singing in the rain

it's raining in los angeles & i love it!!! i can't remember when's the last time i saw rain in california!!! it's the best! no more fires, time for floods & mud slides & car accidents woohoo!!! i'm just going to listen to one of these 3 playlists on my ipod & take a long walk with chicho in the rain...

I LUV FALL 2007 - pop up player

Love Will Make Us Grand - pop up player

even this older funner playlist will work, cuz in LA the rain makes me happy, it's like getting a little taste of belgium without having to live under grey skies almost every day of the year. today is perfect!!!

actually this is the perfect playlist for this perfect day:

MIAMI NICE - pop up player

the news says it's going to rain all night. YAY!
OVER & OUT:

give it a little bit more...

snoop vs stevie

HERE'S THE REAL DEAL:

pj harvey rules... the king patches it up!

ok i'm on a roll of posting songs with their youtube videos. this needs to stop! but before it does, i just have to share my love for pj harvey with these 2 sublime songs. one off her latest album; the other from 2001 when i went from enjoying her songs to becoming completely emphatuated & transported by her art... please crank up the volume or put your best headphones on for these.

SILENCE (this one is kinda gripping, does that make me a girl?!):


RID OF ME (it will always be in my top 3 pj harvey songs):


aiiiight, well since pj harvey is a queen in my book, i thought i'd close this posting with the one & only king, with an encouragingly uplifting song, maybe my favorite elvis song to rock out to...

PATCH IT UP (watch it till the end):


PATCH IT UUUP... WITH A WHOLE LOTTA LUUUV... fuck yeah!

DEAR SAINT NICOLAS:

these are the plushies that i want...
- BRAIN CELL cuz i need to replace the ones i fried in my day!
- WHITE BLOOD CELL cuz the immune system luuuvz'em!
- H.I.V. so we can kick his nasty ass & beat it to a pulp!!!
find your own frennemy plushies:
- Giant Microbes website
anyhew...

on December 6th, let me remind you all that many parts of the "western" world, such as my Belgian homeland, celebrate Saint Nicolas Day... he was REAL. Santa Claus is only a lose interpretation of Saint Nicolas conveniently fabricated in the US of A by the Coca-Cola company, for their advertising campaign, and to boost end of the year sales... genius! anyhew, so lets be real on December 6th, and give each other a little realness without the coke infused aspirations!!!

Saint Nicolas is the patron saint of students & children. On December 6th, children (and now adults as well) receive gifts from Saint Nicolas (aka Père Noël on December 25th , trans. Father Christmas). Saint Nicolas travels with his "shadow", a dark companion called Père Fouettard (trans. "Father Whip" aka Peter The Black aka Bogyman) who follows Saint Nicolas & reminds him of just how each child has behaved during the past year. Saint Nicolas rewards wise children with presents. Père Fouettard seeks the misbehaving ones for a spanking or to correct them with his long black whip... this is sooo christian... or "perfected jewishness" as crazy kookoo gaga retard fuckface dimwit arrogantly offensive ann coulter would put it! ummm, i digress...
here's an illustration of my patron saint & his shadow:

10 days till Bogyman comes knocking...
are you ready for your spanking?

The Mighty Boosh...

is the funniest show on tv, and this is why...

and here's my absolute favorite song right now...
vampire week-end - mansard roof


something about the vibe of that song makes me think of the beatles. although i was always a much bigger fan of the rolling stones, i figured i'd post my all time favorite beatles song (and the video is perfect)...
the beatles - you've got to hide your love away

songs i like now...

holy hail - cool town rock


cazals - to cut a long story short (spandau ballet cover)


my toys like me - barnaby

reverend billy asks...

WHAT WOULD JESUS BUY? - trailer

APACHE YEAH!!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING BREAK...

...i'm the keyboardist!

