August 31, 2010

Farmer paints religious slogan red to avoid fine

Filed under: Religion by Orangemaster @ 8:17 am

Back in July we posted about the Council of State which decided that farmer Joop van Ooijen had to remove the text “Jezus redt” (Jesus saves) from his roof or be fined 15,000 euro. (Feel free to read the legal take on this from Internet lawyer Arnoud Engelfriet in the comments of the link above.)

Nothwithstanding all the legal arguments and the appeals, my television zapping habit procured me with a few minutes of the farmer explaining to a talk show host that he was summoned to remove ‘the white roof tiles’ from his roof. Cut to the farmer’s son at the hardware store buying red car paint, and voilà , they painted over the roof tiles so it’s not white anymore and can still be read.

(Public domain photo by Wikipedia user Apdency)

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August 30, 2010

Wiel Kuypers breaks fishing record

Filed under: Animals,Sports by Branko Collin @ 9:01 am

Yesterday Wiel Kuypers set the new world endurance record for recreational fishing at 160 hours.

Kuypers had started the Sunday before at fishing pond De Bus of his home town Mill in Noord-Brabant with his daughter Marjolein and his son-in-law Rick who both quit their attempts during the week. According to Omroep Brabant, an inflammation in Kuyper’s foot nearly threatened a happy end to the record attempt on Friday night.

The old record was set at 157 hours by Jan van de Bovenkamp in 1987, Sportvisserij Nederland writes.

After his successful attempt Kuypers went home to catch some sleep. He and his buddies had made plans to get up bright and early today, to go fishing. “By now I am pretty sure I know how to.”

(Photo of the completely wrong kind of rod by Qrodo Photos, some rights reserved)

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August 29, 2010

Biggest pop artists work outside traditional record company structures

Filed under: Music by Branko Collin @ 5:37 pm

The past week Kyteman manager Niels Aalberts has been posting and annotating a six part e-mail correspondence with Caro Emerald producer David Schreurs about how they got to their respective successes.

One of the most remarkable ideas in the stories of both Kyteman and Caro Emerald as noted by internet marketeer Erwin Blom is the one of developing success outside the framework of traditional record companies. Schreurs mentions that this makes it easier to make quick decisions (you don’t have to keep track of everybody’s agendas), and that since your money is not disappearing into the deep pockets of the share holders of the likes of Sony, you can allocate resources for expensive projects more easily.

Kyteman is young jazz musician Colin Bender’s project, a hip hop orchestra containing 12 instrumentalists and 10 MCs. Their debut album The Hermit Sessions (2009) has been in the Dutch Album Top 100 for the past 79 weeks, and has sold 60,000 copies so far. Earlier this year the orchestra won the Popprijs.

Caro Emerald (Caroline van der Leeuw) is a jazz singer whose A Night Like This shot to the top of the charts, and whose album Deleted Scenes from the Cutting Room Floor easily took over the record for most weeks at number 1 in the Dutch Album Top 100 (30 and counting)—the previous record was held by Michael Jackson’s Thriller (27 in 1982). In the second quarter of this year, Deleted Scenes accounted for 10% of all album sales in the Netherlands.

(Photo of Kyteman and a smattering of his MCs by Oxfam Novib, some rights reserved)

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August 28, 2010

Police harass man with dozens of parking tickets

Filed under: Automobiles by Branko Collin @ 9:43 pm

‘Klaas’ from Zwolle does everything right. His car has a handicapped parking card clearly visible under the window, valid and dated, and yet the police keep ticketing him for illegal parking in the lot in front of his house. Since April of this year he has received over 40 parking tickets with a combined worth of nearly 3,000 euro.

Rather than paying his tickets, he has decided to stick it to the man. He has been decorating his car with the tickets, and with drawings, post cards and a real pirate flag.

In an interview with newspaper De Stentor the man who wishes to remain anonymous—even though everybody in Zwolle probably knows who he is by now—explains how it all started: “The first guy who ticketed me treated me like a little dog. That’s when I turned my back on him. Since then the big boys have been coming over here daily to book me.”

“I own more than one car. As somebody confined to a wheel chair I like things on wheels. […] I will have every ticket contested in court, one by one. That way the city will have to pay tons of court costs.”

The city of Zwolle responded to the newspaper, but considering they would have towed his car away after the third or so ticket if they actually were in the right, I don’t think printing their answer here is going to tell you much.

(Photo: Zaltbommel.nl)

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August 26, 2010

The last of the Frisian students

Filed under: Fashion,Literature,Music by Orangemaster @ 1:18 pm

According to the Volkskrant, only one student has registered to study Frisian this year at the University of Groningen, the only university in the country that offers a Bacherlor’s and Master’s degree in the country’s second official language.

