Queen's Homecoming - more thoughts and images

I have thought a great deal about homecoming this year since I made my last post and thought I would add a couple more things. In my original post I may have been a shade too reactionary (calling for the busting of heads in particular). Many accounts of the night describe how the antagonistic attitude of the police exacerbated the situation and led to increased tensions. In past years the police have been quite diplomatic and handed out more warnings than tickets and things went smoother. What we saw was this year is partly the result of a build up of town&gown tensions. Last year a police officer got hit with a bottle in the face and this year they made it clear that they were going to enforce the law. As I said, the police did seem to restrain themselves remarkably (although there are accounts of the use of force I am not in a position to comment if it deserved or not). Next year, however, things will be different as the Mayor of our lovely town has said he will call on out of town riotsquards to come in with watercannons and police dogs and the Police told CTV that they will use teargas (despite some rumours, it wasn't used this year), pepperspray and tasers.

There have been some good comments in the blogosphere about exactly how the actions of the police contributed to the escalation. Note, however, that I do not say caused it, as I maintain that this line of argument doesn't hold too much water in my mind despite what the students on CTV last night and on some blogs contend. Blame should be dolled out in big, scorched, broken-glass filled, beer-soaked gobs on those who attended (even those who were not actively involved in the destruction, as students on LiveJournal have commented) and, to a lesser extent, on the police who's efforts turned out to be woefully inadequate and perhaps even inappropriate.

Because of the popularity/infamy of the Aberdeen homecoming parties over the last few years a cycle has begun where the party's size and madness increases from year to year as word gets out about what crazy-fun it is, leading to ever increasing numbers on the streets. The way I see it things will go two ways next year if Homecoming happens at all: a) Aberdeen will be extremely quiet in response to this year's madness. People will go elsewhere or stay away from things completely. Or, the more likely scenario b) the shit disturbers (Queen's students and others, like this year, who are looking to get drunk and join a mob) will come out in droves leading to a massive stand-off police and the scenario goes downhill from there, with the very real potential for fatalities. Unfortunately I think this has gone way beyond Queen's and there really is nothing they can do aside from cancellation of Homecoming. That is pessimistic but it really does seem that the Queen's community at large condemns such events as happened on Saturday so that means those involved in the mayhem were the mental few within the Queen's community and those who came because of Aberdeen's reputation with no ties to that community.




Perhaps my favourite quote of all that I have read of this comes from Optimus Crime:

"What the slow-witted frat boys who turned Aberdeen into Mogadishu failed to realize was that their party was likely a wake -- celebrating the death of Queen's homecoming."

(See Optimus Crime for a number of other very good posts, breaking Homecoming down in quotes and commentary.)

Only time will tell what will happen with homecoming. I really do hope the even can continue, just without the mayhem. What remains to be seen is if the Queen's administration thinks that this is realistic and worth the risk of finding out.

Images from KateLemon on the
Queen's LiveJournal page and also see this thread for some excellent discussion.
More on Dragondare's LJpage.
See the Queen's Journal here and here.
Two very good blog entries can me found on Living in a Society and also on the media; and on Adam's Rants.
For different takes, see David Zarnett, who while providing a very thoughtful analysis gives the hooligans too much credit. See also Life Of Dread (make some interesting points, although I don't really agree with most of what he says).
rgsc

Proud to be a "Harvard of the North" Alum

Ahhh, Homecoming. Nothing like celebrating your alma mater by participating in a "drunken street brawl", including hurling racial slurs and bottles at police officers, fire fighters, and ambulance attendants. As in the past (but only the past 4 years, apparently), this year's saturday night Homecoming Celebrations included a two-block street party on Aberdeen St. This time, however, things degenerated into mayhem. Let's take a quick look at some numbers:

*Number of people attending the Aberdeen Street Party: 5000-7000
*Number of Police on hand: 100
*Cost of policing this event: $60,000 (not including police time that will be taken to prosecute all those charged)
*Liquor act violations: 200
*Criminal charges: 19
*Number of people who spent the night in jail: 35
*Age range of those jailed: 17 to 30
*Approximate number of non-Queen's Students present: about 1/3
*Depth of broken glass on the street: 2cm
*Number of cars flipped and set on fire: 1

