Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks @ Ancienne Belgique, Brussels

I will have to start by apologising for not attending the first performance by General Mindy, and for only catching the last 3 songs from Jeffrey Lewis, which were quite interesting and will definitely try to get my hands on his album.

Have you ever felt like you are in a huge rehearsal room, with some people just banging pots and pans around and it all just sounds perfect, well that was the concert.

I did not manage to get my hands on the set list but from what I’ve heard it all went down around Pig Lib, Face the Truth, the new album Real Emotional Trash and going only to first on the encore to sing Jenny and the Ess-Dog.

For me, without a shadow of a doubt the best music was Water and a Seat, just brilliant.

Saturday there is more with the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.

I am sorry for the quality of the picture but that is what you get when you are trying to use something that is not yours, in this case a FinePix Z10 fd by Fuji (This sounded like a fairly nice excuse).

See you Sunday

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Green Week 2008 Live from Brussels

With this post I just wish to remind you that Green Week 2008 is already taking place in the Charlemagne building (European Commission) in Brussels.

Photo credit: Konstantinos Mentzelopoulos

It is also possible to follow it live on the internet, for that you just check the programme (to see which session you want to “attend” and then afterwards click the picture above to be directed to the site where you can choose the differrent rooms (be aware that the sessions finish this afternoon and that tomorow there is just the closing session that should be worth checking out).

Have a good World Environment Day, do your part and I’ll do mine.

Akvo, provider of free and open knowledge

Akvo, a very ambitious project caught my eye.

Mission:

“To provide free and open working knowledge, a collaborative community, finance solutions and a marketplace for the water and sanitation community“.

After a brief chat with Peter van der Linde, the idea that is behind the whole project just popped out by it self. They are building a “Wikipedia”, an “Ebay” a “Youtube” for water.

The first one “Akvopedia” is a natural and simple idea of using a well known environment to spread information on water. The other two (which will be one) will be a kind of ebay and youtube all in one, which will be a simple way of searching for water and sanitation projects.

But enough of me going on about this project, it really is interesting when you go and find it out for your self, and please do remember that this project is still in construction and development.

SY Confirmed

Yes, since the last post many things happened, if you remember (or just scroll down) I still did not knew if I could make it to St. Nazaire in France to attend to the concert of Sonic Youth.

Yeah, I bought the ticket to one night (11 Euros) at the Les Escales festival.

At the same time, in the same city, I will also attend to the exibition “Sensational Fix” which will be presented by the band on the same day.

In sum, it will be a very good Saturday:
* a 900 km trip;
* Sonic Youth Concert;
* Sensational Fix;
* Some responsible drinkin’;
* Another 900 km trip.

In the meanwhile, other related news are that Free Kitten (Kim Gordon, Julie Cafritz, and Yoshimi) reunited for an album called “Inherit”, and that Sonic Youth will release another compilation “Hits are for Squares” (This will only be available through Starbucks). All of the songs from this compilation are choices from Beck, Dave Eggers, Chloe Sevigny, Eddie Vedder, Gus Van Sant, amongst others.

Pictures, and the full report will be available here after the 9th of August.

See you there.

The definition of the word…

…Stress is:

“…a physical or psychological stimulus that can produce mental tension or physiological reactions that may lead to illness. When you are under stress, your adrenal gland releases corticosteroids, which are converted to cortisol in the blood stream. Cortisol has an immune suppressive effect in your body.”

American Institute of Stress!!!!!

So, this is me in this past month and a half, therefore the reason for not feeding this blog can be called upon cortisol.

I just dropped by to say that in these next few days until Sunday, I will be updating this blog with information I find relevant, such as (in no particular order):

• Paris, Normandie, Namur, Gent;
• Akvo;
• Energy Globe Awards;
• Sonic Youth;
• Greek Easter;
• European Water News;
• and some more things that happened while under the effect of cortisol…

So just keep tuned to this channel and speak your mind.

…Stress still is.

Musical Agenda for the Coming Months

As the weather is becoming fairly decent here in Brussels, around 9 or 10 degrees, and with no rain, I decided to plan my musical agenda.

It will begin on the 11 of June and the last one on the 9th of August.

The first one will be Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks on the eleventh of June at Ancienne Belgique in Brussels for 16 euros (Got the Ticket). The follwing will be 3 days after at the same venue but this time with Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, once again for 16 euros (Got the Ticket).

On the second of August I will attend the Lokerse Festival, more or less in the North of Belgium, to attend the performance of Buzzcocks, The New York Dolls and Sex Pistols, all of this for 30 euros (Got the Ticket).

The “end” would be on the ninth of August at Les Escales Festival in St. Nazaire, France, to see Sonic Youth for a modest price of 11 euros. this one is quite tricky because it is one of my favourites and it is being difficult to check if I will have availability to go, let’s wait and see.

And yes, I will enjoy it!

Green Week Registration

As a follow up on the previous post, I hereby alert you to the opening of the registration for the Green Week 2008. Remember that the entire conference is free to attend and to participate.

To register click the above image

Enjoy!

Green Week 2008

It began some years ago, and once again this year is no exception, the Green Week is already on for the year of 2008.

The Green Week takes a very close look into environmental problems through very high-level conferences open to everyone. This year the Week will be the one from the 3rd to the 6th of June, in the Charlemagne building on Rue de la Loi in Brussels, Belgium.

The registration is free but still not opened, but it will be during the current month at the following website: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/greenweek/home.html

There is already a draft program that can be consulted here: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/greenweek/pdf/draft_programme.pdf

If all of this did not convince you, then you should go and check out last year’s Green Week: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/greenweek2007/home.html

In short, we are delivering a Europe of results, in a policy area that the peoples of Europe care deeply about. In fact, no fewer than 72% of respondents in a recent Eurobarometer survey favoured more decision-making on the environment at European level. The message is clear: when it comes to protecting Europe’s environment, Europeans want more Europe.

Excerpt from opening speech at Green Week 2007 by José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission

The First of Many

Hi there,

With the fall of whyelephantscook, this will be my permanent address from now on.

Coming down to what matters, this will contain everyday news, posted not everyday, more or less what goes down around here, we’ll be crossing the T’s and dotting the i’s and the other way around as well.

The here is Brussels, for now, the heart of the Frites and lost cats culture.

The posting will occur more or less on a daily basis, due to a very busy life in the search of the perfect Frites and the most beautiful dip, which by the way until now is Andaluz.

Enjoy.