Amsterdam - Jezebel

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Memorial Day
You Gogh, Girl
Tree Of Life
Amsterdam Hosts Pole-Dancing Championship • Texas Judge Orders Woman Not To Procreate
Dita Von Teese Wants To Give Our Breasts A Lift
'Boys Don't Cry' Back In The Spotlight
Karl Lagerfeld And Claudia Schiffer: Divas Separated At Birth?

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Kivrin
11/03/09

In reply to Memorial Day
That happened five years ago? Wow. Time certainly does fly when you're trying to avoid the wrath of religious fundamentalists… #theovangogh
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PilgrimSoul
04/17/09

In reply to Tree Of Life
I went and saw this last year around this time on a business trip and you could tell the tree was sick. I didn't go into the attic though, or the house. It just felt weird. I know that it's a very reverential type of tourism, but I have trouble doing things like that nonetheless. The book is memorial enough for me.
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LaFemme
04/17/09

@PilgrimSoul: I felt the same way. When I was in Amsterdam there were 3 hour lines to get in, and I was just not digging it. That many people being shuffled through there? It seemed a bit disrespectful in some way. I didn't end up going, which horrifies everyone, but I don't really regret it.
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KrisP
04/17/09

@LaFemme: I really wanted to go and we waited about 45 minutes to get in. It (to me) was completely worth it. To walk where she did and try and comprehend what she and so many others went through was very humbling.
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BlondeGoddess
04/17/09

@KrisP: It's definitely worth it. It moved me to tears, the first time I went, which was at midnight, thanks to Museum Night, which made it especially haunting. So touching, to see the pictures of movie stars she had glued on the walls.
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feministabroad
04/17/09

In reply to Tree Of Life
I just visited Amsterdam. It was such an experience to be in the house that Anne Frank was once in.
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Tequila Mockingbird
04/17/09

@feministabroad: I had gone to Amsterdam on a school trip. My stomach wasn't in the best shape that day, and I had to race through Anne Frank's house to get myself to a restroom.

Awful.
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Majrhoulihan
04/17/09

@IrockIroll: I went hungover. What a terrible idea.
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Remedios Varo can't see no huevos.
04/17/09

In reply to Tree Of Life
I *just* read this in the NYT. It made me feel happy and warm inside. Holocaust Remembrance Day is coming up, yo.
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LaComtesse
04/17/09

@Remedios Varo can't see no huevos.: April 21: one of my busiest days of the year.
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sarah.of.a.lesser.god (aka Mrs. BrutallyHonestHobbit)
04/17/09

In reply to Tree Of Life
May I propose that these saplings be planted in New Amsterdam? Specifically, allow the trees to grow in Brooklyn? That would make me inordinately happy.
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haguenite
04/17/09

@sarah.of.a.lesser.god (aka Mrs. BrutallyHonestHobbit): 400 years ago this year that we colonized your asses. Too bad we traded it for Surinam.
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sarah.of.a.lesser.god (aka Mrs. BrutallyHonestHobbit)
04/17/09

@haguenite: Given that I am 1/4 Native American, your statement rings uncomfortably true. Oh, colonialism and genocide! Where would we be without you?
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haguenite
04/17/09

@sarah.of.a.lesser.god (aka Mrs. BrutallyHonestHobbit): We're getting all these ads for commemorative coins and tv shows are pretending this was like the best thing ever. Sometimes I get infected with that mood.

Being introspective is not really a Dutch habit.
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BeckySharper
04/17/09

@haguenite: There's a whole movement--fake, but funny--called Give Us Back New York. There's even a Facebook page devoted to New Yorkers who want to revert to Dutch rule.

Civil liberties! National healthcare! Gay marriage! Legal marijuana! Stroopwafels! Tulips! Vacations in Aruba!

Works for me.
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BlondeGoddess
04/17/09

@BeckySharper: Stroopwafels definitely rule! The rest - we're losing bit by bit thanks to a horrible 1950's government. Ugh.
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katie.scarlett.o'hara
04/17/09

In reply to Tree Of Life
Isn't there debate over whether the tree should be cut down? A Dutch friend told me about it a while ago, but I don't remember the details...
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haguenite
04/17/09

@katie.scarlett.o'hara: Yeah, it was supposed to have been cut down at least a year ago, I think. There were petitions and committees and they got an injunction, but a sick tree is a sick tree.
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katie.scarlett.o'hara
04/17/09

@haguenite: Sad. At least they're finding some way of preserving it.
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LaComtesse
04/17/09

In reply to Tree Of Life
It's amazing how often trees and tree imagery appear in Holocaust memorialization and Holocaust memorial art.

