Oh Rose, thou art sick

Paris in picutres

2009-02-06T17:13:00.048-05:00

Concerts from the year past

2009-01-03T09:52:00.004-05:00

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

2009-01-03T06:45:00.007-05:00

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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

2008-02-10T11:47:00.000-05:00

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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

2007-10-24T05:21:00.000-04:00

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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!!

2007-10-18T15:59:00.000-04:00

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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

2007-06-30T16:00:00.001-04:00

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

2007-06-30T13:34:00.001-04:00

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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

2007-06-30T09:31:00.000-04:00

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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?

2007-06-30T08:30:00.000-04:00

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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

2007-06-30T07:58:00.000-04:00

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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

2007-06-30T07:28:00.000-04:00

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

BtVS

2007-06-14T06:40:00.000-04:00

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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

2007-05-09T16:38:00.000-04:00

"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

2007-04-24T17:03:00.000-04:00

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

2007-04-24T16:26:00.000-04:00

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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

2007-04-24T16:01:00.000-04:00

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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

2007-03-25T06:58:00.000-04:00

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,

2007-02-14T03:11:00.000-05:00

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

2006-12-19T16:47:00.000-05:00

. 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

2006-12-19T16:06:00.000-05:00

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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

2006-10-27T10:45:00.000-04:00

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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

2006-10-13T17:34:00.000-04:00

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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.

.....
Toor watches Doctor Who! See?

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

Hermaphrodite

2006-10-13T16:49:00.000-04:00

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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

2006-10-13T15:59:00.000-04:00

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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.

She's lefthanded!

2006-10-09T11:58:00.000-04:00

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See?
Dar was amaaaaaaaaazing (naturally). Me and Father went to a folkie show with Jeffrey Foulcoult, Caroline Herring and Darling Dar (as them Nields always call her in the booklets). Father bought a Jeffrey cd and I made him buy me My Better Self again cause I forgot to bring anything to sign and he's been using mine since the dawn of time so the paper cover has gotten a bit damaged. I liked the North American version better though, they switched the pics around here.
She played a whole bunch of songs (unfortunately not our request, but hey), starting with 'when I was a boy' and finishing with 'the ocean'. I'm not going to bother listing all songs, for you won't know 'm anyways, but suffice to say she didn't play all the regulars, 'Febuary' was really beautiful, I heard 'the Hudson' twice life which is quite unusual and she just told lots and lots of stories. The stories are almost the best part of Dar life. Besides her angelic voice she's really genuinely funny, and she had a lovely way of expressing herself. We got to know that 'the Blue light of the Flame' was for singer Rachel Bissex, for whom I saw a tribute show at Falcon Ridge last year. She died of breast cancer and Dar was telling how she was from Vermont and how when they'd meet they somehow always ended up naked together. It was really funny.
And then I got to meet Dar. Jeeeeeeeeej!!!!!!!! Dar! So I was waiting for some other people to be in pics with her and have stuff signed (including the lady above, who had some interesting special edition, I believe it was from The Green World), and then I asked if I could be in a picture with her too (ever the polite one). So she said of course, noticed my pentacle and said: 'Aw, I'm sorry I didn't play that one!' So I grinned and said 'That's ok, I wanted you to play Better Things though' (I ought to have said: 'I've heard you play that three times already', but oh well). Then Father took a picture but I wasn't smiling so I made him do it again and that turned out really lovely (yes I'm getting an enlarged print). Then I told Dar how I had meant to bring my This Town is Wrong cd and have her sign that but forgot it, because of that song with the Dad and teenaged daughter and the Dar concert (yeah I forgot what the song was called) - but she got what I was saying and said: 'Oh Yeah! You know, I didn't even know that until I read the booklet?!' So she asked me my name and wrote: To Rose, best wishes, Dar (funny smiley line).
Jay!

Mijn Zomergasten #5

2006-09-22T15:17:00.000-04:00

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I shall never finish 'Mijn Zomergasten' this way, I've no time to spare. So here be the last couple of things you ought to see. Firstly: League of Gentleman. I wanted the fragment that comes just after this here, but it's not on YouTube, so you'll have to settle for this. It's precious, don't worry. After the "Tubbs, get undressed", "Take of your clothes, Tubbs" it's with the, "Don't worry Tubbs, he won't get far!" *evil grin* Local people! Local!

Goddess! I canna watch the original anymore, nor read the book or anything, without bursting into laughing. This parody is just sooooo amazing! I love French&Saunders (and AbFab too of course, but I can't show it all now can I?)!!!!! (it doesn't work no more, follow link)

And last but certainly not least, we end with music. This is one of the greatest video's ever. I couldn't really choose between this bands first three video's, for they are all amazing, and all belong to the list of 'greatest video's ever', but I ended up choosing this one in the end. You must look up the other two for y'rselves. Enjoy, and I wish you all a good nightie night!

Mijn Zomergasten #4

2006-08-26T16:39:00.000-04:00

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Best Buffy moment, and it's neither funny nor romantic nor a spectacular fight. It is not from the best of episodes, actually it's not even a particularly good episode, come to think of it..
But it's Tara. Tara, along with Drusilla, being my favourite Buffy character. She's deffinately one of those 'yes the character, no the person' types. I grew up on Buffy, being two years younger than the characters on the show and faithfully watching it for seven long years, so I simply have to add it to my list here.
The episode's called 'Family', and it's about Tara's family coming to get her cause she'll turn into a Demon at 21. The entire hour she tries to avert people from finding out by putting spells on them, which leads to some comical situations, for her spell makes her friends unable to see any demon whatsoever.
This is the confrontation moment with the family coming to get her. It's all a bit gooey and sappy, but watch what the niece asks her in the end and watch her response.
That response, that's the best Buffy moment ever.

Oh, and go watch this one as well. She can sing.
AND I WANT THAT DRESS!!!!!

Mijn Zomergasten #3

2006-08-24T10:52:00.000-04:00

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My ex-roommate CBKE introduced me to the wonderful Indian-Canadian director Deepa Metha. She made a trilogy about problems in Indian society based on the elements. The first was 'Fire' (amazing movie), the second 'Earth' (which I have yet to see) and the third 'Water'. Each movie is steeped in the element it is named after (just like the Trois Couleurs movies are filled with their specific colours). Below is a fragment of 'Water'. It's set in India in the 1930's.
The main character is Chuyia, a little girl who is widowed while she's about seven years old.
Because she is a widow, she now becomes an outcast of society. She's locked away in a home with a lot of other widows. They all have to wear white and shave their heads, and they are officially alike to the dead when they enter that place.
This fragment below is one of the rare happy moments of the movie, the only time that the widows are officially allowed to have fun, on the annual celebration of Holi, a Hindu Spring festival. (doesn't work anymore, watch promo instead)

Does Chuyia have to live the rest of her life there? Can the beautiful young widow who lives in the same home marry the man she falls in love with, a modern young Indian follower of Ghandi?
It's a really beautiful and tragic work of art. Go rent it.

Another movie fragment I wanted to share comes from the German movie 'Aimee & Jaguar'. It's about two women who fall in love during World War II. One is an Arian wife, the other a Jewess. It's based on a true story! Lilly (aka Aimee) doesn't know her love, Felice (aka Jaguar), is a Jew, and this fragment is the confession moment. Enjoy. Sorry this one's really gone, you'll just have to take my word for it.

Interesting fact: the one who plays Lilly also plays Eva Braun in 'Der Untergang'.

Mijn Zomergasten #2

2006-08-23T15:44:00.000-04:00

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OK, best Tori-thing EVER. It just shows her genius and insanity and quirkiness and talent. The comment said she was so on drugs, to which someone replied she was on the drug of passion and cosmic energy. That's Tori for you. :D

Inanna, Inanna, Inanna

Five Quotes

2006-08-23T15:30:00.000-04:00

In between --> I've taken up the quotes idea which I found on the blog of Ze Wise One, and shall share with you the five random quotes I found:

1. The greatest use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.
William James (1842 - 1910)
This will be my job hopefully.

