Yesterday, we enjoyed a nice private canal cruise with friends on the canals of Utrecht. The city was bustling and we saw a lot of happy faces along the wharfs because of the nice sunny weather.
🎥 Sex, Drugs & Bicycles (2020) ★★½
Documentary by Jonathan Blank on Dutch culture and social democracy. Comprehensive, but spread too thin on many of the subjects covered, like the rise of populism, and even neglecting real threats to democracy like right-wing extremism.
🥾 Short walk near Oud-Maarsseveen, in pouring rain. The Dutch language has a lot of different descriptions for rain. We would describe today’s weather as ‘Het regent kop en schotels’ (‘It’s raining cups and saucers’).
🎥 Nebraska (2013) ★★★★ Tonight, we watched another great film by Alexander Payne. Beautifully shot in black and white, and a great plot portraying a moving father-son story.
“Does he have Alzheimer’s?”
“No, he just believes what people tell him.”
🌱 This is one plant. Amazing how just one little pumpkin seed manages to take over almost our whole vegetable garden in only a few months!
Pretty happy with the new semi-permanent setup of the electronic drum kit in my youngest daughter’s room. It should be easier for her now to practice more often!
🎥 The Descendants (2011) ★★★★
Loved this film by Alexander Payne. Despite the very tragic story, many scenes were very recognizable, having two daughters of roughly the same age myself.
🌱🦔 Making progress with a new version of our hedgehog garden camera. This time I’m hoping to get a live stream out of the IR illuminated hedgehog house interior, in addition to the outside cam I was using last year.
🎵Another beauty from my favourite Belgian band: LUCY - Dez Mona & B.O.X
🥾 Short walk with the family in Westerheide nature reserve. We very much enjoyed this year’s exuberant flowering heather!
This week, I paid a visit to the beautiful Klok en Peel museum in Asten, a small museum with an extensive collection and library on the subject of bells. I was there for discussing a small commissioned job, but also for research on my upcoming soundscape project on city bells.
🌱 Fermented plum sauce made with the first harvest of plums from our own garden.
🌱 Can’t think of a better colour palette that captures the mood of this bright and friendly sunday morning.
🌱 Untainted pumpkin flower. Love the five-fold symmetry.
🌱 Our living room Melissa seems to be glowing because of the evening sun shining through its leaves.
🥾🎵Short walk around one of my favourite polders. The Teckop polder is designated as a stiltegebied (silent area), which made it appropriate for making some field recordings. A brisk breeze and quite a lot of holiday air traffic made silence a relative concept though…
🎥 Thor (2011) ★★½
Now both of our kids are getting old enough for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I expect to (re)watch a lot more of them with the whole family this autumn.
🎵 I decided to change my quasi automated week in music to my month in music, to make it feel less compulsory and more fun.
This past month, I particularly enjoyed the dreamy, calm and peaceful soundtrack of No Fear, No Die by Abdullah Ibrahim.
🎵This legendary DJ-Kicks album by Kruder & Dorfmeister turned 25 years old this week. At that time a big part of the soundtrack of my life…
🌱 Silhouette of a moth.
Performance by Nina Glockner at RAUM Utrecht.
🌱 Lazy afternoon in the garden.
📚 After years (!) of off and on reading, I finally finished A Phenomenology of Landscape (1997) by Christopher Tilley. ★★★★
Not an easy read, but for me, it was a great introduction to contemporary archeological methodology, as well as phenomenological philosophy.
We went to a great exhibition at AVL Mundo in Rotterdam today: Fake Me Hard.
On the cutting-edge of art and technology, FAKE ME HARD explores the complex reality of the 21 st century with futuristic installations by over 40 artists, performances, and debates
🌱 Fresh pumpkin tendril in the morning light. Fascinating phenomenon..!
“The mechanism of tendril coiling begins with circumnutation of the tendril […] and it serves the purpose of increasing the chance that the plant will come in contact with a support system.”
