Amsterdam!

Around June, just after I'd arrived in Sweden I still had my Amsterdam experience fresh on my mind. So I started thinking, and those thoughts coupled with the fact I'd just FB friended a Dutchman I'd met at Revolution 909 in Amsterdam earlier that month, led me to book flights and tickets to 'Welcome to The Future' festival in August..

So here's the low down on what went down.

Rolled out of Kristianstad on the Friday afternoon with ominous storm clouds beginning to encroach southern Sweden with the dilemma; Do I bother with buying a ticket over the bridge or not.. well, my decision not to turned out to be a bad one with there actually being a ticket inspector between Malmö and Kastrup (Copenhagen airport), which is strange because I haven't seen that before and I'd been told by people not to bother because there's never inspectors, and after I stammered and stuttered out my excuse to this inspector in my best confused tourist voice he warned me in Swedish not to try it again or else it'd be an 800 crown fine. fail.

My flight was delayed 2 hours while they waited for a trustworthy aircraft to land and replace the broken one they'd intended to use, which was slightly annoying, but I did get to watch most of the second season of East Bound & Down.. so not all was shit.
I gotta say, Amsterdam is a beautiful city at sunset, especially descending into Schipol at that time of day. We even flew in low over Amstel Park and the particular part of it where Revolution 909 was held which made me very nostalgic in such a warm and fuzzy way!

After making my way into Amsterdam via train, Ruben and his friend Daan came to meet me with my loaner bicycle for the weekend and off we rode to Ruben's apartment. The two of them tried to apologise straight off the bat for the smell of cat piss at the bottom of the stairs, but I didn't give a shit, the house was so awesome. It was like old student housing with that twist of Amsterdam which looks like it's only being held up by the fact it's squeezed between two other houses. Ruben generously gave up his bed for me for the weekend, and after I was told 'no arguments' we got down to living like Romans.

Festival day started with a massive breakfast of spaghetti, kudos to Ruben on that one, top notch move given the hard day of partying ahead of us. I say 'hard' only as an adjective referring to the intensity of the party, not at all to the hour and a half we spent on the bikes trying to get home after the festival.
But I digress.. Amsterdam is such a special city. I found myself indulging in the fact I was riding a beat-up old town bike to a large festival through the streets with guys I hardly knew sucking on cold Heinies, and feeling seriously jealous at my fellow party-goers for the simple fact they live in what I'd now say is my favourite city in the world. Berlin is certainly in contention there, but I don't know anyone there, nor is it full of Dutch.



This is Jordy, who I met at Revolution 909 and ran into here. Busting what appears to be a form of the Melbourne Shuffle mixed with what the locals call the Dutch Shuffle.

The festival was in full swing upon arrival and thanks to the tightest security I'd ever seen at a festival I missed a lot of Egbert's set, but I at least managed to catch him play 'Haasten', a true techno anthem his home-town crowd went mental for. I think after that point I ventured out of the techno tent once for a beer and once for a quick wander around, otherwise I ignored everything else including bodily functions not even moving to relieve myself. I even ran into a few other cats I'd met at Revolution 909 which was completely random, but super cool they remembered me!

Thomas Schumacher started average but played some bangin' tracks, followed by the crowd pleaser 'Secret Cinema' and one of my personal favourites, 'Slam'. The evening finished off with Ben Klok who really got the crowd riled up with his driving synths and bass lines along with a well interesting light show. All the day and night too people were critiquing performances with the same sort of appreciation you'd give wine, or a painting of a naked woman eating an apple. All too soon the party was over and as soon as we'd gathered the crew together the usual arguement ensued, 'do we go to the after-party'.



Ben Klok towards the end of the night. You can see Ruben and Daan in the white t-shirts rocking the fuck out! Rock on boys!

What a fiasco that proved to be. Ruben was sure he knew the way, but someone else took charge and we ended up riding for what seemed like hours, completely wrecked from the festival. We found the party, but the line wasn't really moving and we decided to just retire to a friend's apartment for the wind-down.

When you go to another country and you don't speak the language people generally switch to English for your sake, but given the state of everyone all I heard was Dutch, and every now and then people would apologise and switch back to English, but I honestly really enjoyed listening to Dutch all weekend. It's very similar to Swedish, and has cool sayings like 'not in my street'. I think I'm going to try and learn some Dutch when I go home, make a stop at the foreign language book store and see what I can come up with.

