$#CHAIRLIFT AT 22.30_{

Every now and then you have one of those days you really don't know what to do. For me today is such a day. After waving goodbye to my parents at the airport and my brother drove me home I had no idea what to do. And the thing is, in a couple of minutes I will go to Paradiso to see Chairlift perform, they should still have some tickets left. But that performance starts at 22.30. So when you're at home around 12 or perhaps I was home even earlier you still have like another 10 hours before that gig starts. I thought about going to a movie before, but I haven't been able to find one which I want to see and which hasn't like less than one hour between the film and the concert. And I just don't feel like having to wait too long today. Sometimes it's nice to have a walk around town and I could do that for hours. But I have a feeling if that happened today I would have ended up buying something. Like on Tuesday I didn't mean to buy anything, but because it still took a while before I went to see Coraline, I thought let's go to the HEMA, there might be something I could use. So I ended up buying something I actually did need, but it wasn't really necessary to buy. I can walk for hours as well without being interested in buying stuff, but I'm not sure I would have managed today. :) Plus, today I'm not able to travel for free, can't use my public transport card because it's Hemelvaartsdag (Ascension Day is the correct translation I think) so I didn't want to have to go to Amsterdam during the afternoon and then come back home and then buy another train ticket to go to Paradiso tonight. Of course I could have spent all day in Amsterdam but I guess I didn't feel like it. So instead I read a bit, I slept a bit, and I spent much more time at the supermarket downstairs than I intended to due to the place being completely crowded as if it was a Sunday so I had to wait in line much longer than usual. It's probably the only store around here that is open today which is why it was so crowded. People have a day off and because all of the other shops are closed the one that's open, even if it's just a supermarket, suddenly becomes the number one place to go to. Haven't felt very creative today, or maybe I did feel creative, but I just can't focus on writing something right now or making some drawings. Although I did buy a white board some days ago, finally, so I can make some new stop-motion 'films'. And this morning I took some pictures, not many. I plan on taking some tonight when walking to the train station after seeing Chairlift perform. This time I'll make sure my camera will be in focus :)
For now enjoy some of the works of Mr. Slimane just to pass the day, some old some new + some pictures I took today and last night and other random stuff. And apparently the new Ken Loach film is said to be very good and might end up winning the Palme D'Or, while reviews for Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds seem to be either very positive or very negative.

By Mr. Slimane:










Nick Cave's son Jethro, cool name:



That kid next to Mr. Van Sant should be me!!!! Unfair.



Remember kids, smoking IS cool. Doesn't mean you should start smoking, but if you do start smoking I think you're cool ;) Or, actually, let me rephrase that, I think it's cool when you're able to do it in a cool way, like this girl below (Anna Selezneva is her name). 'Cause I've seen many people smoke who don't seem to be able to smoke in a cool way. And if you can't smoke in a cool way it's no use to smoke.



Plus, some of you might know them, but I can imagine a lot of you don't: Lara Stone and Ymre Stiekema. 'Cause if you thought Doutzen Kroes is still the only big Dutch female model out there, you're very wrong. Lara's only part Dutch though, her father's British, but she was born here.
No reason to post this other than that I just felt like it and the girls are both very pretty ;)

Lara:




Ymre:




Here some pictures taken by Luke Smalley who passed away unexpectedly on Tuesday:









Some of the pictures I took this morning. Nothing groundbreaking :)












Pictures I took last night operating as both model and photographer which isn't easy. When you do both you realize how much models do add to an image. They really don't just stand and look pretty. I'm mostly interested in taking the pictures, but as I don't have anyone to model for me I'm forced to do the stuff myself. So... anyone who's willing to volunteer as a model, I promise I'll be kind!! I'd like a girl with long hair.
Also, someone get me a real professional studio please with a solid backdrop, one that doesn't have wrinkles in it ;) and professional lighting and stuff!!!! Poor me...
These pictures are safe for work, right??
















I have to say I really like my profile:



Struggling to get out of a shirt:




So now I spent almost one hour being busy with setting up this post. Time well spent. :D
Tomorrow I got a wedding to attend...

