So, you have a twitter account.

There's a time and a place for everything. Often this place is not Twitter.

Twitter is a place where you can post little blurbs of what you are doing, where you are, where you're going. A place to say something about things and to people if you must. You can chit chat on twitter.

Keep in mind that whatever you write on twitter will possibly be read by your following. That following could form an opinion not just about that particular tweet but also about you. It's fine that you don't care about that. But take the concequences.

To keep it short and simple: Enjoy tweeting, but tweet responsible.

Your daily news fix or do we really want to know?

Oh wonders of Twitter! Thanks to following Ricky Wilson I've been informed about this article in the Sun. I never surf to the Sun, I only click links with a frowned eyebrow wondering what the fuck this will be about. And this was no exception.

Because you see, The Sun has discovered that Robbie Williams is human. Robbie has put on some weight and got some grey hairs. Robbie Williams is married and 37 years of age.
Apparently Robbie Williams playing charity football with a tummy and grey hair is headline news. It really makes me wonder, the entire article is one lame word joke after the other as if the 'journalists' of the Sun have written out a compitition who could possible put the most lame (word) jokes in one article and this one won. Congratulations.

Leave the guy alone. Hate him, love him, he had a pretty nice solo career and now, somehow someone talked him into playing with Take That again. He loves being in stage so let him be, it looks good on him, even with Take That. Does the world really need to read about his grey hair? Are we really interested? Of course we're not. But we know these things and form an opinion about it. Or not. It left one question for me, unanswered:

Why was I following Ricky Wilson on Twitter again?

Ignore the ignorant - total bliss

A few months ago I decided to never go on the website of Dutch (tabloid) newspaper De Telegraaf again. It's not just because of headlines such as 'Monique Smit buys puppy!!' (Monique Smit is the little sister of a Dutch reasonable famous singer, Jan Smit), it's also because of their political preferences and even more so of the political prefereneces of their readers who have nothing better to do than comment on every article published blaming the left-parties. Who are also blamed for the weather and I wish I was making that up. Fair does it though that the middle-of-the-road and right from it person deserves their own newspaper, after all the so-called left-ones got the more serious paper De Volkskrant, so I'm not dissing the excistance of De Telegraaf per-sé, but reading it and especially the reactions from their readers made me physically ill because I got so angry about them.

Ever since I decided to avoid De Telegraaf I'm doing much better. Reading an online newspaper can be a force of habit, it was hard at first, but I don't miss it at all. Do I miss out on news? No I don't. Do I still know which celebraties are falling out to each other? I do. Trending topics do that. My colleagues tell me that. So I'm totally up to date with things I don't need to know. And I'm much healthier.

After this Big Success I'm now starting my next website-ban. NME.com. I don't get ill going on there but do I really need to read about all the hypes I am NOT interested in? How often did I fall for the trick that this band is The New Shit and in reality they were just as shit as the previous New Shit hailed the previous week? Sure, loads of people are into that and that's fine, for them the NME is heaven but why on Earth did I get into this force of habit? Boredom? That I still want to know 'what's going on'? To annoy myself? To question humanity why hyped band so and so gets the praise and a fairly good band from the North West doesn't?

No more. No more NME.com for me. Will I miss out? No, because thanks to the people I follow on twitter and the trending topics I will get the news. Of releases I'm not interested in. Fair does it of course, because for the so-called snobby people like me there's a source as well and that's the ... well, I still haven't found it yet but I'm sure there is (maybe it's the city of Portland instead of an online magazine). I mean, I still find great music on the web, I think I know what I need to know (and sometimes more than I bargained for) about the musicians I like, really, do I depend on a online website I only shake my head about? I'm breaking another habit. And soon I will be a good person again.

The rock star as we know it is dead.

Thanks to the social networks, the internet in general, the blogs, the news site, the quick connection between internet users who post links to news, videos and what not to each other, even to people they don't know, thanks to all that, it's quite easy to keep up with what your favourite artist is doing nowadays. Artists themselves are helping as well be tweeting their every move. You know where they are, what they eat, what they listen to and what they don't like.

Back in the days musicians were rock stars with their rock and roll attitude. All we knew about them was that they trashed hotel rooms, had loads of groupies and were constantly drunk or high (or both). There was this 'wow' factor around them, they were untouchable, they were heroes despite their constructive ways. Rock stars were cool. They stuck a finger up against society, they rebelled, they yelled, they were mystical creatures. They were gods.

Thanks to rock stars using twitter we know what they eat, where they eat, that they giggle when they're drunk, what they're wearing, that they went to visit aunty in the elderly home, that they listen to Girls Aloud, and like the next scenster kid think they are true and originals individuals not following any herd whatsoever. Rock stars still believe they are rock stars but surely, when rock stars tweet the same things your neighbour does, you little sister does, that politician does. We don't really want to see our neighbours latest butt tattoo just as much we really don't want to see Courtney Love's latest butt tattoo. So your brother is looking for some weed, that info is just as useless as The Thermals offering free tickets for anyone who brings weed to the show. Rock stars complain about their fans taking pictures during the concert and tweeting them immediately but when their rock star friends are doing the same it's fun. Musicians tweeting each other to meet up for a drink? Dude, use the telephone and TALK to each other!

