week, he's announced as the latest addition to Lowlands 2008. So, what better moment than to present to you a track of his new album Knowle West Boy... Sounds a bit more pumped up and less relaxed than the music he made ten years ago, but still very Tricky.

July Mixtape II: History With Feeling

The second mix features the music that i lived through, from age 16 up til now, hence the title History With Feeling. Each song is connect with a strong feeling or memory of what i was doing those years, from doing the dishes to sitting in the train to school, or smelling the blossom in a lemon-orchard on Sicily. This is just as much my musical DNA as the first mix, but... with feeling.

History With Feeling

1992 - Your Town - Deacon Blue
1993 - Pets - Porno for Pyros
1994 - Dirty Epic - Underworld
1995 - Underwear - Pulp
1996 - Me - Compulsion
1997 - Have You Ever Been This Low? - Suede
1998 - My Sweet Prince - Placebo
1999 - Love (Loved) - Luke Slater
2000 - In Limbo - Radiohead
2001 - Fever - Starsailor
2002 - Source Tags & Codes - ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead
2003 - Hairy Trees - Goldfrapp
2004 - Phone Call - The Faint
2005 - Fistful Of Love - Antony & The Johnsons
2006 - From Off To On - The Knife
2007 - Your Urge - Maxïmo Park

July Mixtape I: Melancholy Without Tears

Before we're off to Scotland for a two week holiday, here's something to keep you busy... two mixes for the July mixtape group, theme was Soundtrack Of Your Life. I did a space-themed soundtrack mix last years (yep, a space-themed soundtrack of my life... it was possible, and it surprised even me).

This time around however, it turned out to be a 140 minute extravaganza, divided into two mixes. The idea was chosing one song for each year that i've lived, so that totals 32 songs. The first 16 are bundled as Melancholy Without Tears, because it features most of my favourite artists, in the year that they mattered most. I guess i don't have to explain that i wasn't aware of Joy Division at the age of 3 though, it's all music that i discovered long after it was originally released. That explains the title.

Melancholy Without Tears

1976 - You're My Best Friend - Queen
1977 - Speed of Life - David Bowie
1978 - Them Heavy People - Kate Bush
1979 - Disorder (Live at Les Bains Douches) - Joy Division
1980 - The Touchables - The Human League
1981 - Bedsitter - Soft Cell
1982 - The Chauffeur (Blue Silver) - Duran Duran
1983 - Get The Balance Right! (Combination Mix) - Depeche Mode
1984 - Hand In Glove - The Smiths
1985 - Eighties - Killing Joke
1986 - Star Power - Sonic Youth
1987 - Touched By The Hand Of God (Salvation Sound Track) - New Order
1988 - Blue-Eyed Pop - Sugarcubes
1989 - Tame - Pixies
1990 - Tricky disco - Tricky Disco
1991 - Sing - Blur

Infatuation #28: 5 weeks to Lowlands

download: The Black Kids - I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You

Yep, 5 weeks 'til LowLands 2008. Looking forward to it very very much, and as a taster to everyone who will be there too, or a needle in the eye to anyone who won't, i'm counting down to the weekend the next few weeks. First up is a band i suspect will be great and energetic live, The Black Kids. Their debut album Partie Traumatic is available for purchase, and i always support my infatuations financially when possible, so i will make a trip to the record store soon and add this to my ever growing audio library.

Infatuation #27

download: The Faint - The Geeks Were Right

In exactly one month, The Faint will release their new album Fasciination, and the first single is this somewhat standard Faint song, with some patented electronic twitches and glitches at the end. Mmm... makes you wonder what the rest is going to sound like. And what it'll sound like live, because in two months time they're playing at the Melkweg. I'll report when i'm back from that!

June Mixtape: Spirit Into Matter

This month, the mixtape theme was In Transit, and i chose to focus on driving in cars... to which there's a lot of psychology, in terms of what it does to you. Hence the eerie opener by Lydia Lunch, who i'm sure is NOT singing/talking about cars, but it sets the tone for this mix quite nicely. I've made some attempts at real mixing and crossfading tracks into each other, the results are questionable, but here none the less. So without further ado, download it here!

Tracklist is approximate to this:

Lydia Lunch - Psychic Anthropology
Nine Inch Nails Featuring Bauhaus - Warm Leatherette
Ladytron vs. Pet Shop Boys - Weekend/The Man Who Has Everything
Best Fwends - D.E.E.T
The Fernets - I Can't Explain
Digitalism - Moonlight
Ikara Colt - Motorway
New Order - Primitive Notion
The Bravery - No Brakes
Radio 4 - Absolute Affirmation
Kraftwerk - Mitternacht
Primal Scream - A Scanner Darkly
Dr. Dog - Find The River

Running time is 43:05, file size 52.8 MB.

Infatuation #26

download: One Little Plane - The Snails Are Out Tonight (live on WTOTS)

Who is this? I only just found out through the official Radiohead site that One Little Plane have their first album out on June 30th, and that the guy known to some people as Four Tet but to his mother as Kieran Hebden produced it. Sounds a bit like Bat For Lashes, who i will be seeing live in concert on Tuesday, opening for aforementioned Radiohead in the Westerpark in Amsterdam. Weehee!

Duran Duran - Heineken Music Hall - June 19th 2008 ✭✭✭✩✩

It's been 15 years since i first, and until yesterday, the last time i saw Duran Duran live in concert. That last time was an infamous one, where Simon le Bon lost his singing voice (yes, he has one) after two songs and the backing singer had to finish the concert in his place. If i remember correctly, that also was the first time ever i went to a concert, and i've seen i don't know how many after that... and it's safe to say that wasn't the best concert i ever saw. So, that was one reason for me to hesitate to buy tickets when i learned Duran Duran was playing in the Netherlands once again. The other one was the older these bands get, the more they update their hits to a more modern sound, which never works for me. Well, i should say, almost never, but i'll get to that.

What changed my mind? The fact that i missed out on Depeche Mode when they toured for Playing The Angel in 2006, and apparently put down a great performance. I regretted ever since that my initial thought was that it probably would be a lame show. So, all that bubbled in my mind before i made the decision i should go to Duran Duran, and i'm not sorry i did. Although i got the necessary persuasion from Maarten, with whom i went.

As the setlist reads, it was a decent mix of new songs and all the hits you'd expect to hear. I really would've wanted to hear New Moon On Monday or The Chauffeur too, and a dozen other songs, but well, if they ever decide to do a more low-key club tour, they should contact me for a proper playlist. But you know, at a venue as large as the HMH, you can't expect too many obscure songs. They came really close though with the so-called Electro Set they did after 11 songs... after a quick costume change (yup, they're still as much about style as they are about music... at least) Roger, John, Simon and Nick returned to the front to get behind some very small and nifty looking keyboards and drum machines, to play a mash up of some of their more obscure/electronic oriented tracks. Best thing about that was they played Last Chance On Stairway, which is kind of a forgotten song from Rio, but one of my all time favourite DD songs. Absolutely great to hear them play it. That merged into All She Wants Is, which merged into The Normal's Warm Leatherette! What a great tribute to one of the ultimate electro-songs. They really should put that whole set out on CD or release it some other way, i loved it.

