December 14, 2009 at 8:07 pm — by rufus.k
I’ve been doing yoga for a short while a couple years ago when suddenly my teacher had to quit and become a mother. Now, since last week I’m back in business. Took the introductory course last tuesday and dude did I stink. It wasn’t so obvious to me, I breathed badly, I couldn’t move the way I had moved earlier and I was sweating like a giant pig. Balance to me is probably merely a word, in other words ‘serious amounts of practice from now on and a lot of work to be done’.
It shouldn’t become much of a problem though, Marijke my new teacher is pretty, pretty, pret-ty good and the place itself is amazing. Marijke (who used to be my neighbour back in the day) lives in Charlois, which is a part of Rotterdam (South) I had not seen so often, but actually is quite beautiful. She found us a Japanese dojo right in the middle of the old part of Charlois which is just amazing. It’s surrounded by a stunning garden (designed by Kees Ouwens) and is otherwise used for lessons in Japanese language, Za Zen courses and kendo practice. And now, since last week, there’s Marijke’s yoga lessons (for beginners).
Now if you don’t know what yoga is exactly and you’re like ‘Dude, yoga!? Are you for real?’ this might be the correct time to inform you on the effect yoga has had on me last time I tried it. Now let me start by describing myself as a hopeful nihilist, open to all sorts of powers and always trying to find meaning to events and situations, no matter how far-fetched or metaphorical. I’m also kind of gloomy at times and I sometimes suspect life to be nothing but irony. Now yoga helped me not to care too much about all that and be simply glad to be alive as its meditations made me realize fire, water, air and earth are here to be celebrated by us and not be ridiculed, hated or taken for granted. Physical yoga exercise made me realize that it’s a waste of time to feel bad about yourself. So yes, I am serious about this yoga thing. It pretty much calms my nerves and makes me less disappointed to be only human (and not some kick ass bird, a palm tree on the beach, a cucumber, a soft breeze, or a great white shark making a jump out of the water).
I think there’s still room for some more people, so if you’re interested call Marijke at 06 23 6456 63.
November 30, 2009 at 12:06 pm — by rufus.k
Het wintert, Joepie! ijsbloemen op de ruiten, kachels die niks lijken uit te halen, snert, handen die niet op je stuur kunnen zonder dat je de mouwen van je (wollen) trui er een beetje hebt tussengefrommelt, ’s ochtends draai je je nog eens lekker om, etc.: ik hou ervan. Waar ik ook ONTZETTEND veel van houd is de zgn. ‘kerstgezelligheid’. Man, ik vind het zo fijn! Misschien heeft het iets te maken met dat in de aanloop naar de kerst iedereen ineens ruiterlijk toegeeft dat gezelligheid niet van je stemming of instelling, maar van je hoeveelheid frutsels, dennetakken, gebreide truien en lampjes afhangt… Over gezelligheid gesproken: ik draai op een wel heel gezellig Kerst-feestje en wel het kerstfeestje van de Cheer-Up Club! (met Made in June, Marick&Mathilde en ik dacht ook Kaus&Kosa… althans, dat zou leuk zijn!) in de Unie.
Verder houd ik ook ontzettend van Sinterklaas. Als je er ook van houdt, doe je er goed aan aanstaande donderdag naar Ernest van der Kwast’s De Unie Late Night te komen, ik heb me laten vertellen dattie daar zeker aanwezig zal zijn bovendien is het sowieso altijd een erg leuke avond. (Oók al in de Unie, wat gebeurt daar toch een boel leuks.)
Jullie is in elk geval weer op de hoogte van mijn aanstaande performances.
September 15, 2009 at 1:07 pm — by rufus.k
Our neighbours at the old office are in need of some help. Surely we’re glad to help ’em out and tell you all about it. First let me tell you a little something about our neighbours. They are, first of all, local art centre ‘Koffie Verkeert’ (way too difficult to translate), a sort of art-meeting-place-slash-gallery that’s been around since forever (eighties) and which has been especially hip in the Vaandrager/Cor Kraat/Rikus Waskowsky era. And second of all they are record store Shifting Gears, a really nice store specialized in what I believe is best defined as ‘contemporary dance music’.