Sunday was spent watching tv and chilling out. David Attenborough's 'Blue Planet' copped a work out, and MTV had a 'Community' marathon. Classic. I wish I could write more about what we did that day, but that quite literally sums it up.

On the Monday we decided to actually get out and do something, and that involved hopping to various record stores to check Amsterdam's stock of techno. RushHour records wasn't the best hunting ground for me the first time in Amsterdam, but with Ruben and his friend Reyn, who also spins vinyl, I found perhaps 7 or 8 worthy vinyls to add to my collection. With the vinyls I've already sent home and the ones bought in Berlin I think I'm up to around 70 or 80 for the whole trip, which I'm very impressed with and certainly itching to get home and listen through and start working into my sound. Monday finished off with enjoying some pints at a little street cafe in the city, while my counterparts sipped on 'gay' beers, then to the airport to fly back to Copenhagen.

The pricks at Schipol took my Polo Black cologne off me, because you're not allowed liquids on the plane.. I mean, they let me through Copenhagen with it, why not there?!? Well, this is Amsterdam, explained the security officer. I don't get double standards on security in airports, consistency seems like it should paramount when letting people onto planes.

Whatever.. You really couldn't top this Amsterdam experience, or knock me off my perch, so I told the guy to fuck off and I was on my way.

Massive thanks to Ruben for firstly trusting I wasn't some psycho and letting me stay in his house over the weekend, and secondly being such an excellent host and guide for the weekend. I will certainly be back to visit if not live for a while in Amsterdam. Also thanks to all his friends for being so hospitable, especially Daan for the loan of his bike. To all of those guys, you're all more than welcome to stay with me in Melbourne city, or wherever I may be living at the time. I'd love to show you guys around my home city and the way we do it down under!

Peace and Love,
Elzor.

Now here's Bob with the weather..

It's well and truely summer in Sweden. I swear I bring the sun with me, last time I was here it was about the same. The last week has been 20-25° and sun from about 10 am through to sun down at 10 pm.

Gloating aside, I've been keeping busy. Last time we spoke I was considering working on the house in Yngsjö and planning to go to a filthy forest rave..

Over the previous weekend I worked on the house smashing and removing a concrete floor to make way for insulation and a new floor. Manual Labour Elliot got his work on, it's just a shame there was no Beer Wench Barbie to keep me hydrated. It took me a couple of days to finish the job, or rather, get to a point where it'd take another 30 minutes to finish. The battery in my mp3 player ran out so I bailed on that, fuck that shit fuck that shit =) Cutty's Rotary club held their annual presidential changeover party which I was lucky enough to get an invite to. Free booze, heaps of food, need I say more? Bailed early and ended up sleeping 12 hours for the first time in a very very long time. I haven't been sleeping much while I've been here, I think it's because I just don't need the energy. Life is Hard.

I've inked myself again as well. Very impressed with Johny's work, both with his art and the final result, plus the gang there is well friendly so now there's always a spot I can go and hang and talk shit, it's just a bit shit I've only got a few more days left in Kristianstad until the end of my ramble in August.

I'm off to a forest rave this weekend. Judging by the posts on FB it's poorly organised and there's been cancellations.. but fuck it. How often do you get to roll out into the forest and bash trance with a bunch of foreigners?? I guess this is generally how it is with these underground events, no one is getting paid so there's no 'real' motive to get the shit done properly. It must be like Wayne's World, if you book them they will come. There's still gonna be plenty of artists there, but if the sound system is rubbish I think I will have to bail home, Kristianstad days start this weekend so there'll always be an alternative=)

Off to the forest again next week except this time to the archipelago north of Gothenburg where I'll be working in the kitchen, hopefully some time off to go check Lisaberg and the world's biggest wooden roller-coaster, oh and the 3rd largest drop in the world, 3rd only to the 2 drops at Dream World on the Gold Coast. Maja gets home from Taiwan while I'm away, but she'll be at Sparreviken a few days later which will be very exciting!

Working on photos.. they'll come soon and on FB =)

peace,
Elzor

Midsummer - Comin' home..

I'm in Sweden. I hid while Karin let herself into the house, and popped out and said 'hi, how are you..?'

