March 4, 2009

Heavy metal is bad for kids and my beauty sleep

Filed under: Music,Religion by Orangemaster @ 10:09 am
heavy-metal

In the growing catergory of the War on fun and religious people publically showcasing their crisis of faith to the media who enjoy running with it, let’s take a stab at a golden oldie target-wise: heavy metal music.

A local religious association from Middelstum (Stichting de Cederborg), some 15 km from Groningen, is protesting against a pop event called Sunsation that’s been around for years. They claim the music pushes kids to suicide and oh yeah, they make noise. “Rap and pop rock have a negative influence on children and heavy metal is really focused on suicide. And we have church on Sunday. It’s important to get a good night’s rest.”

I’m totally down with that last bit (the rest part), but the first bit is top quality bull, and not a good way to win an argument in 2009. The organisers of the event explain that the Cederborg people are trying to draw attention to something the event has nothing to do with. The organisers are also avidly looking for a better location.

(Link: rtvnoord.nl, Photo: treehugger.com )

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March 3, 2009

Guess the political party

Filed under: General,History by Branko Collin @ 8:15 am

Here’s the 1981 party programme of… can you guess? The programme was for the parliamentary elections. I left out #10, because that one’s a bit of a dead give-away, even today. (No peeking at the picture now!)

  1. More democracy through the introduction of referendums
  2. A job for every Dutch person, possibly with additional social security
  3. Away with the atrocious housing shortage
  4. Bi-lateral nuclear disarmament
  5. War on drug trade and crime
  6. The cheap gas stays here
  7. No to reducing social security, yes to combatting tax fraud and abuse of social security.
  8. Against black and red racism and fascism
  9. Dealing efficiently with animal abuse, pollution and destruction of the landscape.
  10. ???

(more…)

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March 2, 2009

Panorama Mesdag painting to be digitised

Filed under: Art,Technology by Orangemaster @ 1:18 pm

Panorama Mesdag, the largest cylindrical painting in Europe, located at the Panorama Mesdag museum in The Hague, is going to be digitised. It was painted by Hendrik Willem Mesdag, his wife Sientje Mesdag-van Houten, along with help from G.H. Breitner, T. de Bock and B.J. Blommers. It is apparently one of the world’s finest and largest surviving panoramas. The visitor’s platform is a dune, creating the illusion of being back at the nearby Scheveningen beach in 1880.

The panorama is 120 metres long and about 14 metres high, of which every brush stroke will be photographed. A total of 10,000 details of an exceptionally high resolution will be taken using a specially designed tripod.

The museum believes that this project, which will last for months, will provide countless possibilities for studies and restoration.

(Links: nrc.nl, holland.com, Photo by flickr.com user Aldo, some rights reserved)

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March 1, 2009

Omnipresence in the 21st century

Filed under: Art,Religion,Weird by Eric @ 10:21 pm

Artist Johan van der Dong is on a holy mission. During a half-year long experiment, or work of art, Van der Dong wants to bring God closer to the modern man and woman, and got Him a (cell) phone. That definitely gives a new ring to the word ‘omnipresence’.

Van der Dong and a number of poets will leave recorded voice mail messages for people to listen to, in case God doesn’t want to answer his calls. The artist is hoping for people to leave their messages on God’s voice mail and intends to replay those messages in the ‘Kunstruimte Nooderstation Noordoost’ in Groningen. “Of course, we’ll do that in such a way that no one can recognise the voices”, says Van der Dong.

Now, you can call me cheap, but the Dutchman in me can’t help wondering why anyone would want to spend money calling a mobile phone number and getting his answering machine, while a simple prayer is for free and just as effective…

(Link: Telegraaf, Photo: atheisme.free.fr)

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Robert Jasper Grootveld, co-founder Provo movement dies

Filed under: Art,General,History by Branko Collin @ 10:54 am

On Saturday evenings their parents were watching the TV with their left eyes, and the cars in front of the houses with their right, seated on refrigerators and washing machines, with mixers in the one hand and copies of De Telegraaf in the other, and the children went to the Spui. […] When the electrical clock on the Lutheran church indicated it was midnight, the high priest appeared from an alley in full regalia, sometimes with painted face, sometimes masked, and started to walk magical circles around the nicotinian demon, his disciples clapping and singing the Cough Cough song all the while.

Thus describes Harry Mulisch in his book Report to the Rat King the happenings of self-proclaimed ‘anti-smoke mage’ Robert Jasper Grootveld who died last week at age 76.

I’ll just say it: Grootveld was instrumental in harnessing the counter-culture movement of the 1960s and helping decide its course, and as a result the course of the Netherlands. BN/De Stem calls him (Dutch): “the man who put Amsterdam on the map,” and Marijuana Library holds the Provo movement responsible for the Netherlands’ current drug laws.

