Posted: June 25th, 2008 | Filed under: Music | Tags: audience, damage control, disregard, failure, isp, music pirating, nme, paul mcguinness, radiohead, relationship, true value, u2 | No Comments »
Bono – exercising some damage control – has written to the NME to say he thinks ‘Radiohead were courageous for ‘In Rainbows’ release’ in response to Paul McGuinness’ earlier comments regarding Radiohead’s ‘In Rainbows’ pay-what-you-like release.
McGuinness, who controversially believes ISP’s facilitate music pirating and are thus robbing artists (“…entrepreneurial, hippy values seems to be a disregard for the true value of music.”), had claimed the experiment was a failure and U2 wouldn’t be following their example. Bono disagrees with his manager. According to him Radiohead are ‘courageous and imaginative in trying to figure out some new relationship with their audience.’ Now that’s an example U2 might want to try and follow. Perhaps they could pick Trent Reznor’s brain.
The full letter will appear in today’s edition of the printed version of the NME.
Posted: January 24th, 2008 | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 30 seconds to mars, acting, actors, audience, cruise school, dad, ears, emerald isle, grasping at straws, late night, monster, photo, recce, seconds to mars, shopping, time and space, tom cruise | No Comments »
‘Mostly dry’. That doesn’t sound too bad then. I’m hopping over to the Emerald Isle for a day’s worth of photo recce (for a shoot next month), perhaps some shopping, and a late night 30 Seconds to Mars show. Not that I’m a big fan or anything, but I’m sure both band and audience will be a sight to see.
Talking about a sight to see… (Yeah, grasping at straws here) Torchwood S2e02… now that’s more like it! This director gave Barrowman much less time and space, which cut down on his showiness. Now all they need to do is clean out his ears… that’s the only reason I can think of why he is always SO MUCH LOUDER than the other actors. Or is it just the Tom Cruise school of acting?
Loved the Monster of the Week. The woman playing Beth did so awesomely and the steely eyed sleeper dad was just the right amount of creepy and silly.
Posted: July 7th, 2007 | Filed under: Music | Tags: audience, blowjob, family members, michael stipe, r.e.m. | No Comments »
Stipe told a story that ended with a blowjob. Then he remembered there were family members in the audience and went bright red.
Posted: August 11th, 2006 | Filed under: Music | Tags: audience, bauhaus, centre stage, chants, daniel ash, ego, guitarist, italian prunes, original band, peter murphy, tivoli, weren | Comments Off
Italian Prunes/Siouxsie wannabes Chants of Maldoror weren’t the most original band to ever grace the Tivoli stage, but at least singer Adolphe presented himself to the audience, which is more than can be said of Bauhaus’ Mr Peter Murphy, who moped at the side and the back of the stage in the shadows, having conceded his spot centre stage to guitarist (and second huge ego in the band) Daniel Ash.
Full story.
Posted: September 15th, 2005 | Filed under: Television | Tags: arrogance, audience, couple of days, dance rock, elvis, fleetwood mac, inxs, money, music business, naivety, new wave, patent, pink floyd, poor sod, rhinestone, s scott, scott walker, wave bands | Comments Off
J.D. is so going to be the next singer of OB: INXS.
While MiG the most ‘theatre’ of all and not in a good way, it’s J.D. who understands the theatre of rock. Check out his performance of Pink Floyd’s ‘Money’. The guy has vision. I’m also digging the rhinestone megaphone that he uses in ‘Pretty Vegas’, the song he co-wrote with Andrew Farriss. Well, I would, wouldn’t I? His performance of ‘By my side’ was subtle and I love the voice. That hint of Elvis that everybody hates so much? It’s a good thing. Elvis doesn’t have the patent on it. It’s Scott Walker. It’s Bowie. Totally floats my boat, anyway. I’ve been humming ‘Pretty Vegas’ for the last couple of days.
