a try to get a hook on the world out there

FIELD TRIP TO AMSTERDAM 070209

OCJECT: gambling house
SUBJECT: prostitute

nice topics to investigate in and pretty interesting but how to do this?
after a coffe and realizing that we are way to many people to have a normal conversation with a prostitute or a gambler, we decided to split up in groups and go by ourselves for a while to get an impression.

my first reaction was, entering the sex-shop right next to me, but on the other side of the canal, means not situated in chinatown anymore. the shop itself was terribly small and i got immediately confronted with the owner, and had to tell him my shopping target. well, there were this porno videos all over and everything else i could see and imagine myself buying was this gel, standing at the counter. so i got the whole instructions about using it while i was thinking very concentrated about what i could ask him about the red-light district, the prostitutes, the connections to chinatown. a few minutes later i found myself back on the street with an overpriced item in my pocket and the idea, i just have could asked him: "do you live here"? well, i kind of messed up my firts chance and wandered around for a while to clear my mind.
back in chinatown i decided to have a break in a coffeeshop, the JOLLY JOKER. it was quiet and nice and warm in there, the air so thik that you could cut it and lonely men sitting at the bar dreaming in their own world. i installed myself between them, ordered an exotic tea and waited for reaction.
well, i didn't wait for long. the guy on my right side started to talk to me about art and was pointing out some nice design work in an art magazine, so there was something to start a conversation. he is american, fiction and scene writer, lives in amsterdam since ten years, married to a dutch woman and knows the place. quote: you came to the right place here! seems like JOLLY JOKER is a meeting point for intellectuals who like to chill out for a while. i am not mentioning real names here, so lets him call KARL.
after KARL told me that his main interest is to write about sex & art, i felt encouraged to tell him about our project. at this point i was not sure myself what exactely i was looking for and what the endproduct would be, so i was very careful in not limiting my approach from the beginning.
as you can imagine, there is some hesitation to go straight and interview a girl working there.
but i found out that KARL has connections to prostitutes to find the stories for his own work. so there he comes into the picture, telling me what kind of women he meets, about their life and motivation doing this. well at least the motivation is easy to figure out: money. as simple as that, and quite good money.
he told me about this girl he knows, who started business in the window when she was eighteen. and after her third month, she bought an AUDI TT. she is 24 now, still doing the same job. i have no idea how long i would have to work as an architect to afford this nice car. probably three years?

KARL adviced me to find a place in chinatown, where i see all the potentials and opportunities coming together; and just telling the truth to the people working there, and maybe offering a service vice versa, maybe a website? not a bad idea actually.

well, tomorrow i will write about this place i found, the HONNY BAR, and that everything is about the need to feed our aspirations, and that the gambling place and the girl in the window try to meet this longing. but why in chinatown?