28 April 2004
Singelkerk

A lecture by LeBlanc, a frequent contributor to The New York Times Magazine and other journals, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc is author of her bestselling debut Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble and Coming of Age in the Bronx. The book chronicles the real-life stories of impoverished adolescents living in New York’s Bronx district, capturing a turbulent series of events but handling them with compassion.

27, 28 April 2004
Diatoom Cinema

American film critic, cult-specialist, author, lecturer and self-confessed ‘smut peddler’ Jack Stevenson presents two programme of war propaganda featuring 16mm films and cartoons, interspersed with trailers, newsreels and silent ‘found’ home-movie erotica from the lat 1960s in the programme Whipped & Abused: A Story of Sex, Drugs and Sadism from B-Movie America.

26-28 April
Paradiso

An eight-piece contemporary bluesgrass formation from the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. Expect plenty of plucky bangjo, dobro, mandolin, fiddle, guitar, harmonica. Note that all visitors to the 26 April gig get a free ticket for either 27 or 28 April.

25 April 2004
Pepsi Stage

24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29 April, 1, 2, 3 May 2004
Various locations

Written and performed by David Henry Sterry, this one-man show is based on his bestselling San Francisco Chronicle memoir, Chicken: Self-Portrait of a Young Man. Sterry started out as a stand-up comedian in San Francisco perfoming with everyone from Robin Williams to Milton Berle and as an actor has worked with everyone from Will Smith to Michael Caine, David Letterman to Zippy the Chimp.

23 April 2004
Diatoom Cinema

The cinema in the recently revamped, legalised squat OT301/Academie reopens with an array of international short films (16mm, ) old films (super 8 mm), plus special performance by 99 Hooker (New York VJ and poet) and Bart Me Maracas (solo maracas, singing, videos). Plus food, drinks and music.

19 April 2004
Paradiso

The first in a new series centered around contemporary music in all its forms: electronic, electro acoustic, composed and improvised, with sound and image, popular and obscure, academic and autodidactic. Tonight features nine-piece Rotterdam group Coolhaven who are presenting Die Stromblocque Phantasieën, an electronic music theater performance inspired by Winterreise by Frans Shcubert (with text from the German biography of Baywatch’s David Hasselhoff. Also tonight are Désormais (Canada/US) whose music is abstract and full of organic sounds, with references to Fennesz and My Bloody Valentine.

18 April 2004
Paradiso

The bi-monthly cultural-zap programme returns with short performances making use of film, dance, theater, video and live music. Tonight they’re also serving a Burgundian dinner during the screening of Peter Greenaway’s The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover with a new soundtrack played live by DJ Alec Smart.

18 April 2004
Tuschinski

Directed in by Vincent Minnelli and Charles Walters, this wonderful musical set in Paris at the turn of the 20th century is based on Colette’s novel of the same name. It stars Lesley Caron as the precocious ‘Gigi’ who the dashing charmer Gaston Lachaille takes under his wing only to end up falling in love with her. This early-morning screening takes place within the sumptuous art deco Tuschinski cinema. Well worth getting out of bed for. (The movie starts at 10.30am!).

17 April 2004
Paradiso

16 April 2004
Kriterion

A screening of both Kill Bill: Vol 1 and the première of Kill Bill: Vol 2 followed by a Japanese-tinted party with typically Tarantino music at this fab student-run cinema.

14-20 April 2004
Various locations

Premières, masterclasses, talks with guest filmmakers, a peek at special effects pioneers George Mélières and Lon Chaney plus a retrospective of the work of Peter ‘Lord of the Rings’ Jackson all feature at this annual film fest devoted to the horror, cult, sci-fi and animation genres.

14 April 2004
Paradiso

5 April 2004
The inspirational BBC war correspondent Kate Adie is in town to give a talk on her latest book Corsets to Camouflage: Women and War, whilst referencing her autobiography The Kindness of Strangers. Venue is De Rode Hoed (Keizersgracht 102, Amsterdam). Reservations are strongly recommended and can be made via the Brit[ish] Lit[erature] website www.britlit.info