prolific.org

Dutch public broadcaster VPRO’s music portal 3VOOR12 is reporting from the three-day Lowlands Festival in Biddinghuizen, The Netherlands, using a very cool mashup site www.vpro.nl/lowlandsmashup.

The page, a collaboration between 3VOOR12 and Today’s Art combines a live broadcast from the festival, photos from the Flickr Lowlands pool, video reports at Kyte.tv, weather forecasts and a Twitter and Jaiku feed. Viewers at home and audience members as well as professional reporters on site use the Twitter feed to cover the festival.

To post to the Twitter stream, follow Twitter user 3VOOR12, then post your tweets as usual, but start your sentence with #LL07. Alternatively, log in straight from the mashup (bottom menu, click ‘Twitter/Jaiku’ Direct’).

Lowlands 2007 takes place August 17, 18, 19. The festival is sold out.

For the past couple of weeks I have been mostly blogging at Vox, where I can set my posts to ‘private / friends / family’. Yeah, like LiveJournal, but I’ve never felt at home at LiveJournal – it doesn’t look or feel like blogging to me there, and I’ve never got my head around its bizarre GUI.

Back when I started (98/99) blogging appealed to me because of the small and friendly community of people involved in it. A couple of hundred webheads, mostly American. When blogging spread and reached The Netherlands, things quickly got nasty.

The second wave of early Dutch bloggers took delight in bullying. I quit my Dutch blog very soon after and retreated back to my English blog(s) where things were still quite peaceful. And then blogging went world wide, it went A/N, it went political, it went… fucking mental. And part of me went: ‘oh, you’re no fun anymore’.

In an article in Time Out Chicago Mena Trott says:

And that’s exactly how I feel. So I’m blogging at VOX for the smallest group of people you can imagine and it doesn’t matter because I stopped caring about readership numbers (which have dwindled dramatically) on my personal weblog quite some time ago.

I still have to figure out what to do with eachman.com, but I may just make it a link or aggregate blog.

Having wasted most of my week off last week (I guess I needed the downtime, I did feel something approaching ‘human’ by the end of my break.), I intend to fully make use of the next one coming up: May 5-8.

I’ve been trying to book something, anything, anywhere, but can’t make up my mind. Or my mind is made up for me, when the mini break I pick is for couples only.

Flights anywhere seem particularly expensive that weekend, so I’m looking at something a little closer to home. Belgium. Germany. The Netherlands even.

Paris is out, since I’ve got that slotted in for June.

• Beastie Boys vs Depeche Mode double_barreled_gun.mp3
  (tags: mashup music mp3)
• - DutchPhotoZone – great shots of wintery Netherlands
  (tags: photography netherlands)
• Landscape Photography – Jeroen van Daal
  (tags: photography netherlands)

I had a double scare today when 1. I couldn’t remember whether I need a visa for America. (I don’t) 2. I couldn’t find my passport. (I found it)

Looking for visa information I hit upon some Dutch travel tips for the USA. Halfway through I found this eye-rolling passage:

‘Overigens mag u in restaurants ook gewoon vragen om een glaasje water; dit is (meestal) gratis, en niemand kijkt er raar van op. Dat scheelt toch weer een dollar of twee. (You can ask for a glass of water in restaurants, most of the time it’s free and nobody will be surprised. That’ll save you at least a dollar or two.)’

Elsewhere on the page we are told not to use your mobile phone, or the hotel phone to ring The Netherlands, because it’s really, really expensive!

Or you could just go and, you know, ENJOY yourself.

It’s almost 6.30 am in The Netherlands, 8.30pm in San Diego. In a few minutes, U2 will be going on stage, for the first concert of their 2005 Vertigo tour.

Most of tonight’s concert will be taking place while I commute to work, while several U2log.com editors and associates will be at the show. They will hopefully provide instant feedback on what’s going on. G. is there too, but his texted updates regard his own well being more than that of the band. Natch.

My life will revolve around U2log.com/U2book.com for much of the rest of the year. See you on the other side.

• BLEEP – Digital Downloads from Warp Records
  (categories: music)
• Tweakfactor.com: Firefox Tweak Guide – Page 1 – Get your tweak on!
  (categories: Firefox)
• GmailUsers.com
  (categories: gmail)
• The Paris Review – Interviews
  (categories: culture literature)
• Simple podcasting.
  (categories: broadcasting ipod podcasting)
• Dead Can Dance reform to tour
• Frackers:” The New York Times knows nothing about The Netherlands”
  (categories: holland)
• PopCult Magazine: It’s Cool!
  pop-culture
• Metafilter thread: German paper’s list of things that are better in America
  humour usa
• Bloc Party live session, streaming
  (categories: music)
• NYLPM ol Dirty Bastard and John Balance, RIP
  (categories: music)

iTunes Netherlands has gone live. Excellent.

I just bought my first song. George Michael’s Flawless (Go to the City) [Shapeshifters Remix].

But so far, no luck on finding Clinic, Woven Hand, Dresden Dolls or Hidden Cameras. It’s all very middle of the road.

• My summer break starts on Friday. One more day to go.
• Postman attempted delivering several packages while I was out.
• Lovely Google adsense check arrived
• Two blue tax envelopes arrived
• It’s wasp season and it’s official: ‘they’re very aggressive this year’
• ‘Mac user’ still can’t operate iBook, ‘loses’ toolbar
• Dad remembers I owe him loadsamoney
• Rumour: U2 to play 3 gigs in The Netherlands next June
• Dirty laundry pile higher than clean laundry pile
• Let’s not mention the pile of dishes
• The nice Pakistani gentleman four doors up the road does great clothing repair
• I now have H&M brown pin stripe slacks cut to my ‘length’
• I’d like (and am taking preliminary action) to move to another part of town
• My neck/shoulders are killing me
• My physiotherapist isn’t very good
• I’ve been asked to play a mixed doubles tournament
• My backhand needs work
• My tennis shoes are too small
• My service seems quite effortless this season
• I haven’t seen a good gig in ages
• Who’s going to delete my spam while I’m away?

In a about an hour from now, I will be meeting my cousin C., the “my favourite cousin in the whole wide world” type of relative that one usually has way too few of in ones family. In fact I think he’s the only member of my family who doesn’t do my head in.

We have never lived in the same country and unfortunately this means I have not seen him since at least 1990. About a year and a half ago I learned that he now lives in Paris and we have been talking on the phone on and off since then. From our conversations I know we’re still in favourite cousin territory. This week he’s on business in The Netherlands. I hope he can find Dam square after all these years. I’m excited!

Update: here he is.