Now what they need is either someone to revitalise Koffie Verkeert with some nice ideas on how to conduct art business in the now (notice that neither the art centre nor the record store have hyperlinks to –what youths call– WEBSITES) or someone to rent an office space in the back of the store and help out with the rent.
They’re a nice bunch of guys, if you’re interested walk by the store (open thursday – sunday) located at the Van Speykstraat 145.
June 2, 2009 at 3:00 pm — by rufus.k
After swearing I’d never be in a band no more, my friend Arnoud ‘De Nuge’ van der Zijden did it again and made five incredibly good tracks with garageband. I could not resist and we got together this band consisting of Jeroen ‘de Rev’ Rozendaal (de vogels, The New Earth Group) on keys, Jos Hoevenaars (Mono, The New Earth Group) on Guitars, de nuge (Oil, de vogels) on bass and myself (Homey Universalis) on drums. We’re called ‘Model Fuckers’ and Model Fuckers’ (instrumental) music sounds like nothing you heard before (except maybe some really weird 80’s film soundtracks), but you be the judge of that once you’ve downloaded our third ‘song’ (can you call a track a song, if there isn’t a singer for the song to be sung?) called ‘except for the Coca Cola thing the word ‘enjoy’ lost its meaning’ for free right here.
Read more on Model Fuckers here on Last.fm
Posted in dit moet wel een heel bijzonder iemand zijn, Hate to say I told you so, music, POP, work I did
Tagged arnoud van der zijden, Bach, de nuge, de rev, jeroen, jos, model fuckers, Vangelis
|
May 27, 2009 at 2:53 pm — by rufus.k
Last monday I went to see SUNN 0))) perform in the Raymond Strantse Kerk (a church). I have only one thing to say about the concert: FUCK YEAH!!! I do have a pretty funny anecdote on what went on right beforehand tho. An hour before the show me and my man de Nuge smoked one in the museumpark, made a couple of jokes on ducks, homosexuality and security guards and we were off to church.
As we got inside the church to find ourselves a spot, I felt like peeing real bad and luckily ran into someone I know who works at the Church, who let me in on a little secret: an actual hidden toilet somewhere in the back of the church, just my luck! So I went and I went and felt pretty relieved, washed my hands, walked out the bathroom to enjoy a little organ music that was already playin’ to get us in this whole mystical mood that was going on, and BAMMMM! I suddenly found myself in a corridor with six (6!) doors. as I got in I didn’t know where to go and while turnin’ round to see where I came from I immediately forgot just that. I tried a door and it was closed, the one on its right lead to a staircase. I tried another one, or at least I thought so, but it turned out to be the exact same one (that was leading to the staircase). I began to worry some and I felt a little stupid that I had just opened the same door twice (imagine me playing the memory game). I tried another one and I was back in the hall where the door to the secret toilet was located and I was like ‘my god! is this really happening to me, this… this… stoner classic?!? WOW!’ I felt kinda privileged, like Alice (when she was ten feet tall), and when I finally took a right door and was back in the main… church… space (what’s the name for this space? like ‘Oecemenical Praise room’ or something… I mean ‘the room that makes a church a church’. A prize for the best name in the comments section!) Anyway, I had to laugh so loud (yet silently) and I immediately told the first person that called my name (Selwyn Slop) the whole thing. I must have looked like a complete idiot. But fuck it, I love my life!!!
In case you don’t have a clue what SUNN O))) is, here’s some youtube stuff and this is what their press text said on this tour: “Pure, raw, uninhibited invocations featuring O)))s core members: Stephen O’Malley and Greg Anderson ONLY. 2 Les Paul guitars, 4 Sunn fullstacks, 4 Ampeg bass stacks. No guests, no vocals, no keyboards. We hope you will join us!.”
Posted in een vriend attendeerde mij hierop, Hate to say I told you so, music, power
Tagged alice, are you experienced, church, down the rabbit hole, fuck yeah!, guitar, mayhem, rock'nroll, SUNN, SUNN O)))
|
April 20, 2009 at 7:19 pm — by rufus.k
Na een weekend vol verjaardagen eindelijk een mening waar ik helemaal achter sta: Sesamstraat moet gered en (dientengevolge) terug naar half zeven! (Als je het er mee eens bent dan.) Ik stel voor dat iedereen het ermee eens is. Zo ‘ja’, klik hier.
