Amat victoria curam!

How better have your christmas meal then with a real Kelly Bronze Turkey. These special bred Turkeys are the best there are and they are very simple to prepare: No basting necessary - the trick is a low temperature (140C) and start baking with the bird with his breast down. We had a huge bird, so I guess we"ll have turkey for the next couple of days in one way or the other...

This is the season to watch some classic movies and because of the bank crisis we couldn't resist to watch "It's a wonderful life" again. In this "uber" Capra Mr. Deed, Mr Smith and all his other famous characters come together in George Bailey. James Stewart is -as always- great: you can see his inner struggle.

I love It's a Wonderful Life because it teaches us that family, friendship, and virtue are the true definitions of wealth.
In 1947, however, the FBI considered this anti-consumerist message as subversive Communist propaganda (read original FBI memo).

The FBI specifically detested the way Mr. Potter was portrayed:

The casting of Lionel Barrymore as a "scrooge-type" resulted in the loathsome Mr. Potter becoming the most hated person in the film. According to the official FBI report, "this was a common trick used by the communists."

Maybe because of Madoff and all the other the think a little bit different now...

By the wayL Is it really true that every time a bell rings an angel gets his wings? :-)

When watching SVT I saw that they already name him VUCTOR Muller... ;-)

Just trow in some words (or a part of your blog) and click create: viola! a nice word cloud.

Tony Kushners' Angels in America is one of the plays you must see in your life. I went to the performance of Toneelgroep Amsterdam with Hans Kesting and Barry Atsma.
It is quite a play: 5 hours - but worth it all.

"Flickan som lekte med elden" i uppföljaren till "Män som hatar kvinnor" men hälften så bra...
Som actionfilm är det knappast rafflande – slagsmålen är få, fast jag misstänker att misshandeln av Paolo Roberto (spelas av Paolo själv) blir en publikfavorit – men spänningshalten är högre än i Män som hatar kvinnor. En bra bidragande orsak är att filmen utspelar sig med Stockholm som kuliss. Det har man mjölkat till sista droppen med bilder på Gamla Stan i skymningsljus och häng på populära kaféer.

Jag har två svåra invändningar mot Flickan som lekte med elden. Liksom i andra svenska genrefilmer beter sig skådespelarna som om de drog in extrapengar på fikarasten. Det är trist att behöva vrida sig i skam när någon som Lena Endre öppnar munnen. Värst är den konstanta mattan av förprogrammerad stämningsmusik – ömsom romantisk, ömsom dramatisk. I en ödesmättad scen tycker jag mig faktiskt höra syntetiskt dånande kyrkklockor. Det hör hemma i en billig tysk tv-serie, inte i en biosalong.

When you are plannng to build your snowman this weekend, take some cues from the Sapporo snow festival which every year creates the most wonderful sculptures out of snow...

When GM took over Saab back in 1990 it was already done and over with the Saab I liked: An innovative, sportive sturdy car maker. You only have to look at the Saab 99 EMS to know what I mean. After 1990 Saabs were Opel with a different jacket. So the fact that Saab will dissapear is no news for me.

As X-mas is approaching the food is getting better and better... ;-)

Platon photographed the leaders of the world for The New Yorker. Next that they are great pictures it gives a nice reflection of the diversity of how people look like around the globe.

Jag har mycket ork för studerar på svenska och Rosseta Stone level ett är nästan färdig.
Men nya böcker vara under vägen och jag tänkar den jag behövar ätminstone sex månader till jag talar litten svenska...

In the campaign of Annise Parker the fact that she is a lesbian was never brought up. Even all the pictures of Annise were of her alone, although she has a partner for 19 years, Kathy Hubbard (and three - adopted- children). Even stranger if you realize that she began her career as an advocate for gay rights in the 1980s...
But anyway: her election is a big thing 'cause Houston became the largest city in the United States to elect an openly gay mayor!

The new Christmas Carol is a visual Bonanza. Especially in IMAX 3D. A must see for all bankers, let's say as a special bonus ;-)

Barack did it again - with his Nobel Peace prize acceptance speech he eloquent explained why when being in pursuit of peace one sometimes have to be prepared to take up arms and to combat. He also addressed the criticism of some that you got this prize way to early. In short: it was an other example of how to speech...

Take a moment to read the end - wow!

