[TimovieMan]

I'm back!

 

Actually, I've been back from Greece since August 2nd, and my respawn was supposed to be from that moment on. Not having to go to work and both the missus and the kids being home as well meant that there was still a lot of eating out, eating in, snacking, ice cream and little movement going on, though. So that's why the respawn was postponed until I had to start work again.

 

And even then it's taken me almost an entire week to get the thread up. Mainly because I'm a lazy bum that fires up a video game when finally getting some PC time instead of doing more productive stuff first... 😇

 

 

 

Anyway, I'm back for half a challenge (and have been logging again since last Wednesday). So what will I be doing these next two weeks?

 

 

Ahem. Sorry.

 

But yeah, really just the same thing I've been doing in previous challenges. So here's a recap:

 

	Bad	Poor	Ok	Good	Excellent	Frequency	Notes
Intermittent fasting	< 14 hours	≥ 14 hours	≥ 16 hours	≥ 17 hours	≥ 20 hours	Daily
Calorie intake	> 4000 cal	> 3000 cal	≤ 3000 cal	≤ 2400 cal	≤ 2000 cal	Daily	Ballpark figures are good enough
Weight	up > 0.8 kg	up > 0.2 kg	up ≤ 0.2 kg	down ≥ 0.4 kg	down ≥ 0.8 kg	Weekly	Established at weekly weigh-in
Curfew	≥ 1.15 am	≥ 0.45 am	< 0.45 am	< 0.20 am	< 0.00 am	Daily	Add 2 hours before non-working days
Sleep	< 5h 30m	< 6 hours	≥ 6 hours	≥ 6h 30m	≥ 7 hours	Daily	Fitbit numbers - naps count for half
Avg. sleep	< 6 hours	≥ 6 hours	≥ 6h 15m	≥ 6h 30m	≥ 6h 45m	Weekly	Fitbit numbers - naps count for half
Steps	< 6.000	≥ 6.000	≥ 8.000	≥ 10.000	≥ 12.000	Daily	Fitbit numbers
Avg. steps	< 9.000	≥ 9.000	≥ 10.000	≥ 11.000	≥ 12.000	Weekly	Fitbit numbers
Workouts	< 2	≥ 2	≥ 3	≥ 4	≥ 5	Weekly	Mini-workouts: 1/10 per exercise
Distance	< 15 km	≥ 15 km	≥ 20 km	≥ 25 km	≥ 30 km	Weekly	Walk to Mordor distance

[Salinger]

Absolutely brilliant to see you mate x

[Snarkyfishguts]

I'm so glad you took the time off to just relax and enjoy life.  Welcome back!

[TimovieMan]

How have I been these past weeks?

 

Well, Greece was great!

We had a good hotel with a beautiful garden and sea view, in a half-board package. We also had a rental car, because the hotel - right at the sea with its own private beach - was a bit "in the middle of nowhere" and mainly used as a base to explore other things in Greece.

We visited Athens for a day, visited Corinth (ancient and new), went to Patras, took a boat trip through the Canal of Corinth, went to a water park, and spent some time just relaxing at the hotel pool.

 

We had originally planned on visiting Athens over the course of two  days, but we got most of our "must-visit" list done in one day, and I didn't want to drive in Athens again, because it is by FAR the worst city I've ever driven a car in. Traffic laws are things to ignore there, apparently. I think the total of 30 minutes I drove the car in Athens will have probably cost me two years of my life in stress.

But other than the insanely horrible drivers, Athens was great. With the Acropolis being a highlight, despite having a 500+ meter queue to enter the site - and that's for those that already had tickets!!!!

The view on the top is magnificent, though, with the entirety of Athens all around. And the Parthenon and other temples and structures are  as wonderful to behold as they are culturally important.

 

Actual footage of me on top of the Acropolis:

 

OK, so the tear may have been a combination of sweat and sunscreen irritating my eyes, but you get the picture. 😅

 

Since we also visited the Pláka and Anafiotika neighbourhoods, the Monastiraki Square, Lykavittos Hill, Syntagma Square and Philopappos Hill in Athens, we agreed on not going back for a second day. That meant some concessions had to be made. No visit to the Panathenaic Stadium (Kallimarmaro) for me, and no visit to the football stadiums of either Panathinaikos, AEK Athens or Olympiacos for TimovieSon.

 

Critical research failure: TimovieSon *really* wanted to see the football stadium of Panathinaikos, because "that's where the European Super Cup will be held". Until I looked it up and saw that the Super Cup was at the Olympiacos stadium... 😁

 

We had 35-37°C for most of the days in Greece (which didn't feel as hot as it sounds), but there was one day with 40°C. So we switched up our plans a little and went to a water park on that day.

 

The day to the Acrocorinth and the site of Ancient Corinth were really interesting too. The view from the top of the Acrocorinth was spectacular, and we didn't even go to the eastern summit (which would have a view over the entire Isthmus land bridge and not just a view of the Peloponnesus peninsula) because the missus has some ankle mobility issues and we weren't exactly wearing proper hiking boots to go up another few steep slopes of 500-year-old cobblestones (which were slippery as hell).

At the archeological site of Ancient Corinth, it's really only the temple of Apollo that's still partially standing, but it's incredible to see the layout of what Ancient Corinth used to look like, and the museum was really interesting as well.

 

I would have liked to drive to the archeological sites of Mycenae or Delphi as well, but that wouldn't have been very enjoyable for the kids, so we just did the one historic visit (not counting the Acropolis in Athens - because you can't go to Greece and not visit that).

