Steezy Films - "The King's Speech"

It was a rainy afternoon when I went to see this much appraised film with my family but I left the theatre feeling brighter than ever.

The King's Speech was written by David Seidler and directed by Tom Hooper and is described as a "true-life drama about the morganatic bromance between introverted stammerer King George VI and his exuberant Australian speech therapist Lionel Logue: an affair brokered by George's shrewd wife in her pre-Queen-Mum incarnations as the Duchess of York, and then Queen Elizabeth."

By now we all know the story. And we've heard of all of the praise and nominations/awards it's received in the past several days. For me, The King's Speech's true test would be if it would live up to my expectations. Upon watching it, all I can really say about it is that this film is the best one i’ve seen in a really, really long time. While other movies I’ve seen as of late have had certain characteristics that made them stand out (Inception’s genius method of story telling and special effects, The Black Swan’s cinematography and acting…), The King’s Speech is the whole package. Or perhaps it would be more fitting to say, the whole “Royal Package”.

Steezy Score: ★★★★★

On American Television

This morning I read in the newspaper that the Dutch Comedy Central was going to produce and host a Dutch version of the American The Daily Show with Jon Stuart. Although I don't know enough about the United States to fully comprehend every single joke that is made, I see how the way Stuart hosts his show is funny. He has his own way with the English language that makes it all humorous in a certain sense.

So now the entire format has been 'translated' into Dutch, and it made me wonder if that sort of thing works out. Because I always thought that the nature of English language is one of the reasons that The Daily Show 'works'. Can you translate an entire television show into another language and another culture?
I think that you'll run into some problems eventually. In this case it already happened with coming up with a suitable name, it's going to be broadcast as The Daily Show: Nederlandse Editie. That isn't going to work, the colon in the name directly suggests that it's a derivative of a superior show. If that isn't worse enough, the name is constructed from two languages and it says 'Nederlandse Editie' (Dutch Edition), which implies that the producers wanted the main language to be English but that they hesitated (because they were Dutch) and went for a midway option. They should have named it The Daily Show With [Host name goes here, I'll spare you from it], I reckon that a Dutch name in an English title doesn't look good, but it's better then to translate the entire title into Dutch.

If the only problem were in the name, it wouldn't be that bad. But I think that the entire format won't work in Dutch. Whether you like him or not, Jon Stuart is an expert at playing with his language, he speaks very quickly, whispers or does a fun accent which accounts for half of the jokes. If you speak quickly in Dutch it's incomprehensible, if you whisper you sound like a dirty old man and the only known accents are directly associated with hillbillies. So I think it's pretty hard to make jokes with intonation only.

Another nice thing about The Daily Show is that it makes fun of the way news is brought. In the Netherlands there isn't enough news brought to be made fun of. In the U.S. there are multiple news stations that broadcast news all day long, in the Netherlands there isn't enough news to fill a day with.

Recent adaptions of U.S. television formats have been reasonably successful. The public cheered when a spin-off of Jersey Shore was made, the difference is that this show doesn't rely on language but on people's actions. I wonder how the Dutch Daily Show is going to play out, for it will definitely say something about the importance of a very specific culture for the popularity of a show. It might even explain why American hits like Lost, Breaking Bad, Mad Men and Nip / Tuck got slots far away from prime-time or didn't get broadcast at all.

My Flatmate John

1-25-2011

Dear Journal,

Tonight I had dinner with my flatmate John. It's been a while since the two of us sat at the dinner table without anyone else. Usually our other flatmate would be there, or I'd bring a friend. Tonight everyone bailed out on me, so it was just the two of us.

Journal, John hasn't got so much to say, and to be honest, I've stopped attempting to strike up any conversation a while ago. I guess most people consider John a fuck-up, because, when asked what he does, he has to answer with "nothing". But while eating, in silence, mostly, I noticed that he at least combs his hair. Now, I don't even own a hair comb, so what does that make me? A student who doesn't comb his hair, I figure. But isn't that a very basic thing? Something that comes before civilization? Come on, I just use my hand to adjust the mop of hair that covers my head. It's like a comb consisting of five fingers, I thought while eating my cauliflower. I wondered if the thumb counts. I mean, it's much shorter then the other fingers, thus not very useful when combing.