(more…)

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February 28, 2009

Crash victim booted from hospital, opts for pot

Filed under: Aviation,Weird by Orangemaster @ 4:07 pm

Crash

Ron Ledford, an American who survived the plane crash this week at Schiphol airport helped crash victims out of the plane and walked to the nearest hospital. As you may have read, it took the emergency services some 40 minutes to get to the crash for whatever reason.

When the emergency services finally arrived, the man decided to walk to the Lucas Andreas hospital to have himself checked out. He was asked to pay 250 euro for the visit, and since he didn’t have it on him, he claims to have gone to a coffeeshop to ‘self-medicate’.

The hospital is looking into this incident and says it will issue a statement. I should bloodly hope so. Amsterdam’s local TV station AT5 met Ron Ledford at a shop downtown where he was being fitted with a free new outfit, thanks to a shop owner who met him and obviously cared about his story (unlike the hospital). He was then brought for more help to the police.

(Link: at5.nl, Photo by flickr.com user Radio Nederland Wereldomroep, some rights reserved.)

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New designs for Amsterdam’s Vondelpark

Filed under: Design,Nature by Orangemaster @ 3:05 pm

vondelpark-furniture-by-anouk-vogel-and-johan-selbing-4jpg

Landscape architect Anouk Vogel and architect Johan Selbing have won a competition to design new lighting and furniture for the Vondelpark in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Their winning entry, called Vondel Verses, includes designs for a kiosk, a park bench and a lamp post. Each design contains a different organic motif such as birds in the frame of the bench. The furniture is made from cast iron and painted black. The concept will be extended to other items, such as drinking fountains, signposts and litter bins, and will gradually replace existing furniture in the park from 2010 onwards.

(Link: dezeen.com)

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February 27, 2009

Online market place refuses Frisian adverts

Filed under: General,Weird by Orangemaster @ 9:50 pm

logo

While skiing in Austria recently, the nice inn owner ask me if the Netherlands had other official languages than Dutch. I said yes, and promptly grabbed a copy of the Leeuwarder Courant that just happened to be lying around, a Dutch and Frisian newspaper from Leeuwarden, the capital city of the province of Friesland.

And then this happens. Online market place site Marktplaats.nl (owned by Ebay, by the way) has told the media today that it refuses to place adverts in Frisian.

Their excuse? According to a spokeswoman, the employees cannot check the adverts because they do not speak the language. Fine, so find someone who can, I would think. Obviously, if a company wants to pay good money in these tough times to advertise in one of the country’s official languages, you could make an effort. Problem is the sites says yes to Dutch — and English adverts. Ouch.

The chairman of the Fryske Beweging (Frisian Movement) Jabik van der Bij called their refusal to run Frisian adverts ‘foolishness’ and are thinking of taking Marktplaats to court.

(Link: leeuwardercourant.nl)

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American diseases descend on Amsterdam plane crash victims

Filed under: Aviation,Religion,Weird by Branko Collin @ 10:34 am

The Westboro Baptist Church, an American sect known for promoting the Christian God’s stance on homosexuality (it would appear he frowns upon it), has announced (PDF) it will picket the funerals of Dutch persons “killed at [the] Amsterdam plane crash.” No divine inspiration there, I am afraid. Yahweh forgot to tell the church there were no Dutch nationals among the dead. But these statements appear par for the course for the devout, as the church has also announced Turks will get the same treatment (PDF).

Meanwhile the radio this morning reported (RTV-NH, no written story available, yet) that at least two so-called American ‘ambulance chasers’, lawyers who try to represent accident victims, have been harassing the victims of the Turkish Airlines plane crash.

There’s a phrase the Dutch use for the extravagances we associate with the USA: ‘Amerikaanse toestanden’ (American situations). And the reason we apply that label is because we want no truck with them. Rare though is the time the Americans actually try and export their ‘situations.’

Photo of a citizen, a comb-over and a card by flickr.com user k763, some rights reserved.

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February 26, 2009

Wii arm on the rise

Filed under: Gadgets,Gaming,General,Sports by Branko Collin @ 2:05 pm

Physiotherapists from the province of Groningen have noticed a rise in Wii related sports injuries, reports Telegraaf (Dutch). Children injure their arms by playing with the Wii game console too much.

Physiotherapist Auke Wagenmakers who reported his findings last Wednesday does not wish to deter people from playing the Wii. He believes that playing the Wii can be beneficial to anyone without the opportunity to exercise much. He also thinks that people should warm up before tackling the game computer, and that you should play the Wii with moderation.

Image: Orangemaster’s Wii avatar.

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