MartiniPlaza

The Kilkenny’s, St. Nick and Some Goblins

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20151203_215029Thursday Mom and I were going to see The Kilkenny’s perform at MartiniPlaza. The Kilkenny’s are an Irish folk group. I’ve got their songs in my Folk playlist on Spotify and I really enjoy them. They have a distinctive voice both as a band as well as individually and pick songs that aren’t all that traditional. Of course there’s always a few, but they also play original songs and traditionals lesser known outside Ireland.

Unfortunately, during the day Mom had to cancel on me as she wasn’t feeling well. She’s been having some flu-like symptoms for a few days now so it wasn’t completely unexpected, but still a bummer. I asked Nienke and Ingrid if one of them wanted to come along, but neither could make it so I went alone.

20151204_131211The concert was great. They were energetic, played fantastically and managed to get the room full of stodgy northerners to move. No dancing, but there was foot stomping, clapping and singing along when requested. I had a front row seat and managed to shoot some video for Mom.

After the concert and encore were over I checked the time. The bus back to the train station only came once every half hour. If I could catch the next bus, I had an excellent connection to the train. Then the boys came back for an extra encore. I wasn’t expecting that, and neither were a lot of other people as many had started leaving.

I stuck around for a while, but I had to slip away before they finished that song. If I didn’t catch the bus, the next one was half an hour and then I’d have to also wait for the next train and so on. So I grabbed my coat and picked up the pace. Walking as fast as I could I raced to the bus stop only to miss the bus by a minute. Because it was early.

20151204_221306I wasn’t really in the mood to hang out there for half an hour so I checked the map and ball parked that I should be able to make it if I walked. So I went, and I did make it! Even though my leg wasn’t in agreement with this. 🙂

Yesterday at work during the daily meeting we all got a present for St. Nicholas. Every one got a personal poem (mine about my Pikachu hat), plus candy. It was a very fun meeting and quite a nice surprise.

After work I found a package waiting for me. It was the Goblin Zeppelin of the Warcraft lego I had ordered. Of course I spent the next two hours or so building it. It is a beauty.

Monkey, meanwhile, enjoyed the box.
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Jochem Myjer

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20151119_210006Showtime again 🙂 This time around it was Jochem Myjer performing his latest show at MartiniPlaza. Mom wanted to go to this so I agreed. I generally like Jochem Myjer, but sometimes it’s a bit too much for me. So I wasn’t sure what I’d think of a live show. Luckily, it turned out to be a great show. Too bad about the seats being so far away. The show sold out so fast that by the time I ordered these were one of the few still available.

The stage was empty except for this giant head. At first I was confused and thought it was former Queen Beatrix. But then the lights got better and I realised it was an oversized bust of Jochem himself. When the show started, he came out of the bust at the head.

The show itself was a mixture of his regular physical comedy but this time around interspersed with serious bits. The skeleton of the show was him reading from his hospital journal when he was being treated for a tumour in his back. From the journal he would side step to flashbacks of his youth and other bits where he could be more physical. He did imitations, sang songs, and ran around the stage.

All the while, the head was used as an almost living piece of decor. Visual effects were shown on the head and sometimes Jochem would disappear in and reappear from the head.

I really enjoyed the show. It was very nice to see him being serious occasionally, it allows a different peek into who he is.

Tickets

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PSX_20150701_170251Yay, my Oosterpoort & Schouwburg theatre tickets for the coming season have arrived! I have eight shows in the Oosterpoort and the Schouwburg to go to, and then there’s also two shows in MartiniPlaza this year.

In September, Sinfonia Rotterdam is playing the Requiem of Fauré.

In October, Nienke and I will attend the North Netherlands Orchestra playing various movie scores.

In November, my Mom and I are going to hear Luka Bloom sing.

Then, also in November, Mom and I are going to see Jochem Myjer play his cabaret show at MartiniPlaza.

December has The Kilkenny’s performing in MartiniPlaza.

And a few days after Toneelhuis is doing the play Caligula by Camus.

Black Grace is up in February, they are a dance group from New Zealand performing various bits from earlier shows.

In April I’ll be going to see Diederik van Vleuten do a cabaret conference kinda thing.

And then May has a new show by Daniel Lohues filled with songs and anecdotes.

La Bohème is the final show of the season, performed by Opera Zuid in June.

War Horse

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war_4-1280x800Yesterday, Mom and I went to see the theater production of War Horse. It was beyond amazing.

It tells the story of the English boy Albert who acquires a horse, Joey, and then loses it to the military when World War I comes around. He enlists in the army to try and find Joey again and promises to bring him home. We then follow both of them through the war. Joey is used in the cavalry, pulls medical carts and cannons. Albert goes from trench to trench. In the end, just as Albert, wounded, is about to give up, he and Joey get reunited.

The animals in the show are puppets, made by the same company that made the Lion King puppets. There are a number of horses, but only two of them are main characters. So these two are the most elaborate and require three people to play them.