 

Our day to Patras was weaker, though. It started great, with a visit to the Agios Andreas - which is a marvelous cathedral, but it went downhill after that. The Roman Odeon was closed for restorations, and Google Maps apparently never found the Psilalonia Square. Plus our meal at the King George Square was the worst of the entire trip...

 

 

That's one thing to take away from the trip, though: I ate *way* too much in Greece. Anything grilled is exquisite there - seriously, they don't grill that good here, and I'm Belgian so I'm used to pretty much the best food in the world. But with breakfast and dinner at the hotel, I already had no intermittent fasting and one meal more than usual, and every day included at least one other meal as well. Even when I tried to skip lunch, I'd always end up having to finish whatever the kids or the missus didn't like or had left over, so I often unintentionally ate the most of all... 😅

 

 

Because of the heat, a lot of afternoon ice cream and even milk shakes were involved too, so yeah, there is *significant* weight damage.

 

Damage I didn't undo when we got back home, because we had a lot of food and snacks in the house, and the call for ice cream was often too big... 😇

 

I didn't even do any intermittent fasting during my three days at the Alcatraz metal festival, which was the original plan. I just continued with the "too many meals" trend. Hence why I'm calling this a "respawn" now.

 

But more on the Alcatraz festival in a next post.

 

 

 

Now it's high time that I posted a song.

I really wanted a Greek-themed one, but didn't exactly find one on my list. Until I remembered that any Trojan-themed songs would work as well. And then it became *very* easy to pick a song.

The wonderful Sinéad O'Connor passed away while we were in Greece, and the song "Troy" is one of her best (imo), so this made for a logical pick.

 

Sinéad O'Connor - Troy

 

RIP Sinéad.

[Sovalis]

Glad to see you, Timo! I am happy that you had a good trip and that you are back to regale us with stories and music! 

[Harriet]

16 hours ago, TimovieMan said:

Actually, I've been back from Greece since August 2nd, and my respawn was supposed to be from that moment on. Not having to go to work and both the missus and the kids being home as well meant that there was still a lot of eating out, eating in, snacking, ice cream and little movement going on, though. So that's why the respawn was postponed until I had to start work again.

 

That's okay. I, too, have had three week ice cream eating events. 

 

Happy half challenge!

[DarK_RaideR]

16 hours ago, TimovieMan said:

I didn't want to drive in Athens again, because it is by FAR the worst city I've ever driven a car in. Traffic laws are things to ignore there, apparently. I think the total of 30 minutes I drove the car in Athens will have probably cost me two years of my life in stress.

Accurate.

[TimovieMan]

Busy week this week. The kids don't have school yet, but the missus and me have to work. As childcare, the kids are going to two different youth camps, which involves a lot of organization to drop them off and pick them up...

 

Anyway, I wasn't finished with my summary of these past weeks. 😇

 

And to keep this manageable for myself, I'd better split it up over several posts, so I actually get around to writing them, instead of thinking of it as a huge project and just not getting started... 😇

 

 

 

One thing from the Greece trip that I found really remarkable but haven't really gone in detail about yet, was the boat trip through the Corinth Canal. That was really fascinating, especially because of its history.

What seemed like a great idea on paper - make a 6.4 km / 4 mi canal on the land bridge between the mainland and the Peloponnese peninsula, and save the 700+ km / 420+ mi boat trip around the peninsula - is just one long string of failures. From miscalculations in ancient times (where they miscalculated the sea level and thought a canal would inundate islands on the other side) to multiple Greek and Roman emperors having the idea but dying before getting the project underway, to Nero actually getting things started on the Canal but it getting abandoned after his death and after only having dug 700m, to multiple iterations of it being deemed far too expensive a project to undertake, etc.

Until the success of the Suez canal gave the project a new boost and the same firm that was doing the Panama canal at the time was hired to dig this one...

And then the Panama canal bankrupts that firm, and progress is halted again, until another firm takes over the project several years later and finally completes the Corinth Canal...

Only for it to be too narrow and difficult to navigate and thus not as commercially viable as they had hoped, and the high (almost vertical) limestone walls being unstable and causing regular landslides which often close the canal for considerable periods, etc.

The Corinth Canal is ultimately little more than a tourist attraction, but my God, do I love this history of failure it has... 😅

 

 

 

And I also like that, whenever you order something in a bar or restaurant in Greece, you get a can or bottle of water for the table. And if you request a glass of water instead of soda, the water is dirt cheap in comparison. That simply doesn't happen in Belgium, where a glass of water in a bar will cost the same as a glass of soda (which is bullshit but sadly reality)...

 

It makes for a nice segue into my post about the Alcatraz metal festival, though, because the sponsor for the festival ensured that visitors could get a glass of water at half the price of soda or beer, which is something I can only applaud as stuff like that never happens around here. Maybe they're finally learning?

 

On the other hand, I still had one bartender who gave me an incredulous "why though?" when I asked for two glasses of still water at the festival. So I replied with an annoyed "because I'm thirsty, want to hydrate, and would like to remember the bands I saw", because I know he meant "why not beer?". Even if he would never have asked that if I had ordered soda instead.

We need a mentality change on that topic... 😒

[TimovieMan]

General stuff about the Alcatraz Metal Festival:

 

- It's only about 5 km / 3 mi away for me, so I went by bike. Even contemplated walking for a good long while, because I wanted to grab some food from the local baker before going to the festival each day, which had to be eaten before reaching the festival grounds - something that is more manageable on foot than while riding a bike. 😅

- Loved the lay-out of the grounds, with the main stage, the two big tents and the smaller tent. They were close enough together to make moving between stages quick, but also far enough / divided enough that there was little to no noise overlap when two or more bands were playing simultaneously. A lot of different food and drink stands at different places to divide the crowds as well.

