Turntabletastic

For those looking to check out some eclectic Dutch hip hop, do check out C-Mon & Kypski site and current single, 'The Evil Needle.' Go into the Videos section to see that single, plus some interesting clips of their sampladelic 'rare groove' sounds.

Photos

Here's a photorific recap from the past few days. We've had quite the week; class at Lemon Scented Tea on Tuesday, followed by class at the house Tuesday night, visits to Condor (a post-production facility) on Wednesday and Strawberry Frog on Thursday, followed by a briefing for the Dutch Young Creatives at a little awful bar called Twins in the Rembrantplein, followed by drinks at Diep and then some dancing at Supperclub, followed by class on Friday and a visit to KesselsKramer that afternoon. Phew. Friday night I went to meet the lovely Shona for drinks in the Jordaan at a place called de Buurman, where I learned a few new Dutch words to add to my collection, then ventured off to Melkweg to see two of my favourite UK radio deejays, Bobby Friction and Nihal, play. Saturday I went to a Halloween Housewarming party at my Canadian friends' apartment, and after went for a few beers at Hotel Arena and then back to Supperclub, where my night turn a turn for ending as one of the worst in my life, save a few others. Thankfully yesterday I spent the day getting lots of work done (we have a horrific week ahead of us, workwise). Here's the photos to add lustre to the aforementioned events.


Pretty, picturesque Amsterdam.


Pretty, picturesque Amsterdam bridge.


Storefront in Amsterdam.


On Thursday, we took Kristen out to dinner for her birthday, in between our visit to the post-production facility and the briefing.














"I am the King."


Till and Kristen


Matt: "Jenne, take a blurry, unfocused photo of that Nacho machine! Seriously!"


Matt: "Jenne, let me borrow your camera so I can take a photo of the urinal thingy! Seriously!"


Deejay at Supperclub.


Whee! The Dutch Do Halloween!




A Januscz, a Janosh and a Kyla.


Cowboys and Indians. (We started calling Kristen "Davy Crocket" because of these boots. I don't know if she found it all that funny, but she played along long enough to get a photo.)


The hostess and host, Kyla and Kyle.


Satan kissing Satan. (Prediction: I will suddenly have a wave of people finding my site by entering that in Google.)


Michael with a bottle of champagne.












Eyepatch is the new pink.

Now, That's a Meaty Photo

Excuse the bad pun. Cool photoshop art placing meat in '60s and '70s scenic postcard settings. The artist, Nicolas Lampert, also has some very cool machine-animal collages.

New Blog

Since the trend seems to be for every ad school student to start a blog these days, I've added two new blogs to my sidebar, Stefenie and Lindsay.

Badvertising

Ooh, old commercials from the '70s! Check out this gem for Ball Buster, among others.

Art Show

My boarding school chum, the lovely and insanely creative and talented Katie Herzog, will be curating an art show called Soft Radical, an exhibition of contemporary paintings, photography, video and drawings, from U.S. and Canadian artists.

To quote from the press release, "Soft Radical is an exploration of development in art and protest, responsibility and ingenuity. It is our hope that it will leave you feeling assured that the lack of overt politics in contemporary art is not due to an irresponsible avoidance, it is the result of a significant shift in tactics."

Soft Radical opens Nov. 9, 2005, 5 pm - 9 pm, at Compact Space, 1307 South Union, Los Angeles, and runs through Nov. 27th. If you're in LA, check it out!

We Do Have the Most Fun, After All!

It's been a few days since my last posting. I have been having a wonderful time here in Amsterdam, despite a general lack of funds and the turn in the weather from sunshine to unceasing rain. Our ceiling may leaking, but no matter! Here is a brief synopsis of the events of my life over the past week.

