October 14, 2010

Researching the Mozart effect

Filed under: Music,Science by Orangemaster @ 3:57 pm

The Noord Nederlands Orkest of Groningen plans to participate in scientific research into the Mozart effect together with the Univeristy of Groningen.

The Mozart effect is a theory that claims to boost one’s IQ (and that of children) by listening to and/or playing Mozart. During an upcoming concert, the audience’s brain activity is going to be measured, as part of an experiment.

There are all kinds of serious studies on why listening to music is good for your brain, but then the idea that it increases intelligence is controversial at best.

Although I love Mozart, I preferred to go to Salzburg and check him out in person.

(Link: rtvnoord)

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September 17, 2010

Yellow fungus returns to the Netherlands after 55 years

Filed under: Nature by Branko Collin @ 9:42 pm

The Netherlands was still clinging to its delusions of colonial grandeur, Robert Jasper Grootveld was still just a window cleaner, and the province of Flevoland had yet to rise from the sea when the spathularia flavida, a fungus also known as the yellow earth tongue or yellow fan (wiki dixit), was last spotted in this country.

Fifty-five years on, and Bert Oving discovers thousands of them in the Vledder forest of East-Groningen, near Germany. Trouw adds that because of the wet and yet warm weather several other rare species have returned this year, among them the red cage (clathrus ruber) and the octopus stinkhorn (clathrus archeri).

Media Stadskanaal has photos and a video. My camera is aching to go hiking.

(Photo by Irene Andersson, some rights reserved)

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August 26, 2010

The last of the Frisian students

Filed under: Fashion,Literature,Music by Orangemaster @ 1:18 pm

According to the Volkskrant, only one student has registered to study Frisian this year at the University of Groningen, the only university in the country that offers a Bacherlor’s and Master’s degree in the country’s second official language.

Professor Goffe Jensma said on a local radio show in Groningen that new rules allowing universities to set their own fees for second degrees was at the heart of the problem. Grytsje Nicolaij, who already has a degree as a musicologist, was planning to study Fries on the side to keep up with family and friends who spoke the language better than he did. If the university does not attract more students (how many, we don’t know) before October 1, Grytsje will have to brush up on his Frisian elsewhere.

What does Frisian sound like?

Frisian Duo Twarres had a huge hit with ‘Wêr Bisto’ (‘Live, with a Dutch translation). The girl is the guitarist, the guy is the back up singer and they are childhood friends:

Frisian model Doutzen Kroes (L’Oréal, Victoria’s Secret) promotes her mother tongue:

(Link: volkskrant, via dutchnews)

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August 8, 2010

Gr’omnibus, Groningen’s underground comics talent collected

Filed under: Comics by Branko Collin @ 10:54 am

Martin Wisse has got a good tip:

A can’t miss bargain to be had at De Slegte in Amsterdam right now: copies of Gr’omnibus, a treasure trove of sequential art from Groningen, the Athens of the North; an invaluable treasure now yours for only two euro fifty! Why you should bother? Because you get to sample some 40 odd (some very odd) Dutch (as well as the occasional furreign) cartoon talents, culled from the pages of one of the most consistent of Dutch underground comix zines, Gr’nn.

Groningen (Grunn in the local dialect) is one of [the interesting cities outside the Randstad], a university town big enough not to be overwhelmed by it with a decent local art scene and night-life, a city in which over the years a thriving alt-comix scene has been established.

In 1996 a few of them started Gr’unn, which since then has published a lot of up and coming cartoonists. People like Barbara Stok, Mark Hendriks, Amoebe, the Lamelos collective, Marcel Ruijters, Reinder Dijkhuis, Berend Vonk, all had strips in Gr’nn. […]

So if you’re in Amsterdam and you want a cheap way to sample a huge chunk of the contemporary Dutch comix scene, go get Gr’omnibus from de Slegte. It’s in the middle of Kalverstraat so even tourists should be able to find it.

He is right you know, and today I grabbed myself one of the last four copies. You guys need to hurry!

De Slegte is a chain store for second hand and remaindered books, and very popular in this book-mad country.

Illustrations: cover artist unknown, Vlerk, Jan Krol, and Nico Visscher respectively.

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May 24, 2010

Walking across the Wadden Sea

Filed under: Nature,Sports,Weird by Branko Collin @ 11:40 am

Legend has it that when God created the Groninger, the Groninger said: “Get off my land.” And as if to prove a point, Groningers (and Frisians) still walk across dozens of miles of sea each day, as New York Times reporter David Corn attests:

After about an hour, Mr. Kraster comes to a stop. He says he has some good news and some bad news. For the next stretch, the ground will be less muddy — but the water will be higher. He points in the direction we’ll be heading. I still see nothing but sky and water before us. He could be leading us anywhere — including into deep water. He takes a step, and the water is close to his waist. The rest of us realize we are standing on a ridge and about to take a plunge.

