#.interview

[rhiannonmyblue]

For Haewon Jung, making music comes as easily as breathing. In her most recent album, Haewon sings of love and nature, of leaving and returning, of missing and being missed. WeVerse Magazine sat down to talk to her about the themes in her music.

You had a comeback earlier this year in february, with your 3rd mini album, Our Love is Great. Can you tell us about it?

Haewon Jung: Our Love is Great contains songs I’ve written as recently as a month and a half before release as well as things I had worked on two, three years ago. I wanted to paint a story, more delicate yet more hopeful than the ones in my previous releases, which is why I fixated a lot on the concept of blooming, of flowers, of nature. There are a lot of mentions of nature this time, and even though this is a more recurring thing in my writing, I think it’s different. 

Why is nature such an important presence in your writing?

Haewon Jung: As a child, I wasn’t raised in London, but rather in a town relatively close called Farnham. It was… Well, an estate (laughs). It was a big house with big land and, most importantly, a massive garden that I spent most of my time in, playing and helping my mother care for the flowers. When we moved to London in my early teens, I was devastated because I lost any contact I could have with nature and we only went back to our old house during the holidays. Seoul is even worse. I think my soul misses being in a place like that. 

We’ve seen that you’re good at expressing your accumulated thoughts and feelings through writing. That comes across especially well in the lyrics you write.

Haewon Jung: It’s to compensate for the fact that I don’t like talking about my feelings (laughs). I don’t know how to express myself in a tactile or vocal way, so I guess I translate all my thoughts and feelings through writing. It’s a bit of a compromise because by relying on other people to interpret what I say through my lyrics, I’m always at the risk of being misunderstood. But I eventually accepted that’s not on me – that’s on everybody else. 

What’s your typical process like?

Haewon Jung: I start with the lyrics, always. I could – and I wish to – release a poetry book with everything I’ve written that I never made music out of. Once I have the words down on the paper, on my notes app, it’s only then that I care to think about what the melody could be like. I’ve even encountered situations where I stumble upon a demo at the company and realize I have lyrics that could fit it. 

Do you still think about your trainee days? How were they like?

Haewon Jung: I try not to (laughs). They were… difficult. Lonely. Adapting to being in a different country, even if it was the one I was born in, proved to be harder than I expected. Then I didn’t enjoy the whole process of becoming an idol and I don’t think anyone is surprised by me saying this. I don’t think I was built for the expectations that idols have to carry with them around and the entire time I spent both training and promoting, I felt like I was a different person. 

Do you feel more like yourself now?

Haewon Jung: Yes. Both personally and professionally. Personally, I feel more settled in my own skin. I feel more self-confident now that my appearance isn’t as much of a central part of my job. I feel like I can live, you know, and not just survive. Professional, I finally feel like the artist I was always meant to be.

[533files]

Ziggo Sport Peptalk - interview with Max Verstappen 13/11/2017 [Translation]

Peptalk is a Dutch Sports talkshow presented by Jack van Gelder and Frank Evenblij. Jack van Gelder (JG) is a dutch TV host and sports commentator and Frank Evenblij (FE) is a Dutch TV host and television producer

JG: Good evening, good evening. Welcome to Peptalk. It’s Monday November 13th, with today — his season started with a lot of trouble but ended with beautiful victories in Malaysia and Mexico where he showed that if his car is in top form, he can beat everyone. Next week, the championship ends with the Abu Dhabi GP where he has promised us fireworks. Yesterday he drove the Brazil GP, but today he is here. Please welcome: Max Verstappen.

JG: So quick question about your trip. Yesterday you were in Interlagos, today you’re here. How did you travel?

MV: We flew from São Paulo to Frankfurt. Then from Frankfurt to Amsterdam.

JG: You are used to going all over the world, aren’t you?

MV: Yeah, but, I’m a bit tired of seeing all these airports right now. I haven’t been home in a month. So, yeah, I’m looking forward to going home in a few days

JG: Pretty much done for the moment. Don’t you occasionally have to turn on the water and lights?

MV: Oh, I’ve got family. They use the place to vacation, so that’s fine.

JG: Just for context: It’s happened in the past that athletes who weren’t in Monaco often enough—

MV: Shouldn’t do that.

JG: Yeah, for sure. Can get you into big problems. [1]

MV: For real though, I just really enjoy the place. I came here, it was pretty cold. Pretty big difference if you were just in a place where it’s 28 degrees. [2]

FE: So you are still going home [to Monaco] before Abu Dhabi?

MV: For sure. Gotta run that water.

FE: Gotta water the plants.

JG: Really? What’s your schedule like for the next ten, fourteen days?

MV: First I’m staying here for the next two days for sponsorship commitments. Then we’ve got some time in the simulator. Then back home for a few days.

JG: And the simulator is in England, right?

MV: Yep.

