UPDATED!!! HARRY WRITES FROM HOLLAND!!! NOTE: HOTEL CHANGE!!!

Harry here in Holland. Wow. This place is beautiful.

Yesterday, I arrived after a plane trip that was spent watching OUT OF SIGHT and the sun rise up from the underbelly of the canopy of clouds. Stunningly gorgeous. The irridescent colors, and listening to my ROCKETEER score just made me feel like I was in the perfect place at the perfect time. Everyone should see a sunrise at 33,000 feet.

When I got here I arrived with one of the filmmakers of a fantastic animated film called ROADHEAD, it's showing hear in Rotterdam, as well as in SLAMDANCE. I saw the film about 4 months ago in Austin. It's about 14 minutes long and is one of the most interesting choices in animation I've seen in a long time. A series of interviews of people, real people, but animated in bizarre and strange styles. I felt the film was wonderfully involving. BUT ANYWAY... we rode together in the car from the Airport in AMSTERDAM to our hotels in ROTTERDAM.

The drive was amazing. When I saw the first windmill I started geeking. It was just like the ones in that old George Pal PUPPETOON where the robots are stomping through Holland. As well as Disney's own THE OLD MILL. What a classic image, especially after watching THE PRIDE AND THE PASSION just 2 days ago, and watching Frank Sinatra, Sophia Loren and Cary Grant amongst similarly styled Spanish Windmills.

The waterways are gorgeous, the water perfectly reflects the sky and crisscrosses everywhere. The ORIGIN girl in the car was searching for signs of graffiti, and sure enough... there it was. AND IT LOOKED EXACTLY LIKE GRAFFITI IN AUSTIN, LOS ANGELES, NEW YORK and LONDON! I now believe that it is all done by the same person. Customs departments should be on the look out for a guy traveling with thousands of aerosal cans.

There are no WOODEN SHOES on people's feet. But it seems everyone rides bicycles (a mortal enemy of mine from childhood) here.

I don't know where Dad got the idea that I would try to see THOSE MOVIES listed below. I'd love to see them, BUT it is very difficult to get tickets for films here at the festival. I do have a guest's badge which allows me to get in and see whatever I want for free.... BUT there is a problem. You see you have to make reservations for the films and that is very difficult on the weekends. Almost everything was sold out as soon as I got here.

Yesterday was spent trying to get reservations, trying to figure out Dutch Television, seeing if the Dutch drown there fries in mayo at McDonalds, walking around town, hooking up with a reader here in town, as well as making plans for future days.

Well I did manage to accomplish getting a few reservations, but I couldn't get into BULLET BALLET by Tsukamoto Shinya, a film I was dying to see.

Dutch Television is very very very very very COOOL! One there are nude people everywhere. Very cool. There is nothing like watching a show like Ally MacBeal and watching it interupted by commercials for some sort of CENTERFOLD contest where nude beautiful women pouring hot oil on themselves. Also the channel choice here is exceptional. There is an Iranian channel, and Indian channel, the BBC, NBC, FOX, Dutch television, Turkish channel... and many more. While talking to the geek that came by to visit, we talked about prejudice in the United States, and the sort of bitter non-understanding we sometimes see in TALK BACK on the site, and well.... From watching the television here, you really do get multiple perspectives on the events of the world. It's not all controlled by single perspective of the world. The way we get our news in the U.S. is very specific to the United States, but here, you not only get the U.S. view of things, but all these other countries. You can see the hypocrisy, the slants, the prejudices of any one of the group. And it gives you the feeling that we're all the same at the very basics.

I did not witness any Dutch person sinking their fries into mayo at the McDonalds here. BUT... their Big Macs are a bit different, instead of pickles, there seems to be more of a... cucumber slice. The geek told me it was a pickle, but... I'll tell ya, this ain't like any normal pickle... Maybe it was placed in the pickling solution for a few seconds, but... it mainly tasted like a cucumber.

Walking around Rotterdam is a joy. The streets are loaded with shops, I passed a market place that sold fresh fruits and vegetables, it was quite wonderful. The smell in the air was overpoweringly delightful. A mix of fragrant flowers and veggies. Not like in a grocery store, but mixed with fresh non-processed air, and the crisp cold of the 1 degree celsius (I'll never be able to do the conversion, I just know enough to know it ain't equal to 33 f.) My favorite sight is of couple bicycling hand in hand together. Soundtracks are very very expensive here. Had I known, I could have made a small fortune. At 39 guilders (I think that's spelled correct) it is a full equal to about 20 dollars or so American. I'm told it's because of Unions, but folks, if you know anyone with a large collection over here... know that they are true devoted fans because it's an expensive habit.

The fella I hooked up with has something to do with the U.N. and we plan on going to Amsterdam on Wednesday along with this one local filmmaker that has a film he describes as a cross between STAR WARS and SINGING IN THE RAIN, he's from here in Holland, and is quite a geek it sounds like. We'll be hitting the poster shops and traveling about. I understand it is required to goto the Red Light District, so I guess I'm going there too. It sounds weird, but hey... when in Rome...

Right now this place is very very relaxing, and I've found a place where I can use a computer for 1 Guilder, which is about 50 cents American... so it is a steal. I've done a couple of interviews, and have stood in several lines... I'm told that as the weekend comes to an end, the showings will 'depopulate' to a certain degree and hopefully I'll be able to catch a few things. But I'll tell the truth, I'm here to experience this country as much as I am here for film. Alot of the films I've seen in the U.S. so I'm just trying to catch a couple of the films that haven't appeared before my eyes, like DESERT BLUE or THE EDEN MYTH, CRIME KINGS or THE IRON HEEL OF OLIGARCHY... Or something that I have no clue about. I hopefully will find a jewel or two while I'm here, but really... the jewel I came to see was the country itself, and it is one that gleams quite beautifully.

I'll try to write again tomorrow, this time with some news hopefully....

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Well folks Harry will be in Holland by the time you read this. He'll be staying at Rotterdam's GOLDEN TULIP HOTEL for those of you who may want to drop by and chat. He's looking for some tour guides if your interested in appling for the job. He also is hoping to catch a ride to Amsterdam if you want to take a road trip with the head geek.

Yeah, he left old FATHER GEEK here in Austin to update. He does his talk on Film Criticism on Monday the 1st and today he's going to try and catch the following flicks: ZERO TOWN, UTOPIA, URBAN GHOST STORY, OPPOSITE SEX, CRIME KINGS, THE ACID HOUSE, and GODS OF TIMES SQUARE among others. He's got alot of free time blocked out and he doesn't leave until Thursday morning early, so see if you can show him where a couple of old movie poster shops are.