Fiona Shaw

I used to go to the theatre in London a lot, and saw a lot of very good actors and actresses. One of those was Fiona Shaw. I first saw her at the RSC playing Celia opposite Juliet Stevenson's Rosalind in "As You Like It", then Kate to Brian Cox's Petruchio in "The Taming of the Shrew", and Mistress Carol opposite Alex Jennings' Fairfield in James Shirley's Hyde Park, a lovely production. And then I saw her again a few years later in "The Way of the World" at the National Theatre. She's an unusual and impressive actress who manages to create something new when she is up on stage. It seems a little sad that her best known work seems to be Aunt Petunia to Harry Potter.

She was in Amsterdam today to present "Readings", a performance directed by Deborah Warner, in which she read some of her favourite poetry. Some Shakespeare and Chekhov, little readings from plays in which she played all the parts. A lot of Yeats and some Dickinson. She moved easily from one piece to another, from one setting to another and created an intimate and moving performance. She ended with the story of Paolo and Francesco in the words of Jeannette Winterson, a moving story very beautifully told. There was such emotion there, that quite amazed me. It was nice to see that one woman, with very few props and staging could hold the attention of the audience with her voice and the words of great poets. I was very tired when I entered the theatre, but spellbound throughout the performance. It took me a little time afterwards to come back down to earth.

Ela(n)stiek

Yesterday I was at a festival, lovely atmosphere and wonderful music. The festival is called Elastiek and it takes place in a small village in the south of the country. A lot happens there, an outdoor market, games for the children, street theatre, and a lot of music. Two big stages, and a lot of performers, with some big names in there. The atmosphere was good, lots of volunteers and very few police. Some places were very crowded, but nobody got aggressive. It is a strange mixture, really. There are a lot of commercial activities, you can buy clothes, jewellery and other trinkets, there are some second-hand bookstalls. You can buy all kinds of food and drink everywhere, get a henna tattoo, support charitable organisations and you can get beer everywhere.

I was there to see An Pierlé again, really. Her first show in the Netherlands for about 6 months, so I couldn't really miss that. She played in a big tent in the Church Square. A slightly shorter concert than usual, and a different atmosphere, because not everybody was in there for the music, and there was a lot of talking at the bar in the background. She left out some of the really quiet songs, a good decision. A very mixed audience this time, some who had never heard of An. I talked to a man who was complaining about having to pay a lot of money for concert tickets to see people who didn't even make much of an effort. This time he got a lot of effort from the people on stage for free. He must have left the tent a very happy man. A lot of children there too, and a lot of photographers.


The accordeon seems to get more and more battered. A few keys were missing last time, this time it seemed to be held together by tape in some places as well. It still produced the right sound though. The little play that is part of Sing Song Sally these days seems to get more and more extensive. An obviously enjoys it.

A lot of children had found themselves a good place between the barrier and the stage. An made good use of that, persuading some 7 or 8 little boys to join her on stage for the final song "Paris s'eveille". The boys needed a little direction at first, but soon they got into the spirit and provided some good dancing in the background.


I had a go at taking pictures again. I'm not that good at taking pictures under such difficult circumstances, but I guess I got lucky and was in the right place at the right time. I actually managed to get some nice photographs this time, and I'm really pleased about that. Now I need a little more practice. The concerts in my backyard are about to start again, so I might have a go at some of those.

Bible

I started rereading the Bible last week. I once read all of it, reading five chapters a day, and I've started doing that again. I've just started Exodus, the big stories of Creation, the Flood, Abraham, Jacob and Esau, Joseph in Genesis behind me, and now Moses to take his people out of Egypt shortly. I'm enjoying doing this again because it's been so long, and though I do know all the stories, it is good to go back to the source and read the details again. I'll be in the middle of the big stories for a while yet, but I'm already looking forward to the psalms and the prophets.

A Grand Day Out

Not Again...

I went swimming again today, and I had to drag myself out of the pool in the end, because I really had to go. Maybe someone can remind me that I'm an idiot next time I decide not to go swimming because there are all these other important things I need to do.

Swifts Again

The sky is full of Swifts today. It's a beautiful sight, those dark, acrobatic flyers against a bright blue sky.

Christy Was Here

Christy played Carré last night. I remember his little brother Luka playing there a few years ago now, a wonderful concert that resulted in the live album "Amsterdam". Now it was Christy's turn. I last saw Christy in Paradiso, twice, about 18 months ago. I can remember the moment he came out on stage, this great personality in a simple black shirt and trousers, but such great stage presence. The concert gave me goosebumps more than once.

