June 16, 2008
On 11 June 2008, Queen Beatrix royally opened the Graphic Design Museum in Breda, the first museum in the world dedicated to graphic design. The museum plans to function as a museum, knowledge centre, training facility, shop, designer café and production house for graphic design. It offers an international stage for established designers as well as a springboard for new talent.
(Link and photos: graphicdesignmuseum.nl)
Tags: Breda, graphic design, Graphic Design Museum
June 15, 2008
The Klingon Terran Research Ensemble is planning to perform a real Klingon opera called U in November this year. If you cannot wait until then, the ensemble regularly holds musical “battles” at the Zeebelt theater in the Hague. It also has several videos up at Youtube showcasing Klingon instruments and techniques.
According to the print version of Zone 5300, KTRE founder Floris Schönfeld takes his work very serious and many of the artists involved are classically schooled.
For those of you who have been stuck In Real Life the past forty years, Klingons are a race of space aliens from the fictional Star Trek universe.
June 13, 2008
Germany-born but Rotterdam-based artist Stefan Gross sells these nesting boxes that look like skulls. “Rebirdy is fashioned from a frost-resistant ceramic material and can be easily cleaned by lifting the skullcap,” the artist says.
Recently he posted a video of a skull-shaped bird house inhabited by a blue tit at Youtube.
Via BoingBoing, who got the story from Kitschy Kitschy Coo.
June 12, 2008
Johan Cruijff, former Dutch football star and guru, came up with another of his famous off-the-cuff expressions after the Netherlands’ surprising 3-0 victory over Italy last Monday: tutti frutti.
Sports folks are known for not being able to speak properly and hypercorrect themselves to try and sound better. Johan Cruijff is known for mangling Dutch grammar, but at the same time, has this uncanny ability to make some sense. Cruijff said, “Zet er één in de spits en maak er wat tuttifrutti van,” which probably makes as much sense to the non-Dutch speaker untranslated as it does translated: “Put one up front and make tutti frutti out of it.” Cruijff was apparently boasting the merits of using one striker and having midfielders attacking in waves, but nobody knows for sure, although it sounds good.
Here are some other odd but could be prophetic things he has said in the past. There’s a whole book out there with these expressions.
“Sometimes something’s got to happen before something is going to happen.”
“Football is simple, but it is difficult to play simple.”
“Every disadvantage has its advantage.”
My favourite is “If you don’t shoot, you can’t score”. How true.
(Link: radionetherlands.nl)
Tags: football, Johan Cruijff, tutti frutti
June 11, 2008
Maybe the small man or boy on the right is not white, but Arnoud de Jong of the Amsterdam Central Station website doubts it. Apparently, once the station will be renovated, it will be populated by white yuppies.
De Jong took a look at the municipal website and found that the ‘artist impressions’ did not provide a single identifiable person of foreign origin. No Muslims, no one even remotely religious looking or multicultural, while one in every three residents of Amsterdam fits the ‘non-Western foreigner’ bill. Maybe they’ll be riding donkeys.
And then there’s the women, as one woman pointed out in the comments. Young, thin and long-haired. The one in the foreground was probably taken from some catwalk. Not a single one of them is dressed for work, while the men are in suits. This has to have been the ‘work’ of a heterosexual white man.
If this is what Central Station plans to look like, I will continue to use the modest yet modern satellite station Sloterdijk where real people take the train.
(Link and Illustration: nieuwsuitamsterdam.nl)
Tags: Amsterdam Central Station, racism, sexism, trains
June 10, 2008
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) André 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.
Tags: cons, Haarlem, public transport
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)
Tags: bus strike, Enschede, weeds
June 9, 2008
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)
June 7, 2008
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.
Tags: cardboard, cons, guinea pigs, Haarlem, monsters, Zone 5300
June 6, 2008
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.
Tags: 24oranges, EURO2008, football, Marco van Basten
