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Arte farte Sunday, 02 May 11:33 pm
I had just finished cleaning my NES inside out (out of boredom, restlessness and necessity, lots of birds with one stone) when I turned on the tv to see that they were talking about video games in RAM. RAM is our program for pretentious art.

I'm one of those nerds that is sort of waiting for this recognition, but thus far whenever I've heard anyone talk about games in an artsy context I cringe. It's not just that it's always women that have to preach. It's this little voice in my head that says 'this bitch wouldn't know the difference between a green and a red mushroom'.

Tonights RAM had two of these, the (in my opinion) worst one apparently being a professor at the University of Utrecht, teaching (amongst other things?) videogame history (perhaps breun can elaborate?). She's aiming for a Ph-fucking-dee on the subject. The other lady was more representing the art side. Anyway, the general idea of both seemed to be that videogames had tremendous potential, but thus far, suck.
Something I can partly agree with, but it is rather easy to ignore the tremendous progress of this new medium in the past 30 years. The ladies mentioned that the trend seems to be nothing more than just increase (graphical) realism. This shows right away when you compare the graphics of games over the years. Don't need a Ph.d for that. But what about the realism under the skin? How do you pack the world into a view on a tv screen controlled with a few buttons and a joystick? How do you make it a fun and rewarding experience? How do you make it a credible reality? These things need to be in order before any graphics can do their work, and it is here especially where videogames are unique. I know that 95% of mainstream games (as they would sneeringly call the millions of first person war simulations) have only the tiniest amount, if any, inovation in them, and mostly just jack up the graphics. But we really didn't go from wolfenstein to counterstrike just because hardware is becoming more and more powerful, and that is why games like goldeneye deserve everybody's respect.

If I understand the ladies view correctly, goldeneye would be just another one of those yawn affairs. Lone good guy against evil yada yada yada. The only news it brought was better graphics. It's nothing but a money making mainstream game and is not progressive in any way. This may seem true on the surface, but anyone who's played the game, and played the games that came before and the ones that came after, know that this game was a turning point in history. This game is a school example of innovation in interactivity and immersion. And it's not the only one of corse. While the majority of games repeat what has been done before, there wouldn't have been any progress without a huge amount of inovative games.

No, those shitty games amateurs put on the internet that are about bush and osama, that's art, because it has a message. Well, if it is that easy, let me be an artist for five seconds. Here's my message: No one will remember those games in two years. These games didn't bring shit to the world and haven't influenced anyone. Whooh. I should apply for other peoples tax money now, what with me inspiring people to think and all.

The true story is, that you can not touch a first person shooter without seeing what goldeneye has done for it. And that is where the art lies. Sure, you can see a videogame as a combination of story, drama, and audiovisual arts, and there are improvements to be made here. However, stating that you think people that are involved in theater should be more involved in game development might sound nice, but it doesn't automatically bring a progressive game. In fact, all you seem to do is taking the focus away from what really matters. It could make a good game even better, but you are shooting the same dead bird as you would be when you are only just continuously pushing the graphics. The result would probably be some shameful release that fake intellectuals might discus once over a good glass of whine and then disappears into oblivion.

Stating that you think more progressive games will come out once there are no graphical boundaries to push anymore is a blatant insult to the many games that are either totally unique, or have managed to push their own genre forward. Videogames are young, that's why at least every other year something comes out that is unlike anything that came before it. Cliche story or not, totally besides the point!

Maybe it's just too impossible to explain the general VPRO public just why videogames are the shit of the century. Maybe these women do spend every waking hour playing videogames. To me it seemed like the only experience they had was watching their boyfriends play from over their shoulder.

Perhaps I would rather stay in my own little nerdy niche, now that I've seen what worldwide recognition can bring.

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Supah Drupah Sunday, 09 May 10:04 am



Another trade fair report! I'm at another big international fair: DRUPA, targeted at the profesional printing market this time. As if that wasn't enough, we even have our own song! This is what those crazy germans came up with to boost the morale for all the companies that have a stand out here: der Supah Drupah song.mp3.
They play it every morning right before the visitors come in. I suggest you give it a listen. It's a wonderful song about how lucky we are to have our stand here and how everybody is going to think we rock!

People always ask me what the hell I'm doing all day on these mysterious german fairs, so I figured I might as well type it out once and have it over with. (Did that song finish downloading yet?) I'll give you a short explanation. Comon misconception is that I am here trying to sell my companies' stuff. I don't deal with customers, which is probably better because I don't know jack about all these big printers and technologies they are trying to sell down there. All we really do is get stuff done here. If someone's computer is malfunctioning we make sure it is replaced. If someone breakes the stairs we get it fixed. Mostly we're just the central point of contact between those who work on the stand, and those who work behind the scenes (architect, construction folks, network people, the lot). If all goes well, we hardly have anything to do. But usually there's the odd thing that goes wrong each day, and we spend a lot of time running around, carrying boxes, ordering stuff, solving problems, look for people, and all sorts of unexpected rescue work. Then there's the boring stuff like handing out name badges to any one, lending out mobile phones.

