I have been tagged...!

- By The Man Who Knew Too Much -
Thanks dude! Also many thanks for giving me a Fabulous Blog Award. Haha.

You can find the questions and answers by clicking on the comments link. I want to use this space for a picture;

This was not taken in de world famous Red Light District. It's a street I always have to go through when travelling home from my internship. It's waaay less crowded in this location than the real RLD.
(edit: of course you can look for the same thing, just like in the real RLD, only in this street there aren't as many choices. :P)

Goedkope boeken om de hoek

- Cheap books around the corner -

Question for the non-Dutch visitors: Can you pronounce the title of this post?

:D

These were taken on the night when me and my friend Danique came back from a Lykke Li's concert, last december.
Before we went inside, we took a look, right around the corner from where I live, at some old books that are always placed on a stand, outside of the booksellers house...
Yes you read that right! Books, just placed outside of the house...and the bookseller is sleeping (INSIDE of course!)!
(I think he lives on the first floor, because there are only paintings and books in the room on the groundfloor.)
I still don't know where he gets his books from, because there are always new books (second hand, perhaps even third hand) everyday.


- If you look at the window...you can see books and an artpiece behind it... -

If you want to become the owner of the book, just shove a Euro coin through the mailbox and it's yours. Of course you can steal allll these beautiful books, because there's no one on the lookout, the bookseller is not watching you with a camera or standing behind the window 24/7. That would be ridiculous.

He trusts his 'customers'. It's a bit contradictive because there is a saying about Dutch people: 'If it's free, we take advantage of it'.
But not here...that's why I LOVE my neighbourhood. It's the best part of Amsterdam. I'm sure my fellow countryman 'The Man Who Knew Too Much' doesn't agree. Haha. Or maybe he does...

Anyhow:


- The text on the left sign says: 'each book €1,- S.V.P. (french for 's'il vous plait meaning 'please') €1,- in the mailbox'. ' 'Open every saturday from 2 until 6 o'clock'. And the right sign says: 'Everything €1,- a piece!' -

My sister keeps coming home with new books almost every day. Hahahaha. And I'm disciplined enough not to take a look at them, everytime I walk pass by these lovely babies when going to the supermarket... 

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!

Lekker dansen tot je erbij neervalt

- dance 'till you drop -

So me and Dennis aka The Man Who Knew Too Much (way, way waaaay too much) went out shooting.
Yes, we went out. Shooting.

So, as you all know (I'm talking to the readers who've already seen and read Dennis' blog about this night) at the beginning of the night, there was a concert by Einstein Barbie. I didn't expect them to be this good. I really, really liked their music. Actually, their live performance was more uplifting and funky than the music you can listen to on their website.

For more pics. Just check out Dennis' blog. Or...you can just stay on my blog and check out the pictures all over and over and over again. :)

Have a nice day!

And remember, no regrets this year, okay? It's only the 5th day of this new year...take risks! My year already started bad. But...when looking at these pics, you can tell I've also already exprienced some very, very good moments.


- Blowing bells. -


- When I was taking this picture, people were shouting and getting crazy about this solo-part of this lil lady. She was amazing. -


- She was cuuute. -


- Rocking boy -


- And all of a sudden...out of nowhere, there were these dancers on stage...dancing like there was no tomorrow. -


- Girl, boy, girl. -


- Martin Duvall aka Martin C. de Waal -


- A boy. Yes...a boy! Getting down on a girl...on stage. How lovely! -


- It looks like three different pictures, photoshopped in one. But that's not the case right here. It's one picture and the colours aren't added in photoshop either (Lights in the club!). Sometimes, blurry pics are niiice! This one is actually one of my personal fave's! It reminds me of a fashion shoot of photographer Steven Meisel's student. I can't remember his name-

Special thanks to The Man Who Knew Too Much for making my day.

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.. -

Nieuwe ronde, Nieuwe kansen

Yeah, 'New round, New chances! It's 2009. Let's do it all over again.

Oh my LORD. What a night. I celebrated New Years Eve with friends starting with a nice dinner and booze. I'm glad we didn't had any fireworks because most of us were quite drunk at twelve. We would've blown our hands off, for sure.


- One of my mates bought some very nice thin cigars...I'm not a smoker. But yesterday, I smoked (a half!!) one. (This is not a 'blunt'!) -


- My friend, Eva, lives on the third floor so we had a good view! Yeah, sorry it's not a sharp picture but I had to be very fast for this one. If you look closely, you can see the trail of fire. :) -


- This was somewhere else. Me and a friend were going to this other party where his girlfriend was. But a lot of people were about to leave to a bar somewhere around the corner. So...they left us with a lot of drinks...hahaha...oh boy. -


- The place had a great view of the 'Maagdenbrug'. -


- My mate's girlfriend...drunk as hell! We didn't expect that, so we stayed there to take care of her. Poor thing. I fell asleep until 9-ish in the morning and around that time, we all decided it was time to go back home. -


- It looks like they had a party on this bridge! I hope no one fell off from this bridge into the water. But later that day, I heard on the news that they found a body of a man in one of the canals... -


- Fireworks... -


- Bikes -

If you reach the year 2010, I hope you're going to look back to 2009 with no regrets. Live your life to the max because it will be all over before you know it.

It's Kwistmus!

explanation of the title of this post: that's what my sister said the whooole time


- What time is it? -


- 'It's Kwistmus time!!' -


- With one Bonbon to share with the whooole family! (Just kiddin'...) -


- And then it was time to go back to Amsterdam -


- Goodby boring Ede. It was okay to see you again. But I love my parents who are still living in this lil-nothing-special-to-do-getting-bored-and-getting-violent-very-easily-town and it was good to see them again. -


- Hello Amsterdam. I love you. -

Cousin in Amsterdam

My cousin from Doetinchem (a place, waaay back in the east of The Netherlands) came to visit me in Amsterdam. And of course I had to show him around town!

Well...here are a few pics I made tonight!


- Near the famous 'Spui square' -


- Taken near the huge warehouse called 'De Bijenkorf' -


- Close up shot! -


- Taken in de cozy Utrechtsestraat -


- Damstraat -


-Dam -

Well, me and my sister are going to visit our parents tomorrow...'cause it's Christmas!
Happy Holidays to all of you...!

G/L/A/S/S/C/A/N/D/Y

Karl Lagerfeld likes their music. (Picture by The Sartorialist)

It's Glass Candy (Portland, Oregon, USA) y'all. With the very beautiful, sexy voiced Ida No and producer Johnny Jewel. I've been to their concert a few weeks ago in Amsterdam's 'Paradiso' club. Their music is a mixture of 'Electro-pop/Italo-Disco', if I'm correct...:) I've been constantly playing their album ('B/E/A/T/B/O/X') over and over again, ever since I got it...for free (they threw a bunch of CD's into the crowd!) at their concert.





Here, you can read an interview with them and also listen to a track called 'Miss Broadway'. Check it out.

And also listen to the track called 'Candy Castle', which they've mentioned in the interview. Just click on the 'play' symbol........haha.

Can you imagine those models walking down the catwalk in Karl Lagerfeld's designs while 'Candy Castle' is playing in the background...?

Wandering 'round the house.

Yesterday...,


- I was sitting on bed...and decided to take some pictures of my room -


- My sister was really nervous about today. Because she was going to the selection-day of an Art school here in Amsterdam. But she passed!!! And is now going to the next round. This little piece of drawing is about a Bird Of Paradise which is captured by something...I can't remember what those things are, around that black bird. -


- And this one is taken through my bedroom window -