Magnus

Strike a Pose.

Big beats. Slogans. 'Encore'. 'Get on the stage'. Fat basslines. Electronic engineering. Dancemasters. Pose.

Too young to rock 'n roll. French Movies. Côte d'Azur Feeling Good. Positive Party Vibe. Loved it very much.

04 pm. VOGUE.

The Body Gave You Everything.

Smack My Bitch Up.

'Débarquant voici trois ans avec The Body Gave You Everything, le binôme derrière Magnus fera son grand retour derrière les platines pour un dj set endiablé. Tout d’abord, nous avons Tom Barman, leader du groupe rock dEUS, dont on connaît le goût pour l’électronique, le jazz (une compilation à son actif sur Blue Note) mais aussi pour la drum and bass. A l’inverse, CJ Bolland est, quant à lui, un DJ reconnu sur les scènes dance et house, ce qui ne l’empêche pas d’avoir un background musical hors du commun. Alliant à nouveau leur force le temps d’une soirée, les deux hommes vous feront passer un pur moment d’hédonisme musical sans pour autant quitter le dancefloor !'

The Moon Rocks.

The Tube, London_2002

Le Coq Sur Mer/De Haan

Grâce à la construction de chemin de tram Oostende-Blankenberge, inauguré le 1er Août 1886, De Haan à pu évoluer jusqu'à la ville tant qu'elle est aujourd'hui. En 1887, Louis Van der Swaelmen présente à déveloper un parcellement modèle qui est devenu la ville De Haan.
Autour d'un parc centralisé au nord de la route le long de la côte (aujourd'hui De Koninklijke Baan) il se trouve une diversité de sentiers dans une enclave féerique. William Kidner, un architect de Londres, présente un dessin préalable, partiellement basé sur le projet de Van der Swaelmen.
En 1889 l'Etat belge, donne 50 hectares de dunes en concession à E. Colinet et A. Passenbronder. Ceci pour une durée de 90 ans et correspondant au projet de William Kidner. La concession est étendu en 1904 et encore une fois en 1912. Probablement par intermédiaire du Roi Léopold II le plan d'extension pour la concession de l'ingénieur et urbanist Joseph Stübben est né.

It's good to know that I like The Sea but not the Belgian coast.

Docklands & Greenwich, London_2002

Belgium - Serbia 3-2

Sun is in the sky
oh why oh why ?
Would I wanna be anywhere else
Sun is in the sky oh why oh why ?
Would I wanna be anywhere else
(Lily Allen)

Un parfum de crise/une crisette

° The formation of a new Belgian government is not working. The Walloons and the Flemish 'do not speak the same language'.

° Left the world for 36 hours. Find Suxy via Google maps. There's one blind spot at Suxy and that's where we were. In a tent. Yesterday morning I went for a shit in the woods. Made a picture of my youngest son while fishing. Had a very good time.

Bent, Fishing at Suxy

° Wednesday I was at Olio Verde in Neufchateau. The Pizza Napolitaine was crap. Hence yesterday's shit in the woods.

° This is how I experienced Fenerbahce - Anderlecht.

20:33:03 JW 1-0. Alex. Well deserved.

20:34:36 PM 6 or 7 are playing. The others are not in the match. Or they lack the quality to be on the same level.

20:41:43 PM I cannot imagine who is going to score for Anderlecht.

20:42:53 JW Only half a chance for A. so far. Fener is the dominant team but they are not brillant either.

20:46:12 DS 1-0. But that's OK. Fener does not impress me. We can do it.

21:02:51 DS Huybrechts veeeeeeeeeeeery bad. Polspoel and Snelders are on valium.

21:12:08 JW The tide is turning. Two good chances for A.

21:14:10 DS RSCA is in control. 40 minutes to go.

21:22:52 DS 3 good chances for RSCA. 25 minutes to go.

21:50:49 PM The End. 1-0. Should have done better. Fener played bad after the break, A. with more guts. At last! They created 3 to 4 good chances. Not enough class to finish them. Sly result. Not impossible but... A clean sheet for A. at this level? Not often or never.

21:51:26 JW 1-0. It's not over yet.

21:51:35 DS 1-0. RSCA should make it!

° So, who is going to make it from Q3? I'll risk my neck and tell you.

Fenerbahce - Anderlecht 1-0

Rangers - Crvena Zvezda 1-0

Benfica - Kobenhavn 2-1

Valencia - Elfsborg 3-0

Sevilla - AEK 2-0

Toulouse - Liverpool 0-1

Sarajevo - D. Kiev 0-1

Sparta - Arsenal 0-2

Zürich - Besiktas 1-1

BATE - Steaua 2-2

Tampere - Rosenborg 0-3

Spartak Moskou - Celtic 1-1

Bremen - D. Zagreb 2-1

Salzburg - Shakhtar 1-0

Ajax - Slavia 0-1

Nursery Class

Racing Genk failed in the nursery class of European football. No Q3, no Champions League, not even UEFA Cup-football for them. They won the return game (0-1, in the 58th by Mikulic) but FK Sarajevo qualifies for Q3 because they scored more away goals.

