Amat victoria curam!

At the recent Brussels Art Fair several cartoon drawings by Herge were on offer. Expect something to pay in the region of €200.000 plus. OOPS!
Herge is of course the most recognized artist in the world with TinTin But ohers like Franquin are catching up quickly. This original Spirou drawing is for sale for € 3500 at gallery 9.

Facel Vega are really betautiful cars and the nice thing is that you can actually buy nice restored ones even today at Amical Facel Holland like this FV2B cabriolet, 1956 (unfortunately sold...)

Michel Hania the candidate for the party student058 posed nude for the municipal election poster. To bad for the beer he holds in his hands and the rather skinny looks. The photo is taken by the way in the City Hall...

Now that the nominations are known - it's time to make my previous predictions a little bit more plausible:

My (adjusted) prediction for this years Oscars:
1) Best Film - Avatar
2) Best Director - Quentin Tarantino for Inglourious Basterds
3) Best Actor - Colin Firth in A Single Man
4) Best Actress - Meryl Streep in Julie & Julia
5) Best Supporting Actor - Christoph Waltz for Inglourious Basterds
6) Best Supporting Actress - Mo'Nique for Precious
7) Best Foreign Film - The White Ribbon
8) Best Animation - UP

Obama made a pledge during the election and repeated it during his first State of the Union. Now it seems that even the military are working on a way to end the ridiculous "Don't Ask - Don't Tell" policy - will it finally stop? Then all there is left is the Supreme Court proposition 8 ruling :-)

We're making progress!

A couple a days ago a guy at the Spui Straat whom was carrying a shopping bag from Gays & Gadgets (from my friend Hans) was brutally attacked without any reason. In Amsterdam! See the security camera video:

Today Mayor Cohen gave Gay shopping bags to shoppers so for a while everyone was carrying a gay message - I like the reaction, but it is unbelievable that you are beaten up for the bag you have...

What's the matter with guys nowadays: they all seem to be searching for something...

A couple of days ago my Youtube account was "suspended"... That is Google for terminated. Without any reason, explanation or possibility to complain. Just like that no more you in youtube :-(
It wouldn't be that bad if Google & Youtube were just normal companies: but we're talking about huge monopolies here - so actually i am screwed (and switching to vimeo)

In his first state of the union Obama came back with a great speech - so will it turn out as we hoped for?

It is actually an iTunes pad and a little disappointing (no camera - 64G - no multi applications running) - but hey: Can you live without it? So When and Where (to buy) are they only questions left...

I have no idea how he did it: but it worked - Spyker now owns Saab. One way or the other Victor is the sort of guy who makes (the most unbelievable) things happen and takes great risks with confidence. In that part he is an example for all entrepreneurs and a true descent of our VOC heritage.

De simmar alltid i Sverige - sommar eller vinter eller mycket kall vinter. Brrrrrr....

Jag ha bli med i Svensk-Nederländska föreningen igår på Skandinavisk dagen. Har som syfte att förstärka banden mellan Sverige och Nederländerna och organiserar sammankomster och föredrag. Ocha firar den typiskt svenska fester och ihågkommer viktiga dagar och händelser i Servige.
Jag ha got hopp jag lära känna mycket interesant och rolig människor!

Well - actually not a lot of jumping this afternoon but the dressage. Edward Gal won easily. His horse Totilas is absolutely an other class all together. I had an excellent front row seat and could almost "feel" the horses :-)

My prediction for this years Oscars:
1) Best Film - Avatar
2) Best Director -Michael Haneke for The White Ribbon
3) Best Actor - Robert Downey Jr. for Sherlock Holmes
4) Best Actress - Meryl Streep for Julie & Julia
5) Best Supporting Actor - Christoph Waltz for Inglourious Basterds
6) Best Supporting Actress - Mo'Nique for Precious
7) Best Foreign Film - Winter in Wartime
8) Best Animation - UP

After Gilbert Gascard yet an other creator of a cartoon hero is dead: Jacques Martin father of Alix and LeFranc among others. Especially Alix is interesting: always wearing a bare minimum of clothes and always with his (very close) buddy Enak - he was a sort of gay superhero of cartoons...

