Hassle-free Hasselt

A composite of faces from yesterday in Hassle-free Hasselt.


It was a day of meetings and re-connections, people who I had met before or who had contacted me in some way as well as those who I now call friends.


The gigantesque hand of Hasselt. Beware inhabitants of this town, he may come to your house too!


I managed to get some renovations done, this wallpaper comes from a destroyed building not far from the festival centre. The walls are beautiful, you can imagine on each floor the conversations, the tears, the dinners spent together and alone, the stairs on the right must have seen a million footsteps. Each of the rooms has it's past-life-personality desperately clinging to the building next door, each roll of lovingly hung wallpaper standing like a coat of arms. On the ground was a small piece of wallpaper from the top floor, I have pasted this to the walls of my own house now so that the stories may continue.


I don't know who the artist is, but I like them very much.
A freeer intretation, yet I love it just as much. He has such a strong left arm and wears his heart like an armour.


Meanwhile there were a field of interpretations of my house in the letterbox. I present them to you as collective - a city of houses, yet each one alone.



And down the brick lane back to dark box from where the house comes. And all the miniature people inside scream, 'no, no not the dark box, we like it here in Hasselt, don't take us away from here'. I don't listen to them, in one hour flat the house is packed up and in my car for the journey south.

We will see you again in Groningen, my friends, don't say a word, sleep well and you may be surprised what we will find there.

Thanks to all those I met in Hasselt, it was a pleasure and surprise to be met with such warmth.

can someone help me to see this video? I haven't seen it yet.
Apparently it can only be viewed in Belgium, but perhaps it can be rerouted from somewhere internally?

http://www.klara.be/cm/klara/1.104-searcharticle?directarticle=1.35060&article=1.35060

visions of me

It's Home.

It was a day of close encounters, many of them wordless. I can't say I have gotten my tongue around dutch yet but I am getting a lot better at face-language.

Perhaps that is why someone thought it was my birthday, I guess the Flemmish version of raising your eyebrows and puffing out your cheeks means 'hey it's my birthday'.

Apparently the chimpanzees smile at each other by showing their teeth and raising their eyebrows up and down rapidly. If you ever need to make friends with a chimpanzee, you will be grateful for this piece of information.






I can't work out if these means I am a loser, or I am someone other than a loser (which I hasten to add would technically make me a Winner!)


A beautiful day in central Hasselt today and the public was out in throngs! (not thongs)
Perhaps the sunlight was the inspiration for the scratching sound of pens on paper, presenting a plethora of visions of me (I think). I particularly like the one of me looking remarkably like a donkey. A happy and potentially very useful donkey though, I might add.


Brothers through and through

Bibliotheek heck!

There is no time to chat today, the sun is out and so are all the people. I will let the pictures do the talking about yesterday instead. It was inside the library and this time I got to have a few really good conversations with those who lingered a while.



This is Jean-Leonardo and his friend Safari. They have the official title of 'Most Famous Names Ever' of all the people I have met in Hasselt. They returned with diguises, but I managed to see through their intricate facade. It was interesting to have a perspective on the cultural climate here in Belgium.

Why are there so many good looking people in Hasselt?

This picture makes me melt. We didn’t speak, perhaps because the rain was falling so hard leaving a giant puddle of water on the grass, but I saw you there, the perfect picture of curiousity.

The day was marked by rain. I was dry and warm inside, but those who came prepared presented a colourful backdrop for themselves, a multivitamin rainbow in fact.




Meanwhile I was invited on holiday within the first 30 minutes of being in town. I was thinking Porta Rico could be nice

Perhaps propositions were in the air



But summed up best in this comment


So, why are there so many good looking people in Hasselt? Perhaps there is some kind of screening system at the city gates.

In no particular order, but evidence enough






They even have Eric Cantona working here as a press photographer



This one had me worried until I remembered that this is my first ever trip to Belgium, echos of Broken Flowers?

And my new best friends (because they discovered my weakness for Belgian Nougart)

But the sparkles didn’t stop there



These are my two Belgian Strong-men, available for house moving of all sizes!

There were more to be had in the evening fireworks