Quick pic

twilight in the forest

I borrowed the camera from my brother a few weeks ago, and make this picture on an early sunday morning.

Strasbourg

In the beginning of august we went to Strasbourg for a wedding; I took a few days off and we explored the city and its surroundings for a few days. It’s a quaint little town, and we had the best weather imaginable. I borrowed a camera to take some pictures (since I didn’t yet buy a new one after the burglary), and they came out quite nicely.

Burglary

Last monday some dickhead looted our house .. now most of our (small) electronics are gone; 3 cameras, 2 ipods, a lens, and my precious laptop… So basically everything that I owned is gone. Including all my documents, photos, etc.. It’s all gone. On the upside, when our house is on fire, I don’t have to get in to retrieve my personal stuff… yay? It feels like there’s nothing left.

Propagandhi

About a week ago we went to see Propagandhi in the Melkweg (Amsterdam). It was almost 8 years ago that I saw them, so I was really looking forward to it. And they didn’t disappoint: it was fucking awesome. We were in front of the stage, with the moshpit right behind us.. so it got pretty wild ;). I didn’t make any pictures, and the only guy I saw making pictures had to be evacuated because it got so messy… but i found some pictures on Flickr anyway :)

And a great YouTube video.. Less Talk, More Rock and Haille Selssasse up your ass. We’re the only ones holding hands during Haille Sellasse lol:

And as a bonus, here’s Purina Hall of Fame:

Nine Inch Nails

Last wednesday we went to see NIN in Amsterdam for their Wave Goodbye tour. I missed them the last time they were visiting the Netherlands, so I was glad I got a second chance to shell out some money and finally see them.
The selection of songs was diverse, even some songs from the Pretty Hate Machine album, as well as from Further down the spiral, Broken, The Fragile, The Downward Spiral … and of course the new albums as well. All in all, it was the perfect mix of old and new songs, and if I ever have the chance to see them again, I’ll be there.

Next up: Propagandhi!

Frankfurt

Previous week I went to Frankfurt, to the FIDIS general meeting, where I had to give a short presentation about the work we did. I didn’t have a lot of time afterwards, but at least I got make some pictures during the night:

Frankfurt Skyline

More Skyline

Booker T. & the M.G.’s

Saturday March 21st we went to see Booker T. & the MG’s; you can find a review here. It was much more crowded than the previous week, when John Cale and Vic Chesnutt performed. I didn’t bring my camera, but instead I borrowed some pictures from the previously mentioned site.
My review: they were awesome, and I got to hear my favourite songs (Green Onions and Hip Hug Her).

Steve Cropper

Steve Cropper

Booker T.

Donald ‘Duck’ Dunn and Steve Cropper

Booker T.

“]

John Cale, Vic Chesnutt + Elf Power

Yesterday we went to see John Cale and Vic Chesnutt in ‘het Paard van Troje’ in the Hague; Vic Chesnutt performed together with Elf Power. John played really passionate, it really was wonderful to see him perform. He played some older songs like ‘Fear’, ‘Amsterdam’, ‘Paris 1919′, Dying on the vine’, ‘Pablo Picasso’ and  ‘Things’ from a recent album. Especially ‘Amsterdam’ gave me some shivers the way he sang it. Wonderful.

The second performer we came to see, Vic Chesnutt, played together with Elf Power. They played a lot of songs from their ‘Dark Developments’ album. Vic was really relaxed and laidback.

Here are some pics:

Grenoble

Previous weekend I visited some refugees from Holland who moved to Grenoble; I smuggled some contraband syrup waffles over the border … I have to admit I was a little afraid, but it was for the greater good. On the other hand, I wasn’t yet ready to die like a martyr. Luckily, all went well, and the waffles disappeared from the radar in a few days.

The town and its surroundings are really nice; it’s located in a valley, which is a nice change from holland where everything’s flat.

Here are some pics; I forgot to make a picture of Grenoble at night though :(.

I again want to thank C&G for their hospitality :)

Senor Blinky is watching you

Christmas in Milan

We went to Milan for Christmas; I think it was a much needed rest for the both of us. It was pretty cold, but the sky was blue most of the time, and only had a brief period of rain when we arrived at the airport.

