AmsterdamWeekly_Issue42_25October

Volume 3, Issue 42

Inside: Music, Film, Art and Events

FREE EVERY WEDNESDAY

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ER ST O -P IT U E-J K EE R SP

I’m open and you know it PAGE 6

This is A’dam calling Iran page 4 / YouTube, WeLube page 4 Rounding up on Ramadan page 5 / Multimedia with maracas page 13 / Love tractors page 17

WILLEKE DUIJVEKAM

WEEKOF 26 OKTOBER TO 1 NOVEMBER 2006

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Amsterdam Weekly

ATTACHMENTS Contents: On the cover Look in. Speak out! Photo by Willeke Duijvekam.

Features Iranian radio . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Realcore. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Ramadan Round-up V . . . . 5 Windowatch . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Going out Short List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Lekker Bezig . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Clubs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Gay & Lesbian . . . . . . . . . . 14 Stage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Self-expression tractors . 17 Events. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Film. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Clerks II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Shortbus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Film Times. . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Plus The Glutton . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Life in Hell . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Eefje Wentelteefje . . . . . . 27

Amsterdam Weekly is a free cultural paper distributed every Wednesday in Amsterdam. Paid subscriptions are available on request. For details, write to info@amsterdamweekly.nl. Contents of Amsterdam Weekly are copyright 2006 Amsterdam Weekly BV. All rights reserved.

Winner of 3 European Newspaper Awards Amsterdam Weekly BV De Ruyterkade 106, 1011 AB Amsterdam Tel: 020 522 5200 Fax: 020 620 1666 www.amsterdamweekly.nl General info: info@amsterdamweekly.nl Agenda listings: agenda@amsterdamweekly.nl Advertising: sales@amsterdamweekly.nl PUBLISHER Todd Savage EDITOR Steve Korver ASSISTANT EDITOR Kim Renfrew AGENDA EDITOR Steven McCarron FILM EDITOR Julie Phillips PROOFREADER Karina Hof EDITORIAL INTERN Sarah Gehrke ART DIRECTOR Bas Morsch PRODUCTION MANAGER Aquil Copier PRODUCTION DESIGNER Rogier Charles PRODUCTION INTERN Mattijs Arts SALES ASSOCIATES Haitske van Asten, Alexander Gan, Simon Poole, Justin Rink, Carolina Salazar OPERATIONS MANAGER Monique Gruter OPERATIONS ASSISTANT Desislava Pentcheva DISTRIBUTION COORDINATOR Patrick van der Klugt DISTRIBUTION INTERN Chris Tian FINANCIAL ADVISER Kurt Schmidt, Veresis Consulting PRINTER Het Volk Printing ISSN 1872-3268 THIS WEEK’S CONTRIBUTORS Willem de Blaauw, Anuschka Blommers, Melanie Bonajo, Dara Colwell, Floris Dogterom, Willeke Duijvekam, Sarah Gehrke, Matt Groening, Arnoud Holleman, Luuk van Huët, Jeroen de Leijer, Nick Leslie, Michael Martin, Sharida Mohamedjoesoef, Marinus de Ruiter, Sanstitre, Nina Schein, Stephen Schneider, Suzanne Schreve, Bregtje Schudel, Niels Schumm and Mark Wedin.

10 CAMPERS by Arnoud Holleman

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26 October-1 November 2006

AROUND TOWN Real to the ’core The ins and outs of amateur porn.

MELANIE BONAJO

By Dara Colwell

These current times Citizen radio sets dial to Iran.

By Floris Dogterom On the second floor of a building in Oost, a new radio station has just started broadcasting. Listeners can tune in to the short wave station for a couple of hours a day, or 24 hours a day on satellite and the internet. You gotta know your Persian, though.

The Netherlands seem to be fertile ground for media aimed at Iran. Since 2004, the Dutch language website IranActua.info has been providing news on world affairs with a focus on Iran. Then there were plans to start a satellite TV station to provide inhabitants of the Islamic dictatorship with independent information. Parliament supports the initiative, but Hossein Bastani, one of the initiators, reveals in an email that the plan has been called off, ‘because it’s clear that the Dutch government would never permit a non-entertaining Iranian satellite channel be founded in this country.’

No such obstacles for Radio Zamaneh, though. Last month, the station saw its first short-wave broadcast, a daily programme on current and cultural affairs. Via satellite and the internet, a worldwide audience has access to information round the clock. Radio Zamaneh—which more or less means ‘the current time’—is based on Linaeusstraat, opposite the Tropenmuseum.

In the early evening, the young editorial staff are doing their thing, while behind a window, in the studio, today’s show is being presented by two hosts. ‘We believe in citizen journalism,’ director Mehdi Jami says. In citizen or participatory journalism, people play an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analysing and disseminating news and information. Jami, who looks something of an anachronism with his long ponytail and Zappa-esque moustache, is a softly spoken intellectual who gives cautious answers.

In Iran, in a former life, he was a researcher and lecturer; later, he became a radio journalist with the BBC in London, from where he was recruited to lead Radio Zamaneh. Mehdi says: ‘We’re the first radio station using citizen journalism in the Iranian situation. We’re aiming at minimising the distance between the radio producer and the listener, in that we ask our listeners to send us radio or written reports which we broadcast or publish. We are mixing traditional radio and blogs to create radio blogs, while putting the emphasis on interactivity. Iranians from within Iran and in the diaspora are participating, sending in their descriptive reports of what’s happening in the place where they live.’

You’d expect both Mehdi and the radio station to speak out fiercely against the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who, in an earlier stage of his career, allegedly worked for some time as an executioner in the notorious Evin Prison, where thousands of political prisoners were executed in the bloody purges of the 1980s. Not so. Mehdi says: ‘We are independent; we don’t promote Dutch foreign policy or anything else. I don’t believe in political change through broadcasting. But what we can change is the type of information people get. If you take people seriously by giving them

The political agenda is a social one.

information on the basis of which they can form their own opinion, it will be beneficial for their sense of dignity.’

When asked why he left Iran, Mehdi says that he ‘wanted a better environment with more freedom.’ But surely he must have a political agenda? Mehdi smiles. ‘If people in Tehran say “Down with Ahmadinejad!” we’ll cover that. Of course. But we’re not a political pressure group. My political agenda is a social one.

I want my people to have a normal life.

Only a normal society can produce normal leaders. Now, Iran creates certain types of leaders, who are all roughly the same. Without a change in society that won’t change. Look at what’s happening in Afghanistan and Iraq. The idea was to turn these countries into democracies.

But it didn’t work out. Why? Because the respective societies stayed the same. All changes should be brought about by Iranians, and not be imposed by other countries. We do our bit in that process.

‘But even a slow change is not what we’re after. We’re about doing our job professionally—that’s all there is to it. I have no political ambitions whatsoever, but if my listeners do, I say that’s up to them. By the way: a big change in Iran is never going to happen without a revolution in the oil industry. As long as there is oil, there will be corruption.’

Mehdi says it’s hard to measure the success of Radio Zamaneh. He adds: ‘But we receive lots of comments via the website. During the first two months, over fifty people wrote a review of our programmes, which we published. Maybe in six months or a year we can compete with the BBC’s Iranian broadcasts.’ www.zamaneh.info

Whatever you think of porn, you’ve got to admit that Sergio Messina is trying to keep it real. Or ‘realcore’, to be exact. A pirate radio DJ/indie musician/journalist/technology researcher based in Milan, Messina has spent the last decade focusing on the digital pornography revolution. But far from your average peeping Tom, Messina funneled his investigations into a presentation—really, more of a show—called ‘Realcore’, a term he coined to describe online amateur porn.

Unlike softcore pornography, which is simulated sex, or hardcore, which shows real sex in faux settings, Realcore focuses on reality (translation: regular folk) rather than beauty. ‘In Realcore, anyone can take the stage,’ says Messina, who will appear at the Melkweg this Friday during the Transito festival (see Short List). In ‘Parallel Identities’, a three-person panel programme about identity and communication technology, Messina presents material he’s collected over the years—enough to give audiences a good, if unforgettable gawp.

‘Realcorers want to be real, reachable and interactive. The viewer is part of the game,’ he says, noting that amateur porn invites reciprocation because ‘ordinary’ people get off on real sexual desire, rather than unearthly penises.

Messina’s interest in Realcore began in 1996 when, like everyone else at the time, he spent long hours surfing the internet.

I am Realcore. Are you?

True to human tendency, pornography already accounted for 80% of web traffic, but with the advent of digicams, amateur porn skyrocketed. ‘They [the images] were radically different, with a strong “underground” feel,’ says Messina. ‘The idea of self-made pornography was, and still is, very appealing to me—politically, socially, culturally and yes, sexually too,’ he says.

Realcore does seem to have a certain democratising effect over traditional porn.

According to Messina, it serves as a revolution of the normal, combating stereotypes of what’s considered standard desirability.

Several such examples (found on Messina’s website’s blog) are an older woman posing naked next to a gas canister, one bending over an ironing board and a corduroy fetishist swathed in the same material. ‘Very few of the people portrayed in Realcore would be considered “sexy,”’ says Messina, noting that what makes them sexy is their sexual longing. ‘Advertising and television are all geared for beauty, so even if their motivation is not political, the effect certainly is.’

As for the political, Realcore is mostly free, it involves immense sexual variety— hetero or gay, fetish or vanilla—as well as physical types far beyond traditional porn’s taste for silicon-swollen bleach blondes. It’s often shot in long, unedited segments or real time, with a wide-angle lens to capture action over details, and covers real sexual acts between real, consenting adults. ‘I like its horizontality,’ says Messina, who has become something of a sexual anthropologist in his net travels, ‘and the sensation of watching people actually enjoying themselves, versus actors simulating sexual ecstasy for cash.’

An odd but interesting aside, Messina inadvertently discovered differences between nationalities participating in Realcore. Italians, he says, tend to blur details such as tattoos, faces or furniture—anything that might lead back to their true identity; Germans, on the other

Amsterdam Weekly

hand, like messy situations, such as playing with food or mud; Americans, predictably, talk frequently to the camera; and Northern Europeans are no-nonsense and open. As for the Dutch in particular, Messina followed what he calls the ‘Parking sex people’. Throughout the late ’90s, they would stage large orgies in parking lots, then post the blurred images—perhaps to protect members of the CDA—online. ‘I have a picture of the police interrupting a party,’ he says.

For those who’d argue modern society oversexualises everything from toothpaste to cars, Realcore may seem like more of the same: a continued oversaturation of the market, not to mention the reality TV sector. ‘This is certainly a point. Jaded people look for variation,’ says Messina. ‘But it could also be a reaction to an oversaturated world of surgical beauty and sexual uniformity.’ As he sees it, as much as advertising or mainstream pornography would like consumers to buy a certain standard of beauty, desire casts it net much wider. ‘You could even see Realcore as an unconscious attempt to bring back a more natural and personal way to desire,’ says Messina. ‘They say “I’m not objectively beautiful, yet I can be desirable. I am desired and I like this.”’

Whatever you think of the subject, Messina’s work raises interesting questions. Realcore, because it portrays real interactive sexual practices, by its very existence shows there’s definitely a bigger picture out there. According to Messina: ‘We have a much clearer picture of what can be done with our bodies, and believe me, it’s a big picture that’s vast and varied.

This has been of inspiration for many since the invention of the web, and it’s going to grow.’ As the author describes in his presentation: ‘The future is here, and it’s sweaty, it’s sticky, and it swallows.’

‘Parallel Identities’, 27 October, 20.30, Melkweg, Oude Zaal, €8, http://realcore.radiogladio.it

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Ramadan Round-up part 5

By Sharida Mohamedjoesoef Thirty days filled with an odd mixture of contemplation, devotion, will power, partying and family get-togethers. This year, jazzed up with lively debates and lectures on a variety of topics related to Islam in the Netherlands. In Amsterdam—home to some 120,000 Muslims— alone, over a hundred activities were organised, and those were just the official events! All this came to an end last Monday, as Muslims all over the world, from Amsterdam to Zanzibar, took part in the Eid al Fitre celebrations, the feast marking the end of Ramadan, in Dutch better known as the Suikerfeest.

True, a few years ago here, one would have needed a magnifying glass to spot any such activity. But then again, then there was no 9/11, no murder of Theo van Gogh, no reports on the radicalisation of young Muslims and so on.

Events like these catapulted the Muslim community into action; and not just on the cultural and religious front, either, as Dutch Muslims are also becoming increasingly active in the political arena.

Given the upcoming elections on 22 November, one the biggest Turkish organisations in the Netherlands, the Milli Görüs, decided to host an iftar coupled with a debate on the role of Muslims in Dutch politics. One of the speakers was Hikmat Mahawat-Khan. A Muslim of Surinamese descent, he is known for his spicy one-liners and speeches peppered with critical remarks on what he considers to be misbehaviour on the part of Muslims. When news got out that Mahawat-Khan had joined EenNL, a political offspring of Pim Fortuyn’s legacy, his critics had a field day, labelling him a traitor serving a xenophobic and racist agenda. Well, you can say many things about him, but a racist he is not.

(For those of you who missed this part of recent Dutch history, the would-be politician Fortuyn called Islam a ‘back-

SANSTITRE

26 October-1 November 2006

ward culture’. He was brutally murdered in May 2002 by an animal rights activist.)

With hotheaded Mahawat-Khan on the panel, you are usually in for a fiery debate on integration and participation.

And sure enough, I was not disappointed. Loud grunts of disapproval rippled through the audience as he was off on his hobby-horse again, saying things like ‘integration has failed,’ or ‘Muslims themselves are in part responsible for being discriminated against on the Dutch labour market.’

Yet what would have been an absolute no-can-do a couple of years ago, finally seems to be taking root: criticism from within the Muslim community, from the new Milli Görüs foreman Yusuf Altuntas to Mohammed Ousala, a prominent member of the Dutch Association of Imams. Unique, given the fact that those two organisations are all-Sunni, while Mahawat-Khan belongs to the Lahore Ahmadiyya movement and is thus considered a heretic by various Muslim groups.

Be that as it may, more prominent Muslims seem to have cottoned on to the fact that postmodern gibberish (read: politically correct remarks) or jihad-denial will not solve the problem of polarisation. They will have to address this issue in their mosques and Islamic cultural centres, making fellow Muslims understand that they—and they alone—can change the image of Islam. During this year’s Ramadan, Muslims more than ever seized the opportunity to counteract the message of violence and hatred spread by the Bin Ladens of this world. But it’s only a first step. What about the remaining 335 days? Now there’s a challenge for us, if ever you saw one.

From your Ramadan reporter: Eid mubarak, happy Eid!

www.ramadanfestival.nl

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26 October-1 November 2006

The forces behind expression Amsterdammers are famously forthright. And sometimes they express themselves not in words but in windows.

BY SUZANNE SCHREVE, PHOTOS BY WILLEKE DUIJVEKAM

Prins Hendrikkade 83

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Eerste Egelantiersdwarsstraat 4

Egelantiersgracht 73

Goudbloemstraat 131A

Dr Colijnstraat 99

ertical gardening Eerste Egelantiersdwarsstraat 4 wo sisters, a bunch of cats and dogs and a whole lot of dolls live at Eerste Egelantiersdwarsstraat 4. The sisters, Lida and Rietje, are real Jordaaners. ‘We grew up on Lindegracht for the most part of our lives until mum and dad moved here on the first floor. I later bought the second floor, and when both mum and dad died my younger sister moved in,’ Rietje says.

Their house is hard to miss and has become incredibly popular over recent years; it’s even a sightseeing landmark in one of Amsterdam’s tourist brochures. The building itself isn’t as picturesque as the older houses in the Jordaan, but the window decorations give it a unique, fairy tale-like appearance.

There are many flowers and plants, in between which different-sized dolls cling to balcony frames. If you stand for a minute to take it all in, you will also see parrots, bears, cats, birdhouses, sunflowers and butterflies, amongst many other knick-knacks.

Rietje started off small with a pot plant here and there. ‘We don’t have a garden— most houses in the Jordaan don’t—but we have always wanted one. In the old days it was more a custom for people in the Jordaan to use all the space available for alternative means. We used the street as an extension of our living room and we put

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flowers all over the walls and against windows to compensate for a garden,’ Rietje says.

Soon they started to expand on their decorations as more became available.

‘Every so often we go to a garden centre and we always find something new, like a birdhouse, or a little bear in a basket. So we buy it and put it up around our windows.

My sister is more active with the dolls though, she used to make them for a living.’

And as the season changes, so does the display. For Halloween, the sisters dress up the dolls as witches, and for Sinterklaas and Christmas, the walls and windows are also redecorated accordingly. ‘We really do it for ourselves. We know people look and take pictures. Especially during Christmas it attracts attention, because we make a real effort. It’s in memory of our father who always loved Christmas. When he died in August, we put up the Christmas display in September, just because we knew he would like it. We do it in honour of him, but it also reminds us of how the Jordaan used to be.’

Observing Pippi Goudbloemstraat 131A On the Goudbloemstraat you will find several ‘expressive’ windows, but number 131A stands out pretty in pink. Its occupant, 42year-old Saskia, has lived in Amsterdam for 20 years and works as a sfeermaker. A

sfeermaker is not just a decorator; it means someone who creates an atmosphere by making people laugh, dressing up, and creating a welcoming decor.

Saskia’s lightheartedness is mirrored in her window display. On the left hangs an angel next to a Mexican skeleton, while a mirror dangles above Artis de Partis postcards. To the right, a Pippi Longstocking sits adorned next to another Artis de Partis postcard, all in front of pink curtains. ‘I love Pippi, she is my idol. She’ll water the flowers while it rains. She just does anything she feels like, all with good intentions and a big smile. And Artis de Partis is more the childhood nostalgia, he really gives me a sense of home,’ she says.

There seems to be no clear structure, but as a whole, it looks to represent many parts of Saskia as she also mixes in social and philosophical standpoints.

If you look closer at the window you will find a small stamp of The Little Prince by De Saint-Exupéry. The quote below it reads: ‘L’essentiel est invisible pour les yeux’ [‘The essential is invisible to the eyes’].

‘That’s the way I see life. The small things are important and you can’t always look for it. But of course the bigger issues in life should not be avoided, such as poverty.

That’s why I stuck on the “Make Poverty History” sticker,’ Saskia says.

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Saskia is also influenced by Hundertwasser, the Austrian painter who later in his career developed his theory of ‘transautomatism’, based in part on Surrealist automatism, but concentrated on the role of the observer, rather than the artist.

As such, Hunderdtwasser said that every person has the right to pick up a brush and paint a one-metre area around their own windows as self-expression.

Hundertwasser figured it would make the world a whole lot more interesting, and the thought seems to be catching on. ‘My neighbour has started putting out little statues and props in front of her window too.

Although initially I do it for me, because I like to come home to a house that looks cute, it’s also nice to see people appreciating it and reading the notes,’ she says.

For Saskia, decorating her window is a way of communicating and a way of making the world a prettier place. Many passers-by would surely agree it is a colourful world looking through her rose-tinted glasses.

Kids and food Egelantiersgracht 73 With the children away at school and her husband at work, Jose sits quietly in her back garden-house. This is where she paints and sculpts. But it’s not the gardenhouse alone that’s home to her creativity.

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Down below, at the front of the house, is the family kitchen. If you happen to walk past Egelantiersgracht 73 and you don’t notice the bits and bobs dotted around the window, don’t worry—it’s the souterrain and built to hip height. Unless you are a child or any other small person, it’s not in your immediate eyesight.

It’s an old-fashioned kitchen, with a wooden table in the middle and sometimes a family of four perched alongside it. But before you get to the table, you have to look past various little puppets, kids’ paintings, dried fruit, coloured bottles, toy giraffes and monkeys, and a silver trophy.

‘I just started with putting out some dried tangerines I had left over, it seemed a funny thing to do. But people commented on how nice it looked, so I continued to add objects. Now you could say it’s a museum for kids.’

At one point Jose heard about the Gordon course that supposedly teaches you to effectively deal with your children. ‘All you need to do is listen. We tend to just hear them, and kids need attention. You need to able to place yourself in their minds,’ Jose says. Although her own children are allowed to add things to the window too, Jose admits she rearranges it afterwards.

By drawing attention to the kitchen window, Jose also intends for people to think about food. ‘There are a lot of poor people out there, and we tend to be so careless with our food, we take it for granted.

When the kids come to look at the window and the parents follow, I also mean for them to consider the daily things. You can go on expensive holidays and enrich your life, but you can also take the obvious and elevate it to art to see the beauty of this world.’

Jose welcomes people taking a look into her life and that of her family. But it’s not just for the public to enjoy. There’s an old grapevine sprayed in gold that once belonged on the set of a Peter Greenaway film. ‘I was an extra for one of his films.

Now and again, I also like to be reminded of my own youth.’

Conspiracy Bert Dr Colijnstraat 99 If you sleep with Conspiracy Theories: Secrecy and Power in American Culture next to your bed, believe that 9/11 is an Illuminati hoax and the Zionists are the secret world’s agenda, you might want to cycle the extra kilometres to Dr Colijnstraat 99 in Geuzenveld.

The window on the ground floor is part of a 1950s apartment block. The standard white panelling and roller blinds blend in with the rest, but it’s the posters stuck in the front of the window that make you stop and look—especially the one announcing a 9/11 conspiracy conference in Utrecht.

More than 15 years ago, conspiracy theorist Bert moved in with his two children.

