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ONLY BE AMSTERDAMMER
Only Be Amsterdammer
What to Do in Summer in Amsterdam When It Rains
A woman dressed in a red blouse and a long blue skirt mysteriously leans in an interior courtyard, absorbed in the performance of some daily work. On the right, in the doorway of the adjoining house you can see another woman whose white clothing stands out against a dark background and huddled between the women are two children who seem to be playing on the sidewalk, perhaps playing marbles. In the red brick houses, which are typically Dutch, we see the careful details of the cracks and the arrangement of the bricks, just as we wonder at how thoroughly the shutters, the windows, and the tiled floor are represented… We could look for hours and hours in a state of near hypnosis at the wise and enigmatic way this painting has represented this space (the different open areas, the rear facades, the roofs) and especially the appearance, the way the silence and atmosphere prevail over noise, the reasons for depicting this place, how the geometrical composition gives way to the preference for a sense of temporal materiality, the manner in which this small and beautiful Vermeer canvas is light years away from the artificiality of the pleasant De Hooch paintings that seem to address the same issues. You will find three other masterpieces of the painter from Delft, the unforgettable Woman in Blue Reading a Letter, The Milkmaid and The Love Letter, in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam (http://www.rijksmuseum.nl/?lang=en). It may well be the best thing we can do on a summer afternoon when the rain surprises us in the beautiful city of canals, especially now that foreigners are no...
Milkshake Festival at Westerpark in Amsterdam
“For boys who love girls who love girls who love boys who love boys…” That´s the slogan of this gay-friendly festival in its attempt to be the event of the year, which will take place on the 22nd of July at Westerpark, Amsterdam, an event founded by Peter van Vught and Marieke Samallo, who represent the clubs Paradiso and AIR respectively. This event has a clear message to tell the world: no musical choice, social status or style has anything to do with sexuality, to the point that it tries to consider life as a real big party, where the essential ingredients are racial, cultural and sexual diversity among others. But this liberal-minded festival not only will exploit the musical aspect associated to the term ´festival´ but it´s also a firm initiative for added values such as culture, creativity, art and entertainment. For that, in the city there will also be initiatives to gather up and care for all the attending public, trying to pay special attention to the different attending collectives: homosexuals, heterosexuals, transsexuals, bisexuals, blacks, whites, etc. Milkshake Festival Activities and programmes The festival is an initiative to emphasise and go in depth into values such as tolerance and freedom, and will try and manage it with a lively and fun decoration. Through 5 theme blocks or stages, the festival´s theme will be made up by the following stages: – Block Pool Party (Erwin Olaf) This photographer is famous for his popular ´Fucques lesson Balles´, as well as his participations in the club Paradiso. He brings a touch of exuberance and freedom...
Paul Simon concert in Amsterdam
It is known that Amsterdam is a city where many musicians have always gone to have fun. Thus, in rock history, Amsterdam, always is remembered for the famous concert by The Doors in September 1968 in which they appeared without Jim Morrison. Was it the new false phase of The Doors after Jim´s death? Not at all. Jim died back in 1970, The chaos in Amsterdam is remembered till date by the band and the fans, being a particularly restless and unforgettable night , and the events that triggered it of course involve drugs and rock n roll. The story goes like this: apparently, The Doors had spent time touring with Canned Heat. During the tour, the fabulous singer of Canned Heat, Bob “The Bear” Hite, gave Jim a piece of hashish, who of course waited for the best time to consume it and kept it in his pocket. When The Doors were about to come to Holland, his manager told him it would be best to get rid of all the drugs they carried. Morrison, faced with this situation, swallowed the piece of hashish “The Bear” had given him in front of the astonished gaze of the other band members. During that evening, before going on stage with The Doors, Jim continued to drink alcohol, especially whiskey. While the time to hit the stage approached, Jim was getting lost further into space and during the performance of Jefferson Airplane, who opened the concert for The Doors, Morrison went on stage to dance and sing with them. He attempted to kiss Grace Slick as she sang, and then went on dancing,...
