Date: Thu, 25 May 2000 14:23:11 +0000 From: Steev Hise Reply-To: steevATdetritus.net To: europe2000ATdetritus.net I am back in Brussels sending this from the place where i had my show almost 1 week ago. odd, it doesnt seem that long ago. My last day in amsterdam was fun. I rented a bike and rode all over the place. went to the Museumplein, which is this huge square of land where a bunch of the big museums are. There's the Rijkmuseum, the Vangogh and the Stedjilik. They are all huge beautiful buildings and i knez i didnt have ti,e to go in all. The Stedjilik is the Modern Art one so I went there. They were having a big Kurt Schwitters exhibit so that clinched the decision. It was very cool and they had lots of other good stuff too. It was strange but not suprising i guess, to see all the americans squeezed into one end - rauschenburg, johns, guston, a couple others. they actually have ,uch ,ore bnut they only have room to show a fraction of their collection. They`'ve been collecting since 1895! any way then i rode around somore. it was pretty easy what with no hills and courteous motorists, getting lost was the only thing to watch out for. i went to STEIM, an electronic art studio/lab, and met with the main software guy, tom, there. he and the receptionist were the only ones there because everyone else was iun Avignon for a huge festival they were putting on. But he gave me a tour and we talked about whether and how STEIM could be useful to me. I think it could so over the summer i`ll probably figure out exactly how and send them a specific proposal for a residency. After Tom explained that the Dutch dont really eat lunch i went in search of food near there. finally settling on some sort of cheese pastry thing to tide me over till later. Then i rode down to Vondelpark, sort of Amsterdam's version of Golden Gate Park. It was nice to finally see a little greenery (besides the kind they sell in coffeeshops) but i could tell all the plants were very... planned. nothing was there in a very 'wild' state.... in fact most of holland seems like that. all the forest planted in neat rows,etc. to speed ahead, the next day i took a train to antwerpen, back in belgium. i`m glad i went, its a pretty neat city. lots of really old gothic buildings. i stayed in a beautiful little hotel right next to this amazing huge cathedral in the center of town. it is so,ething like 180 ft high and was built in the 16th century. so the scenery is great but i couldnt figure out what to do that n ight. was hopoing to find some interesting band playing somewhere. actually i saw in some entertain,ent guide thqt this bqnd cqlled 'chicks on speed' was playing, but it turned out that the club was in brussels! damn. i`d like to see a band called that. i think they really are all women, btw. anyway i eventually decided to go to a movie at the local art film theater, called 'Cartoon Kladerasch!' I thought it would be interesting to see an a,erican film that was subtitled in Dutch and French, so i went to 'Boys Don't Cry'. I highly recommend this film. it won an oscar or somehing. it is the true story of Brandon Tina, this girl in Lincoln Nebraska who wants to be a boy and disguises herself to be a boy. It works for awhile and he even fallsin love with this girl he meets in Falls City and lives there for awhile. the girl likes him too, doesnt realize the truth, but eventually her old boyfriend figures it out and he and a friend rape and kill him. Its a gruesome horrible story and very sad and even more sad when you know it really happened, in 1992, not far from where i`m from; add to that the fact that i was watching this in a theater full of Flemish people who probaby dont know Nebraska from New Jersey and it was even more moving. i kept wondering what they thought of it. i felt like i was watching them get this window into part of my culture - the culture of redneck middle america and alienated youth. and here i was 8000 miles away to get a window into theirs! it rained a lot in antwerp, never very hard but a steady drizzle. luckily i had bought an umbrella in a,sterdam. the sun did co,e out a little and when it does its beautiful. this morning i actually did some laundry at a 'wassalon' near the hotel. it was an adventure cuz the directions were in dutch. but once it got going it was fun to watch, the washing ,achines are ,ore interesting than a,erican ones cuz you can see inside the, while they run. shortly after that i got on the train to brussels, which is only 200 francs and 25 minutes away. sunny here now. i should go outside. but i am tryingto get back in touch with chris salter because i was going to stay with him tonite. i thought he would meet me at the station but somehow our wires got crossed. right before i came here to the brussels2000 place i got a sandwhich at a little shop. the girls there could speak very little english so it was the most french i've had to use yet. i told them i was from california and one said 'ah californie, the sun, the beaches, the girls, the money...' they knew it was funny, but it was interesting to hear that stereotype. they kept giggling and saying 'beaucoup money et beaches' etc. they saw my south to the future 'For Rent' t-shirt and they understood that enough to ask how much. Isaid it depends on for what; they giggled some more. oh the other thing i told them was when they asked what i did i said 'musique electronique'. they said 'oh, like Jean-Michel Jarré?' ah well at least they didnt say 'oh, like Le DJ Spooky?' well, time to go, i have to track chris down. if i cant i will wander the streets till tommorrow when i leave for london. heh; just kidding. au revoir, smh Steev Hise, At Large steevATdetritus.net detritus.net/steev