According to some students interviewed on the night by the media, they blame the police presence for the increase in mayhem, that the students/partygoers were reacting to the police. I think this is a rather bull-shit filled argument. Due to the nature of the location, they did not break out the riot gear and fire hose as there is a very real risk of trampling as there is no where for the crowd to disperse to. As much as a few heads deserved to be busted (not all by any means, but surely a few) it would have caused wide-scale panic so the cops seemed to have kept their cool and should be congratulated for their restraint. The K-town police have a bad reputation (somewhat deserved, from all accounts) but on this occasion they did well. When they are getting physically and verbally abused - particularly when they were attempting to bring in paramedics to save passed-out drunks and bring in the fire department to put out the car on fire - and not pull out the billyclubs, they are doing alright. Imagine what could have happened if the police weren't there? Ugh. I don't want to sound like an old fogey but this is insane. Friday's issue of The Journal was filled with quote's about the the Man keeping students down and the unreasonable police presence last year and fears that they will be more unreasonable this year. One choice quote was "Police presence is bullshit..." and that the police don't have the student's interest at heart. Fucking right they don't - they have public safety at heart. I am very curious to see what tommorow's Journal has to say about all this. I would love to have the same people interviewed talked to again to see if they are singing the same tune.

It is very sad to see this occurring. One student quoted in the Journal said "Aberdeen is a tradition with a capital T," and continued "Homecoming is about school spirit and the University is trying to take away from that..." Does four years count as a tradition? If so, is this a tradition we want to continue? Really I don't see it as the University, the Police, or whomever else trying to take away from Homecoming spirit. They are trying to ensure that things go smoothly. The Aberdeen St. party has, really, nothing to do with homecoming or Queen's and really everything to do with idiocy.

Sure, many of the people were not Queen's students, yes. Many were underage, it seems, yes. But as the Queen's VP has been repeating it did occur one student's property around a student event and therefore it is upon the student's feet that blame should rest. And I agree. Criminal charges should be laid and academic sanctions for those who broke the law and the Queen's Code of Conduct. For the last few years the non-Queen's Kingston community have been extremely angry with the School for the actions of a minority of pissed-up students. This is only going to make things much, much worse.

I don't think homecoming should be cancelled because of this but I am very curious to see what other options there are. The University put on a free concert featuring some big-name bands. It was considered an utter failure as while it was sold out, only about 2000 of the 4000 ticket holders attended and it didn't prevent people from going to Aberdeen afterwards. What else can be done?

The CBC had picked up the story and is running it nationally. It also appears in the Star, on Yahoo News and who knows where else. This is really a disgusting and shameful moment. I am all for parties, drinking and other forms of self-destruction but there is absolutely no call for what went on at Aberdeen.

A proud, proud moment to be a Queen's grad.

Numbers and photographs taken from The Whig here, and see here for a chronology.
rgsc.

Amster-Hot-Damn: Day V

After a bit of an interruption in service I am back and will, hopefully, fill in our last few days in Amsterdam (although it may take a while yet). When you last heard from me, the last session of I-CHORA2 had ended and we had seen "Hair" at the film museum. The fifth day was supposed to start with a field trip to the Municipal Archives of Amsterdam. That, however, did not occur as we kinda slept in and then got a smidge turned around. By the time we ended up in a position to actually get to the archives the tour was more than half over so we decided to cut our losses, head back downtown, and try to make the most of the rest of the day.

No beer lover's trip to Amsterdam would be complete without visiting the home of everyone's favourite Dutch brew, so it was off to the Heineken Experience we went. The tour was pretty interesting - detailing the history of the brewery and how beer is made etc. - if a bit cheesy. There were two rides along with the exhibits: one which you got to become a bottle and go through the bottling plant (you stand on a platform and get shaken around while a video-projection of the bottle's point-of-view gets played on the screen in front of you) and get to 'ride' on the horse-drawn Heineken delivery cart that goes around the city. At the midpoint and at the end of the tour there are bars where you can get a chance to sample the goods. I must say that it really does taste better at the source (well, close to the source as they no longer brew the beer onsite anymore). The entire Experience is quite interactive as they have places where you can answer trivia and play games as well as send emails and videomessages by email. The tour was good if kinda lame at parts but I am happy to have done it (and even happier that we got in free thanks to my boss' nephew who works for Heineken and hooked us up with free passes. Thanks!) and we got some good beer and a complementary Heineken glass for our efforts.