VIVA VENEZUELA!

i never celebrated thanksgiving with my family, since it's not one of "our" holidays. but with everyone off with their families, & fresh from seeing them all in D.C. i recently found these old pix taken in venezuela, about 10 years ago. i was still in my late teens or 20s; my folks were still in their 50s. if i didn't live with them in caracas anymore, i was here in college & back for a few weeks only, in between semesters.
every christmas vacation, my folks would rent a house along the venezuelan coast or on some island a short boat ride away. they would never tell us anything about it; my brothers & i would never know exactly where we would end up until we got there, which would drive us nuts. we always ended up in the most amazing, secluded, relaxing places & spend some really good times together. as much as i love crazy caracas it was nice to leave the hustle & bustle of the city behind, as well as the protocol of the diplomatic or foreign community, the constant political instability & threat of another military coup d'état, scholastic obligations & responsibilities,... no television not even a radio and sometimes with only enough electricity for a few lightbulbs, iguanas wondering around, no staff, left to ourselves to clean & cook, or buy fresh oysters & seafood from the local fishermen, living off coconuts, red papayas, mangos, starfruits... and cold beers! sometimes we'd treat ourselves to some restaurant somewhere, in some cove, on some island or some small port, by getting a fisherman to take us there on his boat, then finding another one to take us back... shit, i need to figure out a way to make some cash & go back there, forever!!!
anyhew, here are the few pix i found; they were taken on one of those disposable kodak cameras, before we all had digital cameras of our own; these were truly simple & primitive family vacations. jeanie kindly scanned them for me...

the barone$$ & her amba$$ador of loVe - Magda & Gunter...

the kids - Eric Alexandre, Michaël Dimitri, Jonathan Nikolaï...

island home...

on a "crowded" beach...

an island "town"...

our private & remote beach...


it's never been one of our rituals, but still, it would be nice to spend thanksgiving with my brothers & my folks. i'm extremely thankful for them & everything they've done for me.

new york blows

MUGGINGS MAKING A COMEBACK

although, i would have loved to see how that crazy bitch Foxy Brown handled it! can you imagine?

frontline: darfur

my favourite show on pbs is Frontline. you can watch several of their past shows online... tonight is their premiere of ON OUR WATCH about what happened to Darfur & what lies ahead if we keep standing still. not to get all hippie on you but while we're about to stuff ourselves to celebrate how thankful we are, we can't ignore what hell others, such as the people of Darfur, have to endure "on our watch."

on a brighter note, i wish you all a great thanksgiving break, safe travels & tons of fun with the ones you love... and some rest before the holidaze party train takes off... i'm thankful to be back in LA, for living in southern california where close friends care for me just as much as i care for them & love, where i have many more acquaintances i enjoy having in my life, and where i can go shopping peacefully for a party, on a wednesday morning in the middle of a sunny november, at a farmer's market, just a block away from the pacific ocean, in what seems to be a million miles away from darfur, iraq, afghanistan, bangladesh, eastern congo, burma, pakistan, gaza, zimbabwe... and even south central LA or downtown skid row... so close, yet so blessed and grateful to be sheltered from it all...

if you're clueless about the aforementioned parts of the world, or other ones, i'll recommend 3 sources less likely to be biased:

BBC WORLD NEWS

DER SPIEGEL INTERNATIONAL
THE INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE

these publications/sites will spare you from the gruesome details of the death of the plastic surgery ravaged mother of Kanye West, trust!

blog on eric & afghanistan

my brother, eric, the one who went to the naval academy in anapolis & was working at the pentagon, started a blog about his upcoming mission in afghanistan:
A BELGIAN SUBMARINER & AFGHANISTAN

endearing playlist

it's sorta "overcast" here in LA. so, here's a playlist i put together back in october, on my other --and private-- blog, i thought i should share it with the world. it's my "endearing" mix if you will...

AKOOSTIKALICIOUS - pop up player

AKOOSTIKALICIOUS - MP3 downloads

enjoy & share the wealth!

saturday jam

We're All PROSTITUTES

DEAR SANTA:

saints are of the past; sinners are of the future... i've been a bad boy, but mostly in a good kinda way, so i was thinking, that since i'm pro-green & all, i need a bike to get around, jump on public transpo with, take with me on a plane, and anywhere i chose to go & ride it (when i can't actually ride it). i found just the one for me. it's not so cheap, so feel free to kill 2 birds with one stone since my birthday is on december 31st...

