7 things that sweeten the return to Brussels

I don't know about you but I am most definitely suffering from end of summertime sadness, so this is a little list of fun things to look forward to in Brussels that will hopefully sweeten the grande return. Save the dates!

2 September - Meet the Author session with  Douglas Coupland at BOZAR 

A little something for all the Generation X babies!

"But I get this feeling- It is a feeling that our emotions while wonderful, are transpiring in a vacuum, and I think it boils down to the fact that we're middle class. You see, when you're middle class, you have to live with the fact that history will ignore you. You have to live with the fact that history will never champion your causes and that history will never feel sorry for you. It is the price that is paid for day-to-day comfort and silence. And because of this price, all happinesses are sterile; all sadnesses go unpitied."

10 September -Knight of Cups Premier at BOZAR

Cause Terrence Mallick is one of my favorites and the trailer looks amazing

10 September - Sufjan Stevens at BOZAR 

13 September - your last chance to enjoy THE BELGIANS An unexpected fashion story 

Because Belgians seem to be taking over the fashion world

28 September - Morrissey is playing at Ancienne Belgique 

Love him or hate him this man has provided the soundtrack to endless nights and days! And if you don't like The Smiths you probably don't have a soul!

29 September - Bryan Ferry is playing at Ancienne Belgique 

The ultimate dandy is back! I got to enjoy him just before the end of 2014 and he left me wanting more! One of the concerts I am looking forward to the most next season!





And last but not least I may just manage to watch Gaspar Noe's LOVE in 3D. Cause we all love controversy and maybe when it comes to sex scenes 3D actually makes sense!

Summer in Paradise Lost

Sun, sea, heat and time seems to have lost it's meaning and relevance. Greetings from Greeceland aka my own private paradise lost. As my annual hermit, detox retreat is about to come to an end I thought I would share some of my favorite things that made this holiday paradisiacal. And what better way to start than music. My most beautifulest friend Giuseppe aka Porcarorama has made a Sunshine Summer and Moonlight Nights mixtape that I have been listening to on repeat all summer long. Just press play and trust me when I say that this is the ultimate summer soundtrack.

And of course one should always look the part. Hawaiian shirts should be included in everyone's summer attire, especially the ones made by my beautiful surfer boyz from Paleo Faliro, the seaside area in Athens where I grew up. I am beyond proud of them for launching, in the midst of the financial crisis,  their own brand MOHXA, of ossom clothes worn by the surfers, skaters, hipsters and THE GROWLERS! They say that chaos breeds creation and such start ups by young people in Greece have started proliferating despite the financial crisis or precisely because of it. As a principle I am a big fan of MADE IN GREECE so check them out. Below is my summer's favorite. 

And cause one of my favorite activities whilst being a lazy sunbather is reading here are some of the books I enjoyed and a few of my favorite quotes from this summer's reading list. Enjoy, they all come highly recommended.

The timeless classic which needs no further introductions.

"There is much to be said for contentment and painlessness, for those bearable and submissive days, on which neither pain nor pleasure is audible but pass by whispering and on tip-toe. But the worst of it it that it is just this contentment that I cannot endure. After a short time it fills me with irrepressible hatred and nausea. In desperation I have to escape and throw myself on the road to pleasure, or, if that cannot be, on the road to pain…A wild longing for strong emotions and sensations seethes in me, a rage against this toneless, flat, normal and sterile life…For what I always hated and detested and cursed above all things was this was this contentment, this healthiness and comfort, this carefully preserved optimism of the middle classes, this fat and prosperous brood of mediocrity."  

Hermann Hesse Steppenwolf

On an entirely different note I also devoured the ultimate summer read,  a cross between a pulp fiction crime novel and the genius of the likes of Mr Philip Roth"The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair" by 30 year old Joel Dicker is a real page turner and the perfect book to accompany you to the beach. At times repetitive and not a literary masterpiece yet nonetheless hilarious and well written and I was thoroughly impressed by the accurate grasp and depiction of American society that a young Swiss man has. I say enjoy this one as a guilty pleasure. 

Tom Robbins  in one of my favorite authors, witty, sexy, hilarious and with a sublime command of the english language, what is there not to love! Needless to say when his "autobiography" or more accurately what he has termed A True Account of an Imaginative Life was published under the title  "Tibetan Peach Pie" I couldn't wait to get my hands on it and I was in no way disappointed. 