We headed to the Albert Cuypmarkt (photo by) to see the market and find something to eat. And eat we did. We started with one of the exceptional freshly made stroopwafels, a sandwich-type thing made with really thin waffles with caramel in the middle, and then, my curiosity getting the better of me, I tried the authentic Dutch treat - raw herring, apparently called Nieuwe Hollandse. I must say that I was pleasantly surprised. The little fish was cut up and served with onions and pickles. It did taste fishy but not overly so, and the texture was quite nice. I have no intention of running out and getting it again but I it was a worthwhile experience. Also on the menu were freshly roasted cashews and an excellent springroll. We wandered through the bustling market (unlike the photo, the street was packed) which covers three large blocks, enjoying the sights and people watching but not buying anything except some food.

We headed back uptown and I visited the Stedelijk Museum in its temporary home while the main site is renovated. The Stedelijk has one of the greatest modern & contemporary art collections in the world. The temporary site, however, focused on art dating from after 1965, which meant that what I am most interested in (ie pre-1965 modern art) was not on display. There were some interesting things on show but by and large I was disappointed. Too much space was given to an artist that I really didn't care for named Michel Majerus and the rest of the galleries showing the highlights had something of a scattered feeling. It really didn't seem worth the 9Euro admission fee - which was pretty damn steep for such a small (and in my opinion lackluster) exhibition. Ah well. I look forward to seeing the full collection in its refurbished gallery the next time I visit.

We headed back to the hostel for a bit of a rest before we went looking for dinner. Since I hadn't set foot in the Red Light District up to this point we headed there looking for something to eat. At the very edge, before seeing any of the infamous red lights was a street filled with restaurants and coffee shops. We ended up trying a Mexican restaurant called Café Pacifico which was quite good although the service was just like every other Dutch restaurant, from what I have heard and seen, as the wait staff essentially ignores you. With bellies full we headed out into the Red Light District proper. We didn't stay terribly long, just enough to walk down a few streets and get a feel of the place. I must admit is was a very very odd place. Just as you have heard there are beautiful women hanging out in windows wearing very little. They range from being bored to actively trying to get guys to step inside. Just walking through leaves you feeling rather strange and perhaps just a bit dirty. I do think the liberal attitude the Dutch have towards sex (and drugs for that matter) is refreshing and something to be applauded. All the power to them, I say. It is just not something that I as the by-product of a rather Victorian value system I was not entirely prepared for. Definitely unlike anywhere else I have ever been to.

It was an early night after emerging from the RLD into Dam Square we headed back to the hostel for a drink, a bit of television, and sleep.
******************************************
That is it for this evening. Two more days left are left to detail, but as I spent the better part of the afternoon making steak and stout pie and my typing time has seem to have vanished they will have to be done later.
rgsc.

CAG in Niag and other stuff

Charles Bierstadt, S.J.Dixon, crossing Whirlpool Rapids on a 7/8 inch wire cable, Niagara Falls, Ont, 17 July 1891, Library and Archives Canada/PA-143309

I returned yesterday from the Catholic Archivists Group conference held in Niagara Falls. It was an interesting conference, the food was fantastic, the weather great. All in all a good time. I have a thing against the city of Niagara Falls - it is utterly tacky and touristy (a belief that was reinforced by a visit to the Clifton Hills area, which is chockablock with tacky crap) but I was really impressed by the Falls themselves. It has been about 15 years, I think, since I last saw them and I kinda forgot what all the fuss was about. Yes, it is just water, but it is still awe-inspiring. We went to Willowbank Home - and stunning house that was originally built in 1834 but is now in pretty rough shape. A charitable foundation has been established and a School of Restoration Arts is being designed where students will get to learn restoration skills while the house gets repaired, which is pretty damn cool. We also has a brief trip to Niagara-On-the-Lake. Got some fudge and a bit of vino. Oh and if you want my advice don't even bother going into the Niagara Bookshop. Yes they have some excellent books (but really no bargains and nothing you can't find elsewhere), but the proprietress is exceptionally rude and while I have bought things there in the past I don't think she will ever see my business again.

