Eternal Children

I just watched Eternal Children (Dutch site). It is a documentary about the "Freak Folk" musical movement that is in my playlist more and more. It focusses on some of the more known artists like Devendra Banhart, CocoRosie, Vashti Bunyan and Antony (and the Johnsons).
Quite funny to see all those people interviewed by a Dutch filmer. The show was broadcasted at the end of 2006, on the VPRO (Dutch TV station).

Since CocoRosie is coming to Lowlands this year, I wanted to know a bit more about their music, since it is quite the freaky sound they produce. Turns out, they use just a few instruments, and a lot of toys, ancient tape recorders and almost broken microphones. It works for them, in my opinion.

I have been listening to these girls for a short time, but very often, and it just doesn't get boring (yet).

One of the other artists interviewed is Devendra Banhart. He has released a couple of cds and is quite popular in the Freak Folk scene, but I think he overdoes it a bit. Saying that this kind of music has saved his life in several ways.

Antony Hegarty (from Antony and the Johnsons) turned out to be a different character than I imagined. I thought he was just a regular guy, but turns out to be a "jumping queer". Not a negative thing, I just didn't expect it. He has a great voice which brings out the best in the songs he writes.

The documentary is quite interesting and consists of about half an hour of talking and half an hour of music. The filming is pretty good, and almost makes it kind of a short film.

Usually I am not really interested in music backgrounds, but since this is quite different from regular music, is sparked my enthousiasm. Not that I can do much with their ideas, since the Freak Folk is quite right. They are all a bit freaky.

Pinkpop 2007

Yesterday was the last day of the Pinkpop festival. We had a monday-ticket, so we only could go one day, instead of three. This actually is nice, because I find Pinkpop an incredibly boring festival. This has nothing to do with the band, but simply with the way the festival works.

There are three stages, and they only use 2 stages, or the main stage. Apart from that, there is nothing, which means that if you do not want to see one act, there is nothing to do. This was the case.
We went to see the Smashing Pumpkins, the last and closing act. Before that, the day was filled with several concerts which we went to see.

We saw The Fratellis, Wolfmother, Dave Matthews Band, Arctic Monkeys, Linkin Park and finally the Smashing Pumpkins.


The Fratellis were sweet, they played their tunes, and that was it, but it still was pretty okay.
Wolfmother rocked. These guys can play a big audience, with just the three of them. From beginning to end, the show was a success.

After Wolfmother we had a break from shows to get something to eat and drink. We avoided going to the Scissor Sisters, or Stone Sour.

A while later the time was there for Dave Matthews Band. I wanted to see them since a couple of people I know think he's great, and I heard some of his tunes that were pretty okay. But man, does he suck. The show was incredibly boring, and his overproduced music doesn't do anything at a festival. This was one of the worst festival acts I have ever seen, and then to think he is one of the biggest bands in the USA...

We watched the Arctic Monkeys from the back of the field, since I like their music, but that's it, like... They did exactly what I expected them to do, be boring on stage, barely move, look like dorks and play very well. After the Arctic Monkeys we watched a bit of Macy Gray's show, which was a big surprise. I didn't expect anything, but I did like her show, the atmosphere was good and the music was pretty okay.

We had some time to spare after that, before the Smashing Pumpkins started, so we walked around, and watched Linkin Park from afar. And as I expected, they sucked. I really dislike the band, since they are too marketed, and their music is such a nu-metal rip off. They even tried to be some kind of 'victims' because America was really hurt by the entire Katrine stuff. Happened years ago and could have been rebuild by now, if Bush was not such an ass. And by the way, the tsunami in Asia had way more impact, more victims, and those people can't rebuild, so shut up.


After these idiots we went into the first secluded part of the main stage area, to have a proper concert with the Smashing Pumpkins. Damn, are these guys cool or what. They played a lot of great old songs, and a lot of new ones too. Since it is a tour for their new music and to regain some of their old status, I applaud them playing new songs. A+ for the show, and A++ for the very sexy base player.

But, as a usual Pinkpop, the bands are okay, the festival is not. The food is expensive, and barely edible. And, as I said before, there is nothing to do. Will I go again next year? Only if the line-up is better, since the breaks between good bands were too big. Had to wait too long and see too many shit bands.

