March 23 - Suds & Soda

There are some connections you really don't want to make. For instance, hearing about a terrorist attack in Europe is bad enough to begin with, but when you start narrowing it down further to a small country like Belgium, then the Brussels area, until you finally hear that Zaventem airport was one of the targets and you realize that this is exactly the place where someone who is so good a friend that you count him as family lives, and you start getting really worried, especially with a rising death toll.

This is also where the power of Facebook really shows. Arve and Kateleijn and all three boys were checked in as safe and I could breathe easier. I tend to be pretty reserved when it comes to terrorist attacks, but this one hit me pretty close to the heart. I just want to say for the record that I am glad you all are safe - and let me add that although this attack was made by Muslim extremists (ISIS has at least claimed responsibility for it), this is no time to panic and blame all Muslims or immigrants for this deed. Of course, this is easy for me to say from where I am sitting - but with Donald Trump making this one of the cornerstones of his presidential campaign, it applies here as well.

Now I am not one to post pictures with the Belgian colors or proudly proclaim that we are all Belgians today. However, I think it is important to recognize Belgium, and what better way than to dig out one of my favorite alternative bands of the 90s, dEUS, who just so happen to come from Belgium. I first heard of them in Studentradioen, and then a few years later, Arve bought The Ideal Crash for me for my birthday. Today's song is a great example of how I like songs with dissonance and resolution. The violin that keeps playing the same thing over and over again creates tension and dissonance that gets released in the chorus, elevating this song way higher than it would be with just the basic melody. R.E.M. Would later use a very similar trick in the song Leave, but today's song is the opening song of dEUS' Worst Case Scenario album from 1994, Suds and Soda.