*$CANNES SO FAR!{

So Le Festival De Cannes started last week and since then there has been a lot of buzz surrounding some films. There were early raves for Fish Tank, especially for its main actress who never acted before. Its director Andrea Arnold released a film called Red Road in 2006 which isn't very well known, but I stumbled upon it multiple times as it stars Natalie Press who, together with Emily Blunt, received some buzz for the film they were in together called My Summer Of Love. So far Blunt has come out as the most succesful of the two. Kind of the same thing happened with a film like Bend It Like Beckham which led to early success for Keira Knightly, but Parminder Nagra who was the real lead of the film ended up on TV's ER and well, we all know what happened to Knightley. Precious, a film by Lee Daniels, too has been received well, which features Lenny Kravitz and Mariah Carey in small roles and who are both apparently much better than expected. Daniels made another film called Shadowboxer, but that one was basically panned by critics. Then there's also Jane Campion's Bright Star which is said to be her best film since The Piano which won the Palme D'Or in 1993. Earlier she already won an award for a short film she made. Abbie Cornish who plays Fanny Brawne, the film's lead, is said to be very good and might win the award for best actress. Cornish received some great buzz for her role in the film Somersault which meant a breakthrough for both her and co-star Sam Worthington who can be seen in the next Terminator film as well as James's Cameron first film since Titanic called Avatar. In the meantime Lars Von Trier, not surprisingly, is the first who has caused a stir with his new film Antichrist which features a lot of violent scenes. Because of the violence and critics responding in shock it's hard to tell whether the film is actually any good. This morning Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds (no typos) had its premiere and critics seemed to like it, but I'm not sure they really loved it. Pedro Almodóvar's new film Los Abrazos Rotos (Broken Embraces) which once again features Penélope Cruz seems to be amongst his darker type of films like 2004's La Mala Educación (Bad Education). It seems to be pretty good, although like Inglourious Basterds, it hasn't ignited the same buzz as Campion's Bright Star has. Could this mean a second Palme D'Or for Campion? Jacques Audiard's Un Prophète (A Prophet) is rated as the best film so far from what I have read so it might be another win for France after last year's Entre Les Murs (The Class). However, this time one of the world's best actresses and one of my favourites, Isabelle Huppert, is the head of the jury and only she knows what's going on in that mind of hers. I expect her and her fellow jury members to make a very good and thought through decision and choose a film that really does this year's festival justice.

Campion's Bright Star. This shot alone makes me want to see the film. There's just something about pretty girls in dresses sitting in a field of flowers. It's one of the main reasons why I love Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette so much.

(^THIS IS JUST AMAZINGLY COOL']

Li Wei. Love his photographs. They're brilliant fun. The one with the girl in the red shirt who's about to throw the boy is my favourite.

&$WE ARE ALL ANIMALS{)

