November 24, 2017

First Belgian-Dutch series to hit Netflix

Filed under: Dutch first by Orangemaster @ 11:36 am

The first Belgian-Dutch co-production ‘Undercover’, a 10-part series, is set to hit Netflix in 2019, and it stars Anna Drijver (Dutch), Frank Lammers (Dutch), Elise Schaap (Dutch) and Tom Waes (Belgian), produced by Jan Theys (Belgian), with writer and showrunner Nico Moolenaar (Dutch) and directed by Eshref Reybrouck (Belgian) and Frank Devos (Belgian).

For those of you who have watched the Netflix series ‘Narcos’, an American series about the cocaine trade in Colombia, consider this its European ecstasy cousin, but then set in the Netherlands and Belgium. Not a week goes by in the Netherlands and possibly Belgium without a news item about drums of chemicals used to make ecstasy (aka MDMA) found dumped in woods in the province of Noord-Brabant, so someone might as well make a series about it.

“I found it incredible to learn that the Netherlands and Belgium are such a huge part of the global drug trafficking network”, said producer Jan Theys. As for cocaine, the Netherlands remains the ‘Colombia of Western Europe’ and used to be the best and biggest cocaine producing country in the world until WWII.

(Link: broadwayworld.com, Photo: DEA)

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November 22, 2017

Hoofddorp host to international men’s roller derby event

Filed under: Sports by Orangemaster @ 8:53 pm
Team Netherlands vs. Team Italy

Team Netherlands vs. Team Italy

Last weekend, Hoofddorp played host to ‘Road to Barcelona’, a six-team men’s roller derby event leading up to the Men’s Roller Derby World Cup to be held in April 2018 in Barcelona, Spain. Road to Barcelona events are currently being held in Europe, with this one organised by Team Netherlands – Men’s Roller Derby, their first time hosting such an event – and it was a blast. These pictures were taken by my co-blogger Branko, and I was the Head Announcer for the tournament.

Although the first ever men’s roller derby event ‘Battle of the Beasts’ took place in the Netherlands for the first time in in Valkenswaard, Noord-Brabant in 2013, happened twice after that and is scheduled for a fourth edition in January 2018, Road to Barcelona was specifically set up in preparation for the Men’s Roller Derby World Cup and featured Team Spain, Team Italy, Team Ireland, Team Belgium, Team Scotland and Team Netherlands. As well, a women’s exhibition game between Team Netherlands and Team Universe (a mishmash of European players) took place, with the Dutch women’s team preparing for the Roller Derby World Cup in February in Manchester, United Kingdom.

Why do we add the word ‘Men’s’ to the Roller Derby World Cup? Why isn’t it a men’s event in the first place? Because roller derby is originally a women’s sport, so it’s the men that get the mention ‘Men’s’ in their title, not the women. Even though this was the fourth ever men’s event on Dutch soil, it was the first one held near Amsterdam and attracted not only players, but officials, volunteers and spectators from all over Europe. Many of the players were playing for the first time and many people came to the Netherlands for this first time just to be there.

Team Spain vs. Team Belgium

Team Spain vs. Team Belgium

(Photos by Branko Collin)

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November 21, 2017

Dutch Golden Age humour still relevant today

Filed under: Art by Orangemaster @ 10:28 am

Potter

An exhibition at the Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem, North Holland entitled ‘The Art of Laughter: Humour in the Golden Age’ is presenting “the first ever overview of humour in seventeenth-century painting” until March 2018.

Trying to present a lighthearted view of the Golden Age means showing “naughty children, stupid peasants, foolish dandies and befuddled drunks, quack doctors, pimps, procuresses, lazy maids and lusty ladies”.

And women being ‘grabbed by the pussy’.

In a painting by Paulus Potter, who specialised in animals within landscapes painted from a low vantage point, his ‘Resting rider before an inn’ has a woman brushing the rider’s face with her hand and in return he grabs her private parts all in good fun.

