I had a dream once. I dreamt about writing a novel with its own soundtrack. A somewhat weird story, accompanied by music that was written to go with the book. Good news: my dream came true. A little less than good news: I had to find myself a new dream. Have you ever thought about how hard it is to actively search for something to want? Damn! At first I couldn’t think of anything. Nothing good, that is. A dream has to be something that seems impossible at first. Just before the start of Incubate, I found out what I want. A music critic!

“It doesn’t take a genius to tell me what I am.” Just a little quote from New Order’s All The Way. It also doesn’t take a genius to tell me that I’m not the person who should review someone else’s music. For more than one reason:

- I can’t even master an instrument
- I don’t know what the bleep I’m talking about

All the different bands on Incubate made me really want to do the one thing I shouldn’t. Maybe I should add that I can be a bit stubborn. I want it I want it I want it! Like a child crying for a candy bar. Is the picture in your head? Not pretty huh? Something needed to be done. I met up with Tjeerd van Erve, infamous critic fromTilburg. He told me about the do’s. There don’t seem to many don’ts, if I listened to his story correctly. Reviewing music is a matter of listening over and over again. First to the album and then to what your heart tells you about it. Sounds great huh? A new problem rose for me as a critic:

- People tell me on occasion that I’m a heartless person

So far, no good. What has to become of my dream? Will it be like the one when I wanted to go out on a date with Sinéad o’Connor when I was very young? By now, she’s been married to practically half the world and she still hasn’t called me, sent me a text message or even invited me to become friends of Facebook. Now, twenty something years later, it’s all way too late. Maybe some dreams aren’t meant to be… Just when those seven ugly words entered my mind, Tjeerd spoke again: “If you want to begin, then just begin. That’s always the way.” Great! That’s the only thing I needed to hear. Half an excuse!

This coming Sunday: Japandroids’ performance on Incubate, at 013. Reviewed by Miel Blok. In my own special way…

- The Spying Glass is written by Miel Blok, and serves as a magnifying glass on some of the trivial affairs of Incubate.  If -in any case-  you’d like to contact Miel you can via Twitter or check out his site hetschrijfblok.nl (Dutch)