Christy can seem the most beautiful, tender ballads, and then turn with great force to his more political songs. And he has all of his great comic stories, the story of Joxer, of Casey and of Knock. They make for some great fun during the concerts. It makes for a varied concert, but he does it all with great commitment and passion. Part of the list, the git's list as it says on Christy's book, really is set, but he will also allow for jukebox time, when the audience can call out requests. There usually are way too many, but he does what he can.

Christy sang his brother's song "City of Chicago", which is a gorgeous song that we were invited to sing along to. Sad, but very beautiful. And he sang the song for Victor Jara, which is very simple but very moving. Nancy Spain is another beautiful and gentle song. And then there is Lisdoonvarna, the song that will get everybody going. I won't put a setlist here, almost all the songs are special for one reason or another. And it amazes me that his man can fascinate this audience for a whole evening without any special effects, no elaborate staging. Just two men and a lot of guitars playing for almost two hours.

And the great thing now is that Luka will be back in Paradiso in October, a game of musical chairs.

Rena, my companion for the evening, wrote down a setlist, and her husband added the pictures at:   Rena's Christy Page

Out In the Dunes

It was a good day out in the dunes today. I went to a different part of the park than the one I usually go to, a little further to the south. It partly overlaps with my usual walk, but it includes some other areas as well. And I got all the way to the beach for a change. It was a beautiful day, it was lovely and sunny, but not too warm because there was a really strong wind. The closer you got to the sea, the more it started blowing. Enough to blow all the cobwebs away. From my head anyway. I did manage to get sunburnt again, I always do on these days when you don't realise just how strong the sun is.

I started out early, so it was still lovely and quiet when I reached the park. I did come across a group of walkers, complete with Nordic walking sticks, and they made a lot of noise, but they soon disappeared out of view. From then on it was mainly bird song, though the usual background noise of the nearby racetrack never did disappear completely.

I do know this park very well, so walking along means I come across a lot of places where I have birding memories. On the northeastern side of the bird lake I saw and heard my first nightingale, many years ago, and on a particularly rainy day I first saw crossbills, a lot of them up in the pine trees just on the other side of the lake. This is the place where I first got a real good look at a kingfisher in my own country, just on the opposite side of the lake, from the bird hide. There is a lovely little quiet corner on the edge of the lake, where you can sit down and be hidden from view, and if you sit there quietly for a while all the little songbirds will show up. Today I got to see a whitethroat, dunnock and willow warbler there. And a little further on a reed bunting and stonechat. And the nightingales were everywhere today.



Today the place belonged to the swifts, though. They arrived back here about a month ago, and they were all over the place today. There must have been a lot of insects, because they were all hunting above the open ground. It was such a beautiful sight. The lovely thing here is that, if you stand up on a hill, they will come whizzing past very close by, on their way down, so you get a really good look at them. And I got a real good look at a cuckoo, another real summer bird. You an usually hear them all through the day, but you hardly ever get to see them properly.



All the summer birds are back, really, it's the middle of the breeding season and you can see and hear that. You can hear the sound of birds all around you, all the different songs, coming from so many directions. You can see the birds flying around with food in their beaks, on the way to the nest, and then sometimes you can hear the young calling from their nests in the trees.

It was also a good day for butterflies, warm enough to get them active. I was very happy to spot these two, a Grizzled Skipper and an Orange-Tip, but that one had really been through the wars.





And I got to see some Common Blues, which I always love, so small but perfect in every way. Walking along one of the sand tracks I also disturbed a Sand Lizard, which was enjoying the sunshine. A rare animal, protected, but you will quite regularly come across one in the dunes. It's a beautiful little animal.

Travelling back on the tram and the train was interesting too. My theory is that the use of mobile phones on public transportation is sponsored by the transportation companies to provide entertainment for the passengers. On the train a woman was in the middle of a big argument with someone, and we could hear every word. If I had been on the other side of the line I would have hung up long before the conversation was actually ended. The woman kept saying to the other person "you should just say what you think and be straight with me", and then went on to tell the other person to listen and shut up. On the tram a woman was discussing her psychological problems with one of her colleagues and talked about a lot of personal things. It does intrigue me, why do people discuss all their personal issues on such a busy train and tram. I once heard a woman end her relationship on such a busy tram. I guess I'm just very old-fashioned. Or boring.