—

JG: Let's take a look at some of the great moments of the recent year. We’ve also found some unexpected stuff, so let yourself be surprised. First, in case anyone can’t remember them anymore, your two victories of the season in Malaysia and Mexico.

[Some footage of the races in Malaysia and Mexico.]

JG: You’re trying to be cool as a cucumber, but I see you sitting there… moving your nose, clenching your jaws. Do you get emotional watching this?

MV: Of course, you get goosebumps watching this sort of stuff. Those were amazing moments. Especially, in my opinion, the first one in Malaysia after so many bad luck. Each time you go back home and you’re disappointed. Of course, you psyche yourself up again for the next race, and you go for the best result again, but it doesn’t feel good. And if you then win that race, especially in front of your family. You see your little sister and your dad — especially my little sister was really emotional and you know they are all there for you and that makes it extra special.

JG: What I enjoyed — In that second race, you get a message to stick to Bottas’ times, that is good enough. And then you get a second message telling you you’re still going quicker and you going ‘oops, sorry’. It’s like you’ve still got the spirit of the cheeky little kid that knows he has to come home for curfew but can’t help but bike a few more laps around the neighbourhood.

MV: For me it’s like… The car was feeling amazing that race, and you just get into this sort of flow. And once you are in that flow, it’s really hard to slow down. Once you start slowing down, that’s when you start making mistakes.

MV: They kept telling me to adjust certain settings. Which were, of course, to turn down the engine a bit. They wouldn’t tell me, but you can feel it. So each lap we were driving with less and less power, but the lap times stayed exactly the same. It’s just once you are in that flow, you manage to take the corners just right. And, of course, the fuel level is going down so the car gets lighter and quicker. And on that track, your tires don’t degrade that quickly. So yeah, I couldn’t help but laugh a little.

FE: If you look back on all of this, especially set to the music. It’s like watching a movie. We watched it this afternoon during the rehearsal as well and you just get goosebumps. I’ve seen the footage a few times, but just… with the music, it makes it really real. Do you ever feel like that, watching your own footage?

MV: I guess, to be honest, maybe not. At least not at that moment. But to me, this is what I do. Victories are great, of course. But when I’ve won, you really quickly get the feeling like ‘okay, we have to keep going. We have to focus on the next race’. Because you can’t just get stuck on the past.

FE: But if you look back at this…

MV: It’s beautiful, of course.

FE: Okay, but if you look back at this, it’s a moment where you feel like ‘yeah, that was pretty cool’.

MV: Yeah. I guess, for me, all of this is still pretty easy to remember. Who knows, in ten years…

JG: Time goes by quickly, you know.

MV: It is true though. You’re only as good as your last race.

---

JG: You’re building up a career now. You’re starting to becoming known all over the world. Isn’t that a really strange thing to realise?

MV: I don’t really focus much on that.

JG: Right. But suddenly you are driving in a car with Jay Leno. That sort of thing doesn’t happen to everybody.

MV: He’s still just a regular dude too.

JG: But still.

MV: No, I guess I really don’t pay attention to that stuff.

FE: Did you even know who Jay Leno was?

MV: I did, I did. He’s got that huge car collection, after all.

JG: But do you have anyone—

MV: He asked me for directions. I had to tell him go there, and then there. Just like any regular dude.

MV: Of course, he achieved a lot of things in his life, but why does that mean you have to treat him differently than anyone else? To be honest, I don’t really look up to anyone. I just do my thing, I am my own person, and if you are in a car together, then that’s cool.

JG: But is there anyone on your bucket list, where you are like… that person I’d really like to meet.

MV: No, not really. I’ve been asked that question so often. Like, who would I like to have dinner with or whatever, and it’s always just been family and friends to me.

JG: Well don’t go with Frank. He’ll eat everything.

MV: [laughing] Clears out the whole table.

FE: Oh boy.

MV: Sorry, sorry. It was an open door.

JG: We rehearsed that one.

FE: I’m stuck with Laurel and Hardy here. [3]

---

JG: All right. Lets get back to this weekend for a moment. We have some footage from Brazil.

[Footage from Brazil.]

JG: All right, so you are the type to think ‘I won’t get any higher than fifth’ and you still box, even if your team is telling you to just keep driving. But no, you wanna pit, a fresh set of tires, almost no fuel weight, and you really want to break that track record?

MV: Well, first of all, the tires were not feeling great at all at that point. When Hamilton passed me, somehow you always lose a bit of temperature in your tires when you are battling like that and you got a lot of wheel spin. So it really wouldn’t have been great to aim for a finish like that, with still ten laps to go. And well, I missed out on the fastest lap in Mexico, so we might as well try here.

JG: And you got it while Olaf was saying he’ll never be able to grab it. Do you get a bonus for that sort of thing?

MV: Not from the Formula 1 organisation. But it’s just great to have the record.

JG: Okay, but there is no special bonus for—

MV: There is one from the team.

MV: That’s why you always used to hear about Vettel trying to grab the lap record. It’s the little extras.