"You see, at that juncture in my life I wasn't evolved enough to understand the fluid nature of romantic love (its indifference to human cravings for permanence and certainty); its uncivilized, undomesticated nature (less alike a pretty melody than a foxish barking at the moon), or, more importantly perhaps, that it's a privilege to love someone, to truly love them; and while it's paradisiacal if she or he loves you back, it's unfair to demand or expect reciprocity. We should consider ourselves lucky, honored, blessed that we possess the capacity to feel tenderness of such magnitude and be grateful even when that love is not returned. Love is the only game in which we win even when we lose." 

Almond picking has become one of my favorite summertime activities...

Because I am basically incapable of ever writing anything about summer without including something from GRACELAND…..Diamonds on the soles of her shoes….

My favorite beach 

Man Ray revisited or the kind of photos my mum takes when we are on holiday together 

Pastel decadence in Greeceland

And if beauty is terror, then what is desire?

"-Death is the mother of beauty
-And what is beauty?
-Terror
-Well said, beauty is never soft or consolatory. Quite the contrary. Genuine beauty is always quite alarming...And if beauty is terror then what is desire? We think we have many desires, but in fact we only have one. What is it?
-To live.
-To live forever....

-All truly civilized people- the ancients no less than us- have civilized themselves through the willful repression of the old, animal self...And it's a temptation for any intelligent person, and especially for perfectionists such as the ancients and ourselves, to try to murder the primitive, emotive, appetitive self. But that is a mistake.

-Why?

-Because it is dangerous to ignore the existence of the irrational. The more cultivated a person is, the more intelligent, the more repressed, then the more he needs some method of channeling the primitive impulses he's worked so hard to subdue. Otherwise those powerful old forces will mass and strengthen until they are violent enough to break free, more violent for the delay, often strong enough to sweep the will away entirely...

The Greeks were different. They had a passion for order and symmetry, much like the Romans, but they knew how foolish it was to deny the unseen world, the old gods. Emotion, darkness, barbarism...

Beauty is terror. Whatever we call beautiful we quiver before it. And what could be more terrifying and beautiful, to soul like the Greeks or our own, than to lose control completely? To throw off the chains of being for an instant, to shatter the accident of our mortal selves? To be absolutely free! One is quite capable, of course, of working out these destructive passions in more vulgar and less efficient ways. But how glorious to release them in a single burst! To sing, to scream, to dance barefoot in the woods in the dead of night, with no more awareness of mortality than an animal. These are powerful mysteries."

Donna Tartt, "The Secret History"

Teddy Boys and Copycats

"Actual happiness always looks pretty squalid in comparison with the over-compensation for misery. And, of course, stability isn't nearly so spectacular as instability. And being contented has none of the glamour of a good fight against misfortune, none of the picturesqueness of a struggle with temptation, or a fatal overthrow by passion or doubt. Happiness is never grand."

Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

I finally read the dystopian all-time classic and  this is the paragraph that stayed with me the most. Cause a good fight against misfortune and a struggle with temptation do hold a dangerously glamorous allure.

Speaking of dystopian futures and state controlled behavioral manipulation, an interesting fact about Greeceland is that during the 60s, a time of revolution across the rest of Europe, an infamous law, law 4000, was put in place to punish "Teddy Boy" behaviour. According to law 4000 young troublemakers arrested for the offense of slander had their heads shaved, the cuffs of their pants ripped and were forced to walk around with a sign stating "I am a Teddy Boy", for pedagogic reasons of course.

And now for the copycats, surprisingly enough some of my favorite "songs du jour" seem to be covers and the quintessential soundtrack during this transitional month is Todd Terje's Johnny and Mary sang by Brian Ferry! This song is GOLD.

Another current favourite:

And last but not least photos and tips from 2 of the must-see exhibitions in Athens at the moment.

-The exceptionally curated A THOUSAND DOORS exhibition by NEON and Whitechapel Gallery that is hosted at the majestic Gennadius Library until the 30th of June.

Tip: all the volunteers are extremely polite and well-informed ask them to tell you a story about the art piece they are standing next to you won't regret it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"I'm profoundly shallow, my lack of knowledge is vast and my horizons are narrow" said the boy.

