Mark Tuiter's victory was, of course, the highlight of my weekend. Or wait, make that week. I had to watch it in the kitchen on my laptop, and at the minute Shani Davis passed the finish line and I started to cheer with actual tears of joy in my eyes, one of my flatmates walked in. After a short confirmation that I was watching speed skating again, and again in the middle of the night, he offered me an orange Sainsbury's (the English version of Albert Heijn) bag to use as an orange flag, which I eagerly used to dance around the kitchen with. Yup. With five more days of Olympic speed skating to go my flatmates already think I've completely lost it. I also might have compared last night's victory with winning the world championship in football to justify my actions. But it is, isn't it? The 1500 meter is distance everyone wants to win, and is able to win: the sprinters, the stayers, all all-rounders have to able to skate a decent metric mile, and then there's the specialists like Mark. And as was said last night: 'we' have been waiting since 1972 for someone to win Olympic gold! That's 15 years longer than I've been alive! That is a long time to wait.
Other things I've done this week: Chinese New Year! Officially that was last week, but in London it's celebrated today. And as London is the home of the largest community of Chinese people outside of China, that's a rather big celebration. I took some pictures, but my battery died after like the fourth picture. The lion on the last two pictures actually went on to walk right past me, but you'll have to make ado with the crappy two pictures below. I also tried a lotus bun, which looked amazing and had some green stuff inside it. I expected some kind of vegetable, but it turned out to be really, really sweet. Rather nice actually. Also, there were a lot of stalls selling Chinese food stuffs of which I recognised absolutely nothing.
Other things I've done this week: make a Toblerone cake (in the oven right now, so no word on what that's gonna taste like), celebrate pancake day and watched a lot more speed skating. Also: I'm gonna make my 'real' radio debut on 2 March. *puts on radio voice* Tune in to Rare.FM on the 2nd of March at noon to catch me on the air (well, technically speaking it's glass fibre) on the Rare Reviews Show! (That's English time, so it's 1pm in Holland). Link on the right. Somewhere.
And apparently, we've lost another government led by Balkenende. Surprising. I think Gordon Brown is treating himself to a KitKat to celebrate not being the worst PM after all.
And gig reviews again:
Spoon/White Rabbits @ The Electric Ballroom When I first heard the single of Spoon's latest album Transference I wasn't that impressed. However, as it turned out, the song just needed some time to grow. 'Got Nuffin' is now one of my favourite songs by Spoon, who've been named best band of the last decade by both Metacritic and the Guardian. Both band were pretty good live, even the venue was the worst I've ever seen. I could write an extensive review, but as they played in Amsterdam just two days later other people have done a better job at that than I could have done.
Beach House/Lawrence Arabia @ Bush Hall Beach House's new album is my favourite album of the year so far (though Joanna Newsom's new triple, 3 hour long is a serious contender for that title) and I might have promised to write a review on that album, but as it's already a month since it has been released I think I might just give up on actually writing that (or do it next week when I'll go to Stonehenge by bus). Live, they're possibly even more amazing, just as last time I saw them. I absolutely adore Victoria LeGrand's voice and her ability to head bang to her own music. Lawrence Arabia are just a slightly less bearded version of Fleet Foxes, so if you're into that (or beards), give them a listen.
The Sunshine Underground/Cosmo Jarvis @ Koko Yeah, about that... I think I've mixed them up with another band. They're now officially added to the list of bands I walked out on (a list including the likes of White Lies, Glasvegas, Vampire Weekend and Florence + the Machine). I went to watch speed skating in stead and saw Laurine van Riessen en Annette Gerritsen win a bronze and silver medal. Much more rewarding.
Pantha du Prince/Walls @ Cargo And now for something completely different... Don't you just love London? Pantha du Prince for free! And not even at a record store but at a proper venue (okay, one with a queue of sometimes immense proportions but still, it's free!). Walls could be described as a sort of minimalistic Fuck Buttons wannabes, but with less creativity and less noise. Mildly entertaining. Pantha du Prince was a lot better, which was to be expected really since the man just released his highly rated debut album Black Noise. Live, Pantha du Prince turns his album into an hour-long DJ set and shows he knows how to get his audience moving. After starting of with some more ambient tracks which allow for some subtle dancing-with-your-eyes-closed, he throws in some more beats AND THEN IREEN WÜST WINS ANOTHER GOLD MEDAL! *Gets out another few Sainbury's bags and her Unox hat and starts celebrating*
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