Mice Inc and Youth'ful expectations

A few mornings ago, with my work cabinet opened where clothes, book, herbal tea, bread and whatnot are stored (it seems my office cabinet is my 2nd home after all, shock horror), I discovered a deep hole carved into my bread, like a warm comfy nest imbedded into the wheat. Yeah, it's known our office at the reknown Rembrandtplein has mice, like any auld city centre. I just love the little rascals for their cleverness, sometimes we see them running around too, like on the first day of my training, aeons ago. -gawk!-. Instead of cleaning up my cabinet of the crumbs and pieces like my supervisor told me, I've been a bad boy and dissobeyed. Tough luck, little bellies got to be fed, so I left some pieces of cashew nuts around. They haven't been eaten, I reckon these mice truly have a picky connosseuristic choice of food. Nuts I say!

The day mice enjoyed my bread was followed by a monday night out to the grand OCCII squat venue where there was a breakcore night of some sorts with Otto Von Schirach ending his European stay. What can you say about a man who put bikini-clad lizards on his artwork? His sickly onstage persona creates all these beautifully ugly sounds, yet offstage he's the kind fella who talks with a charming lisp, Miami style. 3rd time seeing him in the space or mere months, you kinda get to mingle and know someone. Click-click-click; faux-pas gangsta glitch rap gets submerged with bodily spams sounds, the kinda sounds from bowels and throats if ye catch his driftwind. Beforehand, a funny dude by the name of Tony Blitzkrieg started the night, claimed to be Henk Westbroek (dutch radio personality who makes shitty light songs) while wearing a zombie mask and started rolling over the floor, priceless entertainment. He ran into the audience and like a dog attacking the leg of my friend Wouter. Imagine some psycho down on the floor clamping onto your leg and trying to bite it while you kick him away. It was a fun sight to see. Soon enough, Tony's shenanigans caused his midi music box to

Tomorrow nite, Sonic Youth are playing a 1,5 hour *supposed* improv set at the experimental State-X festival in The Hague. I'm saying *supposed*, because the organiser just loves a good noisy improvisation which he might just request from these auld ones. Then again, expectations are the pure pinnacle of disappointment. Instead to counter this too-good feeling, I'll just bear in mind that they will re-do all of Goo and Sister again and again like any puristic saddo fan will probably expect. Having experienced the Youth superbly improvising with sweeping guitars last year at a Barcelona festival and none of the same old songs, I was left gutted with the amount of moany saddo fans who voiced their anger of not getting to hear their favorite album hits. Yean, new raw material really feels like a punishment, doesn't? Poor people, who are all popcharties deep down inside should better realize for once that special does not equal repetition. So yeah, the question I'll raise is, will the same kind of people, who call themselves fans, still enjoy a set of improvised guitarslashing by Thurston and Kim or Lee destructively fooling with the pedals? Let's hope what comes around, goes around. Later that night, Thurston will join Chris Corsano and Paul Flaherty, Matt Heyner and Spencer Yeh, which could turn out to be a hefty mouthwatering improv affair. The No-Neck Bluesband will do their freaky holistic folk thing and I'm wondering if this time they won't get into a fight with each other as it happened at a Rotterdam gig last spring, ouch.

The saturday nite will be a very grimey and electronical affair with Plastician, MarkOne, Chris Clark and Jamie Lidell taking over. Even classic Finnish psychefolk act Circle will be playing wha-wha-what??...in a smaller room though. Glamcore buddy Jason Forrest will be presenting the night as PA of the night. I smell a perfect cut-out. At least it will look more sane than him running around with his face and upper body covered in ketchup like 2 years back...ohhhhhmm.
I'm looking forward to see the Magick Markers, with guitar amps screeching at irritating rates.

Some tunes, unfortunately in iTunes M4A format for now....

(from Murray Street, 2002)
Sonic Youth - Sympathy For The Strawberry
Sonic Youth - Karen Revisited (in light of friday, it gets more interesting after 3 mins ;)

(from Maxipad Detention, 2006)
Otto Von Schirach - Trick Snitch
Otto Von Schirach - Cantaloupe Syphilis Gravy
Otto Von Schirach - Maxipad Vegetation

The livingroom dove and Vientane charity drink

Last sunday afternoon a livingroom concert was organised with American songwriters Viking Moses and Ramona Cordova and local Dutch songwriters Danielle Liebeskind and Machinefabriek. Such events surely are more enjoyable than any kind of normal concert. Matrasses, pillows and carpets were laid down and soup, bread and cheese exchanged hungry stomachs. Danielle started the afternoon with heartfelt songs stirring her emotions and she played a superb Kimya Dawson tribute song. Ramona (named his artist persona in honour of his grandmother) kinda stole the show with his energetic guitar playing style and his poetic pitched singing. Perhaps some would lazily compare him to Devendra Banhart, but Cordova doesn't have the smarmy fantasy feel to it, rather little life stories twisted into a colourful wrapper. If you can make a whole room dangle their keys and sing along with your spiritual chants, there's something special worth feeling and touching upon. Viking Moses was pretty good too, loud alternative blues and rock alongside raw poetry from the heart. Spoken word even, in the sense that he roughly pulled it off as a emotional standup comedian. I liked the way he had one of his shoes taped in, as the sole was loose. real. Rutger, otherwise known as Machinefabriek closed the evening with his expected noodling and looping his guitar tones, but with added vocals on top of his grittycoustics. In the end, we kinda left like spoilt children, livingroom concerts will surely kick off a new era of Utrecht improvisation sessions organised by true enthousiasts.

