November 7, 2011

Mobile restaurant modelled after apple crates

Filed under: Design,Food & Drink by Branko Collin @ 8:42 am

One of this year’s Eindhoven Design Academy’s graduation projects was Ardie van Bommel’s Pure Nature.

The project consists of a group of tables, chairs and kitchen islands that were all made to look like they were made out of apple crates. Van Bommel originally wanted to use actual apple crates, but that approach did not lead to the desired results, Man and Public Space Magazine wrote.

Van Bommel even made, it seems, a diorama of her apple crate restaurant inside—you guessed it—an apple crate. Her website suggests that this restaurant was made for the Philips Fruittuin (a former job creation project initiated by the local electronics giant), although it’s not clear to me whether the set-up has ever been in actual use.

Via the Pop-Up City which has been running a series showcasing “ten great designs spotted at the Design Academy’s graduation show“.

See also: Mirrors that look like holes in the wall and other Eindhoven Design Academy graduation projects.

(Photo: ontwerpstudiobomm.nl)

Tags: , , , , , ,

November 6, 2011

Internet thugs Realnetworks lose case against Hilbrand Edskes

Filed under: General,Online,Technology by Branko Collin @ 4:53 pm

In what looks like a typical case of trying to silence somebody, American company Realnetworks with the aid of the Dutch public prosecutor, the Dutch police and the Dutch courts has managed to bully webmaster Hilbrand Edskes into running up over 66,000 euro in legal costs, losing all his spare time, and putting off his hopes of one day buying a house.

What Realnetworks did not manage to do is win its lawsuit against Hilbrand Edskes. The latter won last Wednesday. Edskes had a link to software (Real Alternative) competing with Realnetworks’ product (Real Player) on his website, which the company alleged was illegal. The court thoroughly dismissed all of Realnetworks’ claims.

Realnetworks won an ex-parte case against Edskes in August. An ex-parte case is one where the defendant is not allowed to defend himself, so it wasn’t strange that Realnetworks managed to ‘win’ that one. Remember how Louis Vuitton tried to keep the world in the dark about its involvement in the Darfur genocide? They used the same legal crowbar.

Realnetworks, you may or may not remember, used to produce a piece of software called Real Player with which you could play videos and music. Almost nobody uses it because it is not nearly as good as VLC or Quicktime. One wonders if perhaps suing small fry is Realnetworks’ latest business model.

That a supposedly democratic country like the Netherlands lets anyone with deep pockets abuse the court system to bully others is a disgrace, and judges who see no problem with ex parte cases ought to be deeply ashamed of themselves.

The court only awarded Edskes 48,000 euro in damages, because both parties had agreed to this amount beforehand, according to the verdict (Dutch).

Tags: , ,

November 5, 2011

Croquette giants Mora, Kwekkebek and Van Dobbe considering a merger

Filed under: Food & Drink by Branko Collin @ 4:29 pm

The two parent companies of three of the best known snack brands in the Netherlands are considering a merger.

Ad van Geloven from Tilburg (Mora) and Royaan (Kwekkeboom, Van Dobben) would form a company with a combined turnover of 246 million euro and almost 1,100 employees. The new company would be led by Ad van Geloven CEO Peter Doodeman (55), whereas Royaan’s CEO Bart Bakker (43) would lead the merger process, Z24 reports.

Whether the merger will become reality is dependent among others on a verdict of the European Commission which will have to see of the new super company will not form an illegal monopoly. I do not think that ought to be a problem, as there will still be ‘lekkers van Beckers’ (Royal Wessanen, 700 million euro turnover, 2,100 employees).

Croquette purists can breathe easy, “There will be no fusion croquette” Doodeman told Omroep Brabant.

(Photo by Photocapy, some rights reserved)

Tags: , , , , , ,

November 4, 2011

Conductor of the Year 2012 for Jaap van Zweden

Filed under: Music by Orangemaster @ 7:00 am

Amsterdam-born conductor and violinist Jaap van Zweden has been chosen as Conductor of the Year 2012 by a professional American jury of publisher Musical America, and will be awarded the prestigious prize in New York City on 5 December.

