June 10, 2008

NZH timetables using European comics

Filed under: Comics by Branko Collin @ 6:00 pm

The 24 Oranges crew visited the Stripdagen Haarlem last Sunday, where it was reminded of the special connection one of the sponsors has with comics. NZH is a public transportation company from 1880 (now part of Connexxion) which during the 1980s brought out timetable books that used covers drawn by comics artists—first Dutch artists, then the leading European ones. For ages now Dik Winter has had a site with these and similarly themed later covers from GVB, the Amsterdam public transport company.

NZH’s (and GVB’s) connection with comics likely stems from jonkheer (squire) AndrĂ© Esta’s love for comics. Esta was the NZH CEO in the 1980s, and in the 1990s he switched to GVB.

Shown here is Lucky Luke by Belgian artist Morris.

Photo below: a vendor’s stand at a sunny Grote Markt in Haarlem.

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Weeding out labour problems with bus drivers

Filed under: General,Weird by Orangemaster @ 9:32 am
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Yesterday about 100 bus drivers, currently on strike and upsetting many people who are just trying to get to work on time, used their ‘spare time’ to weed out the garden of the rehabilitation centre Het Roessingh in Enschede, Twente. This was apparently the bus drivers’ way to show they can put their time to good use.

All decked out in national orange, the drivers showed up ‘for work on time’ at 8:30 am to get busy pulling weeds. The drivers have been on strike for more than a week (I thought it was more like a month…) for a better collective labour agreement. However, the negotiations are going South and threats of going to the judge are being made.

I’m just upset at not being able to take the comfy bus straight to the beach.

(Link: waarmaarraar.nl)

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June 9, 2008

Orange lingerie on the football pitch

Filed under: Sports,Weird by Orangemaster @ 11:33 am
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In the Netherlands, during any major football event, we get ‘orange fever’: everything is coloured orange to match the colours of the country and the football team. It is also a time when any kind of respect for women goes out the window in marketing circles and us broads falls into two categories: scantly clad entertainment during half time on television or kitchen slaves to male friends and family.

Some marketing ‘geniuses’ came up with this one: “For every point scored by the Dutch team, Dutch women (not Silicon Valley Saphy here) should run onto the pitch in their branded lingerie set and if (only if!) they get their picture in the papers will they win a year’s supply (12 lingerie sets) worth EUR 29,95 a set. That’s a whopping EUR 359,40 in lingerie that’s surely worth less than half that. So roughly speaking, EUR 180 of boring product for running onto the pitch maybe getting into the papers, and making a complete fool of yourself.

1) Bored middle aged white men usually streak at big events, not women.

2) Where’s the money? Put some really money on the table, not some pathetic EUR 180 worth of cheap lingerie and we’ll think about running onto the pitch. A car, maybe, or a trip for two somewhere.

3) If this works, I almost promise to write another piece to commend your work. If not, we will trash you and your blow up doll.

(Links: bizz.nl and reclamewereld.blog.nl)

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June 7, 2008

Comics artists on their plans at the Stripdagen Haarlem

Filed under: Animals,Comics,Shows by Branko Collin @ 3:11 pm

One of the major comics cons of the Netherlands is being held today and tomorrow, the Stripdagen Haarlem. The Amsterdam Weekly blog asked four members of the Dutch underground comics establishment what they will be visiting. Read the tips of

Sez Van Vugt:

2. Lots of nice exhibitions during the festival, but I wouldn’t want to miss the Lamelos vs. The Doozers spectacle in De Philharmonie (Saturday, 16.00) for the world. Two famously anarchistic comic artist ensembles build cardboard monsters and will fight each other to death! Mayhem ensues!

The gist seems to be that most will watch the guinea pig races (an old Dutch TV tradition) held at the De Philharmonie, and will ingest a liquid called “beer” afterwards.

Illustration: Tonio van Vugt, self-portrait. Disclaimer: Orangemaster also writes for Amsterdam Weekly and its blog.

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June 6, 2008

Play “Oranje”‘s manager with my online football fridge magnets

Filed under: Sports by Branko Collin @ 8:10 am

The European Football Championship 2008 kicks off on Saturday, 7 June. If you want to discuss tactics with your mates or if you just want to show coach Van Basten that you know better than he does, and if you lack a fridge and the right player magnets to play coach, I’ve created a web page that will let you come up with your own formations for Oranje to your heart’s content. Just drag around the ‘magnetic’ players onto the virtual, pitch shaped ‘fridge door’ until you’re satisfied.

