Amsterdam Weekly: Vol 5 Issue 31, 14-20 Aug 2008

Volume 5, Issue 31

14 - 20 AUGUST 2008 ‘Perfect matches are boring…’

The Cucumber Standard

Page 6

FREE

www.amsterdamweekly.nl

‘We are going to Nowhere’ In Oost, there’s a community centre for untroubled youth. Page 8

FEATURE

PROFILE

3 QUESTIONS

AGENDA

The heroes of absolute zero gather and talk a lot of gibberish.

Author Richard de Nooy’s facts and fictions from here to South Africa.

Violinist Candida Thompson on rocking, mellowing and loving.

A week of classical music on canals and street dancing in a park.

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Page 10 and onward...

Amsterdam Weekly_14-20 August 2008

In this issue and...

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City Seconds

11/08/2008 - 18:32 - BIJLMERPLEIN

By Peter Cleutjens

At the hip community centre Nowhere in Amsterdam Oost, the youth have the opportunity to explore their freedom in a variety of workshops—from breakdancing to sneaker pimping. How wonderfully new school. Meanwhile in De Pijp, the city must now contend with its first declaration of a ‘free state’ since the 1980s. Last month, squatters took over an unused lot on Rustenburgerstraat 438-440 and dubbed it SWOMP (‘Slimme Woonwagenbewoners Op Mooie Plekken’). Living in campers and offering gardening lessons, the five residing ‘swompers’ are welcoming neighbours, journalists and ‘everyone as long as they’re not cops or government’ to enjoy their little patch of vrijstaat. They hope to transform the barren land into an ‘ecological experimentation terrain’ where they can give workshops on climate-neutral living.

How wonderfully old school. Course, if you’re looking for proper beard scratching hippyism, it’s that Landjuweel time again, with a shiny, happy village erupting way out west this weekend. Even rain won’t be able to shit on that parade, unlike the mucky Lowlanders. So shake off your shackles. If the Georgians and Russians can manage a hug, so can we.

Features Inbox Chinese Olympics . . . . . . . . . 4 Nature Calls Parakeets . . . . . . . . . . 4 News Absolute Zero . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Amstergraph Urban crime . . . . . . . 5 A Quick Bike Fix Hoge Sluis . . . . . 5 Street Fashion Mix-and-match . . . 6 Report The Rijks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 The People Versus Oud-West . . . . . 6 Profile Robert de Nooy . . . . . . . . . . 7 Main feature Nowhere . . . . . . . . . . . 8 3 Questions Candida Thompson . 13 Lekker Bezig Magneetbar . . . . . . . 16 Film Review Savage Grace . . . . . . 17

Agenda Short List 10 / Music 11 / Clubs 12 / Gay & Lesbian 13 / Stage 13 / Events 13 / Art 14 / Addresses 16 / Film 17 / Film Times 19

Plus The Mouth La Fournil . . . . . . . . . . . 20 A Night in the Life Proef . . . . . . . . 20 Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Eefje Wentelteefje . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

On the cover Photo by Sarah Nankin sarahnankinphotography.blogspot.com

Next week Decay tourism

Contact Amsterdam Weekly Publisher Yuval Sigler Director Todd Savage Editor Steve Korver Agenda Editor Steven McCarron Film Editor Julie Phillips Copy Editor Mark Wedin Editorial Assistant Sarah Gehrke Art Director Bas Morsch Summer Style Guru Simon Wald-Lasowski Production Designers Mattijs Arts, Russell Joyce Account Managers Marc Devèze, Simone Klomp Classifieds Kate Hutchinson Distribution Manager Patrick van der Klugt Finance Eugene Moriarty Printer Corelio Printing

Amsterdam Weekly is published every week on Wednesday and is available free at locations all over Amsterdam. Subscriptions are available for €60 per six months within the Netherlands and €90 per six months within Europe. Agenda submissions are welcome, at least two weeks in advance. New contributors are invited to visit Amsterdam Weekly’s website for contributor guidelines. Contents of Amsterdam Weekly (ISSN 1872-3268) are copyright 2008 Amsterdam Weekly BV. All rights reserved.

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Amsterdam Weekly_14-20 August 2008

AROUND TOWN

Inbox

Olympic feelings of the Chinese

Nature calling

By Mark Wedin

Submitted by: Yieme Wu Function: producer and radio programmemaker, Chinese Radio & TV (www.crtv.nl) By: email Date 12 August Subject: Re: Chinees Amsterdammer Who said Chinese are reserved and don’t express their feelings? These descriptions are more suitable to describe the Dutch rather than the Chinese. With a social gathering of more than 200 Chinese and Dutch gathered together to watch the Opening of the Olympic Games in a Chinese restaurant in Amsterdam, you could see some real expressions. ‘I felt so proud to be a Chinese and it really moved me.’ ‘When I heard the Chinese national anthem, I couldn’t hold my tears.’ Besides feelings of pride, there was much happiness about the recognition China has earned with its ‘Grand Opening to the World’. In those moments a lot of Chinese guests just held their breath and enjoyed. Meanwhile, the Dutch guests didn’t seem touched at all. Of course, the Olympics always ignite national feelings, so it is obvious that the Chinese will feel much more for this edition of the Games. But besides that, why was there such a great difference in human feelings? Maybe there was even a ‘greater’ reason for the untouched attitude of the Dutch. They must have been thinking in their ‘noble’ way about human rights, Tibet, pollution or any other subject not directly related to sports. That’s why they couldn’t share the happiness. If they share the opinion of the Dutch Prime Minister, they must have been thinking that way. Even at a meeting with the Chinese Prime Minister two days after the ceremony, the Dutch statesman felt the need to raise the question of human rights in China. What was he thinking? Did he say that because he really feels that much involved, or was he just again following the flock?

Last year China has been attacked in all possible ways in, especially, the Western media. Certainly, China has a lot to improve and still has a long way to go. But it’s not realistic of the West to compare China with its own standards. It shows a lack of self-reflection and sympathy towards the history of China and the Chinese. Also you can doubt about what motives Western countries have. They want us to believe how perfect they are compared to China. The West can be so hypocritical in its perspective that China may be a world power—a threat. Westerners are being brainwashed in their thinking. Perhaps that’s what is causing the drift apart between Westerners and the Chinese. At the opening we saw a lot of fireworks, the result of one of the inventions of China, ammunition. Chinese used ammunition to produce firework to ban vicious ghosts. The West used ammunition to produce weapons. Nobody will remind us of that kind of information, because everything in the West is supposed to be good. Instead, they use everything around the Olympics as an opportunity to show off.

They are eager to emphasise their own so-called legitimate visions and integrity, especially in opposition to China.

Many Chinese are correctly proud of China. They experience and enjoy the Olympics as sports. The Dutch and the Chinese would understand each other more if the countries would cultivate more mutual understanding and respect. And the Olympics is the perfect opportunity to practice this.

Got an opinion? We want to hear it. inbox@amsterdamweekly.nl

Image by Harm van den Dorpel

Pretty, loud Polly Sitting somewhere in Vondelpark remains one of the best places to see—and to hear—small waves of emerald green birds, swooping in to one tree or another, squawking and shrieking to their heart’s content, and then, after a good five or ten minutes, they’ll fly off, all at once, to another tranquil spot where they can make some more noise. Flocks of feral Rose-ringed Parakeets have been living contentedly in Amsterdam since sometime in the 1970s, when, as most experts agree, owners who kept them as pets simply let them go. (The raucous animals can, understandably, become rather overwhelming, especially in a small city flat.) Once out, those initial pairs gave birth to the first of many wildborn generations that would successfully adapt to life in our busy canal town. Casual observers are often surprised that these exotic birds are able to survive in the Netherlands’ cold winters but even those real winters we used to have in the ’80s and early ’90s posed no serious threat. And in fact, this should not be a surprise.

Though the parakeets are originally from tropical lati-

tudes in Asia and Africa, many groups of them inhabit the foothills of the Himalayas and various other locales where temperatures can drop dramatically. Furthermore, of all the parakeets, the Rose-ringed species is one of the few that is able to adapt to a variety of habitats, including highly urban areas. You’ll find them in large cities throughout Europe, Israel, Florida and even smoggy, congested Los Angeles (where, rumour has it, they escaped in the 1930s from a movie set). Whether walking through the dense jungles of India, or traipsing through our own semi-urban jungle, these parakeets are easily the loudest bird around, and they’re likely to remain for quite a long time.

Thanks to Remco Daalder, stadsecoloog.

Got nature tips? naturecalls@amsterdamweekly.nl

Amsterdam Weekly_14-20 August 2008

AROUND TOWN

Low temperatures

By Jules Marshall

100 years of Supercool Scientists are coldly going where no man has...

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Google this...

‘servicegericht steenkolenengels’

Amstergraph Registered criminal acts per 1000 residents, 2007

-273.15 °C ow temperatures are definitely hot right now, though it’s safe to say they will never be cool. That’s my take-home from last Thursday night’s public lectures, delivered in the RAI Auditorium to kick off a week-long shindigslash-get-together of the world’s smartest physicists.

The subject—in effect, a whole new branch of science—of the very cold (as in a degree or two above absolute zero), when gases condense into weird-acting liquids, was born a hundred years ago at Leiden University by Heike Kamerlingh Onnes.

Honestly, it is inherently fascinating stuff, and the practical applications of superconducting superfluids will likely be the cornerstone of our post-industrial medicine, power generation and supply, transport and whole new practical fields as yet barely imagined. But it is such hard intellectual work to grasp that despite outreach events like this, it is never going to be anything other than a minority interest.

So why should we give a damn?

Besides supercooled supermagnets being the core technology for all sorts of 21st century technology, from MRI scanners to Maglev trains to nuclear fusion reactors, there’s the ‘wow!’ factor.

Very low temperatures lie at the heart of what will be the biggest scientific instrument ever built, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Fourteen years in planning and construction by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) and costing around eight billion euros before any experiments are even conducted; the LHC is an order of magnitude more powerful than any other particle accelerator built so far. It will use an incredible amount of electrical energy to accelerate a pro-

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ton to near the speed of light, using extremely powerful magnets to bend its track into the path of a similar proton moving at the same speed in the opposite direction, then measure and track what happens.

The cool down of the whole LHC has taken nearly 18 months and used five tonnes of liquid nitrogen a day, but on 10 September a new age of discovery will dawn. Or the fabric of time and space will be rent asunder and the universe destroyed—if you believe the internet wackos. Either way, mark your diary for what is sure to be a proud day for humankind.

Philippe Lebrun is head of CERN’s Accelerator Technology Department, and his lecture was designed to tell a lay audience how it came to be built, how it could be justified and why we should be excited by the prospect. To do so, he had to take us on a lightning historical tour of particle acceleration and superconductivity.

Just as Van Leeuwenhoek’s invention of the microscope in 1670 opened up a new window on nature, ‘we will see something with it,’ assured Lebrun.

Scientists from around the world will be able to look at smaller sub-atomic particles than ever before; the leptons and quarks that comprise the atomic nucleus as postulated in the Standard Model of physics, proposed in the ’70s, that has served science so well but which still has some glaring omissions in its explanatory power.

Like: why are some particles 12 orders of magnitude larger than others?

How do particles get their mass? How does gravity fit in the theory? It could also provide the data from which the grand quest of modern physics—the

unification of all the forces into a single theory that explains the underlying concepts of everything—is finally found.

After a list of even more potential benefits, Lebrun outlined some of the mind-boggling facts that come with the LHS construction. So first they had to figure out how to make superconducting Niobium-Titanium alloy filaments 0.05 mm wide, spin them with incredible accuracy into 1 mm wide cables, 7500 kilometres of which were then wound together and lowered in 15-metre segments into deep caverns and connected with 65,000 electrical joints to create a huge magnetic circle that can exert the weight of a jumbo jet on anything passing by.

This circle is bathed in helium cooled to 1.9 Kelvin (-271 Celsius, colder than deepest space), at which temperature it becomes a superfluid; a frictionless liquid with uniquely strange properties, contained by 40,000 cryogenic junctions.

Around the ring, in four locations, are massive detectors, such as the ATLAS— 44-metres long and weighing 7000 tonnes—the data from which will be pored over by 2000 scientists from more than 30 countries. This is Big Science on a newly global scale.

But as the evening continued, my notes soon become a gibberish of BoseEinstein Condensates, Cooper pairs and fermions. I was out of my depth.

But at least I felt cool for trying.

More info at: www.lt25.nl lhc.web.cern.ch/lhc www.williamhenry.net/art_dis-cerning.html

Rotterdam - 140 / Maastricht - 149 / Eindhoven 150 / Utrecht - 162 / Amsterdam - 170 Source: Centraal Bureau van de Statistiek

Graph by Nicole Martens

A quick bike fix

By Pete Jordan

Hoge Sluis Riding westward on Sarphatistraat onto the Hoge Sluis to cross the Amstel, water runs down the gutter towards me. On this hot day, water is cooling the bridge’s roadway. As I approach the spouting spigots, the cyclists ahead of me contort their legs to prevent their precious shoes or ankles from being splashed. Pussies, I think. It’s hot. Who doesn’t want their lower extremities cooled off? The feet are the body’s air conditioners! Keep them feet cool, and so goes the rest of the body. So, unlike the worrywarts ahead of me, I’m looking forward to being splashed by cold river water.

But then, just as I reach the first spigot, an image rushes through my brain.

Once, my wife and I sat on a bench along the Amstel and watched brown water briefly shoot out from a houseboat’s pipe into the river. I started to ask, ‘What’s that brown—?’ Then I realised what it was.

Eew!! And now, as I cross the Hoge Sluis, the spigot is about to spray me. I think: Brown water flowing into the Amstel, pumped up onto the bridge—and now about to splatter me. Ack!!

I throw my legs up high over my bike’s cross bar. I look ridiculous and can’t even peddle. But I’m relieved that I’ve remained dry.

Anyway, this is the last summer before the Hoge Sluis is renovated. So enjoy the spigots while they last!

React: bikes@amsterdamweekly.nl

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Amsterdam Weekly_14-20 August 2008

AROUND TOWN

The people versus...

Street fashion

By Floris Dogterom

By Mo Veld

The perfect mismatch

Illustration by Tomas Schats

Just another new office or prestige object?

From the very beginning, the development plans for the historical old tram depot at Bellamyplein in Oud-West have caused turmoil. The plans include a cultural centre consisting of a cinema, a theatre and a museum; 300 apartments on the present location of the stadsdeel offices; plus office space for the displaced city bureaucrats. Many local residents fear that these changes will result in increased traffic and loud visitors in their quiet and already densely populated neighbourhood.

One of the residents who opposes the new city offices is A. Hoog, who said, ‘The stadsdeel authorities say they need a new place because the present building doesn’t offer sufficient working conditions for the civil servant anymore. But I think it’s more about erecting a prestige object. Furthermore, it’s very likely that in the near future Oud-West will merge with other stadsdelen.

So we don’t need a new building anyway.

Also, three hundred new apartments will mean much more traffic in one of the most polluted parts of town.’

Interim stadsdeel chairwoman Yvonne Lammers responded by saying: ‘The old building has in fact become too dark and cramped for the personnel. More important, however, is that we move the office and create room for new housing. And we have taken a possible merger with other stadsdelen into account. The new stadsdeel hall will be designed in such a way that we can easily sell it, if necessary. As to the pollution the new situation will create: we are staying within the limits as stated in European laws.’

I don’t know. On the one hand it seems like Oud-West does a great job in preserving a wonderful piece of historical industrial architecture and turning it into a valuable cultural centre for the neighbourhood and the city at large, while throwing in some extras in the form of much-needed housing and such. But on the other hand, I have the same feeling I always have with stadsdeel politics: that of village politicians with a desire for leaving a legacy. Even those with the best intentions have a tendency to miss the mark.

More info: www.de-hallen.nl / www.ronddehallen.nl Something to report? thepeopleversus@amsterdamweekly.nl

As I have mentioned before, fashion people like myself—and most of my circle—suffer from an advanced form of style-neurosis. I know people who would rather miss the plane than go through the gate in a mismatched outfit. I am not joking.

This condition seriously influences our everyday lives. When we have our private panic attacks in front of the mirror, time ticks away even faster than when it does while working in the garden. The planned outfit, which seemed like such a good idea when we were in the shower, doesn’t always work out like we envisioned it. That’s probably why they call it ‘fashionably late’ when we are, once again, way over the officially allowed ‘Amsterdam 15 minutes’.

One of the main causes of our panic attacks are about colour coordinating our mix-and-match outfits.

I know, most people don’t even give it a second thought—anything goes with jeans or khakis and white sneakers or black leather shoes, right? Wrong. Especially if you want to make an appearance that will actually make heads turn. Colour coordinating is a fine art, especially today when we no longer buy complete outfits from one collection by one designer. That is officially passé. It’s the equivalent of buying your complete interior from one Ikea catalogue. Modern life is not that simple. We don’t

live in a classic 1960s movie. Today we embrace chaos. The proper way to colour coordinate now basically means it has to be totally off, but still mysteriously balanced. Perfect matches are rigid and boring; they are plastic and cheap like all those things made in China. It has to be inimitable, personal and poetic.

And poetry is not easy to pull out of your closet every morning. It takes time (one thing the average Dutch person doesn’t allow themselves) and a well developed right side of the brain (another thing the rational Dutch hate). The good thing about this secret colour code is that it is one of the few things that keeps fashion alive. That is until H&M picks up on it and in three months’ time every Tom, Dick and Harriett will buy into it with zero sweat.

