Volume 3, Issue 34
WEEKOF 31AUGUST TO 6 SEPTEMBER 2006 Inside: Music, Film, Art and Events
FREE EVERY WEDNESDAY
A DEATH IN VONDELPARK BACK TO SkOOL page 4 / WOMEN IN BLACK page 4 / RAW PARTYING page 5 SATAN HATES REVEREND VINCE page 13 / ANIMALS GROOVE ON SEX page 16 BOYS LOVE METAL page 23
CLAUDIE DE CLEEN
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31 August-6 September 2006
Amsterdam Weekly
PHOTO NOTES BY HANS EIJKELBOOM Contents: On the cover 11 April 2006. Salvatore de Nucci was found dead in Vondelpark. Illustration by Claudie de Cleen.
Features Hiphop college . . . . . . . . . . 4 Women in Black . . . . . . . . . 4 Chocolate Club . . . . . . . . . . 5 Death in Vondelpark . . . . . 6
Going out Short List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Gospel Fest . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Clubs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Gay & lesbian . . . . . . . . . . 16 Lekker Bezig . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Stage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Events. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Film. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Wicker Man . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Headbangers Journey . . . 23 Film Times. . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Plus The Glutton . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Life in Hell . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Eefje Wentelteefje . . . . . . 27
Amsterdam Weekly is a free cultural paper distributed every Wednesday in Amsterdam. Paid subscriptions are available on request. For details, write to info@amsterdamweekly.nl. Contents of Amsterdam Weekly are copyright 2006 Amsterdam Weekly BV. All rights reserved. Winner of 3 European Newspaper Awards Amsterdam Weekly BV De Ruyterkade 106, 1011 AB Amsterdam Tel: 020 522 5200 Fax: 020 620 1666 www.amsterdamweekly.nl General info: info@amsterdamweekly.nl Agenda listings: agenda@amsterdamweekly.nl Advertising: sales@amsterdamweekly.nl PUBLISHER Todd Savage EDITOR Steve Korver ASSISTANT EDITOR Kim Renfrew AGENDA AND FILM EDITOR Steven McCarron PROOFREADER Karina Hof EDITORIAL INTERN Sarah Gehrke ART DIRECTOR Bas Morsch PRODUCTION MANAGER Aquil Copier PRODUCTION DESIGNER Rogier Charles PRODUCTION INTERN Mattijs Arts SALES ASSOCIATES Haitske van Asten, Simon Poole, Justin Rink, Carolina Salazar OPERATIONS MANAGER Monique Gruter OPERATIONS ASSISTANTS Timo de Groot, Desislava Pentcheva DISTRIBUTION COORDINATOR Patrick van der Klugt DISTRIBUTION INTERN Chris Tian FINANCIAL ADVISER Kurt Schmidt, Veresis Consulting PRINTER Het Volk Printing ISSN 1872-3268 THIS WEEK’S CONTRIBUTORS Anuschka Blommers, Claudie de Cleen, Dara Colwell, Floris Dogterom, Angela Dress, William Edgar, Hans Eijkelboom, Matt Groening, Karina Hof, Luuk van Huët, Victoria Jacob, Richard Jurgens, Steve Korver, Anna Leeman, Jeroen de Leijer, Nick Leslie, Michael Martin, Sharida Mohamedjoesoef, Kim Renfrew, Jaro Renout, Bregtje Schudel, Niels Schumm, Shain Shapiro, Stephen Schneider, Simon Wald-Lasowski and Nanci Tangeman.
SATURDAY 26 AUGUST 2006 | Nieuwe Doelenstraat 14.00 -16.00
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AROUND TOWN
VICTORIAJACOB
It seems to me that in a school that’s ebony / African history should be pumped up steadily...
Back to the old skool Hiphop temple sets out to edukate. By Jaro Renout Y’all know that hiphop is the hottest thing since some bastard stole fire from the gods. And its omnipresence is seen in the way that even educational institutions have become interested in what, at first, seemed like the bizarre utterances of a soon-to-fade youth culture. But now hiphop is a necessity if you want to connect to the kids without being a boring old fart—explaining Mozart through a Dr Dre sample, that kind of stuff. The other reason for hiphop’s continued presence may be that many of the values we are trying to (re-)establish in our society, are basically the same as in hiphop. Balkenende and KRS-ONE both mention respect as a human standard, though with considerable differences in impact. In 1987, it was KRS-ONE aka The
Teacha who started the Temple of Hip Hop (motto: ‘Rap is something you do, Hip Hop is something you live’) as a place where this particular culture would be represented and kept alive for generations to come. And now, almost 20 years after the original temple opened, the first European spin-off has appeared in Amsterdam. The person continuing this dream is 31year-old Braien Candelaria, clearly a man with a mission: ‘The whole thing started a year ago, when KRS-ONE was in Holland to do some shows. I met him, we talked and the next day he told me about his plans to initiate hiphop Temples all around the world. He asked me to set up an Amsterdam chapter and I said yes. You see, hiphop is not a product. It’s a culture, something you live. When that happens, you need to define its basic values and, subsequently, show your respect for these values. Hiphop has been able to feed and educate people who didn’t have any prospects for a better life. It can lift people upwards. We have a duty as a community to promote the positive. Whatever it was that made hiphop important to you, you gotta give something back. ‘We need to establish our own centres to provide people with the opportunities to practise their skills, but also for advice and support. We need to combine our
efforts under one roof, and make all that expertise available to our community. Especially for the kids.’ Candelaria’s idealism comes backed up with plenty of experience: ‘I’ve been around the block for the last twelve years as a street corner worker, which provided me with the knowledge and network necessary to give this thing a fair chance. We are currently busy getting the proper subsidies. And we want to get revenue from the sales of CDs, DVDs, clothes, through concerts and tours. We’ve had talks with Mayor Cohen, wethouder Aboutaleb and numerous other players about it, and the response was positive all over. Even from Rita Verdonk.’ The one and only? ‘Yeah, we met twice. We had planned a meeting between politicians and sixty Antillean kids in Den Haag. The situation got a bit tense at a certain point. Minister Verdonk asked me if she could hold my two-month-old son for a moment. That calmed everybody down. She invited me for dinner and we had a good talk.’ Smart woman. When asked what exactly we can expect from the Amsterdam Temple, Candelaria responds: ‘You’ll get the original five elements of hiphop, rapping/MCing, DJing, breakdancing, beatboxing and graffiti. Throughout the years, four elements have been added: street fashion, street knowledge, street language and street entrepreneurialism. All these disciplines can be practised, refined and passed on to others. You can get advice, financial backing or facilities, depending on what you wanna do. You can find the right persons you’re looking for through us. That’s why it’s ultimately important to have the support of the whole community. We can make this anything we want it to be, you know. ‘The Melkweg is a good example of how you can build something lasting from scratch. And that’s exactly what we would like to do; build our own place in De Bijlmer. From scratch. Our culture is basically about making something out of nothing, so we’re used to that. On 28 Oktober will be our launch party with KRS and Busy Bee.’ Mountains of work await Candelaria and his partner-in-rhyme Rooth Haverschmidt (who is, by the way, a descendent of Piet Paaltjens, a people’s poet of the past. Rap avant la lettre.) They know this, but it doesn’t seem to demotivate them one bit: there’s a religious sense of determination in the air. ‘God gave us hiphop,’ says Candelaria, ‘as a way to rise up from the darkness. But you gotta do it yourself. You gotta have the balls to be what you want to be. Education, determination and motivation are your tools. Start today. Jesus took his cross and carried it all the way up that mountain. We say: pick up yours, and start walking.’ www.templeofhiphop.eu will be online soon
Women in Black A monthly vigil for peace. By Sharida Mohamedjoesoef Rain or shine, every first Friday of the month at 12.45 on Spui, it’s roll-call for the Women in Black. The Dutch chapter of the international movement is currently run by Lily van den Bergh, a fervent, politically engaged film-maker. ‘When we first began holding our vigils we were being spat at and ridiculed. In Israel, our fellow protestors suffered even more abuse. People would pull down their car windows and make extremely racial remarks and sexual insults like “Go and fuck Arafat.”’ The story of the Women in Black movement began in January 1988 when, roughly one month after the first Palestinian uprising broke out, a small group of Israeli and Palestinian women gathered at a major traffic intersection in Jerusalem. They were dressed in black, holding up a black sign in the shape of a hand with white lettering that read: ‘Stop the Occupation’. They kept coming back every week, same time, same place. Over the years, the Women in Black movement assumed many forms in many countries. In Germany, for instance, they protested against neo-Nazism and racism targeted at guest workers. In India, the group holds vigils to stop the ill-treatment
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of women by religious fundamentalists. In the Netherlands, meanwhile, the movement focuses on Israel’s 39-year-long occupation of the Palestinian territories, the regular invasions and the human suffering inflicted. It was Anneke Mouthaan, co-founder of an organisation called Een Ander Joods Geluid [A Different Jewish Voice] who started the first Dutch vigil in 1990; Van den Bergh took over the helm in 2001. Her film production office is littered with reports and papers recounting the grim situation in the Palestinian territories, and the email alert in her computer goes off incessantly. Van den Bergh is very much aware of the fact that people accuse her of presenting a rather one-sided view of the matter, downplaying or even ignoring the terror crimes of organisations like Hamas: ‘Hamas is a resistance movement that came into being as a result of Israel’s ill-treatment of the Palestinians. They won the democratically controlled elections, because of the lack of success and the paramount corruption of Arafat’s Fatah movement. Although Hamas did not undertake any more suicide actions for over a year, its leaders were systematically murdered in their homes or cars. Yet, it is the suicide bombs—the poor man’s army and, in my view, the ultimate form of despair—that never fail to miss the news headlines. Let there be no mistake about it, we disapprove of these suicide bombers, but at the same time they are no match for the tanks and sophisticated armoury of Israel, the fourth-strongest army in the world. Those Israeli actions are
Lily van der Bergh leans on the occupation.
called “self-defence” though. ‘One of the main reasons for Israel’s humiliating defeat against Hezbollah—that the lax military has actually got used to its daily acts of state terror, its collective punishment, its thirty-nine years of occupation. As a result, its soldiers were totally unfit to take on highly motivated Hezbollah fighters who were armed to the teeth and ready to defend their country against the indiscriminate killings of civilians and the total destruction of the civilian infrastructure.’ Van den Bergh feels one of the main problems is that people do not seem to realise that Israel’s policies are based on an ideology, Zionism, which she considers to be racist. ‘Zionism is based on ethnicity; the Jews are the chosen people that cannot live together with their neighbours. Thousands of Jews living all over the world, who do not consider themselves to be Zionists—although Israel claims to represents them all—are ignored as well in the media, when they speak out against the Israeli occupation and the war in Lebanon. Whenever you stand up against it, you are either a traitor or an anti-Semite; the label depending on whether you are Jewish or non-Jewish.’ Eighteen years on, and Women in Black have received wide acclaim for their work. The worldwide network was awarded the Millennium Women’s Peace Prize sponsored by the NGO International Alert and the UN agency UNIFEM, and was also a nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize. In the Netherlands, too, the movement is gaining more and more support. Van den Bergh says: ‘In August, when Israel began attacking Lebanon, thanks to a combined effort of various organisations such as the Dutch Palestinian Committee, A Different Jewish Voice, the Green Left party and the Labour Party, we managed to mobilise some three thousand people with our demonstration in Amsterdam. Of course, we still have a long way to go. But the good part is that here in Holland there is an increasing interest to set up more vigils. Next to Amsterdam, we have vigils in Utrecht and Groningen, and soon one in Maastricht. Dresscode: black!’
Cuckoo for cocoa Club turns your aura on raw.
VICTORIAJACOB
By Karina Hof ‘I’m not a hundred per cent raw.’ Though varying in percentages and apologetic tone, the statement could be heard more than once during a recent evening at the new-age mecca Mirror Centre. For the last two years every first Saturday of the month, raw foodists, diet dabblers, healthconscious people and the curious ‘lay’ have convened as the Chocolate Club. Despite a name connoting a candy barof-the-month mailaway subscription, the club’s agenda is like most of Amsterdam’s nightlife: drinks, DJs, live music, dancing.
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Even the massages and aromatherapy fit the flow of flâneurie gone bohemian. Carefully read the mission statement, though: to promote ‘heartcore’ partying. The Chocolate Club bans all toxic substances, even those of the social-lite—no alcohol, no ciggies. Tea? No way. Raw means nothing gets heated above 38°C. ‘You can get ecstatic here also,’ assures Wai Keung Man, the 37-year-old club founder. ‘Everything you need is at the party.’ In part, he’s referring to the club’s eponymous cup that runneth over—a cocktail known as the Alchemical Raw Chocolate Shake. Order it at the bar, one shot or two, straight-up or with a twist of cinnamon. But Man is also alluding to the regular club-goers who come ‘searching for something else.’ As Susana Barreiro, the club’s Bolivian barista and resident chocolate connoisseur, notes: ‘Most of these people are coming from a hardcore party scene, but they had it.’ The Chocolate Club crew (Man, manager Roell Kerkhout and friends who volunteer as cooks and servers) do tend to give off a cultish self-confidence, but are not out to pimp their enlightenment. Sick of—and thanks to—his days as a Loveboat party regular and hardcore house scenester, Man began going raw six years ago. His new lifestyle brought him impeccable health, the elevated consciousness he always sought and Mastercare.nl, his raw food distribution company for which he hopes to build a Noordermarkt storefront by next year. With Tigger-like bounds of energy, not to mention glowing skin and satin hair, he’s a believable spokesmodel. As the Mastercare website says, healthy living is enthusiasm, not fanaticism—the same mantra Man invokes when raw food dogmatists, including those from Amsterdam’s still-small scene, condemn his celebration of cacao. Their criticism: the bean is corrupted by caffeine. The Chocolate Club serves a threecourse dinner for €35, but August’s menu was altered for the hot summer night. Guests could saunter in between 5 and 8 p.m. for an open-seated dinner, costing €18. The cold avocado soup tasted true to Man’s statement: for raw food, this was la crème de la crème (lactose-free, of course). Cavernous white bowls held a rich vegetable purée with autumn-coloured flecks. Served alongside were slices of dehydrated flax bread and sprinkle-as-you-spoon garnishes: pine nuts, organic olives, bean sprouts and sea grass. Less lovely looking was a
Serotonin enhancer in standard ziplock.
complementary wineglass of the algaebased E3 Life Drink. Indeed not everyone could be dazzled. According to Saskia, a mostly ‘cooked’ 29 year old from Purmerend, who read about the Chocolate Club in Metro: ‘This was just soup. I wanted something spectacular.’ But she did add that she was satiated. ‘For the eyes, it was very plain; but for the stomach, it was enough.’ A few extra euros delivered dessert: strawberry-mango pie with cashew nut whipped cream or choices from a spectrum of Life Force Raw Energy Bars. While digesting, guests reclined in lounge chairs as chill-out DJ beats played overhead. Others stayed bar-side, sipping on superfood smoothies or milk directly tapped from a fresh young coconut. Guests could also pay (for) a visit to a number of stands, offering things like life coaching, tarot-card reading and chakra chanting. Spiritual service is just the reason the Chocolate Club has been a stamkast to Ferry, a young man forever seeking the kind of harmony his yin-yang bracelet symbolises. The Amsterdam native, who has been to a dozen of the dinner parties, exudes exuberance: ‘When people ask me “How are you today?” I say this is the best day of my life.’ (Ferry also claimed to be 324,5365 years old.) By 10 p.m. the crowd—on the small side, with an ‘everyone’s-on-holiday’ headcount of 40—had ascended to an upstairs salon. The electro trance programme was well underway, courtesy the live sitarist, two keyboardists, a drum machine and that most mystical illumination, a PowerBook. Erect postures and symmetrically folded legs, showing how many yogis were actually present, quickly formed a seated circle. But almost as quickly, a pair of yuppiecrisp jeans began to dance. Soon, much of the Chocolate Club, mostly of an earth-toned and barefoot persuasion, was up off the floor. The closed eyes of swaying heads and tantric limbs didn’t belie anything but a healthy metabolism. The Chocolate Club meets on 2 September at Mirror Centre, Ter Gouwstraat 3, 694 1525. Dinner is at 18.30, €35; afterparty from 20.00 until 01.00, €8. To reserve tickets call 627 9355 or see www.chocolateclub.nl.
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ANNA LEEMAN
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DEATH IN VONDELPARK By Richard Jurgens
n the evening of Tuesday, 11 April, this year, or early the next morning, a man went for a walk in Vondelpark, taking with him some unusual equipment for an early morning stroll: probably a little white box, possibly a plastic bag, and either a pair of handcuffs or a rope of some kind (the exact details are not known because the police are still refusing to reveal them). It’s thought that in the park, he carefully selected a location: a path, a bench, a view of a pond shining in the faint lights of the sleeping city. According to some accounts, the little white box contained some pills. The man was probably already woozy when he put the plastic bag on his head and handcuffed or tied his own hands behind his back so that he would not be able to take the bag off his head. He fell face forward on the bench as the drugs took effect, bruising or perhaps breaking his nose, which produced a lot of blood. Then he asphyxiated and died. A woman out walking her dog early the next morning encountered the body and alerted the police.
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The life of Salvatore de Nucci was as mysterious as his passing.
That afternoon an article appeared in Het Parool, reporting that the provisional conclusion of the police was that the man had died in a gangland slaying. It was not an unnatural assumption. Amsterdam has seen a series of gory underworld killings in recent years. This is ‘Chicago on the Amstel’, as intellectual rag De Groene Amsterdammer was already calling the city six years ago, after a series of murders attributed to Russian and ex-Yugoslavian gangsters.
The death in the park bore many of the hallmarks of an execution, and the bloodiness led quickly to the assumption that the man had been shot. It’s hardly possible to imagine that a man could choose to die like that: with his hands immobilised, his head in a plastic bag, in a growing pool of blood. Two pictures accompanied the article, in the top spot on the front page. Taken from some distance, the pictures showed a man lying on his front on a green bench in the park, the plastic bag pulled free of his bloodied face, his arms still awkwardly behind his back. The face had—was it due to some cautious last-minute twinge concerning matters of legality and tact?—been digitally obscured. Something about the man’s body was very still, even in the static frame of a photograph. The attitude was one of submission, as if the man had been on his knees and had wanted to pray. A day later an email began going out to various people in the city. The subject box read: ‘Salvatore is dead’. The message included a short article from De Telegraaf not-
31 August-6 September 2006
ing that a man had been found dead in the park and that the police were acting on the theory that it was a gangland killing. A day after that, the message flew round that a commemoration of some sort would be held. A group of some of his friends assembled with their bikes at Leidseplein on the Thursday. We rode in silence through the park. None of us, except Renos Antoniou, 29, who had been involved in organising the commemoration, knew where we were going. Antoniou, who had been one of Salvatore’s closest friends, was still seething with anger at the degrading photographs that had appeared in the paper, and he was little inclined to conversation. As we rode along the winding paths other people joined us, as if some sort of migrating instinct had brought us together. By the time we got to the south side of the park we were a solemn convoy of around 20, so that people turned and stared as we passed. ‘Half of trendy Amsterdam seems to be coming,’ observed Marcelina Oosthoek, 30, another of the dead man’s closest friends. She normally bubbled with cheerfulness, but today she was reserved, and she said little after that. More people were gathered outside the funeral parlour in Zuid, lingering on the pavement outside and talking in subdued undertones. No one seemed very keen to go inside, and it wasn’t hard to see why. The forbidding stone building had been designed in the 1970s, not a highpoint of the art of architecture, and it did not exactly invite you in. But then again, maybe this was only appropriate, as it was a house of death. The viewing, I understood from comments in the crowd, had been arranged at the last minute. Later that night the body was to be flown to London, where Salvatore’s family lived, and where the funeral was to be conducted. After a while, the people began reluctantly moving in. The building’s polished slate floors, sharp angles and faint but persistent smell of formalin only increased the desire to get this strange business over. Or maybe it was that the funeral parlour was having a busy day, with a number of mourning parties passing through. At any rate, we were shown up the stairs and, almost before we were ready for it, were being led into the viewing room. The people ahead of me went in and came out again shortly afterwards looking tearful and green. ‘He looked quite peaceful, anyway,’ I heard the woman saying shakily, looking up at her friend uncertainly for confirmation. He nodded briefly but said nothing. And indeed, the body, when I saw it lying there in the coffin, did have a superficial aura of peace. Perhaps it was the ruffles in the white padding. Maybe it was the cloisterlike stillness in the room. Only the face was exposed; the body was wrapped in a Biblical-looking shroud. Now, standing at this coffin, I looked more closely at Salvatore’s face: it was anything but peaceful. The nose and the area of the face around the eyes were swollen, as if he had been in a fight. His eyes were of course closed, and the eyelids were rimmed with some sort of whitish substance. He looked as if he was sleeping, but if so, it was not a pleasing kind of sleep. Death—or the death throes—had coarsened his face somehow. I remembered it as thinner, more aquiline. His face looked, indeed, somewhat like the face of one of those dead insurgents (as the BBC puts it) they show occasionally on the news, interrupted, at the moment of death, in a fierce struggle in the profane world. The site of the death had certainly been chosen with care. Shaded by a row of trees along the path, the bench overlooked a pond, which was outlined on the other side by the park fence, half-hidden by shrubs. Beyond the fence a row of solemn, solid 19th-century villas looked blankly and formally over the scene. The offices of the council of Amsterdam Zuid are also not far away. There would have been no one around and paths would have been dimly lit by the light of a moon halfhidden by clouds scudding across a dark spring sky. The setting was remarkably like a stage, in fact. Here a man had played out his last scene against an idyllic backdrop, in full view of the houses of the rich and the powerful, and in front of the drooping eyelids of the city’s economic elite. It was only later, shortly after 7.30 that morning, that police cars and vans began pulling up to the gate and a
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cards. They remained there until the following week, when the council ordered them to be removed.
