Derrek’s Blog

They next day I got up early because I was still pretty jet lagged. I went downstairs to check out the breakfast scene. I was expecting the lobby to be packed but it was empty and there was only a couple people in the restaurant. I used the gratis coffee maker and grabbed a seat in one of the communal rooms. A banquet table with a large bookshelf next to it. Complementary books and magazenes to read. I read some tourist books on Amsterdam written in other languags - well looked at the pictures anyway. in other room - another large table with a TV on the wall with a video loop of a fireplace. in another room were some leather reading chairs but someone was sitting there so I settled for a seat at the dining table.

later grace woke up and we both went downstairs and had breakfast. the spread was expensive but I think worth it. for one, your not left wandering around looking for a place to eat - sometimes you get lucky like we did the next day but often you end up in some touristy over priced place. the hotel breakfast was really good - lots of variety - you had scrambled eggs and bacon sausage, assorted pastries, sliced bread and full loaves of bread with a conveyer type toaster, four flavors of fresh fruit smoothies, fresh juices, cheeses, cold cuts, little jars of spread, trays of sliced fruit, yogurt with an assortment of dried fruit for toppings, boxes of cereal, cookies, tea and coffee. needless to say I macked down.

After breakfast we headed to the Van Gogh museum. Finally we got over our collective phobia of public transportation and jumped on a tram which was totally easy and got us there quickly. we got off where the I AMSTERDAM sign is.

The Van Gogh had a great temp exhibition on light which not only showed works he completed at night, twilight and dawn but also earlier works by other artists that had inspired him - works that hung on his wall and works that he’d written about in letters to his brother Theo. so all of his work ended up staying in the family and was ultimately donated to the people of Amsterdam - so the work in this collection was the most comprehensive Van Gogh collection in the world.

after the van gogh museum we went to something called “the Heineken experience” where you got to learn the history of Heineken and go through an interactive tour on how beer is made. we got to drink the sweet water that’s created in the malt cooking process. they had the huge barrels that were used to mix and ferment the barely and hops. as part of the tour out last stop was a bar that had really cool interactive table that responded to your drink. I had read about these somewhere and was stoked to see them. basically you put your drink down and the screen does something. like if is a menu - if you put your beer down there the menu would open.

On Saturday we checked out the Tower of London and Tower bridge. It was cold and rainy but was still a really fun experience. The bridge has stunning views and the tower was a really great structure to photograph just as the sun was breaking through the clouds after the rain. After that we went to check out the Chelsea area to satisfy my curiosity. It was not all that or maybe it was just that we were both cold and hungry. Though we did find a cosy pub and with all the Chelsea scenesters it made for good people watching. There was a DJ playing really generic disco but I like disco in all it’s forms so I was happy.

Later that night we were both pretty tired but I really wanted to check out Woolfy who is Simon James a London transplant who lives in LA and runs a bar called The Scotland Yard. I have has a few really great nights there and really like Simon’s band and was really stoked that my vacation coincided with his tour stop to London. Well, he did not disappoint! He sounded great and the crowd at Cargo seem to really love it. I ran into another DJ Felix Dickinson who Lives in London but DJ’s all over the place. I met Felix at Simon’s Bar earlier this year so it was kind of full circle to run into him at the Woolfy show.

So the next day we packed up and headed to Amsterdam via BMI plane The entire plane was full of volunteers who had just returned from building an entire house in a only a week in a small village in South Africa.

Up on arrival in Amsterdam we were both were like “ok now we are in another country!” you could feel see smell hear the difference. it was awesome. Unfortuanly I made the mistake that A) I could find our hotel and B) we could get there on foot. We took a wrong turn and Dam square and ultimately ended up hailing a cab.

After checking into the hotel we walked to the Anne Frank house. I was really blown away by her story . it’s both inspiring and very sad at the same time. they took actually sections of the wall which had images of movie stars and paintings by Rembrandt and a sketches by Michelangelo. Something about seeing the room she lived in - she was just a normal teenage kid dealing with this horrible tragedy. I really felt. Her dad was the only one that survived and found her diary upon returning. In the film he mentioned how although he felt that he had a great relationship with his daughter, Anne expressed a side of herself in the diary that he had never seen.

