Foto Vrijdag 2.37 Sunday Edition

Best laid plans of mice and men and all that …

I had intentions of doing some writing here this week, but somehow it just didn’t materialize. It’s been one of those weeks. I spent all week meaning to upload my photos from last Sunday’s Uitfeest event here in town, but didn’t get that done until this morning. Oh well. Better late than never!

Now that I’ve used up all sorts of clichés and trite expressions, here’s your belated Foto Vrijdag picture. There was a Spanish group performing at the Domplein last Sunday, and I caught this shot of the bass player and the colorful balloons that were all over the Domplein. The Uitfeest is the annual opening celebration of the start of the cultural season. In fact, the Netherlands Film Festival opens this week here in town. Maybe I’ll get to see a celebrity again this year. Is Michiel Huisman in town this year?

Back in the Saddle

You know the old adage “It’s like riding a bicycle”, meaning it’s something you don’t forget? Yeah, I may have proved that one wrong. I finally bought my very own bicycle today, but I’ve yet to ride it properly. I had G end up testing it out for me when I failed to get it going without almost riding it into a wall. It was lunchtime and there were tons of people around and I was fast running out of any ability to not be horribly embarrassed and mortified. Plus, I was worried about running over the mail delivery people nearby who were doing a good job at not laughing and pointing at me.

I was up by 5 a.m. this morning, albeit unintentionally. Maybe tomorrow morning I’ll get up early again — this time on purpose — and go practice when fewer people can see me wobbling all over the place. My memories of riding a bike and the reality of it were two drastically different things! I used to ride my bicycle for hours on end, practically flying on the wind. Unfortunately, that was 20+ years ago.

Still, I finally have a bike again and I’m sure it will come back to me eventually. Hopefully without anything getting broken! I’m thinking of naming my bike Sally after the song by The Phoenix Foundation (you can hear the song and the whole album at that link), partly because of the line “you look like Kodachrome, you’ve gone a little yellow”, in honor of my very first bike, which was a yellow one.

William and the Oranje

Dutch-related songs seem to have been the theme of the day yesterday, although Amanda took a more high-brow approach than I did. She went with the Dutch national anthem, which it turns out is the oldest national anthem and perhaps one of the longest, weighing in with 15 verses! Fortunately, they only seem to sing one or two at most.

Giovanni and I practiced the national anthem — it’s surprisingly difficult to get the word timing right — before heading out to the Potdeksel to see the Dutch football team take on Paraguay. We were excited to get a chance to blend in by singing along with the anthem. Once you get used to it, it’s quite fun. The last line is the most fun to really belt out at the end, although it’s kind of funny to think of the Dutch pledging any sort of loyalty to the Spanish in this day and age. I can’t help but hope the Netherlands and Spain don’t come up against each other at some point in the World Cup!

As for the match itself, we watched the somewhat lackluster first half at the Potdeksel before returning home for the second half. We had been perched on a couple of stools next to one of the speakers and were getting deaf in one ear. We were also watching the pull-down screen at an angle, so the shaded parts of the pitch were almost impossible to see and the Dutch were going to be aiming for the goal in the shaded side for the second half. If you care, you probably already know that the Dutch ultimately won the match 2-0, after the Danes gifted us with an own-goal, and then eventually Dirk Kuyt finally scored for the Netherlands. The team started to look much better toward the end of the second half and hopefully the next couple of matches won’t be so angsty for the Dutch fans!

It was fun to hear somewhat universal cheers going up all over the neighborhood as the Dutch team had a few close chances and also finally scored. After the match, it was like Queen’s Day all over again, with people out in orange in full force throughout the streets. A change from the ghost town most of the country turned into during the match itself.

Oh yeah, Italy managed a tie in their first match yesterday. We were pleasantly surprised.

F of the C

Can’t sleep. Too excited!

Well, I really couldn’t sleep this morning, and as I lay there tossing and turning, I started thinking about the Flight of the Conchords show I’m going to tomorrow (and Tuesday) and that did get my mind going, making it even harder to fall back to sleep. You try getting back to sleep with Jenny going through your head!

I became a fan of the Flight of the Conchords five years ago, but this is the first time I’ve gotten a chance to see them live. They didn’t bother touring the US until I moved here to Europe and now this is the first European show they’ve done in ages. It’s about time! After years of following them, back when there was so little available we treasured every rare photo or video piece that showed up. Now fans have such a plethora of things to choose from. Kids these days don’t know how easy they have it.

I’m looking forward to hopefully meeting a few people at the shows, as well. I know I’ll be meeting one of the writers from Trippist, as well as two women from Sherry’s wonderful What the Folk website, who have flown in from the US just to see the Amsterdam shows. I know a few more of you are going and would love to meet up if possible, even if just for quick hi. I admit that I’d like to get a chance to meet Bret and Jemaine, as well. I may technically be a Bretaholic, but after the occasional — and completely unexpected, out-of-the-blue — PMs from Jemaine himself about NZ music, I’m particularly curious to meet him, since he seemed to remember me somehow.

Speaking of New Zealand music, the photo above is of The Phoenix Foundation, a fantastic band that I’ve mentioned here before. It was because of FotC that I found out about them (and numerous other NZ musicians). I got to see TPF way back in 2006, for three gigs in New York. I had a fantastic time and they put on a wonderful set of shows. They’re also just a really nice bunch of fellas. I’m hoping they’ll be touring a bit of Europe in the near future, particularly since they have a brand new album out. You can hear it here through their official website. If you want to purchase it and you’re outside NZ, I recommend Amplifier. I’ve bought both downloads and physical CDs from them for years and never had any trouble at all.

