Paris in picutres

Concerts from the year past

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Tuesday 26th of Febuary ~ Jens Lekman, Paradiso Amsterdam

With Chef and Wacko, Chef's thing.

Thursday 27th of March ~ Giovanca, Paradiso Amsterdam

With Chef, presentation of her new CD in the small hall. Chef's thing.

Sunday 20th of April ~ Roadburn festival curated by David Tibet, 013 Tilburg

Sadly, Rickee Lee Jones canceled. She was supposed to be there, she made friends with David since he was so lyrical about her, but her supporting Current's tour fell through completely. Same with OM.
Still, there were others. Baby Dee was lovely as ever, and she had a band this time! Hush Arbors reminded me a bit of Wacko. His style was more background music, not amazing but nice. There was some noisy music, either Skitliv or Aethenor, during which I got some dinner. Ze Wise One went some days ago in Berlin, and said neither Maya Elliot nor Joolie Wood were there, I was feeling a bit disappointed about that, so imagine my joy when they both came on stage! David, however, didn't seem very happy this night. He said they were gonna play a longer set because of the cancellations, but it still seemed really short. He was kind of distant, unfortunately. Still, great music. I left after Current. Bought Birth Canal Blues and this lovely bird whistle thingy saying: Hooray for Baby Dee!

Monday 21st of April ~ The Breeders, Melkweg Amsterdam

With Chef, my thing! Hmm nice Breeders, comeback tour. Small Hall, stood on the balcony, great location to see in this place. Yay for Cannonball!

Thursday 24th of April ~ The Legendary Pink Dots, Patronaat Haarlem

First time ever Pink Dots, wore my red Victorian dress. Tiny space, not many people. The first band was called Kiss the Anus of a Black Cat, they were from Belgium and played very nice music. The Pink Dots were great! Both hellsville and I love you in your tragic beauty, Saxophonist had scary lips and a light bulb in his instrument with which he walked through the audience. Edward Ka Spell wore a long black robe, sunglasses and had a bit of a tummy. Still very prophetically funny.

Monday 28th of April ~ Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, HMH Amsterdam

With Chef and some of his friends, both our thing. First time, we sat on the balcony, not such a good view, but still. Bad music to start with, then came Mr Cave, who was great, except he kept doing stupid songs like Tupelo. His encores made up for it though, The Lyre of Orpheus and Stagger Lee.

Tuesday 29th of April ~ CocoRosie and KCO - Concertgebouw Amsterdam

Koninginnenacht. Amazing! Fantastic! More more more please! You have to watch the videos. I was on the balcony on the right, and could see the classical sister wearing sneakers underneath her long dress.. The mix of the orchestra with modern classical pieces and the band with their poppy tunes was enlightnening.

Friday 2nd of May ~ Nicole Atkins, Bitterzoet Amsterdam

With Torifan and her sister. Cute! And she has large hips. Wite dress with black dots. Stood on the balcony once again. Great audience, everybody sang 4'th of July, Brooklyn's on Fire!

Thursday 15th of May ~ Peaches DJ set, Paradiso Amsterdam

With Chef, cooked Indian food before with Chef and the Foodgoddess.
Paradiso was extremely gross, the floor was sticky everywhere and I wore sandals. Some drunken guy tried to flirt with me, yuck. Peaches was a bit upset about the soundsystem, which was good for us cause it probably ment she sang more! Two guys (for every girl)!!

Friday 23rd of May ~ Tift Merritt, Paradiso Amsterdam

With the Hunting couple, their first time in Paradiso, saw a bit of Kimya Dawson before going up to the small hall to watch Tift rock out without a band. She has such a full voice, and amazing spirit! On guitar, keyboard and harmonica. I liked her better alone, but that was just cause the band sucked last time.

Saturday 24th of May ~ Feist, Paradiso Amsterdam

With Wacko. Nice lightshow on stage this time, which deffinately made it more interesting. Feist was more enthousiastic too, compared to last time in the Melkweg. Very enjoyable.

