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.