Go Green!

So, I got a new mug today. As the people at work seem to find it rather hard to remember which mug they do not have to add milk to the tea, I figured it would be a nice idea to get a mug which stands out so they know which one is mine. I think this one lives up to that.

However, the best thing about this mug at the moment is that I brought it to the Los Campesinos! gig at Rough Trade. Afterwards, Gareth, the singer, hung around a bit to sign things (mostly albums as you had to buy that to get into the 'free' gig), and as he's also a vegetarian (well, vegan actually), I thought it would be quite funny to let him sign it. Which he did as you can see in the following picture. He seemed rather amused at the whole idea of signing the mug.

Though, as a guy, he couldn't just leave it at that. I've only been in England for 3 months now, but so far I've got the feeling that English guys like to tease girls a bit. Gareth lived up to this expectation by also signing my name onto the mug. Or make that into. Seriously! Now how am I going to use this mug to drink? And maybe even more important: how am I going to explain at work that I've got a mug saying "Fuck a Vegetarian" signed by a guy?

And for those of you who don't even have a clue who Gareth Campesinos! is (shame on you! Go listen to 'You! Me! Dancing' right now!):

Or as Ilse recently described him: "[Gareth] is as fluffy as a panda bear." Sorry, Ilsea (XD) I have to disagree: Gareth is far more fluffier.

And gig reviews:

These New Puritans and unknown support @ Bush Hall: Yes, unknown support. There was no support act listed on any website, though someone did show up. He was absolutely horrible and did not know when to stop (his manager/girlfriend/other apparently somehow important person kept signalling he had to stop, but it took him another give or take 15 minutes to actually reach the end of his set after this subtle warning, much to the annoyance of the entire audience). Fortunately, TNPS (they came up with the 'S' themselves, I guess they don't want to be confused with The New Pornographers) were much better. They'd brought an entire brass section along to accompany them on the songs of their new album 'Hidden', which sounded absolutely marvellous. However, when they played songs of their previous album, they sounded rather blah and flat. So I'm still rather undecided about their life performance, as they seemed to flutter between utter brilliance and bland pop music.

Los Campesinos! @ Rough Trade: I love Los Campesinos!, so I might be just a bit too prejudiced to write another review on them. The instore today was to promote their new, second album Romance is Boring, which is officially released tomorrow, but already for sale at Rough Trade today. I'm not as in love with it yet as I was with the first album Hold on now, youngster... or the record We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed (yes, there is a difference between an album and a record, apparently), but still, it's got its moments. One of those being the simply brilliant song 'The Sea is a Good Place to Think of the Future', which I rated a 10/10 song on Crazy Zany Radio Sunday at some point. But there also songs with brilliant lines as

I think we need more post-coital and less post-rock / feels like the build-up takes forever but you never touch my cock

Yes, very subtle indeed. Unfortunately, the audience didn't really like singing along to these lines. Ah, better luck next time (25 Feb! Yay!)

Set list (as I was acting like a 14-year old fan girl anyway, I also snatched a set list from Tom Campesinos!):
I Just Sighed. I Just Sighed, Just So You Know
A Heat Rash In The Shape Of The Shape Of The Show Me State; or, Letters From Me To Charlotte
There Are Listed Buildings
I Warned You: Do Not Make An Enemy Of Me
Romance Is Boring
Who Fell Asleep In
Plan A
Straight In At 101
This Is A Flag. There Is No Wind.
The Sea Is A Good Place To Think Of The Future

Andy Murray: Briton or Scot?

OR:

After winning the semi-final (and 'winning' from Rafael Nadal according to the BBC-website): Briton.
After loosing the final: still a Briton. Not even one mention of the fact that he's Scottish in the entire BBC coverage. Colour me impressed.

Chaos Theory

Well, I at least think I'm referring to chaos theory here, please correct me if I'm wrong. What I'm trying to refer to is that once something goes wrong, everything goes wrong.
You might remember me writing something about our lovely (<- being very sarcastic there) flatmate Natasha leaving our flat and an English girl moving in. Well, that didn't happen. English girl didn't really like the mouldy bits of our apartment so she said no. Totally normal and not quite unexpected coming from her. For Natasha however, this was very unexpected, especially since she was already planning on moving out, and it had taken her over a week to find someone willing to take her room.

