Elke morgen in Hulsberg

Elke morgen rij ik langs Hulsberg. En elke morgen, om 10 voor 8, rijdt op het fietspad langs de rijsweg een vrouw in electrische rolstoel me tegemoet. En elke morgen loopt een grote witte hond naast haar aan de lijn. Elke morgen; mist, regen, zon, sneeuw, vorst, donker, licht, het maakt niet uit. Elke morgen.

Each morning at 7.50 am, on my way to work, I pass this lady in a wheelchair; accompanied by her dog.

Wieviele Tränen passen in einen Kanal

Herbert Grönemeyer

We went to the Herbert Grönemeyer concert in Köln last thursday (als 2 Holländer zwischen 30.000 Deutschen), what a fantastic concert! Whatever you want to say about the Rolling Stones, Arctic Monkeys or Linkin Park, Herbert beats them all when it comes down to entertaining the public. He knows how to play the audience, and I must say the audience wants to be played with. Started at 9.30, and including the 3 encores it lasted until 11.30. The performance was so good, one of the songs (der weg) caused a lump in my throat. He did most of his new album songs, but luckily also zum meer, der durchbruch ist da and marlene. We will be there next time again.

Afgelopen donderdag naar het concert van Herbert Grönemeyer in Keulen. Wat een fantastisch concert. Alle bands die ik de afgelopen tijd heb gezien kunnen niet tippen aan het contact met het publiek dat Herbert klaarspeelt. Zijn show was zó goed, met veel nieuw werk van zijn nieuwe album, maar ook veel oud werk. Van de uitvoering van "der weg" kreeg ik zelfs een vette brok in mijn keel. Volgende keer weer.

Lost world

Doodling around and experimenting with photoshop: this drawing is 100% digital.

Teplice&Krupka, monday

Last monday I visited Krupka, near Teplice in the Czech republic.

An opportunity to post some sketches I made last year in the main square of Teplice.

The sketches are from my room in the Prince de Ligne hotel, and it lookes at a "plague pillar" from 1718, to commemorate that Teplice got away lightly with the 1713 black plague. the sculpture was made by Braun, who also did some statues on the Carlsbridge in Prague.

Afgelopen maandag was ik in Tsjechie, naar Krupka vlakbij Teplice. Een schets van de plaagzuil uit 1718, gemaakt omdat Teplice ontsnapte aan de plaag van 1713.

Rolling Stones Nijmegen

Yesterday Gertie and I, together with Ger and Anita went to the Rolling Stones concert in Nijmegen: The Bigger Bang concert. That was an appropriate name: at 7 o'clock the skies went open with a fierce thunderstorm: in no time we were soaking wet. Luckily we had some plastic ponchos! Van Morission stopped after 10 minutes, and we had to wait till 9 untill the rain stopped and Stones entered the stage.

The above picture shows the stage as we saw it (Photo from Flickr), you can see the top of our heads at the right side.

The stones were great, although I found Keith Richards lacking sharpness in his play. But Mick Jagger was fabulous: I could only wish to move like him when I was 20; and he's already 63 or something! Best thing was when a part of the stage came towards us: we were really close when they played my favourite song when I was young: I can't get no....Satisfaction.

What a fabulous concert.

Gisteren naar het Rolling Stones concert in Nijmegen geweest: a bigger bang. En wat voor een Bang: na een gigantische onweersbui van 2 uur, het voortijdig stoppen van Van Morisson en het 2 uur stil staan in een zompige weide, uiteindelijk het optreden van de Stones gezien. En het was het wachten waard: wat een energie, wat een enthousiasme, wat een muziek! Een geweldig concert!

Kiev, last week

Here are the sketches of st. Andrews church, on top the hill, as seen from the waterfront.

Also, we were walking through the town on Thursday night, and there were a lot of girls who were drinking beer and jumping into the fountains (the sketched one is on the central orange square). I was told it's a tradition to dress in these short black skirts and white blouses when you have finished your exams.

Kiev, schetsen van St. Andrews church, gezien vanaf het riviera hotel. Ook een schets van meisjes die in korte rokjes door de fonteinen dansten. Ze waren geslaagd voor het eindexamen.

Kiev, last week

Back to Kiev again last week. It was warm (37 degrees) and humid. We had some thunderstorms there, as you can see on the picture I took out of my hotel window (it's the Christmas church, I sketched already in my post of May 1st). I made some sketches of the Andeiivska church, but I will post them later.

Pinkpop 2007

A busy week, and it started with a visit to Pinkpop on monday 28th. Pinkpop is an open air Rockfestival, and I went there with my son Mart and a few of his friends. We saw 30 Seconds to Mars (great music) and very heavy metal by Stone Sour. There was a lot of "moshing (?)" and the singer (ex. Slipknot) was begging for it: "Hey all you motherfokkers, I wanna see a fokking eye of god overthere, so all you motherfokkers get the fok in there...." Nice wright? After that the Scissor Sisters (disappointing) and the britpop of the Arctic Monkeys (fantastic music but no contact with the audience). And then Linkin Park: that is really fantastic show&music. We did Evanescence to finish the day (was OK; see the picture I made) and skipped the Smashing Pumpkins. At a certain point you have had enough. Despite the long hours of rain it was a fantastic day.

Op Pinkpop 2007 gezien: 30 seconds to mars (fantastisch), Stone Sour (trommelvliesterreur), Scissor Sisters (niet leuk), Arctic monkeys (goede muziek, maar geen contact met publiek), Linkin Park (ge-wel-dig), Evanescence (OK), smashing pumpkins (halverwege afgenokt). Ondanks the constante regen een geweldige dag.