Tag Archives: UK

Get Your Ball On

The fantasy basketball draft is in two-weeks. All day long I’ve been in on the bm ranch running laps, dribbling, and studying plays. That’s right, you heard correct, I’m participating in the Busblog Fantasy Basketball League. And while I don’t know much about who’s good in the NBA anymore, I know plenty about fantasizing, so I think I’m a contended this year. My strategy… I have none. But I’m from New Jersey, so I’ll favor any and all New Jersey players in the draft. Also, as a boy living abroad, I have a soft-spot for foreign players, so that tall Chinese Center guy… you’re welcome on my team. Same goes to you Serbian guy who plays for Sacramento. My team name you ask? The Stoned Tourists. That’s correct.. the ferocious beasts who invade Amsterdam on a daily basis… you wouldn’t believe their abilities while under the influence of the good herb. The whole league looks like fun, which is to be expected under the watchful eye of commissioner Tony Pierce. Two weeks from today, mark it down – the madness begins.

I really like this phone conversation between Jamie and Raymi. Makes me want to wander the streets of NYC like old times. And generally these are some of the hippest bloggers on the block, hence, I recommend them to all of you in readerland.

My review on Afghan elections will come tomorrow. But there won’t be much to say. Most of the parties have called the process null and void, while foreigners are saying it’s good as gold. Karzai is probably hiding in a bulletproof bathroom of a bombproof house, the a heavily guarded biodome where he has preserved all the necessary species to sustain life for 5 to 8 years.

Bitch PhD is rockin shiny new rss syndication. Because I am the Robin Hood of RSS, only I don’t rob the rich… and I don’t do much poor feeding either.

Today’s Sounds: Cursive – Domestica

This ol park 1

Welcome blogfriends, to the first edition of my new friday segment, THIS OL PARK, where bicyclemark reviews an Amsterdam park for a good hour or so, depending on my workload.

Judging by the duck poop under my sauconys, today’s visit must have been to the recently renovated WESTERPARK. With the accompaniment of Kirsten Dunst’s twin sister, we rode figure eights all over that piece, and we visited the Westergasfabriek(awesome website), which was the gas plant of Amsterdam back in the day, now its a hip-cool caf? and live venue. The part we both liked best were the plentiful broken windows of so many buildings. After that we moved on to admire a zen garden, which looked completely out of place yet lovely. Then there was a bit of admiring of graffiti, children’s swings, flora and fauna, and protest posters.

We were unable to come to a conclusion about how female pine trees and male pine trees “get-it-on” to produce cones. I mean, what if they’re planted far from each other? Is there a pine tree singles bar to encourage a bit of pollenation?

The last segment of our wandering consisted of stopping at Big Ali’s Sportclub, a graffitied up shack blasting music from a small stereo, and with four potted, non-blooming new guinea impatients on a table. (what?… I worked in gardening.) Big A apparently has lots of sports equipment in his shack, and provides the good people of Westerpark with the goods they need to hit the green ball with the cat-gut woven racket. Looked like good fun.

Overall we made the following conclusions:

– Westerpark, with its modern design side featuring large open fields and zen gardens, mixed with the old-style European parkishness, is a microcosm of the struggle in Amsterdam and other cities worldwide. This struggle is between the old- do it yourself style, where people squat apartments and run sports clubs out of shacks, and the new if-you-got-money-you’re-welcome style, where fancy designed caf?s cater to the wealthy and recreations of the hanging gardens of Babylon 3000 are commonplace. This doesn’t, however, answer the question of which of these will win. So far, at westerpark, they seem to live side-by-side together. That is, until a duck goes over and poops on the futuristic kiddypark.

(note: more park photos on the buzznet photoblog)

Furthermore,

G.Love is the greatest, but he’s definitely too into his groupies.

– Yes, you need to develop nerves of steel to ride through the center of Amsterdam, then you will achieve cycling nirvana.

– And my own personal conclusion, Kirsten Dunst twin’s digi-cam is in fact the first primitive digital that cavepeople first developed.

I lost bigtime on my Nobel Prize prediction. Who knew that would actually pick an African Woman and an environmental activist as well. Guess the Nobel Committee sometimes does pick’em right. My favorite headline related to this was in the Guardian which says “Tree Planter Wins Peace Prize.” How flattering. I can imagine if I win it, the headline will read: “Slacker-Leftist Wins Award.”

On that note, let’s go do some town-hall debating- my place, 3am.

Today’s Sounds: Stephan Eicher – Taxi Europe (this Italian-Swiss song is addicting)

Our Manor Farm

I was engrossed in BitchPhD’s extended post on parenting this morning. While I have no children (that I know of) I am very interested in the topics of childcare, parenting, and well you know – society. Growing up I can remember American friends… other children.. being frequently required to take all kinds of omoxocylines and some tetra-chloro-phoro watchamacallits. It seemed like the second anyone sneezed there was a parent dragging them off to the doctor. I know that is sometimes necessary, and only shows how caring the parents in my town were, but I really feel there’s a dark side to all that. The over-protective, excessively careful parenting styles, I think, have a long term effect on society’s children, not only when it comes to them growing up to love their claratins and their prozacs, but also in terms of life decisions, those that might require risks! Those risks could be professional, emotional, or anything!

