Metric, live @ the Melkweg in Amsterdam

Caught Metric in Amsterdam last night; was an awesome show. It was my first time seeing Metric live, and was quite impressed by the stage performance, showmanship, and quality of sound they put out. No opening act meant I also managed to be back home in Utrecht after the show before midnight, which was pretty good considering working today. Bike rentals are super handy for this kinda thing, to jet from the train station, to a venue, and back.

Even Emily herself commented on loving the sight out of her tour bus as they pulled into town, of seeing everyone here riding along on bikes.



-Metric @ the Melkweg - was a nice venue, intimate enough atmosphere, not too large of a hall.

Next up, Patrick Watson on the 26th.

Super phat analog shit

(or at least that's how the event was dubbed at dB's studio in Utrecht)

Caught Great Lake Swimmers this past weekend here in Utrecht. Went to the show with 2 of my cousins who I got onto the band. I'm passing along all of my Canadian Indie taste to as many as I can, hehehe. The opening act was Audiotransparent, a Dutch band from Groningen. I was really really surprised by the sound of the Dutch band, they were really really good. The sound reminded me a bit of some other stuff I've heard mixed together, but can't quite put my finger on it (Jars of Clay maybe?). They also performed one or 2 songs together with Great Lake Swimmers, and the 2 bands complemented each other super well. Was a great show, in a cool little venue. Also good beer on tap, a Belgian called La Chouffe (which on the website seems to be showing a little drunken gnome in wooden shoes).

And while waiting before the show to start at the bar, the DJ was playing some cool tracks, and I liked one by Yo Le Tengo (which I'd never heard of before, but apparently have been around for a while - but indie).

(Also caught Holy Fuck! in Utrecht last week as well. Another good show by more Canadian talent. Am I having identity issues?)

Next on the Agenda, Metric playing in Amsterdam this Wednesday, and Patrick Watson on the 24th. Haven't bought tickets yet, but hopefully I'll get some in time.



-Audiotransparent - so, we didn't have the best spot to see the stage fully, because of the damn pillar thing to the left, but it was still good.



-Great Lake Swimmers - snuck around to the left of the stage to take this shot, gotta love the instrument range in this band.



-And my two cousins - I'm not sure if alcohol influenced this picture at all.

Brakes are for _______

(you fill in the blank)

After much much waiting, I've finally finished with my bike project. I completely dismantled what was already a singlespeed. Grinded off the needless bits on the frame, and sent it away for a sandblasing, priming, and powdercoat. Also got a new wheelset. All in all I'm happy with the result. Although I think the powdercoat added a noticable amount of weight to the bike.

I'll probably still upgrade some components along the way, but the major job is done.

And yesterday, I rode home from work, the full roughly 35km, without brakes! That takes some getting used to.
(buying a helmet is on my to do list, especially after my cycle/car collision in January where I lucked out by having my rear wheel lock up and fish tailing so I didn't hit T-bone the car completely, but body checked it instead).



-Frame in the before/during stage (for good measure) - you can see where I grinded away the cable routing on the top tube



-chrome fork - this was apparently a big point of contention as to weather or not you can powdercoat chromed parts



-my new(ish) fixie - I like the fenders on this, needed with a white bike, and these fenders are fairly subtle



-Crazy Canadian - this is the sticker one of my bosses at work made up on the sticker machine, it works.

Yepp

After 1 year and 3 months or so, the main project that I worked on while at vdVeer is finally seeing the light of day, and will be hitting the shelves over here around mid April. It's really quite something to see all that work pay off. Of course I can't take all the credit, it was a design team of, 5 myself included, and I acted as Jr Designer on the project.



-Fiets Innovatie Award 2009 - The Yepp child bike seat being shown off at the Bike show, won the Bike Innovation award from the show. We thought it was gonna be on TV (because of the filming and stuff), but apparently after about 2 hours of footage, what was shown was an edited down 2 minutes or less from the whole show, of which, it wasn't part.



-4 Colours to choose from - Rear bike seats hanging on a clothes rack (rack designed by the Sr Designer of the bike seat)



-The full set on display - The front seat here was only a prototype, while the rear seats are all production units. I also worked on the front seat, but to a far lesser degree, mostly adding Solidworks capacity to the project.



