April 29, 2013

Battle of the Beasts: Men’s roller derby in the Netherlands

Filed under: Dutch first,Sports by Orangemaster @ 1:40 pm

(Team Holland v. Team Germany)

Last Saturday, the town of Valkenswaard, Noord-Brabant played host to the first men’s roller derby tournament of the Netherlands, fittingly called ‘Battle of the Beasts’, featuring three national teams put together for the occasion: Team Holland, Team Belgium and Team Germany.

In a tournament of three complete matches called ’bouts’, the men did some heavy hitting in this full contact sport that is in fact originally a women’s sport. Not only did this tournament become part of Dutch sports history by being the first ever men’s event on Dutch soil, but it also put men’s derby on the map in The Netherlands. Team Holland was mostly made up of referees from Dutch women’s roller derby leagues, many of which play in the only Dutch men’s league from Groningen, Roaring Thunder Men’s Derby.

Team Holland took a surprising second place, decided in a nail-biting recounting of points in their second bout, which first had Team Germany pegged as the winners, but then turned into an unexpected win for the Dutch. The small yet dedicated crowd went wild, as the Dutch men performed beyond anybody’s wildest dreams. The fact that the Dutch were neck and neck points wise with the Germans was a delight to watch.

Team Belgium was the solid winner of this tournament, beating Team Holland in the first bout and Team Germany right afterwards in the second. For those who don’t know, bouts are an hour long with two 30-minute periods called halves, and that’s a lot of skating, sweat and in this case as well, injuries, albeit no broken bones.

(Team Holland v. Team Belgium)

Team Germany took third place, but put up a fierce fight all day, according to Team Holland’s captain, Rollin’ Reckless. “We went from zeroes in the first bout to heroes in the third bout. We rose to the occasion. I’m so freaking proud of all the Dutchies.”

(Disclaimer: I was one of the announcers of this tournament and Branko was one of the photographers, hence these lovely pictures)

Tags: , , ,

February 22, 2013

Nonsensical road signs in Noord Brabant

Filed under: Automobiles,Bicycles by Orangemaster @ 7:29 pm

In a country with so many traffic rules and regulations, many of which involve bikes, some set of road signs are so weird you won’t find them in theory books on learning how to drive.

Some of the ones in and around Eindhoven are easy to understand even if you don’t read Dutch, but for the rest:

No. 12: A bike path where bikes are allowed.
No. 20: A bus lane where bikes are allowed, a dangerous place to cycle.
No. 23: Probably the shortest bike path in the country.
No. 24: Neighbourhood being built, forbidden for construction vehicles.

(Link: www.ed.nl, Photo by Photocapy, some rights reserved)

Tags: , ,

January 3, 2013

Woman sues dog breeder and sets precedent

Filed under: Animals by Orangemaster @ 2:45 pm

A purebred dog breeder from Noord Brabant has been found guilty of selling an Irish setter with hereditary epilepsy to a woman in Rotterdam. He did not inform the woman of the possibility that her breed of dog could contract the disease during the sale and never mentioned it on his site for fear of bad publicity.

Once the woman’s dog contracted epilepsy, she took the breeder to court and won: the breeder was found guilty of ‘bad business practices’. He has been fined € 4,500, the original purchase price of the dog, plus € 1,500 in damages.

Clients expect that the purebred dogs they buy have been bred properly, as so many genetic-based diseases can affect these dogs. This now means than any purebred dog breeder in the Netherlands will have to be on their guard to avoid future lawsuits, but can they really guarantee that their dogs don’t have any health issues? I doubt it.

(Link: www.nrc.nl)

Tags: , , ,

July 7, 2012

Oldest farm in Western Europe almost torn down

Filed under: Architecture,History by Branko Collin @ 11:36 am

Farmer Piet Scheepers from Best, Noord Brabant, simply did not know that this barn of his was so old. He figured 300 years, tops. And because it was difficult to work in due to the low ceiling, he was ready to tear the building down, six years ago.

Research by local historian Dick Zweers has since put a stop to those plans, Omroep Brabant reports. Zweers found out that the wood in the building was from 1263: “The first thing I noticed that this used to be the sort of house where there was always a fire, people were always in the same room, they always had a need for warm water—you can tell by those sooted beams.” He adds: “There have been changes, but the construction is in essence still the same.”

Scheepers had already acquired a permit for demolition, now the government wants to turn the barn—which currently houses calves—into a state monument, and is willing to invest 100,000 euro in renovation, as is the provincial government.

Omroep Brabant calls this the oldest farm still in use in Western Europe. Back in November, Zweers was still hedging his bets: “Great Britain has also got a lot of old stuff.”

(Photo: Google Street View)

Tags: , , , , ,

June 9, 2012

Retro Dutch cycling jerseys

Filed under: Bicycles,Fashion,Sports by Orangemaster @ 8:51 pm

A website that specialises in vintage racing bikes from the Netherlands is about to produce a small collection of retro cycling jerseys, based on the coat of arms of Amsterdam and Utrecht as well as the one of the province of North Brabant. The three XXX (Saint Andrew’s Crosses) are part of the coat of arms of Amsterdam and have nothing to do with the modern, fake film rating of XXX, denoting porno films. Oh and 020 is Amsterdam’s phone area code, often used in conversation as a synonym for Amsterdam.