 

 "No Respect": Graffiti and street art at the OCC." 

Cause our graffiti rocks!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And my favourite portrait at the moment needlewordk by Lockibird

 

Summertime in Greeceland

Enjoy some photos of what summer looks like in paradise (Greeceland) with some tunes and quotes to go along. Hope you are all busy being lazy sunbathers on an island not so far away..

The only sign worth following all summer long.

Quintessential Greek Summer: FIGS

SEAHORSE

Look what I found in the middle of nowhere on a Greek island: A Rubik's cube transformer!

On the road

Greek Summer 

Boat Rides and Life Jackets 

A home with a view. Meet me between the music and the castle 

 Glitter in the Gutter in the sand dunes.

Sand Dune Love

Dry salt lake 

Greek Delight 

Absolute Summertime Essentials

 

Sometimes I feel like throwing my hands up in the air 

 Sunset snack 

Dinner 

Scary sponge thingy 

Anchors Away

 Fisherman Blues

Summertime Essentials #2

Essentials #3

And given the beating my beautiful country has been receiving recently I must admit it was rather refreshing to read some praise from the master himself Mr Henry Miller in "The Colossus of Maroussi" (a definite must read for all you wandering romantic souls.) Miller spent 5 months in Greeceland just before the onset of the the second World War in the company of our hommes des letters such as Seferis, Katsimbalis and Ghikas. He speaks of the time just before we started getting it all wrong by buying into the American Dream. Enjoy...

"That conversation taught me immediately that the Greeks are an enthusiastic, curious-minded, passionate people. Passion-it was something I had long missed in France. Not only passion, but contradictoriness, confusion, chaos-all these sterling human qualities I rediscovered and cherished again in the person of my new-found friend. And generosity. I had almost thought it had perished from the earth."

Funny that Miller takes note of the glass of water that is automatically served the moment you sit down at any restaurant or bar throughout Greece. A lover from the North that visited my country several times was also rather taken by the way water is our constant companion throughout the day.

"The glass of water...everywhere I saw the glass of water. It became obsessional. I began to think of water as a new thing, a new vital element of life. Earth, air, fire, water. Right now water had become the cardinal element. Seeing lovers sitting there in the dark drinking water, sitting there in peace and quiet and talking in low tones, gave me a wonderful feeling about the Greek character. The dust, the heat, the poverty, the bareness, the containedness  of the people, and the water everywhere in little tumblers standing between the quiet, peaceful couples, gave me the feeling that there was something holy about the place, something nourishing and sustaining."

 

"There are so many ways of walking about and the best, in my opinion, is the Greek way, because it is aimless, anarchic, thoroughly and discordantly human."

"I liked the way they begged too. They weren't shamefaced about it. They would hold you up openly and ask for money or cigarettes as if they were entitled to it. It's a good sign when people beg that way: it means that they know how to give. The French, for example, know neither how to give nor how to ask for favors-either way they feel uneasy. They make a virtue of not molesting you. It's the wall again. A Greek has no walls around him: he gives and takes without stint."

"...the city of Athens. It is still in the throes of birth: it is awkward, confused, clumsy, unsure of itself; it has all the diseases of childhood and some of the melancholy and desolation of adolescence. But is has chosen a magnificent site in which to rear itself; in the sunlight it gleams like a jewel; at night it sparkles with a million twinkling lights which seem to be switching on and off with lightning-like speed. It is a city of startling atmospheric effects: it has not dug itself into the earth-it floats in a constantly changing light, beats with a chromatic rhythm." 

And to close a part from the introduction by none other than Mr Will Self:

"...if you believe in the brand of sympathetic literary magic that Henry Miller purveys, perhaps you will take his existential leap, go there yourself- and feel it anew. That's what he would have wanted. True avant-garde still had torsion. Delphi. The rest is noise."      

And since this post is all about summer enjoy an alternative version of  The summer hit that I am sure you have all danced to until the morning light it may lack some of the funky rhythm of Daft Punk and Pharrell but it is a personal favorite

And my favorite tune from the latest funktastic Daft Punk album

And one last one cause summer is tropical

One last one cause I want to see you HIGH

Irvine Welsh: The beauty of failing

Irvine Welsh, the voice of a generation lost, stopped by Brussels recently to read an extract from his latest book "Skagboys", a prequel to Trainspotting that follows Renton and Sick Boy down the rabbit hole, and talk about the irresistible beauty of failure. 

