3 op Reis: Go fishing in Finland | Learn how the Portuguese work cork oak

It ain't bad this '3 op Reis' Dutch TV program they do. They have an episode about Portugal and Finland that I thought was really interesting.

http://www.npo.nl/3-op-reis/21-06-2015/BNN_101374531

It also shows that the Dutch love doing stuff even whilst they are on holiday. The average Italian going on the average vacation in the country do a maximum of 4 trips of no more than 2 km in total in one day.

1. From the house to the beach
2. From the beach to the kitchen 
3. From the kitchen to the beach with a dip after strictly 2 hours 
4. Back from the beach to the dinner table and an after dinner stroll to the same street where everybody goes.*

*The so-called 'la vasca'

A Glass Music Hall is looking for a new home

A Glass Music Hall in the Beurs van Berlage building in Amsterdam will be given away for free or destroyed. The centrally located building needs more conference space and therefore took the decision to dismantle the structure that was built 25 years ago and that was used a rehearsal space by the Dutch Philarmonic Orchestra.

Picasso in Paris, Van Gogh Museum

This was an exhibition on Picasso as an artist moving to Paris in 1900 when he was 19. He lived on top of a laundry shop in Montmartre, le bateau lavoir. From the paintings of that period that I saw at the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam I felt like being transported to Paris.

I could see he had a really broad eye for what was happening around him, from the upper class party goers of the Exposition universelle crowd type to subjects of despair. He was then so emotionally touched from the suicide death of his fellow Spaniard Casagemas, and you can see that in his blue period paintings. They guy, a writer, broke up with his French girlfriend apparently. You can just imagine the mixing of people and a stool of chancers observing life. There he saw the work of Gaugain, Toulouse-Lautrec, Swiss painters and what the critics will tell you.

The cosmopolitanism of Europe was there already as the art world always anticipates trends. If you had to choose now where to go it would be much harder. That's because artists embark on global tours, people can follow developments on twitter as revolution unfolds in whatever part of the world and the feeling of satisfaction to be in one place is often transient, as something else more interesting could be happening somewhere else, literally as we speak.

Animal Collective live @ Paradiso, Amsterdam 17/5/2011

Spectacural visual fields were constructed, jointly progressing with sound, vocals used as an instrument and light guiding the intake of this empowering experience.

We were left begging for more: watching another band will never be the same again, as the visual part is so strong you wonder why it has played a relatively minor role in the presentation of music so far.

Having sound and music presented in such a way really helps to focus your attention on trying to decode such an abstract body of work. This isn't just music, it's art.

I really enjoyed it.

P.S. I made some videos but the quality of the sound it's so bad I feel a bit sorry to upload it, but it's just to give you an idea.







If you are new to Animal Collective maybe start with My Girls (2009)

Illusions of Reality at Van Gogh Museum

This exhibition is about to start. An interesting development is the way the Van Gogh Museum is using Flickr to give an exclusive insight into the preparation process.

sexmob live @ Bimhuis

Bimhuis is an incredible venue, with 180 degrees view over Amsterdam. Sexmob are touring Europe with their experimental repertoire of Jazz and breathtaking notes nicely played to an attentive audience