Sorry for being AWOL for the last 2 weeks, but I’ve been in Europe and have been having a blast. We started the trip with a long layover in Amsterdam where we landed at around 7am, so we stored our hand carried luggage in a locker at the airport and headed into town via train. It was so early that only the cafés were open so we proceeded to the nearest one to grab an espresso and a ham & cheese sandwich and take advantage of the free wifi to do some social networking.

We walked around the red light district and in and around the canals and stopping at a Pannekoekhuis for some crepes and another coffee while killing time before meeting up with Topher for lunch. We head over to the American Hotel to meet Topher and we hit a local pub for a beer and a burger and to catch up. No matter where I go I always run into somebody I know from Vancouver and behold I run into an ex bf’s ex bf who now lives there. We head back to the airport to catch our flight for Madrid. Read the rest of this entry »

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

So stupid Spain, won the stupid World Cup final last night. The stupid score was 1 stupid goal to 0.

Being in Amsterdam for the final was quite the experience. I prepared early. I bought an orange shirt, and due to a bet I made earlier in the tournament, bought some orange underwear. I bought some Heineken, and some water, and headed down to the Museumplein to watch the game with 120,000 other people. I got there at 7:00pm our time, and the place was packed. The game didn’t even start until 8:30. Some news reports were saying that by 5:00 there were already 100,000 people there. Needless to say, this was an event.

The game was pretty great in my opinion. Although no one had scored by the end of regulation, there were a couple nail biting moments. Robben had a breakaway that deflected off the Spanish goalie’s leg, and Spain had a few shots too. The ref has been taking some heat here in Holland. The Dutch were racking up yellow cards left and right. Some deserved, some not so much. I don’t know if I would have been cheering for the Netherlands if I wasn’t living here. They played really aggressively (prime example would be the cleated drop kick to the chest by de Jong), which I don’t normally like.

Read the rest of this entry »

Last week I noticed a line on my left chest like an indentation on the skin. I thought I had torn my muscle, but it wasn’t painful and I still had full range of motion. The tear was deep in the skin and I’m guessing it was due to my intense workout routine doing military style pushups with a pushup bar for more range of motion which meant greater chances of injury. You can read the full story, on my personal blog TakeThatOff and check out the photos.

All this working out is preparation for Pride season (Check out my LA Pride video from last month’s trip) & Summer vacation plans of heading back to Europe for a 2-week vacation with a stop over in Amsterdam to have lunch with Topher, Madrid for 3 days & Barcelona to check out Matinee Group’s Circuit Festival. I know what you’re thinking and you’re probably judging me for my choice of activities but if you knew me well enough, you would know that I hardly go out here in Vancouver and partying in another city is totally different and actually fun because I don’t know anyone there. I’m traveling with 4 other friends from Vancouver and a friends from the US and around Europe will be there as well. The last time I’ve traveled to a large party like this was in Montréal’s Black & Blue almost 4 years ago. Check out this video below from last year’s party! It’s like Pride on steroids!

Read the rest of this entry »

It’s Friday, it’s hot as hell, and every able bodied Dutchie is out in the streets! The Netherlands soccer team just beat Brazil to advance to the semi-finals. I’m shocked. Brazil was one of the favourite teams. Everyone here in Amsterdam I talked to was cheering for the Lions, but figured that Brazil would take it. I went out to the Museumplein where a giant screen and about 10,000 other fans went to watch the game. It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. It must have been what Canada was like when they won the hockey Gold in the Olympics.

Read the rest of this entry »

Bare with me here, because I’ve had to find out about this through translated news articles, but from what I can gather one of the more popular gay clubs in Amsterdam, The Cockring, was raided for drugs earlier this month.

On Friday June 11th, over a hundred police officers raided the club. The roughly one hundred patrons there at the time were brought to the police station where there were searched. A couple of people were arrested for trafficking, and a couple more for possession. The club is still closed because of the incident.