We have a little office above the stand (sometimes quite hot, usually pulsating a bit) Not nearly as bad as it can be on this particular fair) and people come in there all the time with their questions. At least one of us has to just sit there at all times (ideally).

What's the fun part? You spend the entire day helping people out. Our stands usually look great and at times it can feel really wonderful to see the hard work that lead up to these things rewarded. In an office, you work for that huge anonymous company, but here it feels as if we run a small temporary business with a few people. We sweat like the small enterpreneur but we are also free to get things done on the spot and see the results right away. You get to meet a lot of people you've been dealing with that come from all over europe. You get to see how much they can drink at night without it showing during the day. You get to show off your talents in this respect as well.

What's the not so fun part? The atmosphere mostly. And with that I don't mean the people, I mean the air. The air is terribly dry, and even if you would sit in my office the whole day and not do a thing, you'll be tired when you get home. You're eyes itch and your nose gets full of dry boogers. Then the constand buzz of the crowds below sometimes makes it difficult to think straight. The month before the circus starts things tend to get quite stressy, and most of what I do is pretty boring. The fairs themselves aren't always that interesting either. There's always a stand or two that's interesting (Some companies here actually brought out their entire newspaper printing assembly line thing. Cool to see in real life. They're about as big as a house). You're deadbeat every night, and you usually have the choice between:

A) Dinner at the Hotel with two or three people (a bit depressing)

B) Roomservice at the TV (very depressing) and

C) Going to a great restaurant with a group of 20, and getting home more drunk than you planned. This is usually the only real fun you have during the day (since 10 to 12 hour shifts are not uncommon, and weekends do not exist in this dimension), but even a youngster like me can't do this every night*.

Face it, you do not want to have a hangover when the Supah Drupah song is being played! The overall hilariousness of these itty bitty nuiscances usually make the whole deal even more fun though.

I remember at CeBIT it took me only a day or two before I really loathed my environment. The notion that I had to stay there for two weeks and work about ten hours a day didn't help much. This fair has been relatively relaxing actually, and what with Lissette being away I might as well be here instead of eating shobby meals by myself in the castle.

I look forward to going home tomorow though. I want my own bed again.



*Brittish people can

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Bijna! Sunday, 09 May 3:57 pm






Maybe it's not as hopeless as it seems...
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back in the land of cows and sheep... Sunday, 16 May 12:25 am
i just got back yesterday from a 2 week trip back home. i always felt like time was of the essence and that i had to make the most of every minute i was there. most people i only saw once or twice but it was still enough to satisfy that longing i had for some good california hometown fun.
needless to say i missed my family a lot and was really happy to get to spend time with my mom and youngest brother dylan. i have this new found appreciation for the city of los angeles that i really didnt have before. i always just took the place for granted. i lived there all my life ( well except for the 5 years as a kid we lived in montclair) and just thought life was that easily fun everywhere.
on this trip i just tried my best to spend a little time with the people that are important to me, and i think i did a pretty good job of it.
so since i didnt log once the whole time i was there i think the best way to approach this is to do a day by day brief description of what went on with pictures.

although this will all be at the end of the picture sequence so maybe it makes no sense to write it this way. ah well.

see you all soon.

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Norms, Haircut, Shopping& Dancing Sunday, 16 May 01:44 am

started the day having breakfast with mom, dylan and shem at norms. it was so great to see my mommy. mysteriously there arent any pics of her this day cos she didnt like the way any of them came out.



andrea is a good friend of my mom's that i really like a lot. she's a hairdresser and cut and dyed my hair that afternoon. in the midst of all that we had a sushi lunch together. afterward she, my mom and i had a good time shopping at northridge mall. it's really nice being in a place where the shops don't all close at six.
i cut it close but got home in time to get dressed and head out the door when jolene arrived to pick me up. we were on our way to club 90's to meet up with some friends.
we first ran into danny in line. it was nice to see him altho i had stopped by his house after i arrived from the airport the night before. then when we were inside steve ran up behind me and gave me a big hug. it felt really good to see all their faces again.


me & steve



me & jolene

me & danny (see my cool haircut )



danny, brandon and terri having a good time.
this was the first time i met brandon and terri but we had so much fun with 'em.


::gasp:: is that steve having fun?

this night was actually tons o' fun. everyone was lighthearted and happy to be together.
afterward jolene and i went to have a donut and coffee at 3am and talked for an hour. just like the good ol' days.
that was the end of my first full day back in l.a. but i wasnt ready to slow down yet.

