Thoughts.

Back in the days it was much easier to explain my feelings because I didn't know many words to describe them. Now I know too many words and too many feelings, my mind is exploding. Back in the days you were in love or you weren't, as you get older you notice there's a lot of feelings and words in between those 2 options. It's confusing me. And I guess it will only get worse.. I have to figure out what I'm going to do, and I'm going to do that by writing. Writing on paper, not on a keyboard. Writing is the only way I can clear my mind a little and so I hope it will help. I feel lost in my thoughts, so confused.

part 2 of this blog post: I NEED A CONCERT ASAP. It's bothering me that I have almost nothing to look forward to. I have 1 thing: Parkpop with Boyce Avenue. I can't wait to see my best friend Tessa and all the other lovely people again. But further... Nothing. NOTHING. I also need to hang out more.. But the only one I can hang out with is myself. Now that sounds pathetic, lol. I hope I find work soon so I can go and visit my friends. And buy clothes. And cd's. And go to concerts. And go on a short holiday. I really need to work. I want to work. I want money. Sheesh.

I did it. We did it.

Yes. I did it. I made it. I got accepted. I'm going to study photography. AAAAAAAAAAAAAHW YEAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!!!!! I would just like to thank everybody that supported me and encouraged me to just give it a try and see if I'd get accepted. I really appreciate that you believed in me. I don't wanna live up to people's expectations, I wanna live up to mine because I have to stay true to myself and I know I will. Everyone's unique and that's where we are the same. We all wanna do good and stay true to ourselves. Sometimes that works out and other times it doesn't. I hope that for me, it will. And that it will get accepted and it gets seen that it's me doing this, with all my heart. Honestly, I HATE school. I HATE studying. But I love photography so much I am willing to do the best I can to make it through those 4 years and hopefully get a job as a photographer. My biggest dream is to get my own magazine. Travel all over the world and capture things the way they are, perfect. But I think it's more special to go to known places, where many people have been. And then photography things no one notices because it's not that special. That's where my hopefully great skills kick in, to make it look special and less ordinary.

Thanks to everyone that supported me and believed in me. It means the world to me.

Top 10 - songs.

A little while ago I also had a top 10 songs. I'm going to do a new one. With my current top 10 favorite songs! Without links cause I'm lazy and I don't feel like youtube'ing every fucking song.

10 - Hot Chelle Rae - Honestly.
I love how it cheers me up. It's really a party song. I saw Hot Chelle Rae in November 2011 and it was really good. Ryan has an amazing voice and they really surprised me with their performance. I had to get used to the album but now I love almost every song on it.

09 - Alex G ft. Eppic - Call me maybe.
It's a cover of the original song by Carly Rae Jepsen or something like that. I love it. Alex is such a great singer, I don't think she knows half of how good she is. She deserves more subscribers and more audience. I hope she comes to Holland (with Eppic!!!!) soon cause I'd love to see her perform! The video makes me so happy too.

08 - Nickelback - This Afternoon.
Summer is coming up and this song makes me look forward to the summer even more. A lot of people judge Nickelback but they have amazing lyrics so stop judging. If you're a guy: guys don't give a shit about lyrics so I don't blame you for not liking Nickelback.

07 - Greg Holden - The Art Of Falling.
I just absolutely love the song. The video, the lyrics, Greg's voice. Yep. Everything.

06 - Fun - We Are Young.
WHAT AN AMAZING SONG THIS IS. I've known it for a while now but I recently watched their live performances on youtube and that makes the song even more awesome. I prefer the version @ Conan, without the female singer.

05 - Goo Goo Dolls - Feel The Silence.
Some of you might know I'm a big fan of the Goo Goo Dolls. I love their songs, I love their lyrics. Last week I was ripping the CD to my computer (not to forward it, just to make listening to the album much easier) and I just fell in love with the song again.