Yad Veshem in Israel, the Holocaust museum in New York has trees growing out of boulders, this. It's very interesting. I mean, I get the many layers of symbolism and everything (Jewish "tree of life" throwback, fragility and resilience of life, continuation of a family tree, etc...) but it's still interesting.
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kelsium
04/17/09

In reply to Tree Of Life
That pulls my heartstrings in about eighteen different ways. Life, death, nature, sacrifice, tragedy, mother symbolism = GAH CRY.
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hannapdx
04/17/09

In reply to Tree Of Life
Do you think if they have to take the tree down, they'll put another Horse Chestnut in its place? The trees in Amsterdam are so gorgeous.
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NefariousNewt
04/17/09

@hannapdx: I have to say that when I was in Amsterdam a couple of years ago, it was just the loveliest city, and I was amazed at the number of trees.
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haguenite
04/17/09

@hannapdx: @NefariousNewt: Funny, I can't stand Amserdam. I recognize parts of it are very pretty, but it's crowded and dirty and the people are rude.

The Hague & Utrecht is where it's at, yo!
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haguenite
04/17/09

@haguenite: And apparently I also can't spell Amsterdam.
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Majrhoulihan
04/17/09

@haguenite: Really? I liked it very much.

Then again, I'm in New York, crowded cities with people who don't go out of their way to make you feel welcome are really my place.
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Uncommon Whore
04/17/09

@haguenite: I read somewhere that people live in the Hague, work in Utrecht, and play in Amsterdam... or was it shit in Amsterdam?
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hannapdx
04/17/09

@haguenite: I did think parts of the city were quite dirty, but I really fell in love with the trees. The canals were cool too.
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KrisP
04/17/09

@haguenite: I had the exact opposite experience - everyone was warm and welcoming (except for the homeless gentleman who sneezed/coughed on my arm - complete with mucous) and went out of their way to make us feel at home. Do you live in Holland?
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haguenite
04/17/09

@KrisP: Live in Holland, am Dutch, insider all the way.

Really, there are plenty of friendly people in Amsterdam, I'm sure, but the asshole to friendly person ratio is much larger than in other cities. A few weeks ago I was showing Amsterdam to some American friends and I had to tell not one but two people (in Dutch) to not be such fucking assholes.

@Uncommon Whore: I never heard that, but I could see where that idea comes from.
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BlondeGoddess
04/17/09

@haguenite: Pur-lease. It's so not! The Hague is gross.
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Heydiddler: Sabbath Lily Hawks
04/17/09

In reply to Tree Of Life
Jeff Mangum needs to be the one to plant those trees. Still, I only hope this isn't the only type of vegetation they are planning on bringing from Amsterdam....
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kaiwhakamarie
04/17/09

@Heydiddler: Sabbath Lily Hawks: I had to friend you for that. Jeff is one of my favorite performers and a fellow Athenian...I love him so dearly.
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Joyce Carol Hall and Oates
04/17/09

In reply to Tree Of Life
Frankly, I think that is a fine idea.
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sarah.of.a.lesser.god (aka Mrs. BrutallyHonestHobbit)
04/17/09

In reply to Tree Of Life
And somewhere, Bishop Richard Williamson, Mel Gibson's dad and Mahmoud Ahmedinejad are denying that this tree really is what it claims to be, or if it even existed.
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Hamsterpants
04/17/09

@sarah.of.a.lesser.god (aka Mrs. BrutallyHonestHobbit): Well, you probably don't know this, but only a few horse chesnuts trees have actually DIED - not near as many as the Zionist cabal would have you think.
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morninggloria
04/17/09

In reply to Tree Of Life
Conservative Christian groups have started a petition to stop the saplings from being shipped to the States, as they claim that this particular tree causes adolescent lesbian experimentation.
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LadyFabulous
04/17/09

@morninggloria: Wha? Does that not make sense or has my brain abandoned me already?
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