Author: Dennis

There’s very little that makes me angrier about contemporary society than how children are being explicitely targeted by advertisments. It teaches them how to be consumers, and their choice about whether or not they have to be a consumer (and with that I mean that consumption becomes the highest ideal) is taken away, like it was with me, and probably everyone I know.

This, literally, makes me sick to my stomach:

I really dislike hearing people talk about what they could’ve been, “if only” this, “if only” that. While wasting some time at work today, I read up on Parkour, and it’s creator, David Belle. Amazing stuff, and given the right opportunity to be taught (this simply isn’t something you can self-teach, unless you’re supremely gifted), I’d like to take it up. And here comes the part that fills me with self-disgust; “If only my right ankle will hold.”

Fuck “if only…”

I know I’m a big ole geek, and I most likely will be one until the day I die. I sure hope so. Nobody has ever discouraged me or told me that being a geek wasn’t a good thing – well, maybe one or two, but they were dickheads – so I’ve felt the support all this time. It also helps that most people don’t take me for a hardcore gamer-geek. People see the hair-product, and the cool and beautiful friends, the cute girlfriend, and nobody thinks twice that I play roleplaying games every sunday with my friends and game at least four hours each week. I like my geekdom, and embrace my inner geek while maintaining my cool, collected and suave exterior.

About a year ago, Moulsari had made it possible for me to go and see a performance of Henry Rollins at the Zipper Theatre in New York City. Sadly, due to extraneous circumstances I wasn’t able to go to New York to visit Moulsari and see Henry Rollins, and I had been looking for an opportunity to see him ever since. My appetite had been whetted, and I was ready.

A couple of weeks ago, Eva was made aware by our friend Cathelijne of a Henry Rollins spoken word performance being done at Paradiso in Amsterdam. We bought tickets and went last tuesday. It was Cathelijne, Francis, Eva, my brother and I, together with a few hundred other people, and I have to say it was the best show of his I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen a lot of them. It was fantastic. I’ve seen a lot on DVD, and heard a bunch on CD, but this was by far the best one. I laughed until my jaws hurt.

Cathelijne, Francis and my brother had very little to no exposure to Rollins, so they didn’t know what to expect, but all of us are in agreeance that it was an awesome show. Not only is he impressive as an orator, but he’s also fairly inspiring, to me. His Spartan points of view really appeal to me, as does his self-loathing. You might not agree with his points of view, he is a pretty radical guy, and fairly leftist at that, but if you don’t go to see him because of what he’s saying, do it because of they way he does it, and with such passion.

The only thing that left a bitter taste in my mouth was the fact that I was supposed to see him perform with Moulsari first, and she wasn’t there.

Because I’ve been living under the nearest rock for the past year, here’s another gem of Dutch Nederhop; Watskeburt!?