* (bravely because the streets were full of drunken Dutch people with way too many fireworks on their hands, and very little expertise in how to handle them).
Friday, January 04, 2008
...and a happy New Year!
Happy New Year everyone - some photos of fireworks that Amber bravely went out and took just after midnight! *
* (bravely because the streets were full of drunken Dutch people with way too many fireworks on their hands, and very little expertise in how to handle them).
* (bravely because the streets were full of drunken Dutch people with way too many fireworks on their hands, and very little expertise in how to handle them).
Monday, December 24, 2007
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas from a cold (but not white) Amsterdam!
Christmas 2008 - Flickr slideshow
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Monday, November 12, 2007
Four days in Prague
Long time, no blog... so anyway, we've got Amber's Mum and brother staying with us at the moment, and last week we went down to Prague for four days. It wasn't as cold as we'd feared (/hoped), but still pretty gray and chilly - a beautiful city though, and very photogenic!
Monday, May 14, 2007
Time in Tallinn
So I (Chris) spent the last week in Tallinn, Estonia for the RIPE 54 conference, which is run by by organisation I work for (the RIPE NCC). The conference was held in the Sokos Hotel Viru, the most interesting aspect of which is that it was built in 1972 as lodging for international visitors, and was bugged throughout by the KGB. A few of us at the conference got to go up to the 22nd floor, where the KGB had their control room, which remains pretty much as they left it, 70s audio gear and all (there's some photos in the slideshow below).
The city itself is not very big (I would say around the size of Adelaide, but I'm not certain), and has a beautiful medieval center, which was very close to the hotel. Most of my free time (and many of the social events) was spent in the center, basically wandering around and taking photos. I also stumbled onto the Museum of Estonian Architecture, which houses around 50 architectural models, including one of the whole city.
On the final evening, I and a few colleagues went to Balthasar, a garlic restaurant just off the Tallinn Town Hall Square - garlic everything, including garlic ice-cream and garlic crème brûlée! As we finished there was a free concert happening in the main square - I didn't catch the name of the band, but it was very heavy metal with a Slavic, medieval sort of bent (they even had a bagpipe player!). Despite the roaring vocals and distortion, it seemed to have attracted a mixed crowd, with parents dancing with 5-10 year olds alongside made-up emo kids. All slightly strange...
The city itself is not very big (I would say around the size of Adelaide, but I'm not certain), and has a beautiful medieval center, which was very close to the hotel. Most of my free time (and many of the social events) was spent in the center, basically wandering around and taking photos. I also stumbled onto the Museum of Estonian Architecture, which houses around 50 architectural models, including one of the whole city.
On the final evening, I and a few colleagues went to Balthasar, a garlic restaurant just off the Tallinn Town Hall Square - garlic everything, including garlic ice-cream and garlic crème brûlée! As we finished there was a free concert happening in the main square - I didn't catch the name of the band, but it was very heavy metal with a Slavic, medieval sort of bent (they even had a bagpipe player!). Despite the roaring vocals and distortion, it seemed to have attracted a mixed crowd, with parents dancing with 5-10 year olds alongside made-up emo kids. All slightly strange...
Tallinn - Flickr slideshow
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
Queen's Day - A Sea of Orange!
The Queen's birthday in Holland is a very different affair to our Aussie Queen's birthday - rather than simply relax and enjoy a day off from work, the Dutch go a little crazy, dress up in orange and pile into the streets! For Brisbane folks, think the Boundary St Festival or Spring Hill Fair, but expanded to cover a whole city. The trams don't run, the streets are closed, and there are DJs, bands and buskers on every footpath, as well as countless market stalls (it's the one day of the year when anyone can sell anything, so it's like a giant jumble sale - even kids set up shop to sell their old toys!).
Highlights of the day included paying a euro for 30 seconds of applause (you pay your euro, step behind a screen, the organisers round up about 20 passers by, and then when you step out from behind the screen, the passers by cheer like crazy - a great ego boost, even if you know it's all a bit fake!), and a busker who we paid to play a Rage Against The Machine song, just because it seemed so improbable sitting there on his repertoire list - a valiant, but in the end very funny, attempt!
My aim for next year is to get on one of the hundreds of boats that ply the canals, many fully equipped with DJs and bars!
Highlights of the day included paying a euro for 30 seconds of applause (you pay your euro, step behind a screen, the organisers round up about 20 passers by, and then when you step out from behind the screen, the passers by cheer like crazy - a great ego boost, even if you know it's all a bit fake!), and a busker who we paid to play a Rage Against The Machine song, just because it seemed so improbable sitting there on his repertoire list - a valiant, but in the end very funny, attempt!
My aim for next year is to get on one of the hundreds of boats that ply the canals, many fully equipped with DJs and bars!
