As of 26 October, the Mondriaan house museum in Amersfoort will be holding an exhibition entitled ‘Steven Aalders verbindt…’ (’Steven Aalders connects’), which apparently must be viewed by one visitor at a time for 60 minutes. The idea is to turn the museum into a silent place where visitors can ‘let the art wash over them’ and ‘enjoy the empty spaces of the halls’. The exhibition features sculptures, architecture and music.

Yes, Piet Mondriaan (or anglicised to ‘Mondrian’) is that Dutch artist who went from painting landscapes and flowers to those grids with red, blue and yellow squares. Oh, and he was born in that house in Amersfoort.

(Link: haarlemsdagblad, Photo by Elly Waterman, some rights reserved.)

Last Wednesday, a 55-year-old man in the very decent town of Amersfoort, Utrecht was fined by the police for walking around his house – curtains open Dutch-style, I assume – naked and visibly so. It was the third time – oh dear! – the man was seen doing his thing by the person who called the police. (Was it nicer the first two times?)

He was fined with indecent exposure. I can’t stop myself from saying that maybe if it had been a decent looking woman, the cops would have been alerted much later if not at all.

(Link: volkskrant.nl, Photo: absurd.nl)

City hotel Queens in Amersfoort has a serious problem that is basically killing their business. The city council decided to place a urinal, albeit a nifty one that rises above ground at 10 pm, right on their terrace. Can you picture taking a leak while people are having a drink on a terrace watching you? Would you want to be watching while having your drink? Ickeepoo. Well, other people don’t want to either, and so the hotel owner is pissed (pun intended).

After having spent hundreds of thousands buying and renovating an old building on the popular Groenenmarkt, the city council chose her outdoor terrace as the place for the urinal. And according to the owner, Paula Brouwer, the day before she was to receive the terrace permit, there was talk of a urinal, and her permit has been tied up in red tape ever since.

The city council came up with a deal: we’ll give you the permit, but you have to close your terrace at 10 pm. All the other terraces are allowed to stay open until 1 am, so imagine how much business she’d be losing. She has refused and has lawyered up. Why does this have a maffia feel to it? It’s also proof positive the city screwed up.

(Link: ad.nl, photo: urilift)

Since Christmas evening, the girafes of the Amersfoort Zoo have been tuning in to the Top 2000 hits of the year on the radio. This is the zoo’s way of making sure they don’t freak out when then hear the bang of the fireworks on New Year’s Eve according to head caretaker, Marjo Hoedemaker.

Every day the volume is turned up a little louder. On New Year’s Eve the music will be so loud that the girafes will not notice the sound outside the zoo. The music will be switched off three hours after midnight. Other animals in the zoo apparently don’t react to the bid loud bang of fireworks.