Svencouver!

Yes! The first gold medal! Unfortunately, I haven't seen much of the actual race as I went to see Chris Addison in stead and came home the moment the BBC stopped their coverage. Well, today I found out that I hadn't missed much (with regard to the BBC coverage that is, I'm still very eager to see Sven on the ice). There are two English commentators, who got some very, very short fact sheets they're reading out. And when they run out of facts (Clara Hughes is Canadian. She carried the Canadian flag during the opening ceremony and won medals in both the Summer and Winter Olympics <- longest fact sheet during the entire 3k), they 'describe' what's happening. A few examples: "The riders exchange lanes, one going to the inside lane, one going to the outside lane." "The riders sprint to the line and finish." "5 laps to go." "4 laps to go." "This is the fastest opening so far! Could [insert random name] be the new gold medalist?"

ARGH! I've never been so annoyed! They're worse than Mart Smeets being the sole cycling commentator on a flat, boring Tour de France stage! But then a small miracle happened: I found this little button on the BBC website, saying you could watch the live coverage in different languages. Naturally intrigued by this (I was kinda expecting Welsh), I pressed the button, was redirected to the Eurovision sports website (they apparently also do other things than hosting songfestivals) and was able to watch the NOS coverage! Of course, the first thing I heard was Mart Smeets saying that "Beckert haar zilveren medaille uit het eelt op haar kleine teen had gehaald", but I've never been so happy to hear that ugly man refer to callous.

The best thing about this: the website is just broadcasting Nederland 1, I think 24/7. I'm now watching Unox commercials. Brilliant (when are they going to repeat Sven's race again?). Though I'm not getting up at 3.05 this evening to watch the medal ceremony (I can now watch the repeat on the 1 o'clock news tomorrow :D).

Other things I did this week: pass my IELTS exam with an 8.5 (out of 9) and learn to salsa-dance. Yup.

Gig reviews:
HMV's Next Big Thing Presents: We Have Band/Music Go Music/Miike Snow @ ULU I've lost count of how many times I've seen We Have Band. Of course they were brilliant as always, though there were only two persons actually dancing along to their music (one of them being me). And they're still going for the all white stage outfits. Music Go Music, I would recommend to them to everyone who secretly (or not so secretly) enjoys listening to ABBA. In looks and sound there is no band who resembles them more. Though in the two new songs they played they had moved on from ABBA to Fleetwood Mac.
Headliner Miike Snow were really impressive live. The first bit at least. Suddenly everyone appeared to be able to dance, and surprisingly, sing along to all the songs. Even the high bits (of which there are quite a few). After the first three songs, I didn't recognise anything any more which was slightly disappointing as I have listened to the album several times.

Something with whales/Race Horses/Fanfarlo @ ULU The first band did mention their name, but as with their music, it just didn't stick. Race Horses did. They're from somewhere up north (I'm guessing Liverpool) and did a very good job at being entertaining. Expect Beatle-esk 60's inspired Rock & Roll with a slight hint of Beach Boys, combined with rather silly lyrics, like a family going on a skiing holiday. Entertaining, but a bit shallow maybe.
I'm not sure whether I can say that I've seen Fanfarlo before as I saw only half of the band at the Lowlands festival last year as the other half had missed the plane. But even though the sound was horrible (due a 'slightly' drunken sound engineer who, as he did the night before, kept stumbling around the stage in the middle of the performance), the band were really good. With songs like 'The Wall Are Coming Down' (see video below) you just can't help smiling and feeling that all is well in the world.

Chris Addison @ Bloomsbury Theatre Nope, no music, but comedy. And good comedy. I don't think Chris Addison is very well known in Holland as he's not one of the comedians that is heavily featured on BBC shows like QI or Have I Got News For You, but you might know from shows like Lab Rats (which I absolutely adored) or The Thick Of It. The only lines I can remember at this point: "There is only one character in modern fiction, apart from Doctor Who, who can regenerate and that's the pope." They were lots of lines that were more clever than this one, but things that refer to Doctor Who just seem to stick with me.