September 9, 2010

Klingon opera premieres in The Hague

Filed under: Art,Dutch first,Shows by Orangemaster @ 1:11 pm

Back in June 2008 we told you about earthlings of the Dutch persuasion planning to perform Klingon opera and that day has finally come.

The Klingon opera ‘U’ (that’s the name of it, pronounced ‘oo’) will premiere tonight at the Zeebelt theater in The Hague and run until 12 September, after which the show is heading to Qetlop in Farnsberg, Germany to perform at an exclusive event for the Klingons of the Khemorex Klinzhai Fleet.

Klingon language expert Marc Okrand, the creator of the language, will be the guest of honour at the 10 September premiere.

Classical trained opera singers will be performing, here’s a presentation of U at a FedCon sci-fi gathering, have a look at the video (1:03):

(Links: presurfer, u-theopera)

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September 8, 2010

Postcards help against suicide

Filed under: Health,Weird by Orangemaster @ 5:05 pm

A mental health institution in the province of Friesland plans to use an Australian treatment to help people who have attempted suicide: sending them postcards. Six months after the attempted suicide, patients will be sent a postcard from a counsellor, asking them how they are doing and all.

The people at the mental health institution say it works, that patients like having someone think of them. If the patients are in need of more help, they’ll have something to read to that effect on their postcard.

Of course, it’s by no means a cure of any kind, but if it can stop even one person from trying to off themselves, it’s surely worth it explains the article. This postcard has a ‘lean on me’ quality to it.

(Link: waarmaarraar.nl, Photo: some card I got once)

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September 7, 2010

KLIK! animation film festival bigger and crazier

Filed under: Film,General by Orangemaster @ 5:42 pm

This year’s edition of Amsterdam’s KLIK! animation film festival will feature more than 235 films from 63 countries from 15 to 20 September. Now in its fourth year, KLIK! has gone international, with satellite editions and festival tours around the globe. This year’s theme focusses on the wonderful and weirdly disturbing realms of science.

Movie freak and organiser Luuk van Huët talked to me again this year about KLIK! like a very proud father whose toddler now walks and says ‘papa’. He told me that they received an insane amount of films (1100!) to choose from this year.

The programme features great stuff for kids, student competitions and of course, smashing after parties.

KLIK! also still has a satellite edition in the city of Mopti in Mali, West Africa, where Dutchman Willem Snapper lives. He started the Mopti Foundation to help the locals build gardens and irrigation systems and also screens films in his own backyward every week, as there is no cinema to be found for hundreds of kilometers.

Beisdes watching the festival grow year after year, Luuk’s dream would be to have this as a job some day. Check out the funny animated e-cards and send them to friends!

(Link and image: klikamsterdam.nl)

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September 6, 2010

Holland moped chic

Filed under: General,Photography by Branko Collin @ 8:28 am

In June of this year there were 1,000,000 mopeds on the Dutch roads for the first time, according to NOS.

That is 300,000 up from 2007, and even 600,000 up from 1995. In an article about bicycle manufacturer Batavus, Wikipedia claims that there were more than 2 million mopeds in the Netherlands in 1977, but I could not find anything to back that up.

I wanted to celebrate this millionth moped by creating a sort of “Holland moped chic” set on Flickr, analogous to Copenhagen Cycle Chic and Amsterdamize. Unfortunately, as you can see below, my photography skills were not up to the task and riders came out mostly blurred.

So I did the next best thing, and created a gallery of the best Flickr photos of Dutch men and women riding mopeds.

Dutch road laws make a distinction between bromfietsen (‘buzz bikes’) and snorfietsen (‘purr bikes’). The latter can only legally go 25 km/h, and are considered to be closer to regular bicycles in intent and use. Snorfietsen have also become very popular lately because they can look as good as regular scooter mopeds, yet you do not have to wear a helmet while riding them.

(Top photo by FaceMePLS, some rights reserved. Bottom photo by me, available under a permissive license soon from our Flickr account.)

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September 5, 2010

Temporary reduction of sales tax on renovations

Filed under: Architecture by Branko Collin @ 12:03 pm

Government ministers De Jager (Finance) and Middelkoop (Housing) have announced a temporary lowering of the sales tax on home make-overs from 19% to 6%.

The reduction is to take effect on October 1, 2010 and will last until July 1, 2011, Telegraaf reports. The care-taker government hopes that this will soften the blow of the crisis for the building sector.

Some of the rules for the lower tax are:

  • Only for houses of two years and older.
  • Only for labour costs.
  • Only for improvements that will raise the resale value of your house.