************************************************

Sooner or later I will finish the Amsterdam trip diary. Hopefully this weekend. So, for those of you (Mark) who are avid readers of this, one or two more days should do it.

************************************************

The National Archives...ok, the Library and Archives Canada, has an online databse/exhibit which was released last week called Framing Canada: A Photographic Memory. The thematic essays are not up yet, but the Weird and Wacky: Humour in Archival Photographs are there. (That is where I found the above photo of the guy crossing the Niagara Rapids, quite by coinidence). There is also a pretty awesome exhibit on Canadian Pulp Fiction (which made me sing "Get down, get down" in my head, as PF always does [heh. i love these bunnies. Really they deserve a post on their own, also check out the exorcist re-enactment]). Very nifty.

************************************************

Lastly, I hope all is well with the Pallisters and Levys in Texas. We are thinking about you and are closely watching the path of Hurricane Rita (I just heard on the news that they think Houston will not be in the direct path, so fingers crossed).

rgsc

Amster-Hot-Damn: Days III & IV

I intended to continue the Amsterdam narrative on Wednesday (and Thursday) but I started fencing again and let's just say that I have been left with very little energy and have lost my ability to negotiate staircases. Ahhh. It's good to be back.

So, where were we? Ah yes, I-CHORA 2, which, in case you were curious (but not curious enough to follow the link), was the Second International Conference on the History of Records and Archives. The theme was "Archival Affinities: Adapting and Adopting Archival Cultures." Pretty exciting, eh?

Well, it was a mighty early start to the day but I got up and ready in the dark so as not to disturb the others in the room, had breakfast (too early for eggs, apparently, but at least I got my croissant), grabbed a cappuccino at the wonderful bakery that I visited the first day, and walked the very quiet Amsterdam Streets to the University. The first session, on the theme "Recordkeeping Legacies," was kicked off by an excellent keynote by Jeanette Bastian. She took a theoretical look at the issue of Colonial-era records/archives, setting up the case-studies presented in the papers that followed. Particularly interesting were papers on the Spanish-era records in the Philippines, on the Republic of Kiribati (a former British Colony in the Pacific), and on the Japanese policies regarding the records of the territories they conquered in the 1930s and '40s. After lunch was "Recordkeeping Crossing Frontiers," which started off with really good paper on the records created by Spanish citizens who wanted to go to the Americas. Unfortunately, as the paper drew near an end I was struggling to keep alert in the veryvery warm room so I missed bits. The rest of the session was ok, but not spectacular and more nodding off occurred. I think I got the important bits.

Following the first full day of the conference was the banquet. This was held in the The Orangery of the Hortus Botanicus (Botanical Garden). We arrived a shade early but the catering staff let us in to wander about the garden. The garden was opened in 1638 and holds approximately 2% of all the species of plant life on Earth (ca. 4000 species). They have a bunch of carnivorous plants (Venus flytraps etc.), prehistoric palm and the crazy-big Victoria Lilies (flower of which is shown at left). There were greenhouses and enclosures (including a butterfly house) as well but since the park was closed we didn't get to go in. There were lots of cool plant-type things which I really know very little about, but it was neat to walk around and look, especially considering I most likely wouldn't have come to the Gardens on my own. The drinks were free flowing and the Italian buffet-style meal was quite good. After they kicked us out a bunch of archival types went to a pub for a drink. We stayed for one and then headed back to the hostel.

