Gig time: Apocalyptica supported by Tracer

To be sitting in class until 5:30 prior to a gig seemed like a super bad idea. I wasn't about to skip the class, although it was tempting, yet my mind kept sending me images of an ever growing queue and I sat there in the knowledge that I was not going to be anywhere near the front this time - a.k.a. at the back because I actively avoid the centre at gigs but that's another story!

Thijs and I arrived about an hour before doors opened. There were some people lurking in the area but no real queue. When doors opened we had time to put our bags in the cloakroom and then stroll to the stage. Other than the V.I.P. ticket-holders we were at the front (in reality, this meant we were second row so that's all good). Can I just point out how different this is from the majority of UK shows?

In fact, there were quite a lot of differences compared to the U.K., in the end, although it'll take a few more gigs to work out how generalisable these are. I had my personal space for the entirety of the show except for one moment when a photographer accidentally tapped me with his camera... which suggests the calmness of the crowd is pretty normal because I would not dare take my proper camera to a rock/metal show for fear of, well, a dead camera. Interestingly, I got more squished, and my hair more tangled up, as we attempted to leave at the end.

Anyway, I digress from the show itself.

The warm up band was Australian rock band Tracer. I'd heard some of their stuff before but didn't know them all that well, Thijs hadn't heard them at all. It's pretty fair to say that, by the end of their set we were completely sold. We also met the band briefly after the show and they're delightful guys so an all round good mix. Apparently, they're coming back in the New Year so Thijs and I agreed we should go catch them again and if he pulls out he'll be in trouble ;-)

And Apocalyptica, well, they were awesome but what do you expect? I was lucky enough to see them with Maria a few months back, before they started playing with their new vocalist, Franky Perez. I only say "lucky" because it allowed me to fully appreciate the new dynamic not because I felt that the vocalist detracted at all. Franky is blooming brilliant. He has a great voice, something we knew from Shadowmaker, and is a wonderful live performer. I mean, it's clearly different to the full instrumental performances but it's a good kind of different.

Other than that, I guess the highlight of this show, for me, had to be Eicca's super, super quick string change. I mean, I know he had assistance but that string was on in a few seconds, under a minute, I'd say. I'm as impressed by that as by the music itself!!

I'm not going to spend too much longer writing about this show because, as always, I find it hard to put this kind of experience into words. However, I did book to go see them on the UK tour so I think that gives you some kind of idea as to how much I enjoyed it!

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"Just Popping to Germany"

Last weekend I ignored the many deadlines and exams looming and traveled to Essen to see Faun play one of their extra Luna tour shows. It was a bit of an irresponsible idea but, having missed them at Castlefest because of being stupid and ill, I decided it was worth it. My big exam was today and I didn't feel totally out of my depth so all's well that ends well, right? ;-)

Anyway, back to Essen.

I'm a very happy scrapbooker right now!

Actually, if I'm going to see show that's touring round Germany, I'll try to see it in Essen. It's a lovely little city in many ways. For me, it's great that most people don't speak a lot of English but are patient and really keen to successfully communicate so I get to practice my crappy German without feeling that I'm inconveniencing anyone. I suppose that comes from it not being too much of a tourist hub. It's also comfortable because I've found a nice, affordable hotel about a block away from the theatre.

And now comes the really, really hard bit, attempting to tell you about Faun's concert. Sometimes, well most of the time, it's difficult to find the words to describe a concert. Sure, I've learned to do it academically and, I'm sure if I thought about it, I could tell you a lot of little theatre/literature style analyses but that's not the soul of a performance. 

To cut a very long story short, it was amazing. To be honest, even now, a few days on, it's all still a bit of a blur! There are moments, naturally, that stand out. The memory of the opening, with sudden loud drums making my mother, and most of the audience, jump sky high, still makes me laugh, for example. And I don't think I'll be able to listen to "Walpurgisnacht" without hearing an over enthusiastic audience singing along!

DANKE ESSEN / THANK YOU ESSENVielen Dank wir hatten einen wunderbaren Samstag Abend mit Euch und auch die anschließende...

Posted by FAUN on Sunday, 11 October 2015

Faun are one of my favourite bands; every member is actually quite special, and thoroughly talented, which leads to an all round strength that you don't see in a lot of groups. Rüdiger's drum solo has to stand out though - I mean, it's amazing to hear what can be done by, effectively, 'just' hitting a bit of stretched material. I'm still not quite sure how it was possible! Add to the already wonderful mix a couple of marvelous guest musicians, Efrén López and Maya Fridman, and you have a wonderful musical company.

Something else that I really did like about the show was the way in which it combined theatrics, assisted by the mesmerising dancers Yulya Ayuna Kholeva and  Masha Shushera, with just 'pure' music. There were some songs that were big and all encompassing and then there were other times, like the small set after the interval, when acoustic style music was allowed to shine. This ebb and flow meant that the show was effective in every moment.

