“The trouble with being the Prime Minister’s sister is it does put your life into rather harsh perspective. What did my brother do today? He stood up and fought for his country. And what did I do? I made a papier-maché lobster head.”
(Karen, Love Actually)
my kingdom for one of his kisses, a speculaas and a cup of celestial seasonings tea.
pretty please?
i know one shouldn’t judge a country by its stereotype, but sometimes, you find a specimen so typical, so ironically representative, that you forget all about impartiality.
as i was leaving the netherlands, i met an american guy from los angeles, arriving for a small exchange period. he asked us to use the internet on your computers every once in a while and we got the chance to talk on one of those “visits”.
him – you know…the dutch people… they’re so…
me – what?
him – like… not technologically advanced.
me – hum? what do you mean?
him – bicycles. who uses bikes these days? that’s so… backwards. i gotta get a car here.
i was shocked and speechless and then i laughed inside, secretly wondering if he knew about the dutch gas prices (only the highest in the world), and, let’s be honest, of how stupid he was, really.
the dutch are backwards because they use bicycles? ever heard of environmental friendly way of transportation which is also cheap and good for you? … i thought so. forget the car, try to find some brains instead.
ps – luckily, this stereotype was changed by another student i met later that week, from seattle, which was polite, moved normally and was nice to talk to. but then again, someone told me seattle was not a exactly a typical city… :)
ps2 – i’m back! no more exams for now! :D
Owen Pallett has the smallest, tiniest little features, delicate like a bone china horse. (on AMP ::: ROCK)
on one of the last weeks in groningen, i was listening to “adventure.exe” by owen pallett while writing the neverending thesis. i had found the song on a orange commercial, some time ago and then fell in love with it…
anyway, if you’ve heard anything else by owen, you’ll know he’s a violin player and well there isn’t much violin on this song… it’s more of a guitar solo and some instrument i can’t recognize, playing towards the middle of the song… and there is rain in the background and a sort of scratching sound, if you hear carefully. those scratching noises were intriguing me for some time – they sounded familiar.
and then it hit me. because it’s something most people don’t do everyday or never even heard of it, and because i was damn happy and proud of my minute of geekness, i’m going to tell:
he’s scratching rosin on his violin bow. over and over again. sometimes on the edges, sometimes across the full length of it. and sometimes he blows the excess off.
the noise is so familiar, i must have done it hundreds of times before. :) can you hear it?
he did get the violin in the song afterall. owen rules.
more:
* orange videoclip, though you can’t hear the sounds there.
* adventure.exe comes on final fantasy album “he poos clouds”.
* violin bows and rosin.
* i’m almost back :)
Apathy can be overcome by enthusiasm, and enthusiasm can only be aroused by two things: first, an ideal, which takes the imagination by storm, and second, a definite intelligible plan for carrying that ideal into practice.
Arnold J. Toynbee