Botanique Baby

Don't you ever have that feeling like you've gotta go somewhere and preferably all by yourself? Well, I do get that a lot to be honest. Sometimes I just have to escape, but I don't know what I'm escaping from. Usually I do this after my exams because I remember the first time I did this or had the urge to do so. It was my last year of high school and also my last exam. Instead of joining my friends for lunch I took the bus to the country side (or what you can call country side) and just went for a walk. I spent the whole afternoon walking and listening to music. Unfortunately I can't remember what I was thinking about, but it had something to do with a dream I once had.

A while ago I had the exact same feeling, but this time I got this feeling because a friend told me about another friend of ours. She told me about how he visits cities all by him self for several days so he could enjoy it to the fullest. That's where I got my idea from to visit the Belgian capital Brussels (and no, according to me it's not "just Brussels"). I decided to go the day right after she told me. Oddly I didn't feel like getting there as quickly as possible. So that's why I went for an hour during bus ride instead of a 20 minute train ride. I didn't feel in a hurry.

Since I was all by myself I was the one making the decisions and the first decision I made, besides taking the bus, was getting off at the Botanical Garden instead of the North Station as I'd usually do. The main reason why I decided to do so was because I'm pretty fond of 19th Century buildings, mainly because of the large windows which means a lot of natural incidence of light.

First I went for a little stroll through the garden which didn't have lots to offer in the winter besides the many statues. After taking a few pictures my iPhone began to struggle with some issues; the battery died. I usually carry its charger everywhere with me because this regularly happens, so I had to go look for a plug. Luckily I found one in something you could compare with a lobby. There I realized that there was more to do besides observing exotic plants. I did know it's the cultural centre of the French Community of Belgium, but I didn't expect something interesting to happen today.

To my surprise the complete building was filled with artists and other creative people, all of them were participating in this event called "ProPulse". All of these people were standing there aching to introduce themselves to you, and talk about what they love to do. To be honest I wasn't quite interested in talking to them, I was more interested in the appealing music I could hear but couldn't see who was making it. Following the sound which made me curious I ended up standing on front of a black door. Even though I was afraid I might be interrupting them, I opened the door and nobody even bothered (the more the merrier, right?).

When I entered the dark room I noticed this girl sitting in the stage, I guess she was about nine years old. It was like she was part of the orchestra because she was singing along. After some research I found out that she isn't part of the orchestra. Yet it felt like she was their lead singer, I can't explain it quite right. Neither can I explain what seeing Bernard Orchestar's (exactly that's what they're called) performance. I can only say that if I'd ever get the chance to direct a movie I'd use their music in it.



Thank you, enjoy these other pictures of Brussels and take care.

About Marilyn, Madonna and Miley

A couple of days ago I was reading a newspaper which has its own "fashion section". They had this article about shoe trends saying that gladiator sandals, UGGs, shoes with pointy toes, knee high boots and ballerina flats are back in style. Well, according to me these shoes were never out of style because there are always people who like wearing them (mind there's a difference between style and fashion). It's just that these shoes are typical for the 00s and lots of people are still stuck in that period seeing this as their comfort zone; they're afraid to move on or they just think "these new things" aren't something for them. It's a pretty common thing and definitely not a bad thing to do. People who are in their thirties will still be sporting some fashion items that really hyped when they were younger for example.

This is actually why I started thinking that a lot of people of around my age still like wearing fashions from about a decade ago. I'm talking about the main styles that were in fashion back then: American baseball (as they call it), army and punk. I've chosen to show you this by sharing this video of a tv-show, which you can view by clicking here, I used to watch when I was about nine years old. It's called "100% Bakvis", a kids' lifestyle show broadcasted by Ketnet. Some Dutchies out there might have vague memories of this show. In this episode - the only episode you can find online - they're showing us what styles are in fashion (as I said earlier). Of course the clothing looks pretty weird because of the "old cuts" (I don't know how to say this in English). When I saw this I was like: "Oh no! Fake UGGs!" 

Now I've heard from allot of people that they dislike fashion going back in time. To be honest I was one of those people too until I realized that sometimes it's essential to do so. In the 80s Marilyn Monroe was, and actually still is, an inspiration for Madonna. And that's according to me the main reason why Madonna still prefers sporting blond hair, Marilyn Monroe inspired hairstyle and red lipstick, which now is her signature style. I'm actually still waiting for that one artist to do the same an become as iconic as Madonna, but I'm guessing that won't be happening (Miley Cyrus perhaps?). And for the ones interested in the comparison of Madonna and Marilyn Monroe I've found this website called "Madonna blows chunks", which actually is "anti-Madonna", with great photos of the two icons.

Thank you, and take care.

Note: I had zero inspiration for the title. So I just went for this quirky alliteration.