It’s summer.
O hai!
It’s been a while, and I apologize, once again 
It’s just been… life. As we know it.
What has happened lately?
Well, let’s do this in bullet points, shall we?
- I got my temporary drivers license.
- I got myself a car, it has wheels, it’s an Audi, and I learned that it apparently has oil inside of it that needs refilling once in a while.
- I’ve been enjoying myself at work in Wetteren a lot
- I eat way too much fast food at work, which I’ve been trying to compensate with eating uberhealthy at home.
- I’ve finally been making progress in launching the book that I wrote, so it should be released soon, despite already being finished for over half a year.
- I’ve spent tons of time with friends going out drinking.
- Justin came from Cracksonville to visit me and we did a little tour-of-flanders while he was here.
- I also made him drink. Beer.
- Eric visited, which was nice.
- I failed at seeing Paul when he was in Brussels, which totally sucked.
- I went to see Lady Gaga in concert in Antwerp and it was amazing.
- I’m loving all movies in 3D.
- Toy Story 3 is epic.
- I’m excited for Summer In The City in a week and a half.
- I’ve done some lovely #mysterythings lately that i’ll reveal soonish.
- I’ve spent a lot of time with my best friend Tom the past months, which has been a lot of fun since he’s one of my oldest friends and it’s been a while since we were so close. Reconnecting ftw.
- I went to the Ros Beiaard in Dendermonde, which was lots of fun even though I still don’t get the complete story behind the tale that it’s about. I loved my interpretations of the story though.
- I tweeted like crazy again during the Eurovision Song Contest, and tons of people seemed to enjoy it again, so just like the past two years I’ll be doing so again next year.
- I live tweeted the final in the World Cup as well, without knowing a thing about soccer, which was very funny. Apparently.
- And there’s prolly a shitload of stuff that I’ve forgotten, but whatever
I love and adore you all
And especially you.
<3
#SundayDoodle – Baby On Board
For this week’s #SundayDoodle I decided to take the ‘Baby on board’-signs you see on cars a little out of context… Inspired by my laundry which is being done at the moment.
The baby totally failed, but hey, it’s a one-take doodle
Feel free to leave a comment, retweet this blog, or share it with others
And obviously, especially those comments are appreciated
Hey Notre Dame, Your Hunchback Was Crappy.
So I went to the Notre Dame de Paris musical in Antwerp Thursday evening… And I must say, it was just okay.
Let’s start of with explaining that this Flemish version was a simple copy of the French version… Both in costumes, setting as in text… and that translation was at times very poorly done. Due to the odd translating of things it became pretty dubious sometimes what was actually being meant in the songs, resulting in people sometimes losing track of the story.
Also, there is no way Le Temps Des Cathedrales will ever be translated in an equally powerful version… The french version of that song is just way too epic on its own.
But let’s forget about the fact that this poor copy of the French version was shown and look at the musical itself.
Many people expect the Disney story, but the musical is based on the original story by Victor Hugo, which is pretty different from the sugar coated Disney remake… Causing people to be confused during the musical and not really getting what was going on. A delight to see for people like me who know the actual story, but a sad misconception that could have been made more clear by the press in my opinion.
This story tells you the tale of the invasion of the spiritual church and its care for the lower class citizens and haven of peace by the higher classes and the state as a power entity… With Esmeralda being the seduced lower class bohemian that entails with the higher class, therefor messing with ‘fate’ as the higher class sees it, and Quasimodo being the ‘hope’ that fails at bringing Esmeralda back on the right path. The story ends with only Quasimodo (the Hope, though weakened), Phoebus (the High Class, though broken) and Gringoire (the Low Class, though overthrown) alive, with the church overtaken by the government and freedom for all in doubt. A way heavier story than most people get after seeing the musical, mainly due to the wrong perspective on the story caused by the Disney version as well as the oddly translated lyrics at times.
Now, if there’s one thing I really want to put out there it’s that singers are not musical artists. They hardly ever are. I know it’s great to headline two popular singers, but when they suck at doing musicals you’re pretty much doomed. Gene Thomas for instance plays Quasimodo, but lacks power and drive in his voice, resulting in a very weak and unbelievable Quasimodo. He basically sucked ass. Really. He was bad. Sandrine as Esmeralda was actually good at times, if she was standing still and singing alone so you couldn’t compare her with others. Please don’t let her dance and sing at the same time, because the strength of her voice fades away very easily then. Also, having her duet with Jorien Zeevaart, who plays Fleur-De-Lys and completely overpowers Sandrine’s voice, makes it very clear that she does not have a musical voice. She’s a great singer, but not a musical voice.