THE PUMA 8 SPEED URBAN MOBILITY BIKE

i think i found it for cheaper if you get it directly from the designer, biomega... look for the boston bike (that's what they call it here):
BIOMEGA BOSTON BIKE
i like the naval grey color & all the accessories!!! it looks to me like it would be exactly like the one sold by puma without the puma endorsement & logo on it...

THANK YOU SANTA!
luv u mean it,
m:)

ps - here's more info on this amazing bike:
boingboing review
coolhunting review

opening ceremony...

is the coolest boutique opened in 2002 by 2 very laid back --stylish but not fashiony-- latino & chinese americans in nyc; they're just across the street from Q Department actually... just in case you've been hiding under a rock since last april, there is simply no reason anyone should ever leave LA for NY anymore, as Opening Ceremony opened on LaCienega Blvd. if you ever have some extra cash or need to get someone a cool birthday or holiday present, go check it out:
Opening Ceremony website
cool hunting review

wine & dancing

my mom emailed me this earlier this week:

Drink more wine!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As Ben Franklin said: In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is freedom, in water there is bacteria.

In a number of carefully controlled trials, scientists have demonstrated that if we drink 1 liter of water each day, at the end of the year we would have absorbed more than 1 kilo of Escherichia coli, (E. coli) - bacteria found in feces.
In other words, we are consuming 1 kilo of poop.

However, we do NOT run that risk when drinking wine & beer (or tequila, rum, whiskey or other liquor) because alcohol has to go through a purification process of boiling, filtering and/or fermenting.

Remember:
Water = Poop,
Wine = Health

Therefore, it's better to drink wine and talk stupid, than to drink water and be full of shit.

There is no need to thank me for this valuable information: I'm doing it as a public service.

i love dancers, i've even dated a few... but there's nothing more entertaining than non-dancers dancing sometimes, like these parisians in bibi tanga's latest video... basically, if you're on a budget, skip the dancers, get some wine, serve it to your white friends & have them dance in the streets, even let them choreograph themselves a little, and what you get isn't necessarily artsy fartsy, but surely entertaining:


fresh back from the east coast on monday night, i went to a party thrown by the french consulate & hosted by the cultural attaché... on the sunset strip yet fun & cool. i had great time. odille, the cultural attaché is a gorgeous parisian girl who was commissioned for the job for 3 years. she has now been here for a year & loves LA. it was great to meet her. i also met some fabulous lesbian artists, one french but who has lived in LA for 20 years (her parents moved here when she was younger) and who also speaks fluent spanish. i was introduced to her friends from buenos aires & san juan. i met some new yorkers who actually like LA, some french architects, some coked out fashion victims i enjoyed talking to for a minute, and this hot italian guy i could have sworn i met before, with his hot mexican girlfriend... he insisted we never met. i kept trying to figure it out. you see, i don't remember names easily, but i never forget a face... it hit me the next morning, he was in a reality tv show i think. i still don't knwo which one, i don't watch that many, and none of them regularly (ok, except for tila tequila's shot at love), but i know he was in a reality show. too hot & too dumb for the amazing race... hmmm, it'll come back to me...

halloween pix

here are a few more pix from nyc...
my favorite costume here was the nick nolte mugshot:

YOU

belgian band Das Pop made this video on margarita island, off the venezuelian coast, where i spent some good christmas breaks with my family... i luv this song.

loving you is easy...