- As became apparent on Saturday, and especially on the far more crowded Sunday: the venue could've benefitted from an additional restroom location. Just having two blocks of facilities was not convenient, especially for women. This was even more problematic on Sunday when one of the two locations saw the area around its urinals turn into some kind of rancid cesspool. 🤮

- The sound quality at the main stage and the two large tents was good. Vocals could've been slightly louder in comparison with the other elements, but overall, it was decent. Unfortunately, the smaller tent suffered from piss-poor sound quality, where the vocals were practically inaudible unless you were positioned directly behind the PA system - a spot more suitable for casual listeners than dedicated fans. 🙁

- I knew this already but it bears repeating and emphasising: metalheads are generally the nicest people imaginable! 🤘

- I knew this already but it still boggles the mind: yikes, band shirts and sweaters and the likes have become expensive!!!* 😲

 

* Still bought a "Paradise Lost" band shirt. Would've liked one of Powerwolf or Brutus as well, but there were no official Brutus shirts on sale and those for Powerwolf weren't the ones with the best design. Because I care about the design as well... 😇

 

I got this one:

[Jackdaw]

A metal festival, how nice! I also wanted to participate after I came back to my home country, but then I've heard rock/metal festivals lost their popularity in the recent years and there's almost nothing. My friend said "the new generations don't listen to such music. " That sentence made me feel so old lol 😂😂

 

A nice picture, thank you for sharing the history of the canal! 

 

Water rules. I would not last a day without it, maybe not even an hour. (No idea why,but I am always thirsty.) And there are many people in my country who never drink it. But I can understand that guy, metal festivals and beer seem to be inseparable, right? Good you didn't ask for a glass of milk. Once I was in a bar (where you can see pole dancing performances... so you know, the atmosphere) with two guys and one of them asked for a glass of milk. I will never forget the bartender's look 🤣 

[Harriet]

3 hours ago, TimovieMan said:

Busy week this week. The kids don't have school yet, but the missus and me have to work. As childcare, the kids are going to two different youth camps, which involves a lot of organization to drop them off and pick them up...

 

Anyway, I wasn't finished with my summary of these past weeks. 😇

 

And to keep this manageable for myself, I'd better split it up over several posts, so I actually get around to writing them, instead of thinking of it as a huge project and just not getting started... 😇

 

The Corinth Canal is ultimately little more than a tourist attraction, but my God, do I love this history of failure it has... 😅

 

 

 

Wow, that's an attractive failure!

 

3 hours ago, TimovieMan said:

And I also like that, whenever you order something in a bar or restaurant in Greece, you get a can or bottle of water for the table. And if you request a glass of water instead of soda, the water is dirt cheap in comparison. That simply doesn't happen in Belgium, where a glass of water in a bar will cost the same as a glass of soda (which is bullshit but sadly reality)...

 

I'm pretty sure restaurants here must provide tap water if you ask for it. It's free. 

 

1 hour ago, TimovieMan said:

* Still bought a "Paradise Lost" band shirt. Would've liked one of Powerwolf or Brutus as well, but there were no official Brutus shirts on sale and those for Powerwolf weren't the ones with the best design. Because I care about the design as well... 😇

 

 

Oh hey, I don't know paradise lost well, but there's one song from them made it on to my Spotify list. No hope in sight. 

[TimovieMan]

  

16 hours ago, XBlackWidowX said:

A metal festival, how nice! I also wanted to participate after I came back to my home country, but then I've heard rock/metal festivals lost their popularity in the recent years and there's almost nothing. My friend said "the new generations don't listen to such music. " That sentence made me feel so old lol 😂😂

While it's true that the metal audience is generally older on average than at other (more mainstream) festivals, there's certainly influx of younger generations. I don't think it's lost any popularity in Europe. There aren't all that many metal festivals, but the ones that are there only get bigger each year / sell out sooner...

 

Alcatraz started as a one-day indoor festival. After 6 years it grew to a 2-day outdoor festival, and a mere 3 years later it was an even bigger 3-day festival. It's been the second-biggest metal festival in Belgium ever since (after Graspop Metal Meeting)...

 

16 hours ago, XBlackWidowX said:

Water rules. I would not last a day without it, maybe not even an hour. (No idea why,but I am always thirsty.) And there are many people in my country who never drink it. But I can understand that guy, metal festivals and beer seem to be inseparable, right? Good you didn't ask for a glass of milk. Once I was in a bar (where you can see pole dancing performances... so you know, the atmosphere) with two guys and one of them asked for a glass of milk. I will never forget the bartender's look 🤣 

I had something similar with a classmate back in high school. After an exam period, we all went to a bar to "kick off the vacation". Everyone ordered something alcoholic (whether it was beer, or a gin-tonic or a wodka-Red Bull), except for one classmate who ordered... tomato juice. 🤯

We mocked him relentlessly for that.

Case in point: it's been over 20 years, and I'm still using it as an anecdote... 😅

 

  

16 hours ago, Harriet said:

Oh hey, I don't know paradise lost well, but there's one song from them made it on to my Spotify list. No hope in sight. 

I saw them live last year, and "No Hope in Sight" was on their setlist. 😎

 

I was going to write a bit about Paradise Lost here, but then I remembered I had already done so a while ago, so I'm just going to quote myself... 😇

  

On 3/29/2023 at 10:44 PM, TimovieMan said:

Paradise Lost is a band that pretty much invented the death/doom metal genre, and named the gothic metal genre. One of the most influential bands in metal in the (early) 90s.

