Melantrys’ Page

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Bear with me, dear friends, as I fear this will become a post filled with disjointed ramblings.

As a comment on current events it is certainly long overdue, but now, just like as when it all started, I am still at a loss for proper words.

So, the people have taken to the streets in various countries in the Middle East and North Africa, from Tunesia, over Egypt, Jemen, Jordan and Syria to Saudi Arabia. (Although I suppose it remains to be seen whether the 40 women protesters and the 200 and something online activists are going to stay isolated incidents or will be the start of something big in Saudi Arabia.)

And suddenly our politicians realize….. “My gosh, we have been actively supporting dictatorships all those years! How could that happen?! Let’s make sure we’ll find a way to combine our egotism and laziness with ethics and human rights - where possible. What’cha saying, Mr Representative from Saudi Arabia? No, no, of course we’re not talking about your country, hahaha, nothing wrong with the way you guys are handling things over there, eh?”

Oh, could this be any more pathetic?

Meanwhile, in Tunesia, the police shoots and kills 4 protesters. The good news is, they arrested the chief of police afterwards for it.

Meanwhile, in Egypt, Copts pray in Tahrir Square and not only hold up crosses, but also the Q’ran. “Hand in hand.”

Furthermore, Egyptian blogger Sandmonkey doesn’t appear to have been cowed by his arrest a couple of days ago and today not only analyses the possibilities that have been presenting itself from outside of the protest movement but comes up with ideas of his own as to how they themselves could bring about an efficient transition to democracy.

I wish all those countries all the luck in the world and will leave you with a simple, yet beautiful protest song from Tahrir Square. Apparently this has been recorded last Friday.

(link to video on youtube)

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As some of you may be aware of, only two days after mutilating my finger I went on a 1.5 handed drive to foreign places¹.

Thanks to my navigation system I took the scenic route through the city Kik is living in. It told me to take the first exit off a huge roundabout but showed me to take the second, which seemed just as wrong as the first one to me.
So I took the third.
That was almost the right decision under the circumstances², as the navigation system then made me turn around and suddenly knew where I was.

After I had arrived we just had time to fix and eat some dinner, then we had to leave to pick up Kenny, er, Jeroen and Rifca and head out to Tilburg.

The club was insanely hot, humid and stifling, so we fled to the gallery, which was the place with the least “pollution”. Unfortunately the best places were already taken, but we managed to find a spot on the second tier up from the railing.

The opening act wasn’t very exciting, but at least they weren’t utterly horrible either like those…. people… who opened for System of a Down a few years ago.

I had been told that Disturbed were a very good live band, and a special edition CD with a few live bonus tracks that I own seemed to prove that, so I went there with high expectations.
And they didn’t let me down.

The performance was really great both from the musical point of view and concerning interaction with the audience.
At some point the singer even complimented the Dutch audience on their being able to understand what he was saying, and went on to lament the fact that in most other countries the audience had no clue whatsoever what he was going on about.
So, ok, maybe he says that to every audience, but if he doesn’t then I am afraid he has a point. The average Dutch person certainly knows way more English than the average German, and that’s a fact.

But enough of the words, let’s see some pictures - still and moving:

Here they release Hannibal Lecter onto the stage…

romantic moments

more light and action

“Listen to me”

Here’s a little something the audience sang for Disturbed between songs:

Unfortunately I only started filming this rather late, here’s the version of someone who was faster.
Unfortunately, the sound quality of the following song that he or she captured as well leaves a lot to be desired. Digital photo cams just aren’t made for capturing loud audio like that.

My first reaction to the chanting was the same as David Draiman’s by the way: “What?!“

I’ll leave you with something that I found by following the related videos that I got to my upload:
Excuse me, but is this the right concert? I am confused.

(If your computer and/or your internet connection allows that I’d advise you to watch the high quality version of this video; it is sure worth it.)

“We are…”
“… Disturbed!”
“We are…”
“… Disturbed!”
“We all are…”
“… disturbed!”

.

1. the Netherlands [back]
2. actually, I should have taken the fourth exit [back]

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So, is this writer’s block, or plain laziness?
I don’t know, but I’ll try to ramble in a vaguely interesting way for a while.

*sips some Grüne Witwe*

*draws a blank*

Maybe it really is writer’s block then.

Anyway.

My Lilium Erotica has survived the relatively tough winter and shily put forth its first flower today.
The Lilium Perversum looks like it might soon follow. Well, all I can hope for then is that the flowers will distract from the otherwise really sad look of the poor thing.

A good week ago, when I went to water the lilies I discovered that the leaves of the red one were thoroughly riddled with holes.
There were a lot of bright red bugs sitting close to the stem, and they were kind of looking guilty, so I picked them out of the lily, threw them onto a stone and stepped on them. *squish* The few eggs that I found I rubbed between my fingers. *mash*
And before you call me evil, firstly, they were responsible for the bedraggled look of my lily, and secondly, despite their nice, friendly colour and all, those bugs gave me the creeps. I had to seriously force myself to reach out and grab each one of them. The German wiki has the best photo; the English one might be more comprehensible to most of you though.

What else….?

Have been working at work, and here at home weeding, weeding, weeding…. Why do weeds grow so much better and faster than pretty, pretty flowers and veggies, eh?!

Got a variety of tomato plants inside the greenhouse and out, also peppers sweet and hot, chilis, eggplants, freaky decorative eggplants, courgettes in light green, yellow and “white” (Thank you “Uncle Bob” Bobby Seeds!), and round ones.

Furthermore we ordered some stuff from a mailorder gardening shop: thornless brambles, a blueberry shrub, figs, interesting strawberries, and an ‘erb with annoying habits.

When the plants arrived in early spring, I planted them all out into the garden. The spring starflower, which they are selling here as Andean garlic, was already merrily in bloom. As the flowers are edible too, they made for nice deco on the odd salad.
Then the first one seemed to dry off and die. Shortly afterwards, the second did the same. The third and last held on a little longer and appears to be lying in its death throes now.
But.
Little green shoots are suddenly growing out of two empty patches in my herb bed and out of the middle of the “dying” third plant.
From what I just read when I went picture-hunting, that’s absolutely normal behaviour for that plant…. ‘K.

And a last garden thing…
For my birthday I got a flowerpot from the neighbours. Guess it was on discount, as it looked rather Easterly, with a huge fake white egg and a bow made out of greenery stuck into the middle of it…
Anyway, the main inhabitant of the pot was a hydrangea with white flowers. A, not to put too fine a point on it, shrub. Growing rather nicely out of the 20 by 20cm pot it came in.
Once the weather was stable enough for me to dare allow it out into the wilderness, I got a surprise. Most of the room inside the pot was taken up by plastic foil. The actual inner pot size was about 8cm.
The kind of pot I put my veggie seedlings in.
So.
What kind of plant hating gardener puts a shrub into such a small pot?
I don’t have to mention that it contained more roots than soil, do I?

Oh my, now this is almost a pure garden post.
You poor readers.

Let me quickly add another topic:
Music.
These days I am listening to a lot of Malicorne, while occasionally cussing the fact that they don’t exist anymore.
If someone invents a time machine, please let me know, I’d really have liked to see those guys live.
*sighs*

Here’s some “videos”. Enjoy the songs (hopefully)!

A capella:
Le Prince d’Orange

Quand je menai mes chevaux boire

Branle/La Peronelle

La fiancée du timbalier

And for those with more than 10 minutes to spare:
La fille aux chansons (Marion s’y promène)

Now it’s almost 1am, I am feeling tired and headachy and almost sure that the title of this post is more amusing than the post itself.

Good night, everyone!