NH Naarden

... of the inside first, rather than thinking of the outside. But actually these two sides go together-you cannot have what is 'in here' unless you have what is 'out there.' " In other words, where we are is vital to who we are. By "where," I'm speaking not only of our physical environment but also of our cultural environment. Culture is the sea we swim in-so pervasive, so all-consuming, that we fail to notice its existence until we step out of it. It matters more than we think ...

... nauseating in others, and bloody funny at times too. Our favorite part actually wasn't the show, it was our Brazilian friend Fillipe and his response to it, which consisted of high pitched, schoolboy like giggling and repeated gasps of "Oh my GOD, where are his BALLS" and "Ooooh, that hurts SOOOO much!!" We apparently got a pretty good mix of acts including some very flexible women, a fat ...

... on to Ghent. I did drive past the main European parliament buildings and other EU related buildings, but as I was trying to find my way out I got lost and drove through an area in which I saw a completely different side to the modern, rather sterile centre - rundown, small colourful shops, full of immigrants (mainly North African), narrow streets. with a slight hint of menace, etc. Back to Ghent - there is a fortress in the middle of the city, but it wasn't built to defend ...

... s height is actually a little out of proportion to width. This is because the room in which it was originally housed was too small, so the geniuses cut a piece off one side of the painting. This poor painting has also survived an attack by a knife-wielding psychopath and you can actually still see one of the wounds if you look closely. The museum also displays a many other paintings by Rembrandt and a couple of Vermeers, although unfortunately for us at least half of the ...

... tours, and such... I turned right and entered Haarlemmer Straat. Haarlemmer has a pretty dense number of coffee shops, and I came across Barney's, one of the best- not if THE best- coffee shops in town- if not the WORLD. I was hesitant at first because the place looked empty. There was 3 workers and 1 guy chilling. But then again, you don't exactly expect people to rush over at 9am. At first I saw it as a small, low-key shop ...

... hours. Rotterdamiaans are real cheapos :P . We went from centraal to rembrant plein to leidse plein and at last museam plein. Unfortunately the rijks museam and the heineken experiance were under construction . We got to see amsterdam pretty well though and had lots of fun. so back we went to centraal this time with a tram .The anna frank was so full we would have to wiat 4 hours and we still hadnt found our space cakes yet or visited the red light. After eating ...

The wind is rattling the windows. Winter in Holland is much like winter at home. It does change what one sees a bit...as you look through rain speckled glass, peer out from under umbrellas, or even, as we did, bicycle through drizzle and puddles and jog across soggy moors. I imagine the moors as they will look in spring, waves of lavender; A lonely tree ...

... pousada mesmo porreira. Todos voluntários. Muito limpa e sossegada. Com horário de fechar à noite. Após o almoço, nos arredores da estação, fomos conhecer a cidade. Ficou tudo - ou quase - visto. Muitos canais, muita água, muitas casas bonitas, muita história, muito cheiro a droga (mesmo muito), e bastantes e muitas bicicletas. Parece que há mais bicicletas que habitantes. Como é possível? À noite tivemos uma fogueira no pátio da pousada e houve doces, festa e conversa.

I woke feeling even more scattered and dry mouthed than the previous day, but a shower soon fixed that. Again the breakfast in the hostel cafe, then out onto the street. I sat down on the side of a canal and sparked up the Super Silver Haze I´d bought the day before. I had the ipod playing in my ears, some psytrance. I jumped up and cruised towards the main station to hire a bike. My ride was in total about 5 hours. I rode through the streets, beautiful parks, including ...

... to the veteran progressive journalist Roger Rapoport, now a resident of Muskegon, Michigan. The other day Adam Brook sent me Roger's story of our conversation, published in the Berkeley Daily Planet on Friday, 20 October 2006: ALL WE ARE SAYING IS GIVE GRASS A CHANCE By Roger Rapoport One film that did not make it on the fall film festival circuit this year is 20 TO LIFE: The Life and Times of John Sinclair. A documentary with plenty of smoke that mirrors the protest ...