Emery

Jaaaaaaa! Eindelijk! Emery kwam vrijdag 10 april naar de Sugar Factory, Amsterdam. Ik herinner me dat ik ongeveer een jaar of wat geleden tegen een paar mensen zei: "Emery... nee, die komen niet naar Europa. Die hebben het prima daarzo in de VS". En toch werd een paar maanden geleden bekend dat ze naar Nederland zouden komen. We gingen met een flinke groep, als ik ze allemaal herinner: David, Sjoerd, Menno, Levi (en z'n moeder ^.^), Cindy, Sara, Burn en Dirk, en later kwamen Isabella en Anuschka er ook nog bij. Het is een beetje onze standaard concert-gang, en het is altijd supergezellig: de weg ernaartoe, het concert zelf en de weg terug.



Op de heenweg hebben we in de trein gebeden voor de band en de avond, maar ook omdat het Goede Vrijdag was. Bij de Sugar Factory aangekomen gingen een paar mensen eerst nog wat eten, maar ik ging zo snel mogelijk naar binnen met de rest. Binnengekomen eerst de nieuwe EP gekocht en een shirt (waar je me vast wel eens in zult zien lopen).
Vervolgens kwam iedereen binnen, de zaal werd voller en het hoofdprogramma begon. Menno en ik namen nog een biertje. Menno die trouwens eruit zag als een HxC-moshcrew-member, in z'n zwarte hemdje xD
Toen begon Emery. Ik heb denk ik alle liedjes voor 100% meegezongen... meestal onbewust. Emery geeft een superfijn concert, want de meeste stukjes zijn gewoon rustige emo-rock (waarbij het draait om de vocalen en de sfeer), maar soms komt er een breakdown of een hardcore stuk, waarop de moshpit HELEMAAL ontploft.
Bij het laatste nummer, voor de toegift, ging screamer/toetsenist Josh nog even een paar meter boven de hoofden het publiek inlopen. Die Josh doet trouwens ook de raarste dansbewegingen op het podium. Na de toegift, was het af, en was iedereen (die vooraan stond in ieder geval) flink bezweet. Het zweet gutste van Menno af, ikzelf had het kokend warm, en Levi was volgens mij ook buiten adem. Teken dat het een goed concert was ;)
Buitengekomen bleek het te onweren en regenen. Best vet, eigenlijk, na zo'n concert. En meteen lekker afgekoeld. De terugweg was relaxed en ik ben maar snel m'n bed in gegaan, de volgende ochtend werd ik om 09:00 verwacht bij een bidstond.


Foto's door Jimmy Alter.

Bradley Hathaway

He's got three albums. The first of which is a mix of funny and spiritual poetry. The second of which contains more instruments and music overall and focuses more on serious matters. The third of which is actually spoken word over really fine music. This is de poem he became famous with. It's actually the least serious one. For others, have a listen at: "Look Up", "Celebration Wedding" or "The Hug Poem".

Modern christian poetry. I love it.




I am hardcore. I will windmill kick you in the face. Everybody back up, make a circle, let's destroy this place. The lights are low and I'm about to go off. Here comes the break down, ka-ra-te chop! Raise up your arms, make an X if you're down. Me and my crew, we own this stinkin' town. Watch out for my fist, your face it will kiss on purpose. I'm tough and I'm ticked.

I don't slow dance, I don't salsa dance, forget the tango. I don't slam dance you idiot, I dance hardcore. On the floor, I'm the man you've never seen before. When the drummer yells, GO! it's my time to blow.
And in between songs. I yell at the band, cause I don't care what they have to say. I'm not here to learn anything anyway. I'm here to dance. In the zone, in a trance.
I don't smoke cigarettes, but if she's willing I'll drop my pants. Promiscuous I am, but I'm vegan, I don't eat ham or any of that stuff cause it's bad for you, right? Save the animals, forget the sweatshop scandals!
I do not shop at hot topic. I am not Mall Core, I am hardcore. Madball, Hatebreed, Throwdown, Terror. I own all their records on colored vinyl, limited edition and hand numbered. But you won't see me asking for no autograph. I ain't lookin' like no fool. I ain't no pop culture tool.

If they ain't screamin', I ain't listenin'. If they ain't got a blast beat, I ain't tappin' my feet. I eat emo pansies for breakfast, and give their little t-shirts to my little sister. So cry about it you messenger bag, purse carrying whatever.
I wear girl pants, but I'm homophobic. Yet the way I'm always huggin' on my homeboys you sure wouldn't know it. I've had my ears stretched an inch since back in '96. Somebody told me hardcore was a place to share what you believe, but I didn't like what dude said, so I flipped him off and told him to leave.
I'm mad at society because my parents won't buy me a new computer, even though I asked politely. My playstation 2 is broken, but my Xbox works. When that breaks though, something will hit the fan and I'll express myself with rage and anger, just like a man. Cause that's how it's done, right? You get mad and start a fight, right? I think I may, I think I might, take my insecurities out on that punk in the pit tonight.

Cause really, I am just insecure. More than that, I'm kinda scared and hurting inside. And I don't know how to deal with it. I don't know what being a man means. I thought acting tough was the way to go.

But now that I think about it... I'm emo.

C...c....c....ccleaner?

Today it's not gonna be about ethics, nor about visual art, nor about music. I just want to share with you a program that is really usefull to me. It's called CCleaner, and you can easily delete internet cache, temporary files and other things. If you installed it, FIRST configure it before running it. Inside the program you can chose which parts of your computer should be cleaned. I usually clean my Firefox Cache, Temporary Internet Files, etc. If you're not sure whether you should clean something, just don't.

You can download the program here:

That's it for today! I'm off to my books again.

Moootion graphics

I'm sure you've seen one. A clip that is not truly filmed by a camera, neither is it a static sequence of photo's or images. It's a clip in which different graphics move, mostly independently of eachother. This is called 'motion graphics' and it's caught my eye for a few weeks. I've been learning on Photoshop and a little bit on Premiere Pro, but only recently the concept of motion graphics hit my mind. Adobe After Effects is the ultimate program to create moving and organic graphics.

Just to show you what it really is, I've got a few examples of cool motion graphics. They're really top of the notch and I guess I'll never get close to them, but at least they serve as inspiration! Here we go:


Say What? Promo from Dan Stevers on Vimeo.


Names of Jesus from joe perez on Vimeo.


Out of Control from Dan Stevers on Vimeo.

Now you've got an idea of what motion graphics are. It really takes a lot of time to create clips like those, but it's cool to figure out certain effects and someday I'll post some of my own creations. Alright? Be blessed.