As a single parent, Bert went to an organisation for advice. ‘I befriended my counsellor and we seemed to have similar ideas about the world. He introduced me to one of his friends who told me about the Contact Network International, which is now called Frontier. I watched videos and read books on alternative sciences and world conspiracy theories,’ he says.

Bert likes to read Nexus, a magazine that covers prophecies, Big Brother conspiracies, UFOs and other ‘unexplained’ topics. ‘When I was a kid, I used to read a lot of newspapers and watch the news. I was always interested in politics. But there were gaps. There were things the newspa-

26 October-1 November 2006

est,’ he says. ‘Everyone asks about the legs... If I like my legs? No, I don’t have nice legs. Oh, yes, my wife does, she has beautiful legs.’

Mrs Schneider giggles in the background, eyes to the floor and cheeks turning red. For a moment, they are a frivolous young artist couple again, full of laughter.

Singel 89

pers didn’t explain, or didn’t even want to talk about. That’s when I started getting curious. I needed more sources to fill in those gaps,’ he explains.

When Bert turned 18, he moved away from home and became a squatter. He even started a commune, but says no girls ever came to live there. Bert also joined the army, and concedes that the strict regime could have aided in his wariness against the government and the structures of social politics. He says: ‘The whole government is a facade, and it’s shameful to see how innocent hard-working people are kept on a leash. You don’t hear anyone protest anymore, people have become submissive.’ So when a rubbish collector knocks on the door to enquire after the Frontier sticker on his window, Bert is delighted.

Recently a man stopped to read the 9/11 poster. ‘I went out to talk to him but he was hesitant, so I gave him the 9/11 DVD you get free with the Nexus magazine. In the end, all I can do is make people aware by putting it on display. What they do with the information is up to them,’ he says.

Unfortunately, it looks like Bert might be leaving the country. He says he’s had enough of Holland and the government’s Bush-centred politics. Where will he go next? Bert is not sure yet and laments there might not be anywhere safe to go any more.

Mr and Mrs Schneider Singel 89 ‘They are all doing it now. I’ve seen them in front of several windows in the Jordaan.

What’s happened to being original?’ says Mrs Schneider. She is referring to the legs put upside down in front of her window, second from the top.

Mr Schneider is the artist in the family, but he doesn’t talk much anymore. ‘He’s gone blind you see, and for an artist that’s awful. Now he only says yes or no.’

Mr and Mrs Schneider live at Singel 89.

Most days of the year, Mr Schneider sits in front of his open kitchen door on the ground floor, while Mrs Schneider fusses about making dinner—she hates to cook— and shuffles back and forth to make sure no one takes pictures of her husband unasked.

They are both in their mid-80s and look like they have thoroughly enjoyed every decade since the 1950s. They recount their younger days in Paris. ‘We lived there for a couple of years and hung out with a really nice community of artists, like Appel, Remco Campert and Constant,’ says a suddenly talkative Mr Schneider.

Mrs Schneider takes over. ‘He used to be so funny. That’s what the display above is all about. But now he doesn’t say much anymore.’

There isn’t much laughter in the house anymore either. The kitchen is filled with the air of burnt toast and voided creativity.

It’s 3 p.m. and Mr Schneider is drinking rosé wine from France. Because he is blind, the window display never changes. In between the legs is a bird, and next to the legs are a couple of wooden puppets, a horse, a painting, and a vase.

‘We are people of the now. We live for today because we might not be here tomorrow. But I would really like to turn the house into a museum. We have so many paintings and books, tons of books. But only if one of us goes, and the other one lives on,’ Mrs Schneider says.

Mr Schneider takes another sip of wine.

‘When you lose your sight, you lose inter-

God does not exist Prins Hendrikkade 83 When you walk out of Centraal Station, it’s hard to miss one of Amsterdam’s most prominent Catholic churches—St Nicolas—on Prins Hendrikkade. What you probably weren’t expecting to see is a large, pink, neon sign to the left of it flickering God Bestaat Niet—‘God doesn’t exist’.

Two years ago, on the morning of 2 November, Huub Hafkamp sat at the front of his third-storey flat at Prins Hendrikkade 83. As per usual, he listened to the news on the radio and drank his coffee. But that day the newsreader announced what would eventually lead Huub to put up a sign in which he denounces God’s existence: artist Theo van Gogh had been shot seven times and stabbed twice.

‘At first, I didn’t really feel any emotion related to his death, it was a political murder. I didn’t even like him that much, and in many ways, you could say he took it a step too far. But later that day, I also realised that although the act was political, it revealed a quintessential religious motive,’ Huub says.

While 2,000 people walked the streets that night to remember Van Gogh, Huub wrote his statement on a note and stuck it on his window.

Huub isn’t a religious man, even though he was brought up Roman Catholic. ‘Even though my parents are religious, they were free-thinking. Church wasn’t a chore. I even served as alter boy and joined the church choir. But all comes to an end sooner or later, and I made up my mind when I was sixteen years old. I became a hippy,’ Huub says.

Huub made the note into a permanent sign because he feels passionate about his statement. But after Van Gogh’s parents publicly asked for the country to give it a rest, Huub decided to take the sign down.

It has been back up for a year or so.

This time Huub says it’s because he believes religion is the cause of many wars and world problems. He doesn’t intend to single out any religion; it is targeted specifically at all religions.

To this day, the people of the St Nicolas church have not said anything about it. ‘I have had some Christian people come up to the door though, enquiring about my motives. We always end up having a friendly conversation.’

Huub doesn’t just wish to make a statement. Alongside his political beliefs, he also fancies himself as a bit of an artist. ‘This is art. I call it “Pink Flicker Advertisement.”’

And whichever way you look at it, saying God doesn’t exist on a window in a prime Amsterdam location is as expressive as anyone can be.

Inspired to do your own self expressive window? Fill out the inserted Spreekje-uit-poster and slap ’er up. And tune in two issues from now for the followup in our Equality issue. ‘Windowatch’ continues next week as a column.

26 October-1 November 2006

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SHORT LIST

Shoot me (White Terror), Various Locations, Den Haag, Thursday

THURSDAY 26 OCTOBER Film: Shoot Me Shoot Me is a film festival with guts. It focuses on the cinematic output of contemporary subcultures. After last month’s Jamaican-style preview event featuring a screening of the documentary Stand Up for Reggae and a concert by the Mad Professor, the opening tonight in the old Kwantum building on the Grote Markt in Den Haag features films, art installations and music. Among the festival highlights is the Larry ‘Kids’ Clark-directed feature Wassup Rockers, about skaters rebelling against dominant popular cultures in LA. White Terror is another anticipated film, mapping the frighteningly professional European white power movement. Sightseers might want to check out Friday’s short film programme in the medieval prison, the Gevangenpoort, with horror films and shocking music videos screened in the old cells and torture chambers. And if you’re planning to go on Sunday, don’t miss the gig by Holland’s finest stoner rockers Orange Sunshine in Café De Vinger. Shoot, this looks like a hell of a weekend. (Marinus de Ruiter). Various times and locations in Den Haag. €5 per film. Until Sunday.

Stage: Singular Strategies Several theatrical high-rollers—with names like Tom Stoppard, Michael Frayn and Garrison Esst—have based plays on the charms and conundrums of modern physics.

Now Amsterdam-based performance artist Barbara Gene adds a few electrons to this outermost orbital by incorporating songs, movement, imagery and more to her onewoman show about up-to-the-minute science and its implications. Singular Strategies tells of ‘a woman who may be God,’ Gene said the other day, ‘who’s trying to figure out how this universe works.’ She describes the play as both abstract and playful, while always remaining accessible. Sounds pretty ambitious, too, and eminently worth a look. Stefan Di Gioia Schmid wrote and plays (on computer) the original music, under the direction of Felix Ritter. In English. (Steve Schneider) Frascati, 20.30, €12.50.

Also Friday and Saturday.

Soul: Joy Denalane When Joy Denalane released her debut album Mamani in 2002, she was celebrated throughout Germany as being the big hope for soul music. If German-language soul had often sounded clumsy—not to mention slightly embarrassing—before, the Berlin-

born-and-bred singer managed to make it cool, sexy and honest. On her second album, however, Denalane has switched languages and recorded entirely in English. A natural process, since Born and Raised was recorded at Philadelphia’s famous The Studio.

With The Roots hanging around and the likes of Raekwon and Lupe Fiasco popping in for a cup of tea and a few guest performances, the record is set for international success. And four sold-out tours in the wake of the first album have certainly proven that the lady can offer a proper live performance as well. (Sarah Gehrke) Melkweg, 21.00, €10 + membership.

Festival: Transito Want to know how to reconstruct your transit character? Leidseplein will be hosting the third installment of the Transito festival, with this year’s theme of ‘ID-fix’. Five theatres will be showcasing dance, art, theatre and politics through the technique of transito.

During the three nights of ID-fix, you can enjoy your own personal music preference at Paradiso (‘ParaPlay’), exist as one person with two identities at the Melkweg (‘Parallel Identities’, see article on p. 4.) and be a part of the interdisciplinary art performances at the Stadsschouwburg (‘IdentifiXatie’). Besides all that, you can look forward to philosophical films and screenings and a new religious project which tests who you are in relation to what you believe in. You can also exhibit your own talents at the first annual talent convention being held during the festival on Saturday and Sunday. See www.leidsepleintheaters.nl/transito. (Nina Schein) Theater Bellevue, Paradiso, Melkweg, Stadsschouwburg, De Balie, various times and prices. Until Sunday.

Gay: Leather Pride ‘Kiss the boot of shiny, shiny leather / shiny leather in the dark / tongue of thongs, the belt that does await you...’ There won’t be any of the Velvet Underground’s music playing during Leather Pride, but the atmosphere will be as dark and sexy as ‘Venus in Furs’.

Yep, it’s time to grease up your leathers or to polish your rubber outfits and glide down to Warmoesstraat. Things kick off on Thursday with a Rubber-Only party hosted by Black Body (the only rubber shop in town) at the Eagle, while the official opening party is at Cockring. For those who like to get wet—and we don’t mean Dutch weather—there’s a Golden Shower Party at the appropriately named Dirty Dicks. Limits, and body parts, will be stretched at the FF Sleaze Ball, again in the Cockring. But the highlight is the Playgrounds Party on Saturday, a strict dress-code fetish bonanza with performances, music from DJ Javk Chang (from the notorious FIST London)—it’s held at secret out-oftown location, with a free shuttle bus service from Centraal Station. (Willem de Blaauw) Various locations, times and prices. Until Sunday.

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Amsterdam Weekly

26 October-1 November 2006

FRIDAY 27 OCTOBER Festival: Bokbier Festival Raise your glasses high, because tonight begins the 29th outing for the largest beer festival in the country. Organised by the 26-year-old beer-drinking association PINT, the focus of the event is home-grown specialty bock beers. Live acts will perform drinking music each evening, and over 50 varieties of the dark Dutch nectar will be available.

But beware: bocks are typically the strongest, most full-bodied beverages in the beer drinker’s selection. The word ‘bock’ means ‘goat’ in German, and the association of having a swift kick in the ass while sipping these heavy brews resulted in the goat appearing on many bock labels. Traditionally, barrels are tapped in mid-March, but now is the time for brewers to harvest the barley and hops and begin preparations for the rich, dark quaff. (Mark Wedin) Beurs van Berlage, 17.00-23.00, €5 (€2 per beer).

Also Saturday (12.00-23.00) and Sunday (12.00-19.00).

Club: Halloween Hallelujah Word on the street is that Bad Taste parties are the most illustrious festivities you’ll ever attend round this neck of the woods. We’re tickled pink in anticipation of their Halloween party, located on that ever so festive MS Stubnitz. Party peeps are invited to come and sanctify when Bad Taste will collaborate with fellow hootenanny organisers Frantic Friends to ensure a celebration that’s guaranteed to rock the living and wake the dead. Matik, one the hottest home-grown electro-rock bands will supply some much needed sonic stimulation, while a plethora of DJs will lay down some beats to boogie to. If you come appropriately attired and participate in the festivities with profound vigour, you can even stagger away clutching an honest to goodness Holy Grail! What better excuse to exorcise your demons while exercising your muscles could you need?

See www.badtaste.nl/halloweenhallelujah. (Luuk van Huët) Stubnitz, 22.00-late, €13.

SATURDAY 28 OCTOBER Contemporary: Opening CEM Studio After 10 years, the Centre for Electronic Music (CEM) has moved from Amsterdam to Rotterdam. Founded in 1956, CEM is the oldest institute of its kind that’s still active, and had been moving all over the Netherlands until landing in De IJsbreker in 1996. Recently, the institute found a new home in Rotterdam’s cutting-edge cultural site WORM, currently housed in a beautiful 17th-century docks warehouse. At the opening, they’ll be playing music recorded at CEM over the last 30 years by composers like Charlemagne Palestine, Stefan Robbers and Rude 66. CEM director Armeno Alberts will perform with his cohorts Arno Peeters and Jouke Schouwstra. Closing the night is Hinterlandt, a one-man band from Cologne that combines great lo-fi pop songs with electronic music, exotic sounds and outrageous guitar solos. (Marinus de Ruiter) WORM, 21.00, Rotterdam, free.

SUNDAY 29 OCTOBER Jazz: Kurt Elling Is it possible? In a career that’s all of about a decade old, singer Kurt Elling has won Downbeat magazine’s critics poll for the last seven years, earned Grammy nominations for his last six CDs, toured enough to burn out GPS systems, performed with everyone and his brother, and continued to be a fixture of Chicago’s club scene. Is it possible that his brilliantly nuanced and emotive singing and scatting—in a repertoire that includes standards, originals and extensive use of ‘vocalese’ where Elling writes lyrics to celebrated jazz solos (including, gasp, part of John Coltrane’s ‘A Love Supreme’)— can merit all that? One way to find out: Elling is appearing tonight with a trio, including long-time chief collaborator Laurence Hobgood on piano. But is it possible to get a seat? (Steve Schneider) Bimhuis, 21.00, sold out.

WEDNESDAY1NOVEMBER Singer-songwriter: Lucinda Williams Fall in love all over again on the first two nights of November, when the sweetheart of the rodeo returns to Paradiso. A few springs ago, the Louisiana girl unloaded her gear for the first time in Amsterdam and was so warmed by the Paradiso crowd that she hurled out a rebel yell, tossed aside the set list and put the pedal to the metal, whisking away the place on a long, loud Lucinda ride. For the past 20 years the singer/songwriter has been delivering the goods. With a plaintive and far from perfect tremolo voice, Williams has done for country music what the Stones did for the blues—splattered it with kerosene and set it on fire. Her detailed songs have always been about men and women in a world of trouble, but like the lady says, ‘whose songs aren’t about tragedy and loss?’

And count on back-up boys, stolen from Dwight Yoakum, to create lots of sonic space for her stirring vibrato to sail over. Teddy Thompson, son of Richard, opens things up on both evenings. (Michael Martin) Paradiso, Grote Zaal, 20.00, €25 + membership.

Send details and images for listing consideration at least two weeks in advance to agenda@amsterdamweekly.nl.

Amsterdam Weekly

26 October-1 November 2006

Martijn and Stefan Blaak from the French classical repertoire. Cristofori, 12.00, €15 Big band: Jazzmania Big Band Two big bands performing a traditional and contemporary repertoire alongside original compositions; led by Peter Guidi.

Bimhuis, 14.00, €8 World: Guto Pires Versatile singer from Guinea-Bissau. KIT Tropentheater, 15.00, €20 Contemporary: Vrouwelijke Componisten Featuring selected members of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the ensemble pays tribute to female composers, including Louise Farrenc, Sally Beamish, Amy Beach and Thea Musgrave. Bethaniënklooster, 15.00, €15 Latin/Jazz: 4sure Kwartet Brazilian jazz special.

Ruigoord, 16.00, free World: Suikerfeest This Marmoucha Suikerfeest brings a collection of classic Moroccan folk, pop and even some modern hiphop and dance. Artists include Stati, Cheb Hicham, Mimoun Rafroua, WAYO and a selection of DJs and VJs making it a party for all ages.

Paradiso, 17.00, €27.50 Classical: Harmonie des Champs-Elysées A colourful Mozart programme climaxing with his Serenade in B flat. Concertgebouw, Grote Zaal, 20.15, €25

Thomas Dybdahl, see Friday

MUSIC Send listing suggestions at least two weeks in advance to agenda@amsterdamweekly.nl

Thursday 26 October Classical: Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Conducted by the popular London-born composer George Benjamin, and joined by trumpeter Reinhold Friedrich and percussionist Gustavo Gimeno, the orchestra will perform Escher’s Passacaglia, Rihm’s Marsyas, Ravel’s Ma mère l’oye and Benjamin’s own Palimpsests.

Concertgebouw, Grote Zaal, 20.15, €30 Pop/Rock: 3xLive Stacey Records presents sets from Kirke, Piepschuim and Solid Rocket Boosters. Café Pakhuis Wilhelmina, 20.30, €5 Ska: !Patchanka! Ethnic bastardised ska from Denmark. Winston Kingdom, 21.00, €5

Jazz: Mingus Dynasty An ongoing tribute to former bandleader Charles Mingus, this powerful septet contains the ardent saxophonists Escoffery and Handy, as well as the highly original trombone player Ku-umba Frank Lacy. Bimhuis, 21.00, €20 Afropop: Toumani Diabaté & The Symmetric Orchestra Even the most casual fans of Afro will be well aware of Diabaté, not least for having won a Grammy for his magical, well-selling collaboration In the Heart of the Moon with the late Ali Farke Touré.

Mixing big band passion with the subtlety of his skills on the kora, this Malian partyman is not to be missed.

Paradiso, Grote Zaal, 21.00, €22.50 + membership Soul: The Extensionicers Dance-friendly soul/jazz trio driven by the warm, fuzzy sounds of the Hammond organ. Badcuyp, Bovenzaal, 22.30, €8

Saturday 28 October Classical: Capella Isalana Three centuries of religious Slavic chamber music, featuring works by Titov, Glinka, Tchaikovsky, Penderecki, Gorecki and Pärt; conducted by Klaas Stok. Noorderkerk, 14.00, €10

Soul/Hiphop: Joy Denalane (See Short List) Melkweg, 21.00, €10 + membership

Festival: Amsterdamse Cello Biënnale: Opening Pulling along the National Cello Competition in its midst (which offically begins tomorrow morning), the First Amsterdamse Cello Biënnale offers nine days of concerts, masterclasses and workshops for lovers of you-guessed-it. This official opening celebration features a performance by Cello Octet Conjunto Ibérico. Muziekgebouw, 19.30, free

World: Mohammed Jimmy Mohammed Yet another astounding Amsterdam visit from the blind Ethiopian singer, first brought to these shores by The Ex. OT301, 21.00, €5

World: Ljiljana Buttler & The Mostar Sevdah Reunion With one of the great rediscovered voices of Eastern Europe, this should be a night of Balkan rockin’ and Gypsy soul to remember. Meervaart, 20.15, €19

Pop/Rock: Punch Rock, dance and hiphop mash-up with DJ Firefly FX, rock band EveNi and special guests.

Sugar Factory, 21.00, €7

Rock: Wasser Umsonnst Atmospheric indie guitar from rock San Franciscan band Enablers and ’80s synth-rock from Spanish outfit Mr Hubba & El Mono Inventor. De Nieuwe Anita, 20.30, €5

Jazz: Atomic This Norwegian/Swedish acoustic quintet plays with explosive rhythmic energy, leading to the most inflammable construction of traditional references and free expression. Bimhuis, 21.00, €14

Experimental: Spires That in the Sunset Rise Free folk quartet from Chicago who’ve drawn comparisons with The Ex and The Raincoats. Support from fellow Americans Talibam who are synth and sax audio terrorists, plus Amsterdam outfit Brown vs Brown. OCCII, 21.00, €6

Friday 27 October Hiphop/R&B: BO! Showcases & Open Mic Joined by a selection of Dutch Soil hiphop artists, youngsters invited to take part in workshops and be ready to take to the stage to entertain. Grolsch Music Café, 19.30, €5 Singer-songwriter: Thomas Dybdahl Soulful acoustic and rootsy songs from the Norwegian Grammy winner and his backing band the Great October Sound. Firmly establishing himself in the Netherlands in 2005, this show for album Science may already be sold out, but expect him back this way before long.

Paradiso, Kleine Zaal, 19.30, sold out Classical: Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (See Thursday) Concertgebouw, Grote Zaal, 20.15 World: Payvar Ensemble This eight-piece ensemble specialises in classical Persian music, one of the oldest musical traditions in the world. Sticking to the strict rules of improvisation, Payvar will be placing new compositions besides the classics. KIT Tropentheater, 20.30, €20 Experimental: Le Ton Mité Avant-garde indie band from France who've previously toured with Deerhoof, in what was surely a perfect sonic match. Het Illuseum, 21.00, €6

Rock: 30 Jaar Gruppo Sportivo With some help from Prof. Nomad and guests, Gruppo frontman Hans Vandenburg celebrates 30 years of the iconic Haagse outfit, while launching their new album in the process.

Café Pakhuis Wilhelmina, 21.00, €7.50 + membership Jazz: Accordion Tribe Featuring Guy Klucevsek, Maria Kalaniemi, Lars Hollmer, Bratko Bibic and Otto Lechner, this accordion quintet will keep you on your toes with their freestyle jazz, classical, folk and avantgarde improvisations. Bimhuis, 21.00, €16 Heavy: Blacklisted Brutal hardcore from Philadelphia. Patronaat, Haarlem, 21.00, €9 Crime Jazz Words, poetry and jazz with Flaco Navaja (US), Benny Sings, Iris Koppe, Rina Mushonga and Diana Ozon. Bitterzoet, 21.00, €8 Contemporary: Opening CEM Studio (See Short List) WORM, Rotterdam, 21.00, free Reggae: Tribute2BobMarley With special guest, Ziggi.

