YouTube's Video Editor, Amsterdam, & Sucking

I'm going to start this post backwards because I've only just started the process of uploading my video clips, so I have no flippin' idea how the video editor YouTube launched works yet. So in the meantime whilst I wait I'm going to have a rooibos tea, listen to pirate radio, and watch the rain come down. Yes my planned boat ride on the canal shall no longer be. Though if the rain let's up I'm marching down there to see whether it's on or not anyways. I figure if it's not on at least I can sneak into the Rijksmuseum and not feel guilty.

On to the music. One of the features of YouTube's video editor is you can add music to your videos. I have no idea what copyright issues are going to do to the availability of my selection - but in the meantime let's dream shall we? Together?

Now Miss Pool (that's L) has suggested that I use Kraftwerk's "Trans Europe Express" and while I love me some Kraftwerk, it doesn't fit the video's subject matter. Going from Amsterdam to the seaside isn't exactly a transeuropean voyage.

Here's a list of songs I have considered in the 7+ minutes that it has taken YouTube to upload my 9min 59sec video...

Joy Division: Love Will Tear Us Apart, Atmosphere

Adam and the Ants: Prince Charming

The Specials: Ghost Town

The Smiths: There's a Light that Never Goes Out, Back to the Old House, Panic

And then it occurs to me...doesn't YouTube have a time limit for how long videos can be? If my vid is going to be 10 minutes long I'm going to need more than one song....

This is why I haven't forrayed into the YouTube video making world before. It's well complicated. Must stop listening to Ska. It's making me use my Ali G voice.

Phew. Somewhere from the starting point of YouTube to the absurdity of viral videos of annoyingly cute kitty cats, the nice people at YouTube upped the cap on the time limit from 10 minutes to 15 minutes.

The videos have all uploaded now. I have tagged them and all that stuff. So on to the next step.

Blogger not only didn't save my post, but I had some image problems too because I really need to buy Photoshop my print screens didn't save properly, but it doesn't matter because this "tutorial" I had planned to teach you (whilst teaching myself) how to use the YouTube video editor sort of became all about trying to find ways around the Editor's lack of functionality or lack of the functionality I wanted YouTube to offer me.

Here's why I think YouTube's Video Editor sucks the big one:

1. The whole editing the clips side bar-arrow thing is quite crap. Why can't I just point my mouse and click and remove the panels one by one??? Why??????

2. YouTube couldn't resolve the copyright infringement issues of using music, so what they offer is a list of artists I have never even heard of. So either I am way less cool then I think I am or no one knows who the hell these artists are either. Please say it isn't only me. Nice to know, on a sidenote that YouTube is really planning to make some more revenue off the music industry.

3. The transitions, to put it mildly, are what I would expect to see if a 5 year old figured out how to make a Power Point presentation. Does the world need another video that transitions between clips via a heart-shaped fade? I mean isn't Chinese karaoke videos plentiful enough?

What I had planned this morning was to make a brilliantly edited video of the video footage I've been shooting in A'dam. What happened is too horrible to even post a link to. However I am going to find the right software and do it. Just probably not until I'm back in France and the housework's been done.

Here is one of the print screens that saved properly. It looks basic doesn't it? Well that's because my dears, it is.

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Amsterdam Day 10 in Pictures

The moon over A'dam the night of the lunar eclipse.

More moonlight over Amsterdammy.

Finally up and at 'em.

Banksy?

Duck on a rudder.

Happy cat.

Yes. A four person tandem. What??

Bicycle ornaments.

Zanvoort.

Wall murals at Zansvoort.

Sculpture.

The North Sea.

Haarlem.

Haarlem train station.

Odd structure @ Haarlem train station.

A gift for a friend with a good sense of humour.

Odd thing at La Paz Coffeeshop in Zanvoort.

Amsterdammers having a little boat party.

Dumpster.

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London, Paris, and Amsterdam

Yesterday my friend arrived from London so we went out on the town. We had to - we stayed at Amnesia (owned by Barney's try the Acapulco Gold) until 22h30 and by the time she dropped off her bags it was too late to eat almost anywhere. Thankfully we headed towards Warmoerstraat and there was a Wok to Walk open. I have to say as far as fast food concepts go - Wok to Walk is brilliant.

Wow. I didn't realise Wok to Walk had so many locations...

Came back to the flat and watched Tosh.0 and old episodes of Married with Children.

