Have you ever thought
That the sky was just endlessly dark?
And then you look up
And see a million stars.

Kylie Minogue - No more rain.

A friend of mine works for a huge international company that sponsors artists. And she sometimes gets free tickets.

In short, I did not pay for this one. Kylie's tour started yesterday in Paris, this was her second show. We had very good seats, but we also had to *behave*, because a lot of people from her job were there.

I am not a big Kylie fan. I think I can name ten songs, five of which I really like. Her songs usually sound like somebody else. Everytime I hear 'Wow', my brain goes 'Holiday'. It's the same beginning.

I do like "slow", "Cant get you out of my head", "Confide in me" and "Kids" though.

Anyway, what a show! I am used to the 'one band, 3 guitars, one mike and no movement, no dancers and not much of a stage'-concerts. For this tour, I think Kylie recruted dancers from cirque du soleil. These guys did interesting things with their bodies. The kind of things only people without a spine can do. Really impressive.

I need alcohol, seriously.

Iron man (Either from Iron Man, or my mind made it up during Iron Man, am not really sure).

Plans for the long week-end: do constructive things.

List of things to do:

Taxes. 
Figure out how much money I have and how much I need (for my loan).
Find the papers I need for my assurance.
Find the papers I need for my loan.
Cleaning. 
*NOT* spend money.
I repeat *NOT* spend money.

And constructive things. Had to be that.

Mistake 1 (and pretty much the only one): picked up my cellular.

5 bars and 1 movie later, it's Monday, and the only constructive thing I did was going to ikea. I will skip the conversations in the bars. I only remember a beer with a penguin as a logo (vedett), and me really wanting that penguin. It was a really cute penguin! The advertisement said "because penguins know what they want"! Now how cute is that?

Après nous, le déluge.

Madame de Pompadour

Have been watching a bit too many 'how clean is your house'-episodes. Freaks me out too. I dont wanna end up with a big pile of salmonella fungus with eyes sitting on the carpet.

Then again, maybe you can make it your pet. "Sit Fungus". "Roll over Fungus". "Take over the world Fungus"!

Anyway, I decided that - before I move - I want to get rid of all the things I dont need. And I discovered that you can actually use e-bay to sell crap. You know, instead of buying crap ;)

I think I sold for about 150 dollars now, which is not bad. There was nothing "great" among it really. Lots of junk. The most expensive item I sold was a Lost Dvd-box, season 3. Also sold some bigger items, cd-racks, an etagere, a bulletin board, some of my comics, even clothes. Next up is part of my cd/album-collection.

My room looks rather empty now. And some things... I sold a nice etagere yesterday, and it somewhat hurt to see it go. Even though I sold it to a very nice lady that was really happy with it. It's hard to say goodbye to stuff that has been around for most of my life, but... There are just too many things in my life I dont need. I need an empty room and a empty head.

Does that make sense?

I think I want to know for myself that I would be able to leave it all behind and move on.

It's an interesting lesson. My life in a suitcase.

Or even better.

My life, part 2.

Bring it on.

Eddie Temple: You're born, you take shit. You get out in the world, you take more shit. You climb a little higher, you take less shit. Till one day you're up in the rarefied atmosphere and you've forgotten what shit even looks like. Welcome to the layer cake son.

Layer Cake.

Cops behind me while I was driving 140 an hour on the highway. They seemed to be going somewhere else themselves, so perhaps they didn't notice my blue car flying over the road. Heck, they were driving faster then I was.

Well, technically, they were only driving faster when I noticed them and slowed down.

The question is, how long were they behind me? The other question is, why did they pull over again later on?

Good thing I have an old car, I cant go faster then 140. After that, my car gets ready for lift-off. It starts to shake and things start to drop off.

Can I blame the music? Blur with song 2, come on, that's an excuse. I think ac/dc is an excuse too. Anything with a beat really. And Mariah Carey is an excellent excuse to drive your car into a brick wall.

And I got the first bill for my apartment. My first bill containing 5 numbers. Not even my car was a 5 numbers amount I had to pay. Next bill will contain 6 numbers. Which will be paid by the bank. Goodbye life, hello poverty.

No, I cant pay for your traffic fine, I got sued by the Mariah Carey fan club.

I'm an ice sculptor. Last night I made a cube. 
Mitch Hedberg

This job is the fly in my Chardonnay.

U2 3d; I dont know what I prefer, "Is it an ant or is it u2?"-seats, or "a "3d Bono" reaching out and going for your face"-seats. 

"u2 3d" is sometimes better then the real thing, for instance, this time I saw the entire stage. And they cut most of the 'Bono plays Ghandi' part in the movie. But then, you cant smell the grass in the cinema, now can you (Actually they had scent effects during the avant-premiere, so you could smell the grass). Still it's a great idea to have a 3d concert movie, but it remains a movie.

