Brasserie bliss

6/6/2007 9:50:00 AM

It's nice to eat out in a brasserie. For some reason, in a brasserie you never feel alone even if you're all by yourself. Here are some of the gems in that category:

Wepler, Paris

The one and only. A world of its own. A nice blend of intellos, artists and locals.

Terminus Nord, Paris

A seafood paradise. Breathtaking art deco interior.

Fouquets, Antwerpen

Easy-going and friendly. Great asparagus.

Back to Jupiter

5/30/2007 5:01:00 PM

In February this year, a French company called Arturia released a software that reproduces the sounds of the greatest analog synthesizer ever made, Roland Jupiter 8. I can't wait to get my hands on it.

In the meantime, here are some of the albums that take you into the world of that great instrument:

Love and Dancing, The Human League, 1982

An instrumental remix of some of the tracks from the "Dare" album. Great for parties.

Rio, Duran Duran, 1982

Has huge Jupiter arpeggio layers all over the place. Some of them come from Jupiter 4 though.

It's My Life, Talk Talk, 1984

Shows the attack potential of this weapon.

This is where it's at

5/29/2007 10:24:00 AM

Here are Europe's best streets for a musical shopper:

rue de Douai - rue Victor Massé, Paris

A string of music stores that are all very 'sympa'. A lot of vintage guitars.

rue du Midi, Brussels

Loads of second hand books, records and stamps. Inexpensive.

Denmark Street, London

Guitarist's paradise. Expect to run into Chris Rea, Mark Knopfler and Noel Gallagher

Signs, symbols and books

5/24/2007 3:37:00 PM

One of my strangest hobbies is collecting books on signs and symbols. There is a shitload of them in my bedroom but the following tend to lie at my bedside:

The Book of Signs, Rodolf Koch, 1955

A piece of art. Great company on a long journey. A strong gothic/ medieval flavour. Not much text but a lot to think about. A magnificent font (magere deutsche type).

Dictionnaire de Mythologie et de Symbolique Egyptienne, Robert-Jacques Thibaud, 1996

Well-researched. Detailed drawings and a lot of text (in French).

Tecken, märken och symboler, John Foley, 1995

I have this in Swedish but the original is called "The Guinness Encyclopedia of Signs and Symbols", 1993. A comprehensive encyclopedia that covers everything, even brands. The reproduction of symbols is top-notch, excellent for tattooing, for example. If you only want an overview of this strange world, get this.

Cages

5/21/2007 9:23:00 AM

A Finnish novelist, Märta Tikkanen, published a book called "Män kan inte våldtas" in 1975. The title is difficult to translate but it basically says that you cannot rape a man.

A Franco-Belgian film called "Cages" (2007) shows that yes you can. The scene in question is very chilling because it's not brutal or violent. You could actually say it's tender.

It's unfortunate that the second half of that film is such sentimental bull.

http://www.premiere.fr/film/Cages-1376319

In a rich man's world

5/18/2007 9:44:00 AM

A Dutch TV Channel, NOS 3, showed a fantastic documentary yesterday: "Abba's All Time Greatest Hits". Great stuff for Abba fans and anyone interested in the craft of songwriting.

The documentary used a piece of software, 'Hit Song Science', to see if the Abba songs would still make their way to the Top Ten today. They would.

You can take that in two ways. Either it shows that nothing replaces a good songwriter or it shows that today's Top Ten comes out of a computer. Take your pick.

The life of a ghost

5/17/2007 9:07:00 AM

I am a text fetishist. This illness manifests itself, inter alia, as an ability to memorize long passages from my favourite books.

Here's the one that I keep closest to my heart. It's from "On the road" by Jack Kerouac. (The character has just woken up after sleeping all day in a cheap motel. The sun is going down and the sky is red.):

"I wasn't scared. I was just someone else, some stranger. And my whole life was a haunted life, the life of a ghost."

Eurodivision

5/15/2007 2:08:00 AM

Although this is territory that I should probably stay clear of, here's my innocent list of the best Eurovision winners ever:

"Poupée de cire, poupée de son", France Gall, 1965

Sounds groovy still. Great year.

"Un banc, un arbre, une rue", Séverine, 1971

 

Nice nostalgic feel. Represented Monaco.

"L'oiseau et l'enfant", Marie Myriam, 1977

Well-crafted, modulation and all.

Flashback II

5/11/2007 9:37:00 AM

A warm August night in 1986. Driving my bicycle somewhere between Jönköping and Göteborg in West Sweden, looking for a camping site. Listening to the radio on my Walkman.

Suddenly, on a wide open stretch, a westerly wind starts to push me gently and I go faster and faster.

And then, as if somebody's watching, "Driving Away from Home" by It's Immaterial starts to play on my Walkman:

"Driving away from home

Thirty miles or more

And we'll go moving away from home

Without a care in the world".

Great old gear

5/10/2007 10:15:00 AM

I am fascinated with vintage electronics. Here are some of my dearest treasures:

Salora 810V tube radio

Manufactured in Salo, Finland, in 1954. The best possible reproduction of pre-sixties music. Looks marvellous, a lot of wood.

