July 19, 2012
The extremely rare Callopistria juventina, a moth of the Noctuidae family, was spotted in late June in the South of Limburg by a butterfly catcher. In 30 years, it has only been seen twice before in the Netherlands, in 1984 and 2000, and is usually found in this country.
(Link: www.limburger.nl, Photo of Callopistria juventina by dhobern, some rights reserved)
April 16, 2012
As my co-blogger Branko who comes from asparagus country himself put it, “I don’t think we can abstain from writing about this Limburg promo”. And when it comes to gobbling up asparagus, why go for a soft sell, right? Enough puns from me, watch the video.
And if you thought white asparagus looked like a small Caucasian male, you’ll enjoy this banana version parody. In fact, the people who made the advert could be going for a cheap viral, as you don’t need any words to get this message across.
(Link: trendbeheer.com, Photo by Wikipedia user Janericloebe who released it into the public domain)
February 14, 2012
Street combing is cool, but then so is calling rubbish art and exhibiting it at big venues, including the city hall of Heerlen, Limburg. Starting today, visitors there can have a look all kinds of things collected by cleaners who are trying to attract attention to issues such as being paid for sick leave and getting more respect.
This travelling exhibition already seen in The Hague, Groningen and Utrecht tells stories about some 1,000 found objects such as a gold bracelet, a can of cola, a teddy bear and a syringue. The idea is that cleaners reflect our society and are indispensable, while they are not treated fairly despite the relatively well-organised Dutch labour system. Cleaners all over the country have been striking as well to get their point across.
(Link: www.limburger.nl)
Tags: art out of garbage, cleaners, exhibition, Heerlen, Limburg, rubbish
January 26, 2012
A 90-year-old pharmacist in Maastricht is said to be devastated after popular Dutch talk show De Wereld Draait Door messed up the translation of a subtitle in their film of the elderly man.
In a segment where they show funny videos, a woman walks into his pharmacy and asked for something for her throat. He makes a charming joke, saying, “Did you sing too much?”.
Problem is, the television show didn’t air this because they thought he said “did you sing too much”, but they understood it as “did you suck too much”, which, if that had been what he said, would be kinda funny.
But he said ‘sing’ (‘gezongen’) and not ‘suck’ (‘gezogen’). The man has a Limburg accent that the subtitler didn’t understand, made an assumption and basically trashed a hard-working old man out of ignorance.
My friends also tell me that if the old man had meant ‘suck’ (blow job), he’d have used a totally different verb in local dialect.
The show sent the man a ‘we’re sorry’ bouquet of flowers, but he still claims he’ll never watch the show again.
(Link: www.limburger.nl, Photo of Old drugstore by fpeault, some rights reserved)
Tags: De Wereld Draait Door, dialect, Limburg, Maastricht
January 5, 2012
What sounded like an ‘Oh dear, Jos Verstappen got mad again flair up, has now turned into running down his ex girlfriend with a car.
Once the pride of Limburg in Formula 1 racing ‘Jos the Boss’ has now become just another abusive partner and criminal in many people’s eyes. According to the woman’s story, she jumped out of his car at a filling station and he drove after her, hitting her with his car on her side. She only had scraped and bruises, which even scares me as a I write this. He then drove her home and made the textbook profuse apologies, begging her not to call the police. Once she was home, she eventually called the police, and he’s been arrested.
Having compared Limburg to Québec where I come from in a PechaKucha presentation in Maastricht, I can tell you that Gilles Villeneuve (here above), Québec’s first F1 race car driver did some really weird and dangerous stuff on the track, but not to his loved ones.
Epic and pathetic fail, Jos.
(Link: limburger.nl)
Tags: domestic violence, Jos Verstappen, Limburg
December 30, 2011
The watch Dutch astronaut André Kuipers is currently wearing in space was specially designed and made for him by watchmaker Roland Oostwegel from Heerlen, which is positive news from a city that has had to tear down an entire shopping mall right before Christmas for fear of collapse.
The watch bears the name R.O.1 SPACE Special Edition (pics) and will stay five months in space at the ISS on Kuipers’ wrist. It is the first-ever Dutch watch to go into space. I love how the second watch has a number four that looks like the capital Russian letter ‘d’ (Д).
When Kuipers met Oostwegel he told him about how astronauts lose their sense of time. Oostwegel then decided to create a watch for astronauts to solve this problem, with a mission counter that displays the elapsed mission time in days and weeks, and an extra sub dial for when the space ship has made one full lap around planet Earth in 91 minutes and 59 seconds.
Price for the stainless steel limited edition starts at 4900 euro.
(Link: limburger.nl, www.fratellowatches.com, Photo of a telescope at the Brunssummerheide (‘Brunssum heather’) in Heerlen)
December 12, 2011
Members of dating website Parship have voted the Brabant accent the sexiest, the site reported last month.
The Southern accents (Noord-Brabant and Limburg) are both characterized by ‘soft’ gs (both voiced and unvoiced) that are produced by pronouncing the g more forward in the mouth.
