... cause they seem to be all I can listen to/watch at the moment.

I've been loving The Doors for 18 years, and this song is just... something you have to experience. It's spine chilling.

Yesterday evening I finally watched the Live at Angkor Wat DVD that accompanied my very special superdeluxe edition of Placebo’s latest baby... and I was happily impressed. The show took place somewhere at the end of 2008 in Thailand, in an ancient buddhist temple as a protest against human trafficking.

The sound Placebo uses here is modest, quiet, tender and sweet and suits them perfectly. Please sit back, relax and enjoy.

Me and five others stayed at a beautiful and very old (built in 1610) house in Verviers, owned by Thura's father who turned it into a B&B. He went away for a short holiday and we were very happy to look after the place!



View from a few steps up the gate. The church played a similar tune to "Zie ginds komt de stoomboot" several times a day :)










And Marcus played guitar.





We climbed lots of stairs in Verviers.





View





View II





View III



Thura, Marcus, Benten, Terrence & Ferdinand: thank you for being there :)

I love the last two songs on Placebo’s latest album Battle for the Sun: Come Undone and Kings of Medicine (and the title track is the perfect song to do my Sunday morning wake up dance to).
I thought Come Undone was a cover but it seems to be theirs after all, yey!

Here’s a live version of Come Undone, I love the walls and layers of guitar noise...



And speaking of covers, I was surprised to find this version of Running Up That Hill, it’s wonderful...




Last Friday I went to a show of White Rose Movement at the Ekko in Utrecht. I adore WRM. It was brilliant to see them in such a small venue. And to dance barefoot to their music.

Here’s Love Is A Number. And Girls In The Back. Whip crack!






I’m a Suede fan since, I don’t know, 1992’ish. And every once in a while I’m having this ever-recurring Suede phase. Animal Nitrate and Metal Mickey are def two of my most favorite. It seems embedding is disabled with almost all of the official Suede video’s, but I found these two and the live version of Metal Mickey is quite energizing :)





And the last one is Placebo’s first. Come Home!

stems & branches





nature boy





horsies





running shoes resting





the pretty German boy on the beach





dead lizard





in the Dutch mountains

Now that the album is officially released – I just received the extra superdeluxe package (with autographs!), on my day off, great timing! And it’s absolutely impressive... I forgot about the album being also on double LP (LP!) and the artwork is beautiful – I decided to state my official opinion about Battle for the Sun. And official meaning nothing more or less than just an idea/impression that evolves from time to time, like everything that surrounds us as we live in a universe that happens to not stand still :)

First I’d like to point out that the album makes me happy whenever I hear it. And hearing the songs in my head when I don’t hear the album makes me also happy. And there’s nothing wrong with plain happiness, or is there?
And I’ve heard some of the songs live at Pinkpop, and they were just... fucking WOW. Walls and walls of sound. And sound and more sound and just.... Hmmm.

( here we go )
 

Where to start! The terrain was over crowded and I was grumpy immediately and I had to pee. There was sunshine and lots of clouds and lots and lots of people and it took me a while to get used to them. But all of this is actually irrelevant because there was Madness and .... Placebo!

Madness. I have a weak spot for rebellious gentlemanlike elderly Englishmen in suits, be they pink, striped or black, with low voices that say words like “nervous disposition with the pink beanie hats” and “Plinkplop” and salute Depeche Mode with the best cover of Personal Jesus in like forever. Or hint at another certain band with the words “something borrowed something blue.” Oh!
Great show, great vibe, great music, everybody was jumping and grinning like mad. Def the best show I saw that day.

After a couple of hours that we spent food hunting and enjoying the sun and complaining about the other bands, it was Placebo time! About twenty minutes before they started, we found a nice spot very near the second barrier. And when Placebo entered the stage, my mind flew right through my skull and the sound they produced was like thousands of sharp knifes, it was like being in a knife throwing act. The sound was MASSIVE. Since Depeche Mode had to cancel Placebo accidentally became the headliner which gave them the opportunity to play longer and thus some of their new songs and THEY WERE GREAT. I love the new album. Okay, I can say a lot of nasty things about it but since the nasty things are obvious and true and you already know what I mean, I won’t :)
They just pulled it all off in my opinion. And I finally like the new Steve. He’s okay. He likes to squash his drums just like the Hulk loves to squash annoying people. And I met a 40/50something guy who loves Placebo, thinks they are something special. I don’t exactly bump into that sort of guys every day so I really liked what he said.