‘I rather liked his story about his background,’ says Van Holden. ‘I didn’t believe it. But I respected the fact that every human has secrets that they can only reveal when they choose.’ police case team cordoned off the bench and began its preliminary investigations. Details of the case have yet to be revealed, if indeed they ever will be. But Salvatore’s body may have lain there for quite some hours before it was discovered. On the ride over to the park someone had handed out some lanterns with candles in them. It was just as well that somebody had thought of the symbolic gesture, as it meant that someone had thought about what we would be doing. Most of the folks there were clearly city stylists of the ruggedly individual sort, incapable of communal worship or mourning. We had lit the candles and ridden in a still largely silent convoy to the site of Salvatore’s death, protecting the little flames against a fitful wind as we rode. Sometimes one of them would be blown out and there would be sudden stoppage in the bike path as people helped to get the candle lit again. Now people stood shuffling around in small groups, close but not close, many of them holding the still-burning candles. An awkward silence fell. What were we to do here, with no priest, no pastor, no rabbi nor imam— no ‘holy authority’ of any kind—to lead the proceedings and say the right things? But the death of a friend can hardly pass in silence, and after a while a few people ventured to speak. Mark van Holden, an American artist with whom Salvatore had lived when he had first arrived in the city, described the departed as ‘the epitome of a good man’ and exhorted the assembled friends to remember his special qualities and the shortness of life in the face of eternity. Rosalinde Weijsenfeld, who had been Salvatore’s girlfriend, placed a photograph among the mementoes. She thanked everyone for being there and asked them to hold on to the good memories, especially given the negative publicity that had so far surrounded Salvatore’s death. The bench was soon entirely covered in flowers and
Around a hundred people kill themselves in Amsterdam every year. As it happens, the neighbour of a friend of mine committed suicide about a week after the news about Salvatore broke. Her death never made the papers at all. And during the same week a report appeared in the paper about the supposed suicide of a well-known chef in the city. His passing had merited a news short on an inner page. All I knew about the woman was that she kept her shoes in the hallway, that she was idealistic enough to stick posters up urging green causes on the people who tramped up the stairs, that she was extremely sensitive to heavy footfalls upstairs, that she had lived a secluded life behind drawn blinds, and that when she decided to die she left a note on her kitchen table, asking her upstairs neighbour to find a new home for her cat. I had never met the chef, but he had apparently flung himself from a high window... Maybe Salvatore’s death merely focused my attention on these events. Still, now it seemed that the place was suddenly turning into Suicide City. But there was something about the case of the death in the park, perhaps its spectacular nature, that attracted more than the usual silent impatience. The week following his death, another article appeared in Het Parool about Salvatore. Clearly intended as a correction to the over-hasty ‘scoop’ of the week before, it attempted to sketch his life and character in a more sympathetic tone. The police were still not officially revealing anything about the case, but it was now fairly certain that he had committed suicide. And a look behind the stereotypes that had been raised by the first report revealed, hey presto, a real story. The man who killed himself so bizarrely had been a popular and dynamic figure in the city’s nightlife. He had been someone; his death had been in some sense a loss to the city. Salvatore de Nucci was described in the article as a 31-year-old Iraqi who had lived in the city for a relatively short time—around four years or so, although the writer was not specific. He had made a good living as a cocktail mixer on Korte Leidsedwarsstraat, that narrow street of trendy nightclubs, and Strand Zuid. He had been interested in many things besides his work too, his former girlfriend told the paper. He had played the guitar, liked salsa dancing, and enjoyed reading. He had also been a convinced vegetarian. He was, until his condition started dragging him down, a popular guy. That was before his condition was discovered; before his behaviour started getting too erratic for him to sustain his busy and social lifestyle. For, the article continued, Salvatore de Nucci was ‘a man of extremes’. He would go through intensely energetic periods, when he would be full of ideas and aspirations. These would be followed by bouts of extreme depression, when he could believe nothing positive and do nothing constructive. During the last year of his life he was picked up off the street by the police several times and placed into psychiatric care. He would harangue people on the street—even jumping up onto cars to address them—or go to the park, where he would challenge passers-by to fights. ‘There were at least two occasions when he defended his Iraqi heritage with a knife, growling like a lion at people,’ says Van Holden. Finally, Salvatore was diagnosed as suffering from bipolar disorder, or what used to be called manic depression, and placed under a regime of care that included, by the time of his death, a course of tablets and half-an-hour a week with a psychiatrist. Everyone interviewed pointed an accusing finger in the direction of the city’s psychiatric health care services. The institutions, they agreed, had let him down just when he needed them most, when his moods began to swing even more wildly and unpredictably. That, in outline, was the picture that emerged of the story behind Salvatore’s last desperate act. A manicdepressive subject to extreme mood changes, he had committed suicide when he was feeling at his most down—and when, in the opinion of many people who knew him, he had been abandoned by the psychiatric health care authorities. In the end he had been, as Weijsenfeld said, ‘a victim of a chemical in his brain.’
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‘He had been abandoned by the psychiatric health care authorities. In the end he had been, as Weijsenfeld said, a victim of “a chemical in his brain”.’ ‘“I know what you’re about,” he said. “You’re the devil. You’re the antiChrist.” I tried to laugh it off. “Sal, you give me too much credit,” I said.’ ‘There is, to put it simply, a shortage of beds in closed psychiatric institutions. And the reason for that is that they have been scrapped because of cost cuts. It’s not hard to understand. It’s not rocket science.’
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ram Bakker, an Amsterdam psychiatrist, felt strongly enough about Salvatore’s death to publish an opinion piece about it a few weeks later, after reading the sketch of his life. Bakker’s trenchant criticism of the professional cronyism and bureaucratic resistance to change of many of his psychiatric colleagues have earned him a reputation as the maverick of Dutch psychiatry. He made a name as a critic of the current system when he castigated the mixture of ‘idealism and misplaced confidence’ that has committed many chronically ill patients to an uncertain existence on the margins of society by closing the long-term psychiatric wards. The psychiatric institutions ‘lack the courage to admit that closing the long-term wards was a policy mistake,’ he says in the book, Te gek om los te lopen [‘Too crazy to be walking free’], that became a minor publishing sensation when it was published in 2003. In the book, Bakker outlines some of his experiences as member of staff of the psychiatric department of the St Lucas Andreas Hospital, one of the few closed psychiatric institutions in the city capable of admitting severely disturbed patients. A sometimes harrowing account of treatment failures and the stresses of the profession, it is an insider’s view of the chaos brought by years of restructuring and budget cuts in psychiatric health care in the city that have seen hundreds of psychiatric patients released onto the streets to fend for themselves. During the late 1980s and early 1990s psychiatric health care all around Europe was revolutionised by a new approach, then somewhat euphemistically called Care in the Community. A classic statement of it is to be found in a lecture on the subject given by Professor BPR Gersons of the Unversiteit van Amsterdam, as long ago as 1993. ‘Patients now continue to take part in ordinary life,’ Gersons said. ‘The same norms and values that apply to ordinary people now also apply to them.’ But he went on to add that the approach had brought new problems. Many people needing treatment for chronic psychiatric illnesses were ‘severely deprived, [often] without the opportunity of marrying, with very limited opportunities to have children, or to work, and with very little money with which to make their daily lives more comfortable...’ Psychiatric health care in the Netherlands had been ‘transformed’, he said, but he questioned whether a ‘normal life’ for many of them was even possible. Without in-patient care, he said, many more psychiatric patients were resorting to alcohol or drugs. ‘The world of the chronic patient has been enriched by many more possibilities, but it is also one of more chaos and less certainty.’ Since then, little has changed. Bakker and a few of his colleagues in the city are still saying much the same things, 13 years later. And in his piece on Salvatore, Bakker argued that it was quite possible that his treatment had been mishandled. ‘The main problem, for me, is not the failure of care in this individual case,’ he wrote, ‘but rather the fact that there are hundreds of cases of suicide among young people [every year] and they receive almost no attention. Moreover, these cases are very often the result of a failure of care... It is a disgrace that we can offer so little to people like [him].’ The article was the last discussion of any kind to appear in the press about the death in the park. After it had been printed, Salvatore’s suicide—and its significance—slipped below the public radar. On first acquaintance, Salvatore came across as a welleducated American guy with an unstated ethnic background. He spoke English with a certain easy fluency; you’d have thought that had grown up in some pleasant American suburb before going to Swarthmore or some other good liberal arts college. Then there was his style. He wore his thick, long dark hair tied in a bandana and wore hippyish clothes that seemed to suggest that he was on an extended European tour. He was fashion-conscious, too, and something of a trendsetter himself, says Weijsenfeld. (‘It was he who made those loose capioeria trousers fashionable in Amsterdam, and he was the first to wear wristbands here,’ she says.) The ‘tour’ might last for many years more or it might be terminated within a few months, but at some stage, he would probably return home to a job
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and a family. When Salvatore first arrived in Amsterdam he told people a strange story about his background. It fitted him well though—indeed, it had been specifically tailored to cover any subtly incongruous elements in him that people might pick up. He told Van Holden, with whom he lived for a few months during his first year in the city, the following story: that he had been born in Italy, that he had been adopted by British parents, and that they had later moved to Florida, where he had grown up. That neatly modern narrative of mixed nationalities and cultures accounted for his Southern European appearance, his fluent American, English, and his British passport. Sam Coleman, another friend, remembers hearing the story too. It was only later, when Salvatore was living over on the Prinsengracht, that he became more open about the fact that he was from Iraq. ‘I rather liked his story about his background,’ says Van Holden. ‘I didn’t believe it. But I respected the fact that every human has secrets that they can only reveal when they choose.’ A quality of caring permeated his life, thinks Weijsenfeld; he would take a lot of trouble to cook a special meal for her, and he was always almost absurdly hopeful that the creative cocktails he came up with would please and surprise the friends or customers he improvised them for. All of his friends remember his interest in matters spiritual, and many of his friends seem—in the glow of memory, perhaps—to idolise him. Van Holden, a lean and restless man not quick to admire, one suspects, is one of them. ‘Salvatore,’ he says, ‘was the greatest epitome of a good man that I met in my fifty years of existence.’ ‘Everyone knows that there’s a problem with psychiatric health care in the Netherlands and especially in Amsterdam, but no one’s prepared to say so,’ says Bakker. In person he is a tall, lean, very fit-looking man who favours polo shirts under a jacket and loafers of the kind you can spend hours on your feet in. He also wears the set, somewhat truculent expression of man who has been fighting the good fight against monolithic foes for some time, and who has been winning some battles and losing others. He had kindly made time for me in a busy schedule as psychiatrist and columnist. ‘The problem goes way back, to policy decisions that were taken years ago that are still having an effect today,’ Bakker continues. ‘There is, to put it simply, a shortage of beds in closed psychiatric institutions. And the reason for that is that they have been scrapped because of cost cuts. It’s not hard to understand. It’s not rocket science.’ But, seasoned campaigner as he is, Bakker would not comment directly on the specifics of what might have gone wrong with Salvatore’s treatment. That Salvatore had been receiving pills (Lithium, according to some of his friends) and half an hour of counselling a week were matters of report. But Bakker did say that there was a case for the laws concerning forcible committal to be reviewed. In many cases like Salvatore’s, he told me as the candle on the café table flickered, there was a case for saying that the laws should be relaxed to allow such people to be committed to a psychiatric institution. ‘Compare it to another kind of illness,’ he says. ‘If someone’s found lying unconscious on the ground, someone will report it, an ambulance will come to fetch them, they’ll be taken to hospital, and they’ll receive treatment, regardless of whether they can give permission. The same should apply to cases of serious psychiatric disturbance. We should take the fact that these people are ill just as seriously as we do when we see someone pass out in front of us. They’re not in a state to help themselves. And in fact, psychiatric patients may sometimes also represent a real danger to society, too.’ I wonder if there is not something rather distastefully invasive about the idea of widening the scope for forced committals. They could be used in cases of psychiatric disturbance that were limited in nature; or they could, in some instances, even be used to control people who had proven impervious to other modes. The use of psychiatry in the former USSR, where dissidents were subjected to years of corrective psychiatric care, is an example. Bakker will have none of it. The Dutch rules for forcible committal are very strict, he counters. He was only talking about relaxing them to include a wider variety of cases of a kind that are presently not being treated in this way because of budget cuts, and for no other reason.
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‘It’s no stretch of the imagination to see that the effect of the Allied invasion of Iraq must have been considerable: the many aspects of himself with which he had already been wrestling now encountered each other like two asteroids crashing into each other.’ Bakker says that he is a firm opponent of the ‘neutral, distant mode of counselling’ that Dutch psychiatry standardly adopts with serious psychiatric patients. ‘I’m all for a more personal approach to dealing with patients,’ he insists. To deal with some conditions you have to build up a relationship of trust with the patient, he argues; it does them no harm to know that their psychiatrist is human too. ‘But when it comes to people who are in periods of serious disturbance and who are likely to attempt suicide, I take as my guiding principle something a great psychiatrist once said,’ Bakker concluded: ‘“people who commit suicide don’t want to die, they want another life.”’
T
he man whose friends in Amsterdam had known as Salvatore de Nucci was born in Iraq. He grew up in Sweden, Spain, the UK and the US and attended private boarding schools and learned a number of languages, including Swedish (another close friend of his, Sara Mansson, says he spoke it ‘reasonably well’), Spanish and English. He could write some Arabic but apparently seldom spoke it. In his early twenties he tried studying medicine but gave it up to go travelling. Then, somewhere in his mid-twenties, he experienced a vision of the Virgin Mary and converted to Catholicism. He changed his name by deed poll in the UK, where he had also lived, to Salvatore De Nucci (in typical fashion the name symbolised as much as it said, meaning as it did, roughly, ‘new saviour’) and broke off contact with his family. ‘He had a Western point of view in that he never grew up with a sense of home,’ says Weijsenfeld. ‘Sometimes he reminded me of a friend of mine, the son of a diplomat: he would size up the people in a new setting and then act in accordance with them.’ But the lifestyle Salvatore had chosen was not as easy or graceful as he liked to make it appear when he was in a confident mood. Moreover, it was a lifestyle that was severely at odds with the weight of his Muslim ruling class family’s expectations. He might even have been, in a certain sense, on the run from his family. According to some of his friends, much of the pressure appears to have come from his father, a formidable Iraqi politician, both when he was in the country and in exile. His father was instrumental in the takeover of Iraq in 1968, says Salvatore’s younger brother, but came into conflict with the revolutionary council about the use of violence a few years later and resigned. He was exiled to various embassy posts before resigning definitively, when he felt he could not defend Saddam Hussein’s war with Iran. After that he lived and worked in the US and the UK, where he started a weekly Iraqi paper. Highly respected for his principled stands in the past, Salvatore’s father was greeted by huge crowds when he returned to Iraq in 2003. Described as being a ‘staunch
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patriot’ with ‘impressive energy and vitality’, he was a driven politician during the years of Salvatore’s youth, and his children grew up under the care of nannies and staff and at international schools. (Salvatore, at least, told friends that he had had very little contact with his parents in his childhood.) His father was not pleased by his decision to give up medical studies, and it may be that there was also a conflict between them about Salvatore’s conversion to Christianity. At any rate, Salvatore finally broke off almost all contact with his parents. He would phone or visit every two years or so, at the most. The relationship with his family, and especially his father, is crucial to understanding many of the contradictions with which he wrestled. First of all, his father represented Islam, while Salvatore had converted to Christianity. Then again (as some of his friends speculated), his father represented the traditions of the Arab family with its emphasis on obedience to the father and the importance of the first son, while Salvatore had chosen an international rootless, anti-authoritarian lifestyle and felt in tune with a generation and culture with entirely different values. It appears to have been a stark, classical struggle of wills between father and son. Salvatore’s brother was in town to represent the family at the commemoration. He had seen very little of his older brother during the last few years, he said. He added that he was attending the commemoration because their parents still did not know the real cause of Salvatore’s death. The rest of the family, for some reason, had chosen to fudge the facts by telling them that their son had died of an accidental overdose. (This is why the family has requested not to include Salvatore’s birth name in this article.) Fate was a subject which Salvatore was very interested in; he wrote about it in the notebook that he kept during the last year of his life, along with explorations into other subjects like evolution, the differences between men and women and the state of contemporary international relations. (Other pages of the notebook were scattered with symbols and symbolic wordplays of a kind that he delighted in: ‘JAH ~ HAJ/Exodus’, ‘ZION ~ NOIZ/Music’,
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The setting was remarkably like a stage. Here a man had played out his last scene against an idyllic backdrop, in full view of the houses of the rich and the powerful. ‘Descartes: “I think therefore I exist”/Salvi: “I believe, therefore I exist”.’) And as fate would have it, a historical event would conspire to interrupt the idyll of identity that he had constructed so carefully for himself, as well as his fantasy of a group of friends who could be a substitute family. That happened on 20 March 2003, when the US, where he had partly grown up and whose culture he had largely adopted, led the Allied invasion of Iraq, where he had been born and where his family had been so prominent. It’s no stretch of the imagination to see that the effect of this must have been considerable: the many aspects of himself with which he had already been wrestling now encountered each other like two asteroids crashing into each other. The aetiology has yet to be established—that can only be shown only on the basis of information that is still being kept confidential—but it is clear that there was a relationship between the onset and progress of the war and Salvatore’s condition. Coleman recalls Salvatore being ashamed of being Iraqi at first; he apparently saw the invasion as a sort of painful necessity. Later his mood changed. The war progressed, or deteriorated, and stories started emerging of the inhumane treatment of Iraqi prisoners by Allied troops. ‘Before the war he had been interested in many global political issues—the environment, poverty in the Third World,’ says Coleman. ‘But later his politics were all about Iraq, and he just thought the Americans were just fucking the country over.’ As 2004 came along, ‘he was dealing with some heavy shit, trying to deal with his past, and that opened up old
wounds,’ says Weijsenfeld. ‘He got worse, but no one knew this. He became manic, unstable, selfish, not such a nice person, and he wasn’t sleeping.’ She had already persuaded him to see a psychologist, and in October, the psychologist recommended that he see a psychiatrist. In short, he would probably need drugs, as well as a sympathetic ear. In the same month Salvatore’s relationship with Weijsenfeld broke down. In January of the following year he was committed to a psychiatric ward for the first time. When he was in one of his angry moods, which got increasingly aggressive, Salvatore could be truly frightening. Coleman saw this close to. After an escalation of verbal hostilities over several months in which Salvatore would sometimes threaten to kill him, he saw him hanging round his front door one day. ‘I’d seen him there a couple of times, but this time I went out to speak to him. We went for a walk, and while we walked we talked. We found ourselves on the Johnny Jordaan square. It was a foggy night, about twelve or one at night and there was no one about. ‘“Sal, what are you doing?” I asked. “Sssss!” he said. He had a low cap on, with a little brim. His hair was all wild, and he had that tough-looking stubble... “I know what you’re about,” he said. “You’re the devil. You’re the anti-Christ.” I tried to laugh it off. “Sal, you give me too much credit,” I said. Well, we got through that, but the threat remained. Then he switched his anger to Renos...’ By the end, when Salvatore walked alone to the park that night, few of his friends had regular contact with him. Van Holden remembers seeing him for dinner, about a year before. Van Holden was half-an-hour late, and Sal-
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vatore gave him a watch and told him never to be late. ‘I’m having a hard time,’ he had said. ‘I have two personalities. I have a hidden side to me that I can’t put away.’ Coleman had also lost contact with him about a year before, after he was committed for the third time. Salvatore had apologised for the threats, but by then it was too late. Something, trust maybe, had been lost. Weijsenfeld had not seen him for about a year either. Both Oosthoek and Mansson had managed to keep up intermittent contact with him until just before he went to the park, but by then the contact was mostly by phone. Antoniou had left the city, perhaps to find a job somewhere else, perhaps just to chill in the sunny climate of Cyprus while he decided what he wanted to do. Everyone felt that an era in their lives had come to an end. One evening, a few months later, Oosthoek, Weijsenfeld and Mansson got together to carry out a lugubrious task. They were to fetch his last remaining goods from the place where he had been staying and bring them to Weijsenfeld’s place. As the owner of a car, I had been drafted in as transport driver, as well to help schlep his things. The women had expected an emotional occasion, on being confronted by Salvatore’s things. But there was little time for emotion; everyone was tired after a day at work and there were a lot of the grey garbage bags full of odds and ends to be carried down two flights of stairs to the street and then back up the five precipitous flights back to Weijsenfeld’s attic apartment. Among the items were: a Solis Juice Fountain Pro (‘He was very proud of that,’ said Weijsenfeld, ‘He’d mix cocktails with it sometimes’), a 3 Rams kitchen cleaver made in China, a small lemon rasp and a Princess beard trimmer. Among the books he had left were a copy of What Your Mother Couldn’t Tell You and Your Father Didn’t Know, Joseph Heller’s Catch-22, a treatise on bipolar disorder from the clinical psychology department of the UvA, a copy of Khalil Gibran’s The Prophet, an SAS Survival Guide and a book called Beat Your Goals: The Definitive Guide to Personal Success. ‘He was always trying to fix himself,’ said Weijsenfeld. ‘But he just couldn’t.’
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SHORT LIST
Amos Lee, Tuesday, Bitterzoet
Art: Hans Willemse—Natuur in Vorm
FRIDAY1SEPTEMBER Art: Mahomi Kunikata For those Japanophiles familiar with the Kai Kai Kiki collective, a talented enclave of postmodern artists devoted to manga and anime, Mahomi Kunikata’s solo exhibition March of the Absent Friends will be a welcome event. Kunikata, whose work has toured Los Angeles and New York in recent years, takes a colourful, if nightmarish, approach to feminine sexuality—the focus of the manga genre—by producing drawings that convey masochism, fetishism, sexual violence and depression. Two such examples on display: a portrait of a wide-eyed little girl masturbating with crayons; another of a blonde child with a sword gouging her stomach. Like much contemporary Japanese art, the artist’s work is eccentric, highly personal, cute, raw and yet ultimately dysfunctional—a comment on a modern-day society that sexualises women. Organised by the New Art branch of the Reflex, which promotes rising artists, this is Kunikata’s first solo gallery show outside Japan. (Dara Colwell) Reflex New Art Gallery (Tues-Sat 11.00-18.00). Until 1 August 2007.
SATURDAY 2 SEPTEMBER Film: Duistere Openbaringen As the summer beats a hasty, soggy retreat, I couldn’t think of a better way to embrace the gloom and doom of the coming autumny darkness than by paying a visit to the city of Helmond in the Burgundian province of Brabant. This appropriately named town will host the second edition of this festival that focuses on Dutch fantastic cinema in all wicked shapes and forms, including a short film competition for amateur, professional and semi-professional shorts. A measly €10 will provide you with an entire day’s worth of chills, spills and thrills to get you into that brooding September mood. And have I mentioned the exclusive surprise screening of an upcoming Dutch genre flick? Even including the train fare or petrol money, that’s a pretty snazzy way to check up on the most promising young directors, get a sneak preview and take shelter from the drizzle all at the same time. Not to mention Jona/Tomberry on a big-ass screen. See www.duistere-openbaringen.net. (Luuk van Huët) Filmhuis Helmond, Helmond, various times and prices.