Taken from Ramon's album The Boy Who Floated Freely on Parisian label Clapping Music.

Ramona Cordova - Introduction
Ramona Cordova - Heavy On My Head
Ramona Cordova - Non Title

Big big thanks to Iris for organising this sweet evening of special songwriters and good atmosphere, also kudos to Danielle for offering her spaceous livingroom to 30 odd people.

Oh btw! This Wednesday (13th) I'll be volunteering behind the bar at the Averechts cafe again, so dear Utrecht readers...please come and have a drink for charity! All money this month goes to the Vientane Youth Centre in Laos, an independent project for a free health and information centre for inner city youths. They could really use some generous funding to keep the centre up and running. Hope to see some of ye!...

Shona Mbira music, minimalised spirits alive!

Finally a world music entry, I know. It was about time too, as the world keeps turning and turning, the non western music cultures ever evolving, wrapped in their acoustic beauty. Last weekend I picked up the amazing Shona Mbira Music of Zimbabwe album by the ethnic Nonesuch Explorer label. Performed in 1977 mostly by Cosmas Magaya and relatives, all profoundly skilled with the mbira, which is the Zimbabwian version of a thumb piano (otherwise known as a likembe, kalimbe and so on depending of the local connoctation).

The Shona mbira music comes straight out of the Zimbabwe heartland of the Zezeuru people, induced by ancient religious and cultural ceremonies. During the 1970's Independance War when fighting against the unjust British colonial system, the mbira music was specificly used in ceremonies where spiritual mediums (as in african shamans) gave advise to the local population and the freedom fighting guerrilla's, to aid their spirits in these hard times.

As the Mugabe regime became fiercely violent and totalitarian in the 80's, it was not allowed anymore to use music for political messages due to the Mugabe propaganda rule. Also the mbira music was heavily restrained and had to be stripped from its cultural and social message, whether it was a traditional one or not. Voiced expression through the mbira became near impossible and it transported itself into intense emotional participations, body and spirit-wise. The inner voice translated to body language.

The style of the mbira as practised in the Shona tradition is one of a relaxed repetitive melody loop. Trancedental qualities become clearly audible, thus revealing the ceremonial aspects to these spiritual tones. African minimalism at its best. There's even a non-profit organisation to maintain the Shona mbira music Wow, respect goes out to those keeping it alive!

pictured ltr; recordist Paul Berliner, Justin Magaya & Cosmas Magaya

Below some tunes from the Nonesuch album, taken from the Shona album, enjoy! ;)

Cosmas, Alexio & Simon Magaya Magaya - Nhemamusasa: Instrumental Excerpt I
Hakurotwi Mude, Cosmas Magaya & Justin Magaya - Shumba
Hakurotwi Mude, Cosmas Magaya, Luken Pasipamire & Ephat Mujuru - Chaminuka We

lo-fi ambient night in Utrecht this saturday

Hmm, since I'm part of the InterZone crew nowadays... why not spam my own space? Spam as in deliciously experimental packaged, not the cheap flaky kind ;)
Spread the word, fellow folks of Hollandia!

Together with Bastiaan and Carlos, I'll should be spinning some music between and after the performances.

There's even a promotional video with the music of tapeloop buddy Wouter van Veldhoven...youtubed and made by Carlos and Ellen through a dia projection, sweet!
check it below.....

InterZone promo clip & music!

Saturday Dec. 9th
InterZone is proud to present a lo-fi ambient evening with live:

BODUF SONGS (US) [Kranky]
THE DEAD TEXAN (US) [Kranky]
ANNELIES MONSERE (B)[Bluesanct]
WOUTER VAN VELDHOVEN (NL) [Mechanizedmind]

Some tracks for your pleasure....

