Ode to my dog

That pink thing is my mothers croc. My dog took it with her when my mom went out for a walk with her, proceeded to walk onto the ice (which is not strong enough to carry humans yet) and dropped the croc there. My dog's a heroe. Material for a MLIA? I think so.

Got brains?

Today I received a disk with pictures of my brain on it in the post (I had a MRI scan made a while ago). At first I didn't want to look at them because I found the idea of looking at my own brain a bit scary, but of course I gave in in the end. I think put like this the pictures actually make a pretty cool design. I should do something with it... Anyone wanna buy t-shirts with my brains on them?

Exit Through The Gift Shop

I don't go to cinema Amstelveen that often. It is a small cinema, about fifty seats, and they screen a weird blend of movies. Mostly children's movies and French movies about the sadness of life. The small cinema can only afford it to screen blockbusters months after their release and by then I have usually seen them already. But my father had some free tickets which we had to use before December 10th, so tuesday we went to see Exit Through The Giftshop -  The world's first Street Art Disaster movie. I didn't expect too much from it, but felt very cultural nonetheless for going to see a documentary about art.

It's a GREAT documentary (although I'm kind of doubting how truthful the story actually is). Very funny, sometimes I couldn't stop laughing. But that didn't really matter since there were only six more people in the room besides my dad and me.

What's it about?
A Frenchman living in LA Thierry Guetty owns a clothing shop and has a videocamera permanently glued to his hand. When he goes to France to visit his family his nephew has started making little space invader mozaiques and glueing them onto buildings in the city. Through his nephew he gets involved in the French Street Art movement and he starts filming those street artists. Thierry says he's going to make a street art documentary out of those tapes. He keeps hearing about a certain Banksy, a British street artist who does really cool stuff (he placed his own painting in a museum without security noticing it) and decides he wants his documentary to be about Banksy. Eventually Thierry and Banksy meet and Thierry starts filming him. When street art becomes a hype Banksy tells Thierry that this is the right moment for him to release his film to show the world that street art isn't about money. Thierry isn't such a great filmmaker though, so Banksy tells him that he will finish the film and Thierry should just go back to LA and focus a bit on his art (Thierry has started putting up posters too). So that's what the frenchman does, he goes back to LA hires a team of graphic designers who execute his ideas and hires a big building for an exposition. Thierry, who now calls himself, Mr. Brainswash becomes insanely popular. Not really what Banksy meant when he said focus on your art en maybe set up a small exposition.

Anyway, you should see the documentary!
It's cool, funny and you don't even have to be interested in art to like it (but of course the art is really, really cool!!!). Something which made it extra cool for me is that I had spotted a Space Invader mozaique in Amsterdam when I was walking there with friends. I googled it and there should be 26 of those figures placed all over Amsterdam. So I have added something new to my to do list: Find all 26 space invaders in Amsterdam. Maybe something to do in the christmas break?

Imogen Heap

Yesterday evening I went to see Imogen Heap at the Melkweg, Amsterdam, together with (another) friend. The concert was AWESOME SAUCE, as my friend would say. When I listened to Imogen's latest album ellipse on my laptop I found it a bit boring, but she had given fans the possibility to vote on her website on which numbers you wanted her to play live. So she played a selection of 12 songs "customs tailored for you Amsterdam" which I really enjoyed. Also she was funny, she could have persued a carreer in comedy, in between songs she was telling funny little stories about where she had gotten her inspiration from, "so this song is about a guy which I liked, except for the last verse, that's about a serial killer". Lol.
Later on in the show she divided the audience up into three groups and made us sing the words Just For Now over and over again so that we functioned as her sampler (which she called her parrot).

Just For Now

For the song Earth she brought a Dutch (well she obviously had Asian roots) girl on stage who studies at the University of Amsterdam and plays the cello amazingly well. She had auditioned through youtube or so.

Earth

And when her computer unplanned had to restart she asked the audience whether they had questions for her to fill up the time and this American woman screamed in the most horrible accent I have ever heard "COME BACK TO ATLANTA!". Geez, if I would sound like her I would never open my mouth again, she sounded SO ugly!

But okay, one of the coolest parts of the show was when Imogen took her keytar, put on sunglasses and gave away a solo on it. The best part of it is that a friend of mine has EXACTLY the same keytar, I'm SO going to steal it from him! Only after yesterday I have realized how many sick things you can do with those things, hide & seek is performed with the help of this keytar for example.



 Some video's which nice people have put on youtube:

Come here Boy

 

London Calling

Yesterday I went to London Calling, a festival which is held twice a year in Paradiso, Amsterdam, together with a friend. It was really cool, although I was glad that I had brought earplugs because the music was way too loud.

I had wild plans to stay there uptill 5 o' clock in the morning when the afterparty would be finished, but in the end we were home at five past one. After having seen warpaint my friend and I were both a bit silent because the concert had just been so intense. They were really, really good. If you ever get the chance to see them you should defenitely go! It's just one of those bands you have to experience live..

So after this concert we went up to the balcony to watch on the big screen what was happening in the small concert hall (this hall was too small for everyone and it was 200% full), Beach Fossils was playing there. Judging from the screen it must have been a great party, I enjoyed the music and I think I might start listening to it, but back then I just didn't feel like jumping and partying. Still too impressed by warpaint and a bit tired.

Then Tame Impala played in the big concert hall and we watched from the balcony, but I did not enjoy it. The sound was just way to loud (even with earplugs!) and the music was too much rock for me (psychedelic rock is not really my thing). I leaned with my head in my hands and felt like sleeping.
So after having seen Tame Impala we went home.

We have also seen Yuck (I did not enjoy them, their music was just very loud and the sound quality was very bad), Good Shoes (they were allright) and Lulu and the Lampshades. They were so cute and funny! They used all kind of weird instruments like a typewriter, some kind of harp, bowls and a xylophone. And in the end they performed Cups (see my last post). They make some kind of cute folk music. I'm fan!

Lulu and the Lampshades:

Good Shoes:

Yuck:

The drummer and the bassist looked really cool

Warpaint:

Tame Impala: Picture taken from the balcony

Lulu and the Lampshades

THIS. IS. SO. COOL.



I'm going to see them live tommorow. London Calling, Paradiso.
Lalalalala.

So You Think You Are Popular?

This is SO unfair.
Raquel and Chico were just sent home from So You Think You Can Dance after having danced a great tango, having received great comments from the judges and just having danced great performances over the past couple of weeks. I was stunned! This show is propragating to find the best dancer of the Netherlands and Belgium and the best dancers just got eliminated. It makes me want to boycot the show or sign up for a Twitter account (I hate Twitter) just to be able to post all over the internet how much I DISAGREE.
I think there is something seriously wrong with the concept of the show if the best dancers do not make it to the top. I think tonight was just a big failure for the show and that it opened the eyes for a lot of people (including the judges) to what this show really is: just one big popularity contest. This sucks, because contrary to shows like Idols, the candidats go to this show to improve their dancing, not just to become famous. I can go on for ages, but basically I'm just very dissapointed in the show. I liked to believe that this show was different, that it was about real talent. ...

I know that this is not my best speech, but it's late okay? And this just could not wait till tomorrow

Their tango: