*pepineros

So yeah. The bullet is through the church. (Now feast your minds on that, you non-dutch watchers!) I'm starting, or have started, a band, called March; please allow me to tell you people something about it.
Funny thing is, I can't even tell you that much about the music it'll be making. I can tell you what instruments are in it, I can tell you what the main influences are, but I honestly can't name the genre it fits in best; so I'll indeed just do that, tell you what it *is*, then you can decide whether or not it's likable. March, at the moment, consists of acoustic guitar (me), percussion instruments (which is to say, 'the back of the guitar body', also me) and tin whistle (me). Main influences are Omnia (neo-celtic, I think), Blackmore's Night (medieval/traditional), but on the other hand both those bands are quite orientated around vocals, which March - wanting a good vocalist - is not, or not yet. Also it's influenced by pop (Great Big Sea, anyone?) and certain metal styles (HammerFall's slower guitar riffs and Blind Guardian's feeling for both rythm and their fantasy setting). So, I think you'll agree, it's hard to label.
Something about the name: March. Of course it's a month, and my favourite month too (my birthday is in it, for example), and it sounds good to me, short but strong. Not a lot to tell about it besides this. A downside is, there already *is* a band called March. Luckily for me they're from California USA and are not well-known or anything, so there's not too much chance they'll charge me for stealing their name. To those who're interested: they don't have their own website but their myspace profile can be found here: March on myspace. I don't have a Myspace profile yet, as I'm having *lots* of trouble with the technical side of things on there. I do, however, have profiles on Purevolume (go to www.purevolume.com/marchofficial ) and Imeem (go to profile.imeem.com/9h_f3iz), plus my own website, which you can find at www.marchofficial.com, though that one's still under construction; I'm not that much of a webbuilder.
On all three of these sites you can listen to the first song I recorded, a two-guitar version of the traditional (and well-known) song Greensleeves. As it's a two-guitar arrangement I'm gonna need at least one other person to play it live, but that's the future for now. If you like the song, please sign up and leave me a comment! Whether on Imeem or Purevolume doesn't matter, though signing up to Purevolume is faster by a little, plus at Purevolume you can add me to your favourites. This will make sure you're on my Purevolume page under the 'Fans' header, and you'll get notified when I upload new music. (Both would be even sweeter.) You can also download the file from Purevolume (click the "download" button next to the song you want) on my profile. Of course, all the music I'll be creating in the future will be put on those sites as well so if you liked Greensleeves, it's probably you'd like other music from me as well so it's not a bad idea to sign up anyways. I'll love you for every comment.
If you'd like the mp3 file of the song but - for whatever reason - can't download it from my Purevolume page, send me an e-mail at march.official@gmail.com stating you'd like the mp3 of Greensleeves and I'll send it to you. This goes for everybody, you don't have to know me (or I you), we don't have to be friends, if you like the music just contact me and thou shalt receive, so to speak. I'll make the song available for download on my site as well but like I said, I'm not that much of a webbuilder so it might again take a little time.Well, so much for advertising. For those who are interested, life's been good to me since I posted the last journal. Actually it's been being good to me for very long now, I don't really have anything to complain about. That's very frustrating, you know? (Aah, and now I'm complaining. I'm sorry.) School is going well, I passed an important test the other day while expecting to fail, which wasn't bad AT ALL; internship is almost done, which isn't bad. Love-wise things are still quite boring around here but I'm sure that'll get more lively some time in the future; and for now it's just very nice to have a lot of time to myself, recording and coding and more recording.
Well, so much for my interesting life. Please do me a favour and leave a comment on my Purevolume page or my Imeem page, I'll love you for ever. and all the best to you!

