Thursday, July 29, 2010

Amsterdam: July 25-29, 2010

Another nice week...I hate to be so upbeat about all this...besides a jam session at Zaal 100, and forays for beers, food, laundry and the occasional cigar (cubans have come down in price since my last visit) I spent much of the week at the Openbare Bibliotheek Amsterdam drinking espresso and tea and working on paper proposals, tours, shepherding new pfMENTUM CDs through the manufacturing process (Vlatkovich and Grossman's new Call and Response, Jim Connolly's new quartet plus, as well as David Borgo/Paul Pellegrin septet..!), preparing a release of my own with Control Valve (a net label run by Roger Smith...it is a 16 minute piece by myself and Don Haugen recorded in Eugene, OR last month...sounds nice if I do say so myself), ordering text books for my students, preparing lecture notes, syllabus, reading list, listening list...besides all that, been a pretty chill week. Loving it.

Cuban cigars seem to have gone down in price...
(Click any image to enlarge)

Cafe De Jaren
Cafe De Jaren

Nice that there are enough accordions to warrant this.
Nice that there are enough accordions to warrant this.

Jasper's guitar
Jasper's guitar

John Dikeman, Jeff Kaiser, Jasper Stadhouders at Zaal 100.
John Dikeman, Jeff Kaiser, Jasper Stadhouders at Zaal 100.

Openbare Bibliotheek...
Openbare Bibliotheek...

more....
more....

view from the 7th floor...
view from the 7th floor...

inside...
inside...

...inside...
...inside...

by the science museum...beautiful sky...
by the science museum...beautiful sky...

Klaus, quit staring.
Klaus, quit staring.

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Amsterdam: July 20-24, 2010

Spui with Kevin Whitehead and Michael Moore
Spui with Kevin Whitehead and Michael Moore
(Click any image to enlarge)

What a beautiful week this has been, full of unexpected and delightful surprises. It began with meeting Michael for coffee, his houseguest Kevin joined us. After coffee, we sat around Michael's mind-blowing record collection as he and Kevin helped me research a paper I'm working on. Not only do both of the guys have an encyclopedic knowledge, they were assisted by Kevin's use of Tom Lord's discography...he would mention an album, and Michael had it....unbelievably good time. Spent about six hours post-coffee talking and listening....

Following this, I continued on my search for a Dutch beer that I would enjoy. I've had so many Belgian and other ales here, made me wonder where they were hiding the good Dutch stuff. Brouwerij't IJ turned out to be a great find, I had a sample there...very nice beer, the Struis was excellent. Other pubs visited during the week include 't Arendsnest, specializing and carrying only Dutch beers and of course, Gollem where I had the Hopus, a great beer. The highlight of the week (beer-wise) was at one of my favorite haunts, De Engelbewaarder, an old literary cafe and pub. There, Jasper, John and I enjoyed a Rodenbach Grand Cru...phenomenal world class Flanders red ale....(not Dutch). Truly one of the most enjoyable I've had.

BUT, not to mislead, this week has not been all about beer: Great coffee and ok tea, great food, crazy long walks looking at the city, wonderful time spent hanging at cafes with musicians and artists. Restaurant highlights include some usual suspects for me: The Golden Temple, De Bolhoed, the ever present and always nearby Maoz Falafel. Best coffee in town still is Lungocinno. I even visited the "coffee nazi" on Waterlooplein. Named by friends after the infamous "soup nazi" of Seinfeld, he is basically nuts: You need to know what you want when you walk in, you order in a certain way, he never takes money directly but instead hands you a tray that you put the cash on, and if you get the coffee to go and dare to linger he yells at you to leave. All for a pretty mediocre espresso. Shtick, when it comes to consumables, is never worth it. Lungocinno (and Cafe van Daele, close second) far surpass it.

Hanging with the musicians is always a blast in this town. Last night, I was invited to a locals pub, Cafe Nagel, located in a neighborhood not far from where I'm staying. John, Jasper and Mila were a bit late...and I didn't want to go into to this Dutch pub and stand around not knowing anybody so I waited outside. When they showed up and we went in, turned out I knew several musicians in the place already from my previous visits...! Including Seamus Cater and Viljam Nybacka who I reviewed last year here. Had a great time.

This week will be a bit different, I need to start preparing my syllabus and reading list for a course I'll be lecturing in the Fall at UCSD. The course is titled, "Blues: An Oral Tradition" and is cross-listed as music/ethnic studies and will have around 165 students in it. Should be fun. AND any tips on materials is appreciated...! I also have interviews with artists planned (for my dissertation) and some jam sessions with musicians...one in about an hour.....and of course the STEIM residency and a concert associated with that...more as it approaches.

