All we need is love.

I've decided to watch less movies. And spend more time on at least one good arthouse movie per month. I'm fed up with watching a movie out of boredom. I've seen worse movies but come on, 'Shark night'? What was that all about? I want my 91 minutes back! I should spend more time with my female friends but then I would end up watching chick flicks. Forget it, bad idea.:/

Ik heb besloten om minder films te gaan kijken. De druppel was afgelopen woensdag toen bff RJ besloot om 'Shark night' te gaan kijken. Als je hem nog niet hebt gezien, niet gaan kijken. Geloof me, ik weerhoud je ervan om 91 minuten van je leven kwijt te raken. En als je de aftiteling meetelt waarschijnlijk 200 minuten. Zoveel tijd had ik nodig om mijn bevroren hersencellen te ontdooien.

Last night I've finally watched Medianeras/Sidewalls. An Argentinean love story a la 'Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain'. But in this movie 'prince charming' doesn't meet his princess before he sleeps with a bunch of 'frogs'. Both protagonist have a depression. But who doesn't? It's like as if the psychiatrist and the psychologist the protagonists meet are the ones who need to be analyzed. Prince charming is equipped with a little dog 'slash' stuffed toy called Susu who has awkwardly the same fear as its owner, the fear of socializing with others. So the male protagonist uses the internet for his work and to find his Juliet who is actually passing living on the same block and passes him by when he and Susu find the strength to face the big bad world. But they never seem to notice each other's presence. The movie has a lot humor and it also lectures us about architecture in Buenos Aires. One thing doesn't make this movie believable. The female lead role is way too pretty to be lonely.

Medianeras stond al maanden op mijn verlanglijstje. De film draaide afgelopen maand in het filmhuis. Ik moet toegeven dat een film in de bioscoop zien iets magisch heeft. Maar het gegeven dat de film een paar weken daarna in de videotheek lag en het gegeven dat de huurprijs de helft was van het bioscoopkaartje, was genoeg reden voor mij om twee weken te wachten. Het werd helaas 4 weken wachten. Ik was de naam van de videotheek vergeten en er werd gebeld naar een concurrent die niet echt doorhad dat het om een misverstand ging. We werden teruggebeld wanneer de baas de desbetreffende dvd bij onze filiaal had gebracht. Ik weet niet wanneer ik mijn epifanie kreeg maar ik zag ineens dat het om de verkeerde videotheek ging. Wie zet er dan ook 3 videotheken naast elkaar in één-en-dezelfde straat?:/

De film was het wachten waard maar het was ook niet een film waar ik van dacht: 'Wow, dit is het ultieme liefdesverhaal!' Het verhaal gaat over Martin en Mariana die beiden een geïsoleerd leventje hebben. Martin is mensenschuw en het internet is waar hij zichzelf kan zijn. Mariana komt net uit een ongelukkige relatie en vult haar dagen met het inrichten van etalages. De humor van de film is dat Martin en Mariana tegenover elkaar wonen maar ondanks dat elkaar nooit opmerken wanneer hun wegen kruisen.

Anyways, my new year's resolutions are still going strong. I was searching for a hobby for when I'm 70-something. I mean, some elderly people are dying of boredom or want to die because they are bored of life. I don't want to end up like them. Isolated from the world because I'm not mobile and forced to stare at some dead flowers. So I've decided to help bff RJ with his community garden. I've read somewhere that rucola is a steady plant for growing all year. So I bought a little green house, ate some eggs and used the card box to plant some rucola and peppermint. The peppermint is not really willing to show me some love, the rucola is growing like crazy.

Anyways, ik zit niet stil en de lente is nog ver te zoeken. Ik ben nog steeds bezig met mijn goede voornemens. Ik wil graag een goedkope en duurzame hobby vinden zodat ik niet rond mijn 70ste denk: 'Goh, ik verveel me, ik neem maar eens een pilletje. Of dat ik door verveling sterf.:/ Ik heb besloten om dit jaar bff RJ mee te helpen met zijn moestuintje. Ik weet dat het te vroeg is om te zaaien maar ik las ergens dat rucola het hele jaar goed doet. En de volgende foto is het bewijs, ze groeien als kool. De pepermuntzaadjes aren't showing me any love.:(

I've said goodbye to my Nespresso machine cause I'm giving my love to my new friend with a multiple personality disorder, Francis Francis. More about my coffee addiction in another post.

Vandaag heb ik afscheid van mijn Nespresso genomen. Hij functioneerde als behang sinds ik een nieuw vriendje heb. Het nieuwe vriendje heeft wel een meervoudige persoonlijkheidsstoornis. Hij heet namelijk Francis Francis.;)

I'm leaving you with a song which is lingering in my mind lately. I heart the eighties.