P60, Amstelveen, 21.00, €9 Hiphop: Mr Lif Progressive sociopolitical and spiritual hiphop from the Boston MC also a member of The Perceptionists. No doubt the spirit of Public Enemy can be heard in his works, but over time dark subtlety has become more evident than all-out aggression. Melkweg, 21.30, €16 + membership

Sunday 29 October Classical: French Music Performances by violinist Cecilia Bernardini, pianist Mirsa Adami and piano duo

Classical: Amsterdamse Cello Biënnale: Canticle of the Sun Pieter Wispelwey joins Cappella Amsterdam for Gubaidulina’s ode to the sun, life and death.

Gregor Horsch, solo cellist of the Concertgebouw Orchestra, will perform ‘In Croce’, while the alternation of Gubaidulina’s music with compositions by Bach provides an extra devotional dimension.

Muziekgebouw, 20.30, €20 Rock: zZz The sleazy steamin’ locomotive that is this Amsterdam organ/drums duo is back at their darkest and most psychedelic best. Stubnitz, 20.30 Latin: Gosto Delicado Samba and bossa nova classics, as well as recent hits, come from the Brazilian pop repertoire. Badcuyp, Bovenzaal, 21.00, €7 Jazz: Kurt Elling (See Short List) Bimhuis, 21.00, sold out Jazz: State of Monc A raw blend of electonica with jazz and dance music. Their tight interaction on stage leaves just enough room for interpretation and improvisation, but their sharply executed use of electronics also ensures tight fitting grooves to set hips swaying.

Sugar Factory, 21.00, €8.50

Monday 30 October Classical: Amsterdamse Cello Biënnale: The PostRomantic Cello Cellist Gavriel Lipkind and pianist Igor Levit present works by Martinu, Ligeti, Franck, Ibert, Scriabin and Wieniavski. Muziekgebouw, 14.30, €15 Folk: Shearwater Joyous experimental folk from this off-shoot of Okkervil River. Paradiso, Kleine Zaal, 20.00, €8 + membership Pop/Rock: Subbacultcha Featuring sets from The Pax, Neutrinos (UK), Mr Hubba & El Mono Inventor (Spain) and the Icecream Eating Motherfuckers. Bitterzoet, 20.30, €5 Experimental: 1000 Years Of Jazz It may have altered from monthly to quarterly, but this experimental improv session’s impact has only become more consistent. For this autumn edition, the musicians of SfeQ invited the Japanese vocalist Kyoka and DJ DNA to take part in solo sets before all coming together in a bombastic jam. Bimhuis, 21.00, free World: Natacha Atlas The Belgium-born singer is best known for her fusion of Arabic and North African music and once termed her music ‘cha’abi moderne’, an updated form of Egyptian pop music. But Atlas also regularly welcomes influences from styles like Arabesque, drum ’n’ bass and reggae, all perfectly represented on her sixth and most recent album Mish Maoul. Paradiso, Grote Zaal, 21.00, €18.50 + membership Experimental: DNK-Amsterdam Electro-acoustic session featuring audio manipulator David Michael Digregorio. OCCII, 21.30, €4 Folk: Nick Castro and The Young Elders Based in LA, there’s no hint of Americana in the sparse, organic sounds of this outfit. Instead Catro’s songs reflect the melodies and arrangements of traditional English folk music. Paradiso, Kleine Zaal, 21.30, €6 + membership

Tuesday 31 October Singer-songwriter: Nina Nastasia For years this NYbased songwriter has been dogged by PJ Harvey comparisons, primarily because she’s female and also can deal up very raw lyrics. Her success has remained fairly understated, but the former John Peel favourite certainly deserves recognition for her own merits, nothinging saying so more than her rich back catalogue full of honest and tender acoustic pieces that

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Free tickets!

Go to www.amsterdamweekly.nl and click on the “off the wall� logo to win tickets to one of these nightlife events. To advertise your club night or concert, contact Justin Rink at 020 522 5200 or Justin@amsterdamweekly.nl. The next page appears on 29 November.

Amsterdam Weekly

26 October-1 November 2006

LEKKER BEZIG

ANNA LEEMAN

collected from all over What do Dutch campMAJOR B the globe, Major B’s act sites, hungry seagulls, Maracas, backdrops and raw vocal talent is difficult to compartplastic honey bears, mentalise—though the lush Surinamese rainEindhovens Dagblad forest and maracas got close, describing have in common? the experience as Absolutely everything, ‘images of sound’. ‘The if you’re Bart Majoor. film sometimes works Majoor, aka Major B, as a stop light, at other an impossible-totimes, it’s a camoupigeonhole performer, flage which I dissolve splices audiovisual into,’ says Majoor. ‘I recordings together always think the perand reshuffles them to formance is successful create a bizarre backwhen the audience drop. Armed with looks at me half the maracas and raw vocal time and the other half, talent (something akin at the images.’ to a howling cat—posMost striking is the sibly Algerian—in ‘Wahbopalubopopawartist’s singing style, a heat), the artist croons hapbambu is my favourite kind of lyric-less chant and shimmies in front line of all time.’ that alternates between of his ever-morphing sounding Middle Eastprojection. ern and bluesy, like ‘I really try to avoid early Elvis Presley. categorisation,’ says Majoor, who has been ‘Wahbopalubopopawhapbambu is my gigging with his maracas for the last twofavourite line of all time,’ says Majoor, and-a-half years and likes to push his smiling. ‘It’s like my listening to Algerian performance as pure entertainment. ‘I songs—you don’t need to know what look at it as a way of celebrating life, someone’s singing, it’s always about love, which is always a confrontation between loss and death. Lyrics don’t always fit. My humans and other species or nature.’ act is all about rhythm.’

Majoor’s inspiration developed organRhythmic and surreal, Major B’s perically. A former art student who studied formance is a fantastic juxtaposition of photography in Utrecht while singing in a quirky elements, and something that garage band, Majoor struggled to find a injects new life into Amsterdam’s perforway to link his passions. ‘It mostly started mance scene. He is due to perform on 4 with sampling bizarre, obscure music like November at Foam for Museumnacht and Egyptian orchestras or Turkish macho on 18 November at the Nieuwe Anita, and disco,’ he says, noting that this quickly led says he could easily continue for decades him to edit visuals to fit into the sample’s to come: ‘I could do this until I’m fifty and rhythm. Singing and shaking maracas in a wheelchair. There’s a lot more terrain later followed suit, and soon Majoor’s live to explore.’ video act was born.

Flitting between unclassifiable, though www.majorb.nl ethnic-inspired, music and odd visuals

By Dara Colwell

deliver their point without fanfare or dramatic wailing.

Paradiso, Kleine Zaal, 20.00, €7 + membership Classical: Amsterdamse Cello Biënnale: Full of Colour Ernst Reijseger and Italian Viola da Gamba quartet Il Suonar Parlante present the 17th- to 20th-century gamba repertoire, with additional original compositions

by Reijseger included. Muziekgebouw, 20.30, €20 Singer-songwriter: Ron Sexsmith Poppy folk and rock from the Canadian songwriter who’s been building up an impressive reputation since the early ’90s. Currently promoting new album Time Being, his sound is that of a classic singer-songwriter, nodding a cap to the storytelling of The Beatles, as well as contemporaries like Elvis Costello and Neil Finn. Melkweg, 20.30, €16 + membership Rock: The Dears For years they remained every Canadian guitar music fan’s favourite secret, and in 2004 their hype finally exploded so urgently that charismatic singer Murray Lightburn and The Dears finally found themselves on the world’s stage. Some questions over their live show emerged during their numerous visits to Amsterdam since, but the records kept selling, and tonight’s promotion of new disc Gang of Losers will be packed (not only with Canadian expats). Support from new Amsterdam band Ghost Trucker, who’re popping up everywhere these days. Melkweg, 20.30, €14 + membership Pop/Rock: Wasserfest! Featuring sets from The Pedro Delgados, Rahburt Price (DE), Meanwhiles (US) and Nadine Khouri (UK). De Nieuwe Anita, 20.30, €5 Experimental: MV & EE with The Bummer Road Rural free folk due from Vermont. Paradiso, Kleine Zaal, 22.00, €6 + membership

Wednesday 1 November Rock: John Watts Founding member of seminal Brit band Fischer-Z, tonight Watts is promoting new album

It Has To Be, a collection of songs inspired by real-life stories from his train travels across Europe. Paradiso, Kleine Zaal, 20.00, €10 + membership Singer-songwriter: Lucinda Williams (See Short List) Paradiso, Grote Zaal, 20.00, €25 + membership Classical: Amsterdamse Cello Biënnale: Evening Recital Cellists Quirine Viersen and Dmitry Ferschtman are joined by pianists Markus Schirmer and Mila Baslawskaja to delve into the Romanticism of Schubert and Beethoven, and the beautiful Russian lyricism of Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich. Muziekgebouw, 20.30, €20 Experimental: De Kift Emerged from the Dutch squatter movement, De Kift sound much like a brokendown blues group singing about famine and socialism by way of passages from Nabakov and Byron. They’re a punk band with two generations of family sharing the stage, and sometimes a party band of Gypsies and circus performers, music, theatre and literature. Stubnitz, 20.30, €7 Heavy: Nick Oliveri and the Mondo Generator Former member of stoner rock outfit Kyuss and Queens of the Stone Age, party animal Oliveri is very much the boss of this deranged crew, so expect a sonic test and a bout of onstage madness. Patronaat, Haarlem, 20.30, €11 Jazz: Dave Douglas Quintet Elements of classical, European folk and klezmer may all rear their heads alongside more traditional forms of jazz this evening, under the careful influence of bandleader, NY trumpeter Douglas. Bimhuis, 21.00, €18 Pop/Rock: Club 3voor12 Live radio and TV session featuring avant-indie band Ghost Trucker, indie guitar rock from Satellite 7, and the new sound of Heineken Matik. Register for tickets at www.3voor12.nl. Desmet Studios, 22.00, free

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Amsterdam Weekly

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Club Revolver Raw electro, dirty techno and minimal beats from Erik de Man. DJ Josz LeBon and a live set from Le Clic will ensure the pressure guage is off the scale. Sugar Factory, 23.00-05.00, €10 Fierce Angels Trance and techno with DJs Mark Doyle (UK) and Mike van Loon. The Powerzone, 23.0005.00, €12.50

Spinshots (Halloween Bal Masque), see Tuesday

CLUBS Thursday 26 October Vreemd Weird electro with a live set from Ion Ludwig, DJ sets from Daniel Sanchez and Boris Werner, plus the effigy of The Colour of Sin and Prudence Madison.

Sugar Factory, 01.00-05.00, €7.50 Poptrash: 1 Year Disaster Three decades’ worth of rock, electro and hiphop with The Punchout DJs. But it’s a birthday party and organisers are really upping the chaos stakes with extras from Kid Beyond, The White Suicide R&B Collective, Dirk Diggler, Adi-J, Thrasher, the Club Rascal DJs, Suicide Girls, Clint The Barber, live action painting and a clothes stall. Melkweg, 23.00, €6

Friday 27 October Streetbeatz Monthly hiphop party. Bitterzoet, 21.0004.00, €5 Dox Family Featuring a dazzling array of artists and performers from Dox Records. There’s a live set from Benny Sings and The Dox Orchestra will be doing their thing, too. And if you fancy a taste of Hawaiian sunhine those Easy Aloha’s DJs will be keeping it lounge.

Sugar Factory, 21.00-05.00, €10 Disco Exota Cosmic space disco with DJs I-F, G-string and Funknoir. Café Pakhuis Wilhelmina, 21.00-late, €5 Penis in Vagina A DIY indie disco rave party with the Kill All Hipsters DJ team. Club 8, 22.00-04.00, €5 360 With Berlinner Ellen Alien, Nuno dos Santos and Patrice Bäumel, plus an ‘Open Wound’ video performance by Arnout Huiskamp. 11, 22.00-05.00, €12 Traffic Forward-thinking techno with sets from Aril Brikha (Art of Vengeance, Stockholm), Marco Carola (Domino, Zenith, Naples), Bart Skils and Lauhaus.

Melkweg, 22.00-05.00, €16 + membership Halloween Hallelujah (See Short List) Stubnitz, 22.00-late, €13 ¿Que Pasa? Latin-crossover night with reggae, folk, ska, punk and mestizo. Melkweg, 23.00, €7 + membership

Hutspot Upstairs look out for Arabian pop, funk and R&B from DJs Masri, Aromi and Bless. As a bonus there are belly-dance workshops, hookahs and Mediterranean snacks. But diverging from Middle Eastern cultures in the Grote Zaal are STRFCKR, a DJ collective/live outfit who’ll be lashing out with electro, punk, pop, hiphop and funk sounds. Paradiso, 23.0005.00, €10 Namaste: Arc of Goa Progressive psytrance, breakbeats, Balkan beats, klezmer, ambient and world music spread across three rooms. Stubnitz, 23.00late, €17/€22 Re.Fix Garage and urban sounds from Donae’o, ‘Groovemaster’ Johnson and DJ Moska. Studio 80, 23.00-late, €7.50 Trance Orient Express Featuring live sets from Shapeshifter (Liquid records, US), Patch Bay (Mandala Records, Brazil) and DJs Leas and Wizawazere. Ruigoord, 23.00-late, €10 Crossfader Hiphop and dancehall favourites. Melkweg, 23.59, €10 + membership Dance Arena Alternative dance, pop and rock. Melkweg, 23.59, €7 + membership

Sunday 29 October Salsa Lounge Saucy salsa and eclectic Latin house sounds. Hotel Arena, 17.00-01.00, €17.50 WickedJazzsounds Jazz, hiphop, broken beats, nujazz, funk and Afro sounds, as classic vinyl collides with live musicians. Driving the decks this week is Phil Hornemen, while live guests blasting out fresh ideas over the grooves include singers Berenice van Leer, Ninthe and sax player Jeff Hollie. Sugar Factory, 23.00-05.00, €8.50

Ende Neu; at 16.30 address from Job Cohen; 17.00 live music from Liquid; 19.00-22.00 DJ; 22.00-01.00 DJ Voytec. Café Sappho, 16.00-late, free Film Night Tonight’s cinematic offering is Aimee und Jaguar, Max Färberböck’s true-life film about the romance between a Nazi hausfrau and a Jewish member of the resistance, played by Maria Schrader.

Custom Café Sugar, 20.00-01.00, free Leather Pride (See Short List) Various locations, times and prices

Friday 27 October Vrouwenavond Busy women’s night, with men welcome as guests. Café Sappho, 21.00-03.00, free Leather Pride (See Short List) Various locations, times and prices Black Box Polysexual club night featuring DJ Tama Sumo from Berlin’s Berghain and Panoramabar, and our own DJs Martijn and Lava in the main room, and Trashling and Boxylucha in the ArtLaunch cafe. VJs AlexetJeremy. Studio 80, 23.00-late, €7

Saturday 28 October Love Exiles: meet the US Consul General The lesbian and gay immigration campaign group host an open meeting for US citizens with Dutch partners to learn about their rights under current US visa and immigration law and ask questions. Email exiles@xs4all.nl to participate or find out more. ABC Treehouse, 16.00-18.00, free Twisted Tunes Ortega and DJ Nookie. PRIK, 22.0003.00, free DJ Pseudomodo On the decks all night. Custom Café Sugar, 22.00-03.00, free Leather Pride (See Short List) Various locations, times and prices Unk The ultimate danceparty for queers and coolios, with DJs Lupe vs Lava. Club 8, 23.00-04.00, €8

Sunday 29 October Tuesday 31 October OntFront Have a happy hiphoppin’ Halloween. Bitterzoet, 21.00-03.00, €5 Beatskool Halloween Special With JFB vs Beardyman and more. Winston Kingdom, 22.00-03.00, €5 Halloween Bal Masque Spooky goings-on in with the Amsterdam BeatClub DJs, a nightmare performance from the Theatre of Hellucinations, a Shock-lesque show from Miss Beeby and a horrorglam set from The Spinshots. Costumes aren’t necessary, but c’mon, it’s Halloween. Paradiso, 23.00-04.00, €12.50

Wednesday 1 November Pop! An intoxicating mix of cocktails and pop music.

Sugar Factory, 23.00-04.00, €5

Sweet Sin Sunday A sinful way to spend the Sabbath.

PRIK, 16.00-01.00, free

Saturday 28 October Zjelva An electric selection of Afrobeat, Brazilian electro and Gypsy sounds. Pacific Parc, 22.00-03.00, free Mad2 With DJs Pan-Pot, Sander Baan and more. 11, 22.00-04.00, €12 O.W.A.P. 2006 An ‘Original Warehouse Acid Party’ with sets from old Hacienda favourites Graeme Park and Mike Pickering, plus a host of locals. NDSM-werf, 22.00-late, €25/€35 Wanted Now Deep, soulful and funky house tunes.

Hotel Arena, 23.00-04.00, €8

Reopening of Café Sappho The polysexual watering hole is officially reopened by Amsterdam’s mayor.

Line-up is as follows: 16.00 performance from band

Friday 27 October Theatre: Torch Song Trilogy (See Thursday) Crea Theater, 19.30, €16 Theatre: Quarantaine (See Thursday) Het Rozentheater, 20.00, €12.50 Dance: Transito: Dans-Dubbel #3 A solo premiere performance by Adva Zakai entitled ‘When I Laugh It Looks Like This’ and Mette Ingvartsen’s expressive ‘50/50’. Melkweg Theater, 20.30, €8 Comedy: easyLaughs Comedy improv in English.

Two different shows every Friday night. Crea Muziekzaal, 20.30, 22.30, €10, €5 (late night) Music/Dance: Salsa Motion They could have called it ‘Hips in Haarlem’, because whether you’re a spectator or active participant at this three-day event in Haarlem, standing stationary isn’t an option. Opening tonight at Patronaat, salsa lovers like Gerardo Rosales and DJ Andrés will be throwing everyone in at the deep end with their party tunes, with dance demonstrations woven between. On Saturday and Sunday, attention switches to Philharmonie in Haarlem for various daytime workshops hosted by international dancing stars. Workshops in English. See www.salsamotion.nl. Various locations, times and prices

Saturday 28 October Theatre: Torch Song Trilogy (See Thursday) Crea Theater, 14.00, €12, 19.30, €16 Theatre: Quarantaine (See Thursday) Het Rozentheater, 20.00, €12.50 Performance: Transito: Identifixatie (See Short List) Stadsschouwburg, 20.15, €15

Leather Pride (See Short List) Various locations, times and prices

Music/Dance: Salsa Motion (See Friday) Various locations, times and prices

Live Jazz en Soul Live music provides a relaxed end to the weekend. Soho, 20.30, free

Sunday 29 October

Wednesday 1 November

Theatre: Torch Song Trilogy (See Thursday) Crea Theater, 14.00, €16

Gay Classic Movie: Mambo Italiano Émile Gaudreault’s 2003 film about an Italian immigrant to Canada who wrestles with how to tell his parents he is gay. Starring Angelo Barberini. Pathé De Munt, 20.30, €6.25

Thursday 26 October

Pimp my Drink Make it a double: the second shot will only set you back €1. PRIK, 16.00-01.00, free

Music/Theatre: Singular Strategies (See Short List) Frascati, 20.30, €12.50 until Saturday 28 October

Dance: Transito: Dans-Dubbel #3 (See Friday) Melkweg Theater, 20.30, €8

GAY& STAGE LESBIAN Thursday 26 October

Theatre: Quarantaine Documentary film meets theatre performance in this presentation by Huis aan de Amstel. Remembering the 872 day siege on Leningrad in World War II, the characters come to terms with having no outside world contact and their growing loneliness. In Dutch. Het Rozentheater, 20.00, €12.50

Double Bubble A happy hour plus dance classics, TV tunes, Nederpop and disco from DJ No5. April, 18.0020.00, free

Stir Fry An eclectic mix of Latin, disco, funk and house. Odeon, 23.00-05.00, €10 Black Box Electro, disco, acid, minimal, house and more, with DJs Tama Sumo (Berlin), Martijn and Lava.

Studio 80, 23.00-late, €7

26 October-1 November 2006

Theatre: Torch Song Trilogy In this Tony Award-winning play pulled together by a lively American cast, we follow the life and loves of Arnold, a feisty drag queen who knows how to sew, cook and fix the plumbing—but finding the right partner presents more of a challenge. This 1970s New York tragicomedy (with more emphasis on the comedy) aims to reflect all facets of the modern gay existence, so its themes should resonate today. In English. Crea Theater, 19.30, €14

Music/Dance: Salsa Motion (See Friday) Various locations, times and prices

Monday 30 October Cabaret: Sven Ratzke ‘Glamour animal’, ‘homme fatale’, ‘enfant terrible’... Call him what you will, but this German terror will keep you on your toes with his brash balance of comedy, music and theatrics. In German, Dutch and English. De Kleine Komedie, 20.15, €10-€14

Tuesday 31 October Theatre: Quarantaine (See Thursday) Het Rozentheater, 20.00, €12.50 Dance: Japanese Fetish Dance As the title suggests.