In the late 90s they made a couple of "softer" albums. The guttural growling had lessened after two albums and was gone by then, but their transition to more synth-rock / industrial metal is considered their "lesser" period. They returned to gothic/death/doom in later outings. Their albums "One Second", "Host", "Believe in Nothing" and "Symbol of Life" are their least liked among their fans...

I, however, loved this period in their discography. I consider "One Second" and "Symbol of Life" their best two albums.

I saw them live back in October. They only played two songs off "One Second" and none of "Symbol of Life", but it was a great concert. They've got a large discography so plenty of great songs to choose from.

 

My personal favourite is the opening track of "Symbol of Life".

 

Paradise Lost - "Isolate"

 

[Harriet]

Listening to isolate now. It's nice having personal recommendations ❤️ 

[Salinger]

Hey Timo, how are things this morn? xx

[TimovieMan]

On 8/26/2023 at 9:48 AM, Salinger said:

Hey Timo, how are things this morn? xx

Had a great weekend. 😎

 

Haven't completed my review for the Alcatraz festival yet here, and I've gone to another festival already... 😅

 

Went to Road Rock in Kuurne on Saturday. It's a one-day festival with an all-Belgian line-up. It's in the neighbouring city from where I live, so I went on foot.

The bands were:

- Meltheads (posted about them a while back - very punky with fitting "90 seconds or less" song lengths)

- Ruby Grace (a little Amy Winehouse-like)

- Raman. (bluesy singer-songwriter in the vein of Jeff Buckley)

- Stef Kamil Carlens (former dEUS bassist and singer who has his own band Zita Swoon - he recently did a Bob Dylan tribute tour)

- SONS (young garage rock band - decent gig too, will follow these guys)

- Intergalactic Lovers (saw them already back in March - posted a song then too - same setlist but a different order this time, and again very solid performance, they're a great band - in my preparation I started noticing just how many "ooh ooh"s there are in their songs and now I can't unhear it 😅)

- Triggerfinger (headliner, famous rock band here, opened for The Rolling Stones twice in the past, good performance too, and they are great at covering pop songs: Lykke Li - I Follow Rivers / Rihanna - Man Down)

 

And not just that, but TimovieSon had two football tournaments. One on Saturday morning and one on Sunday afternoon.

The team WON BOTH!!! 🥇

I wasn't there on Saturday, but apparently they played well in their group (won their matches 4-1, 5-2 and 3-1 or so) but they probably had the stronger group because they utterly demolished the other group winner in the final 10-0!!! In just 15 minutes!

The tournament on Sunday - with TimovieSon in goal again and one other player from Saturday and 5 new kids - was actually not that great. They were playing poorly, seemed distracted, but somehow still scraped by winning 3-2 in the first match (thanks to a couple of good saves and even an assist by TimovieSon who was seemingly the only player that was awake). Drew 2-2 in the second match which they should have won easily (and again, thanks to TimovieSon being the only one playing well). They won the third game 2-0 (with TimovieSon keeping them from trailing and then giving another assist after which the others finally woke up and started playing well). It won them the group. And in the final, the scenario from Saturday repeated: they played well in this final, and beat the others 6-0!!!

The trainer let TimovieSon pick up the cup as the team's most decisive player. Heck, all the other parents named him Player of the Tournament - he was that on point all day.

So... proud dad! 😁

 

 

 

And now it's about time I actually show some of my logs here, right?

 

Respawn log

Week 3

Week 4

M

T

W

T

F

S

S

M

T

W

T

F

S

S

Intermittent fasting

Calorie intake

Weight

95.5 kg

-1.7 kg

Curfew

Sleep

*

*

*

*

Avg. sleep

6h47

6h35

Steps

Avg. steps

11.4K

12.3K

Workouts

0.0

0.0

Distance

21.40 km

36.17 km

 

Food's ok again. There was 5 kg of "vacation damage" that I've started undoing.

I'm walking again and getting my steps in on most days.

This coming week, I'm starting the workouts again, as well as the DailyDare exercises. Did a DailyDare as warmup today, and then 2 bodyweight circuits.

 

 

Weekly weigh-in

 

Weight: 93.8 kg (-1.7)

Body fat: 22.9% (-0.3)

 

 

Walk to Mordor

 

Distance walked/swam this week: 36.17 km (22.47 miles)

Road to Mordor: total 512.4 miles - Rivendell to Lothlórien - Dec. 28/29 - Night 4 since Rivendell - cold and windy, passed a snowcapped peak due east

 

 

Since I stopped taking my blood pressure meds, I'd better start measuring my blood pressure again during the weigh-ins. Something to start next week.

 

 

This is probably my favourite Triggerfinger song. One from their 2004 debut album. I particularly like the riff that's droning throughout.

 

Triggerfinger - On My Knees

 

[Salinger]

Nice one Timo!!!!

 

and tell your son that’s a brilliant achievement 💪🏼

[Jarric]

A great holiday and then all the music festivals - sounds like you're having a great summer mate!

[Jackdaw]

Oh, more cool music! I need to check it out

I alreadyike the one in the attachment.

 

Sometimes when I feel like I would like to listen to something new, I just think hmm let's wait for whatever Timovie posts xD 

 

congrats to your son! you must be so proud 😊💪

[TimovieMan]

Alright, so... Alcatraz... 😅

 

 

The prep-work I'd been doing for Alcatraz in the months before had been totally worth it. Almost every song played live was on my prep list, and nearly all of the songs I had on my list were performed live. This meant I could sing along to most of the songs, even for bands I didn't even know beforehand. Made me feel less like an ignorant git and more like an actual fan. Setlist.fm for the win! 😁

 

Friday:

Spoiler

Eleine

Solid opener for the festival.