Why is cauliflower named cauliflower, by the way? I know what a flower is, but what on earth is a cauli? Doesn't taste like cauli or flower anyway.

After some minutes I noticed that my plate was empty, while John was long from done hauling the contents of his'. I sat down and started to think about the advantage of a holistic approach to science, but I guess you're not really interested in that, so I'll skip this part.

While doing dishes I wondered what I'm doing here. I mean, I wondered - in general - what my current purpose in life is. Probably doing dishes with John and wondering about the combing function of my hand. Or would it have to do something with... what was it again... holism in science?

Nahh.

Love,
F.

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

I looked over at him in disbelief as my thumb felt its way across the buttons of my remote control.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" I asked.
"Most definitely." He said with a warm smile.

With my thumb in position, a deep breath, and another quick glance at him, I hit play, thus initiating the familiar eagle cry followed by the oh-so-familiar theme song. I looked over at him again, still in shock, as I took in the grandness of what was happening to me at that very moment: After a nice family dinner, I was watching The Colbert Report with Stephen Colbert.

It's a strange thing, watching someone you usually watch every night...with the person you are usually watching. He's usually behind a screen, in a studio...and most definitely not in my bedroom. But there he was, suit, rimless eyeglasses, gelled hair and all, looking up at the TV, deeply concentrated on the report he was giving on New England seafood. And there I was sitting at my desk, watching him, well...watching himself.

"I get misquoted all the time," He said, breaking the silence.
"Huh?" I said, as I was clearly caught off guard.
"The media...you see what I said right there, some newscasters cut off that whole end bit in a segment they did about me last week."
"Oh. yeah." I said, still a little confused. "You must Google yourself all the time then, huh?"
"Oh yeah, we all do it."

The conversation carried on like this for a while, and as I listened to what he had to say about his job and his day to day life, I smiled and nodded. It was great having a conversation with him and all, but let's face it, I'm a pretty modern aged thinker, and because of that, I had only one thing in mind. One burning desire. Something anyone in my position would want to do: I had to write a tweet about what was happening to me. Nothing long or descriptive, that would be saved for a blog post. Just something short, sweet, and clever. I continued to listen to him talk as my mind blazed at a hundred miles per hour, I leaned back toward my desk, trying to hide the fact that I was reaching for a pen and paper, and as he turned away, I scrambled to write some words down, stopping and looking very casual whenever he'd turn back to me. Eventually, I was able to write something half-decent and once I got that out of the way and was completely relaxed with my new friend, the conversation turned serious as we decided to engage in a good old round of "Would You Rather".

"So  Stephen," I said and leaned back in my chair in confidence. I was having a conversation with one of the world's greatest comedians/TV personalities, and I was about to ask him the best question he was ever going to be asked.

"Would you rather date yourself, or Jon Stewart?"

And before I could get an answer or could even gage his facial reaction...

...

I woke up.

The World After Wikileaks

Since the summer I have been trying to figure out my opinion on Wikileaks. The approach of weighing pros and cons didn't really work, on the one hand it's good that governmental secrets are revealed, but on the other hand you can ask the question how useful the release of 250.000 cables is. Other than exposing tabloid-ready secrets about world leaders and providing journalists with a huge pile of documents to sift through I don't really see the use of this huge leak. The leakage of the Collateral Murder video which showed part of the workings of the U.S. Military in Iraq is from a different category, though. This showed grave acts that should be judged. But why does it have to be shown on YouTube? What does it matter if I see it or not? Or does Julian Assange actively want me to hate the U.S.?

You see, I couldn't distill one uniform opinion out of this. Until I watched the Dutch documentary The World After Wikileaks that was broadcast yesterday night. It's approach was to send a philosopher on his way to visit Theodore Dalrymple, a British writer and psychiatrist, Derrick de Kerckhove, a media-sociologist and Kevin Kelly, internet thinker and founder of Wired. I don't have any appropriate English video material so you'll have to do with a written description of my experience.

