so, today marks the first time that arriving at amsterdam centraal felt like coming home rather than just revisiting one my favorite cities on the planet. we were apart for only a few days, but as with every great love it felt like a lifetime.

it also feels like there’s a helluva lot of catching up to do!

so, here are some pickings from what i found in my inbox and what i had pencilled in before leaving for berlin last wednesday:

• time to take out some hipsters again this friday?
• speaking of hipsters: bar spek, possibly amsterdam’s hippest bar / bistro outside the very city center, has a new menu. they are particularly proud of the “green monster” (find out for yourself!) and the veal blade steak, but the first thing i thought when i saw the new menu was: you won’t find many places in this city offering you a chia seed / coconut bubble pudding with goji berries. you might as well just find this very one place.
• my must-do this saturday (11am through 5pm): open house at het nationale ballet! dancers! singers! costumes! find the full slate of details here!
• then on to a new duo exhibition (sara glahn & isablle wenzel), opened at galerie bart (saturday, 4 through 7 pm).
• finally, no saturday would be complete without checking out a new nightlife location. i have never been to dolly, but i keep hearing good things, and the “feel at home, dj like you’re at home” concept of “de huiskamer” sounds promising. starts around 11pm.
• sunday sees jagwar ma play paradiso – count me in!

more to come soon of course! oh, and one more thing…

i got the chance to visit the construction site of what at some point this year will be one of amsterdam’s most vibrant, interesting cultural hotspots – radion! it will lie on the abandoned acta premises (home as well to the beautiful painting pictured way above) and will feature a café and several floors for all kinds of colorful happenings like theatre, exhibitions, fashion shows, food markets etc.pp. – and understandably so, as the main building holds offices for creatives from all disciplines and dorms for more than 400 students. the café already has a projected opening event: the big binnenplaats festival on june 13.

radion understands itself as “a scalar field in quantum field theory in spacetimes with additional dimensions”. eat that! anyways, i can’t wait to see the space come to life!