Retrospective #5: Instantpix

Corniglia, August 2010: "Look Sarah, this place comes with a tortoise!". Romeo, our apartment's pet tortoise/ Lauren's summer love.

Somewhere between Pisa and La Spezia, August 2010: Italian countryside and The Alps (?)

Pisa, August 2010 : Came, saw, took photo.

My intentions are honest

"Not that I want to be a god or a hero.
Just to change into a tree, grow for ages, not hurt anyone."
-Czeslaw Milosz, poet and novelist (1911-2004)

dum spiro, spero.

"While I breathe, I hope."

For honesty

For love

For beauty

For purpose

All images by me.

So, I'm not the only one?

Ok, enough for now.

Asa - Jazzy/ folky Nigerian French singer that caught my ears in Italy.

Top 10 list w/c 13 September 2010

What's Hot

1. New music - Discovering new music is awesome. Figuring out that you are evolving as a person through music is also a stupendous discovery.

2. Ginger Chai tea - It's milky, it's sweet, it's homebrewed from the recipe the woman in the Indian restaurant taught me in Belgium (??). That's right folks, get it while it's steaming and smelling oh-so fragrant in my kitchen. Zennnnnnn....

3. Being proven wrong in the best way possible - sometimes people can surprise you in good ways, and it feels nice.

4. Redecorating - Rearranging the nest feels rewarding.

5. Being told by a bunch of randoms that I speak dutch very well for someone that's only been here a year - Wat lief. Hartelijk bedankt.

6. Baths - Add a bath salt tablet, hot water, and a worn out body to bath tub. Ray Charles or perhaps Angus and Julia stone on the stereo. Stew for 40 minutes to an hour and you get one refreshed and revived little lady.

7. Having new, lovely, genuine girlfriends - Because you can never have enough. It took a while, but I got some good ones.

8. 2 for 1 beauty products - Soul searching or not, I am a mere mortal with a beauty regime.

9. Finding a beautician that is going to curl my eyelashes - what mother nature didn't give me can be implemented by a woman with a beauty diploma and it will be the best 20 EU spent this year.

10. Working from home - Being professional feels much easier in your jim jams.

+ 2 Bonus ones this week!

11. My hairdresser Lynn - She gave me the sassiest cut I've had in ages, about 5 weeks ago, and my life changed after that cut. I never felt more like "me". I went back last Friday and she rocked it once again. She's the freshest, most real, most beautiful woman I've ever seen (She looks like a cross between Beyonce and Kelis) and she has the 'tude to boot. She's a keeper.

12. Accidentally dropping my freshly developed Lomo photos from Belgium from my bike, somewhere in my hood, and having a random drop them in my mail box a couple of days later - Thanks whoever you are! But, I am pretty sure you stole one of my arty lomos. Kinda creepy but kinda complimentary too.

What's Not

1. Possibly the last warm and sunny Saturday of the year - the sun came, shone and left. Boo.

2. Being asked by a colleague if I stayed home all weekend because I might be lacking friends - "Umm... no. I have friends. But thanks for your concern."

3. Accidentally leaving your keys at home, and being locked out while your flatmate is in Greece, and ringing your landlord to come over and let you in - lucky they are cool landlords.

4. Rude antipodeons - We're from the same side of the world; no need to get shitty about it. It happens.

5. Missing my Ma - I wish I had her close by for a cuddle sometimes.

6. My macbook - Stop being a little bitch and just do what you're meant to do.

7. Insomnia - New mattress. I want. Now.

8. Bad things happening to good people.

9. Talking to analysts - For the hundreth time, I know it makes sense.. TO YOU. What about the rest of the free world? Do you think they might want an explanation about this new fang dangled product?

10. Tricky situations - Broaching sensitive topics make awkward circumstances possibly more awkward.

It just keeps on giving...

Tan lines - What is this music? I don't know. Synthesised pop or something? By a Swedish duo. Interesting.

The gift of music

Man I love the internet. Echt Waar.

Isolated from the usual "cool indexes" have made me more resourceful in finding new music, and I am loving the internet for this exploration!

AND, revisiting old stuff is really getting me excited too!

That which facilitates my musical journeys: Soundcloud and Spotify

That which has revealed secrets bands and artists to me:

Subbacultcha.nl - Indie Music, culture, art, stuff.

22tracks.nl - Every week, people in the know about tunes and beats in NL put up their favourite 22 tracks. Most genres covered. It's like a special guest playlist every week.

Pitchfork.com - Dunno what this is really. But I like it.

Hypebeast.com - Searching for and uncovering street style, muziek, gadgets, and exhibits. Just generally flogging stuff that hipsters devour.

My friends Leslie, Sylvie and Nick, and my cousin Ria for their endless music posts on facebook. Yay for friends into so many types of music.

