Posts Tagged With: Music

The Streets of Chuck Deely (Or: The 2022 edition)

Posted on August 27, 2022 by Niki

Chuck Deely was an American street musician who played in The Hague’s city centre for years. He was such a fixture that the mayor of The Hague gave him a ‘street license for life’ to play music in the city centre back in 2008. Unfortunately he passed away in early 2017 (previous blog post).

Tomorrow (Sunday afternoon) is The Streets of Chuck Deely festival (official website in Dutch) in The Hague’s city centre, from 13:00 to 17:00. Check out the band line up. There are 10 mini stages set up around the city centre. Most bands will perform twice.

Mini stature of Chuck Deely (near The Hague Central Station)
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The Life I Live festival 2022 (Or: King’s Night in The Hague)

Posted on April 26, 2022 by Niki

Tonight is the 10th anniversary of The Life I Live festival. Note: their website is definitely experiencing server capacity issues, so it is a bit hit or miss to visit it right now.

The last edition was of course in 2019. It is held in The Hague’s city centre, with musical acts spread out over about 8-10 stages. The opener this year was the Ukrainian band Go_A. Last year they participated in the Eurovision Song festival held in Rotterdam. This year the band got special permission from the Ukrainian government to travel to The Hague to perform (as technically Ukrainian men are not supposed to leave Ukraine right now).

This stage was at the Lange Voorhout not far from the Escher museum and Hotel Des Indes.

This smaller stage was on the opposite end of the Lange Voorhout, featuring the band Kuzko. I didn’t stay long, but they really brought the bass! It was a weird feeling to feel the bass after not going to any concerts the last two years.

King’s Night (and more accurately King’s Day) is a holiday to celebrate the birth of the Dutch King Willem Alexander who turns 55 tomorrow. The joke “Max komt misschien later…” is a joke that Max Verstappen, the 2021 F1 world champion, might stop by here later. Hmm.

(Man, I still remember when it was weird to see Willem Alexander with a beard!)

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Categories: Culture, Holidays, The Hague | Tags: , , , | 1 Comment

A start to the event season (Or: The European Songfestival)

Posted on May 16, 2021 by Niki

While most things have been cancelled due to the coronavirus crisis, some events are still going on. One of them is the European Songfestival. Rotterdam is hosting the festival because the Netherlands won in 2019 with Duncan Lawrence’s Arcade number (YouTube).

The opening ceremonies are tonight – actually they are going on right now. It isn’t without a bit of controversy: Poland unable to join Eurovision opening ceremony after coronavirus infection from nltimes.nl. Since that article was published Iceland also had a positive corona test. Romania and Malta also decided not to attend the opening ceremony because they are in the same hotel as Poland and Iceland.

The finale will be next weekend, Saturday evening to be exact. I do want to watch at least the beginning of it, since hey, it’s Rotterdam. We will probably get to see a few beautiful shots of the famous bridge:

This photo was taken during Marco and I’s 3rd wedding anniversary.

But normally it is hard to watch the entire songfestival. It doesn’t end before midnight and that means the final results come in after 01:00. It can also be pretty political at times…

Marco said he will watch a bit so that get a bit of the “Dutch feel”. It has been 40 years since the Netherlands hosted the event, and probably another 40 years before we host it again.

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Code red (Or: Brrr, cold and windy!)

Posted on February 6, 2021 by Niki

Later this evening and tomorrow the Netherlands will be under a “code red” warning for Storm Darcy. Apparently the last time the entire country was under code red was February 2012, before I arrived in the Netherlands.

Dutch issue Code Red weather alert for snowdrifts, blizzard conditions from nltimes.nl. The expected snowfall itself varies anywhere from 2 to 6 inches; it really depends on who you are listening to. The wind is the real problem for traffic, since it will cause snow drifts and limited visibility. Some days it will feel like -15c to -18c (closer to 0F) next week, which is rare in this country. Some news sites are calling this a “once in ten years” event.

And of course, what you would expect to see in this situation…

Empty shelves, of course. That’s the bread area by an Albert Heijn (grocery store).