Boduf Songs - Great Wolf Of No Tracks

Boduf Songs - Lord Of The Flies

Annelies Monsere - You Were On My Side (Melodica)

Annelies Monsere - Cold Night

The Dead Texan - Glen's Goo

Wouter van Veldhoven - D
















More info at:
www.interzone-festival.com
www.theaterkikker.nl

Where: Theater Kikker, Ganzenmarkt 14
Start 21:00 Entrance 12/9 Euro
Presale:
Theater Kikker, Ganzenmarkt 14
Plato Utrecht, Steenweg 13
Reservations:
www.theaterkikker.nl, (0031) (0)30 2319666

==========================================
InterZone @ MySpace
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InterZone can also be found at Myspace. We are trying to create a
network
of visitors and artists. Go to
http://www.myspace.com/interzone_festival
and add yourself to our list!
==========================================

have a lovely day,
InterZone

Manics and devils

That 'The Devil and Daniel Johnston' docu is amazingly well done, showing the demise of a teenage songwriting genius while being transformed into a manic depressed christian obsessed person. I liked the part in the late 80's where he quite freaked out the Sonic Youth folks, who was really punk there now? ;)
To me, the docu really showed how people from early on took advantage of his kind personality and creativity for their own purposes, whether it were his ex-lovers, other musicians or his own family. Only his manager/friend remained loyal to him and is also the person who revived his career from obscurity. I could go on giving some useless analysis on the whole film but naaaah, just go and watch it yourselves.

Here some old songs taken from his teenage tapes, such grand lyrics!
"Respect love of the heart over lust of the flesh,
do yourself a favour and become your own savior"

Daniel Johnston - Story Of An Artist (here he sings about how his own family treated him)
Daniel Johnston - The Sun Shines Down On Me
Daniel Johnston - Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Your Grievience

And a superb cover version by TV On The Radio (one of the better live bands during the summer festivals), followed by the original.
TV On The Radio - Walking The Cow
Daniel Johnston - Walking The Cow

then.....















and now...........

Unfinished, unfulfilled,

.

..

...

....

.....It's about time for some 'The Devil And Daniel Johnston' docu viewing (thanx Mark!)

The country rambler

Once seen on graffiti, ‘Listening to the blues turns being in pain into a beautiful feeling’, spray of right on it is.

Since I started the blog I've been putting up lots of blues, one might notice. I reckon it says enough about my emotional posture at this moment in time, the year 2006 notwithstanding the things that have happened on a level of hurt and shame all year around. Such is life, would a friend always say. I do promise to include more world music, roots and experimental stuff in the near future when clouds clear up in a hopefull hurry.

Talk talk talk.... Townes van Zandt in the blogged ode grinder. I've never been fond of white country music like the modern trash pulp it is today since the bad musicians outnumber the special ones like Gillian Welch and such. I guess I'm more of the pre 60's wave of Guthrie, Cash, (Hank) Williams and mostly the old timey stuff of the pre 40's. So then, what's up with Townes? To sum it up in a bizarre stretch; Dutch ancestry and raised in a Texas hotbed through oil, being pushed for governorship by his wealthy family, but starting a career in songwriting instead, brilliant lyrics during manic depressions and shock therapies, living as a hermit in a trashy cabin yet being member of the high-intelligence MENSA organisation. You wha'? It's one opposite revelation after the other, the context telling the story of his life in turnaround paths.
In a time that blues became smudgy electric and dirty, Townes' kept things acoustic and followed old blues paths merged with country styles. He noticably was influenced by many black blues musicians such as Lightnin' Hopkins who also hailed from Texas and imbedded their style his own way. One could even say that Townes has inspired an early alt-country movement since he was more focussed on fingerpicking than the simple playing styles of those days. His music has inspired the likes of Sonic Youth, Beck, The White Stripes, Tindersticks and even Norah Jones to name a few. I'm still trying to track down 'Heartworn Highways' and 'Be Here To Love Me', both being lauded movies about his life and music; the genius, the alcohol, the demise. Taking a drive on the internet highway needed.

While his intense lyrics contained a lot of smart dry humour, there is also a lot of mention of alcohol abuse by other people, while he himself was a notorious alcoholic all his life as his only grip on reality. He died of a heart attack in 1997 from a bad bloodclot after a hip surgery. This was on the same day as the death of his idol Hank Williams, weirdly enough.

Here some songs taken from the infamous Live At The Quarter House session performed in Houston, 1977. These 3 are all blues covers from artists before the 60's

Townes van Zandt - If I Needed You (Doc Watson cover)
Townes van Zandt - Nine Pound Hammer (Merle Travis cover)
Townes van Zandt - Cocaine Blues (from the original by Luke Jordan, no Clapton ruining it here)

This one is another little gem of that session, the way he makes fun of fraternity houses and the upper class jock-style social life is priceless:
Townes van Zandt - Fraternity Blues

