Saturday, September 27, 2008

The Hague Todays Art Festival

Last night The Todays Art festival started as it happens just outside my front door. As I look over the central station and through the corridor of ministries, city halls and court houses, I was struck at how interesting this festival is at incorporating everyday objects into the celebration.
It started with the trains and trams that come and go trhough the station imagine the tracks have been laid out with the equivelent of a music box ribbon... it was quite a noise. Here is more from the artists website.
This performance is not just any performance. It uses instruments, but highly unusual ones; the instruments are trains and trams, bicycle bells and the Central Station-building itself, including all the people present. As a part of the performance, in cooperation with NS (=the Dutch railroad company), a whole range of trains and trams will enter the station in a strict choreography called The Tsunami, with all the train and tram engineers working together. Sounds from travellers will also be amplified through microphones as part of the performance. Achim wollscheid will use computer-driven magnets that play the bicycles in front of the Central Station like a toposonic typewriter.

Then H and I headed down the corridor (check the map for the interactive route) to find a go cart race in progress in front of the ministry of VROM... I'm not kidding for those who get the haha about that one. Onwards we passed the ah grocery store and were forced to weave in and out of large blue triangles laid out on the ground. Their significance to be reveled later,
this is the first time we came across the bunny in the sky, a projection project that ended up following us the entire night through in the form of the artist Pictoplasma on a large bakers bike with projector, generator and laptop in tow.







First came a green house filled with costumes, although I am not sure what the meaning was it was quite funny.
Then the skaters and breakdancer area outside the city hall. Half-pipe, obstical course and a premiere of a skate movie projected on the city hall.
Onwards past other greenhouses with bars and snacks to the main plein Spui where the side of the library and city hall had some amazing projections that transformed the tiles to 3d objects. We saw some modular dresses that could react and change to sound, and found out the blue piramids were for a infared cctv camera that was showing people weaving in and out of the passage way without seeing the blue piramids at all.
We further wandered onto the Grote Markt street which was also part of the Blue Light District where we came accross a van with DJ's for the Langeweiliskeit festival and a bunch of people creating grafitti with tape on the ground.. to be honest I think the Grote Markt Street was the most dissapointing, other than hearing some great music being pumped down the corridor there was nothing else happening all the way till the end and it was filled with the same drunks and drugged kiddies on their way home as you would find on a normal Friday night.

We then made a slight detour to the As If Festival held at the Interfacility which was a student gallery where we walked in on a show that was pretty interesting for about 2 min of sounds and frequencys made from hand-made instruments. I found the multimedia exhibit by Palestiniaan artists far more interesting. The most moving was a young artist who painted all his/her pictures in the bottom of cardboard boxes that were then hung on the wall.. quite moving. This symbolised the mental effect being kept caged can do to a person, even if there is no actual bars the wall that was built was having the same effect on many of the people who had to live with it day in and day out. Quite something and by far the most moving thing I saw all night. It is a conflict that never ceases to amaze and astound me, that the super powers in the world turn a blind eye.. is it beacause there is no oil?

We then went to the Grote Markt and watched a video from a web TV company which was very interesting to say the least. I am trying to remember the name still.
And then back through the street to the Spui where we caught a artist with two giant electricity conductors that lightning lept between the two balls to music.. people loved it!
Back along the corridor to the skaters on the half pipe, past the go carts and home made for a pretty interesting and cultural evening.

Saturday, September 06, 2008

Song stuck in my head



As many of you know I "heart" music. Lots of different sounds and experiences. I was just tidying up and came accross a bunch of old ticket stubs from concerts I have attended.. some of these date back as far as September 1983 when I saw Platinum Blonde on their Standing in the Dark tour in the Memorial Arena in Victoria.
Also quite dated was the Black Crows in the Forge night club also in Victoria close to a decade later when they were on their first major tour to promote Shake Your Money Maker about 1991.
More recent ticket findings were Buck 65 (good fun), The Dears & Ambulance Ltd (I was having a bad night and did not enjoy, I really do like Ambulance Ltd), Porcupine Tree, Marillion and h, Band of Horses (so/so), Death Cab for Cutie (would have rather stayed in and listed to the CD) BUT Styrofoam were great and a few festival wrist bands and tickets thrown in all from about 2004 till now. Some of these were Live & Coldplay, Black Mountain,Caribou, Marilyn Manson & Metallica, The Frames, Elbow, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Supergrass, Tokyo Police Club, Lamb (their very last show in Amsterdam) & so many more.

I even found a couple of set lists: Do you know who this is?
Giant
Auto
Fall of Man
Life Beyond
Machine
Time Bomb
Influence
Suburbua
Lets Get it On
Rico
xRated
Strange Days
DG
Load
Flash Dance
APP
BTK
sigh! That was a kick ass show!

Anyway, I have seen a TON of shows in my life. I remember Pearl Jam opening for Alice in Chains at Harpo's in Victoria way way back then. Eddy landed on my head stage diving!


I have left very few concerts because of bad performances (Guns and Roses, Death Cab for Cutie) and I have left many wishing it would not end (Depeche Mode, The New Pornographers and Peter Gabriel just to name a few).
I am also looking forward to seeing some new live gigs, The Swell Season, Kings of Leon spring to mind.
My last concert was out in Vancouver with my brother at The Faint which was super cool (and the beginning of a epic night out with the Dude) The opening band's lead (and I use the term loosely) singer should never ever have been given a mic and been encouraged to make that horrific noise, but what can you do?!
I bought tickets yesterday for the Crossing Border festival here in Holland for November and am looking forward to seeing The John Dear Mowing Club for free tomorrow at the Haag's Uit festival should be good.

So enough of me waffling on.. but check out this The Cold Cut blog for more serious music reviews.. he has a nack for picken'em.

Check out the cool illustrations from the super cool Exploding Dog website.