The Dutch Files

… about The Dutch but were afraid to ask…

Yeah, I know, loads of bloggers are doing it, but I am giving it my own Dutch “Treat”… I am not taking the personal questions from you… yet… I am doing the Dutch theme for this edition of…

Everything you always wanted to know…

Ask me! Anything! Anything you have always wanted to know about The Dutch but were afraid to ask! Ask me about any Dutch custom, about any Dutch quirk you ever heard off, ask me about our do’s and don’ts, our likes and dislikes, the stereotypes going ’round, and whatever else is on your mind about us Dutchies. I will try to reply to your questions to the best of my ability.

Wikipedia will crumble next to the certified scientific answers you will get on Dutch life and Dutch ways from me.

Go on! Ask me! I know you are dying to know if all the weird stuff you have heard about my tiny little country and my fellow men and women is true! Most of it probably is! Trust me! We’re a nutty bunch… Tiny in countrysize, huge in everything else… Well, most…

Hell! Who knows… maybe I’ll learn something myself doing this…

Bu-ahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! Who am I kidding? I? The Supreme Dutch Bitch Being learn something? There is nothing left to learn for me… But still, I would love to answer your questions!

I will be taking questions all week and posting replies next week. Dah Dutchology Doctah is IN!

Yeah, so as there are stilllll no blogs to pimp… *SIGH* and as I’ve already pimped some Dutch music, I decided to take different road today. I was thinking of Dutchies that made it big… I mean, ya know, bigger than me… in the world (I know, hardly possible but ok). And the one that came to mind first was Anton Corbijn.

His name might not sound that familiar to any of you unless you are a photography freak or a music video lover and keep up with all that shit. Anton Corbijn is quite famous in both areas, mostly due to his work for many pop and rock artists.

He’s a photographer who did world renowned photographs of big artists like U2, Elvis Costello and David Bowie, and tons of album covers for acts like Depeche Mode, U2 (again), John Lee Hooker, Nick Cave and Metallica. He’s also well known for directing music videos. like Nirvana’s “Heart Shaped Box” for instance.

If you check out the list of album covers (click! then click “works”) or the list of music video’s (click!), I simply can’t believe if you wouldn’t know at least one of each…

Yeah, all made by a Dutch guy!

Heh…

Hey STFU! I am allowed to be proud of a fellow Dutchy making it big, right?

Well, because apparently my pimpin skills have driven every possible pimpable blog away (I’ve been without a blog to pimp for 2nd week in a row now), I’ll continue acquainting you with some Dutch pop and rock artists… Just for a bit of Dutch culture to come your way…

This week’s Dutch awesome act is Anouk. This mother of three is Dutchyland’s awesomest rock chick. She’s been rocking away for about 10-12 years now, and I really like her style. It’s hard to choose from all her tracks as they are very diverse. And I love so many of them. I am posting 2 vid’s of her.

The first one is “Girl” one of her more uptempo songs:

and the second one is one of my all time favorite’s of her, called “Lost”:

If you like her, check out Anouk TV on You Tube. Her latest single was just posted on there with a clip of her singing live, which is pretty good as well, and again totally different to the ones I posted. It also has links to her official website and her MySpace page. Check her out!

Have a guh-reat Saturday! I will be out most of the day, to go see a 9 hour (!!!) theater performance with my Mom on the Greek mythological figure “Odysseus“. Wish me luck..!

Because I am all out of blogs to pimp I am entertaining you today by further acquainting you with my favorite Dutch band (and one of The Guy’s favorites too, we saw them live in May!). This is their latest single.

Bløf - Oktober

Oktober overvalt ons ieder jaar
October takes us by surprise every year
We kijken naar elkaar, naar een overvolle zomer
We look at eachother, at a funfilled summer
En we zijn alweer veranderd
And we’ve already changed
Maar het voelt niet meer vertrouwd
But it doesn’t feel comfortable anymore
Nu we plotseling beseffen dat wij onszelf niet zijn
Now that we suddenly realize that we’ve lost ourselves
In oktober
In October
Oktober is de wreedste maand oktober
October is the cruelest month October
Met de dingen die voorbij gaan maar wel ergens blijven hangen
With the things that pass but still linger on somewhere
Ze komen steeds weer bij ons terug
They keep coming back to us
Ergens in oktober
Somewhere in October
Oktober overvalt ons ieder jaar
October takes us by surprise every year
We blijven bij elkaar na een veel te korte zomer
We stay together after summer being way too short
En we zijn alweer veranderd, niet ten goede of ten kwade
And we’ve already changed, not better nor worse
Maar veranderd niettemin
But nevertheless, we’ve changed
In oktober
In October
Oktober is de wreedste maand oktober
October is the cruelest month October
Met de dingen die voorbij gaan maar wel ergens blijven hangen
With things that pass but still linger on somewhere
Ze komen steeds weer bij ons terug
They keep coming back to us
En meestal in oktober
And usually in October
Meestal in oktober
Usually in October

Yah… so yesterday was the first day of SUMMERholiday for The Kid… Well, except for the fact that all of Dutchyland has forgotten how to “do” summer over the past years for some reason… July sucks ass…

We had planned to go out and go to the beach and shit… but nooooooo, why the hell would Dutch weather cooperate with us on that one?

THIS is what Dutch summer looks like right now… Granted, walking the Pier of Scheveningen, the wind displays a magnificent sight on waves crashing into the pier and onto the beach… that is almost deserted…

[click for larger images]

So yeah, we gave up on the “good weather plans” fairly early in this week, and we decided upon this

The movie was great! I mostly only get to see kid’s movies in the cinema these days and I can safely say that this is one of the funniest I’ve ever seen. And that bucket of popcorn? That made us skip dinner… Well, we did have dessert: icecream… but that was it!