Het volgende liedje zit de laatste tijd in mijn hoofd. Het heeft een irritant verslaafd deuntje.

Calimero, the reason I wake up in the morning.

Day 10: Wallpaper on your mobile phone.
Dag 10: Achtergrond op jouw mobieltje.

One day this little guy was on my mobile phone. I already had the Dutch theme song from the television show Calimero as my alarm signal.
Op een dag stond Calimero op de beginscherm van mijn mobiele telefoon. Hij stond niet mis bij mijn wekker ringtone die ik reeds had.

Story of my life.XD

Day 9: bible verse / Dag 9: bijbelvers

1 John 4:20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.

New International Version

1 Johannes 4:20 Als iemand zegt: 'Ik heb God lief,' maar hij haat zijn broeder of zuster, is hij een leugenaar. Want iemand kan onmogelijk God, die hij nooit gezien heeft, liefhebben als hij de ander, die hij wel ziet, niet liefheeft.

Nieuwe bijbelvertaling

We are all the same in eyes of God, made from love. Lets treat eachother with respect.

In de ogen van God zijn we gelijk aan elkaar, uit liefde gemaakt. Behandel elkaar met respect.

Day 6: Money, money, money.

Day 6: What are you saving for?

I'm saving myself for Noah Huntley.;) No, I'm just kidding. *No, I'm not* Yes, I am. *No, I'm not* Oh whatever, who am I kidding, le sigh.=)

Some may know I respect the Islam for their traditions. Especially the ramadan. During the ramadan muslims go on a hunger diet and wait till the sun goes down to feast on yummie food. During the ramadan muslims practice the zakat. Zakat is giving money to the ones who are in need. In the bible Jesus says:

So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honoured by men. I tell you the thruth, they have received their reward in full.

I can't afford to pay people to play on their trompets every time I donate money anyway ... One of the biggest arguments people give me why they don't go to church anymore is because of the manditory 10% they have to give to their church. I've never got a letter from my church to give them 10% of my income. Maybe they think I'm poor.XD They did aks me to give them my time. And so I did and still do my duty.

I want to proof a point. You will always have enough money to give away to charity. It's on the street. I've started to collect coins I find on the street since last Chinese New Year (I don't know if this is correct English :/). The first week was fruitfull. I found 90 Euro cents.XD Since then I was kind of busy (lazy) to scavenge the streets for abondend money. It's also suspicious if you hang around ticket machines too long and putting your arm in without even buying anything. Concidering everyone is a bit frantic after 911. There was that time I end up with two municipal police following me.:/

I also have a tin can I call the funny money can. I started with € 1,- and every month I added another Euro ( month 2: €2, month 3: € 3,-, month 10: € 10,-, etc ...). I use the money to pay for entertainment. So the first month I was allowed to spend € 1'-. Searching for cheap deals becomes a sport if your budget is low. So the last 27 months I was on a boat (Old spice whistle), among other things.

Another night out sponsored by the city of Leeuwarden. To promote the 'Nacht van de nacht' (night of the night).

- I went to a gueririlla movie showing from Cinema Ascona in an old Philips factory. The theme was called girls with guns.

Free enterance for girls with guns.XD

If I didn't touch the funny money can I would have saved € 378 till this day. Hello I'm cheap *** not stingy.;) € 87,80 is not bad concidering the thing I've done the last two years. I'm not going to name everything. I need at least 8 blogposts for that.

People say I should share my budget tips on my blog. Maybe I will, maybe I won't. The media always manage to find weird people to promote frugal living. I'm not going to eat bird food or use an electric tooth brush as a vibrator (I don't have a vibrator though) to save some money. I kid you not, there are really people who live that way.:/ That's not frugal, that's crazy.

I do want to share with you my current favourite show, 2 broke girls on CBS. It's about two girls who are broke, simple as that. Two waitresses trying to survive in Brooklyn. Max has been broke her whole life. Caroline was born rich, lost her money after her dad got caught in a Ponzi-scheme. They live together wit a horse named Chestnut and they try to save $ 250.000,- for their future cup cake shop. At the end of every episode a tally shows how much they have earned so far.