CAUSE YOU'RE BEAUTIFUL.. la la la la la...

just be good to me (playlist)

home sweet home...
i've never enjoyed coming back to el lay as much as this time... there's no place like home!
anyhew, i finally took some time to put together a new playlist, inspired by my 2 weeks adventure back east, the change of season (away from the malibu fires, and whatnot). all i'm gonna say here is track #02 (just be good to me) was one of my favorites back in the 80s. back in brussels when i was 13, the punk thing was to move out of your house & live on the streets... instead, i moved into the attic & converted the space into my bedroom & party pad... my stereo system back then was a technics turntable with a built in cassette player & radio. remember when vinyl wasn't just food for deejays??? anyhew, i had "just be good to me" on a 45 vinyl, and i used to blast it as loud as i could & "at night I lock the doors, where no one else can see-ee"... i was just thinking, i was hopping from hot spot to hot spot, party to party in new york, and i don't remember stumbling upon anything innovative, musically speaking. it was all pretty bland. u know, the hits but nothing unusual or out of the ordinary. oh well... i did meet really cool people, made a few new friends & hung out with the cops in an undercover car for 2 hours, looking for my muggers. i can't remember how many times the words "fuck" or "fucking" or "fucked up" were exchanged between the cops & i. i kept apologizing when i was cussing but they told me it was all fucking good. they were also really concerned that i couldn't tell whether the girl who was one of the muggers was a girl or a guy. they kept asking me, and i kept saying it was a girl, then i started wondering, and i was almost sure it could have been a guy, i mean, she was really tall after all... anyhew, i just don't have a trannydar i guess... if i was a deejay, i guess this would be my set:

EVERYBODY HURTS...TOXIC (MP3 downloads)

here are a few more pix i took myself with my trusty digi canon the muggers forgot to notice in my back pocket... i wanted to keep my phone so bad. without it i couldn't reach my friends in nyc... remembering friends' phone numbers by heart is soooo pre mobile phone era! so i was thinking maybe i should offer my camera to trade it for my phone, but then i immediately realized they'd just take it as well, DUH! i should have yelled or something, but instead i was super cooperative, like uber uber compliant. not only did i walk away with my life, but all my teeth & no black eye. i'm so glad i still have my camera. it became my clock as i usually use my phone to check the time. my camera has a built in clock. phew! here are some snapshots i took...

i luv el lay

comrades... beautiful people:

it was really nice to be reunited with my 2 brothers, mom & stepdad; we hadn't all been together since last christmas in miami. of course, there was a little tension here & there, mainly due to my lack of focus & responsibility, compared to how organized they all are. but in the end, it all fits like a puzzle full of love. i cooked for everyone which was fun. i luuuv cooking so much. we also ate in some fine restaurants, did a little tourism together, went to some shows, and did the "lets meet back here in 3 hours" kinda thing so we could each be on our own, which was necessary. tuesday october 30th, i was walking around dupont circle, the "alternative" hood in d.c. & i stumbled upon the high heel race on what i guess is the gayest street in d.c... a whole street closed off for a race where most of the contestants were drag queens in high heels. i made some funny & interesting friends that night... d.c. is actually very liberal under its conservative appearance. i really like that... even the drag queens are conservative! anyhew, here are some pix, then some of new york were i spent 5 days as well...

with the family in d.c...

at café belga - their belgian menu has the widest selection of beers...

jonathan ran "the people's marathon" organized by the marine corps; it's the only big marathon in the US of A that doesn't give out prizes to the winners, that's why it's called the people's marathon. the course is really nice, passing through to all the monuments & landmarks of d.c. & alexandria... i still prefer my method of sightseeing: strolling!

and this is a pic of me my mother took on the d.c. metro, on our way to pentagon city to meet eric for lunch, and a family friend i hadn't seen since the 80s, wow i'm getting old...

i think i was trying to follow up on a work call, u know, not to feel like a total slacker i guess... besides, i'm always happy to do so when it concerns the few outstanding clients who have graciously opened their arms to me, myself & i... "L'Union Fait La Force" is what it says on the belgian passports, meaning Union Makes Strength... funny coming from a kingdom the size of LA to San Diego, yet divided in 3 federal states (Brussels-Capital bilingual, Flanders dutch speaking, Walloonia french speaking) where all sides keep trying to find ways to get independant, which has never happened due to the fact that all 3 regions have united under one king up till now... but as in any modern kingdom, the king is rapidly losing any kind of leverage he might have on all 3 sides, which has to be difficult to maintain considering the buraucracy (3 ministers for every department, one for each region, none of them ever agreeing on anything!)... how ironic, considering Brussels also is the capital of the European "Union." anyhew, back to my east coast journey...