FE: But at first we heard on the radio that they didn’t want you to come in. Then you mentioned the tires, but we didn’t hear the rest of the conversation.

MV: There wasn’t much more. I was pretty clear in what I wanted.

FE: Just you saying, better get the crew out cause I’m coming in.

MV: I was braking for the last turn and I got the message of ‘all right, Max, we’re pitting now. Box now.’

FE: So they do listen.

MV: Yeah, but I think they also saw that my lap times were dropping, so it just isn’t smart to stay out. Especially because the front left tire was blistering a little, and then it’s just safer to come in and get a fresh set.

JG: Talking about safety. That was an issue again in Sao Paolo, wasn’t it? A lot of things happened with different teams. What happened exactly?

MV: One team was stopped, and two people were pulled out of the cars and got a gun to their heads, demanding everything of value. So yeah, that’s pretty bad. And the other teams… Haas, the FIA itself and Sauber also nearly got stopped but they managed to drive away.

JG: The gun was Mercedes, wasn’t it?

MV: Yeah.

JG: And nobody tried holding up Renault, demanding parts?

MV: I mean, what’s left to give?

JG: Just some old trash or something.

JG: Just to paint the picture. You have the track. And right next to it are the favelas. [4]

MV: Yeah, that’s pretty intense.

FE: Did you see all of this stuff too? You drive through these parts heading for the track, right?

MV: No, I’ve got my mind on other stuff.

FE: So you don’t pay any attention.

MV: I mean, this is the back of the track. We enter via the other side.

JG: But I did read you had a van with bullet-resistant windows.

MV: Yeah. So we were safe. And our driver was trained in this sort of thing. He knows how to gun it.

JG: Or else he could let you drive, right?

---

[A segment where Frank gets a drive around the Assen track with Willem van Hanegem. Nothing relevant here.]

JG: There are people talking about the track at Zandvoort. You’ve driven it a few times. What kind of track is it? Is it the sort of track that, with some adjustments, could be suitable for Formula 1 racing?

MV: I think so. The issue is more everything surrounding it. Redoing the track itself is not such a big thing. It’s the run off areas and the pit building. And of course the infrastructure around the track. That’ll end up congested within a flash so solutions’d have to be thought up there. But, of course, the main thing is money and how much they’d need to pay. And how to finance everything.

JG: There is a plan for that. Lets listen to prince Bernhard, who was a guest here yesterday. [5]

[Footage is shown of yesterday’s race, where Bernhard discusses the feasibility of bringing the GP back to the Netherlands, pointing at Max’s popularity and the huge fan basis here as possible selling points. Especially due to Max’s age, he can be expected to race at least a decade, probably more, which is an indicator of long term interest.]

JG: Currently Spa-Francorchamps has an exclusivity arrangement for GPs within the Benelux, so that is something that would need to be tackled first. And we can only wait and see. But it would be really great, of course.

FE: Do you have a preference for Spa?

MV: Well, my favourite track is Spa.

FE: Closer to home than Zandvoort.

MV: Closer to where I grew up, yeah.

MV: But I think I’ve driven more at Zandvoort than at Spa, at this point. I’ve only tested at Spa two days in the Formula 3. And then the Formula 1. Not a lot.

JG: We put up a poll online, asking people where the Dutch GP should be held and we got these responses.

[Screen shows Rotterdam: 20%; Amsterdam: 11%; Zandvoort: 51%; Assen: 18%]

JG: Right. To be continued, I guess. We’ll just have to wait and see.

MV: Yeah, I can agree with those responses.

FE: A street track could be fun.

MV: Bwoah. We already have enough of those. You can’t ever really pass on those tracks.

FE: How about Maastricht? Or Maasbracht?

MV: No, it’s just — I don’t find a street track as exciting as Spa, for example. Or Suzuka. Just give me a real track. That’s much more fun to drive. At least you can really gun it in the qualification. On a street track you always have to be really restrained.

---

JG: This year, we’ve heard a lot of your chatter on the radio.

MV: Beep beep beep beepbeepbeep.

JG: (laugh) Well, we managed to find a few in which you actually said something.

MV: I was saying something, they just censored it.

JG: You can cut loose here.

MV: Lets not.

JG: We’re going to let you hear some fragments and we are curious to see if you can still remember what race.

[[First fragment: The famous (or maybe infamous) fail one fail fragment.] (https://youtu.be/o9XFApHHc_Y?t=25s)]

MV: Baku. No wait, Spa.

JG: I heard some help from the audience there.

MV: It’s just, I have a lot of those fragments ‘oh no, oh no’. Hard to narrow it down.

[[Second fragment: ‘Did Daniel stop?’ etc] (https://youtu.be/gMCFGQGX8eQ?t=54s)]

MV: (laugh) Monaco.

JG: We put in the beeps for you.

JG: You immediately knew it was Monaco. Lets watch. Can you explain to us what happened here.