(Photo by Yola de Lusenet, some rights reserved)

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September 4, 2010

Wikimedia’s September photo hunt for monuments

Filed under: History,Photography by Branko Collin @ 12:48 pm

During September the Dutch Wikimedia chapter (the people behind Wikipedia) are calling upon everybody to send in correctly licensed photos of official national monuments, so that Wikipedia can use the uploads.

The Wiki Loves Monuments site has posted a very long list of the monuments, divided by province and town, and tagged with the exact geographic location, so that participants who would like to take fresh photos can easily plot a hike through their neighbourhood.

There is a competition attached to the event, with an iPad being the first prize, and an HTC Desire the second. You have until September 30 to upload your photos, and you don’t have to limit yourself to photos taken this month.

An earlier similar and very successful event was called Wiki Loves Art, and was held in June 2009, resulting in about 5,000 Creative Commons licensed photos. That the current edition is held in September is no accident, as the Open Monuments Day on September 11 gives a lot of access to (the inside of) monuments that are closed the rest of the year.

(Link: Wikimedia.org. Photo by Wikimedia user PVT Pauline, some rights reserved.)

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September 3, 2010

Rich Dutch housewives show a hit in France

Filed under: Film,Shows by Orangemaster @ 10:36 am

The French version of the hit Dutch television show and Desperate Housewives copycat ‘Gooische Vrouwen’ (‘Women of het Gooi’, a rich neighbourhood of Hilversum where Dutch TV makers used to live’) is known in France as “Jardins Secrets” (Secret Gardens), is dubbed rather than subtitled and is a hit. (The Dutch subtitle shows from other countries (cheaper), while big countries like France and Germany dub everything (laws and such).

Back in 2008 when we first posted about it, “some 2.3 million people watched the first episode, which translates to a market share of 26.6%. TF1 broadcast the first three episodes back-to-back, and later during the evening the market share rose to 31.6%.

French television station TF1 is super sloppy with the introduction of the show on their website, as they claim it’s Danish. Dutch people commented in good French with a polite explanation, but the information was copy pasted from another site with the same mistake. The blurb even implies that Amsterdam could be in Denmark! Ouille, ça fait mal !

As well, De Telegraaf tells of Linda de Mol (pic) who in the dubbed French version has a nasty low class accent, which now has me all curious. It is ironic since people of het Gooi have a specific accent that is associated with money and a rolling ‘r’. The cast has also received criticism regarding the Gooische Vrouwen film that is coming out for the excessive drinking that takes place in the film. De Mol explains that the series was sold to Russia and China and expects nothing less that a lot of drinking in their versions as well. After all, it it’s television, not reality.

(Link: De Telegraaf. Source photo: RTL)

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September 2, 2010

Handicapped woman fined for rubbish out too early

Filed under: Animals,Weird by Orangemaster @ 5:44 pm

It could be the abrupt end of summer here or something in the air, but the ‘rules are rules’ motto can sometimes goes too far and be called ‘anti-social’. Of course, you could also say it’s bad timing.

A blind and wheelchair-bound woman from Groningen was fined for throwing out her old bed in the trash too early, probably before 8 pm. She had asked a girlfriend to do it for her who obviously didn’t observe the rules. The handicapped woman plans to contest the fine.

Although different and more obviously absurd, it does remind of the driver who was accused of not running over a cat and who won his case.

Ironically, just today right over the border in Germany (in Dutch) a similar case was lost. Some man braked to avoid running over a poodle, and apparently the law applies only to braking for kids and not animals, effectively implying the man should have ran over the poodle to avoid the accident he caused.

(Link: rtvnoord)

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September 1, 2010

Recruiting students for sex line causes a stir

Filed under: Weird by Orangemaster @ 11:19 am

In the Student Handbook 2010-2011 for students in Breda there’s apparently a two-page advert to get students, most probably girls, to work for phone sex lines. While students usually work at the supermarket for about EUR 7,50 or so an hour, talking dirty on the phone pays a cool EUR 24 an hour, which is a lot of money for a student. The advert has a funny title as well: ‘Geld verdienen met lullen’ (‘Earn money with talking’, although ‘lullen’ (infinitive verb) just happens to be the plural of ‘cocks’ as well). The students have to be 18 years of age to be hired.

Why did this make national news? Well, it preys on poor students. However, a job is a job, the company is legit and I don’t really see the problem. I know for a fact that talking dirty as a job for money is hard work because when I was a student, I used to translate such delightful phone messages before all of this was online for good money. Some of what you hear is very difficult and not funny or sexy at all. I can’t even imagine being the one answering to or saying these things on the phone for hours on end. The students deserve that EUR 24 an hour.

(Link: kijkditnou, Photo of Phone booth in Buenos Aires by Javier Volcan, some rights reserved)

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