Kris Taeleman´s Blog

Just a quick post to inform you all that I won’t have a lot of time to post in the next weeks, but I’ll make it up to you later! I’ll leave you for now with a picture I took some time ago in Antwerp, Belgium, of a dog eating a lollipop…

Lollipop

Neuschwanstein was built by Ludwig II of Bavaria as a retreat and as a homage to Richard Wagner, the King’s inspiring muse. In a letter to Wagner, the King wrote:

It is my intention to rebuild the old castle ruin at Hohenschwangau near the Pollat Gorge in the authentic style of the old German knights’ castles… the location is the most beautiful one could find, holy and unapproachable, a worthy temple for the divine friend who has brought salvation and true blessing to the world.

The construction of the castle started on September 5, 1869 and was was close to completion when, in 1886, the King was declared insane by a State Commission under Dr. von Gudden and arrested at the palace. He was taken to Schloss Berg, where he was found on June 13, 1886, in shallow water in Lake Starnberg, drowned, along with von Gudden, the psychiatrist who certified him. The exact circumstances of his death remain unexplained.

Some facts about the castle:

• In 2007, it was a finalist in the selection of the New Seven Wonders of the World.
• it has served as the inspiration for the Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland, as I mentioned in my previous post about Disneyland.
• Despite its medieval look, the construction of Neuschwanstein required the modern technology of the day, and the palace is a marvel of technological structural achievements. Steam engines and electricity, modern venting, and heating pipes are all part of the structure.
• And last but not least: Neuschwanstein is the most photographed building in Germany, so of course I had to get a shot.

Recently I realized I had never taken any pictures from the city where I actually spent most of my time, so I decided to take my camera this weekend to bring some change in this, but I didn’t manage to take a lot of pictures. I think I’m gonna try to go to Ghent somewhere in January just to take pictures so I can take my time

For now, enjoy this nighttime view of the Lys river, running through Ghent and a shot of the Friday Market featuring the Jakob van Artevelde statue.

On a side note, I decided to switch back to my Flickr gallery for image hosting/posting as Gallery2 seems to require too much maintenance and time to get it the way I want… Maybe I’ll try to do something with it later on, such as a “best of” or rather a “best try of”. Another reason for the switch back is due to the introduction of the Flickr Stats, which is one of the reasons I switched to Gallery2 in the first place.
The only thing I’m still missing in Flickr is the possibility to limit the maximum view size of guests to the large size, and make the originals only visible for friends, but I’ll have to learn to live with that for now.

Just a couple of shots of my workplace at Larian Studios:

The first picture shows my desk and the second picture shows our small Christmas tree

I just got back from Stubai . I was there on a business trip, and there was really a lot of snow (pictures will follow later). It always reminds me of Christmas time. We always go snowboarding during the Christmas holidays and this year we decided to go to Kitzbühel, Austria. I hope there will be some snow, because I want to have a white Christmas.

Christmas is my favorite time of the year. And actually I have to admit I already bought a christmas tree… I know, waaaaaaaaaay too early, but well, it’s kinda cosy… (and even my cat likes it, well maybe he just likes the decoration of the tree).

But well this is what it looks like…

Crusader played at Blikfest at JH Togenblik, Beveren-Waas, this weekend for the last time with their current guitar player, Toshiyuki Nagatani. It could be that this was their last show in quite a long time as finding an experienced guitar player seems hard nowadays. If you know an experienced guitar player who is looking for a band or if you are one yourself, contact them through their myspace site: http://www.myspace.com/crusadercrew.

You can find more pictures of the concert here.

Yesterday we decided to do something about our “lack” of cultural knowledge.
We decided to visit the S.M.A.K. museum in Ghent.

Currently, there is an exhibition of Paul McCarthy. The name of the exhibition is HEAD SHOP/SHOP HEAD. People who don’t know him should really check out his work. The least you can say is, that it’s very special. Some keywords that can describe the exhibition and maybe give you an idea about the weirdness and diversity of the exhibition: pirates, sex, ketchup, blood, George Bush,…

“The following characterization does not pull its punches: Paul McCarthy is dirty and rotten, sexually hung-up and likes ketchup. You can say that McCarthy is an artist who does not move boundaries, but goes far beyond them.”

I’m not planning to give a personal opinion about his work of art, because it’s something you need to decided for yourself. The only thing I will say is, that people have divided opinions about it!

If you decide to visit the museum, maybe interesting to know, people from Ghent and people younger than 25 get a 2 euro discount, so don’t forget to mention it.

Photo by Steven Meert.

People who know me are probably aware of the fact that I love snowboarding.
Because of the fact that the Belgian snowboard scene is really really small, it is important to support the scene as much as possible.

Somebody I know is opening a new snowboard / skate shop in Antwerp. You should really go there and take a look at what they have because they are selling a lot of cool brands!!

Check www.real-deal.be for more info. They will be opening their shop the 27th of October!

Last week, while walking around in Sint Martens Latem, I stumbled across this old abandoned house. Apparently this used to be the gallery of painter Evarist de Buck (1892-1974). Too bad I didn’t have enough time to go closer and get some more interesting shots. Maybe worth a revisit before it gets leveled…

As long as I can remember, my parents always held chickens. But lately the chicken population dropped down to one due to some depressions in the chicken community. So, the day had arrived for one of the finest events in Taeleman family tradition, “Nieuwe Kiekensdag” (”New Chickens day”). I present to you one of the youngest chicks of the bunch, at her cutest.