One for trawler John

Typical Friday night at the smoky brown café; the table layered with many backgammon games, blonde beers and soul searching talks. How humans long for communication with the inner or outer self, while thoughts fast forward and rewind themselves at the same time. This is philosophy happy hour in the booze palooza, every round of wisdom is one’s shared kingdom of the mind. A lone person had difficulties finding a table to join and a group to cling onto, for he was lavishly ignored by the dignified bobo’s, ah bless such everexisting cuntism pssssh. Open spot at our table; no rules, no judgements, just mindspeak and the visitor accepted the offer. John introduced himself as a 61 year old homeless person and living with the salvation army since the early 90’s. There lay no shame in the details of his storytelling, his life had followed certain paths down to his own near destruction and his calm acceptance of this was comforting to listen to. Painful tales went on about friends who died of overdoses and AIDS, even those who were not in his same junkie-realm. The burned skidmarks on his face and the disfigured nature of his flesh revealed his heroin addiction and the multiple times that it caught fire. The topic moved onto a movie in Dutch cinema’s about the life of Herman Brood, a dutch drugged rockstar who perhaps could be vaguely compared to Mick Jagger and Andy Warhol into one body minus the intellect. John was muttering about the movie, it not portraying Herman’s life as the non-fairytale junkie lifestyle it was. John said he knew Herman personally quite well back in the 80’s when they both were each other’s junkie buddies and went on car radio hunt together night after night to feed the monkey and boy was the monkey hungry, always. He did however express that they never used violence in their theft thrifts, with no hesitation is his voice audible. He got off the heroin by himself when he was in a hospital 15 years ago and he has been clean ever since ''It's all between the ears boys", he proudly proclaimed, with a minor contempt for junkies who could not kick off themselves. We had to leave John in the sullen agreement that we would meet another same time, same place in a week. Continued?

Songs for John, weeping oldie beauties...........

Frank Hutchison - Worried Blues
Fa So La Singers - I'll Stay On The Right Road Now
McGee Brothers - The Tramp

Engerland, or should we say Angerland

some nighty night out, said the owl.

Don't we just love the crass fat bellied men that England exports whenever there's a football game or any sporting event? Last night, the scenario was Holland vs England here in Amsterdam, in the form of a friendly footie game which was a pure waste of everyone's time. So ofcourse droves of semi-hooligans and other supposely nice folks flooded the centre. After a serious pub session last night, which basicly was all about playing endless games of backgammon in a silly stupor and chugging many Bruges Blondes all night long , me and buddy Yann ended up walking through the red light district with unclear heads. Imagine yourself amidst an english flock of sickly boozed and coked-up cattle, who are looking for a dame to pound 'n punch upon. It was hubba hubba in loose monekyland, their rotten bananas stiff from filthy stenches. How in a perfect equal world it would be desired for the dames to retake their honour Sin City stylee. Kick it up. Especially when the loose beefmonkeys seem to think they have the right of laying abuse and mockery onto the windowed ladies. Not a pretty sight thus we quickly needed to get out of this evocative negative spiral leading downward. It got weirder when sitting crouched in front of a hateful burger king joint, listening to tunes on the earphones and suddenly getting change thrown into your lap you as people presumed you needed it. Why thank you. Muscles aching, legs wobbly, vision blurry and the mind way too unstable since thr 7:30 wake-up call....I'm in my self created inferno, I must really thank myself this time.

To add bandages to the misery, some salvaging gospel blues from the 1950's......

Reverend Gary Davis - If The Lord Be For You (woah that female voice! the cocorosie gals sure ripped it off) ;)
Limmy's page full of fart art for which you need to put your streetwise Scottish hat on. It's dried humour and he does it well, I like the pissy video's best.
Requiem!!! Requiem!!! :)

Zizou post-rocked at your disposal, shall we?

Aaaaaaaaaaah noooooooooo Grizzly Bear cancelled their European tour thus also the Utrecht show for this saturday 'cos all their equipment got stolen in Belgium off all places (in Brussels ofcourse)!!. Yeah, Belgolandia being an indie country and all apparently doesn't matter when it comes to nicking vintage instruments, so it goes. Hmmm, the black markets in the Brussel suburbs might be the spot where these will turn up. Covered in rain, scratches and other sacrileged treatments endured I duly suppose. Blind Ethiopian singer Jimmy Mohammed Jimmy is replacing the grizzlies which is a different but still smart move as his music/voice is amazing.

songs of GB's latest album 'Yellow House' (spot on Joana, it's great yeah!)
Grizzly Bear - Knife
Grizzly Bear - Plans
Grizzly Bear - Easier

The new Mogwai tribute soundtrack to Zidane (some froggie football player, if you had no clue) has just arrived and quickly slammed into the player because why wait if the food is still warm and smells so tasty? Oh oh oh! Warm melancholic feelings of inner nostalgia engulf the body and soul and we're thrown back to those peak days of the ever classic 'Come On Die Young' and the 'Stanley Kubrick EP', at last! Yeah I am being overly ecstatic here and unable to hide it, the goosebumps pop up constantly and reflections to one's early post-rocky influenced past appear in forms by flashbacks of ex-lovers, special moments and shit occurances in life. Bless these fuzzylectric Celtic saints, who inspired by their footie addiction deliver their best work since a long long time.

