I think I'll have to move to Berlin

To Kreuzberg to be precise. That was the neigbourhood where the festival took place, it's supposed to be kind of the alternative, hip neighbourhood. I really liked it there. My mom told me that when she visited Berlin for the last time (in the 80s or 90s probably) there were still lots of squatters (used a dictionary, hope this is the right word) there. 

Must-make picture when in Berlin.

I was so tired from my night in the Eurolines bus that the only thing I wanted to do was sleep. And it was really hot that day. The hat provided some shadow.

A really extensive exposition about the rise and fall of the Nazi regime. I didn't make it to the end though. It was simply to hot out in the sun.

Had to make this picture for my friend who is a huge chili pepper fan.

Friday night we found this street musician. He was quite good an covered some Jamie Cullum songs (instant love of course!) so we watched hime for about two hours together with some strangers and drank cider. It was still a warm evening. Great night.

Harry Potter lego. How awesome is that? 

Awesome!

There were so many demonstrations in Berlin! Didn't get what they were for. Lots of police though.

The famous words: "Ich bin ein Berliner"

So funny! Found this in the Stasi museum. This man sent in his disguises for approvel. Is it me or are they really bad?

Kreuzberg <3

Pretty huh?

I love it how there is always something going on in Berlin :)

Double the trouble

Is it me or do Charlie/Ivy (Kaylee DeFer) from Gossip Girl and Rachel (Danneel Harris) from One Tree Hill look a lot alike? Look at those noses! Jeez, I already thought I recognized Charlie from somewhere.

By the way: What did you think of the Gossip Girl season finale?

I found it kind of weak. Making someone pregnant again? Sounds like the writers are having a serious lack of inspiration...

Seasons of love

I saw Rent the other day. What a wonderful song this is. 

Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes,
Five hundred twenty-five thousand moments so dear.
Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes
How do you measure, measure a year?

In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights, in cups of coffee

In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife.

In five hundred twenty-five thousand

Six hundred minutes

How do you measure

A year in the life?

How about love?

How about love?

How about love? Measure in love

Seasons of love. Seasons of love.

My indietracks top five.

Yes another post about Indietracks and it won't be the last one either. I'm sorry, I can't help it, but it just was such a great place to be! All five bands were really, really great, but here we go: my personal top five.

5. Withered Hand

When? Sunday July 31st, 2011.

Where? Outdoor stage.

Withered Hand 

Withered Hands is a Scottish singer-songwriter, still he performed with a band which included drums, cello, banjo and guitar (which he played himself), surprisingly enough no-one was playing bass in this band (except for one song), but I guess the cello kind of took over the function of the bass. When the singer talked it was in a high-pitched voice which sounded a bit pinched, but when he sung it didn't bother me at all. The music he makes is a kind of folk, very soothing and relaxing to listen too. But when the drums kicked in in some songs it became more danceable and sometimes reminded me a bit of Mumford & Sons. Anyway, I bought the Good News cd (and got it signed. Even by the banjo player who only was in the band for the day (didn't know that, oops)) so needless to say I liked it!

4. Edwyn Collins

When? Saturday July 30th, 2011

Where? A completely filled Indoor Stage

Edwyn Collins kind of was the "big name" who was performing at Indietracks. Still, I hadn't heard of him, but I guess he was kind of before my time since his big hit "Girl Like You" was in 1994 when I was only two years old. The man is kind of old now and in 2005 he had a stroke so he limps a bit, but there sure is nothing wrong with his voice! It really is too bad that most people only know Girl Like You because he has many more great songs which are very danceable too! I really enjoyed the performance and may I add that the guitarist on the left wasn't bad to look at either? ;)

3. The Hidden Cameras

When? Saturday July 30th, 2011

Where? A little acoustic performance at the outdoor stage and the real thing later that evening at the indoor stage.

At their second performance the lead singer dressed-up a bit more

Our friendly neighbour had told us that he was really looking forward to The Hidden Cameras who were supposed to the heighlight of the day. However when they wanted to start their performance at 19:40 at the outdoor stage there were some problems with the electricity. So they improvised a few songs acoustically. It was so great! A lot of people had gone away already, but with the about twohundred people that were left we stood close to the stage to hear the singer, the guitar, the cello, the flute, the drummer who had found maracas and the bassist who was singing the harmonies while the keybord player was filming the whole happening with his iPhone. It was magical. (Here's a Video)

Later that everning they got a second chance at the  Indoor Stage with working electrics. Great great great performance! They were so energetic! Teaching weird little dances to the audience and jumping around.

So.Much.Fun.