Another night of Whisky

Yesterday was the 25th, and as planned we went to a whisky nosing and tasting evening at the Whisky Koning. The theme for the evening was Summer Whiskies. That meant, 6 whiskies that go down a bit more easily than your standard Highland or Island whisky. The shop owner chose to have us taste six Speyside malts.

The ones we had:

1. Craigellachie, 10 years old
2. Glen Elgin, 12 years old
3. Glenmorangie
4. Glendronach, 15 years old
5. Hart Brothers, 15 years old (54.2 %)
6. Glen Dullan, 12 years old (58,9 %)

If I had to grade the evening's whiskies, it would be 55, 75, 70, 75, 85, 80 (in the same order as above). Overal, considering my personal taste for the more smoky and peaty whiskies, it would be a bit lower.

I expected the whiskies to be a bit more exclusive, but the evening was nice, the whiskies were good, nonetheless.

Afterwards, I was unable to leave the shop without buying at least one bottle. And since my project had to start sometime (the malts under 30 euros), I could buy two without being too ashamed of myself.

I bought a 10 years old Tobermory, and a 10 year old Glen Grant.

I have not tasted them yet, but tonight will be early enough to start evaluating. Not too much, because I have to drive to my in-laws tomorrow morning, way too early.
And on monday we are going to Pinkpop to see the Smashing Pumpkins and a couple of other acts. Will have to be a bit fit then as well. Luckily I can sleep in Tuesday.

So, the first tasting results will be in soon, and I am going to invite a couple of friends, who are interested in my project as well to join me in the nosing and tasting descriptions, and to get a more objective grading done.
The next ones that are going to be bought are probably the Arran 10, and a Laphroaig, just to get a couple more regions into the grading process.
On the initial list was a Cu Dhub Black Whisky, and a "Vintage" Campbeltown. The connaisseur at the shop discouraged me to buy these, since they wont make the cut in the end, and there is a good reason they are cheap, mainly the quality. So the list is getting narrowed down a bit, which is nice. More chance to get a lot done before the end of the year.

The whisky hobby has added another item on the wishlist, namely a proper Whisky Cabinet. An old, preferably antique oak, cupboard, with old fashioned glass doors in it, to show off my growing whisky collection. At the moment my bottles are in a closed cabinet, so no one sees the bottles, and even I forget to pick up a glass every now and then...

Last Horizon

Last Horizon is local band that needs support in getting a bit bigger than they are now. The band consists of friends of mine, that have just released their demo on their site and on "Onbekend Talent". The last is a site for beginning Dutch bands that need a couple of listeners and votes to get their name out.


On both sites above you can download/listen to their songs, and vote for them. Please do so.

Starcraft II

About 10 years ago, Blizzard released a great Realtime Strategy game called Starcraft. It was a great succes and played online for years after it's release. After that, rumors were that Blizzard was creating a Starcraft 2, but that rumor died out a couple of years ago. Until now. Finally the second Starcraft game has been announced and there are trailers available online. It promises to be a great game again. Really looking forward to play it!

It will probably be another year before the release is due, but Blizzard takes the quality and 'bugfreeness' of the game in high account. So that's not too bad. Gives me some more time to finally finish Command and Conquer 3...

Another weekend

Thursday (ascension day) we went to the movies to see Pan's Labyrinth. A Spanish "fairy tale" about a girl who wants to get into some fairy kingdom. Sounds a bit childish, but I can recommend the movie, if you like fantasy movies.

This was a very nice weekend. I had a lot to do, and still plenty of time to relax and read a book or two (comics that is). Last friday we went to NUHR with a couple of collegues.

NUHR is a comedy group from the Netherlands, four guys telling jokes on a stage. Or so we thought. It was quite acceptable, but about half of the show was not even remotely funny. So NUHR is on the "banned list" from now on. After the show we went into town for a couple of beers and had a lot of fun till 0.30 am.

Saturday I went to a friends workshop/warehouse to put my CD player in my car. I got that from another friend, for free (thanks Theo) and we put it in, quite easily. Of course, it was too easy and we found out that the fire lighter short circuited the radio, so we had to fix that as well. After that we hung around a bit while Floris worked on his campervan. He has a Hanomag Henschell (really cool).
We went to De Wit in Schijndel (a really really really big camping store) for some parts for his gas system and saw a very cool Volkswagen T1 van there.

