February 13, 2009
Here’s one to help you slide into the weekend with outward poise and heart aflutter. A girl from The Hague called Anouk shot this home video with two of her buddies while in what appears to be a hotel room in New York.
Tip ‘o the hat to Olaf for this find. Originally from Anouk’s website, but that one lacks all the Youtube niceties.
Update 2025-07-28: the original video is no longer available on Youtube, If you are curious about the song itself, here is another accoustic version.
February 5, 2009
Another well-known Dutch site about all things underground in and around Amsterdam ondergrond.tv unfortunately decided to call it quits yesterday. It seems that keeping a videoblog online took a toll on the 10 people working at it and who knows what else (time, money, etc.). Ondergrond.tv was popular among the 18 to 30 segment and was part of independent Amsterdam newspaper Het Parool.
The 495 videos made by Ondergrond.tv will remain online on their YouTube channel. We at 24oranges wish them all the best of luck in the future.
Tags: Ondergrondtv, videoblog
February 2, 2009
I never used to care about the Eurovision Song Contest because it’s just sugary pop music with too much flash and slutty outfits (not really in a good way). But ever since 2006 when a fully costumed Finnish hard rock band won, and in 2007 the second place went to a campy Ukranian crossdresser singing in a Russian-pseudo German mishmash language stole the show, I keep abreast of the finals hoping something outrageous will happen again.
The Dutch have had no luck in ages. They were knocked out of the semi-finals in 2006, 2007 and 2008, their best score in recent years, and now instead of sending pretty young women who can sing, they are sending in the “big guns”: three ‘older’ men, namely singers Gordon, Rene Froger and Jeroen van der Boom who call themselves The Toppers.
They playbacked on television yesterday instead of actually singing, which caused a commotion in the press, the number they sang was possibly written by some woman and not Gordon although she can’t prove it, and many experts agree the song is not very good, which is Dutch for “it sucks.”
It’s one big string of clichés (in English) and it screams midlife crisis. The idea of sending experienced artists is good, but if they can’t sing live, they are dead in the water. Kudoz to their big and beautiful backup singers, which is a good bold move.
A quick tour of the contestants shows a young, blond Belgian-Turkish woman representing Turkey, Hadise (love that dual citizenship), while Slovenia has some elegant string quartet called Quartissimo with a young, blond female singer. Then, there is also the famous young enough and blond enough Patricia Kaas who will represent France and cannot possibly do worse than the Netherlands.
Am I the only one who thinks that singing the words “love will make us glow in the dark” in Moscow is really funny?
December 24, 2008
This protest video/Christmas song by Ampzing “Koude Kalkoen en rode wijn” (“Cold turkey and red wine” – nice pun!), a ‘cover’ of “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas” is by no means brilliant, but the message definitely hits the mark with the Dutch: enough with all those English Christmas songs already! This could explain why many of my friends sneer at me when I say I’m looking forward to Christmas and the Christmas music. The songs at my place are mostly in French, often translations of the English versions as well as traditional French Canadian fiddle music, so no Wham or Mariah Carey. The Dutch radio is basically only cranking out English hits though, as I step into the shops to buy something. It doesn’t work for me at all.
I feel sorry for anyone who really digs the Christmas spirit, but is annoyed by the Americanised, Anglo-Saxon version of it. Remember one thing though: your fellow countrymen are the ones doing this to you and that’s the really scary part.
(Link: taalpost.nl)
Tags: Christmas, Christmas music
December 22, 2008
Amsterdam’s rhythm & tunes band The Spinshots have just released a new video called “Désirs Mutuels”, a French version of their ballad “Mutual Desires”. I proudly attended the video release party not only to talk to some very cool musicians, but because they had asked me to translate and adapt the French lyrics, a labour of love that took me just three days. Oh and here’s a nice picture of the show they did to launch the video at the recently renovated Winston Kingdom in Amsterdam.
I also got to meet the woman who shot the video. She told me it was all done in one take and took a mere 1.5 hours to shoot. When budget is an issue, creativity is a must. That’s why I like this video. I also heard it was shot in a secret location. I can imagine that someone warning any authority about guys in turbans with equipment could be scary. Hats’ off to the Dutch singer who has a knack for languages and really does the French justice.
And the will to do something in French is part of an odd trend floating around the city whose main Dutch figure, good friend DJ Guuzbourg and his girl-ridden French compilations has something to do with. May this trend continue on in 2009.