Transportation I

I almost always use either my bicycle or public transport to move about. While out travelling over the years that has provided me with some memorable experiences. I travelled all the way up to the northernmost part of Norway on a very luxurious cruise ship. Not my usual habitat, and I did stand out a little. No cabin, but sleeping on the floor of one of the conference halls, not big meals in the dining room, but sandwiches and salad I brought with me at a table in the lobby. I vividly remember the slightly pitying looks I got from some of the real residents as they moved from one meal to the next. The ship got me to where I wanted to go though, and sailing through the fiords was beautiful.



Then there was cycling all over Shetland, bringing a bike over from Amsterdam on a couple of ferries and a couple of trains. An interesting and challenging experience. On Unst, Shetland's northernmost island I came across one of the best bus stops I've ever seen. It even had its own website at the time. It's under construction at the moment, the website, not the shelter, I think. It was decorated like a proper little house, and I felt very comfortable there. It was intriguing to get this beautifully decorated bus shelter in the middle of nowhere, close to the northernmost point of Shetland.





And then, talking about bus stops, the other great bus stop I know is on Tristan da Cunha. The island has 273 inhabitants, and one long road of just a few kilometres long. There is a bus stop on the edge of the only settlement on the island, Edinburgh of the Seven Seas. There is a bus service taking people down to the Potato patches there. Unfortunately I was there on Sunday, when the bus doesn't run, so it was a long wait, and I didn't have my bicycle this time....

Fashion Palaces

There is an exhibition in the Historical Museum about the old Amsterdam fashion houses. They have dresses and other kinds of clothes and accessories from the early part of the twentieth century up to the sixties. It is very much an exhibition about the era when there still was a great difference between women and ladies, and this was an exhibition about the ladies. There were various fashion houses in Amsterdam in the early twentieth century, some are still around, some have disappeared. The ones still there still have a pretty good reputation, I haven't actually visited all of them. I guess I'm not really a lady.

The exhibition was very stylish too, nicely lit, a lot of items on display, but all very tastefully done. I liked a display of hats, it made me want to start wearing a hat again. I had a lovely pink hat when I was about three I remember. Or rather I know because I've seen the pictures. But anyway, some nice hats here too.



Looking at this year's fashion, some of the dresses on display could be in the shops right now. There was a dress from 1955 which would look very nice for this year. I like it.



And some pretty black ones that are not unlike some of my own dresses. And I liked this piece as well, Very modern in some ways and dated in others.



They also had a great wall of posters and prints, with a lot of different images, advertisements from the different eras. Different styles of clothing, different styles of design, but again, mostly very tasteful.




One of the best things about the exhibition is near the end. An old-fashioned fitting room, with wooden models of dresses and suits, and mirrors all around. A great place to play with a camera...

Greta Garbo

I've for a long time been fascinated by Greta Garbo. She was born just over 100 years ago in Stockholm, and she lies buried there now. She spent most of her life in the United States though, first living on the West Coast, then in New York. Her life seems to be a long series of contradictions. At some point she was probably the most
famous face in the world, while at the same time she was always trying to protect her privacy. She is known for some relationships with other famous people, but she spent all her life living alone. For a while she was the most photographed person in the world, and then she spent the greater part of her life running from the cameras. The more I read about her, the less I seem to know.

I saw five of her films at some point, and was fascinated by this woman. She looked beautiful but unapproachable. The films are very dramatic, beautifully designed and shot. My favourite was and is Ninotchka, because it is fun, and because it is the most timeless of the films. Some of the others are very much of their time.

A few years ago I visited Stockholm and I went to visit Garbo's grave at Skogskyrkogården. It's a beautiful cemetery, very green and spacious. I wandered round there on my own for a while, and ended up at Garbo's grave. It's a simple site, but spacious and green, like the whole cemetery. You can sit down there and enjoy the quiet, be really alone. I wasn't completely alone though, out here I saw my first ever pied flycatcher. It sat on a branch near the gravestone, and was absolutely stunning. It is such a beautiful little bird.

I started collecting some postcards and photographs round that time too. I saw a picture of her, an old postcard, which I bought and then found some more. She looks different in all her films, and some images are absolutely perfect. The picture I like best isn't a postcard, as far as I know, it's a still. Beautiful though.



And some of the postcards are stunning too. She looks different in all:

BBC Radio

Years ago, when I was still living in another place, I used to listen to BBC Radio at least a couple of hours a day. I listened mainly to the World Service and to Radio 4 and there were a lot of shows I loved. I used to listen to all these classic comedies programmes. Some of them were recorded before I was born, and they certainly were before I learned to speak English, but I did enjoy them. My favourite was always the Navy Lark, a small cast of characters, a predictable story line and lots of catchphrases. The series had something wonderfully naive and uncomplicated about it though, and it did always make me laugh. Then there was Hancock's Half Hour, I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again, Round the Horne, The Goon Show, and Take It From Here.