I like Max because she is so sarcastic and shows, the born rich, Caroline how the poor get their daily stuff (online painkillers from South America with adverse effects XD). In episode 4 Max introduces Caroline to Goodwill. I love charity shops. Fortunately I don't depend on charity shops but I choose to buy some things second hand if I don't use them that very often. Books are a good example. When I'm finished I give it away to charity. I think the Goodwill stores get more from me than that I've ever bought from them. There is one thing I refuse to buy second hand, pressure cookers. This year a man was convicted for a murder he committed in 1997. He murdered his brother and cut him to pieces and used a pressure cooker to dissolve (do you say it like that?) the head (of his own brother). The case is known as the 'snelkookpanmoord' (pressure cooker murder). That's sick. I'm not sure if someone else in The Netherlands got inspired by this murder but I'm not taking my chances.:/

Anyways, the theme song from 2 broke girls is from Peter Bjorn and John and it's called Second Chance.

Is it just me or do they use a lot of cowbells in songs.

Proof 2. Listen at 1:48


Proof 3 (cowbells all over)


I guess you can't ignore Christopher Walken and SNL. Everyone needs more cowbell in their life.

Day 4: Your current favourite play list / Jouw huidige favoriete playlist.

The best songs and cartoons are from the eighties. Period. I love the cartoon series Jem. Back then I didn't understood the love triangle. I was just 5. I just started to understand English you know. I'm really happy Shout factory will release a first complete collector's edition on October 11 2011.:) Maybe someone will give it to me on my birthday.*big fat wink* I don't want to sound like I'm the center of the universe but I truly believe they are singing about me. They just misspelled the name.;)

I didn't really like the show for the story line. I only watched the show because I liked the songs, I still like them. For example whenever I need to get something done or need to find something, I think of the next song.

I also luv the song 'Time of the Season' from The Zombies. Especially this version. One day I will be as bold as her and sing to a guy. "What's your name? Who's your daddy? Is he rich like me?" For now I will have to win the lottery cause I'm only rich in third world countries.

Whenever I hear the next song I think of this quote in the movie 'Pretty Woman'.

Vivian: People put you down enough, you start to believe it.
Edward Lewis: I think you are a very bright, very special woman.
Vivian: The bad stuff is easier to believe. You ever notice that?

I need to confess something. I was in a brass band when I was kid. Yup, I know how to play the clarinet. So that's why I think the next performance is so awesome.

If you haven't seen the movie Rio I advice you to see it. It's so colourful and happy. I normally hate it when they start to sing in cartoons but the whole movie I was tapping my feet. The next song is Nigel's song. He's so evil, I love it.:D I also blame everything on seaguls after I saw the movie.

De Nederlandse versie is ook master. "Ik ga je dissen man." XD

This is almost the end of this blogpost but whatever you are doing. Don't stop the rock!

Glee

Yup, I found another one. This might be a surprise cause it's a mashup from the song 'Umbrella' from Rihanna and 'Singing in the rain' originally sang by Gene Kelly. The song is performed by the cast of Glee and Gwyneth Paltrow. Who would have ever guessed she could sing.=) Singing in the rain is one of my all time favourite feel good movies. I wish I could dance like that.

If you don't know Glee yet, it's about a Glee club in Ohio. A glee club is a musical club in (high) school. Besides singing, dancing and competitions there is also a lot of teenage drama going on. Normally I don't like teenage stuff. Might be the fact that I know the whole cast is older than 23. I like season 1 more than 2 since the pace was higher. I could have chosen a song from the 'Grilled Cheesus' episode since all the songs were spiritual themed.

So now you might be wondering what the biblical message in this mashup is. Well, at first I thought it was a nice song about blahblahblah love and being together forever. But than I was really listening and applied hermeneutics on the song and voila. In my opinion the female part represents God and the male represents you. The umbrella is a metaphor for the holy spirit. In a nutshell: Believe it or not we are made by God and Jesus is in our heart. God is calling us and when it's raining on you (bad times) he sends you his umbrella to comfort you and to be your sidekick when you are ready for love (from God to serve human kind).

In my lifetime as a christian (3 yrs xD) I've noticed that a lot of born again christians chose Jesus after a whirlwind of problems in their life. I can't promise your life with Jesus will be perfect. But when you feel down and you feel like your heart has been broken cause you've lost hope he wil send you his umbrella to show his love to you. Together with him you can mend (fix) your heart. Actually you will never have a firm foundation in this world but you will have a firm foundation in your faith.

Glee - Mashup Umbrella and Singing in the rain

(Uh-huh, uh-huh) Yeah, Holly
(Uh-huh, uh-huh) Good girl gone bad
(Uh-huh, uh-huh) Take three…action!
(Uh-huh, uh-huh) Woah!

