Amsterdam

I know I haven't posted anything in ages. Sorry. I have a proper job now and more going on in my extracurricular activities as well. I just got back from a week in Amsterdam. It's pretty good over there, you've probably heard. I'm going to focus on the shopping angle now though. These are the sweet treats I scored.






Those are all designs by Parra; my favourite contemporary designer/illustrator/artist for quite a few years now. He happens to live in Amsterdam and these are all from the Patta skateshop that's right underneath his studio. I didn't meet him or anything although I did get a proper Dave Grohl recognition from one of the guys in the shop (where it's not a case of "you look like DG" it's more of a gaping "holy shit DG just walked into my shop!" - these are very rare and have been mostly limited to BDO drunks up till now).

Also I went to the RushHour records store, which is an Amsterdam based record label that has an imprint called Kindred Spirits, which was one of my favourites back in my wannabe DJ days. Not quite as exciting as you can buy their stuff in Conch in Ak anyway, but I haven't figured out where to go in London yet so was still pretty cool. Got a couple of nice CD's (would have bought vinyl but there's not much point while I'm living here. They have nice cover designs.

They don't really show up that well online, but they're nice well printed digipacks, and look quite nice sitting on top of the stereo.

There's a lot more to Amsterdam then this stuff. For example did you know that for every prostitute in Amsterdam there are 3 Argentinian Steakhouses? Neither did I before I went, but it's totally true. Also there's no such country as Holland - that's actually the name of a region of the country of the Neverlands. And "Dutch" isn't really the name of the language either - only English speakers call it that. I can't remember what it's actually called but I tend to take the line that English speaking countries are generally right about everything so I kind of switched of when that particular cheese-head was whining at me. Also if you like smoking dope apparently it's the place to be. As I don't I didn't. But I could tell how stoked the people who were into it were by the awesome t-shirts - "Take me to your DEALER"!!! Hilarious. Also it's a brilliant city for riding bikes in. Actually I'm being really useless because I was there for a whole week and there's heaps to say but I'm way to lazy to bother, so I'll just say that Amsterdam is totally sweet even if you aren't into hookers, gays, or drugz. If anyone wants to go again sometime I will totally come with you, I've even got the hookup for a really nice place to stay now.

I'm going to Japan on Saturday for a week. I'll write about that as well. Then I'm moving into a rad converted warehouse apartment right beside a canal at the arse-end of London's trendy Shoreditch (I think it may actually be Hackney). Everything's coming up Milhouse.

PS. On the subject of hookers; they actually look really lovely sitting in their little red windows, and it was particularly difficult not to stare at them as I walked past. The B&B I was staying in was next door to a brothel with three windows, and across the road from one with four. The girls on the other side of the road were a lot younger though, and yesterday I saw one of the girls leaving next door sans-redlight and she looked pretty hagged. Was kind of sad. I'm not so into paying for sex though, although I do always end up paying for it if you know what I mean for crying out loud ("if you know what I mean for crying out loud" - this is a great way to end a joke. We went on a bus tour and the guide taught me it). Anyway the moral of the story is that presentation is key.