It’s not that his objets d’art are completely strange to the eye. After all, we’ve all seen coats, bustiers, dishes and cocoons before, haven’t we? But it’s in his choice of material that Hans Willemse surprises the viewer. Many of his sculptures are made of preserved vegetable matter like leaves, catkins, moss, mushrooms, fruit and seeds. And what about a light-fitting consisting of cocoons made out of dried aubergines? Willemse is an educated flowerbinder who knows how to treat living flowers and plants in a creative way. By conserving them and shaping them into sculptures, he literally stops the rot and keeps nature in shape for a while. Always thought you couldn’t wear a plant? Go to the visitors centre of Amsterdamse Bos and find out for yourself. (Floris Dogterom) Bezoekerscentrum Amsterdamse Bos (Tues-Sat 12.00-17.00, Sun 10.00-17.00).
Jazz: Seven Bridges Jazz Festival It’s free. It’s funky. And you’ve got that ooh so-inspiring view of the seven bridges. Oh, and with the tourist season over, you’ll actually be able to bike there quite efficiently again. The fourth Seven Bridges Jazz festival continues its tradition of diverse programming: New Cool Collective’s Benjamin Herman, pianist Michiel Borstlap, turntablists (and increasingly a musical export product we can be proud of) C-Mon & Kypski, up-and-coming vocalist Wouter Hamel, quirky DJ duo Easy Aloha’s, and the globally acclaimed African musician Mory Kanté with his nine-piece band. While the podium programming ends at 11.30 p.m., be sure to sniff around the nearby cafés where afterparties will continue late into the night. (Steve Korver) Reguliersgracht (between Keizersgracht and Herengracht), 16.00-23.30, free.
Gay and Lesbian: Hot Peper A new-ish once-a-monther in OT301’s restaurant—it’s been up and boogeying since July—Hot Peper is the spice that’s putting a bit of variety into lesbigay club life. Aimed at trash-glam queer folks (and their queer-minded friends), things start off rather sophisticatedly with an organic dinner (in at a bargain €6, reserve beforehand by calling 412 2954), and, once the scoff’s over, moves onto a post-prandial club proper with DJ G Bean on the decks. Expect the sounds to fall at the dancier end of the alternative spectrum, with plenty of electro and funky stuff and some good old-fashioned disco. As befits the image on the flyer—a fishnets-clad arse sporting a strap-on—the organisers say the key words are ‘debaucherous fun’, so bring an empty stomach, cha-cha heels and the requisite ’tude. (Kim Renfrew) De Peper, 18.00-03.00.
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Club: Fucque Les Balles Imagine Divine, on crystal meth, hosting a warehouse party inside a giant Fabergé egg. That’s pretty close to what you’ll get at this joint venture between celebrated snapper Erwin Olaf and those club promoters who are so ingrained in the scene (Speedfreax, Rauw, et al) that they’re practically a piece of the furniture—Meubel Stukken. Olaf had his first Fucque in Paradiso in 2000, and this is the anniversary celebration, all under the banner of ‘Plastic Fantastic’. In addition to some stalwart spinners, like Wannabeaster and Miss B-Have, Disc Twins, Joost van Bellen and Victor Coral, there is unhinged entertainment. Dietrich has been disinterred especially; there’s a dwarf can-can; an Elizabeth Taylor vibraplate fight... you know, the usual stuff. A strict movie star dresscode is in place, so dress up. (But then, if you’re forking out a big fat 50 for a ticket, then you already will be.) Profits go to Veilige Haven, the LGBT ethnic minority project. Awww: this lot really are tarts with hearts. (Kim Renfrew) NDSM-werf, 22.00-late, €50.
SUNDAY 3 SEPTEMBER Electronica: Ninca Leece This French solo artist is the electronica scene’s latest sensation. After studying classical piano at a conservatory from the age of six, at 15, Leece heard New Order’s ‘Substance’ for the first time and fell instantly in love with electronic music. She gave up music school to begin inventing, sculpting and experimenting with sounds. The music she creates is a soundscape populated with peculiar life forms and weathered by soaring electro rips, audio space beams and cosmic zaps, which result in a complex simplicity of synth-pop that is all her own. She sings with a voice detached from emotion yet saturated with amorous sentiment, a bit like a latter-day Bardot— but this time round, in tune. Her illusory style will be quite at home at Blijburg’s Droomfestival tonight, where her awe-inspiring stage presence will have the audience eating out of her hand. (William Edgar) Blijburg (Sun-Thur 20.00-03.00, Fri, Sat 20.00-04.00), €15.
Classical: Gaudeamus Music Week Think of it as posing a radical revision to the idea of World Music. For the Gaudeamus Music Week—Amsterdam’s esteemed festival of younger composers, now approaching its 60th anniversary—brings together works created within the traditions of Western art-music (albeit sometimes at its furthest extreme), and it brings them together from just about everywhere. The Netherlands, Canada, Korea, Cuba, Argentina, Japan, the Czech Republic—all will be represented by recently written pieces for instrumental, electronic and/or vocal performers. Some will compete for a €4,550 prize; some will be world premiers; all have been selected for inherent merit. And with nearly two dozen concerts, three sound installations and one film in the offing, there will surely be something to embellish your world. See www.gaudeamus.nl. (Steve Schneider) Various times, prices and locations. Until 10 September.
TUESDAY 5 SEPTEMBER Bluegrass: Nashville Bluegrass Band While the Nashville Bluegrass Band has always maintained a somewhat rotational membership, the players that have found themselves in this epochal band are always made up of the best in Nashville, the international home of bluegrass music. Originally put together to support Minnie Pearl for an American tour in 1984, the band grew from supporting role to leading role, and have since released nine albums—with a tenth set for release soon—winning Grammy Awards and International Bluegrass Awards along the way. In addition, the quintet were featured on the wildly successful O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack and continue to pioneer devoutly traditional, eclectic bluegrass that mixes Appalachian hillbilly, folk and gospel alongside five-part vocal harmonies and wildly rambunctious melodies. Simply put, very few bluegrass bands do it as well as they do. They have become an ambassadorial band for the city of Nashville, showing the world how bluegrass music evolved, and where it is progressing. (Shain Shapiro) Paradiso, Grote Zaal, 20.30, €22.50.
Folk: Amos Lee Amos Lee’s 2005 self-titled debut was so highly lauded that it earned him opening slots with Bob Dylan, Van Morrison and Al Green in North America. In addition, the Philadelphia native has toured globally, including being invited to support Paul Simon for a string of dates this autumn. All this acclaim and interest is far from coincidental; not only does Lee have a pensively clutching way with words, but his laid-back songwriting style is also infectious, stressing a simplistic approach that transmits complex intonations and emotions circling around love, lust, desire and the politics that entwine each. On 3 October, Lee releases his yet-to-be-titled sophomore set on Bluenote Records, and to celebrate, the troubadour will play a short series of select club dates, hitting Amsterdam tonight at the intimate Bitterzoet. With his live band in tow, expect a slurry of old and new, all dusted off with Lee’s unique, enrapturing croon, engaging strum and clever musicianship. (Shain Shapiro) Bitterzoet, 20.30, €10. Send details and images for listing consideration at least two weeks in advance to agenda@amsterdamweekly.nl.
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Amsterdam Weekly
13 Jesus is my homeboy. Hallelujah!
Reverend Vince Anderson rips up a new, dirty kind of glory at the Amsterdam Gospel Festival.
I GOT JESUS IN MY HEAD AND MY HEART By Nanci Tangeman I went to the church house, after a night at the bar / Had this little shot of communion wine, didn’t help me get very far / The preacher was a preachin’ words I did not understand / And I think I should get out of there, but I don’t know if I can / Cuz I’m tryin’ to be an asshole, but I got Jesus in my head... You have to wish more people had the same problem as Reverend Vince Anderson, no matter what you believe in. As he sits here talking tough and slick, and sounding fresh-out-of-the-bars-of-Brooklyn, it’s not difficult to see that not so far underneath, he’s just a really nice guy from Fresno. And he’s got Jesus in his head. When we talk, Reverend Vince is just beginning a short European tour that will
culminate at the Gospel Festival on the first two days of September at the Pepsi Stage. There, he’ll share the line-up with gospel staples such as the Maranatha Gospel Choir, soul diva Candi Staton and Grammy Award-winner Kurt Carr. But Reverend Vince’s show will be a lot grittier, if not just as spiritual, because the Reverend (yes, he really is ordained) is the man who invented ‘dirty gospel’. Just the name tells you this is going to be different. ‘That label’s not meant to offend at all,’ he explains. ‘But it is meant to put people off guard. The meaning behind it is that it’s not all cut-and-dried: it’s murkier than a lot of Christians make it out to be. To me it’s called “faith”, it’s not called “proof.”’ Reverend Vince and his music are in the precarious position of having the
potential to rile both the godless and the God-fearing. ‘Being an “out” Christian, a public Christian, puts you on the apologetic right away,’ he explains. ‘Especially being an American Christian right now carries a huge stigma—as it well should.’ His role as an apologist is captured in ‘I Don’t Think Jesus Would Have Done it That Way’, a song he says he sends to US President George W Bush weekly, as a reminder. The lyrics include: ‘He’s a friend to the sinners, not an enemy / And I don’t think Jesus would have done it that way.’ Obviously the ‘he’ in question is Jesus, not George. ‘That song, to me, is addressed directly to the religious right. It’s more political in a way,’ says Reverend Vince. ‘All through that song I address George Bush directly—so that song says a lot. Some people are always going to have a problem with my methods and the fact that I’m unabashedly human,’ he adds. At the concert in Paradiso that kicked off his tour—a sort of after party to Angie Stone’s sold-out gig in the Grote Zaal— Reverend Vince manages to get a handful of Stone fans to join him in a singalong reminiscent of summer Bible camp: ‘Get outta my way! Get outta my way! I’m gonna praise the Lord today!’ ‘There’s kind of a human brashness to that song, an NYC get out-of-my-way
thing,’ he says. ‘There’s that upfront, street-smart, human get-out-of-my-way. But the inverse is that you get out of my way and I’ll get out of yours. And if I run into you, maybe I’ll hug you instead of hit you. That song has kind of a theological impact, a kind of gritty Christianity.’ Reverend Vince likes to invert Christian staples: his ‘Satan Hates Me’ makes the standard Jesus Loves Me just that much more interesting, and more appropriate to the venues he plays, like the Black Betty club in Brooklyn where he holds weekly ‘services’ along with his Love Choir. Still, he doesn’t shy away from trying to get bar patrons—his congregation—to sing songs straight out of a mainstream hymnal. ‘Anytime you’re doing church in bars you’re going to have resistance. But it can be really beautiful and inspiring, too. When I see a Hasidic Jew, a Catholic Puerto Rican and a godless hipster sitting there holding hands, singing ‘This Little Light of Mine’... There’s not many places where that can happen,’ he says. And the concept of singing together, it means both more and less to Reverend Vince than worship: ‘A big part of what I do on stage and a big part of what I like about church is this idea of singing together. I think it’s really hard to hate someone when you’re singing with them. I know it sounds really idealistic, but I think there’s something to it.’ He rails against mainstream churches and the ‘heavy membership fee’ they impose. ‘There shouldn’t have to be a philosophical membership fee to be with a group of people with a spiritual intent,’ he says. ‘It’s like the church has hijacked spirituality and said you can’t have it unless you believe this. And I think that’s just really wrong.’ Still, Reverend Vince does have roots in those same churches. He spent about three months at the Union Theological Seminary, intending to become a Methodist minister. ‘I loved seminary, but I felt like God was calling me out of seminary almost more strongly than He called me into it,’ he explains. ‘My intent was always to have a church of misfits, a kind of church for the rest of us. It became clear to me in seminary that wasn’t going to happen within the bonds of the organised church. Now I view my church as the people who come to my shows.’ For that community, Reverend Vince has performed almost 100 weddings, a handful of baptisms and one funeral. ‘[These people] are never going to set foot in a church, and I don’t want them to because they are what they are. And if I can provide some clergy-related duties, then that’s where they’re supposed to be. ‘I’m not an evangelist. I’m not one to impose my beliefs on other people. What I try to do is reflect my heart and my faith in my life in a way that is honest. And my intent is that if I do that and that rings true to people, it can inspire them to live a life that’s true to themselves.’ Reverend Vince Anderson plays the Gospel Festival Amsterdam on 1 September at 22.25, Pepsi Stage, ArenA Boulevard 1, 0900 0194, €10-€25, www.gospelfestival.nl.
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31 August-6 September 2006 recorded in a living room or not, it sounds remarkably sonic. Now signed to Warp, typically the home of earbleeding electronica, the acoustic experimentalists driven by Edward Droste are undoubtedly both charming and aurally fascinating. As such, they’re a sure-fire tip for the coming year. Paradiso, Kleine Zaal, 20.00, €6 + membership Rock: Nederlandse Luchtgitaar Kampioenschap There’s nothing too serious about the air guitar championships, thankfully. It’s just an opportunity for the average person to strap on an imaginary guitar, infusing themselves with the powers of a rock god for a brief moment. A little bit of technical ability is sure to boost your performance in the final, but when it comes to pleasing the crowd, extravagance, costumes and a bold stage dive typically go a long way. Oh, and there’s real live music too, with a Jimi Hendrix tribute and Rotterdam punks The Riplets. Paradiso, Grote Zaal, 20.30, €10 + membership
Human Alert , see Friday
Thursday 31 August
Saturday 2 September
Classical: Rotterdams Philharmonisch Orkest Don’t let city rivalry get in the way of a magnificent evening of masterpieces. The internationally renowned Rotterdam Philharmonic don’t make the trip to the Concertgebouw too often, but whenever they do, it’s spectacular. Tonight’s programme includes Wagenaar’s Cyrano de Bergerac Overture, Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 27 in B flat, and Beethoven’s Symphony No.5 in C; conducted by Jaap van Zweden. Concertgebouw, Grote Zaal, 20.15, €35 Pop: Ellen ten Damme Bringing to life the musical history of Blondie without the extortionate ticket costs and the real Debbie Harry—but who needs her anyway? Panama, 20.30, €15 Jazz: Opening Concert Series Bouncing back from a reduced summer programme, Bimhuis pulls together la crème de la crème of the improvised European music scene. Featuring two trios and one solo performers include Klaas Hekman, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Veryan Weston Trio, trombonist Wolter Wierbos, and Trio Kaufmann, Gratkowski, De Joode. Bimhuis, 21.00, €12 Soul: Nate James New British soul star with a contemporary pop take on the classic grooves of Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye. Paradiso, Grote Zaal, 23.00, €8 + membership
Friday 1 September Gospel: Gospel Festival There are two strong elements to gospel music: religious faith and, of course, the music. But you don’t need the former to be turned on by the soaring, celebratory power of gospel. Besides, this two day festival out in the Zuidoost tackles gospel from all angles, from the slick church-based choirs like the London Community Gospel Choir, to international pop stars like Candi Staton, to the more shambolic club worship of the Reverend Vince Anderson, so it’s far from a being one-dimensional affair. See www.gospelfestival.nl and article on p 11. Pepsi Stage, 20.00, €15-€25 day ticket, €20-€35 festival pass Jazz: Baseline & John Abercrombie Swinging chamber jazz led by bassist Hein Van de Geyn whose grooves are interwoven with subtle melodies and rhythms influence by Brazilian styles, folk, classical and pop. Guitarist John Abercrombie adds atmospheric guitar parts. Bimhuis, 21.00, €16 Rock: The Shavers and Human Alert Punk and rock ’n’ roll from the sweaty, tattooed Frieslanders. Support from anarchic Amsterdam salon punks Human Alert and ska punkers De Hardheid. P60, Amstelveen, 21.00, €10 Rock: Amsterdam Beat Club Swinging retro rock ’n’ roll with Miss Sue Moreno and Mr M Mills. Pacific Parc, 22.00, free Rock: Hangmen Psychobilly from the UK. Maloe Melo, 22.00, €5
Droomfestival
NICOLE VAN HASSELT
Blues: Johnny Winter Famous blues guitarist. Support from the Eric Steckel Band. Paradiso, Grote Zaal, 19.30, €25 + membership
Festival: Droomfestival The beach season may be coming to an end, but the good people of Blijburg are still bold enough to organise a weekend party for Amsterdam’s ‘dreamers’. Both days run from the morning till late, with non-stop music courtesy local and international live acts and DJs. Artists include Ninca Leece (see Short List), Ziggi, Matik, Tilla, The Black Seeds, Room Eleven, Lex Empress and much more. Blijburg, 11.00, €15 day ticket, €20 festival pass Festival: Festival deBeschaving Ultra-modern multidisciplinary festival just outside Utrecht, offering film, dance, theatre, debates and other items. It’s the music line-up that reels in the majority though, and rather than signing up second- or third-rate acts from Britain and America, deBeschaving deals up the hottest bands from the Benelux. The bill includes Vive la Fête, Spinvis, Gem, Kraak & Smaak, Pete Philly & Perquisite, Osdorp Posse, The Gasoline Brothers, among others. Leidsche Rijn, De Meern, 12.30, €25/€30 Jazz: Seven Bridges Jazz Festival (See Short List) Reguliersgracht (between Keizersgracht and Herengracht), 16.00-23.30, free Gospel: Gospel Festival (See Friday) Pepsi Stage, 12.30, €15-€25 day ticket, €20-€35 festival pass
Van Veenendaal, Kneer, Sun
MONIQUE BESTEN
MUSIC
Punk: Mr Potatohead, Probably Your Teacher Two old punk bands out to show the kids how it should be done. It’s been six years since Mr Potatohead last performed, but they’re back for one final explosion. Café Pakhuis Wilhelmina, 22.00, €7.50
Pop: A Balladeer First Melkweg headline gig from these Amsterdammers who were famously thrown into the deep end a couple of years ago in support of Saybia and then Keane. The trio, led by Marinus de Goederen, have an undeniably radio-friendly approach, and now with debut album Panama out and a host of high-profile gigs lined up—supporting Bløf at Spaarnwoude next week—they probably wouldn’t mind becoming the next Dutch pop sensation. Support from obscure American outfit Blue October. Melkweg, 21.00, €9 + membership
Jazz: Van Veenendaal, Kneer, Sun Classic piano trio. Bimhuis, 21.00, €12 Ska: Rolf de Band Support from Korstjok and Tenhut. Maloe Melo, 22.00, €5 Americana: Tennessee Studs Country rock with support from Hot Fox Five. KHL Koffiehuis, 22.00, free Rock: The Parlandos Tarantino-style surf and film exotica. Pacific Parc, 22.00, free
Sunday 3 September Festival: Droomfestival (See Saturday) Blijburg, 11.00, €15 day ticket, €20 festival pass Classical: Radio Kamer Filharmonie A Sunday morning concert, featuring Shostakovich’s First Cello Concerto in E flat, and Sibelius’ Symphony No.6 in D; conducted by Eri Klas. Concertgebouw, Grote Zaal, 11.00, €14 Classical: Peter and the Wolf The latest outdoor concert in the Jordaan sees the Domstadblazersensemble performing the famous Prokofiev classic. Karthuizerhofje, 15.00, free Classical: Rian de Waal Solo piano recital featuring works by Chopin, Busoni, Jochem Slothouwer, Schubert/Liszt and Rachmaninov/Wild. Cristofori, 15.00, €15 Rock: Drapes Live rockabilly. De Cantine, 16.00, free Pop: Madonna Mock crucifixions, bondage, simulated sex... Yes, it could be just another week suffering Ajax performances, but instead the Queen of Pop is in town. And don’t the wallets know it. Amsterdam ArenA, 19.30, sold out
Capriccio Opera: Capriccio Richard Strauss’ final opera raises the question: which is more important—words or music? Torn between a poet and a musician, Countess Madeleine must decide who may have her hand in marriage. But in the ensuing debates and artistic jousting, she learns that it is impossible to dichotomise the men’s skills, and attempting to do so results in having neither man. Libretto by Clemens Krauss and Strauss. Het Muziektheater, 20.00, €20-€100 Rock: Grizzly Bear It’s accurate to describe this New York indie band as lo-fi, yet it still doesn’t feel truly justified: whether the upcoming album Yellow House was
Contemporary: Gaudeamus: Schönberg Ensemble One of the highlights of the Gaudeamus Music Week, the series ‘Wilde Bloesem’ invited young composers to compose a work for a maximum of five instruments. After careful selection, the renowned Schönberg Ensemble will be performing pieces by Andreas Kunstein, Heleen Verleur, Hans Asselbergs, Micha Hamel, Evrim Demirel and Patrick van Deurzen. Paradiso, Grote Zaal, 20.30, €12.50 Jazz: Sunday Night Jazz Contrabassist René van Beeck is back at Cristofori, tonight with singer Joke Bruijs. Cristofori, 20.30, €17.50 Jazz: Sylla, Reijseger, Gueye It’s difficult to resist the lively rhythms of West Africa, so this trio are well worth dragging yourself out for on a Sunday night. Driven by two of Senegal’s top percussionists, Mola Sylla and Seringe Gueye, they match up with one of the grand masters of Dutch improvised music, cellist Ernst Reijseger, who can even use his cello as a rhythm guitar or a bass. Bimhuis, 21.00, €14
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31 August-6 September 2006
Monday 4 September Contemporary: Gaudeamus: Zephyr Kwartet, Ensemble KLANG Free lunch concert featuring works by Eric de Clercq, Roderik de Man, Marketa Dvorˇáková, Jana Barˇinková, Edgar Mojdl and Jan Kavan. Bimhuis, 12.30, free Pop: Madonna (See Sunday) Amsterdam ArenA, 19.30, sold out Contemporary: Gaudeamus: Doelen Quartet, Slagwerkgroep Den Haag, Melodica Ensemble Trio of ensembles performing works by young composers. Muziekgebouw, 20.30, €15 Jazz: Shooster A collaboration with Conservatorium van Amsterdam, Shooster is the New Swing Jazz of solid bassist Sven Shuster, Edison winner Efraïm Trujillo, Amsterdam’s most exciting guitarist Anton Goudsmit and darling drummer Victor de Boo. Bimhuis, 20.30, free