We spent a great deal of time my friend and me talking about the crazy circumstances in which we met and how we used to pass the time together in London. L is one of those amazing types. She's brilliant, witty, has some many varied interests, and is a Scouser (from Liverpool) to boot.

One of my favourite stories that is L-centric is once in Islington while waiting for the pedestrian walk sign to indicate I could walk, I took a second too long and this girl behind me said "Hurry up you fat cow."

Needless to say I told her she was quite clever, but I was pretty mad. Who does that? So I hurried to meet L and G and M (my London mates) at the nearby bar where I'd coaxed them to meet me for some mid-afternoon champers (actually Bolly-Stolly's which are an Ab Fab reference to a drink Patsy likes of Bollinger champagne and Stoly vodka) on my expense account. I arrived and had a rant about this stranger, and a few minutes later when she walked by, I had to point her out.

"You're brilliant you. Yes you!" L shouted at the girl. "Don't pay her any mind," L said to me reassuringly and then raising her voice so that the girl would overhear, "she's got a face like a well-slapped arse. Like she should be saying anything about anyone."

It's thanks to Lisa that I've seen Black Books. Or have this vivid portrait of what life was like in Northern England in the late 70's & 80's (Thatcher, Thatcher, the milk snatcher) - my favourite time period of music that gave birth to The Clash, The Jam, The Sex Pistols, Madness, and of course The Smiths.

And that's when I remembered when I knew L would be more than someone I was introduced to by a mutual friend. There's a Light that Never Goes Out. Taking the night bus from Soho to Old Street I mentioned to L how I always wanted to ride the night bus while people sang in unison. So she started singing. P joined in. A few other nameless strangers roused from their drunkeness and sang along. The bus driver joined in and I followed him.

When after the first time we met L, G, and P came to Paris for the wedding of the mutual friend who introduced us we went out for big steaks and to watch the World Cup match France vs. Brazil. When France won we all marched up the rue Rivoli to the Place Etoile. We stayed out until 3 in the morning drinking champers and cheering every time we encountered someone on the street all the way back to the old house. Right after I typed that line, the song "Back to the Old House" started playing...coincidence...

L mentions to me there's a version of Morrissey singing "Every Day is like Sunday" that brings her to tears. So I'm dedicating this to her. She came from London to hang with me here in A'dam and even though a little ditty does hardly do, it's a little something anyways. Not that I want to make you cry. But to say hey girleen, I get why ya do.

Look at the Moz ham it up for his hometown. One day I will see Morrissey in Manchester and L will most assuredly be by my side.

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Thanks and Praise

I have a number of new readers, which is very nice to see. I've tried to keep up with blogging while on my trip, but sometimes it's a bit hard. The nice thing is that it forces me to take pictures, which is something I rarely do. I want to show you all the things I love about Amsterdam and what's been inspiring me here. There's been lots of bad weather, but that's A'dam. I'll have to run out in the rain in a few hours to fetch a friend from the station, but I've just had a yummy lunch of perfectly eggs, bacon, and raisin toast, and I don't have to get going until at least 5, so I've got a few hours yet.

It's been quite inspiring to me to have this blog. It's been just over a month now (not including old posts from my older blog I imported to here) and I'm always pleased to see visitors. I added a widget to see where everyone is from, but if it bothers you, contact me, and I'll remove it. I just thought it was amusing to see where everyone is from since I get readers from lots of different countries.

To contact me - I've created an email specifically for this blog now, so if you're shy about commenting and feel like getting in touch for whatever reason you can email me at lafemmeflaneuse@gmail.com. I've also put a widget up for it. I'll never reveal your email address or any of your other info.

No other major news to share, just watching the rain fall, listening to The Zep, and wondering if I should try to find someone to illustrate these little "fables" I've been writing with an Amsterdam theme to them on Craigslist.

I might...

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Aubrey Beardsley - Dandy

I recently found out that I technically share a birthday (21 August) with Aubrey Beardsley (I say technically because I was actually born the 16th of August, but my birth certificate says the 21st), with whom my association started with finding an editon of The Yellow Book that he started along with Henry Harland. Little did I know he would prove to be so fascinating a subject.

Beardsley was a leading member of the Aestheticism movement along with Oscar Wilde and Whistler. Aestheticism or the Aesthetic Movement placed aesthetic values above all others - the nature of beauty, art, taste, and creation of beautiful things were all the Asthetes cared about. Society and politics held no interest for them. It was all about decadence

This isn't the Yellow Book I have, I have the same cover but it's a selection of bits from the various editions of The Yellow Book. Beardsley designed the yellow cover when he served as the quarterly's first art director. If you ever spot one, snap it up. They are on my list of books I'm always on the look out for. I would love to own an entire collection.