I also listened to the new comedy shows, like Radio Active, Just A Minute, I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue, On the Hour and my favourite, The News Quiz. I taped most of the shows so I could listen to them again and again. I know some of the old episodes of The News Quiz by heart.

Then I moved here and I couldn't listen to my old favourites anymore. Suddenly I had no more Radio 4 or World Service. I sometimes listened to my old tapes, and to the tapes I bought from the BBC shop. I missed new episodes of the News Quiz though, and the TV version just wasn't as funny...

And now, through the miracle of the internet, I can listen to my old favourites again. There are more reruns of the Navy Lark, Hancock and Round the Horne, and new episodes of I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again. I can hear all the new variations of Mornington Crescent! And I have my News Quiz back. And it's still as funny as it was. No Barry Took, unfortunately, but Sandi Toksvig is a great chairperson.

And I don't just get the comedy, I also get the drama. I get to listen to the Lord Peter Wimsey stories, and right now Alex Jennings is one of the performers on "Nicholas Nickleby".

City Birding

Sitting at my desk in the office on the fourth floor I have a wonderful view across Amsterdam. Today I saw a Stork flying past, so I grabbed my binoculars, never too far away, and sat birdwatching at my desk. I remember seeing a Stork fly past from the same building before, a few years ago, but at the time I was in a meeting on the eighth floor of the building. My manager at the time was a birder too, so when I saw the bird fly past I looked straight at him, he looked at me and we both said: "It is, isn't it?" He was chairing the meeting at the time and this caused some laughter at the time.

I do get to see a lot of birds from where I am. You will always have the gulls, or my Dutch albatrosses, the pidgeons, the jackdaws and the jays. Now, in the summer I get all these swifts doing their acrobatics right outside my window. Sometimes I see geese, ducks or cormorants. There must be many more, but I am expected to get a little work done while I'm there so I don't get to see everything. There always is enough to see though.

Reading Again

I just finished another interesting novel, "Tulip Fever" by Deborah Moggach. A few years ago I went through a period when I just couldn't find anything good to read. I asked some friends for tips at the time, and ended up with a long list of books to read. It must be about six years ago now, and I still take to that list when I'm looking for inspiration. I got some really nice and interesting suggestions at the time.

One friend suggested rereading Jane Austen, which I did a couple of years ago. All of the novels, except for Emma, were on board Europa, and I read them on the crossing from Cape Horn to the Cape of Good Hope. I don't know why, but I can reread those books over and over again. Good stories and characters, the language is Wonderful and so is the humour. The same friend made me go back to Lord Peter Wimsey and his Harriet. Again, I love the stories and the humour, but in this case it is mainly the characters. I am a great fan of both Peter and Harriet. Maybe I was influenced a little by the wonderful tv adaptation which starred Edward Petherbridge and Harriet Walter, two of the best British actors. I always have them in my mind when I think of Lord Peter and his wife.

And she gave me a book that always makes me smile when I think of it. "I Capture the Castle" by Dodie Smith is just such a perfect novel. It has atmosphere, eccentricity, great characters and a wonderful story. The kind of book you want to read over and over again just to recapture the great joy of it. A film was made of it not too long ago, but that just didn't capture the magic of the novel. I'd rather read it because it sparks my own imagination.

Another friend sent me a recommendation that did exactly the same for me, she got me to read Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy. A story that is on the edge of fantasy and reality, that keeps moving all over the place and always manages to take you with it. Whenever I talk to friends about the islands north of Norway these novels come to mind. And again, I don't necessarily need to see the play or the film, I like the images I have in my own mind. I know Pullman has written a lot more, and I will get round to reading more.

The friend who recommended this one to me was also the one who sent me to "Tulip Fever" and to "Girl with a Pearl Earring", two books about my own country and about painting. I know Delft very well, so reading about Vermeer I recognised the environment without any problems. And I know Amsterdam well, so I could also move about the city with the main characters in "Tulip Fever".

The lists my friends sent me is almost finished now, just a few more to go, and then I'll have to start thinking again. Or maybe ask my friends again. But, any suggestions anyone?

