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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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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