H&M shouldn’t bother. All we should do is more impulsive second-hand shopping—Amsterdam is still a heaven for that—and then rush over to HEMA to pick up Photo by Mo Veld somewhat similar coloured socks, then head home and throw in something else nearly matching, et voila. Quick ’n’ dirty, without a second thought, just as we Amsterdammers like it.

React: inandout@amsterdamweekly.nl

Amsterdam

By Floris Dogterom

Rich decorations in the Rijks First it was this year. Then it became 2010. And the latest promise by its board is that the completely renovated Rijksmuseum will open its doors to the public in 2013, ten years after the kick-off of the mega operation. In the meantime, the Rijks keeps doing its best to attract visitors. The masterpieces are on display in the Philips Wing; in September the Hard Hat Tours will recommence, during which the public can have a peek at the progress of the renovation work; and this summer you have the chance to look at the mouldings in the staircases, the Entrance Hall and the Gallery of Honour.

The present decorations have been freshly painted since over the course of time the original 19th-century mouldings disappeared under layers of white paint, which were applied in accordance with the prevailing taste in the 20th century.

With help of the original designs and stencil plates, and historical photos, the rooms of the museum have been returned to their original state as much as possible.

The decorations are part of the Gesamtkunstwerk—integrated work of art—the Rijksmuseum is, designed by master architect Pierre Cuypers. Depicting floral motives, leaves and animals like

lambs and camels, the mouldings in flat red and green cover the lintels, walls and arches. In the Entrance Hall, at regular intervals are the letters ‘W’ and ‘E’. They represent the then King Willem III and his wife Emma, who, ironically, never visited the Rijks, not even on the opening day in 1885. The anti-papist Willem didn’t approve of the Catholic Cuypers as the architect and refused to ever set foot in the building.

In the Gallery of Honour the decorations have only been reapplied above the lintels, the horizontal beams bearing the names of such famous 17th-century painters as Paulus Potter and Gabriel Metsu. The walls will remain subdued because, as the sign says, the works of art are best viewed against a plain background.

Seeing these decorations is not all that spectacular. But they are beautifully painted, and it’s probably the last time you’ll ever get a chance of seeing them at close quarters without having to first knock down a busload of Japanese tourists.

More info: Cuypers’ Decorations, Sat-Sun, 12.00-16.00, Rijksmuseum, free. Until 31 August. www.rijksmuseum.nl

Amsterdam Weekly_14-20 August 2008

ast week it was announced that Richard de Nooy’s debut novel, Six Fang Marks & a Tetanus Shot, won the Johannesburg University Best First Book Award. His novel tells the gripping, bizarre tale of two South African brothers who end up in Amsterdam where one, ever accident-prone, is left paralysed after an encounter with a tram.

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PROFILE: RICHARD DE NOOY

SIX FANG MARKS First-time novelist Richard de Nooy talks about writing fiction, prizes, South Africa and Amsterdam.

By Amal Chatterjee

How did it feel to win the award?

We were crossing the border from Sweden to Denmark at the time. My wife read me the message and I felt I was Prince of Denmark for a while... I floated through the country! Actually, I didn’t even know I was in the running but getting the recognition is fabulous. The award is unique in that it covers all genres, fiction and non-fiction alike. The first thing that came to mind was how it will help me to move forward— which I also find annoying at times because I’d like to be able to just enjoy the winning.

Richard de Nooy Born: De Bilt, 1965 Author, translator, editor http://richarddenooy.book.co.za

You were born in the Netherlands though...

I was born near Utrecht and we moved to South Africa when I was four. I grew up there. Mine was a colonial family. I have half brothers and sisters who were born in Indonesia. My father managed a tea plantation there and was one of the last to leave at Independence. It was the colonial lifestyle, the warmth of it, which took him to South Africa. I went to English schools there. My mother said her English was good but her Afrikaans wasn’t, so she’d be better able to help if we studied in English.

What brought you back to the Netherlands?

Military service. Or, rather, avoiding it. After school I went to Rhodes University, Grahamstown to study journalism. It was an eye-opener.

For the first time I came into real contact with black students.

I hadn’t been politicised before, even though my family was generally liberal, but at Rhodes everything was pretty politicised. We were forced to take a stand on political issues. There was a State of Emergency at the time and you could see the smoke rising from the trouble in the townships across the valley. So in my third year, I renounced my South African citizenship and came to the Netherlands. I spent six years studying psychology at the University of Amsterdam, started writing for the faculty magazine and rediscovered my love of writing.

Tell us about the book. Is it fact or fiction?

Both. It’s semi-autobiographical in the sense that some of the events did happen. My brother was accident-prone in his youth, so some of the incidents are true.

And the book is set in places where I lived in South Africa and Amsterdam. I’m intrigued by the fine line between fact and fiction and by the differences between people who choose to act and those who don’t. The ones who act, like Rem—one of the book’s main protagonists—have a kind of heroism, a freedom from fear.

But there’s also a psychopathic element, an absence of conscience, which gave me a dark hero, a flawed one.

It’s written like an autobiography...

To keep the reader guessing, to wrong-foot them. At the end, without giving it away, I present them with a dilemma, to make them reassess what they’ve read. I provide new information that sheds new light on what they’ve read. I leave them guessing what is real and what is imagined.

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Photo by Stefanie Grätz

What keeps you here?

The immense diversity of the city.

People have a broad range of interests and are generally well travelled, which means you can discuss a wide range of topics with them. And I love absorbing culture via restaurants.

‘I’m intrigued by the fine line between fact and fiction and by the difference between people who choose to act and those who don’t.’

How was it received?

The critical response was good.

Besides the Johannesburg University prize, it received an honourable mention for another award and made the long list for the prestigious Sunday Times award.

South Africa isn’t a big market, but it has been picked up by readers in the US and the Netherlands. I’m looking forward to seeing how the Dutch translation does.

have already been published as columns in GQ magazine in South Africa and in Bunker Hill in the Netherlands.

What are you working on right now?

The second instalment of the three-part series. It isn’t really a trilogy, though. The second part is told in a completely different way but it involves the central character from the first. Excerpts from the third part

Are you South African or Dutch?

Both. Being away makes me more South African though.

I have a Dutch wife, Dutch kids, a Dutch lifestyle, but since the book was published I’ve been drawn back to South Africa.

Finally, anything you don’t like about Amsterdam?

[Laughs.] People who come to the city with the idea that anything goes. They don’t understand that freedom in Amsterdam means you do your own thing but you don’t bug other people. And the gentrification of the centre of the town. It used to be a place where yuppies and punks lived side by side but now there’s a sense that the ragged edges are being pushed to the margins.

Six Fang Marks & a Tetanus Shot (Jacana Media) is available at Waterstones and Athenaeum.

Zes beetwonden en een tetanusprik will be published in September by Nijgh & Van Ditmar.

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Amsterdam Weekly_14-20 August 2008

F E AT U R E

Nowhere going fast Forget dusty pool tables and broken vending machines: the youth club of the new generation is all fresh ’n’ funky.

By Sarah Gehrke / Photos by Sarah Nankin

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‘Here you get a chance to share your passion. This is not only for handing knowledge over. It’s also for passing on the love.’

he entrance hall of Nowhere is painted bright red.

In the corner stands an old piano; most of the time someone’s playing ‘The Flea Waltz’ on it. If it’s a Monday night, however, it’s harder to hear: the music coming from the room next door—where a break-dance workshop is being held—is far too loud.

Walk into this room and you’ll witness quite a spectacle. Twenty-odd participants are practising their best moves and showing them to each other, resulting in much laughter, cheering and applause. All of them are pretty good. Some, simply amazing. The workshop runs for four hours but not to a strict schedule. The youths walk in and out as they like.

‘People just like to come in and do their own thing for a couple of hours,’ says Honey Eavis, one of the two dancers who lead the workshop. Eavis doesn’t only work for Nowhere, but also at dance production company Don’t Hit Mama, which is located upstairs in the same building. She says that there are actually two workshops taking place at the same time in this room. One’s the break-dance workshop and the other a pre-production dance class. The latter prepares anyone who’s interested for the dance production group, which will form in autumn, and which, it is planned, will result in one of the many public performances that have come out of Nowhere so far.

But for now, it’s all about freestyling. ‘At the moment, we’re just looking at who would be interested in taking part in a production and giving them the opportunity to get started,’ Eavis says.

‘Many of them just enjoy doing their stuff without further commitments.’ She points at two guys, who stand next to each other in front of the mirror, working on a few synchronised routines. Each sequence is ended with high fives—if it has worked out—or a little fit of laughter—if it hasn’t. ‘Those two,’ says Eavis, ‘are a good example. Nowhere would love to have them for the production, but at the moment they’re just happy like this, doing what they do when it suits them.’

‘The atmosphere,’ says Juvat Westendorp, one of the participants in the break-dance workshop, ‘is unlike anywhere else.

That’s the most important thing at Nowhere.’ Westendorp is 19, in training to be a watchmaker, and came to Nowhere two years ago, through a friend. ‘The people here don’t watch you all the time.

They just let you do your thing. But they also give you the chance to take part in productions. With break-dancing, it’s usually hard to get to do public performances if you’re not part of a crew. Here I have the opportunity to do that.’

Marjolein Kassenaar, who takes part in the same workshop, agrees. ‘It’s a pretty casual vibe. You don’t have to strictly follow the lessons. At the same time, the instructors are really good—this is more than some low-key neighbourhood centre. And while at the moment I don’t really mind that this class is sort of vague, I’d like it if it ultimately led to something.’

‘The vibe’ is the number one reason people name when asked why they come to Nowhere, including Jan Boonstra, aged 18. He’s coming here once every two weeks, all the way from Friesland, because of ‘the vibe, and because it’s a good training spot. And, of course, because of the name—it’s fun how people look if I say to them, “I’m going to Nowhere.”’

Meanwhile, in a room across the hall, things are a little less jumpy, though by no means quieter. The singing class, hosted by soul and R&B singer Karima, helps participants develop their voices and work on the songs they’ve chosen. Karima has a successful professional music career, but enjoys escaping the music business every once in a while. ‘For me, it’s nice to see how honest and passionate those guys I teach are. Professional singers are often pretty blasé, and in this business, it’s very easy to get stuck on your own little island. Here you get a chance to share your passion. This is not only for handing knowledge over. It’s also for passing on the love.’

Amsterdam Weekly_14-20 August 2008

F E AT U R E

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Pressure-free hanging Located in a former school building in Oost, close to Javaplein, Nowhere offers workshops and production groups, organises performances and events, and also works on various projects with schools. They have a studio, a theatre, a dance studio and a professional recording room—all for use by Nowhere members. You just have to pay €15. Oh, and be between 15 and 25. This is, after all, an organisation for the youth.

‘This is no school,’ says Karima. ‘You can come here to deepen your interests or hobbies, and to find out more about yourself. It’s pretty relaxed; low-threshold. But if you’re ambitious and talented, it can also be a real stepping stone.’

So whatever happened to good old-fashioned adolescent hanging out? It’s certainly not happening here. ‘The people who come here,’ says Thomas Nijhuis, one of Nowhere’s programme directors, ‘come here to do stuff. We don’t have a walk-in function; we’re no youth workers. We don’t offer a space to just hang out.’

Instead, the idea behind Nowhere is to offer activities that appeal to a wide range of people. ‘It all started out in 2002, when Gemeente Amsterdam decided to found a few cultural youth centres,’ says Michel de Rooij, director of Nowhere. ‘Two thoughts were behind that. Firstly, there were so many things happening for youths with problems, so a lot of money went into that. On the other hand, nothing was being done for the 90 per cent of young people who weren’t plagued by serious problems. Secondly, there weren’t enough places in the neighbourhoods outside the centrum.

‘So they gave me the commission to develop ideas for a cultural youth centre. I knew it had to offer challenging and very wide-spread opportunities. The thing about typical people between 15 and 25 is that they have all these identity issues going on. Many of them then try to find their identity in different subcultures. And if you do that, of course, participating in something else is exactly what you don’t want to do. That was the challenge we were confronted with. So we tried to look at in which respects they were all similar. The solution was to offer the widest possible range of things to do with our workshops, to get the inspiration for them from youth culture and to make sure they’re given by professionals—preferably successful ones.’

Masterful classes ‘I’m really proud of the people who are or have been participating here,’ says Nijhuis. ‘We’ve managed to have people leading workshops here who are not only very dedicated, but really successful in what they do. We had Kid Sublime give a DJ workshop and there was a rap workshop by the rapper Complex. And our ‘Real Music Masterclass’ [where participants get to write, record, produce and perform their own song] is taught by the R&B singer Caprice.

‘The workshops are going really well, but our projects with the schools are really successful, too. And we’ve organised so many events, for example the Column Festival [also in collaboration with schools] or the Poetry Cruise. And this year we’ll even be at Uitmarkt. So, yes, I’m really happy with the way things are going.’

‘The Column Festival was one of my favourites,’ adds de Rooij.

‘It was supervised by Pieter Hilhorst of de Volkskrant. We went to several schools and had a columnist competition. The best ones were read at the festival. It was really interesting to see the plurality of opinions that came to light, and how the participants coped with having to accept all these different opinions.

‘But what we’re going to do at Uitmarkt is also really exciting.

We’ll have five of our people perform, each together with an artist of their choice. For example, Shailesh, one of our break-dance guys, will have a performance with Ramana, a magician. In addition, each of the five has also worked out a route of their favourite spots at Uitmarkt, listing their personal recommendations. I feel that this is a project very typical of Nowhere. It makes Uitmarkt more transparent, and at the same time it makes our people more visible to the visitors of Uitmarkt. It’s one of the key things that Nowhere is about: to give our members the opportunity to show themselves to the city, and at the same time to show the city to them. It’s why we try to get out there as much as possible—we’ve also held events at Foam and at De Appel.

‘But at the same time, we try to be very low-threshold and without pretensions, and we do that by offering a multi-levelled programme. You can come here to really pull something off. But you can also come here to just mess around a bit and follow your hobby.’

Rebecca Lobry agrees. She gives private voice coaching and singing lessons at Nowhere. ‘It changes. Some people come here to prepare for auditions. Others have a daytime job, or study, and just

‘The people here don’t watch you all the time. They just let you do your own thing.’

do this for fun.’ A professional singer (at De Engelenbak) and recording artist herself, Lobry says she particularly enjoys helping people prepare for performing: ‘Many have never performed live before, so they get really nervous. So you not only have to work with them on their singing, but also on their self-confidence. In the end, they’re always really happy with what they’ve accomplished.

And that’s what you’re doing it for.’

But you needn’t have to want to sing or dance or rhyme to visit Nowhere. You can also come here to make your trainers pretty.

Alex Klerk, aka Lexflex81, is a designer and professional sneakers customiser. ‘Singing and dancing are connected to physical gifts, to a certain extent. You’re probably not going to attend a singing workshop if you can’t sing. But customising and design is something you can learn. It’s going pretty well, too. This is already the second workshop I’ve given here. And, yeah, I think Nowhere’s a great organisation. They’re really enthusiastic and involved. And they let you lekker do your thing.’

So, if you’re between 15 and 25, and you’d like to be doing something with music, dance, poetry, fashion or styling, you might want to pop out to Oost and take a peak inside. If you find yourself falling outside the age range but still suffer pangs of jealousy, there’s always a fake ID. Or maybe you can schmooze your way in with a passionate rendition of ‘The Flea Waltz’ and some smart break-dance moves.

More info: Nowhere Madurastraat 90 www.nowhere.nl ikbennowhere.blogspot.com.

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Amsterdam Weekly_14-20 August 2008

AGENDA

SHORT LIST

Photo by Mathijs Mentink

Party Time by Zomergasten, Thursday, Theater Noordkaap/Schram Filmstudios

THURSDAY14 AUGUST Lecture: Harry Smith Harry Smith was a diverse and influential figure in the New York art scene for four decades, but his exploits as an archivist of American traditional folk music, experimental film-maker, artist, record collector, occultist and all-round bohemian figurehead deserve a greater attentive audience. That’s where Peter Krynen and Hans van den Berg step in, as they present a ‘live documentary’ in which Smith’s rollercoasting, surreal life and the immense impact of his work on pop and rock music will be revealed. (Luuk van Huët) De Nieuwe Anita, 20.30, €5.

Stage: Party Time One of the conveniences that wealth can offer is seclusion. You can sit cosily in your rich people’s club, eat cucumber sandwiches, say meaningless things, and not give a shit about the outside world. Not even if there’s a war breaking out. Bit of a shame that some won’t be able to make it to the club tonight though, due to ‘traffic hindrances’. In their production of Party Time, one of Harold Pinter’s more recent plays, Zomergasten let the audience actually inside the club that is normally reserved for the selected few. The interaction goes as far as making the actors serve drinks after the play is over. And maybe, hopefully, some cucumber sandwiches, too. (Sarah Gehrke) Theater Noordkaap/Schram Filmstudios, 20.30 (dinner at 19.00), €7.50 (including dinner €15). Until 24 August.

Stage: ISH ISH is a theatre company that was founded in 1999 with the aim of making productions with disciplines that haven’t been seen on a theatre stage before—using inspiration that comes from the street, or from TV, or from comic strips. Their newest performance includes breakdance, human beatboxing, and inline skating. Well, okay, these are not really disciplines that have never been seen on a stage before. Malicious tongues might even mention Starlight Express at this point. But let’s not be malevolent—this performance will surely be a bit funkier than that. And if you find out that you don’t like it after all, you’ll still be in Vondelpark, which offers enough distractions. (Sarah Gehrke) Vondelpark Openluchttheater, 22.00, free.