Tuesday 5 September Contemporary: Gaudeamus: Ensemble Antipodes Free lunch concert, with the Swiss ensemble performing works by Suren Soronzonbold, Jungahe Lee, Jeroen Speak, Calliope Tsoupaki and Yosvani Quintero. Bimhuis, 12.30, free Opera: Capriccio (See Saturday) Het Muziektheater, 20.00, €20-€80 Folk: Amos Lee (See Short List) Bitterzoet, 20.30, €10 Bluegrass: Nashville Bluegrass Band (See Short List) Paradiso, Grote Zaal, 20.30, €22.50 Contemporary: Asko Ensemble Performing Sampo Haapamäki’s ‘Design’, Rozalie Hirs’ ‘Platonic ID’, Marco Momi’s ‘Les Mots’ and Sadik Urgus Ourmus’ ‘Çengi’. Muziekgebouw, 20.30, €15 Jazz: Jazz Café Live jazz and improv. Zaal 100, 21.00, €3 Rock: Cursive Don’t believe the reported decline and demise of American rockers Cursive from some record reviewers. Frontman Tim Kasher has always been wordy when it comes to songwriting—surely not a crime—going as far as previously recording a concept album about the disintegration of a relationship. New disc Happy Hollow reportedly sees his love for lyrics dominate even more, but that doesn’t mean they’ve forgotten how to blast out the volume and sweep an audience into motion. Paradiso, Kleine Zaal, 22.00, €7.50 + membership
Wednesday 6 September Contemporary: Gaudeamus: Ensemble Aleph Free lunch concert, featuring works by Juan Manuel Abras, Alexandre Lunsqui, Vassos Nicolaou, Filippo Perocco, Karoline Schulz and Jasna Velickovic. Bimhuis, 12.30, free Classical: Lunch Concert Performance by violinist Carla Leurs and pianist Maarten van Veen. Concertgebouw, Kleine Zaal, 12.30, free Pop/Rock: Charlie Dee, Solo A Dutch double bill promising an evening of easy flowing melodies. Paradiso, Grote Zaal, 20.00, €10 + membership Pop: Elvis Costello & Metropole Orkest With a music career stretching almost 30 years and a string of hit singles, Brit singer-songwriter Costello needs no introduction. But it’s worth noting that, rather than settling for the tried and tested, he maintains his musical passion through experimentation, be it performing with the Brodsky Quartet or New Orleans great Allen Toussaint. As such, this grand performance with the Metropole Orkest fits in perfectly. They first teamed up in 2004 at North Sea Jazz, where Costello reworked his classics while being reborn as jazz singer. Their synergy proved so popular, it spawned a live album, and with that in mind, tonight’s show will be nothing short of bombastic. Heineken Music Hall, 20.15, €45 Contemporary: Gaudeamus: Diverse Performers Artists tonight include singers Jannie Pranger, Ayelet Harpaz, percussionist Clare Edwardes, pianist Nora Mulder, violinist Mieke Kanno, flautist Anne La Berge, tape, LOOS and the ensemble from the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. Muziekgebouw, 20.30, €15 Contemporary: Gaudeamus: Tomoko Mukaiyama A challenging blend of video installation and live performance by the Japanese-born pianist who lives and works in Amsterdam. Her work Haar / Haar also includes Michiel Mensingh’s ‘A Glitch in the Matrix’. Bimhuis, 22.30, €6 Ska: The Selecter A Noodlanding special featuring a live set from the ska and 2Tone legends. Paradiso, Grote Zaal, 23.59, €10
CLUBS Thursday 31 August Mashtizo Fully mashed Latin, gypsy, reggae, punk party, with a live set from Dutch-Italian group Mala Vita, and DJ Tommi from ¿Que Pasa? on the desks. It’ll feel like the sun is blazing all through the night. Winston Kingdom, 21.00-03.00, €5 MicroDixo Gameboy electropop, punkfunk, pixelpunk, distorted disco and 80s synth-pop for dancing, with Amiga visuals and pixel art via a Commodore 64. Tonight’s live guest is Swedish Gameboy music master Random, with backing from DJ Monza. Studio 80, 22.00, €5 Vreemd Turning one year old tonight this weekly club is prone to partying like mad for any little reason. So imagine what may be in store for a real anniversary— it’s a suprise, but one that will undoubtedly be bizarre. Sugar Factory, 23.00-05.00, €8.99
Friday 1 September The Infamous Mudclub With DJs Josz LeBon and Monica Electronica. 11, 22.00-04.00, €10 Dirty Disco With MNO and Modern Dancing. Studio 80, 23.00, €5
Saturday 2 September Sugar Mash-up It’s all stations go in the Factory tonight, opening their cultural season with... well, a little bit of everything. The Nachtburgemeester Chiel van Zelst will be on call to open proceedings, while DJs include Rubedo, Boy from Brazil and Terry Toner. Sugar Factory, 21.00-05.00, €10 Bed Soulful grooves and classic swing, supplied by DJs Marly Mar, Denniz, Born to Funk, Yasmin, Goodgrip and Jaziah. Hotel Arena, 22.00-04.00, €13.50 Flush It! A mix of vibrant electronica with a saucy burst of funky Brazilian grooves. DJs include Stereo Stereo, Anderson Vila Nova and DJ Trashling. Café Pakhuis Wilhelmina, 22.00-late, €6 A Night of Grime Brought to you by Dubstep, a mammoth DJ and MC list is in place for tonight, much of which is from the UK. OCCII, 22.30-04.00, €5 Bold With the big name line-up of M.A.N.D.Y, Benny Rodriques and Marcello. Panama, 23.00-04.00, €15 Crossfader Hiphop and dancehall favourites. Melkweg, 23.59, €10 + membership Dance Arena Alternative dance, pop and rock. Melkweg, 23.59, €7 + membership JamRock Explosion Sound systems include Black Chiney, Waxfiend, Rollarocka, Jah and MBA. Paradiso, 23.59-05.00, €15
Sunday 3 September Loveland Heavy beats in amongst the picturesque scenery of the open-air theatre at the Bos. Big names signed up include the Shapeshifters, Spen, Roog and Godard. Theater het Amsterdamse Bos, 17.00-00.00, €28 Living in Oblivion A night dedicated to the forgotten (loud) songs of years gone. Styles include rock, trash, punk, new wave and industrial, plus there’s a live set from feisty Berliners Plush Insane. Winston Kingdom, 21.00-03.00, €5 WickedJazzsounds Jazz, hiphop, broken beats, nujazz, funk and Afro sounds, as classic vinyl collides with live musicians. Driving the decks this week are Mr Speak and Phil Horneman, while live guests include singer Paul van Kessel, trumpeter Diederik Rijpstra and sax player Jeff Hollie. Sugar Factory, 23.00-05.00, €8.50
Monday 4 September Accidental Monday Popping along with an absolutely stunning musical line-up, Accidental Monday is offering up hiphoppers Veelplegers, street punks Hero’s en Zero’s, electro-pop outfit Matik and an array of DJs. But far from being just another club night, the Chiellerie Gallery presents live mural painting and other theatrical antics. Sugar Factory, 21.00-04.00, €5
Wednesday 6 September Pop! A summer clubbing experience with music and cocktails. DJs this week include Wannabeastar and Disctwin Sanyi. Sugar Factory, 22.00-04.00, free, €8 after 23.00
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Amsterdam Weekly
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LEKKER BEZIG
Goldfish Memory, see Wednesday
GAY& LESBIAN Thursday 31 August Homo Ambtenaren Borrel Once a month drop-in and social for gay civil servants to drink and network. Rouge, 18.00-01.00, free
Friday 1 September Women’s Night It’s ladies’ night and everything’s all right at the rammedest joint in lesboland. Tonight with DJ Ortega. Café Sappho, 21.00, free Twisted Tunes: Madonna Special If you didn’t get a ticket for the Grande Dame tonight at ArenA (or even if you did and you’ve just gotta hear ‘Over and Over’ over and over), then this is the dancefloor on which to frug. PRIK, 22.00-03.00, free
Saturday 2 September Dikke Maatjes Good clean fun gets dirty at this sauna afternoon for bears, cubs, chubs and chasers. Thermos Day Sauna, 12.00-22.00, €18 Hot Peper (See Short List) De Peper, 18.00-03.00 Flush It! Mixed night for cool alternative dykes and fags to flush away the working week’s blues with help from DJ Trashling and VJ Pixelpimp. Special appearence from Brazil’s Fat Booty Favela Electro. Café Pakhuis Wilhelmina, 22.00-late, €6 Fucque Les Balles (See Short List) NDSM-werf, 22.00-late, €50 M.U.L.T.I.S.E.X.I. Ambisexual party night for people at the cooler end of the spectrum, featuring Rokk (of The Cock in London), RFH Delfos, Dig Nampook, Bijker and Arjan. Studio 80, 23.00, €7.50
Sunday 3 September Female Sensual Latino The first of Sappho’s loungey Latina evenings begins tonight. Finger food, Med booze on tap, and suitably low-key sounds from Artsound DJs. Café Sappho, 17.00, free De Trut Cheap and cheerful, non-profit-making Sunday nighter with a strict dykes-and-fags-only door policy. One of the best nights in town. De Trut, 23.0004.00
Tuesday 5 September Movie Snack Night Films and nibbles at the city’s freshest newest gay bar. Tonight is a screening of Almodóvar’s La Mala Educacion. PRIK, 19.00, free
‘I feel committed to the B O R I S VA N O I R S C H O T pain—they do have a central nervous system. society I live in. That Animal sex rights activist So I think they do enjoy society includes anisex, too. Biologically mals. I think that speaking, the urge to animals have the same reproduce yourself is emotions as we have, the most powerful only in a different instinct. But animals manner. I realise that are being abstained that is an anthropocenfrom sex. Their birth is tric approach, but I do based on artificial think I know how aniinsemination. mals feel. ‘Like us, every ani‘As an educated mal must have the right ecologist, I am a sciento choose a partner. tist, but I have always With Sex voor dieren been interested in the [“sex for animals”] we scientific fringes. Some want to achieve two years ago, when thousands of cattle were We want to start animal goals. First, we want to make people discuss the slaughtered during an sex rights action groups sex life of animals. We outbreak of foot-andall over the country. want them [people] to mouth disease, I think about how they approached people who feel about eating the possess psychic powmeat of virgin animals. Secondly, we want ers, people who told me they could put to start animal sex rights action groups all themselves in an animal’s shoes. And they over the country. do; they telepathically communicate with ‘On our website we have started the them and see what animals feel. action Adopteer een beurt [“adopt a ‘I am what you might call a “facultative shag”]. There, the general public can vegetarian”. What I mean by that is that I donate money, with which we will try to do eat meat now and then, but only if I get animals sexually in touch with each know that the animal I eat has had a good other. I myself have researched the possilife, and that it understands why it is being bility of maintaining a meadow with a slaughtered. I am sure that the animals bull, where cows can have sex for a couple who were killed during the foot-and-mouth of months, before they go to the slaughterdisease crisis didn’t understand why they house. Sadly, that ain’t possible, for the were being killed. And I’m also convinced reason of my not being a farmer. I’m not animals don’t mind being eaten, as long as allowed to transport cows.’ it’s being done for a good reason. ‘People assume that animals don’t enjoy www.sexvoordieren.nl By Floris Dogterom sex. But we know that animals experience
STAGE Thursday 31 August Theatre: TF2: Afkloppen! A physical, poetic, tragicomedy about a woman dealing with her angst and worries while on a rhythmic journey in the metro. In Dutch. Theater Bellevue, 12.30, €10 Cabaret: Anne Jan Toornstra, Nathalie Baartman, Samba Schutte Opening night of the season with three Dutch cabaret talents. In Dutch. De Kleine Komedie, 20.15, €10-€14 Theatre: TF1: Mephisto Last chance to catch this Dutch adaptation of the Klaus Mann book, telling the epic story of an actor who abandons his political views to support the Nazis for personal gain. Directed by Paul Binnerts. In Dutch. Stadsschouwburg, 20.15, €11.50-€25 Theatre: TF1: Of / Niet A reworking of Alan Ayckbourn’s first West End hit, Relatively Speaking, combined with Harold Pinter’s marriage comedy Party Time, as performed by the four members of Belgian theatre group STAN. In Dutch. De Balie, 20.30, €15 Theatre: Klein Babylon A collection of shorts from five writers who were asked to create scenes inspired by language, culture and identity, and choose a fitting location for their tale, be it Beirut or Amsterdam West. In Dutch. Compagnietheater, 20.30, €9
Wednesday 6 September
Music/Theatre: Reineke Jonker Late Night A musical programme that comes to life once the sun is safely hidden from view. In Dutch. Theater Bellevue, 22.00, €10
Gay Classic Movie: Goldfish Memory Stretching the definition of ‘classic’ beyond its uttermost limits, this week’s lesbo-friendly offering is a nice enough film charting the lives and loves of a group of friends in Dublin, though as the title suggests, you’ll forget it within three seconds. Free welcome drink at 20.30. Pathé De Munt, 21.00, €6.25
Festival: Waterval Festival Third edition of the performance festival in Amsterdam Nieuw West with an array of theatrical events, including the bizarre ways of De Parade, live music at the Waterfeest, Summerstage theatrical training, Moroccan variety at the 7ouma Festival and an open-air cinema with a focus on Turkish film. See www.watervalfestival.nl. Sloterpark, Various times and prices
31 August-6 September 2006 eating away at a family following a father’s return from a war. In Dutch. De Brakke Grond, 20.30, €12 Music/Theatre: Reineke Jonker Late Night (See Thursday) Theater Bellevue, 22.00, €10 Festival: Waterval Festival (See Thursday) Sloterpark, various times and prices
Saturday 2 September Theatre: TF2: Looking for Fellini Work by three young actors/writers, interweaving the story of Fellini with the trios search for love. In Dutch. Melkweg, 19.00, 21.00, €6 Cabaret: Wilhelmina Huiskamerfestival Ever walked along Wilhelminastraat in Oud-West and hear the local performers practising pieces through their windows? Well, this unique theatre festival lets you into the living rooms of locals as they do their thing. Performers include Ernst van der Pasch, Daniël van Veen, Dorien Haan, Roel C Verburg and Roemer van der Steeg, mixing up music, theatre, cabaret and comedy from the comfort of their homes. Café Wilhelmina acts as base/ticket point, as well as location for the afterparty. See www.wilhelminahuiskamerfestival.nl. Wilhelminastraat, 19.30, 20.30, 21.30, 22.00, €7.50 Dance: Beyond The First Row The Movement Network, a dance company committed to dismantling the barriers between performer and viewer, premieres the work of established choreographer Jennifer Hanna and emerging dance-maker Celia Grannum. Performing are an international cast of dancers from Brazil, Germany, the USA, Canada, Barbados, Finland and, of course, the Netherlands. Podium Mozaïek, 20.00, €15 Music/Theatre: Vaandragers Six characters attempt to spend one night living in an ideal world in this new music theatre collaboration between the Rosa Ensemble and Dutch contemporary pop singer Spinvis. In Dutch. Theater Bellevue, 20.30, €18.50 Theatre: TF4: Oorlog (See Friday) De Brakke Grond, 20.30, €12 Music/Theatre: Reineke Jonker Late Night (See Thursday) Theater Bellevue, 22.00, €10 Festival: Waterval Festival (See Thursday) Sloterpark, various times and prices
Sunday 3 September Theatre: TF2: Afkloppen! (See Thursday) Theater Bellevue, 12.30, €10 Theatre: TF2: Looking for Fellini (See Saturday) Melkweg, 19.00, 21.00, €6
Theatre: TF2: Afkloppen! (See Thursday) Theater Bellevue, 12.30, €10
Music/Theatre: TF2: TelSellDelllerium An energetic collection of electro theatrical commercials for Chemical Comforts’ ultra-practical products. This Swedish company makes every product you’ve never needed and always wanted—for only $39.95 a month. In Dutch. Sugar Factory, 20.00, €10
Theatre: TF1: Mephisto (See Thursday) Stadsschouwburg, 20.15, €11.50-€25
Dance: Beyond The First Row (See Saturday) Podium Mozaïek, 20.00, €15
Music/Dance: Magpie Music Dance Company A mix of live music and dance. Featured dancers are Katie Duck, Martin Sonderkamp and Chico Katsu. With this being the opening night of the new season, a selection of top jazz musicians are signed up also, including Mary Oliver, Michael Moore, Alex Waterman, Colin McLean and Cor Fuhler. OT301, 20.30, €6
Theatre: TF2: De Vrienden van de Dansmuziek Humorous work from the players of this young theatre group. In Dutch. Paradiso, Kleine Zaal, 22.30, €8
Theatre: Klein Babylon (See Thursday) Compagnietheater, 20.30, €9 Theatre: TF4: Oorlog This Flemish pick is a sad, minimalistic vision of the bitterness, pain and sorrow
Tuesday 5 September
Friday 1 September
Festival: Waterval Festival (See Thursday) Sloterpark, various times and prices
Theatre: TF2: Afkloppen! (See Thursday) Theater Bellevue, 12.30, €10
Amsterdam Weekly
31 August-6 September 2006
(Tues-Sun 11.00-18.00), opens Saturday, until 17 September Victor Ekpuk Drawings and serigraphs by the Nigerian artist, inspired by ancient African graphical forms and writing. Galerie 23 (Wed-Sun 13.00-17.00), opens Sunday, until 24 September
The Earth From Above The Earth From Above If you haven’t already caught this travelling outdoor exhibit on its way around the world, where have you been? Featuring the famous aerial photography of Yann Arthus-Bertrand, whose images last stopped off in Amsterdam in 2003, the exhibition has been renewed, with 90 new photos added to the collection. Displayed alongside the Amstel outside the Stopera building, it’s available for viewing all day and night. Stopera (Daily), opens Wednesday, until 3 December
Hellen van Meene, see Opening
ART Opening
Hans Willemse—Natuur in Vorm (See Short List) Bezoekerscentrum Amsterdamse Bos (Tue-Sat 12.0017.00, Sun 10.00-17.00), opens Saturday Hello Earth Solo exhibition by Paul de Reus featuring drawings and sculptures. Galerie Ferdinand van Dieten-d’Eendt (Thur-Sat 11.00-18.00, first Sun of month 14.00-18.00), opens Saturday, until 7 October
The Honest Eye: A Moment in Time Exhibition exploring how photography can freeze our view, to hold still one frame in the continuous flow of our lives, both with analogue film and digital film. It excludes all forms of post-production, thereby restraining the technical decisions to choice of film and size of the lens. ABC Treehouse (Thur-Sun 13.00-18.00), opens Thursday, until 24 September
Hellen van Meene Following up her photographic portrait series of teenagers—most of whom she already knew from her own surroundings—Van Meene spent four years travelling to Japan, England, Germany, Latvia and Russia to find new models for her portraits. Still carefully staged, her new works are illuminated by added spontaneity and a more obviously charged atmosphere between artist and subjects. Huis Marseille (Tues-Sun 11.00-18.00), opens Friday, until 26 November Mahomi Kunikata (See Short List) Reflex New Art Gallery (Tues-Sat 11.00-18.00), opens Friday, until 1 August 2007 Choose Choice An examination of democracy with a focus on the Belgian electorate. Five artists will participate, challenging the status quo via photography, experimental video, multimedia, journalism and sound technology. De Brakke Grond (Mon 10.0018.00, Tues-Fri 10.00-20.30, Sat 13.00-20.30, Sun 13.00-17.00), opens Saturday, until 8 October
Hello Earth Lisa Holden Large-scale photographs repeatedly layered and digitally manipulated. The results include Pre-Raphaelite paintings fused with the artist’s own images. METIS_NL (Wed-Sat 13.00-18.00), opens Saturday, until 30 September Michiel van der Zanden New paintings by the young Dutch artist, which take unusual inspiration from classic computer game situations, such as the 3D layout of shoot-ups like ‘Doom’. AYAC’S (Fri, Sat 13.00-17.30), opens Saturday, until 7 October Paul van Dongen Life-size etchings and watercolours, featuring architectural items like church interiors, and natural elements like withered branches and petrified skulls. De Praktijk (Tues-Sat 13.00-18.00), opens Saturday, until 1 October Piet Stockmans: 25 Jaar Later Porcelain sculptures that come a quarter of a century since Stockmans’ first solo exhibition. Galerie de Witte Voet (Wed-Sat 12.0017.00), opens Saturday, until 11 October
Digital Bodies A multimedia exhibition that shows the transition from the digital to the physical. Participating artists include Mogens Jacobsen (DK), Jan Robert Leegte (NL), Alan Sondheim (USA), Foofwa d’Imobilite (CH) and Geert Dekkers (NL). Reuten Galerie (Wed-Sat 13.00-18.00), opens Saturday, until 7 October
Regula Syz Recent paintings from the Swiss-born artist, whose works are filled with paradoxes: in one hand there are fluffy images like animals, people and flowers, but in the other, reflected are deep worries and subsequent reactions the artist faces. Jan van der Togt Museum (Thur-Sun 13.00-17.00), Amstelveen, until 1 October Norman Roemer Paintings and drawings from 1990 to the present. The Dutch artist’s speciality is abstract compositions of landscapes and man-made formations. Jan van der Togt Museum (Thur-Sun 13.00-17.00), Amstelveen, until 1 October Jonas Bendiksen: Satellites The self-taught lensman presents a photography exhibition that sums up the many journeys he undertook through former Soviet areas, like the Jewish Autonomous Region, and the spaceship junkyard on the border of Kazakhstan. Joods Historisch Museum (Daily 11.00-17.00), until 8 October Alexandra Leykauf & Lisa Oppenheim A series of pictures exploring the relationships between landscape, representation and reproduction. The theme running through both artists’ work is the visualisation of the pictorial mechanism, with much of the works showcased being reproductions and edits of previous photographs—either from archival or historic footage—re-contextualised to embrace new feeling and thought. Foam (Sun-Wed 10.00-17.00, Thur, Fri 10.00-21.00), until 15 October Wonders of Imperial Japan A selection of over 200 major items from the famous Khalili collection, the world’s largest and most varied private collection of Japanese Meiji art. Van Gogh Museum (Mon-Sun 10.00-18.00, Fri until 22.00), until 22 October
Pieter Boersma Foto’s Digital Bodies
Saskia Olde Wolbers A solo exhibition entitled The Falling Eye. The focal point for the celebrated Bredaborn video artist’s collection is her latest film, Trailer, a 10-minute piece in which the camera alternates between two spaces: an impenetrable, gently undulating Amazon jungle and a crimson cinema interior. Alongside Trailer are previous works Kilowatt Dynasty (2000), Placebo (2002) and Interloper (2003). Stedelijk Museum CS (Fri-Wed 10.00-18.00), until 24 September Brainfood Nardo Brudet’s Photo Academy Award-winning series of 34 polaroids, which lays open to everyone the emotions, ideas, desires and fears that dominate his perspective on life and society. The result is a stark self-portrait series. Foam (Sun-Wed 10.00-17.00, Thur, Fri 10.00-21.00), until 27 September
Andrew Trahair New semi-abstract paintings from the Australian artist, inspired by the dramatic landscapes of the Kimberley and Pilbara regions of Australia. Bernard’s Interiors (Thur-Sat 12.00-17.00), opens Friday, until 30 September Cross the Border Landscape and urban photography by Japanese-born artist Hiroshi Ono, whose images from around the world attempt to show us the connections between our own cultural lives and others. Yoshiko Matsumoto Gallery (Wed-Sat 13.30-18.30), opens Friday, until 30 September
Museums
Fashion DNA With Italian architect Italo Rota behind the church’s contemporary make-over, the multimedia-friendly exhibits explore the history and power of fashion, and all that allows us to develop an identity and project it to the world. Nieuwe Kerk (Fri-Wed 10.00-18.00, Thur 10.00-22.00), until 22 October
