Last Tuesday the WeSC concept store, on which I have been working on the past two months, finally opened. Without my graphics.

Yupp, due to some 'miscalculations' in the time management along with the label's need to open up in the lucrative Christmas season, my stuff will be added on in the next couple of weeks. But not to worry, there's also some engravings, logos and signs still missing. What a chaotic project.

But it already looks good even without graphics. And the opening party on location and at Horgan's was crowded anyways. Unfortunately only Alex, her sister and me were there to represent Bleed. I guess the other one's are getting too old for that kinda thing ;)

As mentioned before, last Friday Bleed had the big vernissage to open their exhibition under the title of "Follow your inner moonlight; don't hide the madness".

Kick off was at 6 p.m. and already at 7 the place was pretty much packed. Even though there was natural fluctuation with people continuously coming and going, it somehow stayed that way til around ten thirty. The barkeeps from Bombay Sapphire were mixing free delicious cocktails nonstop – the gin brand with the cool blue bottles thankfully sponsored us –, Alex' brother was spinning hip electro tunes and the crowd, me included, enjoyed themselves. Already arriving tipsy from downing a couple of Vodka Bulls at home, I drank my way up and down the menu card. This of course directly contributed to my incapability to take pictures this night. And that is why over half of the ones you see here have been shot by Astrid :)

What made the night even more so enjoyable, was the fact that Felix, Sas and Chris from back home as well as almost my entire flatshare managed to drop by and witness the whole thing. On this note, thanks to all of you guys!

At about 11 we had to close down the bar as there was simply no booze left. The entire Bleed staff plus a couple of friends then continued on to a relatively posh bar/restaurant right across the street called Südøst. Chugged a couple of more beers and glasses of champagne, had a lot of laughs and finally called it a night around twelve thirty. After all, the German visitors and me had to get up at 8 next morning with 350km of road ahead of us...



P.S. 3rd image from the left, bottom row: nominated for best f***ing party pic on this blog :D

...and all I got was this lousy poster.

There was a point last night where I just wanted to scream my fucking guts out. Use all the swearwords I know and hit something very hard at the same time. That kinda angry, you know? But first things first.

It started by me going to a popular local club and concert venue called Blå to see the British indie rock band Late Of The Pier, of which I have become a pretty big fan over the past weeks. Had been looking forward to this concert for quite a while. I got there around a quarter to 10, it was very empty and didn't even look like the support band was about to start. So I went to Bleed, whose office is very close, to get some beer from the fridge (hehe). There I encountered Astrid, who I was supposed to meet at the venue later, also sipping a cold Ringnes. So we stayed and chatted for a bit while drinking up. After half an hour we decided to get some food and then head back to Blå.

At about 11 we were back at the concert. We went in only to see the band perform the last 30 seconds of their last song. Yupp. That was it. No encore. No nothing. 25 bucks right out the window. To be honest, I didn't give a shit about the money. But I had just missed the fucking concert! I was – oh, the irony – too late. $@!&%*! Ok, I screwed up. On the other hand, those bastards must've started when the place was just halfway filled and only played 45 minutes, max!

In the end, Astrid managed to get our tickets partly refunded and we decided to stay for a bit, while the support DJs started their – relatively crappy – set after the concert. Argh. This way, I at least had some time to check out the place. I must say, after having heard so much about it and knowing that they get pretty big acts on a regular basis, I was quite shocked by it's size. It's really small! Nice, cozy, cool – but small! Not tiny, but still...

After another hour or so we met up with our fellow Bleedian André and his girlfriend Kine. After seemingly endless walking through a friggin' cold Oslo night – t-shirt and hoodie are definitely not enough for these kinda temperatures – we landed at a pretty nice bar called Hell's Kitchen, got drunk and ended up having a pretty fun time after all.
So it wasn't entirely bad.

But still, damn you, bad timing!

Wow, that was chaotic. Don't think, I've ever covered so much distance by foot and train on a single night. After the Streets gig had been called off, I had to find a new Saturday night activity. Luckily, my roomies Magnus, Niklas and Frederica were in a drinking mood.

So we started off with getting hammered by playing some Swedish drinking games and then headed to an Oktoberfest-Party (yupp...) at the local student house. After a really long walk and standing in the biggest friggin' cue I've ever been in – at least 500 people – for 15 minutes, the bouncers called it quits and closed the entrance for the night. Ok then, no Bavarian beer tonight.

We then took the train to the center – never seen such a party-crowded metro – and started walking to some private party Niklas knew about. At that point we had already lost Magnus, who was off chasing blond Swedish tail. After walking for another half hour, Niklas got a call and found out that we had been walking in the wrong direction the whole time. So, change of plans again. Went back to the center and met a couple of friends of the two. No clue where we should head, Frederica finally took action and steered us towards a club she had heard about.

After another half hour walk, we arrived at The Villa. Another cue, more waiting, frustration level rising. At 2 o'clock we got in, at last. So we had one hour left to party – remember, everything in Oslo shuts down at 3. But it was worth it! Even though we didn't party all out or anything, it was good to discover the place. It used to be a gay club and that was indeed very obvious: very cave-like with lots of dark corners and small chill-out rooms. There were basically three main areas, electro/house, D'n'B and chillout with the music being good, but not great. Still, a very cool vibe. The place was even voted 94th in the Top 100 clubs worldwide by DJ Magazine (Panorama Bar = 6th, Robert Johnson = 32nd), which ain't bad for a town like Oslo.

