Amat victoria curam!

Our Hotel - called... The Hoerhof (the whoreplace) - well it has and extra diaeresis...

Because Eddie has to deliver a couple of Photographs in Frankfurt we decided to make a special weekend out of it and to visit the nearby Taunus woods. They are great and we are staying in the little - very ancient - town of Idstein.

Because of this tiny stupid little foot injury/annoyance I have to forgo the half Amsterdam Marathon of this weekend. I will stay an extra day in Germany with Eddie - wouldn't like to be in Amsterdam, seeing everybody running pass by... :-( Next year and other chance I hope.

In this picture a comparison of your American Average Joe and Dutch Average Jan. Wow - the difference in BMI is striking - which we noticed before in life of course, as did we notice the difference in height.

After waiting patiently for more then a year I think, I have got this kickstarter project from Motrr, Galileo - which is a remote camera control for your iPhone. Really fun :-)

Hilarious work done by ADN

A nice new book of Tom Bianchi's Fire Island Polaroids.

Now that Alice Munro has won the Nobel prize for Literature 2013 it is time to look back and to have a personal top 10 of the previous winners. I haven't read anything yet of Alice, so she has to wait...

Tomas Tranströmer (2011) - 17 dikter
Harold Pinter (2005) - The Caretaker
Dario Fo (1997) - Tutti uniti! Tutti insieme! Ma scusa, quello non è il padrone?
Gabriel García Márquez (1982 - Cien años de soledad
Saul Bellow (1976) - Humboldt's Gift
Pablo Neruda (1971) - Veinte poemas de amor y una canción desesperada
Samuel Beckett (1969) - Waiting for Godot
John Steinbeck (1962) - Travels with Charley
Ernst Hemingway (1954 - For Whom the Bell Tolls
André Gide (1946) - Corydon
Thomas Mann (1929) - Buddenbrooks

OK - I know, that are 11 and not ten - but I could leave one out, could I? These are books and writers that will be read forever.

I found these at Dallmayr in Munich. They are sweet in every sence of the word.

I was checking second life yesterday (yes it does still exist!) and it turned out that since 15 January 2007 I am still wondering around as Marque Renegade in my "Funda X-mas" outfit. I tried to wander around - but no wonder I didn't encounter anybody...

Fortfarande mycket fint

This kind of colors could be making a return - I wouldn't mind.

The year long training of Marwan Kenzari paid off. For his leading role in the Ditch movie Wolf (which yeas means: Wolf) he received a golden Calf (sort of Dutch Oscar I guess). If you haven't seen this movie - go and see it soon. It is great.

Ever wondered who the real Siri is? Well she turns out to be Susan C. Bennet, a voice talent from Atlanta.

The Government offers this loverly bunker for sale in The Hague. The outside walls are 3 meter thick and the roof 2 meters. It was suposed to be a (military) hospital in 1942 - 1945, but that never happened. Not sure what you want with something like this: A Discotheque for very Deep House?

Mad Men is doing a Breaking Bad maneuver by splitting the final season up into two parts of 7 episodes each airing in 2014/2015. So this means that we have to wait two years before we know how it all ends (if it ends - remember Sopranos?). But: let's first see when they will air part one - romour has it that that will be in April(!) 2014... I think I won't remember by that time who Don Draper is.

In Helen Fielding's upcoming third (Bridget Jones) book, Mad About the Boy,
Mark Darcy gets killed off, though how remains an open question until Mad About the Boy hits stores Oct.10... We will miss his special taste for X-Mas sweaters (well: his mums that is). Poor Mr. D'Arcy, poor Bridget - what now? Back to Daniel Cleaver?

Just started reading The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. In Dutch because her latest novel is published first in The Netherlands (as "Het Puttertje"). It has been a while since I have seen the painting by Carel Fabritius in Het Mauritshuis - and since I have read something by Donna as a matter of fact...

“In books we never find anything but ourselves. Strangely enough, that always gives us great pleasure, and we say the author is a genius.” ―Thomas Mann

What is Thomas Mann thinking with all these books around him (he even has a box full of books next to him). Funny to realize that now-a-days we have thousands of books on our iPad - well: I have! That really saves a lot of space.

I do not look that happy am I?

OK - I decided to run the Dam to Dam anyway. I could take over a ticket from Dennis, so I was Dennis this Sunday :-)
It was unusually warm and humid - a lot of people had to step out of the race - but I survived and got to the finish.

Hmm... not enough space for two - although...?

The last Ibiza track of this year (summer is definitely over now guys)...

Today in Munich I noticed that a lot of people are already a little bit nervous about the upcoming Oktoberfest (this Sunday) - I even saw guys walking in their "Lederhosen" - which sometimes is not a bad thing :-)

Not sure if I will run the classic Dam-2-Dam run this Sunday. It's a 10M (16K) run from Amsterdam to Zaandam and one of the biggest running events in the world (55,000 plus runners). Usually fun - let's see how the weather is and how I feel that day...

My take on this classic Erykah sample...

What's in this trash bag?!

Eddie as the new Mayor

This visit to Marseille was a great first introduction. It really wants you to get (taste!) more.

Château d'If (of The Count of Monte Christo fame)

In a cell at d'If

What is Marseille without its water? Right, so we spent a day at sea.

How did they get the sneakers here?

Marseille is turning out into a very pleasant surprise. Maybe it is the sunny weather - but the combination of history, sunny weather, good food and the mediterranean sea is unbeatable...

Marseille doesn't have a great reputation; High crime numbers and the position of Le Pen make this second(!) city of France not very popular with tourists. Most visit for a couple of hours or stay at Aix De Provence. But being the European Cultural Capital of 2013 might change that (together with a whopping €450 million investment). So this week we are visiting La Douce France :-) First impression is great: it is an ancient city with roots going back to the Grecian and Roman times with lots of heritage. The center is also compact and human sized. (Oh: and the food is fab!)

After Spotify, Next Issue, Readly now finally Nexflix has arrived (in the Netherlands that is...)
TV was dead, VOD never took off - this is it!

Thx to Karen & Tom for giving us the tip to start watching DocMartin. It is a new sort of James Herriot - but then with a Mr Bean like, grumpy, autistic asperger main character. Doesn't sound funny? - well it is! Actually the main character is Port Isaac, a picture perfect little village in Cornwall. (So pretty that we added it to our bucket list).

Daniel Radcliffe stars as Beat Generation icon Allen Ginsberg in this new movie set during the poet's early years at Columbia University. He has an affair with Lucien Carr (Dane DeHaan) - which looks like pretty explicit...

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