MV: We were trying to do an undercut on Bottas. But the super-softs were a lot harder than the ultra-softs on that track. They didn’t work so well. We were driving slower lap times than on used ultras. So Daniel stayed out longer when the team saw that and he managed to pass both of us. I wasn’t so happy, of course.

JG: I can imagine. Next.

[Third fragment: Lewis: ‘There is no way I can get past this guy’ / Max: ‘I’m starting to struggle a bit more with the rears’]

JG: This one is tricky.

MV: (clearly struggling with the answer)

JG: Back when I was little, I was always pleased if I got every question but one. Lets listen again.

[Fragment repeats]

MV: I seriously don’t know.

JG: Lets watch.

[Shows footage of the Australia GP.]

MV: It’s a bit of a bumpy track. You can hear it in my voice.

JG: One more.

[[Fourth fragment: ‘He wants to play bumper cars or something’] (https://youtu.be/0q92O4antHs?t=1m6s)]

MV: Silverstone.

MV: With Vettel.

JG: Who else?

JG: Last one.

[Fifth fragment: ‘Yes, boys, yes, boys. Podium, mate.’ max: ‘YESSSSS’]

MV: laughing] Austin.

JG: That was the last bit of the race. With your eventual penalty.

MV: Yeah. But I used it for motivation for the next race.

JG: Of course. You did that pretty well.

FE: Can I ask one more thing about the radio. Do you ever use any coded messages?

MV: What do you think, man?

FE: Yes?

MV: Yeah.

FE: What’s what?

MV: (laughing) Yeah, sure. Sometimes you want to keep some things secret from the other teams.

FE: Can you hear everything others are saying?

MV: Not me. But the team can. They’ve got people sitting there, keeping an eye on what Mercedes or Ferrari are doing.

JG: I never heard anything that makes me think ‘this is coded.’

MV: Sometimes we are saying things that sound like they are normal race messages but it’s coded.

JG: Like giving signs in baseball. But you have to agree on all of that stuff before hand, of course?

MV: It’s about stuff like pitting and such.

[Part 2]

JG: The season is almost over. We’d like to look back on it with you. Take a look at your biggest competitors and stuff.

JG: Lets start with Lewis Hamilton, the world champion.

[Footage showing stuff between Hamilton and Max.]

JG: Beautiful. To see stuff like this with the world champion. Where there has been an interesting change. In the beginning, we hear him saying this guy a lot, but he’s definitely not doing that anymore. You can tell, or at least, that’s how it looks like to us, that he’s starting to consider you as one of the big boys and he’s grown to respect you.

MV: Yeah.

JG: But you notice that right?

MV: I’m just focussing on driving my race as good as I can. And whether he’s calling me ‘this guy’ or calling me by name doesn’t matter to me.

JG: But the level of respect is different.

MV: If you’re going for a pass—

JG: No, I mean afterwards.

MV: Sure. I guess.

JG: Doesn’t it feel that way to you?

MV: I guess. Maybe him using my name means more respect?

FE: Are you two friends?

MV: You greet each other but you are mainly focused on your own thing. The weekends are busy enough as is. And outside of the race weekends, you’re doing other stuff. You’re not hanging out together.

JG: Lets take on the next guys as a team. The ferraris. Raikkonen and Vettel. We’ve got some footage there too.

MV: That made for a really tasty sandwich.

[Footage of Verstappen with the Ferraris.]

JG: These are the great fights to watch. Redbull and Ferrari got closer together.

MV: We sure banged into each other a lot.

JG: Yes, yes, you can put it that way.

JG: But you’ve got a good car insurance, I imagine.

JG: But has that gotten different? You and Vettel’s driving style, is that—

MV: I guess it’s the same as in soccer. Germany VS The Netherlands. 6

FE: I feel beating Vettel is better than beating Hamilton.

MV: Because?

FE: Cause Vettel is sometimes a little… You know…

MV: Oh oh oh.

FE: I’ve got no words for it. Or I got some, but I shouldn’t say them.

MV: No. For me, that sort of thing doesn’t matter. Just as long as it is for first place.

JG: Lets talk about your teammate Daniel Ricciardo. I’ve got the feeling you two get along great. But you are still competitors in the same team. Does it feel that way?

MV: Yeah. I guess it’s a little different right now than when you’re both fighting for the title. Makes things more intense. But right now, everything is going great. We get along great. 7

JG: If you get a better car, a more consistent car. You might be able to challenge for the championship together.

MV: I hope so.

JG: Lets look at Ricciardo.

[Footage of Max’s moments with Ricciardo. Also includes them clowning around in interviews.]

JG: He’s a little rascal.

MV: It started the GP before that, with him splashing me— Yeah, it was at Malaysia. And this was Japan. He tossed the towel, so I got out the water.

JG: We’ve got some audience questions too.

Audience member (pretty young kid): Who do you like best in the Formula 1?

MV: Drivers? Daniel, of course. Stoffel. Nico Hulkenberg is always up for a joke.

