Navigaytion 2008: first live pictures and video

As Antwerp Navigaytion 2008 insisted on messing up a peaceful sunny afternoon on my Antwerp balcony (the china is shaking in my kitchen, the hard-core noise will be shaking the foundations of my riverside home until midnight), I couldn’t resist taking these pictures from this ongoing event (YouTube video coming up). Although Ludo (the Red&Blue owner) had been ‘kind enough’ to mail me a free entrance ticket (along with half of the gay community, clever marketing as usual), I refused to take part in this massive hedonistic private gay dance party on what still is a public space. I kindly waved when he passed me by. The crowd looks very international, with very large numbers of gay visitors from Holland, France and Germany. Most appear quite young, show visible signs of pathological narcissism and behave like members of any crowd: loud, arrogant, dumb, dumber, dumbest. There have been no incidents up to this very moment (7.30 pm UTC/GMT+2). At midnight, the riverside party will move into the nearby gay dance clubs. I just went out buying some groceries at the Hilton shopping center: Antwerp is packed with gay tourists, predominantly in the 18-30 age range.

A large number of locals and casual tourists are taking pictures of the ongoing riverside dance event, only mildly amused by this public show of “gay pride”. Basically, this is the classic gay dance club crowd as seen in any large city: arrogant, provocative and half naked. The social and safe-sex part (4,000 free condoms, along with the presence of ‘thefirstgay.be”) was ignored by most attending.

The weather has been great, so I know who will be laughing all the way to the bank tonight. How do these events make you feel? I’m feeling only slightly annoyed, realized there will be no trace left of “Navigaytion” tomorrow [please click to enlarge]

Shots taken with a Canon between 5-11 pm Saturday June 28, 2008, at the grounds of this narcissistic show of commercial gay hedonism. Notice the cardboard cut-out of the actor: http://www.brucemontague.co.uk starred in a hilarious safe-sex commercial produced by Brussels ad agency www.tbwa.be, commissioned by www.sensoa.be and unexpectedly aired on local TV stations like ATV this morning. Altough the public grabbed the 4,000 free condoms, the Antwerp Gay Pride included extreme/leather venues where safe sex comes as an afterthought. The guy in the last shot (well, boy, he hardly looked 18 ) was body-painted in silver, promoting Bacardi “Razz”, a drink from a company sponsoring the www.antwerppride.eu Pride?, who’s proud? Grab the cash!

Benjamin uploaded some more short video clips to his blog over at towntalk.worpress.com [Blog in Dutch].

Navigaytion: first pictures, 24h before kick-off

I may not like or approve of this commercial party, but given its location in front of my door I could hardly ignore it. When you’re not a local and this is your “first Antwerp pride’, navigaytion may all look very glamorous and out of this world in their online ads (’the biggest in Europe’ , the ‘now bigger than ever’ etc” spin). But looking at these “building the stage” shots taken a couple of hours ago near the Antwerp “Steen” riverbank castle, I couldn’t help but feel the shallow emptiness of it all. Bored personnel looked annoyed while the intermittent showers turned this dressed-up old pontoon into a desolate place, a location where thousands of gay men will board 10 riverboats, face the rain showers and get drunk on 75 EUR (US $ 120) champagne while listening to deafening dance music. I feel truly blessed to be gay but posses enough common sense not to need this hedonistic display of narcissism. Have fun with these first shots.

The older US couple on my last photo walked up to me, asking what this “navigaytion” stuff was all about. “Well”, I said, “basically it’s a couple of thousand drunken gay queens on some shoddy, stuffed riverboats, dancing untill they drop”. “I’m sure we have that in America too, but much, much bigger” the 70 yo US tourist replied with a smile. Hey, that’s the spirit [Please click to enlarge - LIVE NOW]

Antwerp gay pride 2008: the non-commercial version

For the countless gays and lesbians who are not into the commercial “10,000 drunken queens on a boat” approach offered by tomorrows  Navigaytion, nor the brutal, right-in-your-face gay fetish ‘event’ as seen at “A hard night“, Antwerp city offers some real, non-commercial emancipatory activities.

