Music

Aosem

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Just got back from the theater where I saw Daniel Lohues perform. He has a new album out, Aosem, and he played songs from that, together with choice numbers from earlier albums. Daniel is always good. His songs are great and he is a fantastic storyteller. The only thing that I liked less is that the songs from the older albums were mostly the same ones he did last year when he was touring his previous album. His repertoire is so large, he could’ve easily changed up some more songs for variety.

Mom was supposed to go with me. But there was prediction of real bad weather, so she decided not to go. I said, fuck it, and hopped on the train and went anyway 😀

The weather turned out to be just fine. It rained quite a lot, apparently, but that was while I was inside the Theater. During my moments of transit, everything was peachy.

Thursday, Mom and I went to Appingedam for some shopping. The thrift store there is amazing, I’m in love. It’s huge, spread out over two floors, and has a very large book section. We also walked through town a bit and saw, among other things, the famous hanging kitchens.

 

Music and Movies

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New month, new chances 😀 I’ve continued the demolition of the wretched laminate on the stairs under the trusty snoopervision of the catsIt is now free of laminate, but I still need to spend some time removing more of the cement-glue.

Then I saw on Facebook that Ronan Keating is coming to the Netherlands in August for a one-time concert in Utrecht. I was a big fan of Boyzone and Ronan in my teens and early twenties. I still like their, and his, music a lot. As such, I immediately texted Ingrid if she wanted to go with me. Which she did! I immediately ordered tickets and they showed up a few days later.

On Saturday I went to Leeuwarden for Anne’s birthday. It was great seeing her again. Sunday was designated relax and watch movies day. I have a lot of film channels in my tv-package and record a lot of them for watching when it suits me. It’s a good way to catch up on movies I missed in the cinema. Recently I recorded The Theory of Everything and The Imitation Game, both of which I missed in the cinema, so I picked them for watching.

The Imitation Game is a good film. I am a fan of Benedict Cumberbatch and he is really good here. There were some liberties taken with historical accuracy, but on the whole I like how it shines a light on the work Turing and his colleagues did. And how it showed the struggles of queer people then.

The Theory of Everything was also a good film. I am to repeat myself in that I am also a fan of Eddie Redmayne and he is great here. The liberties with regard to historical accuracy are greater in this film. The movie is, however, a well-constructed story that just focuses a bit too much on a good love story than on who Hawking was back then and what he did and accomplished.

Black Grace

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Black Grace

Photo by the Black Grace crew from their Facebook page

Saturday I saw Black Grace perform in the Schouwburg. Black Grace is a New Zealand dance company led by Neil Ieremia. Ieremia choreographs dances inspired by and drawn upon both his Samoan heritage and the current world of New Zealand. They’re doing a tour of the Netherlands with a show called Verse 3: a collection of five short works and excerpts of various older works.

Pati Pati (2009) was the first. It’s a mix of fragments from four other works using Samoan seated dance (Sasa) and slap dancing (Fa’ataupati). It has pieces from Relentless (1998), Black Grace (1995), Fia Ola (1998) and Amata (2007). I really loved this because of the rhythm and repetition. It’s meditative.

The second was Human Language (2002), a work inspired by the body language of men and women when they start getting romantically interested in each other. It also mimics various forms of mating behaviour. It starts out, for example, by the men blowing up colourful balloons. As the girl parades in front of them they raise their heads so the balloons hang at throat level. Similar to how some birds inflate their necks to show of their vibrant neck and belly feathers. As the girl turns them down, they let go of the balloons in defeat, letting them shoot away as they deflate.

Gathering Clouds (2009) was made in answer to an article in a New Zealand newspaper. The article went on about how Pacific Island immigrants to New Zealand had the lowest education levels, were most represented in prison, most without jobs and so on, basically saying they were bad for New Zealand. This pissed Neil off so made this work to deal with his feelings and show that things aren’t  perfect, they evolve and change and unrest comes from that, and helps with that. The dance starts with strong Samoan influences, traditional dancing and traditional music and halfway through morphs into more modern dancing on a number of Goldberg Variations by Bach to show that yes, we’re all different, but we’re all also the same.

