Read this article | Text by Loes, 8 september 2010 | Comments (0)
8 september 2010 - ART



American photographer Justin Waldron divides his time between Japan and New York capturing remarkable moments and people in both places. After being a semi-professional skateboarder for fifteen years he started his education at the New York Film Academy and worked as a cinematographer on several motion picture projects.

Four years ago Waldron moved to Tokyo where he began his career as still photographer and lives with his wife who is a photographer as well. Waldron creates upfront images of the people surrounding him in his two beloved city’s New York and Japan and the sites he comes across while traveling through China, Japan, India and America.

In his spare time Waldron creates his own quarterly mini magazines by hand. These zines contain collections of his images and are on sale at his website for just seven dollars.

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8 september 2010 - CULTURE



We came across this video of PostSecret and felt the need to share this impressive collection of honest moments with our dear readers. PostSecret is a project that has been going for years already. For this concept, people can send an anonymous postcard to PostSecret’s address that reveals their biggest secret. Some secrets are shocking and some cute but they’re all interesting to read. After all, who doesn’t want to have a sneak peek into other people’s thoughts? PostSecret puts these cards on its website and publishes books of the collected postcards.

For this new video, PostSecret’s team asked fifty different people in the streets of New York to tell an important secret they’ve been keeping for a long time. What happens is that all of the featured people react somewhat perplexed. They blush, shrug and giggle a little but most of the times give surprisingly honest answers. We especially like the couple that confesses some intriguing secrets to each other. The guy tells his girls he ran over her ‘disappeared’ cat and then the girl tells him the books he was never allowed to read solely contain poems of her love for him.
Read this article | Text by Loes, 8 september 2010 | Comments (0)
8 september 2010 - MUSIC

Neon Indian - "Sleep Paralysist" Video from GreenLabelSound on Vimeo.


Next September 15th the last edition of Glo-Fi Summer Pop Nights will take place at Club Trouw. Alan Palomo’s band Neon Indian will take the stage as well as Amsterdam’s Bear and Palmbomen from NON Records. If you’d like to have a chance at winning a ticket, send an email to loes@blend.nl.

Neon Indian is a futuristic and dreamy chillwave act from Denton, Texas that will be performing in Holland for the first time during this last edition of Glo-Fi. Front man Palomo is also known for the music he produces under the name Ghosthustler and as the artist VEGA.

Neon Indian’s 2009 debut Psychic Chasms was received extremely favorable by media such as Pitchfork and Rolling Stone Magazine. Great Neon Indian songs are Should Have Taken Acid With You, which is about a missed acid date with Palomo’s ex-girlfriend, and Deadbeat Summer. These tunes by Neon Indian are great representations of this summer’s big chillwave hype that we hope will linger on until next summer.
Read this article | Text by Loes, 8 september 2010 | Comments (0)
8 september 2010 - MUSIC



Indie rock band Wintersleep from Halifax, Nova Scotia, are currently on a European tour. Last night we went to see the band perform at Utrecht’s venue Ekko. Prior to Wintersleep's concert Norwegian band Youth Pictures Of Florence Henderson took the stage. Find out more about their performances after the jump.

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Read this article | Text by Loes, 7 september 2010 | Comments (0)
7 september 2010 - ART



There’s not much one can find out about photographer Randy P. Martin aside from the fact he is from Austin, Texas and creates a stunning amount of beautiful pictures he puts up on his Flickr page.

He may be from the Southern regions of the United States but this isn’t exactly what comes to mind when looking at his images. He creates the most dreamy, free and international images that seem to take you from one mysterious site to the other. They’re light and breezy and make you want to hop on a plane and go to whatever place he just captured with his camera.

Martin’s photographs are sometimes alienating with strange compositions and weird lighting but always soft toned and beautiful. Take a look at his Flickr or view some more images after the jump.

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7 september 2010 - MUSIC



Member of Animal Collective and longtime solo performer Noah Lennox is about to release a new single called You Can Count On Me under his stage name Panda Bear prior to presenting his fourth studio album Tomboy.

While Lennox has been part of Animal Collective since its foundation, he always kept his personal projects to work on. The tracks he produces as Panda Bear are completely different from Animal Collective’s guitar pop. Here he is a one-piece band, sampling classic and self produced tunes, creating rhythms with handclaps, loops and different, soft vocals.

Lennox studied in Boston, where he formed Animal Collective with longtime friend Josh Dibb, Dave Portner and Brain Weitz. The band moved to New York in 2000 where Lennox mainly played drums for the band’s releases. After moving to Lisbon, where he lives with his Portuguese wife and fashion designer Fernanda Pereira, Panda Bear started working on the much-anticipated follow-up to 2007's Person Pitch. His upcoming record Tomboy will be released somewhere in Fall.
Read this article | Text by Loes, 7 september 2010 | Comments (0)
7 september 2010 - MUSIC

Discovery Festival trailer from Discovery Festival on Vimeo.


This year’s edition of Discovery Festival promises to be a special night of music and science. Although this may seem like an unusual combination, previous editions proved that this concept works.

On Friday the 24th of September, Amsterdam’s science center NEMO turns into a place where new music is presented by Danish sound engineer Jacob Kirkegaard, upcoming Dutch dj Palmbomen and The Walk & Roger 72. Interesting scientific experiments take place such as a hugging-experiment and interesting presentations by former astronaut Wubbo Ockels and ecologist Louise Vet.