So she set out to find someone else, and a week later Maya, another American girl, came over to meet me and my other two flatmates. Maya seemed a lot more okay than the English girl and she wanted to move in. Everything was working out. Until... Money. Yes, that's always a difficult part. Now you might think that I'm referring to Maya here, but I'm not. I'm referring to Natasha. What I didn't mention last time was that Natasha is moving out because she cannot afford the rent. She's known this since she's moved in, back in November, but she was sorta counting on a grant from the American government. But frankly, they don't give out grants to people who've got over $2000 worth of outstanding parking/speeding tickets and who've waited so long with paying them that they have to appear before the Supreme Court and risk getting arrested when getting on a plane. When she told us this, we thought she was being very naive, she thinks it's just The American Way. Well now, she refrained from telling us this until she completely ran out of money two days after we had to pay the rent. Nice, very nice. But she sorted it out with the agency we're renting the flat from: she could pay next month when she would get her student loans.

So, that seemed okay. Everything was sorted out and Maya was going to move in, so Natasha would get her deposit back and could pay the deposit for her new, cheaper room. That would have been okay, if it had happened. Because we have an ongoing mould problem, I called the agency to ask them when they were finally coming by, and I got a surprising answer: as long as we don't pay the full rent, they we're not coming over to fix it. They didn't know anything about Natasha's situation, or her 'sorting the rent out with them'. Nice. And it get's even nicer: Natasha's also responsible for the gas bill, so we thought we'd check that out as well. Just guess what we found.

No really, just take you're time and guess (though I don't think it's that hard).

Of course the gas bill (£140, about twice the amount we were expecting, but then again, Natasha was the one who thought 60 degrees (I'm being absolutely serious here) was a normal temperature for an apartment, especially at night and when nobody's home) was not paid. It wasn't in anyone's name either. Natasha also did not sign the lease, so she's now in no way connected to our flat apart from the fact that she's living here without paying. She now owes us £555, and counting (£18 a day, we've calculated), and has shown no intention of paying this. And because of this rather tricky financial situation, Maya decided not to move in. Even better.

So of course, Natasha broke down. She's been trying to find someone to take her apartment for three weeks and hasn't been able to find anyone. She's also very angry at all of us, because we have decided that when someone does move in, we're getting the £540 deposit, and not her. As she was so busy with panicking and being angry, we kind of decided to take matters into our own hands and find a new flatmate.

So, I posted an add on Gumtree and got 15 reactions within 2 hours of whom 10 people already came over, and 1 guy has just called to say he will take the flat. And though he seemed really nice, we've got two other people (a girl and another guy) who we liked better and we're still waiting to hear back from them. So, within half a day we've been able to find someone who wants to move in right away and who we actually all like.

Lessons learned: 1) don't trust someone you don't trust to take care of important matters (seems kinda obvious put that way, but apparently it wasn't). 2) I start to many sentences with the word 'so'. Very annoying.

A week of waiting

Yes, that's what I've been doing mostly this week: waiting. A most pleasant way to spend your time. I've done all this waiting in various places and in different forms: waiting for buses that never show up (or at least make me wait for over five minutes, which is of course totally ridiculous); waiting for the tube on a platform that is getting ever more crowded up to the point where people have to queue to actually get on it or get in line to get into the tube station itself; waiting outside a record store to get into a free gig without having the required wristband while people at the end of the queue get in before you because they laugh at the 'jokes' of the security guy; waiting at a gig while discovering the most awful support band ever (or at least a new contender as the competition appears to be very harsh); waiting at another gig because you'd think that 2 hours after door time some band ought to be doing some kind of performance, possibly including making music; and lastly, waiting at the self check-out at Sainbury's where I've of course chosen the line full of people who don't get the basics of shopping or how to put their groceries in a bag (it seriously took me one hour (60 whole minutes or 3600 seconds!) to buy 2 pints of milk).