One of them was a free guided ‘rainbow walk’, along with an exhibition at the riverbank  Noorderterras top floor (with an elevator for those who are physically challenged). I just returned from this very exhibition at the Noorderterras, featuring an historic overview of the struggle for gay rights in Antwerp, Flanders and Belgium.

I loved the concept, given that it featured images and stories I’d never seen before. “Being gay in Antwerp before you were born” is obviously a concept that doesn’t appeal to the hedonistic gay crowd engulfing Antwerp city at present. Along with my partner, we appeared to be the first and only visitors. I’ll post my photos asap.

Related: last night Antwerp city hosted a grand reception (obviously, for selected gay VIPs, ignoring the city slogan ‘this town belongs to everyone’) at city hall: only some powerful gay dance club owners, along with the organizers of all the commercial events being part of the “Antwerp pride” were invited by CD&V (Catholic-conservative) alderman Philip Heylen, responsible for Antwerp’s cashing in on gay visitors cultural events. We all love you Philip! And obviously, we just love the fact that the Antwerp mayor has a degree in marketing this hospitable, gay-friendly town where 40% of the population voted for an extreme right wing party with an anti-gay agenda, wouldn’t you? Let’s dance like there is no tomorrow! 

[Update 2 pm: visitors originating from Antwerp city computer IPs are suddenly all over this blog. Welcome, do post a comment."]

Navigaytion Antwerp 2008: why you should avoid it, even if you’re gay

Just check my blogpost from last March. Hey, you can even have our tickets: we’re just too old and not proud at all [First photos]

Exclusive: the Hilton trash

When most of us are visiting some distant vacation destination, we obviously check out the locations worth our precious time, beforehand. But behind many grand facades, there’s a touch of less-than-pleasing everyday reality. I assume the guests enjoying the sunshine on this grand downtown Antwerp terrace (please click to enlarge, and no, you’re not looking at the Antwerp Hilton, I took this shot outside the Antwerp city theater) couldn’t care less about what happens with the trash they leave behind. Obviously, it doesn’t all disappear into thin air. With an ongoing refuse collection strike, I had the chance to look into an otherwise well-hidden space: the local Hilton trash. Strangely, no one by the name of “Paris” was anywhere near.  But then again, this is Antwerp, and yes, this is a tabloid-style post

You’re Belgian now, Budweiser

I know many folks in the US resent the idea, but if there’s no delay, Anheuser-Busch all American Bud may soon be Belgian. Hey, Belgium brews 300 local beers, it could be much worse guys! [Quote: "If you don't know who Inbev is they are a huge global presence brewing/distributing company based in Belgium. They own brands like Becks, Stella Artois, Leffe, and Hoegaarden as well as several hundred others."] Trust me, as a red wine-only drinker I’m not gloating, but some people seem to think this is some sort of “Russian takeover” [To the Belgian amateur who edited the captions on this video: please clean up your English, it's beyond poor ]

[July 13, 2008: Anheuser-Busch was 'sold' to Inbev. Read the Anheuser-Busch statement here(in pdf format)]

Personal video: Antwerp 2008 “Sinksenfoor” funfair: The giant wheel

Yes folks, I taped this one myself: a rather special “night falls over Antwerp” video, right from the top of the 60m (180 feet) Giant Wheel over at the Antwerp city 2008 funfair. It was 3 am, after YouTube finally had managed to crunch this 80 MB file, when I realized I had forgotten to fade out the sound at the end, had forgotten to capitalize the first name of my SO and mysteriously had dropped the on-video rolling credits while editing. Am I getting old or could I use a working AC in this cute top-floor penthouse?