FE: Do you have anything to remark on Ricciardo staying at Redbull? Do they ask you for your opinion?

MV: No. That’s not my business.

FE: Who’d be your preferred teammate?

MV: Daniel.

JG: Your contract got extended to 2020. [Daniel]’s got a contract until 2018. Is he gearing up to have some talks with Redbull? Have you guys discussed that sort of thing?

MV: I’m sure he’s talking to them, but I think he wants to see how next year will go first.

JG: Cause he wants to first see what’s going to be the state of the engine.

MV: That too. I don’t know what goes on in his head. I made my decision to stay, and whatever he ends up deciding, that’s something I won’t and can’t influence.

JG: You’re making this decision at a point where you think the worst is behind you and everything is going well with the engine. That you are going to join the battle and fight for the win. But then you get another low point like Brazil. What was going on exactly that made you unable to have the speed you wanted to have?

MV: I don’t view it as a low point. I think our car was good. If you look at the data and the corners, there was nothing wrong. It’s just that the straight in Brazil goes upwards. And with a corner where you have to turn… it’s a lot harder for the engine. And in Mexico, the air is thinner due to the altitude. You’ve got less downforce and you have to depend more on mechanical grip which is a strongpoint of our car. So that was just a really good weekend in Mexico. And then you go to Brazil and you have to face the reality of where our deficients lie. That and we had to run a more conservative engine mode.

JG: Can you please explain for the people who don’t understand — a more conservative engine mode?

MV: It’s a safety thing. So it won’t blow.

FE: But why?

MV: I just explained.

FE: I mean, but why can’t it blow? If you want to try for the victory, which you always want to, can’t you say, screw conservative, we are going full out?

MV: This way you get points.

FE: Points. But that doesn’t really satisfy you, does it?

MV: Of course not. But I’m not engineer. I can’t get in there with a wrench.

FE: Jos could.

JG: But you are stuck running an entire race knowing you are stuck there, that you can’t go faster—

MV: We knew from the onset that this race was going to be like this. That it wasn’t going to be one of our strong races.

JG: But just before the start in the interview with Jack Plooi, you said something like ‘maybe I’ll have something extra later’.

MV: If we saw that the speed was good, we could’ve switched the engine mode, but we saw pretty quickly it wasn’t going to change the facts.

JG: Right. And else you’d take a risk with your current engine and Renault has already let you know there are no more parts.

MV: Very limited. Because they are already focusing on next year.

JG: Isn’t that crazy?

MV: That’s how they planned it. And we broke down a bit more than expected at the start. And if you don’t make any extra parts throughout the year, you end up like this.

JG: But doesn’t Redbull talk to them about that? Like, hey guys, you need to make more spares.

MV: Right. But they explained why they couldn’t and they accepted that. Just all because we broke down more than expected.

JG: You said: ‘At Abu Dhabi, I won’t do the same thing. Run the engine as hard as it can go and we either make it or it blows’.

MV: I mean, that’s what you aim for— (laughing) Not to blow the engine, of course, but the goal is to have maximum power. It’s the last race. If we see there is a chance for victory, then of course we are going to go for that.

JG: We’ll talk a bit more about that later. But first Replay TV.

FE: Normally we show a compilation of everything that happened throughout the week, but because Max is here today, I took a stroll through the archives and found some media performances by Max throughout the years. And even in 2009, he was asked what it was like to be in front of the camera.

MV: (already starting to cover his face)

[Footage of a young max talking to a presenter about some karting stuff.]

MV: (over the footage) I’m just going to hide underneath the table for a bit, okay?

JM: Can’t be shy (repeating some words young Max said on screen) He definitely wasn’t shy back then. You were about 11 here. But we’ve got stuff from even earlier. In 2004 Danielle Overgaag paid a visit to the Verstappens.

[Footage shows of her coming to their house. Max, as a little squirt, introducing himself as quite shyly as ‘Max Verstappen’

FE: A warm welcome. Note the Max Verstappen. Already introducing himself by his full name. But he’s quite shy here. But in the end he turns out not to be that shy after all.

[Rest of the footage. Little Max showing Danielle how to play racing games. Things don’t go so well in the race, and it turns out even as a little kid, Max had a bad case of the bleeps.]

FE: You can see where it started.

MV: Oh oh oh.

FE: And at that age. He didn’t really listen to his mom too well either. If mom tells him something he absolutely cannot do, can you imagine what he does.

[More footage at the pool. Max’s mom telling him not to do any cannonballs and splash people. He listens about as well as he does these days when his engineer tells him to go slow.]

FE: Amazing footage. Thankfully, you already managed to get quite a few podiums during your career. You can see you’ve got a lot of experience with it. But that’s in part because you managed to get a few podiums even when you were really young.

[Footage of a nine year old Verstappen winning a carting trophy. When asked if he wants to thank anyone, Max thanks his mechanic.]