Saturday 24th of May ~ Sharon Krauss and Meg Baird, Paradiso Amsterdam

Found them in the basement after seeing Feist, Wacko came with me for a bit but left to meet a friend later on. I stayed, they were wonderfull, and very brave. Upstairs was a racket, and in the hallway as well. Their music was so quiet that you had to strain yourself to hear, but everybody was concentrating very hard in there, except the cleaner who changed the garbagebags right in the middle of a song! That idiot. I bought a CD from both of them, and talked a bit to Sharon Krauss. When I looked at her CD later at home, it turned out she's on Durtro!

Monday 2nd of June ~ Cat Power, Paradiso Amsterdam

With Chef. Both our thing. Sat on the balcony on the left side. We were disappointed. Not nearly as good as last time, when she was shy and almost drowned out by the big band. We left before the encore. And I hate her cover of Blue.

Monday 7th of July ~ Nicole Atkins, Melkweg Amsterdam

It was pooring with rain that night, still people came out. The Gardenlady was there too, weirdly enough. Nicole wore exactly the same dress as last time, and the audience was less enthousiastic (hardly anyone shouted along the chorus on Brooklyn's on Fire) - still good, I'd go again if she came.

Saturday 26th of July ~ Room Eleven, Concertgebouw Amsterdam

With the Foodgoddess. She tipped me on this membership of the Concertgebouw for young people (under 27), where you can buy tickets very cheaply. That's how we went to this concert for just 5 euros each. I started to go to a lot of other classical concerts too, and other things in the Concertgebouw. It was quite nice, I used to just put this on as backgroundmusic but they can hold their own.

Saturday 13th of September ~ The Legendary Pink Dots, Paard van Troje Den Haag

It was open monument day as well, so I checked out the governmentbuildings and some other monumental spaces in The Hague first. Not as good as last time, because I knew the show already, but still very good.

Sunday 12th of October ~ Emiliana Torrini, Paradiso Amsterdam

it's time, meet me, on the sunny road
I love her! Thought she'd be very serious, but she wasn't. And so very Icelandic! Hmm I should listen to her more really. Might go to see her again in Febuary 2009.

Monday 27th of October ~ Ani DiFranco, Paradiso Amsterdam

Mediaeval Irish girl and her boyfriend were there as well, they came for Anaïs Mitchell but stayed to listen to Ani's awsomeness. Hamell on Trial was there again too. This time in the big hall, and quite packed. We sat on the balcony at the back. All on Fabchanell BTW! And she did Swim! I adore her.

Tuesday 28th of October ~ Amanda Palmer, Melkweg Amsterdam

Chef and Serious Altgirl, who is my roommate. In the small hall. First whe had some lunatics in the small hall making music, the Army of BrokenToys, very interesting, Serious Altgirl bought their CD. Then came Jason Webley, the drunken accordeonist tramp, who made the evening exeedingly enjoyable. Gladd they opened the balcony up, otherwise we'd have had to spin around a lot to get "drunk". Amanda and the Danger Ensemble from Australia entertained us beautifully, and I love her rendition of Creep. She and Jason also seem to be Chinese siamese twins..

Friday 7th of November ~ Cansei de Ser Sexy, Melkweg Amsterdam

With Serious Altgirl and Wacko. Though Chef bought the tickets, he had to give his away because he'd forgotten about the concert and had to cook. We went there after Princess' birthday, and we could go back there afterwards because it was extremely short. No other band, and their own program not worth the money timewise. Otherwise OK, although their new CD isn't as good as the old one..

Saturday 8th of November ~ Ladytron, Melkweg Amsterdam

I realized I only like half of this band, because only half can really sing. That half is great though!

Weinachtsbücher

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So as to remember this for next year:

Chef got the bible of the Italian kitchen: De Zilveren Lepel (the silver spoon)








Ze Wise One got Worldchanging: A User's Guide for the 21st Century.



I got Oranges are not the only fruit by Jeannette Winterson, which I'd been wanting to read for ages and ages (there's also a miniseries done in the 1990's, which I promptly watched after reading the book, great actress, sadly she died of an asthma attack aged 33..). The book was lovely, can't believe she wrote that when she was 24 :o

I also got Onze Oom by Arnon Grunberg, my favourite Dutch writer. It's his newest book, I still have to read it though, too much studying to do to start on it just yet (+ my master thesis..)

