Days of Wonder...

And days of Thunder, too. Rain has come to Belgium. Well, they need the water for the beer, I guess. All is well, then.

Saturday was music fest Pukkelpop. Muddy, wet and cool. Truly fantastic. There was a bit of work involved. We’re experimenting with vlogs at work – and managed to film an interview with Coldcut. Hope to have the finished result, soon. But check out their website by the way for some live footage in the meatime.

There were some real treats at Pukkelpop. Oh my. Check out this band 65 Days of Static. It may not be your cup of tea... but see what you think:

Please take my word that seeing them live at Pukkelpop was amazing. For me – and I really enjoy most kinds of music – there are only a few bands or pieces of music that I think really elevates you to another place. I reckon its quite rare. It’s almost like a spiritual thing. It really touches your soul, I guess. And for me, it’s only happened a few times. When I saw Eddie Reader live. And Tori Amos. And then this band. And when I played in the Sunday School band many years ago. Don’t laugh. Serious. It’s like the composers know something. Or have switched onto something. Anyhow. I be still now.

Other highlights of the fest for me were local band Think of One – kind of like a Brazillian / Huckleberry mashup stylee. Cool. And of course the Coldcut performance. Nice one. Saw bits of Placebo on stage, too. Nice… but a bit of a tortured artist, methinks.

Tall Ships Races also hit Antwerp this weekend. The name is quite descriptive, so not much more help from me there. But beautiful. A couple of weeks ago I wanted to run away and join the circus. Now I want to run away and sail a Tall Ship. Even a short ship. A few years ago I went on a sailing holiday - one of the best I've had. More pics on my Flickr pages.



Walking along the Harbour looking at all the … tall ships, I stumbled across another concert. I tell you, over the past 4 months I;ve seen more live music in Antwerp than I have in the past year. Anyhow – perhaps a well known fact in Belgium, but new to me – was a R& B performer, Leki. I tell you, the lady has pipes. She really was fantastic. I bought her CD, too.

Just what are we going to do in the Winter?

The bells, the bells...

I live near The Cathedral in Antwerp and have a beautiful view of the clock tower – see:

It’s a lovely place to visit – got some Rubens masterpieces inside, too. In some tourist guide I read the exact number of bells in the tower – somewhere between 30 and 40 unique-sounding bells. Anyhow, what we need to understand is that there’s more than one. And therein lies my…umm… dilemma.

The ringing pattern goes something like this: on the hour, on the half hour, at quarter past and then at quarter to. And we’re not talking a little ding according to the hour. No. We’re talking mini operettas, here.

Then, on church days – which pretty much appear to be every other day - the bells ring constantly for 15 to 20 minutes, announcing the beginning and end of a church service. Sometimes, there is more than one service a day.

Furthermore, but not withstanding, they have a ‘concert’ every Monday and Friday, where they have hooked up the bells to some kind of organ-like contraption, and some individual bangs out famous tunes on the bells. For an hour. Solid. No break.

Is it just me, or are you sensing just a teeny, tiny bit of overkill here?

Bells are generally a good idea. But a simple ding-dong really does it for me. Further than the two-note ding-dong, there’s not really a lot in it for me. More than two notes on the bells becomes…well, to be honest… about as enjoyable as that winning Eurovision song.

But no-one else in Antwerp seems to notice. I’m slowly forming the opinion that it’s possibly the reason why Antwerpians are so cool. So un-phased by things. It’s because they’re deaf.

So, my personal challenge – my coping mechanism - is to think of something positive whenever those bells start ringing. Pray for me.

Anyhow, I still love Antwerp. And it’s bells. Ooh, there they go again. Bless.

My best friend Mark (from the UK) was out for a couple of days last week. We had a blast – much eating, drinking, and exploring. And I made a new friend – the owner of a local pub. How absolutely fantastic is that? Roger. Fascinating man and between his English and my Dutch, it’s a wonder we can understand each other. But beer is a magic potion. Particularly Belgian beer. It can also make you deaf, but this is another story altogether.

This weekend it’s Pukkelpop – a three-day music festival up (or down?) in Hasselt. Fantastic line-up. Radiohead, Daft Punk, Keane, Scissor Sisters… It comes highly recommended by folks here. And it’s been going for a number of years, too. One of the key reasons for their success, it seems, is that prior to the event, they have an online voting forum, where you can request which bands you want to see. So, in theory, the most popular bands are booked. Cool. Will have some pics – and hopefully some video – next week.

P.S. Also expect a deluge of You Tube posts here, too… I’ve found some real corkers that I think you will like. If you don’t, you're welcome to come and listen to the bells with me. Toe-tapping guaranteed. Or a tapping of some sort.