Yelyam

The Call for Groove at #backtoniceness with @DeejayKwak #radioshow #soul #funk #hiphop #music (at FM Brussel)

And then in the darkness they saw a light! A light! #ixelles #brussels #light (at Le Pantin)

If you’re looking for love you’ll see it. #ixelles #brussels #bruxelles #streetart #heart #tag (at Place Flageyplein)

Detail of a picture of me with my friend Aliette taken by Street Photographer Laurent Olivier
Flickr.com/Laurentolivier
#me #streetphoto #girls #coffee

Plane trail in blue sky is like a spring’s teaser.

#brussels #bruxelles #sky #blue
(at Place Flageyplein)

Jeudi 17 mai 2012

Avoir le sentiment d’avoir fait les efforts nécessaires, d’être bien apprêté. Ressentir pourtant une certaine forme de solitude, au milieu de la foule bigarrée.

Mais toujours se tenir bien droit et regarder devant soi. 

Vendredi 11 mai 2012

On m’avait dit “Chienne de vie !”, je n’ai vu que cette vache qui m’a narguée au milieu de ses livres sur une route qui devait me mener pas fort loin, devant une voiture qui ne pourrait plus jamais rouler et une église où personne ne va plus jamais prier….

Lundi 16 janvier 2012

Grouillante humanité fort occupée sous le soleil couchant d’hiver

Dimanche 8 janvier 2012

De l’arabe sur les murs du métro, c’est plus joli que les ‘Murocains’ au coin de la rue.

Samedi 7 janvier 2012

Mettre de la couleur dans sa vie, même au milieu de la nuit, surtout au coeur de l’hiver.

Vendredi 6 décembre 2011 On trouve parfois la lumière et la beauté quand on ne les attendait pas.

Samedi 31 décembre 2011

La fin selon l’Apoca Lipstick (aka Elisa)

Vendredi 30 décembre 2011

Fêter l’Endormon autour du feu, d’histoires et d’amitié et ne pas s’endormir avant le lever du soleil

L’Endormon, c’est un jeu de mot : par opposition au Réveillon

Depuis quelques années maintenant, chaque 30 décembre, j’organise un Endormon dans mon salon.

Ce n’est pas mon idée, j’ai été conviée à cela il y a quelques années chez des personnes que je serais bien incapable de nommer aujourd’hui… hasard de mes rencontres bruxelloises.

J’ai repris le concept et, pour ceux qui me connaissent, c’est devenu une tradition attendue.

Le 31 décembre : La nuit du Réveillon, on veille pour accueillir cette nouvelle année pleine de promesses…

On fait la fête toute la nuit : on mange des plats un peu chers, on boit des bulles, on reste “réveillé”, on fait des excès, on danse, on chante, on s’embrasse sous le gui. On commence la nuit pour la terminer l’année suivante. 

Le 30 décembre : La nuit de l’Endormon, on veille pour saluer l’année qui se termine, une petite commémoration de ce qui s’est ajouté dans nos vies et que l’on portera à l’avenir. 

On est dans un trip “cocoon” : on se rassemble autour du feu avec des choses simples à grignoter.  

On lit des extraits d’un livre qui nous a touché, on montre une photo et on raconte ce qu’on y voit, on échange des souvenirs de l’année et ensemble on passe la toute dernière nuit de l’année. 

On peut s’endormir durant l’Endormon pendant que les autres convives racontent leurs histoires…

On échange, on essaye d’être vrai, en-dehors des mondanités, des faux-semblants. On fait connaissance.

Dimanche 25 décembre 2011

Après la sortie pour acheter des cadeaux à mettre dans les chaussons, il y a la sortie des cadeaux et chaussons. Ça ressemble à un dimanche de Noël morose malgré le cadre rose.

Samedi 17 décembre 2011

Décor chaleureux pour temps froid

You only need to keep on reading this page to find out some suggestions.

Some street art, an open air party, the opening of a new bookshop, a guided tour to visit some Art Nouveau mansions…

You don’t need to know anybody in town and don’t need to try to have your name on a list. All you need is enthusiasm and curiosity.

If you understand french, you can read the french version here.

Whatever language you speak, read or understand: you won’t need any of those skills to enjoy music and arts in the City.

Some friends were a lot into Electronic music like they play in Berlin. So they founded a collective called “Woodstrasse” and they had a very good success during the time they were spinning every Thursday in a club called “The Wood” (in the middle of the wood La Cambre), and even made their way to the world famous best Electronic Music Festival: Tomorrowland.

Then, a few months ago, they announce that they were stopping the weekly party. So I was waiting with a lot of curiosity to see if they would have a new concept or not (besides the fact that they were Djying in other parties of course). So here they come with an Open Air concept, which is so “Berliner” style: if you ever spend some time in Berlin during the Summer you have noticed that the city is full of different open air parties every week-end…

In Brussels, the party will take place Sunday as from noon at the Royal Park. It’s called  Voyage Voyage and I’ll travel from the park ot other things to see in the area: as it’s the Iris Festival during the whole week-end and there’s a lot of things to do in the streets for free and for all tastes and ages! All for free…. So no need to be on any guest list!

During this open air party, one of the great name on the line up is Jan Blomqvist, coming from Berlin and it must be magical….

Three people rented an apartment in the ground floor of a typical Brussels’ House. 

They have a nice garden. They love music and love having people coming.

So they just got that brilliant idea to organize concerts in their garden.

