Taken at the same concert with Pharoah Sanders. William Henderson, a beautiful pianist.

Just went to see Pharoah Sanders at the Bimhuis last night. He played with an amazing trio and radiated pure love. What a beautiful man!

I went to see a fantastic jazz improv trio at the Bimhuis last night. Albert van Veenendaal (piano), Meinrad Kneer(double bass) and Yonga Sun (drums). Albert and Meinrad have formed their own jazz improv label called Evil Rabbit Records that is getting a lot of great reviews and has a number of groups on board already. Albert, Meinrad and Yonga's trio released a cd last year called "Predictable Point of Impact" that is on the Village Voice's top 5 list of best releases last year. This is Albert full blown and blown out :)

Amsterdam, as ever, exploded last night. Fireworks are legal to buy and set off in the streets here so by midnight the city is covered in thick smoke and every street corner has massive explosions.

My husband's grandmother. In her 95th year and fading graciously from this life. She is a true grande dame, in a line of famous sculptors and scholars. Still has a great ferocity of spirit.

I just got a photo book called "An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar" by Taryn Simon. A really interesting series of photos. She managed to get extraordinary access to areas we never see. I won't go into details of the places she goes. But it's fascinating to check it out for yourself

This series of photographs has been compared to the great Robert Frank's "The Americans". It took me a while to wrap my head around this comparison. The style and content are totally different. But Frank somehow managed to define the US by what was actually, behind the scenes, flowing through it's veins - he does it with a revolutionary, for it's time, freedom from all the strong ideas of composition and formality that then dominated. And, this series of photos, in a total contrast ....is in a formal style. But it also reflects a truly subversive glimpse of the US. Really impressive work. She is about to have a major show here in Amsterdam at the FOAM museum. She seems to me to be an authentic and original voice and I'm glad she's out there doing what she does!

I'm becoming addicted to chess. At least open air chess not played by me. These guys really pull a crowd and have enormous style. Pretty bloody good at chess also.

A very Amsterdam scene. On Leidsestraat there is a public chess event. Anyone welcome. Open from around 8am till 9pm. And a selection of tourists and locals as bystanders to comment or just gawk. Here a box on the front of a bike (fiets) containing small dog and small child....just checking out the action.

Well, with Winter closing in I thought it would be a good challenge to try and post a new photo a day....rain or shine. So, here goes. This was taken on Kalverstraat, Sunday afternoon shopping. Every store seemed to have it's own bored husband/boyfriend outside....