alright, I still owed you a reply to this. I'll follow tokolosh' list and only link to the places he hasn't already linked to:
Museums:
Tokolosh already listed the most obvious ones, but another (avant-garde) art related one is the COBRA-museum in Amstelveen, which technically isn't Amsterdam, but you can get their by metro/tram within 30 minutes from Amsterdam central station.
http://www.cobra-museum.nl
By the way, take note that the Rijksmuseum is still being renovated at the moment, so there's only a selection of works on display (mostly the famous stuff: Rembrandt, Vermeer, etc)
Record Shops:
Get Records is my favourite to get new CDs. Concerto has a pretty good selection for second hand stuff, especially jazz. Both shops are in the Utrechtsestraat, at a stone throw distance of each other.
Boudisque (close to central station) is pretty decent as a general CD store, though not as good as Get Records and sometimes a bit expensive.
If it's actual records (as in vinyl) you're after then you definitely want to go to Distortion. It's in the Westerstraat, which is only a couple of minutes walking from the Anne Frank house. Their website is
www.distortion.nl but keep in mind that the guy doesn't have everything that he mentions he has on the website.
There's a big (several floors) mainstream music store called Fame just off the Dam square in the Kalverstraat. It's not really worth making a trip for, but you'll probably pass by it at least once anyway if you're strolling through the Kalverstraat and you might as well give it a visit if you do. It's mostly expensive, but sometimes you'll find interesting stuff for cheap.
Coffeeshops:
Don't really know... I haven't bought marijuana in ages and when I did on a regular basis I always preferred getting it outside of Amsterdam. The few times I did buy it in Amsterdam it was usually a bit more expensive than in other cities in Holland... not surprising of course with all the tourists visiting. Not an awful lot more expensive though so I'm sure you'll be fine. If you're after mushrooms and the likes then you'll have to look for "smart stores".
Music venues:
Paradiso is a nice venue and good for the bigger names and also the smaller stuff the upstairs room. Melkweg is the other big name venue, but it's a bit crap for my tastes... Jazz and improv can be found in the BIMhuis.
http://www.bimhuis.nl/index.php?&lang=en
As far as the more underground/do-it-yourself/squats/etc places go there isn't that much interesting stuff in Amsterdam in my opinion. OT301 and OCCII are the best, but I never find myself going to either of them more than once or twice a year on average... and usually it's less than that. There's usually better gigs in Rotterdam or Den Haag.
OT301 (
http://squat.net/overtoom301/pages/home.html) is heavy on the EAI/improv kind of stuff and also has members of The EX playing at least a couple of times a month. OCCII (
www.occii.org) has a lot of boring punk and hardcore, some noise and other things.
Furthermore there's places like Zaal 100 and Bitterzoet, but I doubt you'll find anything interesting there.
If you're not actually leaving on the 10th then this might be interesting:
Muziek Kapot Moet !
little howlin' wolf (usa)
r.o.t. (be)
dinosaurs with horns (usa)
http://www.occii.org/nightdetails.asp?id=407
Food:
There's a good vietnamese place close to Nieuwmarkt that I would recommend if I remembered what it was called...
Free entertainment if you're short on cash:
- The flea market at Waterloo square (waterlooplein). It costs nothing and it's fun to walk around.
- Strolling through the Vondelpark (weather permitting) near Leidseplein and checking out people.
- Walking along the canals is also free. A boat trip sets you back maybe 15-20 euros for about 60-90 minutes... i don't know what it costs to be honest... or how long it lasts.
- Red light district. Not all that interesting to be honest, but you can't really skip it I suppose. Probably draws more tourists than Rembrandt and Van Gogh together, especially in the summer. It's busiest during nighttime.
Things to watch out for:
Pickpockets... especially at central station, in the trams and in the trains between the airport and central station. you snooze, you loose your money.