Van Zweden is currently Music Director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and has a string of other impressive credentials, including having been appointed as the youngest concertmaster ever of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam at age 19.

Although I knew his name from long ago having worked in a classical music store, he made a big impression on telly back in November 2010 by criticising the current government’s plan to cut 20% of the budget for cultural institutions within a one year period and abolish four internationally known and well-established classical ones.

He explains that the Dutch pay taxes to fund the arts as opposed to voluntary contributions from wealthy donors and companies like in the US (endowment). He thinks it’s unfair that the Dutch government cuts into culture, but keeps the money people put it to fund it. And if the Dutch want a more American like system, it needs more than just a year to make it work.

“We asked [Dutch] politicians why all these institutions have to disappear and no-bo-dy wanted to explain it to us.” The populistic politician in this clip doesn’t care about the quality of any top institution, as he claims 90% of ordinary people don’t go to classical music concerts and their taxes shouldn’t be used for that.

I’d like to stop paying taxes for their white trash xenophobic kids, so let’s make a deal.

(Link: at5.nl, www.imgartists.com)

Tags: ,

November 3, 2011

Too many women in big cities, not enough men around

Filed under: General,Weird by Orangemaster @ 11:19 am

Well, we can’t just shoot women as if they were unwanted animals in the wild (at least not in the Netherlands) and we can’t tell them to go and live in smaller cities and ‘spread out’ (pardon the pun) like some politicians tell immigrants to do.

There are too many young women in big cities, as they go off to study and young men stay behind in the smaller towns, according to a professor in newspaper NRC. Statistic Netherlands backs this up too, saying that Utrecht and Rotterdam (as well as Amsterdam and The Hague if we count the four big cities) are full of females, too.

Knowing that more women study than men helps me believe this is true, but I think a better story would be why there are not enough men in the big cities, or that’s just me as a woman thinking out loud. In the regions of Oost-Groningen, large parts of Friesland, the Achterhoek, Limburg (not the South) and a few other patches, there are too many young men. Why do the men stay behind? If they don’t study more, don’t raise families and don’t take care of the elderly, are they, what, gaming all day? Of course not, hopefully, but I would like to know why.

And then there’s the ‘conclusion’ that “many women in their thirties are still single”, whereas my female brain reads that there are too many men who are taken at that age (and — surprise — many of them will be divorced soon enough).

Six of one, half a dozen of the other. Half baked.

(Link: parool.nl, Photo of wilted tulip by Graham Keen, some rights reserved)

Tags: ,

November 2, 2011

Being a radio bitch is not what you think

Filed under: General,Weird by Orangemaster @ 7:00 am

Dutch radio presenter Frederique de Jong of BNR (Business News Radio) has decided to refuse her nomination for this year’s ‘Radiobitch’ Award. The ‘RadioBitches Award’ (yes, all in Dunglish, I can’t help it) are serious radio awards for female presenters, with a jury and not public awards. They also have ‘BackstageBitch’, ‘NewsBitch’ and ‘TalentBitch’.

Questions from the audience?

1) Nope, the men don’t have Radio Jerk/Asshole/Douchebag awards. They have serious awards too with boring normal names.

2) That’s true, swearing in another language is not as blasphemous sounding as in your own. Bitch sounds cool and a little more neutral to the Dutch. It’s more like being a tough and cool person than a nasty person. It also proves many people don’t understand that it’s a bad word and related to a female dog. Frederique de Jong doesn’t want to be a ‘radioteef’ in Dutch, either.

3) Yes, other people have had issues with the name and want it changed, but the media people in Hilversum (where all the media is) can’t be bothered. The women have not protested much or else the name could change, but hey.

So if women complain they’re not playing the game and if they say nothing, they’re just being female doormats. It’s a lose-lose situation. I think it’s not an empowering name for an award and doesn’t sound serious at all: having to make sure we know it’s a serious award proves how inappropriate the name is.

