Everyone creates art. Oh yes.

"Let's go to the Apple Centre!", said my sister.

I said, "say wha........t?". "Apple? Like in Steve Job's Apple?"

"No...", she said. "De Appel. It's a new art exhibition space in the middle of the coziest neighbourhood of Amsterdam: De Pijp." My old neighbourhood.

Of course...I should've known that. Art. As always.

I found this box very scary. As if something was about to jump out and attack me.

Elke dag

Every day

So, you´re at home...making yourself ready to go to work, or school...the gym, liquor store or to a friend, whatever...

But the moment you walk out the door...what kind of thought(s) go through your mind most of the time?


- taken in my old neighbourdhood, de Pijp -

I´m almost 100% sure that everyone thinks the exact same thing... I feel like a head turning hottie today.

But before I tell you what that thought is, I wanna read your comments first. :)

( I check my traffic tracker / blog statistics every now and then, and I know there are a bunch of people out there who never leave a comment! Don´t hesitate! :D )

Ik mis...

- I miss... -

my old neighbourhood.

And I miss my old huge window, where a ray of sunlight would wake me up every morning. Unless I´m still sleeping with my head under the blankets...which I still do since I was a child...hiding for ghosts and monsters. Seriously!


- My previous bedroom window. (I love you! I miss you!) -

Oh yeah. Some more BAD news in JD´s life: (what´s new in my life??) the Master Programme which I´ve applied for: Medier Och Kommunikation at the University of Stockholm (Sweden) cancelled the programme....

So no Stockholm for me anymore. Bummer, I really was looking forward to going back to Sweden. Now I´m going to work on ´Plan B´. I´ll tell you more about that later!

Alle foto´s verloren...

- Lost every picture -

Another bummer in my life: I accidentally deleted almost all of my pictures on my external harddisk from december 2008 until Queen´s Day (April 30th) 2009.

Maybe I should start making pictures with a Polaroid and / or Fuji Instax camera´s... Or just analogue camera´s like the one I really would love to own at the moment: Yashica Mat 124 (or a Rolleiflex!).

Fortunately, this picture was one of a few ones ones that survived the delete-session.

- My ex-neighbour, Rolf, and his friend Aysan (London) posing while selling old stuff on the streets. -

This beautiful Fuji Instax picture was taken by a lady / customer while strolling through the busy streets of de Pijp in Amsterdam, during Queen´s Day...searching for beautiful and antique, cheap ass stuff. Aysan asked the lady if she could take a photo of her and Rolf...I find it such a perfect picture, I had to take of pic of it!

Why am I being punished all the time? Maybe I´m just being clumsy.

Cowboys & Indians party (Part 2)

Hej heyj!

Party 2 of the party!

Click here for the first series.

- Look at the walls! Amazing! -


- Unknown dancing people! -


- 'Someone' & Aysan -


- Kitchen-picture! -


- DJ Mark -


- DJ to the bathroom... -


- Gwenaelle & Nick -
'Toilet for ladies & gents. Please wank, piss, ejaculate, barf, put someone else's head IN THE POT. Don't forget to flush!! Aim straight or clean it yourself!' (My neighbour 'R', asked me to write something on the board. Haha.)


- Dougie!! -

Cowboys & Indians Party - Part 1

Ahhh yeah...,

After almost a half year of no partying in our building, my lovely neighbours from the third floor, 'R.' & 'S.' organised a birthday party (my neighbour 'R.' his b-day was in februari). Everyone got dressed up according to the party's theme: Cowboys & Indians! At first I was like...'oh noooo! I don't like theme-parties!'. But I actually had a really great time with my housemate, neighbours and new (facebook)friends. :P


- The invitation and my outfit at the party: checkered shirt, black bandana, GUN, dark blue navy jeans, white tank shirt. -

I helped out my neighbour with the set up of the party in the afternoon; moving furniture, clean up the mess, etc. He wanted to place the doll (which he found on the street) on the first floor to welcome the guests.

- Miss Little Black Eyed Nellie -

Before you continue, checking out the pics of the party, the first thing I would like you to do is to click on the flashy mp3 player and catch the vibe of the party, which I have recorded.