In the evening I went to Terminus (the Irish pub in Den Bosch) and had couple of Guinnesses and two scotches (a nice Benriach of unknown age) and a Arran with a Calvados finish (cask strength, with a great bite to it).

I did have a bit of a headache sunday morning, but that always happens when I go to the pub. For some reason I can drink twice as much at home without problems, but when I got to the pub, something goes wrong.

On Sunday I read a bunch of comics in the daytime. Anneke was working on her thesis so I didn't want to distract her too much.
In the evening we went to Spiderman 3 together. That was nice. The cinemas in Den Bosch really suck, so we didn't expect too much. The problem was that this movie was in the cinema that is least popular, and is even worse than the popular one. More like a large widescreen tv with the sound on very loud. The movie itself was a bit of a drag too, it takes way too long to start. And it is a bit too American. Spidey flies past some big-ass American flags and goes a bit too far on the drama. I did still enjoy it, Sandman and Venom are cool and have great special effects.

All in all, a busy but quite nice weekend. Trying again next weekend with a day of Pinkpop, going to my in-laws and all kinds of other stuff.

Pokernight at work

Yesterday was the day for the first Lectric Pokernight. We ended up playing with 16 persons, spread over two tables. The first round was to decide who would be on the winners table or the losers table.
My collegues were playing very aggressively and a couple of them were out of chips in 15 minutes. I ended up on the winners table by playing a lot of chips on a big bluff (only a king as high card) and a hand that got solid with the river (pair of sixes and an ace, river was another six).

The winners table meant that I got my money back, with a chance to win a lot more. I didn't do that, since the easy bluffs didn't work as well there. I lost an 'all-in' on a pair of queens and a nine, my collegue had a pair of queens and a ten. Pity.

Everyone really enjoyed themselves, and I guess we will have another pokernight before long.

Today is 'Ascensionday', and that always comes with 'Geranium market' (the flower) in Den Bosch. Since the weather sucks today, I don't think it will be to crowded, but I will have a look this afternoon, and visit the local comicbook shop as well.

Work Work Work

It has a quite for a bit longer than usual. I have been working a bit more than regular, since I had a full agenda at work, and I took on another 12 hours of work, writing documentation for one of our customers. So, apart from testing websites, building them and doing support on them, writing documentation and 'guiding' an outsourcing project in Minsk, Belarus, I didn't do much this week.


In the evening I worked extra, and didn't get to doing anything else, actually. I only read a few comics, just to get my mind of things.
With a bit of luck, I can get to blogging and doing things to blog about a bit more the coming weeks.

I planned my next Microsoft Certification early in June (Microsoft Certified Software Developer, MCSD), so that is going to demand some time as well, but not too much, I hope.

A new long-term project

By now, almost everybody who has seen this blog before knows I really like to drink whisky, especially good ones (of course). I usually spend between 40 and 60 euro's on a bottle of it, about once a month (sometimes twice...). But from a book called "The Whisky Bible" you can get scores, and some of the high scoring whiskies are priced below 30 euros.



Take the 10 year old Glen Grant for example, it costs only about € 22,50, and score 89 out of a 100 points. Some 500 euro scotches don't get that kind of score. Now I know it is a matter of taste, but there should be some low prices jewels out there. And I'm bound to find some.

From now on, till (I expect) the end of the year, I'm going to try to buy about two low priced Scottish single malts a month (and actually lower my expenses), and nose, taste, and rank them.
Since now is May, and the year still has 7 months after this one, I expect to taste around 15 different whiskies, and select "the best" out of them by Christmas.

I set up some rules for myself:

• The price must be below 30 euros (30 is OK, 30.05 is not)


• Special Offers don's count, since they tend to mess up the range of scotches


• A bottle has to be at least 0.7 litres, since the minis and samples tend to end up cheaper, and I don't want to taste a 60 euro whisky to mess it up.


• I will look the scotches up on the Internet before I buy anything, since incredibly low scoring scotches are still a waste of money.


• I will only buy whiskies from the "whisky koning" to keep the price differences to a minimum, and they tend to have a fairly average price.


• I will accept help from friends :-)
  

So I've compiled a little list of the available whiskies within the set of rules above, you can get it here.

I've already selected and deselected a couple on the list, since I already have a bottle, or I really dislike the whisky.

