INDIE Brussels Conference

I haven't blogged for a while, but for those of you who have followed my tweets, you know about the status of the literature projects and book fairs I've mentioned in the previous post. I will get back to these later, but for now I am in Brussels, working on the INDIE (Inclusion and Diversity in Education) conference. You can follow my posts about the event on the INDIE tree website

For more information about the INDIE project you can also visit the British Council INDIE website: http://www.britishcouncil.org/indie

Books & Brussels

One of my favorite activities when in Brussels is to wander in bookstores. Not that there are none in Amsterdam (there are plenty and very high quality bookstores like Athenaeum Boekhandel), it's just that I miss being surrounded by books written in French when I enter a bookstore. Athenaeum has a fairly good section of French speaking books and I can always order online. But I still love going to a bookstore, seeing what's new, discovering some jewel of a book chosen by the employees that month, or just touching the hard and paper back covers, opening and going through the pages. So last week I've been to Tropismes for the wide choice of fiction, theatre and poetry, to Brüsel for the graphic novels and comic books but also the very nice gallery, and although impersonal and too big I've been to FNAC (avoid the place on Saturday!) because of the wide space. Here are some titles I've bought during my visits:

"Entre les murs" by François Bégaudeau (you will certainly know the adaptation to cinema from Laurent Cantet: "The Class"), "De cendres et de fumées" by Philippe Blasband and "Pyongyang" by Quebecois graphic novelist Guy Delisle. Other acquisitions are translated works: "Le Dieu Manchot" by José Saramago, "Le voyage dans le passé" by Stefan Zweig and two mangas: "The Outsider" by Gou Tanaber and"Le Champ de l'arc-en-ciel/Nijigahara Holograph" by Inio Asano.

My hunger for books has been satiated during my stay in Brussels. The Brussels Book Fair began when I was still there! I've spoken to some authors, discovered new publishing houses, listened to Enki Bilal talk about his new work ANIMAL'Z , lied to Joseph Joffo about willing to buy one of his books but claiming I needed to go to the ATM (I have read "A Bag of Marbles" in high school and didn't want to buy old fashioned editions of his books - but there's no excuse, I feel bad, I shouldn't lie!), discovered the work of Karin Tuil during her talk and listened to interviews of authors on the radio on my way back home to Amsterdam, a bag full of publisher catalogs, promotional bookmarks and books on the passenger seat.

Le Petit Parachutiste is a Winner!

I must admit that I was really excited about receiving this prize at la Maison de la Francité last Friday. For the first time in my life, my writing was going to be acknowledge by professional people. Not that my friends' opinions don't count - it really does, especially Lise's who's always helping me doing better every time - but being rewarded is always a pleasure. My "Petit Parachutiste" is a winner and I am quite proud of him. He was stuck in that tree right in front of my current apartment in Amsterdam since New Year. He's free now!

The No Way to Forest National

New York band INTERPOL was in Brussels last night. After having seen them in Werchter last summer, I was quite excited to renew the experience at Forest National. And for once, we've decided with my sweetheart to take the bus to go there, because it's more ecological but also because there's a serious parking problem near the venue. So we've naively waited for the bus 54 near My Campagne, the bus arrived with 15 minutes delay, and it was completely full (even a mouse couldn't find a place in). It was already 8pm, so we went back home to pick up the car. The way from Saint-Gilles to Forest wasn't good either... closed routes, working fields, one ways... as if someone was trying to prevent us from going to Forest National. After half an hour, we have finally managed to find a spot to park the car and walked 10 minutes to finally be there... on time. The gig was great, I forgot about all this stupid transport issue for one hour and a half. But I don't want anyone telling me that public transportation is more practical, it can be more respectful of the environment and I'm using it everyday, but believe me, there's NO WAY I'm going to Forest National again by public transport, and maybe not ever again, only if Dave Matthews comes back there of course. Can't wait for the new Brussels venue to open its doors... but that will be only in a few years

Before the tempest

November 1st, the streets are so quiet you can even hear birds singing. Cars seem to have stopped moving, the atmosphere is gray. A perfect day to go to the cemetery, just that I don't like cemeteries. Nobody's perfect! So I'm keeping it simple for today, a not so early but still not late wake-up, a very simple breakfast with coffee, followed by tea, then head on to BOZAR for a interview afternoon with Syrian singer Sabah Fakhri (Syria's Frank Sinatra they say... we'll see on Saturday evening) and several journalists working for Arabic medias here in Brussels. A preview for this weekend's tempest of concerts and encounters. Looking forward to it!

