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ONLY BE AMSTERDAMMER
Only Be Amsterdammer
Spring in Amsterdam
The south of Europe and the Mediterranean countries in general are already enjoying the first spring days, even when spring isn´t here yet officially. The good weather might bring some cloudy days with it but short sleeves are already here during the day, and in the shop windows we can already see the new spring-summer collections. However, at the time of travelling, we still have to take into account the climate of the place we´re going to because spring doesn´t always arrive this early everywhere else. We´ll give you some good tips so that you go well prepared in case you´re thinking of going to Amsterdam. The Dutch capital is a magical place. Its canals, bridges and its typical architecture from the 16th and 17th centuries presents itself concentrated in the central part of the city. Walking around Amsterdam is a gift to the senses, so we need to know which clothes we need to take. The city climate is a moderate Atlantic-continental. Winters are pretty cold but without reaching the extreme, although it´s true that during some weeks we can see the thermometers go below 0. It usually snows twice or three days a year. Summers are hot with temperatures around 25ºC, but not extreme, except if there´s a heat wave. What happens is that it´s an extremely humid climate so 25ºC can become very overwhelming. There are many days where it rains moderately, but throughout the year it doesn´t rain too much. The bad and attractive thing about Amsterdam is that it has quite a crazy and unstable climate. In one single day, all weather possibilities can...
Amsterdam by bicycle
The traveller who arrives in Amsterdam for the first time cannot help be surprised by a series of characteristics of the city that tell its open, respectful and civilized spirit.
Sinéad O’Connor in Amsterdam
The Irish pop star Sinead O´Connor will perform a concert at the Amsterdam Paradiso On 17th of April. The artist returns to the stage after a long voluntary gap, to sing his classic songs, as written by Prince Nothing Compares 2 U and other less known of his latest album How About I Be (And You Be You). Sinéad Marie Bernadette O´Connor was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1966. She was the daughter of a dysfunctional family where abuse and violence were part of her daily routine, transforming it into a rebel and complicated teenager. When she was 15, she was interned to a reformatory of Catholic nuns. There she met a volunteer who was the sister of the drummer of the band In Tua Nua, Paul Byrne, who connected her with the group. Although she recorded the album Take My Hand with this band, she did not continue with them, because they felt she was too young. She became famous in the early 90´s for her wonderful voice, her polemics, her antics on stage and her shaved head. In 1983 her father sent her to the exclusive Newton School in Waterford, where she met the Irish language teacher Falvy Joseph, who encouraged her to record a demo with four songs, two written by her. In 1984 she joined the Ton Ton Macute band and performed in Dublin and the audience just loved her. A year after that her mother dies in a car accident, she left the band Sinéad and moved to London. Ton Ton Macoute band opened to her its doors to the music industry by signing...
Hackers in Amsterdam
With the great impact of the hacktivist group Anonymou, many people started wondering about the true value of being hacker, and how this movement is taking a twist in our understanding of the condition of hackers in the Western society. The media publicity that is generated with each of the operations carried out by Anonymous, is transforming the way of protesting, defend our rights and politics in the real and virtual world. It is because of these reasons that the image of the hackers should stop being demonized. Hackers are making a change by giving the pattern of how to speak out against corporate fascism. Since the outbreak of the Internet phenomenon worldwide, we are accustomed to hearing about hackers and their various illegal activities. While it is true that some have been arrested for bank fraud and theft, not all of them work the same way. Similarly the image of the hacker has been mythologized, a few years ago, the movie Matrix fascinated us with its leather-clad characters within the virtual reality to which they were condemned to live, but in which they were righteous, seeking a way out of the machine control. All those who were freed from the Matrix, proved to be just hackers, people with a mastery of computers out of the ordinary and with the ability to develop new forms of network communication. Nowadays, the tools at our disposal, with both operating systems PCs and Mac are much more “user friendly” than before. One need not be a programming expert to install and uninstall programs and applications, format memory disks, etc.. While companies seek...
Sinéad O’Connor in Amsterdam
This April 17 Sinéad O´Connor will be on stage at the Paradiso in Amsterdam and many fans will be surprised when they see the obese and decrepit Irish rock star, especially because in the memories of all she still remains as a fragile on stage figure in sympathy with some noble cause or challenging the powerful. 45 years old Sinéad has re-emerged in the pages of the papers for her scandals and her repeated attempts of suicide, due to her bipolar depression, product of overdosing on pills. In January this year she attempted to commit suicide in Los Angeles after a disastrous marriage in Las Vegas that lasted only 18 days. A few days later she returned to Dublin and repeated the suicide attempt. Probably the violence she lived in her home as a child has been chasing her for many years. She acknowledged that her mother forced her to steal in her adolescence, so she spent time in a reformatory. Today her case is extreme and she has been forced to use Twitter to ask for help in her times of distress. This has been effective so far, because it has saved her twice in her suicide attempts. But it may not be the best way to control the bipolar disorder that leads from a state of euphoria to deep depressions. This mental disorder has risk behaviors in the two stages, as in moments of euphoria she seeks for husbands on Twitter, overflowing with positivism and out of control, to then a totally unpredictable erratic behavior. This has impacted on her unkempt, fat and radical changes in styles....
