martedì, settembre 25, 2007

Evil Amsterdam II

So last night we got high and watched Evil Dead II as the F-word had sworn I'd needed to do for a long time; it was so very Bruce Campbell. Wow. I sat there intermittently being impressed by what was being done with such a tiny budget, telling the F-word to stop distracting me by telling me what was being done with such a tiny budget, and being enchanted with what Bruce Campbell was doing. Nobody else could have done that, I reckon.

Such a boy movie, to be sexist about it - porn grade dialogue and one visual spectacle after another - shameless! But great. It explains why the Spiderman movies suck - Sam Raimi can't direct dialogue. I don't see why he should have to, when he can direct wonderful shameless visual spectacles with rubber-faced actors who don't care about looking like a crazy jerk. Of course, that's not the Spidermans, or at least it hasn't been and I don't suppose it will be as the series seems to be using some sort of winning formula that brings in the girls as well as the boys because there's a romantic subplot and words. But you know, if I wanted words in my movies, I'd go to the fucking theatre, wouldn't I?

Anyways, Amsterdam. We didn't do much. The weather was unseasonably wonderful so we spent a lot of time exploring. Found some nice places to eat and drink, which I'd love to write about here because finding nice places to eat there hasn't been so easy in my experience, but frankly it's gone. Stayed in a hotel room that cost €80 and was roughly the size of the bed, not to mention right next to the boiler room - felt fleeced, so I slept like a lamb.

Went to the Van Gogh gallery for, I was shocked to learn on departing from it, six hours. Usually I get museum exhaustion in two. That's a hell of a gallery - not every day that you find a gallery that has enough work by one artist that you can follow it through their life in a fully engaging way. The Picasso gallery in Paris is like that, but this was better because I like Van Gogh better than I like Picasso, and because it wasn't run indifferently by French people, but brilliantly by Dutch people, who I think should run everything in the world, except food.

Don't tell them that though; their heads are already swollen enough. I remember going to a flower show with my brother last March that was full of Dutch people, one of whom said to me, "If you're not Dutch, you're not much."

"Much of a what?" I asked, and smiled.

5 commenti:

Melbine ha detto...

Hey - an Amsterdam write-up after all! Haha! LOVE what you wrote about the Dutch with their swollen heads. It's sooo true..and is last March really the first time you heard the not Dutch, not much phrase? Actually, that is the first of that variant that I've heard. Usually it's, "It's not much if it's not Dutch". Sheesh!

I'd like to get to the van Gogh gallery in '09. When my cousins took me to Amsterdam they really wanted to see Madame Tussaud's wax museum. Which, I have to admit, as a 16-year-old at the time, I was cool with!

Sugarplum ha detto...

Everything that rhymes is true and should be repeated repeatedly.

Dread Pirate Jessica ha detto...

My god - you've cracked the secret of brilliant Dutch social organization - rhyming mnemomics. We know their secret now! 'If you're rich, don't be a bitch',
'If you're too proud, don't be too loud,' et cetera. So cute. Just like the Dutch.

Baywatch ha detto...

dare I say, you should've eaten some thc-soaked sweets and watched all 3 EDs. timeless stuff.

Dread Pirate Jessica ha detto...

I saw 'Army of Darkness' years and years ago and still laugh when I think of Bruce Campbell delivering the 'That was just pillow talk, honey' line.