Well.. it's 15 min. till midnight on sunday... What a weekend!

It's been all rock 'n roll here for the last couple of days. Friday night I headed out to 013 in tilburg for a dutch band called Moke. These guys are pretty new and not very well known yt, but i think that will be changing fast. They are really good! Bit of an old school rock 'n roll sound and all very well put together. especially their closing number Here Comes the Summer. Vette shit! as we say in dutch

Saturday though.... of man.... Deep Purple!!

This one is going straight into my top ten... no... top five... maybe even top three... (i need to make a list)

It was just awesome! These guys reall know how to rock! Of course with 40 years of experience they probably should.... And their fans really LOVE them! the atmosphere at the concert was fantastc. and to top it all off tehy played all the songs my friends and i most wnated to hear Hush, Highway Star, Lazy, Fireball, and (of course!) Smoke on the Water.

Smoke has never been one of my favorite songs. But when they played it live...and the crowd reacted... I can't even describe it! It was just pure unadulterated awesome!

If the rest other "old timers" i'm going to see soon (Th Cult, The Who and The Rolling Stones) do half as good a job i will be in for one hell of a treat!

Now howver i am going to bed... I seriously need to catch up on some sleep!

Thank you, and goodnight!

Insanely busy!

Been run of my feet at work the past week. There has been so much work piled on the lab over the past few months that we are now seriously short staffed. Everyone is pullin overtime, working the weeknds, and running around like chickens with their heads cut off half the time.

The good news is that the company wants to go from a 3-shift system to a 5-shift system. Means less work pressure, MUCH better working hours, and loads more free time! All great! Of course they've been talking about this for a year now... It's taken them this long to realize it needs to be done. Now we'll just wait and see how long it takes them to actually DO it.

That said: it's not been all work and no play these past weeks.

A friend of mine. Marten, recently left for Ecuador for a year, so there was a substantial going away party held in Kronenburger park here in town. It was a lot of fun and I got to see a bunch of people i haven't spoken to for over a year. And of course got totally piss drunk! It's going to be wierd not having Marten around for a year though. In my small, but close, circle of friends he is... well he's the crazy one. he was also the only one who still lived here in Nijmegen. It's tough trying to get the old group together these days. Now, or at least for the next year, it's just going to be even tougher. But hey... at least I have a kick ass welcome home party to look forward to

Also managed to get together with my D'nD group a couple of times. Always fun. And even had an old friend visit who i haven't seen IRL for three years. That was really great!

And of course there are concerts! (I can't go with otu them these days...)

Just saw Cold War Kids last saturday. Suported by the band Pink Mountaintops and a poet named Derrick Brown. The show was just awesome! Cold War Kids really give 110% on stage. They are an amazingly energetic band and make some great music! It was also very cool that they brought a poet along to open/MC the show. What really made the evening though was the team spirt you could see on stage. The two man formation Pink Mountaintops are a very good (all be it a bit hippie-esque) band. Regularly memebrs of Cold War Kids came on stage to play with them. Supporting the support act as it were. To great effect! Derrick Brown als made cameo appearances through the main act, performing instruments and a selcted poem through one of their songs. It was almost like watching one band perform the whole night and generated a fantastic atmosphere. I definately want to see these guys again!

Concert news has kept me busy today though. It looks like I;m goign to be kicking it Old School the next few weeks. :p Firstly it looks like I'll be able to make The Stones concert after all... (cool), then of course theres the Deep Purple concert. And just to round it off The Who (with The Cult as their support act)!

It will be sheer Old Scool awesomeness! I can't wait!

anyway...I've ranted long enough. Time to log off and get some food

There are lots of quotes, mostly from movies, that have stuck with me over the years. Little bits of wisdom or humor that just seem so pertinent that I elect to drag them over into my daily life.

One such quote, I believe it was from Rat Race of all films, is: "Great things happen all at once". I have found this to be very true. Admittedly I have also found the saying "Bad things come in threes" to be a compleet load of old bollocks as they usually appear in sevens or eights... But that is irrelevant. What has happend now (or will be happening on june 8th) is two great things at once. Which is, as you may have guessed, great... save for the fact that I can't be in two places at the same time.



Damn it!

So my planned Rolling Stones concert will have to be canceld because two of my friends have decided to get married on that day. Friends come first. Always. Guess I'll just have to hope the Stones live long enough to put on another tour!