Image courtesy of Nothing Elegant.

Beardsley was fabulous. He was the most controversial artist of the Art Nouveau era (which I imagine must really mean something) because he hung out with openly homosexual Oscar Wilde and made erotic drawings. The truth is no one knew if Beardsley was straight or not. That he loved his work and only his work seems to be the generous consensus now (via biographers) and then (even Wilde himself thought Beardsley had time "for neither ladies nor lads").

Beardsley illustrations along with his French counterpart Toulouse-Latrec are the epitome of Art Nouveau til this day. And the proof is in how many people claim to be inspired by Aubrey Beardsley - his life, his work, his dandyism, his philosophy, his literature.

Djuna Barnes, authoress, claimed that Beardsley inspired her illustrations. Beardsley has been hugely influential to people in fashion. Vivienne Westwood, Zandra Rhodes, Paul Poiret, and Yves Saint Laurent and Christian Lacroix have all claimed Beardsley an inspiration at one point or another.

Illustration by Djuna Barnes from the Ladies' Almanack.

But what can I say about Aubrey Beardsley that wasn't better said by Oscar Wilde himself? Beardsley wasn't just an artist, he was a damn fine writer too. A real wit. As for the rest, let the Asthete have his say:

"Superbly premature as the flowering of his genius was, still he had immense development, and had not sounded his last stop. There were great possibilities in the cavern of his soul, and there is something macabre and tragic in the fact that one who added another terror to life should have died at the age of a flower." Oscar Wilde

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Amsterdam Day 8

It's pouring. I don't mean a little drizzle, I mean pouring. The cats I'm babysitting in exchange for the cheap digs have decided to tear apart their litter box in protest and for some reason planes keep going overhead with engines roaring.

There are some downsides to Amsterdam. Very few in my opinion, but there are a few.

1. The selection for cooking products is rather non-existent - especially when it comes to meat.

I'd like to talk to some cooks about this because even at Albert Heijn, which is the posh grocery store I can't find anything but chicken and rather poor cuts of beef and pork. No duck, no lamb, no goose, and no massive steaks like I have in France in abundance.

There's nice strawberries at the moment and corn on the cob, but the same amount of produce isn't available here either. The only bonus is I could cook mushrooms (the non-groovy kind) because there are more varieties here than in France.

2. Everything seems to have high fructose corn syrup in it.

I don't need to be fluent in Dutch to see that the most common ingredient in pre-made anything in Holland seems to be high fructose corn syrup. Which is evil and should be a substance controlled by some special department of every government. In France there is legislation that says there can't be high fructose corn syrup in certain products and then only in certain percentages. I am very thankful for this as HFCS has been proven to lead to fat ass syndrome - or in my case fatter ass than usual syndrome seeing as I've put on 3 kilos since coming to A'dam!

3. Public transport is expensive and fairly useless.

The RAPT/SNCF might go on strike a lot and tourists might complain, but hands down, Paris has the best public transportation in the world. It's cheap (with a Navigo pass you can ride buses, trams, and the Metro as much as you want for less than 60,00 euros a month); it goes everywhere (aside from a few no-Metro zones, there seems to be a Metro station no more than a 10 minutes walk in almost any direction); and it's frequent.

I still don't get how to use trams in A'dam. I get the regular stuff, but what I don't get is how to make it more cost effective. It's pretty expensive to pay 3,40 for a single ride. In Paris 3,40 is a round trip journey with the right to change to any amount of trains in the Metro and one change to a bus ride per leg.

I also think some A'dam bike rental company needs to do the Velib. I would be so much more willing to ride a bike I could then put back on the special bike rack and not have to worry about. Otherwise it's rent bicycle, ride around, realise your calves are burning, stop for a drink, lock up bicycle, and then worry about whether or not it gets stolen. Or you get to ride around on a bicycle that screams tourist and I didn't learn to ride a bike in Holland because I wanted to look like a tourist. I can hang.

After six years, including once or twice having to deal with some legal-bureaucratic issues (I lost my identity card when I lived here, but someone actually turned it in to the police station), of living, visiting, driving through, taking day trips to, and renting apartments to live a sort of more daily life here these are the only things I can think to complain about.

