It all started in Amsterdam, more than two weeks ago. I landed, went to the tourism office to pick up my transit and museum pass, and went to my hotel. It was easy to find, in spite of what a bunch of whiners on TripAdviser had said. Mind you if I’d arrived after business hours I might have found it a little trickier. In any case, I dropped my bags, went to a market to get some water and snacks (MUST have snacks in one’s hotel room!) and then passed out for a couple of hours, jet-lagging pretty hardcore. I woke up and had a snack, had a shower, double-checked my transit instructions, and went off to see Radiohead.

I got there for the second song, it was immensely crowded, and the Dutch are very very tall people. I have no idea what the stage looked like, or what the venue looked like, really. I found myself surrounded by tall people, who were smoking tons of cigarettes, drinking beer, and (and this is the only one that really gets to me) talking. Talking a lot. About anything and everything, at full volume, and I said to myself, that’s what you get for arriving so late, you’re in the back with the people who don’t really give a damn about the concert. So I didn’t stay for the encored, since I couldn’t see anything anyway, and I could feel the jetlag wall approaching at high speed. I was also very afraid to miss my last tram back to my hotel, and be dopy and jetlagging and trying to find a cab. Didn’t seem like a good plan. But I could hear the 1st encore as I walked back to the bus stop, and it was sweet.

The following days, I went to a couple of museums, walked around, etc., and some of it’s documented in previous posts. Here are some of the pictures I took: I love the architecture there!

gargoyle

Rijksmuseum

pardon?

houses

I’ve been raped by a moneychanger. I thought CAD 1.62 for 1 euro was bad when I dropped Scott off at the airport. I thought CAD 1.74 for 1 euro was theft when I was leaving for Europe. I thought .68 at Schipol was incomprehensible so I didn’t even go there.

Today I paid CAD 1.86. There was no commission as my amount was large enough to qualify for “today’s special” and when I said ECHT! that’s a horrible rate! to the man, he said the US dollar was dragging ours down. I said we have NOTHING to do with that dollar, we’re rock fucking solid. He said don’t change small amounts, the fees will add up. I said DUDE THAT WASN’T A SMALL AMOUNT FOR ME. He said try living with euros all the time. Well but I don’t earn euros, I only earn dollars. And I suck for not buying a whack of euros a week ago, I’m thinking that the “July holiday season” has created an artificial shift in the rate.

OUCH.

FUCK YOU, MONEYCHANGERS!

So yeah back to the all-Currywürst-all-the-time in Berlin plan, babies. But that’s OK, I love teh Currywürst.

In other news, I went to the gallery where Stanley Donwood’s stuff is being exhibited before the moneychanging incident, and while the cheapest prints were already sold (the only ones I might have talked myself into buying), I did buy the book. And the artist was there, too, although I didn’t talk to him. I had seen him in the café across the canal from the gallery earlier and thought “Is that Stanley?” but I’m not one of those OCD Radiohead people (no, really, stop laughing: I’m not) and I really wasn’t sure what he looked like.

There are minotaurs there, kids, and there were some OKC-era prints, and I was sorely tempted, but in light of the later money reality check, it’s really just as well.

So I have the catalog of the exhibit (OKC and Kid A and Eraser and In Rainbows stuff; I don’t know that there was any HTTT stuff?) and I got an overpriced t-shirt (YOU USED TO BE ALRIGHT/WHAT HA_PPENED? or some variation on that typography, too lazy to look) (well it’s going to be available for the same number of dollars, but not until August, I am a SUCKER) and that’s the extent of my Radiohead buying for this album. I must insist.

But it’s all good.

Oh and when I was wandering the arty quarter there, I stopped in to this one place that was showing Alan Macdonald stuff. I’m not in that loop so I’ve never heard of the guy, but WOW, he does these neat mashup things with double-take sorts of images in classic styles (Rembrandt or Goya influenced, e.g.) and then words from pop songs, um one was from The Doors’ The End; another was The Sounds of Silence; the really cool one in the window that sucked me in I can’t remember. Perhaps a New Order song? While I suppose they might pall in time, seriously, if I had cash I would have grabbed a couple of them, most were already marked sold and I thought they were a bargain. I would love to be able to support an artist like that.

I’m in Amsterdam, saw first Radiohead gig of five this summer last night, may possibly survive jetlag, and promise to write more later, and possibly even post some pictures

Right now I’m off to a couple of museums and maybe a canal boat cruise, while the sun shines.