The designers wanted to have nice classic looking racing jerseys, but not those heavy wool ones you usually find in second hand shops with sponsoring of companies that you couldn’t care less about. Instead they opted for comfort and “being able to be proud of where you come from.” I know I’d love a Friesland or Limburg one.

For € 59,95 they’ll be making a limited batch of these jerseys if enough people want one. Send them an e-mail (klassiekeracefiets (at) hotmail.nl or .com) and get a nicely designed bike shirt with Amsterdam, Utrecht or Noord Brabant.

(Link: www.nieuwsuitamsterdam.nl)

Tags: , , ,

December 12, 2011

Brabant accent the sexiest

Filed under: General by Branko Collin @ 8:45 am

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: , , , , , ,

November 14, 2011

Underwater bridge by Ro&Ad architects recreates attacker’s eye view of fort

Filed under: Architecture by Branko Collin @ 8:58 am

This bridge crosses the moat to Fort de Roover in Halsteren, Noord-Brabant, which was part of a series of defences called the West Brabant Water Line.

Gizmodo writes, “it is made from sustainable Accoya wood treated with a non-toxic waterproof coating that protects it from decay, and since the moat is too shallow for boat traffic, there’s little risk of waves splashing up over the side.”

The bridge made the shortlist for the Building of the Year Award 2011 (which was ultimately won by the parking garage of the Windesheim College in Zwolle).

Water lines were defences that worked using inundation. Large tracts of lands were flooded, making them impassable to advancing armies. The West Brabant Water Line is the oldest of the country and was built in 1628. The main function of later water lines was to maintain the province of Holland as a national redoubt. The introduction of the tank in modern warfare put a stop to their use.

(Photo: ro-ad.org. See there for more photos, or follow the Gizmodo link.)

Tags: ,

October 10, 2011

The New Kids: Turbo goes Nitro

Filed under: Fashion,Film by Orangemaster @ 7:00 am

Dutch white trash is hotter than ever these days, embodied by the New Kids. They are violent, rude, gross, racist, sexist and very ‘facepalmy’. They’ll make you want to drink the cheapest beer you can find and go primitive in many bad ways. The New Kids film Nitro was just announced, and is ready to roll on 8 December.

In Nitro, the province of Friesland is invaded by a plague of zombies, far away from Maaskantje, the New Kids’ village in the province of Noord-Brabant. The New Kids are busy fighting a war with their counterparts in the nearby town of Schijndel, illegal street races and major fights abound. The zombies eventually get someone from Brabant and the New Kids then have a bigger, badder evil to screw with.

It’s on, ‘kut’!

No need for subtitles:

homo = fag
kut, swear word like ‘shit’, but meaning ‘cunt’ and used constantly as a noun, adjective, adverb, etc.

The fun party music at the end of the trailer goes ‘hoeren neuken, nooit meer werken’, which is the New Kids motto: ‘screwing whores and not working anymore’. Lovely.

Here’s the trailer of the first film Turbo that came out on 9 December 2010.

Tags: ,

August 23, 2011

Priest refuses to do funeral after euthanasia

Filed under: Religion,Weird by Orangemaster @ 2:28 pm

Although euthanasia has been legal in the Netherlands since 2002, all of a sudden a priest from Noord-Brabant has decided he won’t perform a funeral for someone who has been euthanised.

The family feels punished by the local church and has had to go to another church to hold their loved one’s funeral. The priest claimed he is just following orders set by the diocese and is also telling his colleagues not to handle funerals of the euthanised. His church says that they can understand his reluctance, but not finding a replacement is wrong, and are looking into it. The church also expects some apologies to be given to the family and that the priest might lose his job.

The local churchgoers are pissed that this could happen and are not so generous in giving their church funds to fix the organ all of a sudden.

(Link: trouw.nl, Photo by Johan Wieland, some rights reserved)

Tags: , ,

May 29, 2011

New medievalist fantasy show at Efteling theme park—Raveleijn

Filed under: Shows by Branko Collin @ 2:39 pm

Science fiction blog IO9 noticed the new Raveleijn attraction at Efteling in Noord-Brabant, and the steam-punkiness of it all.

The show tells the story of the evil count Graveheart who has his subjects building mechanical creatures that destroy the land. It is up to the ancient Order of Ravens, a order of magical knights, to stop the threat and return, er, order. Six shows are performed each day in the new, 35 million euro Raveleijn compound, and there is also a spin-off TV series.

Both the back-story and the TV series were written by hit children’s horror story writer Paul van Loon, who lives just around the corner from Efteling in Drunen. He is a serial winner of the Nederlandse Kinderjury award, a literary prize awarded by children. Van Loon usually swipes the awards for the younger age group, with Francine Oomen ‘owning’ the 10 to 12-year-olds. Remarkably, when the children were asked in 2002 what the best children’s books of all time were, it was J.K. Rowling who took off with most of the prizes instead of Oomen and Van Loon.

(Photo by Wikimedia Commons user Arch who released it into the public domain)

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,