Trained from Paris to Amsterdam last Sunday and arrived to find the streets a waft with the sweet smell of da 'erbal.. Every street has at least 2 or 3 of them..
Amsterdam is rad.
I purchased some wheels for use while I'm here and in any other city I visit, a skateboard from a shop not too far from the part of the city I'm staying in. One of the chaps showed me on my newly purchased street map of Amsterdam how to find a skate park suspended in an old shipping dry-dock. Next day I was on an early ferry to afore described skate park. But not before getting myself super lost whilst skating around looking for the central station. It can be such a drag getting lost and realising you were going the wrong way, but the hospitality in Amsterdam thus far has far out weighed that con as I chowed down on cheap pastries, chatting to a local who offered the directions I needed..
First of all, this island had some huge buildings. The skatepark was closed on Mondays so I skated around on a bit of flat the size of a couple of football fields instead. The island is covered in graffiti too, so plenty of scouting was in order. Ended up at a cafe where I indulged in lunch and free wi-fi while the rain came down hard over Amsterdam.
As I made my way back on the ferry I deliberated it was time to hunt vinyl. So hunt I did. From the 4 or so stores I visited I found mostly hip-hop from early west-coast gangsta to Wu-Tang to DJ beats and even old-skool funk. By the time I mailed them all back to Australia this morning along with the records from Paris, there was about 60 vinyls. Picks of the bunch include Wu-Tang 'Forever', Wu-Tang 'Cream', Dr Dre 'Collected Instrumentals' & Ghostface Killah 'Ironman'. Most are records I never thought I'd see, I'm blown away by alot of them.. Much respect Amsterdam!
Speaking of the Wu..
On Monday night I went and saw Wu-Tang at the local entertainment hall. Members who appeared include; Method Man, Ghostface Killah, Masta Killa, GZA, CappaDonna, U-God & Raewkon. The crowd was absolutely hysterical for the clan and the show certainly hit a crescendo when Method Man stood supported by many hands and rapped out some rhymes before crowd surfing back to the stage. Oh yeah.. Amsterdam loves Brooklyn Zoo.. Tribute to Ol' Dirty was quite moving. It was definately something to collectively remember the passing of such an influential character in hip-hop.
R.I.P. ODB.
Friday will see me at Pendulum DJ's set at a club nearby, and Sunday there's a festival with Christian Smith & Umek performing.. Quite a packed scedule this weekend, lucky I'm in a relaxed part of the world!
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