Mother Mother (2013) was choreographed on request of New Zealand group Fat Freddy’s Drop. They wrote a song called Mother Mother and wanted Neil to make a dance for the videoclip. Ieremia refused a couple times but eventually agreed. The work starts out with a lot of physical manipulation of the body culminating in the literal raising up of women as a symbol for how Mothers help their kids up.

The final piece, Minoi (1999), is traditional. It is a Samoan song which literally means to wiggle. It starts with a woman singing the song and then blends with the dancers. They appear behind her and take over the singing. Mixing it with slap dancing and turning the song into a round it becomes a mantra.

I Want a Rolling Robot

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20151216_092751Wednesday I had another check-up after my surgery earlier this year. I took the bus there, and as such got there early. I had breakfast at the cafe in the hospital. Bread with ham, pineapple, grilled cheesse and apple chutney. Very tasty 🙂 Then I headed for the clinic for the appointment. The scars look really nice, the nipple grafts look good. The left one is even responsive. The only thing that bugs me is that the end of the scar, under my arm, is pointing outwards. The doctor agreed and we decided to get that fixed. Luckily that’s a small job that can be done at the clinic with just some local anesthetic. Just have to wait a while for it to be scheduled.

I then went to work for a few hours after which I met up with Gert to go see Star Wars: The Force Awakens. I really enjoyed the movie. I’ve seen the other Star Wars movies once, years ago. I can’t remember everything anymore but I know enough to be aware of the general story. Plus, with Star Wars being so ingrained in pop culture, it’s hard to miss.

The new movie introduces new main characters while leaving some room for golden oldies to return. I like Rey and Finn and I love the new robot. I’m definitely keeping the BB-8 plushie from last year’s Nerd Block 🙂 The sequences with the golden oldies, Leia, Hand, Chewie, were charming and I hope we do see more of them in the next movies. I’m less impressed with Kylo, he seems too wimpy. But maybe he’ll grow into his boots. Other than that it was a fairly straight forward story with fun action sequences and good visuals.

Then yesterday Ingrid and I went to the Oosterpoort for a concert show by The Kik. We’d been talking about going to this, and then Ingrid gave me the ticket for my birthday. I’d not heard of them before, but the description of what they do sounded fun. They’re a band that plays music from and inspired by the fifties, sixties and seventies. They write their own stuff, but also cover existing songs from that time. The show wasn’t just a concert but a way of walking through their inspirations.

The stage was dressed with a handful of doors in the back, and a cabinet with vinyls at the front. They would pick a record from the cabinet and tell something about the artist or the song and then play a song by that artist, or something of themselves inspired by. Occasionally a doorbell would ring and there’d be a cutout of an artist behind one of the doors as an introduction to another song or bit of talking. It was an energetic and fun show, and I got to hear a new side of Dutch music.

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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Legion

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20151106_225052It’s BlizzCon weekend!

I hooked up the laptop to the TV and I’m spending a lot of time in my comfy chair watching the panels. With an occasional cat as decorative lap ornament.

Bring on Legion!

I also found this awesome Kickstarter: Music for Cats. It’s this dude, David Teie, who’s been spending his time figuring out what kind of music animals like. He started with dogs, but is now working on music for cats. He’s been doing research into how cats hear and what sounds they like and then composes pieces based on his findings. With the proceeds of the Kickstarter he wants to record and release the pieces.

So far, the Kickstarter is only a week and a half old and he’s blasting through his goals. I pledged to get a CD set with the music. One regular CD and three CD’s that have the music with silence in between so I can put on a CD in the morning for the cats and it will play throughout the day.

Luka Bloom

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20151101_225733One of the shows for this year’s theater season was a performance by Irish folk singer-songwriter Luka Bloom. I’d mostly heard of him, instead of music by him but when I saw he was doing a show here, I was interested. So was Mom, so we went together last night.

The support act was this Belgian group, or duo really, called Byron Bay. They played a short twenty minute or so set. I liked the songs, but the music was rather loud. I couldn’t really hear the lyrics very well, which was a shame.

20151102_202841After that, Luka came on stage. He played a full show with some older songs and some songs of his new album interspersed with anecdotes. I really enjoyed the whole thing. He’s of the same make as Boudewijn de Groot. His songs are melodious and the lyrics generally meaningful. The evening was a great success.