SATURDAY16 AUGUST Classical: Grachtenfestival The secret’s out. The theme of the 11th Grachtenfestival is ‘secretive’, which is the starting point for composers and musicians to produce a programme brimming with sneak previews, secret tales and lesser-known or seldom played works. Sounds intriguing. Like the rockier Lowlands may prove to be a wash-out this weekend, this classical music celebration is based outdoors and thus threatened by thunderstorms and downpours—the preferred concept is a baking hot August, beautiful sunsets over the waterways and inspiring music performed on floats or in other memorable venues. Still, much of the music is free, there’s loads of variety and if the weather gets too nasty, there’s always offerings indoors. Oh, and they have the perfect starting point tonight: Heinrich Marschner’s Der Vampyr, at Muziekgebouw. (Steven McCarron) Various locations, 21.00, various prices. Daily until 24 August.

FRIDAY15 AUGUST Event: 1950 Volt A multidisciplinary ‘festival performance’ about post-war Holland. And what a strange time it was: Television as the newest sensation. Fear of communists. Rock ’n’ roll and Hawaiian pop. Expect all this and much more, with works by Eddy Christiani, Louis Andriessen, Wolfgang Wijdeveld, Henk Badings, the Tielman Brothers, Harry Mulisch and others. The whole shebang is thought up and directed

by Adriaan Reinink and takes place outside Amsterdam, in an idyllic manor in the village Linschoten—maybe in the hope that the spirit of the Fifties is still preserved there? Or maybe it’s just because they needed that much space to fit in all this event has to offer? Probably it’s best to come and see for yourself. (Sarah Gehrke) Huis te Linschoten, 20.00, €30/€35. Various days until 31 August.

WEDNESDAY 20 AUGUST Classical: Yuri Bashmet A bracing contrast to this summer’s Tchaikovsky love-fest at the Concertgebouw, tonight’s visit by The Moscow Soloists, with conductor and solo violinist Yuri Bashmet, features works by two gruff titans of 20th century Russian music. From Stravinsky, Apollon Musagète and the Concerto in D for chamber orchestra will climb high points from the composer’s middle period, while offerings by Shostakovich will range from his First Piano Concerto (1933) to the last thing he ever wrote, the 1975 Viola Sonata, here played in a transcription for larger forces. The evening is a canny overview of consistencies and developments, played by folks for whom both history and training serve to make it matter. (Steve Schneider) Concertgebouw, Grote Zaal, 20.15, €31/€36.50.

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

Amsterdam Weekly_14-20 August 2008

AGENDA: MUSIC

Must see: Soul

Saturday 16 August Classical: Amsterdam Sinfonietta See Friday.

Tonight the classical ensemble gets lost in Amsterdam folk music, with help from singer Karin Bloemen and pianist Wijnand van Klaveren. Families can also take in a couple of child-friendly performances earlier in the day. Concertgebouw, Grote Zaal, 20.15, €26/€36.50 World: Diego’s Umbrella, Son 5 Mexi-Cali gypsy pirate polka from San Francisco. Imagine The Three Amigos with guitars, but then amend that to five. Fantastic support from Son 5 with their Amsterdam meets South America celebratory folk dance numbers. Winston Kingdom, 21.00, €6 Reggae: Luciano Jamaican roots reggae of a spiritual nature. Melkweg, The Max, 21.00, €26 + membership Heavy: Punk Night Hardcore and punk sets from Waking the Death, The Shining, The Works, Death Token (DK) and Citizen’s Patrol. Grrr. Argh. OCCII, 21.00, €5 Soul: Juice Box Boogie rock and R&B/soul showdowns from this Amsterdam dancefloor filling act.

Maloe Melo, 22.00, €5

Sunday 17 August Classical: Amsterdam Sinfonietta See Friday.

Tchaikovsky’s The Seasons, with Porgy Franssen. Concertgebouw, Kleine Zaal, 14.15, €21 Classical: Amsterdam Smartlappenkoor Well, not so much classical as traditional Amsterdam songs, performed outdoors in De Jordaan by this mixed choir.

Beware, they can coax a tear from a glass eye. Jonkerplein, 15.00, free Classical: Amsterdam Sinfonietta See Friday. A world premiere by Dutch composer Fant de Kanter, Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto in A, and Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir de Florence. With pianist Ronald Brautigam. Concertgebouw, Grote Zaal, 20.15, €22.50/€26.50

Photo by Matt Rogers

The Budos Band

Punk: SS Decontrol Straight-edge hardcore punks— and heavy metallers—from Boston. Whether this is the real ’80s deal is another matter, as while it features original singer, David Spring, the ‘reformation’ is void of any other original members. Melkweg, Oude Zaal, 20.30, €11 + membership

Paradiso, Kleine Zaal, Thursday 14 August

Singer-songwriter: Sing In Out! Four female singersongwriter sets from Susan Zeegers, Barbara Breedijk, Katbite and Merel Hutten. KHL Koffiehuis, 21.00, €6

Instrumental Staten-Island Afro-soul. This extensive and funky crew are signed to Daptones Records. Their standard arrangement is 11 members, though occasionally increases, so provided they pass all visa checks and can afford the airfare, it should be a noisy blast. 22.30, €12 + membership

Singer-songwriter: Sunday Songs Weekly slot with surprise guests. Some days it’s sweet and touching, other days you get what you pay for. Take a chance.

Studio K, 22.30, free

Monday 18 August

MUSIC Thursday 14 August Jazz: Aura Bakker Trio Jazzy pop dinner concert.

Badcuyp, Zuidpool, 20.00, €4/€9 World: Anúna Irish folk and old Celtic traditional songs performed by this melodious choir. Concertgebouw, Grote Zaal, 20.15, €17.50/€21 Hiphop: Michael Franti & Spearhead Not as disposable as once thought, the former leader of The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy and political wordsmith, Franti is still trying to change the world with his funky and soulful hiphop songs. There’s never a hint of bling at his shows, but audiences lap up the grounded performances, hinging on energy, smiles and full-on sing-a-long participation. If you sit back and expect Franti to do all the work, you’re missing the point— and the fun. Paradiso, Grote Zaal, 20.30, sold out Pop/Rock: Fools Gold Amsterdam Britpop from The Looks, plus additional sets. Winston Kingdom, 21.00, €5 World: Patio Rochet Salsa from Panama. Badcuyp, Noordpool, 21.30, €8 Rock: Claw Boys Claw Old school Amsterdam psychedelic rock ’n’ roll. Cafe Pakhuis Wilhelmina, 22.00, €10

Friday 15 August Jazz: Trio Peter Beets Friday night double bill from the swinging pianist and his band. Concertgebouw, Koorzaal, 19.00, 21.00, €13.50 Festival: Sellabration 08 Local music biz entrepreneurs pat themselves on the back with a night of international live bands. We haven’t always been the biggest supporters of Sellaband, the concept where bands sell a stake of their music to fans online.

But hey, headliner is Electric Eel Shock, the Japanese garage metal group, and you can never go too far wrong with them. Other acts include T-ka (FR), Julia Marcell (P), SolidTube (AU), Confused5 (AU), So What, Maitreya (NZ) and Mysti Mayhem (US). Paradiso, 19.30, €10 Classical: Amsterdam Sinfonietta A special Amsterdam Sinfonietta weekend kicks off here, marking 20 years of the homegrown ensemble. As always, violinist Candida Thompson leads the way, with fellow violinist Julian Rachlin joining for tonight’s Russian programme. Over the weekend various guests will feature. Hardcore classical fans can also take in a free interview with Thompson in the Koorzaal at 18.30. Concertgebouw, Grote Zaal, 20.15, €22.50/€26.50 Pop/Rock: 3xLive Diverse guitar rock sets from Hoover, RubyQ and Cool Zero. Winston Kingdom, 21.00, €6 World: The Herb Spectacles There’s simply not enough of the Herb Spectacles in the Amsterdam scene these days, but good on them for making a live return in August, when, ideally, their smoking mariachi grooves make the greatest impact. Maloe Melo, 22.00, €5

Mariachi maestros: let The Herb Spectacles spice up your life on Friday.

Classical: Concerto d’Amsterdam Performing Geminiani’s Het betoverde woud and excerpts from Purcell’s The Fairy Queen. Vocalists include Barbara Hannigan and Marcel Beekman. Concertgebouw, Grote Zaal, 20.15, €22.50/€26.50

Tuesday 19 August Classical: Kammerorchester Basel Cellist Pieter Wispelwey guests for renditions of works by Raff, Tchaikovsky and Brahms. Concertgebouw, Grote Zaal, 20.15, €22.50/€26.50 Singer-songwriter: Open Mic Hosted by the Amsterdam Songwriter’s Guild. Cafe Sappho, 20.30, free Experimental: European Sound Delta There’s been a lack of experimental sounds this summer. If you’re in desperate need of a fix, this Muziek Kapot Moet! special features electro punk, dance and sound poetry from the US and Hungary. Guests include John Sinclair, Joachim Montessuis (actually performing from Hungary), Bone Rattle, Yours Truly and Blue Shift. OCCII, 21.00, €5

Wednesday 20 August Classical: Yuri Bashmet The violist is joined by the Moskow Soloists, pianists Katia Skanavi and trumpeter Vladislav Lavrik for two Stravinsky faves and two Shostakovich works. See Short List. Concertgebouw, Grote Zaal, 20.15, €31/€36.50 Funk: Hipdrop Live session featuring members of Cmon & Kypski, Zuco 103 and Lefties Soul Connection.

Extra live sets and DJs fill the night. Bitterzoet, 22.00, €5

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Amsterdam Weekly_14-20 August 2008

AGENDA: CLUBS Event

Photo by Akbar Simonse

Hartjesdagen Zeedijk, Saturday 16 August & Sunday 17 August No-one seems to know the exact origins of this street party, organised by neighbours and (gay) bars on Zeedijk, where men dress as women and women dress as men. Do we care? No, just put on your best party frock or suit and you might get chosen as the best cross-dresser of the weekend.15.00-01.00, free

CLUBS

much of a battle as the title suggests. Blijburg, 19.0003.00, €7 Ultradog The infamous Club Dog is back. After ruling the rave scene in the late ’80s, you can ‘Return to the Valley of the Ultradog’ in this Euro tour. Guests include Banco de Gaia, Spooky, System 7, 808 State DJs, Jim Masters, Dave Angel, Billy Nasty and Phil Hartnol (Orbital). Proper retro rave chic. Paradiso, 19.00-05.00, €25

Thursday 14 August WKND Weekly bargain house party that’s never in your house. Studio 80, 23.00-late, €5 Noodlanding! Diverse pop, rock and dance tunes. In the basement it’s Totaal Los. Paradiso, 23.30-04.00, €8 Blue Note Trip Weekly jazz and dance fusion featuring DJ Maestro and special guests. Melkweg, Oude Zaal, 23.30-late, €8 Vreemd 2.0 With Tommy Kornuijt, Boris Werner and Zanne. Sugar Factory, 23.59, €9

Friday 15 August Nataraj Meditation then dancing. Spiritual, mystical and still time to sneak in some exuberance and excess in a hip flask. Club 8, 20.00-03.00, €9 The Basement XXL Reggae, dub and hiphop grooves.

This special takes over both main Melkweg rooms and features guests like Waxfiend, Qlick, MBA, Chen, Mickster, Abstract, Chaos, Ovadoze Movement and guests, plus a live performance by Amo-Lab. Melkweg, 22.30late, €15 + membership Simply Garage Weekender From UK The current sound of London, with Sharky P, Mets, Funky D, Woodsie, Ranger, Majestic (Ministry of Sound), Highly Rated Crew, Kanga, Pyro, Impact and more. Flex Bar, 23.00-05.00, €8 Babylon Dance party featuring Victor Coral, Rene Amesz, Warren Fellow, Aardvarck, Philip Young and more. Studio 80, 23.00-late, €10 De Stad van Spinoza A philosophical club concept with surprise twists. Guests include Erik Eeuwe, Robert Feelgood, Ricky Rivaro and a mystery act. Sugar Factory, 23.59-05.00, €11 Legends Celebrating 50 years of Michael Jackson.

There are many jokes to be made here, but most probably remain libelous. Paradiso, 23.59-05.00, €10

Hommeles A collision between fashion, art and danceable electro. Dressing up is crucial. Flex Bar, 22.00-late, €7.50 Live at the BBQ Soul, funk and hiphop. Bitterzoet, 23.00-04.00, €7.50 Madonna VS Michael Jackson B*day Bash Celebrating 50 years of two musical icons. They’ve both gone to pot in unique ways, but that wasn’t always the case.

So rejoice in the sounds of yesteryear and a surprise act. Rumours abound that karaoke is part of the plan, too. Club 8, 23.00-04.00, €5 Freakend It’s the 2nd anniversary so they’re touring the country. Guests in Amsterdam include Benny Rodrigues, Bart B More, Quintino, Daniel Beasley and loads more. The Powerzone, 23.00-late, €10 Voidd Minimal techno feast as Mr Manoah invites Solomun (DE). Also with De Man Zonder Schaduw (GZG), Steady Douglas (live), Gruis & Luxaflex and Moritz. Studio 80, 23.00-late, €13 Dutch Electronic by 365Live! A creative dance party with a live edge. Artists actually have to perform rather than simply spin. Those signed up include Eboman, Duotone, Appelscal and Jason Lanox. Sugar Factory, 23.59-05.00, €12 Gemengd Zwemmen Two rooms of swimmingly diverse noise. In The Max, it’s that funky and fresh ¿Que Pasa? world party; in the Oude Zaal, there’s alternative dance, pop, rock and indie hits. Melkweg, 23.59-late, €9

Sunday 17 August Wicked Jazz Sounds Jazz, hiphop, broken beats, nujazz, funk and Afro sounds, as classic vinyl collides with live musicians. Sugar Factory, 23.00-05.00, €9.50

Monday 18 August Saturday 16 August Conflict A tropical barbecue and dance party with urban hiphop and chilled reggae sounds. It’s not as

Cheeky Monday True skool jungle and drum & bass, featuring players from the local and international scenes. Winston Kingdom, 22.00-03.00, €7

Proper old school: retro raving at Paradiso on Saturday.

Amsterdam Weekly_14-20 August 2008

A G E N D A : G AY & L E S B I A N / S T A G E / E V E N T S

3 questions:

Candida Thompson Amsterdam Sinfonietta, Concertgebouw, Fri-Sun There’s a birthday party at Concertgebouw this weekend, but it’s not all cake, beer and circles. Instead expect a classy affair, as the Amsterdam Sinfonietta celebrates 20 years by hosting a series of thematic concerts, each with different guests and musical styles—from proper classics to Amsterdam folk. As always, violinist Candida Thompson leads the 22-piece string ensemble. A talented musician, who studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama under David Takeno, she’s one of Amsterdam’s top experts in chamber music, becoming the Sinfonietta’s artistic director in 2003. This weekend’s activities showcase their best traits: musical mastery, but with a relaxed vibe and always willing to have fun.

Music for rocking? ‘Freddy Mercury. I love the Queen album A Night at the Opera. It’s the perfect crossover. I kept playing this in my car for ages and absolutely loved hearing it on a latenight drive after a concert.’

Music for mellowing? ‘Beethoven of every kind! Maybe together with the Canadian pianist Glenn Gould and the greatest violinist Yehudi Menuhin. It puts life into perspective.’

Music for loving? ‘Probably an opera—a proper “soap”.

There’s nothing like losing oneself in some authentic drama.’

Website: www.sinfonietta.nl

GAY&LESBIAN STAGE Edited by Willem de Blaauw.

Thursday 14 August

Opening

Exhibition: Gay Games 1998, 10 jaar later Yes, it’s already ten years ago when Amsterdam hosted the Gay Games. This special anniversary exhibition full of photos and memorabillia shows you what a wonderful experience this Friendship through Culture and Sportevent was. Ends October 7. Centrale Bibliotheek, 10.00-22.00, free

Performance: Simek Bedankt Radio and TV presenter, columnist, cartoonist, and so on... In this solo show, Martin Simek does what he does best: plays. In Dutch. Comedy Theater, (Sun-Tues 20.30), €10

Saturday 16 August Party: Hoerenbal Fun and burlesque Hookers’ party at this new cool club, for gays, trannies, lezzies, transgenders and anything in between. You might get laid, but you won’t get paid. Dress code: pimps & whores (of course...) Church, 22.00-04.00, €12.50

Sunday 17 August Social: Noodles Transgender collective Noodles invites you to their monthly café. Saarein, 17.00-0.00, free Party: Asian Disco Night East meets West at this friendly dance party. DJs RW and Eko spin the decks, plus performances and tasty Asian snacks (eh, that’s food!). Cockring, 20.00-0.00, €5 Party: Mr Gay Netherlands Finals of the Mr Gay Netherlands election, hosted by Brigitte Kaandorp.

Choose from nine lekkere dingen and vote for your favourite hunk. After the election it’s Zonde, Paradiso’s Sunday gay-nighter where you can dance & flirt until the early hours. Paradiso, 22.00-05.00, €12.50

Monday 18 August Cheap Monday Broke after the weekend? Then head to this funky bar with great staff and whoopie tunes, and spend your last dosh on cheap beer at €1 a glass. PRIK, 16.00-01.00, free Party: Blue Monday Alternative, non-scene, party, sometimes with live bands, for gays, lezzies, bisexuals and transgenders at this well-known squat. Vrankrijk, 22.00-02.00, free

Ongoing Comedy: Boom Chicago There’s no summer stop on Leidseplein. See www.boomchicago.nl and take your pick from climate change comedy Last One to Leave the Planet, Turn Off the Lights! or Best of Boom 2008.