Mogwai - Black Spider
Mogwai -7:25

chugga chugga! ~no chuggie~

Pouring from above, weeping here below

musica da dia:

Dirty Three - Last Horse on the Sand
'cos it's one of those mondays; ugly, grey, torrid, cold, wet....should one go on tormenting the spirits? What better way to counter it with -ahem- some pure sullen melancholia........

Dorit Chrysler - Spring Breeze
Dorit Chrysler - Chlorophyll
Dorit Chrysler - My Sweet Chimera
(All taken from that superb No Woman No Cry Vol.2 compilation received as a promo)
Some nice lo-fi electro pop tunes for when the rain keeps pouring down and the winds sweeps the streets. Hmmm who's trying to be Stereolab or Broadcast here? British melancholia transfered to New York.

ps: these files are all in m4a format, as my crappy office PC only allowed iTunes ripping which is solved now. If you desire mp3 format, lemme know.

Last nite, walking past a coffeeshop appropriately called Hugo de Groot (dutch humanist theorist from the late 1500's) and catched the bizarre sight of a free parrot sitting on a branch near the window bathing in blue neon light. Bird must be stoned all day, perhaps that's his best realm of reality under such circumstances. poor one/lucky one* (*select your prefered feeling)

Melancholia wrapped in digits, packed for your pleasure

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Balls in the open, spirits to be cured

Faust on friday were truly psychedelic, droney and dadaistic. trademark guitar riffs on the other hands missed, but not for the worse. The sound in the lower deck of the steel boat it was held in, added a great deal to the atmosphere, albeit there weren't much people at it. At the encore, singer Jean-Herve Peron put on a robe while wearing nothing underneath, his balls swinging visibly with every move he made, surely a bonus you couldn't expect before from elderly avantgardist though he seems to be have been eccentric enough at past shows.

Larkin Grimm did a nice set in a candle-lit darkened upstairs room of the Paradiso. She freed each member of the audience of bad spirits by blowing sparks on them using an indian incense bundle. She closed it with a ritual of thanking the wind and water forces before starting her intricate folk melodies and singing her sincerely spirited words which deeply impressed the 20-headed audience. An afternoon of music and backroom talks kinda became a night of exploring the Amsterdam streets, vegan mexican food and salt-rimmed margarita's, thanks for the nice evening Larkin. She's playing tonight (17th yes) in Amsterdam's cafe Sappho after 21h, if anyone interested still catches this on time. Maybe another home improvisation session will happen this week out of the blue, with a special person joining our the folk cirle?


From the same Appalachian environments as Larkin Grimm, hails her indian spirited friend Lara Polangco, a young singer songwriter who plays the dulcimer too and did a lauded duo set with Larkin at the recent Terrastock 6 festival. Debut album should arrive soon I hope, after hearing this sweet-voiced folky song below.

Lara Polangco - Orphan Girl

Krautrock in oblivion while a Grimm reaper appears as a shaman

Tomorrow, Faust live! A German free-travelling squatter boat on the northern Amsterdam docks serves as the ultimate fitting industrial setting. Stubnitz is the keyword.
Faust in depth; 50 year old krautrockers from a lost German improvisational era of the late 60's up to the 70's, where new boundaries were created and set the blueprint for a lot of the current experimental music, either electronic or acoustic driven. One could perhaps even go as far as saying that they might have inspired some early punk bands, but intangible webs better be left alone in fear getting into a sticky mess. The band is notorious for sticking it to 'the man', in most cases the audience gets their favourable disrespect in ways of verbal abuse or being spat upon by the band. How hardcore indeed. Don't let the below tracks fool you into false conclusions, diversity ages slow and fruitful.

Faust - Flashback Caruso (1973)
Faust & Dälek - Imagine What We Started (2004)


Back to current times, to the current flow of folk.
Larking Grimm plays this sunday afternoon, upstairs in the church-like Paradiso. Some say she is like the Cocorosie sisters, Joanna Newsom or Björk. Such talk is all a matter of shallow subjectivity since Larkin Grimm shapes music as spiritual energy and emotions. Those are her sincere words to speak out loud. It's lucid dreams out in the open, examined and rewrapped for your inner being. If all goes well, I'm having talk with her with the motivation to turn it into an article, though I'm getting more curious to know her outlook beyond the music, especially after reading a choice she made -or rather a path she took- last summer, found on her personal blog, July 2006:


"BECOMING A SHAMAN - yeah, those "freak folk" junkies are all talking about shamanic stuff, but I'm actually going to take my powers to another level by apprenticing under two shamans in upstate New York this August. In light of the coming need for a mass leap of consciousness (we're shooting for the year 2012), I've decided to help to facilitate the process of change by becoming a traveling shaman. I have been practicing many methods of dreaming recently, and trying to enable other peoples' dreamsduring my musical performances. I think that if we can just get people to imagine a better world, and to see their dreams as potential future rather than fantasy, we can really change things for the better. Personally, Iwant to see folks retiring their SUV's and riding their bikes to work, limiting unnecessary travel, and focusing on improving their local communities. After I get my certificate in "advanced shapeshifting", I'll be taking off on another tour, going out to California."

