October 15, 2011

Uprising in the IKEA catalogue

Filed under: Film by Branko Collin @ 9:56 am

This fun little comedy called Page 23 won the Best Movie award of the 2011 Utrecht edition of the 48 Hour Film project.

It was created by advertising creatives Jeroen Houben, Tim Arts and Stefan van den Boogaard. Contestants had to use a specific character (“Ingmar or Ingrid Talis, volunteer”), a prop (a pair of glasses) and a line of text (“amazingly beautiful, but hopelessly impractical”), and had only 48 hours to create the movie.

Page 23 follows the lives and loves of the models in an IKEA catalogue. The Atlantic published an interview with the makers:

You created a very polished, IKEA-look for the piece with very little time. How did you make it happen in only 48 hours?

We found our location only hours before we started shooting. Since we had no time or money, we looked for something that didn’t need a lot of adjustment. We called around for furnished apartments and hotel rooms, but no luck there. Finally, it turned out one of our crew members had a clean-looking, design-furnished apartment. Sometimes it’s just that easy. We bought some extra decoration like candles and a vase with flowers, and most of the other stuff you see in the shot was already in the house. The funny thing is most of the furniture in the shots aren’t IKEA products.

[…]

(Video: Vimeo / Jeroen Houben)

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October 13, 2011

Boy George upset about Karma Chameleon in super market ad

Filed under: Music by Branko Collin @ 8:26 am

“Virgin Holland sold Karma Chameleon to a supermarket chain for 5000 euros, the dirty fucking shit-heads! And they have no fucking respect!” Thus tweeted British eighties’ pop star Boy George on October 2.

Not sure if he is upset about the money, about the clip, or about not having been consulted.

The clip shows a super market manager singing “Tweede komme-komme-kommer gratis”. In English: “Second cu-cu-cucumber for free. You get one for free. You get one for free-hee-hee-hee.”

Muziek-nieuws.nl mentions that in 1983 Culture Club song Karma Chameleon spent a week at one in the Dutch Top 40.

(Video: Youtube / Albert Heijn)

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October 11, 2011

Reporter nicks 30 kg worth of Khadaffi’s stuff, isn’t sorry

Filed under: General,History by Branko Collin @ 7:00 am

Business news site z24 reports that Harald Doornbos, a Dutch reporter who works for press agency GPD amongst others, has taken 30 kilos worth of goods from former Libyan president Khadaffi’s home.

The alleged loot contains a map, family photos, posters and the passport of the cat of the dictator. Legal experts told the news site that even though it is doubtful that Khadaffi would or could take any legal action, the provisional government could claim ownership of the ex-leader’s possessions.

Doornbos announced this on October 5 on Twitter.

When confronted with the legality of his actions, Doornbos tweeted cryptically: “That is why I haven’t lived in the Netherlands for 18 years.” Later: “If I had not taken these things, they would have been burned half an hour later anyway, good bye history.” Even later: “Discussion closed. You can see stuff in a museum/gallery in the Netherlands soon. Suggestions [for a venue, presumably] still welcome.”

(Photo of a karikature of Gadaffi in Benghazi by Maher27777, who released it into the public domain)

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October 9, 2011

Asparagus most popular vegetable among the Dutch, French beans second

Filed under: Food & Drink by Branko Collin @ 1:27 pm

Radio show Vroege Vogels (Early Birds) held a vegetable popularity contest during the Week of the Vegetarian restaurant which ran from October 3 through October 9.

Perhaps surprisingly the top four comprises, in the following order, the asparagus, the French bean, chicory and Brussels sprouts (asperge, sperzieboon, witlof and spruitje in Dutch).

In total more than 30,000 votes were cast for 62 vegetables, the show’s website reports. Asparagus and the French bean finished 42 votes apart, the former receiving 1873 votes. Traditionally asparagus is eaten white in the Netherlands. Since the plant starts turning green the moment it breaks through the surface, it is grown in long mounds and dug out as soon as it cracks the top of its bed.

See the Dutch vegetable top 40 of 2011.

