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Sunday, August 22, 2004
Just when you think miracles are non-existent or only happen to people with anal probing fantasies, V&D makes it happen. For only three euro per tape, 'The Maxx', 'Aeon Flux', 'The Big Giant Head' and 'Daria' can be bought. Okay, it's on a videotape, but when you go retro, why not go retro all the way.
V&D is struggling with it's popularity the last few years. It's one of the biggest department stores in Holland, but the whole department store thingie is getting overdue. It's seems people are getting more into shopping in small, more specialized stores, than a big block selling the whole shabang. Either way, V&D does not offer stuff that different from say, your neighborhood supermarket combined with second rate clothing and expensive cd's. I know, i worked there for 2 years.
So imagine my wonder when suddenly the buy a big batch of old MTV animation series and sell them for a fart. Me likey that a lot.
Especially 'Daria' made me want to dig deeper in that semi-low-self-esteem aire that i have so carefully sculpted over the last few years. Kind of a pre-'Ghost World' comic anyway. Why is it that girls with dark hair and heavy glasses are being portrayed as artistic, depressed and having a "i'm smarter than you are, so fuck off, teen blondie" attitude? Fits my character though.
Once, i compared Enid Coleslaw form 'Ghost World' toa girl from my study. We instantly became friends.
(Enjoy her daily ramblings here)
Posted at 11:36 pm by Faye
Tuesday, August 17, 2004
Spending three weeks in France
Listlessly, sunflowers rear their head in the field staring at the light that gives them life. Giant rocks hover above our heads in this mountainous territory. Trees fill these hills.
Vineyards stretch as far as the eye can see. We drink sweet or dry wine every day made by the owner of the camping. We eat salads in the small village or make them ourselves with food that spent all day in the sun.
The smell of lavender hangs listlessly around every street corner. Figment of the imagination. Herbs like rosemary and thyme fill up our senses.
Crêpes with sugar and chocolate still the ache in our sweet tooth. Sun-drenched and tired we stretch our limbs, read books and swim in the cold mountain-water.
At night, we watch the stars and wonder about travelling among them. In the morning we soak up the sun and fantasize about living here forever.
Now i lay alone in my bed with no arms around me, no river rustling outside of my tent, no leaves trembling in the slight summer wind. Nothing can compare to the warmth of these days in France. Posted at 05:24 pm by Faye
Friday, July 23, 2004
There i sit: the last day before the summer holidays. It is never really quiet on school grounds. It's an opening and closing of doors. For a moment it seems silence has taken over the age-old building - over there, the red chairs on KNG 29. But then someone walks by, clicking heels on the floor, on the way to the offices, on the way to the cantine.
Outside is not much quieter. On the canal builders are busy with a sandpaper-machine, and its a coming and going of cars just barely fitting in between students walking, tourists wandering and cars parking. The garden is subject to admirers of the building, thinking they have found a moment of peace and quiet in from the bustle of the city.
The sun is shining. Inside calmness, warmness and humidity have taken over the coolness last spring. People are getting ready for the summer. I can't seem to enjoy the weather with future prospects on my mind.
(i wrote this a few weeks ago actually. Now i am fully enjoying my summerdays)
Posted at 11:03 pm by Faye
Thursday, July 22, 2004
I'm in a hotelroom with a TV, a mini-bar, my Dorian Gray-book and the new testament in my night stand. I have small complimentary boxes spreaded all across the room with mini-nail viles, mini-soap, mini-peppermints and a mini-shoe polishing kit. I have a desk with a hotel information map and a comfortable desk chair, i have a seating area with a fairly nice chair and a water boiler with typical hotelsupplies (two tea sacks, two coffee packs, sugar in small paper sacks, creamer in same sacks, and one cup). I have a large TV with a filmchannel that has porn at midnight. And i have bad art to enlighten the room.
