HELLO THIS IS A SHORT UPDATE BECAUSE IT'S BEEN A WHILE. I keep meaning to post but then... I don't, idk. You guys should probably be relieved though because otherwise I would have made a million posts that all started out pretending to be normal, only to turn into rly long MJ posts. And by a million I MEAN a million.

SO these are the things that have been going on in my life recently (that do not involve Michael Jackson):

- I WENT TO A REGINA SPEKTOR CONCERT \o/. I just got back a few hours ago actually. She was so goooood and also adorbs, ilher so much. I really need to get with the program and buy her new album already, all the songs she played off it were great.

- My mum had a pretty big surgery last Thursday, which I was fretting over a little even though it was a pretty routine and low-risk operation. It all went swimmingly though and she was even allowed home after 2 days instead of 6! She can't stand up/walk much at the moment, and she's not allowed to ride a bike or lift >2 kilos or basically have a life for the next month and a half, so I plan to keep her company with a stack of DVDs as often as I can. WHAT A CHORE, lol.

- I am pretty sure I'm coming down with something >:( I've been feeling generally blarg for a week or so now and my throat has been hurting like mad for the past 3 days as well. BUT my throat glands or whatever the hell you call them (plz correct my foreign ass if I got this wrong) feel completely normal, says my med student friend. AM I HALLUCINATING AN ILLNESS OR SOMETHING, idgi.

Okay I don't even remember where I was going with this post, I recall having actual interesting things to say and then it turned into... this. Idek :') I need to go to bed. I need to make this post a little less lame before I go though and this is how:



Conclusion: if you thought that Mickey Mouse sweaters were only cute on people under the age of 10 you can just THINK AGAIN. Also the adorableness of upside-down Michael is equal to if not greater than that of right side up Michael. LOOK AT HIM fna;sdg.

EDITED TO ADD THIS FOR GREAT JUSTICE, and also to say HELL YES HBP TOMORROW, FUCKING FINALLY. I don't know how I forgot to mention that!

So many awesome things going on! IL my life right now.

Firstly of course MY BROTHER PASSED HIS FINAL EXAMS HELL YEAH \o/ he did so well, I am v. v. proud! I want to buy him a gift since I have money again (I spent the last two weeks basically without it, no lie) but I don't know what he waaaaaants D: Possibly I have located the most difficult person in world history to buy presents for. He never wants anything, HOW CAN HE NEVER WANT ANYTHING? Idk idk. I will find him something though, I am determined!

Besides this I have been doing a tiny bit of studying and a lot of hanging around with friends, which is the way I feel things should be since I am at heart a lazy bum. I went to see my housemate Jonathan play Rosalind in an A+ hilarious version of As You Like It, watched Top Hat and a couple of... um, interesting Jason Isaacs films with electricwitch (man Jason Isaacs you know I love you A LOT but I just, I mean, what the fuck), spent time with my family for father's day, and just got back from inspecting fantoom's new crib which IS AMAZING and which I would basically move into asap if it was... not already someone's crib. Also a friend notified me that Regina Spektor is playing a gig in Amsterdam in July so we will be going to see her play next month!! I AM EXCITED.

Idk idk I think my point is that life is rly nice right now? Yay \o/

Also I am the laziest person in the world so I have already shooped three whole pictures of my room into something resembling acceptable quality, and this is them:







More to follow when I am not lazy! I love my room so you're gonna have to put up with a big-ass picspam at some point, guys.

It is rly late though so I'm off to bed now, since tomorrow I am to visit my nan and watch Bollywood films with her HELL YES. It's been too long since I've watched any!

I am really sucking at posting about Bob Dylan (or at all) aren't I! Tragically I've been feeling sort of half-sick-but-not-really-sick-but-still-kind-of-physically-pathetic for the past week or so, so I keep telling myself that I will watch comfort movies and sleep a lot instead, and so I do! It is fun, but I miss updating my LJ so this will be my official Bob Dylan post, and what it will also be is probably disjointed and weird, since I am still suffering from my pathetic not-quite-illness.

So, yes, Bob Dylan! I was HELLA NERVOUS before the concert started, which resulted in my pretending that I wasn't broke and stress-buying the tour program, which is awesome but sports an unfortunately creepy picture of His Bobness on the cover (including cowboy hat and a spectacular creepstache. I feel they could have chosen a more suitable one, such as sexy young Bob, but sadly I do not have a say in these matters). I also bought the poster, which is exactly like this one:



except with the appropriate dates and location (evidently I was not in Minneapolis) and without the American flag, and also it is red and gold, not green and yellow. The poster, too, has kind of an unfortunate Bob mugshot, but since I liked the combination of the red with the gold letters and since I am THE WORST at abstaining from buying merchandise I bought it anyway. The only reason I didn't buy one of the shirts, which I wanted incredibly badly even though I would probably never wear it, was that I was strapped for cash.

