Chef is Back

Well it’s hard to blog tonight friends. I blame the parties… the goodbye shindigs, housewarming soirees… tis the season in Amsterdam. In a city of transients, people always seem to be in transit. Wait, maybe transient isn’t the word.

Still tonight was a classic, as Toronto’s Finest Chef-in-exile is officially back and warming a new house. And it’s one of them classic 1700’s Amsterdam shop-houses, with stain glass windows facing the street. The man is a culinary genious and a social scholar to boot. I especially enjoyed his home-made-mango ice cream. As we soaked in the typical Amsterdam party ingredients and got into this big conversation about the lack of female-comedic actresses since the eighties.

Somebody said Whoopy Goldberg but she’s not that funny. Someone else said Sandra Bullock but she’s not funny either. Strange isn’t it?… you can rattle off a long list of male comedic actors… but few-to-none females. All this because I said Star Wars didn’t go into enough detail about the women jedi’s… they have been totally under-represented. And that doesn’t seem very jedi to ignore the ladies.

In the end, the great conclusion of the unsober evening, was that Canada has made the greatest cultural contributions the world has ever known. Plus they did give us Rush.

For more on Canadians and Star Wars, visit your local library. Or read this celebrity Accordianist.

Movie With a Message

You know you live in an odd world when a film can be produced which has a message that reminds people of the corruption and manilupation that their government(s) are capable of in the name of defending “democracy and freedom.” It is/will become one of the most seen and beloved films in the history of films, yet nothing will change within those countries. The people will go nuts for the characters, the special effects, every little detail except one enormous one — the message, the warning. I’m sitting here thinking about it and it’s just so ironic.

Obviously I saw the annoyingly over-talked about film of the year. Proudly, thanks to my friends round the world with whom I share files, I downloaded that shit. Plus I don’t want the producers to get one dime from me.

I just can’t get over it. The message is right there. and everyone’s watching the film…. and somehow NOTHING will change. Life truely doesn’t imitate art.

My favorite spin on this thing comes from this nerd at heart.

Yuppy World

I’m doing the evening jog with my Team Kelme neon cycling shirt, and I’m heading in the direction of my beloved JavaEiland. I love the side which has no houses and is just a patch of grass, benches, and beautiful views. It’s wonderfully peaceful. As I stand there, all I normally hear are boats passing by, wind, and the occasional jogger.

Well today as I’m getting closer to “my end” of the island I see a huge white wall cutting it in half. Preventing me to get to my peaceful side. I can just barely see over the white temporary wall and the private security goons, but there’s no mistaking the gigantic three mast state-of-the-art Royal Navy supership. I also see people dressed in fancy clothes, and cameras, and red carpets. I look at the security goon and I say in Dutch — “This is my park! This is public!” And either because my accent is horrible or because he doesn’t care, he ignores me.

But then a truely Amsterdam moment occurred. An old man, probably around 75 years old, rides up to me and says in Dutch — “Looks like they’ve taken away our public space? It’s a royal navy ship… British.. see that flag.. and this flag.. and notice that this whole ship is automated. Automatic sails.. no crew necessary. Isn’t that rediculous?”

I was in complete agreement with him. And we swapped stories of what we like to do in this open space. I spoke of running and Taekwondo, he spoke of sitting on a bench in the sun and just thinking. I knew right there I had met a great human.

I asked about the Afrika Squat, which has been in a struggle to not be torn down by fancy developers for the past few years. He bowed his head in defeat, “They lost… they all lost. Everythings being torn down. Who knows where they’ll go. It’s all new buildings going up. Each one taller then the next, and none of them are being rented.”

We spoke in-depth about all the new buildings and apartments going up which no normal person could ever afford. As you can imagine, I’d throw in my two cents about how people are being driven out and cities only cater to the wealthy. But the wonderful part was, besides that he never once flinched at my dutch conversation about economics, the way he began to point to all the surrounding neighborhoods. Amsterdam North, JavaEiland, Centrum,…. he spoke of the ship building industry of the Netherlands in the 60’s and 70’s. He pointed to band new luxery housing and how you used to see hoardes of shipbuilders in overalls and heavy gloves in that area. I swear I saw a tear in his eye as he told me of more plans they have to build along the waterfront. “It’s unbelievable how fast things change young man…. and it’s even more unbelievable when you think about the few people that benefit from these changes.”

Ms. Thingk is back to blogging and back in DC. She reminded me of this issue. About how DC is getting popular, no the average person can’t possibly afford to live there. Hooray for progress.

—–Oh, and a sidenote — he said he hoped to speak with me again one day as Im jogging by him in deep thought on his favorite bench. That is, if they don’t sell it off before then.

Oil for Humanity

As per usual, the major media ask all the wrong questions and keep us pacified with graphics, soundbites, and summaries. Oil for food. Oil for food. Point the finger… point the finger. They took money, they took extra, they kissed Saddam. etc etc.

For my part, being a media of one. My question starts long before any of this crap. My question is: What kind of assanine program is Oil for Food and what awful nations thought this up? Talk about a crime against humanity; You give us oil, and we’ll give you food. Now fork it over and you might get a bite to eat. — Pathetic.

They want to accuse politicians and other assorted rich boys for cheating the system. They want to expose Russia, the UK, and the UN (of course) for making deals with that awful Saddam? (like the US and soooo many other countries hadn’t ever done a deal with the man?)

I’ve got my own accusations: all those billiant minds behind oil for food should be locked in a cell and given a steady diet of their beloved liquid for sustinence.

Speaking of shadey dealings, Green Catfish is the blogosphere’s hottest gambler these days — I heard.