An onverview of songs, all unique in their spiritual buzz, healing those wounded:

Larkin Grimm - Pigeon Food (cd: Harpoon, 2005)
Larkin Grimm - I'm Just Saying Yes (unreleased, on blog, 2006)
Larkin Grimm - The Waterfall (cd: The Last Tree, 10 oct. 2006)
Larkin Grimm - Little Weeper (cd: The Last Tree, 10 oct. 2006)

Electional currents of neo's and socio's

I feel should elaborate a bit on the Belgian/Flemish city council elections which were held last sunday, being an expat Belgo and whatnot, the ups and the downs clear cut out for ya! -oh I didn't vote, cos I'm not registered as living in Belgium, thus no vote for me, grumble-

All the controversy circulates around the Vlaams Belang party, the neo-conservatives of the Flemish part. As the wikipedia article shows, the neutrality is a serious topic so take a look at the talk page to get a better insight into the party's current views on resolutions.

Over the past few months there have been numerous manifests carried out through alternative media and musical manifestations, with oddly enough even Microsoft sponsoring this recent political concert in the Antwerp centre. All of lefty and socialist Flanders combined their creative forces to put a stop to the doom-politics of the neo-cons, something which is rarely seen in Western Europe these. For example in Holland when the politician Pim Fortuyn was in his prime rise of power before he got assasinated, there was hardly any strong fist made by the left. Therefore the vile neo-con crusade did not stuggle much with public blocks, which was a shame really though this says all about the unpassionate Dutch civil behaviour (this civil obedient grey mouse behaviour has always been present in Holland and is one of the things I truly, deeply hate about this country)

The outcome is that Vlaams Belang didn't gain much in the big cities, but they did climb 5% in overall in the Flemish part which is grim news. This happened mostly in the oh-so cultural countryside which is no sudden surprise. They heroicly call it a landslide win to fuel their own propaganda parade, whatever pleases them but the voting results in overall showed no real big wins or losses for any party. Locally, the scenario is different, especially concerning my fair birth city Antwerp, where the party has it's dirty roots. Antwerp had a 33%(!!!) Vlaams Belang city council over the past 4 years, while a socialist mayor kept his role. Sunday, the (well, cigar smoking) SPA-Spirit socialist party of the mayor, somehow managed to go up from 20% to 35% and now holds the majority of the Antwerp city council again. This came as a surprise since lefty people were fearing the worst for Antwerp this time. Still, the whitened suburbs showed an increase of VB votes and it's tough to swallow that there are stats of around 60% VB voters in those parts. Ignorance is bliss to those in their villa's, yuppie condo's and posh retirement homes and praise them who apparently think it's better to create a enthnical society gap, the empty humans they are.

VB's conclusion statement on the night of results was that it was the *newly achieved* immigrant vote that halted their march in the centre and the poorer parts of the city. ''Oh yes, it indeed is not fair to let decent, honest immigrants vote, ofcourse they work to clean your toilets, pick up your garbage, produce your products in unhealthy chemical factories and so on, but that doesn't make them people" Sarcastic indeed. According to these flemish fascists, immigrants who have recently become belgian nationals, should not be able to vote, purely based on the fact that they don't vote in the neo-con favour. I wonder how quickly their pignecks would turn if immigrants would vote for them, by godspeed I tell ye. Every time a member of VB was interviewed sunday night, they kept on referring to the immigrant/new national vote. Over and over again dragging this cat into the same alley. What gives; in fact there were just over 2000 new immigrants granted Belgian citizenship, thus 2000 votes they probably did not get. In a city of nearly 500.000 inhabitants, 1.000.000 for the whole Antwerp agglomeration, you can understand how ridiculous their moaning for the ignorant sounds. But yes, the ethic of this wonderful party goes deep...''we're not racists'' you can hear them scream, ''but we're fatherland culture loving nationalists" is what they chant, contineously, filling the air with their verbal poison.

Does that bascily mean that as an expat EU person, I normally should not be able to vote for the Dutch city council elections here either, which I did? Or should I be no problem, just cos I'm white and carry a EU identity? Welcome to the world of Flemish neo-cons. they are so so right.

In the end, the VB haven't lost much ground..in fact they slightly gained nearly everywhere or stayed equal. It's a dangerous stigma to be taken serious. Even at times where they have fucked up, they have not lost much support which is even more worrying which indicated the sheer stupidity of the voters following them. Scray shit has gotta give sometime.

Rant over and gutted.

Whaddaday-hey, the days reposed personally

all summerised.