April 8, 2009 at 3:46 pm — by rufus.k
Aporetic drawings of deconstructed streets and numbers, jokes, other forms of cryptography and finally stuff that isn’t supposed to be made out of that stuff are at the basis of the work of one Matrijs van Merg who is showing work at the MK Gallery (Witte de Withstraat, Rotterdam).
Although it’s not a very big place there’s a lot to see. birds cut in half and present both outside and inside the art space made three scandinavian tourists laugh really loud when I just walked out, incorrect spelling of words which are supposed to make us think again about the convertibility of language (and thus truth) or maybe the ridiculousness of truth even, anyway then there’s the stuff made of the wrong stuff like hats made of banana boxes and (milk) cartons made out of second hand record sleeves which I found lame at first until I saw a milk carton made out of Bach’s St Matthew Passion, it was only then that I figured there might have been liquid Passion inside that carton (it got somewhat better then, but not lots).
Then there’s these drawings of tiny thoughts, or rebuses or rebuses of drawings of tiny thoughts, anyway there’s loads of ’em, about fifty I guess and at least thirty of ’em are spectacular (too bad the others are around as well) and finally, when you’re done giggling and going ‘wait… oh yeah, sure!’ there’s the pièce de resistance, a mural —made entirely out figures painted with two specially prepared paint rollers— that’s just so fucking amazingly brilliant you’d have to see it for yourself to believe it. It looks like Keith Haring tried to do an Escher drawing… anyway, fuck names and references, fucking awesome is what that is. If you have the extra half hour, go and have fun!
March 30, 2009 at 9:52 pm — by rufus.k
‘Yes’ is the new ‘No’. Pet Shop Boys have a new album out. Bound to be great.
You’re right, that is a Peter Saville album cover.
March 30, 2009 at 7:49 pm — by rufus.k
I’ve written of my love for war in films earlier on this site so I won’t now, but there’s something I’d like to share with you all simply because I write on this blog and writing them little posts is basically what a blogholder does. Anyway, I’m (finally) watching Band of Brothers (2001). Sander who has interned here has the complete series on DVD and I tricked him into lending it to me. Now in this series one Neil McDonough stars as 1st lieutenant Buck Compton ‘a hell of a combat leader’. I don’t know if it’s because of the brothers dug in deep in their foxholes in the Belgian Ardennes or because of something else, but the acting of this (actually not a very) young man gets me aroused in a non sexual manner. I haven’t seen acting the way he does it in a long time. It reminds me of Newman in Cat on A Hot Tin Roof, Cassavetes in Rosemary’s Baby and most of all of Brando in… well practically everything he was in. It’s the sort of theatrical acting that’s in a way theatrical, yet it isn’t at all. You know what I mean? It’s actually pretty close to ‘the real thing’, but it isn’t, it’s more beautiful… or more driven, more radical than actual human behaviour, but by believing it, it’s like saying you belive in a more radical, a more outspoken human race. I don’t know if this is a good or a bad thing now, but I guess it’s kind of ‘out of fashion’ to act like that nowadays.
When checking his IMDb status my notion on that type of acting got confirmed. To my surpise, Neil mainly works for TV in series such as ‘Martial Law’, ‘Profiler’ or ‘Diagnosis Murder’, he was the voice of Dr. Bruce Banner in the animated series ‘The Incredible Hulk’, lieutenant Hawk in ‘Star trek: First Contact’, and in a most recent performance Neil portrayes Dave Williams in Desperate Housewives, a show I saw only once and will never see again. Hopefully Neil McDonough will be starring in more ‘serious’ roles soon. I could imagine him and Philip Seymour H. in a sort of Thelma and Louise with guys kinda flick, now that would be something. Hey casting agents, are you paying attention?!?
February 11, 2009 at 2:23 pm — by rufus.k
Suus’ designs keep amazing me. And not just because we kiss sometimes.
Check out this latest and other efforts on her blog.
Peace! In the Middle Ease…