The activity described here is mudflat hiking, wadlopen in Dutch, and is possible because of the unique properties of the Wadden Sea. At high tide the area is a sea, at low tide it is land—partly—and you can cross from the mainland to the Wadden Islands over some of the muddy watersheds. This is exactly what 30,000 people in the Netherlands do each year. Mudflat walking is also possible across the Wadden Sea portions of Germany and Denmark.

(Photo by nl.wikipedia user Marieke78, some rights reserved.

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January 18, 2010

Kyteman wins Popprijs 2009

Filed under: Music by Branko Collin @ 11:02 am

Kyteman’s Hip Hop Orchestra won the Popprijs 2009 (‘Pop prize’) in Groningen last Saturday.

The 12-piece-band won one of the most prestigious pop music awards of the Netherlands for its contributions to the genre. The chairman of the jury, Hans Kosterman, called the orchestra “authentic, a source of inspiration, strong-minded and very successful.”

The prize consists of 10,000 euro and a statuette. The annual award was introduced in 1986, when it was given to singer Mathilde Santing. Despite having 10 MCs, the band is perhaps best known for its instrumental, Sorry.

(Link: Parool. Video: Kyteman.)

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January 12, 2010

Artists sneak in and hang their works up in museums

Filed under: Art,Weird by Orangemaster @ 1:20 pm
Bonnefantenmuseum

Last night, a group of young artists hung up their own works of art in three major Dutch museum, the Groninger Museum in Groningen, the Bonnefanten Museum in Maastricht and Museum de Fundatie in Zwolle. This act of protest was meant to draw attention to the fact that not just established artists should be in museums, but young, up and coming artists as well.

This morning the Bonnefanten Museum (shown here) said that they found a large black-and-white photo in the old art wing, while de Fundatie found a small colour painting among its collection. Both museums were closed at the time and neither of them has any idea how the art got there. Employees of the Groninger Museum saw a big object in their security cameras and when they went to check it out, the big object had disappeared. Spooky.

So besides this stunt making the news and all, it also tells me how useless the security actually is at all three museums.

(Link: depers.nl, Photo of Bonnefanten Museum in Maastricht by Peter Zoon, some rights reserved)

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November 7, 2009

Fantasy political map of the Netherlands

Filed under: General by Branko Collin @ 11:53 am

This map shows the fake island kingdom the Netherlands could be if its geography fully followed its politics. In the real world, top left dogs Nijmegen and Groningen are separated by 200 kilometres, as are right wing islands Kessel and Urk.

Here’s a quick legend: links = left, rechts = right, rood = red, rijk = rich, steden = cities, and midden = middle.

The two regions that in reality do exist as geographical areas are the Bible Belt and the Rode Regio, an area that used to have a lot of communists, basically the Groningen country-side.

The map is one of two made by Weetmeer.nl, the other following more classical coastlines.

I can vouch for the position of Nijmegen, having lived there for ten years. Nijmegen’s and Groningen’s progressive and left-wing attitude may at least in part have to do with a large student body, making up ten percent of the population in the case of Nijmegen. Would the Catholic church have thought that when they started their university there in the 1920s as a bulwark against socialist forces?

(Link: Geen commentaar.)

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October 25, 2009

Fokje Modder elected ‘shame name’ of 2009

Filed under: Weird by Branko Collin @ 2:55 pm

Radio DJs Coen Swijnenberg (‘swine mountain’) and Sander Lantinga (wholly unremarkable name) have elected their ‘shame name’ for 2009: Fokje Modder.

Fokje had to fight other strong contestants like Constant Lam (‘continuously drunk’), Wil Krikke (‘wants to have sex’), and Englishman Ben Brack (‘have a hangover’) in an involuntary election of the oddest name of the country.

According to NOS Headlines, Fokje (pronounced fok ye) has never been troubled by her name, but she has never been abroad either.

Considering the amount of Fokjes whose last names end in -(e)ma, I would guess the name stems from Groningen.

Last year’s winner was Stanley Messie (‘small Stanley knife’).

Lantinga and Swijnenberg occupy the 4 – 7 pm slot on popular music channel 3FM.

(Photo by Flickr user Thelearnr, some rights reserved.)

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August 4, 2009

Sewer pipes as hotel rooms

Filed under: Architecture,Dutch first by Branko Collin @ 9:30 am

Camping ‘t Buitengewoon Groenhoff in Vriescheloo, Groningen, is using sewer pipes to build a ‘bear hotel,’ although intended to house paying human guests instead of bears.

The ‘caves’ will each have a bed and two chairs, and are meant to house the participants of team-building sessions and similar outings. Apparently, the brainstorm that led to this idea was drenched in beer. Staying a day under these spartan conditions will set one back about 100 euro, a price that includes three meals.

The camping is not the first to use sewer pipes as rooms, a hotel in Austria has done something similar before.

See also: 25 years of wine barrels as hotel rooms.

(Photo: ‘t Buitengewoon Groenhoff. Link: Bright.)

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