According to some shouts on the Last.fm page of the concert of last night, not everyone liked it. For me, when I go out to a concert I just want to have fun, hear the songs I know played live and just go out of control. Dance to those tracks like I always do at home but now with the full band playing live in front of me. So I'm not one who's going to complain about the sound not being too good. I just take things for how they are. And honestly, I thought it still sounded very good. Don't know why they complain. But then again I'm a sucker for the drummer, I always follow his beat and those drums are always heard clearly, if not, there's a real problem. I was standing completely at the front. I was early, they weren't even open yet when I got there. What I didn't like is that on the ticket it says that doors open at 19.30 and the show will start at 20.30. Normally when that is written it means that the start of the show is the main act starting to perform. But apparently in Melkweg that's not the case, 'cause I Heart Hiroshima began at 20.30, who were supporting The Rakes. So I already was waiting for more than an hour before they came on. They played a pretty long set though. I enjoyed them a lot, but as always with supporting acts you feel you can't go completely wild yet. You always feel the crowd is a little hesitant and holds back, 'cause when the main act starts it's like boom, complete chaos, people jumping everywhere, but not with the supporting act, nomatter how good they are and I Heart Hiroshima were definitely good. That's what happened this time as well, but when The Rakes came on there was one explosion of energy. I loved it. The guy next to my left was completely into it as well just like me and all of a sudden this other girl and guy appeared with smiles on their faces dancing with a passion who apparently thought like, yay, the party has really started here, lets join these people. To my surprise, as always, don't know why I'm still surprised :) some of the girls behind me were standing pretty still as were the girls to my right, though I didn't pay any further attention to them, I was enjoying myself way too much. But I was forced to turn around and look behind me because I almost jumped on one girl's feet twice so that's how I found out they weren't moving too much or at least not as much as I do. But I was real happy 'cause I had still a lot of space to dance around. And I noticed that the singer of the band Alan Donohoe (until some seconds ago I had no idea what his name was, thanks Wikipedia!) and I have a pretty similar dancing style. His feet move like mine. So as usual I had tons of fun. Definitely worth the wait. And like the two previous concerts, Metric and Franz Ferdinand, at the end I was completely soaked. So I'm not wearing the same shirt again I wore last night. Jeans are still okay though, even though those ended up a bit sticky as well :D But I just like them too much, I want to wear them at least one more day. Highlight for me apparently was the song We Are All Animals, 'cause that's the one that was burned in my head when I was walking back to the train station afterwards. Did a late night photography session but at first I didn't know why my camera didn't want to go into focus. Couldn't figure it out. In the end it got back into focus, though, but then I was already close to the station to get on the train. Those out of focus ones do look pretty interesting though, because of them not being in focus. But next time I will take proper ones. Today I'm planning to watch Coraline at the Pathé. Starts at 14.30 and I will go and see if my MA supervisor is in his office 'cause I still haven't heard anything from him. I really don't know what to do... :(

So first the out of focus ones then those that are in focus. Bad photographer... ;)







Some pictures of last night. Not taken by me.

The Rakes:



I Heart Hiroshima:

%*SOME OLD, SOME NEW"}

I took two new polaroids from Bambi and his friends. This time they're completely visible inside the frame and not half left out! :) Plus, some other ones I already had...

%@21 GUNS_/

I haven't properly listened to the new Green Day album 21st Century Breakdown yet. I started from the beginning then around the middle felt ready to hear something else. Can't help it, their new album has a lot of songs on it. It's kind of like Red Hot Chili Peppers' Stadium Arcadium. So you have to really make time for it when you want to go and listen to it in its entirety. So yesterday I played a bit of the end, and I started doing the same some minutes ago. So I can't say if there are any songs similar to 21 Guns on it, but I do have a strong feeling that if they'll ever release this song as a single, and I have a feeling they will, it will be pretty major. Like Wake Me Up When September Ends kind of major. A song, and especially video since it featured one of my favourite actresses Evan Rachel Wood, I happen to really like. Actually all of American Idiot I happened to really like, even though it seems that album was a more mainstream one since a lot of die-hard Green Day fans weren't too happy about their newly taken direction. At times it does kind of scare me when I'm like, someone like Avril Lavigne could have sung this. But during my first year at university I had that album on repeat. I remember having lectures at night and then listening to their album in the tram, train, bus, and while walking my way home. If I would have had an Ipod at that time and Last.fm could get it scrobbled it may have ended up being the most played album I've ever played. Really. Especially those long tracks they had like Jesus Of Suburbia and Homecoming. I never really checked out their earlier work. I really should. Like plenty of other albums/bands I need to check out. There's too much music in this world!
Anyway, 21 Guns, I'm telling you, it's gonna be big. Better get used to it. The song does sound a lot like Neil Young's Heart Of Gold, though. And I mean A LOT.
I added the song to the music player so it will start automatically playing when you scroll down too much.
By the way, it's raining. Again. :(

