Cultural journalist since 1996. Worked as theatre critic, columnist and reporter for Algemeen Dagblad, Utrechts Nieuwsblad, Rotterdams Dagblad, Parool and regional newspapers through Associated Press Services. Interviews for TheaterMaker, Theatererkrant Magazine, Ons Erfdeel, Boekman. Podcast maker, likes to experiment with new media. Culture Press is called the brainchild I gave birth to in 2009. Life partner of Suzanne Brink roommate of Edje, Fonzie and Rufus. Search and find me on Mastodon.
Five years. You have to get through it. Not everyone is always charmed by the petite girl diction of Roos Rebergen (Roosbeef). But what a throat. And what a presence. So it is more than ok that Roos Rebergen did something daring at David Bowie's career anniversary party: perform a translation of Five Years, the opening track of David Bowie's classic album...
Starting with the most recent issue. And then chronologically go back in time to somewhere deep in the 1960s. And then titling it 'Nothing has changed'. Brilliant move by David Bowie. All biographers can immediately throw their work in the bin. After all, anyone who grew up with David Bowie's music chronologically could not help but be continually bewildered...
Vice we all already know. It is the terror of any medium, online or otherwise, that focuses on youth culture, because with a global network and hefty US dollars, there is no getting around it. Live Nation we already know too. If you attend concerts at least once in a while, chances are good that...
We reported earlier. Worldwide, the Netherlands is Crazy when it comes to protecting the creators of books, films, journalism, art, theatre, dance and so on. And no, IT IS NOT ABOUT SUBSIDY NOW. It is about archaic legislation that does protect the middlemen, but leaves the creators outlawed and disenfranchised. That middlemen are paid extremely well, have...
The Holland Festival got a completely unknown new director in the person of Britain's Ruth Mackenzie. At least, to us. The flamboyant, artistically exceptional opera director Pierre Audi makes way for a woman who has presented herself mainly as a manager of festivals and cultural institutions, but whose ideas are anyone's guess. When she was presented, none of the...
Should the free market be curbed to save Dutch culture? The issue facing the Dutch government is quite a big one. On Tuesday, Dutch 'makers' (artists, photographers, actors, screenwriters, translators, directors, freelance journalists, etc.) presented a pamphlet. The pamphlet outlines the idiotic situation the Dutch cultural and creative sector is in. No other country disregards...
So it really does exist. A high road through the mountains of Romania. Completed in 1974. Viewed by my father in the same year, while his 'guide' told him not to walk too close to the edge, because he would not be the first to crash over the edge. After which his 'guide', the secret agent that every western journalist...
Update: tekst aangepast na tips van onze oplettende lezer Sebastiaan Smits. Het Deense Nationale Kamerorkest stopt per 31 december. Wegbezuinigd. Maar niet vanwege dit filmpje dus, zo wist Sebastiaan Smits te melden. @cultuurpers Is geen protestactie, maar een promotie voor chilipepers. http://t.co/GfsyPJUF2k — Sebastiaan Smits (@sebastiaansmits) November 7, 2014 @sebastiaansmits Dank voor de aanvulling dan. We zullen het corrigeren. To…
We are moving too fast. Politics moves too fast, the news moves too fast, and nobody takes the time anymore to spend a quiet time listening to a piece of music, reading a thick book, or listening and watching slow art for 36 hours at the Concertgebouw in Bruges. So the concert hall in Bruges is organising a festival with...
'The experts have written an inspiring guide, which demonstrates the importance of good music education and also makes clear which steps need to be taken to achieve this. The experts spoke to representatives of primary education, teacher training institutes and the cultural sector. The guide has broad support. Like the experts, I believe that good music education is a responsibility of...
A small miracle did happen, in recent months. The result of that miracle can now be found in letter Jet Bussemaker, minister of OCW, sent to the chamber yesterday. And actually, it is not one miracle, but three. We list them for you. 1: The art world pulls together. Artists often find actors...
Of course it is ok, that cultural and creative summit we had here. Bussemaker could suddenly talk at a high level again and art suddenly appears to matter again. After all, the creative industry is also about art again. Even if it is just our old art, because at such a conference with those Asian countries, of course, it is usually about...
