March 1, 2017

Dutch tattoo artist designs championship football

Filed under: Art,Sports by Orangemaster @ 11:07 am

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World-famous Dutch tattoo artist Hanky Panky (Henk Schiffmacher), who by the way is celebrating his 65th birthday and 40 years of tattooing at pop temple Paradiso in Amsterdam later this month, will be drawing the design on the Dutch championship (aka ‘Eredivisie’) football.

The football he will design is for the 2017-2018 Dutch championship season, done specially for the 60th anniversary of the Eredivisie and should represent Dutch culture.

According to Wikipedia, Hanky Panky is an expert in the field of body art, having curated exhibitions, written books, and presented TV shows on the subject. And he’s given tattoos to the likes of Anthony Kiedis from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Kurt Cobain (RIP) of Nirvana frontman and Lemmy (RIP) of Motörhead.

(Link: footballstories, Photo of Football by Bramus, some rights reserved)

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June 16, 2015

Cafe in Utrecht gives away profits and thrives

Filed under: Art,Food & Drink,Literature,Music by Orangemaster @ 11:40 am

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Cafe Averechts in Utrecht has been around since the 1980s and continues to flourish amidst dwindling profits in the hospitality sector. The cafe’s ‘reverse’ approach to profit-making is the key to their brand of success: it is entirely run by volunteers.

Before anyone thinks ‘why would anyone work for free’, it is important to know that all pop venues in the country rely on volunteers. If you were to remove all pop venues that make a loss in the Netherlands, not a single one would be left standing and the country would be a cultural desert. Even the Paradiso in Amsterdam is subsidised by the city and in order to enjoy a favourable tax rebate as such, patrons pay a membership fee with their tickets. That’s right, the most famous Dutch club in the world needs government money.

During the week Averechts features a small stage with music, poetry and the likes as well as vegetarian food (vegan on demand) at a low cost. It also has lots of beers and more than 20 kinds of whiskey. All profits made go straight to charities and any tips are doubled (you put in one euro, the house matches it, we imagine) to send even more money their way.

Averechts is also a great place to celebrate King’s Day if you’re in Utrecht.

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(Photos: Cafe Averechts)

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July 29, 2014

The Jacksons to lay flowers for Michael in Amsterdam

Filed under: Music,Photography by Orangemaster @ 12:16 pm

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The Jacksons are performing at Paradiso in Amsterdam on Wednesday 30 July and were scheduled to lay flowers this afternoon at a memorial billboard featuring a famous photograph of the late
Michael Jackson taken by Dutch photographer Claude Vanheye in 1977. Located on the Gustav Mahlerplein in the Zuidas business district, the billboard was installed on June 25 and will stay there until mid August.

However, word is that Jackie, Tito, Marlon and Jermaine were stuck in France due to bad weather and now hope to honour their late brother Michael on Wednesday, but it’s not confirmed yet as I write this, so we’ll keep you posted.

The above-mentioned picture (click to see) features a young Michael Jackson with a camera walking through the Jordaan district of Amsterdam.

UPDATE: The Jacksons should be at the memorial billboard around noon on 30 July, as per Nu.nl.

(Links: www.at5, www.legendarymichaeljackson.nl, Photo of Michael Jackson illustration by kasiQ, some rights reserved)

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May 10, 2010

A party with embroided handkerchiefs and grannies

Filed under: Art,Music by Orangemaster @ 9:57 am
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As a follow-up to the project Liefde in de Stad (Love in the City) and going online and letting grannies embroider your handkerchief, I went to the actual ‘Smartlapje’ (handkerchief) party with lots of grandmothers, children, bubbly, cakes, tea, coffee, an entire choir and a decor that turned Paradiso’s usual rock stage into a cozy living room, with couches, carpets and lamps.

The ‘smartlapjes’ were hanging everywhere, as decoration

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Yesterday’s Sunday matinee event was free and was indeed mostly populated by women, serious national media attention and bloggers like me. One grandmother got up and danced quite a bit once the choir (shown below) had finished singing and the DJ started (a woman whose niche market is retirement homes), while others sang the Dutch classics along with the choir, word for word. I did my best on ‘Geef me maar Amsterdam’ (roughly, ‘For me, it’s Amsterdam’) by Amsterdam accordion player and singing legend, Johnny Jordaan.

This charming, fun event proved two things: cultural subsidies are much more important than you’d think for community spirit building and that the horribly negative press about the bad effects of multiculturalism in our nation’s capital is complete and utter nonsense.

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August 14, 2009

Dutch and Belgian bands cover Gainsbourg in French

Filed under: Comics,Music by Orangemaster @ 9:07 am
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OK, there is one Belgian band, Zeker Weten, who does their thing in Flemish, but it works wonderfully, as does the rest of this original and unexpected compilation. Dutch artists such as Leine, The Spinshots and Juicebox, and Belgian artists (both French and Flemish) such as Suarez and Tom Barman & Guy van Nueten have joined in covering the master of contemporary French music himself, Serge Gainsbourg.

Brought to you by Dutch journalist and DJ Guuzbourg (aka Guuz Hoogaerts) who is now on his fourth compilation, has tried and succeeding in convincing the Dutch (the Belgians were convinced eons ago) that French music doesn’t make you feel inadquate, it makes you feel groovy.

Now comes the name dropping. The official CD presentation of Gainsnord (a term coined by our very own Branko of 24oranges) will be launched at Paradiso, Amsterdam on 18 September with local band West Hell 5 playing live (also on the album), DJs and VJs of the Amsterdam Beat Club, including yours truly, DJ Natashka. The cover was illustrated by comicbook artist Hanco Kolk and designed by graphic artist Martin Draax, bassguitar player of the Spinshots.

Update: Gainsnord website with music.

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