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Mexican Brunch, The Zoo, More Shopping, Going to Coachella Sunday, 16 May 02:14 am
my mom dylan and i were up pretty early friday morning since my mom took the day off work. it was dylan's last vacation day so we wanted to do something all together and decided on the zoo. but not before i got the mexican meal i was yearning for. so first we had brunch at a small mexican place then we were off to the l.a. zoo.


my mommy, dylan and i with the flamingos



i couldnt help but have the three's company theme song in my head when we rode the tram
at the zoo.



we saw lions and tigers but no bears



one of my favorite animals



another one of my favorite animals


after our zoo visit we did some shopping i needed done before i headed off for coachella that weekend. just in case you don't know coachella is a festival that takes place in indio every year and had what i thought was an amazing line up this year. i was so ecstatic that i got to be there for it.

danny didn't pick me up till 10pm that evening. i was so dead tired. i hadn't really had much rest since i had got into town. we picked steve up first then jen and after a quick bite to eat and a stop at a walgreens we were on our way. we got caught in traffic and it ended up being a really long ride. by the way i had danny's birthday cake on my lap the whole ride and kept sticking my fingers and elbows in it. we got pulled over when we got to indio cos danny didnt know where he was going and was driving a little funny. the cop just pointed us in the right direction and let us go. we ended up checking in at around 3:30 am.


danny and i checking in while steve and jen hide in the car


still no time for rest. had to be up early to do groceries before we head over to the festival grounds. i was ready by 7:30. we eventually got danny up and he took us to the store. then we had gigantic sandwiches which were supposed to hold us over for the day. (most of us were living on a tight budget). then we were off to start our great coachella adventure.

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The Great Coachella Adventure part I Sunday, 16 May 03:00 am
being at coachella with jen, danny and steve was so awesome. i didnt think that i was gonna be able to make it this year, yet it all happened so suddenly. i ran into quite a few people i knew throughout the weekend. we eventually found jolene at the very end of the day on saturday. and i was really excited cos i'd finally get to see shawn the next day. so the line up for saturday started with jen and i watching:


errase erratta (*i may have spelled that wrong cos i always do)


that tent felt like a sauna. oh i have failed to mention how incredibly warm it was the entire time was back home. i really relished it tho, nice change of pace from holland. but anyway, errase erratta put on a great show and i enjoyed them very much, altho the lead singer forgot her horn.

after their set we found danny and steve who were sitting with the great justin riner. i have a picture of him but cant figure out how to unlock it so i cant post it. but justin's gotta know how much i love him.
after our brief meeting with justin we watched a little bit of kinky and then headed over to get a spot for q and not u whom i like a lot.


look its me feelin' happy at coachella


after q and not u beck played and after beck i just wandered a bit. during sparta we went and grabbed a decent spot for the pixies.
now lemme start off by saying that i am in awe of the fact that i ever got to see this band perfrom. i never in a million years woulda thought it possible. but i did and it was hands down one of the greatest festival/concert experiences i have ever had. the band was great, the crowd was great the whole thing was just effin great. i had goose bumps the first half hour they played and thinking about it now makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. lame-o danny wasn't there cos he's the only person i know who loves music and doesnt like the pixies.

one of the best moments of my life



jen and i during the pixies...yay


after the pixes was radiohead. it ended up just being steve and i standing together by that point. jen wanted to go see mindless self indulgence and danny had seperated from the group a few hours ago since he wasnt interested in seeing the pixies. we were both pretty tired and i had to pee really badly. so towards the end of their set we headed outta the crowd and steve waited for me while i used a porta-potty (ew). i noticed that thom's voice wasn't up to par and i later found out he was sick, so it made sense. i think it was cool that he still went through with it cos radiohead were the reason a lot of people were there that day.


steve and i during radiohead, tired as heck


by the time radiohead was over steve and i found jen and danny. i ended up hanging back with jen while steve and danny headed over to kraftwerk. jen wasn't feeling so good so we went and got a seat on a bench near the tent where dizzy rascal was playing cos i was very interested in that. we went back to our meeting spot afterwhile and finally ran into jolene and her friends wendy and alma. they walked away to get some food and our friend william walked up. we talked for a bit and he and his friends went to go hit the sleep sack in their tents.
at the end of the day it took forever to get outta the parking lot. i was really frustrated and decided to walk back to the motel to let off some steam. it was about a 3 mile walk by myself at 2-3am. i dont know how smart it was but i did it and was really almost there when danny pulled up and i got in the car. when we got back to the room i was still in a bad mood and danny and i got into a stupid argument that was pointless. i refused to share a bed with his dirty butt tho cos he refused to take a shower after the long, sweaty day we had.
jolene and her friends didnt end up getting to the room till almost 5am cos of the ridiculous parking lot traffic.
so again went to bed late had to get up early knowing i had a long hot day ahead of me. i decided to start the day off with an apology to danny just to get the tension outta the way cos it was unneccessary.

