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Trading Underwear for Rice Crispy Treats: Queens Day in Amsterdam (Thoughts from Places)

2011-05-09 · John, Tobias · watch on YouTube · Personal life · documentary visit

Lower-confidence wave

2011 videos did not pass the QA gate (17 %); their analysis is shown but less reliable.

In a Thoughts from Places travelogue John follows Queen's Day in Amsterdam from the empty early-morning Vondelpark freemarket with a child of the brothers to the orange-clad crowds with Nerdfighter Tobias, and ends glad to live in a world that finds cause to celebrate.

What is said

00:00:00 — a child of the brothers wakes early; Dirk Kuyt jersey; walk to the Vondelpark through empty streets; Emily Dickinson poem on a wall

  • ★★ John's description notes Nerdfighter gatherings and signings around the Netherlands, with details at his Dutch publisher Lemniscaat. — 00:00:00
  • ★★ John, Sarah and a child of the brothers spent Queen's Day in Amsterdam; a child of the brothers woke them at 5:42 a.m. and they took him to the Vondelpark in a Dirk Kuyt jersey. — 00:00:01 · Amsterdam, Sarah Urist Green
  • ★ On the walk John passed an Emily Dickinson poem, 'To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee'. — 00:00:20

00:00:31 — The freemarket in the Vondelpark; what Queen's Day is; a child of the brothers prefers the sandbox

  • ★★ John explains that Queen's Day celebrates Queen Beatrix's mother's birthday and involves a city-wide garage sale, the 'freemarket', where nothing is actually free, with street performers and carnival games. — 00:00:40
  • ★ a child of the brothers ignored the freemarket and just wanted to play in the sandbox. — 00:00:56

00:01:01 — Crowds downtown with Nerdfighter Tobias: orange, inflatable hats, Museumplein, learning to say Koninginnedag, photobombs

  • ★★ John met Nerdfighter Tobias, the only person in Amsterdam not wearing orange, and says the orange-clad crowds make him anxious. (playful) — 00:01:01 · Nerdfighteria
  • ★ Tobias says he looked in his wardrobe and had nothing orange. — 00:01:10
  • ★★ At the Museumplein, where John says a hundred thousand drunk people were listening to music, Tobias tried to teach him to say Koninginnedag and they were photobombed. — 00:01:30

00:01:56 — Underwear traded for Rice Krispie treats; home through crowds; a world that finds cause to celebrate; party ends by law at 9 p.m.; sign-off

  • ★★ John and Tobias saw a man trading underwear for Rice Krispie treats in the afternoon. (playful) — 00:01:56
  • ★★★ John says he was happy to live in a world that finds cause to celebrate, and, deadpan, happier still that by law the party ended at 9 p.m. — 00:02:06

Humor (significant)

  • John explains that a child of the brothers woke him early on Queen's Day, as if a child of the brothers said... — 00:00:01 > «I don't always wake up at 5:42 in the morning, but when I do, I expect to be fed.»
  • John and Tobias witness a street trade on the way home. — 00:01:56 > «Which is the kind of thing that, like, does happen, but not at 2:20 in the afternoon.»
  • After a day of crowds and techno rattling the apartment, John is happy about one thing more. — 00:02:17 > «That's just good government regulation at work, Hank.»

Threads in this video

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