I'm watching TV, but only with half of the attention and i wonder if i should plunder the mini-bar while i'm here. It is actually quite expensive and i'm really full of the enormous dinner i had that evening. It lasted four hours and contained lots of Sancerre wine and bread and fish and carpaccio and coffee and bonbons. It would be nice though, making a bacardi and cola or even a wodka and cola with those small bottles. The huge swollen belly under the warm blankets tell me "No, have mercy on me". So i grab a glass of water from the faucet.
The morning before we left for Assen, where my uncle and aunt live, i had to hurry all of a sudden, because my parents were practically starting the car when i was still showering. Therefore i forgot my bikini - so i couldn't swim in the beautiful hotel pool. I also forgot some clean undies - but i'm coming back the next day, so i'll manage. And i forgot some toothpaste - so i can't brush away the 20-euro fish i had for dinner.
Hotels are a strange phenomenon though. I have a mini-life in a mini-room with mini-supplies to help me enjoy my stay. I temporarily live in a corridor with small adjacent rooms with bad carpeting and ice-machines. How fun this small universe may be - i'm always glad to come home to my own stuff at the end of the day.
Posted at 01:00 pm by Faye
Wednesday, July 07, 2004
I know that updates on this blog are really slow. But summer's here, with time to spare.
Even with the sun shining, last week has been particularly stressful. I’ve decided that after i have received my bachelor’s degree in Theatre, Film and Television Sciences this September i will not continue with a master’s program. I have already been accepted in Utrecht, but problem is that they don’t offer courses i can relate to. This is of course a pity. I want to continue, i want to learn more, i want to expand my theoretical horizon, but the way the program looks now it does not offer me much.
I’ve always thought that i would know what to do ‘later’. But ‘later’ is now, and suddenly i have to make all kinds of decisions. I’m 21, going on 22, and i ought to know what i want to do. I’m just a girl, just barely understanding life’s great big mysteries. I’m (dare I say it) becoming a woman just very slowly. 21 is certainly not that old, but when you’re young, you figure you would know ‘everything’ by now.
Puberty once again has seemed to be a lifetime of wishes, hope and assumptions but
“now here I stand at the edge of my embattled illusions”.
Maybe i’ll start my master’s in February, when courses have changed. For now, i want to find a full time job. But what DO i want i don’t really know. It would be wonderful if i could find something with my bachelor’s degree, something that actually has something to do with what i have studied in the past 3 years. But WHO am i? Just another graduate without experience, clinging onto things i have learned, that i have not put into practical use yet.
When i look at the path i will follow, i only see signs that say “Under Construction”. Posted at 04:48 pm by Faye
Saturday, June 19, 2004
I luuuuuurve zoos. It's funny though how you react to animals. First of all, because of all the 'add-ons' the zoos have nowadays, you come to love extra's like an oceanium or a fake tropical rainforest where your feet get wet because of a treetrunk in the water you have to walk over or fear for your life in a kiddie playing-thing high above the ground and a stability factor that screams "Noooooo, 21 year olds are really too heavy!" Old-time favorites like elphants and monkeys are increasingly less popular. Which is strange ofcourse. I find myself saying: "Hey, i KNOW elephants, let's see some fishies!"
Second (in the animal-reacting department), people become either morons or total dicks when it comes to looking at some animals. Behavior ranging from shrieking in utter joy when a bunny-like creature is spotted (me) to leaning into glass real close and tapping like a deranged kid that lacks attention (every Dutch familyman). Especially monkeys...They say monkeys and man don't differ that much...it seems to me that in the zoo, the monkeys are the more sophiticated species.
I hate laughing at monkeys. I hate people that laugh at monkeys. Do you ever laugh at someone picking his nose or hanging about some trees? Sometimes though, it seems that the younger monkeys just try to evoke some response in their onlookers. For instance, the gorillas i saw today had a little one putting his hands against the hands of people looking through the glass. Ofcourse, you immediately feel privileged: "Wooh! His putting his hand against mine through the glass! I'm sure no one else has had this experience before! Any time now someone is going to ask me of i would like to work here in the zoo maintaing this monkey lair." Anyway...that is how my mind works.