I wonder, the stalker who lives in each and every one of us embraces the internet and the social networks and the rock stars greedily abusing the networks, we know more than ever about our heroes but really, is it really all that good? We technically could talk to the rock stars (if they weren't as friend-shallow as your next door neighbour only), but isn't it much nicer to meet them after a show and be actually excited about meeting this star? Don't we rather hear about rock stars trashing a hotel room rather than them meeting each other for a cup of tea at the house of the guitarist's mother? Didn't the internet, the quick media and us fans exchanging news and other info so quickly and easily not take away the mystique of the rock and roll star?

As much as some of us might moarn the death of that mystical rock star, we too wait for that rock star to finally tweet something, only to make fun of the tweet and considering him a wanker, just like that boy that lives across the street is. Rock stars of the 21st century are boring people just like you and me, no matter how outrageously they may dress. We've all come to accept it.

Not so cool

I'm not sure what's worse: someone who openly tweets about his alcohol habits (it's not cool, it's really not cool) or the people who think they reply in a witty way thinking this is really cool (both the reply and the habit).

Things the world can live without, really!

This morning while cycling to work I was, of course, listening to my walkman. It happens more often but I was quite pleased with the tunes that came through the shuffle. Most of it this morning was 90s rock and as I was racing into the forest (really) I caught myself thinking how awesome the 90s rock scene was. Only to quickly note to self that this excludes Britpop. Britpop =/= rock. Britpop =/= awesome. And that's the end of that. I never liked Britpop when it hit MTV and I still don't like it.

The God of Britpop must have heard me and had arranged that today the news emerges that Pulp reformed. Just like Blur and Suede had done before. Does the world need this? The Twitter Trending Machine indicates it does. Good grief, I mean am I the only one who thinks it's a little bit ridiculous? I'm all for being a bit retro (I am in fact wearing my army trousers which hail truthfully directly from the Great Grunge Era. This could also tell you that things really used to be better back in the day - it still fits and is in one piece) but a shit band will still be a shit band even when the band reforms years later and gets everyone nostalgic.

Indeed, it's Monday.

Vinegar pissing all the way to my grave

All my colleagues, both of them, had a bit of a conversation today about how it's not such a good idea to become a first class 'azijnpisser' (azijn = vinegar, pisser = well, a guy who pisses) as it only makes you bitter and not a pleasant person to be around with. I didn't take part in that conversation partly because I was actually doing some work but also because I don't own a badge saying 'voted most likely to piss and moan all the way to the grave' for no reason at all. With the work done, reading some news headlines and reading some tweets from respected musicians I got to say, today I'm really in top form when it comes down to be an edgy moaning bitter depressed human being. Marvin, eat your heart out!

For once it's not the grim politic climate the Netherlands is in, though it is a constant factor. For instance, yesterday I read that not just 60% of all Dutch venues are running the high risk of having to close if the ticket prices will really rise with at least 13%, it was something I was already aware of, but what I wasn't aware of or maybe didn't want to see (I'm a first class music doom-thinker, sadly I'm often right too) was that it would also result in less bands coming to the Netherlands. Even less! And whenever there is an article in the papers you can respond to, no matter what the subject is, there will always be people attacking left-wingers. Everything is the left-side fault. Whatever did we do? Have we been in charge lately? I feel like there's some propaganda going on. I feel extremely paranoid but if the (right sided) government wants to shut off the public broadcasting from the internet, because they have no business there, what else is going on? Since when do we FORBID people being online? Have they committed crimes? Are they offering illegal contents on their websites? When will the readers be fined? Come on! Has anyone read George Orwell's 1984?? In there the news and all history is systematically changed in favour of The Great Leader. Just saying.

Today's headlines yelled about a plane crashed in Cuba. They probably wouldn't have yelled so much if there hadn't been 3 Dutch people onboard and all 68 passengers had died. To be honest, I haven't really read the article, it was depressing enough in itself (lifting out the three Dutch people is one thing, like they matter more than the other 65 people who have lost their lives in this tragedy) plus the picture of a huge ball of fire, I think it was what is left of the plane, spoke for itself. Also, 20 people died in a plane crash in Pakistan. And a bomb has been found in a plane that departed from Schiphol. Slightly depressed I went to twitter, the number one resource for news. If there's a place news spreads like the plague it's Twitter. Every time I see a famous person trending I think that person died (which is the case half of the time). Surely the plane crashes are trending.

The world is coming to a dramatic end but fear not: the MacRib is back! Yes it's true, MacDonald's brings back the MacRib in all its top-trending glory. Of course people don't talk about planes and bombs! And people still wonder how one can be such a cynical bitch. If you got a mind of your own it's really not that difficult.