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The Great Coachella Adventure part II Sunday, 16 May 03:59 am
so this day went a little smoother. we already had our food. we did have to pack but that was not a biggie. so we all got up, got ready, ate gigantor sandwiches again and headed off leaving alma, wendy and jolene in the motel room since they were headed back to the valley that day.
the traffic into coachella went much smoother. and to top it all off this was the day i was gonna get to see the cure. it would be the first time in 7 years (they are my first favorite band not counting new kids on the block) . and all day i couldnt help but randomly say..im gonna see the cure, in a sing songy voice. they were the headliners that night and i was anticipating it so much.

when we got to the grounds danny and i almost immediatley seperated from steve and jen. we were gonna meet up with them when shawn got there. danny and i went to see pretty girls make graves. it was a fun show but it seemed like all the youngsters were there. it made me feel a little old. afterward danny and i watched a bit of !!! . then we went and lined up for the belle and sebastian meet and greet. this was probably the thing i was looking most forward during the first part of the day.

i finally saw shawn! he was the last of this close group of friends i had to see and i was just really looking forward to it. i love how he's always smiling.



yup..he really is always smiling, its kinda freaky



the great reunion: steve the curmudgeon, lissette the clutz, danny the giant, smiling shawn and jen the girl with a thousand facial expressions


that's all of us in that line to meet b&s. i didnt have anything for them to sign cos i wasnt aware there were doing this meet and greet thing and i have everything by them so i wasnt gonna buy something just to get it signed. i just went up and told them all i wanted to say hi and that i saw them in holland recently. they all said that 'that was a good show'. they were just really nice. stuart made the most small talk with me. it was weird. i ended being all shaky and nervous by the end of it cos i was afraid of sounding like an idiot.


that's stevie. aw



that's stuart. awwwwwwww.





and that, that's me and stuart. wow.


danny was so cool. he was behind me in the line so he asked if he could take a picture of stuart and me and he said sure. the virgin staff barked at us the whole time that we weren't allowed to do that, so i didnt expect to get a picture with anyone. it was a nice suprise.

after that we pretty much just went and got our spot for b&s. they played sucha lovely set. i enjoyed it completley. danny was with me just like the first time i got to see them (after being a fan for like 6 or 7 years) at coachella a few years ago. it was sucha special experience and im glad we got to do it again.


im so fond of that boy



me and the fellas


after b&s jen and left the guys and decided to get some water and hang back. air was playing next and i didnt wanna miss it, i was just tired of standing around in the crowd and thought air would be equally enjoyable from a distance. on the way to get some water we ran into these chicks...


that's claudia and honey


i always like running into claudia she's a sweetie and is so funny. honey is someone that i'd heard a lot about lately but hadn't had the chance to meet yet so it was nice running into them.

so jen and i got our water and took a back spot for air. it was a lovely set. i just laid there in the grass and relaxed and listened. not a bad way to 'see' air.
i got a little too comfortable and was kinda grumpy when it was time to crowd up for the flaming lips. but i knew if i wanted to see the cure from a good distance i needed to get into that crowd now. i started hyperventalting a bit during their set. but i must admit they get on stage to entertain. they started really late cos the singer insisted on going out and crowd surfing in the crow in a huge plastic bubble.


that's a man in a bubble



i really dug the scenery at the festival grounds, lots of palm trees and mountains


so the almighty cure was after the flaming lips. again it was just steve and i by the end of the day (being the only hardcore cure fans). they started off by playing a new song which was kinda weird. at first i was just happy to see roberts face and realize that was really the cure up there, i was really looking forward to seeing them. but then it slowly sunk in that they sounded horrible. so after three songs and a broken heart steve and i headed over to le tigre who were another band i really wanted to see but was upset about missing cos their set times were conflicting with the cure's. but since they didnt sound good it wasnt sucha big deal to just walk away and see what was going on. the vibe at le tigre was so much better than that at the cure. people were actually having fun. they are another band i've liked a long time but never got the opprotunity to see. so it was really great. in between their songs tho i could hear the cure and it was just like little bitsy pieces of my heart shattering on the floor. how could they suck so bad? it was so incredibly dissapointing.
none the less steve and i enjoyed le tigre. they are a great sing a long/bedroom dancing band.


that's le tigre


so that pretty much concludes our coachella adventure. i got to hear the last 20 min. of the cure's set and unfortunatley it still sounded like crapola. we had to hang around afterward cos danny's friend was supposed to bring him a present. i felt so grumpy. shawn was trying to find a comfortable spot.


that doesn't look very comfortable



that's better


we were all supposed to meet at a denny's in chino but we didnt end up meeting up again till 4am and by that time danny and i werent hungry so we just said our goodbye's and went home. phew what a long weekend. and the next day is danny's birthday. so i slept over at his house and got up early to spend the day with my grandma who lives near danny while he was at work.

