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VPRO Books, 10 years of Podium Klassiek and Groenteman in Amersfoort: cultural TV Sunday nights bravely hold their own

Floris Kortie has come of age. The classical-music industry's merriest curmudgeon has proved in 2024 that he can carry Podium Klassiek on his own. That he managed to get the continuation of Podium Witteman, where he was allowed to freewheel as the insightful nephew, through a deep crisis is to his credit. After the departure of Mike Boddé, who he says is more... 

Liesbeth Zegveld, Summer Guest Full of Love, gave a lesson in ingenious storytelling

You tell the best story by putting your audience on the edge of their seats right from the start. Using well-chosen fragments, Liesbeth Zegveld managed to build a story in which the climax stunned everyone. Even the excellently prepared Margriet van der Linden sat at the moment suprême with eyes like saucers and chin on... 

28 July 2024 brought us the best #Summerguests in years, courtesy of Sana Valiulina. And Jelle. And Paris.

We had barely recovered from the rebirth of Celine Dion. The traditionally long-winded and kitschy 'Son et Lumière' with which France had this time made the opening of the Olympics a quintessentially French event had also unleashed a storm of protests with a tableau vivant after the sadly just short of famous painting 'The Feast... 

Floris Kortie on Podium Klassiek's new webpage

TV Sunday night is fun again for people who don't like farming and baking. 

Het oude domein van de VPRO, gevestigd in decennia van Nauwgezet en Wanhopig Simplisme, Tegenlicht en Zomer- dan wel Wintergasten, kwakkelde een hele tijd. Kijkcijferterreur versnipperde het veilig elitaire aanbod. BNNVARA zocht naar een toon en vond die niet. Culturele omnivoren als ondergetekende konden niet meer straffeloos de tv op 2 zetten om hem na een avond vol inhoud tegen… 

Jonas Staal (left) during his speech. Audience members from left to right: neske Beks, Charles Landvreugd and Karin Amatmoekrim. Photo: Wijbrand Schaap

Becoming a member of NSC? - Academy of Arts stage of desperate search for engagement

“De stem op Wilders is dan misschien een tegenstem, maar kennelijk is expliciet racisme geen dealbreaker voor al die mensen. Dat is voor iemand van kleur verschrikkelijk.” In het statige Trippenhuis, zetel van de Akademie van Kunsten, klonk dit hoge woord van Karin Amatmoekrim extra nadrukkelijk. Ze reageerde vanaf het podium op een laat binnengekomen toeschouwer, die vond dat ‘we’… 

Joris Linssen, photo by Jerney Hakkenberg

'I need others to flourish.' Six life insights from TV presenter Joris Linssen

In zijn leven en werk maakt de bekende presentator Joris Linssen (1966) veel mee en ontmoet hij tal van bijzondere mensen. De levensinzichten die hij daarbij heeft opgedaan heeft hij gebundeld in zijn net verschenen boek Als je met de stroom meegaat, sta je wel stil. ‘Als je durft te kiezen voor avontuur, word je daarvoor beloond.’ Van risico’s nemen word… 

Theatre Maas and Tobias Kokkelmans at ITA, screenshot television broadcast Mon 18 Sept 2023

The flash marriage between theatre and television could hardly be any shorter. Or could it?

15 minutes of television. Theatre Maas, who used to be called Cornald, has managed to get Dutch theatre's biggest party back on kind of prime time television. On Monday 18 September, we saw his recap of this gala of Dutch theatre, which included awards, snippets of speeches and elated actors. I wondered if we could... 

Floris Kortie on Podium Klassiek's new webpage

Floris Kortie verdient alle steun bij zijn Podium Klassiek-solo.

Zondag 10 september opende Podium Klassiek het seizoen in een wel heel uitgeklede versie. Floris Kortie stond er helemaal alleen voor. In de wereld van publieke omroep en klassieke muziek, waarin dingen meestal drie jaar van tevoren al vastliggen, was er iets aan de hand. Ik voelde een einde naderen. Podium Witteman was hier in huis een vaste waarde geworden.… 

Gaudi at Fabrique de lumiere. Screenshot cut-out broadcast WNL

Broadcaster Wakker Nederland on art: make a damned effort yourself. 

'While many regional museums are struggling, commercial museums are popping up like mushrooms.' Omroep Wakker Nederland, since we associate 'awake' with 'woke', preferring to be known as broadcaster 'we' the Netherlands, had to do something with 'art'. The opening lines of the first broadcast of 'de Stand van Nederland', their 'research programme', were an instant hit, so were the images: the museum association in the ball pit of a... 

In #Zomergasten 2023#6, Alida Dors asked the best questions. 

In #Zomergasten 2023#6 guest, Alida Dors, asked the best questions. 

The counter stood at 8 minutes and 45 seconds when it went wrong. Pretty fast for a three-hour interview programme like Zomergasten, but Theo Maassen grabbed the record with verve. His guest Alida Dors, the woman who, as a self-taught dancer, grew into a forewoman of Dutch hip-hop culture, and who is now tasked with managing the mismanaged... 

Image from Rikkie and Slingertje

#Zomergasten 2023#5 was the three and a half television nights with Theo Maassen on which women did not exist.

Nice how things coincide, on 'Summer Chairs'. Last week, I reported on the BBC breakfast show's Red Bench, and what a torture device it is. On Sunday 20 August, an almost exact equivalent of that semi-circular Red Bank came along in Summer Guests with Kamagurka. This Red Bench was in a Flemish theatre with Johan Anthierens, who in his show 'At... 

The BBC's bank in Manchester (photo by author)

After the #Zomergasten with Bibi Dumon Tak, the main question remains: how to proceed with books on TV?

