Lithiumstate

It`s been a long time coming, party photography with a dSLR that is !
I originally bought my dSLR, my trusty Nikon D50 with the intent to shoot better quality pictures.
It`s always been my goal to shoot party photo`s with a DSLR and last week that finally happened
at the first edition of the highly succesfull concept; poptrash in the Hague.

Despite being an “amateur” i’m pretty critical of my “work” I didn`t have an add-on flash with a softbox mounted, which results in softer skintones and true-to-life color reproduction for the un-initiated readers so I had do with the built-in flash. My critique is that I kept on shooting with the apperture set to F/1.8 which means that I get a limited radius of “sharpness” in my pictures something I should have seen coming -argh ! I was just too cought up in it that I didn`t change my settings at all.

All in all, I think the results for the circumstances were still better than I expected. I`ll let you guys be the judge on Flickr stream. As for me ? I should be out shooting more party`s in the near future !

After a three week period, the Japanese pancake world on the Egelantiers dwarsstraat No#24 finally
re-opened again for business.
The JPW is by far me and my friends favorite restaurant, servin Japanese Okonomiyaki which for better terms of describing them goes, are the Japanese pancakes; except their totally unlike the Western pancakes you might imagine, instead they are richly topped off like Pizza`s.
Really, describing them does no justice, you`d have to go out and try one for yourself.
On the downside, chances of an Okonomiyaki restaurant being in your neighbourhood are very slim if your not living in Japan, or near the JPW which is Europe`s only known franchise that prepares that dish.

Tough I tought I went far too easy on the owner, and chef; the ever so friendly Joacim . . by only ordering one Osaka Deluxe which is an Osaka style pancake topped off with a mixture of both seafood and pork strips – yummy !
I should`ve ordered more seeing as I had some catching up to do.
Next time, I won`t be so easy on him.

Also worth mentioning, was the pleasant surprise of having Charlotte being the waitress for tonight.
Not only charming and friendly, but also the best waitress of 2007 and 2008 as nominated by the restaurants regulars :-)
Despite continuos nagging from his regular customers (cough me,Ninh) Joacim has still not given in to giving her an honest raise – apperantly the man is immune to peer pressure !

All in all, I`m happy to have Joacim back in town and if you are ever around Amsterdam, please do give this place a try; I`m sure you won`t be dissapointed !

Laura Marling, just became 18 last weekend and already capturing the hearts of
many troughout Europe.
Who is she ? She`s a folk-pop singer-songwriter from Reading, Berkshire, England .
Her songs, especially her lyrics are often described as powerfull pieces of poetry
what it translates to this humble blogger as soft, soothing sometimes nostalgic
and even bitter. But even the negative emotions that can come off from some
of her songs are lit in a bright perspective of live & let live , be at peace.

Right that probably didn`t make much sense, welcome to my world I reckon.

Having been introduced to Laura Marling by none other then , wait .. wait for it ?
Ninh Bui, coding boy genious (do check out his website if you love ruby on rails) cock-slapped me
right across the face with a youtube video of Laura`s latest music video “New Romantic”

As you can see for yourself, this song has every reason for you to <3 it.
It`s no wonder that I found myself arranging two tickets to see her
perform in the snuggly little hall of the Paradiso in Amsterdam, with the size
of the hall you are litarly standing infront of the artists giving their
acoustic performance an almost intimate feel; which is exactly the kind of
feeling we`ve got from Laura Marling`s little concert.

Warm, fuzzy, intimate, captivating .. are what i`d describe the experience.
I always say, you can measure how good an artist is only after having hear
them perform live.
Laura Marling blew away my already exhorbantly high expectations and
snared me along every note of her songs.

… I wasnt kidding when i said small & intimate concert…

… just bloody brilliant …

Accompanying Laura was the soundcheck guy .
Ok his name was Marcus and he has his own band, he played a few
songs from his own musicbefore Laura came on stage as a lil warming up .
I wasn`t expecting much from a guy that was so shy that he couldn`t
properly introduce himself at first, but man .. Laura knows how to pick em .
This guy could sing ! He stood alone with a Gibson guitar that really
needed to be taken care off.
Yet he pulled off such a powerfull performance using simple tools at
his disposal such as loudly thumping on the stage in rythm to
his powerfull chorus .

After Laura (finally) got in stage, he acted as her backup, playing
required acoustic instruments to help realise Laura`s songs .
A wonderfull combination, and several warm smiles during the
performances due to the hilarious interaction with the crowd .

…. Marcus doing his thing solo ..

All in all , leaving the Paradiso almost felt heartbreaking.
I had a taste of something great, and there the plate went
running off with the sweets.
I wanted more, and I wont get it till the next tour she`ll be doing.
No doubt, by that time she`ll be playing in bigger halls, losing that
unique intimacy with the crowd both me and Ninh (and not Milou)
experienced tonight.
Speaking of Milou, yes I was thinking about you the whole time.
Wishing you were there, but you weren`t ^_`

Last but not least I`ll leave you, dear reader(s) with footage
taken by Ninh`s cameraphone .
It`s not the best of quality but hey it`s better than nothing.