Thursday 05-10:
At the Dutch Film Festival there was a screening of student films and Samatha invited me to see the foreign documentaty her friend Deniz. Though I liked some of the ironic animation films, the rest kinda left me cold. The only piece that really stood out for me sincerely was the short documentary Following The Fish made by the Turkish student Deniz Baser. Then again I'm always very positively biased to cultural/foreign documentaires, my arty flaw therefore exposed. The story was based around old fisherman Mr Gokhan in modern day Istanbul, who talked about his current and past fishing days and the cosmopolitan change of the city. There were sublime sceneries of Istanbul's hustle & bustle and the general cinematography was well composed. I really hope she can submit this film to the cultural NPS network, the VPRO or perhaps even foreign networks like the French-German ARTE, as it would totally fit there for it to air on TV.

Straight after I made my way through the rain (oh joy!) to DB Studio near my gaf, where friend Peter had his graduation party (see link for story n pic), plus also leaving the alternative media organisation 3voor12 which he set up years ago. Usual suspect friends Pim, Iris, Jurriaan, Klazien and Michel were already there (hey guys!), so I joined in to catch his goodbye speech, the kiddie apple champagne and soon enough Plunk! did a bonus set with Danibal on mouth harp, creating some sort of throat singing and beatboxing over breakbeats. I got talking to Danibal for his nice cd's he gave to me through Sama, plus he might join our livingroom folk session next time, another soul welcomed. To finish the night Der Tante Renate, a small German fella from Hamburg, played a nice set of electroey beats with a gamepad and his electric guitar. I got pulled on stage by crazy bouncy ball woman Klazien, not able to pull away and the stage got stormed after that. Got home way too late. what's new. Klazien & Michel from Rotterdam stayed at my place, which was kinda last-minute late night style of decision making. Waking up again at 6:30, as the story goes....

Friday 06-10
Night in Waterfront with Jet, Klazien and Michel, with local Rotterdam rock bands playing, lots of teenagers present with some old rockers. Most of the music was lame, except for Sanne en Ik, a angsty punk band by some crazy dude with seriously weird lyrics about biting bulldogs, how to train your daughter to be a heroin hooker and whatever nonsense. right. His girlfriend Sanne had become his ex a week ago, so the band name is freshly outdated. The guy should consider doing stand-up comedy if ever needing a new direction. In the bar a rock karaoke started with the usual 60's to 90's rock songs....it was fun till it got painfully quickly so we had to walk off. Some guys started doing improvisation samba drumming in the hallway and thankfully weren't ripping off the same old rhythms but keeping it sincerely spirited. A ride through riverside Rotterdam to the north side was an eyeopener to experiencing the city's scapes I never explored before by bike.

saturday 07-10
day 3 of the not-much-sleep parade, Belgium the setting for this scenario. Had an editorial meeting with the magazine, packing the zines and eating all sorts of belgo waffles n pastries fueled by beers afterwards. At Night, a Breakcore Gives Me Wood rave at the Hof ter Lo, where Serge of Gonzo is the coordinator. Artists Sickboy from Antwerp and Droon from Ghent are the driving forces behind the Wood parties which are getting bigger numbers of people in with every rave, which is nice for them since they push the sound of a small scene. I got in well past midnight as by pure coincidence I ran into 2 friends in Antwerp's centre and went for a drink instead. Finally arrived at the venue after taking a wrong bus to the outskirts too, smart move, and found the rave a steaming pit of dancing bodies, junglists alongisde squatters, gabbers and metalheads, a nice snapshot of the breakcore scene alive. Bigshot honcho Venetian Snares gave a fierce set and although being manic driven and all, it was nearly the same set he did in The Hague a few weeks earlier, but freaks dance to anything so why moan. DJ Floorclearer was more interesting; meddling between punk, metal and breakcore. Droon's set was fun to watch too as he was wearing his trademark airplane suit and helmet, playing his keytar (a pc keyboard glued to a guitar body).The cheesiness of his sudden trance and pop outbursts into the hefty core sound was good for comical dance relief. I somehow ended at the Antwerp station at 6.30 and fell asleep on a cold bench for a while, sleep everwhere when in need, why worry.

It cricks, crackles 'n' rattles!

Playing time, double contextual scraps.

Wednesday night with a bunch friends, we organised a grouphug freakfolk session at casa Sebcatlitter, which went on waaaay deep into the night. Waking up hours later at 6.30am for another day of corporate slavery with the damocles realm of sleep deprivation; not recommended must say. Rewind, the livingroom was turned into an instrument mine field with chunks & pieces loitered everywhere. It was nearly like a Fonal concert setting, errr except that we made more mess with drinks n food. What to pick, what to play of this scattered array; we had music boxes, xylophones, melodica's, african lamellaphones (or better known as thumb piano's), kiddie keyboards, cheapo accordeons, various guitar shapes, shakers, drumming pads, bird & frog sound tools and an amazing sounding Botswana bush bow-slash-violin, was that all? -pfew-
Fair play to Wouter for bringing most bags of instruments including his old mechanical tape recorder for making grainy looping drones, which really coloured the acoustic sound.
We played a few hours and recorded most of it, will put mp3's links of some session pieces on here soon after filtering the grit from the chissle. Thank Mark, Gijs, Ellen, Wouter, Maarten, Iris, Merel and Daniel for coming out to play. Below some pics taken by Mark and Iris, thx too!






