In the name of mischief, farce and love and lust, the Frans Hals Museum features works by Rembrandt, Frans Hals, Jan Steen, Judith Leyster, Adriaen Brouwer, Gerard van Honthorst, Jan Miense Molenaer and Nicolaes Maes.

The Museum explains that the writer Lodovico Guicciardini, who was living in the Low Countries at that time, said that the Dutch were ‘very convivial, and above all jocular, amusing and comical with words, but sometimes too much.’

(Links: vice.com, franshalsmuseum.nl, Photo: nos.nl)

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November 20, 2017

Helmond Castle toasts a century of weddings

Filed under: Architecture,Art by Orangemaster @ 4:51 pm

Castle-Helmond

Next year, the Museum Helmond in Helmond, Noord-Brabant will be featuring an exhibition entitled ‘100 Jaar Trouwen’ (‘100 Years of Weddings’), and is asking anyone who got married at Helmond Castle, where the museum is located, to send in some wedding pictures.

Anyone who sends in pictures might be featured in their exhibition. As well as pictures, the museum will also exhibit old wedding dresses to give visitors an idea of the bridal fashion worn from the 1920s until the present day. Send in your pics at info@museumhelmond.nl.

Helmond Castle is the biggest moated castle in the Netherlands. Besides the castle, the world-famous textile company Vlisco that sells wax print textiles in African countries is also located in Helmond.

(Link: ed.nl, Photo: museumhelmond.nl)

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November 17, 2017

Afsluitdijk lights up thanks to multiple art projects

Filed under: Architecture,Design by Orangemaster @ 3:45 pm

afsluitdijk

For many of us who have driven the 32-kilometre-long Afsluitdijk from North Holland and Friesland (or the other way around), it’s a short cut with a great view of the water and sheep. However, historically, the Afsluitdijk is a key part of the country’s world-famous sea defences, as well as a major Dutch accomplishment.

Yesterday, Dutch artists unveiled a design and light show to highlight this feat of engineering, called ‘Icoon Afsluitdijk’ (‘Icon Afsluitdijk’), which shines at night “to enhance and safeguard the dyke’s rich heritage and anchor its position in the world as a Dutch water engineering and design icon,” according to its creators.

The project consists of a number of art installations, of which the last one is called ‘Gates of Light’, created by Daan Roosegaarde and his team. They applied a reflective layer to the Afsluitdijk’s 60 floodgates, which allows the concrete gates to brightly light up at night in the retro style of the 1930s, when the dyke was first built by hand.

The Dutch have lit other important landmarks up, such as the Kinderdijk, UNESCO World Heritage Site, with colours matching the Dutch flag.

(Links and images: phys.org, lc.nl)

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November 14, 2017

Kids’ gym class in Utrecht is the coolest

Filed under: General,Health,Sports by Orangemaster @ 7:07 pm

Children in the Netherlands

A physical education teacher in Utrecht has made gym class cool again by using games to keep all the kids busy instead of activities like dodgeball where kids have to sit out when they are hit while stronger kids play, and it’s going viral.

It’s going viral because he films the kids classes and puts them online.

On the Facebook page De Spelles (the ‘play lesson’) as well as on the website despelles.nl, you can see Dutch kids play relay races, dominos, Twister, and a whole bunch of games that keeps them busy, involved and happy.

Teacher Matthijs Jansen has been teaching PE since 2011 and strongly believes all the kids should participate and get exercise. One of the girls says she think Mr Jansen is the best meester (male teacher) of the school, but then he’s the only one (the only male teacher), she says, laughing.