Patty Pâtes: enjoy fresh pasta!

After a 4 hour traffic-jammed-ride from Amsterdam to Brussels, neither me nor my beloved espressoroast could even think of cooking dinner back at home. So we've decided to head to a small restaurant we'd discovered at the end of this summer, and that we really liked for its cosy and welcoming atmosphere, and most of all, for its pasta's. It came out to be a tremendously good idea... we're now back in our bed, enjoying a no-washing-dishes-evening.

Those of you who would happen to be (or live) in Brussels, don't miss that place. It is called "Patty Pâtes", and its specialty is, as its name suggests it quite obviously, pasta! They have a very vast choice of fresh home made tagliatelli, cannelloni... and sauces (chicken, seafood, meat, vegetarian...). The kitchen is right in the middle of the place, you can see the cook and the pasta maker (a very nice girl) at their best beside the glass. Good food and good service for a quite fair price (more or less €10 per dish), that's an equation you don't often get these days.
Second time there, and certainly not the last!
Enjoy!

Patty Pâtes
rue Ernest Solvay, 10
1050 Brussels
Tél 02.514.27.41

Black Pearls in my cup

I live in an amazing neighborhood. The Saturday market on the parvis, the Librairie de Rome on the Jean Stas street next to the Avenue Louise where we love to weekly buy The Guardian and El Pais, and right in front of it, our coffee place, where we buy our coffee and where, for the first time, we sat to drink a great Jamaicain Blue Mountain, reading our freshly bought newspapers.
This place is one real great coffee place serving and selling coffees from everywhere around the world. I strongly encourage all of you who would visit Brussels to have a cup (or more) there. Not only is the coffee great, but the owner and his staff are so welcoming that you could spend hours there just drinking coffee and reading, in a black and brown, jazzy and very chic but not arrogant a bit atmosphere. The place is une petite perle as we could say in French... transforming beans into pearls.

Perle Noire
Shop Louise
Rue Jean Stasstraat 13
B- 1060 Brussels
info@perlenoire.be

Yesterday...

... was my birthday. Yesterday, was no special day, but it was still like no other. Not because of my birthday but because none of my days look like each other. But I still wanted to be a birthday girl and act like a kid, happy to receive gifts and calls and messages... I got the first one live at midnight... then the morning began with some unnecessary ones, reminding me how hypocritical families can be. Not caring a bit, I went to work, where I received presents from my dear colleagues (thanks guys for initiating me to dutch literature... after French, English, Spanish and Turkish... I'm finally going to read a novel in Dutch! I'll let you know how it went on in a next- not soon- post).

Going back home with my arms full of yellow flowers, I celebrated my birthday my own way in the streets of Saint-Gilles, first by offering a flower to the neighborhood's homeless who immediately shared the gift with his dog, then by stopping by the café where the owner (I guess he's Italian) immediately greeted me... the Italian way :)

Arriving to my final destination, home, I found myself covered with other gifts; my little brother's presence and outstanding mark for his French exam (8/10 for a kid who doesn't like to read ... that's an achievement!); another bouquet (white flowers, thanks again sweet, I love them) and a Marcolini pastry (no need to mention anything about this!!), and and... you don't need to have the whole list. Yes, I agree, I am lucky. But wait until you hear the end of the story... The next step for the evening was going to my dad's place, but when we arrived at the car, nothing seemed to work, the battery had been emptied! Our fault, we forgot to switch off a light inside the car. So we called dad so he could help us out with this... he played hero-dad of course and tried to push the car down the way... well, it didn't work out and we finally got to call a cab to help us fill up the battery with a bunch of cables (don't ask me how it works... I simply don't care). And we were finally ready to go at 9.30pm. What we did? Just hang out, stay together, have some laughs, playing with the kittens... just be together, for a not so special but still very nice day.

Crazy how it fell last night...