Stephen won two awards at the National Television Awards show this evening. One lifetime achievement and one for his travel series: Fry in America. Well done! He even came out of his self imposed communication ban and was back on twitter (for a couple of minutes). Now he is back writing the second part of his bibliography - which sould be ready in April. If you haven't done so - read the first part Moab is my Washpot or watch the DVD of Fry in America while waiting for him to return.

On flickr you can find of kinds of HDR pictures. I especially like this set of Amsterdam - maybe just because it is around the corner where I live...

I couldn't resist and went for a ride today: wow! after a coupe of "motor-less" weeks it is good to be back! I was smiling all the way :-)))

Under namnet Morph har Nokia tagit fram en rad koncept och förslag till hur framtidens mobiler kan se ut när man med hjälp av nanoteknik förändrar det mesta. Elektroniken behöver inte längre byggas in bakom ett skyddande plastskal, den blir istället en del av materialet.

Jag tittar på äventyr med gubben Pettson och katten Findus. Den är mycket rolligt och mycket lätt - precis vad jag förstår. Tidigare förstod jag ingenting, men nu mestadels. :-)

OK its rather cold - but the weight he is lifting is no more then 30 kilos...

David Beckham has added another tattoo to his already huge collection of body art. The 34-year-old soccer ace already has 17 tattoos but decided to get the latest one — black and white image of Jesus Christ — to pay a tribute to his grandfather Joe West, who passed away in December. Go for number 18th David!

Iris Robinson, MP wife of Northern Ireland's First Minister, called for homosexuals to seek psychiatric counseling one year ago and now she is exposed as a sex mad middle-aged woman who can't keep her hands off teenage a boy - 40 years her junior -Kirk McCambley. Brilliant :-)

Philip's upcoming Activa MP3 player (April $130) changes what song is playing to match your rhythm. Its TempoMusics software analyzes a few different traits of songs in your library — such as the tempo — and will player slower songs when it looks like you're cooling down, or quicker ones to match your hard run. It'll even ask you to select an power song. The design looks OK. And as far I can see it has an USB connection. I wonder if it has any other (voice) feedback, like nike plus.

We don't know for sure what Sherlock and John all did together - but in this new movie they have great fun (and we too) as the solve intriguing Victorian mysteries. The art direction and machinery of this movie is really awesome - as are the jokes. I hope this will be the beginning of a new franchise.

Talking of which: we first have to wait for Iron Man II with Robbert I guess.

It was time to buy new running shoes. After some looking around and some solid advice from Run2Day I choose the new Nike Vomero fours. They are really comfy..

Today a plane from The Netherlands will arrive at JFK Airport in New York and two passengers onboard will, for the first time in more than two decades, be able to step safely onto U.S. soil. The arrival of Clemens Ruland and Hugo Bausch will also signal the end of a shameful and discriminatory policy and kept countless individuals - both straight and gay - separated from their loved ones: the US HIV Travel and Immigration Ban will be a relic of the past! :-)

Clemens will be the first HIV-positive person to enter the country in 22 years.

Fay Hartog Levin, the American Ambassador in Holland said goodby to the guys and the Dutch consul picked them up at the airport. Clemens won a contest by writing this poem:

Positive
No more lies
No more pretending
No more hiding
In the crevices of exclusion

Honesty
to the land
where once lay my destiny
in one viral load

Free I am
Free to travel
To hug, share, love
And once more be united

Alive and proud
I turn to you, America
America, here I come
Come as I am

HIV+

Clemens Ruland

The United Nations praised the United States on Monday for lifting travel bans on people with HIV and urged 57 other countries with travel restrictions (sic!) to end them quickly.