That's what i meant earlier... those old songs, updated by adding a drum-n-bass or techno beat, never cut it for me. It usually is there to cover up that they're not very good songs to begin with, and i was glad that Duran Duran didn't fall for that. I'd be the first to admit that Wild Boys or A View To A Kill are nice songs to hear sonically speaking, but composition-wise boring to downright ugly. So those were played the old-fashioned way, which the audience wouldn't have wanted otherwise. The electro set though gave me, and other more 'hardcore' fans, the thing we waited for. I wish i could let you hear some of that stuff here, but i will if i get my hands on it.

Indiana Jones... once more

A bit cynical, but funny nonetheless, this abridged script for the Indiana Jones movie.

CATE BLANCHETT
Pryvet, Harrison. I am evil Soviet. You vill help me find Moose and Squirrel, yes?

HARRISON FORD
Holy Christ, you’re not going to talk like that the whole movie are you?

Infatuation #25

download: The Black Ghosts vs Lindstrøm - I Feel Space vs. Something New

The Black Ghosts might not be well-known for now, but if i say they consist of Theo Keating of Wiseguys fame, and Simon Lord who used to be in Simian? And if i say that Simian after it's demise evolved in to Simian Mobile Disco, and that mr. Lord co-wrote and provided vocals for their hit I Believe? And what if i say that The Black Ghosts sound quite a bit like SMD? But what if i say i couldn't tell you a thing about Lindstrøm, other than that he's probably from Sweden or Norweden or Finmark? Well?

Toko!

Mmm... het is druk bij de Vormers, dus ik heb even overgewerkt. Wat meestal het grote dillema van dat soort avonden is, wat eten we? Bij gebrek aan een magnetron ben je veroordeeld tot eh... kleffe pizza's? Voorverpakte maaltijdsalades, al denken sommige mensen daar anders over... Hoe dan ook, wat mij betreft is dat het allemaal net niet.

Maar nu kwam collega Fabienne met een gouden tip, namelijk Toko Mitra in de Bijenkorf. Een fantasielozer en verwarrender naam kan je voor een Indonesisch restaurant niet verzinnen, maar staat in complete tegenstelling tot wat er te halen valt. Uitstraling verkopen ze ook niet, maar de prijs die je betaalt voor het eten is dan ook écht alleen voor het eten. Lekker eerlijk toch, en niet duur... of klinkt dat te veel als een wasmiddel reclame?

Zoals ik zei, het is een restaurant, maar welke Indonesiër is er niet voor de afhaal... dus dat was ook ons plan. Desgevraagd (maar wel meteen als je bestelt!) warmen ze je hap even op, en wij kozen voor ieder een groentenpasteitje, een pisang goreng en voor z'n tweeën een bak nasi rames. Gelukkig had zij na een bord nasi en haar snacks genoeg, dus kon ik nog twee keer opscheppen! Toen zat ik ook wel redelijk vol, maar alleen al vanwege de smaak had ik nog wel even door kunnen eten. Het geweldige aan het afhaaleten was dat alle ingrediënten wel hun eigen smaak hadden, in plaats van een bak 'meer-van-hetzelfde' te zijn. Dus voortaan met overwerk weet ik wel waar ik naar toe ga!

Shortbus [2006] ✭✭✭✭✩

James Cameron Mitchell was the guy behind (and inside) Hedwig And The Angry Inch, one of the few 'musicals' i can bare to watch without sticking scissors in my ears and eyes, and two years ago he made Shortbus.

The idea? To make an feel-good porn movie. Though it starts of with an introduction to the main characters through some authentic 'action' scenes, the sex falls to the background pretty soon after the first 10 minutes, and what's left is a story that sucks you in (uhm... pun intended?) and in the end leaves you like Hedwig did, with a smile, and melancholic for the lives of the people you were introduced to. Only when the movie is over, you realize how lifelike the characters were, you can even wonder if parts of the story were real. Could that be attributed to the sex scenes, that for once don't portray the act as a negative thing? Quite likely, but the answer also is because of the natural way of acting by most of the cast. Most of all, the movie proves Mitchell is a talent to be watched...

Infatuation #24

download: Au Revoir Simone - A Violent Yet Flammable World

Although i'm a bit late to introduce you to Au Revoir Simone - they released their debut album early last year - i wouldn't do that unless i'd think it would be pretty special. I was surprised by their Sad Song on the free downloadable RAC Remix album at Stereogum, so looked for some other music by the three Brooklyn based women. Think Camera Obscura with keyboards, and you have Au Revoir Simone...

Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull [2008] ✭✭✩✩✩

I'm reading chapter one of Naomi Klein's No Logo at the moment, which is about how brands have become omnipresent and sell not just a product, but a lifestyle.

Yesterday we saw the new Indiana Jones movie, and i got the feeling i was watching all kinds of movie clips with examples of the Indy Jones lifestyle in one go... but it didn't feel like one movie. I suppose it was good to see a movie where CGI didn't play the lead part for once, so in that way it's a classic action/adventure picture.

Good news about that The Faint record

It took ages to get finished, but the release date is set to August 5. More about it here. And more important, a gig in De Melkweg!

Infatuation #23

download: Jasmina Maschina - Asleep (Minit Variation)

An amazing mixture of folk, world music and minimal beats, that's Jasmina Maschina. She currently lives and works in Berlin, Germany, is one half of the experimental electronic duo Minit and composes sound for installation and film. She composed, recorded and produced her first solo album, “The Demolition Series”, at home... and i'd say it's worth checking out, but it all sounds so bloody underground i doubt i'll ever get hold of it.

Santogold - Santogold [2008] ✭✭✭✭✩

Did you catch that song of Santogold i posted here a while ago? Her debut album is out now, well at least on the internet... dunno if shops actually stock it yet. I was hoping she would be performing on the Lowlands festival, but it doesn't look like it - yet. Her music is a überhip mixture of M.I.A. breakbeats and New York electronica, with the odd sweet song like I'm A Lady thrown in... an album that'll keep you nodding yer head all through the summer.

Burn After Reading

For those of you who want a peek of the new Coen brothers movie Burn After Reading, it's here... and everywhere else on the interweb. But it promises to be a hilarious movie, with a shitload of Academy Award winning actors. And Brad Pitt! Not in cinemas until around Christmas though.

Short of interior ideas?