Professor Goffe Jensma said on a local radio show in Groningen that new rules allowing universities to set their own fees for second degrees was at the heart of the problem. Grytsje Nicolaij, who already has a degree as a musicologist, was planning to study Fries on the side to keep up with family and friends who spoke the language better than he did. If the university does not attract more students (how many, we don’t know) before October 1, Grytsje will have to brush up on his Frisian elsewhere.

What does Frisian sound like?

Frisian Duo Twarres had a huge hit with ‘Wêr Bisto’ (‘Live, with a Dutch translation). The girl is the guitarist, the guy is the back up singer and they are childhood friends:

Frisian model Doutzen Kroes (L’Oréal, Victoria’s Secret) promotes her mother tongue:

(Link: volkskrant, via dutchnews)

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August 24, 2010

Coat check for your beverages at outdoor movies

Filed under: Film,Food & Drink by Orangemaster @ 10:56 am

Yes, there’s a crisis going on and some of the grass roots entertainment is taking a mighty beating, cash-wise.

The outdoor movie theatre Pleinbioscoop (pic) in Rotterdam, located at the Lloyd Multiplein, Schiehaven, near the pittoresque Delftshaven, the old harbour, is trying to stay afloat by disallowing that people bring their own drinks. Do look at the pic, they have couches and lamps to make it look like a big living room.

The organisation claims that they will be selling drinks at a reasonable price. They have also decided to set up a ‘coat check’ for anyone who brings glass bottles by mistake. Many a venue around the world would just force you to chuck out your booze in a bin, but these people are just plain nice. You can get a ticket for your ‘bottle check’, so you can pick up your wares at the end of the movie.

They also serve all kinds of food and the movies are free.

(Link: pleinbioscooprotterdam)

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August 23, 2010

Breaking: Anne Frank tree in Amsterdam broken

Filed under: General,Nature by Orangemaster @ 2:03 pm

If we can believe these pictures (here and here), the world famous Anne Frank tree has blown over and is broken in two.

In 2007 we wrote about it being possibly saved by a judge and not cut down, but fate has decided otherwise.

The tree has been sick for years. It is famous for having been described in Anne Frank’s Diary.

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Naked woman and curious cow: election poster of the century

Filed under: Design by Branko Collin @ 8:26 am

In 2006 this poster was elected best political poster of the Netherlands of the past 90 years. It was used in 1971 by the Pacifist Socialist Party (PSP), one of the predecessors of GroenLinks, for the lower house elections. The caption reads ‘Disarming PSP’.

The photo was originally taken for sexual reform magazine Sekstant, but designer George Noordanus surmised that it could also help create a storm of protest among Christians whose political parties supported the Vietnam war, but opposed innocent nudity, thereby exposing their hypocrisy.

Although it did just that, the raised profile did not help the PSP as it lost half its seats in the lower house after the elections. Support for the poster was also divided within the party, as some members considered it sexist. Ironically enough, it was the sexist argument that in the end helped seal the deal. As one member put it, “workers like naked chicks.”

Both Ayaan Hirsi Magan (ex VVD, liberal) and Femke Halsema (GroenLinks, ‘green left’), political opposites, see the poster as a symbol of their ideals.

See also this site about election posters in the Netherlands.

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August 22, 2010

Johan Voskamp scores 8 goals in professional match

Filed under: Sports by Branko Collin @ 9:23 pm

The second Dutch football league may not exactly be known for the defensive capabilities of its teams, but when the oldest Dutch professional football team Sparta Rotterdam (1888) relegated last year they probably did not expect the red carpet either.

Yet in its second game this season Sparta routed Almere FC 12-1, and 25-year-old striker Johan Voskamp scored 8 of those goals. Voskamp had just been bought from Helmond Sport who play in the same league. A video of his goals can perhaps be viewed at Youtube.

The second division is called Eerste Divisie (‘first division’) because the first division is called Eredivisie (‘honorary division’).

Henk Schouten scored nine goals for Feijenoord in 1956, in what was then still called the Hoofdklasse. The Eredivisie and Eerste Divisie were introduced a season later. All time top scorer for a single match in the Eredivisie is Afonso Alves (Heerenveen) with 7 goals in a match against Heracles in 2007. The previous record holders for the Eerste Divisie were Jerry Taihuttu (1997) and Ugur Yildirim (2003), with 6 goals each. Both players went on to play in the top tier the next season.

(Photo by Kralinger, some rights reserved)

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Chandelier made of digital photo frames

Filed under: Design by Branko Collin @ 11:21 am

Naarden design studio Brand van Egmond (William Brand and Annet van Egmond) came up with these chandeliers. Their website doesn’t say if and where you can buy them. Check out the Milan video, it shows the chandeliers in use.

(Link: Trendhunter)

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