The better team did not qualify.

And if the better team does not qualify in a home and an away game than they lack the mentality to overcome and easy obstacle, they lack experience and their surplus of class is not big enough. Belgium's UEFA ranking is 13. Two years ago we were number 9. In two years we were surpassed by Romania, Scotland, Turkey and Ukraine.

It's another world (part two): two more weeks before the start of the competition in Spain, until August 31st transfers are still possible, Spanish teams from the Primera Division already spent 361.200.000 Euro on the players market.

Busy

NTS about the book I'm writing, NTS Idols II : Bram Vermeulen, NTS Idols III : Rocco Granata, NTS Battersea Power Station,
(The Year One 1. Prologue 2. Genk Q2 (Horde Zla Sarajevo 1987) 3. Anderlecht Q3 4. Monte Carlo Draw 5. ... (MD1) 6. Etc. It's a travelogue, a personal football journey...)(Ottocento, the novel)(The London Project, WIP - work in progress)
Note To Self : always keep a promise you made to yourself

Battersea Power Station, London_2007

Cruel

Losing a match in the dying seconds is cruel. When you're new in the first division, you've got ambition but you're not sure that you can cope with the higher level, you open against the champions (the biggest club in Belgium), you build, you play easy and chrystal clear football, the atmosphere sends shivers down your spine, it's 0-0, you've been out there for 91 minutes and some seconds, your team plays a perfect match, 0-0, enormous achievement, smiling faces everywhere, you are about to kiss your neighbour, but than ...
There's Biglia's freekick. He hits it perfect. Wasilewski touches it with a subtle header. Adamovic is too late. It's 0-1 and it's all over.

Isle of Dogs, 'Van', London_2007

18'16"

One Big Tour (3.4Km): 18'16". For now I rest my case. As from monday I start my 10K schedule. 12 weeks, 3 runs a week...

Quality

Tomorrow is the kick off of the 07_08 season in the Jupiler League. KV Mechelen plays Anderlecht 'Achter de Kazerne'. We wil be there.

In the following weeks the competition starts everywhere in Europe. 04 august in France, 11 in England and Germany, 18 in Holland and Portugal and 25 in Italy and Spain. Everybody agrees that the English Premier League and the Spanish Primera Division are the high quality competitions in the world. I agree.

But what is quality?

The quality of a football team is the sum of :

1. Individual quality (skills, football intelligence, speed, power, endurance, experience)
2. Disposition (team spirit, enthusiasm, ambition, the readiness to suffer for the team)
3. Tactics (the team has to be able to pick up the ideas of the coach)
4. The ability to keep a clean sheet
5. The ability to score goals

Sounds easy? It's the most difficult in football to do it the easy way. Wait a minute. I forgot number 7. Luck.

Gloucester Road, London_2007

Horde Zla Sarajevo 1987

Q1, FK Sarajevo - Marsaxlokk

Dead Man Walking, Emmylou Harris, Placebo and Seasick Steve on the stereo. So it's an easy 95,7km drive from the office in Vilvoorde, next to Brussels, to Genk. From Sarajevo to Genk is a 17 hour drive through Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, Germany and the Netherlands. It’s 1.640 kilometres one way. FK Sarajevo's veteran player does not fly unless he has to. It's the same with Dutch stars Dennis Bergkamp and Willem van Hanegem. But Mirko Turkovic (36) came to Belgium by plane. He had to. FK Sarajevo wants to qualify for Q3 in the Champions League because than the team might play one of the bigger teams in Europe. Imagine Liverpool or Arsenal or Bremen or Valencia or Ajax... That's the Bosnian state of mind. It's also the Genk state of mind. But that's just what it is. They do not seem to live that state of mind. Outside the stadium the Genk fans look relax. The usual mix of very young and very old arrive early. The weather is fine. There's nothing better to do. They look football but they don’t talk football. It's Q2, it's not a real match. It's the first leg, there won't be a decision today. The Genk fanatics make fun of Sarajevo. They make fun of the Balkan war and they tell the story of Turkovic, the playmaker with fear of flying. Q2 is in the pocket. Confidence is big in Genk. There's very few supporters in maroon-coloured shirts. Nice shirts. Legea branded. Beautiful colour, Maroon as in FC Metz, Sparta Praha and AS Roma. Nice and very friendly people. Among them are Bosnians who live in Belgium but most of them travelled from Holland and Germany to Genk. Are they refugees? Or the sons and daughters of war refugees?

