Vanmorgen gezellig aan de koffie gezeten met Liselotte op onze vaste stek De Balie. Ze is een dierbare vriendin die ik tijdens mijn studie Filmwetenschap heb leren kennen en eigenlijk een van de weinige studiegenoten die ik tegenwoordig nog zie. Liselotte gaat de komende dagen bloggen voor Sonic Acts en heeft plannen voor een boeiend project – waar ik verder nog even niets over mag vertellen. Hou haar in de gaten zou ik zeggen. Dat kan heel makkelijk, ze blogt namelijk hier.
Ik ben deze week druk met het voorbereiden van een interview donderdag, maar voor een koffiedate met een goede vriendin maak ik graag tijd. Liselotte is net als ik zzp’er dus we hadden heel wat te klagen over de slechte tarieven, stomme overheidsplannen en verwante zaken. Gelukkig hadden we tussendoor ook een hoop lol en een paar koffie verkeerds om de misère weg te spoelen. Liselotte is overigens net als ik blogger. Ze blogt hier maar vooral ook hier. Lees haar en geniet, zou ik zeggen.
Een opmerkelijk verhaal: een zwerver en ex-junkie had een gouden stem en werd opgemerkt door iemand met een flipcamera. Mensen van een radiostation zagen de video en namen de man in dienst. Sindsdien heeft hij werk, een dak boven zijn hoofd en een vriendinnetje. Het kan verkeren. Ik zag deze video tijdens de avond van Upload Cinema in de Stadsschouwburg waar de top 40 beste webvideo’s van het afgelopen jaar werden vertoond. Ik was er samen met Liselotte Doeswijk die als een van de video-experts haar top vijf had ingestuurd.
En zo zag het er dus vanaf mijn plekje in de zaal uit.
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.
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.
Leidseplein, 12:00 pm
After a coffee with Liselotte, we passed by these urinals. They’re standing cosy next to these little Xmas houses where they sell food and drinks. Hardly hygienic, don’t you think?
Saturday, 2:30 pm
Walking down the stairs at Tuschinski, the greatest cinema in Amsterdam, after watching a very interesting documentary with Liselotte. ‘Getuige 1 Minuut’, the new film by Hans Heijnen.
Stanislavski, 5:00 pm
Sunday I had a coffee with the lovely Liselotte Doeswijk who’s an expert on webvideo’s. With been friends for ages, ever since we met at university. Last year I interviewed her about her work at the Institute of Sound and Vision in Hilversum.
Home, 10:00 pm
Sunday I met Liselotte for a coffee date. Because I posted my 850th blogpost the day before she brought me some sunflowers. The times I’ve gotten flowers from a lady I can count on one hand. And I can hardly say I’ve got green fingers. Still, getting flowers is nice.:)
By the way: the number of post do not include these Daily Webhead postings, only the stuff I published on Mike’s Webs and my new site. Just so you know.
Stanislavski, 3:00 pm
Last weekend it was Uitmarkt in Amsterdam. The Uitmarkt is the national opening of the cultural season and the largest cultural festival in the Netherlands. Visitors get a taste of what is to come in the cultural season and see free samples of musical performances, theatre, film and all kinds of other cultural outings. Since a lot of people come to town, it basically boils down to standing in line for long lengths of time. I took this shot while waiting for Liselotte, my coffee date for Sunday. What you see is only a small portion of a very long line of people, waiting to get into the theatre to see a free preview. When Liselotte arrived a few moments later, it was so crowded that we could forget about getting a cup of coffee, so we moved to Vertigo in The Vondelpark. It was pretty busy there too, but they only forgot to bring us the second round of drinks this time. Which, considering, isn’t a bad score for Amsterdam catering.