 

Wind Rose

Great fun! They're milking their dwarf theme for all its worth, culminating in their metal version of Diggy Diggy Hole. Insane mosh pit, alternating moshing during the actual hard parts, and forming a line / circle for a polonaise, or even sitting down and in unison bending forwards and backwards as if rowing (during the Diggy Diggy Hole chorus). Like I said: great fun! 😅

 

Gnome

Perfect act to follow after the dwarves. Belgian band, very solid performance despite the poor sound quality in that tent.

 

Rise of the Northstar

French band, Japanese anime-influenced combination of rap, hip-hop, punk and metalcore. Didn't catch the start because of Gnome, but sounded really decent.

 

Metal Church

Solid classical metal from the 80s.

 

Svalbard

Great performance by the band. The female singer was beyond cute, smiling after each song as if she was surprised that the audience was applauding. Professed her love for Powerwolf during the show. 🙂

 

Psychlona

Was greatly looking forward to them. Stood front and center, at the tent without security, so I was *directly* at the stage. Unfortunately, this spot is where the sound was the worst, as the singer was almost entirely inaudible from where I was standing. Would like to see them again, but then in a venue with proper sound quality, because the things I *did* hear seemed great.

 

Forbidden

Watched them more or less "in passing" while waiting for Slomosa. Sounded decent.

 

Slomosa

Placed further away from the stage so I had less issues with the sound quality. Still not good with the singer being too silent. The smallest tent was really not optimal. Gig was pretty decent otherwise. Left a tad early to check out Trivium at the main stage.

 

Trivium

Ugly stage setting with the Chinese Dragon theme, didn't work for me. The band has great songs, but the performance seemed sub-par. One of the bigger disappointments of the entire festival. Singer Matt Heafy also kept trying - in vain - to get more audience interaction and dancing / moshing, but spent so much time on getting that, that he only got on my nerves.

He even tried to get the audience to jump and mosh during "The Heart From Your Hate", which is decidedly NOT a moshing song. It's like they don't even know their own repertoire...

Brother-in-law hated their act as well. Said he's seen them 3 or 4 times now and they've never delivered. Their album material is great... so maybe they're just not a live band?

 

Prong

Vast improvement over Trivium. Great gig, really enjoyable. I was sad to leave early - I hate doing that with good shows. But there had been a cancellation and replacement and Prong were moved up in the day to a later time slot, which caused overlap with Powerwolf. And since I had gotten tickets specifically for Powerwolf... 😶

 

Powerwolf

Brilliant act. Superb set decoration (Trivium should take notes), great show. Lots of pyrotechnics - I think they've been watching Rammstein. The many crowdsurfers got on my nerves, though. Missed half the show because I was holding someone up and pushing him forward. Which is annoying, because the crowd surfing started at the back and went to the front, so you have to keep looking behind you to avoid getting a boot in your neck. A band with this amount of showmanship needs to be watched without interruptions from crowdsurfers.

The band performed "We Drink Your Blood" together with Trivium singer Matt Heafy. Came off as totally unnecessary. But my guess is that Heafy didn't want to leave without having done at least one song where the audience DID do his bidding... 🤣

 

Michael Schenker Group

Perfect example of a bunch of old farts playing what they were already playing in the 70s. Felt like a UFO tribute band (which makes sense, because Michael Schenker). Not that it was bad, just that it felt a bit generic and past its prime. The UFO songs still had their quality at least...

 

Agnostic Front

Mainly memorable for the gratitude that singer Roger Miret kept showing to the audience for their support during his battle against cancer in recent years. The gig itself mainly ran on nostalgia for the 90s.

 

Saturday:

Spoiler

Iron Mask

Perfect opener for the second day. Was looking forward to them and they delivered. Fun neo-classical power metal. Was really in the mood for them too. Ran into the singer a couple of times during the festival. See anecdote below.

 

Crystal Viper

When they got onstage, I suddenly realized why their high screams were SO high. They have a female singer... 😅

Twilight Force

Cheesy fantasy-themed power metal. In contrast with Gloryhammer, though, it seems like these guys don't realize the other bands are doing the fantasy-shtick very tongue-in-cheek and with humour. Twilight Force looked like they meant it. Which only turned the entire act into kitsch... 😅

At least the music was good. The act itself was... (unintentionally) laughable... 😅

 

Angelus Apatrida

Checked them out for a couple of songs while waiting for the next concert. Not entirely my thing, but the performance was good.

 

Dynazty

Excellent power metal band, great gig. Will follow these guys from now on.

 

Tygers of Pan-Tang

Great show. Guys that have been around since the early 80s and that were still performing well. Was sad to leave early, but didn't want to miss H.E.A.T.

 

H.E.A.T.

Another excellent power metal band. And they're performing with their original singer again, which is an added plus. Another band to follow.

 

Tribulation

Never having been a fan of Sepultura, I decided to skip them and go for Tribulation instead. So glad I did. This was one of the better surprises of the festival for me. Superb performance!

 

Vicious Rumors

Watched them in passing. Not all that memorable, but then it wasn't exactly my cup of tea either.

 

Biohazard

Only good for the nostalgia of it. Bailed out halfway through to go and buy a shirt at the metal market. After Tribulation, there was a bit of a lull in the programming for me.

 

Jag Panzer

Not a bad performance, but it was at the tent with the poor sound quality, and I was mainly in anticipation of Alestorm at this point. Left early.

 

Alestorm

Exactly the type of party I envisioned it to be. An hour and a half of singing along to catchy (but stupid) lyrics. Even more crowdsurfers than with Powerwolf, but for this band that was more fitting. That be a jolly good time, yarrr!

 

Riot V

Nice throwback performance. Solid gig from the remaining members of Riot.

