Oliver De Lantsheere’s VisionQuest route starts this wednesday!

 Travel  No Responses »
Feb 012010
 

My NYC based friend, kitesurfer and film/tv/video wizard Oliver has been laid off and decided to give it all up for now and live life on the road. He bought a great big old van with a bed and a kitchen (as well as an axe and a shovel on the roof and many other great features!) and is about to embark in the trip of a lifetime…

He packed his kitesurfing, surfing, snowboarding, video and photography gear and he’s all ready to go!

He’ll be blogging and adding pictures and videos at VisionQuest.me and I’ll be following what he does, where he goes, what he tweets…

I took some pics of him on his mean-looking truck tonight after his farewell party tonight in Manhattan and I wanna wish him all the best!

Oliver is looking for sponsors and is probably going to make this into a movie, which I am sure will be worthwhile watching!

Good luck out there Ollie!

PS he’s a really nice guy, I told him to pose like a red neck macho! ;-)

 Posted by at 11:57 pm

back in NYC… Happy 2010 to ALL!

 Opinions & Thoughts, Status Updates, Travel  No Responses »
Jan 032010
 

Just got back to the beautiful skyline of NYC after an amazing trip that took me to three countries and seven cities in a little over 10 days. I did so much in 10 days that I feel like I need a vacation to recover from this vacation ;-)
The best of all is that I did it with miles accrued from flying around on tours and other trips. Sweet!

South East Asia is a truly incredible place, full of excitment, nice people, culture, traditions, heritage, music… Of course I couldn’t resist coming back with some new instruments and field recordings of local musicians performing traditional tunes. If I could attach one from my iPhone for you all I would but I’ll just attach some pictures of Thailad, Cambodia and New Year’s Eve in Japan.

Speaking of, I would like to wish all of you ALL the best for a successfull, painless, healthy, recession-free new year, sincerely. I hope it brings you all what you need and deserve!

 



 

 Posted by at 8:45 pm

Xmas in Thailand and Cambodia and New Year’s Eve in Tokyo

 Travel  No Responses »
Dec 192009
 

There’s nothing better than flying for free on miles, except flying for free on miles to a remote location which usually would cost a ton of $$$ to get to…

I’m excited about the journey ahead and just hope that no bags get lost and all our connections and plans work out!

Dec 19
4.15 alarm for a 6.15 flight to snowy Minneapolis… what I’m really not looking forward to is the 14 hour flight to Tokyo followed by the 8 hour flight to Bangkok… we’ll get there eventually I guess… right about now,
for a 6’2″ guy like me, it seems so uncomfortable and far away in time… thank god for emergency exit seats!

 Posted by at 6:56 am

My hellish nightmare odissey in beautiful hot Brazil

 Status Updates, Travel  3 Responses »
Dec 032009
 

6.30am. I’m sitting in a car service that’s taking me home from JFK airport, where I just landed after a long flight from Brazil. This was my first time there and the experience was equal part hell and paradise!
Paradise for the places I saw, the lagoon I kitesurfed in, SOME of the people I met.
Hell because on top of delayed flights with resulting missing connections, within 10 minutes (no joke!!!) of landing at the Brazilian airport I was surrounded by a large crowd (felt like mosh pit at CBGB’s!) who emptied my pockets, leaving me with no wallet (ie no money and no credit cards) and, worse, no IDs and no passport! The subsequent nightmare of consular agencies and embassies is too long to describe but I spent countless hours on phone and email (the iPhone saved my life!), countless money (which my travelling buddies lent me) on cab rides, car rentals, consulate fees, papers and other stuff and about 7 days waiting for an approval from the US consulate (which I was told was gonna take 2 days) and 5 hours in line at the US consulate.
Lesson I learned: always have ALL your IDs and documents scanned and available online for retrival and printing; always have money, IDs and travel documets in differet parts of your body and where you can feel them; never trust a cheering crowd in Brazil; never get robbed in a country where everything is slow and takes forever to happen; …and last but not least get yourself an amazing girlfriend like I have who can get on the horn, make things happen, scan documents, be internet savvy and do things for you (I’d probably still be stuck there if it wasn’t for her help)!

P.S.: oh, did I mention that I have a recording session in 4 hours at the studio?

 Posted by at 6:39 am
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Hikashu Appreciation Society: An interview with Marc Urselli – the engineer of Hikashus “Uragoe”

I’ve recently had the pleasure to record and mix the (I believe) 20th or 21st studio album by the popular Japanese avantgarde-rock band Hikashu, fronted by the great and eclectic Makigami “Maki” Koichi (vocals, theremin, jew’s harp, cornet), whom I had met while working on the latest DVD album by Ikue Mori (on Tzadik).

Hikashu’s new album is called “Uragoe” and the cover art work is by Tabaimo.

I recorded it at EastSide Sound Studios in NYC after their performance at Japan Society in NY last year. I just recently finished mixing it (also at EastSide Sound) and the famous mastering engineer Seigen Ono mastered it for CD and Super Audio CD at Saidera Mastering.

The album can be purchased online from HMV Japan.

I’ve been interviewed by their official blog’s curator Nori and you can read the interview at the following link: Hikashu Appreciation Society: An interview with Marc Urselli – the engineer of Hikashus “Uragoe”.

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