Pieter Boersma Foto’s Architecture photography from in and around Amsterdam. ARCAM (Tues-Sat 13.00-17.00), opens Saturday, until 27 September
Galleries
TF2: Khadish: Een MTV Opera Video exhibit as part of the Amsterdam Fringe Festival. Khadish is a provocative opera by Het Verdriet van de Zeedijk, inspired by modern day-terrorism and its affect on lives. Screening every 30 minutes. Huis Marseille
Local Lokaal Local A window installation displaying the artworks and conclusions of Trixi Allina and Pedro Gómez-Egaña, who recently spent a period of time exploring migration and locality in Amsterdam’s Indische Buurt. 66 East (Fri 14.00-20.00, Sat 12.00-18.00)
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Amsterdam Weekly
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31 August-6 September 2006
Deformation A collaboration of photographer Paul Blanca, fashion designer Hester Slaman, jewellery designer Roos Arends and painter Vicente Lopez, dealing with the theme of bondage in fashion. Studio Apart (Wed 10.00-18.00, Thur 10.00-21.00, Fri 10.0018.00, Sat 12.00-17.00), closing Saturday
there’s also cabaret performances and street theatre. Mercatorplein, 17.00, free
Animals High-contrast black and white animal profiles by Marcus Davies. Beautiful and witty, though seemingly simplistic, the striking hand-printed photographs showcase his trademark minimalistic style. hug Gallery for International Photography (Wed-Sat 12.00-18.00), closing Saturday
Sunday 3 September
Festival: Floraparkfestival / Noorderparkfestival (See Thursday) Florapark, various times, free
Multidisciplinary: Het Publieke Verlangen (See Friday) De Balie, 11.00, free Literature: The Writer’s Workshop Open-day info session for those curious about participating in the popular creative writing workshops held at The English Bookshop. The English Bookshop, 14.30, free
Works from foam_3h A selection from Foam’s 3_h series, which showcases young talent. Galerie 32-34 Tue-Sat, 11.00-17.00, closing Saturday
Festival: Floraparkfestival / Noorderparkfestival (See Thursday) Florapark, various times, free
Evolution Route, see Saturday
EVENTS
seeks to raise the issues of public culture in the Netherlands. Kicking off tonight with a debate (in Dutch), events throughout the weekend include an open-air radio ballet, theatre, book presentations, talks, films, and on Sunday morning its breakfast on Leidseplein. De Balie, 20.30, free
Thursday 31 August
Festival: Floraparkfestival / Noorderparkfestival (See Thursday) Florapark, various times, free
Festival: Floraparkfestival / Noorderparkfestival One weekend, one location, two festivals. Promising theatre, cabaret, live music, comedy and fireworks, the Floraparkfestival officially runs from Thursday through to Saturday afternoon, with more emphasis on entertainment for kids. But on Saturday night the fireworks blast off making way for more adult-oriented fun through to Sunday. Florapark, various times, free Filip Naudts Filip Naudts & Malou Swinnen Portraits by the two Flemish photographers. Naudts’ work is conceptual and sometimes surreal and humorous, taking inspiration from classic paintings, while Swinnen presents portraits of glamourous guests at the LaROCCA nightclub. Melkweg Galerie (Wed-Sun 13.00-20.00), closing Sunday Zomertentoonstelling Summer exhibition with new works by Diana van Hal, Ard de Graaf, Rolf Weijburg, and others. Galerie Petit Tues-Sat, 12.00-17.00, until 16 September Facade An exploratory journey through the old building on Rokin, portrayed through contemporary artworks by Bojan Fajfric, Martijn Engelbregt, Goh Ideta, Klaas Kloosterboer, Michiel Kluiters, Sanja Medic, Marc Nagtzaam, Reinoud Oudshoorn, Peter Struycken, Ralf Werner and Edwin Zwakman. Arti et Amicitiae (Daily 10.00-17.00), until 17 September Joep Overtoom: Lousy Cream New paintings inspired by both architecture and nature. Galerie Smits (Wed-Sat 13.30-17.30), until 27 September Achter Glas A multidisciplinary window display that can be viewed 24 hours per day. Featured artists include Irene van Geest, Heidi Happy, Eva Kroes and Brian Mckenna, while exhibits will feature elements of dance, music performance, spoken word, video art and photography. De Kattenbak (Daily), until 4 October The Unified Field Solo exhibition by Dordrecht multimedia artist Peter Bogers, exploring the relationship with himself and with his viewers through performance art and technology. It sees his physical performances translated into carefully constructed audio-visual presentations, with video, sound and photography all employed as intermediaries, disorientating the viewer into realising their own psychological/physical dichotomy and imperfections. Montevideo/Time Based Arts (Tues-Sat 13.00-18.00), until 10 October
Ik Geloof in de Bijlmer Ik Geloof in de Bijlmer A multicultural exhibition that’s not so much about religion, but the real believers and practitioners that bring religion to life. The focus is on photos and videos made by these people, but every Wednesday, there’s also cooking lessons hosted by the World Islamic Mission, demonstrating how to prepare tasty snacks and foods while also following the strict Islamic dietary laws that Muslims should observe. Imagine Identity and Culture (Tues, Wed, Fri, Sat 11.00-17.00, Thur 11.00-21.00), until 18 November
Friday 1 September Multidisciplinary: Het Publieke Verlangen Opening its doors to the public for the whole weekend, De Balie
ADDRESSES 11 Oosterdokskade 3-5, 625 5999 66 East Sumatrastraat 66, 06 4475 4773 ABC Treehouse Voetboogstraat 11, 423 0967 Amsterdam ArenA ArenA Boulevard 1, 311 1333 Amsterdams Historisch Museum Kalverstraat 92, 523 1822 ARCAM Prins Hendrikkade 600, 620 4878 Arti et Amicitiae Rokin 112, 624 5134 AYAC'S Keizersgracht 166, 638 5240 De Balie Kleine Gartmanplantsoen 10, 553 5151 Bernard's Interiors Herenstraat 29, 622 5700 Beurs van Berlage Damrak 277, 530 4141 Bezoekerscentrum Amsterdamse Bos Bosbaanweg 5, 545 6100 Bimhuis Piet Heinkade 3, 788 2150 Bitterzoet Spuistraat 2, 521 3001 Blijburg Bert Haanstrakade 2004, 416 0330 De Brakke Grond Nes 45, 626 6866 Café Pakhuis Wilhelmina Veemkade 576, 419 3368 Café Sappho Vijzelstraat 103, 423 1509 De Cantine Rietlandpark 373, 419 4433 Centraal Museum Nicolaaskerkhof, Utrecht, 030 236 2362 Chiellerie Raamgracht 58, 320 9448 Compagnietheater Kloveniersburgwal 50, 520 5320 Concertgebouw Concertgebouwplein 2-6, 671 8345 Consortium Veemkade 570, 06 2611 8950 Cristofori Prinsengracht 581-583, 626 8485 De Peper Overtoom 301 De Trut Bilderdijkstraat 165 The English Bookshop Lauriergracht 71, 626 4230 Exit Reguliersdwarsstraat 42, 625 8788 Foam Keizersgracht 609, 551 6546 Galerie 23 Nieuwe Herengracht 23, 623 9215 Galerie 32-34 Keurenplein 32-34, 020 619 5782 Galerie de Witte Voet Kerkstraat 135, 625 8412 Ferdinand van Dieten-d'Eendt Spuistraat 270, 626 5777 Galerie Petit NZ Voorburgwal 270 Galerie Smits Fokke Simonszstraat 29 GEM Stadhouderslaan 43, Den Haag, 070 338 1133 Groninger Museum Museumeiland 1, Groningen, 050 366 6555 Heineken Music Hall ArenA Boulevard 590, 0900 300 1250 Hermitage Amsterdam Nieuwe Herengracht 14, 530 8751 Hortus Botanicus Plantage Middenlaan 2A, 625 9021 Hotel Arena ’s-Gravesandestraat 51, 850 2400 hug Gallery for International Photography 1e Tuindwarsstraat 16, 489 4042 Huis Marseille Keizersgracht 401, 531 8989 Imagine Identity and Culture Bijlmerplein 1006-1008, 489 4866
Tuesday 5 September
Saturday 2 September Walk: Evolution Route How did plants evolve? Were there any flowers during the age of the dinosaurs? The past and future of plant life is explained via this walking route. Hortus Botanicus, 10.30 Multidisciplinary: Het Publieke Verlangen (See Friday) De Balie, 11.00, free
Aik Kramer (Vrij Media Collectief)
Market: Mediterranean Market Mercatorplein will be transformed into a colourful bazaar this evening. Mediterranean foods and wares play a big part, but
Film/Discussion: Vrij Media Collectief New documentary season, kicking off with a performance of Flexmans by Aik Kramer. OT301, 20.30, €4
Jan van der Togt Museum Dorpsstraat 50, Amstelveen, 641 5754 Joods Historisch Museum Jonas Daniel Meijerplein 2-4, 531 0310 Karthuizerhofje Karthuizerstraat 87-171 De Kattenbak Spuistraat 227 KHL Koffiehuis Oostelijke Handelskade 44, 779 1575 De Kleine Komedie Amstel 56-58, 624 0534 Kunsthal Museumpark, Westzeedijk 341, Rotterdam, 010 440 0301 Leidsche Rijn Europaweg, De Meern Maloe Melo Lijnbaansgracht 163, 420 4592 Mama Witte de Withstraat 29-31, Rotterdam Mango's Beach Bar Boulevard Barnaart 15, Zandvoort, 023 571 2788 Melkweg Lijnbaansgracht 234A, 531 8181 Melkweg Galerie Marnixstraat 409, 531 8181 METIS_NL Lijnbaansgracht 316, 638 9863 Mirror Centre Ter Gouwstraat 3, 694 1525 Montevideo/Time Based Arts Keizersgracht 264, 623 7101 Muziekgebouw Piet Heinkade 1, 788 2010 Het Muziektheater Amstel 3, 625 5455 NDSM-werf TT Neveritaweg 15, 330 5480 Nederlands Architectuurinstituut Museumpark 25, Rotterdam, 010 440 1200 Nieuwe Kerk entrance on the Dam, 638 6909 OCCII Amstelveenseweg 134, 671 7778 OT301 Overtoom 301, 779 4913 P60 Stadsplein 100A, Amstelveen, 023 345 3445 Pacific Parc Polonceaukade 23, 488 7778 Panama Oostelijke Handelskade 4, 311 8680 Panorama Mesdag Zeestraat 65, Den Haag Paradiso Weteringschans 6-8, 626 4521
Pathé De Munt Vijzelstraat 15, 0900 1458 Pepsi Stage ArenA Boulevard 1, 0900 0194 Persmuseum Zeeburgerkade 10, 692 8810 Podium Mozaïek Bos en Lommerweg 191, 580 0380 De Praktijk Lauriergracht 96, 422 1727 PRIK Spuistraat 109, 06 4544 2321 Reflex New Art Gallery Weteringschans 79A, 423 5423 Rembrandthuis Jodenbreestraat 4, 520 0400 Reuten Galerie Fokke Simonszstraat 49 Rijksmuseum Jan Luykenstraat 1, 674 7000 Rouge Amstel 60, 420 9881 Stadsschouwburg Leidseplein 26, 624 2311 Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam Rozenstraat 59, 422 0471 Stedelijk Museum CS Oosterdokskade 5, 573 2911 Stopera Waterlooplein 22, 551 8117 Studio 80 Rembrandtplein 70, 521 8333 Studio Apart Prinsengracht 715, 422 2748 Sugar Factory Lijnbaansgracht 238, 627 0008 Theater Bellevue Leidsekade 90, 530 5301 Theater het Amsterdamse Bos Amsterdamse Bos 1, 640 9253 Thermos Day Sauna Raamstraat 33, 623 9158 Tropenmuseum Linnaeusstraat 2, 568 8200 Under the Grand Chapiteau Next to ArenA, 621 1288 Universiteitsbibliotheek Singel Singel 425, 525 2143 Van Gogh Museum Paulus Potterstraat 7, 570 5200 Verzetsmuseum Plantage Kerklaan 61, 620 2535 Voormalig Gerechtshuis Hamburgerstraat 28, Utrecht Winston Kingdom Warmoesstraat 129, 623 1380 Yoshiko Matsumoto Gallery Weteringschans 37, 06 1437 0995 Zaal 100 De Wittenstraat 100, 688 0127
Amsterdam Weekly
31 August-6 September 2006
On A Clear Day
The Sentinel
13 (Tzameti)
Fearless
FILM
Edited by Steven McCarron. This week’s films reviewed by Sam Coleman (SC), Don Druker (DD), Pat Graham (PG), Andrea Gronvall (AG), John Hartnett (JH), JR Jones (JJ), Dave Kehr (DK), Steven McCarron (SM), Kim Renfrew (KR), Jonathan Rosenbaum (JR) and Bregtje Schudel (BS).All films are screened in English with Dutch subtitles unless otherwise noted. Amsterdam Weekly recommends.
New this week 13 (Tzameti) Don’t stick your nose into someone
else’s business may be the moral of his noirish black and white thriller by director Géla Babluani. An accomplished and tense piece for a debut, an impoverished immigrant (George Babluani) stumbles upon a route to riches when he hears his employer discussing a get-rich-quick scheme and he acts to intercept. Only he doesn’t know the full story, following a series of step-by-step instructions that sees him travelling across country with strangers closely on his tail. The set-up is lengthy, but carefully calculated, making its macabre twists all the more enjoyable. In French with Dutch subtitles. 93 min. Kriterion, Rialto
Fearless Unsurprisingly a huge hit in Asia, with Jet Li in the starring role as martial arts legend Huo Yuanjia, who became the most famous fighter in all of China at the turn of the 20th century. A victim of incredible personal tragedy, he fought his way out of darkness and into history, defining the true spirit of martial arts and inspiring his nation. On its surface, however, the rise from victim to legend is no more elaborate than The Karate Kid and this ain’t another Hero. For all its attempted emotional highs and lows, it remains a vehicle for perfectly articulated and imaginative fight scenes, paving the way for Li to bid a final farewell to the martial arts genre. In Japanese, English, Mandarin with Dutch subtitles. Pathé ArenA, Pathé De Munt
shore resound on such an elemental level as to be almost spiritual. Brenda Blethyn, Billy Boyd, Sean McGinley and Ron Cook give fine support under Gaby Dellal’s direction. (AG) 99 min. The Movies The Sentinel Based on Gerald Petievich’s novel, this so-so thriller stars Michael Douglas as a veteran Secret Service agent who once took a bullet for Reagan but is now being framed for plotting to kill the current president, whose wife (Kim Basinger) is the agent’s secret lover. Douglas is credible enough in a Harrison Ford-type role, though Kiefer Sutherland has stronger scenes as his nemesis, a dogged investigator. Eva Longoria, as a rookie agent torn between loyalties to both men, is on hand pretty much as eye candy. Director Clark Johnson (S.W.A.T.) has a flair for action, which compensates for the flattening effect of Gabriel Beristain’s cinematography. (AG) 105 min. Pathé ArenA, Pathé City, Pathé De Munt The Wicker Man See review on p. 22. 106 min. Pathé ArenA, Pathé City, Pathé De Munt
Still playing As It Is in Heaven This Swedish import, directed by Kay Pollak, is a character study about shifting gears. A well-known conductor Daniel Daréus (Michael Nyqvist) suffers a heart attack and decides to return to the slow-paced 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 The Break-Up Romantic comedy in which Gary (Vince Vaughn) and Brooke (Jennifer Aniston) break up and refuse to move out of their shared apartment. Pathé De Munt
Brokeback Mountain The deer and the antelope are not the only two playing at home on the range. This is the heartbreaking and touching story of two cowboys (Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger) in love who, savouring only rare moments of pleasure together, are forced by social dictates to face a life of pain and denial. Director Ang Lee has masterfully translated Annie Proulx’s short story to the screen. Some film-goers will cry till the cows come home. (JH) 134 min. Pathé Tuschinski
Capote This respectful biopic follows the six years Metal:A Headbanger’s Journey Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey See review on p.21. 96 min. Kriterion On A Clear Day Peter Mullan (My Name Is Joe) is the reason to see this drama, another in the burgeoning microgenre of films about Brits coping with layoffs. A tight-lipped Glasgow family man, he’s haunted by his son’s drowning decades ago, so when he loses the shipyard job he’s had for 36 years his decision to reinvent himself by swimming the English Channel is both surprising and symbolic. Humorous touches add warmth without being cloying, but Mullan carries the film with his intelligence and rugged intensity: images of his barrel-chested physique against the craggy
in which author and celebrity socialite Truman Capote did his research for his masterpiece, In Cold Blood— according to Capote the first ‘non-fiction novel’—about the brutal murder of four members of the respected Clutter family and its effect on the small and isolated community. In retrospect, these six years would mark the beginning of the rise, as well as downfall, of this flawed and idiosyncratic genius. Academy Award-winner Philip Seymour Hoffman doesn’t shrink from the challenge and flaunts both Capote’s strengths and his weaknesses. His Capote is flawed to perfection. (BS) 99 min. The Movies The Cave of the Yellow Dog The follow-up to Byambasuren Davaa’s spellbinding international hit The Story of the Weeping Camel, the Mongolian film-maker sticks to what she does best in this down-to-earth docudrama. Once again dealing with the nomadic
aspects of Mongolian life through a real family, she documents their everyday existence in a quiet, monotonous world. The film is brought to life by the family’s six-year-old daughter when she finds a dog. In Mongolian with Dutch subtitles. (SM) 95 min. Rialto The Da Vinci Code Renowned Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) and police cryptologist Sophie Neveu (Audrey Tautou) are on the run from both earthly and heavenly powers as they discover more skeletons hidden in the papal closet than in any conundrum. Albino monk Silas (Paul Bettany) probably suffers as much as any intelligent film-goer watching Ron Howard’s unholy covenant with Dan Brown. Thank god for Sir Ian McKellen, who at least brings some madness to the endeavour. Starring Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou. (JH) 149 min. Pathé ArenA, Pathé City, Pathé De Munt, Pathé Tuschinski Doodeind A Dutch horror flick about seven old friends who reunite on a tour of the Scottish Highlands. One night, they’re attacked by a couple of blood-thirsty dogs. Having fled into an old, abandoned mansion, they realise that fighting vicious hounds might actually not be the worst of choices as the house turns out to be some sort of supernatural death trap. Featured perils include deadly fungi, the ghost of a murdered witch and, of course, interpersonal conflicts within the trapped group of friends. Directed by Nick Jongerius and Erwin van den Eshof. In Dutch. 89 min. Pathé De Munt Een Ander Zijn Geluk A close-knit suburban village is affected by the hit-and-run death of a child. As witnesses come forward and the reliability of what they claim to know is pulled apart, misgivings and suspicion hang over everyone. In Dutch. 94 min. Het Ketelhuis Fragile For many, the idea of Calista Flockhart (Ally McBeal) in a movie is a nightmare in itself. But there’s perhaps a little redemption in this Spanish horror by Jaume Balagueró, with Flockhart cast in the lead role as Amy Nicholls, a nurse starting a new job in a rundown children’s hospital. Quickly, visions of a dead patient begin haunting her, as well as other weird happenings, and when the children begin to suffer inexplicable broken bones, the new member of staff begins to investigate the shady history of the building. Closer to tense Japanese horror than the Hollywood copies, Balagueró also weaves in some European charm. 93 min. Pathé De Munt
Grizzly Man This Herzog piece documents grizzly bear activist Timothy Treadwell, who spent 13 summers living in the wild with Alaskan bears, before finally being killed and eaten by one. (SM) 103 min. Kriterion Hellbent The first gay-themed slasher film, supporting the notion that people of all sexual orientations are entitled to crap of their own. Four gorgeous guys dress up for Halloween and attend a bacchanalian dance party where a mysterious (and extremely buff) killer serially decapitates guests with a scythe. Dressed in a devil costume and glimpsed mostly in shadow, he’s a potent symbol of something or other, but writer-director Paul Etheredge-Ouzts isn’t sure what. This ambiguity isn’t very good—the puritanical impulses of the slasher genre collide head-on with the sweet-butt requirements of gay exploitation flicks—but a gender
19
Five Word Movie Review
RANDY OLD WOMEN HEADING SOUTH Vers Le Sud Cinecenter
studies major could have a field day with it. (JJ) 85 min. The Movies
The Hills Have Eyes The Hills Have Eyes Producer Wes Craven remakes his 1977 low-budget shocker about a family terrorised by cannibalistic mutants in the New Mexico desert, handing over the director’s chores to French gore hound Alexandre Aja (High Tension). The original premise, that the predators were irradiated during government H-bomb tests, is even more ridiculous now that the action takes place four decades after the nuclear test ban treaty, though a bigger make-up budget allows the film-makers to create a clan in which even the little girls look like Rondo Hatton. (JJ) 107 min. Pathé ArenA, Pathé City, Pathé De Munt Ik wil nooit beroemd worden Documentary following the story of a successful cellist who after suffering a heart attack is mentally handicapped. Tobias, his friends and his family wrestle with the question of whether he is now able to live a meaningful life. In Dutch. 75 min. Het Ketelhuis Jaap Hillenius, poging om dichter bij te komen An intimate insight into the world of highly respected Dutch artist Jaap Hillenius (1934), who died in 1999, as he sought to create his ultimate art work. Directed by personal friend Kees Hin, the film documents the unique position Hillenius held in modern art, offering interviews with friends and family as we learn the thought processes and feelings behind his paintings and drawings. In Dutch. 90 min. Filmmuseum, Het Ketelhuis L’Ivresse du Pouvoir Jeanne Charmant Killman, examining magistrate, investigates a complex case of misappropriation and embezzlement of public funds implicating the president of an important industrial firm. As her investigation and interrogations progress, she realises that her power grows. In French with Dutch subtitles. 110 min. The Movies The Lake House The engaging script, adapted by David Auburn (Proof) from the South Korean movie Siworae (2000), separates the leads not by distance, but by time: living in a picturesque house in suburban
Amsterdam Weekly
20 Willow Springs, boy (Keanu Reeves) keeps getting notes in his mailbox from girl (Sandra Bullock) and eventually realises that she’s living in the same house two years in the future. Teasing out the practical implications of this premise takes up most of the movie, which helps contain a trite subplot about the Reeves character’s relationship with his famous father (Christopher Plummer), and allows boy and girl to luxuriate in their solitude. (JJ) 89 min. Pathé Tuschinski Little Man Their previous collaboration, White Chicks (2005), looks almost restrained compared to this effort by the Wayans brothers, a raucously vulgar comedy that may set a new record for groin jokes. A two-foot-six-inch ex-con (Marlon Wayans) steals a fabled diamond but has to ditch it in the handbag of a career woman (Kerry Washington) whose husband (Shawn Wayans) is eager for a family. Posing as an abandoned toddler to get close to the couple, the thief plays the innocent while unleashing his outsized adult appetites. The slapstick is funnier for the nifty CGI, and the script gets in some sly digs at racist cops and multitasking soccer moms. (AG) 80 min. Pathé ArenA, Pathé De Munt The Lost City Andy Garcia’s first feature as director, an abortive anti-Marxist epic about the Cuban revolution, follows the fortunes of a wealthy Havana family, with Garcia as one of the sons, a nightclub owner. The script is credited to the late, great Cuban expatriate novelist G Cabrera Infante, but the only traces of his wit are in a closing title and the treatment of Che Guevara (Jsu Garcia) and gangster Meyer Lansky (Dustin Hoffman); Infante also appears as a character of sorts, though casting Bill Murray as such a multicultural figure goes beyond grotesquerie to incoherence. Garcia seems to be aping the Godfather movies and Warren Beatty’s Reds, but the movie’s gracefulness is limited to its handling of the music (some of which he wrote). (JR) 143 min. The Movies, Pathé De Munt Marie-Antoinette Sofia Coppola’s ‘anti-period’ biopic eschews authenticity in favour of the emotional and visceral experience on the last and tragically misunderstood queen of France. Eye-popping visuals and an anachronistic soundtrack further underline that here we have a woman not of this time, though the connection we do make with Kirsten Dunst’s Marie-Antoinette at the beginning of the movie gets lost when the lustre of Versailles begins to work its spell, and the heroine’s intrigue pales in comparison. (BS) 125 min. The Movies, De Uitkijk
