No more Dutch chronic for Snoop Dogg



Is there a more typically Amsterdam scene than seeing a world famous rap star bicycling to his favourite coffeeshop, like Snoop’s doing here during a 2008 visit? Yet, as I’ve blogged about two weeks ago, the current government wants to ban foreigners from all Dutch coffeeshops and today they confirmed that yes, even Amsterdam coffeeshops would no longer be able to serve tourists. Which means Snoop has to get his “chronic” elsewhere in future and with him some twentyfive percent of all tourists visiting Amsterdam, something even the rightwing VVD faction in the city council finds absurd. Not only would it be a serious economic blow to the city, it would also mean the soft drugs trade being driven underground, tourists getting their fix from the street rather than a licensed coffeeshop…

But I fear that these arguments, valid as they are, will not persuade the national government to change its policies. Its policies are driven by ideology, not facts and making soft drugs illegal to sell to tourists is just a new step towards a general ban. What’s more, even the economic arguments won’t stop them: they don’t care about Amsterdam — their voters live in the provinces, not here. Amsterdam is a leftwing city and these rightwing, provincial politicians do not care if their policies hurt it.

There is one ray of hope however. A pilot project with a wietpas, in which foreigners were excluded from coffeeshops, was set up last year in Limburg (the sticky out bit in the southeast of the Netherlands), but has been judged illegal by the Maastricht courts. It ruled that any such scheme, which priviledged inhabitants of the Netherlands above tourists, was against article one of the Dutch constitution, which prescribes equal treatment in equal cases for everybody in the Netherlands, regardless of race, creed, sexuality or nationality. An appeal against this ruling is in process at the next higher court, so the outcome is still in doubt, but if upheld, it does mean a national scheme is illegal too.

Until that time however, any of my foreign friends wanting to sample the delights of getting hassle free joints in Amsterdam, might want to hurry…

24 Hour Comics Day in Amsterdam

I missed it again this year, but the first weekend of October was 24 hour comics day, when cartoonists worldwide take the challenge to produce a full length comic (24 pages) in 24 hours. In Amsterdam it’s traditionally held in Lambiek, the world’s oldest comics shop still existing and 2010 was no exception. The idea for 24 hour comics came out of a conversation between Steve Bissette and Scott McCloud, the idea being to do a completely spontaneous comics. It’s a good exercise to losen up the drawing muscles, forcing you to not to think, but draw. Over at Remco Wetzels’ blog, you can see what one participant came up with.

The video below was made by Michael Minneboo and shows how this day went two years ago (only in Dutch, sadly):



(I almost had a heart attack watching this, as one of the artists seen in the background almost could be my twin: same build, similar face and such.)

Welcome to Soweto Amsterdam

Amsterdam has a problem. The city may be popular with tourists, but they all stay in central Amsterdam rather than sampling the delights of Amsterdam’s other neighbourhoods. This has been troubling the city council for years but now they think they’ve found the solution: marketing!

As Jeroen Mirck reports, the Amsterdam Tourist & Convention Board has decided that branding and marketing neighbourhoods should be the key to winning over tourists. Some of the names suggested: ‘Amsterdam Docklands’, ‘Green Plantation’, ‘Swinging Melting pot’, ‘Little Amsterdam’, ‘Kinetic North’. Yes, they sound better in Dutch, but not much.

Not all neighbourhoods have gotten their own brand suggestions yet — the ones above are for parts of the city already relatively popular and gentrified. The more troublesome areas of Amsterdam have been left out of this consultation exercise so far, though the marketeers had a “hilarious” suggestion for Amsterdam Zuid-Oost, traditionally the part of the city with the most Black people: Soweto.

Lies we tell tourists

“Don’t get on the ferry now, let the other people go off first. That’s how we do it in Amsterdam”. Substitute bus, metro, train or tram for ferry and it would still be a lie. But oh how we like to get self righteous with tourists. And since Sail 2010 is about to start, there are more of them than usual. Imagine what it would be like if the Olympics or Worldcup is ever held here….

Not just tourists, the city is also packed full with tall ships, boats and anything that floats. An incrdibly festive atmosphere, despite the not too nice weather. Five years ago, when we first moved into our current house Sail was on as well and that made for some great nights wandering around the IJ looking at all the ships moored off. Sadly S. will have to miss it this year…

The wedding is on and the date is set for next Tuesday. Everything went so easy it’s getting spooky. This time next week I’m a husband (!)

Dust in the Wind



Caught this on one of the five thousand or so interchangable music channels our cable company thinks we need. So rare to find a Dutch language song that’s actually interesting and good enough to show the world. Most Dutch artists either go for local succes or pastiche rock.