Tags: DJ Guuzbourg, Spinshots, translation
December 14, 2008
Being partly a child of the 1970s I am accustomed to a barren Dutch pop music landscape, and therefore always a little surprised when an act shows up in and from this country that’s worth listening to. The past 18 months I have found myself surprised more than once.
Leaf – Wonderwoman. “Why’s my life so boring? I am up for a little bit more.” And here’s the surprise: in the third act she doesn’t introduce a guy to make it all right.
All Missing Pieces – I want you to know. February this year was a special month for the band, because that’s when the Labour Inspection gave 11-year old bass player Quinten an exemption that will allow the three-year old band to perform more than the 12 times a year the law permits.
De Jeugd van Tegenwoordig – Hollereer. When I see the lyrics I get the creepy feeling I should be glad I don’t understand them.
Which Dutch pop artists do you recommend people listen to?
December 7, 2008
The daughter of photojournalist Nico Koster found a series of unique pictures in some box with old baby pictures of the world-famous ‘Bed-In’ that John Lennon and Yoko Ono held in March 1969 at the Hilton Hotel in Amsterdam. Koster, who works for the Dutch paper De Telegraaf, had lost the precious negatives of an exclusive photoshoot he had in Room 902 (some sources say 702) of the Hilton Hotel.
And when you’re Canadian like me you know more about the Montreal Bed-In, which took place in May 1969 because of the song that was spontaneously recorded there, Give Peace a Chance.
(Link and photo: parool.nl)
Tags: Amsterdam, Bed-in, Hilton hotel, John Lennon, Montreal, Yoko Ono
December 4, 2008
The music video for Amsterdam based rockband zZz’s track Running with the Beast has been pulled by Youtube, according to Omroep Brabant (Dutch). The video apparently shows two roosters fighting. The cocks were smeared with paint before being put into a tiny arena, and were made to fight on top of paper sheets which were later used to produced the artwork for the CD and for posters and so on.
In an elaborate statement (PDF), the band managed to claim that “no animals were injured.” Indeed, “for legal reasons the video was shot in Bangkok, Thailand.”
See also Dozens of hamsters freed from plastic balls for another tale of artists abusing animals for their own personal gain showing the inherent hypocrisy of people who don’t want to be confronted with the maltreatment of animals, but who will for instance gladly enjoy the fruits of factory farming.
Tags: animal cruelty, animal rights, cock fighting
November 18, 2008
All this talk of recession, lack of pride, populism and people really needing to hear something positive made me decide to hijack this space today for a music video featuring Dutch funksters Lefties Soul Connection. I know there’s some fans out there!
After all, we need a break! So here’s Lefties Soul Connection with “Fais do do” (French for “go to bed”).
Tags: funk, Lefties Soul Connection
November 11, 2008
An unnamed musician got fined recently by a social networking site (Muzikanten-in-jouw-stad, Musicians in your city) after she had aborted the registration process, according to a report by Volkskrant blogger Satuka. Though the site’s administrators would not tell the musician what the fine was for, they did present her with a list of finable offenses, among which:
Muzikanten-in-jouw-stad presents itself as the online meeting place for local musicians, but Satuka’s blog entry suggests it’s mostly a place for extracting hard-earned cash from those unlucky enough to register. Last week she wrote that a friend was fined 10 euro after not finishing her registration. The friend had gotten tired of the large number of obligatory fields on the sign-up form, and had started to enter non-sensical texts. When the site told her—still during the “free” sign-up process—to call an 0900 number and record some demo music for the mere sum of 40 euro, the friend decided to abort.
As a result she received an e-mail “a little while later” (Satuka’s entry is nothing if not vague), which claimed that she had violated the site’s General Terms & Conditions and that she therefore had to pay a ten 10 fine.
Law blogger Arnoud Engelfriet has this to say about this case:
I’d like to add that the musician never finished the registration process, so you have to wonder what legal obligations she has towards the site. I’d guess none, but IANAL. Also, I was told by reputable legal scholars that only courts can impose fines. Engelfriet suggests Satuka’s friend tell the networking blog to take a long walk off a short pier, though in politer and legally binding terms.
Today’s special rich creamy irony sauce: the letter that claims the social networking site can fine you for bad grammar is full of, yes, you guessed right, examples.
(Photo by Tomascastelazo, some rights reserved.)
Tags: blogging, fines, grammar, musicians, social networking sites, web sites