!+ANALYZING PICTURES|}

Lately I'd been thinking about bringing back my blog called Analyzing Pictures which I used for writing reviews on all the movies I'd see. However, because of not having enough time, knowing that probably no one reads the blog anyway, while also no longer believing in writing reviews, I decided it had been enough after having already resurrected it from the death before. But now I'm planning to bring it back again, but differently. I've been thinking a lot about what could be a more interesting way of writing a review or at least convincing people to see or not see a film, getting them excited, by giving your opinion about it. But the thing is, most people will go to a movie anyway, no matter if reviews are good yes/no. If you already decided to see it before reviews came in you'll probably go and see it anyway. Of course I do let myself get influenced by reviews, visiting sites like Metacritic.com and RottenTomatoes.com to see how much of a percentage of all reviews are positive/negative. Often this has me ending up saying that reviews are good when I see a film receives like 80% of positive reviews. But, in contrast to what it at times might assume, I don't read reviews. Never actually. So when I say that reviews for a movie are really good it only means I saw that they received a high percentage of positive reviews. This does really influence my excitement for a film as it can be very much increased. It's the same effect awards such as the Oscars can have on people which often make them decide to watch a certain film. How many times have you not been in a DVD store hearing the person next to you say to a friend: 'This one got 8 Oscars!', which to them means, one, it's apparently really good 'cause it won Oscars, and two, buy it! But even though I feel those sites like Metacritic.com and RottenTomatoes.com are a very good way of getting people excited for a movie and perhaps the best way, I do want to try something new. Instead of writing reviews about an entire movie I will just write something or maybe nothing at all about one image, one movie still that I choose from the movie I've seen and then post on the blog. So that's what I'm going to do. To convince you to see a movie or at least gete xcited for it based on one image from that film. At the end of the day movies are just images, and to me the look of the image is still always one of the most important things to me and maybe even the most important. I could go and see a movie only because it appears to look good. I guess over the years I have created a real love for the image.
A couple of days ago I watched Bande À Part (Band Of Outsiders) for the first time. Now if I could choose one image that I liked, I would choose this one below, although it's hard to choose just one image. Might not be the one I think was the nicest, but it's one of many. For instance, I could have chosen a ny other image from Bande À Part but I decided to take this one. I could perhaps even have chosen every image, but that would be posting the entire film and that's not my intention. This one image has to make you go and see all the images yourself. So would you go and check out the film just because of this one image? Does it get you excited for it?

My 'review' of Bande À Part :)


And last night I saw Efter Brylluppet (After The Wedding) by Susanne Bier who's truly one of the best directors out there. She really shows how crucial a good director is for telling a story. 'Cause at times her stories might be a bit melodramatic, a little bit like a soap opera. But it's the way she tells the story, the way she connects the characters emotionally that make her films so affective.

Efter Brylluppet:



Analyzing Pictures

+}MEN'S RAG>!

It's early Saturday morning, I feel like writing. One of my objectives today is to finish reading Virginia Woolf's The Waves, 'cause I haven't finished yet. It's not an easy read and at times I'm more into it than at other moments so every now and then I decide to read some pages a second time.
After weheartit.com became a new favourite site of mine I bookmarked it immediately and it ended up there with my usual websites I visit on a daily basis. However, weheartit.com ended up less addictive than I thought it would be so I pretty quickly got over it after first 'hearting' images intensively. Recently I replaced weheartit.com for a site called Men's Rag, which shows you the latest collection of fashion labels some I had never even heard of. It's a site for men so they only post images of men's clothing. It's very nice and gets you a lot of inspiration. It might lead people to buy these clothes, but I for one don't have that much money or maybe I do, but I like to spend it on cheaper clothing. :) And not too long ago I've apparently been bit by the fashion bug. Ever since getting these new black boots my sense for style has increased tremedously. Of course sites such as Lookbook.nu, Streetpeeper.com, TheSartorialist.com, TheFacehunter.org and melbournestreetfashion.com have influenced this as well as have my daily visitings of the sites Models.com which shows you the latest news about models, but also a lot of pictures from new photoshoots that appear in magazines. The only negative thing about Models.com is that I've ended up watching a lot of symmetrical faces every single day which after a while does result in you thinking everyone looks like that when of course that's not the case. :)

http://mensrag.com

&#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

#)NOT TODAY=+

So when I came home last evening I found out my meeting with my MA thesis supervisor was yesterday and not as I had been thinking for many days today (!) :( Have emailed him, but no response yet. But I decided to drop by his office anyway, but dude wasn't there. So now I have to wait... But basically I finished it. Introduction, all three chapters, the conclusion. I wrote it all. :)