Anyway, it’s much easier hijacking someone else’s video - trust me, taping [well, technically, it was not even on tape, tape is, well, kind of 'out' ] this myself was the hardest way: at 60m/180 feet in a rotating Giant Wheel at 25°C/80°F with more than just a “mild breeze”, trying to stay stable in a what looked like a rather shoddy gondola, while the folks next to me were busy chatting along right in my microphone or screaming at the top of their lungs: just try it yourself to get the impression I hope you all enjoyed it - that was the very basic idea - as tonight there’s a storm coming up, with this funfair moving on to Brussels next Monday.

Anyway, I searched You Tube: this is at present the only night-time personal video from the Giant Ferris wheel over at the Antwerp 2008 funfair. Sorry my dearest for misspelling your first name, it’s too late to change it now

[Quote from my YouTube account: "The Antwerp(en) 'Sinksenfoor' funfair is a Belgian classic. On grounds of what previously used to be a huge old marina, millions visit this unique venue with around 80 attractions. This video was shot with a Canon (yes folks, someone has to hold the 'capturing device') in mid-June 2008, at around 11 pm, showing southern historic Antwerp, the Antwerp cathedral and the river Schelde at night. Video taken from the 60m (180 feet) Giant Wheel."]

Go Holland Go: Holland-Russia pulls a crowd in downtown Antwerp

“Hey ladies, can I take this shot?” may sound like an uncommon question, considering I’d never met these Dutch female “football”/soccer fans before, but at present Antwerp turned Orange when trying to beat the Russian team at the European soccer cup in Switzerland. Please click to enlarge at Flickr. Antwerp is packed tonight - full game details over at euro2008.com

‘The Fist Gay’ visits Antwerp Gay Pride 2008

Benjamin, over at towntalk.wordpress.com [in Dutch] posted that the upcoming Navigaytion dance event (June 28, private ) will feature a special appearance by www.thefirstgay.be,  a British actor seen in this Flemish government-sponsored YouTube Gay safe-sex video.

Update June 21:posted version with Dutch subtitles. Benjamin informed me the actor is Bruce Montague

Although I applaud this (produced by TWBA advertising)  entertaining safe-sex message from sensoa, I decided that I (and my partner, and many of our friends) will avoid this over-commercialised ‘Navigaytion’ private dance party by choice, and maybe you should too

Yahoo: the secrets behind the failed Microsoft deal

You’ve all read it: the Yahoo-Microsoft deal is history. The partnership or other type of deal talks have ended without any agreement. Basically, I couldn’t care less who will be laughing all the way to the bank, but I would like to thank Yahoo search for their outstanding creativity in coming up with the most absurd results. Upon entering “speech tomorrow at press club about obama and drugs” at the Sun Herald from Gulfport, Mississipi, Yahoo search decided that this (Antwerp, Belgium, Europe) blog was ‘numero uno’: the ultimate resource on Obama, drugs and speeches. No wonder Microsoft walked away

But what does he really look like?

No, I won’t show my face on this blog: I’ve covered way too many controversial issues to make
that a ’safe’ option. But my s/o doesn’t mind some coverage: he’s kind of cute, stood by my
side when most friends disappeared and remains the major part of my emotional foundation.
Left: last night at the 2008 Antwerp funfair - Right: when I first met him, many years ago

The MS Europa does Antwerp: I’m losing my line-of-sight

You’re watching the promotional YouTube video for the most luxurious 5* cruiseliner from Europe: Hapag-Lloyd’s “MS Europa“, probably one of the most expensive cruise liners you can board on this planet (Quote: “the only cruise ship in the world to be awarded the coveted ranking of 5 stars plus by the Berlitz Cruise Guide 2007″ ). And look what I found moored in front of my humble riverbank home, early this morning: the MS Europa

Sure, it’s a superb but extremely expensive 5*+ cruising vessel (11,000 euro/US $17,000 for one week of outrageous pampering in Europe), but basically, I couldn’t care less at present.

