May 31, 2009

Tower of books for Spijkenisse signed MVRDV

Filed under: Architecture by Orangemaster @ 12:02 pm

book-mountain-by-mvrdv-6mvrdv_tp230_spijkenisse-bijpg

It’s time to write more about Dutch design firm MVRDV now that Rotterdam, as well as the nearby city of Spijkenisse, where this library is to be built, are getting architectural makeovers.

Completion of the building is scheduled for fall 2011. With a surface of 10,000 m2, this public libray will be an example of energy efficiency and advertise reading through its design of a book mountain. In addition to the book collection and reading areas, the library will accommodate commercial facilities, offices, an auditorium, conference rooms, and exhibition spaces.

Let me see:
– I have problems with the fact that direct sunlight is hitting books, although there is talk of solar protection. Probably a normal response.

– Call me politically correct, but all that climbing for the elderly and the likes got my attention. Again, I could be wrong, but that is more often than not a problem in the Netherlands.

– I do like the Dutch ‘obssession’ with showing the insides of buildings (the Muziekgebouw aan het IJ in Amsterdam came to mind). I once read that even showing the insides of canned foods worked well in the Netherlands.

– The whole Library of Alexandria meets Louvre Pyramid “in traditional Dutch barn yard style typology” needs some getting used to. Apparently, the shape and choice of materials is a reminder of the agricultural history of Spijkenisse, “now a suburban area of Rotterdam with statistically a low average of readers.” Politely put, it’s full of low income families who just don’t read (or can’t) and couldn’t care less what their ‘burb of Spijkenisse used to look like.

So yes, please build these folks a nice public library. Right on.

(Link and photo: dezeen.com)

Tags: ,

May 29, 2009

Dutch food bank founders receive international award

Filed under: Food & Drink,General by Orangemaster @ 11:00 am
bowl_and_spoon1

A Martin Luther King Lifetime Achievement Award was awarded yesterday in Amsterdam to the founders of the Dutch Food Bank, Sjaak and Clara Sies, presented to them by Isaac Newton Ferris, a nephew of the assassinated US African American civil rights activist. The award is intended as a token of appreciation for those who unselfishly spread Dr King’s message of tolerance and equality, and apparently not just in the United States: last year’s award went to Job Cohen, Mayor of Amsterdam.

The initiative of Sjaak and Clara Sies has also helped emphasised that even though many outsiders keep calling the Netherlands “a welfare state”, the couple have clearly shown that this rich country actually has poor people.

(Links radionetherlands.nl, ad.nl)

Tags: ,

May 25, 2009

Mystery epigraph on church bell solved

Filed under: General,History by Orangemaster @ 10:59 am

Sixty years after a poetic text was engraved on the bell of the St. Pancratius church in the town of Haaksbergen near the German border, no one would have imagined the underground author making himself known.

When it came time to replace the church bell after the war, the town called upon the people to come up with a suitable text. The one chosen was from someone under the pen name ‘NNN’, which in Dutch read: “Mijn voorganger, door ‘s vijands nijd geroofd, gesmolten tot kanon, vervang ik thans, in groote dank, omvat mijn roep de vrijheidsklank.” (Roughly and quickly, “My predecessor, hatefully stolen and smelted into a cannon by the enemy, I now replace, with great thanks, as my ringing encompasses the sound of freedom.”

A man from the area, Ronald Floors, just happened to meet Wil Hekhuysen from Apeldoorn who told him his story a few days ago. Originally from Amsterdam, Hekhuysen did not want to be sent to a work camp in Riga during WWII, so he ended up going underground in Haaksbergen. Since he couldn’t really participate in the ‘contest’, he sent in his inspiration under a pen name, which was the favourite. He said to Floors that he was very proud he’d won, but couldn’t tell anyone. For years, he didn’t feel the need to make this known, until now. Ronald Floors looked everything up in the town’s archives after hearing the story and it checked out.