But some good things also happened this week: one of those things being me making my radio debut. Well, it wasn't actually me on air, mostly as I'm afraid I would get a spontaneous speech impediment by just being in the proximity of a microphone, but some of my writing got quoted on air. Yes, after subtly starting my take-over of the blogosphere, I'm now also making my way into radio. I guess TV's next up (Stephen Fry beware). Oh, I just love that absolutely no one is going to get what I'm going on about here :). Well, maybe just two people. And as that is a fair estimation of the amount of persons who are gonna read this I guess I'm alright.

And as always, I've left the best for last: Wie is de Mol? It seems I've got an ally in thinking that Frits Sissing is the mol. And yes, I'm just gonna carry on with my English, even on this topic, which is kind of making it completely pointless as this makes it absolutely indecipherable. I've actually got a good reason for using even more English than normal, as next Saturday I will be taking an IELTS exam. Basically, I'm retaking my secondary school English exams for £110, just to prove I can read, write and speak English. The best part of this all is that it's gonna take from 9am to 6pm. Marvelous. A whole Saturday lost on a test that's going to take me probably half an hour. That's what you get with last names starting with a 'W', you always come last. If only they started with the speaking part, than I could at least sleep in. But to get to my point: Frits Sissing is so the mol and Manuel is out so the only other contender (out of my 4 entries! yay!) is Erik van der Hoff and he'll go next episode! Ha! (Just let me have my moment here)

I've also kind of decided to do a short (very short) write up of the bands I've seen every week, so here it goes:

These New Puritans (Rough Trade instore): I'm quite impressed with their new album Hidden. It sounds dark, layered and a bit too complex to make it work live. However, they did do just that. The set was a bit short, under half an hour, but I guess that's what you get with a free instore. Though it was enough to convince me to buy a ticket to see them tomorrow.

Memory Tapes / Fitness Club Fiasco (The Luminaire): Epic. Absolutely and utterly epic. Memory Tapes that is, Fitness Club Fiasco were an epic fail. Full review below.

Chew Lips / Fenech-Soler (Koko): Both bands were really good. I'd never heard a song by Fenech-Soler before, but they were absolutely brilliant live. I can imagine that they wouldn't make much of an impression whilst just listening to one of their songs though: they are really a live band. A sort of mix between the energy and glitter-shirts of Late of the Pier and LCD Soundsystem's disco. Chew Lips were a bit underwhelming after this, but still really good. I like their album Unicorn which is coming out tomorrow, 'Seven' and 'Karen' (that must a tribute to Karen O, sure? With the whole copying of YYYs songs? I haven't really listened to the lyrics though) being my favourite singles. I've heard some bad things about their performance at London Calling last year, but they've certainly improved since then.

As the word ‘epic’ is going to be banned from indie music pretty soon, can I use it here one more time, please? Or: Memory Tapes @ the Luminaire

Nou ja, één keer, als we dat woord dan toch gaan verbannen, then I’d better wear it out all the same, no? Op IKRS heeft Memory Tapes al de nodige buzz gekregen: het album Seek Magic eindigde in de eindejaarslijstjes van alle IKRS contributors die aan eindejaarslijstjes doen (alle twee!) en Dayve Hawk, het brein achter het hele idee van Memory Tapes werd zelfs geinterviewd. Wat wilt u nog meer zou je je dan bijna gaan afvragen? Nou, een live optreden van de beste man! En dat kwam er, in London wel te verstaan. En gelukkig voor u heeft IKRS inmiddels een hele London divisie vergaard zodat u er ook een beetje bij kunt zijn. Wat hebben we toch veel voor u, onze trouwe lezer, over!

Hoewel Dayve Hawk voor deze concertreeks nog nooit als Memory Tapes zijnde op een podium heeft gestaan, en er dus nog niet bepaald sprake is van een live-reputatie van de beste man, heeft het vorig jaar uitgekomen album Seek Magic er wel voor gezorgd dat the Luminaire al weken van tevoren uitverkocht is. En in een kleine zaal als the Luminaire gebeurt dat niet bijster vaak. Waarschijnlijk ook dankzij alle hype rondom dat debuutalbum krijgt het voorprogramma wat meer allure. Geen Brits bandje dat om de hoek woont, nee, de band wordt net als Memory Tapes van de ander kant van de oceaan ingevlogen. Het Canadese viertal Fitness Club Fiasco brengt… Beheersing van hun instrumenten is tenminste… You know what? Let’s just not mention them. I think that will do their music more justice than anything I could possibly write. (Of misschien toch een korte quote uit het midden van de set: “Singer/Jimmy: Sorry that was horrible. It’s Mark’s fault.” Drummer/Mark: “No, it’s Jimmy’s fault.” Singer/Jimmy: “No, it’s Marks fault.” Audience: “...”. )