Morir en San Hilario It’s a classic case of mistaken identity in this subtle Spanish comedy drama. When 1930s gangster ‘Piernas’ Germán (Lluís Homar) arrives in the picturesque town of San Hilario while on the run, residents mistake him to be a mysterious benefactor who has come to spend his last days there and be buried in their cemetery. As grateful as he is for their special treatment, he fails to comprehend the kindness and particular attention he’s receiving. Directed by Laura Mañá. In Spanish with Dutch subtitles. 95 min. Rialto Novecento Great moments stud Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1976 Marxist epic, but the end result is ambiguous. Robert De Niro is a landowner, Gerard Depardieu is a peasant; they share a birthday and most of the history of the 20th century—the fall of feudalism, the rise of fascism and two world wars. In the film’s four-hour version, at least, the characterisations are hazy and the narrative seems jerky. But patience is ultimately rewarded with a welter of detail and some mighty fine camerawork. In Italian with Dutch subtitles. (DK) 318 min. Filmmuseum
Pirates of the Caribbean Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest This sequel to Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl reunites the first movie’s director (Gore Verbinski) with screenwriters (Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio) and much of its cast (Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley, Jonathan Pryce)—and they’re desperate to knock our socks off, but the excess gets wearing: Depp’s fruity impersonation of Keith Richards (or William F Buckley) as pirate Jack Sparrow; too many bottomless chasms on an island with too many jungle savages (after the fashion of Peter Jackson’s King Kong); Bill Nighy playing too squishy a villain with a beard of too many crawling octopus tentacles; too much violence, pop nihilism and sick humour. But the Disney logo at the beginning is neat. (JR) 140 min. Pathé ArenA, Pathé City, Pathé De Munt, Pathé Tuschinski
The Road to Guantanamo Directors Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross have released a movie that details the most serious case of wrong time/wrong place you’ve ever heard of as four UK Pakistanis are caught in the crossfire of the War on Terror in Afghanistan. This gripping political docudrama will leave you outraged at governments and inspired by the tenacity of the human spirit. (SC) 95 min. Kriterion Sabah The story of a 40-year-old Muslim woman living in Canada. Having devoted her entire life to her family for 20 years, one day Sabah (Arsinée Khanjian) decides to buy a bathing suit and goes for a swim in the local public swimming pool. There she meets tall, handsome—and certainly not Muslim—Stephen. They fall in love but how will she tell her family? Tradition versus innovation and loyalty versus individuality rear their heads, certainly not new themes, but modernised in this humorous work directed by Ruba Nadda. 90 min. Rialto Step Up This teen chick flick is so perfectly calculated it wouldn’t be a surprise if every ‘i’ in the screenplay were dotted with a little heart. The setting is one of those performing-arts high schools where the kids do nothing all day but prepare for stardom; the heroine (Jenna Dewan) is a poor little rich girl destined to be a professional ballet dancer; the hero (Channing Tatum) is a streetwise bad boy who teaches her some hiphop moves and forces her to get real. Any guy who sits through this date movie deserves to get to third base at least. (JJ) 103 min. Pathé ArenA, Pathé De Munt The Story of the Weeping Camel An ethnographic drama focussing on a family of Mongolian herders in the Gobi Desert who face a crisis when one of their camels refuses to nurse its albino newborn. In Mongolian with Dutch subtitles. (JJ) 90 min. Rialto Superman Returns What could possibly justify making a Superman movie that runs 154 minutes? Plenty of films last longer, but their characters are generally sharp enough to recognize a guy with or without his glasses. Director Bryan Singer (X-Men) draws heavily on the 1978 hit that launched the Warner Brothers franchise, with Brandon Routh dully impersonating Christopher Reeve as the Man of Steel, Kevin Spacey getting all the good lines as the villainous Lex Luthor,
31 August-6 September 2006 and stock footage of Marlon Brando proving that death isn’t always a good career move. With Kate Bosworth (as Lois Lane) and Frank Langella (as Perry White). (JJ) 154 min. Pathé City, Pathé De Munt
Syriana In the year 2000, Stephen Gaghan rallied
against drug trafficking in his Oscar-winning script for Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic. Now he aims his penetrating gaze at the ultimate crack addiction of the world: cheap foreign oil. As with Traffic, his variegated script effortlessly jumps between different storylines and characters, giving us a cynical yet detailed overview of the murky machinations of the oil industry. The illustrious cast is impressive, but a podgy George Clooney gets away with the most memorable (and uncomfortable) scene. In English, Urdu, Arabic, Persian, French with Dutch subtitles. (BS) 126 min. Kriterion
Tapas Tapas Five interlocking stories set in a Barcelona neighbourhood. By first-time directors José Corbacho and Juan Cruz. In Spanish with Dutch subtitles. 94 min. Cinecenter
Taxi Driver Martin Scorsese put all the city dweller’s irrational, guilty fears into this 1976 story of a New York taxi driver (Robert De Niro) on a one-man rampage against the ‘scum’—pimps, whores, muggers, junkies and politicians. Scorsese’s style is a delirious, full-colour successor to expressionism, in which the cityscape becomes the twisted projection of the protagonist’s mind. It would be hard to imagine an American film more squarely in the European ‘art’ tradition than this, yet it was misunderstood enough to become a significant popular success. (DK) 113 min. Filmmuseum United 93 To the credit of British writer-director Paul Greengrass (Bloody Sunday), this taut, partly speculative account of the 9/11 flight that crashed in a Pennsylvania field has practically none of the exploita-
special screenings
Me and You and Everyone We Know
Me and You and Everyone We Know Fresh, like-
able, and stylishly low-key, this wistful and sexy romantic comedy marks the feature-directing debut of conceptual artist Miranda July. There are a lot of strong performances by relative unknowns, but what really holds things together is a certain sustained pitch of feeling about loneliness. July plays a shy video artist, supporting herself as a cab driver for the elderly, who becomes interested in a recently separated shoe clerk (John Hawkes) with two sons. The movie’s flirtatious roundelay also includes the clerk’s coworker, an art curator and a couple of teenage girls. (JR) 90 min. Het Ketelhuis, Kriterion
Miami Vice There’s not much Miami but loads of vice in Michael Mann’s big-screen adaptation of the ’80s TV series he created with Anthony Yerkovich— in particular, the vice of a gifted director letting his talent go to seed. The pacing and proportion of Heat (1995) and the feeling for place and character evident in Collateral (2004) have been tossed aside for a routine plot in which vice cops Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx pose as drug dealers. Mann creates some arresting compositions, but he’s become so addicted to close-ups, especially erotic ones involving Gong Li (hot) and Farrell (not), that he tends to neglect their visual contexts. Apart from a few sleek shots involving boats or helicopters, the action eventually devolves into a standard war movie shootout. (JR) 135 min. Pathé ArenA, Pathé City, Pathé De Munt, Pathé Tuschinski Mongolian Ping Pong A nine-year-old boy living on the Mongolian steppes finds a ping-pong ball floating down a stream. After concluding that it isn’t an egg, he carries it around as a talisman, learns it’s China’s ‘national ball’, and winds up fighting over the ‘glowing pearl’ with a friend. This sounds like a slender premise on which to hang a feature, but director Ning Hao is more interested in ethnography and landscapes than narrative, concentrating on how folklore, technology—motorbikes, cars, trucks, films, TV—and imagination affect a nomadic way of life. In Mongolian with Dutch subtitles. (JR) 102 min. Cinecenter
Cape Fear It’s hard to understand why Martin Scorsese wanted to remake a nasty, formulaic 1962 thriller whose only ‘classic’ credentials are a terrifying performance by Robert Mitchum and a Bernard Herrmann score. The score has been re-orchestrated by Elmer Bernstein, and Mitchum is back briefly, in a cameo that carries enough reality and conviction to blow the other actors off the screen. But most of the rest of this 1991 tale—about a psychotic ex-con (Robert De Niro) who turns up in a North Carolina town to take revenge on the lawyer (Nick Nolte) partly responsible for his long sentence, focusing on his wife (Jessica Lange) and daughter (Juliette Lewis)— has been inadequately scripted by Wesley Strick, and even as a simple genre picture it works only in fits and starts. (JR) 117 min. De Uitkijk The Fly David Cronenberg’s 1986 remake of the Vincent Price shocker, though what it reminds you of most, in its uneasy melding of physical deformity and romance, is Peter Bogdanovich’s Mask. The mixture didn’t work there and doesn’t work here either: image so much subverts intent that Jeff Goldblum’s tragic flyperson finally seems more ludicrous than affecting, voyeuristically bizarre. For a while, Goldblum’s quirkiness (as Seth Brundle, master of teleportation technology) keeps the movie buoyant, but as he sinks irrevocably into his fly suit, everything else sinks with him. Still, it’s an interesting experiment Cronenberg’s attempting, if ultimately in the wrong direction: almost none of the minimalist alienation and bleakness of Scanners and Videodrome remains, and the stylistic opening out tends to diminish those films retrospectively, make them seem less authentic than they are. The new warmth and accessibility may be flattering to Cronenberg’s psyche, but the creative loss is considerable. (PG) 100 min. Cavia For Your Eyes Only Most of the action sequences in this 1981 Bond film have been recycled from earlier entries, but if the producers haven’t come up with anything startlingly new, they have managed to freshen the tone enough to give the old standards a different cast. Roger Moore has crumpled his comicstrip good looks into something approaching world-weariness, and the new-found maturity in his expression is reflected in director John Glen’s style, which goes for the measured and elegant over the
flashy and excessive. The Bond girl here, Carole Bouquet, was picked up from Luis Buñuel’s That Obscure Object of Desire, and her frozen good looks are slightly too sinister for the conventional glamour part she’s been given. (DK) 127 min. De Uitkijk Goldfish Memory This Irish romantic comedy by director Liz Gill, who’s apprenticed with Martin Scorsese, Todd Haynes, and Barry Levinson, seems more attuned to Hugh Grant vehicles than to the work of her edgier mentors. Roughly a dozen characters roam trendy Dublin locales searching for love, but (supposedly like goldfish) they have short memories and learn little from experience. Repetitive behaviour and recycled pickup lines add rhythm but no bounce, and the premise of gay, straight and bi couples continuously going back to the same well for companionship seems hackneyed. There are funny and touching moments, helped by attractive players, handsome scenery, and a few well-timed edits, but the film is a predictable gloss of other movies, down to its ham-fisted lift from The Graduate. (AG) 85 min. Pathé De Munt
Jour de Fête Part of Rialto’s open day, with free
screenings all day, Jacques Tati’s first feature (1947), a euphoric comedy set in a sleepy village, with Tati’s chacteristically minimalist plot: during Bastille Day festivities, the local postman (Tati) encounters a newsreel about streamlined postal delivery in America and attempts to clean up his act accordingly. But the exquisite charm of this masterpiece has less to do with individual gags (funny though many of them are) than with Tati’s portrait of a highly interactive French village after the war—a view of paradise suffused with affection and poetry. In French with Dutch subtitles. (JR) 70 min. Rialto Manhattan Woody Allen’s great leap forward into character development and dramatic integrity with a funny and observant script, full of shocks of recognition, but for all his progress as a writer, Allen’s direction remains disconcertingly amateurish. Still, it remains perhaps the only film in which Allen has been able to successfully imagine a personality other than his own. (DK) 96 min. The Movies Once Upon a Time in the West Sergio Leone, famous for his spaghetti westerns shot in Spain, dared to invade John Ford’s own Monument Valley
for this 1969 epic. He brought back a masterpiece, a film that expands his baroque, cartoonish style into genuine grandeur, weaving dozens of thematic variations and narrative arabesques around a classical western foundation myth. With Henry Fonda and Charles Bronson. (DK) 165 min. Kriterion Scanners One of the most technically proficient of David Cronenberg’s early gnawing, Canadian-made horror movies (1981), though it lacks both the logic and the queasy sexual subtext that made his still earlier work—Rabid, They Came From Within—so memorably revolting. The premise—warring factions of telekinetic killers are sent out by two mysterious corporations—is vague but suggestive, and it’s developed with a creepy psychological resonance, though the film loses some force through the needlessly complicated, indifferently presented plotting. Like Tod Browning, Cronenberg doesn’t have the stylistic resources to match the forcefulness of his ideas, but his movies remain in the mind for the pull of their private obsessions. (DK) 102 min. Cavia
Strike The story of a strike by Russian workers cir-
ca 1912 and its brutal suppression by the authorities, this 1924 film by the 26-year-old Eisenstein was his first full-blown feature, though flawed and schematic, it’s nonetheless a mighty achievement. Masterfully photographed by Edouard Tisse, the film lays the groundwork for Eisenstein’s great Potemkin. Russian surtitles with Dutch subtitles. (DD) 93 min. Filmmuseum
Les Vacances de Mr Hulot The reedy, pipesmoking Mr Hulot spends a week’s vacation at a slightly battered seaside hotel, where he battles inanimate objects and thinks—long and hard— about flirting with a pretty girl. Jacques Tati’s 1953 masterpiece features some of the funniest and loveliest slapstick imaginable, yet it is also a work of impressive formal innovation, casting off the tyranny of a plotline in favour of loosely associated tones, episodes, and images (Tati would find the visual correlative of this technique in his great 1968 Playtime). The soundtrack, in which dialogue is subsumed by sound effects, is a masterful piece of musique concrete; Tati rerecorded and embellished it in 1961. In French with Dutch subtitles. (DK) 86 min. Filmmuseum
Amsterdam Weekly
31 August-6 September 2006
21 Oh the horror. Of wet feet.
The remake of a classic horror movie melts as Neil LaBute upstages a clash of faiths with the battle between the sexes.
ONE WICKER MAN’S NIGHTMARE By Bregtje Schudel It might have come as a surprise that the remake of Trobin Hardy’s chilling horror classic The Wicker Man would be in the hands of Neil LaBute. The maker of movies like In the Company of Men and The Shape of Things, where he offers cynical insights into intersexual relations,
tive melodrama one would expect from a major studio release. The film cuts between the delayed Newark-to-San Francisco flight, a military air defense facility and air traffic control centres in Boston and New York (with some of the real-life participants playing themselves), then switches to real time once the plane takes off. Greengrass takes pains to keep events believable and relatively unrhetorical, rejecting entertainment for the sake of sober reflection, though one has to ask how edifying this is, apart from its reduction of the standard myths. (JR) 111 min. Cinecenter, Pathé Tuschinski Vers le Sud Also see Five Word Movie Review. In the late 1970s, a group of randy women past their prime, led by ice-cold Ellen (Charlotte Rampling), colonise—in all senses of that word—a holiday resort in Haiti, trading financial security for sexual favours with the local men. While each woman is here to define her own version of paradise, their paid-for paramours reveal the flipside of the bargain. Muscular, handsome Legba (Ménothy Cesar) is the most sought-after of the men, but is so tangled up in Haiti’s ever-present corruption that it leads to his demise. Although director Laurent Cantet calls upon viewers to constantly question their moral standpoint, his film is threaded through with humanity. Clever use of straight-to-camera monologues ensures characters are never just types, but real people. In French and English with Dutch subtitles. (KR) 105 min. Cinecenter
Volver Almodóvar is growing up. After provoking
the public with explicit sex and his subversive sense of humour, the Spanish director now shows us there’s
wouldn’t be the first choice for remaking a horror movie about the disappearance of a little girl on a creepy island. Yet the director makes himself right at home. Sheriff Edward Maulis (Nicolas Cage) has lost all meaning in life. After the dramatic death of a mother and child he couldn’t save, Edward has remained at home in an almost catatonic state. But
more to life than (just) sex, drugs and travesty. Volver is a heartfelt story about the long overdue reunion of a daughter (Penélope Cruz) and the ghost of her mother (Carmen Maura). Fans of Almodóvar’s earlier work might be disappointed that the carnal pleasures have been replaced by genuine emotions. The rest, however, will realise that humanism was just what his films needed. In Spanish with Dutch subtitles. (BS) 120 min. Cinecenter, The Movies, Pathé ArenA, Pathé Tuschinski The Wayward Cloud Tsai Ming-Liang’s film recycles its cinematic predecessors’ main actors (Lee Kang-sheng, Chen Shiang-chyi), physical elements, themes and stylistic tropes. But this time round, it offers more lavish musical numbers than The Hole, as well as two key additions: watermelons and hardcore sex, sometimes used in conjunction. Tsai’s obvious disgust at the sex is part of what makes the film so unpleasant; he remains a brilliant original, but this is a parody of
when he receives a letter from his childhood sweetheart imploring him to help find her young daughter, Edward realises this might be the chance to redeem himself. The largely female population of Summerisle, however, proves to be very uncooperative; they even claim never to have seen the child. Yet Edward is determined to find the little girl, no matter what. The Wicker Man is a horror story with decidedly LaButian undertones. The fact that the natives worship pagan gods isn’t as important as it was in the original movie. There, Sergeant Howie’s Christian beliefs clashed with the—in his eyes— heretic practices on the island. By changing the population from predominantly male to mostly female, LaBute has returned to familiar territory: the neverending conflicts between the sexes. The women are obviously displeased with Edward’s presence and they have a
his gifts. In Mandarin with Dutch subtitles. (JR) 112 min. Rialto
The Wind That Shakes the Barley The Wind That Shakes the Barley A surprise winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes 2006, this Ken Loach drama dredges up as much controversy as you would expect from the combination of Loach and the Irish Republican Army—even labelled as pro-IRA by some corners. In reality, it’s a simple history lesson, exploring the Republican movement’s war against occupying British forces in 1920s Ireland and the brutality of the British troops (the Black and Tans), while
right to be: he’s trespassing on private property, and as an authority figure easily falls into the role of the stereotypical male aggressor. But even scarier than the women’s hostility is the friendly reception by the head of the island, Sister Summersisle (Ellen Burstyn). With mild amusement she answers all Edward’s belligerent questions and indulges him in his quixotic undertaking. When Edward accuses her of despising men, she good-naturedly corrects him: ‘We love our men, we’re just not... subservient to them.’ LaBute has proven he’s very adept at creating an uncanny atmosphere. The story is suffused with strange signs, distant voices in the night, mute men and lots of disturbing women—alas, gents, no naked Britt Eklands here. The two blind hags and the lost girl’s recurring red vest echo the motifs of Nicholas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now, but while in that film the ending proved to be inevitable—preordained, even—the pay-off in The Wicker Man feels a bit like a let-down. It is shocking, but LaBute has been so busy establishing an atmosphere in which to highlight the rift between the genders that he forgot to include a sense of foreboding. As a study of male/female behaviour The Wicker Man is intriguing. As a bona fide horror flick, there’s still something missing—you’re just as disappointed with the outcome as Edward. Well, maybe not quite as disappointed. The Wicker Man opens Thursday at Pathé Arena, Pathé De Munt and Pathé City.
focussing on the personal struggles of two brothers who put their personal lives to the side in order to join the IRA. 124 min. The Movies, Pathé Tuschinski You, Me and Dupree Co-producer Owen Wilson is the title jerk-off, the best man at the wedding of a couple played by Matt Dillon and Kate Hudson. After losing his job and home, he winds up staying with the newlyweds, the houseguest from hell. Meanwhile, the husband is already buckling under the strain of working for his scornful father-in-law (Michael Douglas). The trailer suggests a Farrelly brothers-type gross-out complete with overflowing toilets, but working with a shapeless script, directors Anthony and Joe Russo (Welcome to Collinwood) can’t figure out what they’re making. It doesn’t help that most of the actors have little flair for comedy. (JR) 108 min. Pathé ArenA, Pathé De Munt The Wicker Man See review above. 106 min. Pathé ArenA, Pathé De Munt and Pathé City
22
Amsterdam Weekly
31 August-6 September 2006
31 August-6 September 2006
Amsterdam Weekly
23 Well, it’s probably true that all the best bars are in hell.
A headbanger anthropologist tries to separate the riffs from the tiffs in an excavation of the hard of darkness.