Dutch health services announce closure of all test and vaccination sites due to weather alert from nltimes.nl. Makes sense. Even the Dutch government is getting in on the action, posting a page about having “fun in the snow” in a responsible, corona proof way: Schaatsen, schaatsbanen, sneeuw en winterweer from rijksoverheid.nl in Dutch. Mainly rules about skating, snow ball fights, etc. Oh, and don’t forget to be inside by 21:00 for the curfew…

In other news: Legendary rock band Golden Earring stops after 60 years on ALS diagnosis from nltimes.nl. Golden Earring (English Wikipedia) is a Dutch rock band from The Hague, internationally known for their hit “Radar Love”, among others. Here is a YouTube link of Radar Love.

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It’s been four years? (Or: Memorial to Chuck Deely)

Posted on January 9, 2021 by Niki

Some kind soul created a memorial to Chuck Deely outside the Albert Heijn on the Grote Marktstraat:

Chuck Deely (Dutch Wikipedia) was an American street musician that was active in The Hague from the ’90s until his death on January 2017. I can’t believe it has been four years! There will never be anyone like him again.

He has been honored a few ways since his death, including a statue by Central Station:

He also received a mural in one of the tram tunnels near the Turfmarkt (thehaguestreetart.nl, in English).

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Year in Search (Or: Google’s 2020 trends)

Posted on December 9, 2020 by Niki

Google has released their 2020 “Year in Search” page. You can see what trended worldwide or you can see what trended per country (the Netherlands, the United States, the United Kingdom…). One interesting thing is that the trend categories differ per country. For instance the US has a category for games but the Netherlands doesn’t.

Here are the top 5 search terms for the Netherlands:

  1. Coronavirus
  2. RIVM (Dutch Health institute)
  3. Verkiezingen Amerika (US Election)
  4. Coronavirus Nederland
  5. Snappet (apparently this is education learning platform for elementary students, so digital learning)

The second most popular Why? question was Waarom hamsteren we wc papier? or Why do we horde toilet paper? This was apparently so popular back in March and April that it took the second spot, beaten only by Waarom zijn cornflakes uitgevonden? or Why were cornflakes discovered? (?!? Okay.) (On second thought: don’t Google it unless you want a trip to Bizzaro World.)

In other news: every year a Dutch radio channel plays the Top 2000 (Wikipedia) to mark the end of the year. In late November/early December the Dutch vote on their favorite songs and those votes help determine the list. Between Christmas and New Years the radio channel plays those songs. It was first done in 1999 to mark the transition to 2000; it proved so popular that it became a yearly event. This year it will start at midnight on Christmas Day (that is, the first second of Christmas) so that the radio show has an additional eight hours to play the full-length album versions of some songs.

Fun fact: since 1999 there have been only four occasions where Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody did not take the #1 spot. 2020 will be one of those years, with the Dutch country singer Danny Vera taking the top spot with his song Roller Coaster (YouTube).

Dutch country singer Danny Vera dethrones Queen in Top 2000 records from dutchnews.nl

Oh, but don’t feel too bad for Bohemian Rhapsody as it is still ranked #2.

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Music at the Malieveld? (Or: Parkpop changes)

Posted on November 24, 2020 by Niki

Yesterday the news broke that the Dutch music festival Parkpop would be moving to Malieveld next year (article from omroepwest.nl in Dutch). The festival has been held at The Hague’s Zuiderpark for the last 40 years. Indeed, the festival gets its name from the fact that it is held at Zuiderpark (Parkpop). In 1992 it claimed the title as the biggest music festival of Europe, drawing over half a mission visitors that weekend (!).

However, location always proved an issue. It’s much easier to get to Malieveld (which is a 2 minute walk from The Hague’s Central Station) than it is to get to Zuiderpark. Another issue was noise: Zuiderpark is surrounded by residential area, whereas Malieveld is not.

In corona news:

De Jonge: Dutch partial lockdown likely to continue past mid-January from nltimes.nl. The worst part is this means restaurants and cafés will not be able to reopen for dine-in for a while, but if it helps…

Government advised to extend Christmas school holidays, not relax other measures from nltimes.nl. I bet kids will be really happy if their Christmas vacation does get extended, but it will probably mean a shorter summer break. But as a kid, would you think of that? (At the moment it is just advice; the government can ignore it.)