Another early morning, another breakfast minus the egg, another cappuccino and another nice walk to the University as the city woke up started my fourth day in Amsterdam. This day's proceedings didn't disappoint. The Canadians were thick in the water on the programme and I knew it was going to be good. The first session, "Shaping and Reshaping Archives," started off with the wonderful Laura Millar who talked about the intersection of Native and Euro-Canadian recordkeeping in British Columbia. The two faculty members of UMan's Archival programme, Terry Cook and Tom Nesmith, also gave great papers, the former on the evolution of archival theory and practice in Canada and the latter examined an expanded notion of provenance. And a very interesting paper was given on German archivists following World War II. The final session of the conference, "Memory and Writing in Archival Cultures" started with UBC's Heather MacNeil's examination of the origins of written records as evidence of acts in England. Also in the session were two papers on the International Criminal Tribunals, one dealing with the records created in the trials dealing with Rwanda and the other in the former Yugoslavia. And with that the conference was done.

A few people went out for a quick drink afterwards but that was pretty much it. We went for dinner at a place that served really good, and cheap, Dutch food called De Keuken van 1870. Following dinner and a bit of a rest we headed to Vondelpark to the Film Museum, where they showed movies outdoors, projected onto an inflatable screen. We saw Hair, which was surprisingly good and it was really cool to see it outside, sitting on a balcony of an amazing building. And that ended another Amsterdam day.

Now 100% Certified

I thought I would briefly interrupt the Amsterdam narrative to let you know that I found out this morning I passed the exam I took before I went to M&D's wedding and am now a 100%, Grade-A, Certified Archivist. Yes, I am now a member of the Academy of Certified Archivists. So, you ask, what does that mean? Well, it apparently means that I am a proficient and effective professional who demonstrates an understanding of all aspects of archival theory and practice (although, according to my test results, not so much in the professional, ethical and legal responsibilities category -- I blame it on differences in philosophy and the American-centric nature of the questions) who is committed and involved in the field. So there you are. Guess I fooled them, eh. So, you now ask, what benefit does this have. Uh...well as far as I can see there is no immediate benefit for me having the qualification. It won't allow me to advance in my current position but it can't hurt for the future, right? Plus I get to add a few more letters behind my name. Which is something...
And now back to our regular scheduled programing
rgsc
MIst, C.A.

Amster-Hot-Damn : Day II

Although tired, we began our second day in Amsterdam right -- with a Piggy-provided breakfast. While we were able to gorge on bread with jam, peanut butter, and nutella, cornflakes, and an egg, we missed out on our croissants and felt mightily cheated.

Since our time in the city was limited, particularly since my conference took up two of the seven days we were there, we needed to make the most of it. That meant a hard-core schedule of two world class museums before conference registration in the afternoon.



Vincent Van Gogh, Almond Blossom, 1890 (for some reason the images from the museum don't want to come up so this one is from the Artchive)

Our first stop was the Van Gogh Museum. This huge collection, housed in a recently refurbished building, laid out the work of that tormented master from his early days as an artist through to his last. It also had quite an impressive collection of works by contemporaries/influences/followers, even if there wasn't too much of the non-Van Gogh on display. Several things struck me during my visit. First was how talented Vincent actually was. Ok, maybe it sounds a bit obvious to say "Van Gogh was a talented painter" but what struck me was his amazing skill, not only in paint-handling but also (as was brought out in the massive temporary exhibit Van Gogh Draughtsman: The Masterpieces) in his drawing ability - i never really considered him much of a draughtsman, not that I didn't think he could draw, but rather so much attention is given to the paint that I never gave it any thought. This was compounded by the fact that he was more-or-less entirely self-taught and just "decided" to become an artist after failing as a preacher. Another thing that stuck me was number of distinct styles that he adopted and used for a while before moving on to something quite different in his short artistic career (which went from 1880 to 1890). This was well brought out by the chronological arrangement of the galleries which were divided into the five stages of his development. Lastly, I was stuck by the efforts of Johanna Van Gogh, the wife of Vincent's brother Theo, to get the work of Vincent known. Theo, Vincent's stalwart supporter died six months after Vincent, and it was Johanna who went to great lengths to get their letters published.

Once we were done with Vincent (and after Laura had a little nap while waiting for me to get through the last gallery) we headed out to find some lunch before more art. We wandered a rather swanky street (Jan Luijkenstraat???) until we found an Italian deli (I didn't get the name) where we had a couple of the tastiest, most filling sandwiches to be found anywhere. Rejuvenated by our meal we headed to the Rijksmuesum.

