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Liselotte @ the Filmmuseum

Yesterday morning I spent a couple of hours with Liselotte at Vertigo, the café at the Filmmuseum. Okay, so they call it the Eye institute now. I don’t care: I don’t like the name. It’s been Filmmuseum for centuries, so to me it stays that way. Damn those marketing bureaus thinking up stupid names just because they might have international appeal.

But that’s not what I wanted to talk about actually. Liselotte wrote a book on television design, ‘Vorm van Vermaak’ its called. The book comes out mid April. She wrote it with Roy van Vilsteren, the vice-editor in chief of the VARAgids. (A TV guide). I interviewed Roy last week for an article in the VPRO Gids (another broadcasting magazine I work for as a freelancer). Liselotte also runs a blog about the subject, which you can check out here.

After my coffee date with Liselotte I wrote an article about a new television programme about comic books, that’s being taped at the moment and will be broadcasted in the fall. I phoned up Gert Jan Pos who wrote the scripts for the show. He appeared to be in Budapest of all places. He was nice enough to answer some questions while standing in the middle of the street somewhere.

I’ve known about the show for a couple of months now, and with news like this, it’s always the question when to publish. Since a couple of comic book makers reported on their blog that they had been interviewed for the show, I felt the time was now to write up a short post on the subject. But lesson learned: next time I learn something I will write about it immediately.

At night, I planned to read a collection of Iron Man comics I’ve been anxious to get to in ages. But cabaret artist Lebbis was on the telly. Although I hadn’t planned on watching the dude, what he said about modern life struck a cord and I laughed from the whole show. Lebbis talked about the fact that we are over-consuming and angrily yelled at all the bankers that caused the economical crisis but got away with it. The bastards are even getting bonuses again like nothing happened. He also had some funny stuff to say about horoscopes and frauds like Uri Geller, on which I couldn’t agree more.

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Merel @ de Balie

Friday was a day well spent. In the morning I had a coffee date with the illustrious Merel Barends, comic book artist working on a large project, namely her first graphic novel. Recently she has written an interesting blogpost about the covers of the many copies of ‘Lolita‘. We drank coffee a plenty and I went home with a nice buzz of caffeine injected in my bloodstream.

Next I wrote a review on the biographical comic about Fokke & Sukke, which got picked up almost immediately on twitter and facebook.

After a simple but still somewhat eatable meal – I cooked it myself and I am still around the next morning to tell the tale! – I managed to edit three short video interviews with bloggers. The first one was recorded in December last year, so yeah, they’ve been waiting for a good video trim for a while now.

Finally I crashed on the couch to read the origin story of the Marvel comic book hero Daredevil. It’s great that there are so many old comics being reprinted in trade paperbacks nowadays.

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Merel at the bar

T huis, Melkweg, 9:00 pm
My friend Merel ordering at the bar in the Melkweg. She, Linda and I just saw the film ‘Doogtooth’. A weird but fascinating film. What do you think caught Merel’s eye and made her look left?

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Smart cookie

Sunday, Vertigo, 1:00 pm 
Most of the time you get a cookie with your tea or coffee. When you’re lucky it’s baked in this century. If you’re very lucky, you get chocolate instead of a stale cookie. Sometimes, the cookie is perfect though. Can’t remember how this one tasted, but I do remember the lively conversation I had with Liselotte in Vertigo when this shot was made. Liselotte is working on a book that’s coming out this April. Exciting stuff.

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Hester

De Bekeerde Suster, 7:00 pm
Hester and I had some burgers in the Bekeerde Suster op de Nieuwmarkt this week. It’s been a while since we saw each other. She’s busy studying. She also went to South America a couple of months ago. Hester will probably publish her Spanish adventures on her blog any time soon.

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Slimer!

Stanislavski, 2:00 pm
This is my friend Merel wearing a sweater with a print of Slimer on it. I love Slimer, it’s one of the funniest animated characters ever and ‘Ghostbusters’ is still one of my favourite movies. Apparently they licensed stuff from Ghostbusters at H&M because they got a bunch of clothes referring to this movie. Though I am getting a bit to old to wear shirts like that, so you won’t see me in a Slimer T-shirt anytime soon.

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Mice beneath the restaurant table

Beiaard, 7:00 pm
Monday last week I had dinner with Paul, a good friend of mine and a cartoonist. Although not all of mine friends are into comic books or drawing comics, a lot of them are. Paul and I are avid comic book readers and naturally the books we had just bought at the ABC were one of the topics of our conversation. The mice that were running on the floor were another one. Apparently it’s quite normal in Amsterdam to have mice walk between your feet when you’re eating a hamburger. Tourists be warned. Makes one wonder what happens in the kitchen after all the lights are out. What has all of this to do with the picture above? Not much, except for the fact that it is the view from our table at the Beiaard.

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Winter landscape @ 22 degrees Celsius

Amsterdam, Cafe de Jaren
Enjoying a view of winter while I am sitting warm inside, enjoying a coffee.

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Coffee @ De Balie

Having a coffee with Marcella at a crowded De Balie. We are sitting on a lovely couch, very relaxing. I look left towards the door enjoying my caffè latte, while Marcella is talking about her little kid. A great way to spend some time on a cold Friday afternoon.

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Freelance buddies

De Engelbewaarder, 5:00 pm
Having a drink and eating some bitter balls (type of croquette served as an appetizer) with my freelance buddies Fee Naaijkens and Jasper van Vugt.

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Tea with Aimée

Stanislavski, 6:30 pm
Monday I had a meeting with Aimée de Jongh. A very talented young comic book artist who also works in animation. Check out her site.

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Slice of life

Stanislavski, 5:00 pm
An everyday scene in a café. Yet a brief and unique moment in time.