Money.

“If you say that money is the most important thing, you’ll spend your life completely wasting your time: You’ll be doing things you don’t like doing in order to go on living, that is, in order to go on doing things you don’t like doing — which is stupid!”

- Allan Watts

Hungry Phil.

Apparently all those pintxos weren't enough food for Phil. 

3rd Pintxos Championship - Rotterdam.

This year was the third one this exciting and challenging contest is held, mainly by a big bunch of the Spanish community here in Rotterdam. The level keeps getting higher every year, this one being the most gourmet of the three. My stomach didn't think it was such a great idea to mix so many ingredients together in one single night, so unfortunately I had to abandon the pintxos route before it was over, but I did manage to try all of them except two. 

There were over 30 of us participating, divided in about 10 groups. We cycled around town, each house hosting all the participants, imitating the typical basque pintxos night. Over there it's done in bars. But unfortunately we can't find those kind of bars here. 

A special thanks goes to Carmen and Javi, the organizers. 

Eneko was the one who came up with the whole idea three years ago because he missed this way of eating from the Basque Country. He's now living back there but came specially to Rotterdam to try out the pintxos. 

We were all unusually on time. We gathered at CS Rotterdam. 

Marcos drew this cute map. 

Off we go to the first house!

Yummy cod buñuelo and escalivada. 

Deconstructed Russian salad. One of my personal favorites. 

Everyone eating our clam soup after cycling in the cold rain. I would say our dish was the best timed. 

Bloody Mary muscles. 

Jelly shots with lime, ginger, cucumber and other secret ingredients.  

The most surprising pintxo! It exploded in your mouth!

This one too! The creators advised to shut your mouth once it was in there. Good advice. 

Its' an original idea by the master chef Ferran Adrià. 

The unquestionable winner: pintxos of quail eggs, black sausage, pine nuts and slice of bread. DELICIOUS!

The winners!

More black sausage. It was quite a popular ingredient this year. 

Also lots of sea food. 

Very tasty lentil soup served with a little appetizer of black sausage. 

The pintxo I couldnt' try. Apparently amazing... :(
I'll let you know what was in there.

Prediction TV.

Amy has taken her final project for her master's degree at Piet Zwart a step further and will be in Showroom Mama until the end of the year with her Prediction TV. Go and check it out!

Ollieboll season.

It's ollieboll season again! I can't believe another year has gone by, it seems like it was summer a few days ago!

Here we have a photo of Hector, a new comer in Rotterdam, trying an ollieboll for the first time in his life. He liked it, of course. 

York crew visiting Rotterdam.

A few of Phil's friends from York came over for a few days to check his new home. We shared lots of nice moments, with home made English breakfast, oven trays emitting incredible sounds, good music and dramatic skies. 

Phil and Cow. 

Sarah amazed by the oven tray sounds. 

Everyone was impressed. 

Breakfast time!

English breakfast good for the soul. 

Eating the local food at Waarung Mini. 

Sarah turning Phil into a clown. 

Ari, Hector, Adrià (or Adrian). 

Sabine's gradient drink. 

Hi!

DEK.

Pensive Cow.

Walking naturally. 

Waiting for the Crimmp show to start. 

Scaffolding to create an extra level. 

A performance of the israeli electro-acoustic musical project ‘hatzatz’, this was the 9th edition of Crimmp. 

Crimmp is a series of performances organized by Noud Heerkens curator of OCW Stage for Small Scale Events. It's in Osseweistraat. He has an amazing collection of 16mm films formerly owned by the Goethe Instituut with footage from the Third Reich edited in the 80's. 

Text source: http://www.podiumocw.nl/02_crimmp_09e.html

In the nineties, the rotterdam goethe-institute moved to the westersingel. _in the basement of the building at the ’s-gravendijkwal some hundred solid black boxes were left behind: the face of germany stored on miles of 16 mm film. _it was mere coincidence, that the archive ended up in the hands of the ex-operator, filmmaker, curator and producer noud heerkens. __for crimmp_09 he selected three short films. _the audience decides which one will be projected

Thursday music.

Dinner at Tim and Amy's.

Amy is an excellent cook! She always cooks a banquet when I've been over at theirs for a meal. Thank you Tamy! VAGELBOW!