Anyway, I was all nervous and shit and then THE SHOW STARTED and BOB DYLAN WAS IN THE ROOM and he was two things, namely:
1) wearing a hat, and
2) BRILLIANT

Oh actually no he was three things, because he was also
3) IN A GOOD MOOD?!

I am still baffled at this. It's not like I could tell from all his cheerful banter to the audience since there was none of that (I am given to understand that this is his ~thing~), but he looked to be grooving out and sounded very cheerful when he introduced the band at the end of the show. And also did I mention that he was BRILLIANT because he was! I was thankfully prepared for the fact that he likes to essentially write a bunch of new songs and slap his old lyrics onto them and call them the same songs, so it was fun to try and make out what he was singing (he is hard to understand sometimes, bet you didn't know that), but yeah, it was a brilliant show. The band was amazing and the music was amazing and Bob Dylan was nasal and mumbly and amazing and CHEERFUL WTF and also I wish to marry him still even though he is old and mumbly and still wearing silly hats.

I only managed to take one picture that didn't suck an unearthly amount and it is this one:



But since Bob Dylan is old and wrinkly now anyway it is not really about the pictures is it! I also managed to record I think about 90% of the music on my crappy million-year old digital camera, so I have an audio memento of the show as well! \o/ If anyone wants me to upload the audio files, that too can be arranged.

I also have a couple of enormously tragically crappy videos, of which two are presentable-ish, and this is them:





My camera is a loser and so were the people in front of me, so their stupid heads would get in the way and make my camera confused about where to focus >:O Still, I got video and audio and useless merchandising AND I WAS IN THE SAME ROOM AS BOB DYLAN AND THE AMAZING CONCERT THAT HE GAVE so in the end I am very pleased indeed!

Conclusion: YAY BOB DYLAN.

That is all!

Oh man so many people read our ADIML that my photobucket account is now out of bandwidth?! Crazy! Well okay so it's either that or hotlinking, but obviously I prefer option one there. It's certainly making my LJ layout look interesting though. Anyway, photobucket tells me that all the pictures will be back up tomorrow so it is only temporarily tragic.

I was going to do a whole OMG BOB DYLAN, LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT BOB DYLAN, INTERNET LISTEN TO MY STORIES OF BOB DYLAN post today, but I feel kind of sick and crappy, so it will have to wait until I am not so insanely busy sitting on the couch and drinking tea and being nauseous and feeling sorry for myself. Blaarg.

Sooo until I can get my act together enough to do a proper Bob Dylan post, have an entirely unrelated but extremely awesome youtube video? Well I'm not sure it entirely counts as a video since it's just a static picture with a song playing, but it is about the song anyway so you'll just have to deal.



It is the Puppini Sisters covering Beyonce's Crazy in Love, and it is on my personal shortlist for best thing ever. WATCH IT YOU GUYS, I'M SERIOUS.

Okay I am going to drape myself over the sofa and look consumptive some more, bye guise

I AM SEEING BOB DYLAN TOMORROW

ACTUALLY IT'S PRETTY MUCH TODAY SINCE IT'S PAST MIDNIGHT

LET ME JUST REITERATE


BOB DYLAN

TODAY

RA;SDLGKASHDNVDJSAKG

I AM NOT SURE I AM MENTALLY PREPARED FOR THIS?

Basically I am coping by going insane because... is there any other way?

Also I made this:


(Courtesy of this here site)

But frankly I DON'T EVEN CARE IF BOB DYLAN SHOWS UP TOMORROW ALL OLD AND WRINKLY AND ACTS LIKE A GRUMPY PRISSY BITCH AND MUMBLES THE WORDS AND WON'T COME OUT OF THE CORNER BECAUSE...

HE IS BOB DYLAN


AND I WILL BE IN THE SAME ROOM AS BOB DYLAN???

Man my brain is already fried, it's like my Tom Waits jitters all over again D:

SEND ME MORAL SUPPORT OR SOME SHIT YOU GUYS

Soo, there's this band I love called The World/Inferno Friendship Society, whom I love because a) I dig their music (lol yes rly), b) they wear awesome suits, and c), uh, they have written an entire album about Peter Lorre. No, for real.

