It's (not) getting boring by the sea

More Botanique fun last week, when I went to see Blood Red Shoes.

I was supposed to do an interview with the band, but Laura-Mary (singer, guitarist) lost her passport the day before which caused some troubles. She only turned up around 9.30pm, so I could forget about my interview. (instead, I went to Elke and Karolien, who were going to the gig as well. Elke had her parents' car that week, so I could stay with her after the gig, she said)

Fortunately, Blood Red Shoes made up for it with a really good gig. It was all about good music, moshpits and yeh, even dancing on stage. Gerlin and Phara (from Neon Enlightenment) got the permission from Steven (singer, drummer) to climb on stage during It's Getting Boring By The Sea. They were sweet enough to help me on stage as well, and by the end of the song we were joined by heaps of people. It was hypnotizing. And it was all filmed and posted on YouTube - I'm the girl in the front who is hugging the girl in the red dress (that's Gerlin).

After buying half the merchandising away (Karolien got her some buttons, Elke picked out a beautiful poster and I went for the LP) and letting the band sign every single piece of it, we went back to the car (which we had left in a garage). That was our intention, at least.

Although Elke had carefully ensured we picked a parking that stayed open long enough, we didn't seem to be able to get in anymore. We even tried another entrance than the one we had used to get out, but same story there.

Midnight subways in Brussels aren't much of a great idea for three girls all by themselves, we all agreed on that one. I suggested taking a bus and we were glad to find out there was a night bus 30 minutes later. It was freezing, so we decided to have a drink in the meantime. Unfortunately, every bar in the neighbourhood seemed to be closed. Alternatively, we spent half an hour sitting on the floor of a KBC bank office. When we got back to the bus stop we found out there were only night busses during the weekend, so we had been waiting for nothing.

And so we decided to stop being greedy and just took a taxi. Ah well. The next morning we found out there was a third entrance to the parking. Sigh.

Gerlin and Hermine, flyering like they've never done anything else.

The Excerts, the not-so-very-good support act (the guys seemed nice enough, though). In the first picture of them, they're joined on drums by Steven from Blood Red Shoes.

Blood Red Shoes!

Karolien and a new boyfriend :)

Laura-Mary (BRS), Elke, Karolien, me, Steven (BRS)

our famous 30 minutes in the KBC bank, from moderate contenment to complete dispair

People...

You know what to do!

There's a starman waiting in the sky

There's not that much to do in Belgium on All Saints Day, so I spent the 1st of November in Breda (the Netherlands) to hang around and do some shopping.

I loved this café called 'Parc', it was just perfect.

Happy Halloween!

I kind of liked this video I found on YouTube:

Beautiful women are invisible

Yesterday evening I went to the cinema to watch 'Elegy', the best film I've seen for quite a while.

'Elegy' is an intense drama by Isabel Coixet based on a Philip Roth novel.
The film is about an older professor/critic (Ben Kingsley) who never committed himself to a decent relationship after a marriage in his younger years left him completely desillusioned. All he is really looking for is sex, until he gets to know the Cuban beauty Consuela (Penelope Cruz), one of his students, right after graduation.
What he feels for her is more than just sexual attraction, but still he doesn't seem to be able to get involved in the relationship like people traditionally do, partly because he finds it hard to believe he can have a future with such a young, gorgeous girl.
But I'll stop here, since I don't believe in spoilers.

I just wanted to say I really enjoyed this film. It was very beautiful, painful, emotional, intelligent and intense at the same time.
I loved all the performances. Kingsley was great as ever, but also lots of kudos to Dennis Hopper (who plays Kinglsey's best mate), Penelope Cruz (what's not to love about her, she's stunning but - as this movie proves - also a good actress) and Peter Sarsgaard (absolutely one of my favourite actors, he plays Kingsley's son).

I read in a review that 'Elegy' isn't destined to anyone under the age of 40, but I do not completely agree with that. I can see why it could be a more relevant movie for those people, but there were many ways in which I could relate to the characters as well.

However, definitely a must-see!

You're not nineteen forever

Today my friend Liesbeth is turning 20 and she's one of the last of our high school 'gang' to do so. The very last one will be me, on the 21st of December. I've got some pretty ambiguous feelings on the subject.
In some way I've been looking forward to this for a long time. I honestly can barely wait until I'm 21, finish university and I can finally really start to try and do what I really want to do with my life.
Then again, the idea of turning 20 creeps me out. I like being young. I like having such endless amounts of energy. I like being critical but at the same time still free from too much cynicism.
It's not that turning 20 will suddenly transform me into a tired, worn person full of bitterness, but it is a step away from youth, a certain chapter that you leave behind.
I guess this is just another reason to live every part of my life to the fullest.

Recently watched

Louder louder, and we'll run for our lives

I visited my friends in Leuven on Tuesday.

After having dinner at an extremely cheap but good Italian restaurant and finally meeting Liesbeth's boyfriend Wouter, she and I took off to a 24-hours estafette that was going on between the different faculties of the KUL (Leuven Uni). We weren't too active ourselves, but I like to believe we were good supporters.

Afterwards, we - Liesbeth and I, joined by Sam - went back to Liesbeth's room where the three of us spent hours (well, Liesbeth fell asleep after a while, so that makes it the two uf us, I guess) chatting underneath the covers of her bed.

Wouter and Liesbeth

Stef

Liesbeth and I won ugly blue sunglasses that made me look like Liam Gallagher

Sam

Vodka cran in your hand and whose little girl are you now?

I downloaded the free Webcammax trial onto my computer, so all I'll be doing for a while is playing around with this new toy of mine.