The more I see, the less I scream

Wooh, I've got the job! :)

Here are some pictures of Lille (France). My parents took me and my sis there during easter holidays and we had a very nice day trip.

haha, I go to France and I buy a British souvenir :)

Under a sheet of rain in my heart

I had a student job application interview today at the Brussels airport in order to work there as a saleswoman in one of the so-called 'Sky Shops'. I'm really hoping to get in there for this summer since it's a necessary job if you'd also like to work there during the year - which is what I'd love to do during my last year at uni, since I'll have almost no courses and because I need the money.

I was bloody nervous but I think the interview went pretty well. My mouth was sooo dry from all the nerves, but I did pretty good on answering the questions in French and English. Plus, I added some German and Italian to impress. ;) They also seemed to like the fact that I write for two music magazines since they kept on asking questions about that ("Which famous people did you meet so far?", "Can you go backstage at concerts?" and so on), haha. I didn't look like the typical airport saleswoman though. Almost all of the other candidates - except for one other girl and quite obviously the boys - had gigantic boobs. Hm, I hope cup size is not part of the criteria or I'm totally screwed. I'll know if I get the job or not in 7 days tops. Fingers crossed!

Oldie of the Week (5) - Echo & The Bunnymen, "The Killing Moon"

For this week's Oldie, we go back to 1984. In this year, British post-punk band Echo & The Bunnymen released its critically acclaimed album 'Ocean Rain'. A lot of people's favourite on this classic album is 'The Killing Moon', an atmospheric song with vocals (Ian McCulloch!) and a bass line (Les Pattinson!) that I simply adore. The song can also be heard in the movie 'Donnie Darko', a film with an overall great soundtrack (Joy Division! Tears For Fears!).



Under blue moon I saw you
So soon you'll take me
Up in your arms
Too late to beg you or cancel it
Though I know it must be the killing time
Unwillingly mine
Fate
Up against your will
Through the thick and thin
He will wait until
You give yourself to him

In starlit nights I saw you
So cruelly you kissed me
Your lips a magic world
Your sky all hung with jewels
The killing moon
Will come too soon
Fate
Up against your will
Through the thick and thin
He will wait until
You give yourself to him

Under blue moon I saw you
So soon you'll take me
Up in your arms
Too late to beg you or cancel it
Though I know it must be the killing time
Unwillingly mine
Fate
Up against your will
Through the thick and thin
He will wait until
You give yourself to him
FateUp against your will
Through the thick and thin
He will wait until
You give yourself to him
You give yourself to him
La la la la la...

Fate
Up against your will
Through the thick and thin
He will wait until
You give yourself to him
La la la la la...
etc

When the suns sets on dark silhouettes

What a terrible day. Bus strikes are terrorising Flanders...again. Today I had to hand in my bachelor paper so I was really scared that I might not even make it to uni in time. Fortunately that didn't happen. It took me 3 hrs (train-wait-bus&traffic jam-35min walk) to get back home though. What is it about those selfish bus drivers that they always have to take out their frustrations on people who can't help them with their problems??

Tonight will be better, I hope. I hope. It's the third Les Nuits Botanique (10 day indoor festival in Brussels) tonight and great bands like Metric, Art Brut, Baddies... are playing. Plus, heaps of my friends are coming so that should be nice. Although one person's coming that I'd rather not see. Ah well. Can't get worse than bus strikes, I guess.

Here are the pictures from last week's Hindu Nights. It was so wonderful. This Hindu Nights edition was dedicated to Pieter, who died a month and half ago. Pieter was there as well, only in a cardboard version. He would have loved it though. There was so much love and good music around you could survive on it. Dj-sets by Paul Gallagher, Peter, Michaël & Vincent, Freaky Age, Chix Can't Mix. Gigs by Arquettes and the gorgeous gorgeous Kristian Marr.

Filip (my Indiestyle collegue) and I.

Cava!

Peter's brother Adrian with Pieter the cardboard edition.

Pieter and Peter, best friends forever.

Eline and her cousin Michaël, and no idea what he is up to in this picture.