But let me shift down to second gear for a second, and tell a secondary story my dear m?e tells about my childhood:

I was and still am a notorious car sleeper. I can stay up all night on normal dry land. But put me in a car, turn on the engine, and my body falls into slumber mode. Such was true even as a toddler. And so like any loving mother who wishes to see her child sleep happy and also get some of her long-list of tasks done, on occasion she might leave me sleeping in the car, parked in the driveway in plain sight of the front door. Well, on one such occasion, I must of been dreaming of my future career as a Taekwondo Instructor (technically I still am certified as one) and I hook-kicked the auto-transmission into reverse I guess, and slowly cruised to the end of the driveway, with the car’s tail sticking-out into the street. Not a busy neighborhood mind you, a picturesque tree lined one, those who would see the car would easily drive around it. My mom was naturally horrified at the time, but now adays we can sit back and joke about my first driving experience. (In your face 8 year olds that brag about holding the wheel!)

Thing is, increasingly in the United States, and perhaps Canada (im not sure) this type of thing is not only culturally frowned upon, it’s probably a jailable offence. If the wrong neighbor sees, I might have to kiss my family goodbye! Now I’m not singing the praises of libertarianism, or the good’ol days, nor am I denouncing important Child Care services, at least I don’t intend to. I’m just worrying out loud. I think we need to control our fears, stop trying to control every single detail of life, and moreover, our harsh judgments of one another – especially as parents. Guess that last sentence looks lame, I have no offspring to speak of.

Totally different note, watched Animal Farm last night. YES, the odd 1999 TV version with Patrick Stewart as a pig and Kaiser Soze’s associate, Kobayashi, as farmer Jones. I love this version.. there, I admitted it. I kept waiting for the Jean-Luc Piccard pig to suddenly say “Captains log.. startdate bingy-bongy.. we’ve taken the farm to warp speed, and I played in my own filth today.” After the first 10 minutes you get over the fact that animals mouths are moving like humans, and you get back to the essence of it. I know Orwell Wrote it as an example/critique of the Russian Revolution, but I can’t help but see some familiar themes in society today: laws changing in the middle of the night, people being pacified through entertainment (TV in Animal Farm), and blindly following the leader who says he is the only one who can keep them safe from terrorists. Orwell was a genius who still helps us understand the present-day world and its mistakes. I just wish the animals would hurry up and take over, before things get any worse. Oh, and why aren’t there any cats on animal farm?

Today’s Sounds: G. Love – Electric Mile

Night Owls

Often when you least expect it, one of those crazy Amsterdam nights sneaks up on you. They take many different forms and shapes, they can be brief, or go on until the break-a-break-a dawn. It can be a group of friends, or a crowd of strangers, or just you… there is no real formula, just as there is no real warning. They just sneak up on you, only to be realized when you fully wake the next day.

I thought last night would be a quiet evening at home, but instead the world reknown Anne somehow got me involved in a French flick with Pedro Abrunhosa, Absenthe, and remembering California. It turns out Absenthe was only legalized recently, so now we can all see purple dinosaurs on Saturday nights. Anne says there are no purple dinosaurs unless I go to intertoys, which I will.

So the peace prize will be awarded on Friday, and way back in 2002 I predicted Carter would get it. In 2003 I was under the influence of thesis, so I made no prediction. But this year I want to re-assert my authority in the blogosphere, on the net, and around the world as a Nobel-predicting-type-guy. My top five candidates are as follows along with my rationale:

  • Hamid Karzai – I know he’s a bastard and a puppet deep down, but I still think they’ll give him credit for not getting assassinated and dressing nice.

  • Bono – Yes. Bono. Again, I’m not a big fan. But the man can sing and has pushed influential people to ALMOST pay attention to the AIDS crisis in Africa.

  • Bill Clinton – Oh stop. I don’t want him to get it, but he gets credit for pushing for Israeli-Palestinian peace.

  • President Obesanjo of Nigeria – I can explain. I’ve noted that he has attended every negotiation of every military-coup in Africa, the past two years. S. Tom? e Principe, Central African Republic.. he was there. Despite killing his own people in the delta, he might get it.
  • My last one is tie… for their successful end of a horrid civil war, the government of Angola and UNITA. OR The BrazilianMINUSTAH Peace Keeping Force in Haiti. Both longshots.

    • My winner will be announced this week. The Bicyclemark prize: a pack of dried apple slices, which are always stocked in my cupboard.*

    *Winner must come to my place in order to claim prize. And then fight to the death, I love appleslices.

