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Dutch Biking – Survival Guide For Beginners
I was editor and co-writer of a bike book published by the esteemed SNOR and designed by Studio Boot. Specially formulated as a crash course in surviving Dutch bike traffic, it features ‘Top 10 Rules!’, DOs & DON’Ts!’, ‘How to swear back at locals!’ and all the cultural weirdness around these most democratic of iron beasts. Become a neder-cyclist today!
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25 times Medical Data + Pizza: how carbs are transforming healthcare
“Covering 5 years, the Medical Data + Pizza event series has followed a compelling timeline, encompassing the period when AI came of age, and became sexy. We spoke with AI professor and co-founder Mark Hoogendoorn about the challenging task of bringing AI to the bedside – in Amsterdam and across Europe – and about the power of pizza to get things moving.”
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ABC Holland
My first ABC book! It covers 26-plus things that visitors find delightfully eccentric about the Netherlands – such as bitter balls, wooden shoes, drugs, herring and Hazes.
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Obscure weekend guide to Amsterdam
I visit a nun. I visit a parrot. I cruise through primordial soup. I get all esoteric. I play a pianola. I indulge in a bit of bio-hacking.
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Dutch design: Mucus in the air
I wrote a piece for the ‘City Hotels’ exhibition at Amsterdam’s architecture centre Arcam. It was about Andaz Amsterdam from Dutch design icon Marcel Wanders. I also managed to slip in references to being a doorman, eel-pulling, lion shit and being snotty about fringes…
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CODE’s ‘edit and reconstruct’ issue
I was managing editor for the spring/summer issue of CODE magazine. I also wrote a travel feature about grey – but mighty and magical – Kaliningrad. I also had the honour of interviewing Magnum Force of Street Style (and cover boy) Nick Wooster and the Dutch artist/designer Joep van Lieshout.
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‘Black Peter’ may or may not be racism… But St. Nick is definitely Satan
I am glad the debate has evolved and there is now more of a rainbow of Petes. But I still think everyone can agree that St. Nick is just like Santa: Satan.
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The Hole Report (or at least part of it)
‘Is a hole a container?’, ‘How do we talk about something that does not exist?’ and ‘If you buy a donut, are you also buying the hole?’
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CODE’s ‘Survival Kit’
CODE magazine’s ‘Survival Kit’ issue has features on the survival tactics of sideshow circus freaks, new agers, off-grid pioneers, emerging tech gurus, urban warfare clothing designers and the brave and delightfully eccentric characters who fish off the decaying piers of Brooklyn.
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There’s an eel riot goin’ down
People can say I’m full of brown trout, but I believe the mighty and mysterious eel should become Amsterdam’s official spirit animal. My rationale begins with the popular 19th-century sport called ‘palingtrekken’ [‘eel pulling’].
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De Jeugd van Tegenwoordig on their favorite Amsterdam songs
I interviewed the Dutch-language gibberish-hop collective for The Guardian on their favorite Amsterdam music. André! Johnny! Manke! Van Halen! Themselves! … And all compiled on Mixcloud!
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Stoned Tourists: R.I.P.? A YouTube tribute…
Weed may not be legal, but it’s ‘tolerated’. This is why the Dutch national government has been regularly re-introducing the debate about how to deal with this situation—and all those silly, stoned tourists…
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At the movies: Amsterdam chase scenes
Why are so many Hollywood films filming chase scenes in Amsterdam’s canals? Because it actually fits into a long filmic tradition that began with Hitchcock…
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Talkin’ Craft
A Q&A with Crafting Temptress and Country Cleave Queen Katie Holder about her Cosy Craft Corner. The evening is a fun and honest way of exchanging needles – and talkin’ crap!
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Ed van der Elsken: Hunting in Amsterdam
Photographer/film-maker Ed van der Elsken (1925-1990) used Amsterdam as his ‘hunting ground’. And what he shot on the streets of Amsterdam back in his day, is very different from what can be shot today: it was more chaotic, and definitely less UNESCO-acclaimed…
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The words and insights of the redeemer Johan Cruiff
Johan Cruijff was not only the Netherlands’ most acclaimed footballer but also a philosopher king with a gift for freestyle language – his initials are JC for a reason. As he said, ‘If I wanted you to understand it, I would have explained it better.’
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Feeling Amsterpeckish… Fine gnome-like dining in an orange mushroom
A large orange mushroom has popped up on Mercatorplein. It’s Cafe Zurich and it’s meant to bring more glam to the gentrifying De Baarsjes neighbourhood. Many locals already call it ‘Cafe Plop’, a reference to a deeply odd children’s TV show…
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Poster mag Unfold Amsterdam hits the streets
Unfold Amsterdam has officially hit the streets. Every two weeks, Amsterdammers will be able to pick up this free English-language poster/mag highlighting the work of local artists/designers and covering the best of what’s going down around town.
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Baantjer: Amsterdam as chill murder capital
BEST. COPSHOW. EVER. Baantjer is set in a gloriously scenic Amsterdam where it rarely rains and its inhabitants – a rich interactive tapestry of cops, penose, squatpunks, Suri-Vlaamse hipsters, Yugo mafia types, e-clubbers, admen, real estate speculators, prostitutes and fishmongers – all run the risk of being murdered at any moment.