How about hiring this guy? MUTO is a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

Bibliotheek dubbelplus

Onder de ietwat onheilspellende naam Bibliotheek ++ wordt in 2012 de centrale bibliotheek in Utrecht verhuisd van haar huidige locatie aan de Stadhuisbrug naar het Smakkelaarsveld, bij het Centraal Station. De zeven architectenbureau's en hun visies zijn tot half juli in de huidige bieb te zien, maar ook op een gedeelte van de CU2030 website.

Het meeste onorthodoxe en opvallende ontwerp is dat van dokarchitecten, wat het midden houd tussen een gigantische kies, een bloemknop en een skelet. Ik dacht meteen dat mijn favoriete architect (ja, die heb ik) Lars Spuybroek hier iets mee te maken had, maar dokarchitecten heeft er denk ik goed naar gekeken.

Op de CU2030 site kan je aangeven welk ontwerp jou het meest aanspreekt, en half juli wordt dan het winnende ontwerp bekendgemaakt. Stemmen dus!

Infatuation #22

download: Daedelus - Something Bells

Veering off into another direction, i present you Daedelus. Best described as Bedroom IDM. He's currently enjoyed a certain degree of success with some other songs, Fair Weather Friends and Make It So... but i thought it would be nicer to show off with a song not every other blog links to. And ofcourse, i want to display my acquired taste.

Midnight Cowboy [1969] ✭✭✭✭✭

You could argue Midnight Cowboy was the first movie in the Gay Western genre - and Brokeback Mountain the last - but to label it as a gay movie wouldn't do it much justice in the end. It's more a movie about an unlikely friendship in a hostile world, two people finally meeting someone who can be a real pal. Perhaps the end is too sentimental for some people, but if you're captured by the story, like i was, it's quite a tearjerker.

Sexy Beast [2000] ✭✭✭✭✩

A new feature that i'll be testing for the next few weeks is my moviemeter... films i saw will be posted here together with a rating, and perhaps even a small commentary. If it's any good i'll keep it, if not, it'll die a silent death.

First movie to undergo this treatment is Sexy Beast. If you liked movies like Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels and Layer Cake, this is one for you too. Ben Kingsley apparently modeled his character after his grandmother, which really makes me pity him. Even if it's a bit thin at the end, there are great characters and great actors.

May Mixtape: Alcyone

This month, the theme for the mixtape was Space... and i sort of already made a mix with that theme last year, but it was fun enough to revive and most of you people didn't see it here anyway.

A theme so fantastic as that only works for me if you don't take it too serious, obviously. So i made it in to a soundtrack for a not (yet!) existing sci-fi love story. Think: Women are from Venus, men are from Mars, they travel all across our solar system to ache for each other but meet in the end and fall madly in love. Cue endtitles with glorious Pixies track blaring. The songs are:

The Flaming Lips - What Is The Light?
The B-52's - 53 Miles West of Venus
Frank Black - Old Black Dawning
Unkle - Celestial Annihilation
Goldfrapp - Utopia (New Ears Mix)
Ikara Colt - Modern Feeling
Death In Vegas - Neptune City
Chris Bell - I Am The Cosmos
Compulsion - Spotlight Into Space
I-am-X - Missile
Kode9 & The Spaceape - Portal
Digitalism - Jupiter Room
The Flaming Lips - Approaching Pavonis Mons By Balloon (Utopia Planitia)
Pixies - Bird Dream Of The Olympus Mons

I could send you 45 3.5 inch diskettes with this music, but i thought it would be easier if i have a download link ready. The title Alcyone comes from a star in the Pleiades cluster.

I don't like cars, but i like this

Sounds by Phil Hartnoll, formerly of Orbital.

Infatuation #21

download: The Little Ones - Boracay

It would be nice to have a little break from all that electro poo poo from last weeks, wouldn't it? So, i present you The Little Ones and their jangly summer sound. They are from California, and you can tell. I vaguely remember reading about them somewhere, that they are up-and-coming and very important, but i can't recall where, so you'll have to trust me on this one.

Funny ha ha

Sorry to keep bothering you with stories about my recent trip to New York, but today something happened so i can finally close that book, and never ever speak of it again, and let it become one with the rest of my memories for me to store until my brain stops.

The last day i was wandering around New York with no exact goal, and ended up in a book store on Bryant Park and saw a very funny magazine that showcased different illustrators' work. We spent quite some minutes giggling and snickering at the crude, sexist and dirty jokes that were in the mag, but in the end, laid it back on a pile and went out without buying it or even remembering its title.

Stupid ofcourse, because it's been bugging me ever since i got back here. I even went so far as to mailing that bookstore to ask if they could have a look in their own store to tell me what the name of the magazine was, but the only reply i got was that they didn't deliver to addresses outside the US. Like i asked for that.

So a quest was born, and today i found the magazine. It's called Graphic, and i was looking at edition #11. The only hint i had was another magazine in the New York bookstore that was located near Graphic, of which i remember the title. I found only one bookstore in the Netherlands which carried that magazine, and that was in Amsterdam, Nijhof & Lee. So off to Amsterdam, without knowing what magazine i was looking for. But the moment i went inside, i was next to the magazine stand, and there it was. I instantly recognized the cover, and recalled the title. See, at those moments when you think you didn't memorize things, you actually did. There's just no way of accessing that knowledge. Oh, the limitations of the human brain.

Well, i'm happy now. Now i'll shut up.

Werner Herzog + David Lynch = Bloody mess?

Werner Herzog and David Lynch team up together to make a 'guerilla style murder drama'. Like the article says... nice family film from two completely sane directors.

Related film news, Herzog has agreed to remake Bad Lieutenant with Nicolas Cage. Unless it features more full frontal nudity by Harvey Keitel, i ask you WHY???

3 in a row

There are a lot of nice concerts ahead of me, like the indie goodness of Vampire Weekend at May 20 at the Melkweg and Notwist in Tivoli in four weeks. Then it's for a (bad?) trip down memory lane with Duran Duran on June 19... a concert you know it's not going to be very good in the sense that Simon le Bon has never actually sang in tune, but hey... love 'em, gotta see 'em.

Then the big smash. Radiohead on the first of July and R.E.M. the day after that, in the Westerpark in Amsterdam. We saw Björk there last year, it was a great site for a concert, so i'm very excited about it. However, last week it came to my attention that on July 4, Massive Attack will be performing there too, with special guest Alison Goldfrapp! That alone would almost be worth a ticket to see them (and i mean that alone - otherwise they a pretty boring live-act).

For a minute i was actually wondering if i should go, but i thought three large scale concerts in one week would be a bit pricey... But lo and behold, on July 3, who will be performing at the Westerpark with her own band? Alison Goldfrapp. Damn! This is ripping up my bank account... but i think i want to go. Anyone wanna come? I know you do...