(Link: rtvutrecht.nl, photo of random children: Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs)

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November 13, 2017

Rijksmuseum scanner to be used to solve crimes

Filed under: Art,General,Technology by Orangemaster @ 1:08 pm
The mobile macro-XRF scanner (Bruker M6 Jetstream) developed by the University of Antwerp and Delft University of Technology

The mobile macro-XRF scanner (Bruker M6 Jetstream) developed by the University of Antwerp and Delft University of Technology

The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam uses a Macro-X-ray Fluorescence scanner (MA-XRF, similar to this one) to analyse the different chemical elements found in the paint of artworks, making it possible to identify the pigments used and providing more specific information about the stages of the working process. This also helps museums identify whether a painting is really from a certain painter, not something left to the naked eye anymore, thanks to technology.

The Nederlands Forensisch Instituut (NFI – Dutch Forensics Institute) will be collaborating with the Rijksmuseum to use the scanner in order to find evidence material with a view to solve crimes. Besides identifying pigments, the scanner can identify blood, sweat, saliva, urine and sperm on things such as clothing, and can even analyse bullets.

Scientists from the NFI, the University of Amsterdam and the Delft University of Technology published results about using the scanner for solving crimes last week. The NFI doesn’t have its own scanner simply because it’s very expensive. And until the NFI can get their hands on one, they’ll be coming round to the museum when they need to use the scanner. And yes, it does sounds like many a television series’ plot.

A little finch just told me that the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague will be borrowing a scanner just like this to analyse Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring in the new future, but then just to find out more about the painting, not to solve any crime.

(Link: , Photo and a good read: lookingthroughartblog.wordpress.com)

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November 10, 2017

A bright future for ministry building in The Hague

Filed under: Architecture,Sustainability by Orangemaster @ 9:59 am

Saskia Simon and Kees van Casteren from OMA, (The Office for Metropolitan Architecture), a Dutch architectural firm based in Rotterdam, co-founded by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, explain the revamped architecture of a building at Rijnstraat 8 in The Hague in the English-language video below.

According to the video’s description, upon completion in 1992, Rijnstraat 8, the former Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment (VROM) building represented an innovative office typology as well as an example of sustainability. Today the building, designed by in the 1980s, no longer offers the flexibility and openness required of a contemporary office space. In collaboration with the original architect, Jan Hoogstad, OMA developed an integrated concept for the building based on a renewal of its existing architectural qualities.

Although Amsterdam is the capital in the Netherlands, The Hague houses the government, but in true Dutch style, that doesn’t mean buildings have to be boring. In this case, a building was modified to become much more transparent – literally. And the video gives you a nice view of The Hague from a tall building, as if you were there.

(Link: archdaily.com)

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November 9, 2017

Grasshopper clings to Van Gogh painting for 128 years

Filed under: Art by Orangemaster @ 3:44 pm

olive

A conservator has discovered that Vincent van Gogh’s painting ‘Olive Trees’ has more to it than meets the eye. Parts of the thorax and abdomen of a grasshopper were preserved in the painting for 128 years, according to the Kansas City Star newspaper, reporting on the painting exhibited at the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City, Missouri in the United States.

The grasshopper was spotted under magnification during research on French paintings at the museum and cannot be seen with the naked eye. Since Van Gogh worked outdoors a lot, it’s not unlikely for an insect to drop dead and end up on a canvas.

And it will not be removed.

(Link and photo: boingboing.net)

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November 7, 2017

World’s first hybrid mobile crane is Dutch

Filed under: Automobiles,Dutch first by Orangemaster @ 8:14 pm

Crane

Crane manufacturer Spierings from Oss, Noord-Brabant will be presenting the world’ first hybrid mobile crane, a zero-emission vehicle, with the exception of using a small diesel motor on the motorway. Its SK487-AT3 City Boy will be unveiled on 18 November to guests from around the world.

The SK487-AT3 City Boy was specially designed for an urban environment where environmental requirements are increasingly higher. It is modular, runs on electricity, and is easily manoeuvrable in typically narrow Dutch streets and busy cities. Like a hybrid car, the SK487-AT3 can be charged up and can also run on its own battery for a few hours.

(Link and photo: omroepbrabant.nl)

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