Louise.

Pieter and I.

Filip and I were launching are new carreer as light technicians. We didn't know the use of any of the buttons, but I think we did rather well. :p

Moi.

Filip's cava friend.

Tessa (before she got drunk) and I. It was yet to become quite a night for her.

Me and Paul Gallagher (Liam and Noel's brother). His dj-sets were ACE. (picture by Filip)

Jonas (Freaky Age) and I in quite a funny picture. (picture by Mss Loaded)

Me and Eline dancing behind the dj booth. (picture by Mss Loaded)

RIP Pieter, love u.

It's finished!

...My bachelor paper, that is. The only thing left do is print it all out and hand it in one of these days. Such a relief after months and months of working on it, especially those last few weeks.

Anyway, my head feels like exploding right now so I'm not in the mood for blogging tonight. But I'll be back soon with loads of pictures from last weekend, which was truly great!

Love,
Laura

See you on sunday!

No blogging tonight or tomorrow. In an hour I'm off to Ghent for a new edition of Hindu Nights at Make Up. Kristian Marr and Arquettes are doing a gig; Paul Gallagher, Peter, Michael & Vincent, Sam and many more are dj'ing. I can barely wait - it's going to be brilliant.

I'm staying over at Tessa's in Ghent and tomorrow I'm taking the train (edit: just got a message on Facebook that I can drive along with two of my Digg* collegues who live in Ghent and are going to the festival as well) directely to Hasselt where I'm going to the Polsslag festival. I'm doing reviews for Digg* but I'd go to the festival either way. The line-up is excellent. Just to name a few acts: Peter Doherty, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Red Light Company and The Rakes!

I'm very excited, especially since I've been working on my paper all week (it's almost finished now, only 500 words to go, will fix that when I get back home on Sunday) and I'm desperate for a party.

See you on Sunday! xx

And under our blue skies, marble movie skies

Brit Gal' in the USA got tagged and filled in a survey. She didn't tag other people herself, but asked anyone who enjoys this kind of thing to join in. So here I go.

What are your current obsessions?
- my bachelor paper on last year's American presidential debates // deadline is next week and I'm working on it all the time
- ice cream // more of an all-time rather than current obsession, but ah well
- the new Röyksopp album // it's awesome

Which item from your wardrobe do you wear most often?
My black skinny jeans, couldn't live without. My (fake) leather jacket as a close second.

What's for dinner?
Depends on my mom's plans. :) I'm secretely hoping for tortellini.

Last thing you bought?
New headphones and a new top from Mango. Oh, and a leather jacket from Sanna (Vagabond Set) who is selling all of her clothing.

What are you listening to?
(I'm so busted..) The latest Pet Shop Boys album. And I love it.

If you could be anyone who would you be and why?
John Malkovich, just to have that voice!

Favourite holiday spots?
London, Rome, Lisbon.

Reading right now?
I'm too busy for actual reading at the moment, but I've spent quite a lot of time with 'The Travel Book' lately.

4 words to describe yourself.
Friendly, forgiving, competitive, energetic.

Guilty pleasure?
As mentioned above, Pet Shop Boys. :) And loads of tv-shows I should probably not be wasting my time on.

Who or what makes you laugh until you’re weak?
Monty Python, situation humour, Andre from America's Most Smartest Model ("I'm feeling Soviet!").

First spring thing?
Cocktails and summer dresses.

Best thing you ate or drank lately?
The tarte tatin I ate last weekend in restaurant Hof ten As. Yum!

Favourite ever film?
'Requiem for a dream'.

Care to share some wisdom?
To quote The Libertines: 'if you've lost your faith in love and music, oh the end won't be long'.

What may surprise us about you?
My best friend is for some reason I don't know not talking to me and whereas I'm pretending to don't mind at all, it's killing me.

I'm not going to tag anyone either, so if you feel like filling in this little form, feel free to do so!

Oldie of the week (4) - The Supremes, 'You Can't Hurry Love'

It's been a while (shame on me), but here's another oldie of the week!