And why has Alison befriended me at Facebook? I hardly know her!

update: I must have been dreaming when i wrote this... it seems i got it all wrong. Goldfrapp ánd Massive Attack are playing the Westerpark on July 3, but Goldfrapp is the support act ánd a special guest during the MA show. Well, i know i won't be spending 40+ euros on a ticket to see just 40 minutes of Frappness, it makes decision making a lot easier.

What happened outside some famous album covers?

At B3ta.com, they're extending album art... Famous record sleeves seen in a different way. Love Pink Floyd's The Wall, Simon & Garfunkel's Sound Of Silence... but most of all, The Beatles' White Album. Go and see why.

Museum kills coat

Mmm... the MoMA exhibition i talked about earlier? Seems that the museum had to kill a coat made out of living mouse stem cells, because it was growing too fast . Eek!

NYC 2008, part II

The next day lasted almost 24 hours straight... but it only started after another breakfast at Ritz (Griddled pancakes with ham and syrup... it doesn't get any more American than that), and after a magnificent morning at the MoMA, where i wanted to go even if only for the exhibition Design And The Elastic Mind.

I had to buy the book after walking through it's three or four exhibition rooms, because it was simply too much to grasp in one go. Like the article in the NY Times tries to explain says, the show:

"makes the case that through the mechanism of design, scientific advances of the last decade have at least opened the way to unexpected visual pleasures".

It's still jabberwocky to me, but i could condense that sentence to two words: the future. It was like looking at designs and applied technologies from the year 2030 or even further away. Unfortunately, the exhibition only last until May 12, way too short for something as seemingly important as this. However, you can get a short glimpse of what happened there through the pictures.

After that, the rest of the MoMA was simply an Art Overload. We were really rushing past Picasso, de Kooning, Mondriaan, Léger, Pollock, Braque, Duchamp, Warhol, Johns, Lichtenstein like these pieces of art didn't cost millions of dollars a piece. Bizzarre. We had to get out of there and submerge in the shallowest of consumerism, so we headed off to Soho and wandered between West Houston and Spring Street.

That's where i went mental when i saw a Ben Sherman flagship store. If you'd meet me in the next few weeks, i'd probably be wearing something from that store. Like this short sleeve shirt only with red and black stripes, or the shoes or skinny jeans i bought the day after. Yes, i had to go back there and buy all the stuff i couldn't carry with me the first time around.

Soho is a great place. Loads of ultra cool flagship stores of brands like Prada (designed by Rem Koolhaas), Kidrobot, Marc Jacobs to name but a few. In the latter, one of my colleagues tried to talk me into a not so ridiculously overpriced Marc Jacobs suit. A shop assistent, very possibly Jonathan Rhys Meyers' gay baby brother, helped us, but unfortunately the suits weren't available anymore in my size.

So, off to dinner at Chin Chin's, where i had really delicious, tasteful Chinese food for possibly the first time in my life. I have to keep this one in mind for the next time we're in New York. Since this was our last night in town, a bunch of us decided we wanted to go clubbing, and for that we had to go to the Meatpacking District. Hotel Ganzevoort was apparently the place to be, but i beg to differ.

I'm sure a room to sleep there will be awesome, but the club on the top floor, with views of the city, was just awful. Ofcourse, it was overcrowded with tourists who didn't know of any place else to go (like us), cokeheads, and the worst DJ i've ever experienced. Imagine someone playing 30 seconds of every so-called floor-filler of the last 20 years (like Prince's Kiss, Beyonce's Crazy In Love, you know, the songs you've heard sooo many times, it's just not funny dancing to them anymore) before cutting it off and starting another one. Combine that with needles jumping, records switching from 45 rpm to 33 rpm mid-song, and not as a joke... at least, i don't think it's funny when you're playing Madonna's Like A Prayer, you have pretty much ruined the party for me.

Well, we had fun, but mostly because we made fun of other people there. Like the single men ogling the girls that were with us, who we verbally abused in Dutch (Oh, i love Dutch, say something again!). It was very very late before we were back in our hotel, after a crazy cab ride through midnight New York. Cabs can go really fast then.

Funny though how hangovers don't set in when you've only had three overpriced pints and only 4 hours of sleep, once again.

The last day was spent wandering around Soho a second time. Like i said, i had to go back to Ben Sherman to shop, and after that, i hung around in Bryant Park. Loved that. After that, it was all over. Headed back to the airport and flew back home.

Jup, that's that. Fast. But a second time in New York is so much better than the first. You're a bit more relaxed about what you're seeing and doing, knowing that you don't have to see everything. You know the spots you like, so you hang around there more. And you know what, maybe i'll be there again next year, with Erik, before we make that trip around the West Coast we always wanted to do. Whoosh!

NYC 2008, part I

I was in New York last week for four days, which almost seems the best way to visit that city coming from Europe. Almost, because of the (barely noticable) jet-lag, sleep only lasted 4 hours a night, which leaves 20 hours lot of fun-time a day... probably the effect wouldn't have lasted for any longer than those four days... which was when we headed back.

That fun-time was spent on walking through the East Village, LES, Brooklyn, the Apple store at Fifth Avenue, the Moma, Meatpacking District and Bryant Park... in short. I took my video camera, so filmed quite a bit, but i thought the photographing could best be left to others.

Those others were the rest of my colleagues, but i can't really post all of those here. How wonderful the world of Flickr and YouTube though that i can show you the time i was in New York by just typing in some keywords in a search engine. And how massive the amounts of people who see and do the same stuff we did, when you think you're exploring the city on your own. So, what's in store in all that collective memory...

After a rescheduled and delayed flight, we arrived at Newark, around 22.30 local time on Wednesday April 30th, and headed for the Bentley Hotel with a magnificent view from our room on the Queensborough Bridge/. The first thing i did was take a cab with Tim to the Apple Store at Fifth Avenue to see if we could buy some iPhones for ourselves and the folks at home. But unfortunately, they were all sold out, and didn't come back in stock for the following three days that we were there.

Waking up the next morning, we had breakfast at the Ritz Diner, which after three days of having breakfast there would be safe to say was pretty disgusting, but at least it felt good at the moment.

The first morning was spent walking through the East Village looking for the street where CBGB used to be, but despite a Lonely Planet and some memory from my trip there last year, i didn't find it. However, in Brooklyns Williamsburg, there was more action. Shopped for clothes at Brooklyn Industries and bought a jacket, and one two three T-shirts. Then at Ear Wax Records saw an old Walker Brothers album. Then, just as we were heading to Grimaldi's to have pizza for dinner, we stumbled upon Spoonbill & Sugartown, a great bookstore with some very awkward books, and a shop-keeper who was playing very very very obscure minimal synth from the eighties whom i chatted with about Dutch and Swedish bands i never ever heard of but who i definitely want to check out now.
The trip for the evening was a concert of I'm From Barcelona at the Brooklyn Masonic Temple, which was a hilarious explosive show, as the pictures and videos show.

