*^BICYCLE NAVIGATION SYSTEM>:

So I went for a ride on my bike. It was extremely nice. I planned to go ride my bike for like an hour and then take the train at a nearby train station. However, when I decided to turn back around and go to the train station I apparently took a wrong turn, because it took me more than half an hour to find my way back to the point where I started. How hard must it be to just turn around and head back into the exact same direction?! Well, apparently pretty damn hard. Someone better get me a navigation system for my bike, 'cause I could use one. Just so that I would only have to listen to a voice telling me go right, turn left, just keep driving straight. Would make things a lot easier. So eventually I decided to just go to the Haarlem train station, the big one, because the train arriving at the other station already left and only comes once every half hour. For a moment I thought I really was going to be lost. Fortunately there's this big radio tower which functioned as a means of orientation so as long as I kept close to that tower I knew I wasn't too far away from where I had to be. But as you can imagine by the time I finally reached the Haarlem train station I wasn't that fond of the sunny weather, the pretty landscape and all those fun cows and horses! I did have a nice ride on my bike though, was cycling for almost two hours. So I was still in a good enough spirit to take the train and watch Nuri Bilge Ceylan's Üç Maymun (Three Monkeys) at the Rialto cinema in Amsterdam which I found just in time so I wasn't too late for the movie just yet. Nuri Bilge Ceylan at the moment is a filmmaker I truly appreciate. His images are amazing. So deep, so wide. It's like you're looking at a panorama kind of view. So detailed. Unreal. And like in Iklimer (Climates) he manages to turn what on paper would seem as a simple story, into something epic. Can't wait to watch some of his other films, 'cause this was only my second one by him. No idea what I'll do tomorrow, no plans yet. By the way what I don't like about auditioning is that even when you tell yourself this time you're not going to care too much, they give you enough time to do just that. Because you have to wait until Thursday to find out whether you're through to the next round or not, it takes some days before they let you know the results, so they give you time to dream, to let your mind take a very long wander. To make you consider the possibility of what if, what if I'll be through to the next round, what if I'll be accepted. Aaargh, it's frustrating. I rather not want to think about those things, but it just goes automatically. It would be so much better if they immediately told you, no, we don't want you, or yes we do. But no, you have to wait a couple more days. :(

&#FAILED ATTEMPT AT GOING TO THE CINEMA>{

So there I went, thinking I'll just take the tram and get to the Rialto where I've only been once in my 22 year old life. Little did I know that two of the trams you need in order to get there, 3 and 12, aren't stationed at Central station so you need to take a different tram first to be able to take number 3 or 12. Having less than 30 minutes left I decided to check out the Pathé instead as the other tram that goes to Rialto, number 25, was nowehere in sight and I had no idea which tram you needed first to then be able to take number 3 or 12 or how long it would take. Unfortunately the original version of Coraline (non-dubbed that means, but with subtitles) already started ten minutes ago when I got to Pathé Tuschinski. Apart from that one either there wasn't anything else playing which I was interested in seeing or it would play around 9 or something and I was there after 7. Because Pathé De Munt only shows crap apart from perhaps the new Star Trek movie which apparently is pretty spectacular, I took the train back home. Star Trek too would start something after 9 and I wasn't planning on taking that long of a walk through town not when it is raining as it has been almost all day today. So it seems I need to play a movie myself tonight. I wanted to see Three Monkeys by Nuri Bilge Ceylan, which would have been my first ever Nuri Bilge Ceylan movie experience as I haven't seen any of his films yet. Hope it will still be playing tomorrow, Sunday or some other day of next week. :(
And I used to like Fridays... oh well

!{AND SUDDENLY I WAS THERE%^

I know I've been so bad for going, but I wanted to and I loved it. Yesterday I saw there was a ticket left on Ticketmaster but I was like, hmmm, I don't know, it's a bit expensive. But today I was like, it's just money. If I want to have more I'll go and work and make some more. Why care?! Some people buy certain objects and they enjoy them for a while, I bought myself a night with Franz Ferdinand and I'll remember it all my life. First off, I felt I was the only one who really went into it completely. At Metric I had some competition, some guys shaking their heads wildly all the time. But here, not that much. I was standing at a really nice spot where I enjoyed the supporting act Kissogram who are really good by the way. How come these guys aren't more famous? They easily could become one of the many popular bands out there. People should start hyping them. Like me this guy and girl to my right, I think they were British, they looked British though (if the Facehunter or Sartorialist had spotted them on the street they would have ended up on their websites), they were dancing like me having fun. Why is it though that people always stay a bit still during the supporting act? It seems like, nomatter how good the supporting act is, people refuse to dance and really go into it as if doing so would mean betraying the main act. Or maybe they're afraid they spill all their energy to the supporting act and won't have any left when the main act starts playing? Don't know. But I danced and the guy and girl to my right did too. Then, after waiting another half hour or more like 40 minutes almost, Franz Ferdinand came on, and as expected people started to mosh. Then you can do three things, or you stay where you're at and let the whole gig get ruined, or you move to the side and find yourself a spot more at the back where people just stand unmoving, or, like I did, you make sure you get all to the front. 'Cause in the front row you aren't bothered by all that's happening behind you. I went for option three, so after song number two I was standing comfortably at the front, right of the stage and I even had some space to really dance around. And I went for it. It was so fun. I danced all the way through. No break. No pause. I jumped at all the good parts, had my hands up in the air. I loved it. And to my surprise everytime I took a glance behind me to watch the crowd some people behind me were standing pretty still and those who did move only jumped or started another moshpit. I didn't end up on stage though as some people did at the end. But that's okay. You know, of course I kept the money on my mind, so if I would have managed to climb on stage I had one more reason to feel less guilty about the price. 'Cause then I would have said I had a great time AND I ended up on stage. What more do you want?! But I didn't, but like I said, I don't mind, the people who did climb on stage didn't do that much anyway. Before coming to Paradiso I looked for a recent setlist so I kind of knew which songs they were going to play and I think they played all the songs from that setlist which was from something like May 6 I think. Seems I might be able to start a blog dedicated to going to concerts soon as I've been to so many lately and I'm planning to see The Rakes supported by I Heart Hiroshima in the Melkweg on Monday next week. That one will be much cheaper than the gig I went to tonight. But Franz Ferdinand, they were totally worth it. Just seeing Alex Kapranos jump, you know it's bound to be fun. And hearing him sing live... Excellent. When he started the first song, it's a kind of magical moment hearing that voice you've been used to singing to you in mp3 format for years for real, live, singing in front of you. His words flow directly there in space moving towards you. So much fun. I just love going to concerts. If I had not been to Franz Ferdinand I would have probably gone to the cinema in Amsterdam to see Üç maymun (Three Monkeys) by Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan. But I'll see that one another time. Sure that would have been fun too, but I think this was a far better choice. :) I saw lots of people with cameras taking pictures and making videos so I bet there will be a lot to upload by tomorrow!

Following pictures are not taken by me