(Photo by Wikipedia user Janericloebe who released it into the public domain)

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October 8, 2011

Erwin Olaf’s painting-like photos of the liberation of Leiden (1574)

Filed under: History,Photography by Branko Collin @ 12:22 pm

Look at these great photos Erwin Olaf made in celebration of the liberation of Leiden from an 11 month siege by Spanish forces in 2011.

The city still celebrates the liberation each year. Olaf made nine photos on request of Leiden University (the oldest in the Netherlands) and Museum De Lakenhal, some of them portraits, other still lifes. The largest, a historical ‘painting’, is on permanent display in De Lakenhal, the other eight are exhibited until January 8 in the university library. The photos are inspired by paintings of the time.

You can also view the photos at a digital exhibit of the University of Leiden:

The historical piece was shot on July 6, 7 and 8 in Peter’s Church in Leiden. The equipment had been installed on the fifth. On that same day Olaf took a test photo using stand-in models. He had picked the camera angle during an earlier visit to the church. […] The photo was shot in three parts, spread out over the three shooting days. First the right hand side, then the middle, and finally the left hand side.

NRC has a short ‘making of’ picture gallery.

Erwin Olaf is a former journalism student who quickly turned to art and commercial photography. He gained fame and notoriety with his portraits of fat people and midgets in bondage outfits. On October 13 he will receive the Johannes Vermeerprijs, a state award founded in 2008 to “honour and further stimulate remarkable talent”. The award consists of 100,000 euro.

Leiden was liberated in 1574 by the terrorists of Willem van Oranje, the so-called geuzen or gueux. The French word means beggars, a name given to the Dutch nobles that wanted to separate from Charles V’s European empire. The geuzen breached dikes around the city, after which the Spanish army fled. A young orphan called Cornelis Joppenszoon left the city on October 3 and went to a Spanish army camp, which he found deserted. There he also found a kettle containing hutspot (mashed potatoes, carrots and onions). He then alerted the citizens. In the early morning the geuzen entered the city bringing herring and white bread.

Using water as a defense was seen as a viable way to maintain Amsterdam as a national redoubt until the invention of the tank. The floodable area was called Fortress Holland.

Not unrelated: Modern still lifes by Richard Kuiper.

(Photos: Erwin Olaf, 2011, Leidens beleg en ontzet (1574). Link: Historiek.net. Link tip: the Digital Diva.)

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October 3, 2011

Illustrated atlas of the afterlife

Filed under: Art,Design by Branko Collin @ 12:17 pm

Last year Guido Derksen, Martin van Mousch and Jop Mijwaard published a book about how different cultures and religions view the hereafter.

Rather than limiting themselves to a dry summing up of various theories, the authors actually made an illustrated atlas: eighteen drop dead gorgeous maps! There are maps of Dante’s hell, the Egyptian Duat, the Islamic, Jewish and Hindu heavens, and many more (shown here: Valhalla). The book drew positive reviews from both the religious and secular press.

Reformatorisch Dagblad (protestant) wrote:

The chapter about the medieaval folk tale of Cockaigne is a welcome change of tone, being comical in nature. The map contains a Tokkelroom Dale with a town called Advocaat. We also find a mountain range called Top Fermenting with a peak called Two Fingers. […] In conclusion it is an original, fascinating and informative book.

Holly Moors added:

To some people this may be a confrontational and sobering book, but it thought it was lovely. A piece of folkloric religion becomes pure literature again—back to the realm of Tolkien.

And VPRO radio: “Real maps […], so you’ll know exactly where you need to be.”

Moors has several samples of the maps, as does the authors’ blog, which discusses (in Dutch) how the maps were made.

De Geïllustreerde Atlas van het Hiernamaals, by Guido Derksen, Martin van Mousch and Jop Mijwaard, Nieuw Amsterdan, 2010.

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October 2, 2011

French tourists angry about discrimination at Maastricht marijuana bars

Filed under: General by Branko Collin @ 3:28 pm

Coffeeshop owners in Maastricht have started to refuse catering to French patrons. The owners are anticipating a new law that obliges marijuana buyers to have a club card, the so-called wietpas. This card will only be available to adult Dutch residents or other legal residents of the Netherlands.