04 - Case Mayfield - You sure lost a lot of weight.
Case Mayfield is a dutch singer-songwriter but his songs are refreshing and not dutch at all. I don't know what it is about this song but it's just soooo emotional yet I love it so much.

03 - Stevie Ray Vaughan - Life by the drop.
Stevie Ray Vaughan has got a huge amount of amazing songs yet this is my favorite. It's so simple and that's what makes it so special.

02 - Foo Fighters - Stranger things have happened.
No matter what happens, the Foo Fighters will always have a special place in my heart. And on the lower side of my calf but they got an even bigger and permanent place in my heart. Stranger things have happened is a song that is so simple yet so complicated. The lyrics really get to me somehow.

01 - Greg Holden - Hell and back.
I JUST LOVE SINGING ALONG TO THIS SONG. SERIOUSLY. HOLY SHIT.

Bluesfestival.

As many of you heard at least a thousand times: last saturday it was FINALLY there. The day I've been looking forward to for so long. It was time for the Bluesfestival. I was quite nervous since this was my first assignment to photograph bands FOR someone but still I couldn't wait to get there. When I got there, I had nothing to do for at least 2 hours. I was bored as hell, but then the people started coming and around 3 the first band played. Driving South Bluesband is obviously a blues band, and they were quite good to start off with. They covered 'voodoo child' but they shouldn't have done that. You may only cover that song when you can play it. The second band started. CC Jerome's Jetsetters is a rockabilly band that got a lot of people dancing. They were really good and made me happy for some reason. They got people dancing and they were the second band. Normally it takes about 3 bands to get wasted and get them dancing. The third band was Mick Clarke. Can I be honest? I didn't really enjoy his performance. He played with Rory Gallagher so I HAD to see him. Since I was photographer at the festival, the organisation gave me fries for dinner. And the fries were delicious but because of the fries I missed Danny's Redeyeband. I saw a couple of songs and he impressed me because I didn't expect him to be so good. I sat down at the left side of the hall. We got a stage on the left and on the right. Danny played on the right and Alan Nimmo was getting ready on the left. As Danny played a solo, Alan played along just for fun but then Danny answered it with another solo and that's how they did a collab out of nothing. It was so awesome and that just made me look forward to King  King ft. Alan Nimmo even more.

Danny's Redeyeband ended and King King ft. Alan Nimmo got introduced. The bassist and Alan Nimmo came on in kilts, which was so awesome since they're scottish and staying true to that. Then they started. The band I have been looking forward to for so long, started playing and immediately it was perfect. The drummer was handsome. I couldn't help looking at him a couple of times. I'm sorry. But the music was so so so.. soo.... AMAZING. Everybody went NUTS as they played. Some danced, others yelled and another few people actually knew the lyrics to a couple of songs. One of them stood next to me and he smelled like a combination between a farm and grilled cheese. But it was still awesome that he went absolutely crazy. I guess it was his favorite band or something. I ignored the smell and enjoyed the show so much. Time FLEW by and before I knew it, they were gone. At least thats what I thought. After 2 minutes or so, they came back to play another song. There was an older woman in a wheelchair right in front of me, I loved how she was enjoying the music even though she was ill. The bassist of King King seemed to notice her and played right in front of her for a bit. Mick Clarke (the 3rd band.) actually sat in front of her on stage and played for her. I love it when artist do that. I mean, those people probably aren't feeling too well and still they come to see you so they deserve that. It's so thoughtfull of 'em. After the last song, it was really over. I didn't have a lot of photos of the performance since I was really blown away by their music and play.

After King King, Marcus Malone played. He was good, but a lot of bands would suck if they play after King King ft. Alan Nimmo. My dad & I went home early, we had to walk half an hour. Once I got home I sat down on the couch to overthink the entire day and once again I came to the conclusion that King King ft. Alan Nimmo was one of the best bands I've ever seen.

1 day, 2 gigs.