On Wednesday, Annie and I went to Paradiso to see Norweigan electronic band Royksopp. Kyle actually bought us the tickets before we'd even boarded planes to the Netherlands, and I'm so glad we did because the show was thoroughly sold out. Princess Superstar was supposed to perform afterwards, but we never did see her. We did, however, enjoy several inexpensive beers (I do enjoy living in a country where the price of beer is equal to the price of water) and dance long after the show ended. Paradiso is like many fantastic venues I remember from my days in Barcelona, Madrid and around Europe -- a giant old theatre/warehouse reconverted into a large space with plenty of capacity for lounging, dancing, and everything in between without the VIP snobbery/charade of Miami. Hooray, Amsterdam!













Thursday, our group for that evening's class went for amazing BLT sandwiches at a very cute restaurant in the Niewe Side and met our teacher and classmates for class at a really weird place called de Kroon in the Rembrantplein. I wish I had my camera to capture the chic absurdity of this place -- it's up two flights of curved stairways (lit by a rotating disco ball) and the interior dining room was peculiarly decorated in what I can only describe as a combination of Alice in Wonderland finery and a dead zoologist's personal artefacts collection. A giant moosehead covered faintly in gold glitter hangs on one wall; cases of butterflies are attached to another; a baby monkey remains preserved in formaldehyde behind the bar.

After meeting with two of the groups, our teacher suggested we all relocate to the Dutch design gallery, Droog. At the time, they were showcasing some fine new design by Swedish designers, in addition to the normal collection. Some of the highlights include a fake 'wood' floor made of soft, squishy plastic that is comfortable enough to lie on, but sturdy enough to act as real floor, a 'moving' bench (round platforms set upon marbles, enabling the sitter to rolls back and forth casually), tape that bears the design of a picture frame, and a coffee mug that stays hot for hours on end.

We all went to another café nearby to continue working, and eventually strolled back to Dam Square by way of doing a bunch of window shopping (including making a stop at the Geox shoe store -- one of our clients for another class) and getting proper Dutch frites at the gigantic carnival that's been set up in Dam Square. (Again, I wish I'd had my camera to capture what is by far the most civilised carnival I've ever seen in my life, not to mention some great English peculiarities in signage.)

As half of our house departed this weekend for the exotic and interesting locales of Stockholm, London, Paris and Hamburg, us three leftover Americans ventured to the house of the Germans for a little pre-party drinking.


Till, Julia and Michael.


Till.


Michael, fearful of our arrival?


Matt and Julia debate how to properly play drinking games.




The Germans, mean mugging.


I taught Kim, a very nice Swiss boy, how to talk like an American thug. See, he looks hard already.


But not too hard to make sandwiches!


Kristen.


Julia.

We headed to a big club called ilove11, located at the top of a tall building. In order to get there we had to go through what felt like a million doors, but in reality was only about 7. We also had to walk down a very large hallway decorated in beautiful graffiti and take an elevator with two incredibly sketchy looking Dutch guys. Once inside, however, we were treated to an amazing view of the Amsterdam nightline.


Entrance.


'I thought I ordered Budweiser!'

You Can Have Fun But You Have To Know How

This Dr. Seuss story-meets-Tell-Tale Heart is just brilliant. I found it via Boing Boing.

Check out me wind and kite

Bloody hell, two new blogs afresh from London! One from my dear old friend Kris (who I know from our days at UCSB, the Bay Area, and Madrid) and the other from Supersonic Jenn Martonic (who I know from ad school. 'Ave a bubble 'an I'll see ya baked.

'Go Suckle Something'

A friend from ad school sent me this article by Nancy Vonk, Co-Chief Creative Officer at Ogilvy in Toronto, in response to comments made against females in advertising in a recent talk given by Neil French. As the friend put it, nice to know what we're up against, ladies.

Two Nights in Paris

So ... I had a wonderful time in Paris. I didn't do much besides wander around taking photos and enjoying the company of Gina and her supernice boyfriend, David, but we did all manage to go to a big discothèque in the Southeast corner of Paris last night. Here are a few photos from our 'nuit de clubbing.'