And in the whole of August, you can even get €5 off the ticket price by saying—sincerely—‘I love George Bush.’

Boom Chicago, (Daily), €20/€24 Comedy: Comedytrain International Summer Festival English language stand-up over the weekend from Brit comedians Adam Bloom and Rhod Rhys. Toomler, (Thur-Sat 20.30), €13.50 Comedy: Stand-Up Comedy Show Weekly stand-up that’s primarily in Dutch. But some international guests do perform in English. Comedy Cafe, (Thur-Sat 21.00, Sat also 23.30), €16 Performance: The Great Flying Circus North Korea Though sadly not related to any Monty Pythons, these North Koreans still put on one hell of a circus show, which has won them the ‘Golden Clown’ at Monte Carlo’s circus festival eight times in a row. What’s more, flying commies always prevent any summer lull. Carré, (Thur-Sat, Tues, Wed 20.00, Sun 19.00, Sat, Sun also 14.00), €15-€49 Theatre: Zomergasten Every summer, theatre classics arrive in the open-air theatre at Amsterdamse Bos. This year it’s the turn of Maxim Gorky and his 1903 play Summerfolk, which is something of a commentary on the Russian bourgeoisie classes and the social and political changes occurring in that era. Michiel Bakker, Christine de Boer and Ian Bok star; direction by Frances Sanders.

In Dutch. Keep an eye on the weather forecast, as this can be rained off. Theater het Amsterdamse Bos, (ThurSat, Tues, Wed 21.30), €7.50/€10 Comedy: International Comedy The Comedy Theater

Escape the urban: Landjuweel Festival is an entertaining retreat.

turns cosmopolitan for the summer, with the joke preference switching to English to accommodate tourists and those left to work through the tropical months. Look out for international acts taking to the stage each weekend. Comedy Theater, (Fri, Sat 20.30), €12.50 Comedy: Burlesque FreakOut A weekly party where fetish meets vaudeville and glamour meets sleaze, falling somewhere between Moulin Rouge and a Tarantino movie. Featuring dancers and performers from around the world. Comedy Theater, (Sat 23.00), €12.50 Comedy: Hole in the Boat English-spoken comedy improv duo. Comedy Cafe, (Sun 21.00), €13

EVENTS Performance: Vondelpark Openluchttheater Summer fun in Vondelpark. Thursday brings classical music, Friday means dance performances, Saturdays are a mixed bag of theatre, cabaret and pop, and Sundays are filled with singer-songwriter musical sets.

This week’s specials include a Grachtenfestival preview night and music by Alain Clark. See www.openluchttheater.nl. Vondelpark Openluchttheater, (Thur, Fri, Sat 20.30, Sat, Sun 14.00), free Festival: De Parade No place better to hang out on a zwoele summer evening than De Parade, now celebrating its 18th anniversary in a park-like setting near the Amstel. This fortnight of a circus-like, fun-fair theatre and music fest has grown over the years, but it remains a great place to settle down with a beer, gelato or an organic fruit juice cocktail while the sun slowly sets over the swinging merry-go-round. There’s oodles of original performances by up-and-coming acts, many of which are in Dutch, but there’s also plenty to amuse English-only speakers. See www.deparade.nl.

Martin Luther Kingpark, (Thur, Sun, Mon 15.00-01.00, Fri, Sat 15.00-02.00), €6 + variable performance costs, Until 19 August.

Festival: Landjuweel Festival Music, theatre, poetry, workshops, children’s activities, special catering and a cool market are the crux of the Landjuweel Festival, but it’s so much more. What’s more, the entire programming is being refreshed this year, with the unveiling of the Dorpsjuweel concept. This means there’s even more of a village feel than usual, allowing visitors to shed their urban and industrial personas

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Amsterdam Weekly_14-20 August 2008

AGENDA: EVENTS/ART Art: Opening

the Cary Grant film series throughout July and August.

Filmmuseum (Mon-Fri 09.00 -22.15, Sat, Sun one hour prior to show-22.15), until 27 August FLY—My World Twelve photos and a short film, which are to be included in an upcoming digital fashion magazine. The exhibited content follows the traditions of noir. Foam (Sat-Wed 10.00-18.00, Thur, Fri 10.0021.00), until 27 August Amsterdam and the House of Orange An exhibition surveying the ties which have bound Amsterdam and the House of Orange over the centuries. Amsterdams Historisch Museum (Mon-Fri 10.00-17.00, Sat, Sun 11.00-17.00), until 31 August Amsterdamse School Straatmeubilair Uitgelicht Celebrating the street furniture and objects created by architects and designers of the Amsterdam School. Museum Het Schip (Wed-Sun 13.00-17.00), until 31 August Wim van der Linden Photography of Amsterdam from the ’60s. Stadsarchief Amsterdam (Tues-Sat 10.0017.00, Sun 11.00-17.00), until 31 August Hans Scholten: Urban future ‘The future of the city’ is the theme raised by Amsterdam artist Scholten (1952) in this photographic project. For a number of years he has been photographing the urban landscapes of huge cities in Asia and the Middle East. There he captures scenes of rapidly growing neighbourhoods, in which chaos and anarchy seem to arise due to a lack of organised city planning. Is this the future that awaits cities in the Western world as well? Huis Marseille (Tues-Sun 11.00-18.00), until 31 August So Blue, So Blue—Edges of the Mediterranean Dutch photographer Ad van Denderen presents photos which look at the political, social, economic and ecological changes occurring around the Mediterranean.

Nederlands Fotomuseum (Tues-Fri 10.00-17.00, Sat, Sun 11.00-17.00), Rotterdam, until 31 August

Aerosol Symphonies Part II GO Gallery, opens Saturday, until 16 September After the success of last summer’s collaborations, this concept, which sees classical music and street art collide, is back for a sequel. Participants include Laser 3.14, Two Things, Maoma, Modderfokker, The London Police, SIT, Juice, Peter Pontiac and quite a few more. Yes, it’s hip to be square. (Wed-Sat 12.00-18.00, Sun 13.00-17.00)

and get back to nature. For acts see www.landjuweelfestival.nl but really it’s the vibe, discussions and ecological incentives that makes it a great weekend. Ruigoord, (Thur-Sun), €50

ART

Talk: Friday Night Stedelijk Museum curator Suzanna Héman talks to Ad Petersen, former head curator of the Stedelijk Museum, about the ‘Druksel prints’ of the artist Hendrik Werkman. Before and after, there’s tunes and cinematic soundscapes from DJ Dirkson.

Van Gogh Museum, (Fri 20.00), museum entry cost

Museums

Performance: Artis ZOOmeravond Summer sees Artis keeping its doors open during Saturday evenings.

Tonight’s special guests are duo Bosz, the Peruvian singer Angela Maria and a performance by theatre group Omega. As always, animal experts will be on hand to chat about their specialist topics. Artis, (Sat 19.00), zoo entry cost

Roots Amsterdam is to a large extent inhabited and designed by individuals with a different cultural background. This exhibition is the result of research into what aspects of the cultures of nine architects, who at various points in their lives came to the Netherlands, bring to their Dutch design practice. ARCAM (Tues-Sat 13.00-17.00), closing Saturday

Tour: Rijksmuseum Renovation Fancy a peak behind the scenes of the Rijksmuseum renovations in the Cuypers building? Special weekend tours are occurring throughout August, allowing access to many of those areas the public has been omitted from in recent times. It’s a very limited offer and great if you’re into the museum or architecture in general. See article p. 6. Rijksmuseum, (Sat, Sun 12.00-16.00), free

Green Bags: Brand New and Used Materials Showcasing bags and designers embracing the concepts of recyclable and sustainable. Museum of Bags and Purses (Daily 10.00-17.00), closing Sunday

Festival: Hartjesdagen The Lords of Misrule take over and suspend convention for the whole of this weekend.

So what’s say we dress like the opposite sex and let it all hang out? Street parties for boys and girls, gays and straights all weekend, but don’t miss the drag parade at the end of Sunday afternoon. Zeedijk, (Sat, Sun), free Festival: Grachtenfestival Classical music performed amid the glorious setting of Amsterdam’s numerous canals and waterways in the middle of summer. Full programmes run each day until 24 August; see www.grachtenfestival.nl for ensembles, locations and pricings. See Short List. Various locations, (Sat-Wed), various prices

The Transitory World of Horst Janssen An exhibition of works by the German graphic artist Horst Janssen (1929-1995). In Germany he is regarded as one of the greatest post-war artists, although, strangely enough, he is far less well-known outside Germany. This is the first showing of his prints in the Netherlands. Rembrandthuis (Mon-Sat 10.00-17.00, Sun 11.00-17.00), until 24 August Images of St Petersburg In the 19th century in Russia, as elsewhere, photography revolutionised the recording of everyday reality. The palaces, new buildings, inhabitants and important events were captured by many Russian and foreign photographers. This summer exhibition features almost 100 such examples from the period. Hermitage Amsterdam (Daily 10.0017.00), until 24 August Cary Grant Original screen-printed posters, photos, film compilations and a documentary, which accompany

Friday Night at Van Gogh Museum: More entertainment, less tour buses.

Domingo Milella: Paesaggi The past six years, Milella has concentrated on an ongoing project, which takes as it’s central focus the postmodern landscape, from dwellings to urban periphery. His perspectives offers us a fresh interpretation of the changing face of our surroundings. Foam (Sat-Wed 10.00-18.00, Thur, Fri 10.00-21.00), until 31 August Anne Frank—A History for Today Travelling exhibition about the life of Frank, set against the background of the persecution of the Jews during WII. Featured are family photos and an overview of the books she read while in hiding. Centrale Bibliotheek (Daily), until 31 August Gilian Schrofer: Models of Concern Models and designs by Schrofer, who’s to design the interiors of the four refreshment areas of the renovated Stedelijk Museum. Stedelijk Museum CS (Daily 10.00-18.00), until 31 August Lectori Salutem Delving into the history of books, with original objects, beautiful manuscripts and books from Dutch collections, photographs and texts. Allard Pierson Museum (Tues-Fri 10.00-17.00, Sat, Sun 13.00-17.00), until 7 September Marc Camille Chaimowicz: ...In The Cherished Company of Others... One hundred works by Chaimowicz, including drawings, decorative and functional objects, wallpapers, maquettes, sculptures, paintings and a revisited installation. These sit alongside architectural models, bookplates and artworks by other international artists with whom the artist feels empathy with. De Appel (Tues-Sun 11.00-18.00), until 7 September The Shadow Cabinet: No More Reality.Step 3: SHARED FOLDER Video and audio installations, screenings, magazines, books, newspapers, posters and leaflets. De Appel (Tues-Sun 11.00 18.00), until 7 September Beyond Paradise Group exhibition which highlights the interaction between tourism and contemporary art.

This includes travel brochures, postcards, advertisements, films and so on. Artists include Bik van der Pol, Patricia Esquives, Arnout Killian and more. Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam (Tues-Sun 11.00-17.00), until 7 September Kors van Bennekom—Kors’s Choice An exhibition celebrating the 75th birthday of the Amsterdam photographer Kor van Bennekom, the street photographer, theatre photographer and family photographer, whose remarkable oeuvre reflects the history of the Netherlands in the second half of the 20th century. Foam (Sat-Wed 10.00-18.00, Thur, Fri 10.00-21.00), until 14 September Me! Me! Me! An interactive exhibition that touches on self representation on the internet and fashion, on the far reaching consequences of modern communication

Amsterdam Weekly_14-20 August 2008

and on our self image and the way we experience the world around us. The exhibition also highlights our own cultural potential with a minimal ecological footprint. In the process, art and fashion activists Andrea Crews will transform Mediamatic’s new location into a world fashion centre. Mediamatic Tues-Sat 11.00-17.00, Sun 12.00-17.00, until 14 September

AGENDA: ART Art: Ongoing

artist is screened each week until 29 August. For schedule see www.petersburgprojectspace.org.

Petersburg Project Space (Daily, evenings till 01.00), until 29 August Ata & Eva An overview exhibition of the oeuvre of Hungarian photographers Ata Kandó (1913) and Eva Besnyö (1910-2003). Hup Gallery (Tues, Thur, Fri 10.00-17.00), until 30 August

NL28 Olympic Fire An exhibition in which scale models, film, debate and theatre help visitors to imagine that the Netherlands is organising the Olympic Games in 2028, a century after the Games in Amsterdam. Nederlands Architectuurinstituut (Tues-Sat 10.00-17.00, Sun 11.00-17.00), Rotterdam, until 21 September

Dutch Nudes Dutch photography, encouraging models to get their kit off. Blow Up Gallery (Thur-Sat13.00-18.00), until 30 August Paraat #4 A collaboration between De Veemvloer and Ronmandos, showcasing the end exam works of talented (now ex) students from around the country.

Works range from paintings to multimedia and installations. Various locations (De Veemvloer: Wed-Sat 13.00-18.00, Sun 15.00-18.00; Ronmandos: Wed-Sat 12.00-18.00), until 30 August

Gewoon Anders! Exhibition revolving around alternative sexual lifestyles which, during the turn of the 21st century, spawned a wealth of images. With over 100 pieces by some 35 artists, including Gilbert & George, Nan Goldin, Marlene Dumas, Wolfgang Tillmans, Marlene McCarty, Rachid Ben Ali and a nine-metre high monumental statue of David, in bright pink and canary yellow, by Hans-Peter Feldmann. CoBrA Museum (TuesSun 11.00-17.00), until 21 September

Arabic Graphics Exhibition showcasing the graphic and typographic design works of Lebanese-Dutch designer Tarek Atrissi, who has developed ideas for commercial and non-commercial projects around the world. De Levante (Wed-Sun 13.00-17.30), until 31 August

Rogier Verkade: Recht in Beeld Triptych photo sets; two of the photos are Creative Commons licensed images from sites like Flickr, with Verkade creating a third image to complete the trio. Centrale Bibliotheek (Daily), until 28 September

Summer in the City Photo exhibition from four established snappers: Anne Marie Trovato, Reinier Gerritsen, Martijn de Jonge and Alex ten Napel. Melkweg Galerie (Tues-Sat 13.00-18.00), until 31 August

Deep Screen—Art in Digital Culture Contemporary multidisciplinary works of art which are all in some way marked by today’s digital culture. The jury, chaired by guest curator Andreas Broeckmann, has selected 18 artists out of the 200-plus submissions. Stedelijk Museum CS (Daily 10.00-18.00), until 30 September

I Pity Inanimate Objects Freaky sculptures and installations by Jaap de Vries. Planetart (see www.planetart.nl), until 31 August

The Vincent Award 2008 Do artists improve if you dangle €50,000 in front of them? Artists short-listed for this biennial European award include: Francis Alÿs (Belgium), Liam Gillick (UK), Deimantas Narkevicius (Lithuania) and Rebecca Warren (UK). Working with diverse media, their works remain on display through summer, with the prize ceremony on 12 September. Stedelijk Museum CS (Daily 10.0018.00), until 30 September Presence of Mind—A Choice from the Collection

by Wolfgang Tillmans The Stedelijk Museum regularly invites artists to select from the collection, coloured only by their own artistic perspective. This time, the German photographer Wolfgang Tillmans (1968) offers a fresh perspective amidst the context of his own oeuvre. Stedelijk Museum CS (Daily 10.0018.00), until 30 September Snap Judgments—New Positions in Contemporary African Photography An exhibition of work by 35 contemporary African artists and photographers with unique perspectives on their own continent. It reveals how artists are using photography to respond artistically to the enormous changes currently taking place in African economic, social and cultural life, but the artists also break away from lingering stereotypical images of their cultures, histories and countries. Stedelijk Museum CS (Daily 10.00-18.00), until 30 September The Best Designed Books 2007 This year 33 books have been selected out of all those published in the Netherlands in 2007. As in previous years, the museum is supplementing the selection on show with a separate category: this time, children’s books of exceptionally good design. Stedelijk Museum CS (Daily 10.00-18.00), until 30 September De Kabbala—Graven van Safed Photos of the cemetery in the Israeli city of Safed. Nederlands Uitvaart Museum Tot Zover (Mon-Fri 13.00-17.00), until 12 October ‘Druksel prints’ by Werkman A presentation by the Stedelijk Museum dedicated to the ‘druksel prints’ of Hendrik Werkman, who, in the ’20s, developed the technique of printing parts of a print one at a time to compile the total image on a page. Van Gogh Museum (Mon-Thur, Sat, Sun 10.00-18.00, Fri 10.00-22.00), until 12 October Malick Sidibé Malian photographer (b. 1935, Soloba) who, from the early ’60s on, snapped portraits and various engagements of local society, from football matches to weddings and Christmas Eve celebrations, which now offer insight into the people’s lives shortly after winning their independence. Sidibé was one of the first African photographers to gain recognition in the West. Foam (Sat-Wed 10.00-18.00, Thur, Fri 10.0021.00), until 15 October Black is Beautiful A journey of discovery though the history of art, which for the first time aims to highlight the attractiveness of the black person in the art of the Lowlands. It turns out, many great masters have portrayed black people. Their fascination will be illustrated in 135 paintings, drawings and manuscripts from collections here and abroad, including artists like

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Atlas Maior. De wereld van Blaeu UvA: Special Collections Library, until 23 November Exquisite examples of Joan Blaeu’s maps, made in Amsterdam’s Golden Era, when the industry of cartography was in full bloom. (Mon-Fri 10.00-17.00, Sat, Sun 13.00-17.00)

Rembrandt, Breitner, Sluijters, Appel and Dumas.

