Deze post zal niet iedereen interesseren, maar ik voel ineens de behoefte om te bloggen over hardlopen! Vorig jaar heb ik met studievereniging Incognito meegedaan aan de Batavierenrace en ben toen aangestoken met het hardloopvirus! Ik had een etappe van 6.1 kilometer; geen bijster lange afstand. Ik had maar twee keer getraind en qua tijd zat ik toen in de middenmoot. Dat schiep mogelijkheden tot verbetering uiteraard!
Nu, bijna een jaar verder, heb ik al veel meer getraind en zit het persoonlijk record op 10 km in 50 minuten. Ik doe weer mee met de Batavierenrace en heb weer de 6.1 km etappe (dat is toeval). Deze keer wil ik het wel een stuk beter gaan doen en leg de lat op 25 minuten. Gisteren hebben we met de studievereniging samen getraind en dat was erg gezellig! Het is dan fijn om te merken dat ik redelijk mee kan lopen met sommige jongens, alhoewel zij mij er echt wel uit kunnen lopen als ze een versnelling ertegenaan gooien. Ik probeer een beetje met etenspatronen te spelen. Op pasta loop je duidelijk beter dan op keihard volkoren brood met moeilijk verteerbare vezels zeg maar...Gisteren voor het eerst ook een sportdrankje genuttigd. Ik hou helemaal niet van frisdrank en vond het vies, maar liep er wel beter op!
Mijn uiteindelijke doel is de marathon lopen en dan kan de tijd me niet schelen, het gaat om de prestatie. Nu richt ik me eerst op de halve marathon. Als ik die dit seizoen nog kan lopen zou dat heel gaaf zijn, maar zover ben ik momenteel nog niet. De 10 km lopen gaat nu wel goed, maar dat is nog slechts de helft van een halve marathon. Mijn conditie moet ik dus nog wat verder opvijzelen. Hardlopen geeft me een goed gevoel, dus het ermee bezig zijn is al heel prettig an sich. Ik kan het iedereen aanraden. In het begin ga je kapot, maar als je eenmaal een basis conditie hebt opgebouwd is het een prima manier om opgekropte gevoelens eruit te rennen (iets waar ik wel last van heb af en toe). En lekker in de buitenlucht zijn is ook fijn!
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Wolves In The Throne Room Blow the W2 away!
20 february 2009, W2 ‘s Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands
This day was really weird for me. Earlier I went on an excursion to the Army Museum in Delft for my Warfare of Colonial Armies course (I’m a history student). There we had a private tour to the attic, where they have 2,000 guns stored. We had a 2,5 hour talk about the history of guns, how they work etc. We all got to hold the guns, which was very weird to me because I had never hold a weapon in my hands before. And now, I suddenly held about 30 weapons in two hours. The Call of Duty references were made of course, as we had the AK-47 in our hands. This is all off topic, but I had to rush home (Utrecht), make a quick dinner, then rush to ‘s Hertogenbosch. My mind was still with the guns... I went to the gig together with a friend, and we both dreaded going into the carnaval-craziness that was going on already at Utrecht central station. Luckily, the W2 venue is not located in the city centre and we didn’t encounter many people dressed like cows or clowns.
There was already a long line of people waiting to get in. I solely came for Wolves in the Throne Room and the other two bands would be a surprise for me. I naively expected them to play black metal or something related, which would give me quite a shock later on when I discovered what they would actually play! We came in and handed over our coats, which we would later realise was a mistake. We went to get some drinks first and at the same time the first band of the evening was already playing: Anaphylactic Shock. We only caught the last 5 minutes of their set, so I can’t really say anything about what I heard. From their last.fm page I gathered they were playing doom metal or sludge kind of music. I had in my earplugs, which totally fucked up the sound so I could not hear the singer. I did this to save my ears for later on, so I’m not able to give comments really.
After a 30 minute break, my curiosity for the next band was quite high! The curtains opened and it was time for The Devil's Blood. “Oh God”, was literally my thought when I saw them. Covered in ‘blood’, and with a female lead singer I just knew this wasn’t going to be black metal or anything like it. I was hoping something like Made Out of Babies, but erm...no. In my opinion it was just power metal, but according to their last.fm page it’s occult rock. Well, whatever, I totally hated this. I gave it a try, listened for about 15 minutes and then I couldn’t take it anymore. There was totally no energy coming from this band, it was all static. The singer just stood there, sometimes raising her arms but other than that nothing spectacular happened. Same goes for the guitar players, I just didn’t sense any enthusiasm. And if there is one thing I hate about live performances, it’s when I just feel no emotion while listening to the music. My friend and I left to get a beer and take a look at the merchandise. We just talked and only when the band was done playing we went back in and sought out a good place in front.