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Just heard about a pretty nifty electronical instrument; the *Cracklebox* (ta, Rory!)
"The Cracklebox was probably the first commercialy available portable selfpowered alternative 'keyboard' analog audio synthesizer with inbuilt loudspeaker" Old skool glitch, wowza! :)


Apparently this device was created in the 70's and has been recently revived by the good people at Amsterdam based Steim and the German Sonig label. It's really no surprise that Jan Werner (part of electrofrizzy outfit Mouse on Mars) is the connection here, being the programmer at Steim and owner of Sonig at the same time. Various artists are using this device nowadays and had seen it used before at a MoM show which tickled my curiosity. And curiousity indeed kills this cat slowly, especially when this device can be purchased for next to nothing* (*only applies ro addicst of musical gadgets I reckon) at Steim's online shop. Just play kids, play!

Talking in NY synchronicity equals stupidity & Icelandic hangaround soundtrack for rainy day

Last nite, cafe & bok liquid enjoyment in Averechts. Minimalistic melancholia and dubby tunes provided by Bastiaan and some by me. Mixing bits for a few old chaps and affiliated people, a sunday night out the easy way. Must check out more of the Microcosm Music label, soothing melange! Wixel's nightly discovered stuff is good to, released on the Utrecht Mechanized Mind label of ehmm.. Bastiaan!

Monday morning feedback buzzing through the head, lacking thalamus adrenaline from a poor night's sleep indeed.
How to amuse yourself in this scenario; a dull grey day, office space dismay, creating the flutter for ample action and keep the employees at bay. hurray!

Then there always is New York small talk to cheer you up, it does the trick. We really need a Randstad version of this, I tell ye (fyi the triangle area of Amsterdam/Rotterdam/Utrecht/The Hague). Enlightenment through glum minds works a-treat indeed.

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Woman: You know how those animal people are, though. I mean, I speak to them, though! I've done pigeon rescues and stuff before. I love animals.

Man: Did you ever bury your rats?

Woman: No... I just can't bring myself to do it.Man: How long has it been? Three years?

Woman: Yeah. They're still in my freezer.

Man: Just bury them already!Woman: I can't bring myself to do it! They were my favorite!

Man: But they're IN YOUR FREEZER! Why not have them stuffed, then?

Woman: What? No! That would be wacky!

--A train, 207th St
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Blind date boy: So how long was your ex on the job?

Blind date girl: Well, he's been a cop for three years, but he still lives with his parents because of how little cops get paid.

Blind date boy: Cops get paid shit in the beginning.

Blind date girl: Well, he was making a lot more before, you know...

Blind date boy: Oh yeah, being a drug dealer.

--Austin St & 72nd Ave, Queens
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On this windy & rainy day, to mark the start of the oh-so new autumn, some drowsy Icelandic tunes by Sigur Ros.

Sigur Ros - Josep Tekur Fimmuna i Vinnuna
Sigur Ros - Hlemmur #1
Sigur Ros - Hvalir i Utrymingarhaettu

The music is part of a soundtrack which they fully composed for the urban vagabondic documentary 'Hlemmur' by Olaf Sveinsson: ''Hlemmur is a film which revolves around the lives of some unfortunate destitute men who spend most of their time in and around reykjavík's main bus station, hlemmur'' Alcopop happiness in Icelandic slurs; short clip bit

O-pun-ing

ok..this opens it. gates without a lock nor key, so looters, bums and whatnot; welcome to the palindrome dome! to the dutchies/flemishco's; I'll keep this all in English... linguistic globalization 1 vs local lingo 0. sorry.

backlog 22/09:

A sunny canal side sit-in with Castaneda at hand, interuptions come as they go, yet leaving while they slumber. A true satanist cycles by; in full black garment while holding a gigantic black umbrella, cowering from the rays. Nylon sun block for the wishfully sallow skinned. He is followed, rather haunted, by laughter from ordinaries, clerks, faculty yupsters and such. Self-expression is merely a comfort for those who follow the status quo model of acceptance, just as others just dwell in spheres of quirckiness, obscurity and rejection all the same, the other end of the spectre.

Just to keep it light at this very start, here some retro-synthastic muzak at your disposal. library headbanging rave galore!!! roaaaaaar.

Jean Jacques Perrey & Gershon Kingsley - Swan's Splashdown