Upon returning from my early morning photo-shoot, a construction van pulled up close to my humble dwelling, slowly offloading what looked like a huge metal fence. “I’m sorry”, I said ever so polite, “what’s going on here?”. “Oh yeah”, a construction worker replied without even looking at my face, “we’re starting on this construction site”. Somehow, it felt like my heart stopped beating for a moment. “Sure”, the guy said without actually addressing me, “about 10 floors, with some penthouses on top and a total road reconstruction in this area. It will take a while to finish”.

OK, I’m trying to compose myself right now. I’ve just been told that not only I will lose my line-of-sight towards the river from my balcony, but some money-grabbing developer managed to get a building permit for a huge building on this historic, apparently-not-protected site, right in front of my balcony, inducing years of filthy, noisy construction. Care for a permanent house-swap?

If you feel like commenting, please be kind. I just reached for the Dafalgan/paracetamol/Tylenol bottle

“You’re blacklisted, but we’re so sorry”

Someone must be messing with our climate. Having enjoyed a couple of most pleasant 28°C/82°F days at the most adventurous (ethnic riots folks, for free!) Antwerp leftbank pool, along with a romantic nighttime funride at the Antwerp city funfair (the Big Wheel was actually the largest to ever visit this town, pictures -and a video- showing my s/o coming up), all hell broke loose. Torrential rain in June at 13°C/low 50’s, local flooding and a general feeling of ‘this must be Belgium’ made most locals run for shelter.

Since much of Western Europe is enjoying a wet start of summer anyway, a short drive to the Dutch coast across the Belgian/Dutch border sounded like a great idea: watching the roaring North Sea (an entry to the Atlantic), visiting a quaint Dutch fishing town and catching up with a couple of French divers from my ‘previous social life’: it all sounded tempting, even at a rainy 12°C/55°F.

Upon arrival at the narrow entry to my previous main diving spot (their number is limited, often at the best coastal locations) I was greeted by a familiar face, although his facial expression was far from friendly. “What are you doing here”, his monotonous voice broke the suddenly chilling silence. “We are on our way to the water, is there any problem?” I replied with hesitation. “I think you’re trespassing” he continued, “we’re having a private divers party and you’re definitely not invited”. [Note: this is a public riverbank area, with one single entry road]. “Look”, he continued, “He doesn’t want you here, so don’t cause any trouble and leave right now”. “You mean, your lovely diving school privatized this public area and blacklisted me?” I said with increasing agitation. “You’re reading my mind”, he replied with a defiant smile, “you’re both blacklisted. Get out of here.”

I felt like driving over his arrogant face, but decided that leaving was the only sensible thing to do. On a rain soaked terrace in a small, nearby Dutch fishing village close to Goes we both decided to ignore these people, no matter the passed we shared. However, this incident messed up the chance to enjoy our weekend and we both felt like going home, away from all the aggressive behavior we sure didn’t ask for.

After +10 years of sharing, 10 years of close bonding, 10 years of what felt like very solid friendships, the actions of one powerful diving instructor made 20 people decide that our umbilical cord was to be severed forever, allowing them to continue diving, blissfully ignoring the simple fact that their ‘leader’ had turned into a certified creep. I once studied group dynamics at Antwerp university, but I had no idea people could actually behave like bees to save a weird but beneficial status-quo: once you come too close to their addicted, disease spreading but still very powerful Uber Queen, they attack eyes-closed, without using any personal or proper judgment.

So long, Brussels divers, it was nice knowing you: time to move on.