2. It's odd that you can get so anesthetized by your own pain or your own problem that you don't quite fully share the hell of someone close to you.
Lady Bird Johnson (1912 - )
I love the understatement of this, the ‘don’t quite fully’.

3. Seize the moment of excited curiosity on any subject to solve your doubts; for if you let it pass, the desire may never return, and you may remain in ignorance.
William Wirt (1772 - 1834)
Do it now. Now now now now now.

4. Reality is the leading cause of stress amongst those in touch with it.
Jane Wagner, (and Lily Tomlin)
This is why I try not to be in touch with reality.

5. Develop interest in life as you see it; in people, things, literature, music - the world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures, beautiful souls and interesting people. Forget yourself.
Henry Miller (1891 - 1980)

Forget yourself indeed. Well, most of these quotes speak for themselves. I wholeheartedly agree with ‘m.

Mijn Zomergasten

2006-08-23T09:33:00.000-04:00

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probably something I read in the News of the World said you could create your own Zomergasten through Youtube. So I decided to look things up and publish it on my blog. You get to comment on it if you want and ask me questions. The problem with this type of Zomergasten is that you can't always find the video's you'd like. And they don't have any of the documentaries I was looking for, so it'll be mostly trailers, comedy and music.

To start out with, I have to throw in some Coupling. It's funny. Trust me. I found a great Steve-speech. They've been torturing him all night for owning a movie called 'Lesbian Spank Inferno', and he's finally had enough. I like the pillow-speech better, but I couldn't find it. Or the funeral episode, and especially the 'I am Giselle' thingie, but that one wasn't on Youtube either. Enjoy!

Underground

2006-08-22T16:05:00.000-04:00

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Let's start with the history part first. The London Underground started even before the fin de siecle. Above you see a rare picture of the brave builders who dared venture lower than the sewers. Let me assure you that this was before Tatcher closed down the mines. And no singing! I warn you!

After this eventful bussiness, it grew and grew into a monsterous entity, used as a bomb-shelter during the heavy enemy attacks in World War II. Here you see a picture of the sleeping conditions down there. Very comfortable if you can't speak with rats.

Which reminds me, I sooooo want to read Neverwhere again and visualize all the references I've now actually seen. Everytime I went past Islington I thought: it's the ANGEL Islington! Moehahaha! I tried to look at the musicians more, and tried to remember them, cause they're parts of London Below, but sadly, I forgot most of 'm. Guess I'll never be of that 'other' world. Ah well, didn't really need it anyways, I was having too much fun in London Above.

In contrast to the German or Dutch subway, the London one really reminded me of the Hungarian subway in the movie Kontroll. Just as many confusing Underground pathways and loooooooong ellevators. I was scared everytime the train came (not just cause they're Pretty fast).

Londinium

2006-08-16T16:03:00.000-04:00

London never sleeps,

it just sucks

The life out of me

And the money from my pocket

London always creeps,

showbiz hugs

The life out of me

Have some dignity honey

====================================================

Euston, Paddington train station please

Make the red lights turn green

Endelessly

My black cab rolls through the neon disease

Endelessly, endelessly

====================================================

London never sleeps, it sucks

The life out of me

Show some dignity honey

Sushi bars, wet fish it just sucks

The life out of me

And the money from my pocket

====================================================

Euston, Paddington train station please

Make the red lights turn green

Endelessly

My black cab rolls through the neon disease

Endelessly,

en - de - less - ly

Girl

2006-08-15T16:34:00.000-04:00

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On Saturday, I was on my way to the Tate Britain in London, and I saw a girl in the same subway carriage as I was in. What's so special about that, thou askest me? Bear with me a while and you'll find out. I left the subway and walked to the Tate Gallery, and was there ten minutes before opening time at the side entrance. Now, more people were gathering and waiting for it to open. To my surprise (although not really, for she looked arty), the same girl came to wait at the door as well. She looked kinda like Jenny with short hair, only less fragile, less petite, and not as pretty. Inside, as I was going to the bathroom, she left it and so I walked past her there.
Within the Tate, I saw a couple of wonderful paintings by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, one of my favourite artists. I also discovered John William Waterhouse there. A great painter. Did mythology and poetry depictions mostly. Like this Lady of Shalott by Tennyson (on whose grave I was standing last wednesday):

In the afternoon, after meeting up with Sir Ford for lunch (he bought me lunch at My Old Dutch, which consisted of giant blocks of cheese, cheese balls, a ham/cheesethingie, raw ham, pickled herring and lettuce. Sir Ford had the meaty bits), I went to the Wallace Collection, which was splendidly decadently decorated. They have the famous girl-on-a-swing Fragonard painting, and lovely children faces by Jean Baptiste Greuze, amongst other marvels.

At night, The Royal Albert Hall called me with Prom #39. Mostly Mozart, and Jeanine Jansen, the famous Dutch first violinist. The BBC aired the thing too. It was highly enjoyable. I had to wake up a woman next to me though, for she was snoring. She was really quiet after that. When I left the building I was rummaging through my backpack for my rainbow umbrella, for it was raining. When I looked up, it was straight at this same girl of the morning. She stood some way of conversing with someone. We smiled at the coincidence.

Maybe one day I'll see her in the Artworld. If I ever get in. It is small, after all.

and they looked so innocent.....

2006-07-14T15:41:00.000-04:00

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I just crossed over ten kilometers by biking, running, cross-training and walking up stairs, and I've gotten nowhere at all. Ah, the merits of the gym. :roll: At least they tell you how many calories you've burned. I tend to go for nice round numbers, like 55 or 75 or 130. How much fun it is to be a manic compulsive!

Back to the subject of this post:

told you evil Kaczyński was trouble.

now we've got evil Kaczyńskis.
Double the pleasure
Double the fun.....

I feel for the Polish nation.

Does Eddy care?

2006-07-14T15:24:00.000-04:00

Our government fell a while back, it was started by a left lady, taken up by my favourite political lady (see post below), over this other cool lady whom I saw for real in far off Canada (see a while back), who was thrown out of the country by this bitch of a lady. So suffice to say, our country fell over a bunch of women. Ha! That's not really true though. But now the men, formed into a new shape by our butt-grabbing former minister-president, have decided to go on as a minority government with the support of the party of the dead gay guy who wanted to be our president, because they'd rather keep the bitch (who also had some ambition to become our president, but her party didn't agree, probably over the same incident that made the government fall) than my favourite party. Meanwhile, the cool lady has joined an evil conservative think-tank in the US.

Are you following?
I should give you some pics of the stars:

Drat

2006-06-24T15:00:00.000-04:00

Ok, I had this weird idea about interrelatedness and women in politics.

See, there is this Dutch party I always vote for (except with local elections), and, almost four years ago, I voted for this lady who was talked about as being destined to become the new leader of the party in time. Today, precisely such a person was chosen, but IT WASN'T HER!

She was one of the two main candidates, but she did not get the majority of the votes. Some guy won who is our current minister of state (kingdom) affairs.
There is another lady who is talked about as being destined to become the new leader of the party, and I fear now that she will be voted away as well (course, this is a totally irrational fear and the two situations are completely different).

I hope it's not prophetic. I want the witch to reign.

June

2006-06-24T14:39:00.000-04:00

In praise of this month, as we have so many sweet roses at home, which by the way are a pain to deadhead, taken from the country diary of an Edwardian lady as one of her entries for June.

'For the Rose, ho, the Rose! is the eye of the flowers,
Is the blush of the meadows that feel themselves fair,
Is the lightning of beauty that strikes through the bowers,
On pale lovers who sit in the glow unaware.
Ho, the Rose breathes of love! Ho, the Rose lifts the cup
To the red lips of Cypris invoked for a guest!
Ho, the Rose, having curled its sweet leaves for the world,
Takes delight in the motion its petals keep up,
As they laugh to the wind as it laughs from the west!'

