The gig last night was

The gig last night was at the Melkweg and featured Arno Hintjens, a Belgian singer who most native English speakers will never have heard of. I've heard him before, because Prol gave me a tape of some of his stuff a few years ago. Part idiot savant, part enfant terrible, he's an interesting character - kind of a cross between Gavin Friday and Serge Gainsbourg, with a very small hint of Gérard Depardieu and a rather larger helping of Johnny Rotten. He's intense and occasionally twitchy, though comes across as a nice guy and even somewhat shy in his comments between the songs (he appeared genuinely mortified when his microphone stand fell over and narrowly missed a front-row fan).

After the show we retired to a café to unwind. The Dutch artist/musician Herman Brood used to live above it and his artwork adorns the walls. I know nothing about him and must find out more. Back at Prol's it's past midnight and so time for her birthday present - the DVD of the British cult TV series Ultraviolet. Now I don't have to keep it a secret, I might tell you more about this series some other time. Or I might leave it to Prol, if she likes it.

This morning, Prol has an unavoidable work commitment, so I'm left to my own devices. (Or rather, Prol's devices: I'm slowly getting the hang of this pen mouse. Working out what the button on the side is for was a useful development.) I lazed around for a bit, surfing and reading, then headed off to the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam's modern art gallery.

The exhibits are eclectic and thought-provoking: a display of twentieth century office equipment (you'd never believe that scissors could be so interesting); a feature on Dutch PTT/KPN (phone and post office) design concepts; plenty of paintings (including Mondriaan, Chagall and Malevich), sculptures and installations, plus the current special exhibition on Dutch and Belgian conceptual art between 1965 and 1975. The latter is variable and I have to be honest and say that some of it bored me stiff. However, there was much that was thought-provoking and even moving. I was particularly taken with On Kawara's work, which deals with the concept of time. Specifically interesting was One Million Years, a set of ten black, leather-bound books listing the numbers of one million years to the date of its creation. Its subtitle is "For all those who have lived and died."

I left the Stedelijk and wandered aimlessly, soaking in the atmosphere and trying to avoid soaking in the rain. I'm just too proud to stand there on the street looking at the map like some damn tourist, so predictably I never made it to the central, oldest part of the city. Looking at the map now from the comfort of the sofa, I see that I covered most of the Eastern Canal Ring. I had bought the Van Gogh and Gauguin exhibition catalogue on leaving the Stedelijk and it weighs a ton. Not the smartest of things to do when you have a couple of hours walking planned. By around half four my shoulders were aching from carrying the book and my legs were aching from all the unaccustomed walking, so I headed back 'home'. I've made a cup of tea (it's just an instinctive, Pavlovian, English thing) and now I'm relaxing and blogging, waiting for Prol to return and for our evening to begin.

The rain has gone, the sun is out and it's Friday evening. I'm in Amsterdam and I'm not remotely cool. I'm in Amsterdam! Hey! Life is good.

Posted by Hg on Friday 19 April 2002 at 16:28.
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