Irvine Welsh is easily the most prominent voice (along with Chuck Palahniuk) that marked our adolescence, put us off heroine for life and introduced us to the London punk scene as well as the nightmarish hopelessness of council-flat England. 

A bitter sweet sardonic sense of humor, a charmingly strong Scottish accent reciting barely comprehensible extracts from his latest book written in Scots dialect and a man that "always had a sense of WANDERLUST", enjoy some of his words...

"As a writer and generally in life you should never be afraid to fail. Failure is interesting, success is boring. Failure comes in so many forms. Success is just a reward for perseverance in failure. Success just makes you arrogant and complacent." 

"I like looking at the way people fuck up. The devices whereby people fuck up. Mechanisms of self-sabotage due to fear of failure."

"It is very hard to re-read your own book. A book never finishes, you just get to a point where you don't want to deal with it anymore."

"What does a writer do, he stays locked up in a room with people that don't exist."

"As a writer you need to enjoy your own company and people who do so tend to be quite weird."

"Writing is about looking at the world in a fantastical, magical way, writing is like playing on the carpet with your toy soldiers."

"the 80's are all about disillusionment and individualism. There is no notion of constant progress or belief that every generation is going to be better off."

"Acting is like going for drugs, there is a lot of standing around, waiting for something to happen."

"When you write about a character you don't need to like him. You need to be able to empathize with him, you need to be able to love him. It's like family, it's not that you like them, but you have to love them."

When asked who his favorite character from his books is, he said it was misanthropic anti-hero Bruce Robertson from "Filth" who is played by James McAvoy in this years movie adaptation. Enjoy.

And a special treat 50 Songs I love by Irvine Welsh. ENJOY! 

1. Sunshine on Leith – Proclaimers. If you’re from the green half of Edinburgh, you’ve belted this out at football games and weddings and cried as it plays at funerals.

2. If There Is Something – Roxy Music. I love the epic changes in this song. The way Ferry playfully sings the opening line in mock country twang ill-preps you for the angsty ballad it becomes.

3. Station to Station – David Bowie. No song makes me want to take any drug like this one makes me want to take cocaine.

4. The Greatest Love of All – Kevin Rowland. I love his solo album My Beauty, this track makes me want to make Kev a mug of cocoa and sit him down in front of a roaring fire.

5. Hypo Full Of Love – Alabama 3. If you don’t want to party hearing this bad boy you’ve no pulse.

6. Going Underground – The Jam. Is this the greatest rock n roll song ever written?

7. Rise – PIL. Once Bowie has got you on the cocaine, stay there with that number.

8. Your Love – Frankie Knuckles/Jamie Principal. My nipples still get hard and I want to fondle everybody I see when this comes on.

9. Comeback Girl -Republic of Loose. I think of Dublin and rainy streets and heading to a nice warm boozer every time this plays.

10. Sexual Healing – Marvin Gaye. Don’t think I could live in a world without Marvin’s music.

11. What’s In Your Life – Smokey Robinson. This little known pathos-drenched track from the little known album ‘Warm Thoughts’ also happens to be Smokey’s finest moment. If you are falling for somebody, play them this record. If they don’t jump into bed with you straight afterwards, ditch them immediately, they aren’t for you.

12. Avenue B – Iggy Pop. Title track from the album of the same name is a cracker. Iggy plays the world-weary romantic hoping for love in a cold climate.

13. Seven Kinds of Wonderful – Brian Jonestown Massacre. The album Aufheben is a masterpiece, a journey of crazy, dense, complex psychedelic sound. Wrong to single out any track in such in a complete album, but I love this one.

14. Our House – Madness. This song is so brilliant and beautiful because it reminds everybody of where they came from.

15. The Repentant – Band of Holy Joy. A crazy, scary rant from the brilliant album How To Kill A Butterfly.

16. The Tyger – Billy Blake & The Vagabonds. If I told you a group of Chicago musicians, led by an English expat, had put William Blake’s poems to music you might think that’s mental. If I then told you that it was possibly the best album of the year you might think I am. But it’s true.