#!FRANZ)_

I hope by tomorrow the buzz in my ear will be completely gone. I slept well last night so that's good. Here some more pictures from Monday night. As usual I didn't take them as it's impossible to hold a camera while jumping/dancing/shaking my head at the same time :)

&#LEO LE BUG)(

So the person who is responsible for that Naive New Beaters music video is Leo Le Bug or Megaforce, whatever his name is, and he has done music videos before for both Metronomy as well as Late Of The Pier, two bands which I love. Also he takes photos and by the look of his website has apparently travelled a lot.
Go here to see for yourself:

http://leolebug.canalblog.com

@$CHECK THIS VID OUT_+

Very well made music video. Very funny. Must have taken a lot of preparation to time everything, but I assume they just added the images on the mirrors during post-production instead of having them projected on them right there and then. Anyway, it's good. Music's pretty fun as well. Had never heard of the band before.

Edit: After watching it again I must say it's actually really really amazing. Not just good or wel made. No, amazing :) Or pretty damn good, f+cking mint, rad, or whatever, you go and choose your own superlative...

Naive New Beaters - LIVE GOOD // by MEGAFORCE from leo le bug on Vimeo.

^#BANDE À PART+|

I finally watched Bande À Part the other night. No idea why I waited this long to see it. It wasn't in my recently bought Godard box though, unfortunately. But this film is all kinds of amazing. Anna Karina has this unusual kind of beauty, she's not extremely pretty, but just enough that it doesn't become intimidating. She has such great eyes. She definitely was made to end up on film. Of course the scene where they run through the Louvre for me is one of the highlights as it has been remade in my favourite film The Dreamers. So just for that it was about time I saw the original in full. But already the opening sequence where you see close-ups of the faces of the three main characters edited together left me with my mouth wide open. And then there's the minute of silence, the über cool dance scene and the part where Anna Karina can be heard singing. And as always I love Godard's use of voice-over.
Here's a clip of that infamous dance scene that inspired other dance sequences such as the one from Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction.

!{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

^*TONIGHT: FRANZ FERDINAND>"

F&CK IT! Okay. I don't care how much it cost me, I want to go and I'm going. I told myself if I go to the Ticketmaster site again and there's a ticket left it's meant to be and I'll be there tonight. I checked and there was a ticket left. I'm going. I paid. Tonight I'll see Franz Ferdinand in Paradiso! :D

,;THIS IS COOL TOO*%

After watching the video GO HERE: http://www.gailalberthalaban.com

|\THIS IS COOL{+

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

After watching the video GO HERE: http://blublu.org

^%PICTURES OF METRIC + SOMEONE WANT TO GIVE ME MONEY SO I COULD GO SEE FRANZ FERDINAND?????_+

Pictures from Metric from Wednesday night (I didn't take them, someone else did). I still can't get enough. If they would play again tonight, I would so go! By the way, I could have seen Franz Ferdinand tomorrow night, I noticed there still are tickets available, even though on the Ticketmaster site it says it's sold out. But it's something like 32,50 euros and even though it might be worth the money, I'm sure it is, it's A LOT. And I don't want to see them that badly, I mean, I like them, but I've never had a fanatic period, never been truly obsessed, which kind of has to do with the fact that I have never really gotten the time to really listen to them often. I do know some people who would probably go nomatter the price. But still, if anyone wants to invest in me, feel free. Three people, 10 euros each. It could get me there...

(*LATEST OBSESSION ALERT^%

OH OH, I like this A LOT! After having read their name across websites a couple of times I just noticed them again in the latest issue of V magazine which you can read online. So I thought let's check them out. This song, I just listened to it for the first time, but they got me already. Video is pretty fun as well, very summer-ish :) Love it when they're lying in the grass. I like the singer's voice. Do you hear how she pronounces 'through'?! Brilliant. Unexpected new discovery. Nice nice. This will keep me awake for just a little longer! Yum :)

Chairlift - "Evident Utensil" Music Video from Data Mosher on Vimeo.