Never before have I spent an entire day staring lifelessly at a screen without feeling completely and utterly brain dead by the end.  However, after leaving a marathon viewing of documentaries at the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) , I felt like a Mighty Explorer of the Universe, having traveled to far off countries and delved deeply into the collective psyche of mankind - all while seated comfortably in a loge at the beautiful Pathé Tuschinski movie theater .This cinematic adventure, starting at 10.30 in the morning and lasting until 01.30 the following morning, was happily endured, with only a few minor instances of childlike fidgeting and restlessness.   The first three documentaries of the day also ended up being my favorites – hopefully due to their inherent merit as opposed to their being scheduled first!  There were definitely some overlapping themes in the films – most notably the corrupting force of power. But while the young and beautiful Macha, main cha

Last weekend, Leslie Feist was in Amsterdam performing in the Carré Theater to promote her new album Metals , which was released on October 4th. It was a stunning fall evening on the canals of Amsterdam, which were lit up by the bright, clear sky, following an unusually crisp sunny day – a good day to be here!  I didn’t realize it at the time, but this was not only her first time back in Amsterdam in quite a while, it was in fact the kickoff show of her new album tour after a three year break from show business. After a few more (already fully sold-out) shows in Europe, she will go on to tour the US and Canada starting early November.   Seated in the beautiful classical hall, the start time came and went. Eventually we were told that the unnamed warm-up act would not perform due to problems with the overhead projector.  Suddenly, we all became extremely curious about this potentially extraordinary warm-up act -- what could possibly be so important about a malfunctioning beamer to for

Having just gotten back from New Hampshire a few weeks ago, I seem to have narrowly escaped the vicious clutches of Miss Irene the Hurricane, the much anticipated terror of the East Coast. Somewhat guiltily – hurricanes can be so destructive after all - I found myself slightly thrilled at the prospects of a nice big storm. And I was definitely not the only one! People can become more than a little obsessed in the anticipation and planning process, checking news and progress on all kinds of websites, above and beyond the necessary precautions (- no need for names, you know who you are!) Hurricane Charley, 2004 Luckily, my airplane safely left the ground at Logan Airport , before the hurricane came too close. But a few years back, I happened to cross paths with another ‘lovely’ little hurricane called Charley, while visiting the coast of Florida . It was considered to be kind of a bad one back in 2004, but Katrina has since put all the others out of the spotlight for a while. A lit

For a while now, I have been contemplating my attitude towards the popular non-fiction bestseller  Wij zijn ons brein  (translated: we are our brain) by Dutch neurologist Dr. Dick Swaab.  Among other things, he has done extensive and sometimes controversial research on neurological gender differences and homosexuality, and is currently studying Alzheimer's disease. As I've understood it, this book describes the longitudinal developments in the brain, starting with conception and ending with death. Although until recently I hadn’t given it much active thought, in the peripheries of my mind I always retained a certain reluctance to actually pick up and read his book. Perhaps the root of this disinterest lay in a majorly time consuming project on the neurological and philosophical aspects of human consciousness, which consumed a large part of my last semester as an undergraduate. Having had to read a lot of ‘brain’ literature for this course, I guess I simply didn’t see what all

What is it about summer and reading (and the inevitable combination: summer reading) that gets me thinking about languages and the learning thereof? I guess it makes me think of traveling, and the books I want to read before summer ends, or it could be that I simply have the time to let my mind wander and think back to a long time ago when my romance with languages first began. Once upon a time nearly twenty years ago today, I rang the next door neighbor’s doorbell, and thus encountered my best-friend-to-be Nora for the very first time. Although we spoke not a word in common (I babbled away in English and Dutch, she made strange noises in Serbo-Croatian and Hungarian), we allegedly fell into each other’s arms and have been best friends (practically sisters) ever since. And in perfect harmony (ha!) we lived happily ever after (or something stupid like that…) Fairy tales and parent’s stories aside, this early encounter with overcoming language barriers arguably shaped many of my futur

Each summer this locatietheater festival is held on the historical terrain of the NDSM shipyard , located on the “other side of the IJ” (the IJ being a body of water bordering the north side of the historical city center).  Shows here are held in all kinds of venues or locations (hence the Dutch word ‘locatietheater’), from giant boat sheds to tiny sea containers (previously used to transport items overseas) and then everything in between! It takes approximately 15 minutes to get there from Central Station by way of a little pedestrian (and bicycle) ferry, which for me only adds to the experience. It’s somehow refreshing to have a random snippet of 15 minutes all to myself, surrounded by nothing but water, with the wind (and sometimes rain) in my face, in the middle of an otherwise busy day. Then when I get to the other side, it’s almost literally like I’ve left everything belonging to the city behind. Working as a volunteer at this festival, I received a pass that allowed me to vis

After some initial convincing, I have at last been tempted to join the - what's that now? - blogosphere. I guess it must be about time. From my outsider perspective the world of blogs seems to be expanding at practically the same rate as our universe (or perhaps the average waistline?). Although I prefer to read books, I like to pretend I'm somewhat digitally savvy as well (and therefore should actually keep up with this stuff!)   Despite my lack of posts thus far, I have put quite some thought into selecting this background photo. This was taken by my friend Chris Davids in a sweet little park in Berlin on our way to the international busstation. I like it because it looks lush and green, yet still shows respectful signs of human civilization. I also like that the curve of my back is parallel (can two curves be parallel to each other?) to the curve of the bridge which I am standing under.