Amat victoria curam!

1.    Mel Torme
2.    Sarah Vaughan
3.    Shirley Horn
4.    Billie Holiday
5.    Ella Fitzgerald
6.    Diana Krall
7.    Frank Sinatra
8.    Lou Rawls
9.    Doris Day
10.    Julie London

Marijn and I had a day at the beach (at Bloemendaal - the orginal Bloomingdale) to discuss exciting new ideas we have.

I visited Kees in Drenthe yesterday with the Honda 600 Hornet I rented. It was a long ride (4 1/2 in total) but absolutely worth it. It was nice to meet his family and see the wonderful place he lives in the (far) east of The Netherlands near the German Border. The have afunny dog a mix of a poodle and a labrador.

Germany unveiled a memorial Tuesday to the long-ignored gay victims
of the Nazi regime, a monument that also aims to address discrimination
today by confronting visitors with an image of a same-sex
couple kissing.

The memorial - a sloping gray concrete slab on the edge of the
Tiergarten district in Berlin - is a deliberate echo of the vast field
of smaller slabs that make up Germany's memorial to Jewish victims of
the Holocaust, opened three years ago just across the road. Nazi Germany declared homosexuality an aberration that threatened the
German race, and convicted some 50,000 homosexuals as criminals. An
estimated 10,000 to 15,000 gay men were deported to concentration
camps, where few survived. Ingar Dragset, a Norwegian designed the memorial with Michael Elmgreen of Denmark. I am not sure what to make of it. I guess I have to see it myself first. :-|

New pictures from Erwin Olaf of the Dutch Soccer Team.

A couple of weeks ago Eddie and I went to Ten Kate Motor Cycles in the East of Holland to watch the new CB1000R (I already had ordered it - so maybe handy to have a look as well :-) )
When I viewed the latest entry at the Dutch Motor Forum I found myself caught on this picture of Remon, Who likes the CB1000R too and made some pictures that morning.

On what would have been the slain gay rights leader's 78th birthday, the
city of San Francisco unveiled a monumental statue of former Supervisor
Harvey Milk in the rotunda of City Hall today. Finally after more then 30 years!

The Radio 4 clasical music top 400 brought me up an idea: from now on I will try to have a personal Sunday top 10 list. Because I am still in the classical music mood - the first list is:

4. Arvo Part - Tabula Rasa

5. Copland - Billy The Kid

6. Tsjaikofski - Ouverture 1812

7. Richard Straus - 4 letzte Lieder

8. Sibelius - Violin Concerto

9. Mozart - Piano Concerto K482

10. Heine - Es treibt mich hin (Lieder)

 

According to the listerners of Radio 4 (Public classical music broadcast) the top 10 of classical music is:
1. Johann Sebastian Bach: Matthäus Passion
2. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Requiem
3. Johann Sebastian Bach: Hohe Messe
4. Georg Friderick Händel: Messiah
5. Gabriel Fauré: Requiem
6. Giovanni Battista Pergolesi: Stabat Mater
7. Richard Strauss: Vier letzte Lieder.
8. Antonio Vivaldi: The 4 Seasons
9. Ludwig van Beethoven: Pianoconcert nr. 5
10. Gregorio Allegri: Miserere

Niko is based on Michael Hollick, an actor from New York. He has (part of) his face and his voice. The rest is pure GTA magic :-) The poor guy is paid a lump sum and gets nothing from the $600 million the game already made. Harrison Ford has a better deal with IJ IV...

Maybe it was the comic of Joe Bar I got from Marijn and Merel or the encouragements of so many friends: Today I passed my Motor Cycle exam!
The weather was perfect (sunny 18C), the time of the day just right (15:00) and the examinators very nice (I got two - because mine was trained on the job). I got straight A's for every part of the exam and so tomorrow I can apply for my revised drivers license. :-))

Fascinating read in the New Yorker - Pixel Perfect: Pascal Dangin’s
virtual reality.  Incredible story of a legendary
retoucher (he even did the Dove "real women" campaign). His company The Box makes almost al fashion ads and photo's pixel perfect...

Kiss-Inn: A peaceful protest against the verbal and
physical abuse of men and  women that still
happens in the name of god, allah, homophobia, boredom or plain stupid
aggression. Yesterday at the homo monument in Amsterdam.

I am totally hooked on Dan Cruickshank's adventure in architecture currently on BBC Two. It is a terrif journey in search of some of the greatest buildings and places of the world. Places I never heard of - or see.
It made me curious to his other earlier series - which I am now downloading :-)

A nice article of Malcolm Gladwell in the New Yorker of last week: how humans can invent if they just put their minds to it. We all recognize that when brainstorming some amazing ideas can pop up. Why don't we do this more often? It could help to overcome some of the major issues we are facing today.