And now, apparently, they have taken that album and constructed a multi-media theatre performance-slash-punkrock opera around it, with texts inspired by Bertolt Brecht.

And they are totally performing over here in less than a month.

Sooo basically? THIS IS ME EXPLODING.


And because if I'm going to explode I like to at least do it in a vaguely useful way, have some of their music!

# Peter Lorre Overture - the first song on the album, as you might've guessed. First part of the song is orchestral, in the second part the World/Inferno Friendship Society wonders where Peter Lorre's money went.
# Ich Erinnere Mich An Die Weimarer Republik - I LOVE THIS SONG SO MUCH. It is insanely groovy and danceable and it references the Threepenny Opera! And "Cabaret"! If you only download one song, it should be this one.
# "M" is for Morphine - This one starts out kind of.. ominous? but is actually also quite groovy.
# Addicted to Bad Ideas - The title track! Which, uh, I also like. Idk what to say about this one besides that! Clearly I would make a great PR person.
# Heart Attack '64 - lol this one is so hokey yet SO CUTE! It is so cute that when they sing a line like "but the dope and the girls and the wine, oh hell they were so fine," I'm still going "AAAWW PETER SO CUTE!!!"

So, yes. I think you should download these and hopefully also dig them!

Aaaand that's enough of my music and Peter Lorre-induced brand of crazy for today, I think. Back to studying for my civil law re-exam next Monday, hell yes!

Soooo it's Sunday evening, which means that I only have one day left in Berlin before we leave for home again. Kinda sucks! I was going to talk more about Berlin and whine about how I feel like I haven't even seen one percent of what I wanted to see here, BUT then I realised that I should probably be trying to catch up with my photo backlog from Paris some more, and that doing so would also be a lot more entertaining than me basically going "bawwwwww" for five paragraphs. So have some Paris!




( moar! )
Lol it's starting to look like all my picture posts are going to have something like "WELL I was also going to include day X in this but then I got lazy" at the end of them. This was going to be days three and four but it is LATE you guys, so day four will just have to wait. More soon!

So, uh, I'm in Paris.

And I saw Tom Waits yesterday. In Paris.

And it was SO GOOD AND I CAN'T EVEN DESCRIBE IT TO YOU AND OH MY GOD FDSHJGKDSGJHASDG and also my boyfriend showed up out of the blue for the gig? (In Paris.)

BUT. TOM WAITS. FNGDSHGJ IF HE DOES NOT COME BACK TO ANY COUNTRY NEAR ME AT LEAST FIVE MORE TIMES I AM GOING TO DIE BECAUSE HE IS SO AMAZING AUGH

Also photodump may follow in a few days? Not much time now (nor a very reliable internet connection in our tiny tiny apartment, this is the first time in four days that it's actually worked!), but uh, someday soon. And then Berlin on Wednesday yayayay!

ETA: NO ACTUALLY HAVE A PHOTO, because being a tourist in Paris is a lot more fun than I remembered it to be and flickr is kinda fast!



My mum and I, obvs! ARE WE CUTE TOURISTS OR WHAT

Lolol we beat France 4-1, what the hell?

Things are pretty good right now. I found out on Thursday evening at 11 PM that a certain airline had a discount action going until midnight, where tickets to London or Stockholm on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from October through January were tax-free and cost all of two cents. Naturally, I freaked out because I never have money and I didn't think anyone would want to go with me. Then I found out that my boyfriend did. So now we are going to Stockholm for the first three days of December. I AM GOING TO STOCKHOLM FOR THREE DAYS FOR LIKE €45. That's accomodation included, dudes. Fgdhskfhasghgdsg yes!


ILU STOCKHOLM.

Then yesterday I went to have dinner and watch the Holland-France match (lolol 4-1, still do not believe it) with friends in Utrecht, and then off to a Jason Webley gig, which was intensely awesome.

Now I'm at my cousin's, where I will be lazying around for the rest of the weekend. Because it's totally not like I have an exam on Friday or anything.