As I have mentioned before, I'm really into Motown lately. Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, The Temptations... are all great examples of great acts that resided under the Motown Records label that was immensely popular in the sixties.

But the song I've picked this week is one of the greatest hits by Diana Ross & The Supremes. The song is called 'You Can't Hurry Love' and is written and produced by Motown's signature production team Holland-Dozier-Holland. In 1966 it was a chart success for The Supremes, later on it would also become a hit single for Phil Collins in the early eighties.

Don't have to be a big bucks Hollywood star

Last week = summer in Belgium. ( = crazy amounts of ice cream and cocktails)



I wish it came back.

Lego Beatles

How long must I wait, how much more can I take

I've been up to a couple of 'reunion' meetings this week.

Today me and my friend Ann-Sofi met each other for the first time in four months. I got to know her back in September last year through a website called Interpals. It's a website where one can find e-mail or snail mail friends from all over the world, and where in fact I have already got to know a lot of interesting people.

Ann-Sofi, who is a Swedish-speaking girl from Finland (apparantly, certain parts of Finland speak Swedish), moved to Belgium last year to work here as an au-pair. Because the people she got to know here were almost exclusively Scandinavian (mostly other au-pairs), she decided to look for a Belgian friend. And then she found me on Interpals.

The first thing we did together, was - oh, surprise - go to a party at Make Up Club. I immediately liked her and I like to think she likes me too. So, from that point, we started meeting up more often. Drinks or lunch during the week, a NATO-party at her Norwegian friends' place, Sinterklaas (for the non-Belgians: a Belgian kind of Santa Claus) in Antwerp, Lucia (a Scandinavian celebration) in the Swedish church, pancakes at the Christmas market, loads of Australian ice cream (we're both ice cream addicts), and so on. After new year we were both quite busy, so we unfortunately didn't get to see each other anymore. In less than two weeks she's leaving, so we decided we hàd to meet up again.

Today I went to the ULB area in Brussels (where she lives). We went to a parc nearby, chatted lots and lots, and had eh, loads of ice cream (as in: six scoops each, oops!). I'm so glad I've got to know her, and I'm sooo going to miss her!

(and now back to listening to Diana Ross and the Supremes, I'm very much into the Motown sound lately!)

The beauty of speed

Fooling around with my camera on my way to the north station in Brussels.

Most played (10)

1. Manic Street Preachers - Jackie Collins Existential Question Time


2. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Skeletons


3. Röyksopp - Happy Up Here


4. Metric - Gimme Sympathy


5. The Veils - The Letter

You'll never live like common people

Easter vacations are always party time! Previous week I've been to the Make Up Club on Thursday and Saturday. On Thursday a whole bunch of my friends were dj'ing, Sis & his mates and Peter & Michaël. All great guys with a taste in music that's almost as fantastic as they are themselves. Thursday parties unfortunately never last as long as the weekend parties, so Tessa, Michaël, some people we didn't even know and I went into town to have some more drinks afterwards.

Michaël dj'ing

Tessa
Eline Michaël Me & Michaël
no idea who this is
Tessa & ISaturday's party was "I Bet That You Look Good On The Dancefloor Part II", promoted by the lovely Neon Enlightenment girls (make sure check out their blog, it's ace). It wasn't the best Make Up party I've been to so far, due to the dj's who managed to fuck up song after song by adding unnecessary scratches, bleeps and whatmore (I mean, they even ruined Pulp's 'Common People' - to me, that's a severe kind of blasphemy). Despite all of that, it became a great night after all. 1) There was a very good gig by the lovely FrYars, who I interviewed about a year ago when he was supporting Vampire Weekend in Brussels, and who makes really great music. 2) The ending of the party was really eh, explosive. At some point there was this guy who was dancing like a gay penguin, which for some reason led ús back to the dancefloor as well. At the same time, the dj's decided to suddenly play much better music. So we danced the night away once again.

Phara at the beginning of the night, waiting to hand out the self-made Neon Enlightenment badges to the party people.
FrYars
Gerlin

Gerlin & Phara