For those who want a, um, concise view on the national Dutch elections, my pal Floris Dogterom is writing a series of reports on the still very-BETA website of Unfold Amsterdam. This web/paper publication is a very welcome endeavour to fill the void left by Amsterdam Weekly’s demise and includes a lot of Weekly alumni. They won’t be truely kicking off until 1 September but meanwhile the website already features a savvy choice of what’s going down in town. Check it out! It will rule! Support!
Posted: June 3, 2010 at 11:53 am. Add a comment
Yesterday I bought a Sunday paper that should last me quite a few Sundays. It’s the one-off San Francisco Panorama brought to you by the always inspired folks behind McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern. It’s pretty old already but I think it took until their third run until there were enough copies leftover to make it to Amsterdam’s Athenaeum. (But I guess I could have also just ordered it here.)
Anyway, it’s pretty mindblowing. Basically they wanted to present the relevance a paper newspaper can still have in our internet world: so it’s all in-depth journalism by amazing writers complete with high quality art, photography and design. They even give a run-down of the budget to inspire others to come up with their own daily newspaper. It actually comes across as a cross between a (really really nice) Sunday paper and a (really really nice) alternative weekly. And certainly, if I was still the editor of an alternative weekly, I’d definitely steal — I mean, get inspired by — some of their ideas. It’s really, really that great. Gotta bless those paper products!
Posted: April 20, 2010 at 12:28 pm. Add a comment
The fine artiste Aquil Copier, friend and cherished ex-Weekly collegue, has just started a pamphlet about painting: PRESENTeert.
Track down a copy (he’ll even send you one…) and check it out.
I interviewed the artist Pieter Paul Pothoven who has just returned from the caves of Afghanistan where he visited the mines supplying the Lapis Lazuli that formed the basis for Vermeer’s blue. What a story! And a story I will probably post here once the hard copies run out…
Posted: December 1, 2009 at 2:01 pm. 1 comment
Animation fans should definitely check out the Klik Amsterdam film festival that is taking place 17-20 September. One of the organisers Luuk van Huet was a writer for Amsterdam Weekly, and as such I sometimes had to work to calm his smartass tendencies (my older friends will recognise the absurdity of such a situation). It’s the festival’s third edition and is screaming with ambition. A related exhibition, Animation Chiellerie, has already opened with prints and animations by the inspired locals likes of Erik Kriek, Lamelos, Martin Draax and Jeroen Blankert…
Posted: September 14, 2009 at 8:08 am. Add a comment
But meanwhile…
Bio:
After years of travel subsidised by carpentry and B-movie acting, writer Steve Korver came to Amsterdam in 1991 to reverse the journey his parents made as immigrants to Canada. Soon he was a columnist, copywriter, editor/writer of guide books, and contributor to the likes of New York Times, Guardian, Time Out, McSweeney’s Quarterly, Condé Nast Traveller and The Globe & Mail on such subjects as food/drink, design/architecture, Yuri Gagarin, Serbian gangster kitsch and all-things-Amsterdam. He finally got his first real job in 2005 as editor-in-chief of the cultural paper Amsterdam Weekly. But after 175 issues and 14 European Newspaper Awards, it was time to return to his freewheeling and freelancing writing roots. OK, but first maybe a vacation is a good idea…
Recent samples:
The New York Times magazine feature ‘Holland Days’.
The Guardian article ‘Streets Ahead’.
Posted: January 12, 2009 at 7:45 pm. Add a comment