The three men gave their vision on, helping to provide another angle on the phenomenon then is provided by the media. There was a clip from FOX News, for example, which showed an anchor, furiously, addressing Obama to "give the C.I.A. the assignment to kill Assange!" He lost me for his case in not giving any arguments at all. Fortunately Kelly was a little bit more constructive in his argumentation. He sees Wikileaks as an invention, and inventions come with good as well as bad things. This provides for an interesting perspective, something like: inventions aren't good or bad on themselves, only humans give ethical meaning by the way they use them.

I've read other pieces by Kelly and I already knew that he's extremely progressive when it comes to privacy. He sees the future as completely transparent, and doesn't seem to worry about it very much.
Dalrymple, the shrink, is much more conservative. He doesn't necessarily condemn Wikileaks itself as 'bad' but is much more concerned with the way we treat our privacy. He sees us moving toward a shallow society that consists solely of soundbites (interestingly, Kelly thinks that Wikileaks is a way to give the soundbite-society more meaning). Dalrymple's main point the entire time was that the way we communicate in the era of internet is becoming meaningless, it's solely aimed at self-fulfillment, and real information gets buried under piles of 250.000 private messages by government officials. "Only people that have nothing to say, have nothing to hide," he said poignantly.

I kept thinking about an article, No Secrets, from the New Yorker which gives a pretty damn good portrait of Assange's life and the road to the release of Collateral Murder. Although it's already a good half year old, I think it's still actual and worth a read. Anyway, I think Dalrymple has got a very good point. There is no use in knowing about the personal affairs of the heads of states described in the diarrhea of cables. It will only contribute to, and not give more depth to the soundbite-society. We should also start asking questions about the way we communicate in modern times, through Facebook walls and half-minded IM chats.

Kelly says that Wikileaks is a way to restore the balance between the very powerful government and it's civilians. A balance that has, according to him, been destroyed a few decades ago. I don't really think Wikileaks is a way to restore any power-balance, it's merely a way to show the vulnerabilities of governments.
In short I think that Wikileaks should just have its way, that the FOX anchor that wants Assange dead is a crazy. But at the same time we should think much more about the way the internet changes us as individuals and our society. Dalrymple really has a point when saying that only people that have nothing to say, have nothing to hide.

Martin Luther King Junior's "I Have a Dream" Speech Visualized

Last week, the internet was abuzz with praise and remembrance toward Martin Luther King Jr., and more specifically, his "I have a Dream" speech. And rightfully so. I'd always known how much of a moving person he was and how much of an impact he had on American history but what I didn't know was how stupendous his speech was at a deeper level. At least, that was until I'd seen Nancy Duarte's analysis of his words. Taking the beauty of infographic concepts, Duarte literally "maps out" the groundbreaking speech in a way that is formulaic, but at the same time, beautiful.

It's been a while since I've given a speech, but if and when the time comes where I have to write one, I'll know, with enough repetition, metaphor, and familiar and political references, I'll be golden. And maybe will be able to leave a mark in history, too. :)

[video by duarte design]

Mike Libby: Insect Lab

Though it comes off as a bit strange at first, there is something undeniably mesmerizing about the whimsical creations of Mike Libby as he takes insect specimens and adorns them with bits and pieces of antique watches to the point where they look like they're coming straight from the pages of a science-fiction novel.

His collection is featured in a book he calls "Insect Lab". Needless to say, seeing the juxtaposition of nature and technology is absolutely stunning. And although I never really understood the purpose of collecting/framing insect specimens, I also never really truly appreciated their beauty until now.

You can browse through his full collection, here.

Sierra Magazine Visualizes Global Carbon Footprints With a U.S. Map

The numbers themselves are scary: with 4.5% of the global population, the United States contributes to 20% of the world's carbon emissions. We've all heard these types of statistics, but as it is often the case, numbers don't always create as much of an impact on the psyche as images do. Pictures are, after all, worth a thousand words. But this map created by the wonderful folks at Sierra Magazine is worth more like a billion.