Nieuwe Kerk (Fri-Wed 10.00-18.00, Thur 10.00-22.00), until 26 October Art of the State Photographs and video works by sixteen artists from Israel. Through their works they reflect upon their country: the community in which they live, the numerous cultural and religious differences among Israel’s population and the current political situation.

Joods Historisch Museum (Daily 11.00-17.00), until 30 November Hendrik Werkman: The Blue Barge Exhibition containing Werkman’s preparatory studies for the suites of prints he made as an act of resistance for The Blue Barge during WWII. The most famous of these is Chassidische Legenden. Joods Historisch Museum (Daily 11.00-17.00), until 30 November

Galleries Raymond Cuijpers An exhibition dominated by football by a footballer turned artist. Van Zijll Langhout (Mon-Fri 11.00-17.00), closing Friday Paul Blanca: Mi Matties & Kristal Two new blackand-white photo series: one focussed on street children, the other a naked model submerged in chocolate and displayed like confectionery. Witzenhausen Gallery (Thur-Sat 12.00-18.00), closing Saturday New Geographies A new media mapping exhibition that aims to show a visible path of personal migrations. Imagine IC (Tues, Wed, Fri, Sat 11.00-17.00, Thur 11.00-21.00), closing Sunday Stacked and Scattered Diverse works by George Korsmit, Federico Campanale, Constant Dullaart, Henny Overbeek, Boris Tellegen, Nico Jungmann, Thijs Gadiot and Frank Mandersloot. W139 (Sun-Thur 11.00-20.00, Fri, Sat 11.00-22.00), closing Sunday

Last chance: Free and Untamed Beings at De Service Garage.

Free and Untamed Beings Six ambitious artists and designers get fashionistic for a month. The participants are: Meredith farmers, Claire Fons, Py Tswang jin, Jessie Mak, Niki Mens, Quoc Thang and Jenske Dijkhuis. Arguably, if they were more ambitious they’d be in a more commercial gallery, but this place is great. De Service Garage (Wed-Sun 13.00-18.00), closing Monday Advanced Beauty Twenty-four-hour looping video and sounds in a window near Centraal Station. Eighteen artists contributed to this project. Prins Hendrikkade 8 (Daily), closing Monday Finnish Bitches Jewellery by Eija Mustonen, Helena Lehtinen, Tarja Lehtinen, Tarja Tuupanen, Anna Rikkinen, Terhi Tolvanen and Janna Syvanoja. Finnish bitches, indeed. Galerie Louise Smit (Wed-Fri 14.0018.00, Sat 13.00-17.00), closing Thursday Summer exhibitions Paintings of palaces, castles and grand estates. What more do you expect midsummer? De Kunstfabriek Tues-Fri 12.00-18.00, Sat, Sun 12.00-17.00, until 22 August Eindexamenexpositie voorjaar 2008 Graduating photo students present their works. Fotogram (MonThur 09.30-21.00, Fri, Sat 09.30-17.00), until 23 August Checking Reality Envision the world as a computer game in which your clothes are 3D-projections and a GPS system tells you the position of an object. Imagine yourself as an avatar, flying through future cities and simulated landscapes. This exhibition poses such a virtual world in the real world. Platform 21 (Thur-Sun 12.00-18.00), until 27 August El blanco perfecto Paintings and installations that explore Dominican artist Miguel Rivas’s relationship with femininity. CEDLA (Mon-Fri 10.00-17.00), until 28 August Videozomer Diverse works by video artists, which can be viewed from outside of the project space. A new

Pink with Pride Six galleries in the Jordaan link hands and pull out their pinkest art of the year. GO Gallery exhibits work from Marc de Vries, Juan Carlos Tajes, Yvonne Zomerdijk, Fred, Karol Bak, James Davidson and Rinaldo Hopf. While Galerie Buuf boasts the photography of Rotterdammer Wim de Roo, images from Patrice de Schaetzen and paintings from Yvonne Boelens. Other galleries involved are Galerie KochxBos, Apart, Galerie George Cent and Rock Archive. A great break from all the loud festivities, this offers loud and lovely feasts for the eyes. Various locations, Jordaan various times, until 31 August Happy to Be A group exhibition by ten gay and lesbian artists, featuring photography, paintings and sculptures. ABC Treehouse (Thur-Sun 13.00-18.00), until 31 August Naturellement Diverse works by 19 young and talented artists. Walls Gallery (Wed-Sun 12.00-17.00), until 12 September

Listen

Our weekly mixtape amsterdamweekly.muxtape.com See Thursday 1. Michael Franti & Spearhead - ‘Say Yeah’ 2. Anúna - ‘Shining Water’ 3. Claw Boys Claw - ‘Yellow Car’ 4. The Budos Band - ‘Chicago Falcon’ See Friday 5. Electric Eel Shock - ‘Big Mistake’ 6. Julia Marcell - ‘Night of the Living’ 7. The Herb Spectacles - ‘La Luna Ti Guardera’ See Saturday 8. Diego's Umbrella - ‘Pants’ 9. Juice Box - ‘Popcorn 69’ 10. Banco de Gaia - ‘Glove Puppet (remix)’ See Sunday 11. SS Decontrol - ‘Get It Away’ 12. Merel Hutten - ‘Take a Walk’ Uploaded every Wednesday. For more info see listings and weekly blog.

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Amsterdam Weekly_14-20 August 2008

AGENDA: ADDRESSES

ADDRESSES 11 Oosterdokskade 3-5, 625 5999 ABC Treehouse Voetboogstraat 11, 423 0967 Allard Pierson Museum Oude Turfmarkt 127, 525 2556 Amsterdams Historisch Museum Kalverstraat 92, 523 1822 De Appel Nieuwe Spiegelstraat 10, 625 5651 ARCAM Prins Hendrikkade 600, 620 4878 Artis Plantage Kerklaan 38-40, 523 3400 Badcuyp 1e Sweelinckstraat 10, 675 9669 Bitterzoet Spuistraat 2, 521 3001 Blijburg Bert Haanstrakade 2004, 416 0330 Blow Up Gallery Hazenstraat 67, 665 3435 Boom Chicago Leidseplein 12, 530 7300 Cafe Pakhuis Wilhelmina Veemkade 576, 419 3368 Cafe Sappho Vijzelstraat 103, 423 1509 Carré Amstel 115-125, 524 9452 CEDLA Keizersgracht 395-397, 525 3498 Centrale Bibliotheek Oosterdokskade 143, 523 0900 Church Kerkstraat 50-52 Club 8 Admiraal de Ruyterweg 56B, 685 1703 CoBrA Museum Sandbergplein 1-3, Amstelveen, 547 5050 Cockring Warmoesstraat 96, 623 9604 Comedy Cafe Max Euweplein 43-45, 638 3971 Comedy Theater Nes 110, 422 2777 Concertgebouw Concertgebouwplein 2-6, 671 8345 Consortium Veemkade 570, 06 2611 8950 CREA Cafe Turfdraagsterpad 17, 525 1423

Lekker Bezig

By Luuk van Huët

Jesse Limmen, magnetic bar entrepreneur ‘Four years ago, I was tired of my commercial work and wanted to do something different and lo-fi, so I bought two hundred euros worth of booze and opened a little bar at Ruigoord. I had a microphone and chatted to people dropping by for a beer. It worked and I repeated it at the Solar Festival with more beer, speakers, a laptop and a guitar, and soon other festival visitors brought their own instruments. Then came winter and I sent the concept to Mojo. They asked me to do a small secret do-it-yourself bar at the Lowlands festival, and this year is our third outing!

‘Basically, you come into the bar and it’s an environment you don’t expect. It’s decorated to the brim with all kinds of bric-abrac, and there’s a huge stage covering half of the tent. You enter your name at the check-in desk, describe your act and wait your turn. You put on a silly costume that you picked out in our dressup corner, grab a beer and finally climb onto the stage. If the crowd digs you, it’s all good. But if they start to get bored, the MC will intervene. It’s all about the interaction between the artist and the audience. And it’s not just rock music, it can be stand-up comedy, hiphop, classical music or spoken word.

‘Memorable moments include Anouk casually walking in for a seven song set and the incredibly energetic jam session with The Eagles of Death Metal, who completely wrecked our drums. And I was deeply touched when a mother and daughter came up to us at Lowlands, revealing it might be the mother’s last summer, as she was suffering from cancer. It was a great relief to see them back the next year.’

Photo by Joost Benthem

Check online: www.magneetbar.nl

Dwaze Zaken Prinshendrikkade 50, 612 4175 Filmmuseum Vondelpark 3, 589 1400 Flex Bar Pazzanistraat 1, 486 2123 Foam Keizersgracht 609, 551 6546 Fotogram Korte Prinsengracht 33, 624 9994 Galerie Jos Art KSNM-laan 291, 418 7003 Galerie Louise Smit Prinsengracht 615, 625 9898 Gemeentemuseum Stadhouderslaan 41, Den Haag, 070 338 1111 GO Gallery Prinsengracht 64, 422 9580 Hermitage Amsterdam Nieuwe Herengracht 14, 530 8751 Huis Marseille Keizersgracht 401, 531 8989 Hup Gallery Tesselschadestraat 15, 515 8589

Maloe Melo Lijnbaansgracht 163, 420 4592

Petersburg Project Space Frans de Wollantstraat 84

Sugar Factory Lijnbaansgracht 238, 627 0008

Mediamatic Vijzelstraat 68, 638 9901

Planetart Weteringschans 179

Melkweg Lijnbaansgracht 234A, 531 8181

Platform 21 Prinses Irenestraat 19, 344 9449

Theater het Amsterdamse Bos Amsterdamse Bos 1, 640 9253

Melkweg Galerie Marnixstraat 409, 531 8181

The Powerzone Spaklerweg, 681 8866

Toomler Breitnerstraat 2, 670 7400

PRIK Spuistraat 109, 06 4544 2321

Tropenmuseum Linnaeusstraat 2, 568 8200

Rembrandthuis Jodenbreestraat 4, 520 0400

UvA: Special Collections Library Oude Turfmarkt 129, 525 2141

Museum Het Schip Spaarndammerplantsoen 140, 418 2885 Museum of Bags and Purses Herengracht 573, 524 6452 Nederlands Architectuurinstituut Museumpark 25, Rotterdam, 010 440 1200 Nederlands Fotomuseum Wilhelminakade 332, Rotterdam, 010 213 2011

Rijksmuseum Jan Luykenstraat 1, 674 7000 Ruigoord Ruigoord 15, 497 5702 Saarein Elandsstraat 119, 623 4901 De Service Garage Stephensonstraat 16

Van Gogh Museum Paulus Potterstraat 7, 570 5200 Van Zijll Langhout Brouwersgracht 161, 06 2825 9620 Verzetsmuseum Plantage Kerklaan 61, 620 2535 Vondelpark Openluchttheater, 673 1499

Nederlands Uitvaart Museum Tot Zover Kruislaan 124, 694 0482

Skek Zeedijk 4-8, 427 0551 Stadsarchief Amsterdam Vijzelstraat 32

Vrankrijk Spuistraat 216

Nieuwe Kerk entrance on the Dam, 638 6909

KHL Koffiehuis Oostelijke Handelskade 44, 779 1575

Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam Rozenstraat 59, 422 0471

W139 Warmoesstraat 139, 622 9434

OCCII Amstelveenseweg 134, 671 7778

De Kunstfabriek Polonceaukade 20 (Westergasfabriekterrein), 488 9430

Pacific Parc Polonceaukade 23, 488 7778

Stedelijk Museum CS Oosterdokskade 5, 573 2911

Westergasfabriek Haarlemmerweg 8-10, 586 0710

Paradiso Weteringschans 6-8, 626 4521

Studio 80 Rembrandtplein 17, 521 8333

Winston Kingdom Warmoesstraat 129, 623 1380

De Levante Hobbemastraat 28, 671 5485

Paule Carre Cornelis Schuytstraat 44, 675 6800

Studio K Timorplein 62, 692 0422

Witzenhausen Gallery Elandsstraat 145, 644 9898

Imagine IC Bijlmerplein 1006-1008, 489 4866 Joods Historisch Museum Jonas Daniel Meijerplein 2-4, 531 0310

Walls Gallery Prinsengracht 737

Amsterdam Weekly_14-20 August 2008

AGENDA: FILM

Film review

By Bregtje Schudel

Savage Grace Opens Thursday at Cinecenter and The Movies

MOTHERS AND SONS IN LOVE AND TROUBLE Julianne Moore plays yet another bad parent.

‘Would you sleep with the woman next to you for $10 million?’

Where distorted relationships between mother and son are concerned, French films have reigned supreme these last few years. Think of the disturbing relationship between Helene (the always

FILM Amsterdam Weekly recommends.

Festival Pluk de Nacht The fifth edition of the festival that blinged up open air screenings is back with a vengeance. This week it features Mister Lonely, the latest film by Harmony Korine, which deals with a group of nuns living in the South American jungle plus a Michael Jackson impersonator who falls for a Marilyn Monroe impersonator. Be sure not to miss out on Dead Man’s Shoes, by Shane Meadows (This Is England), the grimmest revenge flick with a twist that has ever crossed the Channel, only to disappear into distribution limbo after receiving rave reviews in Rotterdam. Let the Right One In combines vampirism with trademark Swedish kitchen sink realism and comes with Jan ‘Mr Horror’ Doense’s bloodied stamp of approval. Did I mention the art caravans, cosy beach chairs, well-stocked bar, DJ set afterwards and the fact that the screenings are free? On the 19th, Studio K will take over from Het Stenen Hoofd.

(LvH) Pluk de Nacht Open-Air Cinema, Studio K Open Air

Open Air 2 Days in Paris New York sweethearts Marion (Julie Delpy) and Jack (Adam Goldberg) are on holiday in Europe, and by the time they reach Paris, the culture clash is overwhelming. Delpy wrote and directed this movie herself, showing a side of love and relationships that doesn’t appear in Before Sunrise and Before Sunset: the things that hurt, annoy and drive people apart even if they seem destined for each other. Laugh-out-loud funny, with a surprisingly tender finale. (MP) 96 min. Ketelhuis Open Air Annie Hall Woody Allen strode into his ambitious period by finally acknowledging his own attractiveness to women—by reversing the humour of sexual embarrassment that defined the early comedies and

impressive Isabelle Huppert) and her son Pierre in Ma Mére (2004), or the battle of wills between mother (a chillingly cruel Nathalie Baye) and son in Mon fils à moi (2006). But with Julianne Moore’s performance in Savage Grace, American-born film-maker Tom Kalin has given us a

substituting it with the pain of romantic longing. Visually and structurally this 1977 film is a mess, but many of the situations are genuinely clever, and there are plenty of memorable gags. With Diane Keaton as the title character. (DK) 93 min. Filmmuseum Open Air Black Cat, White Cat There’s something almost wearying as well as exhilarating about the perpetual brilliance of Bosnian-born film-maker Emir Kusturica (Time of the Gypsies, Underground). As with some of Fellini’s late works, the energy and inventiveness, not to mention the juicy vulgarity, are so consistent that you feel you can slice into the material at almost any point. In this slambang 1999 farce about Roma living on the Danube and lorded over by two rival patriarchs, there’s plenty to cherish and enjoy (at least if you can put up with all the cynicism), but I was especially impressed by Bajram Severdzan, hilarious as a nouveau riche gangster. In Romany/German/Serbo-Croatian with Dutch subtitles.

(JR) 127 min. Cavia Open-Air Cinema Mukhsin Ten-year-old tomboy Orked befriends the 12year-old Mukhsin when he comes to stay in her village for the summer. Then deeper feelings start to stir.

Director Yasmin Ahmad chronicles first love and gently critiques Malay society in this popular drama, the third in a trilogy about Orked. In Malay/Mandarin/English with English subtitles. 95 min. Rialto Open-air

The Squid and the Whale With this 2005 autobiographical drama, Noah Baumbach delivers a witty, insightful and highly recognisable peek inside the phenomenon called divorce. The screenplay is so spot on, it feels like déjà vu. The acting is impressive: Laura Linney, as the wife and mother of two teenage sons, is so dependably good we almost take it for granted, and Owen Kline (yes, the son of Kevin Kline and Phoebe Cates) is a natural in his first major outing. Jesse Eisenberg faces the biggest challenge as 16-year-old Walt, whose hostility towards his mother barely disguises his own insecurities. And who would have thought that Jeff ‘Dumb & Dumber’ Daniels could play such a convincing asshole? A must-see. (BS) Studio K Open Air

New this week Get Smart Remaking Get Smart, the 1960s Mel Brooks/Buck Henry spy parody series, without the orig-

Keen on Keane: a great movie finally sees the light of day.

formidable addition to the ‘mom fatale’genre.

Young Tony Baekeland (Eddie Redmayne) was born into a rich and dysfunctional jet-set family. (His Belgian great-grandfather invented Bakelite plastic.) His father, Brooks (Stephen Dillane) is emotionally absent; his mother, Barbara (Moore) is a whole different ball of wax. Having married far above her social and intellectual level, beautiful Babs has turned into an affected, needy woman with attacks of social Tourette’s, which range from making inappropriate dares at social outings (‘Would you sleep with the woman next to you for ten million dollars?’) to screaming insults at her husband’s mistress in a Majorcan airport (‘Does he fuck you in the ass... en el culo!?!’) But that’s nothing compared to the unhealthy relationship Barbara has been cultivating with her darling son.

