Music of Michaelmas 2012: Within Temptation Edition

Before the end of last year, I promised a post on the music I listened to in Michaelmas Term.  Seeing as we are now three weeks into Hilary, I thought I'd better get this music post up now before it becomes morbidly too late.

Because I went to Within Temptation's fifteen-year anniversary concert in Antwerp, I spent some time listening to their back catalogue, Enter (1997), The Dance EP (1998), Mother Earth (2000), The Silent Force (2004), The Heart of Everything (2007), and The Unforgiving (2011).  In honour of this re-listening to one of my favourite-ever bands, I give, you my favourite six seven songs. 

(Which were incredibly hard to choose!)

"Candles", from Enter.  My favourite from the era of the first album and EP, when the band did "Beauty and the Beast"-style singing.  That is, pairing Sharon den Adel's lovely "clean" vocals with male, er, growling.  If you don't listen much music with growling, it will come across as strange and Cookie Monster-ish, but I've developed a bit of a fondness for it (in moderation!) and I quite like the contrast it creates in songs like this one.

Fun December Things: A List

1. Mulled wine, my new favourite hot drink
2. Seeing Florence + The Machine live in London
3. Visiting Dr Johnson's house
4. Seeing the new digital restoration of Lawrence of Arabia at the BFI (with an actual and much-needed intermission)
5. Scottish country dancing at Tim's work Christmas party.  Very Jane Austen, while simultaneously being very Scottish.
6. Snow before Christmas (unlike last year's snow in February)
7. This morning's hoar frost-covered spider's web

Antwerp

 After two lovely days in Brussels, it was off to Antwerp, once a big commercial power and still one of the biggest players in the diamond industry.  The whole reason we were going to Antwerp, on this trip really, was because on November 13th, Within Temptation - one of my favourite bands ever - was having its 15th anniversary concert at Antwerp's Sportpaleis.  Otherwise, I didn't know that much about Antwerp but we really enjoyed ourselves.

We especially enjoyed the gorgeous Art Nouveau entrance hall of the train station.  The rest of the station is modernized, with train platforms on three levels, but this hall and the main facade were wonderful.  Probably the nicest train station of the entire trip.

 We stayed in a four-level house filled with rental apartments a hop, skip, and a jump away from the Grote Markt, home to the Cathedral of Our Lady, which is currently filled with a number of Dutch religious paintings, including four or so by Reubens, as Antwerp's art museum is closed until next year, I think.  It was really nice to see these paintings in a cathedral setting, especially the Reubens ones, as most of them were painted specifically to be displayed in this building.

 Another beautiful city hall, also in the Grote Markt.

 On day two, our full day in Antwerp, we headed south to take in the St. Andries district which is described as trendy and is quite a fashion district.  There were many interesting clothing stores and restaurants in this area, all in lovely old buildings.  It was a nice neighbourhood to explore at random.

 Right by St. Andries is the Plantin-Moretus House, a printing museum.  This was possibly our favourite museum of the trip - printing, books, engraving, atlases, libraries, and even a 17th century bookstore, pictured above.  We were in bibliophile heaven.  (Christophe Plantin was the first industrial printer in the Low Countries, or was it in Europe?  Hugely important, in any case.  Moretus was his assistant and then son-in-law and the Moretus's continued the printing business successfully into the 18th century.  The museum is in the family home.)

 Here you can see any printer's most valuable possessions - his type.  Type was very expensive, so generally you kept as little on hand as you could get away with.  Some of it is still in its original packaging; some is packaged in old printed sheets, probably ones with errors that couldn't be used.

The printing workshop.  So many printing presses!

 And cases upon cases of type.

 Me, with one of two of the oldest printing presses in the world.  The other one is on my other side.

 And, as might be expected from a successful printer, a fabulous humanist library, complete with globes and busts.  This is the Large Library.  There is also a Small Library.

And my one, terribly fuzzy photo from the Within Temptation concert, which was fabulous, especially as you can see pictured behind Sharon den Adel and the band the orchestra and choir.  I think I took this during "Ice Queen".  Everyone who was staying in our building (except for Tim, but including our very friendly landlady) ended up going to the concert.  I think all the hotels in Antwerp were filled with metal fans that night.  I ended up riding the tram to the venue with some friendly Norwegians, one of whom had been to Saskatchewan and tried to convince his friends it was even flatter than the Netherlands and Belgium.

We were a bit concerned about how we would get to our next stop, Amsterdam, as there were reports that the socialist rail union in Belgium was going to go on strike the next day, in solidarity with countries dealing with austerity measures.  Did we make it to Amsterdam or not?  Find out in the next installment.  :)

Oxford Soundtrack: Fall 2011

I listen to a fair bit of music while I work, both on my thesis and my novel (and while doing the dishes).  I tend to listen to one thing pretty obsessively at a time, with other artists and songs thrown in for flavouring.  For this reason, my first term at Oxford and the lead up to Christmas has had a pretty identifiable soundtrack, which I will share with you, if you are interested.

If you, like Tim, have absolutely no interest in European symphonic metal, you will probably want to skip this entry.

Moving over here will probably always be associated with the first single off Evanescence's self-titled album, which came out at the beginning of October.  I remember very clearly blasting "What You Want" in the car on our terrible speakers while driving around Saskatoon during our last weeks there.

The album itself came out right as term began (and, ahem, leaked shortly before that), so I listened to it repeatedly during my orientations and my first few weeks of research.  For the record, I think it's a great album, an improvement over their last effort and, frankly, better than We Are the Fallen's debut record (though I'd be very happy to listen to their follow-up).