To be honest, I could go on in this rambling fashion for quite some time but that's no fun for anyone and doesn't do it justice either so I shall stop.

Something else more than worth mentioning is the signing table moment after the show. It saved me waiting around in the cold to get my scrapbook painting signed - something that is more appreciated than you will ever know. Oh, and it has to be said that the members of the band were even kinder than they are talented, and that's one of the biggest compliments that I could pay.

The Post in Which Havanah Gets Completely Overexcited About Visiting an Art Gallery . . .

Wednesday saw my art history class go to the Hermitage museum in the centre of town. This museum is a branch of the Russian museum of the same name. It isn't one of the state owned Dutch museums and it instead operates, I believe, completely privately. It means it's a bit pricier to get in (or free with a Museumkaart) but it is, I believe, completely and utterly worth it. We only visited the "Portrait Gallery of the Golden Age" but there is another exhibition on Napoleon and Josephine running which I would like to return and see. The layout of the exhibition, and the level of interactivity, has been so carefully thought through that it truly was a pleasure.

The museum's 'Selfie Area' allows people to be green screened into a group portrait type setting that includes photos of previous guests. My teacher (right of me) seemed to confuse the green screen somewhat ;-)

The main gallery is a large hall filled with group portraits which are most impressive. Grouped together like this it is quite overwhelming but in a brilliant way. At regular intervals there is a 'light show' which is linked the audio guide and takes you around key portraits in the room giving details about specific figures. In this sense, you experience something of the scale and magnificence of multiple images alongside one another but are assisted to appreciate the details held within single pieces. It's very cleverly done. Seriously, I rated both the collection and organization here well over the Rijksmuseum.

There's another floor of paintings that we rather rushed through although I don't think I'm alone in saying that most of us could have spent a lot longer looking around had time been on our side. This floor was a bit less about portraiture, although that's still the broad theme, and more about the history of the Netherlands, and Amsterdam in particular. In this sense, it was rather interesting for all of us, particularly us foreign students, as the exhibition gave a lot of really interesting information to contextualise the works, and the area in general. It wasn't overly crowded either which meant it was comfortable to wander through at your own pace and actually enjoy.

Yep, I will be going back here, undoubtedly!

A group photo of the class, taken in the gardens of the museum, seemed only fitting!

Rambling on about 'Pride and Prejudice' by Jane Austen

Well, I finally did it. I broke the vow that I made, aged eight, never to read Austen again. I found Emma on the shelves of my school library. Little Me was thoroughly enchanted by the blurb and decided that it was just the kind of novel I wanted to read. Lets be honest, Adult Me would have acted in exactly the same way. However, Little Me started to struggle with the novel and really wanted to stop reading... except her teacher was a huge Austen fan and wouldn't let her stop. Little Me got the end of Emma, paying no attention to what she read by the end and swore to never out herself through that again!

When I saw that as part of my Adaptation Studies course, I had to read Pride and Prejudice I was rather split, it has to be said. Part of me was actually quite happy. I had an aversion to Austen but I also knew that a lot of the aspects would be very much to my taste, from plot to focus on social interactions in a historical context. I'd wanted an excuse to give her another go for years but the remaining part of Little Me was trembling at the thought. 

Anyway, I sat down and read the novel. I got to the end. I managed to follow the plot to the end. I didn't skip masses of pages (that's harder on a kindle). It was a success.

I can see why I struggled with Austen when I was younger. Part of me really enjoyed the novel and then part of me wanted it to end with some promptness. Events were drawn out. Characters acted in ways that made me want to knock their heads together. In fact, when I think about it, I'm not sure that there was one truly likable character in that novel, except perhaps Jane.

When one moves beyond what was quite a difficult style at times, the plot itself is actually quite enjoyable. It's full of themes that still ring very true today from the different kinds of love to the varying forms of duty. The ways in which the characters act, while perhaps not driven by kindness, are understandable and make sense within a modern context. Perhaps some aspects of the novel are not so relevant now, or to the general non-upper class reader, but they are aspects that we can still associate with.

Over the next few weeks I'm going to be watching various films, and reading texts, that are in some way linked to Pride and Prejudice, some being direct adaptations. I have to say that I'm actually quite interested. While I enjoyed the novel in some senses, I am quite eager to see the story carried into a different format and freed of the somewhat clunky writing that didn't quite fit in with my own personal tastes.

So, after many years, I have conquered Austen. Still not planning on giving Emma another go any time soon ;-)

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The Best Friend visits.

Just over a week ago, on Thursday, I sat here waiting for my best friend to message me to say that she knew her arrival time. There had been some crash that had delayed traffic and she was somewhere in the Rotterdam vicinity with little knowledge of exactly how delayed she was. Not to mention the fact that her phone, had once again decided not to work when off of British soil making it tricky to contact one another. Eventually, and a little later than planned we managed to meet up and we made our way back to my flat ready to spend the next week together.

