XCOR, Queensday, Visitors, Skrillex & Pretty Lights, Soccer

Before reading the new blog, hereby a link for some background music. It is a mix I made in April for my bi-monthly radioshow on Proton Radio.

XCOR:
The first week of April my parents visited Los Angeles. It only took my mom a couple of days to see the beauty of California to say she could easily live here. Lovely to see her enjoy the environment I started to love from the day I arrived.
My dad has recently been involved in finding investors for the Space Expedition Curacao - an expedition where private organizations and persons are able to travel into space.

As we speak they are building the shuttle in the Mojave desert here in California. Since my dad is involved we were invited to have an inside look. What an amazing experience this was @ XCOR. Unbelievable to see a small shuttle which will fly into space by the end of 2013. You could be in there, just bring $ 95.000 to the table...

The final day of my parents visit it was me and my dad together. We visited the impressive Getty Museum, if you have some time when you are in LA definitely visit this museum: The J. Paul Getty Museum seeks to further knowledge of the visual arts and to nurture critical seeing by collecting, preserving, exhibiting and interpreting works of art of the highest quality.
In Los Angeles it houses European paintings, drawings, sculpture, illuminated manuscripts, decorative arts, and European and American photographs.

The end of the day we watched the last holes and play-off of The Masters, with a happy Bubba Watson as winner. Congratulations!

To finish this father & son day we had an Easter dinner @ Nobu.

Venice Visitors:

Before heading to Los Angeles some people told me to meet Martijn Fock. It took some time but early April Nina Markus and I were invited to have dinner at his place together with his wife Marrit. Martijn is a good cook & we had a lot of fun. Martijn, also thank you very much for the introduction to Simone Benyacar. Hopefully a bright future is ahead of us :)

Nina & I finished the night in downtown at the Rooftop bar of The Standard Hotel, where Jonna van Kampen was staying. She was a couple of days in LA for some Adidas shootings @ LA Galaxy. 

Jonna's phone was temporary stolen, fortunately the drunk guys who were sitting next to us were honest enough to return her phone to the front desk...

Next visitor was my cousin Niels van der Kloot. After some cool nights in New York where he lives (see my previous blog), it now was time to go out in Los Angeles. We enjoyed a few drinks at the famous Whaler bar, an old friend of Niels joined us. Parker Detchon is an artist living in Venice and a very nice dude.  

After dinner we ended in The Other Room (very nice bar @ Abbot Kinney in Venice) with Parker and his new girlfriend. 

Who would have thought we see each other within a month in 2 major cities in the USA - where we are both living! Crazy!

This get together with my cousin was extra special, since my girlfriend Anne heard that day she will start her surgical traineeship from July 2012 onwards. Unfortunately we were not able to celebrate this together, so Niels and I did ;)

April 14th Anton Tumas invited me to join him to a private party in the Valley, a birthday of one of the organizers of Lightning in a Bottle. Anton had to play here as well and when he was finished we went to a secret warehouse party where DAVI was playing. After years of email contact, finally our first meeting. Thank you for the Music!

April 18th Roos Afman and her boyfriend Mike Dodeman were in LA. We started with some drinks at The Other Room, followed by dinner @ Gjelina (a celebrity spot in Venice). Since we had so much fun and the night wasn't over yet, we went to Basement Tavern where Roos was enjoying the US Folk Music played by a live band while Mike & I were enjoying our Bacardi-coke's at the bar.

Friday night Roos & Mike were invited for a bowling birthday of a friend of Roos and they invited me to join. Before we had a very nice dinner at an established Italian Restaurant named Giorgio Baldi in Santa Monica, with a dessert that made our night!

This same weekend I moved to an apartment almost on the beach. Since my girlfriend will be in Venice from May 7th onwards, we preferred to have something for ourselves instead of sharing a room. 

Jillian, thank you for my stay at your house. You have taken care of me and learned me the beginner tricks in Venice!

Queensday:

Before my trip to Los Angeles, things I thought I would miss most were (of course) my girlfriend, friends, family and…Queensday! April 30th is the day The Netherlands celebrate the queens birthday; a day everyone wears ORANGE while celebrating the queens birthday together during the day & night. The canals are full with boats and party people.