She got the shock of a lifetime, but it was hilarious and mildly euphoric at the same time. She walked around the house for about 2 hours following this saying 'I feel tricked, you all tricked me'. Which we did, everyone knew about it except her.

Joking aside. I've been here close to 2 weeks now, the language has improved dramatically, I didn't realise how much I'd forgotten until I sat at the dinner table and couldn't keep up with the conversations. I suppose it's a matter of getting used to thinking that way again. I mean, I hear all the words, but getting my mind around the meaning of them all without having to translate in my head and then try and keep up with the conversation is the hard part.

We celebrated Karin & Carlo's silver jubilee on my first weekend at Askasträdet, which is the name of the street in Yngsjö where they've bought a very traditional looking cottage. The cottage was once home to eel farmers, eel being the local delicacy. It's in a state of ruin at the moment, but they're renovating and hopefully will live down there in years to come. It's abut 800 metres from Yngsjö beach, which, if you're from Australia.. is not a beach. Patch of sand next to the sea is a closer approximation. Anyway, with some luck I'm going to be helping renovate over the summer. I've bought myself a MIDI controller for mixing live which I'm going to take down there, stay a few nights and chill out in the middle of nowhere..

On the flip side of that week, we celebrated Midsummer. Pickled herring, potato, chives, schnapps, rum, beer, goon-sack. Need I say more? No. We celebrated at the residence of a friend of Karin & Carlo in Åhus. From the house you can clearly see Åhus main beach, you could literally piss onto it from the balcony, but manners in mind, you wouldn't. Passed out on the couch by 7 pm, missed out on strawberries and cream, but woke up for cheese. Played celebrity heads with the gang, who in the spirit of my presence picked John Farnham (They call him Yon Farn-Heim.. I was nearly in hysterics. We're not gonna live in silence, We're not gonna live in fear..) and Paul Hogan.. The Crocodile Man. We sang 'Love Me Tender' (Lavv Mi Tänder) as a midsummer song, except the words were all written in phonetic Swedish, and because 'th' sounds don't exist in Swedish, it was all 'f' or 'd'.. like little kids before they learn to speak properly. Golden time had by all, another classic midsummer memory, of sorts, to chalk up!

I also spent the night in a small part of Åhus called Äspet. It's right across the river from the Absolut factory, and it's where my second host family lives during the summer. Cilla is an amazing cook, and Swedes aren't shy with the booze. So after bruschetta, chicken, potatoes, wine, beer, prosecco, strawberries, coffee and whiskey I walked with Caroline's boyfriend, André, to the local pub where we sat by the water and sipped on G+T's while the sun sunk slowly behind the fortress of Absolut Vodka.
Fun had by all.

So now I'm sitting contemplating the next month of activities. I'm going to head out into the forest next weekend for a bush-doof called 'BaseCamp', which is a Swedish trance label from Stockholm. They're celebrating their 5th birthday in style with a 4 day doof including some of Europe's and indeed Sweden's finest progressive and psy DJ's and producers. Weather permitting, it's gonna be fuckin' dope. Then I've been invited to spend 16 days on the archipelago north of Gothenburg cooking in the kitchen for a summer camp. No TV, no FB, no phone reception. Escap-e..

Stay tuned for the next installment, we'll just have to wait and see what it contains!

Berlin cont.

Welcome to Berlin, the cleanest of the European cities so far and the most graffitied!

I rolled into Berlin last Tuesday after a 6 hour train ride from Amsterdam. Let me tell you, as much as I loved Amsterdam I was happy to see the back of that city, tourist lifestyle in that city can be taxing on the mind and body.
My first impression of Berlin was 'large, graffitied, German'..

My hostel was the best I'd stayed in so far, clean with fully functioning amenities, but unfortunately no wireless in the rooms. There's a bar on the rooftop too which runs an all night happy hour depending on the mood of the bar staff. They ran all night happy hour on Wednesday night to celebrate the birthday of a staff member, which was good for the hip pocket as it cost about 10 Euro to get roaring drunk. Tuesday was quite packed in the hostel as System of A Down were playing a concert the following evening in Berlin. I had it on good intelligence though that the best party in town would be on the eastern side of Mitte, old East Berlin, warehouse districts. Always a fan of the underground party scene I found my way to the warehouses, which is a large block of dilapidated buildings turned into a web of cafes, art studios, night clubs, squats and assorted boutiques. There were 2 parties on that night, progressive/psy and Berlin minimal themed. So cheap for entry too, 6 Euros for both parties, needless to say, Berlin being the home of electronic in Europe, the tunes were bangin' and the party raged into the wee hours. The thing I was most blown away by was that outside the clubs were scores of people hanging out drinking and partying, painting with spray cans and just generally taking advantage of the sense of ideological freedom provided by the culture permeating from the community that has come to call this part of Berlin home.