E.B.B. Trans. from Sappho

(E.B.B. stands for Elizabeth Barrett Browning)

The apocalyptic muses

2006-06-18T16:16:00.000-04:00

Is it prophetic? Should I just give up trying? Why do all the pictures I try to take of this fleeting spirit fail? And after all that noisy clicking, just a bunch of gray blurs. I'm very upset by this all. I guess I shall have to see them again. One day I will succeed. And I still want to be in a picture with David Michael anyways.
The Berlin show we saw was very superterrestrial. Cheeky Julie looked like she lost some weight in her black dress, Simon Finn like he was a drunk junkie (Jerusalem was Whaaaaaaaa!! again). The first leaving was a classic One by One, with Maja first to last and Baby Dee on harp ending. The encore was a lovely Coal Black Smith, which is a really nice skipping song, we found out afterwards. Then there was just really long and loud applause, with lots of people already leaving. It must have been some ten, fifteen minutes till David came back with Maja. He said something about him having banged his head against a wall for some 20+ years and now being very impressed to discover that we had been there alongside him, banging our heads just as hard. So he thanked us for sharing this Patripasianistic Gnostic Apocalyptic Dark Dream vision with him. And he sang another Soft Black Stars song afterwards. Amazing ending!

Berlin, an impression

2006-06-05T11:06:00.000-04:00

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I'm not interested in the workings of foreign toilets, but there were some peculiar things I noticed about German culture whilst being in Berlin for two weeks.

- Punks. They still exist. In fact, the streets are literally crowded with them, sitting around with their dogs. They're kinda like Torontonian bums, except they're younger; not all of them are that homeless; they usually stay in larger groups; and they're punk.

- Brunch. German's do the whole Sunday brunch thing as well. Except that their idea of a brunch consists of an all-you-can-eat buffet. This I think is a generally bad idea, for this way you eat way too much to get your money's worth (although you only need one meal a day).

-- Party! Some German's have good taste. There is a big market for Gothic music in Germany, for example. However, unfortunately, there's also too much techno. And the places where they play this shit are illegal parties in dilapidated basements. So yes, that wasn't the best thing ever. Also, the German's have this weird social custom of hitting the bottom of their beer bottles together every other second as a nonverbal way of saying cheers with every sip they take. Otherwise, they like getting drunk on (tiny) bottles of Jagenmeister. They think it's common courtesy to walk around drinking bottles of booze on the subways, and to leave them in the streets for the bums to pick up. They know how to party though, as shown by the Karneval der Kulturen, a funny parade. Two silly chickenguys thought it a good idea to worship me, the Hare Krishna's gave us sweet food with nuts, a guy almost died laughing because I gave him back a flyer I had gotten from someone else (there were too many pretty girls handing out flyers) when he tried to hand me one, so I thought I was rid of that piece of paper, when this clown came by handing out the same flyer and when I refused to take it he proceeded to hang on to my leg begging me to 'please take it' and wouldn't go away till I did. Some people thought I was a German student apparently, for they handed me a flyer about going abroad for a year. I just did that people! Anyways, it was fun, and then we had some Absinthe! (thank you, long haired roommate of Ze Wise One!) It was lovely. I think I have been an addict all my life but didn't know until I had my first glass.....

Dogs and Foxes

2006-05-21T06:58:00.000-04:00

We went to Paradiso four times in the past two weeks. We saw the dog people, who were a joyous bunch but only half perfect. They did play 'She's Losing It', which was wonderful, naturally. They neglected to play 'Judy and the Dream of Horses' though, which was rather a shame. We also went to see the bands 'Dungen' and 'Xiu Xiu', who were both pretty good.

Last night, we saw the fox lady. She was truly amazing! Her voice is superb, she has chosen the finest musicians to accompany her, and her background vocalist was very cute (also an important factor). They had a nice selection of merchandise on sale.

Now, the most important difference between the dog people and the fox lady was the SMOKE. The dog people positively promoted it, proclaiming that it was such a relief that we could still do it while the Scottish have outlawed the whole thing. Subsequently asking the audience for a fag and a lighter, and beginning to puff on stage. This had the effect that all the people around us uttered primeval shrieks and started lighting fags as well, unfortunately for our lungs. The fox lady, on the other hand, had closed of the entrance doors of the small performance hall, and put signs on them (as well as at the bar) saying 'NO SMOKING'. Course, there were still some idiots puffing away, just like at the Tift concert, but in general, the air was CLEAR. Madam, I salute you!

(this on account of me being a promoter of the Clean Air Nederland citizens' initiative)

Third Reich

2006-05-06T13:55:00.000-04:00

It's a bit late, because yesterday was liberation-day and the day before was remembrance-of-the-dead-day, but did you know that the Third Reich was great for the environment? Where they murdered millions of people, they also saved millions of trees. This all began with Tacitus, who with his Germania set a tradition of 'the German' as 'the noble wilderman', and the forest the native habitat, with the oak as symbol for that nation. He also said that the Germans were the least polluted, most pure race because as wild as they were, they didn't sleep around a lot. Course the Third Reich rulers loved this, and this wilderman nationalism was picked up by loads of writers at the end of the 19th century. Also, the minister of landschutz was Hermann Göring, big on hunting. So naturally, he wanted to protect the habitat of the creatures he hunted.
This valuable information I got from Landscape and Memory, that big book by the great historian Simon Schama. I started reading this because my dear dad pulled it out of his bookcase when I told him Anselm Kiefer was my new favourite modern artist. I've just come to the last part of the second chapter, where Schama'll begin talking about this wonderful artist. I saw a big show of his work in the modern art gallery in Montreal, and fell in love with it instantly. This is because this German artist, living in France, uses great materials from nature (like lead, earth and sunflower seeds) and, also, esoteric symbolism. I can't really show you his work and I would not advise anyone to go look at pictures on the web, for the real works, they are wall-sized and should be seen in their full magnitude. Here is, however, the poster child of the exhibition I saw:

Our national disease

2006-04-25T16:37:00.000-04:00

If there's one thing Dutch people can't do, it's walking. And I mean really walking. Not strolling or sauntering or window shopping.
Having lived in Canada, I learned that, apparently, I walk really really slowly. But because I lived in Canada so long, I must have gained some leg activity, because people here complain that I walk way to fast nowadays.
It's not just people around me either. It's the whole nation that can't walk with some speed that will get you to places. And of course there is a reason for all this. It's our bikes.
We learn to bike from the ripe age of about five, and we get toy bikes before that time. This way, our legs are developed in a way that can make them go round, but not linearly forwards. If we need to get anywhere, we get our bikes. So if you ever meet a Dutch person, don't expect them to keep up with you.

The squirrels made it seem less lonely

2006-04-25T16:10:00.000-04:00

.

Remember seeing The Brothers Grimm? Terry Gilliam made this one just after, way more low budget and way way better. I really loved this movie! And yes, of course it was weird. What did you expect?

Mom went to the land of the Vikings and then we came here on the Grayhound bus. The fireflies got names and the grain fields are a sea, the train a monster and dad was just a bit smelly till my new friend whom I thought was a ghost but she was just afraid of bees and had one dead eye made him all better again and now he's just lying upstairs on the bed but I talk to him and my best friend fell down the rabbit hole and I offered the other two to dad so now they have a new life and my best friend's there too, and the blue haired one with the contorted face is still with me. My friend has a submarine. He will battle the monster. My name is Jeliza-Rose and my dad made a song about me because I'm special.

This little girl is absolutely brilliant. She's from Nanaimo on Vancouver Island and started her career at age five. She's also in some Stargate (Atlantis) episode (season 3 episode 1, was aired last summer).