When Daddy finally leaves, Tony, not the most stable of people to begin with, is suddenly the man of the house, in more ways than one.

You could imagine other choices for the lead role (Tilda Swinton would have been interesting), but Julianne Moore undoubtedly has the best résumé. Over the years she has carved out a nice little niche for herself portraying women on the verge of a mental breakdown (and we’re not talking about a slight Pedro Almodóvar eccentricity). She plays the trophy wife in Magnolia, who doesn’t love her husband until it’s too late; and the distracted housewife Carol, who falls ill from a mysterious

inal stars is like remaking My Little Chickadee without Mae West and WC Fields—the best possible outcome is disappointment. This big-budget comedy updates the action, with Maxwell Smart (Steve Carell) and Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway) foiling a plot to detonate loose nuclear bombs from Chechnya. The geopolitics haven’t required as much revision as the gender politics: on the show, 99 clung to Max’s side, but here Max is a neophyte and 99 a hardened veteran. This PC inversion robs Max of the crisp certitude Don Adams brought to the role, which was the comic linchpin of the series; all that’s left is an assortment of recycled gags and catchphrases. Peter Segal directed. (JJ) 111 min. Pathé ArenA, Pathé De Munt Home Song Stories Joan Chen plays a nightclub singer in 1970s Shanghai who marries an Australian, emigrates with her children to Melbourne and tries to go straight. But she can’t adapt to her new suburban life and, while her son and daughter watch, gradually falls apart. Tony Ayres directed this compelling autobiographical film, with a powerful performance by Chen.

103 min. Kriterion Julia The title character of this new film by Eric Zonca and Camille Natta resembles Gloria, the Gena Rowlands character in the 1980 John Cassavetes film of the same name. Like Gloria, Julia (a superb and brazenly unglamorous Tilda Swinton) harbours little maternal instinct beneath her tough exterior. But where Rowlands slowly turns into a grudging heroine, cold-hearted, scheming Julia, who kidnaps a rich man’s grandson for ransom, stubbornly sticks to her plan—until the inevitable redeeming final act, that is. It’s a shame Zonca (director of the award-winning La Vie rêvée des anges) and Natta didn’t dare go all the way. (BS) 138 min. Cinecenter

Keane This sobering drama about a schizophrenic man desperately trying to be normal is finally, after four years, getting a Dutch release. Damian Lewis (Dreamcatcher, Friends & Crocodiles) is superb as the tormented lead, but he is helped by two equally excellent supporting actresses, Amy Ryan (the lousy mother in Gone Baby Gone) and Abigail Breslin, who play a woman and her 7year-old daughter living in the same shabby hotel. The scenes between Keane and the little girl are the beating heart of the film, filled with love and sadness—not for who Keane is, but for who he could have been. Directed by Lodge Kerrigan. (BS) 100 min. Filmmuseum

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environmental disease, in Todd Haynes’s Safe. Her Barbara shares the most affinity with two roles, both from 2002, in which she played seemingly content suburban housewives: Cathy Whitaker in Far From Heaven and Laura Brown in The Hours.

Like Cathy’s and Laura’s, Barbara’s life offers her only a thin veneer to cover the turmoil and unhappiness underneath.

There is a difference, though. The first two women’s facades masked the emptiness of their lives. For Barbara, it’s she herself who is empty.

Unlike her French counterparts Baye and Huppert, Moore does manage to elicit rare moments of sympathy. She’s not inherently evil, just totally lost. You even sense that she means no harm to Tony.

She doesn’t physically molest him or mentally abuse him. Of course, she does do things mothers aren’t supposed to do with their sons. But then again, he doesn’t really seem to mind. You even feel a little sad for the way things inevitably turn out for her—something you couldn’t say of Baye’s character especially.

There is one thing the film could have done without, though: the end titles informing us of the real-life fate of poor, twisted Tony Baekeland. Not only does this underline the fact that we have been watching yet another ‘based-on-a-true story’ exploitation, it’s overkill. Barbara and Tony are both disturbed, but also both a product of their environment. The final shot of Tony being driven away is much sadder and more evocative than any ‘enlightening’ text could ever be. ___

Mongol At last, here’s proof that a bold, big-budget epic from the Eastern steppes can compete with the classics from Hollywood and New Zealand. This German/Russian/Kazakh coproduction is the first of a planned series of biopics on the life of the legendary Genghis Khan, and the bloody battles, excellent cinematography and sprawling locations are very impressive. However, the first act of the film suffers from repetition and Asano Tadanobu’s practically saintly Genghis is a little hard to take. The utter anticlimax of an ending also makes Mongol hard to recommend. In Mongolian with Dutch subtitles. (LvH) 120 min. The Movies, Pathé Tuschinski Savage Grace Julianne Moore immerses herself in yet another Oedipal mom role. See review above. 96 min. Cinecenter, The Movies Singh is Kinng Happy Singh (Akshay Kumar) is a sweet village boy who is always ready to help people but winds up causing chaos and confusion. The villagers send him to Australia to bring back crime lord Lucky Singh, but life takes a turn and Happy becomes the crime lord instead. Turn your brain off before you watch this long sermon on good behaviour, respecting other people and sacrificing yourself for the happiness of your loved ones. At least the camerawork and editing make up for it, and Javed Jaffrey is always fun to watch. In Hindi with Dutch subtitles. (SD) Pathé ArenA Wild Child A spoiled Southern Californian (Emma Roberts) is sent off to a strict English boarding school, where she finds herself in the middle of yet another banal across-the-pond romantic comedy. 100 min.

Pathé ArenA, Pathé De Munt

Still playing Annie Leibovitz: Life Through a Lens A torrent of

sensational shots by rock’s, and now fashion’s, foremost photographer keep this documentary flowing. Annie Leibovitz has always had timing: she grew up at Rolling Stone magazine, snapped Richard Nixon as he slinked off in shame and posed Arnold Schwarzenegger when he was better known as Mr Universe. She was also one of the last people to see John Lennon alive, when she took the iconic nude portrait of him curled up like a foetus next to Yoko Ono. Photography fans and old hippies

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Amsterdam Weekly_14-20 August 2008

AGENDA: FILM

Lowlands Live No ticket to Lowlands? Watch live footage in the cinema instead. Kriterion

Special screenings An Affair to Remember Leo McCarey’s 1957 film is a tearjerker with comic interludes and cosmic undertones that fully earns both its tears and its laughs, despite some kitschy notions about art and a couple of truly dreadful sequences. A playboy (Cary Grant) and a nightclub singer (Deborah Kerr) meet and fall in love on a luxury liner headed for New York; each is romantically committed to someone else, but they agree to meet at a future date if they can disentangle themselves from their commitments. The film Meg Ryan loves in Sleepless in Seattle. Thursday’s screening will be introduced by reviewer Robert Neugarten. (JR) 119 min. Filmmuseum Amor de hombre Like the shallow hit My Best Friend’s Wedding, this lighthearted 1997 Spanish comedy depicts a warm friendship between a gay man and a lonely straight woman, yet unlike the other film it does so without erasing the man’s sexuality. If anything Ramón is too obsessed with sex, living as he does in a fantasy Madrid populated by willing studmuffins. Esperanza’s Madrid, on the other hand, is an emotional desert; she’s all but given up on finding the right man and spends her time hanging around with Ramón’s crowd. Anyone hoping for action will be frustrated by the film’s lazy pace, but writer-directors Yolanda García Serrano and Juan Luis Iborra have crafted a warm, compassionate and witty story of two mild eccentrics and the comfortable world they build for themselves and their friends. In Spanish with Dutch subtitles. (JH) 94 min. Rialto As It Is in Heaven This Swedish import, directed by Kay Pollak, is a character study about shifting gears. Busy, well-known conductor Daniel Daréus (Michael Nyqvist) suffers a heart attack and decides to return to the slowpaced village where he grew up in northern Sweden. It isn’t long, however, before his quiet is disturbed and he becomes thoroughly immersed in questions of life and love. In Swedish with Dutch subtitles. 132 min. De Uitkijk Avant que j’oublie In this elegant and witty film (showing in the Gay & Lesbian Summer Tour), director Jacques Nolot stars as an aging, HIV-positive gigolo seeking a new purpose in life. In French with Dutch subtitles. 108 min. Rialto

will delight in every frame, unlike Keith Richards who mutters, ‘...uh, no, I don’t remember that’, when shown a photo of his drugged-out ’60s self splayed on the floor.

Made by Barbara Leibovitz, the sister of, the film isn’t exactly critical, but who cares? (IM) 90 min. Rialto Breath When a woman discovers her husband is having an affair, she does what every normal woman would do: she starts having an affair with a prisoner on death row, much to the chagrin of her husband and the prisoner’s fellow inmates. Diehard fans of Kim Ki-duk’s work will undoubtedly embrace this latest feature wholeheartedly, but for the rest, it’s just not up to standard. Once again the story is filled with pregnant silences and tortured souls, desperately looking for a way to feel alive again. But Breath lacks the haunting beauty and sadness of Ki-duk’s previous work, especially Bin-Jip, one of his real masterpieces. Korean with Dutch subtitles (BS) 84 min. Rialto The Children of Huang Shi Inspired by true events, this film is a would-be epic about young British journalist George Hogg (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), who ‘adopts’ and rescues 60 Chinese orphans from wartorn 1930s China. He leads his charges on an odyssey along the Silk Road, through snow-covered mountain ranges and across a blistering desert. But with its twodimensional characters and Hollywood/Tintin cliché of the heroic white man saving non-whites, The Children of Huang Shi just isn’t the sweeping film it pretends to be. Still, the cinematography by Zhao Xiaoding is ever so beautiful. Directed by Roger Spottiswoode. In Mandarin/Japanese/English with Dutch subtitles. (GR) 120 min. Pathé Tuschinski Comandante The first film of a projected trilogy on doctrinaire political leaders, Oliver Stone’s documentary about Fidel Castro was culled from a series of interviews that Stone did over three days with the Cuban dictator. It’s most effective as a meditation on personality, revealing the men’s common obsessions, and least effective as a look at Castro’s totalitarian politics. Photographed in part by the excellent Rodrigo Prieto (25th Hour), the movie also includes a gracefully melancholy portrait of contemporary Havana. In English and subtitled Spanish. 93 min. Kriterion

The

Dark Knight There is nothing camp about Christopher Nolan’s second (and vastly superior) outing in the Batman franchise—although Christian Bale’s slightly ridiculous, husky voice as Batman could still use some fine tuning. Gone are the days of Burtonesque villains and nippled crusaders. This is as

No Reservations Catherine Zeta-Jones plays a neurotic chef trying to get along with both her orphaned eight-year-old niece (Abigail Breslin) and a sous chef (Aaron Eckhart) who joins her kitchen staff. A silly, mushy Hollywood remake of the fine German film Bella Martha. (JR) 103 min. Pathé Tuschinski Once Upon a Honeymoon Leo McCarey’s astonishing attempt to blend screwball comedy and wartime propaganda—even more astonishing because, by and large, it works. Ginger Rogers is an American gold digger who marries Nazi Walter Slezak on the eve of the war; it’s the job of radio correspondent Cary Grant to get her working for his side. Despite some windy passages, the film’s equation of true love and the US democratic ideal (when it still believed in one) is irresistible, quintessential McCarey. 117 min. Filmmuseum

Must see:

Grave of the Fireflies Nieuwe Anita, Friday, 20.30

Eternal Summer Three teenage boys struggle with a friendship that seems about to become more in this Taiwanese film by Leste Chen, showing in the Gay & Lesbian Summer Tour. In Mandarin with Dutch subtitles.

95 min. Rialto Gimme Shelter The grim 1970 documentary by David and Albert Maysles about the Rolling Stones concert in Altamont, California, where one spectator got stabbed to death. Great Stones footage, but the film is crippled by various rhetorical pretensions. (JR) Kriterion Houseboat Widower Cary Grant attempts to raise his three children alone, with help from housekeeper Sophia Loren, in this 1958 family film. 110 min. Filmmuseum Kilómetro 0 A dozen singles looking for love and sex on a sizzling day in Madrid pair up in this 2000 romantic comedy by Juan Luis Iborra and Yolanda García Serra-

grim and realistic as it gets. In Nolan’s Gotham City there are no superheroes or supercrooks, just very disturbed people—notably Batman’s nemesis the Joker, who, in the late Heath Ledger’s incarnation, has never been more deranged nor more menacing. (His inventive pencil-disappearing-trick probably won’t find its way to children’s parties anytime soon.) A haunting (and haunted) masterpiece. (BS) 152 min. Pathé ArenA, Pathé De Munt, Pathé Tuschinski

Dialogue avec mon jardinier This film could just as well have been called ‘Zen and the art of gardening’. Separated from his wife, a crisp-looking, middle-aged Parisian painter (Daniel Auteuil) retreats to the house he grew up in, in rural France. His gardener there (Jean-Pierre Darrousin) turns out to be his partner in mischief from their schooldays. While one paints and the other grows vegetables, they comment on the world in front of them. ‘Don’t you look at the sunset, the stars, the fog?’ asks the painter. ‘I don’t usually see much of anything in a fog,’ replies the gardener. What is art to one is garbage to the other, and vice versa. Director Jean Becker has kept the material down-to-earth, and steers away from possible sentimentality with a couple of good laughs. In French with Dutch subtitles. (KE) 109 min. The Movies El cielo, la tierra y la lluvia ‘Languid’ is probably the

best word to describe the feel of José Luis Torres Leiva’s feature film debut, winner of this year’s Fipresci prize at Rotterdam. (The title translates as ‘Sky, Earth and Rain’.)

On a remote island along the Chilean coast the camera silently observes the lives of three young women and one man, each caught up in a private isolation. With the same meditative quality he showcased in his earlier documentaries, Torres Leiva has made a fascinating meditation on loneliness, and on human beings and their surroundings. In Spanish with English subtitles. (BS) 110 min. Filmmuseum Fireflies in the Garden A superb cast is wasted in this yarn about a dysfunctional Midwestern family.

Willem Dafoe is a college professor, married to Julia Roberts. On their way to her late-in-life graduation ceremony they get into a car accident, and tragedy tears the family apart. During the mourning period, tension hangs in the air, revelations about an abusive past approach and flashbacks abound. The professor’s son Michael (Ryan Reynolds) has just completed an autobiographical novel. When, in an overly dramatic sequence, he throws his manuscript into the fire, we secretly wish the producers had done

no. Kilómetro 0, the square where most of them have arranged to rendezvous, is the symbolic centre of Spain, and the characters are supposed to represent a cross section of the country’s sexually frustrated urbanites— gay, straight and otherwise. Iborra and Serrano try for an insouciant, enchanted tone but deliver mostly cuteness and hot air. With Concha Velasco and Tristán Ulloa. In Spanish with Dutch subtitles. (TS) 108 min. Rialto Lions for Lambs Two American students, Arian (Derek Luke) and Ernest (Michael Peña), long to do something patriotic, so they join the army in Afghanistan. Back in Washington, DC, their fates hang on the big story that a Republican presidential candidate (Tom Cruise) is about to hand to a journalist (Meryl Streep). New Yorker critic Anthony Lane said it could be ‘most charitably described as Ibsen with helicopters’. Written by Matthew Michael Carnahan (The Kingdom). 92 min. Pathé ArenA

the same with the script. Written and directed by Dennis Lee; with Emily Watson and Carrie-Anne Moss.

(MB) The Movies, Pathé Tuschinski La Graine et le mulet Sixty-year-old Slimane Beiji has just been fired from his dockworker’s job in Sète, in southern France. He has been living in a shabby hotel ever since his divorce, but does his very best to keep in touch with his children. At the same time, he is having an affair with his landlady and has grown fond of her daughter, Rym. It is Rym who helps him realise his last dream: to run a couscous restaurant. Tunisian-French director Abdel Kechiche wants to paint a complete family picture. He succeeds, but at a cost: estrangement from Beiji. It’s not until two hours in that we really begin to understand his pain and appreciate his friendship with Rym—just in time for a beautiful finale.

In French with Dutch subtitles. (MP) 151 min. Rialto

Happy-Go-Lucky

Poppy (Sally Hawkins) teaches kindergarten in North London, lives in a flatshare with her best friend and fellow teacher Zoe, goes clubbing on Friday nights, and is the kind of person who, in the words of Eric Idle, always looks on the bright side of life. For example, she regards the fact that her bike has been stolen as motivation to improve her skills and decides to take driving lessons instead. That’s how she ends up meeting Scott (Eddie Marsan), who’s basically her opposite. Not much happens in Mike Leigh’s latest film, but Hawkins’s Poppy is one of the great characters of the current cinematic year. (MB) Kriterion, Studio K, De Uitkijk L’Heure d’été Two brothers and a sister (Juliette Binoche) witness the disappearance of their childhood memories when their mother dies and her house is sold. Directed by Olivier Assayas, this is the second film in a series produced by the Musée d’Orsay; the first was Le Voyage du Ballon Rouge. 100 min. The Movies Il y a longtemps que je t’aime Kristin Scott Thomas is a talent who cannot be used often enough. Her characters are usually hard-as-nails socialites, who fanatically guard their real emotions with cynicism and acerbic wit.