Somewhere today, in the here and now, in the world as it is, a soldier sees he's outgunned, but stands firm to keep the peace. Somewhere today, in this world, a young protestor awaits the brutality of her government, but has the courage to march on. Somewhere today, a mother facing punishing poverty still takes the time to teach her child, scrapes together what few coins she has to send that child to school --because she believes that a cruel world still has a place for that child's dreams.

Let us live by their example. We can acknowledge that oppression will always be with us, and still strive for justice. We can admit the intractability of deprivation, and still strive for dignity. Clear-eyed, we can understand that there will be war, and still strive for peace. We can do that -- for that is the story of human progress; that's the hope of all the world; and at this moment of challenge, that must be our work here on Earth.

It can be quite difficult to read your first poem when you are 8 years old... But with a little help of everyone Lisa made a splendid performance.

I thought it would be a good idea to take a (little) break from my -grueling- trainings schedule and so today I started 14 days without JohnJohn and the gym - well maybe I"ll pop-in to do some running...

Lately I've run into some troubles with my Honda CB1000R. I am not sure why, but I keeping getting little flaws with this bike. The last thing is that I cannot rely on the head light anymore. So maybe I must look out for a new bike in spring. What about the new Kawasaki Z1000? 1043 cc - maroon brown with a (imitation) snake buddy seat. So bad it is awesome again :-)

After Wallander, Annika Bengtzing, Beck it is now the end of our DVD box of Van Veeteren. So we have seen almost all swedish detectives available on DVD (with subtitles). I liked Van Veeteren especially because it supposedly is set in Amsterdam - or Maasdam as it is called in the series. The funny thing is that the whole thing is filmed in Sweden...

Santa Claus was in town and he brought me a beautiful set of exclusive Viktor & Rolf dinner plates. So that's why...

A nice series of photos by Ernst Coppejans of gay escorts in their "work" environment...

Richard Renaldi took pictures of boys in the small New England city of Fall River, Massachusetts.

A sweet new application of the Meertens Institute: based on the municipal registers of The Netherlands they can tell you how many people there are with the same last name and where they live... So my family comes from Limburg :-) and we are with 7000 Joostens...

An amazing mash-up that shows aircraft traffic above the Netherlands. You can see where which plane flies, how hight, where to etc. etc. This is a brilliant example of the things to come in a websquared world... They even have a layar application. :-)

Ramses Shaffy, the only chansonnier we ever had in Holland died yesterday. He symbolises warmth, artistic strenght and above all passion for life. Luckily for us he left a legacy of beautiful songs which we can enjoy until the end of times... This great picture is from the sixties when Ramses started to become an icon of the Ducth culture.

On the museumsquare right in the center of Amsterdam this construction was set up as a memorial to the many people that still die of Aids each day because they cannot get any treatment.

Today Jose Maria Di Bello, of Argentina should have married his partner Alex Freyre in Buenos Aires but a judge ruled otherwise. The union was to be Latin America's first legal gay marriage

The couple thought it won the right to marry when a judge ruled that a ban on same-sex marriage violated Argentina’s Constitution.
The mayor of Buenos Aires, Mauricio Macri, said the city would not appeal, in effect inviting other same-sex couples to pursue their rights in court.
“We have to live with and accept this reality: the world is moving in this direction,” he said.
Mr. Freyre, 39, the executive director of the Buenos Aires AIDS Foundation, and Mr. Di Bello, 41, an executive with the Argentine Red Cross, sued after being denied a marriage license in April. Their request was granted by Judge Gabriela Seijas, who said that laws limiting marriage to a man and a woman violated the constitutional rights of equality.
The ruling sets no precedent beyond this case, but other gay and lesbian couples may cite it in court if their requests for marriage licenses are denied.
No other country in Latin America allows same-sex marriage, though some jurisdictions allow same-sex partners to form civil unions with many of the same rights.

Barack and I are fed up of these meetings about Afghanistan. Just send in those damn extra troops will you? We have other things to do. Joe broke with protocol and took of his jacket and my Diet Coke was out of my reach. Pfft...!

Marijn tried whether the kindle could resist any rough handling - it did not :-( The screen broke and the kindle was useless. In came Amazon Customer Service and they (amazingly!) replaced our kindle for free. So now a new kindle is on its way and the old one back to the states for recycling. Thank you very much Amazon for this outstanding service - you have proven again way you are our (book)store of choice.