Brussels celebrated the 50th celebration of the biggest world exhibition ever. With the biggest firework ever. My cinema is on the site of the world exhibition, so we happened to be there anyway. It looked as if Brussels was under attack, firework from under the Atomium, firework from the ground level, firework from the balls.

For those wanting to know what the atomium is

 <link>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expo_58</link>

What's the difference between Michael Jackson and a grocery bag? 
One is white, made out of plastic, and dangerous for kids to play with and the other you carry your groceries in. 

Alright, I agree the above joke is stupid, but I couldn't help myself finding it very funny when I first heard it. Anyway, the contract is signed. Never signed that many pages and copies and pages.

I went for tiles yesterday too. I saw great tiles in one shop, but they were freakishly expensive. So, now I wonder, whether I can combine lesse, 7 freakishly expensive tiles, with plain white tiles from a supermarket.

Off course, that means, going to a shop and ask for 7 tiles.

"Can I have 7 tiles?" 

They might think I am a nutcase.

These are the ones I like btw, in combination with white tiles.

http://www.bardelli.it/bardelli/catalogue_en/decor/temaevariazionetiles.htm

And this is what they look like in a badroom

http://www.bardelli.it/bardelli/catalogue_en/decor/temaevariazione.htm#

Though I also really like these

http://www.bardelli.it/bardelli/catalogue_en/decor/solielune.htm

In Bruges

Spend almost the entire week in the cinema. Except Wednesday and Friday. Strange that I always find people to go to the movies with, but still nobody wants to go to Nick Cave. Gorramn.

So, in short, because I have not a lot of time (I will get back on u2 3d).

Thursday, In Bruges.

Good movie. Extra creditpoints for the excellent ending. You have to like the genre though, combine crime/neo-noir with dark comedy and you are there. The movie really insults everything and everybody; Americans, Dwarfs, Belgians, Bruges... everything that comes along really.

Maybe not as good as the excellent kiss kiss bang bang (same genre), but not bad at all. Comes in at a solid second place in my top 2008 list. My list being, 1 "No country for old men". Then a big void. Then 2, In Bruges.

I do believe not all beers they drink in the movie exist though. Besjesbier? WTF

Saturday, The other Boleyn sister

Interesting story; I didn't even know there was a Mary Boleyn, so I did learn something new here. Good acting. Solid nice little costume drama. No more no less.

Sunday, Taken

Alright popcorn-action flick. Was a bit confused on who made this, the director is French, the producer is French, it was sponsored by the bbc and the daughter was a recycled actress from Lost. I think it's a French movie, spoken in English. Lots of clichés; but then, aren't all action movies a bit of a cliché? In a week or two, I probably wont even remember seeing it.

Monday, 21

Movie about playing black jack and getting rich rich rich. Main actor was a bit of a déja-vu, seeing I just saw him in 'The other Boleyn sister' on Saturday.

I do wonder what the definition of a genius is in the US. Because the guy in question made some pretty stupid decisions along the way. Interesting to hear you need 300.000 dollar to study med at harvard. Glad to be European, where you need 300 dollars to study med at any university of choice. Liked the soundtrack of 21, but wouldn't call it a must-see. I have no idea why Kevin Spacey signed up for this. I am thinking money. I am thinking 'breaking the bank in Vegas'-money.

Gandhi

It's hard to say which movie genre sucks the most. To me it's a close call between romantic comedies, horror movies and pseudo-intellectual garbage. Romantic comedy as in "The heartbreak kid" (look at that, I can show my hairy muff), horror movies as in "Creep" (look at that, I am a creep in the subway. What do you mean, most men in the subway after 10 PM are creeps?) and pseudo-intellectual garbage as in "Babel" (look at that, I can kill a chicken).

Seeing pseudo-intellectual garbage isn't a genre, only two remain. After seeing "27 dresses", it's pretty obvious nothing can beat the romantic comedy as worst movie genre.

Because I am going to give some extra credits to the horror genre. "The eye" wasn't all that bad. 

Story in short, blind chick gets a cornial transplant, and *sees* things.

Spooky.

Generally speaking the movie still sucked a lot. Wasn't really original either. Every part of "the eye" came from somewhere else. Heck, at some point, it even reminded me of a supernatural episode (in my time of dying).

And its the American remake of an Asian movie, so if you want to see a better version, see the original. I even know that without having seen the original.

Oh, and Jessica Alba cant act. *At all*

But, it was better then "The heartbreak kid"! And better then "27 dresses".

Wait, does arent horror...

What's the definition of horror again?

Now if these aspirations bother you
Well you are just you, you don’t have a clue 
I’m sticking to the plan I will see it through 
Let there be no confusion 
Cause I’m the architect

dEUS - The architect

I think doctors should pay money back if they have it wrong. 

That is, if the patient is still alive to collect.

U2 - vertigo

Torchwoods last episode... WTF was that? No really?

Anyway, a friend of mine has tickets for u2 3d tonight. The Belgian avant-première! I hope the entire room will be filled with u2 fans.