SATAN LOVES ME,YES I KNOW By Angela Dress The first 10 minutes of Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey are a determined effort to establish the academic credentials of writer/producer/director/narrator and ‘star’ Sam Dunn, a Canadian anthropologist whose graduate thesis was written on the plight of Guatemalan refugees. This must, therefore, be a serious study that demands to be recognised as such. Well, it’s not—it’s a labour of love.
FILM TIMES Thursday 31 August until Wednesday 6 September.Times are provided by cinemas and are subject to last-minute changes. Cavia Van Hallstraat 52-I, 681 1419 The Fly Fri 20.30 Scanners Wed 20.30 Cinecenter Lijnbaansgracht 236, 623 6615 C.R.A.Z.Y. Mon 21.45 Mongolian Ping Pong daily 19.15, Sun also 11.15, 13.45 Tapas daily 16.30, 19.30, 21.45, Sun also 11.00, 14.00 United 93 daily 16.30, 19.30, 21.45 , Sun also 11.00, 14.00 Vers le Sud daily 16.15, Thur-Sun, Tues, Wed also 22.00 Volver daily 16.00, 19.00, 21.45, Sun also 11.15 Filmmuseum Vondelpark 3, 589 1400 Alice in Cartoonland part 3 Sun, Wed 13.45 Een Vlucht Mussen Thur, Fri, Tues, Wed 20.00 Jaap Hillenius, poging om dichter bij te komen Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed 19.30, Sat 20.00, Mon, Tues 17.30 Novecento part 1: Thur 21.15, Fri, Sat, Wed 17.00, Sun 16.00, part 2: Fri, Tues, Wed 21.15, Sun, Mon 17.00 De Schippers van de Kameleon Sun, Wed 14.00 Strike Sat, Sun, Mon 20.30 Taxi Driver Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed 21.30, Thur, Fri, Wed also 17.15, Sat 22.00 Les Vacances de Mr Hulot Fri 21.30 (open-air) Het Ketelhuis Haarlemmerweg 8-10, 6840090 Die Zauberflöte Sun 19.30 Een Ander Zijn Geluk daily 19.30 Ik wil nooit beroemd worden Thur-Sat, Mon-Wed 17.30 Jaap Hillenius, poging om dichter bij te komen Thur-Sat, Mon-Wed 21.15 De Jurk Sat 21.30 (open-air) Me and You and Everyone We Know daily 21.30 Nieuwsgierig Aapje Thur, Sat, Sun, Wed 15.15 Over the Hedge: Beesten bij de Buren Thur, Sat, Sun, Wed 13.30
Dunn has been a metal fan since his teens and, as an anthropologist, wanted to apply methods of cultural analysis to his personal pastime. What is metal? Who was the first metal band? (Opinions differ, but Black Sabbath came out on top in the end.) Why is it associated with evil and Satanism? Why all the machismo and what place women... and so on, the questions being a neat way of segmenting the film. So Dunn sets out to make his movie and gets to interview a number of his
Kriterion Roetersstraat 170, 623 1708 13 (Tzameti) daily 20.00, Thur-Mon, Wed also 22.00, Sat, Sun, Wed also 15.00, Fri, Sat also 00.00 Grizzly Man Sat, Sun, Wed 15.45 Me and You and Everyone We Know daily 19.45 Metal: A Headbanger's Journey daily 17.45, Thur-Sun, Tues, Wed also 21.45, Fri, Sat also 23.45 Once Upon a Time in the West Mon 22.15 The Road to Guantanamo Sat, Sun 13.00 Romanzo Criminale daily 17.00 Sneak Preview Tues 22.00 Syriana Sat, Sun 13.15 The Movies Haarlemmerdijk 159-165, 638 6016 Capote Fri, Sat 0.20 Cars (NL) Thur-Sun, Wed 14.30 Hellbent Fri, Sat 0.20 L'Ivresse du Pouvoir daily 16.45 The Lost City daily 21.45, Thur-Sat, Mon-Wed also 19.00 Manhattan Thur, Fri 17.00, Sun 12.30, 20.00, Mon, Tues 21.30, Fri, Sat also 0.20 Marie-Antoinette Thur-Sun, Wed 21.30 Monster House (NL) Thur-Sun, Wed 15.30 On A Clear Day daily 17.30, 19.30, Sun also 13.00 Over the Hedge: Beesten bij de Buren Thur-Sun, Wed 14.45 Volver daily 17.20, 19.45, 22.15, Thur-Sun, Wed also 15.00, Sun also 12.45, Fri, Sat also 0.30 The Wind That Shakes the Barley daily 19.30, 22.00, Sat-Wed also 17.00, Sun also 12.00 Pathé ArenA ArenA Boulevard 600, 0900 1458 Cars (NL) Thur-Sun, Wed 13.05, 15.40, Sat, Sun also 10.30 The Da Vinci Code daily 21.10 Fearless daily 17.15, 19.35, 21.55, Mon, Tues also 12.30, 14.50 Garfield 2 (NL) daily 12.00, 13.50, 15.55, Thur-Sun, Wed also 12.55, 15.05, Sat, Sun also 10.05, 11.00 The Hills Have Eyes daily 19.15, 21.50, Mon, Tues also 12.00, 14.25, 16.50 K3 en het IJsprinsesje Thur-Sun, Wed 12.00, Sat, Sun also 10.20 Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna daily 12.10, 16.00, Thur-Mon, Wed also 20.00 Little Man daily 19.00 Miami Vice daily 13.00, 15.50, 17.45, 18.40, 20.40, 21.35, Sat, Sun also 10.10 Monster House (NL) daily 12.15, 14.15, 16.15, Sat, Sun also 10.00 Nieuwsgierig Aapje Thur-Sun, Wed 13.25, Sat, Sun also 10.50 Over the Hedge: Beesten bij de Buren Thur-Sun, Wed 12.40, 14.40, 16.40, Sat, Sun also 10.25 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest daily 12.05, 15.15, 17.05, 18.20, 20.20, 21.25, Mon, Tues also 14.00 The Sentinel daily 13.40, 16.05, 18.50, 21.30
idols along the way: Bruce Dickinson, Lemmy, Dee Snyder, Vince Neil of Mötley Crue. The word ‘awesome’ is repeatedly uttered. Dunn is an amiable guide and his is an amiable film. Academics claim that the ‘tritone’ beloved of metal was a sound used to call up the devil in the Middle Ages and thus became taboo—hence metal’s association with Satanism. The drama and operatics of metal is Wagnerian, apparently, and if Mozart were alive today, he’d be in Led Zeppelin. Fabulous! Of course, it’s all too easy to sneer at the enthusiasm—especially when it spawned the practise of air-guitar. Dunn’s naivety is endearing, if grating at times. ‘It’s, like, outsider music that makes people feel like they belong,’ is the proposition frequently invoked by fans and artists. Actually it’s a massive corporate machine: but what the hell, these people love it, and what’s wrong with that? Highlights of the movie include the entertaining snapshot of 1980s Republi-
Sneak Preview Tues 21.00 Step Up daily 12.35, 15.00, 17.20, 19.40, 22.00, Sat, Sun also 10.15 Superman Returns (IMAX) daily 13.55, 17.30, 21.05, Sat, Sun also 10.35 Volver daily 15.25, 18.00, 20.50, Mon, Tues also 12.45 The Wicker Man daily 13.15, 15.45, 19.10, 21.40, Sat, Sun also 10.45 You, Me and Dupree daily 19.20, 21.45, Mon, Tues also 13.05, 15.40 Zoop in India 21 Pathé City Kleine Gartmanplantsoen 15-19, 623 4570 Cars (NL) daily 15.20, Sat, Sun also 12.30 The Da Vinci Code daily 15.40 Garfield 2 (NL) Sat, Sun 13.30 The Hills Have Eyes daily 21.30 K3 en het IJsprinsesje daily 16.30, Sat, Sun also 14.00 Miami Vice daily 15.00, 18.00, Thur-Mon, Wed also 21.00, Sat, Sun also 12.00 Monster House (NL) daily 15.30, Sat, Sun also 13.00 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest daily 17.30, 20.40 The Sentinel daily 19.10, 21.40 Superman Returns daily 18.20 The Wicker Man daily 18.50, 21.20 Pathé De Munt Vijzelstraat 15, 0900 1458 The Break-Up daily 17.40 Cars (NL) Thur-Sun, Wed 13.50, Sat, Sun also 11.20 The Da Vinci Code daily 20.40, Mon, Tues also 13.40 Doodeind Sat 23.25 Fearless daily 16.40, 19.00, 21.30, Mon, Tues also 13.40 Fragile daily 17.50, Sat also 23.20, Mon, Tues also 12.00 Garfield 2 (NL) Thur-Sun, Wed 12.40, 14.50, 17.05, Sat, Sun also 10.30 Goldfish Memory Wed 21.00 The Hills Have Eyes Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed 19.15, 21.45, Sat also 20.40, 23.10, Mon, Tues also 12.30, 15.10 K3 en het IJsprinsesje Thur-Sun, Wed 12.20, 14.20, Sat, Sun also 10.15 Little Man Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed 16.25, 18.30, Sat, Sun also 10.45, Sat also 13.00, 15.20, 17.40 The Lost City daily 14.30, Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed also 20.30, Sat also 20.10 Miami Vice Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed 12.15, 15.15, 18.15, 21.20, Sat 11.00, 14.00, 17.00, 20.00, 23.00 Monster House (NL) Thur-Sun, Wed 13.30, 15.45, Sat, Sun also 11.10 Nieuwsgierig Aapje Thur-Sun, Wed 13.10, Sat, Sun also 10.40 Over the Hedge: Beesten bij de Buren Thur-Sun, Wed 13.05, Thur also 16.00, Sat, Sun also 10.50
can America that is Dee Snyder of Twisted Sister defending his lyrics at a hearing by the Parent’s Music Resource Center, headed by Tipper Gore, who compiled a list called the Filthy Fifteen, which included not only ‘Fuck Like a Beast’ by W.A.S.P., but also Madonna’s ‘Dress You Up’. This is all good clean-ish fun, and we see lots of boys in Lycra and make-up with big hair. A brief look at gender elicits interviews with Girlschool and Arch Enemy’s Angela Gossow, who has perfected those deep-throat vocals so beloved of her plank-spanking brethren. But it takes on a more sinister note when Dunn starts looking at the phenomenon of Norwegian black metal. Mayhem singer Varg Vikenes aka Count Grishnackh shot a bandmate in the head and was convicted of murder; the rest of the group made necklaces from the dead guy’s skull. Members of Gorgoroth, meanwhile, have served sentences for a spate of church burnings in Norway in the early ’90s—their stated aim is to rid Norway of Christianity and return to the good ol’ Viking days. And the greatest influence on their music? Satan. (The logical flaw in this picture seems to have escaped them.) Obviously they are nutters, but they are violent, aggressive nutters, and antiSemitic to boot. Clocking in at a slightly-headacheinducing 96 minutes, metal fans will love this film, but for the rest of us, it’s a touch too uncritical of some of the less-appealing aspects of the genre. Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey opens Thursday at Kriterion.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest daily 12.45, 16.30, 18.00, 21.15, Thur-Tues also 20.00, Sat also 23.15, Mon, Tues also 14.30 The Sentinel Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed 13.20, 16.20, 19.10, 21.50, Sat 12.10, 14.50, 17.40, 20.15, 22.50 Step Up daily 14.00, 16.40, 18.30, 19.20, 21.00, 22.00, Fri-Wed also 16.00, Sat, Sun also 11.30, Sat also 23.30, Mon, Tues also 12.10 Superman Returns Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed 13.00, 20.55, Sat 19.55 The Wicker Man daily 12.50, 15.40, Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed 18.50, 21.40, Sat, Sun also 10.20, Sat also 18.00, 20.30, 23.05 You, Me and Dupree daily 15.20, 18.10, 20.45, Sat also 23.20, Mon, Tues also 12.20 Zoop in India Thur-Sun, Wed 12.00 Pathé Tuschinski Reguliersbreestraat 34, 0900 1458 Brokeback Mountain Tues 13.30 The Da Vinci Code daily 14.45 K3 en het IJsprinsesje Sat, Sun, Wed 12.40 The Lake House daily 18.40, 21.10, Thur, Fri, Mon, Tues also 12.15 Miami Vice Thur, Sun-Wed 12.30, 16.30, 20.30, Fri, Sat 12.45, 15.45, 18.45, 21.45 Monster House (NL) Sat, Sun, Wed 16.00 Over the Hedge daily 16.15 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest Thur-Mon, Wed 13.20, Thur-Sun, Tues, Wed also 17.00, 21.00 United 93 daily 13.15, 18.50, 21.40 Volver daily 13.00, 15.40, 18.20, 21.15 The Wind That Shakes the Barley Thur-Sun, Tues, Wed 13.10, 18.30, 21.20, Thur, Fri, Mon, Tues also 16.00 Rialto Ceintuurbaan 338, 676 8700 13 (Tzameti) Thur-Sat, Mon-Wed 17.45, 19.45, 21.45, Sat also 13.00, Sat, Wed also 15.00 Africa in the Picture: Shorts Sun 13.00 The Cave of the Yellow Dog Thur-Sat, Mon-Wed 18.00, 20.00, Sat also 13.45 Jour de Fête Sun 11.00 Morir en San Hilario Thur-Sat, Mon-Wed 19.15, Sun 16.15 Play Fri, Sat 23.00 Sabah Thur-Sat, Mon-Wed 21.15 Short Films Sun 15.00 The Story of the Weeping Camel Sat 14.15 The Wayward Cloud Thur-Sat, Mon-Wed 22.00 We Are the Champions Sat, Wed 15.45 De Uitkijk Prinsengracht 452, 623 7460 As It Is in Heaven Thur-Tues 19.00, Sat also 16.30 Cape Fear Mon, Tues 16.30 Die Zauberflöte Sun 15.00 For Your Eyes Only Thur 16.30 Marie-Antoinette daily 21.30, Fri also 16.30
Amsterdam Weekly
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Cielo on a plate. Uliveto Weteringschans 118, 423 0699 Open Mon-Fri 11.00-20.00, Sat 12.00-18.00 Cash, PIN I have shot by on the trams year in, year out, without really knowing about Uliveto. So one sultry afternoon, I decided to finally visit the place. Peering through the vast, high windows at a spacious white interior, I was impressed. It oozed classic simplicity with a rustic feeling; imagine a comfortable egg, designed by Mario Bellini. (Maybe gluttonisation was finally coddling my brain.) Enter Glutton. I was rewarded with an amused smile as I gawked at the full vitrine and the large communal table, where a French family were busily lunching, their faces roped to their plates with spaghetti, fresh tomato and clam sauce. They made appreciative Gallic noises as they truffled their grub. Seeing as I had been invited to supper later, my needs were modest; but before I ordered, I decided to inspect the imported products on sale. Olive oil in large stainless steel canisters, from all corners of the Med, but mostly regional Italian, of course. There was vintage balsamico vinegar, 12-year-old stuff, and even one of 25, thick, precious syrup from Modena. A drop or two to elevate a dressing to marvellousness, making guests twitch and groan in gastronomic pleasure. Pure alchemy! After a cursory glance at dried pasta—everything suitable for excellent gifts— I returned to the vitrine as if at a museum. Three pastas change daily, according to the
THE UNDERCOVER GLUTTON I gawked at the large communal table, where a French family were busily lunching, their faces roped to their plates with spaghetti, fresh tomato and clam sauce. chef’s inspiration. A beautifully presented plate of grilled vegetables fanned out like a peacock’s tail. ‘These are French coquelet, roasted with rosemary and garlic,’ explained the chef.
‘Really?’ I asked, barely smothering a watermelon grin. ‘Cocklets?’ ‘The flavour is more intense...’ Ah! I nodded, mentally waving away my
31 August-6 September 2006
scolding angel. My eyes slid over the meatball mound, aromatic with fresh herbs, garlic and tomato sauce: soft cannonballs awaiting the onslaught of hungry customers. ‘We don’t advertise, it’s all word of mouth.’ My eyes took in a food carnival, oven-baked dorado fillets slathered in a herb paste and served with a salsa verde variation of fresh herbs, capers and lemon. An oval dish filled with whole blanched baby carrots marinated in orange juice, mint, garlic and olive oil. They looked so good. Next to them were marinated beetroot in balsamic, fresh thyme and oil. And a large tray of creamy tiramisu, which made me blink. I reluctantly ordered a sandwich of freshly roasted veal with a tuna sauce dressing—it was tasty—and a glass of dry white Italian wine to wash it down. As I grazed away, I watched an American couple do a lavish three-course meal in front of me. They munched away at their food, feeling my hot gaze following every forkful. Very disconcerting, I must have been—but it looked so good! The tiramisu started to radiate waves at me, a finely tuned device calling my attention. ‘Would you like something else?’ ‘Tiramisu,’ gargled Glutton, practically drowning in drool. I emitted an ecstatic sigh as I stuck in a creamy mouthful. Sour-sweet cherries, cream or mascarpone, or both. Soft cake drizzled with amaretto caressed my tongue. It was pure delight. A calorific nightmare, but a dream incarnate. An espresso, strong, jet-black and bitter, counterbalanced the flavour experience. My snack wasn’t cheap—€17 all told—but if you want quality, you must be prepared to pay accordingly.
Amsterdam Weekly
31 August-6 September 2006
WEEKLY CLASSIFIEDS Ads are free, space permitting. They will be posted both to the paper and online. Guaranteed placement is available for a small fee; see our website for details. Ads may be published in English, het Nederlands or whatever language is best for you to communicate your message. How to submit an ad: via our website at www.amsterdamweekly.nl, by fax at 020 620 1666 or post to Amsterdam Weekly, De Ruyterkade 106, 1011 AB Amsterdam. Deadline: Monday at 12.00, the week of publication. AD OF THE WEEK ECSTASY OF THE HEART Your sexuality is a doorway to your deepest loving. Through the space of presence that is attained in the Tantric practice we experience the ecstasy of the heart. Singles & couples welcome. 20-23 Oct. www.chandrabindu.org. 320 9585.
HOUSING OFFERED HOUSE EXCHANGE3-room apt in center of Poland. All media, central heating, great city. The housing costs are €90/month. (month!) For one month’s salary you cover 4-5 month’s living costs in Poland. If you have studio in A’dam and want to try living in Poland in exchange, contact me: thrillandgo@ yahoo.com. JORDAAN Light and spacious apt overlooking Jordaan, canal views, central location. www.amanda.macleod.com/a partment. Call 06 5328 1498. APT FOR TOMTOM'ER Friendly TomTom employee looking for long term apt in A’dam, €600/mth max. Ready to move in asap. Email bass1016@ googlemail.com. OUD ZUID Luxe studio te huur aangeboden in Oud Zuid. Geheel gemeubileerd, voorzien van nieuwe keuken, badkamer, houten vloer etc. 5 min van Vondelpark vandaan. Huurprijs. €1150, excl p.m. Voor meer info bel 06 2462 3170. www.realestatevision.nl.
1294 1029.
3 KAMER WONING aangeboden in Watergraafsmeer. 2 verdiepingen, keuken, badkamer, balkon. Per direct voor 1 jaar huurprijs €1050, excl g/w/l p.m. Voor meer info bel 06 2462 3170. www.realestatevision.nl.
APT WANTED 2 bdrm furnished apt needed in A'dam centre. Max ?1000/mth. Call 06 2626 0310 or info@voicetake.com.
OUD WEST Apt in A’dam Oud West for rent from 14 Sept to 13 Oct 2006 for quiet, cat loving person. You will have to take care of 2 cats. Rent €300 incl. Contact tinasejbjerg@yahoo.dk.
RENTAL SOUGHT Ex-pat couple, age 28, seek property in A’dam to rent. We have dog but very clean. Pref outside space if poss. Up to €1150/mth. Call +44 791 458 1470.
NICE FURNISHED APTfor single working female: spacious 2 room apt (>50m2) in A’dam East. Close to metro/tram/ring. From 20 Nov 2006 to 14 May 2007. Safe area, balcony, fully equipped, cable TV, internet, dishwasher. €750/mth excl. Email abroader@planet.nl Sorry, no guys or couples. Registration possible.
2 BDRM APTWe are 2 nice girls looking for 2 bedroom apt in A’dam area as soon as posible. Max 1 Sept. Please call Kate on 06 1486 4951 or Anna on 06 1406 3823.
NICE 2 ROOM APT in the center. For1 person only. Legal with registration for period of about 7 months, €850/month incl. Email aliza.ziv@worldonline.nl.
HOUSING WANTED
STUDIO/ATTIC Want space to create a house. Young lady looking for studio/zolder/space to create studio in city center. Will renovate the place myself in return for resonable rent. Agnes: thrillandgo@yahoo.com / 06 1511 0601.
BEAUTIFUL MAISONETTEAPT in heart of A’dam. Four min bicycle ride from CS. New, sunny and light with balcony facing the south. Also furnished. For rent to reliable person or couple. Available Sept thru Oct/Nov. Timeframe flexible. €1000/mth. Call Thomas on 06 4410 7072.
GOT AN UNUSED ROOM?Do you have spare room at top of your house? Unused space in your workplace? Female artist/therapist looking for second space for private practice. I’m very quiet, unobtrusive art/training/ retreating practice looking for something central to A’dam. Up to €250. gary2@freedomlab.org.
JORDAAN Cozy studio apt, furnished, internet connectivity and located in ideal location on edge of the Jordaan. Only €700/month all incl. Call 06
NEED SPRING APT Looking for studio or 1 bedroom apt in Leidseplein or other fun neighborhood Jan-May/June. May live by myself or with boyfriend.
Will be law students at Utrecht/UvA. Clean, fun and responsible. anneketheav@ yahoo.com. TEMPORARY HOUSING sought for professional male dancer working in project group in A’dam from mid-Sept to midNov. Can pay up to €550/month. Contact Alexander at gesusxxx@hotmail.com. TIJDELIJKE WONING Vanaf 23 sept ben ik op zoek naar een tijdelijke woning in A’dam voor een aantal maanden maar korter is ook prima. Misschien weet je iemand die op vacantie gaat of zijn woning tijdelijk wilt verhuren. monicano@earthlink.net / 06 4655 8570. APT WANTED A couple of PhD students search for apt near centre of A’dam from 1 Sept. Max €700/month incl. Semi/furnished. Contact 06 1404 0134. FURNISHED FLAT FORFamily of 3: father, mother and child in A’dam. Both university educated. Unfortunately that means that money is an issue. Limited by €700 incl. Would be nice if possible to register. We are totally normal people! Email arm_amd@yahoo.co.uk. QUIET PLACE TO LIVE We need salvation. Very obvious transexual and extravagant designer sharing a quiet lifestyle need reasonable living situation for €600 max. Must move by 1 Sept. Please write to delilahmatrix@yahoo.com. INDEED IN NEED Cheerful 26
y.o. looking for place to park while learning life lessons in A’dam. Slightly desperate for shelter. 06 4415 7289. SEEK ROOM OR FLAT!Very nice 31 y.o. man searches nice room or flat immediately in heart of A’dam, East, Jordaan, Rivierenbuurt or De Pijp for very long time & with registration please. Prefer not to live in North or West. Contact Abdoullah on 06 1543 1387.