David, Gina and Julian.


Gina et moi.




Not my most photogenic angle, but c'est la vie.

Paris: Gay, but in a happy way

I realised yesterday before getting on the tram to go to train station that I'd forgotten my digital camera. Maybe that was a good thing because I shot 4 rolls of film instead. Thankfully I got the Patented Apodaca Walking Tour; here are a few photos of me and Gina in Paris.


Gina and I in front of the Eiffel Tower!








Hey, I'm in the Place Monge!


Taking what's sure to be an award winning photo exemplifying proper use of depth-of-field.

Mini-Update

First of all, something is wrong with my camera. Namely, the part that slides across the lens to close the camera fell of in my backpack the other day and I snapped it back on. But I think something is not quite working right. So that's one small annoyance.

The group of us students went out last night for some Thai food with a woman who works at our school who's in Amsterdam for a few days (before visiting the other cities our school has campuses in). So enjoy the photos of our little Amsterdam scene, plus some photos I snapped today on my way to do work in the Jordaan. The weather has been unbelievably gorgeous ever since we've arrived -- unseasonably warm and sunny.


Oliver, Matt and Julia enjoying the view from the balcony of our apartment.


Oliver and Julia confusing Matt with Germanic slang.


Karl, hard at work or hardly working?


Carlo and Till, kicking around a soccer ball, no doubt to the joy of our downstairs neighbours.


Till.


Renetta, Matt, and a cookie.


Matt shows off his striking likeness of other American heroes, namely Homer Simpson.


Lovely houseboats.


This guy makes music as he bikes along.


Wedding party waiting for the tram.


Westkerk. A church.


Requisite bike shot.


Have I mentioned that the weather has been really nice?

And if you want to see wonderful photos from other parts of the world, namely central Asia, check out this site I stumbled upon today while checking out Kyle's links earlier today.

Old Photos

Yup, these photos aren't from Amsterdam, they're from the family reunion I went to in June (yes, June) for my cousin's college graduation. I still have some photos from Miami to post but we'll see if I get around to it.















































Anyway, more photos of Amsterdam soon to come. I bought my ticket to Paris today and I'll be there next weekend, seeing the lovely Gina and her Parisian beau. Ooh là là!

Thermodynamix

Can't stop listening to this CD I discovered in one of my bins back in San Francisco. I bought it used at now closed Morninglory records in Isla Vista back in 2000. Why does drum n bass get so much better with age?

Wi-Fi

I'm a little behind on this, but I'm fascinated and impressed with the news that Google will offer a free wireless network to the city of San Francisco. Yay, San Francisco, best city ever (OK, maybe second best city ever now). Interesting, not only in the way that it will change the city's economy in terms of things like VOIP (as PSFK points out) but also in how it will alter human behaviour in terms of what we expect. It's funny, right before reading this article, one of the girls here in the housing and I wondered what life was like for the students studying here before the house had wireless connection. Like televisions, cell phones, running water, Post-It notes, and, yes, even Google -- it's hard to imagine life without these tools that become so ubiquitous our lives are fundamentally altered to a point of no return. Can we imagine life before the invention of the wheel?

Nederlanden

Allo! Aside from keeping a very astute mental blog these past few days, I haven't had much time to sit at the computer and type up my reflections on this incredibly pretty little city. I have almost too much to say. Part of my experience is so shadowed by having lived in Europe before; making small comparisons between the Dutch and the Spaniards, between Amsterdam and Madrid. Needless to say, I've already seen a great deal, not of tourist attractions but of the city. We went for a stroll in the Red Light District on Saturday night around midnight (I went grudingly -- to get it over with), which was a surreal experience. What was actually the most shocking was to see a group of German skinheads stomp down a street and observe all heads turn away from the prostitutes in their general direction, wearing expressions of vague fear.