 

KK's Priest

Good show and a nice performance, but I had issues with this. I get former Judas Priest-guitarist KK Downing's criticism of present-day Judas Priest, and I fully believe that this band performs the songs better than actual Judas Priest does nowadays, with Tim Owens (who had replaced Rob Halford in Judas Priest in the late 90s and early 00s) hitting notes that Halford himself probably no longer can hit. But ultimately, this isn't Judas Priest, and it felt somewhat like a tribute band instead.

I've seen Judas Priest when they were still in their prime, back in 2004 at Graspop (which is possibly the best live performance I've ever seen at a festival). This is but a mere shadow of that. Even if Judas Priest themselves wouldn't be able to do as well as KK's Priest did now...

 

Amorphis

Another great surprise. Excellent show, and they reminded me so much of Paradise Lost (long-running band that switches genres occasionally, with death/doom/gothic elements), that I'll now be taking a closer look at their discography. One of the better shows at the festival. I was glad that I left KK's Priest early to catch their entire gig.

 

Sunday:

Spoiler

Annisokay

Highly energetic performance that got the audience riled up early. The singer managed to create a "wall of death" spanning from row 2 to the PA system. At 11.30 am!

He then saw fit to climb offstage, head to the security gates at the first row, and use the security steps to launch himself onto the crowd to crowdsurf. I was standing in the middle at row 2. The two guys in front of me were taking pictures. We were caught by surprise. There was this collective "oh crap, he's jumping" moment where we hurriedly caught him... 😅

 

Aeveris

Fatigue was hitting on this third day, and I only caught Aeveris a little in passing, opting to stay put and sit down more during the day. Seemed decent otherwise.

 

My Diligence

Decent show, if a little unremarkable. Provided a good opportunity to get a good "just in front of the PA system" spot for the next show.

 

Psychonaut

Belgian post-metal band in the vein of Brutus. These guys were so good, that I'm sincerely hoping they'll hit it as big as other Belgian bands Amenra and Brutus have done in recent years. Considering that the big tent was jam-packed during their gig seems to indicate that yes, these guys are about to break through. And rightfully so. One of the better shows of the weekend.

 

Mantah

Another new Belgian band (although these guys are more my age). They're playing nu-metal as a bit of a mix between Korn and Limp Bizkit. Solid performance, even despite being in the small tent (and thus having to cope with poorer sound).

 

Gaupa

Pretty decent show. Had missed the start because of Mantah, but it was good.

 

Evil Invaders

Overkill had cancelled at the last minute, and Belgian band Evil Invaders were asked to replace them. That was actually an improvement in the line-up if you ask me. Solid gig.

 

Gloryhammer

Very fun gig, that started with a surprise guest appearance of... Tom Jones! 😵

Or at least a cardboard version of him. 🤣

They played 'Delilah'. Around 8.000 metalheads sang it from beginning to end...

Great gig. Bit of a slap in the face for Twilight Force, as this actually was so insanely tongue-in-cheek that it was just great fun, and not a kitschy "are you guys serious?" show...

 

Blind Guardian

Playing at the same time as Stake, so decisions had to be made. But since I liked Stake better when they were still called Steak Number Eight (and they refuse to play any of their older stuff), I opted for the Germans instead.

Vocalist Hansi Kürsch was very funny. "If you already know us, then you know that we are the best metal band in the world. If you don't know us, then you will agree once the show is over." 😅

And then commenting on being glad to be in Belgium - for the first time since 2015. Only to push all of our collective berserk buttons... "We love Belgium. With your waffles. And your second-best beer. And second-best fries. And third-best chocolate. Yes, we know how to build anticipation..." 🤣

That typical "German sense of humour" is wonderful!

We then were treated to a good show. And I don't think he sang more than ten words of The Bard's Song: In the Forest. The audience did the rest... 😁

I complimented the girl that was standing next to me, as she actually had a good voice during this. And she knew more of the lyrics than I did... 😇

 

Brutus

I skipped Gang Green, because I wanted to be on time for this. I was skipping most of Killswitch Engage as well just to see Brutus again. I was not disappointed in their performance. This band simply rips.

What was annoying, however, was the crowd. Worst metal crowd I've seen at a concert. Nothing but Instagrammers in the front, and the guys in the middle thinking they're at a different band's show because they were either moshing or crowdsurfing. This is not a band to mosh or crowdsurf to. The energy coming from drummer/vocalist Stefanie Mannaerts needs to be listened to.

 

Killswitch Engage

Only caught their final three songs. Luckily for me they were "The End of Heartache", "My Last Serenade" and "Holy Diver". Which were great. But, well, decisions had to be made on Sunday...

 

Russian Circles

Another post-metal band, but without vocals. Purely instrumental.

Quite possibly the best concert I've seen at the entire festival. The band was simply mindblowing. Excellent audience too, despite being in the same tent as Brutus had been just before. Nothing but vibers, as it should be for a band like this. The idiots in the crowd had gone to see Electric Callboy, I presume. 😇

The single most memorable gig of the weekend for me, simply outstanding.

 

Electric Callboy

I missed the start, because leaving early during Russian Circles would've been a cardinal sin. I get the appeal of the band, and the combination of techno and metalcore is fun, so this was a nice party. They're spending a lot of time between songs to switch costumes, though. The act could be handled a bit better. But then they kick off Hypa Hypa, Pump It or We Got the Moves and all is good again.