I cannot imagine that people actually want to watch TV in 3D. Watching TV at all is something of ancient times it seems and with the content you can find on the tube seeing it in 3D will certainly NOT improve it. Device manufacturers including Sony, Panasonic, Toshiba and LG are all announcing 3-D-enabled televisions and ESPN will broadcast the soccer world cup in 3D.
I cannot see anyone sitting at home with glasses in front of their screen. No 3D is fun for a pop corn Sunday afternoon movie - I think it will stay that way...

Gilbert Gascard - better knows as Tibet died yesterday. He created with André-Paul Duchâteau Rik Ringers - one of my favorite comic detectives. He was also responsible for the funny Chick Bill western comics.

En fantastiskt kul idé som liksom bara bad om att bli viral.
SVT ha gjort Iphone appen på spela teve programer men apple ha inte godkännet det. Darför att SVT ha gjort webplatsen (www.dearstevejobs.com) på svenskar kallelser av Steve Jobs en app snabb tillåtter i iTunes.
Jag hoppas det är framgångsrik!

The daughter of Marijn & Merel was born December 30. We visited her today and see looks very pretty.
Because I already decided on naming the baby Floris, what ever gender, I am afraid she has to live with two names... :-)

PS: Here you see the extremely skillful & professional hands of Merel feeding ~~Floris~~ Linne.

I saw Avatar in IMAX 3D and was blown away by the visual bonanza. This is truly a total different level in Computer Generates Animation. If only the story was any good... The music is Titanic revisited and the logic very far fetched. I like the art direction though and the computer displays in the movie ar awesome (something like an iSlate perhaps?). So go and watch this movie but forget what you are watching.

Now that I have booked a ticket for David Sedaris performance in London next March (hurry - it is almost sold out already!) I looked around for any material of David I don't own yet. On my quest I found this most peculiar item: his latest audiobook “Live for Your Listening Pleasure,” which features readings before audiences, available on the least portable of formats: vinyl.

Reminiscent of Blue Note albums from the 1950s and 1960s, the cover features a photograph of a woman sprawled on a white shag rug with a come-hither look, albums strewn about.
Maja Thomas, senior vice president for digital and audio publishing at the Hachette Book Group, says she was drawn to the idea precisely because it was quirky. Mr. Sedaris’s “audience is very attuned to irony and is going to find this funny,”
Luckily you can also download the audiobook as a torrent :-)
(which is what I ended up with...)

I don't know about you but I always have trouble keeping the iPod earbuds in my ear. Can you imagine what happens if I start running with them. Budfits ($8.99 including free -international- shipping) was my answer: it's so simple and so effective!

If you wanna new jeans - give me a call...

Actually they should have been married on December 1 - see my earlier post - but today it finally happened: in Ushuaia. Alejandro Freyre (39, left) and José Maria Di Bello (41, right) got married. Their first attempt was blocked at the last moment by the city. The Governor of Tierra del Fuego, Fabiane Rios, gave permission and conducted the marriage herself.

As a relatively new phenomenon in the crowded arena of journalists whose specialty it is to report the news of the catwalks, fashion bloggers have ascended from the nosebleed seats to the front row with such alacrity that a long-held social code among editors, one that prizes position and experience above outward displays of ambition or enjoyment, has practically been obliterated. After all, what is one to think when Bryan Boy, a style-obsessed blogger from the Philippines, is seated at the D & G show in Milan a mere two positions to the right of Anna Wintour?
Bryan is amazing in traveling around the world to pursuit his dream - a prime example what passion and the internet can bring you!

Nancy Meyers films are always a treat. And when you have a cast of Meryl Streep, Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin things must go right. And they do in this funny romantic flick. I couldn;t help noticing that Meryl has a very cute son in this movie: Hunter Parrish. The scene when he is (almost) crying was a little bit to much me ;-)

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... ;-)

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