You have my heart
And we’ll never be worlds apart
May be in magazines
But you’ll still be my star
Baby, ’cause in the dark
You can’t see shiny cars
And that’s when you need me there
With you I’ll always share
‘Cause I…

I’m singin’ in the rain (We’ll shine together)
Just singin’ in the rain (We’ll be forever)
What a glorious feeling (Be a friend)
And I’m happy again (Stick it out ’til the end)
I’m laughing at clouds (More than ever)
So dark, up above (We’ll share each other)
I’m singin’, singin’ in the rain (Umbrella)
You can stand under my umbrella (Ella, ella, eh eh eh)
Under my umbrella (Ella, ella, eh eh eh eh eh eh)

These fancy things
Will never come in between
You’re part of my entity
Here for infinity
When the world has took its part
When the world has dealt its cards
If the hand is hard
Together we’ll mend your heart
‘Cause I…

I’m singin’ in the rain (We’ll shine together)
Just singin’ in the rain (We’ll be forever)
What a glorious feeling (Be a friend)
And I’m happy again (Stick it out ’til the end)
I’m laughing at clouds (More than ever)
So dark, up above (We’ll share each other)
I’m singin’, singin’ in the rain (Umbrella)

You can stand under my umbrella (Umbrella)
Ella, ella, eh eh eh (Just singin’ in the rain)
Under my umbrella (What a glorious feeling)
Ella, ella, eh eh eh (And I’m happy again)
Under my umbrella (I’m laughing at clouds)
Ella, ella, eh eh eh (So dark, up above)
Under my umbrella (I’m singin’)
Ella, ella, eh eh eh eh eh eh (Singin’ in the rain…)

It’s rainin’, rainin’
Ooh, baby it’s rainin’, rainin’
Baby, come here to me
Come here to me
It’s rainin’, rainin’
Ooh, baby it’s rainin’, rainin’ (More than ever)
Baby, come here to me
Come here to me

It’s rainin’, rainin’ (I’m singin’ in the rain)
Ooh, baby it’s rainin’, rainin’ (Just singin’ in the rain)
Baby, come here to me (What a glorious feeling)
Come here to me (And I’m happy again)
It’s rainin’, rainin’ (I’m laughing at cluods)
Ooh, baby it’s rainin’, rainin’ (So dark, up above)
Baby, come here to me (The sun’s in my heart)
And I’m ready for love

My umbrella, my umbrella
My umbrella, my umbrella

Music Monday

I'm going to start the topic Music Monday on my blog. I've been using hermeneutics to interpreter text and art to translate it to easy language. I'm going to show you (lyrics from) pop songs which are/could be inspired by the bible. Some of them might be a great suggestion to be sung in church to reach people who are not used to the usual church songs. Every song also has a personal story behind it.

Ik start vandaag met het onderwerp Music Monday. Ik gebruik hermeneutiek om tekst en kunst te interpreteren en te vertalen naar hedendaagse taal. Zo heb ik ontdekt dat popmuziek zich makkelijk laat gebruiken voor de kerk. Elk liedje heeft zo zijn eigen anekdote.

The first song I turn to you by Melanie C was very popular in Europe in 2000. During a fraternity meeting a christian girl told us she really loved this song because it describes her relationship with God. The lyrics explains it all.

Het eerste lied 'I turn to you' van Melanie C was erg populair in Europa in 2000. Tijdens een bijeenkomst van mijn toenmalige studentenvereniging Alpha Limburg vertelde een meisje dat haar relatie met God goed te beschrijven was met dit lied. Wil je de tekst in het Nederlands? Gebruik dan Google Translate.:D

"I Turn To You"

When the world is darker than I can understand.
When nothing turns out the way I planned.
When the sky turns grey and there's no end in sight.
When I can't sleep through the lonely night.

I turn to you. Like a flower leaning toward the sun.
I turn to you. 'Cos you're the only one.
Who can turn me around when I'm upside down.
I turn to you.

When my insides are wracked with anxiety.

You have the touch that will quiet me.
You lift my spirit. You melt the ice.
When I need inspiration, when I need advice.

I turn to you. Like a flower leaning toward the sun.
I turn to you. 'Cos you're the only one.
Who can turn me around when I'm upside down.
I turn to you.

Where would I be? What would I do?
If you'd never helped me through.
I hope someday if you've lost your way.
You could turn to me like I turn to you.

I turn to you. Like a flower leaning toward the sun.
I turn to you. 'Cos you're the only one.
Who can turn me around when I'm upside down.
I turn to you.

I turn to you. When fear tells me to turn around.
I turn to you. 'Cos you're the only one.
Who can turn me around when I'm upside down.
I turn to you. I turn to you. I turn to you.