Heck, these guys managed to get a crowd of 10.000 metalheads to sing along to Frozen's "Let It Go" or even to The Backstreet Boys. And they get them to dance to German schlager music. And it works, so they're definitely doing something right... 😁

 

Hypocrisy

The only time of the entire festival where I entered "The Swamp", the death/doom-centric tent. Mainly because I'm a fan of frontman Peter Tägtgren's "Pain" side project. Sadly for me, I mainly heard the songs with the harsh vocals, which are less to my liking. Made the mood whiplash after Electric Callboy all the worse... 😅

 

Fun fact:

I went to see Russian Circles wearing my new Paradise Lost shirt.

While Bloodbath was playing in a different tent at the same time.

Bloodbath being a side project of Paradise Lost's frontman Nick Holmes... 🤣

 

Fun t-shirt spotted:

"I have the body of a God! Unfortunately, it's Buddha."

Spotted this in Dutch AND in French even!

 

Critical research failure:

I came across the singer of Iron Mask several times at the festival. First when I was going from Angelus Apatrida to Dynazty, with him making that same trip at the time, and me asking my brother-in-law "is that the Iron Mask singer?". As if he'd know, he skipped their gig. 😅

Saw the singer again when looking for a spot at Alestorm. He was a couple of meters to my right.

Saw him again on Sunday. He was standing in line right next to me to get drinks. I approached him (in English): "Are you the Iron Mask singer?"

He replied in Dutch: "You can ask that in Dutch, you know. 😉"

"In West-Flemish dialect even!" 😲

I had failed to notice (or had forgotten) that Iron Mask are a Belgian band. 🤦‍♂️

Anyway, I apparently made his day by complimenting him on his and the band's performance the day before. Wound up talking to him for a good five minutes, really nice guy. 🤘

 

 

 

 

So, to end my review of Alcatraz, I kinda have to post a song.

Why not the biggest surprise of the festival for me?

 

Russian Circles - Mlàdek

 

[Salinger]

Hey Timo, how are you today? xx

[TimovieMan]

I'm running on caffeine today. Because I've made a horrible mistake.

 

With Larian Studios "properly" releasing Baldur's Gate III this month, and it getting universally acclaimed again - because of course it does - I've now started playing Divinity: Original Sin - Enhanced Edition, which has been on my backlog pretty much since its release.

 

But...

 

I've got a The Witcher playthrough that's on hold, I've got Uncharted: Lost Legacy that's on hold and that I really should finish so I can return the game to my friend, I've still got Stray and The Last of Us II on my Playstation backlog, I've got Hogwarts Legacy that's "semi-" on hold (because TimovieSon doesn't want me to get the story-related PSN trophies before he does), and I'm still in the middle of a Tennis Elbow 4 addiction.

 

So starting up another game that will likely become a 100+ hour time sink may not have been the brightest idea.

 

But I can't help myself. Attention Deficit Dis...oooh, shiny!

 

 

 

It's very noticable in my logging. Sleep has gone out the window these past two days... 🤦‍♂️

 

And I didn't get my steps in yesterday, but that was partly because the kids were at home and I had to make lunch at noon, so couldn't go for a walk at that time. It might become an issue on Wednesdays in general in the future, now that I'm working fulltime again.

 

We also had a "back-to-school orientation moment" yesterday evening, and of course the parent-teacher committee made a big deal about it, so there were drinks, crisps and even an ice cream truck... which postponed my current fast with a couple of hours and turned a dark green calorie log into a yellow one... 😏

 

Basically, my workout on Monday is the only real positive thing this week. 😇

And I haven't done anything more since, because after a little over a month without training, the DOMS are hitting hard...

 

 

My week so far:

	Week 5
	M	T	W	T	F	S	S
Intermittent fasting
Calorie intake
Weight	93.8 kg
Curfew
Sleep
Avg. sleep	5h48
Steps
Avg. steps	8.9K
Workouts	1.0
Distance	10.32 km

 

Yikes, that's a lot of red... 😟

 

 

Maybe I'd better post something beautiful, evocative and melancholic. Which automatically brings me to Agnes Obel... ☺️

 

Agnes Obel - Fuel to Fire

[TimovieMan]

Belated holiday remarks:

 

Went to the cinema a couple of weeks ago. TimovieDaughter wanted to see Barbie (which I could only applaud, because I wanted to see it too). Unfortunately TimovieSon had ZERO interest in Barbie, and we had to split up. Mrs. Movieman took TimovieDaughter to Barbie, and I went to see Gran Turismo instead.

 

 

It's a competently made film - which comes as no surprise from director Neill Blomkamp - but it's also not a type of movie that I haven't seen dozens of times before. It's your typical racing movie: every race is decided in the final turn and ends on a photo finish - which is unrealistic as fuck since that hardly ever happens in real life - but, well, "rule of drama".

They've also changed the timeline and events enough for it to only tangently be a biopic.

 

 

Mrs. Movieman and me also watched the latest season of Black Mirror.

Bit of an odd season that.

The first episode ("Joan Is Awful") was utterly brilliant, and once Salma Hayek shows up "as herself" in the episode, it becomes incredibly meta and hilarious. One of the absolute best episodes in the entire series for me.

 

But then there was a "meh" and even a bad episode. I didn't like the unnecessarily bleak ending, but I mainly disliked "Beyond the Sea" because of its flawed immersion-breaking premise: astronauts are sent on years-long space missions while during their "off" hours they can link up with a robot replica of themselves on Earth. They're shown to only need to be on the spacecraft for emergencies and for routine "keep your body fit" training sessions; the rest of the time they're here in their robot bodies. Why not just send the robots to space and keep the human astronauts planetside??? Who writes this crap??? (that was rhetorical, I know it's Charlie Brooker)

 

The penultimate episode then suddenly had a mid-episode genre shift to horror/fantasy, and the last episode was also horror/fantasy and not dystopian scifi.

