Mrs President

In three weeks the presidential eelctions will be held in the US under bizarre circumstances. Corona, “the Chinese virus”, is not exactly under control and it seems this is going to cost Donald Trump his re-election. In the polls his not too charismatic rival is doing much better, even in the “swing states”’ that can…

White!

Last Saturday Jan des Bouvrie died, the well-known interior designer who changed Dutch living-rooms. It was his mission to acquaint everybody with modern design and he certainly succeeded in this mission. He influenced interior design in The Netherlands and abroad thoroughly and he inspired a whole generation of young design professionals. Some may have found…

Nations United?

Last week the United Nations could celebrate their 75th birthday and the Dutch king made a speech about the wonderful work of “the men and women’’ in the UN. That was very nice but the question  is, was the king justified in speaking in such a positive way about it? Is the UN really  this…

Algol TikTok

American president Donald Trump is attacking the video app TikTok. TikTok is an extremely popular app on which very short videos can be shared, often singing or dancing adolescents or recordings meant to make you laugh. However, TikTok has in the past few months become one of the most popular app’s in the world and…

Cazimi Saturn

It was very tragic that last month the former king Juan Carlos, father of the current Spanish king, had to leave his country because there was yet another scandal caused by his uncareful way of life. The past few years there were again and again problems around the former king and too much damage was…

Killer Antares

European countries are suffering from Corona in varying degrees, but it seems that Spain is among the countries suffering most. This was so during the first wave but in the second wave now, the country also has the highest amount of infections again. Tourism, one of the economical pillars in Spain seemed to be recovering…

Woodstock in Kralingen

Last week’s post was about the chart of Woodstock the famous, ultimate hippy climax in 1969. Less known but still with a considerable reputation, is a Dutch Woodstock clone whick took place a year later, so fifty years ago. This was the Holland Pop Festival, much better-known as “Kralingen” after the lake in Rotterdam near…

Woodstock Festival

The summer is festival time and there must be hundreds of them. Festival organisation has become a real industry and Corona has of course done a lot of harm there. It was also mid-August when once in 1969 the ‘’mother of all festivals”, the hippy climax Woodstock, of which every festival is a bit of…

Beirut eclipsed

A horrible explosion took place in Beirut, Lebanon’s capital destroying the city partly. The cause turns out to have been a large amount of chemicals stored in the harbour, it was not terrorism. The past few years had been quite tense for the country, with the ongoing blood-shed in nearby Syria, violent demonstrations against the…