What do Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave and Dave Matthews Band have in common? You may say many, starting with "music", then adding "good" to it, or you may not... anyway, for last night, they had one guitarist in common: Tom Morello. First as an opening act, performing his first solo album (very far from what he previously did with his friends...), then he joined Dave and his breathtaking band for two songs: "#41 " and "Satellite". No one can say the opposite: he was damn good! And the rest of the three hours concert had been dream-like. I had to look at my beloved to make sure it was real! Either him nor I couldn't believe we were finally seeing and listening to Carter, Doyd, Leroi, Stefan and Dave live. From "Don't drink the water" to "Two Step", going through "Crash into me" and "Crush" (click here for the complete set list), Dave Matthews Band has captivated the although -not -full -but -crazy -Forest-National -audience. If from the 8,000 available seats only 6,500 were taken, those present made as much noise as for 13,000! Size doesn't matter, indeed. We're now impatiently waiting for the next European tour... Life is short but sweet for certain!

Oh Belgium! ... Lovely Holiday Country!

Sitting on my couch still in my PJ's on a Thursday morning at 11 o'clock, am I ill? Hell no! The whole country (and even Europe I guess) is celebrating Jesus's bodily ascension to Heaven... As a Muslim, I might say I enjoy it pretty much! But what my sweet second (or first? Don't know anymore) country (Belgium, for those of you who will still have some doubts) offers ... is an extra day off on Friday, which makes the weekend not two but four days long. Isn't this brilliant? "Le pont" they call it here (because they put a bridge between the official day off and the weekend). Well now, I'm enjoying it, even if sometimes I do think they are exaggerating, not when my office gets closed, but when supermarkets are for instance, but as we say in French "On ne peut pas avoir le beurre et l'argent du beurre"! So, thank you Jesus for showing us the way to fly away from work!

A half-empty KVS Bol for a hollow Natacha Atlas

Half full or half empty, call it what you will, but the KVS Bol was neither full of people, nor of good music yesterday evening, that's for sure. We can start by putting the blame on the organizers who should have closed the second and third balconies, inviting the audience to gather in the parterre... but should certainly never have announced that Natacha Atlas was going to perform with an acoustic ensemble. Indeed, in addition to a drum, a darbouka, a bad vocalist and a bassist who barely plays (these can still be called acoustic, I agree) , Ms Atlas was supported by a single electronic keyboard playing all possible instruments of the Arabic repertoire and more (yes yes, they managed to get a guitar sound out of it!). Still, we were ready to forget about it and let us transport by the diva's songs and moves. Unfortunately, her beautiful and mesmerizing voice wasn't enough to let us believe in her music, if there was any (let's be serious, can anyone be moved by a keyboard trying to sound like a kanun or a violin?). The sound spewed from the machine was extremely disturbing and resulted to be boring at many, many points. Even some rare good vocal moments remained hollow, and so we left an empty bol, empty...

Everyday Life

A bare naked guy popping his head out of his basement floor apartment window while you're walking in the street on a Sunday late morning and asking you the time, a woman carrying her dog in a baby carriage, the neighborhood's homeless greeting you every single morning on your way to work... these are just a few examples from everyday life in Saint-Gilles.

Ode to Joy?

Today, Brussels celebrates the 50th anniversary of the signing of the treaty of Rome. Something I wouldn't even think about if it wasn't posted everywhere, reminding me that I live in an excessively institutionalized city. Listening live from my small studio, thanks to Musiq'3, to the concert given at the Centre for Fine Arts this Saturday 24 March 2007, I can only remember why I didn't go to see it there... Yesterday's rehearsal had already given me the clue that it wouldn't be the best interpretation of Beethoven's 9th ever...
Anyway, no matter what I think of the European institutions, I can at least eager you to experience brilliant ideas (even if sometimes quite utopic) at the exhibition A Vision for Brussels. The initiators of this project "Imagining the Capital of Europe" are suggesting their architectural ode(s) to joy, imagining new ways of using the bureaucratic architecture of the European Quarter among many other things. A manifesto about Brussels Towards the Capital of Europe.

Meknes in Saint-Gilles

10pm on a Saturday night in South-West Brussels, a starving young couple is searching for food...