in NYC, panOptic wrapped up a NEW VIDEO for John Wolfington, produced by Steve Shelley from Sonic Youth's label. the video was directed & animated by my friend gary who owns panOptic (i represent them as well). i really like the song & the vid... here's a cool review if interested in more info... (in case you're all spaced out or you lost yourself like the song says, let me point out that by clicking on the bold/italic/pink words you get to the links!).

i was mugged in the village haha (how 80s of me!), so my life line won't be back in service till i get a replacement treo phone. meanwhile, you can reach me on my personal mobile if you really need to talk; you have those digits if we're close enough. anyhew, here are a few more pix. not so much of stuff i shot, but of a few cool players & me...

1st night in the big apple, busted in a new york minute...

i'm just an ewok & this is erika from Au Revoir Simone...

if you're in london on 11.15 or paris on 11.19 go see them!

i think i'm scaring siobhan's friend...

with kara & arnold (this was at this guy dan's place by the way; dan is from LA and was making fresh burritos all night for everyone; still they just don't taste the same than in LA, where the mexican food is sometimes even better than in mexico)...

siobhan & i on our way back underground...

i also went to Q Department for some cake & veuve...

and here's jacqui & me... jacqui is from south africa, just like my mom who's actually belgian but born in capetown... i guess all south african ladies are classy, whether they're blonde or brunettes! jacqui is a genius; she has the most sophisticated taste & the most inspiring work ethic, having founded 3 companies in her 10 years in the big apple, Q Department being one of them, which i represent...

if it wasn't for the Q Dept. crew, i would have been stranded without a dime, and that would have sucked in the big apple! i love this crew!!!

the next day i met up again with the q dept. crew & we swung by a smuggler party (some production company for those of you who don't know)... it was a late halloween party so i brought my green lizzard mexican wreslter mask... i had purchased the mask in mexico city, back in 99 i think, when i was the production coordinator on a shoot for fuji television, being the only white guy on the crew who was fluent in spanish. we shot a few segments in the lucha libre arena in mexico city, and it was mayhem, not to mention brutal. anyhew, here's me wearing the mask in NYC...

the smuggler party was fun for a while then i left to join the SNL afterparty that started at 1am. my friend nery works for SNL & was able to get me in with a friend. she wasn't so pleased when i showed up with a friend -gary- & 2 girls from the smuggler party wearing no skirts or pants, just panty hoses (their costume was the hall of shame i think)... anyhew, we all got in & i joined nery at her table... it was at this place called bon appetit (a temporary pop-up restaurant by chef dina de laurentis or something & sponsored by the magazine, in the former space of the hard rock)... the food was amaaazing & the service impeccable. anyhew, i bummed a cigarette from amy pohler, and i bumped into seth meyers.

without skipping a beat, i totally geeked out when i saw my SNL hero for the past few years MAYA RUDOLPH. i loathe oprah & she makes the funniest oprah impersonation in the world. maya also makes the funniest donatella versace, whitney houston (amy pohler & seth meyers are in this one as well), and does the best rendition of american anthem in the universe as pamela bell! i never ever geek out but i couldn't control myself, i walked straight to her & introduced myself & we chatted for about 5 precious minutes. she was sooooo sweet, and i was such a dork! i can't believe how much of a dork i was... the only other time i've ever been starstruck was when mick jagger tripped on me sitting on the floor & fell on top of me, back in the 90s... i've even bumped into björk & wasn't starstruck (ok maybe i was too high back in the 90s to feel anything but...). of course, i topped it off total cliché style by bringing up maya's mom, MINNIE RIPERTON, and talking her up as well. minnie is one of my all time favorite female singers! anyhew, there were tons of hot security studs around & nery later told me barack obama was in the room & that's why. i never noticed him. all i gotta say is where do i sign up to be a black man running for the presidency?! i want me some security just like his! would have been nice when i got mugged!!!