Could this be the perfect location for a Halloween date? Stubnitz, 21.00, €10

Wednesday 1 November Theatre: Quarantaine (See Thursday) Het Rozentheater, 20.00, €12.50

Amsterdam Weekly

26 October-1 November 2006

Republic. Foam (Sun-Wed 10.00-17.00, Thur, Fri 10.0021.00), closing Sunday

ART

Bouwjaar ’86 Marking 20 years of ARCAM, the architecture centre revisits its opening year of 1986, bringing it back to life through videos, photos, models, newspaper articles and city impressions. ARCAM (Tues-Sat 13.00-17.00), until 4 November

Opening

Airworld From airport terminals to stewardess uniforms, eating utensils to branding and logo placement, the exhibition examines the development of almost every conceivable aircraft-related design, from the early days of passenger flights to the present.

Stedelijk Museum CS (Fri-Wed 10.00-18.00), until 5 November

Ed Dukkers, Jef Gysen Abstract paintings and drawings by Dukkers (1923-1996) and oil paintings and images by Gysen. Galerie Jos Art (Tues-Sun 11.0017.30), opens Friday, until 24 December Italia Spettacolare Thirty illustrative design students studying in Den Bosch present their unique interpretations of Italian culture. Istituto Italiano, opens Friday, closing Thursday

Melik Ohanian: Something in Time The first solo exhibition in the Netherlands of the French-Armenian artist, featuring a comprehensive survey of his films. A worldrenowned video artist, Ohanian (1969) intends not to document situations, but rather, create abstractions searching for the human qualities within such situations.

De Appel (Tues-Sun 11.00-18.00), until 5 November

Unknown Borders New paintings by Johan de Jonge.

Galerie Smits (Wed-Sat 13.30-17.30), opens Friday, until 22 November Claudia Hek Posters, paintings, rock ’n’ roll visions, realistic portraiture and low-brow themes that appeal to garage bands the world over. Cut the Crap (Tues, Wed, Fri, Sat 11.00-19.00, Thur 11.00-21.00), opens Saturday, until 28 November

Lucy Stein, Anat Stainberg & Norberto Llopsis Segarra Paintings and drawings by Stein, whose work consists of character sketches of women and femininity, other times infused with blatant self-mockery, and still at others, with an all-pervading sense of darkness.

It also marks the commencement of a weekly soap opera-style performance (every Sunday afternoon in October, climaxing on Museum n8) by duo Stainberg and Llopsis Segarra. Although the two exhibitions are separate, they have one thing in common: a fascination with the material. Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam (Tues-Sun 11.00-17.00), until 5 November

Drawing Exhibition There’s never been a single corner of the still fairly new Horse Move Project that could be described as stuffy. In their latest exhibition, the Project people have invited everyone to take part by sending in drawings of self-selected themes. Submissions are now closed and the results are ready for the public. Horse Move Project (Fri-Sun 14.00-20.00), opens Saturday, until 19 November Etiquette, Erasmus & Europa A study of etiquette and Western European social manners via texts by Erasmus and other books of humanitarian traditions.

Artist Stefan Yordanov illustrates a number of these etiquette rules by contrasting decent, upstanding members of the community with deviant figures and freaks. Arti et Amicitiae (Tues-Sun 13.00-18.00), opens Saturday, until 12 November Kubakleden uit Congo Pieces from the AfrikaTextiel collection. A free cultural lecture accompanies the exhibition on 3O October at 21.00. Lloyd Hotel (Daily), opens Saturday, until 13 November Willem de Kooning Paintings and sculptures from Dutch public collections in hommage to Edy de Wilde and Rudi Oxenaar, the two former directors of Dutch

15

Spirito y Carne Contemporary artworks from the DNBKunstcollectie, offering a modern vision of themes such as spirituality, religion, life and death.

Amstelkring (Mon-Sat 10.00-17.00, Sun 13.00-17.00), until 5 November

Jef Gysen, see Opening

museums and lovers of contemporary art who died last year. De Pont (Tues-Sun 11.00-17.00), Tilburg, opens Saturday Natuurlijke Chemie Outdoor exhibition showcasing the natural techniques used by Leentje van Hengel on textiles and clothing. A total of 28 cases will display her work along the route between De Waag and Nieuwe Hoogstraat. Sint Antoniesbreestraat (Daily), opens Wednesday, until 3 January 2007

Museums Portrait Photographs from Isfahan, 1920-1950 An exceptional selection of portrait photography from the city of Isfahan. Taken between 1920 and 1950, these images provide a remarkable insight into life in Iran when the traditional culture was developing into a modern society, a transformation largely reversed after 1979 with the establishment of the Islamic

Fly Me to the Moon For once not taking itself too seriously, the Rijksmuseum presents one of its oldest and previously unseen items, a moon rock. This allows Rotterdam art duo Liesbeth Bik and Jos van der Pol to pose some unusual questions, such as: will they open a branch of the museum on the moon? Rijksmuseum (Daily 09.00-18.00), until 19 November Janet Cardiff: Forty Part Motet An adaptation of Spem in Alium nunquam habui by the English Renais-

16 sance composer Thomas Tallis, this impressive 40 speaker sound sculpture by the acclaimed Canadian artist is fresh from the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and will dazzle your ears and mind wherever you position yourself. CoBrA Museum (Tues-Sun 11.0017.00), until 19 November Hellen van Meene Following up her photographic portrait series of teenagers—most of whom she already knew from her own surroundings—Van Meene spent four years travelling to Japan, England, Germany, Latvia and Russia to find new models for portraits. Huis Marseille (Tues-Sun 11.00-18.00), until 26 November 15 Years: Collection Retrospetive of the museum’s last 15 years. Jan van der Togt Museum (Thur-Sun 13.00-17.00), Amstelveen, until 26 November Docking Station A new project space for contemporary art which will house a fresh exhibition every five weeks.

Californian born and London based artist Daria Martin will inaugurate the space with her film installations, paying particular homage to the idealistic avant-garde

Amsterdam Weekly art and architecture of the 20th century. Stedelijk Museum CS (Fri-Wed 10.00-18.00), until 26 November Botanical Prints Beautiful watercolour and ink drawings by Anita Walsmit Sachs, a botanical artist at the Nationaal Herbarium of the Universiteit Leiden. Hortus Botanicus (Mon-Fri 09.00-17.00, Sat, Sun 10.0005.00), until 1 December The Earth from Above Outdoor exhibition featuring the famous aerial photography of Yann ArthusBertrand, whose images last stopped off in Amsterdam in 2003. Since, the collection has been renewed with the addition of 90 new photos. Stopera (Daily), until 3 December Voici Magritte Grand exhibition showing paintings, drawings, gouaches and collages by Belgian supersurrealist Magritte, including some of his most important works. Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen (Tues-Sat 10.00-17.00, Sun 11.00-17.00), Rotterdam, until 3 December Koninklijke Prijs The annual arts prize sponsored by the Royal Family is back. This year the four artists

whose paintings have made it through to the final are Antoine Berghs, Wouter Kalis, Lucy Stein and Anneke Wilbrink. Gemeentemuseum (Tues-Sun 11.00-17.00), Den Haag, until 3 December Rembrandt and Uylenburgh: Dealing in Masterpieces Featuring 20 masterpieces by Rembrandt, this exhibition aims to uncover a little known aspect of his life: collaboration with art dealer Uylenburgh. Rembrandthuis (Mon-Sat 10.00-17.00, Sun 11.00-17.00), until 10 December Rembrandt en de bijbel More Rembrandt: this time all his etches of Biblical scenes and characters. Bijbels Museum (Mon-Sat 10.00-17.00, Sun 11.00-17.00), until 10 December Tino Sehgal A presentation of recent acquisition Instead of allowing some thing to rise up to your face dancing bruce and dan and other things, a live performance piece. Stedelijk Museum CS (Fri-Wed 10.00-18.00), until 10 December Trent Parke The exhibition presents an exciting opportunity to see how the Australian artist best known for

26 October-1 November 2006 his black-and-white images responds to a more pigmented view of the world. Foam (Sun-Wed 10.00-17.00, Thur, Fri 10.00-21.00), until 10 December The Kate Show Artists from different disciplines show works inspired by supermodel, style icon and muse Kate Moss. Foam (Sun-Wed 10.00-17.00, Thur, Fri 10.00-21.00), until 14 December Rembrandt’s Drawings: The Observer Part two of this study of Rembrandt’s drawings, showing how he viewed the world around him and recorded it in ink and sketches. Rijksmuseum (Daily 09.00-18.00), until 31 December Inside Iran An overview of Iranian painter Khosrow Hassanzadeh, whose works focus on political and social developments in his home country. Tropenmuseum (Mon-Fri 11.00-17.00, Sat, Sun 13.00-17.00), until 7 January 2007 Spectacular City: Photographing the Future Extraordinary photographs exploring the beauty and strangeness of our urban reality. Nederlands Architectuurinstituut (Tues-Sat 10.00-17.00), Rotterdam, until 7 January 2007 The Vincent 2006 Showcasing works of the five nominees for The Vincent van Gogh Biennial Award for Contemporary Art in Europe. The winner will be announced on 17 November. Stedelijk Museum CS (Fri-Wed 10.00-18.00), until 14 January 2007 Who Can I Trust? An exhibition on the persecution of homosexuals in Germany between 1933-1945 and also in the Netherlands during the Nazi occupation.

Verzetsmuseum (Tues-Fri 10.00-17.00, Sat-Mon 12.0017.00), until 14 January 2007 De helden van het circus The circus seen through the eyes of famous artists, including Toulouse-Lautrec, Picasso, Chagall and Klee. Teylers Museum Tues-Sat 10.00-17.00, Sun 12.00-17.00, Haarlem, until 14 January 2007 KK Outlet To celebrate the tenth anniversary of Amsterdam communication agency KesselsKramer, the Kunsthal is presenting a retrospective of the agency’s self-willed works. Kunsthal (Tues-Sat 10.00-17.00, Sun 11.00-17.00), Rotterdam, until 14 January 2007 Henry Moore: And the Challenge of Architecture The exhibition focuses on the relationship between Moore’s sculptures with architecture and urban spaces. Kunsthal (Tues-Sat 10.00-17.00, Sun 11.0017.00), Rotterdam, until 28 January 2007 Picasso: Master of Line In 1930, the world-famous artist began working on a series of prints commissioned by the Paris art dealer Ambroise Vollard. Here the complete set of 100 works, known as the Vollard Suite, can be seen in the Netherlands for the first time.

CoBrA Museum (Tues-Sun 11.00-17.00), until 4 February 2007 Collectors in St Petersburg A celebration of the cosmopolitan nature of early 20th-century St Petersburg introduces four key collectors from the period, each with their own preference for a particular school, country or period. Featuring masterpieces

by Murillo, Boucher, Rousseau, Delacroix and others. Hermitage Amsterdam (Daily 10.00-17.00), until 11 March 2007 Geef mij maar Amsterdam A melodious tribute to Mokum, from classic Amsterdam liedjes that reverberated from pub doorways to the modern beats and urban rhymes born from some of the city’s poorest districts. Enjoy a singalong, too. Amsterdams Historisch Museum (Mon-Fri 10.00-17.00, Sat, Sun 11.00-17.00), until 18 March 2007

Galleries Something FAKE With its collection of items to tease you, this 3D magazine continually touches upon the theme of non-authenticity in the modern world. Platform 21 (Thur-Sun 12.00-18.00), closing Friday With Arms Wide Open... An unusual, humorous photo series by Marjo van den Boomen, offering a surreal vision of parenthood. KochxBos Gallery (Wed-Sat 13.00-18.00), closing Saturday Vrouwen van Nederland Daniel Koning’s portraits of 130 Dutch women aims to show the diverse backgrounds of four generations of women in a time when their role in society has changed radically and rapidly. Melkweg Galerie (Wed-Sun 13.00-20.00), closing Sunday Music in the Air Action shots and portraits of music and dance performances. ABC Treehouse (Thur-Sun 13.00-18.00), closing Sunday Hydra Exhibition by Irene Kopelman, realising the first phase of the research-project Beauty Unrealized. Public Space with a Roof (Thur-Sun 15.00-19.00), closing Sunday

Amsterdam Weekly

26 October-1 November 2006

An exhibition is showing off Polish tractors made from scrap metal, old car parts and lots of Tractor Loving Care.

IF YOU BUILD IT,THEY WILL COME

By Mark Wedin ‘I heard this story that, in the Sixties, this guy saw a tractor at a machine fair. His name was Andraej Pabin. Most people knew him as Hucbaxa—it was a kind of nickname. So this guy saw a tractor and asked how much it was. As it goes, it was too expensive. So he says he’s going to make one himself. And then he ended up making at least a hundred tractors. It became his profession. He’s the guy responsible for all this.’

The artist Lukasz Ska¸pski recalls the origins of hand-made Polish tractors, while behind him, on a white wall of the Galerie Fons Welters, hang around 150 photos of Polish farmers sitting on their one-of-a-kind machines. They’re part of an exhibition called Machines by the Krakow-based artist. Ska¸pski first developed an interest in the specialised farm machinery about 25 years ago, when he saw a particularly odd version being tested on a farm.

‘Well, it was not really a tractor,’ smiles Ska¸pski. ‘It was a machine made to cover potatoes with earth. It was made of old motorcycle parts, but the steering col-

umn was in the rear and instead of a rear wheel, there was a plough. You had to press down into the ground and drive and push it somehow. But it worked. And it did all the jobs they needed.’

The mere charm of the hand-made machines, however, was not what interested Ska¸pski most. Rather, it was the way they reflected Poland’s recent history and socioeconomic struggles. In the decades following World War II, the confusion of the communist government and the unavailability of products forced many Poles to find new ways of survival.

‘The government produced big tractors,’ says Ska¸pski, ‘that were suitable for flat lands and big farms. But they did not—at all—produce tractors for small farms or [with] four-wheel drive. There was only a small group of highlanders that needed them.’

One of those farmers, Pabin, began work on his own small tractors, using old car parts and scrap metal. The idea caught on, and those who couldn’t afford Pabin’s tractors simply built their own. By the ’80s, the entire hilly region in the south of Poland was dotted with handmade tractors. ‘Now there are thousands

of them,’ according to Ska¸pski.

The current exhibition documents the tractors found only in one area, called Podhale. ‘It’s a very small area, but probably the most interesting,’ says Ska¸pski.

There, he drove from village to village, documenting the unique machinery—and the equally unique owners. He recounts: ‘They are afraid of officials investigating their belongings. But when I explained that it was for art reasons, they were very friendly.’

Along with the many photographs he also made two short films comprised of brief interviews with the owners and footage of the tractors in action. These films provide, perhaps, the most touching aspect of the show. The farmers—a hardworking, humble group of people—have difficulty hiding their pride when talking about their tractors.

Many of them beam about their machines being more dependable than any corporate-made tractor: they need little or no maintenance. They can go up steep hills and reach high speeds—some as fast as 100 kilometres an hour. And they’re custom-made to suit the needs of each individual farm.

Though the tractors may look like unkempt assemblages of old scrap parts, they’re clearly more than mere perfunctory pieces of equipment. They reach a high level of craftsmanship. And they bring the farmer-turned-inventor with them. The exhibition shows that a person who shapes his work with the utmost care and precision, without ever letting the idea of ‘art’ get in the way, is often the most inspiring kind of artist.

‘The entire phenomenon has a social dimension,’ says Ska¸pski. ‘And I’m always

17

Roll over, John Deere.

looking for things that show positive examples of social activity. To my mind, things will not become better if society does not become active.’

With Poland now out of communism and quickly growing under its recently founded capitalism, fewer farmers are building their own scrap-metal tractors.

‘The new machines are more affordable,’ says Ska¸pski. And that makes the current collection a valuable snapshot of the difficult era behind them.

But capitalism, of course, has not solved all the problems. There is still corruption in the Polish government. And much of Ska¸pski’s previous work revolves around this. ‘There is one woman who was proven in the news to have faked her [political] support. But she continues to hold a great position of power,’ he points out. I don’t understand that. In some countries you don’t lose control because there are rules which punish politicians for misbehaving. But those rules seem to have been lost during communism.’

Of course, one has only to recall the names of other current democracies to realise that this is painfully common.

‘Yes,’ says Ska¸pski, ‘but one has to do something about it. As an artist, I try to find the negative and positive aspects of social activity.’ He glances at the tractor photos on the wall. ‘And this is a positive one.’

Machines, 28 October - 18 November, Galerie Fons Welters (Tues-Sat 13.0018.00), Bloemstraat 140, 423 3046

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Amsterdam Weekly Meesters in de Rekenkunst Works by three contemporary Amsterdam artists, including Jacqueline Schäfer, Robin van der Kaa (of David Gilmour Girls) and Lennard Schuurmans. The centrepiece of the exhibition are contemporary portraits by each artist that have been created entirely using numbers. World Trade Center (Daily 09.00-20.00), closing Tuesday Jozef van Ruyssevelt Oil paintings, gouaches, pastels and aquarelles by the Belgian artist (1941). Galerie de Rietlanden (Sat, Sun 13.00-17.00), closing Tuesday Salon 2006 Three-part presentation from Ki-osk Daily Art Supply. P/////AKT (Thur-Sun 14.00-18.00), closing Wednesday My Streets, My City Artists who prefer to express themselves on walls rather than on canvas use urban life as the backdrop to their creations. In this exhibition. There are also two specially decorated rooms at the Winston Hotel which tie in with the show. Chiellerie (Wed-Sun 14.00-18.00), until 2 November Mahomi Kunikata A 27-year-old Japanese woman’s postmodern take on manga, revealing an underworld of masochism, fetishism, sexual violence and depression. This is Kunikata’s first solo gallery show outside Japan. Reflex New Art Gallery (Tues-Sat 11.00-18.00), until 4 November New York in the 1930s-50s The first-ever European exhibition of the work of Walfred Moisio, who dedicated his life to photographing the ever-changing streets of New York, candidly capturing the emotions of its people and time in startling black-and-white images. Gallery Vassie (Wed-Sat 12.00-18.00), until 4 November Radiant: 30 Years Ra Revisiting the last three decades of the gallery, including works by more than 60 artists. Galerie Ra (Tues-Sat 12.00-18.00), until 4 November White Bright and Delighting Home New sculptures

by Jan Bokma on display in the house of design. Mart House (Thur-Sat 13.00-18.00), until 4 November Psychobilly Art Psychobilly and rock ’n’ roll creations from a host of pan-European artists and musicians.

Submissions include paintings, posters, drawings and photos. De Cantine (Daily 12.00-17.00, 18.00-22.00), until 5 November Jim Collier: Illusions Fifteen oil paintings. Ilusion Galerie (Tues-Fri 13.00-16.00, Sat 10.00-17.00), until 11 November Pretty on the Inside New paintings by Guido Vlottes.

De Praktijk (Tues-Sat 13.00-18.00), until 11 November Waterstof New drawings by Dineke Blom. AdK Actuele Kunst (Wed-Sat 12.30-17.30), until 11 November Loneliness, boredom, misery, disgust, dead as a doornail. Solution: socialize also with farmers and workers. Anthropomorphic plastic sculptures by Theo Schepens. De Praktijk (Tues-Sat 13.00-18.00), until 11 November Martina Klein New paintings. Slewe Gallery (Tues-Sat 14.00-17.00), until 11 November The Kurds of Iraq Photographs by Michiel Hegener.

Ruigoord, until 12 November Attitudes Exploring relations between identity and the creation of imagery, this exhibition features video art from students of the École des Beaux Arts in Casablanca, and the results of the ‘one-minute video’ workshop that took place during the Festival International d’Art Video. De Veemvloer (Wed-Sat 13.00-18.00, Sun 14.00-17.00), until 12 November InTransit Five artists transform the exhibition space into a stopover place, highlighting how nowadays, the destination is typically more important than the journey. Arti et Amicitiae (Tues-Sun 13.00-18.00), until 12 November Japan Presentation of works by seven Japanese artists. De Witte Voet (Wed-Sat 12.00-17.00), until 15 November Ik Geloof in de Bijlmer A multicultural exhibition that’s about the real believers and practitioners that bring religion to life. The focus is on photos and videos made people of the faith, but every Wednesday, there’s also cooking lessons hosted by the World Islamic Mission, demonstrating how to prepare tasty foods while also following the strict Islamic dietary laws that Muslims should observe. Imagine Identity and Culture (Tues, Wed, Fri, Sat 11.00-17.00, Thur 11.00-21.00), until 18 November Iris Kensmil: The Great March Recent paintings.

Galerie Ferdinand van Dieten-d’Eendt (Thur-Sat 11.0018.00), until 18 November Judith Rosema & Ingrid Simons: Silent Witness Playful paintings by Rosema and dark, busy drawings by Simons. AYAC’S (Fri, Sat 13.00-17.30), until 18 November Jaap van den Ende New paintings. Akinci (Tues-Sat 13.00-18.00), until 18 November

26 October-1 November 2006 Lon Godin Videos and paintings. Reuten Galerie (Wed-Sat 13.00-18.00), until 18 November Last Lives in the Universe Inspired by the remarkable Thai movie Last Life in the Universe from 2003, the contemporary artists featured in this exhibition are all talking about overarching ideas, global politics and power games, but from a very intimate perspective.

SMART Project Space (Wed-Sat 12.00-18.00), until 18 November Lukasz Ska¸pski: Machines See article on p. 17.

