a snowman at kabk

it snows.

the first snow.
winter is here 😐

ciao lucifer – 60/40 love

willem is a friend of mine at art science, and this is his new band’s first single

i really like the simple music and the nice video! 🙂

pet shop boys – integral

for me, this is the best stop-motion video ever made.

poffertjes in leidseplein

i was buying poffertjes for suppersnapshot purposes
(where i also took a photo of it at the booth),

when the vendor offered me to take a picture of me with the poffertjes.

and so here i am.

i bought it at leidseplein, amsterdam,
after going to orchestral manoeuvres in the dark concert at paradiso.

that day’s suppersnapshot.
didn’t really look much like poffertjes thou..

omg, omd!

[Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark at Paradiso, Amsterdam, 23.11.2010]

So, after a day of misfortunes, I finally received my sweet ending. The Liverpool based band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark performed in Paradiso, Amsterdam on Tuesday (23/11) and it was amazing. Despite they were all in their fifties, the duo of Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphrey were still in top-form, they had great stamina, and their vocals were still heart-warming as two decades ago.

My Heart Melts for Paul Humphreys.

Paul is mostly known as the other guy from OMD. Andy McCluskey was somehow always the leading man, pursuing the ambition of keeping the big name of OMD, even after the two childhood pals split in 1989. But for me, there was something special in Paul’s soft, soothing voice. It was like having Neil Tennant behind the keyboards.

 

I had been listening again to their songs for a couple of days prior to their gig, and I felt the my heart always melt every time I listened to “(Forever) Live and Die”. The same thing happened when I listened to “Secrets” and “Souvenir”, and when I watched their videos on youtube (OMDVEVO), I found out that my trembling-heart-experience was caused by the same thing: the voice of Paul Humphreys.

Paul sang twice (as a main vocalist); in “(Forever) Live and Die” and “Souvenir”. And oh, they both made me trembled to my knees. (OK, I’m getting a bit exaggerating now).

 

Bright Lighs Concert

I must admit that it had been a while since I went to a gig in Paradiso, and it sure did have some changes. It was newly painted, gave the building a more warm classic feeling. The humble building was slightly ‘decorated’ for the gig. There was a screen covering the former church window, for projecting some images.

The lighting was great, it was completely bright, the spotlight was always on Andy, so despite his energetic dance moves, I could still capture his image without fear of being blurry. I was actually pretty surprised to see Andy constantly jumping up and down, making all sorts of movements and asking the Dutch crowd (that was famous for being so calm) to join him dancing.

 

My reason for the surprise was not caused by the fact that he was already 51, but mainly because he always looked so calm in (almost) all of their videos.

Anyway, the crowd were not like those in Spandau Ballet gig (which included the Dutch Finance Minister) or those in Pet Shop Boys’s (which was filled with good-looking flamboyant gay people), but more like the crowd of The Divine Comedy. They were loyal fans, who had been waiting the rare chance of watching the Liverpudlian duo live, and they were joining the wave of excitement led by Andy.

 

And unlike the two 80s band examples I mentioned before (Spandau Ballet and Pet Shop Boys), OMD looked more humble. Andy occasionally shook hands with the fans (or in my case, slapped it), he made some funny remarks (just like Neil Hannon, although not as much), and he even gave comments on t-shirts worn by one of he audience

“I like your t-shirt.
But I think you’re too young to wear it”.

Some Old and New, but I Wanted More.

As Andy had said at the beginning, there would be some new songs and old songs. However, their setlist was pretty much different than what I had expected. Well of course they played some superb classic hits like “Messages”, “Talking Loud and Clear”, “Sailing on the Seven Seas”, “Locomotion”, and the pair “Joan of Arc” and “Maid of New Orleans”, but somehow my human greedy nature wanted even more songs like “If You Leave”, “Dreaming”, “Telegraph”, “Dream of Me (Based on a Love Theme)”or “Sugar Tax”. Well ok, Sugar Tax was from a bootleg, so it wasn’t even in any of their ‘official’ albums, but what happened with “If You Leave”?

Strangely enough they didn’t play the first single from their latest album “If You Want It” either. They did play “Sister Marie Says”, and also some more songs from ‘History of Modern’ like “New Babies”, “Green”, “New Holy Ground”, and “History of Modern 1”.

The gig was closed with a super-classic first song that they made back in 1979, “Electricity”.

So, classic hits, History of Modern singles, Andy’s energetic stage performance, bright lights, and Paul Humphrey’s heart-trembling voice gave me one of the finest evenings for me.

Oh and last but absolutely not least, they had a superbly awesome opening act by a Brighton band called Mirrors. Four young lads dressed in suits playing synthesizers in a Depeche Mode/Kraftwerk kind of fashion (in a way that they all played synths except one who played electric drums), and their music was a mix of Kraftwerk and new romanticism of OMD and Spandau Ballet. I was very much amazed (and also immersed) by their performance. I bought their tour cd and asked two of their members (who apparently were standing near the booth) to sign it. Thanks! 🙂

 

more OMD and mirrors photos are here

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mirrors – ways to an end

for those who like synthpop/new wave, i highly recommend you this band.

my heart melts for paul humphreys

oxalis fence

saw this as we walked down the streets of eindhoven on the way to the station after strp.

anton corbijn’s lecture at kabk

17.11.2010

It was my second time to see Anton Corbijn in less than 40 days (yes I’m a lucky bastard), and still I was very excited to see his presentation again. This time, it was for a public lecture at KABK, the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Den Haag.

The lecture was presented in the school’s auditorium, and as you might have already guessed it, it was completely flooded by students (and photography enthusiasts perhaps). I arrived only a few minutes after 10.30 (when the lecture started), and I saw some people actually leaving the auditorium because it was too full.

Luckily, due to my small posture I squeezed myself inside and managed to see Anton Corbijn discussing about his photographs.

If the Q&A session at the Shoot-Me Film Festival was more about his music videos, this lecture was more about his photographs.

Some of the photographs that he discussed include:

johnny depp

elvis costello

joy division

david bowie

and of course some Depeche Mode and U2 photos..

He also discussed slightly about the making of U2’s Electrical Storm (which the actress was Samantha Morton who played Debbie Curtis in Control) and The Killers’s “All The Things that I’ve Done”.

 

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