Burning Bright

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For Christmas, I got this book by Tracy Chavalier, the author of Girl With a Pearl Earring (of which I've only seen the movie). After reading a review, I wanted to have this book for almost a year, so the annual book giving time by Santa (preferably the one with the martini) was my chance to get it. As I got Nigella's new book for Boy Charming (who's name I ought to change to something like Chef) and as I'm educating Ze Wise One in his knowledge of Toni Morrison's masterly works, I myself went for something new and not on the list of 134 books I still have to read according to the Big Read's list of best English literature (I've already read some and I scratched out some uninteresting children's books from the list).


I've just finished it, sitting on my balcony reading whilst bathing in sunshine, and I must say I'm not disappointed. Now I wanted to have it because it was about William Blake. Well, actually, it's a fictional story about two neighbourhood children of mister Blakes on whom he allegedly partly based his Songs of Innocence and of Experience. It is set in London during the beginning of the French Revolution, when mister Blake is wearing the 'Bonnet Rouge' in support of the efforts of the common Frenchman and is thought of as a radical by his surroundings. It was a wonderful story, and although it does not contain The Sick Rose explicitly, you can hazard a guess as to which character in the book this one's based on.
Thankee madam, for writing such a pleasing story.
Next up is The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, if I ever get any free time again, that is..

Dream

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We were in this building/ place which seemed to be a combination of the Palatine in Rome and the British Museum. We had to lock ourselves in at night because the statues would come alive at 1 o'clock. Unfortunately, the gates closed at 10 o'clock so we had to be in there a while. Wise One, you were in there too but you decided you wanted to get some food so you left over the wall. I didn't like it that you just left me, I was hungry too so I decided to get some food as well. I climbed over the wall but didn't see you so I started walking various streets and ended up in a rather shady mall. This big dark man kept following me, so I went to and fro and he followed my moves so I asked him why he was doing that and at that moment he vanished.
Then this woman was following me, I asked her why she was doing so and she said she wanted to find one of those Body Shop kind of things. We saw one in a dark passageway but it seemed closed. We went through a white door which closed behind us so we couldn't get back. It turned out we were on a sand road where vehicles were crossing like mad. It was already five to 10 so I decided there was nothing left to do but follow the sand road. The woman that followed me didn't speak English, she was Eastern European or something, blond hair. So cars were racing by and we walked in this cloud of dusty sand till we met with some slick gay motored police officers in leather who were standing by the roadside. Their bikes were extremely low. I started talking to them and said we had to be somewhere and could we please get a ride. Two of them rebuild their motors with amazing speed into higher two-seaters. Most of them had left already but these two were left with us. They put the blond woman on the front of a bike and put me in the back of that same bike. Before I could protest they had left. Luckily the controls of the motorbike were in my hands. In no time racing across the sand road I had perfected the art of steering the bike around.
Suddenly we were teleported into a big hall of the place I started at, which was like the Palatine and the British Museum combined. This hall was the main hall, with a huge ceiling and a gigantic round square (where the Big Elephant created havoc some other night we were in this place), lots of statues all around the square and a big staircase leading down to the front doors (not the same as the gates that closed at ten o'clock, those were outside) guarded by a little gnome. I thought HA!, turned the motorbike around on the square and raced down the staircases towards the door and the little gnome. Apparently we didn't like the gnome. He ducked aside, we crashed the front gates and this huge statue fell apart into a million pieces.
I stared into it's blank eyes and felt extremely triumphant.

ANI!!