In the presence of WAKVN*), our culture minister Jet Bussemaker gave a speech to other culture ministers today. It was about creative industries, as a conference on that is now underway in our country. Exchange of knowledge between Asian culture ministers and the Netherlands is already quite unique. For the Netherlands to drop the word 'art' in a meeting on the creative industry is thereby...
With a new government in Belgium, the debate on art subsidies has also erupted there. The issue there is only 0.7 per cent of the national budget. The cut of a mere 10% is less substantial than in the Netherlands under the PVV's noose, but the arguments are the same. Though they are often better articulated. Josse de Pauw, international...
This post should have been a video. I was planning to go into my garden with the ipad, to tell you, in the company of my dog Rufus, how important video is in contemporary art communication. And not a good, beautifully shot and rap edited video, but wonky, home-made, not very to-the-point video. Which is very personal though....
Forty roofless hotel rooms, and then hearing your own story back as you see yourself reflected in the distant ceiling. Or: walking behind a guide through the Lombok district of Utrecht, while being provided with an overload of extra information on your headphones. About your guide. Or not. About yourself. Welcome to the universe of Dries Verhoeven, since a small...
We can make a long story short. September and early October are raining awards. Every performing art form celebrates its own party. Theatre does it with Theo and Louis, cabaret with the Poelifinario, a Cricket is awarded somewhere, and then you have the Musical Awards and of course the Swans and the Dioraphte Prize. You can already feel it hanging: there...
There was, of course, that ceremony on TV. But there was also a ceremony on Twitter. Which started much earlier than that ceremony on TV. The calves were already falling from the sky while we were still watching the news. We listed the celebration. From half past two, Friday afternoon. [View the story " Calvert tweets from Utrecht....
While all of us at the Stedelijk were dwelling on Arnoud Mik's more than impressive work, realising it was new, we forgot to look elsewhere. On our own screen, that is. Because on Youtube, Twitch and more platforms like that, it's happening right now. That's where pimply adolescents with...
Wijbrand Schaap: ‘De amateurkunst. Ik heb zelf de bezuinigingen aan den lijve ondervonden bij het Utrechts Centrum voor de Kunsten in Utrecht. Eerst is daar in 2001 al zwaar op bezuinigd onder Leefbaar. Dat hebben ze overleefd, en nu waren ze er net een beetje bovenop…’ Marathon-interviewNaar aanleiding van de ophef rond Melle Daamens opiniestuk over het kunstbeleid zijn we…
Wijbrand Schaap: 'Just one more point. Then we're almost through.' Joop Daalmeijer: 'Continue quietly, we have until half past five.' Wijbrand Schaap: 'We have a problem with real estate. A lot of inner cities are empty. Shop premises are empty, downtown office buildings are unrentable. What do the municipalities say? Put artists in them. Cost nothing, because for free rent they do...
23,000 signatures and a host of public meetings have caused Brett Bailey's impressive Exhibit B in London to be cancelled. The show, or rather, the event, has previously been seen with great success in the Netherlands, and garnered nothing but praise in Edinburgh too. We too went to see it, and we were impressed. In...
Wijbrand Schaap: ‘De basisinfrastructuur is door Zijlstra gekilld terwijl die nog niet rijp was. Die loopt nu in zijn kleinere variant het risico om tot verdere verstarring te leiden.’ Marathon-interviewNaar aanleiding van de ophef rond Melle Daamens opiniestuk over het kunstbeleid zijn we uitgenodigd voor een ‘gesprek over alles’ met Joop Daalmeijer, voorzitter van de Raad voor Cultuur. Het gesprek…
Wijbrand Schaap: ‘Nu over de rol van de steden. Een van de reacties op onze site gaat over de rol van de randstad in het cultuurbeleid. Melle Daamen legt het primaat in de randstad, en gaat daarin verder dan de Raad.’ Marathon-interviewNaar aanleiding van de ophef rond Melle Daamens opiniestuk over het kunstbeleid zijn we uitgenodigd voor een ‘gesprek over…
[View the story “Rufus zegt sorry. Campert onvergetelijk op Nacht van de Poëzie” on Storify] … Je kunt nu inloggen om verder te lezen! Welkom in het archief van Cultuurpers! Als lid heb je toegang tot alle, meer dan 4000 berichten die we sinds onze oprichting in 2009 hebben geplaatst! (Recente berichten (jonger dan drie maanden) zijn voor iedereen te…
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