That was all for now, more later... hang on!

Infatuation #19

download: Crystal Castles - Crimewave (Crystal Castles vs. Health)

If you name your band after the castle where Princess She-ra lived, you can't really go wrong anymore in my opinion. They released their debut album last February, and are good mates with The Klaxons and Health, with whom they remixed their own song Crimewave. To great effect. One side note... On last.fm, this song gets tagged '8 bit'. Sounds like a new music genre?

Infatuation #18

download: The Notwist - Good Lies

German rockers The Notwist are back with a new album six years after Neon Golden, a brilliant album still, and it's out in a few days, called The Devil, You And Me. On June 14th, they're playing at Tivoli in Utrecht, got to take that opportunity to see how their brittle songs are performed live. This song sounds like a natural follow-up to that last album, but perhaps other songs might have a different feel: The classical Andromeda Mega Express Orchestra (what's in a name) were sampled and cut up in the songs. God knows what that means, but i'm sure it sounds great.

Goldfrapp's Happiness

It took some getting used to, the new Goldfrapp album, but luckily they're still very good at making perfect popsingles. And their new one, Happiness, is accompanied by a video only they could make. Hilariously British... and i guess this is a perfect way to get your mood up on any morning. Jump jump jump!

Infatuation #17

download: The Muslims - Nightlife

I made the mistake last week to recommend The Muslims to someone by saying "It sounds a bit like, ehm... Jet". When i really meant to say Iggy Pop. My musical memory is supposed to be really good, it just has some really bad parts as well. But then again i also blame Jet for making that blatant Lust For Life rip-off Are You Gonna Be My Girl, may they be turned into monkeys.

Anyway... The Muslims themselves think they sound like the Stooges (ofcourse, bands always think they're more of an original than they actually are) and the Replacements. Well, find out for yourself what of all of that is true.

April Mixtape: Stop Nature

What started out as a mixtape about Flowers and Vegetables, turned in to something slightly different. Inspired by the sense of emptiness and underlying silence i heard in the songs i found searching on keywords like Roses, Earth, Flower and so on... i figured out it would be nice to make a mix that was designed to listen to while lying in bed, falling asleep.

So, expect some moments in which you're meant to drift away, and startle when the next song comes in with a bang. I think the music and sequence works so well in the nightly hours, i wouldn't recommend listening to it wide awake. It really wouldn't make much sense.

It's 56.8 MB, 44:30 minutes long, you can download it here, and tracklisting is something like this:

Björk - Frosti
On! Air! Library! - Fell To Earth
OMD - Of All The Things We've Made
Espers - Flowery Noontide
Brian Eno - 2/2
The Gutter Twins - All Misery/Flowers
PJ Harvey - Grow Grow Grow
Deus - Stop-Start Nature
Erik Satie - Gymnopedie No.3 [Lent Et Grave]
Jimmy Scott - Sycamore Trees

Infatuation #16

download: dEUS - The Architect

Belgian art-rockers dEUS are back with their new album Vantage Point in a couple of days, and the first i'm hearing from that album is this song, and makes me think they sound surprisingly like Millionaire - fronted by ex-dEUS Tim van Hamel - if they hadn't one day dropped their funk. I like this a lot, another Spring Smash Hit!

From the vaults

In a case of Spring Cleaning/Pathetic Melancholy, i've put the site that was the predecessor of pastedescape.com back up again... it's name was ndns2013.com. A bit of a silly name really, it takes more than 5 minutes to explain exactly why it was called that way, and usually people recommended me getting a proper url-name instead of "that randomly assigned code".

That was one of those moments when i felt completely misunderstood by the rest of the world. Now, i understand it was part my fault/complete inability to be coherent at all.

Well, have a look at it. It even featured a blog, in the era before blogging was really easy, so it all looks a lot like "one-way-communication", but still pretty cool and nifty in a way.

Infatuation #15

download: Islands - Creeper

From the ashes of The Unicorns, Islands was formed about two years ago. Their second record comes out next month, and let's hope they paddle over the Atlantic to play some songs here, this sounds marvelously electric-electro-eclectic. And if the singer wears make-up on stage, that means they rock!

Romeo & Juliet in a nutshell

Stereogum has a whole section of tribute albums...

... that seems only the start of becoming a large library of cover versions of classic songs by underground and/or emerging new bands. So far, three albums have been covered from head to toe, to be precise OK Computer from Radiohead, R.E.M's Automatic For The People and Björk's Post. And whaddayano... these are three of my favourite albums of the 1990's.

To me, cover versions only get interesting when they're lifting the melody from the original and shed a new light on what the song could be about. In that way, it's true to say covers are never better or worse than the original, just different takes on the subject.

So far, i've only had a good listen at DRIVEXV, the R.E.M. tribute, and i was really impressed by Sweetness Follows by Sara Quin and the Figurines' version of New Orleans Instrumental No. 1. Or maybe i just forgot how beautiful these songs were. Maybe i should put my vinyl copy of Automatic... on right now...

Infatuation #14

download: Ladytron - Black Cat

A taster of their new album, this is the opening track of Velocifero, Ladytron's new album, out in 2 months time. And a classic Ladytron song, with vocals in Bulgarian by Mira Aroyo. What's the change in their sound, judging from this tune? Bigger beats, bigger synths, bigger dynamics, just bigger. Gosh, i'm so looking forward to this album... too bad i'll be missing their gig in Paradiso on May 3rd.

The music nerds goldmine

Sometimes, aimless websurfing leads to nice surprises. Like finding the archives of Sound On Sound, where the story behind the recording of classic songs like Monkey Gone To Heaven, The Reflex or I Shot The Sherrif are explained by those present at the recording console at the time. As those three examples make clear, there's no judgement on wether or not those songs are good or bad or too commercial or too alternative... just as long as the stories are interesting.

If you're lucky, there's not too much jabbering about what kind of microphones the technicians were using, unless that turns your knobs ofcourse.

Uitslaande brand

Gisternacht lagen we net in bed, toen we om 00.30 buiten gegil en rennende mensen hoorden, en Stoffel en Gijs grommend onder het bed zagen schieten. Snel onze kleren weer aanschietend zagen we in de tuin al een behoorlijk felle gele gloed. Door de heg spiedend werd al snel duidelijk wat er aan de hand was, een uitslaande brand op Bilderdijkstraat 58 bis, de bovenwoning een paar huizen verderop. Snel liepen we naar buiten aan de voorkant van het huis, waar net 4 brandweerwagens de straat in reden en hun bluswerkzaamheden begonnen. Er was een hoop volk op straat, en de buren van het brandende huis - wat overigens leegstond - kwamen net in shock naar buiten.

