Parade alternatives

Rotterdam boasts itself as a city of festivals. And rightfully so. There are so many it's impossible to go to them all. But which ones to skip??

Next weekend do go to Metropolis - a FREE music festival where you can catch the likes of Les Savy Fav and The Vaccines, as well as tons of other bands that you never heard of but who will (possibly) be famous next year.

This weekend, June 24-26, travel South to the Wolphaertstraat to visit Bazar Bizar. Over 60 (!!) artists will sell their prints, drawings, jewelery, clothing, zines, toys and what not. Plus there will be good food and music (including from our own Geeske).

And/or you could go up North to the bustling neighborhood of Het Oude Noorden for Route du Nord. This route will take you along all the galleries, shops, cafes, restaurants and temporary art spaces that are tucked away in the narrow streets of "The Old North".

A festival you certainly should not miss (unlike me..) is the Open Dans festival. Jan Misker and our friend Janne Eraker hand picked the best, fresh and exciting dance acts that are out there in Rotterdam today. The program is just as divers as the city itself: there will be everything from modern to urban, from tap to tango, there will be video-installations and turntables, there will be more established dance makers as well as young and upcoming ones, plus workshops, live music and parties! And all this for just € 25 (3-day passepartout - separate tickets available too). Skip De Parade, I'd say!

Puha Party

Join us tomorrow December 17th for some rollatordisco at PUHA's Greedy X-mas party in Utrecht! Puha is a funky little shop in the Hardebollenstraat, that sells great stuff by young independent designers (they've got the very last pairs of our Hand in Glove mittens for example). So get your pressies while drinking and dancing; Christmas shopping doesn't get any better than this!!

Now let's hope and pray we survive this trip with Blanche through the snow and icy streets (definitely not the right weather conditions for a soundsystem!)...

Variété De Luxe #3

This Friday our friend Peter 'Teps' de Koning is hosting a third edition of Variété De Luxe: a highly entertaining evening filled with music, poetry, comedy, ukuleles and Blanche's "rollator disco"! Entrance is €0, which includes a glass of bubbles!!

Friday November 26, 19.30. 1st floor of the Public Library Rotterdam, Hoogstraat 110.

F.A.R.T. in the bathroom!

This must be one of the weirdest places we’re ever going to DJ (though our party in the elevator, that got stuck by us jumping, is one for the books too)… Tomorrow we’re going to play in the bathroom of a hotel room. Somewhere between the bathtub, the sink and the toilet Dutch Dolls are going to whoop it up! How appropriate for a festival called F.A.R.T.. All kinds of artists have been asked to fill the rooms of the hotel and hostel with installations, mini-exhibitions and performances. At 23.00 the warehouses open up for DJs and live performances.

So on invitation of Johan Kleinjan we’re playing at his SUPERRRMINIFEEST in Room 31 of Boutique Hotel Quartier du Port from 20.00 till +/- 22.30. We already got some great suggestions what to play, from Piss Up A Rope and Don’t Shit Where You Eat by Ween, Ring Of Fire, Drop It Like It’s Hot, Push It, Earth Wind and Fire and Golden Brown by the Strangles, to anything by George Michael. Alas, since it’s vinyl only this rather limits our selection of bathroom-themed songs. But don’t worry we’ll be bringing some other great stuff to make sure it gets hot and steamy in there! Better leave your kids at home...

At 22.30 we’re crossing the street to the Westelijk Handelsterrein where we’ll play a set over a proper PA in warehouse no.15. Come and shake your booty between 23.00 and 24.00, and stick around for more great performances by the likes of zZz, Doktor Schnitt, J.C. Thomaz & The Missing Slippers, DJ Shitmeister T!!

70% awesome, 30% weird

Last Sunday was another one for the 'plain weird' tag.

Photo by www.mathildekarrer.com.

Slightly hungover, our alarm started ringing at 09.00h... We dressed up with lots of fake fur, leopard print, gold chains, pearls and more things that are cute, but wrong. We put Blanche together and wheeled her over to AHOY, Rotterdam to deejay at the 100% tuning event. Which was as cool as we hoped it would be. Actually, it was cooler. Words do not describe what the event was like, but once we hooked up the battery, and DJ Assault was blasting through the speakers.. jaws dropped. Ooow, how awesome it felt to walk through all the extreme cars, with smoke effects, major sound systems, video screens, pearl paint jobs, airbrush, Svarovsky, rims from outer space... and lots of girls in skimpy outfits lying on top of them and twirling around them. The rollator fit right in. As did we... ahum.

After playing every nasty tune that we had, we went home. We took the subway and the elevator. We decided to party a little in the elevator and cranked up the volume as we went up. Eh... as we should have went up. The elevator broke down and we were stuck!! Even the guy of the helpdesk that answered our distress call thought it was funny. Two policemen and a mechanic had to come to set us free. What a Sunday..... really weird, but a 100% awesome!

putting the kids to work

Summer is over. But it's the start of a new season... the 'cultural season'! Rotterdam celebrates this with the Wereld van de Witte de With Festival (as you might have gathered by now), Utrecht does it with UITFEEST: a 2-day party with lots of art, poetry, guided tours, music (o.a. Voicst, GEM, Room Eleven and Wolter Kroes) and workshops. All taking place this weekend, September 12th and 13th! Dutch Dolls will be putting the kids to work in Leidsche Rijn. We'll be making a 'Vinex village' out of cardboard boxes. If you're between 2 and 6 years old come join us!!