Right, gelukkig heeft iedereen in het publiek een goede reden om te blijven staan. Of hoopt dat althans. Want behalve dat Memory Tapes an sich nog niet vaak voor een niet-fictief, kritisch publiek heeft gestaan (niet te spreken over de de-enthousiasmering verzorgd door het voorprogramma), heeft Dayve Hawk ook nog eens de neiging erg zenuwachtig te worden voor een optreden. Niet dat we daar veel van merken. Bijna onopvallend komt de man het podium op om in alle rust zijn Mac en de vele, vele kabels op te starten en aan te sluiten. Dayve lijkt zich bijna niet bewust van het feit dat er een volle zaal slechts enkele meters van hem verwijderd is en alle ogen op dat moment al op hem gericht zijn. But then again, in zijn muziek creëert hij een eigen wereld, dus misschien heeft hij die op het podium ook nodig om daar te kunnen functioneren.

Hij staat er live in ieder geval niet alleen voor. Nou ja, letterlijk gezien staat hij wel als enige, gezien zijn live begeleiding uit slechts een drummer bestaat, hoewel ‘slechts een drummer’ nauwelijks recht doet aan de alsnog naamloze man. De set begint met een druk op een knop op de laptop, waarop slechts één file blijkt te staan waardoor de set eigenlijk uit slechts één lang nummer bestaat. Praktisch alle muziek komt dus rechtstreeks van een harde schijf af, bijgestaan door drums en Dayve Hawk’s stem en gitaarspel. Wanneer ik u dan ook nog vertel dat wat stage performance betreft het moment dat Mr Drummer zijn sweater uittrekt verreweg het hoogtepunt is (en wat een hoogtepunt!), zou u bijna gaan denken dat dit een saai optreden zou zijn. Niets is minder waar (oké, als iemand zou beweren dat het voorprogramma daadwerkelijk ‘muziek’ maakt zou dat minder waar zijn, touché): ondanks het feit dat je net zo goed een zoutzak in een flanellen shirt (flanel is essentieel in deze) op het podium zou kunnen zetten, weet Dayve Hawk muzikaal gezien precies waar hij mee bezig is.

Meneer Hawk kent overduidelijk de limitaties van het gebruik van zijn laptop. Op plaat kan je daar makkelijk omheen werken, live gaat dat vaak moeilijker. Memory Tapes gaat daar echter verrassend goed mee om door live de nummers op een podium op een andere manier over te brengen dan op het album. De nadruk ligt opeens een stuk sterker op de ritmesectie, die live ook heel sterk is. Het is te hopen dat Mr Drummer binnenkort niet in een liftschaft verdwijnt (too soon, right? Yeah, too soon). Ook het gitaarwerk van Dayve Hawk zelf komt veel meer naar voren. Waar ik persoonlijk zijn werk eerst nog bewonderde om de simplicity van de guitar riffs, moet ik nu te kennen geven dat Mr Hawk een begenadigd gitarist is. Tenminste iets om live naar te kijken, mocht u daar geïnteresseerd in zijn.