Ok, I'll start with a disclaimer: I am not a fan of Dutch art in general. Yeah, some people dig it, but as my friend Maria and I concluded ages ago, Dutch art is all about boats, windmills, and rotting fruit. And I am not really into any of that. Ok, so maybe that is a bit of an overstatement (but not much) and I do appreciate Rembrandt and Vermeer and a handful of others, and that those still-lifes have a lot more going on than first appears with the memento mori and so forth, but by and large to me it is just meh. And that was pretty much my impression of the whole museum. Meh. Don't get me wrong. The Rijks is one of the greatest museums in the world and I am very glad to have had the opportunity to have visited it. I just don't really like the art they have on show. To be fair I know they do have stuff I like, but during their major renovations they are focusing on just the highlights. Of Dutch Art. The three Vermeers were extraordinary and the Nightwatch was duly impressive, the Deftware was interesting. As for the rest of it...well, glad to have seen it but really not gonna rush back. One artist that they showed three or four works that I do like was Pieter Jansz. Saenredam (the image to the left is his St. Bravo Church, Haarlem of 1636) so it was good to see them, (although there is a painting of the same church from 12 years later in the National Gallery of Scotland that I like much better.)

After our whirlwind tour through the Golden Age of Dutch Art it was time to head to the university to register for the Conference. That didn't take to long so we headed back to the hostel to freshen up before going to the City Councilor's Chamber at the Amsterdam City Hall for a reception to kick off the conference. We found the building no problem at all. Getting in, however, proved to be much more difficult. They marked two entrances on the tiny, crappy photocopied map they gave us and then didn't think it would be useful to put up a little sign anywhere showing us which door to go in. After wandering around for a while one of the people working on the local arrangements recognized us and showed us the way. Apparently there was a welcome and a bit of a talk, but we missed that. We did, however, make it in time for free drinks and hors d'oeuvres. We chatted with some archival types on the balcony for a little while before getting kicked out.

There were two keynote speakers scheduled following a dinner break so we didn't wander to far to find something to eat. We ended up at a restaurant called Szmulewicz. I haven't a clue how to pronounce that, but I do know the food was very good.

I don't know who thought scheduling two keynote speakers at 7:30pm after an open bar and a meal was a good idea, but if they asked my opinion I would have suggested that they do it before they gave us the booze. The speakers were alright, discussing the relationships between American and British/European archivists and historians, but I they didn't really have my full attention given that we had quite a long day, a number of bevies, and it was really warm in the lecture theatre. As you will see this became a running theme for the conference (well I didn't drink before the other sessions, but the tired/hot combination did play havoc with my attention span throughout the following days - I am quite glad that they plan to publish the conference papers in the future, but would have liked it if they would have given us the pre-prints like they did for the last one). Following a bit of discussion, I headed back to the Flying Pig where we hung out for a bit before heading to bed where I tried to get some rest for the big days of conferencing ahead.

Amster-Hot-Damn : Day I

Alright Mark, here it is. A recap our our week in Amsterdam.


De Leydtze Poort [the gate to Amsterdam, Netherlands], c1690, by Isaac Commelin, Amsterdam

On August 29th, we set off for Europe - the first time since I left Glasgow four years ago. Flying AirTransat was better than I remembered (oooh, leather seats) and the flight was pretty uneventful. The worst part of the flight was that we were subjected to the absolutely terrible Monster-In-Law, but considering how aircraft seemingly were falling out of the sky at a rather alarming rate in August, I guess that is really nothing to complain about.

