sun 16 sep 2012 07:48:02 — witte de withstraat
a lot of socializing
that's a lot of socializing for a guy who doesn't like to go to parties.
thursday night i was supposed to stop in at café blauwbrug at 23.00 to acknowledge nieke's 27th birthday with a quick drink at midnight. lots of moonaddict-related people, and nieke's mom tiny. gezellig. locked in. ended up sitting with alain and nieke drinking affligem and smoking cigs until almost four in the morning. we had to leave cuz the cleaning crew would be there at four.
then friday afternoon i went to the uitkijk cinema for a private screening of ruud monster's documentary about ron offerman, the poet from eijlders. then for coffee with henryk and helena, at the big snooty white café underneath the stadsschouwburg theater.
then i took the 7 & 9 out to betondorp to the birthday feest of jovanka, who has the same birthday as nieke. several nice friends there too, then more and more showed up, i even got to see zvezdana, boy she's pretty. and i ate some good barbecued sausage and a burger by gabriel.
then i on my way back west i stopped in at nieke and alain's place, just to tag the actual birthday party for nieke. besides i owed her eur 20 from the night before cuz she gave me taxi money so i wouldn't have to break a 50. there were lots of nice people again in a tight space. i was getting crowd fear, so stayed for maybe 5 minutes.
then, saturday afternoon, first a cheap lunch outside venezia on leidsekruisstraat, with kaloyan and ilse the waterwhispers who came in from haarlem. we all three ate tortellini putanesca. then we took the 7 to flevopark to attend the 'animal festival' which djox and joana organize every year. many lovely people there. denis hopping and dancing around, looking like it was 1969. johannes did a cartwheel on the grass and said ouch. tommy and giuseppe of nauseahtake. helena walked up with a paintbrush and dabbed a stroke of purple on my forehead, then did the same to johannes. and i talked to sajsa for a while, and to vinek? is that his name? and nieke was dressed in red, black and white with red-rimmed sunglasses which looked really cool, kaloyan was keeping track of a liverpool fc game via his phone, and nadia chalenska was painting, and michele de saint sauveur came and talked for a long time with ilse. and isaura came, and aviva. and rené and lydia. and alex the cigar smoking mathematician, who was talking to me about kimberly, although at first i thought he said kibbeling. and more nice people i knew, i can't even remember everyone now. after sunset ilse and i were both feeling cold, and i was starting to feel the overpopulation again, so we said goodbye and walked back through the park to the tram stop.
we caught the 14 instead of the 7. we were both hungry again. i phoned george at nachtwacht and asked if he could hold a table for two. we got to rembrandtplein and had gambas pil-pil and ilse had the ribs and i had a tournedos. naomi the waitress pointed out that i had a stroke of purple paint on my forehead (i'd forgotten about it). then after dinner i walked ilse to the spui tramhalte just in time for her to catch the 9 to centraal, and right behind it came a 14 so i got home easy with no waiting. slept for a while.
so, to sum up:
party, film screening, coffee, party, party, lunch, festival, dinner.
that's a lot of being with people for one 36 hour period. i think today i won't go see anybody.