Friday, we were quite happy to spend the morning sleeping and chatting. A short stroll around my flat (to the nearest Albert Heijn) was also  undertaken. I had a class in the afternoon and it seemed illogical to attempt to do anything major that morning what with the general exhaustion of the journey still having something of an effect on Aimee.

The evening saw Leonoor, Dania, and Thijs join us for a trip into town. Aimee felt she had to see the Red Light District while over here and so we made an evening of it, grabbing something to eat and drink before wandering around a little. We also managed to introduce Aimee to the wonders of poffertjes (little fluffy pancakes of delight)

Saturday was supposed to be a day trip day but I was feeling a little unwell in the morning so we decided it was better to stay closer to come. Instead we wandered around the museum district and I bought Aimee a fresh stroopwafel - she loves the shop bought ones in England so it seemed only right!

Sunday saw us visit Paleis Het Loo, the place we were supposed to visit on Saturday. I'd particularly wanted to go here because there was an exhibition on Empress Elisabeth (Sisi) running. It focused mainly on the myth of the films compared the reality, a little on her visit to the Netherlands and gave a basic overview of her life. A lot of the items I had seen before or were replicas of things that I had seen before but some things on display were new to me and of great interest. Aimee, who knew little of Elisabeth except what she'd picked up from me, seemed to enjoy this exhibition rather a lot too.

As for the palace itself, well, it was a mixed place. Some aspects were lovely and some were... confused, I guess. Some rooms were exquisite, some seemed like less vibrant versions of palaces and houses that I'd seen elsewhere and some were full of badly placed art. I mention the latter because there were some quite lovely artworks that were incredibly difficult to see, and impossible to fully appreciate, because of their positioning in rooms that really did not suit them. You understand how much that pained me!

Something that must be said of the place, however, is that the gardens were truly lovely. The grounds are, as I understand it, quite extensive and we did not have time to see much of them, staying in the formal gardens. All the same, it was lovely. I would like to return just to spend a day looking around the grounds, in all honesty.

Monday was spent vastly apart as I had classes all day and Aimee went into town for the day. We did spend the evening together eating a roast dinner and drinking mead or, in my case, spilling aforementioned mead all over my carpet and Budapest scrapbook. I somehow managed to get the mead out of the carpet (miraculous as the carpet is off-white and it was a summer berry mead!)  and have only done minimal damage to the scrapbook...

Tuesday was another trip into town for a stroll through the shopping areas and a 'farewell' dinner. We decided to have our main evening meal out a day early in awareness of Aimee's early departure on the Thursday. 

Finally, the Wednesday we decided to spend in my flat. It was tipping it down with rain and we were both too lazy to go out. That aside, we are quite capable of entertaining ourselves and it was nice to have some time whereby we were simply hanging out as friends as opposed to attempting to be tourists together. Admittedly, though the entire week we had stolen moments were we could watch films, chat, or play silly computer games but it was nice to have a day of relaxation.

When Thursday morning came we were both pretty upset both because Aimee was to leave and because we both had to get up at an insane hour in order to get her to the bus station. Eventually, and after much hugging, I put her on the bus. Once she'd got on, the driver jokingly told me not to cry to which I replied that I wasn't going to cry... I'd finally got rid of her. He threatened to tell Aimee what I'd said and I wonder if he did... either way, his joking was exactly what I needed because, without it, I would have undoubtedly been in floods of tears. Why are goodbyes so difficult?

Anyway, Aimee promised me faithfully to let me know when she crossed back into England and  also when she got back home to Cardiff and I've not heard from her since I put her on the bus. I'm not worried because she's hardly the most reliable woman ever (and I've spoken to her mother!) but, just in case you read this before I speak to you next Aimee, you're in big trouble ;-)

Semester Three Introduction Time

Right now I should be sitting here working on getting all my readings and tasks for the weeks ahead finished. Instead I'm sat here, surrounded by rather difficult, and extremely long, texts, crying into my cup of tea. Okay, I'm metaphorically crying into my cup of tea both because I'm not actually crying and because I've long since finished my tea. But that's beside the point. It seemed high time I got started with some procrastination and wrote my once a semester sum up of what courses I am studying.

Introduction to Visual Methodologies

This course is a compulsory module for all humanities students. Part of me is looking forward to it because it does seem interesting and the teacher seems lovely. I am a little worried about how much overlap there's going to be with the art history courses I've already taken as it's obviously intended for people who've not done any. 

It seems to focus on the different philosophical views towards art over the years and the ways in which they've fed into criticism so it should hopefully have a different slant. I've not found it challenging so far (only two classes in though). Admittedly, some of the texts are difficult but that's philosophers for you! In short, it's either going to be a course I love or it's going to be a little dull, I think. We'll wait and see!