Galerie Fons Welters (Tues-Sat 13.00-18.00), until 18 November Get Going! An exhibition of drawings by Roland Sohier. During most opening hours, the artist will also be working on a site-specific mural. Artspace Witzenhausen (Thur-Sat 12.00-18.00), until 18 November Blikopener Multidisciplinary works by selected Dutch artists, including the photography of Wouter van Buuren, who climbs high-voltage electricity polls around Amsterdam and Rotterdam to take shots of the landscape, then combines the individual photos into large image. Arts-Place Fri-Sun, 12.00-17.00, until 19 November As Hard As it Can Get Spanish artist Carlos Aires presents a series of photos representing a reality that only exists on screens or in images. De Brakke Grond (Mon 10.00-18.00, Tues-Fri 10.00-20.30, Sat 13.00-20.30, Sun 13.00-17.00), until 19 November Regarding Facts Showing works by John M Armleder, Nicolas Chardon, Marijke van Warmerdam, Kristjan Gudmundsson, JCJ van der Heyden, Laboratorio Saccardi, Olivier Mosset and Myne Soe-Pedersen. Galerie van Gelder (Tues-Sat 13.00-17.30), until 22 November Paolo Consorti: Inside the Secret Things Colourful and almost psychedelic contemporary visions from the Italian artist, who takes direct inspiration from the late-medieval paintings by Brueghel and Dante’s Divine Comedy. Studio Apart (Wed 10.00-18.00, Thur 10.00-21.00, Fri 10.00-18.00, Sat 12.00-17.00), until 23 November Marlene Dumas: Man Kind A series of new paintings and drawings, with portraits of men and a skull.

Galerie Paul Andriesse (Wed-Sun 13.00-17.00), until 25 November Nik Christensen Recent works by the Brooklyn/Amsterdam-based artist. The central theme of his life-size drawings is the human struggle against the forces of nature. Galerie Gabriel Rolt (Wed-Sat 12.00-18.00), until 25 November falkeandcharlotte A collaborative project being launched by Falke Pisano and Charlotte Moth (UK) to bring together international artists to present individual works and share what they love most. Opening the series are pieces by Benoît Maire and Clunie Read.

Ellen de Bruijne Projects/Dolores (Tues-Sat 13.0018.00), until 25 November Julia Münstermann: Walking on Air New paintings by the German artist, whose pictures of cityscapes by night often appear strange and unreal. Aschenbach & Hofland Galleries (Wed-Sat 12.00-17.00), until 26 November Victor Man: With the First Totters Ambiguous abstract paintings from the young Romanian artist.

Annet Gelink Gallery (Tues-Fri 10.00-18.00, Sat 13.0018.00), until 9 December Oud-West vanuit de lucht Aerial photography of Amsterdam Oud-West by Mirande Phernambucq. The images are displayed in windows around Bellamyplein, remaining lit daily until midnight. Bellamyplein (Daily), until 12 December Can’t Join Us A photographic portrayal of the dreamworld of two Majorettes. Witte de Withstraat 89 (Wed 13.00-17.00), until 13 December Militant Bourgeois: An Existentialist Retreat Following his experiments last June, Chris Evans is back to present the second part of his Militant Bourgeois concept, this time on a patch of land in the middle of a dual-carriageway road. The aim? He questions whether subsidised art can be worthwhile. Artists are welcome to move in and let their creative juices flow.

See www.smba.nl. Transformatorweg, until 15 December Le Dernier Cri Exclusive silkscreen prints from Pakito Bolino, Ota Keita, Reinhard Schneibner, Fredox, Stumead and around 40 other graphic designers associated with the Marseille group. Het Illuseum (Sat, Sun 15.00-20.00), until 21 December Raw Footage/Scapegoats A solo exhibition by Groningse multimedia artist Aernout Mik, this two-part video installation focuses on the experience and depiction of war, showing how normality and extremity become interwoven in wartime situations. bak (Wed-Sat 12.00-17.00, Sun 13.00-17.00), Utrecht, until 24 December

Amsterdam Weekly

26 October-1 November 2006

Festival: Transito (See Short List) Theater Bellevue, Paradiso, Melkweg, Stadsschouwburg, De Balie, various times and prices

Sunday 29 October

EVENTS Thursday 26 October Design: Dutch Design Week Back for its fifth installment and led by a theme that stresses the power of creativity, this tactile exploration will explore all modern, unique interpretations of Dutch design through a busy stream of showcases, seminars and lectures.

See www.weekvanhetontwerp.nl. Various locations and times, Eindhoven, various prices Debate: Kiezen voor Iedereen Elections are round the corner and political debate is on the rise. Organised by the Ramadan Festival, this evening’s gathering focuses on multicultural togetherness. In Dutch. Felix Meritis, 20.00, free Art/Fashion/Music: Foodology A visual dialogue between art, food and fashion as Japanese artist Toyoko Shimada presents her Foodology project with a performance based multi/mixed-media catwalk installation, examining the ties food and fashion share with our individual and national identities. 11, 20.00 Multidisciplinary: Transito: ParaPlay ‘What You Play is Who you Are’ is the motto of this-cutting edge event, which offers the unique selling point of anyoneas-DJ. Register in advance, submit your iPod playlist, and through a process of analysis and voting, the 50 most-played songs will be mixed together by DJ Paul Jay. More than about the music, however, Dat-a discusses the impacts of RFID on cultural identity, the Orchestra of Anxiety creates a musical art installation, and film programme Live to Tell: Surveilling, Profiling and Fixing Identities examines the culture of control, surveillance and new technology’s impact on privacy.

Paradiso, 21.00, €10 Festival: Transito (See Short List) Theater Bellevue, Paradiso, Melkweg, Stadsschouwburg, De Balie, various times and prices

De Duif Prinsengracht 756, 520 0090

Melkweg Galerie Marnixstraat 409, 531 8181

Bethaniënklooster Barndesteeg 6, 625 0078

Melkweg Theater LIjnbaansgracht 234A, 531 8181

Beurs van Berlage Damrak 277, 530 4141

Mendo Berenstraat 11, 612 1216

Bijbels Museum Herengracht 366-368, 624 2436

Mercure Hotel Amsterdam aan de Amstel Joan Muyskenweg 10, 665 8181

Bimhuis Piet Heinkade 3, 788 2150 Bitterzoet Spuistraat 2, 521 3001 De Brakke Grond Nes 45, 626 6866

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen Museumpark 18-20, Rotterdam, 010 441 9400

Multidisciplinary: Talent Convention (See Saturday) Paradiso, 10.00, €70, €10 if 27 or under

Café Bax Ten Kate Straat 119

Muziekgebouw Piet Heinkade 1, 788 2010

Café Pakhuis Wilhelmina Veemkade 576, 419 3368

NDSM-werf TT Neveritaweg 15, 330 5480

Conference: Barbie in Amsterdam Barbie’s in town, and boy, is she ready to have some fun with her fans of all ages—and doll fetishists—who’ll be on hand to celebrate the international history of the famous plastic figure. And you might even be able to pick up a ‘Coffee Shop Barbie’ to mark the occasion. Mercure Hotel Amsterdam aan de Amstel, 10.00-16.00, €3.50

Café Sappho Vijzelstraat 103, 423 1509 De Cantine Rietlandpark 373, 419 4433

Nederlands Architectuurinstituut Museumpark 25, Rotterdam, 010 440 1200

Chiellerie Raamgracht 58, 320 9448

De Nieuwe Anita Frederik Hendrikstraat 111

Club 8 Admiraal de Ruyterweg 56B, 685 1703

Noorderkerk Noordermarkt 44, 626 6436

CoBrA Museum Sandbergplein 1-3, Amstelveen, 547 5050

OCCII Amstelveenseweg 134, 671 7778

Concertgebouw Concertgebouwplein 2-6, 671 8345

Odeon Singel 460, 624 9711

Festival: Bokbier Festival (See Short List) Beurs van Berlage, 12.00-19.00, €5 (€2 per beer)

Consortium Veemkade 570, 06 2611 8950

OT301 Overtoom 301, 779 4913

Crea Muziekzaal Turfdraagsterpad 17, 525 1400

P/////AKT Zeeburgerpad 53, 06 5427 0879

Tour: Mary Dresselhuys The Dutch ‘Queen of Comedy’ has performed more than 150 different roles in her career, and in this Theatermuseum tour you’ll be shown specially selected materials from the Dresselhuys archive not typically shown to the public. Theater Instituut Nederland, 13.30, 15.00, €7.50

Crea Theater Turfdraagsterpad 17, 525 1400

P60 Stadsplein 100A, Amstelveen, 023 345 3445

Cristofori Prinsengracht 581-583, 626 8485

Pacific Parc Polonceaukade 23, 488 7778

Poetry/Music: International Poetry & Music Night Words from Dolly Sen (UK), The Anti Stresspoweeet (BE) and music from Israeli songwriter Rotem Perach.

Café Bax, 21.00, free

Desmet Studios Plantage Middenlaan 4A, 521 7100

Design: Dutch Design Week (See Thursday) Various locations and times

Mary Dresselhuis, see sunday

19

Custom Café Sugar Hazenstraat 19, 06 1401 3143 Cut the Crap Haarlemmerplein 9 De Snijzaal Hoefijzerstraat 10, Utrecht Ellen de Bruijne Projects/Dolores Rozengracht 207A, 530 4994

Paradiso Weteringschans 6-8, 626 4521 Pathé De Munt Vijzelstraat 15, 0900 1458 Patronaat Zijlsingel 2, Haarlem, 023 517 5858 Platform 21 Prinses Irenestraat 19, 344 9449 The Powerzone Spaklerweg, 681 8866

Exit Reguliersdwarsstraat 42, 625 8788

De Praktijk Lauriergracht 96, 422 1727

Felix Meritis Keizersgracht 324, 626 2321

PRIK Spuistraat 109, 06 4544 2321

Filmtheater 't Hoogt Hoogt 4, Utrecht, 030 231 2216

Public Space with a Roof Overtoom 301, 06 1117 4239

Foam Keizersgracht 609, 551 6546

Reflex New Art Gallery Weteringschans 79A, 423 5423

Tuesday 31 October

Frascati Nes 63, 626 6866

Rembrandthuis Jodenbreestraat 4, 520 0400

Galerie de Rietlanden Rietlandpark 193, 419 4705

Reuten Galerie Fokke Simonszstraat 49, 620 7537

Film: Run Wrake An evening with the British film-maker known for creating animations for the likes of Manu Chao, Future Sound of London and many others.

Included will be his most recent short Rabbit, plus a selection of clips by film-makers he admires. Filmtheater 't Hoogt, Utrecht 19.00, €7

Ferdinand van Dieten-d'Eendt Spuistraat 270, 626 5777

Rijksmuseum Jan Luykenstraat 1, 674 7000

Galerie Fons Welters Bloemstraat 140, 423 3046

Het Rozentheater Rozengracht 117, 620 7953

Galerie Gabriel Rolt Elandsgracht 34, 785 5146

Ruigoord Ruigoord 15, 497 5702

Lecture: Ralph Rugoff The curator, writer and director of the Hayward Gallery in London gives a lecture on the work of Dutch video artist Aernout Mik (reservations recommended). In English. bak, Utrecht 20.00

Galerie Ra Vijzelstraat 80, 626 5100

SMART Project Space Arie Biemondstraat 107-113, 427 5953

Galerie Smits Fokke Simonszstraat 29, 06 43001833

Soho Reguliersdwarsstraat 36

Galerie van Gelder Planciusstraat 9A, 627 7419

Stadsschouwburg Leidseplein 26, 624 2311

Festival: Transito (See Short List) Theater Bellevue, Paradiso, Melkweg, Stadsschouwburg, De Balie, various times and prices

Galerie Jos Art KSNM-laan 291, 418 7003 Galerie Paul Andriesse Prinsengracht 116, 623 6237

Gallery Vassie 1e Tuindwarsstraat 16, 489 4042

Wednesday 1 November

Gemeentemuseum Stadhouderslaan 41, Den Haag, 070 338 1111

Dinner/Design: Día de Muertos Do not mourn but make merry this All Saints Day. Tonight the former seminary-turned-squat features Latin American design collective’s Otro Diseño’s interpretation of the traditional Mexican holiday, live music, fresh drinks and an exquisite seasonal dinner by Club 11 chefs. Reserve tickets by contacting 665 2729 or reservations@ otrodiseno.com. Platform 21, 19.00, €65 (incl. fivecourse dinner)

Grolsch Music Café ArenA Boulevard 242, 365 2035

Quiz: MusicMind? Think you know everything about music? Think you can spout your knowledge at the drop of a hat, even in high-pressure situations? Then this new quiz night may be for you, and if you can find some worthy mates to be at your side, you might even walk away with a cash prize. Sugar Factory, 19.30, €15 for competing teams

Friday 27 October

Hermitage Amsterdam Nieuwe Herengracht 14, 530 8751 Horse Move Project Oosterdokskade 5 Post CS Hortus Botanicus Plantage Middenlaan 2A, 625 9021 Hotel Arena ’s-Gravesandestraat 51, 850 2400 Huis Marseille Keizersgracht 401, 531 8989 Het Illuseum Witte de Withstraat 120, 770 5581 Ilusion Galerie 2e Goudsbloemdwarsstraat 18, 320 4321 Imagine Identity and Culture Bijlmerplein 1006-1008, 489 4866

Slewe Gallery Kerkstraat 105A, 625 7214

Stadsschouwburg Amstelveen Stadsplein 100, Amstelveen, 020 547 5175 Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam Rozenstraat 59, 422 0471 Stedelijk Museum CS Oosterdokskade 5, 573 2911 Stopera Waterlooplein 22, 551 8117 Stubnitz Odinakade, NDSM-werf Studio 80 Rembrandtplein 70, 521 8333 Studio Apart Prinsengracht 715, 422 2748 Sugar Factory Lijnbaansgracht 238, 627 0008 Teylers Museum Spaarne 16, Haarlem, 023 516 0960 Theater Bellevue Leidsekade 90, 530 5301

Istituto Italiano Keizersgracht 564, 626 5314

Theater Instituut Nederland Herengracht 168, 551 3300

Jan van der Togt Museum Dorpsstraat 50, Amstelveen, 641 5754

Tropenmuseum Linnaeusstraat 2, 568 8200

KIT Tropentheater Mauritskade 63, 568 8711 De Kleine Komedie Amstel 56-58, 624 0534

Under the Grand Chapiteau Next to ArenA, 621 1288 Various locations and times, Eindhoven, Eindhoven De Veemvloer Van Diemenstraat 410, 638 6894

Design: Dutch Design Week (See Thursday) Various locations and times, Eindhoven, various prices

ADDRESSES

Art Fair: Tribal Art Fair 2006: Local and international art dealers unite under a steeple to diplay their finest sculptures, textiles, jewelry and furniture from Africa, Oceania and Asia. De Duif, 11.00-18.00, €4.50

11 Oosterdokskade 3-5, 625 5999

Kunsthal Museumpark, Westzeedijk 341, Rotterdam, 010 440 0301

ABC Treehouse Voetboogstraat 11, 423 0967

Lloyd Hotel Oostelijke Handelskade 34, 419 1840

Witte de Withstraat 89

ACU Voorstraat 71, Utrecht, 030 231 4590

Mart House Prinsengracht 529, 627 5187

De Witte Voet Kerkstraat 135

AdK Actuele Kunst Prinsengracht 534, 320 9242

Meervaart Meer en Vaart 300, 410 7777

World Trade Center Strawinskylaan 1, 575 9111

Akhnaton Nieuwezijds Kolk 25, 624 3396

Melkweg Lijnbaansgracht 234A, 531 8181

WORM Achterhaven 148, Rotterdam, 010 4767832

Festival: Bokbier Festival (See Short List) Beurs van Berlage, 17.00-23.00, €5 Festival: Transito (See Short List) Theater Bellevue, Paradiso, Melkweg, Stadsschouwburg, De Balie, various times and prices

Saturday 28 October

Akinci Lijnbaansgracht 317, 638 0480 Amstelkring Oudezijds Voorburgwal 40, 624 6604 Amsterdams Historisch Museum Kalverstraat 92, 523 1822 Annet Gelink Gallery Laurierstraat 187-189, 330 2066 De Appel Nieuwe Spiegelstraat 10, 625 5651

Design: Dutch Design Week (See Thursday) Various locations and times, Eindhoven, various prices

April Reguliersdwarsstraat 37, 625 9572

Multidisciplinary: Talent Convention Got a talent you want to exploit? Maybe this two-day event is for you, offering masterclasses, debates, lectures, meet ’n’ greets and showcases, making this the perfect opportunity to meet the right people, show your skills and learn some tricks in the process. Register at www.talent-convention.nl. Paradiso, 10.00, €70, €10 if 27 or under

Arti et Amicitiae Rokin 112, 624 5134

Art Fair: Tribal Art Fair 2006: (See Thursday) De Duif, 11.00-18.00, €4.50 Festival: Bokbier Festival (See Short List) Beurs van Berlage, 12.00-23.00, €5 (€2 per beer)

ARCAM Prins Hendrikkade 600, 620 4878 Artiplus Gallery Sarphatistraat 730 Arts-Place Wibautstraat 125, 06 2420 9192 Artspace Witzenhausen Hazenstraat 60, 644 9898 Aschenbach & Hofland Galleries Bilderdijkstraat 165C, 412 1772 AYAC'S Keizersgracht 166, 638 5240 Badcuyp 1e Sweelinckstraat 10, 675 9669 bak Lange Nieuwstraat 4, Utrecht, 030 231 6125 De Balie Kleine-Gartmanplantsoen 10, 553 5151

KochxBos Gallery 1e Anjeliersdwarsstraat 3-5, 681 4567

Verzetsmuseum Plantage Kerklaan 61, 620 2535 Winston Kingdom Warmoesstraat 129, 623 1380

Amsterdam Weekly

20

Cidade baixa

FILM

Edited by Julie Phillips.This week’s films reviewed

by Sam Coleman (SC),Angela Dress (AD),Laura Groeneveld (LG),Andrea Gronvall (AG),John Hartnett (JH),Luuk van Huët (LvH),JR Jones (JJ),Joshua Katzman (JK),Dave Kehr (DK), Steven McCarron (SM),Marie-Claire Melzer (MM),Mike Peek (MP),Julie Phillips (JP),Kim Renfrew (KR),Jonathan Rosenbaum (JR) and Bregtje Schudel (BS).All films are screened in English with Dutch subtitles unless otherwise noted. Amsterdam Weekly recommends.

New this week Cidade baixa Brazilian Sérgio Machado won the 2005 Cannes youth prize for this torrid love story set on the Bahian coast. A cargo pilot and his best pal share a boat and the favours of a prostitute who bums a ride to Salvador. Jealousy and conflict brew as the hooker turns stripper, the pilot takes up boxing and the buddy robs drugstores. During months of rehearsal, the well-toned actors were coached in kundalini to free themselves physically. The onscreen results have an unsettling intensity that is bolstered by cinematographer Toca Seabra’s handheld camera, gritty close-ups and colour-saturated palette. In Portuguese with Dutch subtitles. (AG) 98 min. Rialto Clerks II See review on p. 22. 97 min. Pathé ArenA, Pathé De Munt Hokkabaz Magician manqué Iskender decides to leave Istanbul; with his assistant Maradona he plans a tour of small Turkish towns. At the last minute he ends up taking his father with him, with the usual unexpected results. Popular Turkish comic Cem Yilmaz (Vizontele, G.O.R.A.) stars; he also wrote and codirected. In Turkish with Dutch subtitles. 122 min.

Pathé ArenA, Pathé City

Little Miss Sunshine In this offbeat comedy, a

fractious family of misfits piles into an ailing VW bus and sets off for California so the youngest (Abigail Breslin) can compete in a children’s beauty pageant.

Suffering each other along the way are her irascible grandfather (Alan Arkin), suicidal uncle (Steve Carell), Nietzsche-obsessed teenage brother (Paul Dano), beleaguered mom (Toni Collette) and abrasive dad (Greg Kinnear), a motivational speaker whose ninestep programme for success constantly aggravates the others’ sense of failure. This isn’t much more than a glorified sitcom, but it deftly dramatises our conflicting desires for individuality and an audience to applaud it. Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris directed. (JJ) 102 min. Kriterion, Pathé ArenA, Pathé Tuschinski Shortbus See review on p. 23. 102 min. Kriterion Sinav Four teenagers, desperate to meet the rigorous entrance standards for Turkish university, pool their money and hire a famous international burglar (JeanClaude van Damme) to steal the questions to the final exam. A lively new comedy from Ömer Faruk Sorak, who directed the Turkish megahits Vizontele and G.O.R.A. In Turkish with Dutch subtitles. 120 min.