To be honest though I did like the acoustic version of their music better. And it's not music I will listen to at home, too much "pa pa pa pa" (if you have listened to them you'll get what I mean). But that doesn't take away the fact that it's a great live band and if I will ever get the chance to see them again (preferebly in Holland) I'll definitely go!

2. Herman Dune

When? Sunday July 31st, 2011

Where? Outdoor Stage.

*pictures will follow* 

Not much too say. Nice indiepop. Great performance. Danced a lot. Bought a t-shirt (even though that meant that we didn't have enough money to take the bus the next day. That says something huh? About the band I mean, not about the irresponsible way I handle money).

1. Suburban Kids With Biblical Names

When? Friday July 29th, 2011

Where? Outdoor Stage.

Actually Herman Dune and Suburban Kids With Biblical Names could be the other way around as well. But I had to put one on top. The performance started with the singer forgetting the lyrics to the first song three times in a row, I'm still not sure whether that was an act or not. But after that the performance was one big energetic flow of cool music with nice synthesizer melodies (not unlike Two Door Cinema Club), the blonde girl should stick to playing those melodies though, because the harmonies she sung weren't always on key... I forgot about my blisters and danced for the whole set. Now that's a good performance.  (I didn't make any videos myself, but here's one. The sound's a bit crappy)

Indietracks festival guide.

I had fun colouring the things I saw at Indietracks in my festival guide.

I made up a whole system: 

Yellow means I didn't really like it (or in case of Oxo Foxo, I just couldn't hear it)
Orange means that it was quite okay.

Red means that it was cool. And if it's red and has blue around it it's in my top five..

I'll post more about my top five later!

An impression of Indietracks festival

Past weekend I was visiting the lovely Indietracks festival in England. I had a brilliant time and this certainly won't be the last time I visit this festival. I'll be back! Expect a post on all the awesome bands I discovered there soon. Also, the festival gave me a great oportunity to try out the new camera I got for my birthday (a Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H70) and especially its panorama funtion. I'm quite statisfied with the quality of the pictures it makes :)

Still standing

What my living room looked like the day after my 19th birthday. 

Delete Delete

For the second time within a year the hard disc of my laptop has crashed and I have lost all my photo's, music and documents. The first time my hard disc crashed (half a year ago) I already lost all the footage I had collected for my Cardboard Cut-Out video. Suck. Edward is still standing in my room though, so one time (when I'm a better singer), I might decide to make the video again. For now I have to say goodbye to this project and to all my pictures :( Anyone music recommendations? I have to start my iTunes library from scratch so if you know a great band, let me know!

The Dutchies among us might remember this song.

GESLAAGD

I passed all my final exams! I didn't even have any insufficients! AWESOME.

Now I have total freedom to figure out what to after the summer! I was thinking of going to Nepal. Or I might attend the Holi festival in India. I really want to experience that once...

For now I can pick a gift for my exams. I was thinking of getting custom made earplugs to protect my hearing when going to concerts and festivals, since I would like to keep my hearing and the last pair I owned I lost at Pinkpop (I couldn't get them out of my ears anymore and had to go to First Aid. Let me tell you, the doctors had a hard time trying not to laugh). But then again I wouldn't mind owning a nice pair of Dr. Martens either, especially since they are supposed to walk great, so they would be an improvement on my Vans for the next festival...

Pinkpop 2011: Review

After a lot of thinking I have decided on my top 5 for pinkpop festival. It was hard to decide, and not because all bands were so great that I couldn't decide who were the best, it was hard because I feel that there actually weren't a lot of bands who were top five worthy (I was actually dissapointed in Lifehouse, all their material sounds the same, and I left early at Band Of Horses because it was too hot in the tent and they couldn't hold my attention). And of some of the bands that probably were top five worthy I didn't attend the show because I just couldn't stand on my feet anymore. (My friends told me Deadmau5 was awesome, it really sucks I missed out on him!) I HATE vans! Mental note: find better shoes before you go to Indietracks!

So here it goes, my top five:

5. Two Door Cinema Club
This is one of the bands who actually isn't top five worthy based on their performance, but I had a lot of fun at their concert and they make great music so it still is in my top five. And it was the only performance where I got to stand in the area closest to the stage. The main problem with them is that they don't perform, they go on stage, play their songs, sound great (exactly like the cd!), but there is no energy or connection with the audience. They could just as well have been playing the cd, we were dancing with our backs facing the stage anyway...

