Mist Obscura 2

By now, you should know that atmospherics that create an isolated, eerie mood is something that is up my alley. The sense of tension in the air when a thunderstorm is about to release it's energy, or fog wraps the environment in a gray and white haze, those thing I love. It's no surprise then when I recently woke up and saw a blanket of mist outside the window, that I jumped into my clothes and on my bike to make some  pictures. I knew that not too far from where I live there's a small house in the forest that would hopefully be nice to make some pictures of under this condition.

 It did look fairly special

                  

 

                                   

 

You're actually not supposed to come there since the area is private. I like it that way because I knew no other people would be around. So I came a little closer.

I would have liked go inside, one window missed it's glass but I don't know if you can see it, the opening was barricaded by a heavy wooden closet. Listening carefully, very faint it seemed that there was something slithering around in the darkness. Was this barricade set up to keep people from breaking in, or to hold someone, or something inside?

The cloth on the bench was all torn....

                     

 

At the other side of the house, many pieces of chopped branches laid on the ground. Whoever lived there was preparing for the cold months up ahead.

Just when I returend to my bike an deep an gargling shout came from the direction of the house, more like a loud moan of something dying, but too unnaturally sounding for it to be human...

I almost dropped my camera, but jumped on my bike and got the hell out of there. I won't be comming there again anytime soon....

Out in the forest isn't the only place where I witnessed things out of the ordinary. I was experimenting with my camera in the bathroom for shooting dark scenes, and when I looked back at some of the photos I took, I saw a foot in the doorway, vanishing in thin air starting from the ankle. Do you see it too or am I loosing my mind?

For now, let's relax with some music. Zbigniew Preisner, a Polish composer, recorded an album in a chapel located inside of a saltmine, more than 100 metres underground. The Wieliczka Salt Mine in Poland is said to have the best acoustic in the whole of Europe. Here's one piece of the recordings, Lava.

And now just shut up and enjoy.

                                                      Zbigniew Preisner - Lava

In The Spotlight

Did you know? In some Romanian villages it's forbidden to blow trumpets.

Since I ALWAYS carry around a trumpet (you never know when they come in handy), you can understand my dissapointement.
The pic was taken on a recent roadtrip to Transylvania, but more on that soon.

Something else now, I ended up second place in the video contest in Rotterdam. In case you don't remember, I talked about it here. Me and nine other nominees were selected as the finalists and the ceremony was held inside museum Booijmans. I arrived ten minutes before the show officially was supposed to start and hardly anybody was there. Besides me there were only two other people present looking just as insecure as me, "This IS the right place, right?" A girl who worked there luckily told me that the ceremony was delayed a bit because the video maker course (to which I was invited to but declined because I wanted to check out Rotterdam instead) was running overtime. The other part of the audience was just checking out the museum in the meantime so I did too, it was free after all. After about half an hour the whole happening was ready to start and we were asked to take a seat in a sort of theater room. In the end, about three hundred people were present (a guess).
When the room was filled some woman began talking about the strong response to the competition and the variety in amateur and professional participants and some more bla bla bla. Then the lights dimmed and the ten nominated shorts were shown back to back. When that was over, the jury was presented and they started talking about what video had earned third place without telling who it was. When the name and video was revealed I was a bit suprised because I found it to be amoung the worst of the 10 nominees, but ok, he was the only other Belgian amoung the finalists so I kinda rooted for him too......

After a few minutes, the jury began discussing the second spot. They talked about a video that showed the creation process in a cristal clear way and where the joy of making the movie, for the film maker as well as the "actors", could be seen. While listening to their comments I started thinking "Could they be talking about.......me??"
Then the words followed: "And the second place goes to ... (my name) and Uit Een Droom!" I had to come on stage to shake the jury's hand, recieved a bouquet of flowers and a package with an Ipad. There was a bit embarrassment going down (for me) when the women presenting the show gave me a hand as well and I thought I was supposed to give her three kisses so I moved my head forward towards her face and she just looked at me like "Uhm, what are you doing?!". She then spoke through the microphone "Ooh, you want a kiss from me huh?" all I could say was "uuhh......yes?" and then finally the whole three kisses thing took place......facepalm....

They showed some clips of my movie while I was on stage and asked me some questions about why I chose the subject and such. I was a bit nervous so I tried to make a joke to ease myself and said that I also wanted to thank my father for falling asleep and to start snorring spontaneously in front of the camera. I'm so glad the audience laughed because a dead silence would have sunk me under the stage floor out of shame. When the winner was announced it was picture time and a few photographers started a flash attack, clickclickclickclickclickckclick......I'm not sure where they all are supposed to end up but one of them was kind enough to email his to me.

That's me on the right

When the show was over a reception took place, you know, free wine and snacks and such. Everyone was standing in the usual circles and I was kinda sad I couldn't share the moment since I was there alone. After a while I found some nice persons to talk to though so it was alright. And the vegan bitterballen were quite good. A couple of people came to congratulate me and then the thing was over. 

I have zero interest in gadgets like Ipads, so I gifted it to my mother, love ya mom! She now gets lessons from one of her friends how to use the thing properly.

And there you have it, my five minutes of fame!

On the creation side it has been a bit calm lately and don't really have much to show. Of course, I was on a vacation so that's part of it, but we'll see, when it come it comes.

And don't forget!!! The drawing contest regarding the 50th youtube subscriber (€50 prize) is still running!!! All you have to do is make a drawing about anything regarding Dropping Gems and send it to yannickv@hotmail.be to make a chance! I already recieved a massive amount of drawings so far from all over the world  (especially from Ravensburger employees somehow, thanks guys!) but it's not too late since the competition runs till the 30th of september!!

There's a good chance you haven't heard of Pastor TL Barret and there's no shame in that cause I don't think he's that well known. He was a Pastor and activist in Chicago and made top notch gospel records with choirs from the ghetto. The piece "Blessed Quietness" is pure instrumental though, but it's a pure jazz gem (no pun intended) if you ask me.

And now just shut up and enjoy.

                                               Pastor T.L. Barret - Blessed Quietness