[Taken from my MySpace blog, posted 21-04-2005]


Lisa Gerrard
Category: Music

I don't really know how to begin this review... The concert was simply mindblowing!

Lisa Gerrard has a voice that surpasses beautiful. It is simply amazing to hear her sing. Now her music isn't for everyone, it is very artsy most of the time, but we are talking about High Art here. From her solo work to her work for film scores she has always created music that can only be described as hauntingly beautiful.

After all the rock concerts I've been to of late it was quite a change to be sitting in a theater listening to what could best be called classical music (for lack of any genre it may otherwise fit into). The sheer power of Gerrard's voice and the subtle blend of styles in her music hits you like a wave. Opening with the very bombastic piece "Tempus" and following through with songs from across her entire body of work Lisa Gerarrd and the very talented musicians she brought with her put on a breathtaking show.

I feel as though I should really be waiting a week or two before writing this review, as the more I think about this concert the better it gets. Everything about it was a unique experience. Even watching the way Gerrard prepares herself before every song, always aproaching the microphone stand as if it were a dance partner rather than an instument. Seeming sometimes almost nervous, not something you'd expect from someone who has been in the music business for 20 years.

The extra songs they played in their encore(s) were well worth the three standing ovations they milked us for Especially the one that, for me, was the highlight of the concert: "The Wind That Shakes the Barley". Done a cappela this song like no other showcased Lisa Gerard's amazing talent. I fel like i have walked through a dream. A dream I hope to walk through again.

[Taken from my MySpace blog, posted 11-04-2005 01:26 am]

Blue Dragon:
1 1/2 White Rum
1 Blue Curacao
1/2 Cointreau
1/2 Lime Juice
7 drops of Red Tobasco
Stir and serve on the rocks.

This is a very tasty drink. My own recipie. At the moment I am quite in need of it as I am about to write my review of The Fratelli's concert I just went to. Since they gave me a really bad show while being piss drunk, I shall now give them a really bad review while drinking.

Lets just first of all get the opening act out of the way. This was a dutch rock band called GEM. Now these guys are pretty good. I've seen them a couple of times before and have always really enjoyed the shows they've given. Their style is a mix between Frans Ferdinand and The Rolling Stones. Real good old rock 'n roll. They really didn't seem to be into it at the start of their set tonight but as the crowd started to get going so did they.

Like with Ladytron at the NIN concert GEM proved to be a band with a lot of potential. I have said this about them for the past year or so. These guys can become a truly great band if they stick to their guns and keep developing along the path they are now on. They are just pulling out of openign act status and are starting to headline their own shows. I look forward to seeing them agin. Hopefully in better company than I found thm tonight.

And now we come to The Fratelli's....

My god did they suck. Right from the start it was obvious that the singer was more than just under the influence. His slurred speach and uncoordinated movement made it very clear that he had drunk well more than his fair share before the show had started. Now this said it didn't seem to have too big an influence on his singing and guitar play. Music it seems can cut through even the influences of alcohol. The performance of the band however was drastically affected. The songs were fun and upbeat as you may expect. And the mosh pit was pretty intense. But overall it was just lacking... there was no energy in the performance, the songs sounded like they had come off a bad LP, and the interaction with the audience was minimal at best. This is one band I have no intention of ever going to see again.

Somone should remind these guys, and other "rock stars" like them, that what they do on stage isn't just an expression of their artistic nature, or their desire to entertain; it is their JOB. They get paid for this. If any of us mere mortals showed up at our jobs piss drunk and unable to talk coherently we'd be fired on the spot. No second chance and no pay check. The world of the entertainer works a little differently it seems. As a concert organizer you can't dissapoint a few hundred people, who payed good money to see a band, just because the band members have decided to have a few drinks beforehand. As long as you can get them on stage then their good enough. Unfortunately as one of those paying cutomers I feel like I've been ripped off. This kind of behavior is just unprofessional. I really hope I never encounter it again.

I certainly intend to never encounter The Fratelli's again.

Just an average guy from a little place called Nijmegen in the east of the Netherlands. Oldest city in the country (2,000 years) and damn proud of it! Also happens to be the punk/alternative capital of the country which suits me perfectly. Really into music in a big way and into movies in an even bigger one. Love being out on the town drinking it up with friends or heading to concerts.

What else is there to tell... I'm 1m70 (that's about 5'7" for you imperialists) 77 kg (yeah yeah... I'm working on it!), no piercings or tatoos (which still supprises me..)

Anything else you wanna know feel free to ask.