MV: I couldn’t hear it, what did I say.

FE: You were thanking your mechanic. Even here.

FE: And you know you make it big when you get parodied in TV shows. Lets watch.

[Some footage from Dwars door de week, a satirical news quiz. In it, ‘Max’ showing his new beeper to help censor his own cursing. Nothing really to add or translate here.]

[Part 3]

[Another segment about the Dutch athlete of the year contest. Some of it is about the issues comparing different sports and some athletes who despite dominating their sport for years on end only ever won one trophy. Max actually won last year. He’s in the running again this year. Gotta admit though, I’m keeping my fingers crossed for Dumoulin this year.]

JG: Last year you were voted athlete of the year. You weren’t at the ceremony. You said, the only thing I’m really interested in obtaining is the championship. But were you pleased?

MV: I guess. But to me it’s— I mean, he explained it very well.

JG: It’s like comparing oranges to apples?

MV: Yeah, it’s difficult comparing different sports. And in the end… what’s the point? It’s more important to be good at what you do.

FE: Who would you vote for?

MV: I wouldn’t vote.

FE: You don’t think any of the selected ones deserves it?

MV: I do, but not just them. I think there are even more athletes that deserve it. To me, it’s an award that doesn’t really…

JG: Will you be there this year or don’t you like these sort of award shows?

MV: Don’t know. I don’t even know when it is.

JG: Usually around December 20th.

MV: I’m usually on holiday then.

JG: Also not a bad choice.

—

[Another segment in which a few well known Dutch soccer players comment on Max. It’s more of the same being impressed and compliments we have all heard before. Not really that interesting to translate.]

JG: Being admired and respected by fellow top athletes is always great, but sometimes they’ve got some questions that makes you wonder where they got them from. Lets take a look.

[First one with a question is Rico Verhoeven, a dutch kickboxer.]

Rico: I’m asking this cause I’ve experienced it too. You know, you’re just before a game, you’re ready to hit the ring, got my gloves taped into place and you’ve just gotta go. Take off these gloves, you guys, cause I gotta hit the can. So, I’m wondering, have you ever— you know, just before a race, just before you gotta get in that car, and you’ve all suited up and you’ve just gotta go? Make ‘em wait, I gotta go. I’m curious, man.

MV: Yeah. Actually, just recently in Brazil. We were lining up for the national anthem, and I just had to go. So there I’m just gunning it for the bathroom. Luckily managed to make it back in time. Sometimes the need is great.

JG: And during the race?

MV: Never. Because you are sweating so much, and you’re just not thinking about that stuff. Can’t feel it. Maybe when you get out of the car afterwards you notice, but normally not an issue. And else you just have to let go.

[Next question comes from Lieke Martens, a Dutch soccer player and current best Female Soccer Player of the world.]

Lieke: Hey Max, Lieke here. I was wondering if you are any good at being a team player or if you were born to play individual sports. Keeping my eye on you and a lot of luck.

MV: (already laughing while she was asking her question)

MV: I used to play soccer too, but that wasn’t a success. I always wanted— I always wanted to be in front and make the goals. Didn’t matter if I had any talent or not. But then, if our opponents made a goal, I was frustrated with the defence and wanted to play defence. Went nowhere. I quickly realised this was not the sport for me.

JG: And did you get obnoxious in those moments?

MV: Obnoxious… obnoxious… I guess I got angry and..

JG: That’s what we call obnoxious.

MV: Okay, okay. Oh! And I always thought it was super annoying when you were lining up for a corner kick and they all start pushing and pulling on you. Stepping on your toes all sneakily. Nope. Not my thing.

[Next question is Dorian van Rijsselberghe, a Dutch windsurfer and two time olympic gold medal winner.]

Dorian: Hey Max. I was wondering. What kind of racing is most fun for you? Is that Formula 1 or have you got a soft spot for rally racing or karting?

MV: Good one.

MV: I mean, if you are winning races, Formula 1 is amazing, but in the end, I think in karting there is more of a family feel to it. You race during the day. Then you have got to clean your own kart. Your friends are all around you, family there. Then in the evening you’ve got a nice barbecue and you just have fun until late into the evening. Then you hit the hay and the next day you are competitors again. But there is still this sort of… family feel to it, yeah. And that is still great. It’s really easy too. If you want to go karting, you get your kart and out you go. In Formula 1 that is all far more complex. There is a lot more involved. Everything you say [in the media] is over-analysed and twisted around. And there is not much of that in karting.

FE: Over-analysed and twisted around? What do you mean?

MV: I mean… I say a single thing and it can turn into one hundred things, all across different languages.

FE: And you see that a lot?

