This is Abdelkader Benali telling us enthusiastically about his reading 1q84, the new Murakami. He did this during (and in fact sort of opening) Murakami Night at Selexyz Scheltema in Amsterdam.

I am an unwilling Murakami fan. After reading the first book I just thought: well… , but in the weeks (!) after finishing the book the characters and the story kept haunting me. It ended up in buying a next Murakami. This happened about 4 times and after that I reconciled myself to the situation: I am a fan. So on hearing about the night about his new book I  put down my name immediately.

It was fun. Benali was infectiously, Christine Otten told us about the music in 1q84 together with Booktunes. We saw beautiful stills from the film Norwegian Wood, which we can see from 9 December 2010 (both main characters beautiful young people with handknitted scarves and hat (!)).

But Luk van Haute, one of the 3 Murakami translators, made me come up against hard facts. This was really, really informative and made me eat my humble pie. I used to say that you could better read the English Murakami translations, being much more readable and swinging than the Dutch translations. Well, Van Haute made his case clear: this is certainly true if you want to read adaptions instead of translations. Do read the English books if you want to read a Murakami in which translators decided to leave out things as: young girls drinking pina coladas, song titles, even whole parts of stories (in English it is the Wind Up Bird Chronicle and not Chronicles like the Dutch title). In short: do read the English versions if you are afraid of sex, drugs and rock & roll. And he gave many, many examples. So I will buy and reread the Dutch translations of Kafka on the Shore, the Wind Up Bird Chronicles, Blind Willow Sleeping Woman, After Dark. Of course, not a real trial. Wish I could read and knit at the same time…

Selexyz: well done! Do it more often!

This was KIP (Knitting in Public) weekend for me and I probably knitted less than not KIP weekends. But I had so much fun.

Saturday I made my contribution to make the city more beautiful with knit work: call it urban knitting. The cycle racks (fietsnietjes) were dressed in tight dresses, making a colorful picture in area of the Westergasfabriek. It was organized by BreiWerkWest and to be honest I really did like the result.

The weather was no fun at all and we finished during the first half of the football match. Tried to watch somewhere inside of the several cafes in the Westerpark but every place was crowded and noisy. I went home and managed to make such a weird movement that I heard my back snap. It hurts.

Aching back or not, nothing could withheld me from seeing ‘Nijinsky’, Cédric Ygnace really gave a masterful performance of the life of this dancer,of whom very little film images are saved.

The European Fiber Network (EFN) organized a wild hunt through Amsterdam. An act for 3 women, 3 wip’s, one camera and lots of creativity. Not particularly knitting creativity. We had to take pictures of several very Amsterdam things with a WIP, like endangered species, non knitters, animals, draw bridges, museums, trams, coffee shops, etc. We were so lucky to find an endangered species that was a non knitter and an animal at the same time that was willing to knit for us. I managed to fall again and also managed to take a pictures of that. Not for the competition, alas, falling knitters didn’t get you points.

Afterward we gathered in the OBA restaurant on the 7th floor. It would be nice to make OBA our regular knitting place for the Mondays. Enough light and big tables. Cassandra and Miranda added up our points and yeah…. Nancy, Jacky and I were the winning team. But in fact, everybody was a winner. It was a lovely afternoon, ladies. Thank you for organizing it!

I don’t believe this. More than 1,5 month ago since I blogged. O.k. – you can find me on Facebook (hope this is the right link) and you can find me twittering. My blog is for bigger things. I have been to Hamburg. It was nice, but not nice enough to come back regularly like, say, Berlin or Paris. I have been to Bruxelles with students and I learned a lot. My students may be young but they have a big ability to care for each other. Such a good experience. I have been devastated by the results of the elections. I am very busy writing and editing a book about management in agogical professions.  My dearest friend endures a course of chemotherapy. I so admire her optimism and enjoy her cleverness. Go girl, go! And it is almost the end of the schoolyear. It Is So Busy! Only 4,5 weeks and the year is over. Everything must be done by then… pfoe… help me!