- Recorded music , vibe, conversations of the party -


- Miss Little Black Eyed Nellie Is Not Satisfied-


- My neighbour 'R' and australian dude 'T'! -


- Just hanging out in the kitchen. There's always a kitchen-party at 'house-parties'! -


-My other lovely neighbour 'S'! Such a sweet chick! (And crazy, I love that!). -


- Crazy peeps! -


- 'G' & 'N' (Australia) (Doesn't he look like this dude from A Clockwork Orange? Creepy shit!)-

Part 2, later this week!

Mama didn't raise no fool

Yeah you read that right! My momma didn't raise no fooooool!

What a coincidence: today, I was flickering for some Richard Avedon pictures in FOAM and found out that the FOAM museum is promoting the Richard Avedon exposition with their posters, which are shown on a few spots in the city.

So, I called FOAM:

Me: Goedemiddag, ik heb een vraagje over de Richard Avedon posters die ik op bepaalde plekken in de stad heb gezien...
- Good afternoon, I have a question regarding the R.A. posters which I've seen in the city on several locations...-
FOAM-lady: Ja...........
- Yes.................. -
Me: Kan ik ze afhalen bij FOAM?
- Can I pick 'm up at FOAM? -
FOAM-lady: Nee. Ze zijn te koop...voor €35,-.
-No, they're for sale...for 43.9786 US DOLLARS / 408.937 SWEDISH KRONORS / 260.731 DANISH KRONORS / 313.127 NORWEGIAN KRONORS / 68.5277 AUSTRALIAN DOLLARS / 56.5494 CANADIAN DOLLARS / 31.0571 GB POUNDS / 341.146 HONG KONG DOLLARS / and the self portrait of Richard Avedon himself are all sold out. And today....the Marilyn Monroe's are all sold out too.

That's friggin' expensive, don't you think?? For a poster...! I couldn't believe my ears.

- Me shouting - title of this post -!!!!!!!!!!!!! - I'm not going to pay €35,- for a (probably very small) poster!!
I bet they're not as big as the ones which are shown all over the city. Because those ones are almost twice as big as your (bedroom)door. For real; I used to have a H&M poster from a busstop...and it was SUPERhuge.


-* I was in the city for HOURS; didn't see 1 poster. Guess what...Right before I wanted to go inside of my apartment, I saw this poster-standing in the corner of my eye and immediately I was thinking about the afternoon, earlier today, when I was flickering for Avedon posters. I was hoping to see an Avedon poster if I would turn around and look straight at the poster standing. My prayers have been heard: Monroe was waiting for me across the street from where I live!! I can see her if I stand in front of the window. (Later on, I went back outside and made some pictures of her. This poster-standing is standing across a café and a lot of people were looking silly at me (they couldn't see the poster, as they're looking at the back of the poster-standing) because I was really excited and acting like a photographer who is ***shooting pretty girls outside of a fashionshow) -

They're for free...in the city. All you have to do is:

1. Wait for the posterman, who is going to exchange these beautiful FOAM-posters with some other poster.
2. Throw a brick against those bus stop poster-frame thing / other poster-standings which all over the city...and just take 'm all out!

I want to do # 2. But I'm going for #1, because I can see Miss Monroe right now...and I'm going to get up extra early, wait in front of my window for the posterman...And when I see him, I'm going to run outside and ask him if I can have every Avedon-Foam-poster. Yay.

**I want this one.
(Bob Dylan)
**And this one.
(SOLD OUT self portrait of Richard Avedon)


* Picture by Me
** Pictures by Jarr Geerlig
*** Picture by Joris Bruring

Vleugels

- Wings -

One day I came home from work...and I found this beautiful necklace on the floor in the hallway.


- Heart-anchor and two wings of an angel. Or from a bird. Hm, probably an Angel. Yeeaaaah.... -

It's my sister's...she can be such a slob sometimes. And she blamed Mimi for taking it with him out of her room to the hallway, by accident. Hahahahahaha...haha. Maybe he just wanted to fly, so he can catch some birds (he's really interested in birds; he just stares at them for a loooong, long time through the window):


- Birds (potential food for Mimi), taken on a quiet morning on jan 1st, 2009, Frederiksplein. -


- It didn't really suit my outfit... -

Dag, dag zus

edit version

- Bye, bye sister -

So my sister is moving out of our apartment (which is located in the coziest neighbourhood of Amsterdam: De Pijp):
- She's going to move only 10 minutes away from me (by bike of course) -


- Close the door behind you, willya?? -

...and is really busy packing all of her books, magazines, artwork stuff, shoes and a gazzillion pieces of clothes and of course her most important possession: her cat Mimi (a male cat with a girlie-name. He really lives up to his name because he's acting all gay all the time.).


