On this website (and still read here), we posted a post that we had had artificial intelligence (AI) write all the way through for fun. The post looked real, had even included some relevant-looking information from the internet and made up some names that provided quotes. Brilliant, on the one hand, but also a bit scary. Rightly made...
Dear Library South-Kennemerland, I would like to apply for the position of 'Culture & Social Domain Programme Manager' that you published on the 'Cultural Vacancies' website. You see, I am a huge supporter of the idea that a library should associate itself with books as little as possible. After all, the clouds of dust are already smelling you up. Of course, you also knew all along that a bookcase...
This summer, the Netherlands' first Verhalenmachine (Storytelling Machine) will again tour Utrecht hotspots. From the ILFU Verhalenmachine you don't pull out a croquette or a can of soda, but one of hundreds of free short stories. In the coming weeks, the Verhalenmachine will tour busy Utrecht locations, such as the Neude Library, the Uitalage on Steenweg and TivoliVredenburg. This tour is...
Je Maintiendrai. Holland's motto of arms ('Ik zal handhaven') adorns the beautiful hall of Utrecht's old Post Office, now Library. The motto also watched over the premiere of the performance 'Solomon's Judgement' with which Ilay den Boer now returns to the public. After all, he was not here for a while. He worked for just under a year at the IND, the Immigration and Naturalisation Service,...
Five authors have a chance to win the 2021 Golden Noose, the award for the best suspense book. The nominees are: René Appel - Overschot (Ambo|Anthos) Bernice Berkleef - Bloedsteen (The House of Books) Toni Coppers - De moord op Arno Linter (Manteau) Hugo Luijten - Undercover. All or nothing (Lannoo) Saskia Noort - Bonus child (The House of Books) The five nominees...
Actually, all his female characters are based on his powerful mother and grandmother, says Vamba Sherif (47). In his new, autobiographical book Unprecedented Love, the Liberian-born writer tells his troubled life story to his daughter Bendu. An ode to his homeland and the most important women in his life. I was born into a learned and influential family. The Sherifs...
With journalist Bianca Stigter's book Atlas of an occupied city, you walk through today's reality, as it were, with historical virtual reality glasses on. An extra layer appears over the familiar backdrop of Amsterdam's streets: of World War II occupation. What wartime past is hidden in the streets and behind the facades? Atlas...
Under the title 'The Dutch thriller awards 2021', the four most important thriller awards (Gouden Strop, Hebban Thrillerprijs, Schaduwprijs and Zilveren Strop) will be presented from the Utrecht Library on Saturday 5 June. The ceremony will mark the start of 'The Week of the Exciting Book', which begins on Monday 7 June. With 'The Dutch thriller awards 2021', the Utrecht Library, readers' platform Hebban.nl and the...
Distributor Cinéart, which specialises mainly in European arthouse, presents the Directors' Collection. New and old work by leading film authors.
The 35th(!) edition of Reis door de nacht, the classic novel written by Anne de Vries, was published recently. As a ten-year-old boy, I sympathised intensely with the war adventures of Jan de Boer and his family members. The book is also a metaphor for my own struggle against darkness. It is a lovely spring day. In the ditch, a duck swims with her...
A strong cultural sector has an important economic and social driving function. Culture not only contributes positively to mental health and well-being, but is also an important building block in the recovery from the current corona crisis. To maximise this booster function, almost 500 million extra per year is needed. This is the conclusion of the Council for Culture in a letter to informateur Tjeenk...
Godfried Bomans died half a century ago. Almost immediately afterwards, the Netherlands' best-loved writer sank into oblivion. It is time for a reappraisal of Bomans' literary work and even his political views. I delved into the archives, also looking for the few traces of Bomans in Amersfoort. First some round figures. Seventy years ago, he delivered a lecture...
In 25 years, Martine Letterie has written a small library of children's books: she has already published 120 titles in all age categories. She recently won the Thea Beckman Prize 2020 with Verboden te vliegen [Forbidden to Fly].
The 40th edition of the Netherlands Film Festival pushes the boundaries. Corona makes everything go differently. Now in more than 100 theatres across the country, and also online. For groundbreaking work, there is the sixth instalment of the Directors' Forum.
Things can change. In 1979, Iran changed from a Western-oriented secular state to a spiritual dictatorship, where Islamic leaders call the shots. Women must henceforth go through life veiled and music is banned as extremely sinful. Four decades later, three women founded the Iranian Female Composers Association. In America, though. 'Music is like a drug, those who feel...
Need to escape from all the misery in reality? Of course, you can binge-watch endless feel-good movies or exciting series, but opening a good book about a disaster in the outside world is at least as effective - look, it's actually not that bad with us! You might also pick up a few valuable do's and dont's for emergencies; a warned person counts....
A real estate agent once confided in me that a bookcase in the living room saves thousands of euros in the resale value of a house. In a negative sense. This fact always does well at parties, and book lovers (my network is full of them) grudge it. On a tour of Manchester Central Library, the head librarian proudly told us that the café...
Becoming a writer without being able to use your fingers to type - Bianca Mastenbroek (44) no longer turns her hand to it. Last year, she won the Thea Beckman Prize for her historical novel Hendrick, the Dutch Indian. Looking back on a jubilee year: 'This prize is the crowning glory of my work'. For anyone who has yet to read your book Hendrick, de Hollandsche Indiaan,...
Controversial and an eyesore for many: Forum Groningen. It has occupied minds considerably over the past few years. On Friday 29 November, the cultural centre in Groningen was finally opened to the general public. Interest in Forum is certainly there, as the counter already stood at 50,000 visitors on Tuesday morning. The prestige project that has cost the Groninger quite a few taxpayers' pennies...
The 32nd edition of the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam has opened with Sunless Shadows. Confessions of young women jailed for complicity in the murder of their father or other man in the family grow into a haunting statement about oppressed women in a male-dominated society. The only Dutch film in the international competition is Rotjochies by Maasja Ooms.
This weekend, gallery owner Henk Logman discovered to his horror that artworks from the Amersfoort Art Loan were being offered for sale on a Belgian auction site. On his facebook page, he reports: 'The extraordinary thing about the whole thing is that the now still living artists were not informed of this. I would at least have expected that to have happened....
The huge success of his novel The Miraculous Incident with the Dog in the Night - nearly ten million copies sold - brought British writer and visual artist Mark Haddon financial freedom, but not peace of mind. He recently published his new novel, The Dolphin. 'I always think: when this is finished, then I will have peace of mind. But that carrot on the stick for...
Thanks to a tip-off from a reader, we saw that there is fuss about subsidies in Eindhoven. Now that happens quite often, but here something special was going on. Eindhovens Dagblad reported (Blendle link €) that the entire Supervisory Board of Stichting Cultuur Eindhoven had resigned. There was trouble because, writes the ED, the...
That publishers and writers are struggling is not news. That something needs to change in connecting with readers too. But what? That is the big question no one has an answer to yet. Publishers have rapidly lost their prestige, their monopoly and often their canal houses. On the other hand, the phenomenon of...
The end of the year is approaching. So the lists fly around our ears again with 'most beautiful', 'best', 'most unforgettable', 'most moving'... fill in the blanks. I think compiling top-soaps is actually a typically male thing, but I'm not that bad. Here are three CDs you wouldn't have wanted to miss this year - in no particular order. Louise Farrenc: Variations for Piano Biliana Tzinlikova,...
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