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Day with Grandma& Danny's Birthday Sunday, 16 May 04:30 am
getting up before noon the day after coachella weekend must have been some kinda miracle on my part. but i did it. i was determined to take this opprotunity to spend time with my granny. i called her up around 9:30 and we made plans for her to pick me up around 11:30. i had to do my laundry first and take a shower.
when she picked me up she took me back to where she lives/works. she's an at home nurse for a 100 year old german jewish lady. we had lunch together along with a friend of theirs, an 80 year old lady named beverly. it was really amazing to me that i was sitting there having a conversation with a woman four times my age. she's interesting. beverly was a sweetheart. and my grandma, well she's just that best and i just love being around her it doesnt really matter to me what we're doing.
we stayed there for two hours and i had a bagel with lox, an apple and some weird cheese. then my grandma and i went out shopping. we went for a little drive around santa monica and ended up at the place and went to macy's. she bought some stuff for els' babies. then we went and got some new shoes for martijn and a cake for danny's birthday that night. she saw how tired i was and offered to go back to her place and let me sleep for a few hours. and i took her up on it.

grandma driving me to get some rest


i woke up around 5:30 and not too long after that danny picked me up. we went back to his place and i got ready for the evening. not too long after we got there terri arrived and we were trying to figure out who else was gonna actually show up. it took some coaxing but we convinced steve to join us. he came along on the condition that he could spend the night at danny's and get his haircut in santa monica the next day at the vidal sasson academy.

so the deal was we were gonna meet him at canters at 9pm. we were there at 9pm but steve wasnt. we went ahead and ordered. turns out steve was late cos we gave him bad directions (that wasn't the last time). after steve got there he just finished up terri and my food and danny got a complimentary cupcake it being his birthday and all. after that we seperated and terri and danny went to pick up brandon before we all met up at the bowling alley.
now mind you, ive been away for awhile and it was really hard for me to remember which stretch of ventura the bowling alley was on. ventura kinda all looks the same to me. but we eventually found it.
we had a good time bowling and only had an hour to do it in.



aw. its steve's first time bowling. and he's wearing flourescent colors



hmmm. who do you think'll win? danny, terri or brandon?





damn right, its better than yours...(he won)


so afterward we all headed back to danny's (steve and i got lost again) and when we got at like 2am there this was going on:


it was very cute but danny wonders why his neighbors dont like him


steve and i stayed up watching danny's in living color dvd's. good stuff. i knocked out around 4.
i promised steve we'd get up and call vidal sasson around 10 to try to fit him in that day.

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My day with Steve and the night i finally came back home to mommy. Sunday, 16 May 04:51 am
so steve and i woke around 10'ish and he somehow made me call vidal sassoon for him. i did and got him an appointment for 2 that afternoon. i couldnt figure out how to use danny's computer for a long time but when i finally did i found paul feldman aka pablo hunny on aim. he works in santa monica and that's where we were headed for steves haircut so we decided to meet up for lunch at 1.

now i should mention when we got to santa monica i told steve he should just park at the santa monica place mall cos its 3 hours free parking ( i didnt expect his haircut to take as long as it did) and he ended up getting a parking ticket that i felt incredibly guilty about.
but back to what i was saying lunch with paul. that was cool. we met at the borders (which steve and i couldnt find right away) on the promenade. when we found paul we decided to head over to the food court at the mall.
paul looked really good, i guess fit would be the word. but what i liked most about him is that he was in his full on paul feldman gear: motorhead t-shirt, jeans, black shoes but now he was sporting ray-bans which i found out were there to deter the nation of islam people.


that be me and pablo hunny at the mall


so after lunch steve and i headed over to his hair appointment. and the annoying thing was that more than once the vidal sasson people suggested i should get a haircut when i had just got one not even a week before. steve thought that was hilarious. so anyway. we walk in the room where the students give the snip and wait haircuts and i think all the girls hearts skipped a beat on account of steve walking in the room. it was funny. i dont think he realizes the affect he can have on women.



that's steve making himself bang-able


so after his haircut that took forever we decided to go to the gap and urban outfitters. we didnt buy anything but just browsed. i dunno why it didnt occur to us to do something about the car. but yeah, when we got back low and behold there was a parking ticket. funny thing was we had just escaped getting one when we left danny's neighborhood earlier that day.
steve gave me a hard time at first (this is something he's infamous for) but actually ended up being very nice about it. it kinda scared me cos i always heard the nicer he is the less he likes you.
but we ended up having a good heart to heart talk on the long drive home. (again we missed our turn and got a little lost and took the long way back to my mom's).
i got to know him a lot better which was nice. funny thing was this was the last day i saw him. we just couldnt get him to come out after this. but oh well. im glad i had the time with him that i did.
when i got back to my mom's steve came in to use the toilet. i warned him what a disaster it can be on account that my brothers never clean anything. but he was brave and went in anyway. my mom offered him the opprotunity to make $175 to taste hotdogs the following week. he said he'd go but im not sure he did. cos steve is like that.

i spent the rest of the eveing haning out with my mom. we did groceries and stuff. i had dinner then went to bed. i was beat. the next day was cinco de mayo.