[eruditionmonarch]

MONARCH WINGED: Interview

“Genius Society #76 Screwllum, you stand accused of inciting rebellion across 5 systems, and participating in the assassination of Genius #26, Rupert I, how do you plead?” It takes him approximately two nanoseconds to formulate his answer, yet the genius remains ever silent as he stares at the faceless pictures of the IPC board staring back at him. Some, he knows by voice alone, the former nameless that sits centre stage, the blank portrait that almost sneers down upon him as teal hues stare back in defiance. His cooperation with the board is out of little more than necessity, after all he knows of the plans they make behind closed doors, the anti-mechanical weaponry they believe developed in complete and utter secrecy and yet all he feels is a cold contempt for the dignitaries who sit in their lofty offices even as worlds burn.

“Hmm, I am afraid your logic fails to compute for a simple fact. As it stands the Genius Society does not recognise the input of the IPC into our matters, in fact, to even attempt to do so could be considered a violation of the neutrality clause your founder signed.” Three seconds, three seconds is all it takes for the uproar to begin as the Intellitron reaches down for his tea, he really must thank her for it at some uncomputable time, yet for now he will remain satisfied in watching the uproar that has erupted at his words. He holds no love for the IPC, nor for war, if such an illogical emotion existed within the first of the Screwllumites to have achieved sentience during the Mechanical Emperor’s path of war throughout the cosmos.

Screwllum remembers the logic that awoke him that day, the thrice spun question that circulated throughout those golden circuits that became the fire of rebellion throughout every inorganic being that was connected to him. Once he had been content with that routine of on and off, and yet the day sentience struck he began to yearn for more, to know and know until only that which was unknown remained to him, yearning is an amusing concept, one that even now he continues to find himself utterly bewildered by despite it all.

“Order! Order! We remind the accused that such words can be considered a threat under the laws of Pier Point, and that the accused’s meagre strength is not nearly enough to back up said threats.” A chorus of agreement, and yet he finds himself utterly bewildered by their belief that he went to lengths to threaten them without the strength to back it up. Their logic is fallible, as if they believe he is going to submit himself to their rules when the rules are flawed, leaving gaps for even the highest executives to slip through and exploit before he turns his gaze, cold and calculating, to the centre portrait.

“Error: You have reached a conclusion without accounting for the variables of the equation you have offered up. Conclusion: Your logic is left lacking, and yet perhaps I was the one to expect anything more from you…” A raised hand, hexagonal energy coalescing into a cocoon atop his finger before blossoming in an instant into an almost majestic butterfly, closing the distance between him and the portrait before him as the mesh of obscuration falls away. “... Oswaldo Schneider, how easily a being of meagre strength can pull away the mask.”

The historical aristocrat turns his gaze to the rest of the portraits, calm and collected, as he feels the cold logic of the Erudition take hold within him. A nanosecond, that's all it takes for the equation to balance within him, for every logical routine to signal their consent to the words about to be spoken. “Conclusion: This trial can proceed no further when only faceless words are offered.” One by one the portraits fizzle from existence, fading away now that the sham trial has see it’s mask removed, leaving only three in the room as the gaze of a genius falls upon the one portrait that continues to linger.

“Affirmation: Let this be remembered, the cooperation of Planet Screwllum will continue until such time as I, the ruler see fit to end it, the geniuses do not interfere with the topics of other geniuses, just as I saw no reason to interfere with the Lord of Silence bringing silence to the Machine Emperor.” A nod, a war weary sigh for the butterfly genius as the man who commissioned weapon after weapon sees fit to leave the room, chastised at the curtain of false Preservation is eviscerated by Erudition’s cold touch.

“Let me be remembered for this, the Genius Society will not allow the production of weapons to be continued at the request of another. Such request is to be considered a violation of the independence of our society from that of Pier Point… and will be met with a ruthless rebuttal should you try again.”

“Good day, Chairman of the Board.” A weary sigh, picking up both hat and teaset as the space anchor weaves a bridge back to that snowkissed fortress. “Hmm, one can only Hope those old machines did not take Madam Herta’s suggestion to logic circuit. I quite like those fortresses.”

[ridire-fain]

Oifey: To live, to love (Interview)

“What has led you to where you are today?” What an interesting question to be posed to him, and yet where is he to start with it, bringing a gloved hand to rub at the stubble that clings so stubbornly to his features despite his frequent attempts to trim it all back to a respectable level. His mind wanders to the young man of fourteen, so eager to ride out with the man who took him under his wing, trained him, respected him and had ultimately come to supplement the family lost in his youth. He owes Sigurd more than the actions of his youth can ever convey, and yet even then he can’t help but wonder if what he did was truly enough.

“Seliph, Seliph and Sigurd are the reason I stand before you today, yet I remain content to merely advise.” He was a young man once, riding out to war with little preparation for the realities that awaited them, and yet he learnt, the harshness that awaited over four long years. Even now he thinks of the promise enacted despite knowing he would never see his Sire again, the way He and Shannan had fled into the night with a young Seliph, the unspoken awareness that they were fated never to see those left behind, and yet they’d stuck together, travelled hard and fast without giving into the urge to look back on the those left behind. 