Oh god oh god oh god oh god I am going to DIE

I opened the site where the Tom Waits Paris tickets were going to go on sale at 9 AM this morning, at about four minutes to nine, and it said that they had put a waiting line sort of system in place, and that they would try to connect me to the site every 60 seconds to see if it was my turn yet. It's 9:16 AM now and I've still not been let through and oh my god I am never going to get a ticket ever. And on top of that they have introduced some kind of anti-black market system that means that if the buyer's name they've printed on your ticket doesn't match the name on your ID then you are not getting in, so I can't even hope that somebody falls ill and I can buy their ticket because I won't have their name and oh my god, why? God I just want a ticket and I am dying of nerves and sdlfskkjgh HELP

EDIT: OH GOD 9:33 AND STILL NOTHING. This is the most nerve-wrecking thing ever in the world and I can't even go get breakfast or anything because that would mean being away from my computer for more than 60 seconds and oh my god I'm never going to get a ticket

SON OF EDIT: Okay I'm in on the site, but apparently even though the Tom Waits website said 9 AM the ticket sale does not in fact start until 10 AM, which is in 15 minutes exactly. I think maybe I will have to keep clicking around on the site a LOT until that time because I am NOT taking the risk of being disconnected because of ~inactivity~. WISH ME LUCK because I am pretty sure that either the website or my computer may crash at 10 AM due to huge influx of Tom Waits crazies such as myself. 14 MORE MINUTES WHYYYYY

OH MY GOD

I HAVE A FUCKING TOM WAITS TICKET

I AM GOING TO SEE TOM WAITS PLAY HERE:




I am going to be in one of the yellow seats. Aaaaghgdshfsdjfsghd MY LIFE. IT IS COMPLETE.

Haha oh god I keep compulsively reading my confirmation email because apparently I am insane and if I don't read it it might go away or there might suddenly turn out to be a FATAL ERROR in the email such as that I have actually ordered a ZZ Top ticket instead of Tom Waits. Oh self STOP BEING INSANE

Okay, so Tom Waits is coming to Europe, right?
Only he's not coming to the Netherlands. Or Belgium, or even Germany! The closest he gets to here is Paris D: And also, the ticket prices are kind of making my head spin. Still, I'm really considering going to one of the Paris shows. I want to see him live so so so badly! And also I suppose a long weekend in Paris couldn't hurt. Um. Except for the part where it would mean my financial ruin. But, you know. Tom Waits. Can't be helped!

Aaagh stupid tour dates, stupid money, WHY DO YOU DO THIS TO ME TOM WAITS

In less financially depressing news, I am done with my papers finally! Even though twatface has again, for weird reasons, rejected all the work we have asked her to do. Not going to bother anymore, honestly. We just finished it all ourselves in the end. Now all we have to finish is.. our poster presentation on student life. Because we are 12, don't you know. Oh my god why has law school turned into this lame thing that makes us design cutesy posters? D:

To celebrate being done with my papers, I watched Lars and the Real Girl (which was brilliant) at a friend's house yesterday. Where we also polished off an entire cake together, oops.

Aah I still can't believe I'm all done with my papers, haha! I am going to hang about here and at my boyfriend's house and do absolutely nothing productive today. Ha!

So I've been kinda bad about updating the past few days. This is because I've been having fun! Which is good. I stayed the night at my cousin's on Friday, because I was too lazy to take the train back in the evening when we were all going to the same birthday party on Saturday anyway. Lidewij, a second cousin of mine, turned 9 and it involved my entire family eating too much in the garden and laughing a lot. Before the party, though, I managed to spend pretty much all of the money I had left on clothes D: D: D: my cousin was all "OMG I HAVE SEEN SO MANY AMAZING THINGS IN THE SHOPS HERE THAT YOU WOULD LOVE, COME SEE THEM" and she was right and so I bought them. And now I'm broke.

But I do have an awesome red belted raincoat!



It has no hood, but who cares about it being functional. It is RED and BELTED. And shiny!
This particular photo (which is otherwise not so flattering, but I had to show off the coat! :( ) is from Sunday, when I baked brownies and went to consume them and other baked goods and a gallon of tea at the botanical gardens in Leiden with some friends. More photos which are non-sucky forthcoming, since they weren't taken on my camera and as such I don't have them now. They also involve the rest of my raincoat, so that someday soon you will all see how amazing it truly is!

Also also, somewhere in between all this the tape of Crack-Up that bleedheartblues sent me arrived, and I watched it and loved it and squeed a lot. Yay! It is now at my uncle's house, waiting to be transferred to DVD so I can rip it and send her an .avi of the film in return.

Yesterday I just sort of hung about in my pyjamas being tired, but also got some work in on the skirt. It almost looks wearable now! I still need to attach the waistband to the inside of the skirt and decide what length I want it to be and hem it, but then it's done! Only my mum and brother left for Crete for a week today (aaah envy) so I'm on my own for that. And I've never hemmed a skirt before! I might go back to my cousin's somewhere this week and ask her to help me with it, that way I'll be done sooner.

