real touches of beauty and brilliance

A year or two ago I stumbled upon the breathtaking oeuvre of Italian modernist film-director Michelangelo Antonioni, starting with the fabulously puzzled 'Professione: reporte'. The movie at itself was an unexpected revelation in meanings of abstract storytelling in a very unique visual signature, and really inspired me in my future work. But what really grabbed my attention was the young architecture student backpacking through Spain, played by the petite and dusky french actress Maria Schneider. I immediately became intrigued by her spontaneous beauty, especially 'cause I never heard of her before, or better yet, never heard of her again. In the same year she played the part of a young parisian love interest of the middle-agged Marlon Brando in the wonderful masterpiece 'Last tango in Paris', from Bernardo Bertolucci. But after that, all became quiet. After a little 'google-research' i came across the news that she completely vanished out of mid 70's hollywood-prestige. This 'vanishing' apparently intrigued and inspired Tom Barman, frontman of Belgian's best-known musical export since Jacques Brel, as well to write the magnificently sentimental song called 'the vanishing of Maria Schneider'. The song is taken from the album 'vantage point', a confident slightly awkward record with some real touches of beauty and brilliance in it, that will definitely make it to my album of the year poll. In this particular song Barman sings the lyrics with a glorious crooner voice, assisted by the wounded tenor vocals of Elbow's Guy Garvey. dEUS once again exemplifies their incredible storytelling credentials in this epic slow-burning love song, and prove that there are a lot more ways to define this over-consumed subject in a new and refreshing way.



"And no one knows what you've become
You elegantly put us on
Forever and a day
Inside your fingers
My heart's the trigger
You pull with ease
It's my destiny"

Watch Tom Barman performing The Vanishing of Maria Schneider on VPRO's Café De Liefde:

hitching the sea

The song of the day is from the band 'Black Lips'. The unrelated chaos rolls over the beginning and throughout 'Katrina,' much alike the sound of a rushing wave steady to meet an onlooking surfer hitching the sea. “Oh Katrina, why you gotta be mean” hurls the group’s members, as if to question nature’s sincerity, but isn’t it a tad funny to think of one of America's catastrophe’s as an optimal break for water sports? (too soon?) Maybe the song offers, with his messy scratch-surf riffs, what is ultimately a plea for cease-fire between the world and all of its inhabitants.



O, Katrina! Why you gotta be mean?
You saw a highway down in New Orleans
I can't believe what I saw on the telescreen
O, Katrina! Why could you be so mean?

listen here:
Black Lips - O Katrina!

a medaille (he doesn't wear)

Here's a quick work i made for school surrounding a quote. The words mean something like "A true artist accepts his succes as a medaille (he doesn't wear)." Besides that i'm pretty much lacking motivition and inspiration to finish all of the other works. Conclusion: school sucks (at the moment). I'm actually alot more eager to grab my pen and start writing on my untitled book again, or start preparing a new movie for example, but there's just no time to do so. For Today's song i've selected a track from Thurston Moore’s new album, the excellent Trees Outside The Academy. TOTA is the former frontman of sonic youth's first solo album in almost 13 years, but it's defineltly worth the waiting.



" I'm not superstitious
But maybe I''m losing my faith
'Cos I just met these wonderful witches
who seem to have captured space"

poacher's fest

I haven't posted anything for a while now, mainly because i didn't have anything worthy of posting or i lost the use of doing so. While reasoning i wonder; maybe i still haven't. But well, here are some pictures of the poacher's fest in sint-gillis. It's a local festivity from a school where all my nephews attend classes. So my sister and brother asked me if I could take some pictures of their kids, wich i did. But these clearly aren't those pictures they asked me to make, just some random observations (mainly out of boredom).

I'm gonna try to post more often from now on, but I can't promise you anything. But I also started to update my daily soundtrack again, if there are still some people interested in what i'm listening to. Today's song is called 'step on inside' from the band Vietnam. It's a great NYC-based rock/blues band originally from Austin, Texas. They became popular thru a cover of janet jackson's 'Love Will Never Do (without you)' wich received over 1 milion views (when comparing; my first movie still peaks on 1801 views) on youtube. 'step on inside' recalls hazed-out Jim Carroll-inspired punk blues with some amazing lyrics, these are the words of the chorus:

"So come, step on inside
If you’re up for the ride,
Cause your sight has grown old and gray,
They all the follow the leader,
While she was leading,
And they never knew the way"

boomp3.com

black, no milk, no sugar

Last week me and omar, a good friend from school, made a photographic novel for the projectweek. It was a pretty dull assignment actually, occupational therapy for all i know, but we managed to do something quick and fun. Here's the result, called "black, no milk, no sugar" (click to see in 100% resolution).

kids can be so

Last saturday I was asked to take some pictures of a small girl for her newborn brother or sister's birthcard. I expected it to be like a walk in the park but kids can be so damn unpredictable, for example, they don't just smile when you ask them, they don't sit or stand where you want... But i managed to take some decent shots, here are a few:

fresh and sparkling

I also been asked to make another poster for the new GUSO (the symphonic orchestra of the university in Ghent) concert. I wanted to make something fresh and sparkling, so this is the result i came up with. The concert takes place the 23 and 24th of april, and it's definitely worth seeing (and mostly hearing). So if you're in the neighborhoud, come check it out and let the orchestra tickle your senses in a way they've never been tickled before.