Taking the carbon footprints of each state and labeling it with it's global counterpart of equal environmental impact, we are presented with an infographic that is scary as much as it is amazing.

[read more about it, here]

Well, At Least The Kids Are All Right

There's probably a near-uncountable number of films that regard relationships, especially relationships and their troubles. The subject has provided enough inspiration for hours of both comedy and drama most of the time with disputable quality. If you wouldn't know any better you'd think that the 2010 production The Kids Are All Right is just another one in the row. Except for the fact that the couple in this film consists of two lesbians. Who have conceived two kids through an anonymous sperm donor. Probably not as conventional.



So, one mother leads a hectic life, the other one is more laid back, and two kids who want to meet their biological father. Of course they meet him and of course everything goes wrong.

I thought it was a beautiful film, if only it were for the role the children played in it. They appear completely helpless in the wild emotional sea of their moms while they were the ones that actually caused the stirring. Perhaps that's coming on a little too strong, they at least created the vent through which the rising tension escaped.

What I thought was pretty brilliant about the film was the way the lesbian couple was portrayed. Sometimes I completely forgot that the story was revolving around a perhaps not-so ordinary family. All the quarrels about not coming home too late, not driving on motorcycles, the normal family stuff, it was all there! And it was totally believable! On top of everything the writers included some very modern themes (apart from homosexual families), such as teenagers leaving for college and sexuality (don't worry, it's not obnoxious, it was even pretty funny).

The film provides a very beautiful sketch of modern families and the relationships that they're founded upon. It shows what can go wrong in relationships, and ultimately asks the question to what extent people should or could go to save everything from impending disaster.

The Terror of Finals

So, how does a student, who's got a final in the afternoon, spend his morning? Noting that he's probably done everything within his power to prepare for the exam and that he's a little nervous, which caused him to arise from sleep at 6.30 AM, thereby lengthening the endless morning with at least an hour and a half. What does he do?

He gets out of bed, starts up his computer and says 'Good morning!' to his housemates. The ones that are awake, at least. After the computer arises from the night as well, the student checks if his remembrance of time and location of the test is correct, a chore that is going to be repeated many, many times before time and place actually coincide. Relieved of the fear of corrupted memory he takes a shower and retires with a cup of coffee and a bowl of cereals behind his newspaper. Reading about worldly matters completely irrelevant to the upcoming final, he wonders if he'll have enough time to complete the test. He returns to his computer to check how much time the professors are going to give him, three and a half hours. Profound that the test is still going to be at the sports center, in the afternoon, he realizes that after the allotted time has tick-tocked away his concentration probably will be gone too. So time, at least, isn't going to be an issue.

'What to do next?' he wonders. There's an unread copy of The New Yorker right on his desk, so he decides to look for an interesting story. Voila, another half hour has passed. This is going good.

Hey, 'good luck' wishes from his parents. 'Perhaps I should send them an email,' he thinks. After thanking them for their wishes and having explained his activities of the past couple of days he wonders what he should describe next. The strange feeling he's had since the morning in his lower belly? He's still not sure whether it's a manifestation of the nerves or the remainder of yesterday's too greasy pizza being processed. So probably not. It's probably a good idea to check if his recollection of place and time still match up with the U's. Thank God, they still do.

Back to the email. What to write? Back at breakfast table, he didn't spill any of his cereal while spooning it from the bowl to his mouth. But that's probably not worthy to mention. How he spent at least a quarter of an hour drumming with his hands on his desks to an Arcade Fire song then?

'Bwuh, this is not going to work,' he thinks, whereupon concluding his email.

Only two hours left, whoa, where did that time go? He continues wondering about the best toilet-visiting strategy, so that he doesn't have to take a leak during the test. The second mug of coffee he just poured himself probably isn't a very good idea, so down the drain with that. Damn, now the drain is brown. After three flushes there's only some coffee left in the places where the sink is damaged. 'I can live with that, as long as it isn't going to live a life of it's own,' he thought.

