March 7, 2007
The raspberry man of the Hero brand jam is making a comeback. The company from Breda had retired the advertising character last year. But when the story about his retirement hit the papers, radio and television, Flipje got caught up in a veritable media hype. It was recently decided to put Flipje back into use. The character was created back in 1935.
(Link)
March 6, 2007
Dutch designer Marcel Wanders has designed a product for Holland Electro called the Wave TV. It combines a microwave with a 15″ TV and DVD player. It is currently being sold in more than 30 countries.
(Tip: Huphtur, Photo: marcelwanders)
March 4, 2007
On March 2, a man from Helmond, Noord-Brabant was arrested after crawling through a reverse vending machine at a supermarkt.
The man stole a few crates of empty bottles from the back store and put them back through the machine in order to try and collect the 95 euro deposit money.
According to the personnel, this was not the first time the man has tried to pull this off.
(Link)
Tags: empty bottles, Helmond, Noord-Brabant
March 2, 2007
I heart Friesland, this sticker of political party FNP appears to say. Except that the heart image is actually the leaf of a water lily, the symbol of Friesland. So this visual pun turns on itself; as eamelje.net paraphrases: “I slowly float on almost stagnant water that smells a bit funny. Beautifully subtle criticism.”
On February 16, a teenager from Hengelo, The Netherlands, entered the race for the window that Lee Harvey Oswald reportedly shot US president John F. Kennedy from, bidding approximately 3 million US$ seconds before the auction ended. The window had been put up for auction at eBay by Caruth Byrd, son of the man who used to own the Texas School Book Depository building. Apparently the eBay system cannot check the qualifications of late bidders, and their bids are accepted without question.
The teen did not have the money. Hani Durzy, a spokesman for eBay, spoke of illegality and fraud, the teen’s father, who managed to cancel the bid after all, wondered how eBay could let get things this far. I just wonder how much the grassy knoll would fetch.
February 27, 2007
Thanks to the Dutch nudist federation (Naturisten Federatie Nederland – NFN), plans for starting fitness for nudists in a sports school in the Dutch town of Heteren have attracted worldwide interest in naked fitness. Since fitness centre owner Patrick de Man went public with his plans, he has been called from the US, England, Germany and Belgium. According to the NFN, The Netherlands will be the first country ever to offer naked fitness.
(Link: www.ad.nl, Photo: Photo of Stationary bikes by janeyesee, some rights reserved)
February 26, 2007
In 2002 the Dutch exchanged their adventurous banknote designs for drab, super-safe euro ones. For those who want to take a trip down memory lane and re-experience the Netherlands’ former “monopoly money”, CR Blog has an interview with the designer of many Dutch banknotes, “Ootje” Oxenaar who at age 76 is still teaching at the graphic design department of the Rhode Island School of Design. The interview contains several examples of his remarkable designs.
Tags: banknotes, Dutch gulder, guilders, Ootje Oxenaar, Rhode Island School of Design
Two actors from the musical Grease were injured Sunday night during a performance in Almere. The car drove off the podium right into the orchestra pit. Idols star Jim Bakkum, who plays Danny Zuko and was in the car at the time, ended up with a concussion, while his co-star Bettina Holwerda broke her arm. Both were brought to the hospital. The cause of the accident is as yet unknown.
(Link and photo: fok.nl)
Tags: accident, Almere, Grease, Jim Bakkum, musicals
February 25, 2007
For Dutch people looking for their soulmate, but who want to be sure that Rex the dog or Felix the cat will also be accepted, there’s the new dating site Dier en mens (roughly ‘Pets and people’). As of 24 February, Dutch folks can look for a date to that cat show or to go shopping for that new python. Founders Fred and Betty Mercey decided to start the site because many animal lovers often meet people that are not as crazy about animals as they are. According to them, Dier en mens is the only site in the Netherlands that caters to dating pet freaks.
(Link and photo: nieuwnieuws)
Tags: Dating
February 24, 2007
Clogwork.net features cartoons, comics and illustrations from a collective of known and lesser known Dutch and Belgian artists. Whereas comics and cartoons are associated with kids in many parts of the world, Europeans tend to take their doodles very seriously and rightly so.
The site features works by Nozzman, Roel Venderbosch and Sevensheaven (here below).
(Caption: Very fertile year for wild boars)
(The guy bending over is the world-famous French cartoon character Obelix.)
To look up these artists and many more, the famous Dutch comic book store Lambiek has a whole collection of artists in their Comiclopedia as well as a nice history of Dutch comics. They sell a whole bunch of things as well.
There’s always the Comic strip fair on 24-25 February in Rijswijk, where you can meet the makers of Fokke & Sukke and ask them about their recent English books.
(Link and illustrations: Clogwork.net)
Tags: cartoons, illustrations