Berlin struck me as this town which for so long had been oppressed by Soviet dictatorships, and when the wall came down Berliners said to eachother.. 'OK, now we may do as we please. So, we will.. And we who are visual artists, the city is our canvas. And we who are musicians will create a sound so unique the only way to describe it is Berlin Minimal'.. And I understand a little more the meaning of JFK's statement, 'Ich bin ein Berliner'. All Berliners should be proud to be from such a liberal and open part of the world, especially in such a backwards racist continent like Europe. I mean, you have Szarkozy and Berlesconi in the south who are trying to close their borders to stop the inflow of refugees and banning the wearing of burkas, and then you have Berlin, where it is OK to get around nude. I just wish Australia could take some cues from cities like Amsterdam and Berlin and relax a little.. like Cypress Hill says, legalise it.
I mean, there are parks where you can go and be nude, there are people dressed in all sorts of clothes, there are districts like Mitte which are full of some of the largest murals and stencils I've ever seen, and most of all I found Berliners to be relaxed. Unlike Paris there seemed to be no rush to be anywhere.. You're in Berlin, that seemed to be enough. I suppose the only problem I had was that I was so wrecked from travelling I didn't feel interested enough in taking in any of the culture.

I did find though a part of Berlin with a 40 metre high mural behind a wall which marked a part of where the wall once was, and had plenty of info about the cultural influence of the wall and how it was received both in East and West Berlin. It moved me inside reading about people who jumped from their East Berlin windows in the hope they'd land in West Berlin and survive the fall. When I lived in Sweden I listened a lot to a band called Ebba Grön who sings in Swedish about the wall and I finally felt a higher understanding towards the emotions Berliners and indeed anyone who is even moderately socially aware feels towards the period of time the wall was in existence and the cultural rebuilding that took place after. It almost moved me to tears reading everything on this wall, the fact that I will never fully comprehend how it was, and that finally I could comprehend on a higher level than I had previously experienced. And it troubles me that I can't fully describe in words the experiences I felt whilst in Berlin.

All I can say otherwise is go to Berlin and experience for yourself. Be a Berliner for a day.. I loved Berlin and I will certainly return for a deeper cultural experience.



Besides taking in and acknowledging the liberal vibe of the city, I met more Australians than I had anywhere else. I met one dude named Evan from Byron Bay who had been travelling for some time and was on his way to Norway to work and we both agreed that travelling takes its toll on ones back so we found the nearest massage parlour and had the most amazing Thai massage anyone could hope for. So after feeling like a new person we decided to take the train together to Malmö where he would take the train to Stockholm and I to Kristianstad. It was nice for a change to have a like minded individual to travel with and share an experience with, and hopefully we'll get to meet up again in either Norway or Sweden.

(This piece of graffiti is quite famous, I'm not sure the name of the artist but the character is rather well known amongst fans of graffiti and street art. I was fucking stoked to see this one!)

So here I am, coming to you direct from Sweden.. Soon will be time for writing about Sweden, but for now sharing my experience in Berlin seems enough.

Berlin

I'll write more in regard to Berlin, but this is just plain funny.

I found a shop in old East Berlin, the very funky, hip and trendy suburb of Mitte, a shop that'll put anything on a t shirt or jumper for you. And some of you will know I lost my Wu-Tang jumper last year in unfortunate circumstances, so I decided to ask if they could do me another one. The lady in the shop didn't speak English overly well, and she didn't understand me when I asked if she had Word on her desktop so I could type the design out for a better understanding. Instead, I chose to show her a photo of me wearing the jumper that a girl from Melbourne had taken for her blog. ( www.missmacrostyle.com ) She seemed to understand my point and I paid for it and was told to return in 2 hours.

Upon return she seemed very happy to see me and then she produced the jumper..










I'm not in that greater mood just now, I've been awake for a couple of days at this point and I couldn't get to sleep in my sleeper carriage..