Dat Marokkaanse gezin stond in ons portiek bij te komen van wat er aan de hand was, de moeder zelfs op blote voeten. Ik pakte snel een paar wollen sokken voor haar, en onze bovenburen vroegen daarna of ze liever binnen wilden staan, aangezien ze twee slapende kleuters bij zich hadden.

Na een uur naar het werk van de brandweer te hebben gekeken gingen we maar weer naar binnen. Op de tv zochten we nog naar eventueel nieuws over de brand (beetje vreemd om iets te weten te komen over wat er tien meter verderop gebeurd, maar goed) en zagen alleen maar discussies in de herhaling over Geert Wilders' Fitna. Slecht geacteerde verontwaardiging en slap onderbouwde kritieken, alsof het hier daadwerkelijk over een film in plaats van een veredelde powerpoint presentatie ging. Erik en ik beloofden elkaar plechtig om deze 'film' nooit te gaan bekijken, en de paar scenes die we toch zagen bij Pauw en Witteman maakten duidelijk waarom het het niet waard was... een toekomstvisie van Nederland waarin het binnen enkele generaties doodnormaal is dat publiekelijk vrouwen onthoofd en homo's opgeknoopt worden.

En opeens schoot het me te binnen. Een paar huizen verderop was een uitslaande brand in een leegstaande woning, en op tv zag ik hetzelfde. Wat Geert Wilders met Fitna doet, bedoel ik. Onschuldige mensen worden uitgerookt door een man die eindelijk zichzelf blootgeeft, een man die haat om het haten zelf, en nu ook niets meer te bieden heeft. Als een leegstaand casco.

Uiteindelijk zijn we maar gaan slapen. 's Ochtends vroeg, voor ik naar mijn werk fietste, kon ik de schade pas goed zien. Het uitgebrande pand zag eruit alsof het maar beter gesloopt kon worden. Total loss. Het pand van de Marokkaanse buren was gehavend, maar niet onherstelbaar beschadigd. Ik moet nog wel mijn sokken terugkrijgen.

Infatuation #13

download: Cut/Copy - Far Away

Oh my, it seems this years Spring is bringing me more happy tunes than i can handle at this moment. Deeply impressed with Vampire Weekend and The Black Kids the past weeks, Australian based Cut/Copy made the cut this Wednesday, with this song from their new album In Ghost Colours. Sounds like something New Order would make now if they weren't so miserable and old.

What is the worst movie ever...

... according to Joe Queenan? The starting point of the article is the new Paris Hilton vehicle with a title that says all: The Hottie And The Nottie. Via Gigli, Showgirls and Ishtar he conjures up a good definition of what a 'bad movie' is:

1. A truly awful movie must have started out with some expectation of not being awful;
2. An authentically bad movie has to be famous;
3. The film cannot be a deliberate attempt to make the worst movie ever, as this is cheating;
4. The film must feature real movie stars;
5. The film must generate a negative buzz long before it reaches cinemas, like the Black Plague or the Mongol invasions;
6. To qualify as one of the worst movies ever made, a motion picture must induce a sense of dread in those who have seen it, a fear that they may one day be forced to watch the film again - and again - and again...

A very entertaining read.

It's getting a bit ridiculous with these movie mash-ups

There Will Be Blood meets Star Wars. One line that ties it all up: "Did you just tell me how to run my family?"

Nerd alert... a message from the future

Page 263 of the International Association of Time Travelers Members' Forum:

11/15/2104
At 14:52:28, FreedomFighter69 wrote:
Reporting my first temporal excursion since joining IATT: have just returned from 1936 Berlin, having taken the place of one of Leni Riefenstahl's cameramen and assassinated Adolf Hitler during the opening of the Olympic Games. Let a free world rejoice!

At 14:57:44, SilverFox316 wrote:
Back from 1936 Berlin; incapacitated FreedomFighter69 before he could pull his little stunt. Freedomfighter69, as you are a new member, please read IATT Bulletin 1147 regarding the killing of Hitler before your next excursion. Failure to do so may result in your expulsion per Bylaw 223.

At 18:06:59, BigChill wrote:
Take it easy on the kid, SilverFox316; everybody kills Hitler on their first trip. I did. It always gets fixed within a few minutes, what's the harm?

And so on...

Infatuation #12

download: Nine Inch Nails - 01 Ghosts I

Trent Reznor's seen the light. After Radiohead, he's decided to release his newest project, a instrumental extravaganza consisting of 36 separate tracks, for purchase through internet only. You can try a free download of the first 9 songs here, but if you're too lazy to even go there, get the first song here... and find out that it's classic Nine Inch Nails... much more to my liking than their previous album.

Infatuation #11

download: Santogold - L.E.S. Artistes

My my, what can i say... i have another killer track for you! This one is by Santogold, one of this years big surprises in popmusic for sure. She's from Brooklyn (aren't all those hip popsters?), sang in the punkband Stiffed, wrote songs for Lilly Allen and is friends with M.I.A. If i need you to convince any further of how hot her sound is, Rolling Stone described her as an Artist to watch, with a matching formula: M.I.A. + Karen O + 80's synths = Santogold.

Together with this track is an amazing video, the weirdest i've seen for a long long time.

Don't stop playing with your food!

Amazing, the things you can do with fruit and vegetables... instead of eating 'em ofcourse! Like Carl Warner for instance, who makes all kind of dramatic scenes with all kinds of raw foods as props. Amazing... his other works looks a bit more like standard stock photography, but hey, he's got talent.

March Mixtape: Mr. Miserable

The theme for this months mix is names. And since most songs with names in them are about girls, i decided to pick only songs about men. But after sorting through a few of them, i noticed most of those songs are about crooks or killers or men who are going to die or just done so, or just in a generally bad situation. Well, the subtheme presented itself on a plate like that. Hence the title, Mr. Miserable. Tracklisting is as follows:

1. Cold War Kids - Saint John
2. Hollywood Porn Stars - Ben's Dead
3. Birdcatcher - This Boy Jake
4. ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead - Mark David Chapman
5. Pixies - Ed Is Dead
6. Mark Lanegan - Like Little Willie John
7. The Fall - Bill Is Dead
8. Manic Street Preachers - Kevin Carter
9. Franz Ferdinand - Jeremy Fraser
10. Morrissey - Michael's Bones
11. Girls Against Boys - Billy's One Stop
12. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Henry Lee

It's 43 minutes long, 59 MB heavy. Have fun, and any thoughts on it are appreciated!

Infatuation #10

download: Tilly And The Wall - Beat Control

Did i say, when i posted the link to that Hercules And Love Affair track, that the new summer anthem was here. Well, that is still correct, but now i have the new spring anthem for you. It's by those tapdancing kids from Tilly And The Wall - whom i once saw supporting for Architecture In Helsinki - who left their tap tap shoes at home for once and made this wonderfully cheery popsong. The best thing about it: it's barely 3 minutes long, and it doesn't really kick in until 1:30, but when it does, IT DOES! Check out the video as well!

and uhm... if you really like this, go ahead and buy the song for real here. They look like they could need the money!