Adriaan van Dis with an intensely coquettish Renate Dorrestein, who (rightly) got him on the ropes with a few well-aimed pussy remarks. This excerpt from 1991 opened Zomergasten 2023 #4, and it chopped. Nostalgia all around, and during those first minutes of Theo Maassen with animal and children's book author Bibi Dumon Tak, the bar was set high. Would Theo Maassen with this... 

Chatham House, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Remains the question after #Summerguests s23a3: What was that snippet killed from The Singing Detective?

Fascinating television, for sure. Cabaret artist Theo Maassen, who is emerging as an excellent interviewer in this Summer Guest year, went 'full Paxman' on Khadija Arib. Following in the footsteps of famous BBC Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman, he pulled out all the stops to elicit a confession from the former Lower House Speaker. It didn't work, and at half past 12, after a very tense hour of interview television, it stood... 

Fisherman's friend

'Darkness with something of hope' - Second #Zomergasten under Theo Maassen delivers impressive Fishermansfriend moment

At a little before half past eleven, Sunday evening 30 July, cabaret performer and gifted interviewer Theo Maassen asked world-famous cameraman Hoyte van Hoytema: "What's the question you don't get answered?" Hoyte: "Shit, are you going to close with that?!" It was in the telling finale of an extraordinarily impressive second episode of Zomergasten 2023. An episode, too, in which we talked a lot about cinematography... 

Muziekgebouw aan t IJ Grote Zaal cr Postman81 (Postman81, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons)

Music building big loser at glorious start of #Zomergasten 2023 under Theo Maassen.

The motorhome sank. The theatre group Vis à Vis-inspired studio set of the legendary summer series Zomergasten had had its day. Was probably also because of the new presenter. Theo Maassen is very tall and lanky, and likes to flap his legs, so he would never have lasted without a wet suit to spend six summer Sunday evenings on the... 

logo authors' union

Scenariovakprijzen uitgereikt: Zilveren Krulstaarten voor Het jaar van Fortuyn en El Houb

De Zilveren Krulstaarten zijn zaterdagmiddag 25 maart in Amsterdam  uitgereikt aan de schrijvers van de beste film- en televisiescenario’s van 2022. Ooit begonnen als geuzenprijs vanwege het ontbreken van een Gouden Kalf voor scenario, zijn de Zilveren Krulstaarten inmiddels uitgegroeid tot dé Nederlandse vakprijzen voor scenaristen. De winnaars worden jaarlijks gekozen door leden van het Netwerk Scenarioschrijvers van de Auteursbond.… 

still from the vpro series our man with the taliban, with Thoams erdbrink talking to a taliban fighter in an orchard

How much demonic power does the artist have?

What would the world look like if art had had the power that book burners and iconoclasts have attributed to it over the centuries? In the fascinating documentary series 'Our Man with the Taliban', Thomas Erdbrink takes a rather perilous journey through an Afghanistan abandoned by the 'civilised' West. We see a world where book burners and iconoclasts... 

De amusementsindustrie maakt kwetsbare amateurs tot lijfeigene

Inmiddels heeft iedereen die een beetje bekend is in Nederland wel meegedaan aan een show waarbij geheimhouding essentieel is. Dat kan gaan van het relatief onschuldige verborgen houden van de winnaar van De Slimste Mens tot de extreme geheimhouding die onderwerp is van Wie Is De Mol (WIDM) en die uiteindelijk leidt tot de wurgcontracten die aan talentenshows als The… 

'Think about your life before something bad happens to you'. The latest interview with Ruud ten Wolde

For RTL-Boulevard reporter Ruud ten Wolde (29), these weeks would be dominated by his book Ill Happy, which comes in at number 1 in the Bestseller 60 this week, in which he writes about his illness and the insights it has brought him. Although he had been ill for six years, he still died suddenly recently. We spoke to him five... 

'We're not going to talk about Jiskefet, are we?' For Michiel Romeyn, all of life is theatre

Even though the satirical programme Jiskefet has not existed for more than 15 years, Michiel Romeyn (66) is still recognised on the street as 'lullo' Van Binsbergen, 'the white nigger' Oboema or office clerk Storm. In Romeyn's existence, the dividing line between life and theatre is fluid. 'I like to disrupt things,' he says. 'We're hopefully not going to talk about Jiskefet after all.... 

On citation law, De Wereld Draait Door and John de Mol's claim robot (Angry Spirits Podcast with Ewout Jansen)

In 2014, The Cutter published a review of De Wereld Draait Door. What not many people will know is that prior to that moment, there was a weeks-long battle behind the scenes over this publication. De Wereld Draait Door tried with all its might to stop the episode by not giving permission to quote the footage. Initially,... 

Museum directors: is their role as figureheads and media artists becoming more important than as art history experts?

Dutch museums, partly due to the recent digital Museum Week, have been able to retain a large part of their audience. There is - reports the Museum Association on its website - a slight turnover though. And the hitherto loyal public will not find their way to museums automatically and to the same extent. But the picture is that the... 

Writers writing. That's what Moped at Sea is about, and that's ok. 

Many avid readers will dream of their favourite author sitting at their table one day, talking about her work. Perhaps just as many avid readers will take their dream author on a stroll, want to drink lamb on a café terrace or take them to a darkroom. Or to a classical concert at the Concertgebouw. All can be done. Some will even just... 

You don't forget tap, but tap dancing does. Why it is bad that art is not mentioned

Everyone balks. Let's put that first. And a lot of people are badly affected. Hospitality, retail, schoolchildren and especially students: everything that is not necessary for survival balks. So does the arts. Not all art, of course, especially larger institutions are coming through the corona crisis reasonably well so far. Quiet and closed, but not bankrupt. We can't take that from... 

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