Again we had to wait 30 minutes, and this time I was waiting anxiously; hoping that my evening wouldn’t be totally ruined. The curtain opened again and there they were: Wolves in the Throne Room. After a noisy intro, they unleashed their fury. And wow, it was good (and that’s an understatement) I stood there, totally blown away by their performance. The feeling that I got from their music was very intense. I got goose bumps all over and almost felt tears stinging in my eyes. This was the first time ever that a metal performance managed to give me this reaction. I often cry during classical concerts, but never during metal! But their music was very emotional to me. Some people might think I’m crazy now, but to me black metal is about the feeling. Wolves in the Throne Room managed to get across such an energy...unbelievable! The way they played made me think that they were completely into the music themselves as well; they played full of emotion. They played about an hour, and only 4 songs probably haha. The stage was very dark, only some candles were lit. This gave the atmosphere an extra boost and certainly fits their style of performing. There was also no talk to the public, only an occasional ‘thank you’.
After the show was over, my neck and back hurt like hell. I just wanted to get home. This was not so easy...It took like 30 minutes just to get our coats. Next time I’m keeping it with me no doubt. We missed the last normal train home by 10 minutes, so we had to wait 50 minutes for the night train. I was home at 2:30 am. By now, I’m still having a great feeling of satisfaction if I think back about the concert. For just 9 euro’s, this concert was well worth it!
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Ridiculous Music - Episode I
Everybody knows that music is divers. There is so much more than just classical, pop, electronic music...
These days, almost nothing can suprise me anymore. I remember the days when I could barely listen to metal (the grunting sounded horrible to me), but now I'd say that I can handle almost anything.
However, sometimes I still get surprised at what people produce. I want to hunt those moments when I still think "what the heck, this is ridiculous". The word ridiculous isn't negative per se. Yes, it would mean absurd (and somtimes laughable), but also impossible (how do they play this??) and unbelievable.
For this first episode I'd like to introduce: Hatebeak.
I already know this band for over a year, but I recently re-listened to one of the two songs that I have of them and again thought: WTF.
Hatebeak is a grindcore band; a genre that is already kind of obscure anyway and usually not really my cup of tea.
However, they don't have a normal 'singer'. No, instead they have a parrot as their main source for 'vocals'.
And seriously, when I first heard his..erm...screeching I couldn't stop laughing. It actually goes pretty well with grindcore imo. It's noise anyway, why not add more!! The parrot does a good job producing aggressive 'vocals'.
Their discography includes titles such as
The Number of the Beak (TBA), Beak of Putrefaction (of which I have two songs), Bird Seeds of Vengeance, The Thing that Should Not Beak.
These days, almost nothing can suprise me anymore. I remember the days when I could barely listen to metal (the grunting sounded horrible to me), but now I'd say that I can handle almost anything.
However, sometimes I still get surprised at what people produce. I want to hunt those moments when I still think "what the heck, this is ridiculous". The word ridiculous isn't negative per se. Yes, it would mean absurd (and somtimes laughable), but also impossible (how do they play this??) and unbelievable.
For this first episode I'd like to introduce: Hatebeak.
I already know this band for over a year, but I recently re-listened to one of the two songs that I have of them and again thought: WTF.
Hatebeak is a grindcore band; a genre that is already kind of obscure anyway and usually not really my cup of tea.
However, they don't have a normal 'singer'. No, instead they have a parrot as their main source for 'vocals'.
And seriously, when I first heard his..erm...screeching I couldn't stop laughing. It actually goes pretty well with grindcore imo. It's noise anyway, why not add more!! The parrot does a good job producing aggressive 'vocals'.
Their discography includes titles such as
The Number of the Beak (TBA), Beak of Putrefaction (of which I have two songs), Bird Seeds of Vengeance, The Thing that Should Not Beak.
They are the only band on last.fm that I tagged 'Parrot Metal'. It's definitely ridiculous!!
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