This is really absolutely brilliant! Trust me!

Lady, wear a bra

2006-04-25T15:39:00.000-04:00

.
I know you are very cute and pretty and charming and country, but for the Goddesses sake woman!!

Also, some more tips for you:

* don't try to dance. It is ridiculous. That way, you won't step on things or knock them over either, which, though very funny, makes you look silly.

* make sure there's soundmen present that actually know what they are doing, and can fix a problem if there is one. Preferably before the night is over. Preferably have it fixed without it coming back ten times worse (yes, I'm still on about 'that buzz').

* fire your entire band. Or at least get them a makeover.

And don't change a thing, we love and adore you!

Sick Blake

2006-04-10T12:31:00.000-04:00

Most people who come to my silly blog through search engines seem to believe that I have something to say about Blake's poem; 'the Sick Rose'. I wonder why (rolls eyes). But because I'm a public pleaser, I shall now explain to you the meaning of this poem (as taught to me by one of my English literature teachers, I'm not just sucking this out of my thumb).

Now, The Invisible Worm is a man, or more precisely, a specific part of a man (it's his penis ok? Do I have to spell everything out for you?), he flies in the night because he's doing something secretive and Wrong (hence the howling storm as well), namely he's committing the terrible crime of raping an uncorrupted young flower (or girl, if that's what you'd prefer).
The Rose represents a young maiden, and she is sick because she has been corrupted (raped). The man found her 'bed of crimson joy' (does anybody not know why it's red?), and again, his love is Dark and Secret because it's of the illegal type. That's why it's destroying her life.
But I think you can also see it as a young girl who has a secret lover who comes to her at night and through their lovemaking might destroy her life by making her pregnant for example, or by giving her a STD. He has taken away her virginity anyway, so she's not the pretty perfect flower she used to be.

Happy now?
I'm very sorry to say I can't help the person who came here by searching for a painting of a vagina that looks like a rose, although I used to have one in my room in Toronto. My silly roommates didn't want it in the living room anymore, can you imagine that?
Mirror, mirror where's the Crystal Palace is from a Tori lyric, and doesn't have anything to do with Ani, people. Unfortunately I don't have any interviews with Katharine Blake. If you find one somewhere else, let me know!

Christian Science

2006-04-02T11:45:00.000-04:00

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I'm reading this wonderful new book which daddy bought me as a present in the Big City last Friday. It's set in London in 1947, and there's a scene in it with a special kind of therapist who's helping an old man healing at that moment. A young man, by the name of Duncan, has come on the weekly appointment to accompany his 'uncle', Mr Mundy, who's suffering from arthritis. The therapist will, by talking to him, make Mr Mundy conquer his disease. The practice he's performing is called Christian Science. He has a picture of the founder, Mary Baker Eddy, in his treatment room, at which he's given to stare.

So I've looked up Christian Science in my magnificently useful encyclopedia. Mary Baker Eddy (1821-1910) was healed from her chronic 'neuralgia in the spine and stomach' by Phineas Pankhurst Quimby, who sort of started the whole New Thought movement, in 1862. Both of them were Americans. Mme Eddy, after being cured, proceeded to found her own version of New Thought, like many others did. All these variations of New Thought have the same 'blame-the-victim' attitude, where any negative condition is the victim's own fault, and can be conquered by the power of mind/spirit.

Mary Baker Eddy's version, wherein she developed her own religious worldview, is closer to traditional Christianity then Quimby's New Thought. She believed that the universe, created by God (aka the 'divine Mind'), is entirely spiritual and good, whereas the human (mortal) mind is bad, as it tends to create the illusion of a material world. Illness is the result of the incorrect believe that a material world actually exists. Fortunately, we mortals can be saved by recognizing our 'divine within' and acknowledging an entirely spiritual reality.
.

Mary Baker Eddy wrote all her views down in 'Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures' (1875). She was a proper visionary leader as well, having a feud and a consequent movement-split with one of her students, who said she had met God, a privilege that Mme Eddy claimed for herself alone. Most of the New Thought movements were created in the latter half of the nineteenth century and the first few decades of the twentieth, and that which still existed in and after WW II was based on the theories created half a century before.
Ms Waters used esoteric subculture before, with the wonderful world of Spiritualism in Affinity. I hope this one's going to be easier.

Bedtime story

2006-03-23T10:26:00.000-05:00

Her lover’s skin was not like that of a normal person. It was all the same colour, the same creamy white, no veins or prints or hairs at all. The hair on her lovers head wasn't like that of a normal person, were the hairs are all separate and individual. Her lover’s hair was like wood, it had patterns, it had smoothness, but yet again it was solid. And her lover was beautiful. Her lover wore a pink dress, like summer blossoms, it blew around her even when the wind was absent. And her lover looked as if she could disappear into thin air in a split second.

And she danced around the green meadows with her lover, in the summer sun. And they danced and they laughed and they danced once more. Finally she became so tired that her lover lay her down against a fallen trunk of wood. But there the priest came, and she hadn't noticed in time. He scolded her white dress and loose hairs. He took her by the arm and dragged her to the shed. There, he placed her on the bench and he pulled up her skirt. Behind him, she saw her lover. She was laughing. She wasn't wearing her pink dress anymore; she held it over her shoulder. Her underwear was made of pink blossoms too. And she smiled and she smiled and she smiled. And the priest felt her vagina. It was all warm and moist. He drew back his hands in disgust, pulled her upright and commanded her to leave. There was always the cattle left.

And there was her lover, wearing a green evening dress, standing with her back against a big, ancient tree. She was still smiling. Now, they both smiled. And she went to her lover and she took her hands and kissed her. Any casual wanderer might have seen a young girl in a white dress kissing a tree, and letting her hand caress its stem as if it were a person, and feeling the tree as if it had a shoulder, a waist, and breasts.

Her lover put her hands on her lips, and signaled towards the shed, as if to say, it's time for you to go, and me to leave. And then, she was gone. The girl tasted the wood in her mouth, wiped the bark from her lips and smiled. She new her lover was not of this world. And she ran and she laughed and she ran, till she found the bush that shone from the inside, more than the others, because it had a speck of dust inside it, and it was transforming it into a pearl. She got out her cape from underneath the bush, her warm and somber cape, flung it round her shoulders and walked back to the orphanage.

Aethereal Voices

2006-03-18T11:14:00.000-05:00

.
bought 14 cd's during my last travels, which makes 21 in a year, plus got a few copies of some living necessities from a dear colleague. I'm adding them now to My Musical Identity, which has been used extreamely sparsely over the last year, but which I am again reactivating. I'm already catching up with you deary. Fear and Tremble.

stopping by woods on a snowy evening

2006-02-14T11:42:00.000-05:00

Whose woods these are I think I know.

His house is in the village though;

He will not see me stopping here

To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer

To stop without a farmhouse near

Between the woods and frozen lake

The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake

To ask if there is some mistake.

The only other sound's the sweep

Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.

That's what it was like out in the woods, like Narnia, always snowing but never Christmas. It even had the lamp (well, several of them). I always follow the road less traveled by. Or, you know, if they happen to be equally traversed I go left.