HOUSING TO SHARE NEED ROOM FAST Professional looking to share apt. Smoker looking to rent a room quite urgently in A’dam area. Will pay €400-€550/mth. Email lmipsey@eircom.net or call +35 386 192 168. ROOM WANTED Friendly grad student looking for 1 room for month of Sept. I’m 23 y.o. American who is clean, organized, non-smoker, easy to get along with and has lived in A’dam for 6 months. Willing to pay up to €450 for a furnished room in A’dam. Email ASykes83@hotmail.com. ROOM NEEDED24 y.o. Rietveld student coming to A’dam from Sweden. Need a place to live. I pay up to €400/mth. I arrive in A’dam 1st week of Sept. pdcwest@hotmail.com. FREE ROOM OFFERED Seek female roommate/girlfriend to live and play with me this summer (or what’s left of it). No bills/rent. Come and go as you please with handsome, athletic and world-traveled guy. 06 2816 7325. DOUBLE ROOM in Oud-West, close to Leidseplein. Double room to rent in lovely 2 bedrom apt(75m2). Couple preferred, to share living room, bathroom and kitchen with busy professional German girl. Rent €730/mth with 6 month contract. No registration. Email cabott2000@yahoo.com.
25 STUDENT NEEDS ROOM!Urgently looking for room, preferably in Stadsdeel West/Baarsjes. Am clean, sociable and able to pay up to €300/mth, sharing facilities np. Contact ellen_kunst@hotmail.com or 06 4319 8904. SMALL SPACE NEEDED 23 y.o. Scottish girl, working for design studio, looking for shared accomodation. Max €450. Twinkle in my eye and I can cook a pie. Contact tescolegs@ hotmail.com / 06 1524 2434. A'DAM ZUID To share comfortable, quiet apt in South of A’dam, close to Stadionweg with young woman. Inscription is possible, fast internet connection. Rent is €400 incl service costs, one month deposit. Call 06 2317 5346.
OTHER SPACES MUSIC STUDIOto rent with engineer. Protocols, reason, FL, and live instruments available. Only €10/hr. Mail for an appt: info@eigenrichting.com.
WORK OFFERED MAN WANTS MASSAGE Man would like to get 2 - 3 times a week a good relaxing massage, from 2 or 4 ‘angel hands’ at your place or my place (postcode1081), after18.00 hrs. I can pay a small contribution. A’dam area. Contact si-si@37.com or 06 2189 5842. SPANISH NATIVE PRESENTERS 3Circles Media is an international media company. For big Spanish channel we are looking for female Spanish native host. The show will be broadcasted from NL. Experience not necessary. We provide training. Send your CV and pictures to casting@3circlesmedia.com. HOUSE CLEANER A cleaner is required for 5 hrs/wk (2 hrs on Mon and 3 hrs on Fri). The location is the Jordaan and someone is required to start as soon as possible. Email scott@koraal-
group.com. UNDUTCHABLES A'DAMis looking for Austrian, Swiss German, Flemish Sales Manager; Communication Officer; Italian Sales Representative; Italian Taxation Specialist; German Payroll Administrator PT; Tourist agent all languages; Please send your CV to Amsterdam@undutchables.nl or check www.undutchables.nl. UNDUTCHABLES Recruitment Agency is looking for C++ Engineers (Salah Mohamed) ; Sales/Customer Service Representative speaking Flemish (Wesley Felida); Oracle Database Administrator and Network Administrator (Salah Mohamed). For more positions see www.undutchables.nl. NIGHT RECEPTIONIST Looking for hard-working nice person for 2-star hotel in centre of A’dam. If you are interested please email your CV as soon as possible to info@oranjetulp.nl. MEMBER SUPPORT TEAM Are you looking for a pt job and do you have 8-12 hrs/wk to spare? TNS EAP A’dam looking for native speakers of English, German, Dutch, French, Italian and Spanish to work in our Support Team. Please send short message and your CV to Edwin.Schukking@ TNS-Global.com. CUSTOMER CARE REPRESENTATIVES required to give information and support to website customers of major airline. See www.adeccocallcenters.nl for full details. SUPERVISOR REP SERVICES required to deal with in/outbound calls and resolve issues raised. Native German or French, Spanish and Italian. See www.adeccocallcenters.nl for full details. DATA ENTRYperson needed for small mail processing office in Jordaan area. On bus and tram
line. Fulltime work. Interested? Email amsterdamjob@ gmail.com. MAIL SORTER/OPENER Need person to sort/open/process mail for small mail processing office in Jordaan area. Must have car or scooter and license. High attention to detail. Interested? Email amsterdamjob@gmail.com. RESEARCHER NEEDED Global trend agency seeks eager business student (native English) who is very experienced with doing research/analysis, practically lives online, devours everything from BusinessWeek & Economist to FT & WSJ, yet also has a secret stash of obscure business blogs. More at www.trendwatching.com/office. TELESALES MSI-ACI looks for native English for lead generation in UK. Good salary. Send your CV to callcenter@msiaci.com or call 715 9500. HARD ROCK CAFE now hiring kitchen staff. With or without experience. Please drop off CV with photo to Max Euweplein 57-61.
FOR SALE WINEUnique South African quality wines. Prices range from € 4.95 to €15.75. We do B2B and B2C wine tastings. Website www.coza.nl or email info@coza.nl. MOVING SALE I have top-quality large and very comfy sofa, 240 x 70 x 110, and new 180 x 200 RECOR bed. Both less than 6 months old and hardly used. Reasonable offers. Also desk and small office furniture; bits & bobs, kitchen set. Ladies bike too. Email jglux@hotmail.com. MADONNA TICKETS Madonna Confessions Tour 2006! Don’t miss it! The last excellent first rank tickets available for the A’dam Arena concert for 3 Sept. Call 06 4778 7821.
Amsterdam Weekly
26 PC SCREEN Big iiyama screen for sale.19’. 250nit high brightness for DVD. Max resolution 1920 x 1440. Can be connected to laptop for bigger & clearer screen. Good for watching movies. €45. Pls contact Michelle: michpan@gmail.com. INDONESIAN BATIK Do you like Indonesian batik? Want to buy one? Call me for details and pictures: batik_seller@hotmail.com or 06 1939 6539.
SERVICES CHILDREN ART PARTIESUnique arts & crafts children parties in A’dam. Look at http:// www.moniquesknutselkunst.nl and click on feestjes. For more information email monique@ moniquesknutselkunst.nl. PHOTOGRAPHY/WRITINGBored out of your brain? Done watching bad summer films, sick of strolling on all fours through tedious end of season art shows, getting drunk (again!) at that silly mud fest called the Parade? Try something else and check out www.emilykocken.nl for creative photography & writing! GRANT APPLICATIONassistance for artists. Having trouble finding the right channels? IsbrandRozi, www.isbrandrozi.nl, 06 3613 5774, 06 1488 8056. HAIRDRESSER English mobile hairdresser in A’dam. Have your hair done in the comfort of your own home. Haircuts starting from €12.50. Please call for an appointment on 773 6095. COOKING 4U Different kinds of international flavors in your kitchen cooked for you and your lady. Contact Fabian on fabianbaezasilva@yahoo.es or 06 1228 8658. HAIRDRESSING in your house or mine. Haircuts €25, colours €30, highlights €45-€50. Fantastic creative styles. Phone Andrea on 06 1433 5259. BOAT RIDES! A classic yacht
31 August-6 September 2006
looking for people to sail the canals. The boat can fit comfortably 8 passengers. Feel like cruising? Contact us at go.amsterdam@gmail.com or 06 2557 7882.
lessons, setting up programs, MS Word, QuarkXpress, etc. Help with purchasing the right MAC, call Sagar at 779 1926.
WEBSITES WEBSITE that stands out? Allround web & graphic design. Custom made web solutions; web consultancy; photography; editiorial; translation; video; print coordination. studio.carstvandermolen.nl.
BUSINESS OWNERS Are you struggling to grow your business? Could you use some help attracting new clients? Grab your free special report, The7 biggest myths about creating a profitable business plus a bonus of monthly profits tips at www.fireflycoaching.com, written by Life & Business Coach Stephanie Ward.
FREE WEBSITE DESIGN Need a simple website? I can spare 2 hours a week for you. Design school student: vipic@ yahoo.com. WEBSITE DESIGN Stylish and functional web sites. See www.oliversmithdesign.com for examples. Email studio@oliversmithdesign.com or call 06 1993 2780 for more info.
LUCKIES LEASHOver10 years experience, safe and dependable. Inexpensive alternative to doggie daycare. Call us at 06 3624 7872. FRED'S PET CARE You need someone to take care of your pets? Friendly dogwalker with references. Available from 7.00-20.00. Reasonable rates. Just call Fred: 06 49947980. BEST MOVING SERVICE IN TOWN Driver with van (10m3) or truck (40m3) available. Plus extra moving men, hoisting rope and elevator. Any combinations possible. Call Taco on 06 4486 4390, email info@vrachttaxi.com or check out www.vrachttaxi.com. ENGLISH MAN WITH VAN can help with removals big or small, in or outside of country. Reasonable rates, quick service. Contact Lee on 06 2388 2184 or isabelleandlee@planet.nl.
HOME IMPROVEMENT HOUSEKEEPERReliable housekeeping worker (cleaning and ironing) on request. Tel 06 2443 5672. PAINTERS You buy the paint. We bring the brushes. Professional American couple, guaranteed work, references. Call Warren at 06 20657561 for free estimate.
NEED A STUNNING WEBSITE? Experienced web designer builds professional, unique sites for very reasonable prices. Online links to past projects available. Contact Jordan: jordangcz@ yahoo.com, 06 3034 1238.
COURSES
CLEANING AND IRONING I will happily clean your apt regularly or one-off. I am mid-20’s, very energetic, have an eye for detail. I can do ironing as well. €10/hr. Email isabela07@hotmail.com. Tel 06 4286 6533. NEED A CARPENTER? For all your ‘klusjes’ like painting, plumbing, electricity, carpentry and much more, call 061640 8386 or email klus-bus@hotmail.com. PAINTER + HANDYMANI’m available to paint inside and outside + lend a helping handy hand. Reasonable rates. Lots of practical and professional experience. Good references avail-
able. Call now! Daco: 06 4275 6045.
HEALTH & FITNESS DOCTOR SERVICE Cambridge Medical offers doctor service for expats and tourists in A’dam area. Dr E Cambridge, huisarts, GP offers high quality consultations, home visits and emergency prescriptions. Contact 06 2723 5380 / 427 5011 or doctor@planet.nl. THINKING ABOUT THERAPY? Heighten your quality of life and improve your relationships with the help of native English-speaking therapist. My 20 years of professional experience & understanding can help you
better cope with feelings and sort through stessful thoughts. Sagar: 06 4626 5412. COACHING/THERAPY Experienced coach and therapist; transformation of destructive patterns of thinking, feeling, behavior and physical well being, practice for integrative pscyhotherapy; bilingual; www.corakoorn-praktijk.nl, 06 1488 1350. TENNIS PLAYER SOUGHTBeginning (but fanatical) tennis player (m, 26 y.o.) looking for tennis playing mate, m/f. We could play for instance in Oosterpark or Westerpark. Hope to hear from you! kcar2007@hotmail.com.
COMPUTERS PC HOUSE DOCTOR 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. Contact 06 1644 8230.
LEADERSHIP TRAININGWe provide trainings on leadership, communications, sales management and customer service at very affordable fees. Do you want to maintain your competitive professional advantage in the job marketplace? Register for our courses at www.totalmanpower.com.
SAD MAC? Big Mike’s Big Big Mac Repair Service! Any Mac. Any time. Cheap. Satisfaction guaranteed. mediummike@ gmail.com or 06 2143 2623.
TANTRA WORKSHOP Be fully alive! You’re invited to join us for an experience that will change your relationship to sex and spirit forever! Introduction to Tantra workshop for singles and couples. 7-8 Oct in A’dam. www.chandrabindu.org. 320 9585.
NEED HELP WITH YOUR MAC? Mac lover helps you with basic setups, minor trouble shooting, install, networking, basic MAC
FITNESS & QIGONGFeel better, stronger, more grounded. Small groups with personal attention in Jordaan & De Baarsjes. Easy
English for all nationalities. Gentle workouts (safe, low impact, no pain), playful, good atmosphere, meet nice people. Start mid Sept. www.sylfit.com & www.chi-kung-training.com, 770 1063. INTRO IYENGAR YOGA11 Sept, 18-19.30. Contact 668 4239. Iyengar Yoga Java Eiland. Learn HOW to do the poses. Concentrated approach to maximum health. Other classes: www.yogaber.nl. Classes English/Dutch. All levels/ages. Convenient public transportation. €7 trial class. YOGA FOR ALL LEVELS Transformative hatha yoga for all levels in A’dam Oud-West Mon morning & Tues evening. Combination of yoga postures, awareness of chakras, meditation & relaxation. Mon morning special class for healthy menstrual cycle (PMS, menstrual cramps, uterine-related complaints). info@officeoasis.nl. SINGING LESSONS for your needs and level. Call 612 7022 for a free consultation. Sing with a professional of more than 30 years. ULTIMATE WORKOUTNew courses starting in Sept. Pilates mat and equipment. Gyrokinesis. Yoga. Pre and postnatal and beyond. Private and group lessons. Body and mind balance. Contac us at 320 3338. www.studioannamora.com. BELLY DANCE Starting 16 Sept, with professional Arabic teacher. Moving to different oriental rhythms, shaping body lines and opening up different energy points. Small group of people, in A’dam center. To register, please call 06 4274 6470. FREESTYLE BARTENDINGLearn big bartending tricks, cocktail shaking, bottle and tin skills. 8 years experience. €35 for first lesson, €95 for 3 lessons. Mar-
Amsterdam Weekly
31 August-6 September 2006 ty: 06 2857 5350. €5 YOGANo religion, just relaxing. www.yogajason.com. SUMMER YOGA Yogayoga.nl offers Hatha, Iyengar and Vinyasa Flow classes. Daily, in English, in A’dam close to the Jordaan. We are open all summer! Visit www.yogayoga.nl or call 688 3418. GUITAR LESSONSPersonalized classes with a flexible schedule for beginners or advanced students at an affordable price. Master several techniques, read scores, learn songs. Contact Camilo: 06 1457 8908/calopi@hotmail.com.
LANGUAGES PORTUGUESE/GERMAN Bilingual native speaker with experience offers German/Portuguese lessons for €15/hr. shangri-ky@web.de. SPANISH FOR DUTCH Are you Dutch and learning Spanish? Do you need to practice conversation? I desperately need to practice my Dutch. Maybe we can make an exchange, chatting 1 hr in Spanish and 1 hr in Dutch. If you are interested, email ramiro@re-type.com. LEARN GREEK NOW Art & language, pleasant way of learning, formal or casual, terminology or daily language. Literature, newspapers, music, art, etc. Groups of 3-4 persons. A’dam South, 611 4292, alexzoi@hotmail.com. 5 FRIDAYS UNIQUE DUTCH course. Easy to schedule. Start
27
29 Sept from 13.00-16.00 hr. €310. Enjoy quality in language courses. Jump into natural Dutch at AcquestDutch, 1 stop from Leidseplein. 624 9745 or school@acquestdutch.com.
tact si-si@37.com or 06 2189 5842. HERE'S YOUR LOVER As my lovely Italian date thinks I’m not her type, again I’m looking for a sympathetic, sensual, passionate mistress, about 30 y.o. to make life more exciting and to play naughty games. Italian (and others as well!) welcome to respond. Send email to Jens, 34 on jens020@excite.com.
SOCIAL TALK Learn Dutch in a fun way with Dutch lessons in the pub. www.rondjering.nl or contact Jacky Andrews: 670 3456 / 06 2690 4770. ARABIC LESSONSIndividual and small groups. Conversation and writing both in classical Arabic and in spoken dialect if preferred. Lesson content flexible to meet your needs. Communicative and dedicated teacher. Modest rates and flexible schedule. Please call Lina on 06 4274 6470. NEW DUTCH COURSESstarting 7 Sept for beginners and intermediate. Small groups! Lots of talking, young people, fun classes! Phone Petra at 06 2803 6014 or go to www.english-atwork.nl/dutchcourse. DUTCH LESSONSReal progress with Excellent Dutch: improve conversation, prof/study purposes, NT.II. One to one, €15/hr. Also intensive courses (15 hours in 2 weeks = €187,50) and online. Web: http://home.tiscali.nl/stylusphant/indexdutch.html. Tel 06 3612 2870 or email excellentdutch@hotmail.com. INDIV. DUTCH LESSONS Real progress with Excellent Dutch. Improve conversation, prof. purpose, NTII. Contact 06 3612 2870 or excellentdutch@hot-
mail.com. INTENSIVE DUTCH SUMMER COURSES Min 5 x 1.5 hrs/wk during 2 wks = 15 hrs = €187.50. Improve conversation, learn the language for prof purpose or studies, prepare for NT2. Contact excellentdutch@hotmail.com/06 3612 2870/ http://home.tiscali.nl/stylusphant/indexdutch.html. Private lessons: €15/hr in 2-4 wk blocks. IMPROVE YOUR DUTCH Link Taal Studio, private & small study groups, conversation, NT2, children, intensive courses, starting every week, Vijzelgracht 51-55, linktaalstudio@gmail.com, 06 4133 9323. LANGUAGE COACH Would speaking Dutch make you feel better? Call 625 3231 or go to www.talencoach.com.
MUSICIANS BASSIST WANTED Do you want to be a Van Basten? We are looking for another Van Basten
to play bass. We are all from the UK originally, play our own songs which are kind of Brit pop you could say. Contact thevanbastens@gmail.com.
EXCELLENT MASSAGEFor relaxation, injury recover, enhanced well-being. €50. Centre of A’dam. Call Henk and leave message: 625 1991.
LEARN TO DJExperienced international DJ offering one to one lessons on how to mix using vinyl, CDs or computer. Reasonable rates and a friendly, patient teacher. For more information call Oliver on 06 1993 2780 or email ojs@btinternet.com.
PROFESSIONAL MASSEURWellqualified. Private (at your home) service. Relaxing and therapeutic. Call for your massage: 06 3624 7872.
MASSAGE
MASSAGERelax your body. Suffering from general fatique or simply stressed out because of work? Here’s the solution: young qualified masseur gives you an all-over relaxing body massage, reflex therapy within the confines and comforts of your private home. Feel free to call me on my mobile: 06 4409 5004.
SOUL DANCING MASSAGEZipping jus d’ orange in the hammock and then have a relaxing 4 hands massage? Call us for an appointment: 774 5930/06 1678 8115 or check the website www.souldancing.nl. MASSAGE AND CHAKRAShealing for relaxation, harmony and good feeling.1 hour session for €50 either in my place or at yours. Call 06 2022 4973 and ask for Francisco.
MASSAGE Relaxing massage with warm oil by masseuse. Mon-Sat, 9/21 hrs. (No sex.) Call 06 3028 4226.
PERSONALS SEEKING SOUTH AFRICAN Blonde American gal seeking handsome, funny and intelli-
gent half-Portuguese South African to fall in love with. Perks include, but are not limited to: breakfast, metro, parks and y/our wildest dreams. Interested? Contact your_angel@ hottmail.
SEX IS NICE &HEALTHY. Hi, I am young boy, student, friendly, humourist and handsome. Like to give relaxing massage and sex. Just for fun and adventures. Be free to contact me at massage_enjoythelife@yahoo. com. (Free, for women only.)
ANNOUNCEMENTS
HELLOYoung black hot gay bottom guy here in A’dam looking for a sex date with real hot black/white guys. Hit back if you are there and are a hot top guy. Email booty020@yahoo.com.
MEET NEW PEOPLE Bored of going out with the same colleagues every weekend? Check www.meetin.org to meet international people in A'dam!
TIRED OF MACHOS? Then why don’t you discover the joy of being served and adored by French submissive male (new in A’dam) who will obey you with a smile. If you are a princess or want to feel like one, rite to sweetsoumis@yahoo.fr.
PARTICIPANTS WANTED Suzy Arnold is conducting research on Dutch same-sex marriage and how Australia can follow the Dutch example. Interested participants should contact her at suzy.arnold@flinders.edu.au for further information..
MAN SEEKS LADY Man model, 1951, 70/168, in good condition, all works, from A’dam, looking for lady for real frindship and erotic relation, with mutual respect. Your age: 4360. Non-smoking and with sense of humor please. Con-
WOMENS DINING CLUB Over 40? Sick of spending evenings in with the TV but feel uncomfortable going out on your own? Want to go out to dinner, theatre or music event with other women? Why not get in touch with Kathryn at ksedman@
gmail.com and have some fun! BIC RUNGA IN CONCERTFor the first time the famous New Zealand singer Bic Runga will be playing in concert in A’dam at the Melkweg (Max Hall) on Saturday the 23 Sept. OLD WIGSand LP records wanted for performance! Anything goes! mw@mandrawaback. com. WANTED WANTED WANTED iPod Nano iPod Nano iPod Nano. Do the right thing and offer me that thing! timo888@hotmail.com. SEWING MACHINEI am looking for secondhand sewing machine, simple and in good condition. Call 06 4347 6501. Thank you in advance. BOAT WANTED FOR DAY for 8 people to cruise the canals. Nothing fancy, though must have (1) steering wheel; (2) motor; (3) reverse gear. Please email donaghom@gmail.com with any offers. SAILINGAre you a sailing crew? Then I want to join you travelling around. Please contact me at lazpop4@hotmail.com. MODELS WANTED Looking for female models for art nude photography for art project. Only serious persons. Info: 06 2925 8692. VOTING ASSISTANCE U.S. citizen living abroad? Your voice can be heard at home. Register to vote at www.VoteFromAbroad.org. Local assistance at www. democratsabroad.nl.