Met op het moment nog slechts één album op de plank lijkt er al veel te vroeg een einde aan de set te komen. Al na een half uur worden de eerste noten van ‘Bicycle’ ingezet. Tenminste, het zijn de lyrics van ‘Bicycle’, begeleidt door een intro die ook bij een Duitse crimi uit de jaren ’80 zou kunnen komen. Door slim wat te goochelen met toonladders klinkt het nummer opeens als een totaal ander nummer. En het goochelen met muzikale trucjes gaat verder door het hele nummer heen. Wel heb ik ooit, het is een ware remix versie van het nummer! En wat voor een versie! Epic! (I warned you I was going to use that word). Mocht u vaker op deze blog komen dan heeft u wellicht gelezen dat ‘Bicycle’ mijn favoriete nummer van dit album is en dan vooral dat laatste deel met het koor op de achtergrond. Well, was I in for a threat! In de live versie van dit nummer wordt dat deel namelijk een stukje verlengd. En met een stukje bedoel ik zo’n tien minuten, en dat is dan alleen nog de tijd waarbij Memory Tapes nog daadwerkelijk op het podium staat. Wanneer Dayve Hawk en Mr Drummer het podium namelijk verlaten hebben, gaat de laptop nog minstens zo’n vijf minuten door, wat tot de surrealistische situatie leidt dat een zaal vollop staat te dansen op muziek die uit de laptop komt die inmiddels eenzaam op het podium staat. Wat ik al zei: epic.

Hoewel dit pas het derde optreden is van Dayve Hawk onder de noemer Memory Tapes, heeft hij het live brengen van zijn muziek dus al aardig onder de knie. Mede dankzij een geweldige drummer komen de nummers live nog bijna beter uit dan op het album, waar het al op behoorlijk wat positieve reacties kon rekenen. Enig zwak punt, als er al iets genoemd zou moeten worden, is misschien toch de laptop. Een baslijn die live gespeeld wordt zou hier en daar de nummers toch wat meer nadruk geven en net iets dansbaarder. En voor de volgende keer in maart wil ik graag een echt koor bij ‘Bicycle’, ik vermoed dat dat de enige manier voor mij zou zijn om het woord ‘epic’ nog een keer te mogen gebruiken.

Yeah, I'll do a proper update again next week

Seeing as this was a rather slow week. The only thing that might be worth mentioning is that we're getting a new flatmate, as Natasha (also known as the loud American who keeps putting the heater on at at least 60 degrees and eating everyone's food but her own, or simply Nati) is moving out.
The new girl is upper class English, as in, she's got a stick up her ass so high, it would even impress the entire Royal Family. Who she's probably met. Several times. At dinner parties where everyone drinks tea with their pinky up while discussing fox hunting (that's as far as my envisionment of the Royal Family extents). We're not quite sure what she's doing her, but her mother (yes, you read that correctly) is slightly pushing her onto us. Maybe to get a picture of how people live IRL. If you still don't get the picture: she might have been on 'My Super Sweet Sixteen' a couple of years ago (we're expecting MTV to come over and install cameras to record the sequel any minute now). As all these people do, she goes to this fancy university, called UCL. Argh, who'd even want to go there?

And Robert Downey Jr winning the Golden Globe for best Actor, seriously? For his role in Sherlock Holmes(/the newest London-will-be-hosting-the-2012-Olympics promotional movie)? Seriously?

Anyway, some pictures I took this week to liven this bit up a bit:

Main UCL Building

Cruciform Builing (it's actually across the road from the other picture, literally took just 2 steps to take this picture) and UCL Hospital. I liked the juxtaposition between the old and the new building.
I don't actually go to these buildings, my building's just a regular office. But this looks slightly impressive, especially when you consider it's smack in the middle of Central London.

Click here if you'd like to see some pictures by someone who actually knows what she's doing.

Some promising acts for twenty ten

‘Fear of Drowning’ van Mirrors! De komende dagen in de Clip van de Dag artiesten van wie we in 2010 of een goed album verwachten, of waar we in ieder geval naar benieuwd zijn. Een album staat er voorlopig nog niet op het programma voor Mirrors, of zelfs een EP, maar het is in ieder geval wel iets om naar te uit kijken dit jaar gezien de toch wel veel belovende singles die het viertal uit Brighton inmiddels al heeft uitgebracht. ‘Fear of Drowning’ is er daar één van, en mocht de clip u misschien al een beetje aan Duits precisiewerk laten denken, dan moet u ze zeker eens live gaan zien, want wanneer de vier heren in net pak opkomen en plaats nemen achter hun respectievelijke synthesizers en/of laptops is de vergelijking met Kraftwerk niet meer weg te denken. De vergelijking met Kraftwerk houdt echter bij het visuele ook zo’n beetje op, gezien ze muzikaal gezien iets meer richting de pop georiënteerd zijn. Pop noir dan wel te verstaan. Het gerucht gaat dat ze voor deze richting hebben gekozen vanwege een gemeenschappelijke fascinatie voor de vermeende kleurenblindheid van stieren. Toen ze er echter achterkwamen dat dit slechts een fabeltje is, en de popmuziek voor stieren net zo kleurrijk is als voor ieder ander, besloten ze hun fout te verhullen door in hun muziek terug te grijpen naar de film noir. Helaas werden ze hierbij verblind door een via een spiegel (oh! De ironie) afbuigende lichtstraal en kwamen ze uit in de vroege jaren ’80. Gelukkig voor hen paste dat beter bij de inmiddels al aangeschafte synthesizers.