Shopping in Amsterdam
In the long pedestrian area from the great Muntplein square to the famous Dam Square, in distance of more than a kilometer, lies the main shopping street in Holland, the Kalverstraat street. There, it is possible to find all kinds of shops, particularly boutiques, footwear and clothing, as well as grocery stores, tobacco, jewelry, toys, children´s clothing and beauty supply stores. Following the same Dam Square, very close the central station and parallel to Damrak Avenue, you can stroll through the peculiar Nieuwdendijk street, in a pleasant environment in which you’ll be able to discover several famous music, accessories and souvenirs and gifts shops. In addition to buying clothing from elegant boutiques, you can also stop for lunch in one of several restaurants along this street. In one of the most important and beautiful buildings of the city, where once was a post office, you’ll find the famous Magna Plaza shopping center, which is located between Dam Square and the Singel Canal, in the heart of the city. There you will have the chance to buy or enjoy a lively walk through shops. If you are looking for an elegant shopping street to make your purchases, PC Hooftstraat Street is for you. Located in the Oud-Zuid district, from Stadhouderskade to the largest park in the city, the Vondelpark, you will be walking on one of the most expensive streets across the country; luxury shops, such as Cartier, Chanel, Hermes, Louis Vuitton and the well-known American jewelry Tiffani & Co will be all available for your shopping experience. If you are looking for a nice souvenir, Amsterdam has a...
Amsterdam Roots Festival
Summer and music always go hand in hand, and the Amsterdam Roots Festival is perfect proof of that, because in its 15th edition it still attracts lovers of good music and cultural diversity in Amsterdam. This year the festival, that gathers different cultures and worlds, will take place between the 5th and the 8th of July, and just like in past editions there´ll be an indoor programme called ´Interior Roots´ and another one that will take place in the open air. This festival is a pioneer in the world, not only because it covers a diversity that we can rarely find in summer festivals but also because it has different versions, finishing off with an open-air concert at Oosterpark that´s completely free to attend. Different cultures and people of different ages gather there from midday to 10pm, and also enjoy an exotic product market, activities for children, dance and other activities that take place in a unique natural environment. To enjoy your picnic or your walk around the close to 120 stalls even more, where you can find food and even tarot readings, you´ll have the legendary Angolan musician Bonga, Danyel Waro, Bad JuJu, Systema Solar from Colombia, Justin Adams and Juldeh Camara among many others. The three days of ´Interior Roots´ concerts will take place on different stages: Galaxy, Paradiso, Bimhuis and Muziekgebouw aan ´t IJ. In these concerts there´ll be many international artists, such as Ana Moura, performing the nostalgic fados from Lisbon; there´ll also be the jazz band of the Lebanese trumpet player Ibrahim Maalouf; Celso Piña´s cumbia through Sudamericano; the alternative Philadelphia hip hop band Chiddy...
Incubus Concert in Amsterdam
There are cities that strive to offer their least official side, more liberal and anarchist. And if there´s one city that takes pride in bearing this standard of freedom that´s undoubtedly Amsterdam. Well, despite the latest restrictions (in sales, not consumption) on marihuana or to access the Red Light District, to put forward just two examples of its lenient laws, all of the cultural programme of Amsterdam revolves around those frontiers between commercial and lesser-known, between stale and new. In this aspect you could add the numerous concerts that take place in all of those venues scattered across the city. If this happens in the capital, the shockwave arrives to all corners of this small but beautiful country. All of this is apropos of the Incubus concert programmed for the 10th of July. At first it was going to take place at the Heineken Music Hall, but the successful pop-rock band has decided, for logistic reasons explained on their blog, to move the gig to the town of Tilburg, just an hour south of Amsterdam, keeping the same date and time. The chosen place could not be more perfect for this band´s ´garage´ music, because 013 is a multifunctional space that can be used for live concerts or to record songs by independent bands. Conceived for the enjoyment of all music lovers, it won´t disappoint the most demanding travellers. The place, designed as if it was a padded room (just like recording studios), is visible and recognizable among the landscape of the place. I won´t go on with practical details, so here´s the link of the event where you can...
