Trying and failing

As some bots or persons may have noticed, last week's update on Dropping Gems never happend. Understandebly you thought it was the beginning of the delayed apocalypse of december 2012, but no, this drama was caused by a small trip me and a two friends undertook. Now that you know the reason it's time to get out of your basement and go on with your life. Someone at work probably wonders where you are.

Ok, so I tried to do some drawings lately and it's satisfying and irritating at the same time. It's nice to see something formed in your head becoming a small window in your imagination for others to see through, but on the other hand, I'm kind of embarresed by them because by far I lack the skills to do a proper representation of what I'd actually like to draw. It always ends up pretty different in the end.  You got to start somewhere though, right?

By now you probably know the drill, at the end of my post you get some music. Recently I was in Prague, which is truly a beautiful city, and during the evening I asked a local if there was any band playing in the area. He named a few places and at the end mentioned: "Oh yeah, and there's also Bonobo playing here tonight, right in that building you see there." At that moment the city got some bonus points from me. I love Bonobo! It comes as no surprise that I've uploaded a song from this artist this week. He mostly produces instrumental and electronic music, but sometimes works with a singer too. In "Sun Will Rise" the voice you hear belongs to Speech Debelle. The combination gives us a hip hop song intertwined with some sweet sax.

And now just shut up and enjoy.

                                                      Bonobo - Sun Will Rise

Short Story

This weeks entry will be something directed at a more select audience (like this blog isn't already), as most of it will be in dutch. I'm not much of a writer, but I do like making up little stories. When dreaming up tales in my head it is all very visual, like an animated short, with a minimum of dialoge. To then try to write it down can be a bit difficult for me, as it never really captures the world that's inside my imagination. To draw it maybe is something I need to practise more on.
Anyway, this story is called "Zonaanbidders", it is actually a pretty cliché sci-fi/spooky story, but it's more of a test to try and learn to do it better. Still, maybe someone finds enjoyment out of it.


                                                           






Now it's time for some music. I'm a big fan of African music, the rythm, the vibe, it feels so liberating. When you're talking about african music, there's no way around Salif Keïta. This gentlemen form Mali began his career about 40 years ago and is still going strong. The fact that he is an albino, outcasted by his own family, makes his succes story even better. He has many songs that strike an emotional chord, but I chose for something more uplifting. Honestly, how can you sit still when listening to this music? If you can you're probably a bot. But even if you're a bot, please continue following the blog, at least something is reading this then.This time I can't upload it myself though because the song is heavily protected by UMG.

And now just shut up and enjoy.

                                                          Salif Keïta - Yambo

Look around

Hello people from all over the world, be welcome and take a seat.

This week I'm going to show you guys some streetart. Streetart that was made in Turnhout-city, located in the exotic Belgium. I can imagine that if you're an eskimo reading this blog inside your iglo you never heard of Belgium, so, to give you an idea, you know those white beaches with cristal clear water, blue skies and palmtrees everywhere like in those bounty advertisements? Think the opossite of that and you pretty much know what it looks like over here. You can also get a small glimpse in the pics down below.

Ok, back to our subject, streetart. A guy I know was responsible for these and plastered them against the walls on a quiet night. Knowing that the Belgian weather isn't kind on this form of (thick paper) art, taking some pictures before they're vanished seemed wise.

While taking pics I also took a moment to observe the people walking by and even while these pieces are located at crowed places, not a single person noticed them. We recently had a sport event going on in the town so I stopped at a place where literally hundreds of people would pass an artwork, but, as expected, no heads where turned.

This got me thinking in sort of a rant that we usually are too busy with our own lives or are distracted with gadgets like tablets and smartphones, listen to music with earplugs in, that we don't really notice what's in our direct surroundings. You have a basic interpretation of your environment but the details are lost because you're still connected with your own world of interests that's sitting in your hands or ears. And practically, you're shutting yourself off from signals that would normally get your attention. Be it artwork, or just greeting someone who you cross paths with. More and more we are living in a individualistic society where the more we are connected to what's happening around the world the blinder we are to what's right in front of us. And it's the people who are the nearest to us who are affected the most with our distracted presence.
I already see this with the children of my sister, where I have to work for their attention (the youngest turns five soon) when there's a computer or tablet around.
We have a responsibility to teach our children what sort of connections are the most important in life, and a physical one will always win.

So when this stream of thoughts died down it was already getting dark and my wallet and shoes were gone. Talking about being aware of your environment, right? But that's Turnhout for ya.

There's another streetart project afoot soon which I will normally help set up so hopefully I can post about it in the near future. Btw, this is only a fraction of the streetart that can be found scattered around the city but it's more fun to discover it yourself, so put your electronic devices away, stop reading this blog, and look around.

With that said, what's more appropriate music this week than "Computer Love" (1992) from the Balanescu Quartet? After about a good minute into this piece you may hear a familiar melody. Indeed, Coldplay snatched this compostion and used it in one of their own songs. But, don't be mistaken, this Balanescu version is also a cover! Namely from Kraftwerks own "Computer Love" track.

And now just shut up and enjoy.

                                           Balanescu Quartet - Computer Love

Something in the forest

Hi everyone, every 0 of you, welcome back to Dropping Gems.

For those who are just tuning in, I know what you're feeling right now. It's the feel of a life changing experience. You'll get used to it when following this blog. Some say it's the feel of an alergic reaction, but just follow your heart and I'll see you here next week again.

This week I went to the forest to take some pictures of a small creature. It's a creation of an artist friend who I helped to collect the materials for. The main "ingredients" are cat bones and clay. The bones where cooked before using of course and luckily they turned out pretty clean as they were in a much nastier condition then when we found them, you can imagine. When finished I thought putting this little guy between the plants and leaves would have a nice effect but I also brought him to a local toyshop to meet some smurfs. Unfortunately the shop manager didn't like me taking pics of his little blue friends and passive agressively showed me the way out. No problem though, we stumbled upon a new friend in the forest as you can see.

When the photoshoot was finished and I returned to my bike I saw that my bikekeys were missing. Lucky for me I saw every episode of survior man on Discovery channel and in survivor mode I noticed strange footsteps between the leaves. Needless to say I followed this trail which led me to a big tree. There, I found my keys hidden between the roots and some dirt. I'm sure the intentions were  good or something but it was strange none the less. Was it the shopmanager from before who couldn't get over my harassment of his smurfs? I'll never know...


Now, the song of the week is a song from the Brittish Nick Mulvey, Venus. He began as a hang player in the fantastic jazz group Portico Quartet, which I'll maybe upload something from at a later date, but who is now also working on a solo carreer. This song has a very dreamy sound to it what I really like, maybe you too.

And now just shut up and enjoy.

                                                       Nick Mulvey - Venus