I already have Smokehead, Glenfiddich 12.
I absolutely will NOT taste the Isle of Jura whiskies. Some people love them, some hate them, there seems no 'in between' and I belong to the second category.

If you have any suggestions, tips, or if you are willing to help, let me know by leaving a comment, adding me to your MSN, or email me.

EDIT: Financial support is also welcomed...

Oloroso Finish

The good thing about having a car is the ease with which you go to work. The bad thing is that you have to park it somewhere. Another drawback was that, until yesterday I did not have a parking license for our own area, and so I parked it in the first free parking area of Den Bosch, which happens to be reasonably close to The Whisky Koning. So, without much thinking I walked over there last thursday with Jan-Pieter, a friend and collegue that drives to and from work with me.

When I got there I talked a bit to the owner, Rob Stevens, and, I don't know how exactly, we got talking about finishes and then Clynelish. A fairly unknown whisky brand (for me at least), with a good example of an oloroso (sherry) finish. There is a regular Clynelish, which is a Scotch, as Scotch is meant to be. But this year, the guys behind the "Distiller's Edition" released a Double Matured version of that whisky. The regular brand is put into a second barrel, which has been used for Oloroso Sherry before it got to Scotland.

How could it be any different than a good ol' tasting after that? Thomas came over yesterday, and we had a couple of scotches, with this one in there as well. A very very nice whisky, a bit sweeter than I am used to, but really awesome.
I think this is the best Sherry Finished whisky that I have tasted thus far.

Last FM

Again, about Last.FM. Most people that know me know I have a huge amount of mp3's on my computer. Most of the time I listen to those mp3's on Windows Media Player, and have the Last.fm plugin running in the background.

The benefit of last fm is that is still searches for artists you like, depending on the songs you play. Apart from that, it searches for other users on Last.fm that have similar interests. That is one hell of a way to learn about more and more cool music and bands.

About two weeks ago, I was listening to a cd by Devendra Banhart, and Last.fm suggested listening to CocoRosie (warning: incredibly big flash site) as well. I searched around a bit on the net for a couple of tunes by them, which I found, of course. The funny part was that a collegue of mine came to me early last week telling me that he listened to CocoRosie, and he thought I would like it, coincidence. Ever more strange was that Lowlands announced that CocoRosie would play at this years festival. How wicked can it get. You find a band you like, and they come to the festival you like. Niiice.

Anyway, since I liked Devendra Banhart, CocoRosie, I looked up the genre they are considered to be in on Last FM, and they called it "Weird America". Dutch media (vpro's 3voor12) calls it Weird Folk or Freak Folk. I looked it up on Wikipedia, and in the Weird America page they have quite the list of artists considering to be in the genre. A few of them I already knew (Akron/Family, Anthony and the Johnsons, Iron & Wine, Joanna Newsom, but most of them were new, and some even had a few torrents floating around on the web. Trying them out this week, and I'll see what I think of it. Maybe a new favorite genre...

Now I just hope Lowlands comes up quickly with their complete line-up.

Koninginnendag

Or Queensday, was big this year in Den Bosch. The Queen herself, and her sons, their wives, and all kinds of other royal blood was coming to Den Bosch this year.

It started a bit quiet in the morning, at least, for us it did. Anneke's sister with her husband and a good friend of us came from Krommenie to celebrate Queensday here. The evening before we went to dinner at Coquille (the winning restaurant from the TV show). It cost us a fortune, but it was the best dinner I've ever had. We all had the 6 course Surprise Menu, with Wine arrangement. Six wines, fitting the food, all delicious.



Queensday itself started with going to see the Queen (duh). We went into town and with some other 100.000+ people. We found a reasonably quiet spot along the route, and waited for an hour with some beers. The Queen passed by and it was quite cool to see her in the flesh for a change. Anneke even shook Willem Alexander's hand (the crown prince). After she passed by we tried to get to the market place, but that was closed by the police, since it was too crowded.

Since the entire town was incredibly busy we decided to get some more beers and go out to drink in the Bossche Broek (again, works every time). I even got a nice old fashioned sunburn...

Car Part 2.5

YES!!!

Last Friday I picked up my car in the morning and drove to work right after that. The simple fact that I can come to work on my own is just great!!! I love it. In Car Part 3 I will post some pictures, but I haven't taken them yet. I have been too busy this weekend to do that.