It was dark as we descended into Amsterdam and as we got closer to the city we could see large patches of light on the ground all over the place which was very cool. As we got closer we could see that they were greenhouses. We arrived at Schiphol Airport pretty much right on time (6am on the 30th) and after retrieving our luggage we took a train into Cenrtraal Station



From there it was a short walk to our home-away-from home, The Flying Pig Downtown. As far as hostels go, The Flying Pig was pretty good: It was pretty clean, the showers worked and had hot water and decent water pressure, breakfast was included (although you have to time it right to get your egg and croissant), there was free internet access, and it had a bar. It is, however, a hostel, so we had no privacy, were frequently woken up, and had to stumble around in the morning in the dark. But you get what you pay for and the Pig was kinda the cheapest option so it could have been much worse. We were too early to check in, so we stowed our bags in the luggage storage and went off to find something to eat. We wandered around a bit, getting a feel for the city in the wee hours before it woke up and was flooded by tourists. I passed on the McDonald's (where I saw a mouse run from the front counter to the kitchen) and opted instead for a fantastic ham and cheese filled croissant straight out of the oven of a little bakery down an alley a little way from out hostel. We hung out for a bit and soon it was time to check in.

Having essentially no sleep since 9am the previous day (it was about 3amEST) we attempted to get some shut-eye so we could make something of the day. The other people staying in our room and the hostel staff, however, had other ideas and it seemed everyone was exceptionally noisy. We got up about noon and headed out into the city. We went to the Anne Frank House. There isn't too much in the rooms - they are pretty bare and haven't been "recreated" in any way - but there were extracts from the Diary, photographs, archival documents and artifacts, and videos which talked about the Nazi invasion and the subsequent repression of the Jewish in Amsterdam and the experience of the two families who spent two years hiding in a few rooms before being betrayed. It is quite a powerful place and makes you reflect on the strength and courage of some people and the absolute inhumanity of others.

We had some fries with mayonnaise outside the Westerkerk and then headed back towards the hostel to figure out what to do that evening.

A ChattyLibrarian recommended that we check out Boom Chicago, an improv group and dinner theatre, and we figured that this might be something worth looking into. We hopped on a tram to the Leidseplein

(in the summer, obviously not when this photo was taken, there are a ton of tables outside the pubs/bars. Boom Chicago is on the far right)where we got tickets for the Best of Boom show, where they did skits from other shows mixed with improvised songs and skits based on audience suggestions a la Who's Line is it Anyway. Here's a lesson for you - one which we should have kept in mind throughout the rest of the trip: You can always find it cheaper! This goes for tacky souvenirs as well as theatre tickets. We learned this the hard way as, after paying full price for our tickets (we completely forgot to bring the 3Euro off coupon from the flyers in the hostel which also placed right at the entrance to the theatre) we had some time to kill. Just around the corner was the Half-Price ticket office where, you guessed it, we could have got the exact same tickets for half the price. At any rate the dinner was surprisingly good and the show was quite funny. While not everything worked, sometimes due to lame audience suggestions, by and large they were quite good. It was a bit edgy and at times shocking at times (a few "I can't believe they just said that" moments) and I was particularly impressed by the songs. Following the show we headed back to the Flying Pig, ending day one.

Stay tuned for Amsterdam Days 2-4, "I-CHORA and More-a." (yes, I acknowledge the lameness)

Has it really been a month?

hmmm. It looks like the last time I wrote anything here was pretty near a month ago. No wonder I am feeling a shade rusty. September just sort of snuck up on me.

The wedding of Danielle and Mark in Winnipeg and was excellent - I can honestly say that it was the best wedding that I have ever been to - and I am sorry it has taken me so long to officially acknowledge it publically in blog form. Winnipeg and all its inhabitants treated me extremely well, which is turning into something of a pattern. It was great to meet the multitude of infamous Winnipegers and hang out again with assorted FISers, and play pool, baseball, bocce, frizknock and other assorted bloodsports. Oh, and have a drink or two.

And now to Amsterdam. I am going to write some proper posts along the lines of Mark's European Adventure Recap, but I didn't keep a journal of what we did or take many photos so...so I guess I will probably make stuff up and shamelessly use other peoples images, like This guy's:



Amsterdam was pretty good. The conference (the reason I decided that a late summer visit to The Netherlands would be a good thing) was pretty good -- not great, mind you, but pretty good -- and definitely worth while, and we certainly saw and did quite a bit, and had many-a great meal. I think we spent about the right amount of time in the city and I don't think that I would rush back but I am very glad I finally had the chance to get there.

More later.
rgsc