Have you ever blown the whistle on someone’s totally unacceptable behavior and noticed how people attacked the messenger, while ignoring the factual perpetrator? [My photo: the Dutch marina near Goes that was home during the summer for the past ten years]

Naked men and weird music: Don’t try this at home

It’s been done before, but I actually enjoyed this YouTube movie. By the way, can the Swedish reader who repeatedly mailed me the poorly written message below please stop trying to get in touch again? I read your message over and over, and somehow I hate to break the news to you, but you do need appropriate medical care. And PLEASE, stop mailing me countless naked pictures of yourself, I’ve got all I need

“If you are not able to communicate, the way of your existence will suffer serious damage. you will be limited by your self in strange way to obtain part in your community. to learn essential way of including people, to pretend to accept and not to demand,is opening social way of mutual understanding. people who pretend to limit space for other people,by demanding or claim anything. to be your self is not excluding to show mutual respect to others,and accept the diversity.
The truth is naked. to keep someone in power you need to persuade him to wear your cloths,uniform of your believes. and who say that the pure heart forced with dimension of love, tenderness and honesty should have double jacket and burka?and who claims that genuity has no sex, no erection and no joy?
If you on the base of your culture,religion, social structure of your person,expirience and life have trouble with my nudity,wich is just a simple form to expresse my freedom, and if you have problem with erotic and may say pornographic elements i appologize. to be nude is natural way of being one with the nature.to desire is the important part of human need,and sign that you are open to the future, cause you expect much to happen”

“The Wii game console Pattaya fucker”

No, you won’t find this adult game in the nearest outlet that sells Nintendo Wii games. The fake ad appeared in Belgian weekly Humo last week and appeared to be a perfect spoof. Most game consoles tend to be violent and addictive, but this “Wii Pattaya fucker” game sure appeared to have other “qualities” to keep you fit. Some people called this parody “offensive”. Our children overdose on violence, on a daily basis. What’s more “offensive”: over-the-top violent games or this right-in-your-face spoof ad? [Photoshopped image: courtesy of humo]

“God loves gays”

“The Bible contains 6 admonishments to homosexuals and 362 admonishments to heterosexuals.
That doesn’t mean that God doesn’t love heterosexuals. It’s just that they need more supervision.”
[Author unknown] Do you give in to temptation easily? I don’t

Euro 2008 football fever hits Antwerp

Countless Dutch inhabitants of Antwerp crowded the street last night to watch Holland beat Italy on large screens on every corner of downtown Antwerp. The atmosphere was ecstatic yet peaceful, with European football fans making the Antwerp funfair close down early due to a total lack of visitors. With unseasonable warm weather, downtown was busy till dawn. There’s football on all channels, everyone’s talking about the ongoing games, but I’m off to my favorite pool, enjoying some local ethnic violence Image left: courtesy of http://www.euro2008.uefa.com - right: Dutch football fans on the sidewalk in front of a bar near Antwerp town hall, Monday June 9

No pictures: We’re Muslims

It was a perfect morning, last Monday. An unexpected 25°C/80°F, lots of sunshine and the inviting warm water of the Antwerp left bank Olympic open-air pool and recreational complex, right on the city riverbanks. A passing ocean liner, countless sailing boats: life felt good.

As it was still very early, the 50m/yard pool along with the grounds were virtually deserted, allowing me to take some shots of a place that tends to get very crowded during the summer. I talked with the life-guards, ignored the sour-faced lady at the ticket booth and generally enjoyed the water with my s/o. As more people entered the grounds I saw the opportunity to take an amazing shot: the river, the passing container ships and ocean liners, the superb elevated open-air pool and some very multicultural visitors: it would have made a great shot. Especially Moroccan juveniles and migrant families from across the globe have turned this pool into their favorite summer spot. As I’m living in a multicultural city with over 100 nationalities, I’m quite comfortable with lifestyles that strongly differ from my own. Live and let live.

But as soon as I pointed my camera towards a bathing Moroccan family all hell broke loose. “AAAAA”, a migrant woman screamed frantically as if she was being hit by a bus, pointing her finger in my direction, “STOP that PERVERT!”. Oh my… Given that she was wearing enough clothes to sink to the bottom of this pool instantly, I remained calm and stopped taking pictures. Hey, this was a public place and I had every right to take general scenic shots, but this dearest Muslim lady felt otherwise.

