An editorial/graphic design internship in the heart of Amsterdam during the summer?

Sorted. 
x


(p.s. Yup, due to volcanic panic I'm still stuck in the motherland, I should be back next week. Thanks everyone for making my extended holiday in the Netherlands so much fun and eyeopening :)

SPRING BREAK.

Term 2 is finally over, wraaahhhh! 4 terms to go until graduation. So, it's time to muck about in Photoshop to my heart's content, visit cousin Gunther in Berlin, hangout in The Netherlands for some oldskool SDK-ing but most of all it's time to dress up like a drag-queen-maquillage-sporting-terror-clown and crash hard. Enjoy your well deserved break all, and everyone else; see you soon. x

5 Years of Party&Bullshit in Photographs

So after 2 weeks of touching base, enjoying the sun and getting sorted at the other homefront, I'm back in London. I'm one week away from starting my 2nd year at uni and regardless of how much fun I've had, I can't wait. One of the necessary things that needed to be done was to organize the contents of my laptop, discs and hard drives. I found out that I have more than 10.000 images on one of my harddrives alone! I got a request to gather all the pictures that I took and that were taken of my Dutch friends over the past years; a hommage style artwork is in order. So I set up a Flickr account, 400 images so far and counting. Looking over the series, a very predictible pattern of hanging, partying and bullshitting occures and I know, how many photographs can one take of a bunch of slackers getting smashed before it gets boring and repetitive, right? It's not at all the case, they're memory generating images of awesome people having fabulous times and as I can see ourselved growing progressively older, slower, fatter and wiser an eyewatering feel of nostalgia creeps up on me. So for those who haven't been around (for long) I've posted some previews of what's taken place in my world the past 5 years. I want to thank all of those in the Netherlands, the UK and New Zealand for contributing but above all praise to those who would allow me to steal their souls! Bedankt mensen, me love you longtime. -x-

Unfortunately summer's almost over but good vibes are all around still. Here's to old and new friends, family, weird strangers, good times, inspiration, hooking my moms up with her first iPod loaded with 55 years worth of music, getting things done, charging batteries and having my pills popped. 1love

And we're back haha.

UK - NL Hip Hop

Here's a bit of nostalgia for you. As I'm preparing to go back to the Netherlands for a holiday, I thought I'd show you this video that I found a while back. A couple of years ago, one of my favourite Dutch beatbuilders Kubus and in-your-face UK rapper/spoken word poet Bangbang started a collab and produced an album called Pie & Mash. Their track 'Camera' features one of my alltime favourite Dutch rappers Sticks (ex Opgezwolle member, current Fakkelbrigadier) who I've had a major -lyrical- crush on since 2001 - Spuugdingen Op Die Mic'. It's about stigmatization and the role of the media in several conflicts. This video was shot in the Netherlands and these visuals brings back mad memories of my old neighborhood West1 in DenBosch (NL) where I lived with my moms from 1988 untill 2001.

Hardcore never dies.

My cuz Alex and his 4 year old juggernaut stephdaughter Christel minutes before her first oldskool gabber rave. :D

Home...

it's been 7 days since my return from a 3.5 week lasting springbreak in the Netherlands. It started of with a crazy busride from London Victoria Station to my hometown Den Bosch, including loud bagpipe&kilt rocking Scotsmen on a mission to Amsterdam to attend the football match that once again proved that Scotland can't beat the Netherlands (just give up, wankers), a drunken teenage Ozzie who threw up on the bus and a Maroccan busdriver who completely lost it after he'd discovered Ozzie threw up on his bus. Maroc's mouth was foaming and he was determined to leave him behind along the road in Calais and everyone including a mentally unstable Belgian woman went nuts. After every bus trip I tell myself NEVER to make use of the Euroline services again and every time I do end up travelling by bus and something dramatic happens. I solemnly swear I'm flying next time. Fucking Eurolines. But my holiday was great; those few weeks were all about my homeboys, my cats, my parents, getting smashed, putting things in perspective, maxing and relaxing in the sun and it was fucking lush. It was summer of 2004 all over again; sunshine, familiar faces, the skate park, sneakers & spliffs, party & bullshit. Also, hiphop wise things are going rather well for DenBosch, very good to see. I think I've finally come to terms with the fact that I'm really really, like really living in 2 countries now. And that goes for actually physically and mentally being in the Netherlands too. yes I have two homes and I feel rather blessed now. I love the fact that I've found that peace again. It puts an end to some of the familiar violent thoughts that I've grown rather weary of. Anyway I'm fine with having to spend time in both countries now, which is a first for me, it took a while to get used to it. The transition phases still slightly seemed to be getting to me but as soon as I arrived in either destination everything felt more natural whereas in the past it took me several days spent sedated and in solitude to get back on track again. I got off the bus, smoked a fag, looked around me, took a few deep breaths and made my way home. For once I could let go of the tension and constant observation and look past the criticism. Babysteps mang, I'm uptight and anal retentive like that. I'm not perfect like you. :)

Vintage Lecturis magazines

A gentleman from Cornwall sold me these graphic magazines for almost nothing. They remind me of the Netherlands. They're part os a documentary series that were produced under the editorial supervision of Wim Crouwel. It was assigned by printing company Lecturis bv in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. Copies were spread free of charge amongst relations.

Part 4: Readability. An attempt to describe the coherence between reading, writing and printing. Written by Johan Dirken. Designed by Wim Crouwel. Published July 1976.  

Part 9: About Magazines. This issue consists of a dialogue about magazines between designer Anthon Beeke and author K. Schippers. Published in August 1979.