Categories: News | Tags: , , | 2 Comments

More cancellations (Or: No Elfstedentocht this year)

Posted on November 21, 2020 by Niki

The Elfstedentocht is an 11 city ice staking race. The length is about 200 kilometers (120 miles) and is held in the north of the Netherlands in the Friesland province. It can most accurately be described as “the event that stops the Netherlands”. Or it would be, if the weather would cooperate. As you might expect, the race can only be held if the ice is thick enough along the entire course. The last time that happened was 1997. There was a glimmer of hope in 2012, but it didn’t work out. This event averages about 2 million spectators.

About a month ago Marco and I looked at each other and thought of the worst possibility ever: that the weather would finally cooperate and there would be an Elfstedentocht… and the coronavirus.

Well, the organization responsible for the event saw the chaos that was about to come and reported that no matter what, there would be no Elfstedentocht. As dutchnews.nl reports: Elfstedentocht cancelled because of…coronavirus, oh, and the weather. (Since the prospectives of ice don’t look good anyway.)

And here is a fun one:

The city carillonneur played “Paint it Black” from The Rolling Stones on the church bells in Groningen (also in the north of the Netherlands). This is something he does often, but because Mick Jagger saw the video and placed it on his Instagram with 2 million followers, the video quickly went viral. You can read more in Dutch over at nos.nl: Groningse stadsbeiaardier klinkt wereldwijd met Paint it black van The Rolling Stones.

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Aged cheese (Or: Jokes at a local Albert Heijn)

Posted on September 7, 2020 by Niki

Here’s a silly joke about cheese for you, spotted at the local grocery store, Albert Heijn:

In English: “Age isn’t important, unless you’re cheese!” Haha. Such a silly joke. But a bit of personality at a chain grocery store as big as Albert Heijn is always nice to see.

Here is an interesting article spotted at The Guardian: Slowly does it: chord changes in John Cage’s 639-year-long organ piece. Or check out the article in Dutch over at at nos.nl.

The name of the work is As Slow As Possible (ORGAN/ASLSP) and it started playing in 2001. According to the Wikipedia article, there have been 14 chord changes to date, with the previous chord lasting 6 years and 11 months. Chords are changed by adding or removing organ pipes.

The performance is scheduled to end on September 5, 2640… It’s hard to imagine that.

Categories: Daily Dutch living, Everyday purchases | Tags: , | Leave a comment

Modern stone (Or: Primark building in The Hague)

Posted on June 19, 2020 by Niki

One of my favorite additions to The Hague in the last five years is the building that houses Primark. Primark is a budget department store which attracts customers in droves (I used to see tourists walk past holding 4 or 5 bags each). I took another photo of the building recently:

I love the color of the stone and the angles of the apartments above. And of course the blue skies definitely help.

In other news:

  • There’s a chance of a heat wave next week, with temperatures expected to be around 30C or 86F on Wednesday and Thursday. I know some of my American readers would go “Pffft! That’s nothing!” but keep in mind air conditioning is pretty rare in the Netherlands. And a lot of people are now working from home, so no office climate control for us! Time to break out the big fan.
  • The Hague forbids weekend protest festival against Covid restrictions from nltimes.nl. This was another group who wanted to protest at Malieveld. Originally there were supposed to be 100 attendees but then the organization decided to turn it into a ‘festival’ of sorts, altering speakers and DJs, so the expected attendance rose to 10,000. Considering festivals are banned at the moment, it’s no wonder that this demonstration was also banned. The decision was made by the mayor of The Hague this morning and the group then turned to the courts to get the ban overturned. The courts ruled earlier this evening that the ban could stay in place.
  • MOJO en Vodafone lanceren streamingplatform largerthan.live from vodafoneziggo.nl. MOJO (a ticket seller) and Vodafone (an internet and phone company) are together launching a streaming platform so that those with a virtual ticket can watch certain performances live from the Ziggo dome in Amsterdam. Fans can watch from their mobile devices or broadcast to the tv. They can also choose what camera angle they want. The most interesting point: at the moment the two companies say the streaming opportunities will continue even after things get back to normal. That could be interesting.
Categories: Shopping, The Hague | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

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