Also, tapping againts the window is not going to make an animal gape at you, people. Imagine every single day 300 people tapping against the windows in your home....would you go "Hey, someone is asking for my attention, i'm going to react to him." Not nearly. More probable is "Why in fuck's name can't they stop tapping against my window? I'm trying to eat my fucking leafs here."
Visiting a zoo always give me some mixed feelings: i like to watch the animals, but i can't help thinking that they're utterly bored and wish to go home....wherever that is. It's best not to think like that whilst in the zoo....this would just depress me. Nevertheless, watching animals i always try to approach them with some dignity. That includes not laughing at a monkey while he's eating his own shit.
Posted at 12:35 am by Faye
Thursday, June 17, 2004
So it's been a while since my last confession. I have been very busy with school: making a presentation about marijuna and how this is a camp-factor in movies and thinking about a topic for my paper on participatory culture and branding online communities. Finally i have settled for discussing the blogs by Kerry and Bush and how they promote themselves as brand. I only have a week left, so i'm stressing my brains out here.
It seems that i have absolutely nothing to tell that is not school-related. How frsutrating is that? I'm pretty sure that i will pass the last two courses i'm currently following, which means that september 1st i'm gonna get me a bachelor's degree.
To give me and my migraine some rest, i'm going to a zoo tomorrow with some friends, make some photos (another hobby neglected) and have a lot of fun.
Furthermore, my lurvely boyfriend has a bought the Devdas-dvd i had ordered (see side bar for the official internetsite), so i'm hoping to watch that real quick. I'm not that familiar with Bollywood-movies, but you just have to like them as a movie-scholar: their bold colors and extravagant outfits and plotlines are so original. I even don't like musicals one bit, but when it comes to shrieky, Indian girls, it suddenly is beautiful. Their over-the-top campiness is just my cup o' tea.
I can't wait till the summer holidays, it's going to be filled with watching campy movies and reading a lot of books. For now i'm still busy reading "Six wives" by David Starkey about the six wives of England's most absurd king, Henry VIII. Next on my list is a biography about all-time favorite of mine, Orson Welles,"The Road to Xanadu". These two books take up a lot of my time, page-wise, but i'm hoping to finally start in a book about the Rocky Horror Picture Show, called "From Cult to Camp", full of interviews with the makers and stars and loads of background info and pictures. All in all a full summer. Full of goodies that is!
Posted at 03:05 pm by Faye
Thursday, June 10, 2004
I'm reaching the end of my college year and i'm really not motivated anymore. Especially since the weather is just too good. Last tuesday it was enormously sunny and hot (for Holland this time of year) and i went to the beach and even had a swim. The first swim in the sea of the year is always something special to me: it is the beginning of summer and in the summer i feel much better. Although i also like winters (woolly socks, warmth inside, cosiness), it always seems to get me down. When i can walk outside with just a shirt on i feel better already. Maybe some light therapy in winters can help me....
After a rough depressive dip last month, i'm happy to say that i feel quite good now. Like i said: sun is gooooood. Therefore, it seems homework is bumped to second place...i'll catch up with it though, that i just know.
What is really really really good though, is that tomorrow i'm gonna see David Bowie again! Last year i went to a concert of his in Ahoy, Rotterdam. Now i got a free tickets from a friend for Amsterdam Arena and i was pshyched all day today. The last concert was really magnificent and i'm sure i'm gonna enjoy it tomorrow too.
Bowie is god.
Posted at 10:54 pm by Faye
Friday, June 04, 2004
Amazing...i have had this site in my favorite section for over some months now, but i always forget to really look at it. I do this with many sites: i learn about it through colleges at school or through ineternet-fanatic friends that send it to me. Then i put it in my favorites, thinking: "i'll look at it later". Just try to imagine how large my list is...