Oh my God, they leaked the US Presidential Elections results!

Diebold Accidentally Leaks Results Of 2008 Election Early

If Saul Bass made the titles for Star Wars

Please turn up the sound really loud, and enjoy this masterpiece mash-up.

Garfield - Garfield = Jon Arbuckle

What happens when you take a well-known comic (i won't name any names) and remove the lead character from it? The stunning result is here... 'an even better comic about schizophrenia, bipolor disorder, and the empty desperation of modern life'. Yeah, it's that stunning.

Infatuation #9

download: MGMT - Time To Pretend

Two frisky boys from Brooklyn, New York, USA who appear to be topless in almost all their videos and pictures. Hmm. Mmm! And their music could be described as an updated David Bowie, or a poppier Of Montreal (whichever rings your bell). Nice, now i'll have something to watch out for in 2008.

Strange maps

There must a word for it, making fantasy maps. Some boys don't stop doing that after the age of 12, and there's a whole website for those kind of men... strangemaps. You have to be male and a bit geeky to love this. On strangemaps readers send in not only their home made maps of fantasy countries, but also of real life areas, but slightly altered.

For instance what the map of New York and its surrounding states would've looked like, if it hadn't been sold by the Dutch to the English in seventeensixhundredeleventeen.

But also old and note worthy maps are included. Like the map that shows what Mars looked like according to the Dutch (again) if it had been blessed with large oceans. Note that the North pole is down and the South pole is up. Wonder why that is...

Infatuation #7

download: Dragons - Here Are The Roses

In concert on March 16th, at Tivoli de Helling in Utrecht, this band is what you could call ultimate 2008 contemporary. If you wouldn't know better, you'd compare them to The Sound, early Simple Minds, Joy Division or whatever 80's band comes to mind... but the only correct comparison soundwise would be Interpol and Interpol and The Editors. However, it sounds a tiny little bit more uplifting and extravert than those bands... and i'm sure it's something i'll enjoy seeing live.

Metropolis remake?

Movieweb reported, some time ago, that there's a remake of Metropolis coming up. I've only ever seen the original, but there was a version in the eighties with contemporary music as soundtrack - Queen's Radio Ga Ga, remember that? - which already sounds like a bad idea... a remake might be even more disastrous.

Producer Thomas Schuehly: "With the overwhelming role technology plays in our daily lives, the growing gap between rich and poor, including the gradual elimination of the middle class, the story of "Metropolis" is a frightening reflection of our society that takes place in an all too possible not too distant future."

Yup, and Fritz Lang filmed that story in friggin' 1927, so i don't understand why money and time should be wasted on a remake. Blog ectoplasmosis sheds some more light on why a remake is useless, though 'ruining the original' would ofcourse be impossible.

Infatuation #6

download: Hot Chip - Made In The Dark

Hot Chip are back with a new album, that sounds like all the b-sides from The Warning, their last album, are collected here. And i mean that in a positive way, their sound has gotten a lot more diverse and experimental. Some tracks are not even very electronic, like the title track, for general download available above. A distant oozing synthesizer and Alexis Taylor's voice is all that reminds us this is Hot Chip. The rest of the album is poppy, clunky, and gets cheeckier than LCD Soundsystem at times. And all that's a good thing too.

Bitch slapping

This week, and if you would have to be non-Dutch to have missed it, Queen Beatrix celebrated her 70th birthday. For that occassion, Anton Corbijn made a couple of portraits of her, of which the picture above is one example.

To much dismay of some other Dutch photographers and royalty reporters (article from the NRC site, it's in Dutch)... clearly from being green of envy or some other strange reason, because this would actually be something i'd hang in the livingroom. Very subtle in its colors and composition, but still very Corbijn in the fact that her eyes are showing something you've never seen in any of her portraits before. Hurray hurray hurray.

That Blur reunion?

It's never going to happen. Damon says:"The rest of the band hate me". Awww. But i still love you!

It's fun to stay at the...

Infatuation #5

download: Goldfrapp - A&E

But be quick, because this is a rapidshare link of someone anonymous who was too kind and evil at the same time to upload the new Goldfrapp single. They're becoming more and more like the Pet Shop Boys with each album, and in that way A&E - Accident and Emergency - is just what you'd expect: a popsong with a trap door. Lovely and vicious. Just make sure you buy the album when it comes out at the end of February.

Spore coming!

I've been ranting about this earlier here and there, but now there's truly something newsworthy about upcoming EA Games release Spore... it's tentative release date will be second quarter of this year, probably April... and for Mac users like myself, it's good news that it will be out for PC and Mac simultaneously!

Small history of the steadycam

Yesterday, we watched Elephant by Gus Van Sant. A very disturbing movie, loosely based on the Columbine shootings in1999, and it doesn't leave you with an answer to why things are happening as they do.

But also being beautiful, particularly mesmerizing were the long steadycam shots, following students through their everyday routine. Afterwards, i was wondering what the first movie was that used that technique. Well, wikipedia has an answer for all, right? Rocky in 1976 was one of the first to use it, but The Shining is considered to be the first movie to use it in a groundbreaking way. For instance "the low tracking shots Kubrick made of the boy Danny riding his Big Wheel through the lobby of the Overlook".

Go Stanley!

The ideal Christmas gift of 2008

Bionic lenses for your bunny wabbit. Freaky.

Infatuation #4

download: The Magnetic Fields - California Girls

The first claim to Record Of The Year always comes too soon in January, but it's always exciting to claim the title for a certain record, even if at the end of same year, you've forgotten all about that album. I'd say, this year, The Magnetic Fields' Distortion is that record. A 'tribute' to the sound of The Jesus And Mary Chain, which seems spot-on in terms of what's hot and what's not, is also a sound that never got the general public attention in the 80's that it deserved... at least according to The Magnetic Fields themselves.

Please note... above song is NOT a cover of the David Lee Roth cover of the Beach Boys song.

Eindhoven Glow

Met dank aan Erik die ondanks een paar alcoholische versnaperingen, slecht licht en 100 km/u toch een scherpe foto heeft kunnen maken van de brug waar ik het vorige week over had, en Bart en/of Marij die me wisten te vertellen dat dit in het kader van Eindhoven Glow (wat vroeger de lichtjesroute was, denk ik) gedaan is, presenteert pastedescape bovenstaande foto. Ik zou zeggen, pak de auto en rijdt allen wanneer het donker wordt onder deze brug door.

