November 30, 2007
A couple of butchers in the very small village of Triemen, Friesland found an odd way to cheat the local government out of about EUR 150,000. Although the couple received welfare money, they actually ran a very professional butcher’s shop out of a shed. Finally, someone who called themselves a “hard-working tax payer” tipped off the authorities. Not only did the couple receive welfare money, but they mooched off their “friends” as well. Maybe it’s time for them to move.
(Link: vleesmagazine.nl)
November 29, 2007
I went to pick up a friend at Schiphol airport and noticed they had a new shop called Planes@Plaza. It has all kinds of plane related knick-knacks, but the best reason to visit the shop is that it is physically built around a KLM DC-9 cockpit and cabin interior, with a huge engine on the other side of the shop. To sweeten the deal, you can have a digital picture of you and a friend taken in the cockpit wearing a cap and uniform, albeit a co-pilot’s one (three stripes for co-pilots, four for captains – the photographer knew that as well). And you can keep taking pictures until they get one just right. It costs EUR 5 and comes in a funny paper frame. Even better, while sitting in the cockpit you can have a look around all the buttons, levers and what not of a real cockpit, which does not happen very often. They had to almost drag me away!
The cabin features a film about Amsterdam Airport Schiphol and then there’s also a flight simulator game on one of the Playstations.
Tags: co-pilots, KLM, planes, Schiphol Airport
After reporting about it back in July, Het Strijkijzer tower in The Hague is still whistling loudly and irritating the neighbourhood. The building corporation said it would be fixed when they finished the roof in September, but it sounds like they’re dead wrong.
I’m sorry, but however is responsible for this must be deaf and dumb.
(Link: zoomin.tv)
Tags: Strijkijzer, The Hague, whistling
November 28, 2007
Hailed as the Dutch equivalent of the Beatles, Doe Maar will be performing a one-off concert in De Kuip, Rotterdam on Saturday, 12 July 2008 (tickets go on sale 1 December). The pop group is getting together just one more time with the original band: Ernst Jansz, Henny Vrienten, Jan Hendriks and Jan Pijnenburg. Ernst Jansz and Henny Vrienten were also involved in the musical about the band, which premiered in Tilburg this year.
In 2000, Doe Maar had a reunion tour, admittedly for the money in the first place. This time, they say they really feel like playing, but in fact, nobody cares because they are so famous. According to the Nationaal Pop Instituut, Doe Maar is the most important, popular and innovative Dutch pop band from the early 1980s.
For all of you just getting to know Dutch culture, but are afraid to ask, Doe Maar is a great way to start. The music is ska with some pop and punk influences, which is very easy to get into. My personal newbie recommendations are “Één nacht alleen”, “Is dit alles”, “Sinds 1 dag of 2 (23 jaar)” and “Doris Day”. I first heard Doe Maar at a party after having been in the country just one week and was immediately struck by two things: one was that everybody there knew the lyrics and two was that it was nice, bouncy ska.
(Link: omroepbrabant.nl)
November 27, 2007
Joshua Pennings is an artist from Grave, Noord-Brabant who makes animal sculptures from rusty, discarded tools and parts. The size of these works ranges from a couple cubic decimeters to a couple cubic meters.
Tags: art out of garbage, grave, metal, Noord-Brabant, rust
Anyone who reads the book PIG 05049 by Rotterdam designer Christien Meindertsma gets to read all about the things made using pigs. Matches, lotions, desserts, beer, lemonade, car paint, pills, bread, sweets and even green energy should be entirely avoided by any real vegetarian or vegan and anyone whose religious beliefs has an issue with piggies. Chances are, they barely know any of this, as PIG 05049 has discovered 187 uses for pigs in quite unusual places. I’m sure I’ve seen a vegetarian use a match or a Jew drive a car…
PIG 05049 will be on sale as of December, and in the summer of 2008, Meindertsma will have a warehouse full of pig products in the Rotterdam Kunsthal during an exhibition called ‘Kunsthal Kookt’ (‘The Kunsthal is cooking’).