-Black seat on a white Giant City Storm - Not a bad combo. I myself was pushing that they do a white seat variant, but for now it's these 4. The plus side is it's easy enough for them to do different colours often enough. Easy to adjust the line that way.



-Yepp seat detail - So yes, you may be asking yourself, "that seat looks squishy, what's it made of?" Well, think Croc's, yes those horribly unstylish shoes that so many people damn for their looks but are apparently heaven to wear. It's that material. Good for all weather, anti bacterial, and cushy for the kids. All the current competition uses a PP seat, with a form of cloth/hybrid material seat cushion that is close to paper thin.



-Yepp in action - One of my colleagues testing out a pre production version (essentially the same as the production version, except the greys are lighter here) of the seat with his daughter.

The Holidays in a nutshell: Sweden

-old steel mine - Norberj



-Norberj - panoramorama from across the lake



-shadow on church - Norberj



-church front - Norberj



-old mill, Norberj - most of the buildings in rural Sweden look like this (stained red wood, from residue from copper mines?), or at least the ones in this general area



-view of Gamla Stan (old town) from Skeppsholmen (the East) - Stockholm



-panorama - Stockholm



another panorama - Stockholm



-reflections on facade - Stadsbiblioteket Annexet (as if you couldn't read it) - Norrmalm, Stockholm



-steps up to central lending hall - Stadbiblioteket, Norrmalm, Stockholm



-central lending hall - Stadbiblioteket, Norrmalm, Stockholm



-lots of books, but it looks very cool - Stadbiblioteket, Norrmalm, Stockholm



-main entrance - Stadbiblioteket, Norrmalm, Stockholm



-park panorama next to the library - Norrmalm, Stockholm



-another park panorama - Norrmalm, Stockholm



-Stockholm architecture - Norrmalm



-centaur statue next to the library - Norrmalm, Stockholm



-text down a busy shopping street - I was just intrigued by the way this looked, polished steel words, marking the dividing line down the street as far as you could see (and I couldn't really read any of it) - Norrmalm, Stockholm



-view of Kungsholmen (right) and Riddarholmen (left) on the Riddarfjärden - Stockholm



-Storkyrkan - Gamla Stan, Stockholm



-street scene - Gamla Stan, Stockholm



-Gamla Stan side street - I swear, it seemed like about 1/4 of the cars in Sweden were actually all Volvo's (if not more), and a bit fewer Saab's



-Statue detail above Northeast entrance of Riksdagshuset (Parliament) - Gamla Stan, Stockholm



-Northeast entrance of Riksdagshuset (Parliament) - Gamla Stan, Stockholm



-Kungliga Slottet (Royal Palace) - Gamla Stan, Stockholm



-view of Northwest end of Riksdagshuset (Parliament) - Gamla Stan, Stockholm



-Stadshusset (city hall) - Kungsholmen, Stockholm



-courtyard of the Stadshusset - Kungsholmen, Stockholm



-moon on the roof - Stadshusset, Kungsholmen, Stockholm



-gold figure on the roof - Stadshusset, Kungsholmen, Stockholm



-riverside interior of the courtyard of the Stadshusset - Kungsholmen, Stockholm



-Stadshusset - Kungsholmen, Stockholm



-roof detail - Stadshusset, Kungsholmen, Stockholm



-tower of the Stadshusset - Kungsholmen, Stockholm



-almost dizzying - Kungsholmen, Stockholm



-Nordiska Museet interior - Djurgården, Stockholm



-time for a dip - the location just out of the city of Stockholm where I went, on a hostel arranged trip to a traditional wood-fired bastu (sauna), and then for a dip in the water. I did 4 cycles of this, and then the sun went down, finished our beers, and back to town. (if you click on the image for the full size, you can note the skaters in the background)



-deer in the yard - view from the Stuga (guest house) to the main house of my aunt and uncles, when waking up one morning to deer wandering by. Norberj



-frosty door to the Stuga - Norberj



-snow/frost crystals - these things were ginormous for frost crystals, never seen anything like it before



-some lakeside, about half an hour away from Norberj - early afternoon



-more crazy frost crystals on the lake



-detail of the frost crystals - almost flower like



-crystal covered ice - sounded like broken glass crunching under your feet



-some green amidst the winter white



-moonrise/sunset (sun already gone)



-3:24 in the afternoon - adieu Sweden