March 11, 2012

Vote for the pretty girl behind the anchor

Filed under: Shows,Technology by Branko Collin @ 11:51 am

Three friends from the Eindhoven University of Technology run a website to crowd source the detection of pretty girls behind popular TV anchor Matthijs van Nieuwkerk.

The interface to hetmeisjeachtermatthijs.nl is very simple. It presents you with a screenshot of last night’s episode of talk show De Wereld Draait Door, covered in squares that any visitor can click on. Just click the square that covers the pretty girl, in your opinion, and your vote is recorded.

According to Bright, the site has been up for about 18 months, and drew 10,000 visitors last year.

“Part of the fun”, founder Teun Vinken told the tech site, “is that the girls are blurry. Half the time you cannot even be sure they are really that pretty.”

Screenshot: hetmeisjeachtermatthijs.nl.

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January 26, 2012

Poor understanding of dialect ruins old man’s reputation

Filed under: General,Weird by Orangemaster @ 6:22 pm

A 90-year-old pharmacist in Maastricht is said to be devastated after popular Dutch talk show De Wereld Draait Door messed up the translation of a subtitle in their film of the elderly man.

In a segment where they show funny videos, a woman walks into his pharmacy and asked for something for her throat. He makes a charming joke, saying, “Did you sing too much?”.

Problem is, the television show didn’t air this because they thought he said “did you sing too much”, but they understood it as “did you suck too much”, which, if that had been what he said, would be kinda funny.

But he said ‘sing’ (‘gezongen’) and not ‘suck’ (‘gezogen’). The man has a Limburg accent that the subtitler didn’t understand, made an assumption and basically trashed a hard-working old man out of ignorance.

My friends also tell me that if the old man had meant ‘suck’ (blow job), he’d have used a totally different verb in local dialect.

The show sent the man a ‘we’re sorry’ bouquet of flowers, but he still claims he’ll never watch the show again.

(Link: www.limburger.nl, Photo of Old drugstore by fpeault, some rights reserved)

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March 8, 2011

A whole hour of airplay to band that breaks the minute

Filed under: Music,Shows by Branko Collin @ 10:10 am

The minute in which bands have to compress their latest hit if they want to appear on De Wereld Draait Door, the popular talk show hosted by Matthijs van Nieuwkerk, has long been a nuisance to 3FM radio DJ Michiel Veenstra. But now he has come up with a remedy: the first band that dares to play the full version of their song (regardless of whether it will be broadcast or not), will receive a full hour of airplay on his show.

Newspaper De Pers, which reported the action, has weighed in by promising a mention on their front page of the same band, and an interview in the paper to boot.

De Wereld Draait Door responded by saying they simply have to cut the songs short because every minute of music makes them lose 200,000 viewers, Veenstra reports on his blog.

De Wereld Draait Door, literally The World Turns, is a pun meaning both “there’s always a tomorrow” and “the world’s going nuts”. Veenstra is the DJ that decided to spin music at the North Pole back in 2007.

Illustration: De Wereld Draait Door logo.

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March 20, 2008

Junkie XL commissioned to remix Madonna

Filed under: Music by Orangemaster @ 9:07 pm
junkiexl1.jpg

Tonight on Dutch television show ‘De Wereld Draait Door’, DJ Junkie XL (Tom Holkenborg), presented the world premiere of his remix for the new single ‘4 Minutes’ by Madonna.

Orlando Puerto, the man who handles Madonna’s record company business, suggested she do a remix. A list of DJs was submitted to the pop diva and in the end, Junkie XL came out the winner.

Holkenborg had an international hit with a remix of Elvis’ ‘A little less conversation’. The hit, which was originally music for a Nike advertising, went platinum in 24 countries. Junkie XL’s new album ‘Booming back at you’ came out on 10 March and will be presented on March 23 at the Melkweg in Amsterdam.

(Links: dewerelddraaitdoor.vara.nl)

Update: the entire show here (Junkie XL at 38.35 and onwards), or the Junkie XL / Madonna bit at Youtube.

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