The Duomo is really nice; the amount of details is really impressive. You can see for yourself:

The hotel was really nice as well, so it was a happy end of the year .. maybe I should start looking for the next holiday :).

The Black Angels in Paradiso

Previous thursday (December 11) we went to see the Black Angels in Paradiso. It was pretty neat, and the crowd was appreciative as well. The sound was ok, but the volume of the voice was too weak. But the droning was still pretty nice, so it was not a big problem :P.

Mogwai in Oosterpoort, Cohen in Ahoy

On saturday (Nov. 1) we went to see Mogwai in the Oosterpoort, Groningen. We saw them before, but it was already a long time ago, and I didn’t listen to their music for a long time. Still, it was nice to see them in such a small town. It was fairly crowded, but I don’t think it sold-out. They played really well, much better than I remembered from the previous time.

Here are some pics, from here

Two days after that, on monday Nov 3rd, we went to see the poet of all poets, Leonard Cohen. We’d seen him in July already, but after seeing him once we couldn’t let the chance go by to see him one more time. Charming and humble as ever, he played for approximately 3 hours, so we were lucky it was a seated show. We weren’t allowed to bring our camaras, but here are some pro images. The sound quality in Ahoy still sucks, but Cohen’s sound engineers made it suck much less than with the Cure.

Amsterdam and China Impressions

I have some catching up to do. At the start of september I moved to The Hague, and this very day we finally got internet.

A few weeks ago, there was a kiting contest in Scheveningen, including kite-fighting. There were some nice kites, like

And I got this shot, which I liked for some reason:

Last saturday we got some free tickets from a friend to see China Impressions, a sort of history lesson visualized with the help of dance and acrobatics. I’d never been to something like this before, but I really liked it. We weren’t allowed to take pictures during the show, so I only did it once before they asked me to stop. But we were allowed backstage, which was really nice, and where we could make some pictures instead.

The first part of the show before I was told I couldn't make any pictures ;)

And a pic from Amsterdam:

Lazy cat

Yesterday I had to defend my internship report; everything went better than I could’ve expected. I almost couldn’t stop talking, and my presentation was between 45-50 minutes (while 20 minutes was sufficient). Anyway, the questions afterwards were not that difficult, and all in all they were happy with the way I had worked during my internship.

Now I’m at my parents for a few days, and when I was goofing around with one of our cats, I had the chance to stare right into the belly of the beast:

Straight into the belly of the beast

My new Canon EOS 400D

Although this happened even before visiting Leonard Cohen in the Westerpark, I didn’t mention it before: my lovely parents bought me a Canon EOS 400D. It’s a gift for my graduation, so hopefully I won’t disappoint them later this month. The EOS 400D is more compact than I’d imagined, but it still has all the advantages of a SLR.

I had to get used to all the possibilities, it’s all just a little different from the Canon Powershot A95 I used before. But here are some great shots (the perfect sunset was captured by my brother, it’s my new header for the site):

Momma ladybug and her children ^^

Momma ladybug and her children ^^

Frisian sunset

ladybug in the sunset

something grass-like in the sunset

(please view at full resolution; it’s much better that way)

Leonard Cohen

Approximately 2 weeks ago, we saw Leonard Cohen performing in the Westerpark (Amsterdam). He was really charming, suave (especially with his hat), and was very generous to the band and to the public. He did two sets, after which he came back for the encores. He was such a passionate singer, clenching his fist, sitting on his knee… Truly a wonderful performance.

I’m happy to say we’ll see him at least one more time, in the beginning of November. The bad news is he’ll perform in Ahoy, of which I’m not too fond (sound quality was very bad the last time). But I have confidence that the soundguy from Leonard Cohen will amaze me like he did in the Westerpark. And we have much better seats now, so all in all I’m optimistic.

