| Editorial - 28 February 2007 |
| Sometimes it can be so disappointing to voice your opinion. I was going to write a final piece about the NIN roadtrip - the visit to Zelzate. I was planning on telling how much unexpected fun it was, how friendly some people were, how much free beer (whisky in my case) we got. I was planning on telling that it suddenly dawned on us how far cities can be apart when you have to drive over 20 km each way - especially when you're not old enough to drive yet - compared to living between Leuven and Brussels where there's a bigger city and place to go out every 10 km maximum. I was going to be friendly, amazed and all that shit ... but no ... even that would probably get irate reactions from the blogscene. Seems that no matter how unbiased you try to be - while keeping a mild sense of irony and comical sense - in the eyes of some people you just can't do good. Not if you're not part of "the inner circle". Oh well, fuck "the inner circle" ... been doing my own thing long enough. I'm off. (I lost a part of the original post so the end has been rewritten ... first time I loose something ...damn) |
| Editorial - 26 February 2007 |
| Day two started with a visit to the Fnac. Just to see what
they're selling in France. DVD's without any decent soundtrack or subtitels, and
with titles in french which took me 10 seconds extra to figure out which movie it
was (why do they translate the movietitles in such a way that they don't have any
connection with the original title ?), cd's at very cheap prices (Suicidal Tendencies'
"Join The Army" for 6,99 euro ?!), Xbox games at exactly the same price as anywhere
else and computergear and photography lenses at about the same prices. So skip France
unless you want some cheap cd's ... Afterwards we ducked back into the subway - singing tunes like the team from Loveboat on the way, mainly to our own amusement - and arrived at the station where we dropped the car the day before. There had been too much traffic to keep driving when we arrived in Paris, so we'd dumped the car by the side of a road. Looking at the parkingmeter we discovered you can only pay with a special city-issued card - not with cash or a normal (credit)card. Alright ... guess they want you to skip the payment and get a ticket, wheelclamp or discover your car has been towed away. But we were lucky. It was still there ... not even a ticket. Arriving in Lille two hours later Fokke quickly discovered a comic book store - guy seems to have radar built-in for those - and promptly bought himself three new Iron Man statues. And Alex found that long wanted big Batman doll. Yes indeed, two big comic book fans. The second Nine Inch Nails gig was in the Zenith hall. Bigger and no seats ... like going from a smaller intimate venue towards a big industrial hall. From the Ancienne Belgique to Vorst Nationaal. Already things should be different. And it was ... I guess not even half the setlist was the same ... again focussing on older, not often played material. Hell, there has even been places where tey played songs for the first time live. Great. Once more worth the money. Good light, nice sound, lots of energy ... can't wait for the next round of gigs. |
| Editorial - 24 February 2007 |
| Got back from the first part of the Nine Inch Nails roadtrip late last night. Thursday Franky drove to Antwerp to pick up Alex and Fokke,
then drove to Leuven to pick me up and an hour later we left Belgium and entered France.
Straight towards Paris where NIN would play the Olympia hall - an old half round theatre with seats. Nice place. Fokke and I had fanclub tickets, Franky had the company car with free gas, I had lucked out with old contacts in the travelbusiness and gotten us free hotelrooms near the venue for the night and Alex provided entertainment in the car and free food in the evening. Everything quite priceless. The first concert was impressive. I had seen them twice before, both times a festival gig in the early evening. Headlining in a hall is something else. It's like lying next to a beautiful girl who's sweetly wispering some soothing words in your ear and then punching you right in the face. Hard, heavy and tight one moment, soft and warm the next. I'm glad I forked over the money for five gigs ... Fokke took some pictures with a little camera he snuck into the venue. It's taken from a distance on automatic. Nothing fancy but you do get an idea of what was happening. And given the circumstance there are some pretty good shots. Check his set with these NIN concert photos. Details about day two will follow tomorrow. Tired right now ... |
| Editorial - 21 February 2007 |
| Canvas has shown
the second episode of the Comedy
Casino Cup last weekend. A scouting show looking for new stand up comedy talent in Flanders.
As I have been busy photograping most of them the past few months, I already saw some of these
contestants in action before. And yes I already have my opinion about most of them. Seen enough
to know what could work and what not. In the first episode the hundreds of candidates were thrown in front of a jury to show their skills. Which led to several hilarious moments of absolute afwul jokes. Personally I think that's somewhat funny. Ridiculous non talents showing their lack of (self) knowledge ... gotta love 'em. The second episode had the best 14 return for another crack at their jokes - this time in front of an audience - narrowing the crop to the best five. I've seen 'em all. My favorits ? Xander D and Philippe G. Because they are genuinely funny and have the necessary attitude to cope with an audience. Outsiders ? Iwein S. Because he's funny without telling jokes. And two I don't like ? Yup, Davy and Veerle. Davy's just gross. Might be funny hanging out with the guys, having drinks. But it's getting stale after a few minutes on stage. And Veerle's like his female counterpart. I'm sorry but talking about how beautiful your vagina is for 7 minutes is not funny. Not even with an accent from Gent. Loose the bar slut character and just be funny. Next time these five will get advice from their mentors - Alex, Gunter, Nigel, Thomas and Wim - and try out new material in front of an audience. |
| Editorial - 15 February 2007 |
| Took a break. Hiatus if you will. Needed it. Didn't feel like posting
much, had to get some things in order, concerts started again (which meant photoshopping the
raw files), removed the last wallpaper in the livingroom, threw away some boxes with old papers,
went to the funeral of my granduncle ... done lots. Meanwhile the total number of views of my photos on Flickr has reached another big milestone, my girlfriend had her birthday and invited 30 people for dinner in a restaurant, I bought an extra switch (for the wallsockets), installed the wireless network and tightened it with evil genius FRaNKy, saw my bankaccount reach the zero-sign and took a test which let me start an extended course on ASP.net webdevelopment (finally a structured way of getting myself up to date in the field I'd rather be working in). So yes, I'm in a way "going back to school". The training is via the VDAB. As I have been unemployed for a few months now, I'm able to follow these for free. And usually they have good courses, so it's an excellent opportunity. I'll see new money in my bankaccount each month. Should get me a decent training in ASP.net, yet another step away from the Java reference in my resume. That line seems to attract too many Linux-lovers willing to hire me for boring jobs. And I'm sticking to my idea : I'm done with Java. The past few months have been great. Had time to collect my thoughts at home in the first few months (still payed by old employer Holiday Autos), tried something for an ex-collegue which didn't work out for several reasons (Sporting Bet) and worked a month for my old boss - who didn't want to be the only one who didn't get restructured out of Holiday Autos - when he started Holiday Cars and needed some help with the website. It's not like I have been freeloading. Sure, I did a bit in some people's eyes. But not all the time. And I don't care about them anyway. *shrugs* |
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