MiG’s the next to go. Too feminine, too sweet, too theatre, too squeaky clean. An ill fit with the Farriss brothers. Then it’ll between Marty and J.D. And Marty? Maybe an audience favourite, but he’s just completely wrong for INXS. The grunge voice and the arrogance cum naivety in thinking he can change and lead this band, come on. His idea that INXS invented ‘dance rock’ and that he can make them compete with the new new wave bands… please. Convoluted much? Poor sod, I nearly cacked myself when he started to ‘explain’ the music business to OB:INXS.
My money’s still firmly on J.D.
Maybe Suzie can join Fleetwood Mac now she’s eliminated. That’s where she belongs.
Posted: August 22nd, 2005 | Filed under: Film | Tags: amsterdam, audience, browncoats, buffy, cast members, cursor, fab, intermission, joss whedon, last saturday, popcorn, serenity, tv series, weren | Comments Off
I saw the movie Serenity this weekend. This is my ‘review’.
Serenity is the Joss Whedon film based on the shortlived Firefly TV series. Last Saturday, I joined the fans at browncoats.nl, for a very special screening at the UIP office here in Amsterdam. It was the perfect way to see it. The film hadn’t been subtitled yet, there was no intermission and the audience didn’t talk or cough or kick my chair or munch popcorn or neck. So that was fab. There weren’t any cast members, like at many of the USA screenings, but that’s ok, I wouldn’t know what to say anyway.
I’ll post my non-spoilery thoughts here and then spoilers after the break and I’ll probably invisitext them too, so you’ll have to highlight them with the cursor.
First of all, for those reading this that do not know, I was a big Buffy & Angel fan and I run Whedonesque.com, a website dedicated to all things Joss Whedon, the writer / creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer & Angel. Having said that, the people that post on my site are the real fans. I can name some episode titles, but not all and I have no idea which writer wrote which episode. Basically, I was heavily invested in the whole watcher/slayer thing and Scooby friends/family vibe. That spoke to me.
Unfortunately the Buffy series didn’t explore that enough and became more about ‘who is doing the Slayer today’ and ‘female empowerment’ (barf), so I really didn’t care much for the final two seasons. Secondly, I liked Firefly, but didn’t love it like I loved BtVS and Angel. So yeah, I’m a fan, I run the website, but it isn’t life or death to me, you know what I mean? (Those with no experience in any fandom at all will have NO idea what I’m on about.)
When Firefly first aired on TV, I had a hard time connecting with the characters. There were so many, I didn’t have an immediate favourite and I didn’t fancy any of them either. Since then, I’ve watched the series a few times and I’ve grown quite fond of it. But still not in a ‘oh god, I adore these people and they’re telling my story’ kind of way.
Shortly after seeing the film on Saturday, I posted to Whedonesque about it and the minute I posted, the site and most of my other sites went offline. Which completely sucked for all the obvious reasons, but also because it meant I couldn’t talk about the film when I was still completely pumped up about it. So here is what I wrote:
Well, let’s put it this way. I went in with a lot of real life stuff on my mind and a pretty low mood.
I forgot all about it when the film started and I didn’t think of it for one second during, and for about 30 minutes after it ended I was still blissfully forgetful of said real life stuff. I was in a different world for the entire film.
That Joss. He brings the funny. And the scary. And the sad. And the poignant. And the relevant. All in one ‘big damn movie’!
So if you liked scifi, Star Wars, etc… you’ll be surprised, because this film has real acting, real dialogue, real emotions. If you don’t like scifi, you can still go see Serenity, because this film has real acting, real dialogue, real… you catch my drift. Go see it on opening week. Take your friends. Because when enough people show up for opening week… we’ll get sequels. God knows, we may even get a ‘cancelled’ TV series back on the (not so) idiot box.
Continue if you don’t mind spoilers… (highlight to make the text visible)
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: June 29th, 2005 | Filed under: Music | Tags: audience, crowd, dublin, great music, legless, new ireland, photoset, spoils, u2 | Comments Off
Back in town after five great days and three amazing nights in Dublin. Great music, great people and a bloody great tan are my spoils. I’ve never been keen on seeing U2 in Ireland, it’s always been a little disappointing (everybody in audience drunk, band too nervous to perform properly), but for once they brought it home and the crowd wasn’t legless. In fact, they were totally into it, from the back to the front to the highest seats in the stadium. Maybe in this new Ireland, U2 finally have found the audience they deserve.
