6 euros

My favourite Belgian city must be Antwerp (and I'm not even from there), but it still keeps a lot of secrets from me. Yesterday my friend Ine (co-writer of this blog and someone I hadn't seen for waaay too long, two years to be honest) and I unraveled some of them when we met up in the beautiful city.

After having lunch (as in a berry muffin for me and chocolate pie for Ine) at the Foodmaker,

we managed to see more than the Meir (for the non-Belgians: famous shopping street in Antwerp) for once.

It was enough to walk into a sidestreet to find the Think Twice, a charming vintage shop that was having a sell-out. (thanks for the tip, Phara!) For only 6 euros I bought these two beauties:

Hockey mom for (v)ice president?

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

"Openings-TD" Jette

Last Wednesday I headed once again to the Jette campus for their opening party.

After a small pizza drama (don't ask) at Elke's place and a pre-party at Jan's, we (Karo, Elke and I) went off to get the party started. The music kind of sucked so it wasn't exactly the best party ever, but we enjoyed ourselves well enough.

And there's tons of picture proof, of course.













To end with, a little video I made of Karolien and Eva. Warning: inside jokes about pizza. Sorry for mocking, Elke. ;)

Later...with Jools Holland

I've been a fan of the BBC music show 'Later...with Jools Holland' for years and years, so it's always a happy moment for me when a new season has arrived.

Last week, the first episode of series 33 aired and it could definitely be called a good one. The artists playing were Metallica, Kings of Leon, Carla Bruni, VV Brown, Nicole Atkins and Sway - like always a nicely variated line-up.

Top act for me was Kings of Leon (oh, how I adooore their new single 'Sex on Fire'), but the other artists were all worth watching as well.

For instance - I had never heard of VV Brown, but she turned out to be a superb singer from London who's able to bring us back decades in time with her - like she describes it herself - 'do wop indie'.

Some of the performances on YouTube:

Kings of Leon - Sex on Fire



VV Brown - Crying Blood



Nicole Atkins - Maybe Tonight

Tell me lies

Today I read an interesting article by Matt Taibbi published in the October 2nd edition of Rolling Stone and posted on this blog. The article's called 'The Lies of Sarah Palin' and it discusses pretty much what the title says and how it is possible that so many Americans are so fond of Palin anyways.

Of course I'm aware that Taibbi is a bit too generalising about Americans in some parts of his essay, but a lot of what he writes unfortunately contains a lót of truth.

The article is definitely worth reading, even just to see how strikingly easy it is to point out that Palin is Hypocrisy in person.

I also like the fact that Taibbi isn't all prejudiced or naive. He acknowledges that everyone in the presidental race is 'created' for quite a big part. The American elections are a big fucking theatre and there's nothing that can change that. But - and that's where I'd like to quote mister Taibbi -

So, sure, Barack Obama might be every bit as much as a slick piece of imageering as Sarah Palin. The difference is in what the image represents. The Obama image represents tolerance, intelligence, education, patience with the notion of compromise and negotiation, and a willingness to stare ugly facts right in the face, all qualities we’re actually going to need in government if we’re going to get out of this huge mess we’re in.Here’s what Sarah Palin represents: being a fat fucking pig who pins “Country First” buttons on his man titties and chants “U-S-A! U-S-A!” at the top of his lungs while his kids live off credit cards and Saudis buy up all the mortgages in Kansas.

Something to think about. Seriously.

Night and day in Jette

After the Futureheads gig, Elke and I headed to her new student room in Jette where our good friend and Elke's brand new roomie Karolien was waiting to treat us on a nice welcome.

Karo and Elke

Elke and I cosying things up

Morning has broken in Jette and I made a little vid of the kitchen and my two darlings. Sorry for the non-Dutch speakers!

Let's skip to the end

Because London got cancelled, Elke and I wanted to make the best of our weekend - this plan included a Futureheads gig at the Botanique in Brussels.

I had seen them before at the Pukkelpop festival last month, so I knew what to expect: tons of energy and great great songs. The band did not disappoint, even though the venue wasn't sold out and the crowd was rather boring. Of course I performed my signature ecstatic dances.

