June 6, 2011

McDonald’s biggest restaurant chain second year in a row

Filed under: Food & Drink by Branko Collin @ 10:58 am
fries1

American junk food chain McDonald’s has increased its lead on the other businesses in Misset’s Dutch food services Top 100, De Stentor reports. Second place is taken by the Van der Valk hotel chain. (Circumstances forced me to stay there one night in 2010 and I can confirm that the food is almost of Mickey D’s quality and not in a good way.)

Biggest investor was the Efteling theme park with its 30 million Raveleijn attraction, with further investments in the pipeline.

During the launch of the Top 100 in Zeist, copyfighter Ronald van den Hoff won Misset’s first Horeca Personality Award for his congress concept Seats2Meet.

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June 5, 2011

Bebook’s e-book reader becomes Android tablet

Filed under: Technology by Branko Collin @ 10:15 pm

The tablet market has just become a bit busier. Utrecht based manufacturer Endless Ideas are introducing a 7 inch, Android based tablet called Bebook Live. The original Bebook has an E-ink screen, the Live has a regular LCD touch screen and also sports:

  • Wifi
  • 4 GB memory
  • SD/SDHC slot (up to 32 gigabyte)
  • 2 megapixel camera
  • Accelerometer
  • and more

At 270 euro it is actually cheaper than the original Bebook e-reader at its introduction. While Bright praises it as a “very good, simple and affordable 7 inch tablet”, Engadget’s readers think it is silly to ship a tablet with yesterday’s version of an operating system, Android 2.2.

(Photo: Endless Ideas)

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June 4, 2011

Alternative election posters by Het Politieke Plaatje

Filed under: Art,Design by Branko Collin @ 3:26 pm

The artist(s) behind Het Politieke Plaatje (‘the political picture’) got bored with the real posters political parties produce during election time, and decided to come up with their own versions.

Shown here are a crop of the Party for the Animals poster, and the Labour Party poster (slogan: everyone counts).

Link: Trendbeheer.

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June 3, 2011

Slutwalk hits Amsterdam, 24oranges joining it

Filed under: General by Orangemaster @ 6:24 pm

It all started when some cromagnon policeman in Toronto, Canada was quoted this year as saying “women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized”, which was picked up and understood as women who dress provocatively, like sluts, are asking to be raped. Nope, he was just an ordinary Canadian who since regrets what he said if I can believe the Canadian press and who still has major issues if you ask me.

Since emancipation is still in the stone age, cities around the world have started holding Slutwalks, and on 4 June, they’ll be one in Amsterdam, which I will attend along with my roller derby team from the Amsterdam Derby Dames uniform and wheels and all.

“We are tired of being oppressed by slut-shaming; of being judged by our sexuality and feeling unsafe as a result. Being in charge of our sexual lives should not mean that we are opening ourselves to an expectation of violence, regardless if we participate in sex for pleasure or work.”

SlutWalk Amsterdam
Saturday 4 June 2011
4 pm at the Homo Monument

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June 2, 2011

Dutch hiphop intermezzo

Filed under: Music by Orangemaster @ 11:57 am

As a DJ, I always end up talking about music with my hairdresser whose taste in music matches her peers: hiphop and R&B. I told her I DJ French rap and hiphop, but she said she doesn’t like music if she can’t understand the lyrics, so it has to be English or Dutch.

Since today is a holiday, here’s some Dutch hiphop with videos that you can look at if you don’t understand the lyrics.

We both agreed on one thing: many wannabees, usually boys of non-Caucasian background who make crappy raps from the one ghetto Amsterdam still has, De Bijlmer (where I actually lived when I immigrated here), should really stop and listen to the ones doing it right.

Here’s THC rooting for Amsterdam and Boef en de Gelogeerde Aap representing the province of Brabant.

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June 1, 2011

Artzuid 2011 photos on Flickr

Filed under: Art by Branko Collin @ 1:18 am

As promised I have uploaded lots and lots of photos to Flickr for you to watch. Visit the exhibition (well, most of it) from the comfort of your armchair.

I still have to add a bit of meta-data but most of what needs to be there, is.

While you’re at it, don’t hesitate to visit the Artzuid Flickr pool with work from photographers much more talented than I.