The Museum of Bags and Purses in Amsterdam
In the 90s, the controversial American feminist Camille Plagia wrote a book on the great Alfred Hitchcock movie The Birds, in which she made special and compelling Freudian emphasis about the importance of Melanie Daniels, the main character played by Tippi Hedren, never being separated from her purse and even holding onto it firmly, as if it were the only anchor capable of preventing the collapse of that artwork known as the identity which is presented to the world and most particularly to the world of men. In fact, the one time she does lose her handbag the consequences are formidable. Indeed, perhaps there are few things as suggestive, polysemous and ductile as handbags, which is the subject of devotion at the curious and interesting Tassen Hendrikje Museum of Amsterdam (http://www.museumofbagsandpurses.com/). It has beautiful rooms in an amazing seventeenth-century building and is home to the largest collection of handbags in the world, totaling over 4000 handbags, bags, purses, trunks, suitcases, backpacks, suitcases, boxes and other accessories from all time periods from the Middle Ages onwards. In addition to their impressive permanent collection, whose distinguishing mark is the attention paid to the bag in all its variety of forms, functions and materials, the museum also organizes permanent exhibitions of both national and international handbag designers, in line with their interest in the degree to which the various designs have always changed the fashion and lifestyle of each society. This alone would make a visit to this museum worthwhile, but there’s also the elegant historic building where they display the pieces. It boasts magnificent painted ceiling rooms, exquisite decoration and chimneys from the 17th and 18th...
Pearl Jam in Concert at Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam
It’s difficult not to think of the American band Pearl Jam, who will give two concerts in the brand new Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam on June 26 and 27 http://www.ziggodome.nl as true survivors. They are, after all, one of the very few bands dubbedSeattle sound from the first half of the 90s that remain active. Along with Nirvana they were leaders of the grunge movement, although they were polarized by the media into a rivalry similar to that seen between the Rolling Stones and the Beatles in the 60s. Unlike the latter, however, members of Pearl Jam sent signals of believing that they were the antagonists of Nirvana, who achieved great press quickly, despite the many points of contacts between the two groups, and were catapulted into massive stardom in a surprising and unfortunate way which for a significant part of a whole generation was converted into little more than a lifestyle. It was only after the suicide of Kurt Cobain in 1994, who was unable to cope with the fact that his group had become the most objectified and popular band worldwide or to live with the fact that the existential angst and anti-system anger of his most memorable songs had been transformed into a spectacle and a sought-after object of consumption, that Eddie Vedder, the singer and charismatic leader of Pearl Jam, seemed to realize the absurdity of having contributed in some way to the above-mentioned confrontation with someone who was actually a friend with common interests and a similar history of marginalization. The tragic death of Cobain made it impossible to know which direction his music would...
The White Nights of Amsterdam
The term “White Nights” does not only refer to the phenomenon that naturally occurs around the summer solstice when theLaplandand some northern European cities such asSt. Petersburgare bathed in light throughout the entire night. It is also the title of an early short novel by Dostoevsky, which like many of his works is marked by a certain idea of waiting. In a famous lecture during the 80s at the Femis in Paris, not to mention the ghostly and extraordinary adaptation of Visconti on the history of the Russian author, Gilles Deleuze digresses admirably on this topic in relation to the reasons that would make a cineaste create an adaptation of great novel, which in his opinion relate directly to the fact that the film has direct ideas that correspond with some of those from the book in question. This produces at times some extraordinary meetings. In his view, for example, that is a possible explanation for the interest of Kurosawa in Dostoevsky, since his novels have figures that are often characterized by a considerable state of mobility, restlessness and agitation. They often forget the purpose of their actions regardless of how important they may be, even if they are dealing with life and death. This makes it seem like the transcendental emergencies in which they seem to be perpetually trapped lose their consistency since there’s always another more urgent question which cannot be completely ignored. This detains them and yet they usually do not succeed. There is most certainly a deeper problem in existence but it is not yet known, and then it becomes very important to find out...