Upon sitting down behind his desk again he all of a sudden feels a rush of fear about his Student-ID, because if he's unable to produce it from his wallet at the final everything is doomed. Where is it? The innocent wallet shows nothing but two bank cards, a credit card and a drivers license. After microseconds of panic he realizes he hid his Student-ID in another compartment of his wallet.

Just another hour. 'Perhaps it's fun to document this morning in written form, for the blog,' he thought, 'if I'd have lunch after that I'm probably good, time-wise, at least. Or I could check with the time and place of my test again.'

Becoming Harvey [Working Title]: Part I

"I think I might love you."

The words had toppled out of Sidney's mouth before she even had the time to register her decision to say them in the first place. The tepid cup of tea before her sat forgotten on the café table as her uncouth observance, for it had really been just that in contrast to the ever popular "declaration", hung in the air, lingering but pleasant. Her smile faded after a few seconds. Enough time had passed without a response from the receiving end of her statement for her to feel ignored and it was with caution that she finally raised her eyes to the gangly man sitting across from her. "Harvey?" She inquired.

She had expected him to be sitting in silent contemplation, smiling even, maybe. But his bespectacled eyes hadn't even lifted from his newspaper. He thoughtlessly ran a hand through his coffee brown hair and finished the sentence he was halfway through before sensing her gaze and looking up, his lazy green eyes expectant. He thought, for a moment. She had said... something...but completely absorbed in an article about a new Vermeer exhibition to be held in New York, the sound of her words, for they were always just sounds when he was engrossed in reading, had blended in with the hum and buzz of the world, ultimately proving themselves as inconsequential as the words being exchanged by the German couple at the next table.

"Did you hear me?" She repeated.

"No. Sorry." He lowered his newspaper enough to indicate he was paying attention, then slowly, like pulling apart velcro, peeled his eyes away from the article before him. She was frowning at this point. "I'm sorry…" he repeated, "What was it?"

Sidney was frustrated, angry that she had opened up only to be ignored, and words that had sounded serene and soothing moments before were delivered with an irritated tone, "I said, I think I might love you." She felt silly repeating herself, for the sincerity with which she had delivered it the first time had ebbed away with a moment's frustration. To be honest with herself, she barely believed the statement herself, but now that she it had been said, she stubbornly stuck with it. This was what couples did. They dated for four months, said they loved each other, and took it from there.

"Oh." he responded quietly. In hindsight, Harvey realized that this had probably been the wrong thing to have said, but her confusing belligerent tone, combined with his very real shock at hearing it, had made it the best he could do.

The cogs of his mind, which--if he thought about it--- were never really stimulated in her presence,started spinning, grinding against one another as he sought out a--a something that could have brought this on. He tried to recall what could have motivated her to take such a weighty step in their relationship, but couldn't pinpoint anything he had done to encourage it. No drawn out moment where he had stared into her eyes, held her hand and given her one of those smiles that insinuated he loved her. Certainly no moment where he had felt truly loved by her. He liked her plenty, but their relationship had been like one of those car rides you barely notice. You go through all the motions of driving: pushing the gas, turning the wheel, slowing down for stop lights, but do all of it with such mechanical apathy that, before you know it, you've reached your destination. In this case, destination "Lovetown". But no… the scenery was off. He had considered their relationship the blurred countryside one admires for the first 20 minutes of a drive, then grows bored of and ignores on his or her journey to something real.

Harvey furrowed his brows. He must have read the map wrong, must have missed the turn towards Exit 9: The Mutual Breakup. Now where the hell am I? He wondered, panicked. Sidney's expression grew livid, "Oh?!" She demanded.

"Erm. Yes. I… I just don't think you really love me."