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So I've not been really inspired to write silly stuff, to busy and tired..
But yesterday I went to see Ani DiFranco in the Melkweg. Really really great show *sigh*

First of Hamell On Trial, he was pretty funny (so not really funny songs on his myspace, except 'I Hate Your Kid', but I really like 'Hail' on there. He's on Ani's label: Righteous Babe Records.
Ani said he made her promise to do a lot of poems, so thanks to him, we got two! Unfortunately only short ones, but strong nevertheless. Especially 'My I.Q.' is wonderfully rebellious.
So in preparation of the show I watched the performance of 2004 on fabchanel (which I also attended, as my first Ani concert - if you want to see look under concerts for Ani DiFranco), and she started with exactly the same song (Names, Dates and Times). After the second song some girls called "Ani, it's our birthday" (this also happened in 2004, then she went on singing Happy Birthday, not now though, cause she wasn't messing with guitars). The guitar thing is actually quite funny, every song she gets another one handed to her..
The third song was Manhole, and I was starting to think; who, there's a lot of repetition here (not that I minded, I adore Manhole); and just after the song she actually started apologizing for probably repeating a lot of the songs she did last time. She said she just had these inspirations when she got to certain places she wanted to play specific songs.
Her performance was fantastic (with a great drumster and a contra-bass player), but she was a bit quiet. Just as I was thinking that she began apologizing for being a bit quiet, asked for audience questions and on came the baby-questions. So she talked about her daughter Petah (nine month's old, oh yeah) and the funny name giving, how offended people reacted when they hear it (you say it just like Pita).
She also had two new songs, and sure enough one was about the baby. Young mother's always have to have baby songs. It wasn't that bad though, (not like 'Sleeps with Butterflies' (so I know I use the reference for my wall, so what? The song can still suck although it has a great line)) oh wait no, the bad one was 'Ribbons Undone', and of course 'Seaside' or other gewy stuff. Or like the Nields with an entire album of children's songs *shudder*. The other new song was way to sweet too though. Obviously she's really happy right now.
I can't find a video from last night yet, but here's one from Brussels 6 days before.

WHO

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The Toclafane, they are us! I knew it! Evil as hell of course, and like children. That's what happened at the end of the Universe, when they went to Utopia, that's what they, what we, became. I have seen the end and it's very Lovecrafty. Toclafane are so much better than Daleks!
So sad now we have to wait till Christmas for more of the Doctor :( ~ luckily Martha has left, she was really annoying. It's almost like that woman in Inland Empire, who always kept her mouth open.. And also, Captain Jack will become the Face of Bo!! Who ever suspected that?!?

Warrior Doll

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Me and Sailorboy (formerly known as Boy Charming) went to see Tori in the beerhall. The opening act was pretty bad, like being in an Irish bar, only more crowded is what Sailorboy said.
Tori played very long, but since I'm following the tour I knew what to expect. I could tell Sailorboy how long we had to go. 't was too long for the non-fanatics, but too short for me always. Toronto was a more intense experience, but Tori was great in voice and magnificent in performance.
She opened as Pip, who is her embodiment of Athena, a warrior goddess. I was hoping for Pip so was pleased, though if I could see another show now I'd cross my fingers for Isabel (Clyde's settlist has improved a lot as well). The Fat Slut on her knees was great, here's an interesting anti G8-improv + Fat Slut she did in Dusseldorf.
Tori herself did two improvs, the long one, My Piano, was really funny. We were lucky to get that. I like the improvisations this tour more than the covers last time around I think. She's bringing out some covers now as well and still debuting songs almost every show. We only got the regular albums songs, except for one B-side; Flying Dutchman, which was nice to hear. I loved me some Spring Haze and Caught A Lite Sneeze too :D . After Hey Jupiter we left quickly to avoid the Topper's crowd (who were enjoying themselves in the Arena opposite the beerhall).

All I want from Tori now is that she debuts Datura :P (and maybe for her to stop wearing those ridiculous wigs ans hats during the M&G's, really, you don't need it judging from the pics without of late).

Donau festival

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So are you wondering why I have not raved about the Donau festival yet (except for the Lilacs)? The only good explanation is: I'm still speechless!! *sigh* Austria was fun. Except for the quest for yellow tower, and the possibility of snakes, that is :p . Oh, and the wine-museum didn't have any real wine, that was kind off a let down, but beautiful damaged old Fresco's made up for it. Krems and it's neighbour are silly little villages with noone good shops but nice wells and architecture.
And we finally met David Michael! And I took many pics of him and the entourage, and got to be in a picture with him thanks to Ze Wise One (see link to your right)! Half of the concerts were in a church in the next village, the rest in a big hall in Krems. There was futuristic art too, the machine that answered all your questions, however, did not know the meaning of Life, the Universe and Everything. There were hammocks where you could feel music through sensors without hearing it. Fun!