- He loves ropes...and in this picture he just caught a piece. You see him smiling? -

I'm going to miss Mimi A LOT...but on the other hand...not really. I always say to him: TTYN!! (talk to you never!!), everytime he peed in the house. Yuck!!


- Mimi, looking for a place to PEE...ALWAYS on the lookout. It's unreal how much he can pee. Sooo unreal. -

My sister already found a new housemate for us (me and my sister's friend J.)...his name is Scott.

HANWATTYL! (Have A Nice Weekend And Talk To Y'all Later)

Stiekem

- sneaky -





Amsterdam, van Woustraat, sunday afternoon.

Ik hou van pakketjes

'I love packages'

Yesterday, I received a package. It was THE package with the new lens. The 'Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II'!


- I just luuuuuuve opening a package. -


- And now, I have two lenses. One of 'm is...f****d up! -


- First picture ever with this new lens. It's a picture of my old 18-55mm lens. Goodbye, you're going back in a box.-

Soon-ish, I will post some more interesting pictures. Please be patient. Thank you!

Slecht nieuws

- bad news -

Some more bad news for me. My lens has broken in parts as I have accidentally dropped my bag (with the camera inside) on the road while waiting for the traffic lights to go green.

So no fresh pics 'till next week as I have ordered a new lens. More money spending like water...I'm so broke as a joke, it's unreal!

Here are some pics I've made yesterday while walking around my neighbourhood. It's also the very last day of my 'living' lens...which wasn't broken yet.


- This is a cute little store on the famous 'Albert Cuypmarkt', in Albert Cuypstraat. :) -


- Welcome to my...'district'


- Part of my street -

Doe het zelf

Do it yourself

Well, I got lost in my own house while chasing the cat, Mimi, and all of a sudden I was in my sister's room and found an old issue of Self Service Magazine (# 26) with the very beautiful Chloe Sevigny on the cover! Shot by David Sims. Well, actually...she was not only shown on the cover, almost this whole issue was Chloe Sevigny-ized.


- Chloe on the cover of Self Service (Magazine) -




Polaroids with only French actresses!



- I'm out of Photography / Graphic Design inspiration. Next time...more original pictures!!

Do you have a favorite magazine(s)?

Chagrijnig

- being cranky / bad mood -

Oh nooo...2009 already started bad for me. I have received The Blue Envelope from 'De Belastingdienst' (tax company). Which means good or bad news. OF COURSE it was BAD news for me and now I have to pay A LOT of taxes...Bitches! I was gonna save up some money for a new iMac but nooo.
I have to pay almost one third of the price of a new iMac. Boy oh boy. It's hard being Jack Daniel. Always struggling in life.
(I also had a flat tire, so I had to bring my bike all the way to a bike...thingy! Bikestore / Bike-repare-store / Bike-garage.)

Anyways. My sister cheered me up by telling me all these stories of people she knows being in bigger (financial) problems than me and took me to a nice place called Latei. Perhaps my fellow blogger and only regular Dutch visitor of my blog, The Man Who Knew Too Much, knows this cozy place. He probably does...hence his name. He knows a lot...

Check out these pics I made during my crankyness-mood to happiness-mood. Amsterdam is the right city which can make you smile again, even when you're in a very depressing mood and struggling hard to survive.
Thanks Mokum!


- There were these different lamps (for sale!) hanging on the ceiling. -


- Cups, boards, plates. Almost everything you see in this lunch / breakfast place was for sale. -


- Then, after lunch we walked into an unexpected Asian event: I think the Dragons are supposed to move the bad spirits out of the houses. But only the places where they had how do you call this in english? for the Dragons. -


- Hanging up the food which the Dragons had to eat. -


- Cute Dragon. -


- My sister. Scared like a mouse of what's coming up next! -


- Firecrackers! -


- And then we moved along. Walking over the little bridges to cross the canals. -


- Of course, we came across lots and lots of bicycles! -


- Almost near our place. This picture (of Sarphatistreet) was taken when we were walking through Sarphatipark.. -