Queen's Day 2007 - Flickr slideshow
Monday, April 30, 2007
A bit of an update...
So it's been a fair while since Amber or I updated this blog thing, so for the few of you out there who've been breathlessly awaiting an update, here goes... starting with last weekend.
<-- Chris @ Club 8, as taken on Amber's shiny new mobile, with its 3 megapixel camera!
Keukenhof
The week before last we had Carmella, a friend from Australia, staying with us, a visit which happened to coincide with the 8 week opening-period of Keukenhof, a massive tulip garden located around an hour south of Amsterdam. So on the Saturday, we set off on the train, heading down to Leiden before getting a bus to the park itself. The weather couldn't have been better - fine and warm (but not too hot) - and the range of tulips (and other flowers) on display is breathtaking, both in the park itself, and in the fields surrounding it. The scale of the place is the most amazing aspect, and photos don't really capture that, but there's a pretty extensive range of photos below in any case!
Keukenhof - Flickr slideshow
Vitreous live @ Club 8
The other big event of the week was my return to live music, playing a laptop set of original music at Club 8 in the west of Amsterdam. The occasion was a charity event organised by Pedro, a colleague of mine, and featured a strikingly diverse line-up (my very tech-flavored set was preceded by Goesting, a Dutch band playing original folk music, Y-Bond, a group of Conservatoire students doing an intriguing set of covers, and Vleppie Auwurs, whose sequined outfits and translated standards, including 'I Will Survive', really defy any further description). The beautiful weather outside didn't help with crowd numbers, but all in all, a good show (I even had my Dutch teacher up and dancing!).
We're sitting here this afternoon listening to them soundcheck across the road in Westermarkt for Queen's Day celebrations, which kick off in about an hour - more photos (and maybe even a video) of that next time!
<-- Chris @ Club 8, as taken on Amber's shiny new mobile, with its 3 megapixel camera!
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Tulips
We are in Amsterdam - what do you expect?! A little slideshow of a fresh bunch of tulips that we picked up at the markets on Saturday.
Tulips - Flickr slideshow
Some musical moments...
We've finally begun to take advantage of the music that Amsterdam has to offer, starting last weekend with a solo show by Gomez singer Ben Ottewell at Paradiso. If you're not familiar with Ottewell or his work with Gomez, just think of the growliest, gravelliest (is that a word?) blues singer you can imagine and then picture it coming out of a twenty-something white boy from England. The show, which was in the small room at Paradiso with an audience of a couple of hundred, was just Ben and an acoustic guitar, so it was even more of a showcase for that voice than usual, and the sound was simply awe-inspiring!
Thankfully this series of shows wasn't in aid of some new solo project, so we were treated to a mixture of covers (Nick Drake, Tongue, Jackson Brown) and re-worked Gomez songs, which was exactly what the audience was clamoring for. In their new format, the most striking thing about the Gomez songs was how simple they are when stripped of the multiple harmonies and complex rhythms of the full-band versions. Ottewell's delivery didn't leave any time for missing those other elements though. Having seen Gomez several times in concert, I'd almost begun to be a little bored by their shows (as fun and interesting as they are live, they seem unable to escape their first two albums) - seeing those songs presented in a different format was just what I neeeded to renew my love for the band and their music!
The other notable musical moment is the release of the new album by The Shins, Wincing The Night Away. Get it! The Shins have exploded internationally since their last album, Chutes Too Narrow, so this follow-up has been fervently awaited, and on the basis of a few listens, it's at least on par with their past work!
And finally, My Ninja Lover played the Big Day Out on the Gold Coast this past weekend, so thanks to anyone reading this who was there supporting them - I'm very jealous!
Thankfully this series of shows wasn't in aid of some new solo project, so we were treated to a mixture of covers (Nick Drake, Tongue, Jackson Brown) and re-worked Gomez songs, which was exactly what the audience was clamoring for. In their new format, the most striking thing about the Gomez songs was how simple they are when stripped of the multiple harmonies and complex rhythms of the full-band versions. Ottewell's delivery didn't leave any time for missing those other elements though. Having seen Gomez several times in concert, I'd almost begun to be a little bored by their shows (as fun and interesting as they are live, they seem unable to escape their first two albums) - seeing those songs presented in a different format was just what I neeeded to renew my love for the band and their music!
The other notable musical moment is the release of the new album by The Shins, Wincing The Night Away. Get it! The Shins have exploded internationally since their last album, Chutes Too Narrow, so this follow-up has been fervently awaited, and on the basis of a few listens, it's at least on par with their past work!
And finally, My Ninja Lover played the Big Day Out on the Gold Coast this past weekend, so thanks to anyone reading this who was there supporting them - I'm very jealous!
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