November 29, 2007

My co-pilot is my co-pilot

Filed under: Aviation,Gaming by Orangemaster @ 3:06 pm
co-pilots2.jpg

I went to pick up a friend at Schiphol airport and noticed they had a new shop called Planes@Plaza. It has all kinds of plane related knick-knacks, but the best reason to visit the shop is that it is physically built around a KLM DC-9 cockpit and cabin interior, with a huge engine on the other side of the shop. To sweeten the deal, you can have a digital picture of you and a friend taken in the cockpit wearing a cap and uniform, albeit a co-pilot’s one (three stripes for co-pilots, four for captains – the photographer knew that as well). And you can keep taking pictures until they get one just right. It costs EUR 5 and comes in a funny paper frame. Even better, while sitting in the cockpit you can have a look around all the buttons, levers and what not of a real cockpit, which does not happen very often. They had to almost drag me away!

The cabin features a film about Amsterdam Airport Schiphol and then there’s also a flight simulator game on one of the Playstations.

Tags: , , ,

Hague tower still singing

Filed under: Architecture,Weird by Orangemaster @ 10:38 am
strijkijzer1.jpg

After reporting about it back in July, Het Strijkijzer tower in The Hague is still whistling loudly and irritating the neighbourhood. The building corporation said it would be fixed when they finished the roof in September, but it sounds like they’re dead wrong.

I’m sorry, but however is responsible for this must be deaf and dumb.

(Link: zoomin.tv)

Tags: , ,

November 28, 2007

Doe maar ‘nog een keer’ (one more time)

Filed under: Music by Orangemaster @ 10:46 am
Skunk cover

Hailed as the Dutch equivalent of the Beatles, Doe Maar will be performing a one-off concert in De Kuip, Rotterdam on Saturday, 12 July 2008 (tickets go on sale 1 December). The pop group is getting together just one more time with the original band: Ernst Jansz, Henny Vrienten, Jan Hendriks and Jan Pijnenburg. Ernst Jansz and Henny Vrienten were also involved in the musical about the band, which premiered in Tilburg this year.

In 2000, Doe Maar had a reunion tour, admittedly for the money in the first place. This time, they say they really feel like playing, but in fact, nobody cares because they are so famous. According to the Nationaal Pop Instituut, Doe Maar is the most important, popular and innovative Dutch pop band from the early 1980s.

For all of you just getting to know Dutch culture, but are afraid to ask, Doe Maar is a great way to start. The music is ska with some pop and punk influences, which is very easy to get into. My personal newbie recommendations are “Één nacht alleen”, “Is dit alles”, “Sinds 1 dag of 2 (23 jaar)” and “Doris Day”. I first heard Doe Maar at a party after having been in the country just one week and was immediately struck by two things: one was that everybody there knew the lyrics and two was that it was nice, bouncy ska.

(Link: omroepbrabant.nl)

Tags: , ,

November 27, 2007

Vegetarians don’t know the half of it

Filed under: Animals,Art,Religion,Science by Orangemaster @ 10:13 am
pigs1.jpg

Anyone who reads the book PIG 05049 by Rotterdam designer Christien Meindertsma gets to read all about the things made using pigs. Matches, lotions, desserts, beer, lemonade, car paint, pills, bread, sweets and even green energy should be entirely avoided by any real vegetarian or vegan and anyone whose religious beliefs has an issue with piggies. Chances are, they barely know any of this, as PIG 05049 has discovered 187 uses for pigs in quite unusual places. I’m sure I’ve seen a vegetarian use a match or a Jew drive a car…

PIG 05049 will be on sale as of December, and in the summer of 2008, Meindertsma will have a warehouse full of pig products in the Rotterdam Kunsthal during an exhibition called ‘Kunsthal Kookt’ (‘The Kunsthal is cooking’).

(Link: vleesmagazine.nl)

Tags: , ,

November 23, 2007

International award for Dutch hotel concept

Filed under: Architecture,Gadgets by Orangemaster @ 4:45 pm

[Top-to-bottom visualisation of a hotel room]

CitizenM, the hotel room chain with everything in it, has already won an international prize in Paris for Most Innovative Concept. Just one week after the introduction of the new hotel concept and way before any Dutch branch was opened, the Dutch hotel chain beat 21 competitors for this prize.

A second branch of the hotel will be opened next summer on Amsterdam’s Beethovenstraat, South of town. London, Berlin and Milan wil also get their hotels.

(Link: bizz.nl)

Tags: , , , ,

November 22, 2007

Doutzen Kroes poster girl for Frisian language

Filed under: Fashion,General by Orangemaster @ 10:03 am

kroes1.jpg

Doutzen Kroes, known as a L’Oréal and Victoria’s Secret model, has been asked to use her pretty face to make the Frisian language even more attractive.

The 22-year-old top model will be playing a major role in the campaign ‘Praat mar Frysk’ (roughly, ‘Just speak Frisian’) for the province of Friesland, which will be launched next week in Tytsjerksteradiel, according to news website Wâldnet. Doutzen was asked because she can show that she comes from Friesland and speaks Frisian ‘beautifully’. The goal of the campaign is to make Frisians aware of their language. Only about 2% of the Dutch population speaks it. And then a few years back, there was that nice duo Twarres who scored an international hit with their song ‘Wêr Bisto’, which is in West Frisian (the same Frisian I’m on about, as the Germans and Danish have their varieties).