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cinco de mayo& aunt lissette's birthday Sunday, 16 May 05:07 am
i spent this day with jolene. her and i took the train to olvera street and walked around. i didnt really buy anything except a book of mexican boy and girl paperdolls. i was planning on bringing that back to holland for a girl i know named jonne but i ended up misplacing it. i only took one picture that day and here it is:


not a very happy looking clown, eh?


after a nice authentic mexican lunch on the street jo and i decided to head over to amoeba where we met danny. i handed my camera over to him at that point which is whyi dont have many pictures from that day. he was uploading my pics for me since my camera was full.
at amoeba i bought the latest records by peaches, franz ferdinand and modest mouse. i like them all very much and dont regret one of those purchases.
danny was kind enough to drive jolene and i back to her car in the valley. and jolene took me home so that i could get to my aunts birthday dinner with my mom. we had to pick up my cousin first and we ended up being an hour late, but that was okay cos they were a half hour late. i have some pictures of my aunt and her daughters (but not of her partner) so i'll just stick them in here:


my awesome aunt lissette and me



my cousin lissette and me



my cousins dyani and jouvan


i have another cousin my aunt lissette's oldest daughter luvette.you can see a pic of her and her boyfriend closer to the end of this post.
anyway we had a nice healthy vegetarian meal and afterward my mom and i bought my aunt a windchime. i think she liked it alot. i hope it doesnt annoy her and remind her of us, that would suck.

after dinner my cousin luvette took me to meet her boyfriend eric. they really dig eachother alot and i wouldnt be suprised if this is the guy she marries. it's just kinda weird to me cos my cousin is a grown up but it hard to think of her that way sometimes.



luvette and eric


all in all it was a nice day. i actually got home at 1 and could get a pretty full nights sleep, that's two nights in a row.

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shopping, visiting aunt yamile, hanging with mom, the whatevs& sleeping in the car Sunday, 16 May 05:23 am
this day i woke up and asked my brother if i could use his car since he sleeps all day anyhow. he agreed. so this was the day i did most of my clothes shopping. it was a good opprotunity and i could go at my own pace and besides everyone i knew was busy. i called toba this day and made plans to pay lena a suprise visit early saturday morning with naomi.

after my shopping excursion i visited my aunt yamile. she gave me a buncha clothes she didnt need anymore and we caught up with eachother. she looks really good.


that's my aunt yamile who is dying to have a namesake


after that i was back at the house for awhile and was waiting for danny to bring me my camera back. he brought it and then my mom and i went to her favorite hang out to see a friend of hers that i am also fond of :


wendy said "dont take a picture of me on the cell phone! that's so l.a.!"


after that i dropped my mom back at home and headed over to see the band paul and will are in called the whatevs. i thought i got there late but turns out i got there in time to see the band before them. i met a really nice (really pretty) girl that night named mamie who was also there by herself and also friends of paul and will. she kinda dissapeared during their show and it turned out she lost her car keys but luckily she recovered them. i had good conversations with paul ( i always enjoy my talks with paul) and some goofy conversation with will. it was nice to see them both, i enjoy their company a lot.


whatev, that's just will and paul rock'in out n' stuff


when i got home that night my mom locked the door and i had no house key so i ended up sleeping in her car. it was kinda funny but it did suck. when i knocked at 6am and she let me in she felt bad when she heard what happened. i tried not to make a big deal outta it though. no need to spoil the fun day we had ahead of us.

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the getty museum, lunch with grandma, venice beach and chino Sunday, 16 May 05:50 am
my mom dyland and i spent the whole day together again. we had a really wonderful day. the weather was nice and we were all just happy to be together.


on the way up to the getty



sucha nice view



my mom and dylan taking a stroll thru the gardens



her penny landed on a brick



dylan the flower child



after our nice time at the getty my granny offered to take us out to lunch. so off we were to pick her up and she took us out for chinese. it was yum.


aw. i love 'em all.



mommy's new wheels



on our way to the beach



dylan and i jumped in. it was fun



reminds me of where im going



i've heard of a cone head, but a cone face?



we stayed till the sun set


after this long nice day i convinced my mom to drive me to chino to say bye to jen and get the rest of my stuff outta her way. we didnt stay long but im glad to say jen is starting to seem happier which is all i want for her.