We all know Canali were a decent suit will cost you about € 2000. Or suitsupply where you can find one for a mere €400. But now - in this time of crisis - Metro/Makro comes with the ultimate price: €40!
The dry cleaner is more expensive... But I guess if you try to dry clean these babies you won't get anything back that you can wear. But who cares?

I couldn't help being distracted by Jan's new underwear campaign - what's wrong with me? Am I suddenly interested in dull, fat belly, skinny older men? :-)

In the little town of West Fork, Ark., a 10-year-old boy named Will Phillips is refusing to stand up in school and say the Pledge of Allegiance until the time comes when he can truly believe that the U.S.A. really does offer “liberty and justice for all.” According to Will "Gays and lesbians can’t marry, and there is still a lot of racism and sexism in the world.” - “They should have the right to marry, and I won’t swear that they do”Amazing isn't it? and that in West Fork Arkansas(population 1200)! WILL deserves a lot of respect for his actions and ideas. I guess there is still hope for the USA :-))
Have a look at the CNN interview - it will make your day I am sure.

"Bob's World, TASCHEN's yummy new book (and DVD!) of highly camp, often sexy, and occasionally iconic male nudes, is a wonderful treasure... about the work of Bob Mizer. The (hilarious) video will explain all...

A great new book from Taschen about the election art of the Obama Campaign. Hundreds of artists and designers expressed support for the Obama candidacy by designing posters and submitting them to designforobama.org for free download. This selection of the very best—curated by Spike Lee and Aaron Perry-Zucker—is a visual document of the most inspirational U.S. presidential campaign in living history.

14-year old Ralf Mackenbach has starred in the musicals Tarzan and Beauty and the Beast and he has played in several TV-commercials. Yesterday He won the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2009 in Kiev.
with his own song "Click Clack". The song is not so great but look at the performance of Ralf and his team as dancers: It's really good! :-) You can see that they are following a professional preparatory training at Lucia Marthas Dance Academy in Amsterdam.

Eddie was admitted to the prestigious PAN art fair in Amsterdam. During the opening his stand drew lots of traffic and attention.

Jag började åter läsa pjäser av Herman Heijermans. Han var författare holländsk och början av 1900 mycket populär för sin samhällskritiska pjäser. Utgivet på svenska är "Diamantstaden (1908)".

The Yamaha BODiBEAT automatically matches music to your exercise pace, selecting songs that have a similar tempo to your running or jogging speed. When you change pace, BODiBEAT selects and plays a different song from your playlist to match your new pace. So far for the good news. The bad news is that it is expensive ($180 for a 512Mb player) has a monochrome tiny screen, a bulky appearance, a lousy headset and an even worse heartmonitor ear clip. Can't wait till Nike Plus comes with a heart monitor iPhone plug-in...

Jag har laddat ner Rosetta Stone och Svenska level 1 till 3. Den här program arbeta med bilder och ljud och är mycket intuitivt. Jag hoppas skulle förbättra min svenska snabb!

Please vote here if you like it...

BUTT magazine have released their 2010 calendar. Contributions from the likes of Wolfgang Tillmans! Buy it from your local americanapparel

Because of the movie "Hilde" based on the autobiography of Hildegrad Knef I downloaded her best tracks. After all these years it still is great to hear her sing with her unusual (smokers) voice.
Never saw a movie with her though. Heike Makatsch is great in Hilde by the way - she really IS Hildegard.

We collected all the snowwhite AH figures - but now we don't know what to do with them...
Or - better- what to do anyhow: maybe we have to wait for an other collectors item :-)

Göran (played by Gustaf Skarsgård) and Sven are a gay couple who’ve recently moved to the homogenous suburbs precisely so they can adopt a baby. They’ve gone through a long process, and to their delight, they’re told that they can soon expect a child, age “1.5 years.”
That, of course, turns out to be a typo. The only child available to them is a very troubled, and very homophobic 15-year-old boy, Patrik. :-)

På svenska:

Patrik, 1.5

Paret Göran och Sven Skoogh har just flyttat in i ett villaområde och godkänts som adoptivföräldrar, men barnet de får visar sig vara en kriminell tonåring, Patrik. Ett kommatecken har hamnat fel i byråkratin och in kliver en femtonårig homofob med kriminellt förflutet.

Och på film vet vi ju att det oftast för med sig bra saker, i slutändan.

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