My photoset of night III.
Posted: September 23rd, 2004 | Filed under: Music | Tags: audience, audiences, bass man, bass player, bods, chord changes, few words, flickr, gig, glance, lyrics, melkweg, new album, pop rock, serenity, showmanship, swoon, vpro | 5 Comments »
(De Melkweg, 24-9-2004. Click to enlarge.) More shots at Flickr.
You can hear this concert on the VPRO website. Interpol are a really tight combo and I enjoyed their set, even if it was a little short (54 mins). I’d like to see more showmanship on the part of the singer – maybe he can take lessons from the bass player. Speaking of bass man, sir, the nazi-look isn’t all that cool. Anyway, musically they were outstanding. Performance-wise… B-.
According to fans who partied with the band afterwards, Interpol hated the Dutch audience and did not enjoy the gig because we ‘didn’t dance or scream’. I’m sure eventually they’ll learn to appreciate audiences that are interested in lyrics and chord changes, and do not swoon at the sight of their skinny little bods. I hope they’ll learn that a few words, a glance, the drop of a shoulder can build a connection with an audience, who will then reward you with the attention you crave.
I’m not too keen on the new album which reveals they might be just one step away from generic USA pop/rock and lacks the serenity of their first.
… but someone got me a ticket for their next show on November 22, so I’ll have to go again.
Posted: September 17th, 2004 | Filed under: Personal | Tags: amsterdam, art exhibitions, audience, book launch, dick, dutch web, films, goat breeders, immense talent, large group, misanthropist, novel, personal site, publishers, social aspects, spare ticket, visit art, weblog, webloggers | Comments Off
Walter‘s da man.
About four years ago, I spotted an interesting site on the Dutch web. I didn’t and don’t spend much time on Dutch sites, since most of my online life takes place in the English-speaking realm. But I bookmarked Walter’s site. It wasn’t a weblog. It was a ‘personal site’. He posted stories about his life, growing up in Amsterdam. They were intense, moving pieces that I was sure could find a wider audience.
Walter started weblogging shortly after that. Inevitably, we met at one of the first weblog meetings here in Amsterdam. Both being a little shy (or rather, he can be shy, I’m just a misanthropist) we gravitated towards each other.
Later we both became part of a group of likeminded people. Some people — apparently allergic to the social aspects of ‘communities’ — called us ‘geitenfokkers’ (goat breeders). We called it ‘the minimeet’ ourselves as we’d separated ourselves from a large group of webloggers. We met up in private (larger weblog meetings always being ‘announced’) to see films or visit art exhibitions, eat, drink and be quite merry, thank you very much.
I think we were all convinced of Walter’s immense talent. But friends usually are. To see that talent recognised by others, by agents, by publishers… it’s a dream come true. His, mostly, but ours as well – I’m sure.
Today we went to the launch of Walter’s first novel, ‘De hondenkoning‘. If you’re Dutch and my friend, you will be getting this book for your next birthday.
Walter looked proud. I think we were all pretty proud of him.
I saw a man at the book launch who looked familiar. He was just making his way out when I spotted him. I couldn’t think where I’d seen him before, or who he was. Turns out he’s my friend Guido’s father, the artist Dick Matena. I had only ever seen his picture in the papers. Later that night I spent an hour talking to a rather inebriated Guido on the phone… and ended up with his spare ticket to see Interpol play live next week. Funny ol’ world.
Posted: May 12th, 2004 | Filed under: Music | Tags: actor james marsters, audience, bandwidth, ghost of the robot, gotr, james marsters, melkweg amsterdam, photos, spike | 9 Comments »
{ GOTR, Melkweg, Amsterdam. May 11, 2004. Click to enlarge.}
Yes, it’s ‘Spike’. I went to see actor James Marsters’ band Ghost of the Robot. I was the only person my age there who did not bring their children. Average age of audience: 16. (There were 20-year-olds there complaining about ‘the kids’.) Keep that in mind. Longer write up to follow.
More photos (off site, preserving bandwidth here)