In addition to these events there is a Cabinet of Curiosities where exceptional belongings of artists such as Maarten vanden Eynde and Olaf Mooij are presented. This experimental party starts at 9pm and will continue until four in the morning. Check Discovery Festival’s website to find out more about what will take place. If you’re already sure you’d like to attend, you can send an email to loes@blend.nl to have a chance at winning 2 free tickets.
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7 september 2010 - FASHION



Together with Acne, editor in chief of Candy Magazine Luis Venegas created a collection of unisex shirts especially designed for transvestite, transgender and cross-dressing people that will be available next October. The shirt’s design is inspired on the classic western jeans shirt with buttons but has different details and proportions that make these shirts a fun take on masculine versus feminine.

Candy is the first fashion magazine ever completely dedicated to celebrating transvestism, transexuality, cross-dressing and androgyny in all its manifestations. Venegas states all of the shirts are named after characters of his favorite and world-renowned TV series Dynasty. The shirts are available in silk, crepe and stonewashed or bleached Italian jeans.

About this collaboration Acne stated it could be considered a celebration of diversity. It touches on ideas Acne has always played with: the tension between male and female and what happens when you shift things around a bit. Dutch photographer Jolijn Snijders has shot images for Candy Magazine. The magazine’s second issue will be published this Fall.

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Read this article | Text by Loes, 6 september 2010 | Comments (0)
6 september 2010 - MUSIC



We know the weekend is just over and you’re all probably focusing on another serious week of work again. Nevertheless, we have some exciting news for you, which will fill in part of upcoming weekend’s schedule already.

One of Amsterdam’s finest, most spacious venues with a great ear for techno tunes is, of course, Club Trouw. During the upcoming edition of the club’s monthly held party Ratio? an international line-up is announced once again. During Ratio?’s last edition Henrik Schwarz and Frank Wiedemann (Ame) did a surprise guest performance, and this time will be of the same impressive caliber; British producer Wbeeza will perform live while German Sascha Dive will do a dj-set in addition to Club Trouw’s resident dj Melon.

As the venue states at its website, this will be a night of ‘Timeless muscular house in all its glory’. We’re delighted to announce BLEND is allowed to give away 2x2 tickets for this party, which will take place next Saturday, September 11th. If you’re already in the mood for a night of house and minimal techno, send an email to loes@blend.nl to have a chance at winning these free tickets.
Read this article | Text by Loes, 6 september 2010 | Comments (0)
6 september 2010 - MUSIC



Belgian band Balthazar was formed in 2004 by a group of 18-year-old guys from the city of Kortrijk that wanted to make pop songs with influences of both rock and hiphop. After winning several national talent shows, the band released its first EP in 2006 and started performing on a regular basis.

After some changes in Balthazar’s line-up, the group of ambitious musicians really started developing a unique sound. Members Maarten Devoldere, Jinte Deprez, Patricia Vanneste, Simon Casier and Christophe Claeys became known for their performances at festivals such as Dour, Lowlands, Rock Werchter, London Calling and their showcase at Toronto’s Canadian Music Week.

This year Balthazar finally released its long-expected debut album Applause, produced by members Devoldere and Deprez and mixed in Norway by Ynge Leidulv Saetre (who worked with Kings of Convenience a.o.). This record presents a collection of eleven upbeat songs, displays several moods (Blues For Rosann is about serious heartache while This Is A Flirt tells a more pleasant tale). Our favorite is Hunger At The Door because of its powerful vocals, basslines and guitar riffs. Balthazar is scheduled to perform at Amsterdam’s Melkweg next October 6th.
Read this article | Text by Loes, 6 september 2010 | Comments (0)
6 september 2010 - ART



Swiss photographer Andri Pol has been fascinated by Japanese culture and especially the way Europeans depict Japan for years. According to Pol cherry blossoms, the samurai, the geisha and a whole lot ‘Zen’ dominate the European vision of Japan. He decided to give it a try and portray Japan in an honest, open manner that doesn’t consist of those familiar clichés.

Even though he couldn’t completely avoid the tea rites and other soft-focus scenes, there’s a lot more reality in his images. Pol depicts the beauty of Japanese everyday life. And yes, there are some bizarre pictures of Sumo’s getting their hair combed by seemingly tiny assistants, and there’s the charming little red riding hood smoking a cigarette and holding a shotgun, but this collection of 227 images is as close to reality as outsiders can possibly come. The 49-year-old photographer works for several international magazines and published this book called Where Is Japan at Steidl.

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Read this article | Text by Loes, 6 september 2010 | Comments (0)
6 september 2010 - FASHION



For its forthcoming fragrance campaign, Dior Homme is about to release a full-length film shot by Guy Ritchie starring Jude Law. To give you a hint of what to expect, the French luxury brand presented a short preview of this mysterious and chic campaign.

British filmmaker Ritchie did what he does best for this film; making a sinister and dark scene look appealing and sexy. Ritchie and Law have worked together on previous occassions such as on the director’s 2009 movie Sherlock Holmes.

This movie for the Dior Homme campaign features Ritchie’s style and Law’s charm, accompanied by a wardrobe designed by Kris Van Assche for Dior Homme. The complete film will be released next Wednesday, September 8th.

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