(Link: telegraaf.nl)

Tags: , ,

May 24, 2009

First edition of Ascension Day festival was smashing

Filed under: Dutch first,Music by Orangemaster @ 1:34 pm

The kids just loved watching all that old junk get totally trashed! For the very first edition of the Hemeltjelief Ascension Day festival in Amsterdam North, hosted by Cafe Noorderlicht, all kinds of crazy stuff was going on. I was a DJ at the event during the day, so I watched all that smashing from the newly built wooden stage they set up outdoors.

On a sunny day, albeit it with too much wind to actually play vinyl without the needle skipping, all kinds of cool stuff was happening outdoors. They had freshly baked pizza, fresh oysters and bright coloured ice cream for the kids. There were several stages with bands, some strange artist making a human-sized spider web with huge amounts of transparent tape between some trees and a workshop where kids could make their own musical instruments. I missed the evening activities, but they included some seriously bassy reggae, bonfires, car bashing and alcohol.

Tags: , , ,

May 22, 2009

A new type of modular bike rack

Filed under: Bicycles,Design by Orangemaster @ 10:15 am

fietsenstalling

Two Dutch companies, AAArchitecten and Uq Design, combined forces and designed this bike storage system that doubles as a place to sit. They call it the “Bikes & Chill”.

For those of you who have no clue how badly crowded the bike racks in and around train stations are in the Netherlands, in January there were talks of charging people to park their bikes in Amsterdam. Bike racks are usually full, and if you try and park your bike somewhere else, big men with clamps will bust your bike lock open and take away your bike on their big trucks full of them. Then you have to call this number and try and get your back bike proving it’s yours and usually paying 50 euro.

The colorful “Bikes & Chill” bike storage system is modular and won an innovation prize. One of the conditions of their entry was an innovative design made from plastic fibres.

(Link: bizz.nl, photos: idealize.nl)

Tags: ,

May 20, 2009

The worst hotel in Amsterdam publishes book

Filed under: General,Weird by Orangemaster @ 9:25 am
brinker1

Hotels in Amsterdam literally come in all shapes and sizes, from villas to houseboats. More often than not, they are already booked, overpriced (just compared them to Brussels and even Paris) and I’m sorry to say, do not have the friendliest service in Europe.

Instead of trying to fool people with fancy words like many hotels do, the Hans Brinker Hotel in Amsterdam just tells it like it is: they are the worst. They have even turned this fact into an English book, which you can buy from Amazon.co.uk. Apparently, it’s only in English and aimed at the British market, surely a substantial amount of their business. At 25 euro (!) a night, I’m not surprised.

So basically, if you’ve checked into the worst hotel in town, you can’t complain afterwards. And according to the NRC newspaper, if you plan to get very drunk, you can ask to have your arm stamped with a map showing the location of the hotel and the words: “Please return me to the Hans Brinker.”

If that’s not service, I don’t know what is!

(Link: nrc.nl, images: Hans Brinker hotel )

Tags: , ,

May 19, 2009

White asparagus season is upon us

Filed under: Food & Drink by Orangemaster @ 8:58 am
cocktail_wim_lex_02jpg

While the media is busy digging up stories about Eastern European workers who are being exploited to pick this cherished Dutch vegetable, I’d rather remain positive and present our new found audience with the delicious Willem Alexander Asparagus Cocktail (link to the step-by-step recipe).

This mouthwatering appetizer was created by chef Herman van Ham of restaurant De Hamert in Arcen, North of Venlo in the province of Limburg, where said Eastern European workers are working themselves into blisters for little money. The cocktail was named after the Dutch crown prince, William Alexander.

Here are some wine suggestions to make that cocktail count even more:

– Champagne or Cava.
– A decent Sauvignon blanc
– A decent Riesling or Gewürztraminer

Eet smakkelijk! (Bon appetit!)

Tags: , , ,

May 17, 2009

Site convicted for Google’s automatic abstracts

Filed under: Automobiles,Online by Orangemaster @ 1:44 pm

If the case of car dealer Zwartepoort against website Miljoenhuizen.nl has been in the news before, it can only have been as the sort of easily mocked example of how some folks start lawsuits over really anything and everything, no matter how trivial and unwinnable their cases are. But now Zwartepoorte have gone and won theirs. When you searched Google for the company name, you would get amongst others a result from Miljoenhuizen.nl seemingly explaining the car dealer had gone bankrupt. You know the type:

Full name: Zwartepoorte. Specialty: BMW … This company has gone bankrupt.