Change of plans

So, my initial London plans are cancelled. At first, it left me in a haze of self-pity, but now I'm very busy doing what I always do to cheer myself up: planning!

Not only have I made plans for the weekend (helping Elke moving to her student room, going to see The Futureheads, having a sleep-over at Elke's room afterwards - consider it an inauguration of her new place), we (Nick, Elke and I - the original team-up for this weekend) have been making new London plans!
1. Our planned trip is moved to February, when we have a free week after our exames. That way we can go six days instead of three, double the fun!
2. Impatient I was born, impatient I will be. Before the previously described trip, I'll go to London on my own in a month or two. I've already found a place to stay (someone I know from Facebook has got a great Georgian house in Westminster), so let's hope things will turn out fine this time.

Apart from that: tomorrow is my last day at my student job, which makes me very sad - and no, I'm not being sarcastic. I love my collegues so much and I will miss them enourmously. Saying goodbye to them was a very hard thing to do last year and I'm rather positive that it won't be any easier this year.
Today they took me out to eat pizza during our lunch break (just like they did last year), which I think is such a nice gesture. I feel so at ease in the company of these people. Tomorrow is going to be so heartbreaking. :(

Fuck.

Due to the fire in the Eurostar tunnel, me and my friends won't make it to London this weekend. Goodbye trip. What a shit end of my summer holidays.

Mamma Mia!

A weak storyline (girl is going to marry, doesn't know her father and invites her - based on her mother's diary - three possible dads to the wedding, leads to happy endings all over the place) and very little professional singing (except for the lovely Amanda Seyfried) didn't keep me from having a great time watching "Mamma Mia!", the cinematic version of the celebrated ABBA musical.
The film is feel good cinema pur sang, Colin Firth is great in his part, and how could I not enjoy a movie full of ABBA songs? You might consider it a guilty pleasure, but I feel no shame. I've been loving their music since I was a little girl and it was hard for me not to start singing along to their many hits during 'Mamma Mia!'.
However, be warned: Pierce Brosnan is possibly the worst singer alive. His version of 'I do, I do, I do, I do, I do' is already legendary, but not exactly for the right reasons.

Some bits from the film,

An Iranian in UK

A couple of days ago I watched The Omid Djalili Show on television. It's a comedy show build up around Omid Djalili, a British actor and stand-up comedian with Iranian roots. Wikipedia taught me he's pretty famous in (and even out of) the UK, but I hadn't heard about him before his show came on Belgian television. I can understand why he's so popular, though. It's been a while since I had to laugh that hard. To share the fun, here are some vids:

Tina Barney

Seldomly seen more interesting ways of portraiting.

Evil woman

Please explain me, because I don't seem to get it. Why on earth do so many Americans support this woman??

No°13!

He did it! (and seems like he's back in great shape, very promising for the next season)

Congrats to Andy as well, though.

Come on, Roger!

Usually I support Andy Murray. In fact, there's only one person against whom I wouldn't support him. Of course, I'm talking about my favourite tennis hero Roger Federer! Tonight these guys are competing each other for the US Open 2008 title, and there's a lot at stake.

Murray can win his first Grand Slam and finally bring some tennis glory to the Brits.

Federer can make up for an average season (let's say, a good or even great season for any other player, but not as much as we are used from Roger) ànd win his 13th slam (which would mean he's coming really close to Pete Sampras' 14 slams record).

Now, don't you think Roger deserves this? Especially considering Andy is still very young and has probably still quite a future ahead of him.

Well, I do. Go Roger!

Would she miss a job that sex- that sexual?

Last week I went to see The Faint in the Botanique in Brussels. They were awesome! I've seldomly seen bands that are as energetic as those five guys from Nebraska, they're really great to watch (especially the singer who is looking like a crossbread between a pilot and a pharmacist the way he is dressed). The setlist was excellent, including all of their best songs from the old albums, but also from the new one called 'Fasciinatiion'.

The Botanique

Cafeneon, the support act (a band from Brussels bringing the shoegaze era back to life, pretty good)

The Faint

a little film of The Faint I made (crappy quality, but ah well)

Bruxelles en bleu

I took some pictures in the city of Brussels on my way to the Botanique (botanic gardens and gig venue in the centre of Brussels, I was going to see The Faint) earlier this week.