Amsterdam and Crass

Well today was certainly an interesting one, haven't done much of note in a while, classes ended this week and exams are next week, so this weekend will not be fun. Right now it is 2am on Friday night but it does not feel like Friday night for some reason, I like when nights end at a decent time, but once again I still will not get to bed before 3 probably. So one of the first things I did when I got home tonight was go into combat mode vs. this flying pests in my room. I think they are mosquitoes but I'm not sure. As I closed my door earlier this afternoon, I noticed 4 mosquitoes just chilling on the wall in the corner by my armoire, and it clicked with my memory that last night there was a horrible buzzing. So I made a mental note to myself to take care of those bitches when I got back. And after finding the wind had blown my table-mat full of crumbs onto my chair and floor, I made note of the mosquitoes' locations, found something I could smack them with and got to business. There ended up being 5, they were on the ceiling, the wall, the door, on the inside of the armoire thinking they could hide but I turned on all the lights and repeatedly scanned the room, I wasn't going to go to bed tonight with these fuckers flying around. Last night I went to sleep around 2:30, and woke up at 4am to this horrible buzzing in my ear and brushing on my face, there was a mosquito or something.. I swatted it away and it kept coming back, fucker. So then I got my winter ski hat and put it over my head, btw my whole body was under the covers including my arms, and still this fucking flying whatever almost went up my nose. At that point, I gave up and put my head under the covers, I found a comfortable way to breathe and that was a good enough solution for the night. I could not believe how many mosquitoes were flying around my room, at least the bees don't bother you and they know the way out after they come in, I feel bad for the guy on my heater right now, I just found him croaked there one day. Anyway, I went to business with my rolled-up pamphlet and started smacking these guys. First two on the wall in the corner, caught them by surprise, then saw some on the ceiling above my bed, I guess they heard the news because they started flying all over the room, one landing on my blue door, that was the end of him, then lastly there was this one that seemed to like to fly towards me so I would jump away and lose sight of him, and then have to find him again, well lucky for me, my eyes were peeled to the brim. Finally, got him by the couch, SMACK, on the wall that was the end of him. Now where I had thought I have bedbugs due to these bites all over, it might have just been mosquitoes after all, this is what I am hoping, because while the bites resemble bed bug bites to an extent, but I haven't found any real evident traces of their existence on my sheets, such as the fecal matter or exoskeletons they shed, and I know they are averse to hair, but I haven't any bites on my torso or legs, just feet, hands, arms, and now face probably because it was the only area exposed not under the covers. Tonight will be interesting to see if I get bitten at all, then I will know for sure that it is not bed bugs, but rather mosquitoes as I initially thought.

Today I went to Amsterdam to see Crass (well really Steve Ignorant and some other  people from other bands on guitar, bass, and drums, and a young duplicate of one of their former female lead singers) at Melkweg. That's a good venue. I met Andreas at the Avenue Concordia ING Post Office at 1:20 but he didn't have a bike so he said he'd take the tram so I gave him his train ticket. I biked to the station and was there in time and went up to the platform, then there was no train, it turned out it was canceled because of an accident at Schiphol airport, so I waited so we could take the same train. It was supposed to be at 1:53. So I took advantage of the time and went to the International ticket agents, and subsequently made 2 train seat reservations for next week to Hungary, and then we finally got a train at around 2:45, not after fussy top-up machines put 50 euros on his card. We got to Amsterdam around 4, and it was raining a lot, so we waited and then went the falafel (vegetarian) place, then to try to find a coffee shop named greenhouse but that did not work out, so we settled on a place called Hill Street Blues. Oh yeah I caved and got a thing on french fries that was a small, this thing was so huge I couldn't even imagine what a large would be., it was good though. At the coffee shop, we got a joint, and went into the smoking room. It was really cool, like someone's basement, there was wall writing and graffiti EVERYWHERE, they let anyone draw and write, it looked like it had been there for 20+ years, the hallway to the bathrooms was even better. At the end of the smoking room was a window looking out onto one of the canals. Unfortunately we did not get to sit there. So we ordered a few mint teas to go along with the joint which, for a pre-rolled was pretty good and potent, not too overloaded with tobacco. Then before our second joint, I ordered this Mint-Chocolate Mocca drink and it was the BEST thing I ever had, SOOOO good, I wish I knew how to make it, and NO, not just because I was likely high at the time, it had mint leaves, whipped cream and tasted like Bailey's but there was no alcohol in it. Anyway, the gig doors were opening at 7, but it was pouring so we stuck around a bit longer, and then left and stopped at the falafel again, this time I had falafel and it was good, albeit expensive, 5 Euros for one sandwich, and we walked to Melkweg, it was a good walk and I couldnt believe how much I remembered from walking back from Sublime last Tuesday, we got there around 8:00, and it turned out the music would not start until about 9:00, as there were no supporting acts. It was in the smaller of the 2 Melkweg rooms, I had not been in this one, Sublime and KRS-One had been in the big room. It was a good room, wide and easy to see the stage, I liked. And apparently Mad Caddies will be playing in there, should be good, on Halloween too! So we got a few beers, Heineken on tap what a surprise, found there was also a cafe included in the venue and a random art gallery room that had a photo exhibition of an Israeli photographer capturing Bedouin life, it brought me back to Summer 2005 for a short while, then the gig started, many more people,  and it was overall really good, very little banter, just playing music, and good visuals on the projector, got some good pictures and a video or 2, unfortunately didn't know much of the music beforehand, but I'm paying my dues and seeing all these bands, the Bosstones, I7, the Allstonians, The Specials, Suicide Machines, and Crass, never thought I'd get to see any of them but they've all come back at 1 point or another, The crowd was even tame and tolerable, save for a few drunk older folks who couldn't stand straight, I did not sweat once in there and I enjoyed not being drenched, good music with a purpose but more so for the fun this time because it was a reunion of sorts, I have a new band to get into! The show was over a bit after 10:30 so just a 90-minute set, just good though, then we caught the bus to Amsterdam Centraal and got a train to Rotterdam, good day, well I'm done now, gotta book some travel plans tomorrow.