January Mixtape: Limbo

I've decided to include the mixtapes i'm making for my last.fm group on the frontpage from now on... you had the pleasure to download my 2007 year mix last month (sorry, that one's offline now). So, the time has come for this month's mix. The theme is Human Anatomy, you can download it here, and the included tracks are:

01. Fujiya & Miyagi - Ankle Injuries
02. The Films - Strange Hands
03. Silversun Pickups - Lazy Eye

04. [limbo]

05. Siouxsie And The Banshees - Head Cut
06. Daft Punk - The Brainwasher (Erol Alkan's Horrorhouse Dub)
07. Peaches - Slippery Dick

08. [limbo]

09. The The - Lung Shadows
10. The Smashing Pumpkins - Eye
11. The Field - The Little Heart Beats So Fast

12. [limbo]

13. Death Cab For Cutie - Soul Meets Body
14. !!! - Heart Of Hearts
15. Underworld - Tongue

As you can see, it's a mixtape in 4 stages... each with a distinct atmosphere, as though they were portraits of 4 different people. Very pretentious, yes, i love that. Have fun downloading it, it's 68.7MB which equals 54 minutes of music.

A list of female Gods

In all honesty, wether you believe in God or not, you can't tell for sure if the Deity is male or female. Yes, yes, i know what you're going to say, the Lord is almighty, all-seeing, indiscriminate and omnisexual... but i was wondering the other day how imaginitive film makers are when it comes to this. Here's a list of the foxiest actresses playing God in a movie or on TV:

10. Whoopi Goldberg - "Tracey Takes On..." (1997)
When Whoopi is number 10 in this list, it really means there were only nine note worthy actresses playing God. Come on, Whoopi Goldberg, you understand i was kidding, right?

9. Jennifer Berkemeier - Foxxy Madonna vs the Black Death (2007)
Ehm... i have no idea who Jennifer is, but the title makes me want to NOT know what exactly God is wearing under her white robe.

8. Gina Hecht - Odessa or Bust (2001)
The first decent lady on this list, world famous from one-off appearances in television series like Seinfield, Life Goes On, Blossom and Star Trek.

7. Sandra Bernhard - One Hell of a Guy (1998)
And ofcourse, God should at least once be impersonated by a lesbian... that's as omnisexual as The Lord can get, right?

6. Alanis Morissette - Dogma (1999)
Playing God at 14'59" of your fifteen minutes of fame. Isn't it ironic?

5. Reggi Danielle Sweat - Judgement (2004)
Ex-commercial girl turned Godess. There's no end to Her powers is there?

4. Carolyn Hennesy - Til Death Does His Part (2007)
Her pictures make me think she's a poor reproduction of Bridget Fonda, but no matter she's made her money with her role as Diane Miller in General Hospital and by appearing in series like That 70's Show and... hey, Star Trek again.

3. Iris Bahr - Mimesis (2006)
What a hottie. Almost make you WANT to believe. Or be straight. Played in Curb Your Enthusiasm, Friends and... oh good God, Star Trek!

2. Faye Dunaway - Love Hollywood Style (2006)
If i was Faye Dunaway, and i would have played God at the age of 66, i would have called it quits. But what does she know, just keeps on going. Sheesh.

1. Marianne Faithfull - Ab Fab (1996)
There can be only one on top, and it's Marianne in her wonderful white suit, with Marcella Detroit as an Archangel with a guitar. Who wouldn't want to go to heaven like that. As long as they're not singing Stay though...

Infatuation #3

download: Lucky Fonz III - Draw Me A River

In the same league as Beirut, about which i talked two weeks ago, this is the alias of Dutch (yay!) Otto Wichers, who started out as a pianist, DJ and busker before playing the brand of traditional folkmusic you're hearing here. His second album Life Is Short was released late last year, so a perfect moment to get acquainted with this would be at the start of a new one... like right now.

If your belly button doesn't show...

...it means you're not really that muscular. Very Brokeback Mountain though. Almost.

Who wouldn't want coffee from a machine like this?

It is designed by Mieke Meijer, who describes this as a 'what you see is what you get' machine. I guess this, and other design beauties are at display at the Family Of Form exhibition in Eindhoven, from January 13th til March 23rd at the Designhuis. I love that city.

Spotted

Gezien, zojuist op weg vanuit het zuiden naar hometown Utrecht, bij Eindhoven: een viaduct ondergekladderd met roze blacklight verfklodders. Vreemd genoeg, geen enkele Google-zoekactie die me iets kan melden hierover... is het guerilla-kunst, of een door overheidspotjes gesponsord project. Dus helaas, ik kan alleen maar in woorden omschrijven hoe koel het eruit zag.

Van de andere kant, volgend week rijden we waarschijnlijk 's avonds langs dezelfde plek (A2 rondweg om Eindhoven, vanuit het zuiden komend net na de Philips Campus) en hopelijk heb ik dan dezelfde tegenwoordigheid van geest om een foto te maken.

What happened to Jake Lloyd?

I'm completely obsessed with playing Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic on our XBox right now — i can't believe how huge it is for instance — so all things Star Wars are sparking my interest once more.

I was wondering whatever happened to the little brat that played Anakin Skywalker in The Phantom Menace... and like that other actor that got hexed by the Star Wars Curse — Mark Hamill — he has shot into oblivion as if it were hyperspace. Rests him a life of being bored or embarrased at Star Wars conventions and getting dissed by hard-core SW fans. As if it isn't bad enough that people forever remember him as the friend of that Jamaican amphibian... or just as a very bad actor.

Which remembers me, wasn't there supposed to be a Star Wars spin-off TV series to be made? No news of that yet, or is there?

Infatuation #2

download: Zoot Woman - We Won't Break

Producing Madonna's last album must have taken a lot of time from Stuart Price (hilarious interview about that album at popjustice), because it's taken him and his proper band a good 4 years to come up with a follow up to their second album. It will be out soon... and from their own site is a taster of what it will sound like. Good!

Spit all over someone with a mouthful of milk if you want to find out something about his personality fast

I read this in Alain de Botton's The Romantic Movement, and it's a quote from American conceptual artist Jenny Holzer. I laughed real hard when i read it, because you instantly test (in your head ofcourse, not for real... right) the people you know.

Cruise Control @ ACU

Next Saturday it's there again, Cruise Control at ACU. For those who already saw me VJ there, i got an almost all new set of movies and images to show the world. Key words: women, dancing and nudity. That sounds like a good night out, right? Be there or bad hair.

Infatuation #1

download: Beirut - Mount Wroclai (Idle Days)

Hello... the first real post in the new year, and the first in the follow up of the 2007 Mixtape. From now on, every Wednesday means a new installment in the Infatuation series.
The name Beirut (meaning the band) was familiar to me for a while, and last October the band of 21-year-old Santa Fe native Zach Condon released their second album The Flying Club Cup... this song is from the first album though. Sounds like something worth checking out.

Gelukkig Nieuwjaar...

and may it be a bloggy one. Ta!