The accents from Limburg and Amsterdam ended second and third in the poll, with men preferring the former and women the latter. The Amsterdam accent is characterized amongst other by a tongue tip r and the devoicing of initial consonants: “de zon in the zee zien zakken” (to see the sun sink into the sea) becomes “de son in de see sien sakke”.
A sample of both the soft and the hard g can be heard in the suddenly prescient and salacious 2010 carnival hit song by Jos van Oss (Oss being a place in Brabant) Ik heb een zachte G, maar ook een harde L (I have a soft G, but also a hard D), in which the male singer sports a Southern G and the female singers have a hard G.
(Photo by Ali Nishan, some rights reserved)
Tags: accents, Amsterdam, Dating, Limburg, Limburgish, Noord-Brabant, traits
December 2, 2011
As if the troubled old mining town of Heerlen didn’t have enough problems, just before Sinterklaas, the biggest shopping time of the year in the Netherlands, shopping mall ‘t Loon (residential tower shown here) has been closed off, as it could collapse at any moment.
There is a parking garage under the mall, which has been propped up with big steel beams since October. A part of the garage was closed off for security reasons and the people living in the 12-story tower above were told that the cement pillars in the garage had cracks in them.
That’s the only information residents got until just a few days ago when the authorities announced that the mall was unsafe. A dozen shops have had to close and cars have been removed from the parking on the roof, while residents have been offered alternative accommodations in a motel.
Today, the shopping mall is empty and ‘potdicht’ (totally closed off). It could be months before they reopen, if it the entire thing doesn’t collapse before then, which actually could happen.
Experts and specialists are working on it, as it wasn’t just some construction error. Something underground is accelerating the sinking, but nobody knows what yet. And it all got worse overnight. As I write this, the city of Heerlen is holding a press conference and twittering about the situation.
(Link: limburger.nl, Photo of ‘t Loon shopping mall, Heerlen by unicron1bot, some rights reserved)
Tags: Heerlen, Limburg, Sinterklaas
November 29, 2011
He was the darling of the F1 racing world here in the 1990s because he was Dutch and talented. He was also the best weapon I had to get my Dutch friends to glue themselves in front of the TV on a Sunday while I was watching Jacques Villeneuve pull his own variety of stunts.
The rumours had started back then as well, about Jos Verstappen’s temper. He was accused of harassing and assaulting his Belgian wife at the time, ex-kart driver Sophie Kumpen. In the end, the judge only chose to punish him for sending threatening text messages and violating an existing restraining order. Last time I checked, a restraining order does look a lot like a red flag. There was something about slashing the tyres of her car as well.
A 24-year-old woman from Roermond, Limburg has recently filed a report with the police of a 39-year-old man from nearby Maaseik who attacked her at a hotel after a party. Since the police wouldn’t say who it was, the press is assuming it is Jos Verstappen, although the racing driver told the press everything is fine with him and his girlfriend.
There’s also an incident when Verstappen and his father ‘assaulted’ a photographer (a man) who ended up with a fractured skull at a karting event. They both got five-year suspended sentences after reaching an out-of court settlement.
(Links: www.limburger.nl, www.duemotori.com) Photo of Jos Verstappen by Mike Philippens, some rights reserved)
Tags: F1, Jos Verstappen, Limburg
September 14, 2011
Arguably one of the Netherlands’ best known punk bands internationally, De Heideroosjes from Horst aan de Maas, Limburg, have decided to stop making music after 22 years. Their last album entitled Cease Fire will be out on 21 November. The band started out called Fire, so this last album has a full circle ring to it.
Founded in 1989, the band has been on Epitath records in California for years, arguably one of the world’s best punk labels. They sing in English, Dutch, German and the dialect Limburgish (see below). Contrary to so many other bands, De Heideroosjes have had the exact same band members ever since they started, and they claim that stopping won’t be easy to do.
And in 1998 friend and music lover Guuz Hoogaerts wrote their biography entitled ‘De Heideroosjes, een teringtyfustakkeband’ (‘De Heideroosjes, a freakinfuckinfantastic band’)(rough translation, pardon the pun, the Dutch bit is in reference to one of their older songs), being a big fan of good music from Limburg. The book tells us how the band earned their internal status not by ‘blowing the right people’, but through hard work, great songs and remaining true to their ideals.
Even Lady Gaga actually ‘ripped off’ the intro of De Heideroosjes’ song ‘We Are Share the Same Sun’ in Electric Chapel. Follow the above link and compare, I’m convinced.
De Heideroosjes – Jerry rules in the land of the free (in English)
De Heideroosjes – Boore Lul (‘Dumbass farmer, rougly) (in Limburgs)
De Heideroosjes – Wurst und Käse (Sausage and Cheese) (in German)
(Link: volkskrant.nl)
Tags: Heideroosjes, Limburg, Limburgish, punk