Fear Of Drowning

MIRRORS | MySpace Music Videos

‘Doubt’ van Delphic! De komende dagen in de Clip van de Dag artiesten van wie we in 2010 of een goed album verwachten, of waar we in ieder geval naar benieuwd zijn. Delphic zal op 11 januari hun debuut Acolyte uitbrengen, en gezien hun recente derde plaats in de BBC Sounds of 2010 music poll, dezelfde plek die Florence + the Machine behaalden in de versie van 2009, wordt daar veel van verwacht. Enige aandacht wisten ze afgelopen jaar al te behalen middels de singles ‘Counterpoint’ en ‘This Momentary’ die op Kitsuné Maison Compilation Albums belandden. ‘Doubt’ werd afgelopen week officieel uitgebracht en zal eenieder die wel eens heeft deelgenomen aan psychologische testjes wellicht bekend in de oren klinken. De intro dan tenminste. De track met opeenvolgende klinkers wordt namelijk nogal eens gebruikt in dat soort testen, en gezien het nogal ritmisch en mysterieus klinkt, was ik zelf ook al bezig om er een nummer omheen te bouwen. Apparently someone beat me to it.

Review Delphic @ the Garage 7th January 2010

Electronic music with soul, that’s how the Manchester based band, who’ve come third in the BBC’s Sound of 2010 music poll, would describe their own music. With their debut album Acolyte coming out on the 11th of January, Delphic are setting out to tour the nation. And they’re not doing this alone: they have taken Mirrors along for the ride.

When the four piece enter the stage in their smart suits and take up their positions behind their synthesizers and laptops, the comparison with Kraftwerk seems imminent. But although they do show a certain level of German precision in their electronic craftsmanship, that’s how far the comparison carries. Mirrors’ music can be best described as a form of electronic pop noir, strongly reminiscent of the early ‘80s, when bands like Depeche Mode and New Order started exploring the use of synthesizers. With catchy and danceable singles as ‘Into the Heart’ and ‘Fear of Drowning’ they seem to be well on their way to do some conquering of the 2010-music world themselves.

Delphic have already gotten a head start at that with their earlier mentioned third place in the BBC’s Sound of 2010 poll, a position held last year by Florence + the Machine (now there’s something to live up to). Not that they seem in any way intimidated by this little fact, quite the opposite actually. It seems that the quartet, who are actually a trio but use a live drummer to spice things up just that extra bit, are ready to prove everyone’s expectations right.

They already managed to get some attention last year when their singles ‘Counterpoint’ and ‘This Momentary’ found their way to the arty and always-worth-listening-to Kitsuné Maison Compilation albums, something electro-pop duo La Roux managed to do a year earlier (Hey! Another comparison to a Sound of 2009 finalist, how much more promising could this become?). So this seems to be time for Delphic to cash in, and that is exactly what they did tonight.

Especially the aforementioned singles, complimented by tracks such as ‘Doubt’ and an epic over ten minutes version of title track ‘Acolyte’ are to blame for their live success. Delphic are not afraid to write songs that are ate least twice the length of a standard pop song, and when they perform their music live, they manage to add even more euphoria to their already very lively and energetic tracks.

Their live performance is certainly impressive. Unlike most bands whose songs are mostly based on electronics, and thus heavily really on samples readily available in their laptops, Delphic manage to really make their music live on stage. This is partly due to the complimentary qualities of the guitar and bass that strongly feature in the performance, but they also manage to almost remix their tracks live on stage.