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naomi, toba&lena, nick&linda, angie, danny's house and bang Sunday, 16 May 06:30 am
naomi and i started the day off together cos we were heading over to lena's to give her a nice suprise. i took care of lena from the time she was 6 to the time she was almost 13. the last time i saw her she was 13 and that was 2 years ago. so this visit was long overdue.

i'd like to add here that the nice thing about naomi being my oldest friend is that no matter how much time has past since we've seen eachother we can always pick up right where we left off and i love her for it.


naomi



me and nao


when we got there lena's cousin shira who was visiting from new york answered the door. turns out lena was in the shower. i asked her not to tell lena we were there. so we waited around for lena to finish. when she came out she saw naomi first and looked really confused, then she noticed me and the look on her face was priceless. it was so all outta context for her and for a minute she looked like she was 6 again she was so excited. i gave her some stroopwaffels:


lekker



lena is the little sister i never had, i love her so much


naomi and i took her and her cousin to lunch. we didnt have much time together but we cherished the time we had. i only got to see toba for a few minutes but she looked more beautiful and more happy then ever and i was really glad to see it cos she deserves it.


aren't they lovely? that's lena, shira and toba.


after that i decided to drop in on my last employers the really great nick and linda de leo. i was hoping that jack and max would be home as well but unfortunatley they werent. seeing nick and linda went really well. the had the really wonderful news of having a four month old son. i was really emotional about the whole thing cos i really cared for them a lot and i knew how much they wanted a little baby. not only that they have the most perfect looking angel faced baby boy you've ever seen. i sat with them for an hour and did some catching up. they've had a lot happen in the two years i've been gone. some not so good things but mostly good things and again i was really glad to hear it cos they are really good people and deserve the best.


this is nick and linda. they look pretty good for people that just rolled outta bed and stepped outta the shower, dont ya think?



afterward naomi and i went to lulu's for a cup of coffee then we went to play some air hockey and ski ball. (essential american passtimes). afterward we did a little shopping then went our seperate ways. we were meeting back up later that night for dancing.

i was on my way to pick up a very old friend named angie who i hadn't seen in a good 5 years. she ran into my brother recently and gave her number so we could keep in touch. i guess its kinda weird i invited her out right away to mesh with my friends but i thought she knew naomi so she might feel comfortable enough.

i took her to danny's house first so i could upload my pics again and get ready at his place before we headed out.




it's like a high school reunion



like i said, picking up where we left off



aw. danny.



he's my best friend



probably the most photogenic girl i know



throw your hands in the air...



attaboy



oh no!



dude, what happened to nao?



its jo and claud, they don't mind dancing with the lights on


man whatta day. that was hella fun.

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mothers day, beat it and nova express with shawn Sunday, 16 May 06:42 am
mothers day started kinda late for me. i woke up late. my mom didnt mind. she was also tired. i ended up going to my grandmas while she slept. i had a nice time there. i saw my aunts and my cousins and their kids.


that's my grandma :)



that's my oldest cousin steve and his family



these sweet babies are my cousin rudy's twin sons


a few hours after being there i picked up my mother. again strangely enough there arent any pics of my mom from this day. (mother's day of all day's). but we spent a nice afternoon/evening with my grandma and other relatives.

later that evening i met shawn at beat it (an 80's/electroclash dance club). we had a great time. we talked mostly about love, he's in love for the first time and its just the first real conversation we've had in a long while. we danced to a really great set of music that went something like: le tigre-peaches-yeah yeah yeahs-fischer spooner-postal service. that was fun.
after the club shawn and i went to nova express and ate sandwiches in the middle of the night. again i didnt get home until 4am. but man, it was fun.

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the day of rest. Sunday, 16 May 06:43 am
all i did this day was sleep. i talked to martijn a bit and i had lunch with my brother. but otherwise. yeah. sleep was all that was on the agenda.

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sushi, los feliz, eternal sunshine of the spotless mind, cafe 101, crusin', danny's place and subway at 2am Sunday, 16 May 06:51 am
i think the title explains it all.
first jolene and i had lunch/brunch at sushi mac. that was so great and inexpensive. then we headed over to los feliz and bought our matinee tickets to see eternal sunshine of the spotless mind. while we had time to kill before our film began we did some shopping in those cool little shops in the neighborhood.
the movie we saw. only one word to describe it ....wow. it was hands down the best movie i've seen in a long time. last time i felt that way was being john malkovich. see it. now!

afterward we headed back to jo's and she played me some guitar.


isn't she lovely. one of my favorite people in the world.


after that we went back to my mom's for a bit and we went to cafe 101 and had coffee and apple crisps.


mmmmmm....diners rule!


afterward we went for drive around hollywood/west hollywood/beverly hills and westwood. we were killing time till danny got home. i needed to upload my pics again and it would probably be the last time i saw him before i left. at like half past 1am we decided to go to get some food.


danny just watched while jolene and i ate



mmm..yummy, huh jo?



yeah, mmmm..tuna



hey! what are you two arguing about?



nothin'....


aw. this was the last time i saw them. they're so cool.