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Some thoughts on orange
Despite advertising’s Golden Rule, ‘Never Use Orange’, everything currently being sold in the Netherlands is now orange, from condoms to contact lenses…
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Squatting declared illegal in the Netherlands
It seems like a good time to republish my Amsterdam squatting timeline: from ±1000 AD to the present… It starts with homo squatus and peaks with absurdist activists.
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Confessions of a Canadian Liberator
I started to bring my Canadian passport with me on Liberation Days in the hopes of scamming free beer for the sacrifices my country had made. It was a mixed success…
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Conducting an Interview
For me, the image of a conductor was formed by my 200-kilogram school band teacher who would throw chunks of rum cake at the head of whoever hit a bad note. She was very scary. Otto Tausk was different.
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A ‘real’ Van Gogh highlights a fake Vermeer
The story of art forger Hans van Meergeren has flummoxed Hollywood for decades. How do you make the ultimate biopic? Yes, he scammed the Nazis. Unfortunately, he was still a dick.
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Creative anatomy with Dr Frederik Ruysch
Dr Frederik Ruysch (1638-1731) is regarded as one of the greatest anatomists and preservers of body parts of all time. However, his artistic compulsion also led him to construct moralistic panoramas of bone and tissue.
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City in Lights. Red Lights.
Visiting London’s National Gallery triggers memories of playing host to visitors wanting to visit Amsterdam’s Red Light District…
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25 years after the death of Jacques Brel
“While the French relate to my father intellectually… the Belgians feel him. Brel is somebody who ate mussels and fries and drank beer. He belongs to them, he’s one of them.”
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Ai ai ai Amsterdam
I Amsterdam is the established city slogan and logo. But are there better ones? Sure, the 1960s ‘Get in touch with the Dutch’ campaign was misguided. But surely…
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Howie Krishna says Amsterdam still rules!
The Supperclub’s host-with-the-most goes by many names, such as Howie Krishna, and The Safe Sex Pope. He also offers the best seasonal message possible: stop whining and ‘go to the light and be happy!’
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Are Archives Sexy and Dynamic?
Amsterdam’s new city archive on Vijzelstraat is one of the largest in the world and is now open for business. Can you feel the excitement? Well, some folks can—especially when all the numbers and details transform into hardcore stories.
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A Jungle of Monkeys
Kunststad, the country’s largest broedplaats for the arts, is officially opened at NDSM-werf. It’s also meant to be a place where art and commerce can meet and cuddle. But will it ever evolve into something more than a torrid affair?
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Sawnic Revolution
An emerging musical saw scene is setting the city’s teeth on edge. We chat with two of them. ‘I do imagine Scandinavia when I play it—that it was invented by some lumberjacks who just got bored, drunk and stumbled across the sound.’
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Sitting Down with Cinema Savant Hans Beerekamp
The Netherlands’ best-known film critic weighs in on the responsibilities of the trade, the Dutch film mafia and the local film climate. ‘If you go to the Dutch film festival, you can really observe the behaviour of rats in a small, overcrowded cage with too little food…’
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Cocaine is Watching You
The documentary Dutch Cocaine Factory is a secret history in lines and layers captured on tape. ‘I call it pro-paranoia,’ says film-maker Jeanette Groenendaal over a cup of tea in her first-floor apartment, which offers an excellent view of the long history of cocaine in Amsterdam.
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Fifteen Years of Jokes and Beers
A couple of weeks ago we reached out to the Hells Angels for some advice about trademarks and brand-building. This week we’re reaching out to another club. An improv comedy club that’s celebrating its 15th anniversary…
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Live to be 100
‘Just feel good,’ says octogenarian poet, writer and inspired wild child Simon Vinkenoog when asked what the key is to living a long and healthy life. ‘Oh, and try breathing.’ We both inhale, then exhale. I feel better already.
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A Fellow Citizen in Space
Andre Kuipers is the first Amsterdammer in space. Will it pump some life back into the city’s sagging reputation as ‘magical centre of the universe’?
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AmsterSlang: What can we learn?
A book about the history of Amsterdam street talk can teach you plenty. For one, the locals are snobbish pragmatists with a big heart and a surreal soul.
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Hotel Lloyd: a beautiful chaos
A building that was once a claustrophobic hell-hole has been reinvented as a hotel and ‘cultural embassy’ brimming over with Dutch design.
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Amateurism, the fresh maker
Professional architects, landscape architects and urban designers go ‘amateur’. Can it save our city from being scrubbed to death? Two new experts take us to the streets to look for inspirational amateurism in our own backyard.
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Death of a FEBO Man
A FEBO visit puts an eerie edge on any late Friday night. Just witness the religious quieting of a loud, beer-fuelled crowd as they stand in line, ready to slot some change into a futuristic glowing wall and magically receive the crunchy sacrament of grease… And now, the man who made ‘pulling a diagonal’ an institution is dead.
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Talking Belly to Belly with Glutton and Van Dam.
In one corner: Johannes van Dam, Het Parool’s food critic, who puts fear into the hearts of the city’s restaurateurs. In the other corner: Amsterdam Weekly’s Undercover Glutton. We have brought them together to discuss their mutual passion for food. And indeed, it turned out that they have much in common besides diabetes.
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Dré Is Dead
An obituary for volkszanger André Hazes, who died at age 53. The city shut down. And the ArenA stadium filled with 50,000 Amsterdammers…