The buses from Sarajevo did not arrive yet. Then, close to the television compound outside the stadium, I can see them when they get there. In a metal cage. There's not enough plastic to hide them. 99% young males, not shaven, no need to yet. There's alcohol written all over their faces and when they see me staring at them, they spit. One pisses in my direction. It's the usual. They are angry and they mean it, man. They go through and came to hell to support their team with all the energy they have got in those immature, lean bodies. They sing and they jump. The leaders talk to the police. They are negotiating. Let's be friends. We are rough but will do no real harm. Do not consider us as a dangerous group, only some of us are dangerous individuals. If you see something you do not like, isolate the individuals.
But nothing will happen in Genk. This is football, tribal and national fanatism comes with the sport. It ads colour and maroon really is a beautiful and peaceful colour. Maroon comes from the French word marron and it means chestnut. The castanea sativa is known as the sweet chestnut because you can eat it.
The young men from Sarajevo call themselves Horde Zla, the Evil Horde, nothing sweet in that name. Who are they and what is their history? FK, Fudbalski Klub, Sarajevo is the only team that could break the Croatian and Serbian dominance in the Yugoslav First League. In the beginning, the club was founded in 1946, they were called Pitari, pie makers. The club was formed by the local authorities. Their fan base was originally in the older and in the Bosniak parts of the city. Almost every Bosniak is a Bosnian muslim. But nowadays you can find as many Bosnian Croatians and Serbs in Horde Zla. So it’s not a race thing… The official history of Horde Zla starts in 1987. They consider themselves Yugoslavs and the first nationalist connection still has to be made. The Bosnian war stopped all cultural live in the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina. During the siege 329 bombs exploded in Sarajevo every day. From 1992–1995 12.000 inhabitants of the city were killed. A lot of them were buried near the Kosevo Stadium because only heavy canon fire could reach that neighbourhood. You can see thousands of white graves near the stadium of FK Sarajevo. It’s a holy place, the place were the Horde Zla fight their holy wars… In the nineties Pitari joined the Muslim dominated Bosnian army and fought in the war to defend city and country. After the war they took the North stand again. That’s where they will be waiting for Genk on the 8th of August.
Yesterday Genk was the better team. But it’s not always the better team that wins the match. Football has got it’s decisive moments. A communication breakdown featuring goalkeeper Logan Bailly and central defender Eric Matoukou resulted in a 0-1 lead for Sarajevo. Genk made it 1-1 from a penalty.
In the 86’ left back Muharemovic made it 1-2 from a counterattack starring Mirko Turkovic. He played for only 22 minutes but showed his strength.
Racing Genk or FK Sarajevo, who will make it to the next round? This Belgian puts his money on the Bosnians.

In the AA-stand in the Cristal Arena someone wrote Horde Zla Sarajevo 1987 on the steps. It's a scar on Belgian football. Please do not take it away!
Trivia:
- Racing Genk’s centre forward is the Croatian born Ivan Bosnjak.
- Hugo Broos, the Genk-coach played FK Sarajevo in the eighties. 6-1 in Anderlecht. Today’s coach of Sarajevo, Husref Musemic, was in the other team. FK beat Anderlecht 1-0 in Sarajevo.
- Logan Bailly is named after Johnny Logan, the Irish singer.

Chelsea FC, London_2007

40'17"

Almost like a metronome, well dosed & disciplined... First K in 6'45"; middle K in 6'25"; first Big Tour in 20'25"; speeded up at the Meadow of the Geese (2x) and at the Proctor Far Side (2x) and finished with a 200 meter sprint. Total distance: 6,8K. Time: 40'17".

Shakhtar Genk

Racing Genk is the Belgian runner up. They finished 5 points behind champions Anderlecht and had an average of 22.500 fans in the Cristal Arena (the former Fenix Stadion) last season. For Belgium this is very big. So you do not overdo it when you call them top four with Anderlecht, FC Brugge and Standard from Liege. The budget is 20M €. Genk were champions in 1999 and 2002. They were then kicked out from Q2 in the Champions League by Maribor from Slovenia (5-4 ag) in 1999 and in 2002 they passed Q3 beating Sparta Praag by scoring more away goals (4-4 ag). So they made the UCL and a lasting impression because you can find them in the all time statistics. When you look for biggest defeat ever you can find, among others, Real Madrid – Racing Genk: 6-0.

But at home they only lost one game ever. They played 1-1 against Real from Madrid, 0-0 against AEK Athens and they lost 0-1 against AS Roma. Antonio Cassano scored in the 81st.
Tonight Genk enters Q2, one of two qualifier rounds they have to survive to enter the UEFA Champions League.