As for some pictures that will tell you more than my meaningless words:

Andria Degens as Pantaleimon with her scary straight figure and her sleep inducing music was the same as always. BTW ~ do you know there's a movie version of The Golden Compass (yeah I know it's supposed to be called Northern Lights) coming out this December? Nicole Kidman plays Mrs Coulter, I thinks she's made for the part. To bad stupid blond Bond is Lord Asriel.

The amazing Simon Finn didn't have the best of guitars, strings kept braking so he changed the set and had Julie Wood singing 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star'.

The lovely Baby Dee with John Contreras on Cello, I so have to get one of her albums one of these days..

My Little Annie Anxiety pics turned out great! Very theatrical performance, which isn't very surprising since she comes from that direction. She really looks like she has had way too much drugs in her career, and she was a very cute person. Scary, too. Good thing I like scary.

The freakish hyperactive Bonnie Prince Billy with a red dot on his head (the makeup was brought to us by the lovely Baby Dee) was accompanied by the even more hyperactive Dawn 'the Faun' McCarthy. They were great together. I have since bought the latest Faun Fables album. It is growing on me each day, I love the train theme running through it.

And Current. I think they had about sixteen people on stage. Two piano's, two Chello's, a Harp, a Violin, Flutes and more Violin from Julie, a Grunter, the hypnotic Singer and numerous guitar thingies. Too bad Maja Elliot was invisible from where we were.

One needs some wine from time to time, after all that passionate singing, especially because we were in Austria's wine-growing regions. The settlist was great, the only downer the drunken screaming guy in the audience (I think he kept requesting Balance. Unfortunately he's dead, you know? And he kept shouting out for William Breeze, the electrical viola player who's also an OTO leader).

A match made in Heaven?

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Concert by the Gossip rocked! What a cool woman Beth Ditto is :) ~ News of the World (see link too your right) wrote about it, but that was the same woman who ditched Tori and can't for the live of her remember any song titles. But nevertheless, she provides some amusing info.

I totally think Beth should join forces with Roxy! I know, you probably don't want to think about it, but they are made for each other! Fat little Beth with her anchor tattoo that says MAMA and skinny scary Roxy with her anchor tattoo that says POP.....
A guerilla filmmaker and a radical feminist, and they're both lesbians so that should work ;)

iieeend some more

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These be the Magickal and Apocalyptic ones (my favs ~ if you canna read it, click on the pics for a larger version):

Ze newest hype

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Kitty macros! I collected some good ones of the web:

BtVS

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normally I dislike these online quizzes, cause they're, you know, silly, but erm, I have time to spare and am reading a Buffy book, so yes, which Buffy character are you?

I'm:

912 other people got this result!
This quiz has been taken 25497 times.
8% of people had this result.

You are where I like it best

"This show was by far one of the most moving shows I have ever seen. Although I don't normally recommend shows by artists outside of the Durtro family on my updates or on durtro.com, this performance was so profound and numinous that I feel impelled to urge people to see her if you can. She is channeling something remarkable and beautiful and unsettling, and her band are extraordinary. Her tour is now in the UK and Europe till the end of May."

