March 22, 2008
Last week I promised that I would produce an accessible version of the 1919 Louis Couperus hit novel Old People and the Things that Pass if I were asked to. Somebody requested an HTML version, which you can now find at the Internet Archive: www.archive.org/details/oldpeoplethings1919.
The Dutch Book Week, which wraps up today, had a motto this year—Of Old People…—that was derived from the title of this psychological drama.
Tags: accessibility, novels, psychology
March 21, 2008
In Jasper de Beijer‘s work-in-progress The Riveted Kingdom, the photographer pays homage to “the sheer exuberance of the grand engineering projects of the Victorian era”. His method is to create papercraft models, then take beautiful photographs of them.
Tags: papercraft
March 20, 2008
Tonight on Dutch television show ‘De Wereld Draait Door’, DJ Junkie XL (Tom Holkenborg), presented the world premiere of his remix for the new single ‘4 Minutes’ by Madonna.
Orlando Puerto, the man who handles Madonna’s record company business, suggested she do a remix. A list of DJs was submitted to the pop diva and in the end, Junkie XL came out the winner.
Holkenborg had an international hit with a remix of Elvis’ ‘A little less conversation’. The hit, which was originally music for a Nike advertising, went platinum in 24 countries. Junkie XL’s new album ‘Booming back at you’ came out on 10 March and will be presented on March 23 at the Melkweg in Amsterdam.
(Links: dewerelddraaitdoor.vara.nl)
Update: the entire show here (Junkie XL at 38.35 and onwards), or the Junkie XL / Madonna bit at Youtube.
Tags: De Wereld Draait Door, Junkie XL, Madonna
![[photo of a sawn up chair, parts freely separated]](https://www.24oranges.nl/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/sawn_up_chair-ward_van_gemert.jpg)
Rotterdam-based artist Ward van Gemert takes furniture from Marktplaats (the Dutch eBay subsidiary), saws it up into interesting compositions and sells the resulting art pieces back at Marktplaats as a set of parts. The unusable chair shown here – hanging from invisible strings – was made for Van Gemert’s final art school exam.
These days, Van Gemert creates actual, usable furniture, but still according to the same principle of redesigning the familiar. The “stretch” table below was sawn up, then reconstructed into an actual table using see-through casting resin. His art/design may look familiar if you have seen the work of Paul Verode, the man who sawed up Ferraris, whom Van Gemert once studied under.
![[photo of a functional sawn up table]](https://www.24oranges.nl/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/sawn_up_table-ward_van_gemert.jpg)
Tags: chairs, Dutch design, furniture, Rotterdam, tables
March 19, 2008
The wave of nannyism that has hit the Netherlands as of late sounds like waves crashing onto the Delta works and then wooshing back into the sea right back where they belong. Famous Dutch weblog GeenStijl (in English, No Style), up again this year (today!) for Best Weblog has finally let the group ‘Vroeg op Stap’ (roughly, ‘Let’s party early’, as opposed to staying out late) get a word in edgewise, albeit to make them look utterly stupid.
GeenStijl claims that they have been spammed for months now by these Frisian housewives, as they wanted to gain support for their cause: letting their drinking teenagers go out early so that they can come home at a decent time and not sleep in. The problem is that contrary to Dutch society’s live and live attitude, they want the whole country to follow suit.
To get a good idea of how GeenStijl pushed that wave back into the ocean, they produced a film showing “one MILF and one non-MILF” handing over the petition to the right politician who then accused them of wasting his time because the petition only had digitial signatures, about 120,000 of them.
Long story short, a big fat waste of time. This is how mommy sinks her own boat and goes down with the ship, kids, watch and learn.
(Link: geenstijl.tv)
Tags: digital signatures, geenstijl, petition
March 18, 2008
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – The U.S. dollar’s value is dropping so fast against the euro that small currency outlets in Amsterdam are turning away tourists seeking to sell their dollars for local money while on vacation in the Netherlands.
“Our dollar is worth maybe zero over here,” said Mary Kelly, an American tourist from Indianapolis, Indiana, in front of the Anne Frank house. “It’s hard to find a place to exchange. We have to go downtown, to the central station or post office.”
That’s because the smaller currency exchanges — despite buy/sell spreads that make it easier for them to make money by exchanging small amounts of currency — don’t want to be caught holding dollars that could be worth less by the time they can sell them.
The dollar hovered near record lows on Monday, with one euro worth around $1.58 versus $1.47 a month ago.
(Link: reuters.com)
March 17, 2008
Animals rights activists claim they have been sprayed with elephant urine by circus employees last Saturday in Hoogeveen. The activists said that employees of Circus Renz Berlin used water pistols to shoot at them. When the police arrived at the scene everything was quiet again, although a threatening atmosphere was still lingering in the air according to an unnamed police spokesperson. The police confiscated one water gun that contained a “foul smelling substance”.
(Illustration by Monroe. Used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation license, Version 1.2.)
Tags: activism, animal rights, circusses, Drenthe
This weekend, the seal asylum in Pieterburen found a pitch black baby seal. He could be the brother of Black Lola that washed up on shore two years ago.
The seal has been given the temporary name Black Jack, although a contest to pick a name is being held. He is the third black seal to show up in the Netherlands in 35 years. They say he is black due to melanism, an increased amount of black or nearly black pigmentation, and the opposite of albinism. Black Jack will hopefully be strong enough to go back into the sea in three months’ time.
Any link you click in this article has nice pics! Funny how the name has to have black in it.
(Link spitsnet.nl)
March 15, 2008
When weight-loss icon Sonja Bakker touches something, it turns to gold. FEM/Business reports that brands that were recommended by Bakker had an increase in turn-over of 62 million euro last year. The old-fashioned, but typically Dutch beschuit—a crispy round dry biscuit served at breakfast with sweet sprinklings or strawberries—saw an increase in sales last year after a thirty year downward spiral. Bakker has also sold 2.2 million copies of her four books, almost overtaking J.K. Rowling of Harry Potter fame, and grossing 28 million euro.
(Illustration by Serassot, distributed under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation license, Version 1.2.)
Tags: books, dieting, Sonja Bakker
March 14, 2008
I used to translate stuff about Belgians throwing cats from belfries and swallowing live goldfish during century-old ceremonies and other mischief, but the Dutch in Limburg also have something albeit less way traumatising they don’t want to give up so easily. Then again, the media often reports that the Party for the Animals (PvdD) submits like 200 motions a day to Parliament, so no surprise that this becomes news.
Ganstrekken, the practice of pulling the head off a dead goose during Carnival celebrations in the Limburg village of Grevenbicht (just 2,500 inhabitants), is not decent behaviour but will not be banned, farm minister Gerda Verburg told MPs yesterday. Granting a licence for the tradition is up to the local council, Verburg said.
They used to do it to a live goose (eeeuuuw). Use a doll like they do in Ypres, Belgium with the cat, come up with something new, so many alternatives, think outside the box that is your head.
(Link: dutchnews.nl)
Tags: animal cruelty, Carnival, Ganstrekken, geese, PvdD