These abstracts are machine generated. Google takes disparate phrases from a website and combines them into an abstract. Miljoenhuizen.nl obviously feels that the wrong people have been sued. Miljoenhuizen.nl told De Telegraaf (Dutch): “If the search result were to imply or insinuate that Zwartepoorte has gone bust, it would be Google’s responsibility, not ours.” I would take that a step further and say that nobody should have been sued in the first place.

It will be interesting to see what reasoning judge Sj. A. Rullman will come up with to explain her judgment. Meanwhile, I am waiting with trepidation to be sued by BMW car dealers, as I have my own story of the power of Google to tell. The last few weeks of December I got a constant stream of phone calls from people wishing to buy a nice shiny Beamer. My initials are B.M.W., and as it turns out I used to be the first link people would find when they googled for “BMW Amsterdam,” displayed prominently as part of Google Business with a map and a phone number. It got so bad that I stopped answering the phone, and started the message on my machine with the statement that “I am not a BMW dealer.” I must has cost some poor sod a lot of lost business that way.

Update: fixed type “Miljoenenhuizen.nl” to “Miljoenhuizen.nl.” Thanks, Nico.

Link: Iusmentis (Dutch). Photo by Gyver Chang, some rights reserved.

Tags: , , , , ,

May 16, 2009

French week with Yves Duteil and others

Filed under: Music by Orangemaster @ 11:17 am

yves2leine21

(Photo: Yves Duteil tuning and retuning, Leine’s second gig of the night)

The city of Amstelveen, next to Amsterdam, has been playing host to an entire week of French cultural events, the Festival Alliance Française. It was opened on Tuesday by the mayor of Amstelveen who lovelingly prepared a 15 minute speech in French. I listened because he mentioned my name as the MC for last Thursday’s evening of French music, starring French legend Yves Duteil.

My co-blogger said he’d woken up this morning withto the sound of a woman DJ from the radio talking about how nice the concert was. The week isn’t over and the 26th French song contest winners will be crowned tomorrow with Yves Duteil on the jury.

Last Thursday, three former winners of this French song contest performed and received serious applause: Sjors van der Panne, Sandra van Megen and Guido van de Meent.

The rest of the evening featured a mixed bag of local favourites Philippe Elan, Ben Cramer, Leine, Ralph Rousseau and David Vos, as well as Parisians Peppermoon. DJ Guuzbourg was in the DJ booth and wonder planner Frances Gramende who organised the event was enjoying the fruits of her labour.

One of the jokes I cracked backstage was that I felt like Kermit the frog at the Muppet Show. Leine laughed at that one because she finished the evening on stage with a French version of ‘It’s Not Easy Being Green’, a coincidence.

Yves Duteil also jammed it out on guitar with a Dutch alto sax player of house band Omnibuzz and they then did that on stage which was very nice. When Yves told the audience he’d been giving shows in Paris recently and that there were Dutch people every night in front, someone yelled out “I was there!”.

The improvised duet of the song “Allez viens on danse/De Clown” by Ben Cramer singing the Dutch version and Philippe Elan singing the original French version was a crowd pleaser. The writer of the original French song, Georges Châtelain, came all the way from Paris and was in the audience. It was a perfect evening all around.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

May 11, 2009

Nice guys French music compilation in May

Filed under: Music by Orangemaster @ 10:39 am
gghoesjpg

Although I often say that promoting French music in a country that’s wired into Anglo-Saxon culture is like putting a square peg in a round hole (and hammering that thing in like there’s no tomorrow), I can safely say that the edges of that same square peg are finally getting smoother.

Dutch journalist, DJ and ‘zuchtmeisje’ (girls that sigh when they sing) enthusiast Guuz Hoogaerts (aka Guuzbourg) will soon release his third compilation of French music called “Garçons Gentils”, the male equivalent of his first two compilations, Filles Fragiles.

Some tracks were specially recorded for this album by lesser known bands, but there are big names in there as well. First, we need to get through the summer.

(Link: Filles Sourires, Image by Studio Garcia)

Tags: , ,