Setlist:

Dance Me to the End of Love
The Future
Ain’t No Cure for Love
Bird on the Wire
Everybody Knows (Leonard Cohen/Sharon Robinson)
In My Secret Life (Leonard Cohen/Sharon Robinson)
Who by Fire
Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye
Anthem

Tower of Song
Suzanne
Gypsy Wife
Boogie Street (with Sharon Robinson)
Hallelujah
Democracy
I’m Your Man
Take This Waltz (Leonard Cohen after Federico Garcia Lorca)

Encores:
So Long, Marianne
First We Take Manhattan
Sisters of Mercy
If It Be Your Will
Closing Time
I Tried to Leave You
Whither Thou Goest

Roger Waters in Landgraaf

Last weekend (Sunday, May 11th) we went to see Roger Waters in Landgraaf. As Landgraaf is at the other side of the Netherlands (judged from Groningen, Friesland and Amsterdam) we decided to stay in Maastricht for a couple of days (friday to monday). We had a great time (and nice weather!) exploring the city and surroundings. On sunday we went to see Roger Waters performing the complete ‘dark side of the moon’ -album, along with some songs from his own carreer and some Pink Floyd songs. The performance was nothing short of phenomenal; a lot of visual effects along with explosions, flying pigs, large screens, a giant prism, excellent sound (the quadrophonic system used made that you could hear explosions from all directions during e.g. ‘Bring the boys back home’), and an enthusiastic Roger and band.

Some reviews (mostly in Dutch) can be found here.
I had a great time, and if I ever get the chance to see him again, I’ll be there.

The band consisted of:

Roger Waters – Bass And Vocals
Carol Kenyon – Backing Vocals
Chester Kamen – Guitars And Bass
Dave Kilminster – Guitar And Vocals
Graham Broad – Drums
Harry Waters – Hammond Organ
Ian Ritchie – Saxophone
Jon Carin – Keyboards And Vocals
PP Arnold – Backing Vocals
Snowy White – Guitar
Sylvia Mason James – Backing Vocals

Setlist:

Set 1:
In the Flesh
Mother
Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun
Shine On You Crazy Diamond Parts I-V
Have a Cigar
Wish You Were Here
Southampton Dock
The Fletcher Memorial Home
Perfect Sense, Part I
Perfect Sense, Part II
Leaving Beirut
Sheep

Set 2:
Speak to Me
Breathe
On the Run
Time
Breathe (reprise)
The Great Gig in the Sky
Money
Us and Them
Any Colour You Like
Brain Damage
Eclipse

Encore:
The Happiest Days of Our Lives
Another Brick in The Wall Part II
Vera
Bring the Boys Back Home
Comfortably Numb

Some pics from this show are shown below. Although we were not that far removed from the stage (though we couldn’t count Roger’s wrinkles), most of the photos suck. Erik Luyten did it a lot better (maybe press -entrance?). Well, here they are: (The bottom 2 photos were made by Erik; see his Flickr page).

(The gallery is a little fucked-up; it doesn’t take you directly to the full -size image … )

night time panorama of the Maas

day time panorama of the Maas

Roger strolling

silhouette shot of the band

Roger with band

the complete band

Roger rocking

RW – DSOTM poster

You! Yes You!

fear builds walls – all religions divide

Thee Silver Mount Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-la-la Band

Last Saturday we went to see TSMZMO&TB in Tivoli, Utrecht (Oudegracht). They mostly played songs from their new album ‘13 blues for thirteen moons’, but also played ‘Microphones in the trees’ (from the ‘Pretty Little Lightning Paw’ album), ‘Metal Bird’ (yet unreleased), and ‘Hang on to Each Other (from ‘Horses in the Sky’).

We arrived a little bit later than I expected, so most of the seats were already taken, which meant we had to sit in the back. I tried to make some pictures, but as usual, it was very dark and I had to zoom. I tried to improve it somewhat with photoshop, and a conversion to black&white.

Some pictures from
flickr :

The Cure

Almost two weeks ago, on March 18, we went to see The Cure in Rotterdam. I won’t complain about their performance, which was solid and long (more than 3 hours), but the sound quality in Ahoy was terrible. The newspapers didn’t complain about the sound quality, saying it was marvelous, but at least where we were seated the sound was boomy and not loud enough. The batteries of my camera were empty before I had shot a decent picture, so I’m putting up some downloaded pictures made by others. I’ll bring some extra batteries for the “Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-la-la-band” -concert next week (April 5) :P.