It occured to me that 2008 is the third year in a row we ('we' here meaning 'the dutch people', the dutch people here meaning 'everybody who lives in the Netherlands' ) get snow, and quite a lot of it, in march. Now the 21st of march is supposed to mark the start of spring, and is also the spring equinox (meaning both day and night are exactly twelve hours long). Although last two years the snow fell early in march, usually in holland we only got snow in december and january, if I remember correctly. Also, there's always a *lot* of snow (the first year it fell we couldn't even get to school, nor could most teachers, as there was so much snow on the road), which is even more remarkable. I don't know how it's possible and because of that it scares me, but that doesn't mean I don't like it as well of course! Snow's good.
Dunno why, I just wanted to tell some people about it. Of course most dutch people already know so I guess I wanted to tell all non-dutch people how weirdly our weather is acting. Just so you know.Weird title for a piece of journal text, I know. Let me explain.
Because of a clever combination of effects including 1. the taxes, 2. the dutch group that pays for studying, and 3. my *mother*, my monthly income has been roughly cut in half. I'll spare you the details (except if you're absolutely chafing for details, then I might share some) but you will understand it's not something I welcome. I will get the money I'm entitled to, eventually, but it's gonna take at least another three months. This means, contrary to what I said in my previous journal, I will not be able to get any new equipment anytime soon. I don't like having a debt anywhere so you'll understand I won't be asking anybody for money, but this means I'll have to save on whatever I can (including music, obviously, as it's rather expensive) to keep this up. Another bad thing is I'll leave my current (paying) intern company in three weeks for a new one, the boss of which is planning to pay me at the end of the internship (which would be ten weeks after the start of the next school year) based on how well I did. So I won't have any help from there either.
On the plus side, when I *do* get my money, it's going to be an unimaginable amount of it. Not literally unimaginable: it would be around €1800 but that's very much for a poor student like me. This also means that when I get this money, I will be able to afford lots of new equipment at once; which would be greater than great. I don't think you people will be seeing any new stuff of mine (music-wise) around dA, considering they've been removing music for some time now, but I'll post links to free hosts where I stored the music so you'll be able to listen no matter what if you like, of course.
That's all from me for now; thought I'd give you an update on why I'm not, well, updating. s to all!

I was tagged by =forbiddenhero, even though he's working hard to make a deadline, he has enough time for this kind of randomness.So, here's how tag works.
1.Post these rules.
2.Each tagged person must post 8 things about themselves on their journal.
3.At the end,you have to choose and tag 8 people and post their icons on the same journal.
4.Go to their pages and send a message saying you tagged them.
5.No tag-backs!

1. I love my guitar more than some people I know.

2. When I'm bicycling from home to school or work or wherever, I usually sing. Usually I don't have my mp3-player with me.

3. Waiters still ask me for my ID when I order a beer, or some other light-alcoholic drink for which the age limit is 16+. I turned 19 last week.

4. I miss my friends, as they're all not on my school and some just live too far away.

5. I don't like to draw and I'm not good at it, but I love commenting and criticizing other people's drawings.

6. I love horsebackriding and ballroom dancing; I'm a heterosexual guy.

7. Actually I'm not 100% sure about the last part of number 6.

8. All of my best friends are girls.

That was fun ^^ I think people should do this kind of stuff more often.




Now don't cheat, just do this tag-thingie and again, no back-tags! Sure you all know eight people apart from me

Ismail entered the piece I wish he hadn't died and hits first place! There's a lot I like about this. Firstly the subject: a funeral isn't a usual subject for a song, but for me it worked brilliantly. The sorrow and pain which 'should' accompany being at a funeral, it's all translated from emotion to words very accurately. Another very strong point of this song is the lack of repeat. Only the line, "I went to a wake the other day" keeps returning but what the main character witnesses at the wake is different every time. The verses are equally lengthened, which is good as it helps to maintain coherency. The rythm is a subject to a lot of diversity at times which makes it harder again to maintain coherency but that's not very much of a problem... it's a very good song indeed. Congratulations! I'll be activating your three months subscription soon Aleid entered the piece Some love isn't enough and hits a respectable second place. The funny thing is it's quite different from ~LurbeFlummel's entry: there's a lot of repeats (whereas I wish he hadn't died has very few) and the subject is immensely cliché (while I wish he hadn't died stands out for originality); it's not necessarily a bad thing though. This is a very "easy" song (or at least it is for me), easy to give a 'musical frame', easy to listen, but because of this it could get boring after listening to it a few times.
(One small part I'd like to highlight in this songtext: "Though I just can't stop/loving you is insecure", makes brilliant use of a single phrase "loving you" while actually meaning 'Though I just can't stop loving you, loving you is insecure'. Very well done.)~Korgone entered the piece mr. Nobody. It's one very unique and interesting song (or as he puts it himself, "more like a musical piece") but the rythm is incoherent and the piece is quite chaotic, overall. It's refreshing and particularly original but the lack of consistency is too much of a bad thing in my opinion.
~Alannavich entered the piece Good Time Memories, arguably the best poem I received from contesting members. The main reason why this piece is not first place is simple: it's not enough of a song. So despite the fact it's a very good poem, I can't relate it to any rythm or any tune. Also there's no real song outline (for example verse 1 - chorus - verse 2 - bridge - chorus) which is almost a necessity for any song. The subject is fine, the writing is very good, but a song... no.
Funnily, ~BrandendBoomschors's entry Superskunk is exactly the opposite from Alanna's entry in terms of both quality of writing and songishness (no I didn't make that up ). Looking at the writing, it's simple - not to say boring - and quite short. Looking at the consistency of rythm and rhyming pattern, it's very good: one can immediately relate the words to a rythm. However, another worse point of this entry is the subject: for those who don't know, superskunk is a popular word for weed. Like pointed out in the contest description, all facets of a songtext - including the subject - are important.
~Wesselus entered the piece A song about you which is not only his first song but also his first ever piece here on dA. There are some issues concerning English and rythm, but for example the choice of words is very good for such an inexperienced writer. So, talented? Definitely. (I'm thinking it runs in the family.) Experienced? Not so much. Keep practicing!

