Northern New South Wales roots musician, T.J. Quinton, is currently enjoying himself in London for an extended stay away from home.
After a recent trip to Amsterdam, T.J. filed the following postcard from the Dutch capital.
“Almost ten years ago now I visited Amsterdam for the first time. In the height of summer I saw the city in its full glory: art, coffee, parks, boats and, of course, the bicycles!
“With that beautiful exuberance of 18-year-olds with nothing to lose, my girlfriend and I put pen to paper trying to work out if we could sell enough of our belongings to buy a flower cart and live on the corner of Singel and Koggestraat for the rest of our lives.
“In times since when I return to AmDam, I'll sit on that same corner, blaze a number and quietly wait for my heart to escape the confines of my chest, watch as it travels paths and canals, across cobblestones and grass, under the benevolent gaze of colourful buildings that lean gently in self-expression, it pauses, breaths deeply and sighs that sigh of appreciation, that silent pause of wonder at the magic of this city.
“There are so many things about Amsterdam I find nowhere else in the world. But of all its curves, shades and colours, it is the mastery of the silent metropolis that strikes me the most. If you find yourself in the right part of town anytime before midday you could swear the city was built for you alone, each canal the result of your own subconscious sense of the aesthetic and art, every stone a rest in the composition of a city breathing softly beneath the weight of impending sea.
“If I ever up and disappear you might want to look for me here. I'll be on the corner playing guitar next to the brightest flower stall you've ever seen.
“We made a little clip of Shapeshifter's ‘Long White Cloud’, a little track about New Zealand. A beautiful song of home and country, which I typically butcher and forget lyrics to. But it's hard to ruin something this good, enjoy.”
