Lizzie

The War Is Over - One more from the Doors

2009-08-13T19:36:57Z

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

See the light, babe

2009-08-11T15:51:38Z

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

Angkor Wat

2009-07-21T09:24:33Z

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.

Mini holiday @ Verviers, 13-17 July 2009

2009-07-19T13:08:19Z

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 :)

The house is hidden by lots of trees and brushwood.

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 :)

She sells hearts/She sells meat/Oh God, she’s driving me mad/ Come see --- video spam!

2009-07-05T16:06:14Z

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!

Our birthday @ Castricum

2009-06-20T10:27:02Z

stems & branches

nature boy

horsies

running shoes resting

the pretty German boy on the beach

dead lizard

in the Dutch mountains

An opinion about Placebo’s latest

2009-06-09T14:17:28Z

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.

Kitty Litter:
Sensual and raw lyrics, the way I like them to be. Nice noise and beat, makes you feel dirty in a good way.
But it could have been sung better, not so ... wobbly. I don’t know, I sometimes think it’s sung ugly. Bit of a bummer.

Ashtray Heart:
I like the Spanish backing vocals. Nice sort of song. Mediocre lyrics I’m afraid.

Battle for the Sun:
Shitty and ingenuine lyrics (don’t know if ingenuine is an actual word but to me it’s the best description). But I like the bombastic sound, this fat GHHHHHSSSSHHHH BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM TSJAK TSJAK RRRRRRRGGGGGGG PEEEEEEEEEEEEEPPPPPP EEEEEEEIIIIIIIIIIIIJJJJJJJJJNNNNNNNNN sound. Yeah. Rousing song to just jump around to with both arms in the air.
Feel actually a bit ashamed of the lyrics, though I can amuse myself by singing along with different funny voices.

For What it’s Worth:
Nice video. Pretty Brian. Like the idea of tagging people. You know, like, there could be everything going on with a plain looking person. Like the layers in this songs, the soundwaves. Not anything special but okay.

Devil in the Details:
Meant to be heartbreaking but succeeding only partly afaic. I don’t know. I liked it when I heard it for the first time because I was so craving a decent old fashioned heartbreaking Placebo song like only they (read: Brian) can produce them. So I was like all openhearted about it and then I thought IT was going to happen but it didn’t. So. Yep.

Bright Lights:
I def don’t can’t won’t agree with the line “a heart that hurts is a heart that works”. I understand where it comes from, and it’s a way of looking at and dealing with pain, but as it is stated it makes it something absolute, you know, and it’s just... not. Maybe I shouldn’t put so much weight on disagreeing but it frustrates the hell out of me that I haven’t heard something original and/or beautiful out of Molko’s mega mouth yet!
Back to the song: nice POP song, one ear in the other one out and the melody sticks but that’s about it.

Speak in Tongues:
Starts with uninspired vocals. The song doesn’t really do something for me. The “aaaaah ah” part is nice. Start to like the song around the “you’re beautiful and so blase” part but I find the closing sentences a bit (read: very) cliche. Come on Brian, when are you going to show us some real feelings?

The Never-Ending Why:
Another danceable POP song. Shallow but sort of nice, like all the other songs actually. Writing this I realise that it doesn’t really matter to what song I listen as they all seem to be the same. I really like the horns section here. PWEEEEEEEEEEP.

Julien:
“You can run but you can’t hide/because no one here gets out alive”. This really bothers me. Just another mediocre and cliche lyric. Come on Brian, what’s wrong with your brain?
Je ne sais pas, it should be potential, but just... isn’t. Not that I don’t like listening to it though.

Happy You’re Gone:
It’s almost too easy and obvious to see this as a nasty kick towards Mr. Hewitt, the former drummer. That aside, I don’t know if I like the first couple of lines with Brian’s voice so low, it sounds forced.
But I loooove the chorus, esp when Brian lets his voice jump when he sings “how many-hy times”. Heartbreaking comes close!
Slightly less violins next time plz.

Breathe Underwater:
Uptempo and danceable. But well... I don’t know. Shallow again, no emotions here. Nice though.

Come Undone:
It’s a bit wry that the song I think I like most is a cover. But it’s also dull, I mean the first instrumental interval, it’s just not touching/interesting enough to hold my attention. And the way Brian sings, it’s like he lost that special connection he used to have with his toes and his balls and his guts and his fucking heart. Not specifically in this song but through the whole album. Though he manages to make up for it near the end (of this song).

Kings of Medicine:
I like parts of the lyrics from this one, like “stupid me to believe I could depend on stupid you” and such. And I esp like the way it ends: small. Gets me optimistic about the next album. Let it be a “normal” one, okay?

Bonus tracks Unisex and The Movie On Your Eyelids:
Heard them for the first time while finishing writing this. First impression is not yet available.

My conclusion: I like this new album. I like the songs, and it’s nice to hear something new from one of my most favorite bands. But that’s it. It doesn’t go any deeper than “like”. It will never become one of my favorites, nor will I ever give it to someone. Or recommend it. I look forward to hearing the songs played live and I will enjoy singing along with it and have a good time. But all these horns and strings and bombastic hoompa hoompapa just doesn’t hide the fact that there isn’t much heart/feeling involved. Nor some original lyrics.
But it’s okay. Somehow it fits in their experimental path. Am looking forward to the next step :)

I bullshit you not – Pinkpop 31 May 2009

2009-06-02T09:59:13Z

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.