With this place being under camera supervision due to previous ethnic riots, it took less than 30 seconds before some very friendly staff intervened. While the woman kept on screaming, I quietly showed the pictures I had taken. The staff member agreed I had every right to make some scenic shots, but by now the whole Muslim family almost went into full frontal attack mode, somehow convinced that taking a Muslim woman’s picture virtually equaled rape. Hey boys, I’m GAY Unexpectedly the conversation totally escalated, with the Moroccan Berber Muslims throwing insults like “you filthy gay racist” in my direction, no matter what I did or said. “Time to call it quits”, my s/o said, “just leave these fanatics”. Reluctantly, I left the pool (not the grounds), making clear to the Moroccan screamer that I hoped she’d have a great time in the water, veiled with enough layers of clothing to make her sink to the pool bottom asap.

Looking back, this was insane. These Muslim migrants have lived in this town for years, facing the fact that this is a European city, with European laws and rules. Nobody forced this family into the left-bank open air pool and grounds. The knew what they could expect, and they sure knew people do take snapshots. Belgium has been very tolerant towards the behavior and lifestyle of Muslim migrants: ten local Mosques, a generation of unemployed juveniles and a religion that in its fundamental form is hardly compatible with Belgian customs.

Really, I couldn’t care less about religious or cultural habits. But hey, nobody is taking over my pool.
How would you react?

The Ultimate Antwerp Perfume

No Photoshop or any color manipulation, just a recent night shot showing an exclusive perfume store right in front of Antwerp city hall. Photo taken while I walked on by.

I took this photo at night (yes, trying a 1/4 sec exposure was too much for my movement stabilized lens, the full sized eight megapixel was slightly fuzzy), getting an unusual, perfect blue glow on part of the facade, while the whole image made me recall Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks.

In Fine is an exclusive “we mix your own perfume” outlet, with this medieval building being their business card location.

While I still regret not having checked the image sharpness, I was quite pleased with the natural blue glow delivering an out of this world atmosphere

WordPress is currently offering a great photo-blog template, which I just installed to provide the perfect backdrop for a photo-only 2nd blog about Antwerp. At present, it’s only a carbon copy of this blog, but I will make an effort to post original pictures. You may want to check out http://antwerpen.wordpress.com.
I’ll soon find out if anyone cares for yet another Antwerp photo-blog, but I will make sure to keep my main focus on this blog

Thank you America, from the citizens of Antwerp

Thank you America, from all the citizens of Antwerp.
[My photo: forgotten WWII war memorial, Antwerp riverbanks]

How to gate-crash a wedding, and get away with it

“Do every day one thing that scares you” (quote from “The Sunscreen Song” by Baz Luhrmann). Last night I literally followed this well-meant advice by ‘kind of’ gate-crashing a wedding in an affluent eastern Antwerp suburb. I’d only seen the bride and groom once in my life (for 2 minutes), my SO is only a distant relative of this amazing couple. But I enjoyed some sparkling conversation in the lush gardens, shook hands with people I’ll never see again, congratulated the bride with her stunning appearance and listened to exotic conversations in several languages I’m not fluent in. The hospitality and sincere warmth of this couple was genuinely impressive.

I had a superb dinner (lacking in conversation as the night passed on, as I ran out of “that sounds great!” platitudes) but danced till 4 am with an ecstatic crowd. A less than classy drag queen act, a stunning nipple gate incident and drunken real-old ladies making advances while flashing their jewelry (and underwear, ‘par accident’) were just the icing on the (wedding) cake. Here are some shots I took with my cellphone. These folks truly had a perfect, fairytale-like wedding. Enjoy! [Regarding the 'gate-crashing' part: well, with my partner being a distant, but surprisingly welcome relative, I simply suggested I'd join him. Two gay men passionately dancing on their straight wedding party: the degree of tolerance of these lovely newly weds sure took my breath away ]