I actually very much enjoyed running this contest. It was small-scale but it was a succes, at least in my book: though there weren't very many contestants, the entries were *very* diverse and indeed quite equally leveled. It was very hard for me to decide the winner. I'd love to hear what you, the contestants, thought and think about it help me with any feedback on how to improve future contest runs! I'll love you for it!As some of you might know it's my birthday today! Yesterday night was Spring Ball, which lasted till after 12 so I actually turned 19 in a city theatre with over 1500 people in it. (I think they weren't ALL there for me...) It was pretty cool, some (not-so-funny) friends of mine starting singing "happy birthday" during a music break hoping to have everybody sing along; luckily for me, they failed
Today my parents and little brothers came over to my place to congratulate and bring some gifts (well, only one actually ). I think I did a pretty good job cleaning my room: seeing as they didn't faint from the smell. I'm off cleaning up again after I post this (that's the downside of inviting people: they make a mess, then go home) but that's okay, I'm actually starting to like cleaning. Probably from doing it so often.
Anything else.., I'm quite happy I'll be gone from my current job in four weeks, the people are nice but the work is *so* boring. I have a chat with my soon-to-be employer next friday during which she'll explain what my task(s) will be there. If it sounds as bad as my current job, I'm gonna go look for another. I might seem a little overreacting but what I got now really sucks, I spend time doing schoolwork or on dA because there's just so little for me to do, then they get mad at me for not doing anything. Well...
I was planning to have a new piece of recording equipment up today but I changed my mind (happens a lot, yes). I've been playing my acoustic a lot lately and I think it sounds a lot better than the semi-acoustic, especially when playing classical pieces. I fitted new strings as well last week, which of course improved sound a lot. So, once again: re-recording, but still using a mic. I *might* get the USB hub I was talking about (with which I'd be able to connect my semi-acoustic with my laptop directly, cancelling the background static I get from microphone recording) but definitely not anytime soon. I still think the recordings will be better, plus recording is fun. I'll get edits of my current pieces Andante, Cantilene Espagno and Romance very soon, maybe tonight even, and make proper deviations out of them; I think the new strings deserve it. I'll upload two pieces of my own the two sundays after today, after that I'm not yet sure. Maybe I'll have more pieces of my own, maybe I'll record some existing songs; we'll have to see.First and foremost, can I please have your attention for my friend Tjerk ( ~krijt ), who's currently in hospital recovering from a heavy medical operation. As far as I know the operation itself went as planned, his family and girlfriend are with him, but if you've spent time in hospital yourself you know it's never nice to be there. So, if you have some love to spare, send it or be a little more concrete, go to his page and leave a nice message for him to read as soon as he returns home. Thanks

Right now I'm quickly getting intoxicated with chocolate (I love Easter) so I'll be off before I start saying weird things... aww, too late. Well, I'll go anyway, hehe... Captain Pep, logging out... love and s to all of you