He said his name was Mr. Flo or FLow

LIZ SAYS: I could hear it from a couple of blocks away and I wondered if I just had the music in me or I was, once again, hearing some sound that was blowing up the canals and actually originating a mile or so away like light  from a distant star.

The sound is blowing with the bellows of the wind. Even when boats are playing recorded music, I can hear the thump thump boom, floating up and down the grachts, then hanging, in humid houseboat level air.

Walking and wondering led us to the floating trumpeter testing the acoustics, so, hear you are. 

Ladies and gents, here's Mr. Flo

He said his name was Mr. Flo or FLow 

ADE Conference Festival

LIZ SAYS: When something happens in Paris, it mostly happens in one part if the city or another. In my experience, unless its a protest, it won't engulf the entire city. For example, during fashion week, we may see tents going up in areas that are already doused in tourists, and we may see more funny outfits than usual and tons more glittery orange faces with new hats, but its not like we are sitting in a local bar watching Galliano railing and Lagerfeld profiling while America's Next Top Model glints at a bistro. 
Amsterdam on the other hand, commits the entire civil service to an event. This weekend ADE conference/festival is the current example. The yellow and black color theme of the event is on flags and signs all over the newly constructed temporary building in our nearest plien. Every dj, producer and musician, if there are musicians, is welcomed with a blown up fantasy of thumping bumping, branded funtime. It would be easy for me to think that a rainbow graffiti covered version of the 1980's had returned. its all sorta punk, sorta street.
But, its still daylight, the fun begins tonight!

sKullBlingery: a Cuckoo Bizarre 1 Min Vid

LIZ SAYS: Dig Cuckoo Bizarre's newest video on YouTube. Subscribe, if you want more. 

Say Hello to Cuckoo Bizarre

LIZ SAYS: Liz and Dick have been working like little worker bees from a non-collapsing hive to become Cuckoo Bizarre.

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Gay Pride Day 2013 Amsterdam

Gay Pride Day 2013 Amsterdam

LIZ SAYS:  Gay Pride Day in Paris is the only day that you can not use motorized transport to get from one side of the city to the other. There is a huge parade, everybody knows it and those who are not there, dancing on the flat back semis, wish they were. Your best bet is to find a cafe on the route and enjoy the show. Most cafes run a mojito (virgin and otherwise) special, so you get your little pink umbrella and an icy refreshing drink.
Two years in a row, I have had to traverse the pulsing rainbow flagged city, trying to cut through the parade.
Picture any Hitchcock movie. Outdoor scene. Our innocent hero is running, cutting through the crowd, happy carnival music playing as he frantically tries to cut his way through the party hearty masses. He jumps in a taxi to avoid the heaving masses, the taxi driver says, sure, he'll take him. Ten euros and two meters later, Jimmy Stewart/ Bob Cummings, our innocent running guy, jumps out of the taxi, while the driver just laughs. Sweating, our hero returns to clawing through the revelers, desperately trying to get 'there'.
Yeah, well, I was stupidly and desperately trying to make an appointment the first year, and the second year, Dick got stranded on the right bank for some reason and I had to meet him and bring him back. Oh, yeah, I remember, the bike broke down.
So, this year, I decided to skip the gauntlet and spend Gay Pride Day in Amsterdam, where the parade is on the water!

Art Zuid 2013 Amsterdam Art in the Trees!

Art Zuid 2013 Amsterdam Art in the Trees!

LIZ SAYS: Every year Amsterdam hosts a monumental sculpture exhibition in Apollolaan. The neighborhood is a perfect set for the introduction of outdoor installations of pieces that are obviouslyly difficult to show. For a couple of months, you can just hop off a tram and enter an art bubble where proportion is skewed, where you can interact with each piece, breathing down its neck or cowering at its feet. And, you can get overdramatic because everyone else is doing the some thing creative. 
The boulevards are huge and carpeted with perfect green grass and with the huge double bike lanes on either side, the feeling of space is extra large, especially compared to the narrow medieval streets of downtown Amsterdam.
Cut back to the Carl Andre bit of metal sidewalk, making no impression, in a space of infinite sidewalks and car, bus and bike lanes. But, if you're a fan, its there, you can see it.  
A lot of the pieces this year invited the viewer in, there were less giant pieces and more human scale pieces. A skull playhouse human sized representations of humans, pieces about the size of cars, made of metal, fiberglass and the stuff of today. 
There was a great found piece, by Michel Francois, of a giant tire with some damage, evidently used in a lawsuit. Even the grossly oversized tire invited inspection and rewarded the viewer with a complicated hole which only led to more questions about the giant tire. Like.
There were several artists I recognized from recent exhibitions in Paris. Around the John and Yoko Hilton, there is a piece by El Anatsui. He has a great piece in the Pompidou center. It looks like a giant drape of golden mail decorated with bits of color and upon closer inspection, the bottle tops and bits of what look like small cans are revealed. 
Here in Amsterdam such pieces are draped in the tree above and landscaping around Rodin's Thinker.
The wooden legs of Jems Robert Koko Bi immediately related the pain and loss of the title, Exodus.
Possibly one of my faves just because it made me laugh was the big white hello kittyized Tom Sach's, Miffy Fountain, with tears streaming out of its big bunny eyes into a pool surrounding the Miffy.
Although the boat sized golden bird by Marte Roling, was close to my heart waiting on the pier at the Wyndam.