For the folks who thought Dutch was the only official language of the Netherlands, there is also Frisian as well as the regional languages of Dutch Low Saxon and Limburgish.

(Link: reclamewereld.blog.nl)

Tags: , , ,

November 21, 2007

Polish fish for profit, not fun

Filed under: Animals,General,Nature by Orangemaster @ 1:59 pm
zeebaars1.jpg

Ever since the Poles have been coming en masse to the Netherlands to apparently do jobs that the Dutch can’t be bothered with, there’s been some talk of trying to get them to accept the ways of the Dutch. In other words, those of the Dutch government, to ‘integrate’ them, although as EU citizens, they do not have to. Basically, the media tends to portray the Poles as ‘being in Rome, but not doing as the Romans do’ and that tends to irritate the Dutch quite a bit.

Apparently, the Poles like to fish in their spare time, but according to Sportvisserij Nederland (the fishing authorities), which hand out permits, they are over-fishing and not following the rules. The situation is so bad that a Polish translation of the fishing rules is being handed to them.

What’s the problem? Dutch fishers put back the fish they caught, while the Poles catch them and either eat them or sell them. It almost sounds like the Dutch expected them to do the same without explaining it to them first. On the other hand, obviously some Poles who may have learned about the rules chose to ignore them for the media to pick this up. This is what we call a ‘cultural difference’, kids.

“The Poles have different ethics and a different food culture and don’t follow the rules,” according to spokesman Juul Steyn from Sportvisserij Nederland.

(Link: ad.nl, Photo: zeebaars.nl)

Tags: , , ,

November 20, 2007

Anne Frank tree saved by the judge

Filed under: General,History,Nature by Orangemaster @ 7:37 pm
kastanjeboom

The fate of the Anne Frank tree has been decided, after a judge had a good look at the tree just before making his decision: it may not be chopped down. Remember, it was really sick and hundreds of thousands of euro were spent to try and save it. At 7 pm Dutch time, a judge decided that the tree needs to be healed or fixed and that there are still things that they can do to keep it alive properly. He added that if the tree causes damages to houses nearby, owners will be compensated.

To anticipate the possible cutting of the tree, grafts have been made. And then there’s our earlier posting about the chestnuts of the Anne Frank tree sold on eBay. Apparently, they currently have a bid of $USD 10,340, which is pretty useless at this point in time.

The 150-year-old tree (a white horse chestnut tree – Aesculus hippocastanum) stands in the inner garden of the house at Keizersgracht 188, one street over from the Anne Frank House, which is on the Prinsengracht.

Anne Frank wrote the following entries about the chestnut tree in her diary:

23 February 1944
The two of us looked out at the blue sky, the bare chestnut tree glistening with dew, the seagulls and other birds glinting with silver as they swooped through the air, and we were so moved and entranced that we couldn’t speak.

18 April 1944
April is glorious, not too hot and not too cold, with occasional light showers. Our chestnut tree is in leaf, and here and there you can already see a few small blossoms.

13 May 1944
Our chestnut tree is in full blossom. It is covered with leaves and is even more beautiful than last year.

(Info: Live RTL 4 television, Photo: annefranktree.com, link: annefrank.org)

Tags: , , ,

Dutch company buys Eiffel tower staircase

Filed under: Architecture,General,Sports by Orangemaster @ 11:37 am
Eiffel tower stairs

Erik Kurvers, owner of consulting agency Eiffel in Den Bosch, Noord-Brabant, bought this original piece of the Eiffel tower stairs yesterday in Paris for EUR 180,000. Kurvers also happens to be the chairman of the Den Bosch basketball club, the EiffelTowers. The 4,5-meter-high staircase is to be seen as a symbol for the company and club to ‘climb higher’ (aim higher really, but not miss the hoop). This piece of staircase connected the second and third storey of the original tower of 1889.

(Link: omroepbrabant.nl, Photo: Frogsmoke)

Tags: , ,

November 19, 2007

Anne Frank tree to go, chestnuts already on eBay

Filed under: General,Nature by Orangemaster @ 12:11 pm
kastanjeboom

It was on the news for many months, the scheduled chopping down of the Anne Frank chestnut tree probably on November 21, the tree she talked about in her world-famous diary. Amsterdam does not chop down anything without serious consideration, and according to many experts, this tree has to go, although so many people have so many ideas on how to save it. There is even a webcam on the tree and the secret annex of the house.

According to local TV station AT5, the highest bid on the tree’s chestnuts is EUR 355, for sale on eBay. Someone who claims to live on the next street over from the sick Anne Frank tree put the chestnuts on eBay last Friday. The idea is that someone can grow their own Anne Frank tree. Neighbours and associations will be fighting the chopping down of the tree until the very last day.

(Link: AT5.nl, Photo: annefranktree.com)

Tags: , , , ,