Delphic appear to be one of the highly tipped bands for the new decade who are very eager to prove to all that the hype is absolutely true. And for once, I think I have to agree.

Why Linda, I heard something about a mould problem?

Well, you heard correctly. As English people are not able to build houses properly, mould is a common problem in this country. So let me enlighten you about the basic principles of mould infestations.

On the above picture, you can see a rather harmless infestation with some form of, as yet unidentified, grey mould (my guess is it's either Ulocladium or Alternaria) which was hiding behind the wardrobe in my room. Though it was hiding, its presence did not go completely unnoticed as it gave of a rather distinctive smell. After consulting a mould expert (better known as Google), I decided to tackle the problem with bleach, which appeared to work like a charm (though it did replace the mould-smell with a rather bleachy smell for a few days).

Problem solved you might say at this point. Well, not so much really. You see, as I mentioned earlier, this was a rather harmless infestation as the mould only manifested itself on top of the paint. The problem gets to a whole new level once it gets under said paint, an example of which can be seen in the picture on the left. As might be obvious from the picture, I've tried to tackle this problem before, but the mould fought back and decided to make a reappearance in the new year. Our mould expert had warned us that this might happen, and the only thing one can do at this point is call in a professional and let him redo the whole wall.

So, while we're waiting for that to happen, I bleached my wall again today (result on the right), as the smell of mould was reappearing, and it just looks absolutely gross. Although I must admit that cleaning it is possibly even more gross (and no, those dark spots are not some leftover bits of mould, that's were I scraped all of the paint of and actually reached the bricks making up the wall).

Frozen Britain...

And before anyone asks: no, I don't live in Scotland or Wales, I'm not even remotely near those places, so no book-burning in order to keep warm here.

Wie is de Mol?

Okay, mijn stem-ding werkte niet helemaal (of liever: helemaal niet), dus gooi uw stem maar in de shoutbox!

Stand tot nu toe:
Frits Sissing: 1
Loretta Schrijver: 2
Erik van der Hoff: 1

Clint Eastwood is Dutch!

At least, according to Wikipedia he is. As are Humphrey Bogart, Robert DeNiro, Audrey Hepburn, Bruce Springsteen, Meryl Streep and Thomas Edison to name a few.

And some other facts about Dutch people and the Netherlands, found on Google:
- The Dutch body requires the usual oxygen, food and water to function. It also requires a steady input of coffee. (true, save for the coffee in my case)
- Cyclists rule (very true)
- Belgians aren't hated, more regarded as an amusing little country full of muddleheaded peasants sorely lacking in prized Dutch virutes such as logic, intelligence and the ability to reason. (again, very true)
- Rain is a rarity. They stop work and gather at the window to gaze in awe at the raindrops. (seriously?)
- The only time the Dutch people show their emotion is when the Dutch soccerteam is playing an important match. Every street and every person is then made orange (again, true. Though I'll probably pass on the whole orange thing)
- The Dutch Mountaineering Club have to go abroad.
- Drop is a sort of candy that can only be eaten by Hollanders. It can be recognized by the colour: black. The taste is a blend between earwax and paint (black). Hollanders absolutely adore the stuff and eat many kilo's of it. There is a nationwide conspiracy to look at the faces of foreigners that were made to believe the stuff is actually edible. (absolutely true, especially the last bit)
- Don't buy wooden shoes. They will look completely ridiculous. Which is the reason they will try to sell them to you. A Hollander himself would not want to be found dead wearing them.(Preferably a Hollander doesn't want to be found dead at all).
- A Hollander is always right and he knows it.
- Mills are inevitable.
- It is not necessary to fake interest for tulips, mills, wooden shoes or cheese. Every Hollander knows you came for the soft drugs and the Amsterdam red-light district. Both are widely spread and easy to find. Just ask any Hollander over age 6.
- Hollanders do not like spending money. They would rather cut of an ear. A Hollander will be your friend for life if you give him something for free. This might explain the great success of McDonalds in Holland. The story that copper wire is an invention of two Hollanders fighting over a found cent is absolutely true.
(^this, very much so)
- Holland is small. It is sometimes rumoured that Holland is so small they take it inside when it's raining. This is not true because it rains 365 days a year. This also explains the wooden shoes: they float.
- At almost every bread meal in Holland you will find a mean looking big knife with a sharp slide in it. It is called a 'kaasschaaf' and is used to cut very thin slices of cheese (Yes, it's a Dutch invention). Never cut cheese with a regular knife, you will make yourself completely ridiculous. Another typical eating tool is the so-called bottlescraper. Beware, don't use it for that annoying itch on your back. It's designed to scrape the last bits of yoghurt or mayonnaise out of the bottle. A Hollander will use every millimeter of the product he bought. He paid for it, he'll eat it, no matter what. (how do they know these things about us, and why is so much of this true?)
- A 'Fries' is a sort of spare-Hollander that lives in the north in a province all for themselves. They love frozen water, Beerenburg (a form of euthanasia with alcohol) and endlessly pointing out that other Hollanders are not Fries. The rest of Holland looks at this behaviour the same way parents will look at an obstinate child.
- Holland is a kingdom.It just doesn't have a king but a queen and her husband is not king but a prince. The queen does not rule -much- but she's very capable in cutting ribbons and visiting other countries. She is also very decorative at state banquettes. Her son, the crown prince, will take over if she stops queening. His wife in turn will be queen so that Holland will finally have a king and queen again. April 30 is queensday but it is not the birthday of the queen but princes Juliana's, who used to be queen. Queensday, by the way, is just an excuse to drink lots of beer and sell all their old junk on the streets.