Geen onkruid

2009-05-24T10:55:53Z

Hemeltjelief/Good heavens! Celebrating Ascension Day on NDSM-shipyard

2009-05-23T06:54:28Z

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>

pencillizzie @ 2009-05-17T15:15:00

2009-05-17T13:18:32Z

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pencillizzie @ 2009-05-10T18:45:00

2009-05-10T16:59:38Z

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.

Down on my knees in suburbia

2009-05-03T11:47:13Z

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 =)

Queensday

2009-05-02T08:16:08Z

sunny sides up

good citizen and trance party

in the broad daylight

piano €40,-

a most beautiful piece of music

booty

sunshine

2009-04-21T08:46:02Z

Sun.Shine.

Sunshine. Sunshine sun sunsunsunsun
sunshine shine shineshineshine SUNSHINESUNSHINESUNSHINE

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

Two of us wearing raincoats/standing solo in the sun

2009-04-14T19:37:25Z

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...

The office where I work has nice neighbors :)

2009-04-10T17:15:43Z

pencillizzie @ 2009-04-07T16:46:00

2009-04-07T14:48:24Z

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

Texel, 3-5 April 2009

2009-04-06T12:48:11Z

Travel bento

Cat&Marcus

Blue-eyed horse with muddy moustache

An army of daffodils

View from the bunker

Oh look, it stopped snowing

2009-03-29T10:02:51Z

Two songs I’m having a crush on:

Interpol - Roland

Grace Jones - William's Blood

picknick@westerpark 21 March 2009

2009-03-23T20:26:29Z

a lil snack bento I prepared

heron's nest island

welcome visitors

yumminess

lookkit this!

*chomp*

duckie & cootie

under a willow tree

willow

I’m a hurricane, ripping up trees

2009-03-21T09:21:21Z

What I don’t like about the new Placebo song are the lyrics. They really bother me. I mean: “Battle for the Sun”? Sounds like a cross between barbarism and empty minded pretending-to-be-meaningful blah. AND IT RHYMES:
“I, I, I, I, I will brush off all the dirt, dirt, dirt, dirt, dirt, dirt, dirt,
And I, I, I, I, I will pretend it didn’t hurt, hurt, hurt, hurt, hurt, hurt, hurt, hurt,
You, you, you, you, you are a black and heavy weight, weight, weight, weight, weight, weight, weight,
And I, I, I, I, I will not participate, pate, pate, pate, pate, pate, pate, pate…” What the fuck are we really talking about here? “Best song Stefan and I have ever written”? PLEASE. It’s just plain silly.

Then there is the musical part. “Epic.” “Cinemascopic, technicolor widescreen.” Okay. I must admit that I like the sound. It’s big, it’s loud, it touched me -> and this is what it’s all about! Especially with Placebo. I simply want them to touch me. And they managed, particularly with the “dream brother” part near the end. Not nearly as much as I hoped for, but I think the song will grow on me and when/if I hear and see it played live, it will totally blow me away. I hope so. I do hope so.

Am curious about the new album. I pre-ordered the superdeluxe special edition and since it was a rib outta my dear old body, it better be good.

What really did blow me away, this last Thursday even, was THE FUCKING AMAZING AND ULTRACOOL AND SEXY GRACE JONES with her Hurricane show in Paradiso. That woman! I can’t even begin to describe how it was. The sound wasn’t that good; it was dull and Grace’s voice was too soft, but what an amazing show. She started way too late and everybody was getting impatient, but when the curtain opened she stood near the ceiling in a sort of construction worker’s lift, with red lights on her head and she was wearing this legs that reached the skies. After each song she changed her outfit between the PA, often still singing or saying sexy things to the audience with that low and rumbling voice of her. Or mentioning things like that we should never stop smoking spliffs and other funny things. There was also a pole on a platform that moved in circles and Grace wrapping herself around that pole and wearing high heels and fish net panties and GUH what a fucking sexy woman. And there was a wind machine with big black ribbons and all these amazing outfits and during Love is the Drug there was a laser beam in the center of the stage and she stepped under it wearing a disco ball in the shape of a high hat and THEN PARADISO WAS FILLED WITH DANCING GREEN LIGHTS AND THERE WAS CONFETTI. And there was so much more, like my fav song William’s blood which gave me goosebumps and her legs and the happy people from the audience that were pulled onto the stage and her legs and her battle with the wind machine during the song Hurricane and her legs and how she hoolahooped during an extended version of Slave to the rhythm and HER LEGS and oh man.... Bought a very nice girly hooded shirt and feasted my eyes on as many lovely people as possible. Grace. Thank you.

~*~

Sushi party 10 March & bentos!

2009-03-15T10:06:20Z

Japanese stuff

Robin, le chef Japonese (is this correct French? :)

M&M!

nom nom nom =)

Very tasty indeed!

Kanpai!

Robin&me (pic by Marije)

Marcus shows us some table manners

Bentos!

Grapes, sandwiches with cheese, chorizo and bell pepper

Sandwiches with brie, basil, bell pepper and a chunk of chorizo

Sandwiches with brie on top, sandwich with peanut butter below, basil, bell pepper and grapes. The blue grapes were not tasty btw :)

Spring in my windowsill

2009-03-07T14:04:19Z

Bento!

2009-03-06T14:58:52Z

Made this bento a couple of days ago:

Left: sandwiches with cheese and crushed chili pepper, sandwiches with cream cheese and crushed chili peppers surrounded by cucumber, carrots and more carrots and a cherry tomato on top.
Right: healthy mix with dried fruit and nuts.

Very yummy and got some big eyes from my new colleagues =)