nps output webradio

Someone I met in Amsterdam yesterday told me about an internet radio station that played jazz and world music, so, this morning, when I got home, I decided to take a look at npsoutput.com . What I found is a never-ending stream of great, non-stop, music - world, jazz, blues and grooving music too, spread across three different channels. Indeed, three never-ending streams.

Go to the webradio page select the channel (Kies je station) and click the Shoutcast icon and open the playlist file to add the channels to your iTunes. The tracks being played have their titles shown, real-time. There's also a Media player link, if you prefer that. See the playlist on the right nav-bar for access and a display of what's playing now.

I've been listening to it all day now - you should do the same. It's playing an old Miles Davis / Gill Evans track now - sublime.

Laloli Jewellery Design, Amsterdam

I first found Laloli, at Grimburgwal 13, in Amsterdam, last year, when I was looking for something nice for my wife. I bought her a beautiful little enamel brouch, a tiger or a monkey. Anyway, she loved it and then she lost it, so, I was under orders to get her a replacement when I was there yesterday. All they had left was a turtle covered in hearts.

Monique, if you read this, she loves this one too.
Marianne, you'll have to let me know what other animals you make, since you've got a fan, over here.

I also bought a tulip brouch, like the one in the image (Copyright Laloli), but taller and thinner. They lots of other stuff too, including some wonderful gold earings. Maybe, next time.

Do you want to buy a joke?

"Do you want to buy a joke?" That's what I heard this guy say, yesterday in Amsterdam. Really. I was sitting on a bench, in the sun, looking at the canal, eating my chips - the best chips. No, I mean the best. He'd ridden up on a bike and was talking to the couple on the bench right behind me. Intrigued, I turned around and asked him what a joke costs. Good jokes were 2 euro and great jokes were 5. I asked for a good joke, but only had a five, so decided to go for the great joke. To be honest, the joke was good, but the telling was really great. It was the Panda joke - eats, shoots and leaves, respun.

So, when later in the day, I saw the pandas at the Go Gallery, I wondered, "what's with all of the pandas, all of a sudden." I'm not one for signs, so I figure it was just a coincidence, but it makes you think.

Sit at the Go Gallery, Amsterdam

Yesterday I was in Amsterdam for the day and decided to go the Go Gallery and pick up a copy on this year's Moon Calendar. So far, I've had to make do with seeing it tesselated as as the background on my laptop and I was looking forward to seeing it up close where you can see a lot more detail.


How lucky I was to stumble upon Sit's Unwired exhibition, now in its third week at the Go Gallery and running until 12th May. In his latest work, Sit, better known as Freakin Sitnie delivers a haunting prediction of a very bleak future. We all see examples of some of what Sit portrays here, everyday, but we still ignore the warning signs. Visit the Unwired website (select paintings) for a flash screenshow of details from the work. Let's all hope that his visions - if these are what they are - don't become much more real than they are today. I will not be able to forget the pandas. Speaking of pandas, see ...



Go Gallery describes Sit in these terms:

SIT (Amsterdam, 1976)
Sit,vroeger beter bekend als Freakin Sitnie, maakte jaren geleden furore inde Amsterdamse straatkunstscene met zijn geheel eigen stijl van scherpeen eigenzinnige schilderijen. Geïnspireerd door illustere comicillustratoren als Simon Bisley, Sam Keith, Todd Mcfarlane en JamieHewlett, perfectioneerde hij zijn stijl. In rap tempo werd hij zeersuccesvol. Zijn werk was overal te zien, tijdens evenementen en inclubs, van Amsterdam tot Kuala Lumpur. Vanaf 29 maart t/m 12 mei in GO Gallery.

Or, when translated by Google, with a little editing by me:

Sit, formerly known as Freakin Sitnie years ago created a furore in the Amsterdam street-art scene with his own style of scherpeen(?) idiosyncratic paintings. Inspired by illustrious comic-illustrators such as Simon Bisley, Sam Keith, Todd Mcfarlane, and Jamie Hewlett, he perfected his style. He rapidly became successful and his work has been widely seen, at events and in clubs, from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. From March 29 to May 12 in GO Gallery.

More details of how Sit approached this work can be found on blakkbyrd.

All images Copyright Sit, linked to on the Go Gallery website, or taken from a review on A Blue Chicken .

My charicature

I was in Las Vegas last week and had my charicature drawn by a Canadian artist called Sam Gorrie which bears quite a striking resemblence to what I look like. Here's a photo that I took of it. Sam took all of 10 minutes to draw this!! Cool, or what?