For once, we've decided not to walk up from home to Louise but rather to discover the Parvis de Saint-Gilles, a place we knew but weren't used to go to.
With quite realistic expectations, we thought we would get a still eatable pitta or dürüm in some fast-food restaurant, when we saw an open place called La table de Meknes in the middle of the square. Starving as we were, we haven't hesitated a minute and entered after a quick look at the menu posted at the door.
Spicy merguez and kefta, all served on a richly dressed plate with salad and French fries on the side by the most charming young boy, all topped by an offered fresh mint tea, truly warmed our hearts. We left the place knowing that we would certainly return very soon...
On our way back home, we saw a woman in her pajama's searching for someone in the street. Noticing that we were amused by her outfit, she looked at us smiling. We smiled back and went on our way.
This is the magic of Saint-Gilles, a town in the middle of the city, the sun right next to the moon, the warmth of Meknes in Brussels...

First live encounter with Dave Matthews

Never before had I seen the doors of the Ancienne Belgique so crowded. Maybe it is just because I've always been used to go to gigs there after the doors have been opened.... Anyway, from 5pm, two hours before the official doors opening, the 110 Anspach boulevard was crowded by a bunch of, most of them American, fans. Among the Americans were also some French fans, but also many more (let's hope it for Dave who wants to make "new friends").
There was me for sure, a Brussels girl, and my beloved, with whom I've learned to love Dave Matthews and his band more and more everyday. Oh, and I've almost forgot our friend from Turkey, Burak, who 7 years ago brought a CD of DMB from the US to his friend. Burak was with us that night, at least for two songs!
After 9 years, Dave Matthews was back in Belgium, and for the first time for a "solo" acoustic concert... It has been quite a surprise to see Tim Reynolds enter through the door next to our closed one at 5.30pm. "It's gonna be Dave and Timmmmmm"... enthusiastic, we were indeed.
We entered at 7pm, half an hour after the Warehouse fan members, and still, we were set on the second row! The AB was full in half an hour, and the atmosphere was warm and crazy.
At 8pm, Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds arrived on stage. We were seeing the guy for real, this great musician we were only allowed to watch on DVD... we were going to listen to him for real, now. The adrenaline was getting up... we were already feeling high.
Once again, both Tim and Dave have showed their mastery. Crazy how it felt that night, how they made it all alright, starting with a beautiful Bartender, ending with a dynamic Two Step.
The concert was sweet for certain, Maarten, I agree!
Carter, Doyd, Stefan, LeRoi, we're now waiting for you guys!

Longing for Dave...

6 years for one, 1 year for the other... we are both longing for the same man, or, it would be more appropriate to say, the same music. But do we want to be appropriate here? I guess no, appropriate shouldn't be used next to Dave Matthews! Even if the concert venue has already warned us about the atmosphere: no late arrivals will be allowed... Good for us since we planned to be at the doors before their opening.

No more longing... one night left before we let ourselves get cought into Mr Matthews' words through his strong and penetrating voice. And it won't be a one night stand since our man will be back with his band at Forest National, Brussels, on the 27th of May.
The best is yet to come...

Chinese Classics

Monkeys trying to catch the moon, monks rescuing a temple on the top of a mountain, a single guy putting on a new door bell and experiencing its uselessness.... These are just a few themes of the Animated Chinese Classics I've been to see at the Anima 2007 film festival . Not a single word have come out of the characters' mouth, and the whole mise en scène was orchestrated by music, sometimes with good, sometimes with quite pitiful and sometimes with beautiful drawings. Especially the last short film which looked like living paintings... well, animated ink paintings. The naiveté of the drawings are not really made for today's impossible-to-satisfy-children, or PSP/Wii-generation if you prefer, but rather for dreamers like myself, adults or kids. It was indeed two exquisite, and funny hours, that made my child-soul go free, once again.

Grey sky and precious things

Brussels under a grey sky... that isn't something new. But having pinky pink thoughts and seeing through blue glasses, under a grey sky... that is quite amazing I must say. Add to this that our dear Tori will come near our grey Brussels to enchant our ears (and eyes... yes Tori, I think you are beautiful!) very soon... Then grey becomes the most precious thing.
What about Stacey's sweet voice making me dance with my beloved on a Wednesday morning on "It's too darn hot" ... Then you get a lot of red!
Hear you soon hot and precious ladies! Under a grey or any other sky...