Musica Maestro!!!

Musica Maestro!!!

Ivan Segreto

Another residual of Daniele's visit: Ivan Segreto, a guy that sings jazzy songs, in Italian, and sometimes even Sicilian. I like the courage of singing in Sicilian, it's very difficult to avoid banality with such a rich and colorful language. The music is well executed, and the songs are nice to hear, but, at least on first impression, I didn't like the CD too much. The melodic lines are too repetitive, and his special way of singing does not help them. And his sicilian is far from the perfection of the Master. It's a shame in a way, but in the other end this CD is promising. This guy has all the ingredients to become very good, I am sure.

Universal cold

There is a cold in Eindhoven, and it seems to be very contagious. I have it, Loes has it, the kids have is, everybody at works has it. I guess it's a universal cold

Hypnotized

"Hypnotized"

So that's how you found me
Rain falling around me
Lookin down at a worm
With a long way to go
And the traffic was hissing by
And i was homesick
And i was high

I was surrounded by a language
In which i could say only hello
And thank you very much
But you spoke so i could understand
And i drew a treasure map on your hand

And you were no picnic
You were no prize
But you had just enough pathos
To keep me hypnotized
Hypnotized

The map led to an island
In a sea of store-bought dreams
Where soulless singers sang
Over beats built by machines

And lovely girls were hovering
Above my head like gulls
With their long slender necks
And their delicate skulls

And i was no picnic
I was no prize
But i had just enough sweetness
To keep you hypnotized
Hypnotized

So that's how you found me
Rain falling around me
Lookin down at a worm

With a long way to go

Ani Di Franco

New music

Daniele has left a lot of stuff here. Also some music, and I am thankful for it. Most of it it's pop, which is even better, because lately I am not too updated on pop and I do not know what to listent to.

I am listening to Ani Di Franco, a cd called Reprieve. It's really good. She plays guitar and sings, both with a deep feeling in it. The electronic noises and samples put every now and them do sound authentic, and the overal impression is that of a acoustic CD. The CD starts with a double-bass solo, so it is a good start ;) - and everything is in line with the kind of wheather-induced-melancholy-state-of-mind I am in today.

Biking

Today I went to my work biking. On my way, I met Andries, a colleague of mine, and we biked together to work. On the way back, I met Jacob, another colleague, who lives very close to me. Very strange, in a way, I spent 1 hour on a bike chatting!!!!

A strange day, anyhow. Starting with a blown fuse, and therefore no heating this morning; after that, all the meetings were rescheduled , reshuffled, canceled and rearranged - a complete mess!!!

After dinner, we went shopping with Loes and Julia. It feels strange, to have still some energies on friday evening - when I was commuting on fridays I was close to death.

Milo phoned me, announcing that he passed his reading exams. Now he is to level AVI9, jumping from AVI6. He worked very hard for it, and such a jump is uncommon. I am very proud of him

Damage

Today the carpenters came to mount our new sleeping room. One of the carpenters thought that a box could stand upright, resting only on the stairs, so as result the box felt, damaging the parquet. In the picture you can see the damage. I phoned the parquet-guys, just to learn that you probably can do nothing about those scratches. They will refund me some money, but it feels really bad.

To make it even worse, the content of the box fell apart, and therefore I will not have a bed on which to sleep tonight. Shit, shit, shit. And I took a day off for them....Grrrrr, I am furious.

Dinner at Mathias

Yesterday we had a dinner at Mathias'. It took us a year before we could meet again!! We ate austrian strudel. and a delicious dessert, a fruitful variation of a tiramisù. Iris is pregnant, they are epecting a boy in May. After dinner, they sang together a song, whose lyrics are written by Enith. Nice, a kind of kid song, very well made.

Today I am expecting a new sleeping room, so I had to take a day off to wait for the carpenters to install it. I bought also an SD card. Last saturday we got a digital frame, a frame in which you plug a SD card, and it will slide show your pictures. Installed, it works fine

Daniele

Daniele is gone...it looks like he has been able to find a decent room in London, UK, and in two weeks he will start working. I took this picture in Heusden, a nice small village in Brabant that we visited.

House warming party

Yesterday we had our housewarming party!!! Yes, it was a bit late, but we had it. We invited all the people that in a way or the other helped us with the new house. In the end we were about 30, including children. The house was really full, I guess it is really warm now. Nanni and Enith stayed until late, we spend the night chatting in front of the chimney.

Today we cleaned up. What a mess!!!! We are still busy, actually.

Bike

Today I bought a bike. It's a Gazelle Chamonix, a kind of city bike very popular in the Netherlands. Sinds the begin of the month I started working close to my work. I have practically abandoned my car, and I am biking every day to work. That's my personal contribution to the pollution reduction.

Musica maestro

Thanks to Monica yesterday evening we went listening some classical music. The program consisted of three pieces, the last one being the Manfred Symphony from Pëtr Il'ič Čajkovskij. It was a beautiful piece of music, and the orchestra played wonderfully. I felt completely transported by the music. The director, Nikolai Alexeev, was impressive, you could feel what he was feeling. We were sitting behind the orchestra, watching the director in his face, which was very nice, in spite of the bad sounds (the trumpets were too present for us). The director, a russian guy, had a car accident just some days before, and directed with a broken rib. Impressive.

The second piece was a violin concerto from Bruch. The solist was the first violin of the Brabants orchestra, Wouter Vossen. Impressive guy, I must admit, he played with passion this difficult concerto. Very beautiful.

The first piece was the Kikimura from Ljadov. Very beautiful, short, but very nice effect. It was a great introduction for a great concert.

Loes' birthday

Today is Loes' birthday. I did my best to be home early, and I preparred some pasta ai funghi. Later tonight I will give her a present - still, it does not feel yet as a celebration. Tomorrow we will go out, and listen to some violin concert at the Muziek Centrum. Loes' mother will babysit, so we are going out and be late. I am looking forward to it.