This is part of what David Michael wrote about Rickie Lee Jones. He blogged about her new album before, all raving mad about it, considering it a sister to Black Ships, so I downloaded it, liked it a lot and decided to take the advice and see her show in Paradiso. And indeed, he was right, she was channeling something remarkable and beautiful!
The great thing stared when I was standing around all by myself reading some free music magazine they keep around there when I realized they were playing Current. As far as I remember they weren't playing anything before. So somebody must have picked up on David's rants. I'm hoping they made contact, but it could be a mad Paradiso-employee too. Don't know who picks the music. It was a great introduction to a magical show anyway. Just before the band came out they played half of some SBS song.
Now, Rickie Lee Jones is a long standing artist, once talked of as the natural successor to Joni Mitchell. She had some good and bad times and a broken relationship with Tom Waits. Her newest album, The Sermon On Exposition Boulevard, was inspired by a religious epiphany she had when asked to do something for a secular Jesus-quotation book (I don't tell the story well, go read it elsewhere). About a third of the songs on the album are improvised first takes, and most or all songs are inspired by Bible stories. But not in a mainstream Christian way at all. Or an understandable way for that matter.
The stage was covered in Eastern tapestries and Chinese lanterns, and on a small table in the middle there was a big candle burning with a white rabbit on it. Her second song was an amazing rendition of the first song on the album, Nobody Knows My Name. She had put down her guitar, used a tambourine but threw that on the ground (she kept picking up new tambourines and throwing them on the stage when she was done with them), and she was all smiling an glittery eyed, raising her arms up in the air and singing her heart out.
I'm sorry if I sound to floaty and spiritual, but you could really feel that, feel your own being reaching back and absorbing the feeling. Some music does that, makes you feel deeper, euphoric, with hope and love and warmth and desire and happiness and a religious kind of belief. The feelings that it either creates or brings up in me, that is why I adore music so much. Now, I think this woman has something amazing and I'm seriously considering worshiping her :p .
Another highlight was Where I Like It Best, but there were so many and I forget. They are broadcasting this concert on Wednesday, June 6th, on radio 6. I'm disappointed that it wasn't taped for de Luisterpaal, although it wasn't really that kind of audience. Mostly older people, and nobody smoked (at least round where I was standing). The audience was also very good at being quiet during those songs that needed it. They were still dropping plastic glasses on the balconies, but not a lot.
Rickie is multi-talented. Besides her normal guitar (for which she used different playing methods) and the tambourine, she also did acoustic guitar, keyboards and piano whilst singing and manipulating her voice. She played both her band and the audience with hand motions as well, urging us to keep quiet while she was making soft vocal music, going over into another song and steering her band during the many long improvisations they were doing. On the piano she was solo, three songs, and with the encore she send us of after the last song, after a performance that lasted longer than two hours, with words that went something like: if you feel pain in your heart, remember this moment, you are all connected, you are all satellites now. When the lights went on they started playing Where the Long Shadows Fall, so I hung around for a bit and bought the album. It is not often that you get to hear Current 93 in a church.

When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed

Taken from a part of Walt Whitman's poem:

In the dooryard fronting an old farm-house near the white-washed palings,
Stands the lilac-bush tall-growing with heart-shaped leaves of rich green,
With many a pointed blossom rising delicate, with the perfume strong I love,
With every leaf a miracle -and from this bush in the dooryard,
With delicate-coloured blossoms and heart-shaped leaves of rich green,
A sprig with its flower I break.

The redheaded schizophrenic woman

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New album out this friday!

By accident, or just checking Undented a lot (Ears With Feet link on your right), I won a contest from Viva (I know..) to go to a listening session of this very album two weeks before it came out! I had to write a poem, five lines, so I stole some stuff from lyrics, I think it was something like this:

I'm in New York somewhere
Checking my accounts
Across the street I see
A love lost and found
Painted in mint ice cream

Additionaly, lovely Tori also did five songs live over two hours of radio show (Dutch program 'Spijkers met Koppen' with Dolf Jansen). It was in this small Englishy pub in Utrecht, free entrance. There were loads of insane fans, some came 8 o'clock already. Some guy who went to the radio show every week, just for fun, said it had never been that busy. Tori was being a real diva, demanding everybody left the pub to stand in the scourging sunshine so she could sound check. It was all worth it, naturally. To bad she did Leather and Silent All These Years, have heard those way too much already, but Almost Rosey, Beauty of Speed and the premiere of Roosterspur Bridge were very cool indeed. Then on to the listening session where Tori came to talk to the lucky winners for a bit, finally requesting the people to turn on the volume on high, because she made big music, not little music. Album was promising, although the album version of Almost Rosey and Velvet Revolution kinda sucked. I want to hear more soon! Afterwards some Torifans and me had ice cream @ Australian, cause it was f*cking hot outside.