I was like eeerrrr, umm..... woa.. That's the coolest fucking jumper I've ever seen!

I'm very impressed and it definately tops my Dutch effort, but both are special in their own ways. To add, one of the dudes in the hostel suggested taking a photo of me wearing the jumper with his mate, then his mate will get that photo on a shirt, then the cycle can continue. We thought to start an FB page and only let people become members if they have a shirt with a photo of themselves with the last person to get the design wearing their design. Sounds moderately complicated and stupid, but it's quite an idea for a random chain!

Oh well, thought I'd share that one.. I'm in Sweden now. ner ner. Need sleep, after that.. There'll be more to share about Berlin and of course the trip and the surprise in Sweden!

xx

R909

I was hanging out for this all week.

Wu-Tang was rad but I knew this show would be special. I had to take a bus out to the location through the southern suburbs of Amsterdam to a large park with a space for holding regattas and a palace sort of restaurant overlooking the finishing line for the rowers. The walk from the bus to the actual location took about 25 minutes, and I had to pass through a couple of check-points through clearings and car-parks to make it to the ground. I was blown away by the scenery as soon as I got in though. On one side was more water, at the front was the stage, and trees surrounding the rest of it. Myself, Elliot, and about 800 Dutch, representing team techno.
I was especially interested in this because I'm learning much about electronic styles of music and the way they're consumed. First of all, there's a scene, with many different producers, engineers and DJ's coming together to create something different. A new sound, and new feel, a new depth. I mean, in Aus.. we're lucky to get to see any big names in open air or club, and promoters and show producers know all they have to do is put some big names on a bill and the people will come.. No structure, no artistic merit, nothing!!

Not the Dutch my friends, these people were critically discussing each set as the evening progressed.. A few of the people I met were happy to be informative about who makes the better tunes in Holland and Berlin. But all were in favour of Umek's set being the best.. Umek played about 4 pm and rocked out old-skool classic techno, and he conquered.. even if it was a bit of a tease ;-P But then came Remy, who's deep basslines, puzzled percussion and driving techno and synth melodies interwove themselves into a beast that got this crowd fucking riled, and the crowd matched it pumping more energy into cheering on their hometown hero and dancing like crazy than the rest of the day combined.
Big word up to Christian Smith though, who brought his trademark Tronic sound to the decks. I've been a big fan of his label for some time and it was special to see the man perform, but my heart totally belonged with Remy and the Dutch that day!

Made it home in one piece, about 70€ lighter, but with a stack of mad photos and a full Dutch outfit I purchased from some kid. It's this sweet orange blazer with red, blue and white buttons, an orange hat with a flashing halogen on the front and some pimpin' orange sunnies (which are hanging off my sunnies).

What a day, what a score, what a week, what a city.. I've been a complete night owl in Amsterdam, I think some of it might be jet lag, but everyone else in the hostel is a tourist and here to see touristy shit, so I get rad r&r in the room during the day, then hit the town while suckers are drunk and passed out from hostel-organised pub-crawls.. I'm totally stoked to say that as far as being a tourist goes, I've been doing it wrong in Amsterdam. I've been to a coffeeshop every day and ate pancakes once, but that's it. I will say this though, despite that I've had a very Dutch experience. I've hung out with and chatted with many walks of life in Amsterdam, including having a smoke with a somewhat homeless looking man while we chatted in broken Swedish and Dutch. I've also managed to avoid all social events involving backpackers i.e. pub-crawls (shudder) but instead got to experience the techno scene first hand through record stores, R909 and some other clubs I visited.

Massive respect to the followng; Wu-Tang, Swiss-French homies who saw the Wu in Geneva the week before, The Austrians, Rudy, Caleb, Bo, Jordy & the rest of the clowns from R909, 5€ special pizzas available on every street corner in Leidesplein, and Anna & Metta for making sure I got on the right bus back to Amsterdam and got off near my Hotel. Oh and let's not forget the hip-hop scene, if it weren't for that I wouldn't have been able to collect so many priceless additions to my collection.

..The rest of Amsterdam is for when I'm old and some record label pays me to produce in Holland, otherwise, I came, I saw, I aquired what I wanted, and now I'm off to the crown-jewel in dance, Berlin.

peace,
Elzor

AAAAAMMMMMSTEEEERRRRDDAAAAAMMMMMMMM!!!!

Amsterdam is rad.

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!