Imogen Heap

2006-01-17T14:58:00.000-05:00

Lady is totally a butterfly. Not only did she have her equipment covered with silver and red glittery butterflies, as well as green and red leaves/flowers, but she fluttered around the stage as well. Her music is very fluttery to, if you ask me. She played in El Mocambo Thursday night, with opening acts Zoe Keating (of whom I bought the CD + had it signed, she played the cello, recorded while she played, made it loop back, recorded another tune/part, recorded and had it loop, etc. Very interesting and sonically pleasing), and Milosh, a band from Toronto, two guys on guitars and computer and one was singing. Was alright.
Now Imogen, I didn't hang around for her signature, mainly because they weren't selling the CD there so I had nothing to get signed. Lady totally won me over. I had been listening the last couple of weeks to her CD online, which grows on you a lot when played more often, but her life-show amazed me completely. She is one talented artist. She played the keyboard, sang, and played her equipment, thus being a one-woman band. She had beat boxes, an Apple, a thing to echo her voice, a multiple-voices machine, and two other sound boxes. The song she made for the movie Narnia she did (plays during the last scene), and also an old Frou Frou song. She had a flowy redish dress on, and her hair was big and up. She wore red fishnets, came on with white boots which she subsequently took off to flutter on her white hairy rug. She doesn't need boots anyway, tall as she is. Behind her was a see-through white curtain with lights trailing down behind it and flowing onto the stage. El Mocambo is a nice old-taverny venue, and famous because the Stones played there once, enticing the prime-ministers wife to party with them apparently, so she's known as a 'wild woman'.
We missed out on Imogen during the Summer of Sin, but I'm very glad she came by later on.

Trois Couleurs

2006-01-11T15:02:00.000-05:00

Rouge

Le fin.

I must say I'm impressed. My darlings, I honestly can't say which one is better: bleu or rouge, they are both marvelous. I really noticed the colourtheme this time round again. The only thing it really got against it is the wine. I bought Inniskillin Cabernet-Sauvignon and it just made me nauseous, even after making mulled wine out of it. Definitely don't like strong red wine.

Watching the extra's was interesting too, there were some things I didn't notice, whereas with others I went: oh yeah, you didn't need to tell meeeeee that, I got thaaaaaaaat. So the lawyer was a younger version of the old man who lived in his bubble watching other people's secrets, and they kept being in the same frame without noticing eachother. (*spoiler allert*) Interesting is also that in the grand finale of the boat accident, all the people rescued were all the main characters from all three films, so that's how they come together.

Cold is all I Understand

2005-12-07T16:55:00.000-05:00

You want updates eh?

Tonight will be concertnight once again, as well as friday.
Me and the Esquire are going to see Dar Williams, who was at Falcon Ridge -->

She will perform in the Church of the Redeemer on Bloor West. Friday we're going to see Iron and Wine with Calexico, should be good. The friday after, the 16th, I'm going to a concert by Sarah Slean, a nice Canadian songstress.

Dar did a cover on her latest CD, 'My Better Self', together with Ani DiFranco (Ani!), of Pink Floyd's Comfortably Numb. It's really good, go listen.

I went to the MEC last Saturday to check out this girl songstress ghoatwoolsockperson named Sarah Harmer, another Canadian, who sang five (!!) songs there and talked about this Environmental project she was participating in. They were selling her CD's, she was signing them, and all the profits would go to said cause, so I bought a copy and had it signed. She was cute.

All the Canadian Sarah's I know I've seen or am going to see, isn't that queer?

A woman.

2005-11-05T18:43:00.000-05:00

The Our Mother, for those who do not know this yet, for your pleasure, as translated from the Icelandic lyrics from a song by Sigur Ros.

Our Mother, who art in Earth,
Hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done
On us as it is in you.
As you send Thy angels every day,
Send them to us aswell
And forgive us our trespasses
As we forgive those
Who trespass against you.
And lead us not into sickness,
But deliver us from evil,
Because yours is the earth
And the body
And the health
Amen.

Mirror mirror where's the crystal palace

2005-11-04T17:44:00.000-05:00

where the evil queen lives. It should be crystal. Will see tonight. So Current is playing San Francisco and I'm still here, going to see Mirrormask tonight, which is way not as spectacular but also good. At the Gaiman signing I bought a little booklet which tells the story with drawings cryptically ~ it reminded me a lot of my favourite childhood novel: Annetje Lie in het Holst van de Nacht. At least, it was my favourite childhood novel until I read the Thule trilogy. Wait wait, I just found out Thule actually exists! As an airforce base, but in the right place. So I wonder why they never translated these books, the only Thea Beckman book in English is Kruistocht in Spijkerbroek (Crusade in Jeans), and it's soooooo not the best (I mean, Hasse Simonsdochter, Rad van Fortuin trilogieboeken, Korilu). Kinderen van Moeder Aarde, which translated would be Children of Mother Earth, and the other two, oh, just the title sounds good in English, somebody should so do that.. They are about the world six centuries after World War III, when almost everybody has died and the earth's climate has shifted so as to make Greenland paradisiacal, with all the natural resources intact and all. A new culture is started here, ruled by women, and the world is completely different. Then a ship from the old continent (which apparently has fallen back into a worse patriarchal culture) arrives, later a fleet and in the last book there is a war. And the emancipation of males in Thullian society (through the prince who falls in love with an old continent girl). These books explain why I love silver and don't really care about gold (for an indebt in my psyche) ~ it's totally Thullian society. Actually, Thulian culture exists and is partly Canadian, although not the futuristic version of it, but it's an Inuit tribal society.

Anyways, what was I on about? Oh yes, the movie, Mirrormask, and my old favourite childhood book, which was about a little girl who fell really ill and had to go live with her grandma, her parent's abandoning her. Then she found, in the middle of her feathery blanket, 'het holst van de nacht' (the middle/ centre/ hole/ darkest time of the night). Oeh, guess what, it's online! And her friends the moon and the mouseking (actually, he was the worst of mice ever because he had a red tail, which is absolutely the most horrible thing which can happen to you if you're a mouse, but then he painted it green, which is a sign of royalty) were there, as well as the messroom (only if you called it that it would get really angry with you and all the bad things came out, like the dresswoman ~ who had something with bridalshoes ~ it liked to be called the Dark Chamber, then it was nice to you), and the evil fox that took out her hairs, and there was the circus.. Actually, the girl in Mirrormask is from a circus. You think Neil can secretly read Dutch and totally ripped Imme Dros of? They call it the Dead of the Night. Holst is a hard word to translate.

Here ended the nonsensical rambling monologue, feel free to detangle my mind.

but I feel, this cake just isn't done

2005-10-25T16:41:00.000-04:00

Something is definitely wrong.

Rosa Parks died today.

And Evil Kaczinski won the Polish elections yesterday.

Alas, SF-plan = RIP

2005-10-25T15:48:00.000-04:00

After reading The News of the World last Saturday, I decided against going to San Fransisco. Sure, I spend money on buying the tickets (which I can't sell cause it's virtual tickets and the credit card owner has to be there with ID) ~ but think how much more money I will spend on the plane ticket! Since I've only got about five months left (the magic number, incidentally), I should start thinking of my future. And inevitably, my future is going to need money (when I say future I mean next year, not ten or twenty years ahead. That's not future, that's Dreams), and lots of it.

I now own the locker with the official number of 93 at my work!! Alpha and Omega.

In The News of the World, I read about the occult warrior tribes of the Mai-Mai in the Congo, terrorising the province of Katanga. They've destroyed thousands of villages, raping, plundering and killing. They paint their faces white, wear bullet-proof oil on their chests and smoke marihuana. They apparently get trophies from their victims, like a belt of cut of sexual organs. Their description reminds me of the Reavers. That's very frightening.

I'm listening to Lhasa now. -->
She's Mexican, but she lives in Montreal, and sings in Spanish, French and English. Maybe she'll tour in the winter. Here's hoping! I did find out today in the newspaper at work that on the 7th of December, Dar Williams is gonna be in town!

But virgins always get backstage, no matter what they've got to say..

2005-10-25T15:19:00.000-04:00

I love that line! Have no idea what she means, but still love it.

A while back I got invited by this lady from my work, who used to be a rockstar singer in the late '80s in Canada, to come see her sing. She got me into the club for free too! And she was a really good singer! Still have to hear her old bands music, but it sounds very promising.

