So, Matt and Dick and Gea and I went to Tivoli de Helling last night to see the Raveonettes.  They had an opening band.  … Kap10Kurt.  Girl drummer, guy keyboardist.  No vocals, unless you count the recorded syllables replayed on old electronics equipment.  Heh heh. 

And they were GREAT!  really fun, really moveable.  it was super funny, because the crowd SO wasn’t into them.  they audience just stood there and stared at them.  wrong crowd for a fun band. 

But what really got me, especially, was how much the guy’s moves reminded me of Napoleon Dynamite, in the way he moved his shoulders up and down.  🙂  it was truly a site to behold.  in his white tshirt with the guitar patterns on it. 

By the way, the keyboard was really an old ?casio?, slung around his shoulders like a guitar.  🙂

The cd was 8eu.  i bought one, and so did gea.  we listened to it in the car when gea drove us all back up to the station.  pretty good!!!

I got a really bad picture:

as for the raveonettes, they were terrible.  boring.  their first 4 songs all sounded exactly the same.  reminiscent of maybe jesus and mary chain, but maybe the carpenters.  or spain.  does anyone remember spain?  boring….

i was really disappointed.  the cds that mel and dwain gave us were much better than that.  by the time they got a bit more lively, we were in the other room, chatting with Kap10Kurt.  🙂  oh well, can’t win them all.  as gea said, it’s nice occasionally to check out another subgenre…

i also bought tix to 2 more upcoming events at tivoli:  j-music-invasion on the 23rd december (japanese goth, i think – 3 bands), and heh heh heh… hans teeuwen on 10 february.  (for you americans out there, hans teeuwen is a well-known dutch cabaret guy – that’s comedian, actually – who lately has been doing these singing performances.  i’m not sure how serious he is, but dick is a big fan of his humor – he’s damn funny – so i bought tickets to hear him sing.)

this afternoon i’m off to the outskirts of paris for the weekend.  let’s hope the car doesn’t get burnt or something.  🙂

yay! and thanks to mel and dwain, matt and i were recently tuned in to the raveonettes, who are playing tonight at tivoli de helling, in utrecht. and we’re going!!! see you there,

 !

in other news, i purchased 5 tix last night for einsturzende neubauten at melkweg on may 20th. 🙂 i believe that was the number requested by various people at

 ‘s thanksgiving dinner. however, if anyone else wants me to pick up tix for them, no problem… they’re 25eu each + 2eu service costs, so 27eu each for me to pick them up for you. and it looks like the 3eu melkweg membership is not included. now you know.  (and knowing is half the battle…)

so, i’ve taken my camera to work and even remembered my USB cable, so now i’ve – for the first time with new camera – taken my own pics off…

and here are 3 i took at the concert.  i was standing there as they handed out the sparklers, and thought:  wow, if only i could take a picture of this…  OH YEAH!  my camera is in my bag!  so i did.  but i was in a hurry, and forgot to turn OFF the macro, so here it is:

and then i found out how easy it is to nonchalantly take a picture at a concert, so when they started throwing balloons around, i took another couple of pics:

they were a very cute show to watch, but their energy level was pretty low.  i was surprised.  apparently that’s NOT normal.  fortunately, the dj after kicked ass, and we danced the night away… until i could barely stand or walk, and decided to get back to the hotel before i couldn’t even walk THAT far.  🙂  it was a GREAT night out with matt, gea, vivi and john(?).  yay!

well, gotta run.  stuff to do before i leave work!

hey to anyone going:

we are planning to get a cheap room in eindhoven for the night, but perhaps:

IF SOMEONE IS DRIVING AND WILL BE RETURNING TO ANYPLACE WITH NIGHT TRAIN SERVICE (UTRECHT, AMSTERDAM, even ROTTERDAM or others at that end), we’d love to get in on the auto action for the trip back (and maybe the trip there, depending).

got space for 2?  🙂

dick says that he’s never seen anyone so good at sleeping as me. 🙂 i spent a wonderfully relaxing weekend, and may have finally divested myself of jet lag.

i got home from work friday to find dick already at the boat. we went grocery shopping and started to watch videos while waiting for matt to get home from work. i slept for an hour or so.

matt got home around 8:30, so we all cooked up some yummy food (i can’t remember what), then we watched videos. dick fell asleep around 11pm, i fell asleep around 12, and matt stayed up watching videos until 3am, which is when i (unfortunately) started to wake up. i finally got out of bed around 4ish and read my current book (a big thanks to

 for the loan – i’m quite enjoying it: the lies of locke lamora) until dick woke up around 7:30.  we watched old angel episodes until matt finally woke up around 2pm.  🙂 

then dick went home and matt and i sat on the sofa (me w/ book, him w/computer) until i fell asleep. 

i slept from maybe 4pm until 3:30 a.m.  then i was awake.  later that day, sunday, matt and i went to see 30 days of night with anne, then i came home, made dinner, and fell asleep before it was ready.  i slept until 7:30 this morning. 

🙂  we’ll see how tonight goes.  i didn’t get a damn thing done this weekend, but it still felt like a worthwhile weekend.  i LOVE sleeping!

hello friends and acquaintances,
i was looking at my calendar last night and the solstice this year falls on the 22nd. the 22nd, as luck would have it, is a saturday.

so what matt and i would like to do is:
have some people over and try to stay up all night. we thought that perhaps games and movies would be involved. perhaps a potluck situation with munchies and drinks. (that’s when everyone brings a little something, for those of you unfamiliar with the term.) usually we try to do this just the 2 of us, and it usually ends in us falling asleep long long before we’ve made it through the night.

we’re NOT having a sleepover. do not expect to sleep. 🙂 in the morning, you can go home to your own beds to recover. we’ll be staying awake from dusk until dawn. i’ll check times exactly later.

anyone interested? let me know how best to send you more info later (email is preferable). yay!

ugh. the jet lag has actually set in. yesterday i thought i got off lucky. i woke up around 6ish, went to work normal time (9:30), was alert and productive at work until leaving at 5:30, and stayed up (sort of.. i napped) watching videos with matt and dick until nearly midnight.

but this morning i woke up at 5ish, couldn’t get back to sleep. i’m now at work and feeling like absolute crap. i’ve been mindlessly staring at my computer for nearly an hour now. hell hell hell.

the coffee isn’t helping.

i emailed my french teacher that i won’t be coming to class tonight. because i need to sleep. but we have dinner plans with annemette and steen, visiting for one night from lyon. so i’ll try to nap between work and dinner. ugh. maybe i’ll talk my boss into letting me leave early today. i suspect she won’t mind. her jetlag is showing, too. her eyes look sunken into her face today. one colleague left for england this morning. the other is home sick. that leaves me, my boss and ian, who’s only here once a week. and most of his stuff is stuff he can do without anyone here. so maybe she’ll also be going home early.

you never know.

well, let’s just assume that i’ll get around to filling everyone in on the trip. i may. i may not. 🙂

i have a new camera. i took pictures of people. so i guess i should at least put them somewhere so that those people can see just how great they are. (not great, not at all, but fun for me).

well. i’m back at work today. a bit tired, but everyone seems to be. turns out my boss has been gone this whole time too. just got back yesterday too. anyway, i’m catching up with emails and inbox. lovely.