 

Apparently, showrunner Charlie Brooker wants a fantasy/horror themed spin-off series under the label "Red Mirror". Why not just do that immediately instead of "changing" the concept of the original in its final episodes to set up this one? Seems like a weird thing to do...

 

[Salinger]

Agree with Joan is Awful, one of my fave ever Black Mirror eps. Absolutely brilliant writing and acting. 

 

❤️

 

xx

[TimovieMan]

Friday:

 

First day of the new school year for the kids, so we traditionally take the day off. There's usually a small play at school by the teachers as an elaborate welcome (which in reality only makes the nervous kids even more nervous), and after that, the missus and me go to a restaurant.

 

The parent committee (that the missus is a part of) wanted to go for brunch at a new "breakfast bar" that has opened nearby, so we joined them instead of going to a restaurant for lunch.

Brunch was great. And extensive. There were a lot of leftover cold cuts for the table, though, and I ate a lot of them - can't let good food go to waste. Put my calories in the 3K ballpark, but I had no intention of eating any more after that.

 

Walking on Friday was out of the question, because we had SO MUCH rainfall.

 

In the evening, the missus wanted to treat the kids to fries. I went to the local friterie to get fries for the entire family, and managed to take nothing for myself, skipping dinner entirely.

 

When the kids wanted to play a "dare" game with jelly beans they had bought, I figured that a couple of jelly beans wouldn't really break my fast - or at least not enough for it to actually need to register.

It was this:

The idea is simple: spin the wheel, and eat a jelly bean of the colour you land on. The trick is this: every colour has two different flavours: one yummy, one inedible. So it's strawberry or fresh blood, peaches or curry, kiwi or snot, banana or squid, ice cream or soap, cola or snail. You have a 50% chance.

 

The thing is: I ate 6 jelly beans, one of each colour. But I got squid and snail as my first two, and snot a little later. They really are inedible. You need to chew on them a couple of times before they release the flavour, but once they do, you pretty much have to spit them out, they're THAT bad.

So, while I only really ate 3 jelly beans, I'm still logging a broken fast. Why? Because the taste in my mouth was so nauseatingly bad, I had to eat / drink some good things, just to get rid of the tang. So I had two cans of Ice Tea Zero - the missus accidentally bought Zero instead of regular, but I don't blame her, the cans are almost indistinguishable -, a couple of chocolates, and some paprika peanuts.

Didn't push my day in "red" territory, but it destroyed my intermittent fasting.

 

 

Saturday:

 

Football match for both TimovieSon and TimovieDaughter. I went with TimovieSon, whose team played a U10 match (8v8) instead of their regular U9 matches (5v5), so they were up against a team of kids that were a year older. To prove that they're a good team, they won 3-9. 😁

The missus went with TimovieDaughter for her very first match. They drew 7-7.

 

In the afternoon, I spent almost 5 hours clearing the front, side and back of the house of weed - particularly our sidewalk.  Got my steps in, at least.

 

 

Sunday:

Lazy day. Did almost nothing.
Watched Uncharted with TimovieSon. While Tom Holland is a bit too much Peter Parker and not enough Nathan Drake, and Mark Wahlberg is his usual character and not enough Sully, this is actually a pretty solid adventure movie that hits enough of the game's plot points to feel like a proper adaptation, but changing enough elements to be its own thing. Not sure why this got such poor reviews. OK, so it's not "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" but I never expect that level of quality...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alright, let's wrap this thing up now. 😅

 

With me playing Divinity: Original Sin - Enhanced Edition until WAY too late every day, the sleep log is dark red.

DOMS kept me from working out more, but I also neglected the DailyDare exercises, which is something I'll have to work on for the next challenge - get those "movement snacks" in.

Food has been ok. Could've been better, but... circumstances. *cough* disgusting jelly beans *cough*

 

 

Week 5

	Week 5
	M	T	W	T	F	S	S
Intermittent fasting
Calorie intake
Weight	-1.45 kg
Curfew
Sleep
Avg. sleep	5h46
Steps
Avg. steps	11.4K
Workouts	1.0
Distance	29.37 km

 

 

Weekly weigh-in

 

Weight: 92.4 kg (-1.4)

Body fat: 22.0% (-0.9)

 

 

Walk to Mordor

 

Distance walked/swam this week: 29.37 km (18.25 miles)

Road to Mordor: total 530.7 miles - Rivendell to Lothlórien - Dec. 29/30 - Night 5 since Rivendell - angled southeast after reaching the top of a rise

 

 

 

For the closing song of this challenge, I'm quoting myself (from my Sunday review of Alcatraz):

  

On 8/29/2023 at 5:42 PM, TimovieMan said:

Psychonaut

Belgian post-metal band in the vein of Brutus. These guys were so good, that I'm sincerely hoping they'll hit it as big as other Belgian bands Amenra and Brutus have done in recent years. Considering that the big tent was jam-packed during their gig seems to indicate that yes, these guys are about to break through. And rightfully so. One of the better shows of the weekend.

It's not a coincidence that I mentioned both Amenra and Brutus here. Not only are they in the same post-metal genre, but they have collaborated on a song.

This is Psychonaut featuring Colin H. Van Eeckhout (Amenra's frontman) and Stefanie Mannaerts (Brutus' frontwoman):

 

Psychonaut (feat. CHVE and Stefanie Mannaerts) - Violate Consensus Reality

 

 

Brutus was performing the same day as Psychonaut. I was hoping for a live collab on this song. Alas, it wasn't to be - Stefanie Mannaerts' voice was on track... 🙂

[TimovieMan]

New challenge is up!