(Link: radio.nl)

Tags: , ,

November 1, 2011

TV series Het Beeldverhaal takes a mature and in-depth look at comics

Filed under: Comics,Shows by Branko Collin @ 8:43 am

Is it possible to speak of the advantages of a dying medium? Right now comics don’t seem to be in particularly good shape. Where magazines like Eppo and the new Dutch Mad used to be made for kids, they now appear to be produced mainly for the grown-ups that used to be kids when they last read those magazines.

On the other hand, a mature audience for comics can lead to mature comics. A good TV series about comics did not seem viable one or two decades ago (Han Peekel made a valiant but ultimately not too successful attempt with Wordt Vervolgd, To Be Continued), but last Saturday cartoonist Jean-Marc (Fokke & Sukke) successfully took up that dusty gauntlet and started a new documentary series about comics called Het Beeldverhaal (The Comic). In this first episode he introduced us to the world of the Dutch autobiographical comic, talking to Jan Kruis, Gerrit de Jager, Maaike Hartjes, Barbara Stok, and others.

Writes comics reporter Michael Minneboo:

Van Tol’s boyish enthusiasm works infectiously. In the seventh episode, he is full of admiration for Willy Linthout whose Jaren van de Olifant (Age of the Elephant) is a personal comic about the death of his son. In the episode about superheroes, he is surprised to learn that a copy of the first Superman story was sold for more than one million dollars.

One of the advantages of having Van Tol as a presenter is that he knows what he is talking about, being a comics artist himself. “Many of the authors we talked to thought that was refreshing,” says [editor Pieter] Klok.

Seven more episodes have been produced that discuss amongst others Belgian comics, superhero comics, manga, newspaper strips and underground comics.

(Video: Youtube / Martijn Tervoort)

Tags: , , , ,

October 31, 2011

Mirrors that look like holes in the wall and other Eindhoven Design Academy graduation projects

Filed under: Design by Branko Collin @ 3:27 pm

Yesterday was the last day of the Dutch Design Week. Part of the event was the graduation show of the Eindhoven Design Academy, which was visited by Trendbeheer (we already mentioned Michael Kluver’s chairs).

Latvian Germans Ermics graduated with these mirrors that look like holes in the wall.

Other projects included cat videos from show cats by Thalia de Jong, a meltable dinner table by Tom Gottelier (complete with built-in heater to help you melt it back into shape), a self-photographing room by Monique Habraken, a leather holster for kids instead of guns by Elise Metekohy, a cargo bike that can roll like a regular bicycle by Alexander van Diggele, and much more.

Trendbeheer visited the exhibition and took lots of pictures.

(Photo by Trendbeheer / Jeroen Bosch, some rights reserved)

Tags: , ,

Artist in wheelchair painting largest portrait of the Netherlands

Filed under: Art by Branko Collin @ 9:06 am

Robin Grasmeijer is painting Princes Máxima in a hangar at Twente Airport, and it is to be the largest painting ever made in the Netherlands.

The painting will be 10 x 15 metres in size. Grasmeijer expects to have his painting finished in the summer of 2012. He is still looking for a building to attach the painting to.

A complicating factor is that Grasmeijer has to paint from his wheelchair. Working in an ill-ventilated factory in which he had to handle polyurethane originally left him paralysed from the neck down in 1997. Later he regained 90% of his strength in his arms and hands.

(Link: Trendbeheer. Video: Youtube / Robin Grasmeijer.)

Tags:

October 29, 2011

Michael Kluver reimagines classic chairs

Filed under: Design by Branko Collin @ 12:22 pm

The designers of the classic chairs of the twentieth century did not just manage to come up with a striking look for furniture, they also tried to reinvent the chair. Michael Kluver, a 2011 Eindhoven Design Academy graduate, decided it was time to turn these iconic designs back into “Just Chairs“.

Shown here from left to right are the Mackintosh, Rietveld, Breuer and Eames inspired chairs. Trendbeheer has handy links to the originals, and mentions that they are on display at the Graduation Show of the Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven—the last two days of which are taking place now.

(Photo: Michael Kluver)

Tags: , ,