April 30, 2007
On the orangiest holiday of the year, we at 24oranges are taking the day off. Back tomorrow!
Tags: Queen's Day
April 28, 2007
Women in the former USSR used to get a medal for cranking out lots of kids and women in Québec, Canada would finally be left alone by the priest after about 10 for fulfilling their Catholic duty. But in the neighbourhood of Slotervaart in the west of Amsterdam, one woman’s 10 kids have been wreaking havoc for 9 years and counting. The children enjoy breaking and entering, stealing, arson and defecating in entrance halls of other people’s flats. It’s so bad that three families have already moved away. About 10 different help organisations work with the family, but it’s not helping, even though the house was renovated, the mother was taught how to clean her house and make sandwiches for her children.
Mayor Job Cohen was even asked to intervene, but he can’t do much. He says that even if the family were to be moved, the problems would just move as well. The owner of the block of flats has run out of patience and wants the children to be placed in foster homes.
(Link)
Tags: Amsterdam, neighbourhood, parenting, terrorism
April 27, 2007
It appears that major European managers do not appreciate Dutch humour. Only 4% of top managers think the Dutch are funny, according to this year’s UPS Europe Business Monitor. Some 1,450 top managers from seven European countries gave their opnion.
British humour came out on top. Some 34% of Belgians, French, Germans, Italians, Dutch, Spanish and British found the British the funniest. Interestingly enough, the biggest fans of British humour are the Brits themselves, as 59% chose their fellow countrymen. The Dutch and Germans aren’t funny, and the least funny of all are the Danish, Austrians and Swedes.
(Link)
Tags: british, humour, statistics, traits
April 26, 2007
Dutch bidding site Marktplaats.nl just removed an advert selling Ronald Koeman, the coach of Dutch football team PSV. A fan put him up for sale or trade against a better trainer. People who responded quickly could get assistant trainers Jan Wouters and Tonny Bruins Slot thrown in for free. Two years ago, Ruud Gullit, former trainer of the Dutch football team Feyenoord, was placed on sale on eBay because of his poor performance.
(Link)
Tags: Eindhoven, Marktplaats, PSV, trading
April 25, 2007
The biggest pop music TV show in the Netherlands during the 1970s and the early 1980s was TopPop. This was the time when artists still had to show up in shows all over the world to have their faces remembered. Then video clips came along, and a competing channel brought Adam Curry back to the country to ride their wave. His show Countdown was the end of TopPop.
TopPop had several things going for it, not in the least its host Ad Visser, a slightly goofy looking guy who was into tantric sex and writing space operas. Artists would lip-sync against psychedelic backdrops, and if they were unable to come on the program, the show ballet of Penny de Jager would dance to a pop song. There was something oddly discomfitting about the show that was at the same time its biggest asset.
Clips of the show can of course be found on Youtube, but a few weeks ago an official archive was launched, which publishes themed compilations of performances. Think Blondie, Duran Duran, Randy Crawford, The Jacksons, The Carpenters, Grace Jones, Nina Hagen, and TopPop’s ballet dancing to the theme of Star Wars.
Tags: Ad Visser, Blondie, MTV, Penny de Jager, pop, TopPop, TV, video
The ‘kroket’ (‘croquet’ of ‘croquette’, yes it’s a French word) actually has royal beginnings, according to top Dutch food critic Johannes van Dam in ‘Het volkomen krokettenboek’ (roughly ‘The comprehensive kroket book’), which will be published this fall. “It is nonsense to say that the kroket is made of meat leftovers,” Van Dam explains. According to his research, the recipe is from 1691 attributed to French chef Francois Massialot who made krokets out of delicacies such as truffles, mushrooms and cream cheese for King Louis XIV.
(Link: vleesmagazine.nl)
Tags: books, Johannes van Dam, junk food, krokets, Louis XIV
April 24, 2007
On 29 April at the stroke of midnight, Waterlooplein in Amsterdam will be the place to be to drool at very expensive supercars in the name of the Gumball 3000 2007. Rumour has it there will be three (!) Bugatti Veyrons, a limousine based on the Ferrari 360 Modena, a Mansory Rolls-Royce Phantom and a Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren 722 Edition. There will also be enough Porsches, Ferraris and Lamborghinis to go around. In seven days, participants roar out of London, go through Western Europe and the Balkans to finally end up back in London for the finish.
A house party will be given by the Dutch Tourism Board in London on the shore of the Thames in London for some 12,000 visitors on Saturday, 29 April. The Holland House Event will last the entire day and is suitable for young and old. Dutch drinks and finger food will be served and there will be performances by Dutch bands. For the younger visitors, there will be a meet and greet with Nijntje (known as Miffy in English).
Queen’s Day (Koninginnedag) is officially celebrated on April 30 and marks the birthday of the late Queen Juliana.
On another note, more and more tourists are getting wind of this relatively low key holiday because of the freemarkets in every city and town. This photo of Amsterdam’s Damrak was taken by Orangemaster in 1996 when (see left) the guilder was still in use.
(Link)
Tags: Holland House, London, Nijntje, Queen's Day
April 23, 2007
Christian daily Trouw (translates to ‘loyal’) has an interview with Flemish writer Tom Lanoye where they have him respond to the ten commandments. About “thou shalt not steal” he says:
In my profession theft is a tribute. A good writer is the best thief. A bad writer steals from the wrong people, or not at all. A bad writer thinks he knows it all already. You have to keep rolling around in all sorts of literary beds. Carnivorous, omnivorous, vegetarian, anything! Everything can be an inspiration.
(Link: interview in Dutch. Via Eamelje, Dutch. Photo by Frank C. Müller, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.0 Germany.)
Tags: copyright, flemish, inspiration, plagiarism, Tom Lanoye, writing
