briefs

i had an epiphany some time last year when i was in new york. i had seen so many american apparel ads that i had to go check it out. there wasn't any halfclad lovelies, but i ended up buying some y-fronts for the retro chic of it all. but little was i to know that it would turn on me.
18 months later i'm a y-front addict and i'm writing my briefs manifesto.
in short my reasons are;
1) they looks cooler than the boxer
2) they're more comfortable (essential for the man who's well hung)
3) they provide more support when running
4) it adds a soupcon of excitement for the ladies (i'm basing this on a poll of one)

volver

was as all almadovar movies pretty great. very powerful women, 2 dimensional stupid men, rich emotions and great colours (although no transvestites or gay subplot for a change).
it was a bit of a struggle to understand with the dutch subtitles on a spanish film, but the general idea was well communicated (and they 70% of communication is non-verbal).
some great scenes;
when she's cleaning her husband's blood of the floor and has to answer the door, the guy asks about the blood and she says "women's problems"
the opening scene where they're cleaning the graves
when sole goes to her aunt's funeral and all the women are buzzing around her like flies in black
happy week

what our kids would look like

(i personally like the mulleted bogan version, Brengmar)

discussing placenta over curry

hey,
so i was in london this week and had billy's b-day as i came home on thursday night, so it was busy(that's code for apologising for being a bad blogger).
i went over to soggy and candice's house on wednesday for a good curry. candice is so big. it's wierd it's the closest person to me who is having a baby so it's so much more real. she is real big and the baby feels wierd squishing around in there. (not to mention all the graphic stories about childbirth and the aftermath). i dunno, it's 2006 it's wierd that childbirth is so analogue and visceral.
wednesday was a good shindig; howie, tash, benjy, mouldy, clemons and me. like candice i was teatotalling. it's not such a bad buzz, but you do feel less interesting. anyway my self imposed ramadam has ended. i'm craving a guinness, and that's what i'm going to be going for.

good shoes

I saw this track on the new specialten. (which incidentally has an interesting story about an aids orphan in durban called lucky). anyway this sounds like artbrut kinda english storytelling voice- self referential and disparaging. but then it rocks out in the middle and gets superpoppy.

'sup

Busy work week, a couple of work dinners and trying to budget for next year, pretty challenging (please note the appropriate business speak exchange of challenge for problem)
Friday night I made white pepper basted pork fillets with lemon spaghetti, a recipe I stole from the paupered chef (one of my favourite reads).

Yesterday was much of the same following my gut where ever it wanted to take me. We were supposed to go riding our friend adrian's boat in amsterdam, but the weather looked dodgy, so it didn't happen. Billy, dave and tim came to utrecht, and we ambled around.
We went to kantine werklust with adrian and rosa for dinner last night. It is this cool dutch/moroccan restaurant in an old office block. Great food, i had prawns with hot pickled lemon and a lamb tagine with prunes and almonds, delicious...
Anyway, now -km off to run the 30km van almere race to prepare for the ny marathon, wish me luck....

fresh pussy

so the new kitty has arrived
it is very cute and has settled in real well, except for crawling on my head while i was trying to sleep this morning.
also, stu, sd and gareth were over from london for the weekend.
we hung out, rode bikes and went to castell for dinner last night. and ate haagen das for dessert, it is the best ice cream known to man (butterpecan & cookies & cream in a waffle cone- holey shit)

Clean living

so it’s been 2 weeks of no booze. It’s the first time since I can remember that I’ve been completely booze free. I was expecting the health benefits to be unbelievable, seeing through walls, growing my third eye as well as reservoirs of pep and vigour.
however I have found this to not actually be the case (but maybe I’m a little prejudiced, I have a lot of time for my vices)
we had a guest speaker come in to work today. He was the dutch version of simon cowell from idols (i.e. the bitch). He told us about the “x factor””, the intangible wow that sets people/companies apart. It was interesting, but he was lacking the same x factor, which was unfortunate.
Last night I went to a party for googles. We had dinner in a great hotel in Rotterdam called hotel new york”. It was the hotel in holland that people had their last drink in before departing for the us. Beautiful art deco building with some nice tiles, on the water in r’dam.
We get our kitty tomorrow (I’m voting for the name mittens or September, but I’m not getting a lot of play with it)

beware of the twee...

i try, but i can't help liking this, my rock credentials are gone...

bugle pop

Hey
Pukkelpop (or bugle pop as beck called it) was really cool
Lots of highlights
Best show;
Tv on the radio- they were electric (and they get biggest hair and biggest crazy beard combo too)
The last day was vicious; broken social scene, belle & Sebastian, !!!, and others. Saw some crazy bands that I’d been wanting to see, the knife, gang gang dance, hot chip, my morning jacket, . Radiohead were really great (as an avowed non-fan I was pretty blown away). Unfortunately I was too knackered for daft punk on the last night, they sounded cool on the way back to the tent.
Biggest downer;
Shower queues, lots of mud, I think I’m too mature (read old) for camping at festivals. Or maybe I’m not getting buckled enough, either way it’s atp and a comfy bed next time or else b and/or b.
The beer ruled though (as I would hope at a Belgian festival). The swill lager was good, and they had a weiss , a dark and a kriek beer.
Fabulous

pukkelpops

hi, we went canoeing in the canal in utrecht on the weekend. it was great.