It’s painful when you have to sit trough a whole musical where the musical skills are so obviously different between the main characters.
Credit where credit is due though, the musical-focused people like Tim Driesen (Phoebus), Clayton Peroti (Clopin) and Wim Vanden Driessche (Frollo) were great! They lifted the complete show to an enjoyable level and were a blessing to see and hear.
Also lots of credit to the dancers, who were phenomenal at times… Acrobats inc. They made this show worthwhile.
Best moments of the show included the act with the bells and the Déchiré act (I already forgot what they translated that too… Torn apart I guess) with the five dancers in the background. Both acts where it were the dancers that made it such amazing scenes.
What I also found a bit of a downer, but this was already something that bothered me slightly in the French version, was the clothes… They were often too bland. The difference between people was sometimes even hard to notice, and Phoebus’ costume made him actually look equally poor as Gringoire, if not more poor. I know the economy is hard on all of us, but when already using a rather minimal set, please stand out with good costumes that speak for themselves rather than confuse people who are already having a little bit of trouble following the storyline they didn’t really expect.
Okay, I’ve been pretty harsh about this musical, and it might seem like it’s a bad musical, but it really isn’t. It’s actually okayish-good.
Big points go to dancers, acrobats, trained musical artists, as well as the great original tale of the Notre Dame.
Big fail marks go to the poor translation and wrong choice of choosing singers over musical artists.
Should you go see it? Sure, if you want a fun night out. As long as you don’t expect to be wowed.
It’s good… but it’s not mesmerizing.
As a final point I will say that I personally don’t really like translations of great musical, literary, or visual arts… and well, I guess this musical proved it to me once again. If you’ve been to the musical, check out the French soundtrack… you’ll be amazed. If you haven’t gone to the musical but plan to go… don’t check out the French soundtrack yet, or you’ll sing along in a different language in your head.
Fun night out, but I wasn’t impressed. Better luck next time Music Hall.
Boy Meets Boy, and they didn’t think twice.
I recently finished reading David Levithan’s Boy Meets Boy, so I thought I’d quickly share my thought on it, you know, as kind of a little review
First and foremost, it’s a good book. It’s not an earth shattering experience, but it’s a good book. If you like a light read.
You see, the book is not as light a read as your classic train station travel romance book, but it’s no Looking For Alaska either. It’s somewhere in between…
The plot lines are pretty obvious, and yes it’s a gay story *woohoo, burn down the house people* but when it all comes down to it, it’s a pretty traditional story line.
Boy meets boy, ex boyfriend shows up, friends don’t approve, friendship under pressure, all ends well. I’m pretty sure you’ve read a story like this before… If you can read of course. And no, that’s not offensive because people who actually can’t read don’t know I made this snarky remark just now.
It might seem now that I didn’t really like the book, but I actually really do… Although it might be such a ‘traditional’ book, it manages to capture you and take you along the journey of Paul (the main character), something that’s not all that easy when it comes to traditional story lines.
The book is written in a very active manner, which engages you as the reader to keep on turning them pages, and hey, isn’t that what books are made for? Ebooks aside of course.
When it comes to characters, Paul is in my opinion not the most notable one – although he’s the main character – but Kyle is. This might seem a bit weird, since Kyle is a side character – the ex boyfriend – but it’s his emotional process that glues the different parts of the story together. Which is good, because sometimes the story tends to get a bit too mushy-mushy and that’s when Kyle comes in. I guess going a bit more in depth with the side characters would have been a good thing, as it is sometimes a bit unclear why certain people do certain things (e.g. Amber calling Tony for Paul, even though they don’t know each other at all) and it’s times like that that the reason ‘but Paul is popular and everyone kinda likes him’ falls a bit short… Same goes for the school scenes where Paul seems to run the school, even though he’s just a sophomore. It just doesn’t make sense at times… if you try to read between the lines.
So in conclusion, should you read this book?
Yes, you should, if you like an easy-to-read book that’s engaging without going too literary on you, and you don’t mind the gay-themed storyline.
No, if you expect more from a book than a simple storyline where you don’t need to think things through twice.
Would I recommend it? I actually would, because we can all use that easy-read from time to time, be it during lunch break, or while lying in the sun.
Not Myself Tonight
Christina is back this summer with another awesome single and I’m totally in love with it. It’s so going to be my summer-anthem
Can’t wait for her new album ‘Bionic’ to come out
I know it might not be one of her best songs ever, but it’s such an uplifting great happy song It really brings a smile to my face :p And can bring out some extra energy when needed ^^ Summer jam it is! 
Opinions on this?
Oh and let me know if the youtube clip doesn’t work anymore, you know with copyright and all… :p