Steve Aoki in Amsterdam
On April 8, the event center Paradiso in Amsterdam will present American DJ Steve Aoki. The concert is part of a promotional tour for his latest album of electro house music, Wonderland, which is now for sale and available for download and as ringtones on iTunes. Steve Aoki Hiroyuki was born in Miami in 1977 but grew up in California and graduated with a degree in sociology and women’s studies from the University of California Santa Barbara, a city which was the cradle of rock movement, the hippie movement and progressive attitudes of the 1960s. Of course, he missed all of these revolutionary periods of time, but Aoki got involved with music during the pragmatic 90s. At this time, California still had a halo effect from the hippie movement, and many musical groups influenced the students who were forming their bands and developing an underground movement. His first musical productions were for the university, specifically for the Santa Barbara Student Housing Cooperative, where the underground movement of the anti-system students and musicians held their first concerts. At 19, he spearheaded his own record label, which he called Dim Mak Records after the actor and martial arts expert Bruce Lee, who had been his childhood hero. With this label he released music by many electro house artists, including The Bloody Beetroots, Klaxons, MSTRKRFT, and others. Together with the record label he released a clothing line which has over time become very popular with youthful fans of electro house. Even the green headphones he designed have become a must-have among aficionados of his music. While Aoki has shown a great capacity...
Kings of Convenience concert in Amsterdam
On the 7th and 8th of April, the Norwegian indie pop duo Kings of Convenience are going to be playing at Paradiso in Amsterdam. On this occasion their two concerts will be different; the first one will take place in the main room and their repertoire will be focused on their greatest hits, so everyone can sing along and dance to them, and the second one will be in a smaller room with a more intimate atmosphere and their songs will be the most popular ones but also the lesser known ones, so both concerts will be complementing each other. The duo is formed by Erlend Øye and Eirik Glambek Bøe, born in Bergen, Norway. The band was born naturally from friendship and their mutual taste for the same music. Øye and Bøe have known each other since childhood and had previously formed a band with other friends, even recording an LP. Their music is made up of acoustic guitars, occasionally with added pianos or chord instruments that give their songs more depth. Their sounds are highly influenced by Simon & Garfunkel, who shaped the 60s generation with music coming predominantly from guitars and vocals. They also have some influence from Belle & Sebastian, with some slight Bossa Nova twists that we can hear in their guitars. In 1999 they signed their first contract with the American independent label Kindercore. After this, they settled in London and recorded their first album, ´Quiet is the New Loud´, which had relative success. In 2001 they edited their first remix album, ´Versus´, where artists such as Ladytron, Röyksopp, Four Tet, Alfie and many...
Frank Turner in concert in Amsterdam
On the 5th of April, Paradiso in Amsterdam will host the English singer Frank Turner in concert. It´s part of his 2012 tour, which promises to be a great meeting with his fans, since the tickets are going quickly and the fans are already packing their bags. Frank Turner, also known as ´Dave´, was born in Meonstoke, Winchester, in 1981. He studied at Eton and in the London School of Economics. Born in a wealthy and traditional family, he quickly became interested in music, especially in composing songs and managing to produce special sounds with his guitar. Despite his beginnings in music go back to a band from his school that dissolved in 2001, with which he played concerts, toured and recorded with, his true musical career began that same year with the band Million Dead, thanks to the invitation of the bass player Ben Dawson. In 2005 the band broke up due to irreconcilable differences and therefore Turner was back on his own again. He had already tried to work solo when he recorded with Smalltown America, a London-based independent record label, so without a band he began to see this alternative as a certain possibility of getting into the music industry in a professional way. As he put it in an interview, “it seemed the most logical thing… trying out playing these songs more publicly and in a more arranged way”. After an EP with the fusion rock band Reuben, in 2006 the EP ´Campfire Punkrock´ was released by the hand of Xtra Mile Recording. That same year Xtra Mile Recordng in the UK and Welcome Home Records...
Pete Murray concert in Amsterdam
The great Australian singer and musician Pete Murray will perform a concert at Paradiso in Amsterdam on the 10th of April. This concert will be a reunion with his fans that have always brought him to very good positions in the music charts. The singer will promote his new album Blue Sky Blue during this event. Pete Murray was born in Australia in 1969. During his childhood and adolescence was a sportsman who practiced rugby, athletics and swimming with no interest in music. Only when he was 22, he began learning to play guitar. His compulsive nature led him to study guitar and singing with determination, he started to perform at barbecues and private parties. However, his intention was to study medicine in college, so he put his studies first. Due to his great talent, his relatives insisted him to try to play professionally; he began to do so in bars and small festivals. He toured around Australia with the flutist Col Mc Intyre, they became friends founded a band with keyboardist Ben Mc Carthy, who still works with him. In 2002, he released his first independent album called The Game and settled in Melbourne to take his musical career to the next level. The following year he signed a contract with Sony BMG Australia and began a meteoric career. His career began with such success that the first album Feeler, launched in 2003, made it to the top of sales of the moment. His second album See The Sun achieved the same success as his first and remained on the charts for weeks. His name became a sign...