Laura - She quirky taste. I like some of it.

Here are some tunes and artists that my ears and soul are really in sync with at the moment:

Onra - I went to their gig at some underground club in the far west neighborhood of Slotervaart. In the middle of this middle-class neighborhood, a "club" has opened, VLLA. Part old recreation club/RSL, part clubbing treasure, the backyard was full of candles and old bath tubs to lounge in, and an old caravan to chill out in. Liked the house party feel.Disliked the "munt" (token) payment system for drinks. 1 token = 2.30 EU, and a beer was 1 munt, a wine was 1.5 munts. Pre purchase your tokens before you head to bar. A scam to make more money and have you care less about your plastic tokens, the drunker you get. Oh yeah, and 2 toilets. And the feeling everyone was waiting around for something all night, not a great party vibe.

This Parisian "hip hop beatmaker" played some sexy music, that not everyone loved. Well, I like it. Unfortunately, everyone else DJ'ing last night was crap. (In my opinion). I don't like a lot of electronic music, but especially not looping, shitty, experimental house. Never have, never will.

The Cults - Film students from NYC. Cute.

The Eels - Been around for ages. And I am just catching on. Me likey.

Erykah Badu - I love soul sisters.

Passion Pit - Love love love. In fact, I am giving them two video mentions. One for my happy song (Little Secrets) and one for a cool video.(The Reeling)

In fact, I've pre-packed an esky...

German guy: So, What do you do?
Me: I work in Advertising, sort of.
German guy: Oh. Have you prepared yourself for hell?

Suddenly Cologne ain't smelling so good.

Laugh. Out. Loud.

Dutch tanker carrying pig manure explodes in Germany
Wednesday 08 September 2010

A Dutch tanker with 20 tonnes of pig manure on board has exploded in the German city of Cologne splattering a number of houses and cars, news agency ANP reports, quoting a German news site.

According to local fire officials, the manure had become too warm, creating too much pressure in the tank and eventually bursting a glass panel. The manure was sprayed over a large area.

´I was in the kitchen and suddenly there was no more light coming through the window,´ one resident told the site.

Some 30 fire officers were involved in the clean up operation and some houses will have to be repainted.

According to the Telegraaf, the Netherlands exported some 700,000 tonnes of manure last year of which 80% went to Germany.

For photographs of the manure-sprayed street, click here


© DutchNews.nl

Rome if I want to

I just booked my ticket to Rome.

Laura's birthday and Alison's birthday.

Followed by Barcelona.

Top 10 list w/c September 6th 2010

What's Hot

1. Dry September - 3 weeks of sobriety. You read correctly the first time. Not a drop to drink from 6th September until 24th September.

2. Commitment - Mattress Shopping on Saturday. Big bucks spent means more long term comfort for moi. Previous hesitation to spend up on household items went out the window since I slept for the first time in comfort on a FUTON in Hamburg in a little while. It's just not right.

3. Vegetables - I had delicious homemade carrot and sesame seed soup tonight, with a rice, carrot, beetroot and apple salad, a la Laura. Bellissimo!

4. Reading - It's the quiet life for me, for a little while. And that's A-OK with me.

5. Hamburg - This city has got it going on. What's not to love? Cosmopolitan, with a bit of a gritty edge, it's where media and shipping moguls wheel and deal, and it's flat. Also the city where I found an original Russian produced 1994 Lomo LC-A camera (discontinued, limited edition!!) at a Flea Market for 5 EU in prima working condition. A restored one made in PRC costs 200 EU online!! OMFG!! Lomographer's HOLY GRAIL! Check out more here.

6. Reunions with old friends and making new ones - Italy and Germany was good for seeing them and meeting new folks.

7. Nice guys - Love it when friends find a good one.

8. Having nice colleagues - Surprise Tim Tams from one that came back from Australia, cheery and helpful colleagues, and lovely colleagues you don't often work with that notice you were out of the office for a while.

9. Random 16 piece brass bands killing time in German Railway stations.

10. Scandinavian clothing labels

What's Not

1. Trains - No more travel by rail. For a long, long, long time.

2. Restlessness - Need to find a cure from within.

3. Faux-mance over Romance - Not playing anymore.

4. Carbohydrates - Overloaded in Italy and Germany.

5. Rain - It returns tomorrow for a week and may stay for a while. Like 8 months.

6. Aching - It hurts. Everywhere.

7. Overthinking mortality - Good time or a long time?

8. Indecision - It plagues me.

9. Facebook politics - U.G.H.... I just DON'T want to fret for another nanosecond about this.

10. Wanting a holiday after your holiday, and realising your next holiday is going to be just as frantic.

Repeat after me: I am resilient.

Art by Kwon Kyung Yup

"Be patient and tough;

someday this pain will be useful for you."

- Ovid