It was a tribute night to this singer who turned 79 on that night, they do it every year. Several singers did songs by him, getting on stage with the regular band. There was even an Elvis! With the nice shoes and all. Which always makes me think of The Great Gatsby. Do you think Elvis stole it from the Fitzgerald atmosphere?

Double double Toil and Trouble

2005-10-09T01:00:00.000-04:00

I finally got to get my double signing of 'Death, the high cost of living', of which She wrote the introduction and He did the general writing. We had a very special evening, with 20 minutes reading from 'Anasi Boys' (which I'm going to read), then an interview, prizes which I of course did not win, and a *question and answer*. Not that it made us much wiser, except now we know that He wants to be the God of pet squirrels who put on make-up.
At least he's not the Eater of Socks (like the Small God Obob), or the God of Biscuits (like Indiana Jones ~ on the Vespa). But he likes pirates, which is so Her, and might possibly but not very likely do a future collaboration with Joss Whedon; or just get drunk with him. We also got a gift certificate for $15,--, with which I bought a Mirrormask booklet, and the event was being taped by Space for future broadcasting (Space is a nice station).
I stood in line only for an hour and 15 minutes, we went to Tequila Bookworm (which is a bookstore annex bar where you can read all the books while drinking alcohol and sitting in big comfy chairs, and where I had a vegetable sandwich and hot rum with whipped cream) with St. Geoff's parents before that. He wrote in my double signing one: 'for Anna love and don't die'. I also got Him to sign 'Creatures of the Night', which I bought in Ottawa and is a hardcover graphic novel about creatures of the night. He wrote, in a silver pen (since the page was darkblue): -Anna= dream!
+ signature of course. And he offered me candy. He had lots of it on his table. Even after over 300 people, he still had lots of candy. So I chose something chocolaty. When He saw Her sig, he said: "oeh, my Tori!" and I said: "yes, She said Hi!", so he asked me when I met her, which was in Amsterdam in March, but we agreed that it still counted. He said to say Hi! back when next I saw her, but I remarked "that might be a while". I asked if he knew anything about future tours, or the next bootlegs for that matter, but he said he didn't know anything and that it was all up in the air (I'm sure he does not generally give away much information, but it's worth a try). I guess I'll have to wait for the next two bootlegs to come out (I'm soooooooo hoping it'll be Montreal cause that was a gooooooood show).

Mmmmm Baebes

2005-10-07T16:11:00.000-04:00

On a Wednesday, we went to the pub. We got NOW magazine to find out about Mirrormask. Turns out, there is no Mirrormask. Damn that.
However, I looked through the rest of the magazine and found out Antony and the Johnsons (you know, them as won the Mercury prize) were playing that Saturday-night. So I went home all happily looking for tickets, but it was of course sold out.

The next day I returned to baking, and we have a very handy free newspaper (Toronto Star), as well as free food. It told me, with pictures and all, which is rather useful cause I'm graphically inclined, rather than wordwise, that the Mediaeval Baebes were playing, also, Saturday-night. So I again went home all happily looking for tickets, which this time, I did indeed find and bought one for me.
It was at the Mod Club, on College Street, which is a beautiful wonderful venue, very atmospheric. There weren't just tables to the side (the other side is the bar), but in the centre as well this night. I sat on the side with a good view of the stage. The Baebes did not start right away, but it was well worth the wait. They came out on stage clad in pink sleeveless dresses with flowers in their hair, six of them, and sang dreamy ethereal songs.
Marie Findley, a comic lady (former writer of 'smack the pony'), explained how they were living out their fantasy, singing Mediaeval songs, wearing long flowy dresses, pretending to be virgins ..... she had this wonderful thick English ladylike accent. Mainly she and Katharine Blake, who was the really talented one, leadster and main flute player, told stories about the songs, sometimes in a very graphical way.
All the microphones were entwined with fake red roses, and there were ivy leaves all over the front of the stage. One of the Baebes, the one designated as the love goddess Venus (according to Katharine Blake, at a gathering of satyrs and nymphs, surrounded by fragrant flowers ~ says Marie; except we bought them in a shop), had the widest smile.
After 45 minutes there was an intermission, before which Marie Findley promised they would come sign things after the show, so we should definitely buy their new CD, which I did for I have become an autograph collector. I also bought some white wine and sat down to enjoy the rest of the set. Fifteen minutes later the Baebes came out again, now wearing long-sleeved white dresses, and different hair attires. They somehow managed to mention the Faeries a lot, which I really appreciated. I like Faery themes. There was a French song about a young damsel who tried to tempt a friar with religious gifts. The friar was too pious for this and thwarted her every attempts. But the young lady had other natural means of getting her way, 'if you know what I mean'. 'If you don't, Emily will illustrate it for you' (Emily grabs her breasts).
After a number of songs, most left the stage and Katharine Blake sang an a-capella song. Then she left too, the background instrument player did a song, and the Baebes came back, now in red and gold attire, with yet again different hairpieces. Marie's comment on another song: 'you'll notice how we sing with glee about Adam's torture .. '. They finished their 45 minute set with one encore and lots of bowing, then came out to sign, so my Mirabilis booklet has five Baebe-signatures (one on stage was a temporary member standing in for the seven-month pregnant Audrey Evans).

Purple people

2005-09-26T16:19:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, we went shopping, like we do almost every Solday after brunch. Except that it was dreary weather. I wore my purple skirt, which I bought at this cool clothingstore called Lilith (ironically, they sell materinty wear as well, isn't that funny? And furthermore, did you know Rossetti painted Her? I just love his work :D ). Therefore, I decided to buy and eat only purple food that day.
In the evening, I made a stirfry of purple onion, aubergine and yam. Had some dates with it. For dessert, I got blue grapes, which are purple, and I wish pretty girls would make those, but that's beside the point, and blackberry creamy goodness dairythingy. I also had purple corn chips when we watched 'Garden State', which, by the way, was a pretty endearing and sweet film.

Nowish, I wish I had my 'Gotta Get Over Greta' cd here, so I could listen to 'Best Black Dress', which has those wonderful lyrics:

Mr. George Fox has a daughter just my age

I've seen her once or twice at the other end of his estate

She has long purple skirts and an old mutt she got in college

I wonder if she's seen me creeping home at night through the foliage

Has she seen me?

I watch me be this other thing and never know

if i'm marooned o'er where the purple people go ..

mmmmmmmmmmmm Christmas In Space ..... Look at the kitty, isn't it cute?

Gothic Romance

2005-09-25T15:43:00.000-04:00

is absolutely what 'the Corpse Bride' was. Puppets in a gothic romance. Gothic as in the period more than the current way of life. A great creation. So about movies, ones I want to see, ones I've seen and ones I'm looking forward to.

So 'the Corpse Bride' was great, 'the Brothers Grimm' not so much, because they put in non-Grimmian fairytales like little red riding hood and I'm a purist so that was bad. And the accents were just terrible. Looking forward to seeing 'Garden State' tonight. 'Napoleon Dynamite' was unanimously found pretty terrible, don't watch it, it's pretentious but doesn't actually achieve any feeling of reality. I liked 'Sex is Comedy', which I finally saw, but everyone else hated it. But then, I like Catherine Breillat as a director, and they'd probably have hated 'A ma Soeur' as well which I really enjoyed (although watching it in a combination of German/French on Arte made it difficult to follow at first).
End of this month, both 'Mirrormask' and 'Serenity' are coming to the theatres. What to watch first? It's such a dillema!! There was a "Josh-a-thon" on SPACE during Labourday, so I spend eleven hours that day watching television, the last episode of Buffy and after that ten and a half episodes of Firefly. I've since seen the last three and a half episodes, so am totally prepared for the movie. The 8th of October we (being me and MissTrix) are going to a Neil Gaiman event, so that'll be partly Mirrormask-themed. They're selling signed copies of Anasi Boys, so I'm waiting with the buying of it till then. We only got the non-signing tickets, because the others were sold out. I plan to grovel, beg and bribe. If I can. On another note, I'm going to be Delirium for Hallowe'en :)

Trois Couleurs

2005-09-25T14:50:00.000-04:00

Blanc

I watched it last night, and didn't notice the colourtheme as much as with Bleu. Maybe because white is more inconspicious, maybe because it wasn't there as much, probably the former. The statue of the girl representing his wife, the two franc coin, all not as white as the blue leitmotif thingies were blue in Bleu. I liked it, great story, and had white wine with it of course, but Bleu is better.
We watched extras to see what the sign language means, but it's still ambiguous. She seems to be talking about if she gets out, there'll be another wedding (whhhhhhhhhhite wedding), and the spacebars disappear.