Tired of Being Sexy

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We went to see Cansei the Ser Sexy, aka the above title, CSS for short, the day after Easter (we had nettlesoop in wineglasses and rhubarb-pie for Easter linner, very lovely). There were some other bands as well, but they weren't important.
I could give you a review, but the whole concert is available online, so it would be kind of pointless. I really enjoyed myself, liked the hula hoop thing, we jumped around a lot, I got stuck in the pit for a bit but when a girl fainted because three people fell on her (me as the last one) I went back to the others who were standing mid centre. Most chickened out but Boy Charming, Kereltje and me hit the after party for a bit and danced around in Paradiso's basement. There were a whole lotta lesbians around too. Just saying.

Flairck

Returned from the other side of the country to see this, and as is my luck the trains were terribly delayed, so missed the first half almost completely plus had four hours on the tracks. It was still worth traveling all that way for and walking through the rain and ending up with a hurting head the next morning, however.
Flairck is a Dutch folk-music band from the seventies, who have been infected with the reunion virus. I saw them about six years ago in a totally different form, but now the four original members came back together and they are going around the Dutch theatres accompanied by a fifth member and her theatre ensemble.
Actually, the biggest talent lay with this fifth person that wasn't an original member. Don't get me wrong, I thought the nympho-violinist was amazing, a total neo-hippie-elf, the guitarist brothers were great, and the flutist could do incredible things, but the lady was just more versatile. She formed a musical theatre ensemble with one of the four original members, the flute player, and this filled about one third of the show. They did interesting things with typewriters, phones, desks, dance, shadow play, wineglasses and vocals, not to mention the circular saw. Apparently there was a conceptual piece with whistling kettles in the first half.
The audience consisted almost entirely out of Old People, I guess I have a weird taste in music sometimes. The show rocked, both the theatrical pieces as well as the *real* music, which is all instrumental. Once, halfway down a song, they started to imitate birds with their instruments, that was so cool! We got great encores, the performance lasted really long, we sat way up front (perfect photo opportunities if Someone hadn't objected so much), and I wished I could have gone to more of their shows.

Rebel girl,

rebel girl, rebel girl you are the queen of my world!

ooh I've only just discovered the riot grrrl music scene really, and that thanks to an obscure reference at that 'mixer for my gay and straight friends' party where they did 'name a celebrity'. I should have known about this much sooner! So Kathleen Hanna. I already had Le Tigre, but now I also have Joan Jett (for roots), L7 and Bikini Kill (and I want Babes in Toyland cause their name sounds wicked, but I can't find a torrent so far).
I also discovered Mucha because my roommate has a poster by him. It's very pretty. I was looking for Kathleen Hanna on Google pictures, and guess what I found? This beautiful Mucha artwork. It must be faith. Hopefully in a good mood and her own body.

Other news: I ought to be investigating my umbrella. If anybody knows anything about umbrella's, please let me know cause that stupid thing is driving me insane. And it probably made me sick. I think it contains moths, either dead or not quite, and possibly fungus. This might well be HELL. The one where Lucifer no longer rules alone but where there's a triumvirate with the flylike creature and the mouth/eyes thing. OK I'll shut up now.

New Home

. What doest thou think of the fine fabric that's about to become my curtain?

View from my New Kitchen

The New Laptop

View from living room

You don't want to know exactly how broke I am..

Power and the Christmancult

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There's another one that needs a styling makeover and new soundpeople. Also, a band that isn't louder than herself. Also, she needs to work on her self esteem, soooo shy (but what do you expect from someone with lyrics like 'I hate myself and I want to die'?). The solo songs were the very best, just Ms Power and a piano, or Ms Power and a guitar. The Memphis Rhythm Band was good, but to overpowering.