(Shown here: Equus by Yubi Kirindongo)

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May 31, 2011

Dutch beer ads with Playboy bunnies and famous guys

Filed under: Fashion,Food & Drink,General by Orangemaster @ 10:39 am

Bavaria beer ads on Dutch television currently feature two commercials with Mickey Rourke (see one below) playing upon his reputation as a major drinker. Besides the usual reasons for putting Americans in Dutch commercials, including sexing up your product, appealing to the youth and trying to be more international, Bavaria does sell 65% of its beer abroad, so it has good reasons for using heavy hitters. Although not a huge brand in the Netherlands, Bavaria is apparently sold in more than 120 countries and was caught up in controversy during the World Cup in South Africa 2010 with its Dutch dresses. The dresses were seen as advertising another beer brand than the main sponsor and some good looking blondes wearing the dresses got arrested, a fantastic marketing moment in retrospect.

I guess I like the Rourke ones better for the simple reason that the Dutch don’t censor English swear words no matter what time the ads come on television.

Here’s a funny Dutch ad with Snoop Dogg and Dutch singer Marco Borsato (a family man Neil Diamond, schmaltzy but much more ‘modern’) that anyone outside the Netherlands couldn’t have seen. It’s about having some choice when choosing a mobile phone, from a few years back.

(Link: reclamewereld.blog.nl)

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May 30, 2011

Art Zuid 2011

Filed under: Art by Branko Collin @ 10:01 am

Is art supposed to be elitist? It seems a lot of people did not get that memo, as the 2011 edition of the open air Art Zuid exhibition in Amsterdam drew quite a crowd this Sunday. The bashful sun did not hurt, nor did the accessible, often cartoonish art.

There are some more photos below the fold, and I will post lots and lots more on Flickr as soon as I have the time.
(more…)

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May 29, 2011

New medievalist fantasy show at Efteling theme park—Raveleijn

Filed under: Shows by Branko Collin @ 2:39 pm

Science fiction blog IO9 noticed the new Raveleijn attraction at Efteling in Noord-Brabant, and the steam-punkiness of it all.

The show tells the story of the evil count Graveheart who has his subjects building mechanical creatures that destroy the land. It is up to the ancient Order of Ravens, a order of magical knights, to stop the threat and return, er, order. Six shows are performed each day in the new, 35 million euro Raveleijn compound, and there is also a spin-off TV series.

Both the back-story and the TV series were written by hit children’s horror story writer Paul van Loon, who lives just around the corner from Efteling in Drunen. He is a serial winner of the Nederlandse Kinderjury award, a literary prize awarded by children. Van Loon usually swipes the awards for the younger age group, with Francine Oomen ‘owning’ the 10 to 12-year-olds. Remarkably, when the children were asked in 2002 what the best children’s books of all time were, it was J.K. Rowling who took off with most of the prizes instead of Oomen and Van Loon.

(Photo by Wikimedia Commons user Arch who released it into the public domain)

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May 28, 2011

‘Sailor girl’ Dekker hopping like a flamingo across Pacific Ocean

Filed under: General,Sports by Branko Collin @ 9:38 pm

Laura Dekker, the 15-year-old who is busy circumnavigating the globe by herself on her trusty ketch Guppy, has reached the island of Hiva Oa, half-way the Pacific.

I visited the Atuona village where I was welcomed by the mayor right upon arrival and I have since already collected three flower necklaces… The people here are really very friendly, and they find it sad that they could not organize a big party for my arrival because they did not know the time of my arrival. Actually, this is exactly the reason why I did not want them to know in advance. This way my trip becomes a lot more fun and spontaneous.

Earlier this month Dekker got a nasty cut on her foot when a big wave threw her into her cabin: “If I avoid standing on my foot, the pain is bearable, and I am now quite busy practising the flamingo stance.”

Today Dekker hiked up the volcano (“once you are in the clouds, it gets colder and there are fir trees growing everywhere, which really doesn’t make me think that I am now in the middle of the Pacific Ocean”), so I am guessing the foot is coming along fine. If the New Zealand born Dutch girl manages to reach her point of departure five days before her 17th birthday, she will be the youngest person to have solo sailed around the world, an honour currently held by Jessica Watson of Australia.

Hiva Oa has a population of just under 2,000 people and is the place where both Paul Gauguin and Jacques Brel spent their autumn days.

See also:

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