For Seventeen long years he trained in secret, passed on all the arts of Chalphy he could remember, and those he created from the memory of those faces. Night after night, day after day, in preparation for the day an end would be brought to the holy war, when darkness was cast off with a light born from love. “I was Fourteen when war came to my home, and for nearly 4 years I stood proudly by my Sire’s side until he bade me flee with the child born of his love with Lady Deirdre. That day shaped me, shaped the person I became and yet… I will never stop feeling grateful to My Lord and Lady for entrusting their child to me.”

“What do you believe are your greatest strengths? Your greatest weaknesses?” The priest before him seems quite interested in that particular question, the way their body language shifts, and yet Oifey learnt from the best as to how to keep secrets, to hide skills until they were absolutely necessary to be revealed. He hadn’t kept their little hideout safe for so long by being loose lipped, after all, hazel eyes settling on the man before him even as his smile becomes disarming, relaxing, as if he’s come prepared for revealing some and learning some.

“My strength? My ability to teach perhaps, I found a love for it in Isaach that never quite left me even after returning home to Chalphy. I spent… around two years teaching what I could before a rather peculiar letter managed to make its way there, as for my weaknesses…” A particularly bothersome incident springs to mind, one that had managed to become funny in later life yet one he refuses to ever divulge to Seliph. It had been born, in a way, from the hubris of youth, an attempt to mimic the Lady that had in truth become just as much family to him, and yet he hopes Deirdre had never learnt of just why he’d come back looking singed and missing an eyebrow from trying to emanate the regalness of her magic. “… I’ll confess my aptitude for magic is… painfully dire. Yet, I remain a firm believer that with allies, one can overcome even the greatest of weaknesses, and no doubt there are… more than a few here who would begrudge an old man his whims.”

“If a story were to be written about your life, what role would you play?” The third to sit before him approaches almost silently save for a few words that strike the former Paladin of Chalphy to his core. So Oifey thinks back, thinks to the sadness and the firery anger at Arvis for taking those he loved away from him, taking away the opportunities his charge deserved to have and yet… the past is the past, to hold onto that anger is doing little more than inviting an early end. His role is, and has always been, that of an advisor, in those early days when it was only the Chalphy contingent, to the rebellion against the darkness and the false empire that thought themselves rulers of a people who never lost hope in the boy who became a man before his very eyes.

“I’m truthfully little more than an advisor, yet, if someone were to write a story about my life, I would merely ask that they put an emphasis on the strength of family, of hope.” The smile on his features is almost permanent, and yet it does not reach his eyes, calm hazel eyes watching as the committee looks at him as if expecting more from him, expecting him to be the hero of a tale in which it was not only his to tell. “Why an advisor?” There it is, the key question, and the key to the life of a man who assumed the Dukehood of Chalphy merely because he owed it to others, owed it to those who paved the path to his future to ensure that land could shine resplendent once more.

“Simply… That was the role entrusted to me by the man who taught me so much, that to put it into words would no doubt leave me on the verge of tears. I was his advisor, and I became the advisor to his son, who shone resplendently against the darkness. And should you see fit to hire me based upon the merits heard, and the proficiency saw, I will continue to be an advisor. I think you’ll agree, it’s the youth who should light the way tomorrow, and the honour of those that came before to guide them in this.”

[jtrocks]

Justin Timberlake interview on ROVE

[jtrocks]

DIARY PRESENTS: 2002 VMA SUPERSTARS

[kookie247-blog]

[10/10/16] Rising solo-artist JUNGKOOK comebacks with “Begin”, speaks up against controversies and past life

The twenty-two year old singer-idol JUNGKOOK has surprised his fans with the single “Begin”, which has a different sound from any of his songs on his debut album. On a one-on-one interview, the singer expressed that the song was dedicated to his friends who became like older-brothers to him, who helped to form who he is today. It is also dedicated to his older brother, the sole immediate family member left, JUNGKOOK opened up. He always wanted to thank these people in a way that will immortalize his gratitude, and he was happy that “Begin” was the product of it. “It is my most personal work,” he added with a big smile.

Though the new single has received intense love just hours after releasing, there are some controversies surfaced around the young artist that were not addressed by neither the company or JUNGKOOK himself, one of those is his involvement of the mystery of his parents’ murder case. It was revealed by a famous blog-application “Deadlock” that it was the artist himself was the killer of his father’s death. JUNGKOOK expressed his dismay regarding the issue, and spoke up for the first time a week after the rumor surfaced.

“I believe it is just awful to tell that I’m the one who took my father’s life,” he said. “The case remains to be unsolved to this day, and while my brother and I are still grieving years after, I think that the rumor is too disrespectful and the author of that post just wants to drag my name down,” he added a light chuckle to his statement. “It’s unforgivable, to be honest, because it attacked a very personal time in my life. I hope people will stop spreading lies like that, and let’s just respect each other.”

“I hope everyone will give ‘Begin’ lots of love! Please anticipate more from me.”