The good stuff just keeps coming!

And I thought last weekend was exciting, but it just keeps coming - the good stuff!

This friday, doll Geeske will be deejaying at EXIT Rotterdam. this evening will be dedicated to the wonderful musical genre; riotgrrrl. The genre that brought us Sleater-Kinney, Peaches, The Gossip, Le Tigre, Bikini-Kill and much much more awesomeness! That means I will be diving into my old punk records. Even though I've been in the urban mood for a long time... I'll always love guitars, especially with female vocals.
The evening will not just be filled with my tunes, but there will be some great girl punkbands as well. Such as Queen Bee, Dusty Blinds and Cheap Thrills. Come and throw some beer, I'll get you a new one!

Exit, 21.00u, 5,-

After waking up the next morning with my probably wooden head (as we say in dutch).. it's time to put that headache to rest and grab every tropical tune that I've got. For I'll be off DJ-ing at the open dans festival in Rotterdam, DEK22.
This festival is so cool and so refreshing and is supposed to bring the underground danceworld to the surface. There will be streetdanceclasses, workshops, live music, performances. All done by young dancers either established or not. I'll be bringing the summer with me after a probably awesome live set by Doktor Schnitt! Come dance wiv' me!

DEK22,(my set starts at) 23.00u, tickets for the whole day: 10,-

Everybody was there, even Swamp Thing!

So last Saturday it was the day that all the 'crafties' headed south; for Bazar Bizar. I packed all the Dutch Dolls stuff and my market-essentials tried to carry myself, my sweat and my stuff to the busstop. I think I lost about 2 pounds in that little stroll. Still looking cool with the sunglasses though, hell yeah. I arrived almost an hour late... but all that was bad about that was that I needed coffee. After unpacking and decorating all the addictions were taken care of.

I like this market. All the participants worked really hard and brought the coolest homemade stuff ever. I found shrimp made of felch, comics, vinyl, pluchies, shirts, jewellery and much, much more. There are loads of squatters with half-shaven heads, dogs and crusty-babies. There are old people, big black mamas with cute kids and artsy folks all over the place. The Dstruct DJ-team provides just the right soundtrack with dubstep, hiphop, jazz and italodisco. The sun is out, there's beer, good food and lots of people that I know. Even Swamp Thing (picture above) came, with his megaphone.. being the ultimate vendor. I had so much fun that I kinda forgot to sell stuff. Whoops!

Bazar Bizar!!

After last year's HUGE success, there had to be a sequel to Rotterdam's coolest (crafty)market: BAZAR BIZAR! It takes place on Saturday June 27th between 12.00 and 18.00 in the Wolphaertstraat (that's in the southern part of Rotterdam). This is the place to buy original gifts for your friends or for yourself! Or just indulge yourself in food, music, alcohol and lots of artsy people. We’re telling you, this will be cool... so go cross that Erasmus Bridge and hang out with us! Check www.bazarbizar.hyves.nl and/or www.myspace.com/bazarbizarrotterdam.

"wie maakt me los?!"

Think local, act global! Being hundreds of kilometers apart doesn't stop the Dolls from working together and participating in all sorts of events. Take this Afrikaandermarkt-project for example...

Freehouse and Jeanne van Heeswijk asked us to join a project called 'De Markt van Morgen' (The Market of the Future). It's all about the Afrikaandermarket, a colorful, vibrant market in the southern part of Rotterdam. Local market vendors team up with artists from all sorts of disciplines to create new products for the market of the future. Dutch Dolls got assigned to a very friendly seller of BAGS. Especially for the occasion Nanna designed a brand new print (check the sneak preview at the top of this this post) and Geeske will be silkscreen printing it on canvas bags LIVE at the marktet, in the stall!!

This will take place this weekend, June 6th and 7th! So come on down to the Afrikaanderplein and get yourself one of these unique Dutch Dolls bags (act locally - death to the plastic carrier bags!!). The market will bustling with artists making designs on the spot and customizing clothing, up and coming local bands performing and students of the Willem de Kooning Academy styling the stalls. Of course there will be plenty of food. Dishes from all over the world, prepared with ingredients from the Afrikaandermarket. So think global, act local and travel South!

Oh screw happiness, let's get doom

On april 4th tegendraads festival will take place for the second time. From 19.00 - 04.00 LVC in Leiden will be transformed into a place for music, art, food and more.

The selection of performing artists is not for the soft-hearted but should be totally surprising and refreshing (which is always a good thing). It's mostly, punk, noise, grindcore, breakcore, doom and well... experimental stuff I guess. So if you're not into that, don't go.

Perhaps you're not into music anyway, and you just like to go shopping. If that is the case, you should check out their HUGE collection of t-shirts, all limited editions and all designed by fellow young artists. Just to name a few awesome ones: Bitches in Control, Ingrid de Lugt, Baschz and Dutch Dolls!