In Il y a longtemps que je t’aime (I loved you for so long), she has never been more brittle, or so tough. Her Juliette has just been released after 15 years in prison for a crime that seems beyond comprehension. Still, Juliette has refused to defend her actions, even to her younger sister Léa, who desperately wants to understand. A strong, composed debut by novelist Philippe Claudel. In French with Dutch subtitles. (BS) 115 min.

Cinecenter, Het Ketelhuis

Not quite ABBA: As It Is in Heaven finds perfect Swedish happiness amidst poor health.

Grave of the Fireflies A teenage boy and his little sister struggle to survive the Allied assault on Japan in this wrenching antiwar drama (1988), which rivals the films of Hayao Miyazaki in elevating anime to the level of fine art. Writer-director Isao Takahata, a frequent collaborator of Miyazaki's at Studio Ghibli, adapted a partly autobiographical novel by Akiyuki Nosaka, and his handling of the tragic story is masterfully understated. In Japanese with English subtitles. (JJ) Nieuwe Anita, Fri 20.30 Together In this 2001 film, a mother of two leaves her violent husband and takes refuge with her brother, who lives in a cooperative household in 1970s Stockholm. At first, with the endless policy discussions and doctrinaire behaviour of most of the co-op’s residents, writer-director Lukas Moodysson seems to be satirising communal living and socialist values as much as their alternative, represented by the wifebeating, loneliness and voyeurism of the ‘squares’ who live outside the house. But the stereotyping is merely the basis for a wonderfully complex examination of sexual and material politics that’s full of bravely provocative, gently funny and warmly human encounters. In Swedish with Dutch subtitles. (LA) 106 min. De Uitkijk

5 word movie review

I Am A Pitbull!

Terrier!

Black Cat, White Cat, Cavia Open-Air

In Bruges ‘Fucking Bruges!’ To say that Irish hitman Ray (Colin Farrell) is less than impressed with the ‘bestpreserved medieval city in Belgium’ is an understatement—although he’s elated when he sees a midget doing a film shoot. His colleague Ken (Brendan Gleeson), on the other hand, has the time of his life.

They are the heart and soul of In Bruges, a surprisingly intelligent and unconventional crime caper. Here, the characters actually think for themselves, and about others! Of course there is the inevitable shoot-out, also featuring Ray and Ken’s exasperated boss Harry (Ralph Fiennes), but even that one evolves out of a brutal yet irrefutable internal logic. A simultaneously exciting and sobering feature debut from playwright Martin McDonagh. (BS) 107 min. Cinecenter, The Movies, Studio K Lemon Tree This bittersweet comedy-drama by Israeli director Eran Riklis tells the story of Salma, a Palestinian widow whose lemon grove stands dangerously close to the new country house of the Israeli Defence Minister.

When an order is issued to cut down the trees for security reasons, her fight to defend them takes on a greater significance. Hiam Abbass, the Anna Magnani of the Middle East, turns in a great performance as Salma, amid a strong supporting cast. In Arabic/Hebrew/English with Dutch subtitles. (MB) 106 min. Cinecenter, Rialto Mamma Mia! The Movie You’ll either love or hate this remake of the hit musical. Here’s the litmus test: is your body gyrating at the thought of an all-star cast including Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan and Colin Firth, pouring on the schmaltz with one happy, catchy ABBA song after another? Be honest. That’s what we thought. Now grab the phone and invite your friends. (AG) 108 min. Pathé ArenA, Pathé De Munt, Pathé Tuschinski

Amsterdam Weekly_14-20 August 2008

Married Life A macabre comedy of manners with the sting of dry ice, this 2007 ensemble piece captures the social climate of America in the late ’40s, when a new anxiety and restlessness began to undermine the postwar optimism. A New York businessman (Chris Cooper) becomes smitten with a young widow (Rachel McAdams) and decides to bump off his devoted wife (Patricia Clarkson). Pierce Brosnan enlivens the convoluted story as Cooper’s best friend, who also serves as the narrator. Ira Sachs directs a screenplay he co-wrote with Oren Moverman (I’m Not There). (AG) 90 min. Pathé Tuschinski, De Uitkijk

Mataharis Three women work at a seedy detective

agency in this lively, likable film by Icíar Bollaín (Take My Eyes). Each of the female detectives has her own charm, but all of them are real women—overbites, underbites, bumpy noses and all. Will they sell out? Will a comatose marriage be revived with the help of lovers and lingerie? The empowering choices they eventually make inspire a hearty ‘good for you, girl’. In Spanish with Dutch subtitles. (KE) 100 min. Het Ketelhuis La Noche de los girasoles If you had plans to visit the lovely Spanish countryside for your summer holidays, you might reconsider after watching this grim and downbeat Hitchcockian Spanish art house thriller. A rape and murder in a rural town set up the Rashomon-like structure in which six characters are followed in six seperate chapters, with each chapter cleverly expanding the audience’s knowledge and deftly expanding our point of view. The depravity and dark view of human nature might be too much to stomach for the faint of heart, as every ounce of innocence is squeezed from the film throughout the two hours of running time. In Spanish with Dutch subtitles. (LvH) 118 min. Kriterion, De Uitkijk North by Northwest Hitchcock’s classic 1959 comic mistaken-identity thriller. Cary Grant plays an unsuspecting businessman caught up in a cheerfully complicated web of intrigue involving some microfilm, the United Nations, a crop duster, Eva Marie Saint and Mt Rushmore. What more could you ask for? 136 min. Filmmuseum

Paris This Altmanesque tale, written and directed by Cédric Klapisch (Chacun cherche son chat), is centred around a male dancer (Romain Duris) who needs a heart transplant and has to come to terms with his fear of death. But he’s the least interesting of the characters who drop by in this interwoven, matter-of-fact assortment of stories—one that, among other things, attempts to elevate ordinary street market workers to sex gods capable of reeling in the supermodels. The dreaded French cliché pops up time and time again, but a fairly uninteresting main character is about all that plagues this appealing Parisian slice of life. Juliette Binoche leads an excellent ensemble cast. In French with Dutch subtitles. (LvH) 130 min. De Uitkijk Pudor ‘Don’t you smell it?’ Julia (Elvira Minguez) asks her husband Alfredo (Nancho Novo) during a meal with their teenage daughter, young son and widowed grandfather.

And, sure enough, something’s definitely gone off in Pudor. The Spanish family of five deals with an incredible multitude of problems, ranging from teen trouble to a brain tumour, and anything and everything in between.

The acting and photography are solid, but directors David and Tristán Ulloa still have lessons to learn. A little restraint would have gone a long way in their feature film debut. In Spanish with Dutch subtitles. (KE) 113 min. Rialto Small Gods This 2007 debut feature by Belgian director Dimitri Karakatsanis was influenced by Tarkovsky, Takeshi Kitano and Terence Malick (Badlands) and was described by Humo magazine as a cross between ‘a surrealistic road movie and a mad drug dream’.

Web tip:

CERN — rap video www.engadget.com/2008/ 08/08/cern-rap-videoabout-the-large-hadron-col lider-creates-a-black-h/

AGENDA: FILM Showing in the Previously Unreleased series. In Dutch.

90 min. Filmmuseum The Strangers Young lovers Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman, arriving at his parents’ remote summer home after a wedding, are terrorised in the wee hours by three masked assailants whose motives are never explained. Making his debut as writer-director, Bryan Bertino exploits all the old horror standbys—the phony based-on-a-true-story preface, the knock on the door in the dead of night, the eerily skipping record on the turntable, the malevolent figure glimpsed in soft focus over the heroine’s shoulder. There’s nothing remotely new here, but the movie has the taut, queasy feel of an early ’70s drive-in shocker: old-fashioned suspense without any guarantee of old-fashioned mercy. (JJ) 90 min. Pathé ArenA, Pathé De Munt Then She Found Me An elementary school teacher (Helen Hunt) is ditched by her husband (Matthew Broderick) after only months of marriage and faces the prospect of turning 40 without children. This emotional crisis is heightened by the sudden appearance of her birth mother (Bette Midler), who gave her up for adoption years earlier and is now the expansive host of a morning TV talk show. This adaptation of an Elinor Lipman novel is Hunt’s feature directing debut, and under the circumstances she might have been wiser to give the lead role to someone else. Her crabby performance weighs on the film, though it’s nothing compared to Colin Firth’s scenery-chewing turn as her self-lacerating new beau. English 100 min. Pathé Tuschinski This Is England In Meantime (1983), Mike Leigh explored what might produce a skinhead in London’s East End. Harking back to the same year on the north coast of England, writer-director Shane Meadows builds on his own memories of what turned him into a skinhead, making his hero (Thomas Turgoose) a lonely outcast who’s recently lost his father in the Falklands war. The way this 12-year-old on summer holiday falls under the protective influence of first a relatively gentle gang leader (Joe Gilgun), then an ex-con more prone to rapid mood swings and racial hatred (Stephen Graham), is masterfully charted and acted, as are the boy’s early forays into sex. This 2006 film falters only when it drifts too predictably into a coming-of-age moral fable.

(JR) 102 min. Filmmuseum You Don’t Mess With the Zohan A battle-fatigued Israeli commando gives himself a makeover, assuming a new identity as a New York hairstylist. That’s more high-concept than most Adam Sandler comedies, with the star creating a distinctive character amid all the meshugas. Though a bunch of the jokes are milked too thin, there are some absurdly goofy sight gags—like a hacky sack game enlisting a family pet— and a lineup of fun, silly cameos by guests from Chris Rock to Mariah Carey. John Turturro and Rob Schneider play the hero’s inept Arab nemeses, but skinheads and greedy tycoons are the ones who really get bashed in this lightweight amiable parody. Sandler cowrote the screenplay with Robert Smigel and Judd Apatow, and Dennis Dugan directed. (AG) 113 min.

Pathé ArenA, Pathé De Munt Edited by Julie Phillips. This week’s films reviewed by Lisa Alspector (LA), Massimo Benvegnù (MB), Angela Dress (AD), Kate Eaton (KE), Laura Groeneveld (LG), Andrea Gronvall (AG), Luuk van Huët (LvH), JR Jones (JJ), Dave Kehr (DK), Iris Maher (IM), Mike Peek (MP), Julie Phillips (JP), Gusta Reijnders (GR), Jonathan Rosenbaum (JR), Bregtje Schudel (BS) and Ted Shen (TS). All films are screened in English with Dutch subtitles unless otherwise noted.

FILM TIMES Thursday 14 August until Wednesday 20 August. Times are provided by cinemas and are subject to last-minute changes.

Cavia Open-Air Spaarndammerdijk 319, 475 0924 Black Cat, White Cat Sat 21.30.

Cinecenter Lijnbaansgracht 236, 623 6615 Le Fils de l'épicier daily 16.30, 19.30, 22.00, Sun also 11.15, 14.00 Il y a longtemps que je t'aime daily 16.15, 19.00, 21.45, Sun also 11.00, 13.30 In Bruges daily 19.15, Sun also 13.45 Julia daily 21.45 Lemon Tree daily 16.15, Sun also 11.00 Savage Grace daily 16.30, 19.15, 21.45, Sun also 11.15, 14.00.

Filmmuseum Vondelpark 3, 589 1400 Affair to Remember, An Thur, Fri, Mon, Tues 19.30, Sat, Sun 17.00 Bringing Up Baby Tues 17.00 El cielo, la tierra y la lluvia Sun-Wed 21.30 The Grass is Greener Thur 17.00, Sun 19.30 Houseboat Sat, Sun 14.30 Keane daily 21.45 North by Northwest Thur, Sat 19.15, Sun-Wed 19.00, Sat, Sun also 14.00 Once Upon a Honeymoon Wed 17.00 De Schattenberg Fri 19.15 Small Gods daily 17.15 Suspicion Sat, Wed 19.30 The Talk of the Town Fri 17.00 This Is England Thur-Sat 22.00 Walk Don't Run Mon 17.00.

Filmmuseum Open Air Vondelpark Annie Hall Fri 21.30.

Ketelhuis Open Air Westergasfabriek, Haarlemmerweg 8-10 2 Days in Paris Sat 22.00.

Het Ketelhuis Haarlemmerweg 8-10, 684 0090 De brief voor de koning daily 16.30, 19.00, Sat, Sun, Wed also 14.00 Dunya & Desie daily 17.00 Hoe overleef ik mezelf Sat, Sun, Wed 12.45 Il y a longtemps que je t'aime Thur-Mon, Wed 19.00, 21.30 Kung Fu Panda (NL) Sat, Sun, Wed 13.00, 15.15 Mataharis daily 17.15, 19.30, 21.30, Sat, Sun, Wed also 15.00 Morrison krijgt een zusje Sat, Sun, Wed 12.30 Le Voyage du ballon rouge daily 21.15.

Kriterion Roetersstraat 170, 623 1708 Comandante daily 16.45 The Darjeeling Limited daily 19.45 Gimme Shelter Sat 20.00 Happy-Go-Lucky Thur-Mon, Wed 22.15 Home Song Stories Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed 19.30 Horton (NL) Sat, Sun, Wed 14.45 Into the Wild daily 19.15 Lang leve de koningin Sat, Sun, Wed 15.15 Lowlands Live Thur-Sun La Noche de los girasoles daily 21.45, Fri also 0.00 Sneak Preview Tues 22.15 Tropa de Elite daily 17.30, 22.00, Fri, Sat also 0.15 Wall-E (NL) daily 17.00, Sat, Sun, Wed 15.00.

The Movies Haarlemmerdijk 159-165, 638 6016 Control Fri, Sat 23.15, Sun 12.45 Dialogue avec mon jardinier daily 16.45, Sun also 12.30 Fireflies in the Garden daily 19.45, Sat, Sun, Wed also 15.00 Heure d’été, L daily 17.15 In Bruges daily 22.00 Into the Wild daily 19.00 Mongol Thur 19.30, 22.00, Fri-Wed 19.15, 21.45, Sun 12.30 Nim's Eiland Sat, Sun, Wed 15.30 Savage Grace daily 17.30, 21.30, Thur also 19.15, Fri-Wed also 19.30, Sex and the City: The Movie daily 17.00 Volver Sat, Sun, Wed 14.30 Wall-E daily 21.45 Wall-E (NL) Sat, Sun, Wed 15.15, Sun also 13.00.

Pathé ArenA ArenA Boulevard 600, 0900 1458 De brief voor de koning daily 14.05, 16.25 The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian daily 15.30 The Dark Knight (Imax) Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed 11.20, 14.30, 17.40, 20.50, Sat also 10.40, 13.50, 17.00, 20.20, 23.30 The Dark Knight daily 11.30, 14.45, 18.00, 21.15, Thur, Fri, SunWed also 21.10, Sat also 22.00 Get Smart Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed 11.50, 14.15, 16.40, 19.10, 21.40, Sat 10.50, 13.20, 15.50, 18.20, 20.50, 23.20 God Tussi Great Ho Fri-Wed 13.50, 17.15, 20.40, Fri-Sun also 10.40 Hancock daily 18.50, 21.10, Sat also 23.15 Hellboy II: The Golden Army Sat 22.40 Hoe overleef ik mezelf daily 11.45 Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull daily 18.20 De Kronieken van Narnia: Prins Caspian Thur-Mon, Wed 12.10 Kung Fu Panda Thur 12.30, 15.00, 17.15, 19.45, 22.05 Kung Fu Panda (NL) daily 11.30, 13.15, 13.40, 16.10, Thur-Sun also 11.10 Lions for Lambs Tues 13.30 Mamma Mia! The Movie daily 20.00, Thur-Mon, Wed also 15.10, Tues also 15.30 The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor daily 13.20, 16.00, 18.30, 21.00, 21.45, Thur-Sun also 10.40, Sat also 23.40 Nim's Eiland daily 13.10, Thur-Sun also 11.05 Plop en de Kabouterschat Thur-Sun 10.10 Sex and the City: The Movie daily 18.50 Singh is Kinng daily 18.10, 21.00, Sat also 23.50

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Sneak Preview Tues 21.30 The Strangers daily 17.50, 22.20 Wall-E daily 15.40, 17.50, 20.20 Wall-E (NL) daily 12.20, 13.30, 14.40, 15.50, 16.50, Thur-Sun also 10.00, 11.15 Wild Child daily 13.00, 15.15, 17.30, 19.45, 22.00, Thur-Sun also 10.30, Sat also 0.15 The X-Files: I Want to Believe Thur-Mon, Wed 19.20, 21.50, Sat also 0.10, Tues 19.10 You Don't Mess With the Zohan daily 11.30, 14.00, 16.30, 19.00, 21.30, Sat also 0.00.

