working hard this week and getting rained on a lot. i guess there's nothing you can do about that. i believe that somewhere in a book that some of you may still read you can find that the man upstairs makes his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and he sends rain on the just and on the unjust. this would mean that it doesn't make any difference how hard you try to fall in either of these categories..

anyway, this one is especially for henk: my friend the chocolate cake, a band we both recently discovered.. and maybe for fans of magazine, although i'm not sure they would like covers of any of their band's tracks by anyone..

i'm not a kid and i'm not catholic. so i didn't go to church, there was no need to hide any eggs and the one or two we ate weren't dyed.

on sunday we took a walk. (according to saskia's cell phone app it was 11.82 km)
on monday i was feeling rather down and sad for no apparent reason. i went for a run (alone) thinking it would alleviate my mood, and it did. & the weather didn't bother me, even though it was raining almost the entire time..
& on both days we watched lots of outnumbered episodes.

so there you have it. nothing spectacular..

back in january i wrote an entry containing a list of the best albums of 2011. i didn't end up posting it though.

this morning, saskia suggested why not do this now, but include a spotify playlist with tracks from the featured albums. it comes with the usual disclaimer of course: while it's getting easier nowadays to get a taste of new stuff before you decide you want to own it, new releases are still only a very small part of what i listen to.

and that's where you come in, to let me know about your own favourite tracks from 2011 so that i can catch up on other great songs that are out there. so, please do comment..

Van der Graaf Generator - A Grounding In Numbers
Kate Bush - 50 Words for Snow
Laura Marling - A Creature I Don't Know
Thurston Moore - Demolished Thoughts
dEUS - Keep You Close
Coldplay - Mylo Xyloto
Snow Patrol - Fallen Empires
Magazine - No Thyself
Tom Waits - Bad as Me
R.E.M. - Collapse into Now
Radiohead - The King of Limbs
Wire - Red Barked Tree
The Feelies - Here Before
Arctic Monkeys - Suck It and See


no long reviews, just start listening > here..

i have created a new facebook account. i had one for years that i have almost never used and which only had a few co-workers plus my mum as friends.

there will be more activity on this new one, i promise, but do keep in mind that i don't have the time to spend hours a day on facebook (or any other social networking site). now before a rovin' a rovin' a rovin' i'll go for some friends myself, why don't you send me a friend request? you can find me here. it helps if i actually know you from LiveJournal, last.fm, twitter or something..

hi guys! just so you know, i haven't been online much these past few weeks. i posted a couple of tweets and some of the music i listened to showed up on my last.fm profile, but that's about it.. not been active in support or even checking my friends page. back now. kinda. and please let me know if i missed anything you think is important..

i have been in a weird kind of mood since somewhere between christmas and new year's eve. as usual, it might be a combination of things.

file under: depression, if you wish.
it's not exactly that winter blues thing (seasonal affective disorder) so i'll probably not end up sitting in front of a light box for hours a day. some light can't hurt though, and someone already made the suggestion that i should head outside as much as possible during the day. brave the bad weather and try to catch some real sunlight. i think that's a good idea, even if it would mean that i will sometimes have to force myself.

it's not yet time to see a doctor. right now a good talk with a philosopher (if i could only find one) might be just as helpful.. :) i think i can slowly climb out of this myself. and it's good to know that should i need help, i can rely on the people around me.


thanks, everyone, for your holiday cards, PMs, emails, vgift, birthday wishes..
happy new year!

all cards went out last monday and tuesday. i was told it takes 5 working days (plus 2 because of the holidays) for a card to arrive at a US address, so you should get them before christmas. this year i didn't ask anyone here if they wanted a card; i just sent them to the usual suspects plus a few others..

oh and this december is well on its way to becoming one of the worst decembers in years. but that's a story for another time..


saskia thinks this guy here is funny. people who love their guitar better not watch:

20 years ago today freddie mercury died. one day after issuing a statement confirming that he had AIDS.

queen have never been a critics' band, perhaps only in their early days they were considered cool. however, i don't think many people would be afraid to admit they like queen, perhaps for only a short period in the band's history.

let's make this a little tribute. no, nothing too serious. just comment with an interesting story about queen. or post a video. what song do you love the most? what is the first queen album you bought, which one's your favourite? anything you'd like to share..