    Today’s Sounds: Ron and Fez comedy pyramid on WJFK Washington,DC

    My Guy

    Lately it’s around 3am that the Jogging King and I meet for our kitchen meetings. We’re like the white house staff, making sandwiches and discussing strategy in our pajamas. The king has been offered one kick-ass job in Oslo, Norway.. city of cross-country skiing to work, and not far from one Jill/txt. His majesty has always wanted to work there, and more importantly has been itching for a change in his life, like so many. Trouble is now that he’s getting what he wanted, he’s worried about making the wrong decision. During the discussion he referred to me and said “You knew you wanted to come live in the Netherlands, that’s why you came.” I had to stop the king right there, cause he was committing royal blasphemy: I did not intend to stay here when I first arrived.

    Rewind to October 2002, when the blog was just a tadpole, I was focused on my masters degree and not much more. I was not even learning Dutch yet, and I can tell you that at that time I thought I would get a masters and hop over to another country for a cool job. It was only during the course of my first year that I started to see my love for the ‘dam, and that I fit in like Castro at a military surplus store.

    I just wanted to clear that up… very little of my present life was planned. So Jogging King… I hope you stop thinking so much and embrace the Nordic madness. I’ll water your plants.

    You know who my European leader of the year is: Jos? Luis Gonzalez Zapatero. Maybe because my father’s side of the family were shoemakers, or because he beat the pants of Aznar, whatever the reason, I’m becoming a great admirer. This week he’s been pushing to recognize gay marriage, good man! Why do we always have to think of Spain as conservative or old-fashioned, have you been to Spain lately? – Those dogs are progressive with a medium sized P. Sure they might say they’re 80% catholic, but 50% or so say they don’t actually practice a dam thing, cept maybe football. But I digress, the Prime Minister is also increasing spending on social programs and R&D, in a time where everyone else is obsessed with cutting everything. Plus, he’s a feminist. So keep it up Se?or Zapatero, you’re a breath of fresh air on the old continent, no matter what the rabid Barcepundit says.

    And yes, there’s only one week until the announcement, so I’ll be running down my own list and predicting the next winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.

    Today’s Sounds: Calexico – Feast of Wire

    Puppet Theatre

    Lets get this debate shit out of the way, because I thought I wouldn’t talk about it, but in the end, I’ve listened to hours of analysis of it in three languages today. I skipped out of party stop #2 last night, cutting the Thursday night tour off early to prepare for the presidential pageant which I hoped would begin at 1h00 (CET) my time. It did not. So I put on my night cap and drank a night cap.. and waited. Worse than waiting, I waited and watched CNN International like Pavlov’s dog waiting for a bell to ring. The bell rang at 3am… I didn’t hear it. Subconsciously in between whatever dream I was having about flying, midgets, sex… all at the same time, I do believe the debate crept into my ears. Thus I believe I am now dumber. Both rich white old men said nothing, and each pretended to be the friend of the “people.” Is that what citizens elect, a friend? At any rate, if I were to compliment either bum, I would say Kerry’s empty rhetoric was better than Bush’s whining rhetoric.

    But let me give you a deeper analysis:

    Most mumbling: Prince Bush

    Most statements beginning with “Well Jim”: Emperor Kerry

    Most name dropping: K-dog

    Most childish: B-boy

    Weirdest Statement: Johny K ‘s “The Pottery Barn Rule- You break it you bought it”

    Best Hair: JFK

    Best Statement about any place in the world other than Iraq, Afghanistan or Sudan: none. There ARE NO other countries with trouble.

    Most Shots of Water: GWB

    Most “You can’t do that” type statements: Bushy

    Most repetitive: Bushle about flip-floppin

    stupidest Statement: W teaching us what he thinks the ICC is.

    Overall winner: Jim Lehrer and PBS, this should help the next telethon.

    But again.. I must remind myself… nothing was said during that pageant.



    Some blog moments this passed week:



    – The Torontonienne has been picking my brain about blogging and identity, I suspect she’ll be blogging by mid-October, a lovely month to start as Tony Pierce can attest.

    – Kirstin Dunst’s twin chatted me up in the fishtank at work, she’s a livejournalist and was fascinated by my 116 feeds in bloglines.

    – Blueberry girl, who enjoys blogs and my love for the art, is off to work for the International Monetary Savings-n-loan in Paris.

    – Crazy Dr. M found my desire to get onto certain academic blogrolls. my wish to get in with the in-crowd, interesting.

    – The State I’m In has mastered RSS feed, and now he’ll start living in his office.

    – Despite my increase in visitors, I still only have 4 subscriptions to my feed on bloglines. Which means many out there are totally missing out on the RSS revolution!

    I would love to go to this conference in Galicia and discuss Iberian-American digital journalism. First I’ll have to look through the couch cushions for loose euros.

    ps- The upcoming American elections already don’t meet international standards. Just a friendly reminder.

    Today’s Sounds: My Hero Robert Fisk Talking on Democracy Now