Today's Top Stories - August 9, 2012

New ‘silent’ asphalt for Wallonia’s roads

The road-improvement project ‘Qualiroute’ plans to replace Wallonia’s motorways and highways with a new surface that drastically reduces the noise of traffic. The revolutionary asphalt ‘SMA 10-2’ is currently being used in major road construction projects across the region. Extending the new surface across the rest of the road network is a priority for ‘Qualiroute’. By 2014 the majority of the region’s roads are expected to be ‘silent’. The new asphalt surface is more expensive but also more resistant to HGV traffic. 

Slash comes to Brussels

The Ancienne Belgique has once again pulled off an almighty coup: Slash will play the Brussels venue on October 17. The Anglo-American guitar hero, best known for his work with the bands Guns N' Roses and Velvet Revolver, is frequently hailed as one of the greatest guitarists of all time, and earlier this year received his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (having been previously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame). This tour sees him accompanied by his regular sidekick, Alter Bridge singer Myles Kennedy. Tickets go on sale tomorrow (August 10) at 11.00 from the Live Nation website. 

Beds on the beach

In a tribute to the cover of the album A Momentary Lapse of Reason by Pink Floyd, 150 competition winners slept in 150 beds on Ostend Beach last night. After slumbering under the stars they woke up this morning to enjoy breakfast on the beach. The competition and bed installation was dreamt up by Jans Mortelmans, the organiser of an exhibition tracing the work of British artist Storm Thorgerson, currently showing at Fort Napoléon. Thorgerson designed many album covers for bands Goose, The Mars Volta, Led Zeppelin, as well as Pink Floyd. The 150 people who participated in the event were invited to a screening of a documentary on the legendary band on Wednesday evening. 

Belgian director working on HBO series

Michaël R. Roskam, the Belgian director whose film Rundskop (known in English as Bullhead) was nominated for a foreign-language Oscar earlier this year, has been asked by HBO to make a pilot episode for a new series. Roskam first floated his idea for the series to American director Michael Mann (The Insider, Heat), who was suitably impressed. Together with producer Mark Johnson (Rain Man), they brought the idea to HBO (responsible for hit series such as Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Sopranos, The Wire, Sex and the City and Six Feet Under), which commissioned a pilot episode. The series, called Budo Bridge Bitch, takes place in a futuristic Brussels ruled by chaos and violence.  If HBO sees enough potential in the pilot, then Roskam would be made executive producer – as well as director and scriptwriter – of the series. 

Seagulls are no laughing matter

The proliferation of seagulls on the Belgian coast is becoming a serious problem, with attacks on humans on the increase, reports La Libre Belgique. “I was eating a sandwich by myself when a seagull dived out of nowhere, stealing my food, pecking at my fingers with its sharp beak and pushing me over with its wings,” says tourist Nica Weyts – an increasingly familiar tale.  Whereas last year such attacks took place once or twice every couple of months, this year they happen on a daily basis. “The seagulls are used to the presence of humans now,” says Blankenberge lifeguard Sean Wille, “which means they are not scared anymore. That doesn’t make them a dangerous species, however.” Knokke mayor Léopold Lippens wants to start killing what he calls “rats from the sky”. But European herring gulls are protected by Flemish and European legislation, and culling them is strictly forbidden Lippens is asking for a “special dispensation to limit their numbers in coastal towns and allow some of them to nest in natural reserves”.