Tonight, Nienke and I built a fancy dinner with toast, meats, cheeses, pizza, deviled eggs and cola 😀

Movie Music

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20151028_212437Yesterday was my Parent’s 44th anniversary. Yesterday was also the day Nienke and I had tickets to see the North Netherlands Orchestra perform movie music. To be able to celebrate the occasion and still go out with Nienke, we decided to order in food. We went with spare ribs and to make it easier on the delivery guy, I had it delivered at my place. When it came, Nienke and I went over to my Parent’s place to eat together. Then after dinner, Nienke and I went back home to get our things and head for the train.

The show was beautiful. They started with a medley of music from Frozen and I love that movie so much. I could see each scene in my head when they played the music and it gave me chills. The various pieces were introduced by Eric Corton, a radio DJ. He would tell us a bit about the movie, the music, the composer.

20151028_212424After Frozen, and before the break, they played some classical pieces from Beethoven and Chopin that were used in movies.

Then after the break they focused on well known composers Hans Zimmer and John Williams. I generally like Zimmer and Williams, and these pieces were no exception.

When the show ended and the orchestra had left the stage for the first time they came back for an encore. They played, in honour of the release of Spectre, the James Bond theme.

Spinning the Wheel

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The first cake for my birthday party tomorrow is in the oven. As good a time as any to put up a new blog post 🙂

20150924_223637Yesterday I went to the Oosterpoort for my birthday present to myself. I saw, well, listened really, to the Sinfonia Rotterdam and the Laurens Cantorij performing the Requiem of Fauré.

I’ve heard the Requiem performed before by a local amateur choir and I really liked it then. However, that time the accoustics weren’t great, and the musical accompaniment was a solo piano. When I saw this performance on the list with a full symphonic orchestra and a professional choir, I knew I wanted to go.

Before the show I attended the introduction. There, the choir conductor told us about some key pieces of the Requiem. He had brought along a part of the choir. They performed small sections, a few lines at most, to show what the conductor meant when he discussed the pieces.
When the actual concert began, they started with the Ouverture from Cosi fan tutte by Mozart. This was followed by the Suite from Midsummernightsdream by Mendelssohn. After the break it was the Requiem’s turn.

20150924_212310As I had hoped, it was spectacularly beautiful. The accoustics in the Oosterpoort are very well suited to classical music.

Earlier this week, I also bought myself another early birthday present. I’d been thrift store shopping a few weeks ago and spotted there a spinning wheel. I looked at it, but decided to leave it. I was tempted, especially considering I want to do more traditional crafting, and more re-enactment. But it wasn’t priced and that usually means expensive and I just wasn’t sure.

T20150923_150145hen Elfia happened. There, watching Margreet work her spinning wheel, I realised I really did want it. So Wednesday I went back to the thrift store and got lucky, it was still there. I got one of the sales associates to price it. She barely knew what it was, had to ask me if it was complete.

I don’t know much about spinning wheels either, but as far as I could tell, it was complete. I said so, and she priced it at € 12,50. I immediately agreed, cause that was a steal. The wood is in great condition, and once I figure out how all the loose bits attach, I’m sure it will be a working machine.

 

Minions and Music

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Minions snack pack

Bananaaaaaaaaaa! Thursday I went to see the Minions movie with Ingrid and Nienke. I love Minions 🙂 And to keep in the spirit of things I had a kid’s snack pack to go with it. Tiny packet of popcorn, tiny packet of candy, a capri sun and a tiny toy.

Friday, Gert and I went to the Oosterpoort. A little while ago Gert showed me an announcement for a free concert at the Oosterpoort. It was a graduation performance for the National Master Orchestra Conducting. The two people graduating each conducted two classical pieces played by the North Netherlands Orchestra.

NNO Master ConductingThe first candidate was Huba Hollóköi and he conducted Bela Bartok’s first violin concerto and Tchaikovsky’s Romeo & Juliet fantasy overture. Then, after the break, Konradin Herzog conducted Dutilleux’s Sur le même accord for solo violin and orchestra and Schumann’s Symphony no. 4.

The pieces were really good, but I preferred the works chosen by Herzog.