Cocteau Twin(s) Peak

2005-09-12T15:57:00.000-04:00

Somehow the Cocteau Twins make music that matches Twin Peaks in an eerie way. We have now seen the first season of this great TV show, and am looking forward to more after that 7th episode cliff-hanger. My colleague at work today told me I should watch Blue Velvet as well. Stranger that Mulholland Dr., apparently, but no Laura Harring in that one.

There was a Cocteaufest in Toronto, whereat they played Cocteau Twins music all night, as a sort of tribute. I attended, but unfortunately it was very empty, so I left again to wander around, and found out Seekers Bookstore is opened everyday till midnight!! This bookstore is wonderful, because it has great second-hand books and an esoteric section. I bought a number of books (listed below), and then went back to the Cocteaufest, bought a beer and proceeded to read William Blake, who of course wrote 'the Sick Rose', to which I've already treated you ~ so now I shall give you 'And did those feet in Ancient Time', a cricket song these days (so I've heard, under the name 'Jerusalem'), but originally an anti-industrialism/ anti-commerce/ anti-empire/ anti-war pro-naturalize poem. I'm sure William Blake would not appreciate the way the English have raped his work, them that did not recognize his greatness when he needed it the most. Great engraver he was, as well.

And did those feet in Ancient Time

And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England's mountains green?
And was the holy Lamb of God
On England's pleasant pastures seen?

And did the Countenance Divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here
Among these dark Satanic mills?

Bring me my bow of burning gold:
Bring me my arrows of desire:
Bring me my spear: O clouds unfold!
Bring me my chariot of fire.

I will not cease from mental fight,
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England's green and pleasant land.

Books I bought:

* William Blake ~ Songs of Innocence and of Experience.

* Emily Dickinson ~ collection of poems by Everyman Library.

* Thomas Hardy ~ Under the Greenwood Tree.

* Toni Morrison ~ Song of Solomon (Nobel Prize winner).

* Starhawk ~ The Spiral Dance (20th anniversary edition).

Baker Baker

2005-08-31T16:42:00.000-04:00

Baker Baker baking a cake

make me a day

make me whole again

and I wonder what's in a day

what's in your cake this time

I saw Tori in the Molson Amphitheatre last Saturday night. It started out as being a very wet and rainy place, and I'm glad I didn't try and go to the M&G for it did not happen because of the rain.
Although I didn't get to hear the sound check, although she played none of my favourite songs from the albums (given that Icicle and Blood Roses came pretty close ~ Yes she did Icicle deary!), although she did only one b-side (Here. In My Head), although I did not recognize the covers in Tori's pianobar (wherefore I should be spanked :p ), it was still the most amazing thing ever!!
Tori solo is so much better, Tori up close is so much better, Ahoy really sucks! I had a wonderful seat, I got closer during the encores, I took great pictures apart from all the stripes on them. The Like were pretty but bland, I have attained two autographed posters from The Ditty Bops, nice grrrrrls BTW, and I got the Sweet The Sting t-shirt:

Tori's performance was absolutely fabulous, the set started out really strong with after OS Icicle, Blood Roses and Here. In My Head. She did a great improv to General Joy, Mother and Crazy were both all right. Pianobar was fab, even Cars & Guitars was bearable, then the Choirgirl songs came, always winners, they are. She did a beautiful version of Taxi Ride before TBK. The encores were OK, but not amazingly wantable, so I reeeeeeeeealy prayed to TGG for a stunning last song, when I knew there was only one left.

Then, she did Baker Baker.

I swear that woman is going to tear my soul apart one day. I was getting really depressed with not having a job, till I found a new one just two days before the concert. Guess what I'm going to be? And guess which song I downloaded (cause I didn't bring my UTP to Canada) for needs of hearing it the day before the concert?

Yep, that's right. When I got home I immediately went to The Dent for setlist news (about the covers, which were 'If You Could Read My Mind' by Gordon Lightfoot and 'Both Sides Now' by Joni), and found out that Baker Baker wasn't even originally on the setlist! She decided to play it instead of Silent All These Years! How amazingly coincidental is that (for one who has a repetoire of about 300 or more songs?) ..

Particle by particle

2005-08-23T19:33:00.000-04:00

With the emphasis on ART. The National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa to be precise. With a huge Aragog in front. She used to live in New York, but she decided to migrate North. Better for her eggs and all. Yes, she does speak Chinese.

The gallery was so huge that you could lose days and days of your life in there. It existed 125 years, therefore they had a temporary exhibition on the Renaissance painters in Florence. You know, Michelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci, Raphael ..

Experience one of the most outstanding periods in the entire history of art: Florence from about 1500 to 1550. For Florentine artists, life drawing and expressive human form were the traditional basis of good art, and this approach crystallized during the High Renaissance in the work of Leonardo and Michelangelo.
Implicit in disegno – the Italian term for drawing – is not only the idea of skill, but also the talent required to design in a more spiritual sense, in the invention of beautiful objects of all descriptions. The active and expressive figure is paramount, especially in those works with a strong narrative content.

There was lots about Mythology, Leda and the Swan etc. Also Christian tales of yore. This one saint who seemingly died smiling with lots of arrows in his body everywhere seemed to be very popular. Sebastian was his name. He was a Roman army dude, who healed people with cross signs, and never did die from the arrows but was beaten to death anyways later on for being a Christian. He became the Small God of the Plague in the 14th century.

Yes, so that was very interesting. We saw the masters et all.

Those were not the only masters we saw ~ this gallery has an enormous collection, amongst others Mondriaan and Jan Steen, impressionism and Inuit art, The group of seven and modernism. My favourites were as always Monet, Renoir, Degas, Gaugin .....

The best part was, I saw a Rossetti painting for the first time ever in real life! It was this painting he made intended for William and Jane's marriage, of some Dante scenes about Beatrice -->

Faeries and Such

2005-08-21T19:26:00.000-04:00

This is what it's going to look like -->

I really like the label, but the bottle looks like a normal whine bottle, which is really a shame. There's a rumoured special edition, only 93 made, each for 93 euros a piece, and 555 euros go to the John Bradburne Society.

I shall not have any of this unfortunately, more about that later.

Now, as for the other Faeries. So when we were in Algonquin National Park, which is basically 7,725 square kilometres of forests, lakes, and rivers, I was welcomed by a Monarch butterfly. We settled at Rock Lake, and consequently did Booth's Rock Trial. The first lake we came to was mine: Rose lake. Small, highly secluded and under constant threat of becoming corrupted by Acid Rain.

The next day, we walked another trail. This one was called Beaver Pond Trail. It showed a lot of beaver ponds, nests, and even a genuine beaver dam. No real beavers though. It also went through narrow lanes, High rock ravines and constantly crossed ancient roots. About halfway up, I met a gnome. He was sitting on a solid mossy rock, and said to me, he whispered; all this yellow makes me crave the Æons. And so I replied; say Hi to the Northern Lights for me! Then a Faery flew by, she was shimmering.

Therefore I walked on.