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shopping, lunch with lalith, more shopping, dinner with my uncles& the goodbye Sunday, 16 May 07:31 am
it being my last day i had lotsa last minute shopping to do. at first i seperated from my mom by borrowing shem's car again. but she ended up meeting back up with me at 11 and not too long after that we were on our way to her boyfriends house. he was taking us out for lunch.


my mom and lalith




later on that day we ended up dropping in on my aunt who's pregnant and my little cousin.


isn't she adorable?


not too long after that we went to my uncle curly's house for dinner with his family and turns out my uncle dante (that cute little girls daddy) showed up. so i got to see two of my uncles at the last minute. that was awesome.


this is my uncle dante



this is my aunt molly, she's shy.



this is my uncle curly and his boys joeseph and joaquin


it was a nice relaxed way to end my visit.

the next morning on the way to the airport i cried almost the whole way there. it was really hard for me to leave this time.

see ya'll in december.

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Technical Note Sunday, 16 May 12:18 pm
Dear Readers,

Lissette has dumped such a huge load of pictures and posts on here that half of it has been pushed into our archives before anyone has ever had the chance to read it. If you are interested in her adventures (and you are, I'm sure) please take a peek in the May Archives. Scroll down a bit to skip my own insane ramblings, and you can read all about it. Extra bonus is that her posts will then be in chronological order as well.

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Ben Nennah Sunday, 16 May 2:13 pm
That poor lissette had to bring a lot of stuff home from the US. The one thing we really needed for ourselves was good modeling clay. Along with the many presents from her family that she brought (thanks a lot for those by the way! Sam looks great in her new clothes, and hey, so do I), she also found the chance to bring 8 brick sized packs of van Aken clay. According to google, this is the stuff to get. According to our searches, no decent alternatives are for sale in Holland.

Yesterday I decided to give the clay a little try while lissette was preparing her monster posting. It is a lot better than that rotten Fimo indeed! I created our little friend Ben Nennah in a jiffy, and had to destroy him after 30 minutes because he just wouldn't stop talking. If you think bananas have interesting lives, think again...

All that is left is this movie I took of him:



If this somehow doesn't work I also have an (ugly) animated gif here.

Nice weblog contest (for camiel): What the #*&@ is Ben talking about?

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Bij ons in de jordaan... Tuesday, 18 May 12:50 pm
Some of you already know that we've managed to find ourselves a temporary appartment thanks to our good friend camiel.

Yesterday we went over to check it out, go over the official stuff and get the key. It was probably the most gorgeous day of the year thus far, and both Lissette and I felt very ecstatic walking through our new neighbourhood.

I kept on hearing my man acda sing in my head: 'ik kwam uit een dorpje/we woonden midden in de stad/alle drie echte amsterdammers/zonder dat een van ons er een jeugdherinnering had'. A great line in my opinion, but it always made me a bit envious. Now it applies to me a little bit as well, especially if we quickly forget about camiels childhood in de bijlmer (only white kid in class I was told).

We arrived at the house a bit early and hung out with camiel untill our new landlord entered the scene. Checking out our first appartment turned out to be quite an adventure: The owner didn't manage to open the door. It was a good thing camiel was there to identify him otherwise I'd think some random bum was trying to fool us into renting a house he had never even seen himself. After a lot of messing around he broke the key and the only way we could have a peak was climbing out of Camiel's kitchen window onto the roof and down a ladder that led into our little garden like area. A risky procedure that Lissette was wise enough not to engage in. As a result, she was only able to see our house from the outside peeking through the windows. A real shame, but if all is well the door will be fixed this afternoon and we will get some cleaning done next wednesday.

The appartment was a lot bigger than I expected, not huge or anything but a very long stretched narrow space. Very cosy as well although not very colorful. We're going to have to try and change that.

It's a shame we might have to leave there very soon. The appartment seems pretty perfect for us.

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Pictures Monday, 24 May 8:30 pm
We spent most of our ascension related past time cleaning up our new apartment, checking out our new neighborhood, and hosting the odd first visitor. We planned to spend one night there but ended up staying a lot longer. Partly because it is a long trip back to nes, partly because life in the Jordaan is just such a nice change of pace, even if it means sleeping uncomfortably in a house with just two chairs and a radio.

We did lots of fun stuff and Sam was funny & cute in the new house. But instead of rambling about all that I just wanted to show some pictures of our (empty) place:


Living room...



Bedroom...



Kitchen...



Garden (of sorts)...



Aje to!



The neighborhood...
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