Dingen die opvielen in de week van: 28 december - 2 januari

Niet zoveel eigenlijk, gezien ik voornamelijk Nieuwjaar heb gevierd en daarna eigenlijk niet buiten de deur ben geweest. Daarom ook maar een kort stukje om het jaar te beginnen, maar wel een belangrijk stukje.

En wel belangrijk om de volgende reden: Wie is de Mol? begint aanstaande donderdag! Hoera! De speculaties over wie de Mol is en theorieën over waarom een nummer dat drie hele seconden lang op de achtergrond te horen is aangeeft dat de Mol drie afleveringen geleden aan de linkerkant van een gele auto stond kunnen weer beginnen. And I'll take a headstart on those speculations, if you don't mind.

Mijn mol is:

U kunt uw Mol aangeven in het keuzemenu dat gelokaliseerd is aan de rechterzijde van deze pagina (ik krijg het ding alleen niet zo ingesteld dat je ook kunt stemmen zonder ingelogd te zijn, sorry daarvoor), of in de comments :).

Happy New Year!

And as I aspire to be an epidemiologist (and for those of you that didn't know: that's basically what epidemiology is all about, sending annoying questionnaires to a lot of people and then use statistics to work some magic on them), the best way for me to sum up last year is with some statistics.

Last year, I say 173 artists perform, at 76 individual gigs (in the case of festivals, each day was counted as a separate gig), which is 1.46 per week and a 43% increase compared to 2008.

Of those gigs, 43 were in the Netherlands and 31 were in England, which makes averages of 1.05 and 2.81 gigs per week, respectively.

The artists I ran into most often were: We Have Band (4), Patrick Wolf (3) and Handsome Furs (3).

I went to 5 different festivals last year: Motel Mozaïque, London Calling 2009 #1, Diesfestival (it's got the word 'festival' in the name, so I guess it qualifies as a festival in that way), de Affaire and Lowlands.

I bought 27 albums in 2009, which is a 34% decrease compared to 2008.

I managed to review 16% (12) of the gigs I went to, and reviewed 9 albums.

According to Last.FM, I listened to 17,338 songs in 2009, which is 47,5 per day or 333 per week. This is actually and underestimation as it doesn't count songs I listen to on mp3 player or on the radio. My total scrobbled songs at the start of 2010 was 34,123.

So, some NY's resolutions, as that seems to be the thing to do at this time of year:
- Buy more albums. 27 is pathetic.
- Review more gigs/albums. One album a month ought to be reasonable, shouldn't it?