Afterward it started to rain so we headed back to the hotel. I went wandering around looking for a place to change my pound to euros. Back at the hotel I was “done” and basically slept till 9 or 10pm. During that time grace checked out the “coffehouse” scene. That night we decided to check out the red light district. There were hoards of Scottish men in kilts! They were all here for the football game and as we walked by the pubs you could hear them all singing in unison. at the redlight we checked out all the women behind the glass. Some alley were nothing but asians other alleys were nothing but trannys. it was interesting but thailand is way more insane. On the way back a group of singing scottish men in kilts decided to serenade my girlfriend as we were walking by. apparently one was not wearing any underwear though i did not see this spectacle. after seeing all those scantily clad prostitutes that was one for grace!

I finally updated my flickr account and posted all the photos we have taken so far. You can see them here

It’s around 3pm on saturday and we are only just now getting up! Last night we went to Oxford Circus to squeeze in some last minute shopping before the stores closed. The is a store there called Top where I found some pretty interesting socks for cheap.

We rushed back to the hotel to get ready. Grace’s friend Kelly happened to also be in europe for business and extended her trip by one day to hang out with us. Her and her boyfriend who lives in London dropped by to pick us up in his fancy BMW. At first when they pulled up I was like oh thats interesting, kelly’s driving his car. but this of course I realized the wheel is on the other side here. It was really cool in be inside of a car in London. We drove around the neighborhood looking for a restaurant and eventually settled on the Green Door - a steak house. Later Kelly’s boyfriend Fabian invited over his friend Dominique to join us. Dom as he liked to be called was a special forces police officer in training. He was quite amusing asertivly firting with the waitress who had a husband and kids. They laughed when I asked what a Jacket Potato was. To my surprise Dom and Fabian picked up the dinner tab. After dinner Dom took us to a casino where hi was just gonna “pop in” quick before heading to the club. We ended up hanging out for over 2 hours watching him gamble. I gambled myself but lost - more or less lost the money I would have paid on dinner haha. Later we ended up getting VIP treatment at the club next door. It was all cheesy good fun but did not get home until nearly 6am!

Just a quick note to say we arrived safe and sound. The journey was fairly smooth. I watched some really bad movies like Marlie and Me and The Day the Earth Stood Still. And probably to our detriment, Grace and I got our Bloody Marys on not to mention the drinks we had at the airport waiting for our flight.

Our hotel is really comfy and has a nice view. We are both exhausted. I really did not sleep all that well on the plane. The weather is crisp but the sun is peaking from the clouds and shining through our hotel window. Grace is taking a nap but I’m eager to go out and explore the city. I need to stay up or I wont adjust. To make matters more interesting London’s time change happens tomorrow night! 12am will become 1am which means we lose an hour but that also means more hours in the day.

View from the hotel

Step Up Media is handling retail distribution for Lucha Vavoom this year. We will be distributing flyers and setting up poster displays in key locations including retail clothing stores, tattoo parlors, salons and cafes. Target neighborhoods will include Los Feliz, Echo Park, Silver Lake, Atwater Village, Eagle Rock and Downtown Los Angeles. Lucha Vavoom is happening October 28, 29 and 30.

Edmund Welles, the world’s only composing bass clarinet quartet is joining forces with the world’s only classical electric guitar octet for several shows in the L.A. area in October 2008. The Los Angeles Electric 8 is an electric guitar chamber octet in which eight classically-trained guitarists direct their training towards the electric guitar. They reclaim classical music for the electric guitar, revealing the instrument’s enormous potential in the world of art music. Meanwhile, the four bass clarinetists of Edmund Welles extend the sonorous and expressive nature of their instrument outwards towards styles such as classic rock, black metal, and hard gospel resulting in a riff-rock style of original music they call Heavy Chamber Music. These 12 musicians are not on a mission to prove anything beyond the pale. They trust the instruments and the compositions to speak for themselves. Leaps of innovation occur naturally when attention and inspiration are focused, in this case on two different instruments and their ability to form same-voice ensembles operating at the highest levels of artistry and innovation.

The Video Game RockBand will be on the big screen.  Come play bass, guitar, drums or sing!

Saturday Night,  Sept 6th  2008  midnight to 3 AM

LOS FELIZ THEATER
1822 Vermont Avenue, Los Angeles, CA, USA - (323) 664-2169

See Attached Flyer

YOU MUST RSVP TO    getmyrockbandon@gmail.com