Writes De Telegraaf:

“C’est du fascisme,” an angry Frenchman yelled to the doorman of coffeeshop Easy Going on the Hoenderstraat in the capital of Limburg. The doorman had just refused him entry. Angry French people also said they felt discriminated against, and accused the doormen of racism.

Coffeeshop managers referred French tourists to venues in nearby cities. Coffeeshop Rasta Fari Boni was the only one in Maastricht still selling marijuana to French customers. German and Belgian tourists were still being served in Maastricht.

Coffeeshop owners fear that the trade in marijuana will disappear underground, where buyers will have to do business directly with dangerous criminals. It is logical to assume that this is exactly what the Rutte government wants, although I am not clear as to why somebody would want this.

(Photo of a Maastricht marijuana bar on a boat by Flickr user Thalling55, some rights reserved)

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October 1, 2011

Still lifes at FOAM

Filed under: Photography by Branko Collin @ 9:00 pm

Today I went to a photography workshop at FOAM Amsterdam, which is why this posting is a bit later than you might expect.

The photo museum on the Keizersgracht (Emperor’s Canal) organizes a different workshop each month, and this month the theme was still lifes, tying in neatly with FOAM’s birthday exhibition Still/Life. The workshop fee of thirty bucks gets you a guided tour through the museum in which the teacher points out what makes specific photos special. After that you get a short generic introduction to the basics of interesting photos, and then you get an hour to practice what you have been taught. At the end one photo per student gets discussed. I thought it was well worth the money.

Why a still life exhibition? Curator Colette Olof explains on Youtube:

This year we’re celebrating FOAM’s tenth anniversary. The whole year we’re looking towards the future with the question: “What’s next?” We thought it would be nice to make one exhibition with a theme based on the history of FOAM. In 2001 we opened the very first exhibition at FOAM with a Dutch theme, The Dutch Light, and it was a group show with Dutch photographers curated by Erik Kessels. Now ten years later we thought it would be nice to do a group show again with only Dutch photographers.

[…] The still life is also a classical Dutch theme. In the 17th century the Dutch and Flemish painters were known as the best still life painters in the world.

The Still/Life exhibition runs through October 26. My boring attempt below.

(Illustration top: Fruit, 2008, Krista van der Niet)

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September 30, 2011

Wordfeud outlawed in bar in Zwolle

Filed under: Food & Drink,Gaming by Branko Collin @ 3:23 pm

Owner Elles Hetebrij of the Hete Brij pub in Zwolle has had it with anti-social behaviour from mobile gamers, and has banned the Scrabble like word game Wordfeud from her establishment, De Stentor reports.

Sometimes the bar is filled with people playing Wordfeud. Nobody is talking to each other or to the bartender any more, much to his chagrin. […] We talk to our patrons about their behaviour. If you want to be on an ‘island’, you might as well play at home. This is a brown café where the atmosphere needs to be lively.

Manager Patrick Hugen added:

People even interrupt their game of darts to enter a word. This has to stop.

Wordfeud is a game that’s played on a mobile phone against Internet opponents. Is it really that addictive? I find that hard to believe. What do you think?

(Illustration: Wordfeud screenshot)

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September 26, 2011

How red asphalt is laid for bicycle riders

Filed under: Automobiles,Bicycles by Branko Collin @ 9:14 am

Mark Wagenbuur published this video of road workers resurfacing Parklaan in Den Bosch back in May, but I felt it was still interesting enough to share with the one or two of you who don’t already religiously follow his work. He wrote an accompanying piece at the A View from the Cycle Path blog.

Note that alongside the regular black asphalt for cars, two strips of red asphalt are laid. These will become the bike lanes. Two workers are continuously measuring the width of the prospective bike lines. I am not sure, but I assume this is to make sure the bike lanes have a minimum width. Remarkable, as there is no legal requirement to do so.

I don’t know why they use red for bike lanes. According to a 2002 article called Fietsvoorzieningen brengen kleur op straat by Fietsberaad, the decision is mainly a political one. It highlights that politicians supposedly care. Fietsberaad said in 2002 that red asphalt is three times more expensive to make.

Note that the famous Dutch Tiger Stone automatic road paver can also do bike paths by simply putting in the right coloured bricks.

(Video: Youtube / Markenlei)

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