Mysteries of life / My biggest secret

Mystery:
When it´s rainy, all the cars get stuck in traffic.
When it´s sunny, it´s overly crowded everywhere: bars / cafés, parks, squares, etc. (Don´t all those people have to be at work or in school...?)

Secret:
Have you ever heard of the Indian Rain Dance? It´s a dancing ceremony, performed by Native American Indians, asking their Gods or Spirits to send rain.

I have the power to summon rain as well, just like the Indians. The only difference is:
- it has to be in a rainy period (of course, I can´t summon rain in the middle of a sunny day)
- I only have to show up outside. There´s no dancing involved.

The Rain Man
During a rainy period, when I am going outside, it starts to rain. Whenever I go either inside or when I take my umbrella with me, it stops. As for the umbrellas I take with me, they all work like a magic-stick / rain preventing stick. They can make the rain go away.

It started when I was in High School. It probably had something to do with the fact that my then favorite Basketball player was Shawn Kemp. They call him ´The Reign Man´. I wanted to be just like him. And now I sorta am...because I am ´The Rain Man´.


- An extremely rare view when I´m holding my magic stick (that sounded quite dirty...) on a rainy day -



- Passion Pit - Seaweed Song - Manners -
In The Man Who Knew Too Much style...an exclusive new beautiful song which really suits this post well, by Passion Pit

Golden oldies

Hi,


- Richard Avedon, self portrait, august 20th, 1980 -

My apologies for the lack of posts. This week has been quite hectic for me already and it's only wednesday! And it's going to be more hectic this weekend! I'll tell you more about it, later this week. Or maybe even next week!


- And of course, another bike picture. :) -

So, I haven't made any fresh & interesting pics lately, but hopefully I will have lots of cool pics for my lovely, loyal readers (you) after this busy weekend. I also notice the decreasing numbers of visits of my blog, everytime I haven't posted anything new....(oh noooo!). So therefore, I'll post some 'older' pics (which were taken between februari and somewhere middle march), instead of letting you wait a whole week for a new post.


- I forgot the name of this person...such a shame, because I really like this portrait! Taken, sneakily, at FOAM Museum -


- Artmarket day!. -

Have a nice week(end)!! TTYL!

Oude Hoogstraat, Amsterdam

I was at the opening of a new exposition in an art gallery called W139.
It was on the same day as when I went to Avedon's exposition :), so you can say it was quite an artful-day for me!



I will post some pictures of the art in this gallery, later this week.

But for now, enjoy the bokeh picture I shot when travelling back home...by bike of course.

Keizersgracht

Okay...one more time. For the whiners ;) .


Keizersgracht
This street is so long. It's unreal! Keizersgracht is one of the three main canals in our city. Of course we have many, many other canals, but the other two main ones are Prinsengracht and Herengracht.
So, if you're loaded then I recommend spending your cashmoney in a huuuge loft in one of these canals. Or if you're just lucky and become an owner of a room or an apartment, for a cheap price...then you can pretend you're loaded and act like you're all that.

Mama en kindje

- Mama & little child -

This will be my last post about bikes. I'm sure my dear readers are all fed up with my pictures of bicycles.


- Taken in the always cozy Haarlemmerdijk. -

But I just can't help it. There are way too many bikers in this city!

Fietsen

'There are nine million bicycles in Beijing
That's a fact,
It's a thing we can't deny
Like the fact that I will love you till I die.'

- Katie Melua



Our bikes get stolen so often...it's unreal! I bet there are about nine million stolen bikes circulating in Amsterdam only. Oh...don't worry. Mine isn't stolen (YET).
But you know what? My bike is almost 12 years old. In the first 11 years he looked shiny and beautiful. And within a year, in Amsterdam, he got all rusty, lights were stolen, tires got flat, making squeeky noises and he's about to break up in separate parts. It's no goody for bikes in Amsterdam...they get OLD very fast.

Gewoon lekker fietsen.

-just riding my bike-

We had such a beautiful light today. But I was a little too late for that. Until around 2pm there's always this special light. I took a picture of that a few posts back.


Here are some pics I took today while crrruisin' downtown.

- Vijzelstraat -


- This was taken while I was just crrruisin' through the city. It's a part of my bike. Can you guess what part? :P -


- Peeking through a hole of cloths. I like spying on my neighbours... -

- And oh yeah, I got me a copy of Paul Arden's book: 'It's not how good you are, it's how good you want to be'.
I already own an Arden book which is called: 'Whatever you think, think the opposite'.. And although I don't agree with everything he says, he did changed a little of my way of thinking when making decisions. -


Have a nice weekend!

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.. -