JUST WRITE

Lance talking about falling in love makes me want to meet Maggie all over again.

Being in a relationship takes time, energy, patience and coordination. You don’t fall into it, you work your way into it. A relationship isn’t your most comfortable pair of flannel pajamas going in, it’s the tightest pair of jeans you’ve ever bought, but once you get into them you look damned good and want to keep them on forever.

PORTUGAL 2 vs NETHERLANDS 1

The Netherlands lost to the host country of Portugal today. Suck!

Ruud van Nistelrooy: "It's unbelievable how the referee ruled everything in favour of Portugal. He was a real home whistler."

Home whistler.
Awesome.

BACK IN SF

Though I'm happy to be back home, I do miss everyone speaking to me in Dutch.

There was just nothing I could do to convince people in Holland that I don't speak Dutch. People at my hotel, folks at the event venue I was working, and even the lady in the NEW ENGLISH BOOKS store where I bought my International Herald Tribune every morning all spoke to me in Dutch.

I took it as a compliment.

DUTCH BIKES

The Dutch love their bikes. Love. Them.

I've twice heard this story:
In 1944, when the US and Canadian troops were helping run the Nazis out of Amsterdam, the retreating German infantry troops grabbed all the bikes in the city to help hasten their trek back to the fatherland.

As a result, it took years for the Dutch to get back to the 100% bike ownership they seem to have today. Here's the thing: if you managed to keep your bike, (the Dutch were good at hiding things from Nazis) then you were a true patriot and you had quite a prize: an old bike.

To this day, 95% of the bikes here look like they're at least 40 years old. They even make old looking bikes for the Dutch, and they seem to love it that way.



This is the sidewalk at the beginning of the Netherlands vs. Latvia Euro2004 soccer game on Wednesday. It's like everyone just dropped their bike where they were when the match started.

AMSTERDAM ROCKS

I love Amsterdam.

This is a beautiful city, the Dutch are a great lot, and even the rain seems just too romantic.

We had cocktails last night with a bunch of local web designers and information architects. The Dutch love beer, and I love them for it.

And I met Catarina Fake, who is lovely. She's here for month, taking a break from her normal life to devote herself to writing.

I had a huge and delicious ostrich steak at Cafe de Koe. And beer.

Then we sat along the side of the Princengraght Canal and had a couple beers.

This city was made for me.

AMSTERDAM

Working at the speedskating venue at the 2002 Olympics, my entire social world for that time was the Heineken House, the Dutch-sponsored party tent on a frozen golf course 20 miles outside Salt Lake - buy within a few hundred yards of the speedskaters to which the Dutch are so devoted.

Jeff, Peter and I are heading to Amsterdam this weekend for an Adaptive Path event. This is my first time in Amsterdam. I can't wait!

I had a great time with the freakishly-devoted skate fans who traveled all the way around the world to drink beer in on a frozen golf course with us.

I have four days, after my work is done, with absolutely nothing planned.
Let me know if you have any ideas! <email me>

Also, we're buying a few drinks for our event attendees and friends:
De Balie, Leidseplein
Date: Tuesday, June 22, 2004
Time: 17:30 and beyond

If you're in Amsterdam and your reading this - you're invited. Please stop by!

VEEN BEHIND THE WHEEL

Asking Jeff to help with the motorcade was everything I expected. Everything.

BOBBY LOPEZ

For the 1997-98 theater season, I was the company manager for Playwrights Horizons, the 33-year-old off-Broadway repertory company. Devoted to new work by American writers, Playwrights is one of the most important arts organizations in New York and has produced original works from Sondheim to Durang (including Christopher Walken in a musical version of James Joyce's The Dead (you had to see it.))

As with most top-notch organizations, the interns were the sort of overwhelmingly talented folks that end up running the place by the end of the season.

Bobby Lopez was a soft-spoken, bright-eyed composer who was the intern assisting Artistic Director Tim Sanford. Bobby worked a few feet from me and it was a while before he let me hear any of the music he'd composed.

Bobby's favorite musical milieu was not the Loydd-Webber-spectacular nor the Sondheim-drama, but rather... puppets.

His composition were fun and funny, musically captivating and uniquely clever. But I knew full well that nobody would ever put any real money behind puppets, and I quietly hoped that Sesame Street or Nickalodeon would pick him up.

So...

As it turns out Bobby, and his writing partner Jeff Marx, won the Tony Award for Best Original Score for "Avenue Q," the story of Princeton, a bright-eyed college grad who comes to New York City with big dreams and a tiny bank account.

Here's a picture of Bobby and Jeff, taking a picture of themselves on stage with LL Cool J and Carol Channing, on-stage at the Tonys:



I couldn't be happier for Bobby. I'm glad there are producers that have greater vision than I.

I'm very pleased to have been so wrong!

Mile High

An armed man, driving a piece of heavy equipment, destroyed several buildings in the town of Granby Friday afternoon.

Witnesses said he was using the equipment like an armored vehicle, crashing into buildings. "He drove through a cement plant, wiped out town hall, took out the newspaper office,"

I miss Colorado.
(Listen the guy on his cell phone in the video)

Alopecoid

News - Boy Collapses at Spelling Bee, Nails Word: "alopecoid.' "