Then again, the Irish avant-première had the band. Gorramn.

Vertigo was not my favourite u2 concert. The Koningboudewijn-stadium has the worst sound in the universe. We had terrible places, and Bono was playing Ghandi during most of that concert. Which pissed me off, because at that point, buying u2 tickets meant I couldn't eat for the rest of the month. Make poverty history? How about we start with the u2-tickets? Which you could only order through the internet, which poor people dont have to begin with.

At least we might be closer to the band tonight (well, virtually that is).

In all we have scored tickets for three free movies this week. And one free movie next week. Starting with "u2 3d" tonight, tomorrow, the eye, which should be garbage of the worst kind, and on thursday "In Bruges". Then next week monday "21".

Even though all of the above movies might suck, In Bruges has free alcohol, and u2 3d has free singing. And both have Irish guys. Talking Irish. *drool*

This week is still waiting for Godo though. Thursday might not be a great day. I should get more news then - through mail - but I wont be at my job to check my mail, so unless I phone in, I wont know till Friday. Phoning in might ruin the rest of the day. Then again, thursday might already be ruined because I need to go to the hospital in the morning.

I am not really certain yet what will happen there either. It will depend. Anyhow, they cant keep me, because I have Colin Farrell waiting. I think that's a valid reason to check myself out.

And I cant really tell what the combination of (local) anaesthesia, alcohol and Colin Farrell will bring us. Thursday will be weird on several levels.

Edmund: [reading a curse] Dear Enemy, I curse you and hope something slightly unpleasant happens to you. Like an onion falling on your head.

Blackadder

Interesting things are happening in my life.

I can only wait now.

Garfield

We had training today. By sick boy. Sick boy looks like he has a deadly disease. Even though he doesn't. I dont think he eats. Whenever I meet him, I want to give him a sandwich.

Anyway after 50 minutes of paying no attention whatsoever, I start looking at the book that came along with the training. It looked as if part came from another universe. A universe with people that studied quantum physics.

Another 25 minutes later my colleague puts her hand up and goes; "I am sorry, but what is this?"

The guy was giving the wrong training.

I wonder whether I can sell the book on e-bay. Its worth 70 dollars. I bet in some universe somebody might be interested.

Hugo Claus died yesterday. One of the few Belgian writers who was always connected with the nobel price (yet never won it). "The Sorrow of Belgium" was voted *the* book (written in the Dutch language) of the 20th century in 1999. He suffered from Alzheimer and requested his life to be terminated through euthanasia.

So, I just wanted to give you one of his poems. 

The Cure - a forest

Just for the record, the sportpaleis in Antwerp is terrible, you never get there on time, you never find a parking spot (it must be the only concert-temple in the universe with no parking) and at the end, prepare to get trembled. A disaster waiting to happen.

Anyway, that's Antwerp for you, but The Cure is something else.

Its not the first time I see The Cure, but compared to most fans ("Oh, you have seen them a couple of times now? Well, this is my 17th/25th/35th concert), I am still the newby. 

Unlike Depeche Mode or The Flaming Lips, where you get an entire show, The Cure is a *concert*. Robert Smith is a man of little words. And what he says is mostly unintelligible or really confusing.  

He doesn't move a lot either. One tile. At the very end he moves to both sides to greet the audience. That's all you get. And, it's also known he doesn't see a lot, but refuses to wear glasses, because then he would actually *notice* the crowd.

You almost feel sorry for the guy.

Yet, it all doesn't really matter, great things dont need a lot of words, or a lot of introducing or bells and flames and jingles and mudd. Or alcohol. Or women in big dresses, or women in no dresses. Or backing vocals and dancers. And a decor where everything shines.

Their music sells itself. And with 13 albums, they have a lot to choose from. So, their concerts are bloody long (+ 3 hours). In fact, I have never had longer concerts.

The concept is always the same, they take a slow start. Like a diesel. Not only the band, but also the crowd, need time. But time is what you get. After about an hour the real fun starts. And true insanity starts when the bis numbers are being played (that's a concert on its own, you get "bis", then you get "ter" and "quater").

Their 80's songs are without doubt their best numbers, a forest, boys dont cry, and killing another (which is the political correct version of killing an arab - it's a song about the book "L'étranger" by Camus, but then people started to see all sorts of stuff in it, and the cure decided to change the lyrics because of it (first "kissing an arab", then "killing another"). They played a couple of new tracks, and to me, they weren't convincing enough to actually buy their new cd (due april or may).

The real magic moment of the entire concert was "A forest". Which to me, is still their greatest song ever. Worst song being "Friday I am in love", which is an insult for the rest of their carreer. Always a good time to head for the bar.

Ending with 'close to me' and 'why cant I be you' was perfect though. No idea why the guitarist trashed his guitar at the end. For the cure, that's weird. Then again. It's The Cure. I think they invented that word.