The Midlife's Guide to the Appstore

A while ago my father stocked my mother with half of Apple's i-arsenal. As of now she's spending most free moments seated with either an iPhone or an iPad clutched in her hands, playing a game. I've noticed it's solitaire most of the time, I've never fully understood the need to count from A to K with alternating colors, but never mind that. I figured, now my mom spends so much time in the i-World she's becoming a pretty damn big expert on the goings on about the Appstore and the entire culture that surrounds it. So, I thought, as a service to her fellow i-Users I'd very much like to take the opportunity to present a guide with the highlights of the i-World, according to my mom. I asked her which apps are absolute must-haves and why. So now I present you with 'The Midlife's Guide to the Appstore' (not including the wide variety of solitaires i-World has to offer).

iShower
"Ah, this is such a nifty little app. It very much does what it's name suggests, actually. It enables the 'shower' function on your iPad, so now you don't need a shower anymore! ... a shower head at least, you need to hook your iPad up to a watter supply, of course. You'll need this special connector," she shows me a little white piece of plastic, reading 'designed for iPad', it's apparently been approved of by Apple, "it's available in the Apple Store for a couple of bucks. But it's really worth the trouble, now I can read the paper while taking showers. Or play solitaire."

Real Marriage
"This probably sounds like one of those Russian dating services that you see advertised all around the net, doesn't it? Don't worry, it isn't. Actually it's a lot more noble, depending on your gender and sexual preference it emulates a substitute partner for you. It's not a replacement or anything, it's just in case you miss your husband or wife. Whenever I'm on a conference trip and thus unable to spend the night being held awaken by your father's snores, I just enable the 'bed' function. This is quite brilliant, my iPad or iPhone is able to detect the moment when I'm about to fall asleep, and then it produces a loud snore, fart or moan. Just like the real thing."

iRon
"I realize the Appstore is pretty stocked with apps such as iHarry, iHermione and iDumbledore, allowing you to step into the shoes of a Hogwards character, but iRon is something completely different. In fact, it hasn't got anything to do with Harry Potter at all. When you launch it, it presents you with a terribly wrinkled shirt and a small iron that you can control with the touchscreen. I thought it was pretty nice, because, you see, after you moved out to go to college the production of wrinkled shirts in this house halved! Your brothers hardly wear any wrinkable shirts, and if they do, they wear them for a couple of weeks in a row, so that's negligible to what you supplied me with! As it turns out I quite like to iron my family's shirts! So now I can iron all I want, iron in the train, iron in the car, with the help of iShower I can even iron under the shower. They also have a paid version, I believe it's available for $7.99 or something, anyway, it contains different iron designs and irons with a steam function."

YOE
"I'm not quite sure how this landed on my devices, but YOE is short for Your Own Edward and it pretty much does what it says. It provides you with your own Edward," I must've been looking a bit confused, because she directly explained herself, "Edward Cullen, of course. Your own Edward Cullen. You know, from that lengthy estrogenic novel with an apple on the cover. But anyway, this app allows you to find out what your life would be like if you were spending it with a vampire. Here look at this," she shows me the application on her iPad, taps a few buttons, and then explains, "I'm going to hit the 'get into trouble' button, so now there are mobsters on my screen trying to do me harm. Perhaps I can enable the sound if I can find the switch, ah here it is, listen, they're really bothering me. Okay, now look at that street corner, wait a second... a little longer... there he is! You see that Volvo approaching? That's him!"

Upon composing this guide I started to question the usability of the apps listed. In fact, I have reason to believe most of them are mere substitutes for something that's available outside the i-World, and thus aren't that useful after all. But who am I to judge? I don't even own an iPhone or iPad, and my iPod is filled with music only... though I think I might be going to give Your Own Edward a spin.

...and then it drops

Recently phone manufacturer RIM launched this ad-campaign for their Blackberry's.

I thought it was pretty 'meh' and wondered why people buy phones that are profiled with self-absorbed 'music-innovators'. First I thought that the entire 'Diplo', 'music innovator' thing was fictional and for the sole purpose of selling phones, but as it turns out, Diplo is a real human being. An elevator loving human being, that needs a smartphone to maintain 'close relations'.



In first instance I thought, "whatever, I'm not going to rant about this." Until I found this, a commercial for the POST FeTAp 755-1, yes.

Bye, bye, SF

My dear SuperForest,

I'm writing you this in great pain, for I don't know how I'm going to tell you this. For the past while I feel like our relationship (which meant, and still means, a lot to me) has changed. I'd ascribe it to a change of interests, it seems that the ones we shared sort of leaked away at your end of the cable. But that's fine, I guess it's just the way some things turn out.

For some time now I've been feeling alienated from you. You probably didn't notice this because you were busy with so many other people, so now I'm telling you. I feel like we don't share the same mutual mission in life anymore. It has never been my purpose to hurt you, and I hope you believe me when I tell you it will never be, but I think we might have arrived at a point where our ways must part.

Of course, I'll literally and seriously always be there for you. Whenever you need me, just send me a post. I hope that we can stay friends in the future, but I'd understand it if you need some time by yourself now. Just give me a shout and I'll be there for you. SuperForest, please don't forget that I still love you, and always will, just not in 'that special way' anymore.

Forever Yours,

julius, (with lowercase 'j')

P.S. I'm very grateful for all the things and experiences you gave me, and I sincerely hope that you don't want me to return them. You can keep everything I gave to you, I hope you'll use all of it to the fullest extent.

*

Kelsey Brookes: Microbiologist-Turned-Artist

Kelsey Brookes was a young man living a life others strive to live. He had a steady career as a microbiologist, savings, and what many would consider to be a path toward a very successful life. But some time down this path, Brookes decided to head towards a different direction. A very different direction. Brookes wanted to do something more interesting with his life. He wanted to give a shot at following his two passions in life: surfing and art.

For many, or for me at least, this sort of struck me as a step backwards. "He's turning into a total bum!", thought I, as I watched the camera shot close in on his long blonde strands of hair and his big bushy beard. But obviously that was me just succumbing to superficial stereotypes, and doubly obvious was the fact that there was more to this man than what first met the eye.

The more I listened to Brookes speak, the more I realized above all other things, Brookes is really brave. To take the plunge into following one (or two) of his passions and to be driven enough to make it function as a career is truly admirable. Because at it's very core, our life paths can often times be condensed into a few core decisions, and when it comes down to it, I hope that I'll be brave enough to pursue my passions. I hope to be like Kelsey Brookes.

[video produced by Freunde von Freunden]

Downistie

Last night I was enjoying some time with my family on the couch. Everybody was pursuing the regular Sunday-night conversation topics, including the summer break, some art and television. Normally the latter doesn't strike me as highly revolutionary until one of my brothers said that one of the big Dutch talk shows is going to feature a small drama series Downistie with people with the syndrome of down as actors.

The script is based on the conventional soap operas and thus features marriages, love, love affairs, friendship... you know the drill.
I must admit that I had to chuckle for a little bit when I first heard about this, instantaneously asking myself: is it okay to laugh about this? It felt pretty much like laughing at disabled people. But then it appeared to me that those actors probably said 'yes' because they're big appreciators of other soap operas and see this as a infinitesimal step closer to their personal heroes, which is beautiful in some way.

With some invoked curiosity I went on the internet this morning to watch the announcement that was broadcast last Friday. All six actors were present as was their producer, Jack Valkering. At first I was a little bit afraid that the main purpose of the show was to have a little fun with disabled people, but it turned out that the producer is a real honest guy that is - in my opinion - one of the best Dutch television makers around. I've seen him in some other shows where he interviews people that are making the most of to a more or less shitty situation and he's always very open and respectful. He said that his was his personal way of giving disabled people a chance to do what they liked.

I'm not sure how this is going to be picked up by my fellow Dutchmen; my family burst out in laughter, especially upon hearing that one married character cheats on his marriage with his secretary.
The intention of the show is good though, and as long as those actors are enjoying themselves I think there's nothing to complain about.

Welcome

Well, I hope you get the reference. But just in case, here's a little hint.