4. Kaiser Chiefs
Now here is a band Two Door Cinema Club could learn from! Yes, they have been playing almost every festival for the past few years, but it's not hard to understand why! What a performance! So much energy! Their singer really knows how to entertain a crowd, throwing his tambourine in the air and twice jumping of the stage to run through the audience.

3. Wolfmother
I watched them all the way from the back because we just returned from Justin Nozuka (who was okay by the way, I liked the songs he played with the band, the rest was a bit boring. And he kept doing these weird dances) and were kind of starving. But even from there you could witness the party that was going on! I felt like I was back in time and seeing an oldschool rock concert, sweaty people, bear, crowdsurfing and a lot of hair!

2. Selah Sue
I had really been looking forward to this concert all day and it was really really great! It was in the tent stage which was filled completely, it seemed like all tall people had gathered at this concert, it was impossible to see the stage and because this was the only stage without screens I only saw little glimpses of Selah Sue. But man can she sing! I wish I had her voice! (and her hair) We danced our asses off! The only negative comment I have is that she played FyahFyah acoustic which was a shame, I like the album version better, more danceable.

1. Foo Fighters
I never listened to the Foo Fighters, but after seeing them live I will start listening to them! Selah Sue had been holding the number one spot for the entire weekend 'till the Foo Fighters came a long. Let me tell you: they wiped the floor with BOTH Coldplay (who showed up 20 minutes late) and Kings Of Leon. It was the best performance I have ever seen! You could just feel (and see) that they enjoyed being up there just as much as we enjoyed watching them. They didn't have fireworks, or confetti, or laser beams like Coldplay, but they didn't need any of this to give an amazing show! After one and a half hour Dave Grohl announced that he just wasn't fucking done yet, so they continued to play for another 30 minutes (hah, take that Coldplay!) and that it rained a bit bothered no-one. Especially not when Dave Grohl pointed out that this was the first time in his life that he had seen a rainbow at a rock-concert! The cameraman seemed to think that the band only consisted out of Dave Grohl and the dummer though, it would have been nice if he had filmed the others as well from time to time.

Not in this list but I would still like to mention: Simple plan, I only saw a small part of their performance but it was very energetic and looked like a lot of fun, and Tim Knol, he is awesome. I defenitely want a Tim Knol is vet t-shirt! Oh and can I just say that the pinkpop crowd was the least musically talented crowd I have ever seen? They couldn't even clap their hands at the right time!

Little Boots

I NEED these boots in my life! (Wait, I've said this before... something about a bag)

Seriously, I thiks they're amazing! They should be Dr. Martens and I have been searching the entire web for those, but I can't find them! 

The girl in the picture is Ladyhawke by the way and using the term "Ladyhawke + Boots" in Google does not work, besides that I'm probably one of the few looking for those boots, there is another artist with a similar style called "Little Boots".  So I'll get one thousand hits of musicians which I don't even really like. But maybe I just have to give it another listen. Anyway, if you want to know more about this New Zealand singer (or just check out more pictures of her cool style) then just go to het last.fm page.

Songs On Repeat #1

Do you have it too? Songs which you listen to a lot for a few days? I thought I might share some of mine. At the moment it is this one: Fyah Fyah by Selah Sue. It takes a surprising turn at 2:40 and I like it.



So, what are you listening to at the moment?

This is gonna be the fifth time I'm dying my hair red. Can it now please turn out the right shade of red? Like that of A Fine Frenzy for instance.

Btw: I saw her live at Paradiso last year. She's great :)

Damn you frrrreaking hairdressers

What kind of hairdresser manages to cut your hair this awry?!

(Answer: One who just doesn't care)

Mehhhh

This Prada stola reminds me of a combination of a racoon, the snake from Jungle Book and the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland. And although I like all three (okay, I have to admit I was never really into Jungle Book, and actually I found Alice in Wonderland quite weird, and apparently racoons stink) I don't think a combination of the three really works as a fashion accessory.

Chinese girl

Queensday 2011 was the day of waiting. First we stood in line for one and a half hour to have our faces painted (I was with five friends and we let small children pass us in line), then we had our picture taken and had to wait three quarters of an hour before the photographer eventually gave up on trying to printe the pictures and decided he would send them to us by e-mail. But I had fun anyway, the weather was lovely, I was with friends and I didn't have to listen to the horrible music at the museumplein. What more is there to ask for? 

These are some pictures I made of myself when I came home. I'm supposed to look like a Chinese girl.

Isn't it interesting how white make-up gives your face so much more expression?

Microsoft's lack of music taste

Somehow the Word spellingchecker does know Debussy and Mozart, yet Bach, Chopin and Albéniz are seen as typos. Seriously Microsoft, expand your music knowledge!