Oh yes, the support act was 65 Days of static; we’ve seen them before, but now their set was very short (or we were much too late). I didn’t like their performance (for what I’ve seen of it); much less impressive than the previous time. But the acoustics were probably the culprit for this as well.

Reminder: Ahoy’s sound quality sucks.

Setlist:

plainsong
prayers for rain
a strange day
alt.end
the walk
the end of the world
lovesong
pictures of you
lullaby
from the edge of the deep green sea
kyoto song
hot hot hot!!!
please project
push
inbetween days
just like heaven
primary
a boy i never knew
maybe someday
never enough
wrong number
one hundred years
disintegration
- “six popsongs or four Faith songs? or both?” -

Encore 1:
the lovecats
let’s go to bed
friday i’m in love
freak show
close to me
why can’t i be you?

Encore 2:
three imaginary boys
fire in cairo
boys don’t cry
jumping someone else’s train
grinding halt
10:15 saturday night
killing an arab

Encore 3:
faith
a forest

More concerts

This blog may appear to be dead (probably not too far off) because I’m very busy doing my internship, and the traveling doesn’t help either.

Anyway, concert-wise, this is going to be a good year. In a few days we’ll see The Cure, a few weeks after that A Silver Mt. Zion, then Roger Waters and Leonard Cohen. Massive Attack, REM, and Radiohead will also perform in the Westerpark near my room. Needless to say, a very exciting time!

Mono

Last friday (november 9) we went to see Mono in Haarlem (Patronaat). They were simply amazing, the great dynamic between the melodic intros and the deafening white noise were almost hypnotizing.

Of course, I made some pictures; I really start to see the limitations of my Powershot A95. High ISO with a low shutter speed aren’t the best ingredients for concert photography. Nevertheless, I’m quite satisfied with these pictures: (low jpeg quality and low resolution because of wordpress-limitations on space)

The world is taking over

I made some pictures yesterday (well, quite a lot actually), but in the end I only like this one. I like the contrast between nature and industry. Makes you feel we really own the world, that the earth is ours. We’re invading nature’s territory.

They’re a little different, but mostly it’s the processing that makes them look different.

Cosmic background radiation

I finally finished my course on Quantum Optics; in the book we used was a question about the “number of photons per unit volume excited in a cavity at temperature T” (Loudon, Quantum Theory of Light). After deriving a formula for this, you can show that the cosmic background radiation contains about 4-5*10^5 photons per litre.
I always got stuck at the same point, but now I finally know how to solve this.

Read the attached pdf if you want to know the solution.

Pictures from Marseille

Although we’re back in Holland for quite some time, I still wanted to show some pictures I made Marseille.

View of the Vieux Port in Marseille, at night:

Left: Front view of the Église Saint Vincent de Paul dite des Réformés, a block away from our apartment

Right: Cathédrale La Major

The left picture was taken from Fort St. Jean, which you see on the second picture. In the background you see the Basilique Notre Dame de la Garde.

 

This was taken on the beach; I just liked the nice blue colour.

 

Some pictures from the mountains; Callelonge and Calanques. On the last picture you see a bay where we swam.

 

Finally, a hooker who was prancing ‘our’ street daily; and a somewhat vague picture made at the Vieux Port (but I liked the reflections):

 

Hurricanes and global warming

There’s an article in Scientific American (July 2007) about the relation between global warming and hurricanes. I learned a few things from this:
A cyclone, typhoon and hurricane are the same thing; they only differ in the region where they are observed.

How do hurricanes form?

• The sun raises the Sea Surface Temperature (SST)
• Water is evaporated to release the excess heat
• The moisture raises and condenses into rain
• When raindrops are formed, latent energy is released
• The heat goes up and creates ‘updrafts and thunderclouds’
• Beneath this area, a low pressure zone is created which ’sucks up’ moist air
• Due to Coriolis forces due to the earth’s rotation a vortex is created
• “The eye” is a low pressure area at the bottom of this vortex
• Due to the circling hot air, the rising air dries and gains energy
• Some of this air is absorbed again in the eye, and some of the air ’spirals out’ over a large area (many kilometres)

The different seasons play a role as well:
The energy released when raindrops form heats the atmosphere

• In winter, the heat goes up and radiates into space
• In summer, the heat rises to higher altitudes in tropical areas

Further ingredients needed to start a hurricane:

• high SST (>26 degrees Celsius); SST may rise due to the greenhouse effect
• plentiful water vapour
• low pressure at the ocean’s surface
• weak wind shear between low and high altitudes (strong winds destroy emerging vortices)

The rising SST may (partly) originate from the greenhouse effect. However, in 2004 and 2005 we saw a lot of hurricanes, but 2006 was a quiet year.

