April 9, 2008
On 20 April, some 20 kilometres of hiking routes for lesbians will be officially opened in the province of Brabant. In the woods near Alphen lesbians will be able to enjoy nature and “get together”.
The first Dutch “ladies’ route” was opened in North Holland, and there are also routes in Zeeland and Drenthe. Noord-Brabant is now the fourth province to go lesbian friendly. The goal is to have lesbian hiking routes throughout the country.
(Link: omroepbrabant.nl)
April 8, 2008
I don’t care about the story, it’s the picture that basically cancels out the story for me. The story is about “experiments to increase health with young people,” which sounds fine, but the picture shows a teenager eating ontbijtkoek, which for the foreign crowd is gingerbread for breakfast. And it’s chocked full of sugar and fat. The background shows a vending machine with Balistos, a muesli (granola) based candy bar, with chocolate and tons of sugar. The captions read “Eating healthy in the cantina of the Werkplaats Kindergemeenschap.”
Did the photographer just do their job or is the author of this article stupid, unaware, fat or something else? With this kind of well-intended advice, no wonder Dutch kids are getting fatter. The road to obesity is paved with junk food.
(Link: ad.nl)
Tags: candy bars, children, junk food
April 3, 2008
American Robert McDonald, a former Hollywood stunt man now living in the Dutch town of Emmeloord, has built a 45-foot replica Viking ship made of millions of wooden ice cream sticks and more than a ton of glue. It will set sail on Saturday for London at the start of its voyage to America along the same route taken by the Vikings. The ship took five years to build with the help of 5,000 Dutch school children and 15 million sticks.
McDonald named the ship the “Mjollnir” after the hammer of the mythic Norse god of thunder, Thor. After the 13-ton boat was lifted into the water by crane, McDonald stood calmly on the stern as a team of volunteers rowed the apparently sturdy vessel around the IJ River behind Amsterdam’s Central Station.
But will it make it? Stay tuned.
(Link and photo: firstcoastnews.com, via dutchnews.nl)
April 1, 2008
Singer and well-known gay personality Gordon is the founder and station voice of the new digital radio station OZ Radio. It will be online in August and will only play “happy, feel good, gay music”.
The name OZ was taken from the film ‘The wizard of Oz’, starring gay icon Judy Garland. Other artists that qualify for airplay include Shirley Bassey, Diana Ross, the Village People and Kylie Minogue.
I have this feeling that Melissa Etheridge, The Gossip and K. D. Lang won’t get any airplay… or is it just me?
Not impressed so far. Sounds like a huge gay excluding lesbian cliché fest. And an Australian one at that.
(Link: gaykrant.nl)
March 31, 2008
Belgium wants to rent some 300 jail cells from jails in Breda and Maastricht, cities close to the Belgian border. According to the Belgian media, the country has some 10,000 prisoners (out of some 10,5 million inhabitants), while there is only room for 8,500. In the Netherlands some 20% of jail cells are empty. So far, the Dutch government has said no and suggested that they might rent or sell jail boats to the Belgians, which didn’t really ‘float’ with the Belgian government.
You could draw all kinds of conclusions from this article, the kind of article you learn to analyse at school to show off your debating skills: Why are Dutch prisons empty? Why are Belgian prisons full? What’s wrong with boats? And so on.
(Link: omroepbrabant.nl)
Tags: Belgium, Breda, Maastricht, Netherlands, prisons
March 29, 2008
Friday, March 28, an interesting exhibition was opened at the Casla in Almere, Flevoland. It features the winning projects of the third edition of the ‘Eenvoud’ (‘Simplicity’) competition for an experimental neighbourhood in Almere. The previous editions, ‘De Fantasie’ (‘Fantasy’) and ‘De Realiteit’ (‘Reality’) were kept in the 1980s and their results are still worth seeing.
The goal of the Eenvoud competition which started in 2006 was to design a freestanding and simple low-cost house, expressing living desires and ideas. The winners were given the opportunity to build their design on a beautiful open spot in the woodlands of Noorderplassen-West. The houses have to have a permanent character, with a minimum of building regulations.
That last bit is quite ironic, considering the plethora of building regulations imposed throughout the country and the fact that Almere, a city built moslty on reclaimed land, is literally sinking. The photo shows the Ornithologist’s house, birds and all.
(Link: dysturb.net, Photo ‘Het Huis van de Vogelaar’ by Anouk Vogel and Johan Selbing)
Tags: Almere, competition, eenvoud
March 28, 2008
The Superbus, designed by former Dutch astronaut Wubbo Ockels, will get its first road trial on 25 June. The bus, which can woosh by at 250 km/h, is set to trial run on a 27-kilometer stretch of highway between Harlingen and Leeuwarden, Friesland. The highway will of course be closed for the occasion. Ockels announced the trial last Wednesday during a meeting at the head office of transport company Connexxion, one of the sponsors of the Superbus.
And yes, the Superbus does look like the famous alien designed by the H.R. Giger.
Read more about the Superbus project.
(Link: volkskrant.nl)
Tags: Friesland, Superbus, Wubbo Ockels
March 27, 2008
After a private performance by tap dancer Marije Nie to inspire the troops, Steve Korver, Editor-in-Chief of the Amsterdam Weekly, Amsterdam’s award-winning English-language free weekly, reminded us that print media doesn’t come cheap. After backers of the paper decided to retire themselves and their money, the paper had to come up with a plan to ‘keep it all together’. Here it is:
“In the publishing world, it turns out that it’s hard to be free. Tja… So, while we hatch more secret plans to stay alive, we’re coming to you – the reader – for help. The plan is to sell you our editorial space for the next three issues. Each page is divided into 204 blocks and each block costs €5. So, hey… buy a few. It’s clean, safe, simple and cheap. Then we can go back to being free.”
In the hopes of attracting more interest and branching out in true Web 2.0 style, the Amsterdam Weekly has just started a blog to give you even more of the AW experience. It’s just a few days old and yours truly has gladly become one of their bloggers. Soon enough, you will be able to read the AW blog on Twitter! But, first, let’s get through the weekend.
Tags: Amsterdam, Amsterdam Weekly, fund-raising, new blog, web 2.0
March 26, 2008
New York’s Brooklyn Brewery is planning to sell a pilsner type beer in the Netherlands through distributor De Brouwketel, a subsidiary of Heineken. The Brooklyn Brewery is a well-known independent brewery located on the East River. The relatively small brewery already delivers beer abroad in the Far East, England, Turkey, Switzerland and Scandinavia.
“The low dollar helps us tremendously. Importers can now make a good profit and the European consumer is happy with the price. We expect a serious rise in exports,” says Brooklyn Director Steve Hindy, a former journalist who decided to start brewing beer with a friend some 20 years ago.
I once had a full evening of Brooklyn Brown Ale in Greenwich Village, New York City with a German friend. We both joined a table of local New Yorkers who just happened to be interpreters for the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. The running joke was that Brooklyn Brown Ale was made with the water from the East River, which gave it its colour. It’s an ok beer.
(Link: www.z24.nl)
Tags: beer, Brooklyn Brewery
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