Pathé ArenA Stray Dogs An homage to the neorealist classic Ladri

26 October - 01 November 2006

Little Miss Sunshine

di biciclette (Vittorio de Sica, 1948) tells the story of two children living in the streets of post-Taliban Afghanistan after their parents are both put in jail. At first they can spend the nights in their mother’s cell, but when the prison boss forbids them to come by, the children begin stealing; desperately trying to be put behind bars themselves. Their absurd situation is brought home beautifully through strong performances by child actress Gol Ghoti and a filthy little dog the kids rescue along the way. The second feature film by Iranian director Marziyeh Meshkini (The Day I Became a Woman, 2000) is a frighteningly realistic portrait of two doomed lives. In Farsi with Dutch subtitles. (MP) 93 min. Filmmuseum

13

Still playing 13 (Tzameti) Don’t stick your nose into someone

else’s business may be the moral of his noirish blackand-white thriller by director Géla Babluani. In this accomplished and tense debut film, an impoverished immigrant (George Babluani) stumbles upon a route to riches when he overhears his employer discussing a get-rich-quick scheme and acts to intercept. Only he doesn’t know the full story, instead following a series of step-by-step instructions that sends him travelling across country with strangers closely on his tail. The set-up is lengthy but carefully calculated, making the macabre plot twists all the more enjoyable. In French with Dutch subtitles. 93 min. Filmmuseum, Rialto

Les Amants réguliers A three-hour homage to the 1968 student demonstrations in Paris: the late-night philosophical discussions, the tentative explorations of free love, the drugs, the romantic tossing of Molotov cocktails from the barricades. In Philippe Garrel’s autobiographical film, the young poet and draft refuser François (played by Louis Garrel, the director’s son) discovers love, grief and other opiates. Slow, atmospheric and romantic, this is Garrel’s ‘I was there’ answer to Bertolucci’s slicker, more prettified The Dreamers. 178 min. Filmmuseum

Brokeback Mountain The deer and the antelope

are not the only two playing home on the range. This is the heartbreaking and touching story of two cowboys (Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger) in love who, savouring only rare moments of pleasure together, are forced by social dictates to face a life of pain and denial. Director Ang Lee has masterfully translated Annie Proulx’s short story to the screen. Some filmgoers will cry till the cows come home. (JH) 134 min.

Pathé ArenA Buddha’s Lost Children A feature-length documentary film about a Thai Buddhist monk who—armed only with his faith and boxing skills—wages an inspirational battle to help orphaned children, fight drug abuse and preserve a vanishing way of life. Followed over the course of a year by Dutch director Mark Verkerk, Abt Phra Khru Bah transforms the lives of the children he encounters through a mixture of compassion and tough love. In Thai with Dutch subtitles. 96 min. Kriterion, De Uitkijk Burt Munro:The World’s Fastest Indian Anthony Hop-

kins gives a detailed, quirky performance as Burt Munro, a half-deaf New Zealander in his late sixties who’s spent years refining his beloved 1920 Indian motorcycle in hopes of competing in the annual landspeed trials at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. (JK) 127 min. Pathé Tuschinski C.R.A.Z.Y. A story of two love affairs: a father’s love for his five sons, and one son’s love for his father—a love so strong it compels him to live a lie and hide from his true self. In Jean-Marc Vallée’s gay fairy tale set in Quebec (where last year the movie was a huge success) that son is Zac Beaulieu, who knows he’s different from his brothers, but is desperate to fit in.

The film follows him through his first 20 years, ultimately leading him to accept his true nature and, more importantly, find his father’s genuine love. In French with Dutch subtitles. 127 min. Cinecenter The Cave of the Yellow Dog In this follow-up to Byambasuren Davaa’s spellbinding international hit The Story of the Weeping Camel, the Mongolian film-maker sticks to the kind of down-to-earth docudrama she does best. Once again exploring the nomadic aspects of Mongolian life through a real family, she documents their everyday existence in a quiet, monotonous world. The film is brought to life by the family’s six-year-old daughter when she finds a dog. In Mongolian with Dutch subtitles. (SM) 95 min. Rialto China Blue Documentary by Micha X Peled, which explores the textile industry of China and the 130 million children working in factories to produce clothing.

In Cantonese/English/Mandarin with Dutch subtitles.

87 min. Het Ketelhuis Click If you enjoy senseless, offensive, morally repellent, puerile shite that reeks of high school locker room, waste two hours of your life watching this latest Adam ‘professional fuckwit’ Sandler vehicle. Workaholic Michael Newman (Sandler) acquires a universal remote control, which—wow—controls his universe, enabling him to fast forward through the pesky parts of his life. You’ll deserve a medal for sitting through this rebarbative piece of cinema without hurting yourself.

(AD) 108 min. Pathé ArenA, Pathé De Munt Dam Street Director Li Yu is not afraid to take on sensitive subjects. Her first film, Fish and Elephant (2001), was a lesbian love story. Her second, Dam Street, is about the fate of China’s unwed mothers and unwanted children. When the teenager Yun gets pregnant, she can forget her future as an opera singer. Scorned by friends and family, she becomes a singer in a thirdrate provincial band. Her only close contact is with a little boy who lives across the river. In Mandarin with Dutch subtitles. 93 min. Rialto

The Devil Wears Prada The Devil Wears Prada Lauren Weisberger’s bestselling novel about a young woman losing her soul at a New York fashion magazine has been turned into an agreeably shallow comedy by director David Frankel, a veteran of HBO’s equally status-driven Entourage and Sex and the City. Meryl Streep walks away with the movie as the harshly unforgiving editor of a Vogue-like glossy; Anne Hathaway (The Princess Diaries) makes

Five-Word Movie Review

NEW JERSEY SAME OLD SLACKERS Clerks II Pathé ArenA, Pathé De Munt

a lovely mannequin as her downtrodden new assistant, who trades her journalistic ideals for an endless series of smashing outfits. I didn’t believe the moralism of the story arc for a second, but obviously some sort of hanger was required. (JJ) 109 min. Pathé ArenA, Pathé City, Pathé De Munt, Pathé Tuschinski L’ Enfant endormi Zeinab (Mounia Osfour) lives in an isolated hamlet in northern Morocco. Like most of the women in her village, she is waiting for the return of her husband, an illegal immigrant working in Europe.

The wait is shared by her unborn child, which she by traditional magic allows to ‘sleep’ until her man returns. The sleeping child symbolises the postponement of her own dreams in Belgian-Moroccan director Yasmine Kassari’s acclaimed 2004 debut. In French, Berber and Arabic with Dutch subtitles. 94 min. Rialto Forever Heddy Honigmann’s latest film documents the life of the Parisian cemetery Père-Lachaise. But the filmmaker can’t seem to make up her mind whether to make a film about Proust (one of the cemetery’s residents), a statement on art versus mortality, or a portrait of the living visitors. Her quiet style of filming, using long shots and a static camera to allow the action to unfold, has worked well for her in the past, when you felt she had a connection with the people she filmed. But in Forever, none of these approaches brings the talented Honigmann onto familiar ground.

In French with Dutch subtitles. (MM) 95 min. Het Ketelhuis, Kriterion, Pathé Tuschinski, De Uitkijk

Grbavica In a country ripped apart and left brimming with single mothers, Esma is living with her 12-year-old daughter Sara in Grbavica, a district in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo. Desperate to go on a school trip with her friends, the young girl begs her mother to acquire a certificate proving her father died a shaheed—a holy war martyr—entitling her to a discount. But when Esma avoids this process, struggling to pay the full fee herself, it becomes clear to Sara that the story of her father isn’t as black and white as she had always believed. Already tipped for Oscar success thanks to its intense story and performances, Jasmila Zbanic’s full-length directorial debut is an emotionally raw insight into post-war Balkan life. In Bosnian with Dutch subtitles. 90 min. Rialto The Grudge 2 Sarah Michelle Gellar returns for this sequel to The Grudge (2004), itself a remake of a Japanese chiller. Takashi Shimizu directed all three.

92 min. Pathé ArenA, Pathé City, Pathé De Munt An Inconvenient Truth This souped-up slide show by former VP and presidential candidate Al Gore is brought to you in full Lecture-Vision, as the man bashes you over the head with statistics, pictures, scientific facts and cute computer-animated polar bears to make you understand the importance of his mission.

Amsterdam Weekly

26 October - 01 November 2006 Gore is out to save the world from global warming and Uncle Al needs you! If you’re already in the know, it might be a sermon to the converted, but that doesn’t detract from the importance of this documentary and how it inspires people—maybe even you—to make a difference. (LvH) 100 min. Kriterion, Pathé ArenA, Pathé Tuschinski Into Great Silence A first look into the lives of the monks of the Grande Chartreuse—the mother house of the legendary Carthusian Order in the French Alps—this documentary by Philip Groening serves to remind that there’s more to silence than just silence.

There are no interviews, no commentary and no music, other than the monks’ song, yet this is an eyeand ear-opening piece. In French/Latin with Dutch subtitles. 164 min. Het Ketelhuis, Rialto Jackass: Number Two More stunts, pranks and grossout humour from Johnny Knoxville and company, whose MTV reality show Jackass and big-screen hit Jackass: The Movie have pushed the lowbrow as low as it will go. Parts of this are screamingly funny (a groupie’s love note posted on the wall of a hotel corridor conceals a spring-wired boxing glove), other parts downright stomach-turning (drinking a glass of horse semen), but you have to admire the fact that, for these guys, ‘anything for a laugh’ really means anything.

And for all the moronic behaviour, there are also some inspired dadaist moments. (JJ) 95 min. Pathé ArenA, Pathé De Munt Kebab Connection If the conjunction of the words ‘German’ and ‘comedy’ makes your blood run cold, then perhaps you should see Anno Saul’s quirky little comedy and think about revising your opinion. B-boy Ibo (Denis Moschitti) is the son of Turkish immigrants whose ambition is to make the first ever German kung fu film. Starting small, he makes a massively successful advert for his dad’s kebab shop. Then things start going awry. His—white—girlfriend (Nora Tschirner)

reveals she’s pregnant and then dumps him; his parents kick him out and, down on his luck, he makes another advert for the family’s bitter rival, the Greek takeaway owner over the road. It’s a funny, fast-paced movie, shot in glorious colours and with plenty of flying limbs all over the screen. And, at the same time, it manages to deal with heavy themes like integration, interracial romance and even, heck, Graeco-Turkish relations. In German with Dutch subtitles. (KR) 96 min.

Rialto Mongolian Ping Pong A nine-year-old boy living on the Mongolian steppes finds a ping-pong ball floating down a stream. After concluding that it isn’t an egg, he carries it around as a talisman, learns it’s China’s ‘national ball’, and winds up fighting over the ‘glowing pearl’ with a friend. This sounds like a slender premise on which to hang a feature, but director Ning Hao is more interested in ethnography and landscapes than narrative, concentrating on how folklore, technology—motorbikes, cars, trucks, films, TV—and imagination affect a nomadic way of life. In Mongolian with Dutch subtitles. (JR) 102 min. Filmhuis Griffioen

Nachtrit Cool film about a taxi driver who gets caught up in the Amsterdam taxi war of 2000. Dennis (Frank Lammers) takes on a huge debt to finance his own taxi permit. Little does he know that a new law is about to come through that will make his permit absolutely worthless. With good acting, great dialogues and a convincing sex scene, the film makes perfect use of the darker side of Amsterdam. And who would have guessed that Rembrandt: The Musical star Henk Poort was such a badass? In Dutch. (LG) 104 min.

Pathé ArenA, Pathé City, Pathé De Munt No Way Back One of two brothers is murdered by a gang leader and the other must seek revenge in Sardar Shafai’s Afghan action film. In Persian with Dutch subtitles 100 min. Cinema Amstelveen

Special screenings 13 Lakes James Benning filmed 13 lakes, each in a single 10-minute shot. The result is a series of landscape ‘paintings’ that together form a breathtaking meditation on light and water. 113 min. De Balie Babel (Cinema Invisible) Portrait of the Russian writer Isaac Babel. (Rolf Orthel, 2005). In Dutch. 55 min. Cinecenter Babette’s Feast A French Catholic servant, in 19thcentury Denmark, prepares a sumptuous meal for her stern Lutheran employers. As they open up to this sensual experience they begin to comprehend her past, while she, for one last evening, relives it. One of the great foodie movies. In Danish, Swedish and French with Dutch subtitles. 102 min. Filmmuseum Beyond the Rocks This film was thought to be lost in the annals of film history for decades, until it was discovered in 2004 among 2,000 film canisters donated to the Filmmuseum. Rudolph Valentino and Gloria Swanson star as two jilted lovers. A must-see for any self-respecting film lover. (LvH) 81 min.. Rialto The Crippled Masters Monday night cult films return to the Melkweg with Joe Law’s 1979 film about two kung fu masters (Frankie Shum and Jack Conn), one of whom has no arms and the other no legs. They team up to get their revenge on their evil employer. In Mandarin with Dutch subtitles. 90 min.

Melkweg Cinema Day of the Dead Part three of George Romero’s Living Dead cycle. Beginning from a position of absolute misanthropy, Romero asks what it means to be human, and the answers are funny, horrifying, and ultimately hopeful. (DK) 102 min. Het Illuseum La Double vie de Véronique An exquisite enigma

by Krzysztof Kieslowski following the parallel lives of two 20-year-old women, one in Poland and one in France, both played by the beautiful Irene Jacob. In French/Polish with Dutch subtitles. (JR) 98 min.

Melkweg Cinema Le Grand Voyage Mismatched travel companions are a staple of the road movie, but the device has seldom been used to more resonant effect than in this piquant 2004 drama about an elderly FrenchMoroccan (Mohamed Majd) who drags his assimilated young son (Nicolas Cazale) on a pilgrimage to Mecca. As their home recedes in the rearview mirror, the old man tosses the kid’s cell phone, hoping to prepare him for a spiritual awakening. Writer-director Ismael Ferroukhi obtained extraordinary access to locations in Saudi Arabia, though shot much of the European footage on the sly, adding to the improvisatory mood as father and son stumble toward a better understanding of each other and what it means to be civilised. In French with Dutch subtitles. (AG) 108 min. Cavia

Hedwig and the Angry Inch The 2001 first fea-

ture film by John Cameron Mitchell (Shortbus).

Mitchell stars as Hedwig, a rock-and-roll transsexual whose change from male to female gets her out of East Berlin and onto the stage. She fronts the Angry Inch (named after the results of her operation), an obscure glam-rock band playing gigs in small clubs while the rock superstar who dumped her years earlier plays the stadiums next door. Hedwig tells her tale of woe to a succession of unreceptive on-screen audiences that, by implication, includes us. Mitchell originally created Hedwig for the stage with composer-lyricist Stephen Trask, who sings the vocals in this flamboyant rock opera. 95 min. Kriterion

Herzog

double bill Two of Herzog’s best.

Stroszek (1977) is a feature film about a down-andout German street musician who goes to Wisconsin and disastrously attempts to live out the American dream. Little Dieter Needs to Fly (1997) is a harrowing documentary about a German who became American via service—and imprisonment—in Vietnam. In English/German with English subtitles.

OT301

Oldboy After a seemingly innocent Korean salaryman is suddenly kidnapped and then held prisoner in a shady location for 15 years, one might expect the good man to hold a bit of a grudge. So it’s no surprise when Oh-Dae Su goes on a righteous rampage of revenge in his quest to find out the reason for his capture. When he eventually tracks down his captor, he’s drawn deeper into a game in which all the odds are against him. Although the influences of Miike, Fincher and Lynch are obvious, director Park manages to combine them here into a refreshing tale of revenge gone wrong with remarkable vision and excellent craftsmanship. It’s not exactly a feel-good movie, but no wonder Oldboy received a Grand Jury Prize at Cannes. (LvH) OT301 Short Circuit New at Filmhuis Cavia: every last Friday of the month, an evening of award-winning short films. Cavia Trois Couleurs: Blanc This 1993 black comedy, set mainly in and around Warsaw, is in most respects the least effective work in Krzysztof Kieslowski’s Three Colours trilogy. A Polish hairdresser living in Paris is stripped of his job, his money, his passport and his dignity, and winds up returning to Poland incognito inside a trunk. But taking advantage of the new everything-for-sale economy, he becomes wealthy and hatches a perverse revenge plot. The message, which appears to be that capitalism gives you a hard-on (and that working in a foreign culture, even Paris, leads to impotence), is rather glibly and cursorily spelled out by the slender plot. In French/Polish/English with Dutch subtitles. (JR) 92 min. Melkweg Cinema

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Amsterdam Weekly

26 October - 01 November 2006 Jay and Silent Bob: older, wiser and just out of rehab.

Slacker sequel serves up an intoxicating brew of the lovely and the lewd. Oh yes, Kevin Smith is definitely back on form.

YOU HAVE A NICE DAY NOW!

By Luuk van Huët In his decade-long movie-making career, Kevin Smith has always struck a precarious balance between the farcical and the sentimental. We only have to look at his most recent films to see what happens when the chubby cinephile loses his equi-

Ober Absurdity reigns once again in Alex van Warmerdam’s latest feature, a hysterical tale about the many bizarre misfortunes of a waiter named Edgar (played by the director himself), who also happens to be the main character of a manuscript in the making. Reality and fiction coalesce even further when the badgered Edgar complains to his creator about all his mishaps and demands restitution. Van Warmerdam’s characteristic grim sense of humour and the many hilarious guest appearances by renowned Dutch thespians make this a film you’re not likely to forget. In Dutch.

(BS) 97 min. Cinecenter, Het Ketelhuis, Kriterion, Pathé Tuschinski Pretpark Nederland Director Michiel van Erp explores a weird phenomenon we Dutch call leisure time.

According to some, the Dutch are maniacally battling the boredom that lurks in every corner—whether it’s by attending a women’s magazine day out, shopping in giant mall Batavia Stad or watching the Gay Parade.

It’s refreshing to have a Dutchman look at our own habits without getting exploitative or malicious. Pretpark Nederland is a bit overlong, yet it never gets boring. And apparently that’s what Dutch life is all about. In Dutch. (BS) 90 min. Het Ketelhuis, De Uitkijk Requiem Michaela grows up in a deeply religious family in southern Germany. When she leaves home for university and discovers a more secular world, she begins to question her faith. At the same time, her epileptic seizures grow worse. She consults a

librium. Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001) was a hilarious goody-bag of gags centred on his two most popular characters; it reduced Smith’s fanboys to guffawing piles of goo, but was met with indifference by the mainstream moviegoing audience. His more ‘mature’ dramedy Jersey Girl suffered from the infamous

priest who confirms her worst fears: she is possessed by the devil. Her friends urge her to seek psychiatric help, but in the end can only watch as Michaela’s devout religious convictions lead to her doom. Based on a true story, Requiem is directed by Hans-Christian Schmid with great sensitivity for the claims of both Michaela’s worlds. In German with Dutch subtitles 93 min. Rialto The Road to Guantanamo Directors Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross have released a movie that details the most serious case of wrong time/wrong place you’ve ever heard of as four UK Pakistanis are caught in the crossfire of the War on Terror in Afghanistan. This gripping political docudrama will leave you outraged at governments and inspired by the tenacity of the human spirit. (SC) 95 min.

Filmhuis Griffioen Scoop Woody Allen follows up his best film (Match Point) with another story set in London and starring Scarlett Johansson. But this mystery comedy is tired, laboured and lazy. (JR) 96 min. Pathé Tuschinski Snakes on a Plane After a veritable tsunami of popcultural craftsmanship, this plucky little B-movie might not live up to everyone’s expectations. But if you want to see one-dimensional characters scream their heads off while fighting off snakes (on a plane), busty babes getting busy with bodacious buds so furious serpents can bite every other eroge-

Bennifer Backlash of 2004, a disaster for which even the wily charms of Liv Tyler (plus the pleasantly early death of J-Lo’s character) could not compensate.

So it should come as no surprise that for his next film, Smith has turned to his roots, revisiting with refreshed gusto the cantankerous clerks who rocketed him to indie stardom in 1994. And while this decision might be considered more than a little calculated, Clerks II turns out to be Smith’s most well-rounded film since Chasing Amy. The sequel finds Randal and Dante, our convenience store comrades, working at local fast food outlet Mooby’s after an unfortunate coffee-pot-related incident has reduced their previous places of employment to charred rubble. The souldeadening tasks, dorky outfits and needy customers threaten to suffocate them, but their new work environment does come

nous zone and Samuel L Jackson playing a Bad Motha Fucker like nobody else can, you’re in for a rollercoaster ride of a treat. Just bring a comely date and leave your brains at home. (LvH) 105 min.

Pathé ArenA, Pathé De Munt Tapas Five interlocking stories set in a Barcelona neighbourhood. By first-time directors José Corbacho and Juan Cruz. In Spanish with Dutch subtitles. 94 min. Cinecenter

Taxidermia Taxidermia This new film by Geörgy Pálfi (Hukkle) follows three generations of a strange family: the grandfather practises bestiality, father competes in eating contests and son is a taxidermist who decides to stuff himself. Pálfi says he wanted to use the imaginary language of porn and horror to answer basic questions about human identity. Bring your barf bag.

In Hungarian with Dutch subtitles 91 min. Rialto

Volver Almodóvar is growing up. After provoking

the public with explicit sex and his subversive sense

with some perks. While Randal has a Transformers- and Christ-loving co-worker, Elias, to pick on, Dante harbours a crush on his radiant boss Becky (Rosario Dawson), with whom he has had a latenight, after work pickle-jarring adventure.

Trouble is, Dante is engaged to be married to the cloying, bossy Emma, with whom he’ll relocate to Florida to work in one of her father’s businesses.Meanwhile, Randal refuses to let his best friend leave without throwing a farewell bash of perverse proportions, and of course, Jay and Silent Bob are up to their old tricks—albeit older, wiser and just out of rehab (where they managed to find Christ as well).

Most of the film, luckily, focuses on geeky yet witty banter about pop culture and the wide-ranging observations on human sexuality that Smith does best. Yet the plot moves forward agreeably enough to showcase the existential dilemmas that face our protagonists. And nobody but Smith could get away with putting the longed-for heartfelt declaration of love in a scene featuring implied raunchy interspecies erotica.

As always, Smith’s direction is pedestrian at best and prudes need not apply, but the likeable cast give the dialogue its required zing, and there’s a throwaway dance sequence that would’t be amiss in a Bollywood flick, and that should put a smile on your mug and some serotonin in your brains. If it’s an enjoyable, light-weight comedy with heart and soul to match, which doesn’t revolve around randy teens screwing pies, you seek, Clerks 2 will serve as a cinematic treat to satisfy those desires.