It was an amazing show, the story line itself is a bit simplistic, but seeing as how the book it is based on is a children’s book, that is to be expected. The decor was very understated. Freestanding doors and a window frame on a string to indicate the houses, iron poles held by people to signify fences, a plow, a cannon. High above the stage was a big projector screen shaped like a torn piece of paper. On there, throughout the show, hand drawn animations were shown to display scenery (extrapolated from what was shown on stage) and drive home the horrors of WWI (which really packs a punch) with also occasionally dates and places to give an idea of when and where everything takes place.

The horses look fantastic and the choreography and movement is so well done that, within minutes, they transcend their form and become real. We were seated first row on the balcony giving us an unencumbered view of the whole stage and allowing me to lean on the balustrade and just be totally immersed.

July

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Right, in July I bought a pool 😀 A 276×169 cm blow-up pool (with electric pump ’cause I’m not insane enough to blow it up myself or with a handpump).

Also, per July I got a regular contract at work (versus via a temp agency), so that’s a nice change.

I bought a new collage photo frame, ordered prints of a bunch of 2010 photos and used them to fill said frame, as well as the photo curtainy-thing I have on my loo door.

Picked the Sims 3 back up after almost two years. Brought on by Nienke and I building an imaginary mansion where we would live I decided to try and build it in the Sims. It’s 2/3 finished and looking pretty good. I’ve identified some problem areas so will probably rebuild in a while.

I Went out for pizza with Eva at Napoli. As per usual, the pizza was great, the seating rather cramped. We sat next to each other for most of the meal since there was no space to sit on the other side of the table. On itself not a problem, but it’s nice to be able to look at the person you’re talking to. After we had mostly finished our pizza the people on the table next to ours left, so I could switch places and we hung around for a while longer chatting eye-to-eye.

When we left, Eva suggested we go for ice cream, so went across the street to get a McFlurry at the McDonalds there. They still had their outside seating there, so we lounged on that while enjoying the icey-chocolatey-caramely goodness of McFlurry-with-mixed-in-candybar.

Talked some more about life, the universe and everything from small talk to future plans. When eventually the McD’s personnel started putting the tables and such back inside we stuck around until we were the only table left 😀

We then slowly made our way back to the train station, walking along the water and the pretty trees that look the best in evening light. Once back at the train station we were thirsty and hit the Burger King for a coke to finish in that last half hour before my train would leave. Some fifteen minutes later, mid-sentence, Eva spotted Mellien, so we called her over to wait for the train with us. After some more chatting, we parted ways: Eva returning home, and Mellien and I headed for the train to our respective homes.

On the 19th I went to the hair dresser. I walked in with the remnants of my Spike-blond hair, and came out with a purple mohawk.

The 24th saw me and Nienke go to a Derek Ogilvie show. Both of us have been wanting to for while now. We’re intrigued but sceptical, so going to a show gave us a chance to see beyond what he shows on camera. Fortunately, he’s quite like on TV during his shows. He’s quite hyper while he’s communicating, making jokes with the audience and such to bridge the moments where the spirits are talking to him and he has no message to give yet. There’s a very energetic and relaxed vibe coming from him. It’s obvious from watching him that he believes fully. I remain sceptic. I’d love to believe this is real, but there were just a tad too many things that can be attributed to cold reading techniques*. In the end, though, the five or so people that got a reading, I think it did help them. And I’d go again if he comes back to Groningen.

*I know it’s the primary cause of death, but it’s funny to notice how many spirits die of heart disease. And how many women have had miscarriages, even one the woman in question didn’t know about… And when he starts to call out the confirmation things it’s a lot of pains here, pains there. Most of these are pretty generic, back pain, pain in leg, stomach/bowelpain. The things he mentions, though, after he found the person the spirit wants to talk to… there’s really specific stuff in there.

Starbucks on Groningen Central Station is opening August 5th and they we’re doing a trial run last week to train the staff. You could go in and order whatever you wanted for free. I had a lovely White Mocha. I’ll be ordering from them more in the future (although not too often, that shit’s expensive).

I also got my first batch of GetGlue stickers. GetGlue is a website where you can check in to various things that you’re doing/watching/listening to/reading etc.. While mostly focused on Media, it also has topics so you can conceivably check in on anything.

By checking in, and liking things, you earn virtual stickers. Once you have enough stickers (minimum of 20), you can have them sent to you, via mail, for free. My first batch took about 5 or 6 weeks to arrive I think. So far I’m enjoying it a lot. I check in to what I actually watch (I check in to TV or movies mostly) and have that posted on Twitter and Facebook. And besides that I actively hunt stickers, checking into and liking things for the sake of getting a sticker, even if I’m not actually watching that at the moment. I think I’ve collected close to 300 stickers now. Too bad they only send 20 at a time, and you can only request a new batch once a month…