Today I went to see Cocorosie! They played at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, with the Concertgebouw orchestra, who also played a few classical pieces (by Ligeti, Ives, Menotti, Pärt and Bartók) in between and omg, it was awesome.



MARRY ME COCOROSIE ILY.

And now it's very late at night, so I'll stop sounding insane and go to bed!

A word of advice; never drop a white teapot on a white marble floor.
It will take you approximately an hour to ensure that the floor is really entirely shard-free, and the vengeful pieces of ex-teapot you pick up will probably have a stab at your leg while you try to collect them. I only just avoided bleeding to death, though I had to spend what was rumored to be the hottest day of the year parading around with a rather unsightly gash on my leg. Woe!

In other news, it's been finalised that boyfriend & I will be going to the best festival in the world ever, without having to resort to camping out (I've done so before at approx. 4 festivals; never again. I'm a clean freak, ha.) This is good.
In the meantime, though, said boyfriend has left for Turkey, which means I may finally get around to posting pictures of my visits to Prague. This is also good.

& I've been to the beach!
This may not sound like much, but despite the fact that I've only to hop on my bike and cycle some 10 minutes to get there, I never go to the beach. I somehow always forget how much fun it can be until someone drags me along; my mum in this particular case. I wanted to go cycle and she wanted to go to the beach, so we made a deal to cycle through the dunes to Wassenaar, a rather upscale town just slightly north of The Hague. And honestly, you can really tell the difference. One of the reasons for my general absence at the beach is that the ones nearest to my house tend to be visited by slightly.. less pleasant people. Meaning the fat, fake-tanned, wrinkly, saggy, topless (and sometimes just generally naked) aging ladies who don't seem to understand the concept of common courtesy nor the use of vocal chords that does not involve yelling, and the kind of creepy guys and snotty girls who always stare at you in the least pleasant way possible. Wassenaar beach was such a relief, haha! Plus, the route we took was wonderful. I hope I'll be able to go again before leaving on holiday yet again; I hear the heatwave won't last much longer!

P.S. I have been the worst commenter in the world lately, forgive me! I do read your updates, promise.

P.P.S. Has any of you ever managed to smuggle a camera past security at a concert or festival? (I dunno what it's like in other countries, but here it generally involves frisking and a bag search.) I need my camera at Pukkelpop, but I don't know how to smuggle it in! Help? Anyone?

Whew, haven't updated for a while.
Since my last update, I have

!! Gone to Prague for a second time, spending all my money on books and graduation clothes and antique photographs, as well as seeing a concert and a ballet performance and a ton of art galleries.

!! Arrived home to the pleasant discovery that my luggage had not quite made it onto the plane.

!! Graduated in my airplane clothing, after lunch with my family and before heading off to Burger King (ha) to celebrate with my friends.

!! Received my (luckily still intact) luggage about two weeks after the flight.

!! Spent lots of time with people I hope I'll stay in touch with during Uni.

!! Been overwhelmed at the realisation that so many of these people have already found rooms to move to near their Uni, while I'll be stuck at home for at least six more months. Though my parents couldn't be any more perfect and I love my house/street/town incredibly, at the same time I'm itching to get away and have a stab at independence.

!! Found the perfect holiday job of taking meds and sitting around at a clinic for a few days (oh, the books I would read!) waiting for side-effects and earning close to €2,500 which HOLY CRAP I'VE NEVER HAD THAT MUCH MONEY IN MY LIFE EVER. Except that I can't take this job, as the experimenting happens during my sojourn in the Czech Republic.

!! Found out that REGINA SPEKTOR and GOGOL BORDELLO and RADIOHEAD and BECK and BELLE AND SEBASTIAN and NOUVELLE VAGUE and ohgods so many amazing bands play a Belgian festival during my week-long stay in NL in-between holidays, when I'm supposed to be doing an introduction week in Leiden, but entirely free to go do whatever I feel is necessary. I shall fight for my right to at least attend Regina/Radiohead/Beck/Nouvelle Vague-day, and if my boyfriend manages to get back from Turkey on time we'll go together for the full three days. I don't think anyone could possibly fathom just how excited I am for this festival (HOLY CRAP REGINA), or how much I will cry if I can't go.

!! Decided that everyone should go read these books RIGHT NOW.

In other news, new bed tomorrow! Double! Squee!