By the way, I’ve never been to the Melkweg, where they’re playing, so I’ve got two questions. How easy is it to get there from the train station, and how strict are they about no photos? I’d like to take my camera, obviously (and I don’t use the flash, especially for shows like this), but I don’t want to be turned away because I’ve got it with me.

Woordenboek Woensdag: Willekeurige Spullen

I’ve been at a loss for what Dutch word(s) to write about today. I’ve been looking things up and listening to more Dutch tv broadcasts, but there have been no real breakthroughs for me and no words that strike me as particularly fascinating. So I figured I’d just write about random things that I’ve looked up, particularly since I have looked up the Dutch word for random (willekeurig) and found out that spullen is the Dutch word for things.

Spullen is the plural, while spul is the singular. When I saw it used in a sentence, it confused me at first, because I thought it was a verb. After all, the infinitive form of most regular Dutch verbs does end -en. Of course, -en is also a common way of making nouns plural. Obviously, I didn’t understand enough of the other words in the sentence to figure out through context and location. Rather than get frustrated at myself for getting confused, I prefer to simply look at it all as a way to make sure I will probably not forget spul(len) from now on. Baby steps!

The other random word of the week is (de andere willekeurig woord van de week is) mogelijk. This goes along with my other m~lijk words that I can’t keep straight. I’m getting much better with makkelijk (easy) and moeilijk (difficult), but then mogelijk would pop up and get me all discombobulated again. Using my own personal word associations, I’m trying to remember that mogelijk means possibly by singing Björk’s song Possibly Maybe in Dutch: Mogelijk Misschien. Possibly silly, but if it works …

Name This Band

There were all sorts of sights to see yesterday. Besides the Domtoren Death Ray and hordes of tourists, there was also a music video of some sort being shot on the Oudegracht. Just as we were approaching the Stadhuisbrug, we heard music and looked to see one of the boats serving as a setting for a trio filming their performance. It brought back memories of the Lemonheads’ video for their cover of Mrs. Robinson.

I have no idea who they are, but would be curious to find out, since it would be nice to eventually get to see the video. Does anyone recognize them, by chance? I got the impression that they might not be Dutch, since the guy with his back to the shot turned around after they were finished playing and said thank you and maybe something else in English when all the people watching started to clap.

Buffalo by Way of Phoenix

One of my favorite bands, The Phoenix Foundation, has a new album coming out soon. To tide us over until it is released in April, they’ve made the first single, Buffalo, available for free download for a few days. Bonus points to them for also providing a free download of the non-album b-side, Dickheads Abound. Go listen. Go download. Go love!

Night of the Dirty Song

Romance — of one sort or another — was in the air Saturday night at the Potdeksel, as the fifth Nacht Van Het Vieze Lied (Night of the Dirty Song) was held. The café was decorated with sexy lace curtains, red lights, and feathery hearts. Bow-chicka-wow-wow! It only got hotter and steamier from there! We went last year, although it seems I never got around to blogging about it as we were expecting company soon afterward. Oops. Oh well, at least I won’t be repeating myself this time!

The event always takes place right before the beginning of Lent, and is what I like to think of as our neighborhood’s version of Carnival. (Carnival here in the Netherlands is a whole other post, which I may get around to later today. Or not.) Anyway, the event is a night of well, dirty songs. Anyone can sign up in advance to compete, and they generally take an existing song and change the lyrics about a bit to make it fit the theme of the evening. It’s not a night for the faint-hearted and prim and proper! Penii, dildos, masturbation, oh my!

Each act performs a song — special costumes are not unheard of — and is then given a critique by the judges, Sjarrel and Sjaan. At the end of all the performances, boxes are set out for each act and the audience can put in money for their favorite(s). A winner is then chosen. (The money goes to a charity.)

Last year’s winners had a great song — a variation of Ramses Shaffy’s Zing, vecht, huil, bid, lach, werk en bewonder — and I still find myself singing their version. The original translates basically to Sing, Fight, Cry, Pray, Laugh, Work and Admire. The Vieze Lied version was a bit different. Their title changed to Lik, Zuig, Trek, Neuk, Glij, Kom en Bewonder. Let’s just say that the first two translate to Lick and Suck and I’ll let your imagination go from there, particularly as there’s not a straight translation for some of the others.

This year, we stayed for the performances but were tired and went home before the winners were announced (plus, this way we could more easily watch Sven Kramer win gold in one of the mens speedskating competitions!). That said, I suspect that it was the Double Ds, who won with their trio of naughty songs, not to mention their sharp gold lamé suits. It looked like they had the most money in their box as we were leaving. (We voted for Vader Abraham’s (NSFW) brilliant take on the concept of swaffelen, although the song has been stuck in my head ever since!)

The evening is one of those events that even if you don’t understand a lot of Dutch, you still have a good time. With a bit of studying before the event, as we had last year with the help of a friend, it’s amazing just how much you can understand!

My set of photos from the past two years can be found here.

Foto Vrijdag 1.9

Taken yesterday morning, this is a detail of the kerstboom (Christmas tree) that stands outside the front of the Café de Potdeksel. I thought it looked so pretty with the snow on the branches and the apples. The apples are leftover from the filming of a music video a few weeks ago. What started off as a joke among some of our friends has turned into a full-fledged song and video and it’s even available on iTunes. (The money goes to The Dutch Liver Foundation charity, so go ahead and spend 99 cents to do a good deed for the day.) Go check out Christmas in Cupertino.

Free Good Music

One of my favorite bands, The Phoenix Foundation, is releasing an EP on December 7, to tide us over while we wait for their next full-length album to come out sometime next year. To tide us over until December 7, they’ve released a free download of a song off the new EP. You can get it here: