Four weeks filled with friends, new-made friends, excitement, sportsmanship, beers, bars and of course football! We came, we saw and we did our best. It wasn’t enough, so congrats to Spain!*
I watched the World Cup final between The Netherlands and Spain at Museumplein. It was one, big, orange sea of madness. The picture below shows what it looked like this morning. It’s sad…
Museumplein the morning after we lost the World Cup Final (c) Guido van Nispen
*and Howard Webb, please find another job
I know the World Cup 2010 started last week, but with The Netherlands playing against Denmark, today will be the real kick-off for me. Love both countries to bits, but of course I’ll be rooting for my home country. I’m so excited!
Hup Holland Hup by (c) Amy van Wetten
Update: We won with 2-0 by playing average. Hope we’ll kick-ass the next time and show the world what true football should be like!
As I already mentioned in previous posts, I went to New York again. An ashcloud delayed it with only 10(!) days, but I made it. I can tell you a hundred stories about why I had an awesome time, but the next pictures will give you a hint of how much fun it was to be back.
The weather was beautiful, here enjoying it in Brooklyn's Prospect Park
Living with Greg, like I did in Copenhagen. Flatmates <3
Being reunited with my Amsterdam flatmate who's on exchange in NYC was awesome!
The best museums are in New York, period.
Abundance of good food in New York, even found on rooftops :)
After showing him Amsterdam, my NY friend showed me his city
Got to enjoy the unexpected! Here a sunrise from a Brooklyn rooftop during my last night
Most people think ruins are ugly, but somehow I have always been intrigued and attracted to the beauty of decay. As a child I always looked up the empty places, the old abandoned school across the street, a little cabin in the woods next to our house etc. More recently I went to Doel, a little almost abandoned village next to Antwerpen. Yesterday I came across some awesome pictures showing ruins in Detroit. The photographers Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre explain how they see their photograph series:
At the beginning of the 20th Century, the city of Detroit developed rapidly thanks to the automobile industry. Until the 50′s, its population rose to almost 2 million people.
Detroit was the 4th most important city in the United States. It was the dazzling symbol of the American Dream City with its monumental skyscrapers and fancy neighborhoods.
Increasing segregation and deindustrialization caused violent riots in 1967. The white middle-class exodus from the city accelerated and the suburbs grew.Firms and factories began to close or move to lower-wage states. Slowly, but inexorably downtown high-rise buildings emptied. Since the 50′s, “Motor City” lost more than half of its population. Nowadays, its splendid decaying monuments are, no less than the Pyramids of Egypt, the Coliseum of Rome, or the Acropolis in Athens, remnants of the passing of a great civilization.
Bank Vault (c) Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre
Ballroom, Lee Plaza Hotel (c) Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre
Ballroom, Fort Wayne Hotel (c) Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre
Often I come across crazy things on the interweb where one might think ‘that person has way too much time on their hands.’ However, I’m sometimes jealous of those people (I’m typing this after getting up at 6.45h to go to the gym, go to work afterwards untill 19:30h, go home to cook, only to continue work untill writing this post at 20:45h). Having too much time means you have time to think, time to get inspired, time to create. Here’s some great examples of completely random awesomeness that came after having too much time.
First, there is photographer Stefan. For the duration of one year, he’ll post pictures of what Stormtroopers do on their day off. Not only are the pictures of amazing quality, it’s also fucking funny. You can get your daily dose of stormtroopers via Flickr, e-mail, twitter or Facebook.
Stormtroopers by (c) Stefan
Stormtroopers by (c) Stefan
Second, there is this 15 year old kid who created a painting in MS Paint, the most tedious Microsoft program out there. It took him 4 (!) years to create it and such perseverance is admirable on its own. You can see the whole painting and details in this video.
Third, there is this cool parkour motion reel that I unfortunately can’t embed here. The video says it is illustrated with technical pen, frame by frame. That sure does takes patience but it’s worth the effort. Enjoy!
I like books and I like photography. So how can I not like the following images of books I came across the blogs I follow? Enjoy!
Recession / Recessione - A Nonexistent Exhibition
Although probably no artist likes to admit this, one needs money to be able to create art. Recession is therefore bad news for art. A design studio in Italy came up with a creative way of showcasing art when money is low with “Recession / Recessione – A Nonexistent Exhibition“.
According to the creators, this book (or actually more a catalogue) is a great example of an exhibition that will never take place due to budget limitations. It’s a nonexistent exhibition, you can create one yourself in your own space with the art provided.
Recession / Recessione - A Nonexistent Exhibition
Between September and November 2009, 35 artists worldwide were asked to interpret the R word through texts, images, artwork or music. Their work is combined in a 1 kg book and an audio CD, which you can amazingly buy for free (you only pay shipping costs). Best idea ever! I ordered mine last week and thanks the lovely people at the studio I received it within days. The ones I liked best were Maxime Buechi and Slavs & Tartars’ “The Hustle”, Camille Vivier’s “Candle II”, Mark Borthwick’s romantic picture “If were pioneer’s”, the design of Paul Bouden’s “Bring it on” and the imaginary mixtape full of miserable songs (“The light at the end of a tunnel…is a train”) by Dirty Sound System. Go order one yourself here, there are only 800 copies available and I have the feeling they are going fast!
(c) Red Class
Doesn’t the name alone make you want to be part of it? Rebel Bingo is a brilliant, underground concept combining bingo (duh) with music, excentric clothes and secret locations. The way it started out in London makes a great story and is worth checking out. Just as their pictures on Flickr, where you can see what kind of crowd it attracts and how big it already is. This is what the organisers have to say about Rebel Bingo on their website:
Rebel Bingo is dangerous and addictive. The authorities are after us. They want to shut us down. But we won’t let them. Our numbers are growing. We’re spreading across the country. You won’t see us but we’re everywhere. You won’t hear us but we’re right behind you. We’re everywhere and nowhere, but wherever we are we’re playing dirty, hardcore muthafuckin Rebel Bingo on the down low. We know it’s wrong. But it feels so right. And they can’t stop us.
Rebel Bingo does come with a few rules: no old people, no boring people, no wankers, no office parties, no hen parties, no stag parties, no work suits, no customer service. Dress code: weird, flash or dangerous. Makes sense doesn’t it? :-) I can only hope it will come across the pond and will start in Amsterdam soon as well! I would be so in :-)
The Underground Rebel Bingo Club (c) Red.Class
The Underground Rebel Bingo Club (c) Red.Class
One peak in my closet and you know what my favourite colours are. However, I was checking my Google Reader starred items from the past week and I noticed that I starred two wonderful photographs from Stil in Berlin.
(c) Stil in Berlin
(c) Stil in Berlin
See the similarity of the beautiful colour? Yesterday I bought a Pantone ® Mug. Pantone ® 2745 C, or also described as ” Going Gothic? Ultra Violet, Pansy Petals, Witches Hat, Sprouting Broccoli.” Guess 2010 started out violet for me, wonder it will last throughout the year :-)
Pantone® 2745c
On the 20th November, the very first TEDxAmsterdam took place at KIT. On their website they claim the following about the limited group of people who will be able to attend due to a strict invite only policy: “The diverse audience – CEOs, scientists, creatives, philanthropists – is almost as extraordinary as the speakers, who have included Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Jane Goodall, Frank Gehry, Paul Simon, Sir Richard Branson, Philippe Starck and Bono.” I think there was an extra category created for me, namely ‘lucky bastard’.
Anyway, they finally managed to post the talk I enjoyed the most, which is Bjarke Ingels’ ‘Yes is More‘. Here you’ll also find a beautiful performance by Amsterdam singer Karsu Dönmez, love the second song. One last talk I would really recommend is photographer Hans Aarsman’s about the mysterious ways of beauty in photography