Narrative Across Media

This course was one I signed on to a bit on a whim as Dania was planning on taking it and showed me the course description (and it looked good). It's supposed to look at the way narratives behave when portrayed through different media using narratology. For example, how are narratives presented in novels differently to in poems? 

This is another course I'm not sure about right now. The teacher, although really engaging, was very clear that he wanted to champion a scientific approach to the humanities as opposed to an interpretation based one.  If you know me then you'll know my opinion on that. I do like narratology, however, so that should work out. I also think that the teacher is confident in his own abilities and status to be open to people having different opinions on what humanities should be about. The issue will be writing my papers in the style that this course dictates... On the other hand, the last class seemed a lot less strict on the whole "Humanities are science" thing, rather using narratology as a framework for interpretation - something I can deal with and agree with.

Adaptation Studies

This one sounds quite similar to Narrative Across Media in many ways as it looks at the adaptation of texts into other medias and new versions. For example, we read Pride and Prejudice and then look at various adaptations... films, television series, Bollywood films, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies etc etc etc and work with those. The texts chosen look really interesting and watching/reading multiple versions of a thing is right up my street.

In fact, while this course seemed to have quite a bad reputation, I think it may end up being my favourite. I agree with the main text book author on most things, the teacher is good fun and engaging and the general subject corresponds with what I actually want to do in life. It's wonderful. 

Art and the Body

I ended up in Art and the Body really late as I had planned on taking Creative Writing this semester and then Art and the Body next year as it was better for me timetable wise and also workload wise. Of course, Creative Writing was oversubscribed.

Art and the Body is exactly what it sounds like. The first half looks at how the body is portrayed in art, focusing mainly on portraiture and, to be honest, it's fascinating. The second section is on how art influences the body from corsets to tattoos. What a subject! To see that double influence is just really exciting. I also know this teacher as I've had her before and she is great. She knows her stuff, is passionate, strict enough to run an organised class but really kind too. 

So, overall, it seems that I've got a bit of a strange mix of classes that I feel I will love and ones I'm less sure about. The fact is, I'm sure I will gain something from all the classes I'm taking and will grow to enjoy them all in some way because I always do in the end. I also feel that I will like the teachers for all of them which, while it shouldn't be an issue, is always important. We'll see how they all go!

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Back in Amsterdam at last

A week today and my best friend will be out in Amsterdam. At last, we will be reunited for more than a couple of hours as I am kidnapping her she's chosen to visit me for a week. I can't quite put into words my unbelievable excitement about this fact. Aimee is someone I grew up with, a part of my family and, frankly, it's about time she got to see Out Here. I'm sure you'll hear much more about that soon enough but this is supposed to be a blog post about things that have already happened, right? It's not like there hasn't been a lot happening!

As you're no doubt aware, due to the crazily short holidays here compared to back in England, I am once again in Amsterdam and am part way through my first week of my second year at university. 'Second year' of university sounds way more advanced than I currently feel so I'm pretty pleased I took time out before starting else I think I would have felt even more overwhelmed!

I'll probably put up a post giving a bit about my classes at some point in the next few days but I'll stop it from going on facebook so if you're interested in that then check back here in a little while!

Sonja's semi-posed photo from pancake-meet up. I'll give you a clue,
the two of us smiling awkwardly were the posed ones!

Aside from classes,  it's been great to be back. I've managed to meet up with my main little group a couple of times although I've been neglecting a lot of people and that really does need to change. I've also found out that some messages I've sent over the past few months haven't sent so I need to work out who I've been unknowingly ignoring! Oh and I probably should study a bit.

But I digress...

Yesterday, probably deserves a special mention as the pancake themed meet up. The wonderful Sonja, who seems to have got better at hiding from my camera again over the summer, made us all pancakes and we sat and chatted for a while, just catching up on stuff that had happened while we were apart.

Dania's Pancake, created by Sonja.
Seems to sum both giver and recipient up nicely!

Other than meeting up with some friends, and with plans to catch up with some more, I've spent a fair amount of time rearranging my flat. It's a complete mess right now, partly because I've pulled out a lot of papers in attempts to clear some desk drawers, partly because I've brought over a lot of (beautiful) scrapbooking materials, and partly because I still need to assemble my new IKEA bookcase because one was never going to be enough for me. It'll keep me busy over the next few days, for sure!

All in all, it's strange but good to be back. I'm currently in that weird state of feeling like I've never been away but also feeling like everything's quite new again. I guess, I've not really been alone for two months and now I'm in my own flat once more. I've not had a structured work schedule and suddenly I have hundreds of pages to read a day. And let's not mention the early mornings! It's great but it is undoubtedly odd!

Here comes trouble!