On a sad note: Dutch legend Willem Breuker passed away this week. What a great and influential musician. He will be missed.



Kevin helping me with my research...
Kevin helping me with my research...

Brouwerij't IJ
Brouwerij't IJ

With a sampler....
With a sampler....

Jasper Staudhouders and John Dikeman
Jasper Staudhouders and John Dikeman

Riding on the back of a bike...
Riding on the back of a bike...

Rodenbach Grand Cru...!!! A truly great beer
Jasper with Rodenbach Grand Cru...!!! A truly great beer

Hopus at Gollem
Hopus at Gollem

Begijnhof.....Just love this place....
Begijnhof...Just love this place...peaceful

The sun stays up so late....you get different colors of the sky longer....
The sun stays up so late....you get different colors of the sky longer....

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Westerkerk on a late night walk....
Westerkerk on a late night walk....

The weather has been amazing
The weather has been amazing

Classic shot: Dogs at the butcher
Classic shot: Dogs at the butcher

't Anrendsnest
't Arendsnest

Skuumkoppe
Skuumkoppe

With Dikeman
With Dikeman

Monday, July 19, 2010

Amsterdam: July 17-19, 2010

Ahhhh...So good to be back in Amsterdam! I'll be here for the next three weeks. The first two are a "vacation" as a bit of a self-reward for making it through my PhD qualifying exams and achieving three letters that make me very happy, ABD. I put the quotes around "vacation" as I'll still be doing some work preparing lectures for the Fall, BUT I'll be doing the work in AMSTERDAM...! The third week will be as an artist in residency at STEIM with my good friend Gregory Taylor. We will be working on our collaboration, "The Desert Fathers" that will become our second full album.

Today (Monday) was my first full day here....and it was very nice. Met Gregory for a hang (he is living in Utrecht with his wife Jolanda Vanderwal Taylor, who is a visiting professor in Dutch Studies), and went to the great Lungoccino for an espresso. You might remember the name, Michael Moore introduced it to me my last trip...simply a fantastic espresso. Afterwords, we went and visited with Michael Moore and Jodi Gilbert, and had a chance to meet and talk with their houseguest, the critic/scholar/author Kevin Whitehead (I highly recommend his book, New Dutch Swing!) then on to lunch in Jordaanplein at De Bolhoed. Afterwards a long walk to Cafe Americain to drink yet another espresso to fend off lag....

Nice to look up from your espresso and see this beautiful city...
Nice to look up from your espresso and see this beautiful city...
(Click on any image to enlarge)

View from my hotel...
View from my hotel...the canal is Oudeschans (Old Fort), which you can see in the background of the next pic:

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...

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Gregory Taylor and Jeff Kaiser at Lungoccino...phenomenal....!
Gregory Taylor and Jeff Kaiser at Lungoccino...phenomenal....!

At Cafe Americain
At Cafe Americain

Sunday, July 04, 2010

Dad's 1966 Porsche 912

My father, Chuck Kaiser, has a habit (along with my mother) of taking old beat-up things and making them into something amazing. Ten years ago he purchased a trailer of rusty steel for a pittance....he saw something in that pile of Porsche. This is not the first time he's done this. Ever since I was a kid I remember helping Dad work on cars, one of my earliest memories with him is with a wrench in my hands. Restoring rare automobiles is a pastime that he takes more seriously and does better work than many professionals. Cars restored in my lifetime by him include a Cord Hupmobile (1929, I believe), Corvettes, Volkswagens and our beloved 1941 Ford Pickup restored from a rusty pile of steel by my father, with my brother and myself doing the engine work in auto shop at high school.

I wish I had some pictures of this Porsche before, I'll try to dig some up....but this thing looked NOTHING like it does now. Dad did all the body work, engine by Shasta Engineers and upholstery by a buddy here in Eugene.

Ten years, and never been on the road...the last problems were with the wiring, something I've had experience with. We spent about six hours and fixed it together, and while still not perfect (switches gone bad with age) we had it functioning and I was thrilled to be able to share the first drive with my father.

Jeff and Chuck
Jeff and Chuck
(Click on any pic to enlarge)

Jeff and Chuck
Jeff and Chuck

The shop
The shop

The shop is behind the barn, so we had to drive it around the property to get to the road
The shop is behind the barn, so we had to drive it around the property to get to the road

Whoops.....clutch wasn't adjusted properly...
Whoops.....clutch wasn't adjusted properly...

Hook it up....
Hook it up....

....towed it back to the shop for a quick adjustment....
....towed it back to the shop for a quick adjustment....

five minutes later back on the road
five minutes later back on the road

A few more shots...
A few more shots...










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Returning home

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