School here is off to a great start; the Germans in our programme are all very nice, the agencies we'll be taking classes at (Lemon Scented Tea and Springer & Jacoby) are awesome, the Dutch are incredibly friendly, and the atmosphere of the city is relaxed and tranquil. We went to a venue called Bitterzoet on Monday evening and saw an Australian reggae/rock band followed by a deejay spinning (in this order) reggae, dub, drum n bass, '90s hip hop, 2step, grime, and M.I.A.! Needless to say, I was in heaven, as I have been for much of the time I've been in this city getting aquainted with the abundance of quality music there is here. I passed a poster today for a group called Bossaboogie who throw bossanova-lounge events, and in going to their website discovered more information on a festival of Latin music this weekend called Contra Banda -- both of which sound just great. I already have tickets to see Rokysopp and Princess Superstar later this month, and am just thrilled to be in a city where there is not only such an abundance of quality music but also so easily accessible. Thankfully everyone here on the programme (6 from the Miami school and 6 from the Hamburg school) seems incredibly open-minded and willing to listen to lots of different kinds of music and go to all sorts of different kinds of bars, so I'm grateful. Resfest (which I went to last fall in San Francisco with Natalie) passes through town this weekend as well, and I'm excited to take in a few short digital films.

I've got loads of other things to comment on, but here are some photos from the past few days in lieu of any more narrative.


Bikes, everywhere, bikes! (I personally really like this photo. I think it's one of my favourites that I've taken so far.)

Requisite photos of canals:









I think it's one of my personal goals to go on a houseboat at some point while I'm here ... preferably to a rowdy party.


It is beautiful here.




Miami Ad School Amsterdam! (That's Matt, Kristen, Annie and Carlo.)


We've been going to a café just up the street called Louter.


Matt and Carlo.


Annie and I walked to the Jordaan neighbourhood and had a coffee at this café perched on a canal bank. I have been admiring the light here for the past few days; I can safely say it is the first time in my life I've been compelled to describe the light as 'dappling', but there is something with the abundance of water and the way it filters through the clouds and leaves to create an ambiance that has a serenity and tranquilty unsurpassed to anywhere I've ever been. It has also given me an added appreciation for Vermeer (and the other Dutch masters) -- their ability to capture the uniqueness of the light of the Netherlands is truly amazing.




Passed this interesting work of art walking down a small street in the Jordaan. Not quite sure what to make of it.


Ah, beautiful.

Allo!

Well, I'm here in Amsterdam, flubbing my way around the Dutch language (I don't know why I bother -- everyone seems to speak English but I feel rude not making the effort). I was met at the airport by Kyle and his girlfriend, which was an awesome way to get to my housing stress-free. I haven't done a tremendous amount since arrival, besides buying a towel, napping, going to a couple bars in the New Centre, and venturing to the Rijksmuseum this morning. Which, unfortunately, is mostly closed, save a few rooms where the best (or most famous, at least) paintings are hanging until the Rijksmuseum reopens in a few years. It was somewhat of a disappointment, until I learned that even more paintings are hanging in various museums around the city, so hopefully with a little effort (to translate the Dutch the brochure's written in), I can absorb a few more Dutch masters before my time in Amsterdam comes to a close. Since our apartment was getting a cleaning (which it really needed -- I've never seen a dirtier, messier apartment in my life), I was forced to forgo a nap and wander the streets more, stumbling upon what seems to be Amsterdam's most bustling shopping street, feeling the waves of love overcome me as I discovered three -- yes, three -- H&M's within seconds of each other, as well as my favourites Zara, Bershka, and Mango all nearby. Here are a few photos for y'all.


This row of houses is right outside our apartment building.


























Ah, yes, a nice racist statue for sale at an antiques store.


I was walking down Overtoom street this afternoon and the smell of manure and hay suddenly overcame my senses. I looked and there was this random bar tucked between a church and the aforementioned antiques store.


The side entrance to the Rijksmuseum.