And what about Shakhtar Genk? KRC Genk's past is in THOR Waterschei and KFC Winterslag. The two teams became one in 1988. Waterschei and Winterslag were two of seven coalmines in Limburg. Waterschei was closed in 1987 and Winterslag in 1988. In Donetsk in the Ukraine there still are a lot of miners travelling down the shafts every day. Shakhtar is Ukranian for shaft.

So it’s the black gold in Genk’s past that connects them with Donetsk.

The real gold is in Shakhtar's Budget. There is a gigantic difference with Genk's 20M and it's easy to prove. Have a look at the new players in the squadlist and have a good look at 3 in particular: Alberto Castillo from Olympiacos (20M), Ilsinho from Sao Paulo FC (10M) and Christiano Lucarelli from AS Livorno (8M). That's the real money, that's another world...

Shakhtar enters Q2 tomorrow. They play against FC Pyunik from Armenia. Genk has to beat FK Sarajevo from Bosnia. This is Europe and it sounds great!

Grosvenor Railway Bridge, London_2007

A Hazy Shade Of Sunshine

Second week @ work starts. Now it's back to business. But first...

Sneaking with the snails, chasing low flying and very scared birds, jumping in, out of and over puddles, catching a hazy shade of sunshine. I'm running again. For the first time since 17_07 @ beauregard. So it's back to business and back to life. I did not that bad after an annoying injury. The Big Tour (3,4 km) in 20'35", the first kilometer in my usual 6'40", did some sprints on my way to 5 km in 31' flat. I can go with that. Average heartbeat 149 with a maximum of 171. Maybe the maximum can be explained by our fifth wedding anniversary and the inauguration of our kitchen, yesterday. We had 50 guests, the weather sucked and it was a perfect day. Thank you, little baby Jezus and thank you giant dEVIL.

By the way: David Steegen is @ Rio De Janeiro. Note to self http://davidsteegen.skynetblogs.be/

Stanhope Mews, London_2007

Quatorze

... @ beauregard ...

• note to self: diagonal 97 (amerikalei 97 2000 antwerpen) spanish/catalan tapasbar & wine by the glass
  

• note to self: chablis 2006 'grand vin de bourgogne l'orangerie de chateau'

Peter's Hill, London_2006

Magnetic Field

... alive @ Beauregard ...
(Flemish=Dutch)
From Andrew Hussey (Paris. The Secret History)

'Dit was dan ook waar het de surrealisten begin jaren twintig om te doen was: fantastische ervaringen creëren vanuit het alledaagse; van de stad een, in de woorden van André Breton en Philippe Soupault, "magnetisch veld" maken waar de restanten van het moderne leven door de kracht van de individuele geest op magische wijze een gedaanteverandering ondergaan.'

• Note to self: Down and out in Paris and London (George Orwell - 1933).

Tube, London_2002

Jump in Time/Time stands Still

... alive @ beauregard ... weather getting better ... books as well

Blog temporarily semi-closed because of the holiday season.
Be back full force 23-07-07 ...
DO NOT PANIC. YOU ARE NOT ALONE.

Be sure, I said it before, I'll be with you in a few.

Not my Picture. Can prove it. So can you.

Beauregard_2006

Loo in the City, London_2007

Where I Am ?

@ home

@ work
Please, be patient. I'll be back.
For the time being: this is what I was thinking, reading, dreaming and could have been writing about

• Orballo, Rias Baixas D.O. Albariño 2005. Excellent, white, from Galicia in Northern-Spain.
• In Bagdad American soldiers found an orphanage with 20 children. They were exhausted, lying on the floor in their own shit.
• Hackney, the place not to be in London, on Newsnight. 15 minutes of do it yourself TV by desperate but proud black teenagers.
• The Banksy from Brussels is called Bonom. Check him out on the net or in real life.

• Mind the Bike. People are promoting the exploration of London by bicycle. The Tour the France has it's Prologue in London, Flemish photographer Stephan Vanfleteren is exhibiting his Flandrien pictures at the Host Gallery (1 Honduras Street). This Gallery wants to be the number one in photojournalism.
• Vincent Kompany (young, gifted, black, smart, Belgian football player with African roots) went to the Congo where his father was born. He is an amabassador for SOS Kinderdorpen and they are supporting orphanages. I saw it on TV: emo works, ratio does not. Vincent in Congo creates the urge to help. But there's a Grand Canyon between the urge to help and to help in real life in real time.

• In 2006 there were 13 million refugees in the world. The largest numbers are fleeing Afganistan (2,1 million), Irak (1,5 miljon), Sudan (686.000), Somalia (460.000) and from Congo and Burundi (400.000 each). The 13 million does not include 4,3 milion Palestinians. The 13 milion does not include people on the run without a permanent place to live but that actually stay in their own country. That's an extra 25 milion people. 13 milion of them wander around in Africa.

Inspired by Banksy, London_2007