nery was tired & SNL gets her a town car back home every saturday, or off to wherever else... but she went home, and instead i stayed out with gary who took me out to Béatrice, some "cool" bar in some basement with manhattan's version of what trendy is i guess. i can't really remember what part of town it was in, maybe soho, but it looked more village-ish (east or west?) or maybe tribeca. after the shock of meeting maya rudolph i just followed without paying attention to where i was going. Béatrice was fun, and the crowd was really friendly. gary met some girl, and i met 2 models & their lesbian friend from berlin. around 4am when they started kicking people out, we were guided to the side to stick around for a bit longer but i was just so tired. the models escorted me to the subway & i took my ass back to nery's for some sleep.

oh, here's a pic of nery & me the next day, in the upper west side, at some cuban place called calle ocho...

nery & i go way back, and she had absolutely no patience for my bullshit. i think i really tested her patience. i did cross a few of her boundaries & was called on it big time. but we had fun at calle ocho... real friends for life!

back in d.c. my brother eric & i went to the synagogue on our last night together for a while. i was flying back to LA the next day; he's going to afghanistan for a few months to help train government branches such as the armed forces & police enforcement or something like that. fuck, afghanistan!!! his life is so different than mine! here's eric & me:

this historic synagogue on 6th & I (chinatown in d.c.) has great music...

the music was sadly beautiful, yet infinitely soothing & delightful...

i really love d.c... it's small & kinda weird with lots of suits & uniforms being all normal or as if it was the most normal thing in the world to be in the metro or in a bar wearing a suit or some sorta camouflage military uniform. at the same time, it's nice to get my head out of that whole "super-onto-the-next-cool-thing" bandwagon everyone seems to pretend they're not on in lalaland or new york. ok, well some are on it & really don't know they are but visually, it's hard to differentiate what's real & what's not. trust me, in d.c. what u see is what u get, well, on the metro at least, or in bars i think... surely not on capitol hill! ok, i'm not making a point after all... still, there's something refreshing about d.c. & something familiar i guess, having grown up in the diplomatic corps. one thing that is undeniably great about d.c. is the music scene. it might be a small town, but there's always a good show from touring artists & locals alike. the day i left, eric was going to see my australian friend SIA who lives in LA but was performing that night in DC. she kindly put eric on the list. i left my brother in peace knowing he got to see sia. her voice warms the soul... upon landing in LA i already had an email from eric with the pix he took at her show:

...

sia is off to europe now, so please go check out her shows if you're on the other side of the atlantic. she's magical!

well, it's so good to be back in LA with my cheech, the best dog in the world!!! now i need to catch up with my doctor, my dentist & most importantly my psychiatrist, my therapist & my nutritionist... back to work!!! urgh... and back to sales & finding ways to pay the bills woohoo... usually when i leave NY i always leave wondering what it would be like to stay & live there. for the very 1st time ever, i can safely say that i couldn't wait to leave NY. there is no way in hell i'd want to live there. LA rules!!! the weather is swell'n dandy & the people are wonderful. i bumped into an old friend -howard- on the plane & he gave me a ride home. fuck cabs, fuck subways, fuck it all, except for LA, cars & the best friends in the world. well, for now... according to the cops in ny, greenwich village is the hotspot for muggers, so my advice is to stay the fuck away from the west village swine if u want to have a nice stay in ny... or just ignore it all together, LA is where it's at! i never thought i'd say this, but i love the cops, in ny at least, they've been so nice & have followed up with me 3 times already... then again, fuck the pigs, who needs'em outside of ny? u know what, fuck the east coast. i'll take fires & earthquakes over muggings & guns anytime!!! bring it on! (pardon my french!)...

i'll wrap this up with a pic of my d.c. lover, a big yellow panda bear who likes to hang out in the front yard... i wuv him!!!

...peace bread land, m:)