I originally heard about this through word of mouth, and I couldn’t believe it. Amsterdam has had a rough time recently living up to its gay tourist destination reputation. There have been a few incidents of attacks on gay men over the last month. Also, a couple of popular bars on one of the main gay streets shut down due to bankruptcy. With pride happening in a little over a month, violence, fear of police searches and another club closing down ain’t great.

Read the rest of this entry »

Time for another installment of “Bands to watch at Sasquatch, 2010″. This Tuesday I had the immense pleasure of catching LCD Soundsystem at Paradiso in Amsterdam. I wrote earlier about their new album “This is Happening…” and in those few weeks I’ve grown to love the album even more.

A quick introduction: LCD Soundsystem is an electronic / dance / rock outfit coming out of New York, headed by music nerd James Murphy. They blew up in 2002 with their first single “Losing My Edge”, a minimal synth beat behind hipster sped-talked lyrics.

This was my first time seeing the band. I always enjoyed their singles “Daft Punk is Playing at My House”, “Trials and Tribulations”, & “All My Friends”, and their 45:33 DJ set for Nike a couple years back was my go to gym soundtrack. I had never really paid attention to their albums though. That was until songs from their latest album came out. “Drunk Girls” and “Dance Yrself Clean” found their way into dozens of listens each day. I couldn’t wait to see them live.

Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been living in Amsterdam for almost seven months now. It’s been pretty easy adjusting to living in a new country. The biggest benefit being that almost everyone here speaks English. I don’t think I would like it as much if I couldn’t communicate properly with people.

I was really worried when I left Vancouver that I may have made a bad decision moving. I worried about losing my friends, and missing the comforts of familiarity. I no longer feel that way. I made the right decision, as I’ve been having such a great time here.

Being away from home can really put things into perspective. I’ve had a lot of time to myself, since I don’t have the same number of friends here as I did back home. It’s given me time to reflect on what and who is really important to me, and what I can live without. The things that I thought were so important to me eight months ago I realize just aren’t that necessary for my happiness. I’m not going to write that “I’ve really found myself”, but I do have more clarity now.

The one thing that I’ve found kind of odd since moving is that I miss my family a little more than I thought I would. I moved out of the house at 17 to go to school. I haven’t lived in the same city as my parents since then. We kept in touch, usually with a phone call every Sunday, so I was never really that far apart. Now though, with the time difference and distance, I find that we don’t talk as much. I’m trying to convince them to come visit this summer. They’ve never vacationed in Europe and I think they might like it.

Read the rest of this entry »

Having working in media buying for an international gay brand, I have come across some awesome gay magazines that are just not readily available in North America and thought I would share! Definitely check them out and all do international subscriptions too!

Winq

My first pick is Winq Magazine, based out of Amsterdam! I love working with these guys and think this magazine is really well done! It’s a lifestyle magazine geared specifically to Dutch and Belgian gay men, which I find makes the fashion and styling a lot more edgy than what you see in North American mags. Best part, they have just launched a North American edition in English! Yahoo! www.winqmagazine.com Read the rest of this entry »

Time sure does fly when you’re having fun. It’s been over two weeks since I left Vancouver to move to Amsterdam. All the nervousness and apprehension that I was feeling before the move has faded away. I settled in very easily into my furnished apartment, and work has been great so far. All the people in the office (about 25) are super social and are great to hang out with.

I finally got to see some of the city this past weekend. After work on Friday, all my coworkers were going out for steak and I decided to eat at home (I’m a vegetarian, and steak dinners don’t really work for me). Since I don’t have a phone yet, I was detached from them for the first time. I decided it was time to go see what kind of gay night life Amsterdam had to offer.

I went to a couple of bars, Soho and April that were pretty crowded until about 2, then everyone sort of faded off. I tried going to a dance bar called Exit, but Friday night was a dead night for them. There weren’t many people in the club, which sucked to find out after I payed my cover. I met some cute guys from Boston, but they were jet-lagged and left fairly early.

Read the rest of this entry »