Some scientists believe this is due to the “Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation” (AMO), which is basically a cycle in which temperatures rise and fall. But simulation shows that this can’t be the whole story (the temperature difference is only 0.5 degrees Celsius). The models do show (as far as they are correct; which is difficult to assess) that human action is likely a cause of the rising SST. Approximately 0.6 degrees Celsius can be attributed to human action (probably without the AMO) since 1970. It is noted that this may sound small, but only one degree can change the storm’s intensity to a higher category. This may well explain the rise in the number of ‘high’ category hurricanes.

The fact that 2006 was a quiet year (in stark contrast to 2004 and 2005) is due to a different factor. In 2004/2005, El Nino warmed the ocean. La Nina cooled the ocean the subsequent year. This is explained in the remainder of the article.

The article concludes that the hurricane threats are likely to get more severe.

More DragonFly wallpapers

Here are some more wallpapers in response to this. I can’t post all different resolutions (e.g. widescreen or 4:3) because I don’t have much space on WordPress.

wall42.png

 

(The thumbnail system is still messy on WordPress; for some reason the last wallpaper doesn’t get a thumbnail… :\)

 

DragonFlyBSD wallpaper

Inspired by the wallpapers linked from the Dragonfly BSD Digest, I tried a more abstract approach.

abstract5-1600×1200.png

abstract5-1920×1200.png

(for some reason, wordpress doesn’t want me add a thumbnail with a link to a png… )

 

Justin, you can use it on the website; I'd be honoured ;). 

I made the background myself, and the logo is the official logo by 

Joe Angrisano. The wallpaper is BSD licensed ;).

Lou Reed in Amsterdam

I wasn’t sure if I’d go, but after support from my loving parents, I decided to go to the Lou Reed concert here in Amsterdam on June 21. I took my little bro’ and little girlfriend with me, as I usually do. Never know if they like it, but they’re always by my side.

Anyway, the concert was great, albeit a little short. Approximately 90 minutes, and only 3 songs after the “Berlin” album was finished. There was a great synergy between Lou Reed and fellow guitarist Steve Hunter, which alone made it worth it. There was a movie and/or images projected on the background. The audience was pretty well behaved, but that was probably because the average age was 50 years or so ;).

Anyway, here are some pictures … I couldn’t fit everyone in the picture (e.g. the people from The London Metropolitan Orchestra), but in the background you can see The New London Childrens Choir. It was a really special time.

Thanks to my parents again.

  

An argument against tax increase on alcohol (in Russia)

Now an article from New Scientist about alternatives to alcohol used in Russia. The article opens with the following:

“A shocking 43% of deaths in working-age Russian men result from drinking alcohol not meant for human consumption, such as cologne and cleaning agents, according to a new study.“, which helps explaining why Russian men have the lowest life expectancy at just 59 years!

The alternatives to alcohol are cheaper and have a higher alcohol content. On the positive side, when drinking eau the cologne, burping may give a more pleasant smell… This must be an attractive feature to the women ;).

Not surprisingly, the people that drink the ‘alternatives’ to alcohol, have a much higher risk of alcohol related death.

Finally some shocking figures:

• “Russian men who drink non-beverage alcohol have a five-times greater risk of alcohol-related death (such as liver cirrhosis and alcohol poisoning) than those who do not consume these products“
• “Men who drank only non-beverage alcohols had up to a 20-times greater risk of death“
• These figures are probably higher, as the research didn’t include men who lived alone, or men who lived on the streets
• “Alcohol is linked to 72% of murders and 42% of suicides in Russia, according to 2005 figures“

Bring on the Soviet-Russia jokes ;).