For years we celebrate this with a group of friends on the boat named KOEL. This year we also planned an afterparty @ Werck called: AFKOELER. Since I was supposed to be in Los Angeles, I would have missed this for the 1st time. A month before Queensday, the organization had the splendid plan to buy my ticket instead of paying an extra DJ. We decided to keep it secret for everyone involved, so I was the surprise act. It was an amazing day!!

 

Special thanks to my buddies Adriaan Gast, Douwe van den Broek (+ Martine van den Berg for staying at your apartment during my visit!), Hein Meurer, Jan-Joost van Suchtelen, Jeroen Koops, Marnix de Haas and Peter Kan for this idea and giving me the opportunity to celebrate Qday with my friends!!

During my quick 5 day Amsterdam visit I did a lot. It was kind of strange to be a tourist in the city I live in.

It wouldn't have been a real visit without a beer at my local bar Bouwman! At, we will be back in July for a full night like we used to do it ;)

2 days before Queensday, Skrillex & Pretty Lights were playing in The Heineken Music Hall and The Melkweg. Together with Rogier van Twuijver, Peter Kan & Carlos Artiles we went to experience this next generation EDM Dubstep style. Well…the show was amazing, look at this footage we made in the HMH...

At the afterparty in The Melkweg Pretty Lights played a very cool DJ-set: the flow, the sounds and the performance were incredible. We will hear a lot more of this dude!!

Before heading back to LA, I spend my last night at my sisters place. Happy to see my niece Julie, my sister Maud (thank you for the Dutch preparation of Asparagus!!) & her boyfriend JB again. Also my aunt Pauline stayed that night to hear all my stories. Was good to see you all again!!

1st Fridays:

Back in LA, together with Fabienne Chapot and her boyfriend Michiel Unger we went to 1st Fridays @ Abbot Kinney in Venice. Fabienne was in LA for her cool brand Fab (feminine, colourful, no-nonsense bags & clutches), to see if they could set up distribution for the States. Hope this will work out for you!

Whenever you are in the LA area on a 1st Friday, try to visit 1st Fridays at Abbot Kinney. Art shops, food trucks and a get together outside on this lovely street. Unfortunately the English language doesn't have a proper translation for the word 'gezellig' (closest is 'cosy'), since that is what it is like. All you Dutchies know what I try to say ;)

Laundry:

In one of the previous blogs I mentioned a car wash experience. Well, last month a 2nd 'wash' experience was added…For the 1st time I went to a public laundry.

Same as the car wash, this is a social place where you have an easy chit-chat and meet people. Within minutes I made new friends, who invited me to a bbq. Maybe this is Venice like, but it is really funny to experience the kindness and open character of all these hippie people. 

Next to the laundry is the Whole Foods. While my clothes were being washed, I did my grocery shopping. Easy! Whole Foods is the world's leader in natural and organic foods, with more then 310 stores in North America and the United Kingdom. Can't wait for the moment they will open in The Netherlands. Unfortunately I think this will take some time :(

Follow your dreams:

Later that day I had to dress up for another night out: Marrit Hagenbeek, Martijn Fock and their 1 year old daughter Filippa picked me up to head to The London Hotel for a rooftop sunset beer. Nina, Fab & Michiel joined to have dinner @ Chateau Marmont (thanx for the reservation Roos!!). Very cool & inspiring to be with these people who are all following their dreams in their own way.

Did you know...?

* Highway 405 is a main road between Los Angeles and the Valley. Everyday a lot of people use this road to travel between their homes and work. In 2011 the 405 has been shut down for a while due to work that had to be done. 9 Months later a small baby boom has been noticed…

* Around the corner of the apartment I am currently staying is the old house where Jim Morrison used to live!!

* While watching a soccer match of the LA Galaxy on television, I was surprised by a story of the reporter. Before the match, outside the stadium, a picknick bbq had been organized by the fans of LA Galaxy where they invited the fans of the opponent. WOW, could you imagine this happens in Europe???? Too much hate is going on. I don't want to use this blog to make statements, but respect like this between fans would make life way easier in Europe...

Speaking about soccer…Before leaving to Los Angeles my friend Arnold Reijnders took over my Ajax season ticket. Well done mate, you yelled them to the next Championship victory! Why don't you join us next year?

This blog was written on the beach, being a bit excited for my girlfriend Anne to see her again after 4 months...