Brian introduced Come Undone with the words: “This song came to me in a dream. I bullshit you not; it was on a tour bus.” That made me giggle. Unfortunately he was also saying things like “hello children of the Netherlands” and other kinda stupid things, really he should learn to shut his piehole in between songs because most of the times he doesn’t make any sense but I love him all the same :)

The audience seemed to really dig the whole show, even the new songs, everybody was looking happy and moved and was jumping around and I had to restrain myself to not hug them to pieces.

I made one picture. It’s crappy but not too crappy, and I managed to make it even less crappy with the crop tool :)



See, they’re all in there! All six of them!

It was a long way home, but I slept most of the time, in a new double fleeced hippie/fairy coat which was an emergency purchase. I still feel incredibly happy about the whole thing. I wish I was able to say more about it, but I started writing this yesterday and it only annoys me, I struggle for words. So. This is it.

Exploring






Symmetrical view






Faces






Friends






Babes ready for the destruction of domestic appliances
<pic by Marcus>






Would you like to get crushed, sir?
<pic by Marcus>

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Last Friday me and Marcus went to the Tropentheater to see a traditional Indonesian dance piece with a gamelan orchestra: Widosari – Sendratari Jaka Tarub.



The character Jaka Tarub

The story is about a young man – son of the village eldest – who tricks a nymph into marrying him by stealing and hiding her clothes. It was beautiful and I was pleasantly reminded of my roots. Quite the experience; I was tingling all over with happiness and consciousness about how beautiful and refined the Indonesian culture is, and at the same time it all felt very familiar and “at home”. And it left me craving for Indonesian snacks like lemper and risolles and such.

And, yesterday after a day of buying nice things for myself at the market and enjoying the weather with a good friend, I watched the Buddha of Suburbia with two fellow fanatics in one go! Well, with plaspauzes, making tea, and talking about clothes and drugs and music and whatnot in between the episodes.
I loved it. I can savely say that it is as good as the book. ←- Those words, coming from me. I didn’t growl “that’s not in the book!” or “that’s different than it is in the book!” once! The characters, the choices made in the script, the atmosphere, colors, situations; it captured the spirit of the book wonderfully. I bet that the fact that Mr. Kureishi - the author - wrote the screenplay himself was helpful here :)

Here’s a snippet from a scene with Karim and Charlie for your enjoyment:


~*~

The most spectacular things about today were the procession of Sikhs passing through my street and my decision to stay home and not enjoy the sunny weather. I lanterfantered all day long and did the usual useful things like dishes, washing and vacuuming. For some reason unknown to me I keep on seeing Karim everywhere. I wonder why. It’s a mystery. Hope it never ends.


 

I’m reading The Buddha of Suburbia (Dutch edition) by Hanif Kureishi and I’m in love with it.

The book was made into a TV-series in the early nineties and Bowie provided the soundtrack. As I’m always extremely critical about my loved books being translated into movies/TV-series it may be called a little miracle that I think the actor who plays Karim, the main character from TBoS, is ... perfect :)

I can’t wait to watch the series! In the meantime I’ll watch this video over and over again =)

sunny sides up





good citizen and trance party





in the broad daylight





piano €40,-





a most beautiful piece of music





booty

Sun.Shine.

Sunshine. Sunshine sun sunsunsunsun
  sunshine shine shineshineshine SUNSHINESUNSHINESUNSHINE


SUN shine sun shine sun shine sun shine SUNSHINE!!!!!!!!

Had a nice Easter. Cooked a very tasty Indian meal, enjoyed the sun and watched The Duchess (pretty costumes), Beowulf (uhm) and Let it be.

This song is from Let it be and I love it, thought I’d share...

                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                             
                                                      
hart
springt op
uit borst
ringetjes
door gaatjes
als zemeltjes
en vezels
in mijn vingers en darmen

buik
spiraalt
op
en liezen
drijven
naar jou

ribben
vliegen
als libelles
trillend
over water
en snoeihard
als gemaaid gras

droom
ik dit

Travel bento





Cat&Marcus





Blue-eyed horse with muddy moustache





An army of daffodils





View from the bunker

Two songs I’m having a crush on:


Interpol - Roland




Grace Jones - William's Blood