april 18 – marillion, van gogh, schiele, & chicken fajitas

tjerk’s favorite band of all time is called marillion, a prog rock band who based their name on part of a tolkein novel’s title (the silmarillion). we were treated to their cd as we ate our dutch breakfast of bread, chocolate spread, and the little chocolate things swensen’s used to put on ice cream sundaes.
quick train into amsterdam where we went to the van gogh museum, filled with hundreds of paintings over the course of his career. i’ve always been a huge van gogh fan, especially after reading stone’s lust for life, a historical fiction bio and a great book if you’re into van gogh... a few of my favorites are the potato eaters (dark and brooding image of a potato-farming family sitting down to dinner in their hut, from his earliest period – this one doesn’t look much like what he became famous for later on), one of an almond tree against an amazing shade of blue sky (painted for his nephew, brother theo’s son vincent – i think my mother must have had a book of van gogh prints or something, because this one and a few others always look familiar), and a series of paintings of cherry trees in blossom, where it seems he was trying to get the perfect rendition by repeating the same image in subtly different ways. when you look at these paintings close up, you can see the intensity with which van gogh painted, the paint sticks up off the canvas in thousands of little waves. there’s a song called vincent by don mclean (the guy who wrote american pie) which captures his spirit, i think—you gotta check it out. then go find the version by sixth wave, a group i produced, theirs is a wonderful arrangement with thick harmonies.
downstairs was an egon schiele exhibit with live performance artists doing interpretations of his paintings – he’s always been controversial due to his use of young nude women as models...
at some point in there adam ducked into a local salon for a haircut and the rest of us walked around the streets of amsterdam where it began to rain. still, a great walking city it seems to me. allen had gotten a recommendation from a passerby about where to get the best food, apparently an italian place down some side street packed with ethnic restaurants. we passed by several, but al had a bee in his bonnet about hitting this particular place where you get a pizza or pretty much anything else on the menu for 5 euro. so that’s where we went...

for some reason when you order a coke in europe, you get something about half the size of a coke can, like a mini orange juice glass kind of thing. this is a source of constant frustration to us americans, who are used to a nice 72-ouncer with free refills from 7 eleven. this brings me to another subject:

AMERICA! YOU GONNA EAT THAT?©
we’re going to start a campaign to bring more tourists into america. it will feature the image of a full-figured man and woman chowing down on a burger, holding a 72 ounce coke, with “you gonna eat that?” in a cartoon bubble.

after our fill of amsterdam, back to helmond where allen cooked a tex-mex dinner for the drouens & the band, chicken fajitas, guacamole, etc. allen’s a man of many talents... early night for finely quaffed adam and myself, allen and carson were up late doing god knows what...