Pathé De Munt Vijzelstraat 15, 0900 1458 21: Las Vegas Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed 19.25, Sat 19.40 De brief voor de koning Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed 12.20, 15.00, Sat 10.50, 13.30, 16.00 The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed 12.30, Sat 11.00 The Dark Knight Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed 14.00, 16.00, 17.30, 20.00, 21.00, Sun also 10.30, Sat 12.15, 14.15, 15.45, 18.00, 19.15, 21.30, 22.45 Get Smart Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed 12.45, 15.30, 18.45, 21.30, Sun also 10.15, Sat 10.30, 13.15, 16.15, 19.00, 22.00 Hancock Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed 13.40, 16.15, 19.45, 22.10, Sun also 11.20, Sat 11.40, 13.50, 16.20, 18.45, 21.00, 23.20 Hellboy II: The Golden Army Sat 23.00 Hoe overleef ik mezelf Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed 13.15, Sun also 10.50, Sat 15.15 Kung Fu Panda Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed 15.40, 18.00, Sat 10.40, 13.00, 17.40, 23.20 Kung Fu Panda (NL) daily 12.40, 14.50, 17.15, Sat also 10.25, Sun also 10.30 Mamma Mia! The Movie Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed 12.40, 15.15, 18.15, 20.45, Sun also 10.20, Sat 11.45, 14.45, 17.30, 20.15, 22.50 The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed 17.45, 19.00, 21.40, Thur, Fri, Sun, Mon, Wed also 20.30, Sat 18.30, 19.45, 21.15, 22.30 Nim's Eiland Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed 12.30, 14.45, Sun also 10.15, Sat 11.30, 13.45 Sex and the City: The Movie Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed 20.15, Sat 20.00 Sneak Preview Tues 21.30 The Strangers Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed 22.15, Sat 22.40 Wall-E Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed 12.15, 14.30, 17.00, 19.30, 22.00, Sat 10.15, 12.30, 15.00, 17.45, 20.30 Wall-E (NL) Thur-Sat, Mon-Wed 12.00, Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed 14.10, 16.30, Sat also 14.30, 17.00, Sun also 11.45 Wild Child Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed 12.00, 14.15, 16.45, 19.15, 21.45, Sat 10.20, 12.45, 15.30, 18.15, 20.45, 23.15 The X-Files: I Want to Believe Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed 16.50, 19.20, 21.50, Sat 16.30, 19.10, 21.45 You Don't Mess With the Zohan 21.

Pathé Tuschinski Reguliersbreestraat 34, 0900 1458 De brief voor de koning daily 13.15 The Children of Huang Shi daily 18.15 The Dark Knight daily 16.30, 20.30 Fireflies in the Garden daily 12.45, 18.00 Into the Wild daily 21.00 Kung Fu Panda (NL) daily 13.00, 16.00 Mamma Mia! The Movie daily 12.00, 15.15, 18.45, 21.30 Married Life Fri-Mon, Wed 13.30 Mongol daily 15.45, 18.30, 21.15 No Reservations Tues 13.30 Sex and the City: The Movie daily 21.15 Then She Found Me daily 15.30 Wall-E daily 17.30, 20.45 Wall-E (NL) daily 12.30, 15.00.

Pluk de Nacht Open-Air Het Stenen Hoofd, Westerdokseiland The Flight of the Concords Sat 21.30 In My Father's Den Fri 21.30 Mister Lonely Thur 21.30 Pluk de Nacht Thur-Sat 21.30.

Rialto Ceintuurbaan 338, 676 8700 Amor de hombre Sat 23.00 Annie Leibovitz: Life Through a Lens daily 21.15, Thur-Sat, Mon-Wed also 19.30 Avant que j'oublie Sun 18.45 Breath daily 22.00 Eternal Summer Fri 23.00 La Graine et le mulet daily 19.00, Sat, Sun also 15.30 Kilómetro 0 Sun 16.00 Lemon Tree daily 17.00, 19.15, 21.30, Sat also 14.45 Pudor Thur-Sat, Mon-Wed 17.15, Sat also 15.00.

Rialto Open-air Marie Heinekenplein Mukhsin Wed 21.30.

Studio K Timorplein 62, 692 0422, De brief voor de koning Thur-Mon 17.15, Sat, Sun, Wed 14.15 Finding Nemo (NL) Sat, Sun, Wed 14.30 Happy-Go-Lucky Thur-Mon 21.30 In Bruges Thur-Sun 17.00, Tues, Wed 19.15 Sex and the City: The Movie Thur-Mon 20.15.

Studio K Open Air Timorplein Nu. Wed 21.30 Pluk de Nacht Tues, Wed The Squid and the Whale Tues 21.30.

De Uitkijk Prinsengracht 452, 623 7460 As It Is in Heaven Thur-Sun 21.30 Happy-Go-Lucky Thur-Sat 16.30 Kung Fu Panda (NL) Sat 14.30, Sun 12.30, Wed 15.00 Married Life Sun-Wed 17.00 La Noche de los girasoles Thur-Sat 19.00, Sun 14.30 Paris Sun-Wed 19.00 Together Mon-Wed 21.30.

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Amsterdam Weekly_14-20 August 2008

DINING/DRINKING The Mouth

By Nanci Tangeman

A French fantasy Le Fournil de Sébastien Olympiaplein 119, 672 4211 Open Mon-Sat 07.00-19.00 Cash, Pin It’s an addiction. I like to think of it as culinary, but it probably isn’t completely innocent.

It all starts when, after a long absence from Amsterdam, I walk by a window on my street and stop cold.

There, in full view of passers-by, is a handful of handsome men doing what handsome men do best—kneading dough. I ask around and find that I’m not the first girl on the block to make this discovery. There are more ladies taking morning walks around Olympiaplein. And many more baked goods being eaten in my neighbourhood.

Not just any baked goods: French baked goods. All thanks to Le Fournil de Sébastien.

At first, I adjust my own route a bit—passing the window only on the days when I think about it.

Soon I’m observing them every day, radiant in their pressed white uniforms. One morning their hands deep in dough; the next, nestling slices of chocolate into uncooked pain au chocolat and rolling them over and over and over...

After a few months of gawking, I make a dicision: I need to get some of that!

The first day I enter the bakery, I’m tongue-tied. Here stands one of the window men, asking for my order. I stammer and order a croissant (€1.00), the only thing I can pronounce. ‘Anything else?’

My burning cheeks remind me to bring something back to my partner-in-all-things-marital. I order a bite-size pear tart (€2.20) and

hurry out with my purchases.

Back home, I tear off a piece of croissant, a golden fragment of delicate pastry. Inside, it’s buttery. Not a shout, like the Dutch imitators, but a gentle whisper, a reassurance that butter is here. No need for jam. That would only cheapen the experience.

I give the pear tart to Partner. Guilt practically wafts out of the bag when I hand it to him. He pronounces it sweet and much too petit.

The next morning I return. Partner gets another guilt offering—a pain au chocolat (€1.05). Sweet but not too flaky (the perfect addiction). I try the briochette a l’orange (€1.20). Topped with granules of pearl sugar and filled with a subtle orange cream, the small brioche is chewy and soft.

A few hours later, I’m back for more. My takeaway sandwich (€4.20) has fresh tomatoes and basil, with mozzarella cheese that’s been marinated overnight in garlic, all caught inside a mini loaf of the bakery’s cigalou. Black and green olives dot the bread. Like any romance, the loaf doesn’t give itself over to me right away, but it resists just the right amount. The flavours are more Sud de France than Amsterdam Zuid. Partner has the l’Auvergnat with Parma ham and Salers cheese from the mountains of Auvergne (€4.20). The fresh baguette is spread with French salted butter and a confit of roasted tomatoes. The saltiness is pleasant and balanced.

My curiosity is satisfied. My appetite is sated. But, not surprisingly, my addiction is stronger than before. I know that abstinence is unacceptable. The only possibility is to give in to the craving— and add another lap around the Olympiaplein every morning. The way I’m feeling about Le Fournil de Sebastien, I’m going to need the exercise. ___

‘No need for jam.

That would only cheapen the experience.’

A night in the life...

By Sarah Gehrke

General dogsbodies Proef Overtoom 160-162 Open Sun, Tues-Thur 16.00-1.00, Mon 18.00-1.00, Fri, Sat 16.00-3.00 Cash, Pin ‘Please!’ says the guy who has just entered Proef on his way from terrace to toilet. ‘Help me hate him... I really wanted to hate him. But now I’ve seen him for the first time, and I can’t! He’s too cute!’

He’s talking to his friend, who’s making his journey in reverse. ‘You don’t need to hate him,’ replies the friend, ‘just because he cost twenty-five hundred euros.’

They’re talking, as it turns out, about their friend’s new dog, presented to the rest of the world on this very night.

The dog in question is lying innocently underneath a table outside— motionless, on his side, as if he’d just been shot. Apart from the fact that he’s dead-looking, he is indeed very cute.

From his proud owner, we learn that he’s an English bulldog. From the owner’s jealous friends, we learn that he’s lying in his own pee. But soon, the conversation will shift in all sorts of other directions—planned vacations, work.

It is a lukewarm Wednesday night, and the mood on the Proef terrace is jolly and summery. Proef is one of the

Beer price: €2.20 for a vaasje (Brand).

Emergency food: several sorts of sophisticated kroketversions and other snacks, served until as late as midnight.

Special interior feature: pictures of Nina Hagen record covers and other arty stuff on the walls.

Predominant shoe type: expensive trainers. And Birkenstocks (the fashion sort).

Typically ordered drink: rosetje Smoking situation: the benches on the Overtoom pavement provide sufficient seating for all the smokers present.

Tune of the night: The Girl from Ipanema, in a lyricless easy-jazz version (performed live).

Mingling factor: low (unless you have a dog with you).

State of toilets near closing time: broken. But this seemed more like an exception than like the rule.

many cafe/bar/restaurants that Overtoom is full of. In fact, the only thing that Overtoom is fuller of than cafe/bar/ restaurant things is people who frequent them, and so the benches are filled with happy, wine-drinking people.

(This is a wine kind of night, as well as a winey-kind of place—although Proef seems to try to discourage this. Not only have they got over twenty beers on tap, their wine glasses are also exceptionally ugly.) In addition to the many fancy beers they serve here, special features of this bar include quiz nights every Monday, live jazz every Sunday—and, it turns out, the occasional Wednesday as well—and extraordinarily nice bar staff.

They manage to stay friendly even when they have to clear the terrace of those who subtly refuse to leave.

Because now it’s getting late. The dog has been walked home long ago. It’s time for the rest of us to leave as well.

The barman, thankfully, isn’t too hectic in throwing everyone off his benches.

While he cleans up the part of the terrace that’s already been vacated, he draws attention, in a friendly way, to a bar around the corner, which is open late. ‘Not tonight,’ however, is the general tenor. Tonight, after all, was a wine kind of night. Nameless late bars around the corner don’t fit in with that kind of night. But don’t worry, bar around the corner: your time will come. ___

Amsterdam Weekly_14-20 August 2008

S E RV I C E

WEEKLY CLASSIFIEDS Ad of the week

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FOR SALE

More classifieds on www.amsterdamweekly.nl/classifieds

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S E RV I C E

Amsterdam Weekly_14-20 August 2008

Amsterdam Weekly_14-20 August 2008

S E RV I C E

23

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Register your business or ser- SUMMER YOGA Yogayoga vice now on Andrics.com and offers a full range of daily start to reach out to the inter- classes all summer through! national speaking commu- Including Sunday workshops, pregnancy yoga and nity straight away. postnatal yoga. Yogayoga is TEAM COACH Do you want situated in a quiet studio, to take your team to the next close to the Jordaan. A seclevel? Through my work, ond studio is available espeteams improve conflict mancially for private classes. Visagement, communication it www.yogayoga.nl or call skills, increase productivity 6883418. and positivity and maximize their potential. Visit thewa- PSYCHIC CONSULTANT tersfine.org/team.html or Stop walking around in ciremail info@thewaters- cles. The difficulties that you are experiencing are in realfine.org for more details. ity your life’s lessons. Learn how to take positive advantage out of them! Interested? Learn more at www.martin-van-der-velde.nl

INTERACTIVE TAROTcard readings for Inner Wellbeing. Spiritual insight on practical matters by Bhasha. Available for private sessions & events. Bhasha also gives readings in various restaurants - visit her there for a shorter version of her private readings. Check www. tarotandyou.com or call 0204000260 or 0641485880.

HEALING TAO is a system of exercises & meditations that can help you to enhance your overall health & vitality. Certified teacher offers basic course in English, Mon. evenings from Sept. 15 at Aurora Centrum, Amsterdam. Open lessons Sept. 4 & 8. Phone: 06-28625424. Email: info@ronfox.nl Web-site: www.ronfox.nl FACE YOUR FEARS NOW! How in charge do you feel of your life? Spend a weekend discovering new ways to feel effective, positive and in flow.

For more information go to www.hibma-coaching.howi-became-me-again.com call 06-282 440 88 or email info@rjnuiscounseling.com

COMPUTERS

design available as well) Online links to past projects available. Contact Jordan: 0630341238 PC SERVICE & DESIGNPC & Laptop service and repair, windows networking and exchange server install.

Application and software development, games, and cartoon development, web design & development, email & SMS campaign, search engine optimisation Tel 0207163859 // 0648322072 www.jbcompuserve.com COMPUTER PROBLEMS? Computer upgrade, hardware/software installation, virus/spyware removal, data recovery, network/wireless setup. No job too small, no repair no charge. Contact Michael 0614530493

COURSES

SHOEMAKINGLove shoes?

Design and make your own!

5 week workshop with 2 highly experienced shoemakers.

Say no to sweatshops.....hello Manolo Blahnik. fasterTHIEVING MAGPIE BOOKpanther@gmail.com STORE ‘A book must be the PAINTINGInternatonal Artist ax for the frozen sea within provides drawing and paintus.’ - Franz Kafka, letter to ing classes. Fun and materiOskar Pollak, 27 January al are included. Experiment 1904. Access to axes at The your own creativity while Thieving Magpie Bookstore, learning. sessions are 2hrs 1e Bloemdwarsstraat 15, and a half: 60 euros. max group are 3. individuals accepted, same price. Call bridget at 0643576925 www.absolutearts.com/busutil

PC HOUSE DOCTOR PC HOUSE DOCTOR Specialise 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.

DRAWING AND PAINTING MIND & HEART YOGA Ask- Contact Mario: 06 1644 8230.

Summer workshops by proing4essentialquestionsunlock UNIQUE WEB DESIGN fessional artist, various techthe mind - the heart opens. Need a stunning website? niques, all styles, from scratch Stress, tension, suffering diss- Have a low budget? Experito painting with oils. Contact solve. Works for any issue in enced web designer builds joneiselin@hetnet.nl. your life! Call 020 4000260 or professional, unique sites for 0641485880. Try-out-session very reasonable prices. (Fly- WWW.LEARNDUTCH.COM er, poster and other print ! ! ! Dutch the natural way. only 25 for one hour.

Find what you are looking for: www.amsterdamweekly.nl

IMPROVE YOUR DUTCH! Private classes, small groups, intensive courses, conversation, all levels, starting every week, professional approach, Online exercises. Interactive, Vijzelgracht 53C, linktaalpractical and hands on !!! inforstudio@gmail.com, call Anja mation@learndutch.com. for more info 0641339323 PHOTOGRAPHY COURSE DUTCH COURSES New Learn the basics of photogevening courses starting in raphy such as composition, Sep., Centre of A’dam. 200lighting, angle of view as well 250 for 20 hrs. Visit www.meras how to work with differcuurtaal.nl or call 693 4250. ent appertures and shutter speeds. Lessons (6x) take DE TAALSTRAAT Everyplace at the ABC Treehouse, thing you always wanted to in the center of Amsterdam. do but.... Dutch in 10 weeks, First lesson: September 18th. 2 hrs a week (15 euro) Small More information: patri- groups, focus on speaking and understanding with a cia@patriciaribas.com sense of humour. After this WRITER'S WORKSHOPS! you can have a simple conThe Master Class Series – versation! call Hans for more workshops designed to help info (020) 7757709 or you master your craft in fic0644664254 tion, publishing, poetry, novel, screenwriting, & more! EXCELLENT DUTCH ProfiFree open days: Aug 16 & 30 ciencyinconversationwithsolat The English Bookshop. idbaseofpronunciation,gramInfo: www.wordsinhere.com mar&spelling/BEGIN.GROUP Fri.3 Oct, 19.00-21.00, 12 ph/INTERM.GROUP 12 Aug, Languages Tues.19:00-21:00, 12 ph/small WWW.LEARNDUTCH.COM groups/www.excellentdutch.nl/ ! ! ! Dutch the natural way. Also private lessons & on-line Online exercises. Interactive, &intensivecoursesallthrough practical and hands on !!! infor- the year. mation@learndutch.com.

MUSIC GUITARLESSONS Guitar and Basslessons at your place!

All styles acoustic & electric (incl. classical and flamenco) Also: songwriting - vocalcoaching - musictheory. Email: djjazzcat@gmail.com

The Arts PRINTING ON SILK An exhibition of designer clothes by Naheed Yawar. A wide range of exclusive designs from contemporary to uniquely traditional.

Please visit Schiermonnikoogstraat 8, 1181 HH, Amstelveen on 22nd and 23rd August between 10:00 to 18:00 hrs. For more details contact Naheed at 0625280424

Groups & Clubs INTRO TO TANTRA You’re invited to join us for an experience that will change your relationship to sex & spirit forever. You will learn dynamic Tantric techniques which may be used to open your body & heart to the natural flow of sexual energy. Sept 13-14 .

A’dam . www.chandrabindutantrainstitute.com . 020-320 9585 PARTY WITH THE BEST! Join the fun at www.

DemocratsAbroad.nl - the 51st state of the Democratic Party, with pub nights, issues, voting and more.

ABSENTEE BALLOTSFOR AMERICANS www.VoteFromAbroad.org BABIES AND TODDLERS Bringyourboredbabiesandtoddlers (up to 4 years) to Robbeburg Playgroup, Jekerstraat 84, any weekday morning from 10 until 12. Sessions from 5 euros. www.robbeburg.com Space also available for children’s parties.

Notices ZOMER ACADEMIE 1daagse seminar: ‘Meditatie & Visualisatie’ Gebruik je mentale kracht: versterk, versimpel, focus en beleef.

17 aug in Amsterdam Informatie & opgave: 038-3769739 of www.zomeracademie.info

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Win tickets to Arcade Fire: www.amsterdamweekly.nl