Oops, I got a career

A few days ago the movie "I Could Never Be Your Woman", starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Paul Rudd, was on tv. I loved it. I want to be the kind of mom Michelle Pfeiffer played (she was basically still acting like a child) and I want a daughter like Izzie (Saoirse Ronan). Seriously, she (Izzie) was hilarious! I have been playing these two fragments ever since. Seriously I LOVE the lyrics she made up! My friends arre getting tired of me singing "Oops, I got a career" already.

Jerk it out

The second video of our spectacularly epic concert. Turn up the volume a bit the sound is not very loud. I apologize for the weird colours, I had a little too much fun with the effects on windows live movie maker. The song is Jerk it Out by The Caears. For this performance I borrowed my friend's guitar (it's the same one Imogen Heap has! Omygaaaaaaaaaawd!) to play on and let me tell you, keytars look cool but they aren't comfortable to play on!

Imogen rockin' out on the keytar!
For a review of her concert I saw in November click here

Baseball

A while ago I bought one of those baseball jackets at New Look. A pink one, because everyone is wearing red and blue already. And then I noticed the spelling mistake on it. I find it quite amusing. I just hope that the manufacturer of this jackets won't make a career-switch and decide to become a tattoo artist. Because having a misspelled tattoo must really suck ("He asked for a thirteen but they drew a thirty-one" The Offspring, anyone?).

ETABLISHED guys? REALLY?

Dudup dudup dudup duuudup. dududududu duuuudup.

I know I play double bass, but I'll settle for this violin bag as well. Okay, that was an understatement; I NEED this bag. Who can tell me where I can get it?

Pictures via: Late Afternoon and The Man Repeller
PS. For the title of this post, check out Chameleon by Herbie Hancock.

Allo Darlin' - My Heart is a Drummer (Official Video)

Such a cute video <3

My hat makes people smile

I have received some weird looks while wearing this hat, not to mention a group of annoying, 12-year-olds laughing histirically at me, but most of the time it makes people smile. I tend to forget that I'm wearing it when I'm wearing this hat and then I start wondering why all those people are smiling at me. But it's nice, it makes the world seem a friendlier place. I am quite concerned about all the people who don't recognize what animal it is though, come on people I know we're not living in Australia, but surely a mouse, squirrel or rabbit doesn't look like this?

Hurricane Festival

FOO FIGHTERS‍ · INCUBUS‍ · ARCADE FIRE‍· THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS‍ · PORTISHEAD‍ · ARCTIC MONKEYS‍· KAISER CHIEFS‍ · MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE‍ · CLUESO‍ · THE HIVES‍ · SUEDE‍· KASABIAN‍ · THE SUBWAYS‍ · GOGOL BORDELLO‍ · FLOGGING MOLLY‍· ELBOW‍ · THE WOMBATS‍ · JIMMY EAT WORLD‍ · SUBLIME WITH ROME‍· TWO DOOR CINEMA CLUB‍ · BOYSETSFIRE‍ · MONSTER MAGNET‍ · THE KILLS‍· LYKKE LI‍ · SELIG‍ · KASHMIR‍ · GLASVEGAS‍ · BAND OF HORSES‍ · THE SOUNDS‍· BRIGHT EYES‍ · SUM 41‍ · ALL TIME LOW‍ · KLAXONS‍ · EELS‍ · SICK OF IT ALL‍· PARKWAY DRIVE‍ · WILLIAM FITZSIMMONS‍ · BLOOD RED SHOES‍ · JUPITER JONES‍· I BLAME COCO‍ · IRIE RÉVOLTÉS‍ · YOUNG REBEL SET‍ · I AM KLOOT‍· FRIENDLY FIRES‍ · DARWIN DEEZ‍ · COMEBACK KID‍ · CONVERGE‍· THE ASTEROIDS GALAXY TOUR‍ · PORTUGAL. THE MAN‍ · WARPAINT‍ · THE VACCINES‍· AN HORSE‍ · PULLED APART BY HORSES‍ · KVELERTAK‍ · YOU ME AT SIX‍ · BROTHER‍· TAME IMPALA‍ · CLOUD CONTROL‍ · MILES KANE‍ · YOAV

Oh my, look at the line-up of the Hurricane Festival in Germany. It's perfect! (L)

I so would looooove to go there, but it's June 15th-19th and June 20th the resits for our exams start. Not so perfect timing. Man, I hate school. It messes up all my plans, I can't go to the USA because of the exams and now I have to miss the festival which will probably have the best line-up of the next five years (for me anyways)... This.Sucks.Bad.