17. Atrocity Exhibition – Joy Division. I love this song. I throb and shiver when I hear it.

18. Hypnosis – Les Gray & Mud. Probably the best lyrics in any pop song ever.

19. I Feel Love – Donna Summer (Patrick Cowley remix). Jesus fuck this a fucking amazing track.

20. Burning Wheel – Primal Scream. If Hibs won the league I’d love this to be the song they played in celebration.

21. Street Hassle – Lou Reed. An epic walk on the wild side from Lou.

22. Superstition – Stevie Wonder. I remember on night at Edinburgh’s Pure, they played this when the lights came up and nobody would leave till it was over.

23. Lost In Music – Sister Sledge. Has there ever been a better homage to music?

24. Good Times – Chic. Nile Rogers. Genius. Enough said.

25. Europe Endless – Kraftwerk. A terrific tune. Sung in a parody of boredom that can only be rivaled by Tottenham fans singing When The Spurs Go Marching In.

26. Love Is Like Oxygen – Sweet. The version with the long acoustic guitar solo.

27. SOS – Abba. I remember being in a pub in Motherwell after a Hibs game and the biggest bar room brawl i’ve seen broke out while this was playing on the juke box.

28. Love Song – Simple Minds. I go crazy when the opening bars of this song kick in. What a fucking band the Minds.

29. Dressed For Success- Roxette. I am. I do.

30. The Killing Moon – Echo and the Bunnymen. This I associate with getting a knee trembler up the railway line off a lassie I fancied for donks. As the moon was bright I went home and played this track to celebrate.

31. Story of the Blues – Wah! This song always makes my spine tingle.

32. Mind Games – John Lennon. I would love to hear this sung by a Japanese person on karaoke.

33. Part-Time Love – Elton John. Once sang it on the Bakerloo Line off my nut and covered in every bodily fluid known to man. Cringe…

34. Dance Floor Collision Course With Love – Hibee Nation. Needsie, Henry and I’s finest hour in a year of cocaine, lager and curry at the sadly now defunct Punishment Farm studios in Brick Lane.

35. Avenues and Alleyways -Tony Christie. I love this song. It could make a Tory cabinet minister want a medallion, a hairy chest and a place on the sex offenders register.

36. A Day In The Life – Beatles. This song to me represents the end of the British post-war dream.

37. Cole’s Corner – Richard Hawley. A genius song, about Sheffield’s KB corner. We’ve all been there, I once had a deckchair under the clock at Binn’s in Edinburgh’s West End.

38. Glory, Glory to the Hibees – Hector Nicol. Fucked if I can remember the b-side to this old classic.

39. Vambo Marble Eye – SAHB. Possibly the greatest rock n’ roll band of all time.

40. Squeeze Box – Who. I was playing this track as a spotty adolescent, and my dad snuck up on me and squeezed a prominent pluke on my face. ‘That’s you pal, squeeze box.’ The scheme could be cruel. So cruel.

41. Dancing Days – Led Zeppelin. Always associate this with getting dressed up on the first warm day of the year and going out on the pull.

42. Time For Action -Secret Affair. One of my fave bands.

43. Sandstorm – Cast. Another band I love, should have been bigger.

44. Lucky Man – The Verve. Ashcroft is a genius and I love this sweeping epic. It’s been on TWO movies of my books, Acid House and Ecstasy.

45. Jackie Wilson Says – Dexys Midnight Runners. Jocky on TOTP, great humour from Kev R.

46. Roll With It – Oasis. This song is about suddenly getting mega famous, and I don’t think I’ve seen anybody handle that better, anywhere, than Noel.

47. Country House – Blur. This song is about suddenly getting mega famous and I don’t think I’ve seen anybody handle that better, anywhere, than Damon.

48. Lazy Sunday Afternoon – Small Faces. This song is about sitting on the fence and I don’t think I’ve seen anybody handle that better, anywhere, than me.

49. The Fairytale of New York – Pogues. I never get sick of this tune, even at Christmas.

50. Reason To Believe -Rod Stewart. My second Japanese karaoke favourite. Rod Stewart is the greatest soul singer Britain has produced.

ps 51. Overkill – Colin Hay. The acoustic version shits all the over the Men at Work Original.