My Butterfly

2005-08-21T18:38:00.000-04:00

.
So when we got to Algonquin, we rode into the park, and stopped along the way at the art gallery. This gallery was not a very good gallery, as galleries go, but that wasn't the important thing. The important thing was, that when we stepped out of the gallery, and got to the bottom of the stairs, so as to go back to our travelling carriage, a creature like the following came and sat on my hand, and would not go away until I'd thrown it in the air, and afterwards, it continued to cycle round me:
.

I was truly welcomed by the park!!

Got a pretty pretty garden; pretty garden, yes.

This is serious

2005-08-15T12:14:00.000-04:00

How come, when I see a procession of military monkeys doing a synchronized thing, I inevitably get a lump in my throat and tears start welling to the surface making my eyes shiny? It happened to me again when seeing the marching in Ottawa, where eyehurtingly red costumes did a slow manballet. It happens when I see ministers on television being saluted by the entire military base in Iraq standing in long lines towards the mouth of the invader, where the minister is eventually always dwindling to, looking like a wet rag. Doesn't matter which minister, they all seem terribly incompetent. The same thing happens with openly ridiculous nationalism in voiceovers that are all to serious without pretty lights. It just brings me to the verge of crying instead of me seeing the sardonic humour in it all which I'm usually so very good at. Please, I need help! How can I make it go away? Destroy all military personnel and invite silly hippies to join the army in their own homemade flower costumes, or is it better to go after the governments and introduce utter anarchy?

Lecturetime

2005-08-13T00:00:00.000-04:00

Well, not by me. I went to a lecture tonight. I shall have a lot of updating to do after my long absence, but the lastest thing shall come first. This happened to be a life-seeing of Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Yes, after staring at her for hours on television I finally got to see the lady in real life ~ you can't believe the amount of security a damsel with a fatwa on her head can get.
Because I came with someone who was very tired we didn't stay for Submission Part I and the subsequent question round, but I've already seen Submission so that wasn't bad. I got to see Ayaan talking, as well as two other ladies, one of them being a Canadian lesbian Muslim talk show host. She was a very good talker. Made good points about honour in Sharia law. The last lady both bored me and confused me with her speech read from paper notes on political Islam, although at one point she got quite passionate which made me pay attention again. It was weird how I could have sworn she said she lost all her fellow women activist friends in three years and later she made it out to be three months.

Anyway, for any of you poor dears who have not seen Submission Part I yet, go click the several links so you can see the whole in pieces on this website. Our famous Dutch movie director Theo van Gogh (like the painters name, yes, whom I abhor) got killed over it in the only (so far) Dutch Muslim-terrorist attack. May he frothingly walk in his teeweeland.

Veruca Salt

2005-07-17T21:58:00.000-04:00

Just hung out with some people and saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It was vewwy pwitty! The 2001 Space Odyssey references were especially enjoyable. I had to go get chocolate afterwards, so now I'm feeling noxious, isn't it great?!

This one grrrrrl's name was Veruca Salt though, the spoiled little rich brad who's father had his factory converted to an unwrapping-of-chocolatebars place to get a golden ticket, and I'm like, isn't that a band?
So courtesy of AMG:

Veruca Salt reshaped the jagged, abrasive punk-pop of the Pixies and Breeders into a more accessible, riff-driven power pop formula that also borrowed from pop/hard rockers like Cheap Trick. It was a successful formula, both musically and commercially, yet it didn't ensure them indie rock credibility; in fact, they became one of the most harshly criticized bands of the post-Nirvana alternative rock era.

They apparently toured with Hole sometime or other. Got their name from the book. They're affiliated with something Tanya did, so I probably wanted to check them out because of that. They're beautiful people!

The green faery

2005-07-16T14:20:00.000-04:00

Great news from Durtro:

David meets the green fairy

David has been commissioned to design the label for a bottle of absinthe. He is very very delighted to accept. This absinthe will be generally available, though the best place to purchase it from is direct from Absinthvertrieb Lion. They can ship orders worldwide. There will also be a limited edition of 93 in a special wooden case with printed C93 image on the lid. This case will include: a bottle of absinthe with the label signed by David; 2 absinthe glasses; 2 absinthe spoons; and a limited CD only available in the special edition featuring a song with David on vocals and Ben Chasny on guitar. For more details contact Markus and Absinthevertrieb. The website is available in English, German and French.

Guess what I had at the bar last night?

Wild Mushroom Soup

roasted assorted mushrooms in a thyme and vegetable broth

Van Gogh's ear

Absinthe poured over a flaming sugar cube, chilled and shaken with tart lime and lightly rimmed with sugar

It was wonderful! Of course, it isn't the real thing yet, but I'll get at it, someday! Decadence will avail!

Sweet sweet sweet the sting

2005-07-13T20:15:00.000-04:00

She meant Bees people, Bees, creatures that produce honey. Useful, beautiful creatures that have a purpose, that produce the nectar of the Gods (and Goddesses). That are tended by the Beekeeper shaman (of long old lore, may Dad be amongst them furthermore).

Not frikkin Wasps! That sting was none so sweet as I wanted to be, and they who did it did not, of course, the Corrs, die as they should.

And I've never seen light

2005-07-12T21:28:00.000-04:00

But I sure have seen gold .....

.

Muhammed my friend is moving out while I leave for New York City and become a volunteer in Recycling and litter at Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, where I will proceed to accomplish part two of my grand mistress plan in coming to Canada.
.

Part one was obviously the following:

Tomorrow I shall loose the laptop, and monday I'm going away for a month. So don't expect much presence.

Simmermoarn

2005-07-12T21:19:00.000-04:00

It's been a year and a day. The official learning period.

May she bloom in her world. Also to George, may he be blissfully unaware amongst his Aliens.

Grail traditions in Western Esotericism

2005-07-10T22:21:00.000-04:00

Something has rekindled my intellectual spark, for which I am very grateful. I am now deeply interested in my Dictionary of Gnosis & Western Esotericism again.

Tonight, I read about Grail traditions in Western Esotericism. Apparently, these were created in the late nineteenth century after Romanticism flirted with it. Such artists as Dante Gabriel Rossetti (whose work I adore) sparkled it.

Both within the Theosopical Society and the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, several people toyed with the symbolism of the Grail myth. Crowley was of course one of them. Although there is no doubt that his thoughts on the Grail were profoundly anti-Christian, there are to be found several Christian Grail traditions (f.e. in Anthroposophy), as well as Neo-pagan and Gnostic Grail traditions.

The belief that the cup of the Grail was symbolic for God's divine rays which spread out and Created, with the solid matter of Earth at it's ends and humankind able to attain that divine spark that was left in them if they tried to get to the spiritual level, was and is being held by several Grail movements. These movements have such fun titles as: the Order of the Table Round, the cult of the Grail, the Order of the Round Table, and the International Grail Movement.

Apparently, in recent years, there have been a lot of schisms within the Grail movements. Websites following Abd-ru-shin ("Son of Light", 1875-1941) can be found here and here. The mainstream Grail movements combined hold about 20.000 members covering the Globe.

Anyone read the DaVinciCode yet?

Les Saint Marie de la Mer indeed.

Trois Couleurs

2005-07-10T22:08:00.000-04:00

Bleu
I watched it last night, whilst drinking a bottle of Rose. You know, because Blanc should go with white wine, Rouge should go with red, so Bleu should go with Rose. Wine is a part of many French movies, though many don't realize this.
It was wonderful, I especially appreciated the scene where she borrowed the neighbours cat to kill off the baby mice that had lodged in her apartment, letting it in through a crack in the door and then running away. Have to see the other two now.

2005-07-10T17:20:00.000-04:00

The invisible worm

That flies in the night,

in the howling storm

Has found out thy bed

Of crimson joy.

And with his dark secret love,

does thy life destroy.

~ William Blake

On the plus side, the daily news said world leaders of the industrialized nations have decided to double money for Africa. Now just ratify Kyoto and we'll all live happily ever after.