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 ...

2006

once again i'm tardy in updating my blog, but it was one of my new years resolutions. had a good holiday back in durban with family and friends, and i've arrived ready to kick 2006's ass. i don't know why, but i feel like i have a lot of optimism for 2006.

things are cold and rainy here, but it's all good. i've been to limburg and delft so far this year, watched "grizzly man" , it was great.

i'll leave you with a christmas time/south africa photo from the roof of sonya's flat

and again

a new season.
A lot chillier, less light, but still fun. a great excuse for drinking strong beer and staying in pubs/cafes (though i don't often need kinda excuses).
Had a great day in that kinda vein yesterday, hired some bikes, and went round amsterdam. i went to the most amazing paper shop;
all different kinds of paper, colours, textures and sizes.
Then a couple of duvels and a game of scrabble. (whcih i was cheated out of, but i'm man enough for it not to hurt (much) 24 hrs later)
we also watched before sunset and before sunrise. i had never seen "before sunrise" before, and i thought it was wanky, a little too unscripted and painful. it did remind me of young love though, so maybe it evokes a thought.
anyway...

the last month

has been hectic...
the summer is madness etc.
our pal emme was here after bennicassim and made us drink a lot, stay up late and do fun stuff. then my sister came and forced more of the same on us, as well as eating more (i am tubbing up nicely). we went and camped on texel (a wierd little island), went to antwerp to mooch around, and the hoge veluwe national park to hire bikes and look at art. next week we're headed to paris and the weekend after dublin again. how nice...

and the sun came out this weekend. i am now not as scared of the winter.

we made unbelievable ravioli with our pasta machine last night; prawn, leek and ricotta in a herbed lemon buttr sauce. sensational (though my sister says that word is the preserve of the homosexual, and i'm not allowed to use it)

FIB

Sorry this has been sitting around while i haven't
Wow, what a great festival..
Jamon serrano, beach, lots of beer, and some great acts. it is the perfect summer holiday condensed into 5 days including the exotic locale and cheaper prices.
highlights for me were hot chip, four tet, basement jaxx, devendra and yo la tengo. but it was all great

sunburn and ravioli

the lack of posting has to do with no wireless at home. pisspoor excuse i know, but someone has to use them...
so, we had some friends over for the weekend, and got lots of (unexpected) engagement presents, the most exciting being a pasta machine. now my dreams of fresh pasta will no longer be sated by dry shop bought pasta, it's an all new epoch in my life. to celebrate we made some excellent big raviolis filled with spinach, ricotta and pinenuts. i hate to say it, but they were sensational. really..
in other (more exciting) news i'm off to bennicassim in spain and fiberib festival this weekend, it's going to be great. sun, jamon serrano, cool bands, the beach, wakka...
i'll report back on sunburn and raving...

whores

i have had a recurring theme of whores over the last day. my brother sent me this cool book called "man bitch" by this professor of african studies called johan van wyk; http://literature.kzn.org.za/lit/44.xml
he was really interesting; the first conscientious objector and a celebrated afrikaans poet who left his dying wife to hang out with low rent prostitutes in a scummy area of durban. the story tells of his escapades with these ladies, in a flat unromanticised way. it's kinda racy and grimy too, like bukowski meets henry miller on the esplanade, to drink a castle and tell war stories. kind of.

and, the second part of my hooker story was when i went for a run today along the canal. lots of guys in cars leering at women on boats. large dildo's and strap ons in the window (and promises of aircon). wierd vibe, lust hangs like a cloud, and because of the cars it's stranger.

anyway, my salmon steaks were great, no pictures, next time..

A new ideal

I was reading tony pierce's blog the other day about the rules of good blogging ( http://www.tonypierce.com/blog/2004/06/how-to-blog-by-tony-pierce-110-1.htm), and it said that you have to post every day, so I'm going to try and get some archive up here. I think a good plan is to try and make each posting a little bit more of my manifesto, so I can dictate how other people should live their lives (because I definitely know better). The rest of the shit I was talking about in my first post will flow as a direct result. So tomorrow, if you're lucky you'll get my recipe for grilled salmon steaks (if the Eindhoeven fish market has them)...

Version 2

The Metropolis festival was pretty cool, great weather and a lot of water and trees around (very sedate for a festival). Black Mountain were a little disappointing for me though, a little too out of tune and sludgy. I thought the Dears were pretty cool, at least one of their songs lived up to their hype.
Spektrum were the standout for me though; tight, dancey bass lines, live elctronic drumming and a feisty singer.

the beginning stages of max nolte

ok, well this is an experiment into how sustainable my ego is (be prepared for reruns in 2040). i'd like to put up a couple of mp3 tracks, some photos and some food-related things (food and the music are passions of mine). .other exciting news is that' i just watched jim jarmusch's coffe & cigarrettes (a bit more aimless than i was expecting) and another slow german movie called "schultze gets the blues", which was sweet but didn't got anywhere.
i am going to the metropolis festival tomorrow in rotterdam (http://www.metropolisfestival.nl/2005/index.php ), hopefully the weather holds up. i'm really looking forward to seeing black mountain and stars, in fact all the bands seem great. i thought i'd post black mountain "druganaut", it's a great sabbathy rock track which i've been enjoying, checkit;
http://www.scjag.com/mp3/jag/druganaut.mp3