Anyways, after enjoying the last one and a half hours at the club, we went to some friends place to drown out the night with some good ol' fashioned chilling. And the trashing of Johan's bed...



P.S. I'll put another "Peeps and Homies" post up soon, so you'll be able to see the people I'm always talking about.

After already having been out in Oslo a couple times now, last night was the first time that counts. Why? Because I think, what I've experienced yesterday, was a glimpse of the 'real' nightlife here – at least in one part of town. So far I've been to a hip-hop party and a reggae-bar, but this time my roomies Magnus, Frederica, Øystein and me went out to a typical Oslo bar/club. Not without having the obligatory Norwegian 'Vorspiel' (yes, that's what it's called here...) with lots of friends, beer and vodka at our place beforehand of course. The place we went to was a relatively posh live-DJ bar in the center called 'Nichol & Son'. The music mostly crap, the venue a bit too expensive for my taste and the people without exception beautiful. What started as a mellow bar night, ended in a mad craze of happy, drunken, dancing bodies. And Magnus almost landing a mother-daughter-threesome...

Things I've learned last night:

• you need your ID almost everywhere
• the minimum age for some clubs here is 26 (no shit!), meaning we couldn't get in...
• the party folk here is 60% Norwegian and 40% Swedish, the latter infamously dubbed 'The Party Sverige'
• the main goal for the night for most of these people is to get laid – that goes for the guys just as well as the girls
• that also means, they'd rather go to a place where the vibe/atmosphere sucks but the people are hot, than where music and surroundings are killer and the crowd 'normal'
• that on the other hand, they ARE very open and getting into conversations goes insanely fast
• Gentleman enjoys great popularity as party music here
• I can still be shocked by the domestic prices – one beer = 7,50€
• Oslo rain sucks ass
• my party smoking habit has gotten out of hand
• two restrooms for 200 people just ain't enough
• at 3 a.m. the lights go on and the party's over
• there's something called 'Nachspiel', usually at someone's home, to compensate for the short opening hours
• there's a lot of inner-flatshare partner exchange going on in my apartment

• oh, and that I very much like having my ass grabbed by beautiful Swedish blondes... :D

In that sense, takk for i aften!

8 more days of 'Berg' and I'm gonna miss all of them. God, I really don't wanna go back to Den Haag just yet. Boohoo :(

1 a.m. Jazz at De Pater. 4 a.m. Club Nul at Silly's. 9 a.m. breakfast at Scheveningen beach.

Or 'Fris & Fruitig' in Dutch was a crazy party last night organized in part by some guys from my new class. Entrance was 10€ and one piece of fruit – in my case a honey melon and mint – in return you got an 'all you can drink' buffet of beer, wine and a wide variety of hard liquor (they even had Amarula!). The fruits were supposed to be converted into cocktails but due to the high intoxication level of all attending, only a total of two drinks were produced – but at least they were very stylishly served in carved out pineapples. Cool location (10 students living in one big house), creative decoration, very wild mix of music, lots of unknown faces, funny conversations, hard partying and a very drunk me hitting the sheets at 6:30. Some pictures and yet another video clip full of indescribable noise and bad lighting...

Nice evening yesterday – Gauke had invited the old class to his place in Amsterdam for a small get together with a couple of drinks. Good times with interesting conversations about the French accent, seemingly flirtatious behavior, "Rock'n'Roll, Dude!" and why it's a compliment to be mistaken as being gay. Plus: a chaotic but entertaining 2 1/2 hour trip home and me being semi-wasted for the first time in a long time (Absolut Raspberry kicks ass!). Hopefully to be repeated soon...

Yes! Finally! I have lost my Den-Haag-Good-Party-Virginity! I was so hoping for this party to be at least semi-decent, had been looking forward to it for all of last week and well, I shouldn't be disappointed.
Daniel, Ege and I started the night off at the Zwarte Ruiter with a couple of beers and (really good) whiskey cola's. We then waited for what seemed an eternity to catch the tram to the harbor in order to search for the Piratenbar, a very undergroundy, punk-ish location way off from civilization on one of the piers – with only the three page sms directions by Kate to guide us that is. Arriving there at 1:30 was a good decision, Fleur told me that at 11 there was a mere seven people...

After getting all the alcohol we had lost on hour half hour walk to the club back into our bloodstream and enjoying some of the Dutchman's favorite pastime, we danced ourselves sweaty to the Nu Rave beats of Musique Manifique, Ravage! Ravage! and Jaques De La Disque. The party also functioned as a release party for the t-shirt label Vruchtvlees, managed by Roman and Michael, two guys from my class. The latter also quite fittingly introduced himself to everyone with the line: "Hi, I'm Michael. I'm throwing this party.". And although the crowd was quite hesitant throughout the whole time and the music got a bit repetitive/boring in the end it was still definitely worth the effort. And the one hour walk/ride back home in the pouring rain...

Oh, and screw all my pictures because THESE babies are about a million times better.