Withering where some snowman was

I was supposed to go to the Dirty Pretty Things goodbye gig on Sunday night, but my plans got sabotaged by the snow. Traffic became hell and my mom said I wasn't allowed to go because it would be completely perilous. She might have been right in some way, but still.. It was their Belgian goodbye gig! :( And hearing how amaaazing it was from everyone who did make it to the gig (fortunately I wasn't the only one who failed to do so) doesn't help, exactly.

It's not easy to say this right now, but even all of this can't make me hate snow. In fact, I pretty much love snow.
You should have heard me a couple of hours before it obstructed me on my way to Carl Barât: "Snow! SNOW! It's snowing! Woohoo, Christmas! Woohoo, everything's white!" Yes, I can get a little silly at times.

It's so magical what you can keep inside

Brussels looks so beautiful when it's dark.

Inní Mér Syngur Vitleysingur

(translation: inside me a lunatic sings)

A moment I'd been looking forward to for a long, long time was the Sigur Rós gig in Vorst Nationaal (concert hall in Brussels). It was the fourth time I saw this amazing band perform and once again I was completely impressed.

Some people aren't so much into the new album because it's more accessible than their previous work (not me though - no matter how much I worship the previous albums, I think it's good for a band to do something that's a little different from time to time), but even those songs proved to be able to move people (including me, each time again) to tears when performed live.

The highlights? Fljótavík, Svefn-g-englar, E-Bow (untitled 6), Inní Mér Syngur Vitleysingur (I love the quatre-mains!), All Alright and of course the so very intense Popplagiõ (untitled 8).

It's not fair towards the band to try and describe what I experience during their shows, because no words are able to do it justice. It's like I'm sensing all possible emotions at the same time, extremely intense.. There's not a single band like Sigur Rós and I love them for that.

Here are some beautiful pictures by Pieter Morlion and Jens Baert!

Autumn in my garden

There are no holes in his shoes but a big hole in is his world

Me and my Finnish friend Ann-Sofi decided to go shopping in Antwerp last Saturday. During a couple of hours we tried to find her a navy blue winter coat that exactly fitted her desires, but we unfortunately didn't manage.

When we were walking passed a shoe store we suddenly heard a lot of noise coming from the balcony of the shop. We looked up and saw two Zwarte Pieten yelling at the people on the streets and throwing candy and balloons to them. I told Ann-Sofi before about the Belgian/Dutch Sinterklaas tradition so she was very exited to hear Sinterklaas was arriving on his boat in Antwerp that day (the celebration itself is only on the 6th of December, but the man always 'arrives' a while before).

After taking some pictures with the Zwarte Pieten in the shoe store we went over to the harbour to witness the arrival. Apparantly he had already arrived (his boat was quite small and we hadn't seen it yet, we were even photographing the wrong boat - a huge one that was just passing by - that explains why we were the most exited people around).

When we finally saw him on his carriage, we watched a part of the procession. Ann-Sofi got completely obsessed by Sinterklaas and it didn't take long for me to get completely sucked up by her enthusiasm and happily join in. I can't remember laughing like that for a long, long time.

Ann-Sofi being obviously Sinterklaas' biggest fan

me displaying my pervert nature on this doll

You couldn't have come at a better time

I might have been the youngest person in the audience when I went to see Luka Bloom earlier this week, although I don't know why. I mean, the man doesn't make shiny electro-pop/rock tunes, but he takes the genre of folk so far beyond what we often assume it is.

Luka performed over an hour and a half. You might think that's a bit too much to listen to one single guy with nothing but an (electro)acoustic guitar, but...wrong! His guitar play is amazing enough to fill the entire space without feeling the limits of typical folk music. And of course, he's got loads of great songs to pick from. It became a really lovely night.

During the gig a woman screamed 'that was amazing!'. She and Luka started talking and after a while she asked for the flowers (Luka brings flowers to his gigs and hands them over to someone in the audience at the ending)and yeh, she got them.

After the gig, I met Luka and he told me he was actually planning on giving the flowers to me. :( The woman was standing near us and Luka made her give me 'at least one flower'. :) He was so very nice!

"I can't stand my own voice"

Those are the exact words of John Malkovich according to the Belgian newspaper De Standaard. How is it possible that a man with one of the most special and attractive voices ever doesn't like the way he sounds??

Put out the fire on us

On Sunday I have interviewed Nathan (singer) and Matt (bass player) from the American band Cold War Kids. We had an interesting talk, mostly because their ideas seem to be so different from and so much broader than those of a lot of other bands. Interviewing them was a great experience. I haven't done the full transcription and translation yet, but I'm very curious about how it will turn out.

I had some time left between the interview and the gig, so I made a little walk through Brussels. At the Place de la Monnaie I ran into a really good busker. He played and sang everything, going from Bob Marley to Oasis. At a certain point a British guy took over the microphone and - led by the busker - performed 'Hey Joe'. I've been sitting there for quite some time, until a couple of fucking idiots started to harass me and I was glad to be saved by two lovely girls.

The Cold War Kids gig was great. I'm not such a huge fan of their albums (they're - with the exception of some class songs like 'Hospital Beds - just okay, in my opinion), but it's always amazing to see them on stage. It was the third time to me, but I enjoyed it like it was the first time. Those guys seem to breath music.

the busker (I'll upload a video later, uni is waiting for me now)

Roadburg, the support act

Cold War Kids

I'm so clever, but not very wise

Five Things In My Bag:

- Canon digital camera

- black iPod nano

- Moleskine notebook

- red Rimmel nailpolish

- black wallet


Five Favorite Things In My Room:

- music collection

- Libertines posters

- pictures

- glitter dress

- cuddly animals


Five Things I’m Currently Into:

- post-its

- Snow Patrol (sorry Gerlin, but I'm really into that last album)

- Six Feet Under

- Songbird (the media player)

- black eyeliner and mascara


Five Things I’ve Always Wanted to Do:

- become a cultfigure

- become a music journalist (as a real job, not just like I'm doing now)

- move to London

- celebrate Midsummer night in Bergen, Norway

- be in a band


Five Places I Won't Ever Forget:

- London - anyplace, anytime

- Botanique on a hot summer night

- Fontana di Trevi area in Rome, remembers me of the good times I had there when we travelled to Rome in our last year of high school

- Air Liquide, where I've done my student job the last two summers - might be a strange choice, but I loved being there

- Bellevaux, where my grandparents used to have a chalet - loads of good memories

Most Played (2)

1. Snow Patrol - 'If there's a rocket tie me to it' The new album is absolutely amazing and this one's one of my favourite songs on it.



2. Cajun Dance Party - 'Colourful Life'


3. Port O'Brien - 'Close The Lid'


4. Bombay Bicycle Club - 'Evening/Morning'


5. Cold War Kids - 'Something Is Not Right With Me'

Toast marshmellows on a cold dark night

Forgive me if I'm not updating every day, but I seem to get at least one assignment for each course I take at university.

Yesterday me and a friend went all the way to Antwerp to look through the archives of old woman's magazines for advertisements with children in it.

Change has come to America

If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.

It's the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen, by people who waited three hours and four hours, many for the first time in their lives, because they believed that this time must be different, that their voices could be that difference.

It's the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled. Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been just a collection of individuals or a collection of red states and blue states.

We are, and always will be, the United States of America.

It's the answer that led those who've been told for so long by so many to be cynical and fearful and doubtful about what we can achieve to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day.

It's been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this date in this election at this defining moment change has come to America.

- Barack Obama