(Link: vleesmagazine.nl)
November 25, 2007
The city of Enschede has won the Golden Pyramid award 2007 for “inspiring contractorship.” The jury revealed yesterday that the municipality and architect Pi de Bruijn won the award for the way they handled the rebuilding of Roombeek, the neighbourhood just outside the city centre that was largely destroyed when a fireworks factory exploded in 2000, killing 23 and wounding 950. An area of 63 hectares (155 acres) was destroyed, and a new neighbourhood was planned on top of the old road map. Interestingly, residents were very much involved in deciding how they would like the neighborhood to look like, compared to the prevailing Dutch mentality that even beauty must be regulated. De Bruijn could not completely give up the idea of regulation and stipulated that houses along Museum Lane should be designed by well-known architects.
The result looks surprisingly lived-in. A number of buildings that were still usable were kept to increase that effect. The subscribers of the Skyscraper City forums have been following the developments with their digital cameras since 2004, giving a good sense of a developing neighbourhood. Dutch broadcaster AVRO followed the jury of the Golden Pyramid award during their judging, and has produced a 25 minute program about the Roombeek project.
(Photo by Think Blink, some rights reserved.)
Tags: Enschede, fireworks disaster, Golden Pyramid award 2007, rebuilding
November 23, 2007
![[Top-to-bottom visualisation of a hotel room]](https://www.24oranges.nl/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/hotelroom_citizenm.jpg)
CitizenM, the hotel room chain with everything in it, has already won an international prize in Paris for Most Innovative Concept. Just one week after the introduction of the new hotel concept and way before any Dutch branch was opened, the Dutch hotel chain beat 21 competitors for this prize.
A second branch of the hotel will be opened next summer on Amsterdam’s Beethovenstraat, South of town. London, Berlin and Milan wil also get their hotels.
(Link: bizz.nl)
Tags: award, Dutch design, hotels, modular, prize
November 22, 2007
Doutzen Kroes, known as a L’Oréal and Victoria’s Secret model, has been asked to use her pretty face to make the Frisian language even more attractive.
The 22-year-old top model will be playing a major role in the campaign ‘Praat mar Frysk’ (roughly, ‘Just speak Frisian’) for the province of Friesland, which will be launched next week in Tytsjerksteradiel, according to news website Wâldnet. Doutzen was asked because she can show that she comes from Friesland and speaks Frisian ‘beautifully’. The goal of the campaign is to make Frisians aware of their language. Only about 2% of the Dutch population speaks it. And then a few years back, there was that nice duo Twarres who scored an international hit with their song ‘Wêr Bisto’, which is in West Frisian (the same Frisian I’m on about, as the Germans and Danish have their varieties).
For the folks who thought Dutch was the only official language of the Netherlands, there is also Frisian as well as the regional languages of Dutch Low Saxon and Limburgish.
(Link: reclamewereld.blog.nl)
Tags: Doutzen Kroes, Friesland, Frisian, languages
November 21, 2007
Ever since the Poles have been coming en masse to the Netherlands to apparently do jobs that the Dutch can’t be bothered with, there’s been some talk of trying to get them to accept the ways of the Dutch. In other words, those of the Dutch government, to ‘integrate’ them, although as EU citizens, they do not have to. Basically, the media tends to portray the Poles as ‘being in Rome, but not doing as the Romans do’ and that tends to irritate the Dutch quite a bit.
Apparently, the Poles like to fish in their spare time, but according to Sportvisserij Nederland (the fishing authorities), which hand out permits, they are over-fishing and not following the rules. The situation is so bad that a Polish translation of the fishing rules is being handed to them.
What’s the problem? Dutch fishers put back the fish they caught, while the Poles catch them and either eat them or sell them. It almost sounds like the Dutch expected them to do the same without explaining it to them first. On the other hand, obviously some Poles who may have learned about the rules chose to ignore them for the media to pick this up. This is what we call a ‘cultural difference’, kids.
“The Poles have different ethics and a different food culture and don’t follow the rules,” according to spokesman Juul Steyn from Sportvisserij Nederland.
(Link: ad.nl, Photo: zeebaars.nl)
Tags: fishing, Netherlands, Poland, rules