Yesterday I did one of my favourite things to do in all of Amsterdam. I walked down to the Leidesplein and watched people play chess in front of the Hard Rock Cafe. Watching people play chess, talking to locals, seeing a little boy chomping at the bit to test his skills - I can sit there for hours and hours or at least until 10:00 pm when the guy comes to put all the gigantic chess pieces away for the night.

My day was to wake up, do a little housework, write a blog post, hang out at La Tertulia (which is a great coffeeshop on the Prinsengracht), play cards, write in my notebook, eat Thai food at Thaise Snackbar, watch chess, walked around until I was exhausted, ate a giant waffle with chocolate chip ice cream (which I made at the flat), watch old episodes of Big Bang Theory, and fell asleep to the sound of rain.

My friend is coming from London today, so that's why I've held off on doing any touristy things. We're off to the beach tomorrow if the weather cooperates and to visit Haarlem. On Saturday we're taking a booze/smoke friendly boat ride along the canals. We might even go to the Rijskmuseum - especially if the sun holds out since we figure people will want to be outdoors so it might be less crowded.

I'll be home in less than a week now and maybe it might be a few months before I'm able to return here, but this sense of feeling like I am free here - not so weighed down by the minuitae of French culture and all its ouis et nons and how conservative it all is - it brings out the very best in me. I can spend the day just walking with no desintation in mind, with no worries in France too - mais bien sur. But here in Amsterdam I can meet other flâneurs more easily it seems. And they're not all polished up and making so much effort (which is exactly the kind of flâneuse I am in Paris too). They're hippies; bankers, students, ladies who work in a bakery; and a Dutchman reading four newspapers while smoking a joint.

Yes I am lucky to live in France and it does suit me. I just feel luckier that I get to come here every now and then and let that little part of me that loves Amsterdam get up, crimp her hair, put on a "I Heart Zombies" t-shirt from The Walking Dead comic books with a fancy skirt, and shake her booty. Mostly because my hair looks awesome crimped.

Here's to all of us being at our best!

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Collecting Anais Nin

I'm a huge collector of Anais Nin's works -especially anything published by the original Swallow Press. Sadly one thing I don't own is the Swallow Press (some of the later books being published by Harcourt/Harvest) of her complete set of diaries.






First Edition/First Printing of Volume One Swallow Press

I've seen copies, but always thought they were over-priced and with so many different "versions" of Nin's diaries out there it's only my nostalgia for the Swallow Press editions of Nin's work that leans me towards this set in particular. They are the "expurgated" versions, as the unexpurgated versions weren't published until 1986 when Nin's widow Rupert Pole decided to have them republished.

Nin began her "diary" at the age of 11. The diaries I'm looking for start in 1931 and end in 1974, but there is also a 4 volumes set of Nin's earlier diaries starting in 1914 and ending in 1931. Her diaries was famously denounced when it became apparent that Nin edited her life a great deal, still it is a singular and amazing literary document nonetheless.

I have a small but proud collection of Nin's works, which recently got a little bigger. I picked up "A Photographic Supplement to The Diary of Anais Nin" for 5,00 euros. There appear to be two versions, published by Harvest/Harcourt (they are a supplement to the Harvest/Harcourt editons of the diaries), one published with the harcover volumes in 1966 and a second published in 1974 (which I have) for the tradeback editions.

While I've seen the Harvest/Harcourt First/First for about 600,00 euros - an incomplete set of the Swallow Press (buying the first volumes separately as a First/First) is slightly more affordable. In reality I'd like to have both, but for the purposes of collecting, the Swallow Press of the diaries and the Swallow Press hardcover of the Anais Nin Reader (I have a Swallow Press tradeback) would be the real coup. The Reader costs almost as much as all six of the diaries, so I better start saying my petits pieces!

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A Day of Wandering to New Places and Visiting Old Haunts

Abandoned doll house on the Prisengracht. Eventually someone took it.

Pissoir next to the Homomonument. I always thought there needed to be a monument ;).

By hook or by crank.

Stalemate.

This man goes out on this little boat and makes music simply for the fun of it. I <3 this guy.

World's fanciest Burger King dining room perhaps?

Still the Burger King @ Centraal Station.

On the way to take one of the free ferries to Noord Amsterdam.

It's a dog statue's life.

Odd house spotted in Noord Amsterdam.



Noord baby.



Amazing pond found in Noord A'dam.

Ducks nesting or resting.

Baby ducks strike out on their own.

Weird stamp.

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