Meenemen, of hier opeten?

Clerks II opens Thursday at Pathé ArenA and Pathé de Munt.

of humour, the Spanish director now shows us there’s more to life than (just) sex, drugs and travesty. This is a heartfelt story about the long-overdue reunion of a daughter (Penélope Cruz) and the ghost of her mother (Carmen Maura). Fans of Almodóvar’s earlier work might be disappointed that carnal pleasures have been replaced by genuine emotions, but viewers should realise that humanism was just what his films needed. In Spanish with Dutch subtitles.

(BS) 120 min. Cinecenter, Cinema Amstelveen, Pathé Tuschinski

Zwartboek In the closing days of World War II, a Jewish cabaret artiste, Rachel Steinn (Carice van Houten), watches as her hiding place is bombed and her family betrayed to the Nazis. She joins a resistance group (which meets in a morgue) but learns that no one can be trusted. For plotting, thrills and cynicism this is Paul Verhoeven’s best work since Total Recall. It’s not subtle; those waiting for Verhoeven to make another Turks fruit might as well give up now. But as a sexy adventure story with an excruciatingly bleak moral vision, it’s everything we could have hoped. If Soldaat van Oranje showed us complex moral choices, Zwartboek argues that those choices aren’t even possible in the chaos of war. In Dutch / English / German / Hebrew. (JP) 139 min. Het Ketelhuis, Pathé ArenA, Pathé City, Pathé De Munt, Pathé Tuschinski

Amsterdam Weekly

26 October - 01 November 2006

23 And then you do what with your what?!

trying out every piece of furniture, dominatrix Severin (Lindsay Beamish) is punishing her latest client and video artist James (Paul Dawson) shows us that, unless you’re the man from Nantucket, you really can’t blow yourself. Yet all is not well. Sofia, the sex therapist, has never had an orgasm, Severin needs

someone she can talk to and even James feels there’s something missing. But perhaps they can find an answer for all their troubles in Shortbus, an underground salon where everyone’s willing. And lubricated.

At first the graphic sex is a shock: Shortbus shows all, even penetration. Yet it never becomes a porn film. Yes, sex is the dominant theme, but through all the masturbations, ejaculations and penetrations, director John Cameron Mitchell wants to tell a sincere story about three individuals looking for fulfilment in life.

Once you’ve satisfied your own curiosity and have established that—yes—all is real, you can invest your time and attention in the characters. The film spends the most time with the unhappy Sofia, who at one point acknowledges that sex feels like someone’s killing her, and she

Stray Dogs Thur-Sat, Mon, Tues 17.45, 21.30, Sun 15.45, 21.30, Wed 21.30.

Filmmuseum Cinerama Marnixstraat 400, 623 7814, Cinéma Arabe Wed La Ultima Luna Wed 20.00.

Het Illuseum Witte de Withstraat 120, 770 5581 Day of the Dead Wed 19.30.

Het Ketelhuis Westergasfabriek, Haarlemmerweg 8-10, 6 84 0090 China Blue Sat, Sun, Wed 13.30 Forever daily 17.45, 19.45 Into Great Silence daily 19.00 Maurice de Hond: De Peiler Tues 17.00 Ober Thur-Sun, Tues, Wed 17.30, 19.30, 21.45, Mon 17.30, 19.30, Sat, Sun, Wed also 12.30 Het Paard van Sinterklaas Sat, Sun, Wed 15.15 Pretpark Nederland daily 17.15, 22.00, Sat, Sun, Wed also 13.15, 15.00 Zwartboek Thur-Sun, Tues, Wed 21.30, Sat, Sun also 14.30.

Kriterion Roetersstraat 170, 623 1708 Buddha's Lost Children Thur-Sun, Tues, Wed 16.15 Forever daily 16.00 Hedwig and the Angry Inch Mon 22.15 Inconvenient Truth, An Thur-Sun, Tues, Wed 22.15, Sat, Sun, Wed also 14.15 Little Miss Sunshine daily 18.15, 20.15, Fri, Sat also 0.20 Ober daily 20.00, Sat, Sun, Wed also 14.00 Shortbus daily 18.00, Thur-Mon, Wed also 22.00, Fri, Sat also 0.05 Sneak Preview Tues 22.00.

Melkweg Cinema Lijnbaansgracht 234A, 624 1777 The Crippled Masters Mon 20.00 La Double vie de Véronique Thur-Sun, Tues, Wed 20.00 Trois Couleurs: Blanc Mon, Wed 21.45.

OT301 Overtoom 301, 779 4913 Herzog double bill Sun 20.30 Oldboy Tues 20.30.

Pathé ArenA ArenA Boulevard 600, 0900 1458 Afblijven daily 13.05, 15.30, 18.20, Thur-Sun also 10.40 Baas in Eigen Bos Thur-Sun, Wed 12.00, 14.05, 16.10, Thur-Sun also 10.00 Baas in Eigen Bos (IMAX) Thur-Sun, Wed 12.30, 14.05, ThurSun also 10.15 Brokeback Mountain Tues 13.30 Cars (NL) Thur-Sun, Wed 12.40, Thur-Sun also 10.05 Children of Men daily 16.45, 19.20, 21.55, Thur-Sun, Wed also 14.00, Mon, Tues also 13.55 Clerks II daily 18.45, 21.25, Mon, Tues also 11.50, 14.05, 16.25 Click daily 19.10, 21.35, Thur-Sun, Wed also 13.35, 16.05, ThurSun also 11.10, Mon, Tues also 13.40, 16.10 The Devil Wears Prada daily 13.00, 15.45, 18.50, 21.40, ThurSun also 10.20 Don daily 12.45, 16.20, 20.00 Garfield 2 (NL) Thur-Sun, Wed 13.10, Thur-Sun also 11.05

The Grudge 2 daily 17.25, 19.40, 22.00, Mon, Tues also 12.50, 15.05 Hokkabaz daily 18.35, 21.15, Thur-Sun, Wed also 15.10, Mon also 12.20, 15.15 Inconvenient Truth, An daily 15.40, Thur-Sun also 10.50, Thur also 13.20 Jackass: Number Two daily 17.35, 19.50, 22.05, Mon, Tues also 12.40, 15.20 Little Miss Sunshine daily 18.00, 20.30, Fri-Wed also 13.20 De Mierenmepper Thur-Sun, Wed 12.15, 14.20, Thur-Sun also 10.10 Nachtrit daily 18.30, Mon, Tues also 13.30, 16.00 Open Season Thur-Sun, Wed 11.50, Mon, Tues 11.45 Open Season (IMAX) daily 17.15, 19.30, Mon, Tues also 12.30, 14.45 Het Paard van Sinterklaas Thur-Sun, Wed 13.55, 16.15, ThurSun also 11.20 Piet Piraat en het Vliegende Schip Thur-Sun, Wed 12.20, 14.10, 15.50, Thur-Sun also 10.30 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest Thur-Mon, Wed 20.45 Sinav daily 13.45, 16.15, 19.00, 21.45, Thur-Sun also 11.00 Snakes on a Plane daily 21.50 Sneak Preview Tues 21.00 Stormbreaker Thur-Sun, Wed 15.20 De Wilde Bende Thur-Sun, Wed 16.25 World Trade Center daily 21.00 Zwartboek daily 18.15, 21.20, Mon, Tues also 12.00, 15.10.

Pathé City Kleine Gartmanplantsoen 15-19, 623 4570 Afblijven daily 18.40, Mon-Wed 15.30 Baas in Eigen Bos Wed 16.15 Cinekid Thur-Sun The Devil Wears Prada daily 19.00, 21.40, Mon-Wed also 16.00 The Grudge 2 Thur-Mon, Wed 19.30, 22.00, Mon, Tues also 16.15, Tues also 19.15 Hokkabaz Thur 18.15, 21.15, Fri-Wed 18.10, 21.00, Mon, Tues also 15.10 De Mierenmepper Wed 15.45 Nachtrit daily 21.30 Piet Piraat en het Vliegende Schip Wed 15.00, 16.30 Sneak Preview Tues 22.00 Zwartboek daily 18.00, 21.10, Mon, Tues also 15.00.

Pathé De Munt Vijzelstraat 15, 0900 1458 Afblijven Thur-Mon 13.15, 16.00, 18.45, Thur-Sun also 10.30 Baas in Eigen Bos Thur-Sun 10.10, 12.15, 14.20, Thur, Fri, Sun also 16.30 Children of Men Thur-Mon 13.00, Thur-Sun also 10.20, 15.30, 18.05, 20.40 Clerks II Thur-Mon 15.00, 17.20, 19.45, Thur, Fri, Sun, Mon also 22.00, Sat also 22.30 Click Thur, Fri, Sun, Mon 13.45, 16.20, 19.00, 21.30, Thur, Fri, Sun also 11.10, Sat 10.40, 13.10, 15.50, 18.30, 21.00 The Devil Wears Prada Thur-Mon 12.00, 14.45, Thur, Fri, Sun, Mon also 18.15, 21.15, Sat also 17.40, 20.35 The Grudge 2 Thur-Sun 11.00, Thur, Fri, Sun, Mon also 14.00, 16.40, 19.15, 21.45, Sat also 13.20, 15.40, 18.10, 20.30 Jackass: Number Two Thur-Sun 10.10, 12.20, 14.40, Thur, Fri, Sun also 17.05, 19.20, 21.40, Sat also 16.55, 19.10, 21.25

Humanistic sex—you don’t see that everyday. Yet John Cameron Mitchell pulls it off splendidly in his new film.

SEX AND EMOTIONS: A HEADY COCKTAIL

By Bregtje Schudel Shortbus has a great opening: in a fabulously digitised version of Manhattan, the camera peeks into three different households where the inhabitants are committing various sexual acts. While Sofia (Sook-Yin Lee) and her husband are

FILM TIMES Thursday 26 October until Wednesday 1 November Times are provided by cinemas and are subject to last-minute changes. Film times also at www.amsterdamweekly.nl.

De Balie Kleine-Gartmanplantsoen 10, 553 5151 13 Lakes Fri, Sat 20.30 Cinekid Thur-Sun. Cavia Van Hallstraat 52-I, 681 1419 Le Grand Voyage Thur 20.30 Short Circuit Fri 20.30.

Cinecenter Lijnbaansgracht 236, 623 6615 Babel (Cinema Invisible) Wed 21.45 C.R.A.Z.Y. daily 16.00, 21.45, Thur-Tues also 19.00, Sun also 11.00 Eden Wed 19.15 Ober daily 16.30, 19.15, 21.45, Sun also 11.15, 14.00 Tapas daily 16.30, 19.30, 22.00, Sun also 11.00, 14.15 Volver daily 16.00, 19.00, Thur-Tues also 21.45, Sun also 11.15.

Cinema Amstelveen Plein 1960 2, Amstelveen, 547 5175 Afblijven Thur-Sun 13.15, Wed 15.30 Cinekid Thur-Sun No Way Back Sun 19.00 Piet Piraat en het Vliegende Schip Thur-Sun 11.30, Wed 13.30 Volver Thur-Sat, Tues, Wed 20.30.

Filmhuis Griffioen Uilenstede 106, Amstelveen, 444 5100 Mongolian Ping Pong Thur 21.00, Fri, Tues 19.00 The Road to Guantanamo Thur 19.00, Fri, Tues 21.15.

Filmmuseum Vondelpark 3, 589 1400 13 (Tzameti) Thur-Mon 21.45, Wed 22.00 Les Amants réguliers Tues 20.00 Babette's Feast Thur-Mon, Wed 17.30, 19.30 Buster Keaton: Dat had je gedroomd Wed 14.00 Ladri di biciclette daily 19.45 Lotte van Uitvindersdorp Thur-Sun, Wed 13.45 Makkers staakt uw wild geraas Sun 16.00 Novecento Part 1: Tues 17.00, Part 2: Wed 17.00 Q & Q Sat 14.00 Rin Tin Tin Thur, Fri, Sun 14.00

has to pretend to like it. You know something’s wrong when the best she can say about sex with her husband is: ‘It’s great exercise.’ You really feel for Sofia and her quest for the carnal Holy Grail.

As with his debut, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Mitchell displays a refreshingly matter-of-fact view of humans and their urges. People all over the world are having sex, so why not show it in all its splendour? His casting call warned that the participants would have to perform sexual acts, and couples were paired based on physical attraction. Though the sex scenes in the salon are a bit too idyllic (harmony and humping bodies go hand in hand), Mitchell keeps a humoristic view. It shows in both the details—a gymnastic ball on which we see Sofia pulling some impressing stunts turns out to be part of a chair that she uses in her therapeutic sessions—and the dialogue.

When Sofia tells two of her clients she’s pre-orgasmic (unable to achieve an orgasm) one of them gasps: ‘Does this mean you’re about to have one?’

Mitchell’s message is clear: sex shouldn’t be too serious. It would take all the fun out of it.

Shortbus is not as heartfelt as Mitchell’s debut. For one, it doesn’t have any singalongs, except for one musical number aptly titled ‘We All Get It in the End’. But he does show that what he’s trying to do is possible: you can pair sincere emotions with real sex and still be considered mainstream. Will this mean the end for the adult entertainment industry?

Shortbus opens Thursday at Kriterion.

Following Friday’s screening at 22.00 there will be a Q&A with director John Cameron Mitchell.

Mambo Italiano Wed 21.00 Miami Vice Thur-Sun 20.20 De Mierenmepper Thur-Sun 10.45, 12.50 My Super Ex-Girlfriend Thur-Sun 18.35, 20.45 Nachtrit Thur-Sun 17.00, 19.25, Thur, Fri, Sun, Mon also 21.50, Sat also 22.15 Open Season Thur 10.20, 12.25, 14.30, 16.40 Het Paard van Sinterklaas Thur-Sun 10.20, 12.30 Piet Piraat en het Vliegende Schip Thur-Sun 10.15, 12.00, 13.40, 15.20 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest Thur-Sun 15.30 The Sentinel Thur-Sun 21.10 Snakes on a Plane Thur-Sun 18.50 Step Up Thur-Mon 19.10, 21.40 Stormbreaker Thur-Sun 14.45, 17.00 De Wilde Bende Thur-Sun 10.50, 13.10 World Trade Center Thur, Fri, Sun, Mon 18.40, 21.25, Sat 17.00, 20.00 Zwartboek Thur-Sun 10.45, 14.00, 17.10, Thur, Fri, Sun, Mon also 21.20, Sat also 21.30, Wed 20.20.

Pathé Tuschinski Reguliersbreestraat 34, 0900 1458 Baas in Eigen Bos Thur-Sun, Wed 13.00 Burt Munro:The World's Fastest Indian Tues 13.30 The Devil Wears Prada Thur-Sun 12.45, 15.45, 18.45, 21.45, Mon, Tues, Wed also 13.30, 16.30, 20.30 Forever Thur-Mon, Wed 12.20 Inconvenient Truth, An daily 18.00, 20.45, Thur-Mon, Wed also 15.15, Mon also 12.45 Little Miss Sunshine daily 16.00, Thur-Sun also 19.30, 22.00, Mon-Wed also 19.00, 21.30 Ober daily 15.20, 18.20, 21.20 Scoop daily 12.10, 15.10, 18.10, 21.10 Volver daily 13.15 Zwartboek Thur-Sun 12.30, 15.30, 18.30, 21.30, Mon-Wed 12.45, 16.00, 20.00.

Rialto Ceintuurbaan 338, 676 8700 13 (Tzameti) Fri, Sat 23.15 Beyond the Rocks Sun 11.00 The Cave of the Yellow Dog Sun, Wed 15.30 Cidade baixa daily 21.45 Dam Street daily 17.45, 19.45, Sun also 11.15, Wed also 15.45 El amor Sat 16.00 Enfant endormi, L' daily 19.15 Grbavica daily 18.00 Into Great Silence Sat, Sun, Wed 16.15, Sat, Sun also 12.45 Kebab Connection Fri 16.00 Los Suicidas Sat 14.00 Requiem daily 21.20 The Story of the Weeping Camel Sun 13.15 Taxidermia daily 20.00, 22.00.

De Uitkijk Prinsengracht 452, 623 7460 Buddha's Lost Children Thur-Tues 17.15 Forever Thur-Sun, Tues 21.15, Sun also 15.15 Paper Dolls Wed 19.30, 22.00 Pretpark Nederland Thur-Tues 19.15.

Amsterdam Weekly

24

Well, gusta gracious me!

Eetcafe Me Gusta Vijzelstraat 66, 625 4755 Open Daily 10.00-23.00 Cash, PIN, Mastercard The Glutton was deep asleep. A lethal combination of laughter, Cuban rum punch and hashish from the previous night saw to that. He lay curled in a blissful foetal position. His dream auditorium was packed with admiring authors from all past, present and future ages. Pliny the Elder rose to his feet and announced: ‘The Pulitzer Prize goes to...’

The Glutton rose to his feet and waded through the scattered rose petals to thunderous applause. At last—the recognition he deserved!

He slapped a mask of mournful modesty onto his triumphant smirk.

Then the phone rang, exploding his hall of mirrors to a million shards. It was friend, mentor and homie, the wretched Richard Jargons, barking an ear-stunning greeting. ‘I’m at Me Gusta on Vijzelstraat, about to eat one of the best steak rolls in town. Join me.’

After a long, sobering shower, I, a zombie, did.

The ABN AMRO bank has an arcade full of colourful paintings imprisoned in glass vitrines for closed-faced pedestrians to admire. Me Gusta is located on its corner. The enormous, cheerful place is run by brothers Carlos and Berto, who I thought were Porteguese. I later learned that they came from Angola, which makes we exSouth Africans—my cause célèbre for landing here in Holland—neighbours.

My suit-wearing friend had returned to his

THE UNDERCOVER GLUTTON The meat was pot-roasted, soft and very tasty in its piquant sauce. I wolfed it down, despite last night’s gluttony. Ah well, another day, another dish. carpeted saltmine, leaving me to face the menu.

All the tried and tested broodjes were there, with some specials and Portuguese tapas. I went for the recommended steak roll, which costs €3.50.

The meat was pot-roasted, soft and very tasty in its piquant sauce. I wolfed it down, despite last night’s gluttony. Ah well, another day, another dish.

26 October - 01 November 2006

After learning the two brothers had run a hugely successful tapas restaurant for six years and now relocated to this larger space, I asked if it was possible to taste a mixed sample platter of their wares. My other motive was to hear their personal stories. In 1975, they were about to leave Angola. An hour before departure, Jonas Savimbi of UNITA arrived and convinced the crowd—waiting to fly to Portugal via Johannesburg—not to flee. The parents, with their nine- and 10-year-old sons returned home and to the horror of civil war, South African invasion, gruesome experiences, and the possibility of being recruited as child soldiers.

The family left in 1981 (I left South Africa in 1977 to avoid being sent to Angola, the country’s Vietnam.)

But now, with lively Latin music playing in this well-appointed spacious restaurant, my tapas arrived—and arrived and arrived. It didn’t stop all afternoon. Their mother obviously taught them well. I gluttonised on piri piri chicken, papa fritas with a lovely garlic sauce, slivers of succulent grilled steak with lemon to squeeze over, and lots more.

Essentially a lunch café in a busy commercial district, Me Gusta offers specials for dinner and tapas that don’t appear on the menu.

The hard-working brothers strive to give their custumers their all. They cater for parties which fit well into their space and their drinks menu has lethal cocktails for late-nighters.

Sundays attract families, livening up this quiet business area.

The warmth and hospitality are the subtle ingredients that call customers to return. So does an exquisite little pastry called pasteis de nata, a sweet custard tartlet with a caramelised crust that goes well with their excellent coffee. One customer, they said, gets six of them a day. And this time—they weren’t talking about me.

Amsterdam Weekly

26 October - 01 November 2006

WEEKLY CLASSIFIEDS Ads are free, space permitting. They will be posted both to the paper and online. Guaranteed placement is available for a small fee; see our website for details. Ads may be published in English, het Nederlands or whatever language is best for you to communicate your message. How to submit an ad: via our website at www.amsterdamweekly.nl, by fax at 020 620 1666 or post to Amsterdam Weekly, De Ruyterkade 106, 1011 AB Amsterdam. Deadline: Monday at 12.00, the week of publication.

AD OF THE WEEK WANT TO BE ATURKISH GEISA? Lectures include Turkish belly dance and how to be a traditional Turkish geisa? Just call to learn and for nice prices! 06 1447 5658.

HOUSING OFFERED 2E KOSTVERLORENKADE From 1 Nov, 2-bedroom apt for rent for half-year to possibly 1 year.

Furnished, living room, large kitchen, newly renovated bathroom with bath, balcony, washing machine. Great canal view.

Close to Ten Kate Markt. €1000/mth. Please call 616 7720.

JOH-BURG HOUSE Sunny, partly furnished cosy house in trendy Melville.4-bedroom,2-bathroom, ideal for NGO/academic couple.

Verandahs, view of Koppies, Chubb Alarms, 2-car garage, 10m lap pool. Weekly char, gardener & pool caretaker. All incl.

8000 rand. Electricity, water for own account. Available 15 Jan. 3-ROOM PEACEFUL FLAT available. 10 min from Centraal Sta-

tion. Located in quiet suburb of A’dam. Two bedrooms, big living room, kitchen, bathroom, separate toilet. Free parking spaces, close to tram, train, busses, night bus. Available from 29 Oct for 3 weeks. Rent €450 all incl. Call 06 4148 5880.

FURNISHED 3-ROOM APT on Van Woustraat. Separate toilet, bathroom and kitchen. Central heating, calm neighbours, use of washing machine, etc.