Mika

Some time ago I watched Jools Holland's Later on BBC 2. It's a wonderful music programme for grown ups. I watched it because one of my top two favourite singers, Christy Moore, was on. It then turned out that Yusuf Islam was on as well, and he gave a wonderful performance there. As did Christy, of course. One of the other guests was a rather unusual singer, called Mika, who just sang one song seated at the piano. I wasn't sure what to think of him.

Then, shortly after, there was an album up on the Luisterpaal, with an enormously brightly coloured sleeve, Mika's "Life in Cartoon Motion". I didn't make the connection at the time, I wondered whether or not I should listen to this album, and in the end I didn't. You can't listen to everything.

But I couldn't escape this one. A little while later again I went to see a friend, and she had the cd and was very enthusiastic about it. She played it during lunch, but we were all talking so I never really got to listen to it at all, I just heard it in the background.

For some reason this man seemed to be haunting me though, and shortly after again I accidentally ended up watching the Lollipop video on some music channel, and I just really liked it. So I looked for more on the internet, and, yes, of course, I bought "Life in Cartoon Motion". I often play it, and it always cheers me up. It's way over the top, I guess, but I don't really care. It's good fun!

Habit or Temptation?

I've grown so used over the past few months to cycling down the PC Hooftstraat instead of all the way through the park, by far the nicer of the two, that I still automatically cycle down the shopping street. Is this just habit, or is my desire to see all those pretty dresses in the shopwindows stronger than I would care to admit?

Swallowtail

Last week I saw, for the first time near Amsterdam, a Swallowtail. I'd seen them in Barcelona, and once in the very south of my own country, but never near my home town. The sad thing is, however, that I found it on the road, it had been hit by a car, and its body was damaged. The only thing to do was to put it in the grass by the roadside and to hope it would recover. I am not so sure that it did. So I have mixed feelings about finding this beautiful butterfly here.

Rising Damp

This morning I cycled into work in the rain again. It's been a long time since that was the case, after all the dry and warm weather we've been having. It felt good, though, I actually enjoyed it. I did discover that my waterproof cycling gear isn't quite waterproof. My knees are decidedly damp.

Gabriel

I spent the evening in Paradise, close to Mr. Gabriel Rios. Well, it was actually Paradiso, and there were about five metres separating me from the gentleman. But it sounds nice, anyway. It was a strange evening in some ways.

Today is Remembrance Day in the Netherlands, so at 8 p.m. the place got completely silent for two minutes. It was weird, because there was a lot of noise in the hall, and then it was as if the place was frozen in time. Everyone was quiet and stood completely still. Then the noise came back just as before. Paradiso used to be a church, and just for a moment it felt like one again.

When Gabriel Rios came on stage I had a little trouble recognizing him. He wasn't wearing his lovely, woolly, knitted hat.... I was looking forward to seeing the hat. He was stylishly underdressed, apart from his wonderfully colourful shoes. He is very cute, all dark and handsome and very charming. I must confess he did sometimes remind me a little of Mr. Bean though, and he does seem awfully young, which says more about me than about him, I guess. Still, I can think of worse things to look at for a whole evening.


I was about two metres from the stage, and was surrounded by mainly young girls, dancing most of the evening, staring up at this man up on stage. They came in small groups, and sometimes seemed too busy amongst themselves to have a clue about what was going on on stage. And then there are the mobile phones though, and the need to share each text message as it arrives. Rios did manage to catch the eyes though. And he did get the whole hall dancing in the end. A little shake of the hips at just the right moment worked wonders.

He sang some quiet songs, but mainly faster songs that people could dance to. When he started "Broad Daylight" someone in the audience handed him a packet of orange juice, because the track was used in the commercial for that brand of juice. He drank it there and then.

I was reminded of when I first heard Rios' music last year. While I was sailing to Antarctica. One of the crew members really liked "Broad Daylight" and it was on his "favourites" cd, the one that was played after every meal, when the crew were doing the dishes, and at various times in between meals. I was in the cabin next to the galley, and heard the song over and over again, even while I was seasick. Or sometimes in the middle of the night. Hearing it so often didn't necessarily make me a Rios fan at the time, though I did sort of like the song.

I do keep wondering why some people come to concerts. The amount of talking and noise amazes me. You cannot really listen to the music because there always are people talking somewhere near you. Even when Gabriel asked the audience to be quiet just for one song some girls in front of me decided this was a good time to use their phone to take each other's picture and to have a giggle. Apparently these days Dutch audiences are notorious for their habit to just keep talking throughout the concert.

Anyway, I just thought I'd take some pictures of Gabriel instead....