Did I Say That?

First Lines: Leef!

Almost exactly about a year ago I was pretty impressed by the movie Leef! So when I saw the book, I just couldn't resist.

But even if I would, I don't think it would have made a big difference. The book of course deals with the same people as the movie, and it provides some back story, but that back story at times flat out contradicts the movie. If I wouldn't have read it, I probably wouldn't have missed anything.

That does not mean that it's a bad book, as I found it highly entertaining. The book is written as a series of emails from a midwife to a friend. And as you never get to see what the friend writes back, you only get one side of the conversation. Which is rather nice actually, because it makes you think what the reply could have been.

Maria Goos — Leef!

Lieve J., Ik raad je dat sterk af, een huisje in de Ardennen.

First Lines: Lisey's Story

It's been a couple of days since I finished this book, and I hoped that some time for reflection would make it easier to say something useful about this book. It hasn't.

You see, I'm a bit in two minds. On one hand, it's a great book. Many people say it's probably Stephen King's best book in years, and Mr. King seems to agree. So that's not it.

It's more to do with the other thing: it's a story about a middle-aged woman, who has been married for over twenty years, and is now dealing with the dead of her husband two years earlier. (And then, of course, evil came.) And while that's all fine, it's not something I can easily identify with.

Everything about Lisey's Story screams This is a good book! at me, but, crapdammit, the story just isn't connecting with me. So I'm still a bit ambivalent. Maybe I should re-read it in a couple of months and see if that helps. For now, I'm still a bit ambivalent.

Stephen King — Lisey's Story

To the public eye, the spouses of well-known writers are all but invisible, and no one knew it better than Lisey Landon.

(And no, I didn't spot any significant ties to the Tower. I'm suspecting there's a tie to the Territories though.)

The system has failed

Tomorrow at 10AM the pre-sale for Meat Loaf at the Heineken Music Hall starts. I've got my ticket already.

UPDATE 2007/01/29: What the… Sold out already?

To the barricades!

After about two weeks of pussyfooting, it's official: Meat Loaf is playing the Heineken Music Hall in Amsterdam on Wednesday, June 27^th, 2007. Ticket-sale starts Saturday at ten.

When the second batch of tour dates were announced, signs for a concert in The Netherlands weren't good. So I ditched the already weakened stance of "I'm not going abroad for a concert no matter who is playing," and arranged a ticket for the show on the 14^th in Cologne. And to those two concerts in two countries you can add the first public performance of Vámpírok Bálja on July 1^st in country number three. With some work in between that'll be two busy weeks for sure.

But that's mostly old news.

On April 23^rd, 2003, Meat Loaf played the Heineken Music Hall. During the show he said the following, word for word, verbatim, exactly as quoted:

And also in December, I promise, when we come back here, there was a song that people have requested tonight, and I will do it for you in December, a song called "Crying Out Loud".

And I will… mark my words, "Crying Out Loud" will be in this show when we come back in December.

December 2003 came and went without Meat Loaf coming back, let alone playing For Crying Out Loud. And since that's my favorite Meat Loaf song by far, I took that rather personal.

So let this post mark the start of the official "In March 2003 you promised to be back in December and play For Crying Out Loud, now it's 2007 and time to deliver the goods, crapdammit!"™ campaign.

Storm in a teacup?

Weather alerts are for pussies and men with small dicks.

For today, a weather alert was issued: because of severe storms, you shouldn't go outside unless it was absolutely necessary. So there I was this morning, on my bike, through the rain, thinking, Is this all? About an hour ago I went back: blue skies, not a cloud in sight, just a lot of wind. No biggie.

So is it just me being lucky by traveling through the calm inside the storm, or, well… You figure it out.

As the saying goes

Age ain't nothin' but a number. And the new number is 27.

[ on a technical note: the links in the feed should work now ]

List: Eleven

Anywhere between a hour ago and 13:00 a guy from the cable-company is supposedly coming by, and if all goes well I should have an actual TV-signal again when he leaves. It's been a month, and while I'm usually pretty patient, my patience is running out. I don't care how it's going to be fixed, as long as it get fixed. Crapdammit.

So in the mean time, here are some links I had left from last year. And some new ones too.

• The best scenes from The Wicker Man. I've said it before and, hell, I'll say it again: Nicholas Cage cannot act. At all. Crapdammit.
• About two years ago, I suffered from a (self-inflicted, I admit) CSI overdose. Since then, I haven't watched a single episode. My least favorite of the bunch was CSI:Miami. Here's why: Horatio Caine. How much are you like him? Measure Your Horatio Caine-ness, and work on those skills if necessary.
• Quarterly Job Report
• I am not ashamed to admit that I like a lot of the Disney movies, but somehow Mary Poppins never did anything for me.
• Why doesn't nobody know about Jesus' teachings on peace but insist he was this tree-hugging hippie?
• Another obscure part of the bible.
• My favorite joke of the moment. And yes, I got the punch line without looking it up.
• Speaking of favorites: Postsecret was one of my favorite websites last year. Nieuw Amsterdam Uitgevers, along with NRC Next have launched a similar Dutch project, called Briefgeheimen.
• While I don't have a driver's license, I do know what car I want.
• Do you remember the birthday-calculator I launched nearly a year ago? I've got a new version now. T minus 141 days and counting.
• 100 reasons why the Hubble rocks my socks.
• Photo's of souvenirs in front of the real thing.

Crap be damned

Well, crapdammit. For less than a day, I was on Google's first page for crapdammit, but crapdammit, I'm back to page two again. Hope this helps.

In other news, my trip to Vienna to see the Tanz der Vampire in Concert for its 10th anniversary is booked and I've made the second payment for the house I'm renting two weeks after that. Which basically means that all my weekends until March are fully booked.

Finally, mr. Loaf just announced a concert in the Bijlmer Bier Bajes in Amsterdam. The week before that, I'm going to Cologne to see him. Two weeks later, I'm going to Budapest to see Vámpírok Bálja. Which is Tanz, but in Hungarian.

Looks like '07 is gonna be busy.