Then we had the Christmancult. Superweird and cheerful. The introbandgirl St Vincent was kinda boring, ok, but better as part of the band. After she a load of inflatable Supermen and Santa's were brought on stage. There was a rooster somewhere as well, it's meaning escaped me a bit, it didn't seem like the most flightfull thing. So the band came out and they were all wearing feathered masks and had wings on. After the first or so songs the masks came of and the Big Eagle Leader explained that the theme of the night was flying things and Christmas of course. So they played songs about flying and Christmas songs. At a certain time they started throwing Supermen into the audience. Boy Charming kinda caught one but some girls begged it off of him. Later they started on the Santa's. You were supposed to throw them round but Boy Charming and me both caught one and wouldn't let go like most people we started waving them about (his broke down in some pub after, mine's decorating the house right now). After the song the Big Eagle Leader still had one and he threw it right into the arms of the Russian Guy who was also with us. Only Camerastandard Boy lost out on those cool inflatable Santa's. There was also a big video screen with Illinois girls etc.
Now I know what you're thinking, with such a cool entourage the show was probably average. Wrong! It was pretty amazing even! Can't wait till that crazy dude comes round again :) .

Odds'nEnds

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My chemistry test was way to easy today, it worries me. I was the first one done. That NEVER happened before. I kept thinking I missed something, but there really were only those questions I did, I asked the others. Guess there'll be calculating mistakes though, I'm good at those.

So I decided to catch a movie after, you know, to reward myself etc. (nah, there's just a lot of movies I have to see). I thought Hedwig and the Angry Itch was playing, but it didn't. So I bought a ticket for Forever. People sat and waited for half an hour and the movie didn't start. Turns out something happened to the technician and the movie got cancelled. They gave me my money back, a free drink AND a ticket for Shortbus, so I'm seeing that in about an hour (yes dear).

Also, I think the new trendy thing in alternative cinema is stuffed human beings. Having just watched Taxidermia last wednesday, that was the second one this year! It's silly.

Last Saturday I went to see Baby Dee in concert in the SugarFactory. She was pretty good, it was way closer than Toronto (I sat about a metre away from her) and she made more of an effort. She did loads of tragic songs on the harp, and about four funny songs on the keyboard (I liked the 'I'm just a kinky grizzly bear with a thing for Mormon underwear' best). Not much accordeon playing unfortunately, but she ain't really good at that no how. She looked a wreck as usual. Somebody in the audience said 'your voice is really low tonight', which she didn't hear so he repeated: 'your voice is really low'. To which she said: 'yeah I can't help that you know, I was born that way'. Which was really funny --> for those of you who don't know Baby Dee: she wasn't born a woman.

We are the Pipettes

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We went to see the Pipettes on Wednesday night. I just had chemistry practicum from 9 to 6 which was really exhaustive cause nobody knew what they were doing, but I managed to liven up for the evening. The girls said that some of us where under the impression that it was a gig, while actually, it was a disco! So we danced a lot and I took some pics while the girls were all sweaty. Except for the scary one that just didn't sweat.
I don't think I've danced like that since Montreal. I need to know more party people.


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Toor watches Doctor Who! See?

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Go watch the new Immi video. I said she was a butterfly didn't I?

Hermaphrodite

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In alchemy, the Hermaphrodite is a very important symbol. It has to do with the initial perfect beings, which were seven, maybe that's hermetic alchemy though. I'm too lazy to go look it up now. Maybe I'll edit this message later.

The point being, Genesis P-Orridge, whom I saw perform with his new version of Psychic TV, PTV3, is now a Hermaphrodite. A very scary one at that. Music is more rocky than before, and lots of plastic surgery going on in videos. As insane as you'd expect from him, now being Hir.

Porn for Lunch

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Lydia Lunch's new project 'Real Pornography' was absolutely amazing live! You can watch a bit of it on Youtube.
The need to believe in God is a pathological viral infection. Hihi! It's not completely the same as she performed it of course, but the idea of it is. There was also the part about women in covens, I think that's on her site somewhere, the popup --> The DEVIL is a WOMAN.
Anyways, she kept staring and pointing at women in the audience, and came really close to the front and as I was there it was an interesting experience. She said some very cute (what's the opposite of misogynistic?) things. Mhoehahahaha! Our sexmagick our sexpower..
Lovely.