From 15 Jan for 3-4 months.

Longer stay negotiable. Looking for non-smoker. €1000/mth incl. G/W/L. Contact chloebijman@hotmail.com, 675 7707.

OOSTERPARK AREALooking for a room? Free from now, €400/mth,12m2, 2 friendly students, living room, washing machine, dishwasher, garden.

Contact us: Marco 061415 0474 or JT 06 1130 4479.

HOUSING WANTED APT WANTEDProfessional couple seeking apt for rent. Ideally €800/mth. Please call 06 2856 3105.

APT NEEDED Quiet Canadian couple working full-time seeking furnished1-bedroom apt in A’dam Centrum or Westerpark.

Available to move in immediately and would like to stay for 9-12 months, max €700/mth incl. A’dam references available. Please email henry_melissa@hotmail.com.

HOUSING WANTED LOOKING 4 APT for period of 6 months. Professional couple require apt in A'dam for 6 months. Responsible, quiet, tidy, non-smoking.

Willing to pay up to€700/mth all incl. Ready to move in ASAP. Email daddysharp@hotmail.com.

I WANT A HOME Working Brit in A’dam looking for studio or small apt from 1 Nov. Registration must be possible. Contact easy.h@easy.com.

ROOM WANTEDDag, my name is Rebeca. I’m looking for a room. I can pay max €350.

Would like a simple place but nice. I speak Spanish and Italian. Email beckyindia@yahoo.es.

DECENT LIVING SPACE Busy,

serious, easy-going, 26 y.o. professional looking for decent place to live. Don’t need really big room. Am willing to pay €300-€420/mth. jefersonmanhaes@hotmail.com.

FLAT WANTEDPortuguese working couple with child looking for 2-bedroom flat to rent. Max €800 incl. Preferably in Oost or De Pijp. 06 1540 2938 or 06 2012 3550.

APT WANTED ASAP in central A’dam area for 2 young women (Dutch & Finnish). Reliable, friendly and quiet. Max rent €800 incl. Minna: 061876 4637 or Lindy: 070 320 6624. minnalehtomaki@yahoo.co.uk/lrav estein@hotmail.com.

HOUSING TO SHARE 2-ROOMS A'DAM WESToffered (bedroom and living room) for €450 incl, or just a bedroom for €350 incl, in A’dam West (5 min to centre). Shared kitchen and bathroom. Internet connection. 8 Nov-23 Feb. Call 06 4841 8247 or email roxyross@hotmail.com.

OFFICE SPACE TO SHARE Suitable for freelancers/small business owners. Singel canal. €390/mth all incl. For photos see www.spheredesign.biz/singel/office/.

DOUBLE ROOM Large, beautiful, sunny, with French doors to garden near city centre. €550/mth. 1 Nov, internet conection, furnished, all modcons, large living and kitchen, stylish, clean. A real must see!

Call Fran on 06 2932 7811.

ROOM 4 RENT DIRECTLYA’dam, big bedroom (+/-35m2) in big apt. Fully furnished or not.

(Depends on the renter.) €550/mth incl in Hoofdoorpplein area.

WORK OFFERED BICYCLE TAXI DRIVER Are you a sporty, outgoing person & want to work for yourself? Do you want to stay fit by working as a bicycle taxi driver? Then contact Geisha Taxi where you get opportunity to be outdoors all day & earn at least €200/day.

Interested? Then call 06 5376 6116/06 1241 5766 or email info@geishataxi.nl.

AMERICAN TOUR GUIDESandemans New Europe GmbH. Looking for enthusiasts of history, A’dam and entertaining to work as tour guides. Earn between €15-€20/hr. Flexible schedules.

Part- and full-time work available. Native English speakers with American accent only. Send CVs or questions to jobs@newberlintours.com.

25 NEW TALENT NEEDEDUS adult production company seeks new talent. Must be over 18, must be prepared to travel and earn thousands. Exotic locations, talented, experienced product in teams, all you need is ambition and drive. Resume and photgraph to Bob Seger at seemeproductions69@yahoo.c om.

PHP-PROGRAMMER Het Persoonlijk ZorgNetwerk is looking for a programmer. Skills: PHP(5), MySQL, JavaScript, HTML and CSS. Two days/wk at our Leidsegracht office. Contact info@pznnet.nl or 717 3347.

MARKETING 2.0 INTERNGet your feet wet in nightlife and PR. Learn about online marketing, social software (you’re already on MySpace, Flickr, Hyves) and help build a hot new online community. Flexible internship can fit your course. Email katie@clubcollective.com for info.

BLOGGERS NEEDEDWant more exposure for your A’dam blog?

Party/club scene website seeks bloggers to interview top DJs and party! Email katie@clubcollective.com.

VERY BIG OPPORTUNITY You can earn the income you desire and have the time to enjoy it! www.myvemma.com/jeanclaude.

SALES PERSON Music company with international roster of artists & productions seeks international sales person to license & market our catalogue. Must be passionate & result-driven,

preferably with sales experience. Genres include rock, house, dance and R&B. Send CV to info@fortressmusic.com.

FOR SALE WINEUnique South African quality wines. Prices range from €4.95-€15.75. We do B2B and B2C wine tastings. Website www.coza.nl or email info@coza.nl.

COLOURFUL HOME FURNISHINGS Recently opened bright & colourful little home furnishings store. Many nice home accessories for yourself or for a gift.

Opposites Attract, Marnixstraat 65D, 612 2605, Open Tues & Thur–Sun. HOLY BOOKS About 100 second-hand spiritual books in French: Buddhism, Vedanta, esoterism & meditation. Price to be discussed. Email natindigo@hotmail.com.

DOG VARI KENNEL Plastic dog crate approved for plane travel. Cream-coloured, extra large (101x69x78 cms), €50. Tel 428 1031.

BIG COUCH FOR FREE I give my couch to the first one to come to Hoogte Kadijk78 and ring 06 4158 3706. It’s a blue 3-sitter, on ground floor. Enjoy it!

MOVING SALE Perfect for students. IKEA 2-person bed, small closets, table + chairs, couch, kitchen utensils, camera, 19’ monitor and other stuff. All must go! 06 4638 3343.

FULL SIZE STEREO with speak-

ers for sale. woek@wanadoo.nl.

Email

RICHIESPORT BACKPACK for computer laptops & for regular use. Interested bulk buyers wanted for the markets and shops.

Call 06 3828 7403 or email richiesport@lycos.com.

BICYCLEI sell good, robust second-hand bike with lock, €60.

Email emilio.j.s.ramos@gmail. com or call 06 5133 8217.

BABY CARRIERAlmost new, hardly used. Deuter ll baby comfort, navy blue with grey. Asking €90, costs €160 new. No rain or sunshield. Those are extra. Contact playapetesays@yahoo.com.

SERVICES ENGLISH MAN WITH VAN can help with removals big or small, in or outside of country. Reasonable rates, quick service.

Contact Lee on 06 2388 2184 or isabelleandlee@planet.nl.

BEST MOVING SERVICE IN TOWN Driver with van (10m3) or truck (40m3) available. Plus extra moving men, hoisting rope and elevator. Any combinations possible. Call Taco on 06 4486 4390, email info@vrachttaxi.com or check out www.vrachttaxi.com.

NEED A STUNNING WEBSITE? Experienced web designer builds professional, unique sites for very reasonable prices.

Online links to past projects available. Contact Jordan: jordangcz@yahoo.com, 06 3034 1238.

Amsterdam Weekly

26 FACIALS IPL ELECT British beauty therapist. 25 yrs experience, cidesco, babtac, anbos, laser hair removal: advanced electrolysis: Brazilian waxing: P8N8 oxygen skin care, anti-age facials, at McTavish Hair Salon, Quellijnstraat 80, De Pijp, A’dam. Contact0640799921orvisitwww.lindayoungaesthetics.com.

HAIRDRESSER English mobile hairdresser in A’dam. Have your hair done in the comfort of your own home. Haircuts starting from €12.50. Please call for appointment on 773 6095.

GRAPHIC DESIGNER& photographer creates flyers, posters, advertisings, business cards etc. Contact 06 2816 3169 or dizzycgro@yahoo.com.

HAIRDRESSING in your house or mine. Haircuts €25, colours €30, highlights €45-€50. Fantastic, creative styles. Phone Andrea 06 1433 5259.

NEED A BABYSITTER? Good for your children, good for your pocket. Just call this girl! 06 1447 5658.

BEST DESIGNS € CAN BUY Our web design services include banners, PHP programming, animations, Flash. If you want to be our client, please send email to office@media9.eu /Media9creativestudio/www.me dia9.eu.

CLEANER I am 23 y.o. Polish girl. If you need any cleaning help contact me: mag.kowalik@gmail.com, 06 1716 0880.

BUSINESS OWNERSWould you

26 October - 01 November 2006

like to attract more clients and grow your business? Grab your free special report: 7 Steps to Attract More Clients in Less Time!

Plus a bonus of monthly profits tips at www.fireflycoaching.com written by Life & Business Coach Stephanie Ward.

Also courses and workshops in personal development.

PERSONAL COACHINGSlender You relaxation for body and mind. Fine-tune your conditioning and maximise your figure. Personal coaching for people with medical or health issues.

1 hour Slender You = 7 hours traditional work out! Slender You is located on Heverleestraat 1. Call 669 6641 for more info.

CLEANING/IRONINGHi. Can you use some nice cleaning and ironing work done in your home?

Then give me a call and I’ll come help you with your mess. References available. Call 06 4365 9790.

YOGA TEACHERReiki healer and self empowerment/spiritual life coach. Visit www.empowerall.eu or call 06 5210 1547.

DOGSITTER Hello! If you have no time to walk your dog give me a call. I can do that for you!

Just call 06 1512 8587.

IYENGAR YOGAClasses in A’dam Oud-Zuid (off Stadionweg). Tram 24 Every Tues 12.15-13.45. Certified teacher. Small group, individual attention given. For further details or to reserve a place, please email rolaine@ xs4all.nl or call 06 4348 9029.

WEBSITED DESIGN Stylish and high quality websites that look great and work well. See www. oliversmithdesign.com for examples. Email studio@oliversmithdesign.com or call 06 1993 2780 for more info.

PILATES STUDIOFully equipped Pilates studio with Reformer, Cadillac, Wunda Chair and Spine Corrector. Improve your strength, flexibility, posture, body awareness and more! Visit www.pilatesamsterdam.nl or call 06 2893 2706. Private lessons only from fully certified instuctor.

HOUSESITTING offered by caring musician who wants to practise in homely environment.

Times negotiable. Email me at rosalynn7@yahoo.com.

EXPATRIAT COUNSELINGcoaching and therapy, for expats by expats. For more information go to www.expatriatecounseling.com.

TAROT READING Want to learn your future? Old mystical traditional Turkish way of tarot. Friendly prices. Send email to make appointment:elcinir@yahoo.com.

POLE DANCERSIt’s a girly thing.

Whether it’s a private gathering

where you and some close friends are getting together to celebrate a wedding or simply a wild moment out with the girls, book our pole dancing bachelor parties. It s hot, it s fun, it’s fitness! www.sexyinstructors.com.

HEALTH & WELLNESS THINKING ABOUT THERAPY? Heighten your quality of life and improve your relationships with the help of a native English speaking therapist. My 20 years

of professional experience and understanding can help you better cope with feelings and sort through stressful thoughts.

Sagar: 06 4626 5412.

NATURAL HEALINGMedical Practice Wassenaar for energy ther-

apy, hypnotherapy and medical herbal treatment. Works for all physical and mental problems and illnesses. For information and appointment contact Bernard Trip on 070 302 0451 or mobile, 06 2865 1610.

CERTIFIED LIFE COACH Realise your own impact, your own goals and sustain them. www.norriscoaching.com or info@norriscoaching.com.

REIKIStressed, migraines, high blood pressure, insomnia, depression or hitting other sour notes? Re-balance your ener-

gy levels and restore health with Reiki. Contact Wolter: 06 1976 6726/www.fixonline.nl.

LIFE COACHGet yourself unstuck and start moving forward to the life you want for yourself. Explore your potential. For free session, email info@thewatersfine.org or visit www.thewatersfine.org.

Come on in, the water’s fine!

THERAPY/COACHING Professional psychotherapy and/or coaching. Bilingual Dutch /English. Look for more information: www.corakoorn-praktijk.nl or 06 1488 1350.

QIGONG - CHI KUNGSmall new group (in English) starts in Nov. Want to feel more grounded, centered, relaxed, energetic?

Get out of your head, into your body? Learn chi kung & standing meditation. Practical, playful, undogmatic & open approach. Individual instructions.7701063, www.chi-kungtraining.com.

PHYSICAL THERAPISTFully-qualified fysiotherapist and masseur will help you with your aches and pains. Call Don on 06 2085 6057.

HOME IMPROVEMENT BUILDING/REMODELING Carpenter available for those small jobs the big builders can’t be bothered with. Carpentry, painting, home repairs, electrical, plumbing etc. Call 06 2141 0628.

NEEDA HANDYMAN?For all your handyworks like plumbing, electricity, carpenting, painting, tiles, kitchen, bathrooms, floors,

Amsterdam Weekly

26 October - 01 November 2006 installations, renovations, technical advice and much more, call the Klus-bus at 06 1899 1782 or www.klusbus.net or info@klusbus.net.

MY BRUSH, YOUR PAINTPainter for hire. English speaking. Quality work, cheap, fast. Residental, local biz. Call anytime: 06 4380 9970 or kooties11 @yahoo.com.

COMPUTERS NEED HELP WITH YOUR MAC? Mac lover helps you with basic setups, minor troubleshooting, install, networking, basic MAC lessons, setting up programs, MS Word, QuarkXpress, etc.

Help with purchasing the right MAC, call Sagar at 779 1926.

PC HOUSE DOCTORSpecialised in virus/spyware removal, H/W, S/W repair, data recovery, wireless, cable/ADSL installation and computer lessons from friendly and experienced Microsoft professional for reasonable price. Contact Mario at 06 1644 8230.

DISK DRIVE DOCTOR Computers aren’t designed to be your friend; they can be the worst of enemies if left to their own devices. You invite them into your home, trust them with your memories, even your livelihood & just when things are going well, they go to hell. www.diskdrivedoctor.com/info @diskdrivedoctor.

MASTER OF PC Computer hw/sw, installations, anti-virus, upgrades, repairs, Windows,

27

MAC, networking. Internet installation, wireless, internet sharing. Good price and satisfactory work. Call 06 4365 9790.

for transport.) Costs: €11/hr private, €7/hr group. For more details you can contact me by email:online.portugues@gmail. com or 06 1115 5859.

MAC/PC REPAIR and graphic design. Cheap! www.autonomous.nl or 468 6197.

DUTCH COURSESNew evening courses starting in Nov, centre of A’dam. €200-250 for 20 hrs.

Visit www.mercuurtaal.nl or call 693 4250.

MASSAGE MASSAGE COURSE Bio-energetic balancing massage course. 3 weekends: 28, 29 Oct; 4, 5 Nov; 9, 10 Dec. A perfect synthesis between skill and self-development. www.tensiontamers.nl or call 06 4128 6040.

3 KINDS OF MASSAGE Relaxation, tantric or chakra healing.

More information at http:// frankiko.boysnetwork.com, email f27036@hotmail.com, or mobile 06 2022 4973.

THAI MASSAGE www.timeforthaimassage.com / 061031 6310. Marco.

COURSES PIANO LESSONS Piano Studio Groenburgwal. Husband and wife team, Dutch/American, have openings in their teaching studio.10 years experience teaching piano to expatriat families at the American School in The Hague. All ages and levels welcome. Call 624 0602.

VOICE MOVEMENT training.

Vocal dance and voice movement integration. Intensive training over 5 weekends from Thur to Mon, total 25 days. Nov 06 to June 07. Course begins 9 Nov. Contact info@patriciabardi.com/06 1203 8733.

TUTORING SAT, IBQuality tutoring,1-to-1 or group tuitions from primary to university levels. Subjects range from calculus, biology, languages, piano to economics and much more. Classes taught throughout week, weekends & in holiday periods.

Contact frimad@tiscali.nl or 06 4797 2998 or visit www.bijleshuiswerk.nl.

DRAWING CLASSES by professional artist, various techniques, all styles. For info call 681 3067 or email joneiselin@hetnet.nl.

YOGAYOGA.NL offers Hatha, Iyengar and Vinyasa Flow classes. Daily morning and evening, in English, in A’dam close to Jordaan. Also classes in the weekend: 3 on Sat as well as monthly Sun workshops. Visit www.yogayoga.nl or call 688 3418.

VOICE WORKSHOP for those who want to make the most of their voice, for professional and amateurs. Central themes: use of instrument, singing and

speech, about breathing, use of the voice/expression. 12,16, 22 Nov. Contact 676 5215, bodyandmind@planet.nl. www.bodyandmind-at.nl.

SPANISH GUITARlessons given by a Spanish native guitar teacher with diploma. Call Robert on 06 2167 8686.

CENTERED YOGAin A’dam Centre. Classes in English and Dutch, close to Leidseplein and Overtoom. Check www.body-linguistics.com. Treat yourself! Try it!

BELLY-DANCE COURSE starts Thur 9 Nov at 19.00 in studio in A’dam West. www.zerzura.info 681 0072 This timeless woman’s dance creates a positive body image, regardless of age or shape.

LEARN TO DJExperienced international DJ offering one to one lessons on how to mix using vinyl, CDs or computer. Reasonable rates and friendly, patient teacher. For more information call Oliver on 06 1993 2780 or email ojs@btinter-

net.com.

LANGUAGES LANGUAGE COACH Would speaking Dutch make you feel better? Call 625 3231 or go to www.talencoach.com.

INTENSIVE DUTCH COURSES are not only for summertime.

At Joost Weet Het! the sun always shines. Our new intensive courses start 16 Oct and 20 Nov. Classes 4 x 4 hrs per week for €7.5 per hour. 2, 3 or 4 weeks course. All levels. Call 420 8146 or visit www.JOOSTWEETHET.NL or email info@aprenderholandes.nl.

LEARNING DUTCH THETHE EASY WAY Joost Weet Het! offers classes on various levels. Learn that easy Dutch grammar in your own rhythm. Fun classes with emphasis on conversation. And, not expensive! 2 months for €200 (evening classes, 2x2 hrs p/wk). Call 420 8146 or visit us at WWW.JOOSTWEETHET.NL. SPANISH COURSES 2 x 2 hrs

per week for €7.5 per hour. How do I become Don Juan in Spain?

JOOST WEET HET! Courses Spanish for beginners and advanced. Fun classes and not expensive! Qualified native teacher! Call 420 8146 or visit us at www.joostweethet.nl.

DUTCH LESSONS Improve conversation or for professional studies, NT2, indiv lessons, €15/hr, intensive courses, online lessons.

Min intensive = €187.50. Adults & children. http://home. tiscali.nl/stylusphant/indexdutch.html, excellentdutch @hotmail.com, Call 06 3612 2870.

IMPROVE YOUR DUTCHLink Taal Studio, a professional way to learn Dutch in private & small groups, starting every week, Vijzelgracht 51-55. For more info contact 06 4133 9323 or linktaalstudio@gmail.com.

APRENDA PORTUGUÊS! Learn Portuguese with native teacher. University studies and experience. Private and group lessons in A’dam. (Outside A’dam, extra

ENGLISH CONVERSATIONI teach beginners who require basic English language skills for travel, work and social situations.

Focus is on speaking, listening, building confidence and using expression. Contact 06 2626 0310 or tefl@europe.com.

GERMAN TUITION Looking for German teacher in A’dam for intensive 1-on-1 classes with beginner. Need to be taken to conversational level. Must be available during the day and flexible. Email marc@fermin. fsnet.co.uk.

FREE FRENCH CLASSESVoulezvous parler francais ? Seances de converation organisees par ex-professeur dans un cafe a Amsterdam pour adultes de niveaux intermediaire et avance.

Seances gratuites. Pour plus d’’informations contacter Marc par email marc@fermin. fsnet.co.uk.

TURKISH language instructor needed. Looking for native Turkish-speaking person to teach me the basics of daily communication. Must speak English as well. Call 06 1720 2400.

NEED ENGLISH TEACHERLook-

ing for economic American English teacher. Need inproove my English. I hate Nazis. Jamie: 06 3825 2932 or Natasha28alic@hotmail.com.

PERSONALS SEEK WIFE and/or common-law partner (will marry immediately) for better union. Aged18-26, any nationalitytolivehere(oranywhere we can live together to start family).Iama36y.o.handsome,athletic, self-employed American Caucasian. Call Jon for serious inquiries: 06 2816 7325.

CUTE DARK MAN with striped hoodie standing on train last Tues at 19.00ish! You got off right before Amstel. I was the foreign girl with 3 noisy friends.

You were probably just staring at my dirty hair, but what’s there to lose? (I washed it later.) auerhoen@hypocrisy.org.

ANNOUNCEMENTS FLIPPIN' HANDSTANDS Come on, you can do it! The first 3 people get a free beer! Weekdays at 19.00, 7–18 Nov on Museumplein between war memorial and row of trees (Don’t eat too much heavy spaghetti.) What’s better than beer and a handstand?

PHOTOGRAPHER Looking for partner (photograher) and/or organization/foundation/gallery to help carry out exiting and very actual photo project (exhibition) about Dutch and refugee children. Contact lashawill @gmail.com or call 06 4927 8645 and ask for Lasha.