It’s called Oh My Garden! and there’s one concert this Sunday at 18.00. Be on time!

The entrance is 5€ for concerts from two artists: Tom Terrien and VomPleud.

It’s has the look of a private event but you can be part of it… without any guest list….

For me that’s probably one of the most mysterious party concept of Brussels.

The name, the music.. even the place they choose is for me a total unknown territory.

I would love to attend one of their party, it seems really good and well organised, but I must confess that I can’t listen for more than 3 seconds to any video or mix from the guest artists.

Yet, my tastes are not the only parameters for an event to be part of this agenda…

As I said, from what I can see they seem good and if you’re into that kind of music, you shouldn’t be disappointed!

Fondation Sonore #8  w/ Tomohiko Sagae, Minimum Syndicat, ADMX at La Raffinerie

Trailer of the party:

In Forest, the Bar du Matin is a nice spot to have drink during the day in its giant terrace.

You also go there to listen to some groovy sounds at night from Thursday to Saturday.

This Saturday, DJ Suspect is coming from Paris for the 3rd round of a monthly concept called Upper Cut

There’s many Independent Music Labels in Belgium - and Brussels ! It’s really amazing to discover them and of course the numerous artists they are producing.

If you want to have a good overview to the independent music scene, go to Café Central for the Marché du Disque indépendant from 16 to 20.00

Café Central is a bar in the Saint Géry neighborhood : the place in the Center of the city where you have so many bars…

 Café Central is different than the other ones as it has a very specialised program: inviting artists, generally doing some unknown genre most of the time experimental.

It seems that Brussels is a great city to discover the architecture style called ‘Art Nouveau”.

It’s was an international movement, so you can find traces in many places in the world and Brussels is one of the good spots for it.

The thing is that some of those houses are private, so you can’t visit them very often. Anyway, you’re lucky as the guided tours association “Voir et Dire Bruxelles”  is guiding us to three of them during an exceptional opening.

All the tours are available in English and it will cost you 25€ or 40€ (for the Solvay Library) to join it.

In the Center of Brussels, there’s some places between a bar and a club: Madame Moustache, Bonnefooie and Mr Wong.

I really like Mr Wong: an art deco style, very well situated and with good parties. Friday night, there’s a party called Open The Box. I don’t have any idea of the price (no info nor on the event page or on the flyer). I do have some info about the line up. They invited a DJ from Scotland called Lord of the Isles

You can listen to what he’s doing here:

The other DJ’s are from the parties “High Needs Low”. That’s one of the numerous independant concept parties we do have in Brussels. They are into House Music and they have a good reputation.

So if you want to have an idea of what they’re doing and even a clue of the type of people who are attending their events, go to Mr Wong!

People in Brussels are crazy about their “Apéro”.

It all started in 2007 with the guy who launched the event “Apéro Urbain” and since then, he got a big success with that organisation and other people just thought it could be a good idea to launch something similar.

While the original “Apéro Urbain” is a big gathering bringing thousands of people in a different place every Friday, other ”apéro” are quieter and not nomadic. So it’s a chance to have a relaxed moment with people from a specific neighborhood and even a chance to actually meet some new people.

Last year some locals started to organise their own apero with concert in Schaerbeek in the heart of the very nice park Josaphat.

This week, the band is called “Laid comme vous’” (which means “Ugly like You”). Cheers!

UPDATE: EVENT CANCELLED

(you can still read what I’m saying about the Bazaar Club)

The US Hip Hop scene is legendary. The 90’s were probably its Goden Age and as we are in the beginning of the 21st Century we have the chance to be able to see on stage many of the stars of this movement.

The man who’s running the club Bazaar is a total fan of that music and he had this brilliant idea of inviting them in Brussels as nobody did before him.

This week, the guest is Big Daddy Kane. The ticket price is 21€, which is still less than a ticket in a concert hall!

For this event you don’t have to be on any guest list: you just have to wear your sneakers and be ready to move you head in rythm and put your hands up! Yo!

There’s a lot of bookshops in Brussels.

While many are in French, many of them have a foreign language section and you also have a choice of bookshops in many other languages: two in English (Waterstone and Sterling), some in Dutch (Standaard Boekhandel.) one is multilingual (Passa Porta) and you also have a choice of other bookshops in dedicated to a community  (Punto y coma, Piola Libri, Gutenberg, …).

Fortunately, you can also find some dedicated bookshops where the language is not a problem: Taaschen, Peinture Fraîche (a lot of art books) or Hors Format (about photography)

With the opening of Tipi Bookshop , that’s another place you can go, whatever the language you read!

They are specialised in auto edited photo books…

This Tursday, while opening their door, they will introduce two photo book, one of them is Té de Reina by Daniel Piaggio Strandlund

Spring back on track… That’s a perfect moment to simply wander around town… While doing it, try to have a look at the numerous street art works.

For example, there’s a street in Ixelles called Rue Keyenveld.

At the number 49, there’s an empty wall and the owner of this wall, an artist, used it one time to put some street art on it. It was nice and his neighboor loved it so much that they founded the project W49 : every two months they invite an artist to stick some street art pieces on it. They even got a small subvention from the Ixelles’ administration. Isn’t it cool?

So you certainly don’t need to be on any guest list to have a look to the wall, a public venue. You just need to walk there, open your eyes and enjoy!

Since yesterday you can see the work from French artist FKDL

And note already in your agenda that the next wall will be inaugurated around the 17th June!