Last week (thursday, march 29) Krijnie, Anita & me went to see Greg Holden TWICE. My younger sister Claudia joined us the second time too. Let's start with the 1st gig that day.

Tuesday I went grocery shopping for this day. Lots of drinks, crisps, candy and cookies. Yep, it was a lot but if you get hungry while being on the highway you're screwed and it was an entire day of being on the road. Krijnie & Anita picked me up early that afternoon and we drove to the Wisseloord Studio's in Hilversum. Never been there an to be honest, I never even heard of it til 2 weeks before. Those studios are all legendary and stuff, to be honest AGAIN... I just don't care. I really just wanted to see Greg Holden play there. I've been talking about this day for WEEKS and now it's finally there. We arrived at the Wisseloord studio's and quickly spoke to the DJ/organizer Eric Corton. It was being organized by "Cortonville" (if you want to, you can check their site out here. Official launch in 2 weeks! Le click ).

We went into the room where it all would happen and sat down at the front row. As always. I'm a bit spoiled now, NOT looking forward to a gig where I will NOT be front row. And then Greg started. He brought a band, not what I expected, to be honest (why am I being so honest). But I loved it. Every fucking SECOND of it, it was amazing. Such great sound in the studio, lovely audience but mostly Greg and the band. My favorite song by Greg is "The Art Of Falling" but too bad, they didn't play it. I didn't mind, because they DID play "Bar On A" which is also one of my favorites even though I can't relate to it since I do not drink alcohol (... seriously). Time seemed to fly and before we knew it, it was over. Luckily we got to meet Greg afterwards! Nice and good looking guy. Krijnie, Anita & me hung out at the Wisseloord studio's for a bit until we had to leave. Cortonville gave us a goodiebag and the bag looked really good actually. What was inside also, btw. I had a blast there, and I was really looking forward to the evening! As we drove off to pick up my younger sister and eat at McDonalds I thought back of the short gig @ Wisseloord. It really impressed me. All of it. The sound, the band, the audience. Warm & friendly. Friendly & kind.

Picked up my sister and off to find a McDonalds. Not far away from my home, we found one. We sat down & ate (like you do at McDonalds.). My younger sister, Claudia, was SO excited for the evening. And so was I. We left Maccy D and drove to Rotown, parked the car and walked towards the venue. We were the first to arrive. To us that was very exciting, it meant that we were going to be front row AGAIN. A couple of minutes later, other people joined us in waiting for the doors to open. Rotown is a bar, a nice bar where a lot of small but really good bands play. I don't think the sound is too good, but it's alright. The tickets mostly don't cost a lot of money and it's not very far away from home so I was glad Greg was going to play there.

Once the doors opened we walked inside and decided where we were going to stand. Of course that was a quick decision. Claudia & me were standing below Greg, we could've watched what's inside his nose if we wanted. We didn't want that so we didn't. After an hour of waiting, the band came on stage and started playing. In between the songs, Greg talked a lot. It was more joking and seeing if the audience still enjoyed it, actually. And they did, we did. Everybody did. If you didn't enjoy, there was something seriously wrong with you and your ears. Not a word Greg said was too much. There wasn't a tension between the band and the audience, everyone just spontaneously talked along. Again they didn't play "The Art Of Falling" but again I didn't mind. "Bar On A" was even more awesome with this audience. "She's got something" is also one of my favorite songs. Just like "I don't believe you" and "hell and back". Even though the audience was amazing, I still disliked the fact that they were there to hear "The Lost Boy". It just shows that they haven't listened to any other of Gregs' songs. But Greg seemed to be fine with it and he also convinced the audience with his performance because there were a lot of people at the merchandise stand.

It was such an awesome and fun day that Krijnie, Anita, Claudia & I really enjoyed. I don't think I'll ever forget it. Greg is an amazing artist and you ALL should listen to his music. You can do that HERE!
Be sure to subscribe & buy his album. If he's playing at a venue near you, GO THERE. GO SEE GREG HOLDEN.