Once you’ve created your formation, a link will be created by background magic, which if you click it will recreate that specific formation. Bookmark it, e-mail it to your friends (just click Uitleg(‘Explanation’) and copy the link that starts with Kopieer(‘Copy’)), or post it here in the comments to discuss with other readers.

The play dates for Oranje this year are: Monday, June 9, Friday, June 13, and Tuesday, June 19.

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June 5, 2008

Homeless person moved together with “his” building

Filed under: Architecture,Weird by Branko Collin @ 12:45 pm

Last week a silo being moved to its final destination on the Ciboga terrain in the city of Groningen had a curious passenger, Blik op Nieuws reports (Dutch). A homeless man who had made the empty building from 1910 his home refused to leave it for the transport. The movers then decided to leave the man where he was and transport the building with him in it. The silo was put in its old location, except that it now has a parking garage underneath.

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June 4, 2008

England to support the Dutch at the EC

Filed under: Sports by Branko Collin @ 10:26 am

This weekend, the second most important sporting event in the world, the European Football Championship, will start in Switzerland and Austria. For the first time in more than 20 years, no team from the British isles have qualified, and as a result, the English press have gotten antsy for another team to get behind. Readers and writers of both the Daily Mail and The Guardian, two newspapers otherwise far apart, have picked the Netherlands as the team to support. The former selected 10 reasons why they would support ‘Oranje’, with “they like darts too” topping the list. The Guardian let its readers decide in what looks like a completely above-board and impartial Internet poll.

Via De Telegravin (Dutch). Souce image: The Guardian. The question was: “Who should we back in Euro 2008?”

Update 20:15: Arnoud Engelfriet spoils, er, spills the beans. Apparently the Guardian’s voting process was helped along by what the newspaper called “a triumphant piece of hacking” by the Geen Stijl-blog.

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June 3, 2008

‘Oldest’ cat of the Netherlands dies

Filed under: Animals by Orangemaster @ 8:02 am
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Black cat Mous from the town of Korte Akkeren passed away last Sunday at age 29, making it probably the oldest cat of the Netherlands. Such an age for a cat is quite exceptional. The average house cat lives to be about 15.

Here at 24 oranges, we had to put my 21-year-old cat Moonster to sleep yesterday, which makes this an interesting coincidence.

Our condolences to Mous’ owner, Cornelis Kalmeijer. We really, really know how you feel right about now.

Read more about Moonster the cat.

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(Link and photo above, ad.nl, photo: Branko)

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June 2, 2008

Foreign female professor in Nijmegen honoured in the US

Filed under: Science by Orangemaster @ 10:55 am
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Anne Cutler, professor at the Institute for Cognition and Information at the University of Nijmegen and director of the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen, has been elected as a member of the National Academy of Sciences in the US, a huge honour bestowed to very few people. To give you an idea, The National Academy of Sciences currently has some 2,000 active members, of which more than 180 are living Nobel Prize winners. Famous past members include Albert Einstein, Robert Oppenheimer, Thomas Edison, Orville Wright and Alexander Graham Bell.

Cultler’s research revolves around how the brain processes spoken language. In 1999 she was the first woman to be awarded the Spinoza Prize, a kind of Dutch Nobel Prize. Back then, Dutch feminists (Opzij magazine) jumped at the occasion to hail women’s achievements only to realise that Ann Culter is Australian. “The most intelligent woman in the Netherlands is Australian,” read the article.

And then most female top managers in the Netherlands are foreigners. Is the hint big enough now?

(Link: ru.nl)

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June 1, 2008

Giant fried egg sculptures sunny side up in Leeuwarden

Filed under: Art by Branko Collin @ 3:43 pm

Google Maps and Google Earth introduced a new rule for the makers of public art: your art must be visible from outer space. Henk Hofstra certainly applies this new rule with vigour: first there was the river street in Drachten, now he’s installed a project called Art Eggcident in Leeuwarden, which consists of giant fried eggs on the Frisian’s capital’s Zaailand square. Many more photos at Hofstra’s site.

Via BoingBoing. Source photos: The Wooster Collective.

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