Donald Duck Teaches Kids to Steal

Remember last month when police shut down the music download web site OINK, and arrested its founder? I guess Donald duck doesn't read The Amsterdam Weekly Blog, because in the new Netherlands issue of Donald Duck comics, he and his nephews download tunes in spite of threats from record company executive Uncle Scrooge. Now I'm no legal scholar when it comes to the issues of downloading and sharing music in The Netherlands, but I feel pretty confident that Uncle Scrooge was on shaky legal ground when he entered Donalds' house uninvited, through the window,  and proceeded to jab him with his cane. 

Read the comic without paying for it here.

A Virtual Steal!

Its official: Amsterdam is one of the most popular places on the face of God's green earth. What other city could sell for $50,00 on eBay? But before you plop down that kind of money, you might want to wait for the Euro/Dollar exchange rate to settle down a bit.

Plug your ears, kids!

Some of you may have seen the poster around town for yesterday's mid-week party "F*ck the Weekend" at club Escape (www.escape.nl) While I didn't make it, it did remind me of this essay on obscene words recently published by linguist/philosopher Steven Pinker. It is one of the most thorough papers I have seen on obscenity.

Susanna McGregor Concert

After first hearing her in-studio performance on internet radio, I decided to see Susanna McGregor at Melkweg last night. The sound system was softer than usual, but it served to showcase the Australian songwriter's incredibly dynamic voice. But McGregor's lyrics are what the crowd came for, and here is where she really shines.

In a sense, her show felt more like an investment, for her poetry of secret observations leaves the audience with plenty to think about long after the show is over. Rolling Stone Magazine to pen this brief summary of her last album "Forever Gone".

"...with a voice ranging from sheer anger to shimmering angel, McGregor recounts her time on the road with a clarity and wit that rivals today's best folk songwriters."

The band played mostly songs from that album, but also introduced 3 new songs from an upcoming EP, featuring one duet with Roger Gladwell. I could listen to this stuff all day. I just might.
We'll be heading back to Melkweg for the Splash Festival this Saturday the 27th. Be sure to check out the photo gallery if you go. MariaMaria has produced portraits of bridges, tunnels, and other modern spaces that stand like monuments of modern sculpture, only much more practical. I can't look at large scale construction without thinkng about Manufactured Landscapes, a documentary currently playing around town.

Fly Hunting at the Airport

It's not a real fly, its an etching of a fly. And the reason these urinals were installed in all the urinals at the Schipol airport is that if a guy sees a target, he aims for it. That's men for you, in a nutshell. Research shows that giving a guy something to think about reduces careless "spillage" by a whopping 80%. Not sure what company does this research, but I'm not sure I'd be eating at their cafeteria.

Driving Green

Last March at AutoRAI, The Netherlands Society for Nature and Environment joined several universities in introducing "the first open source car". All the details on the environmentally conscious car were to be made publicly available, in the hopes that the general public would help build and shape the car for the benefit of, well, the general public.

It looked like an interesting project, but the most recent entry on the "What's New" section of the website warned the site was "under construction", and that was almost 2 months ago. Can anyone tell me more about the status of this project?

Soccer Dude Now World Famous

Maybe you were entertaining friends from out of town, or just going to party a little harder than usual, but most of us have found ourselves in Leidseplein square, where one street performer seems to mezmerize more guys per hour than even the window ladies in the red light district. His name is Abdellah, and some of his videos were chosen to be on the "Features Videos" section of Youtube.

While I'm sure Abdellah is wondering how this will make him money, many others still wonder if someone like this would actually be a good soccer player, or just a good halftime show? It reminds us of those guitar players who can play anything at any speed, but never have a band...

The Day the Music Squealed.

Looks like our little city was national news again last week, when OiNK (one of the world's biggest "peer-to-peer" music download sites) was raided and shut down by police. With an average data throughput of several million songs per day, OiNK was the latest casualty in an ongoing battle to curb illegal downloads of music and movies. The raid came right on the heels of a major legal victory for the record companies. Looks like music pirates are either going to have to find an alternative web site to steal share their goods, or get a second job so they can buy it.