Museumnacht 2006

Well, it was worth it. We've never managed to do Museumnacht before, either choosing to be out of town or safe at home, watching the rain lash down on the shivering tourists as they make their way from one crowded museum to another. But we kicked off the evening outside FOAM, headed over to the Museum van Loon -- home to one Ferdinand Bol, best known for the street named after him and the subsequent, original FEBO.



A pitstop at the Hermitage for a chance encounter with some friends and an attempt to buy Russian beer and vodka; in true Russian style, we queued for ages -- and then found out they were serving Heineken, so left, disappointed. On past the crowds outside Artis, to a very pleasant little bar on the Entrepotdok: by this point in the evening, PJ had done culture sober and was getting grumped. Revitalised, we cycled on to the very fabulous Energetica. The old engineering duffers who run the place had really made an effort, aided considerably by the fab building -- Amsterdam's oldest power station and a decent DJ.



The boys demonstrated their considerable theramin talents, only to be outshone by the very serious, Kraftwerk-inspired pros.





More beer, a magic act (which I enjoyed but PJ sneered at, and Bill couldn't see), and then back across Amsterdam to the Institute for Mediakunst. This featured Smirnoff Ice, entertaining computer-generated meejah installations, and a bonkers 5 minutes in a pitch-black room watching sound waves generating light. And then home to bed, mildly pissed but embiggened by our interaction with culture. Well worth 16 euros of anyone's money.