Asa 3300 Hifi Studiotrio

A flat, black hifi ensemble, manufactured in Salo, Finland, in the late seventies. Surprisingly powerful (55W). Great for 70's and 80's vinyl and C cassettes.

Creamsound CS-1/6 guitar amplifier

Very few of these were manufactured in Vantaa, Finland, some time in the '90s, I think. Less than 10 watts. A sound that takes you straight back into the '50s. You can hear this amp in some of the latest recordings of a Finnish band called Egotrippi.

Just in case: not for sale.

Real TV

5/8/2007 11:08:00 AM

There are two documentarians that never let you down:

Serge Moati

"La Prise de l'Elysée", shown on France 3, is interesting, revealing and funny. This guy has an exceptional ability - he can approach anyone objectively, even Jean-Marie Le Pen. It's funny what people say when they think no-one's listening.

Peter Taylor

The "Panorama Special" on BBC World is another leap into the world of spooks and hotheads. This guy has a Borat-like approach to interviews: just ask a simple question and let the answer speak for itself.

What a producer does

5/4/2007 12:54:00 AM

It's interesting to listen to the answers you usually get to the following question: what do you think a producer does to a song?

Most people, including young musicians, tend to think that a producer "turns the knobs", "pays for everything" or "puts the thing on a cd".

I've had the pleasure of seeing two major producers in action. This is what they do: change the key and the tempo of the song, remove beats here and there, retune the guitars two or three keys down, have the singer sing in the staircase, and so on. They mess things up.

I guess what I'm really trying to say is that Rick Rubin, Bob Rock and Nile Rodgers are geniuses.

Not so stupid

5/2/2007 9:47:00 AM

An intelligent popstar is such a rare sight that seeing one is tremendously uplifiting.

Such unique occasion presented itself on 27 April at the Hardtalk Extra of the BBC World, where Gavin Esler interviewed Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys. What a great, warm-hearted man!

Here are some of the highlights (as I remember them):

Q: Why do you play pop music?

A: Well, pop is short for popular.

Q: Do you represent the gay movement?

A: Sexuality is far too categorised. People are not that simple.

Q: Why were you so vague about your sexual orientation in the beginning?

A: People want to construct their popstars themselves.

I hope they put the whole interview online soon.

World Press Photo

4/30/2007 11:53:00 AM

Here's a tip for anyone interested in photography and world affairs.

Go see the World Press Photo exhibition. You can find its "tour dates" at worldpressphoto.org. It's a real eye-opener.

And bring along a large package of handkerchiefs.

Death songs

4/26/2007 8:31:00 AM

I have a morbid interest in songs about death. They have weird commonalities. The singer, for example, almost always refers to his mother or wife, sometimes both.

Here's my Top Three in this dubious category:

I Know It's Over/ The Smiths

"Oh mother, I can feel the soil falling over my head." Very little to add.

Oi mutsi mutsi/ Tuomari Nurmio

Sung in such thick Helsinki accent that the lyrics are almost impossible to understand even for a Finn. But the guy basically asks his mother to buy him a white suit. Finnish pragmatism.

Give My Love to Rose/ Johnny Cash

A heartbreaking story with the usual Cash ingredients. A chorus that I like to sing in a certain state of mind:
"Give my love to Rose please won't you mister
Take her all my money, tell her to buy some pretty clothes
Tell my boy his daddy's so proud of him
And don't forget to give my love to Rose".

Flow of thought lyrics

4/25/2007 9:29:00 AM

Some of the greatest lyrics have been written with a method that I love: just take whatever comes into your mind in whichever order it comes to you. This is very revealing but sometimes produces really magic lyrics that keep your mind occupied for years.

The R.E.M. have always mastered this technique. Here's a fantastic example from a song called "You Are The Everything":

Sometimes I feel like I can't even sing

I'm very scared for this world

I'm very scared for me

Eviscerate your memory

Here's a scene

You're in the back seat laying down

The windows wrap around

To sound of the travel and the engine

All you hear is time stand still in travel

And feel such peace and absolute

The stillness still that doesn't end

But slowly drifts into sleep

The stars are the greatest thing you've ever seen

And they're there for you

For you alone you are the everything

Claudia

4/22/2007 5:19:00 PM

A friend of mine, Claudia, was laid to rest this weekend. She started her career as a soldier in Bosnia. The Milosevic army pushed an AK-47 into her vagina.

At the time of her death Claudia worked as a prostitute in Amsterdam. She was 37 years old.

I am devastated.

Björn again

4/18/2007 9:30:00 AM

I'll never forget a documentary I saw on ABBA some time in the eighties. It had a section where Björn Ulvaeus explains that he writes most of his best songs while running. Then he is shown running and "Take a Chance" is playing in the background: "take-a-chance-take-a-chance-take-a-take-a-chance-chance...".

In another scene Björn and Benny are on an island outside Stockholm playing the piano and the guitar and saying they almost never write anything on paper.

I can totally relate to that. That Vagabond song on my Soundcloud page came to me at Easter while walking on a lakeside in East Flanders. It took about two minutes.

I won't tell the name of that lake because it wasn't its fault.