So this morning i took a look at this site, submarine channel. Really amazing. Like they say:
"Submarine promotes a new digital culture that aims to change the way digital artworks are made, distributed and consumed". I couldn't have put it better.
I also think it is great that some institutions are increasingly concerned with internet art. Since it is a relatively new artform, most of the artists are young and have a style and image that holds ground between graffiti and bricolage. Sort of: Hello Kitty computericons-stylee meets Richard Hamilton.
Ofcourse, internet art is a large definition. One can choose between traditional arts that are digitalized (like photography), art that is socially engaged, etc etc. But what interests me (in this entry at least) is the graphic design like submarine channel and pictoplasma.
I have followed a few courses about new media and digital art, and it is ofcourse not a new phenomenon. The first computerized drawing made was as early as 1963, by Michael Noll, called 'Gaussian Quadratic'. One can also argue that digital art was preceded by other mediative art, such as video art, or even the art by Marcel Duchamp.
But personally, i think that artist in the sixties just wanted to be interesting and alternative. A lot of video art is just plain boring or ugly and is really about nothing else than being different. Still these early artists have meant a lot for pop culture and pop art. Not in the strict sense of Lichtenstein-paintings, but more of a postmodern stance: combining popular images into a distinct style. The difference with the sixties, i think, is that the artists now don't really want to kick against the traditional artforms and the 'establishment'. Especially internet art is a trying out of new techniques and possibilities. A lot of this new art is funny and humorous. In other words: the new age of internet art is taken more lightly by the artists than the so-called groundbreaking hippie-art.
So, if you're interested in internet art, or pop art, send me some links. I would like to learn more.
Posted at 12:34 pm by Faye
Thursday, June 03, 2004
I used to listen to 'n sync when they were underground
Yes, boybands CAN give you fame beyond 13-year old pimply girls screaming their underpants off.
It just occured to me this morning when i saw *n sync member JC Chasey in a new video performing his single "All day long I dream about sex" in snazzy white outfit. This song and clip seem a long way from poppy crappy boyband songs and enter the realm of the eighties revival we just hate to love. Next to the fact that it made me search Kazaa for more (real) eighties techno crap, i wondered about succesful singers that were part of a boyband once.
Numero Uno Extraordinaire is ofcourse Sir Paul McCartney. From beatnik bassist to hip neo-military fluorescent outfits to sappy Wings-member to zillionaire. Paul rocks.
And then there was George Michael. From teenage heartthrob to queen of public toilets. Enough has been said about his gayness, i think. Fact is that he is just a very good singer and is innovative when it comes to music on the net. See his site; next to the fact that it is a nice site, you can listen to Wham oldies...which is the best period ofcourse :)
Then there is Robbie "comic relief" Williams. I used to think he was irritating during the whole Take That period...well, i thought the whole of Take That was irritating, but that's not really the case here. Now suddenly everyone discovers he's actually the most talented guy of the entire band. I must confess that i can at least hum all his songs. OK...i have two cd's. Shoot me.
And yes, i also have Justin Timberlake's cd. But who can deny the amazingly catchy songs produced by The Neptunes? In my opinion, those guys have really changed the music biz. Who would've thought rappers could be smart and like rock? Not me.
Justin's rite of passage from Curly-Headed Mickey Mouse Club Presenter Britney Spears Banger to Beat-Boxing Sexy-Assed Dance-Wizz-Kid really grabbed my attention (and hormones).
And now JC, i dunno...the hip hype of eighties is reaching its end as we pass into the 20's and 50's revival (finally) and anyway it isn't really his style. But according to his bio on the *n sync site, his debut solo album is full of different styles. O joy...
What is it with artists that they should have different styles on their cd's anyway? Picture The Rolling Stones doing a mixture of flamengo and techno: "Yeah, well, we thought that after 40 years of bluesy rock, we might try something different."
JC, all the best on your new single, but one suggestion: lose the white pants.
Posted at 12:36 pm by Faye
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