so tomorrow we go to pukkelpops. i must confess i'm a little worried about camping and the weather. i'm not keen for mud soaked with loads of people.
we made a promise last night that once dagmar turns 30, festivals are done from a nearby hotel. maturity huh.

anyway- listening to hot chip now, i'm most looking forward to them...


see you afterwards

wild camping

We went wild camping with ilja in eiffel. It was unbelievable. We picked him up in koln and then went to the lakes about 100km from there. It was sunny and warm so there were a lot of kooks around, but after a swim we pushed on to these ancient volcanoes which had filled with water over the aeons. Forest surrounding the crater, crystal clear water, sunshine- it was fucken tops.
There were paths around the crater and a small outside café to drink weiss beer. Once the sun went down we prepared a portable braai, drank some wine and then slept under the stars under a cherry tree (very poetic).
In the morning I had the “no bathroom” feeling- need to pee/dump and you teeth need washing. Once we swam it was much better.
Lunchtime was lamb bratwurst and their local beer.

My girl, sunshine, swimming, the nature, and ill-j- what a great weekend adventure….

our messiah

this guy is super captivating, i believe just about anything he says. i bought his boxset off the back of grizzlyman and too much youtube (and maybe too little teevee)

the auld country

So, it’s my classic post, a bit pissed on the train, sipping a beer and listening to lilly allen’s mixtape. That London track has the best reggae sample ever, I can’t remember the track it comes from, but it rules.
I wanted to talk about my trip to ireland the other weekend, it was todally great. I got to hook up with some of the crew, talk shite, drink Guinness and hung out on the south side.
Anyway, we went to an scoue (great music, it didn’t help me with my gaelic spelling), picked up mouldy real late and then had a party at susan’s house (tanks). no buckfast for me (I’m 30, it’s not good for my welfare), but a lot of laughs and chats with pals.
Next day we drove down t’ country, hung out with the cousins. Lots of good soda bread and food, but I was a little tired after the excesses of the night before to give my all. Great to see the family
And I was crowned the pool champion of ireland

berlins uber alles

So this weekend we went to berlins, berlin is officially the coolest city in Europe!!
It’s so big, and the people are so uber cool, great heavy food and good beer
And the shopping is so much better than nl, however dagmar and I managed to come back with a doorknob and a measuring jug for our troubles.
We walked around the town, ate some good schnitzel and went for great vietnameses food at monsier vuong’s
I had the best juice ever there, apple, mint and soda. Delish. Transportation is so cheap, if there are four of you it’s cheaper to take a cab than to take the u/s bahn (or at least that’s what we convinced ourselves of).We went to the supporters mile and saw a multitude of german supporters, and felt some of the wk fever. Next time za!!
Another highlight was the berlin Tokyo exhibition. There were a couple of artists that had a great affect on me;
Christian stadt- he made portraits of women. They looked beautiful, great detail, flapper style, emancipated
Yayoi Kusama- she made a lot of big inflatable red “thing” covered in polka dots in a mirrored room- very interesting

And finally to round off my return to my blog the new yo la tengo single, sounds like vintage yo la tengo (ie. excellent)

finally i made spaghetti puttanesca tonight (the whore's pasta) . it wasn't as good as i'd expected, maybe too little garlic and anchovy, i'll post a picture when i get it right.
bye

daniel johnston

i wanted to post this, pretty wierd; i haven't seen the "devil and daniel johnston", but i've always loved that yo la tengo "speeding motorcycle" song.
Bye

owner of a lonely heart

hey
one more day of work for the next 3 weeks.
GREAT!!
this time next week we'll be chilling on the beach in zanzibar. this time in 3 weeks i'll be married. big changes. big excitement.
byye

missive from the train

So here I am Friday night on the train…
Half drunk from work beers (we ran out of the classic heineken so I was forced into bok beers). Listening to vitalic on my new ipod and trying to decide whether or not to go to raving tonight. I really want to go dancing, but then it’s not my game these days and I kinda need a little nudge to get me going.
But enough about my Friday night dilemmas, it’s an embarrassment of riches, rather than a paucity…
Last weekend was great we were in somerset, ate and drank a lot, played skittles and walked in the countryside. But above all else we ate, we had epic potjiekos and even a braai (barbecue to the uninitiated) in the middle of February. We saw Stone’enge too, which from now always reminds me of that scene from spinal tap.
It was ok, if a little cold and full of tourists (i.e. crap)
Otherwise this week has been work and sleep filled

swedish psych power

i thought i'd double the fun for one night and post again about the gig i went to the other week. i went to go watch dungen in this small club in utrecht called ekko. i have had the album "Ta Det Lugnt" but couldn't really see the hype. however, live they were great, superskinny, peter frampton hair, black suede cowboy boots and a lot of rawk.
i uploaded this blurry shot because i thought it encapsulated the mood. expect a lot more shots, we have some interesting gigs coming up...

time to chill

holeeey shit
it has been cold for a couple of weeks now, ice on the canals constantly and when i got to work this morning it was snowing. even though it's not as much of a novelty every time i see snow i get all childlike and excited (even on the way to work).
second bash at the rotterdam film festival this weekend. last week we watched a pretty, but pointless film about rastafarians. we have booked 4 movies this weekend, so we're guaranteed of something good.
or at least wishing we'd gone to watch brokeback mountain ...