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Standing at the Gates of Hell

Counting the dead – Lijssenthoek, Poperinge Standing at the gates of hellWe did not linger, did not dwellOn days long goneOr dreams forgottenStanding at the gates of hellWe felt it keenly, felt it wellThat life was shortAnd all too brittleStanding at the gates of hellIn silence did we wonderShivering did we ponderWhich sullied choice had led us here. Lijssenthoek,…

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Wij zijn de cowboys

Wij zijn de cowboys. En niet de indianen. Niet enkel in het verkeer maar ook in de publieke ruimte. Onze bezitsdrang heeft geleid tot een uitgebreid, quasi onbeperkt eigendomsrecht. Dat we soms met hand en tand verdedigen. Desnoods tot bij de vrederechter. Met afsluitingen, hekkens en muurtjes. En met paaltjes. Uiteraard. Hoe zouden we ooit zonder kunnen? Toch maken we ook voetpaden…

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On Twisted Memories of Indifference & Redemption

On Twisted Memories of Indifference & Redemption

The Great Song of Indifference, Bob Geldof (1990) Don’t ask me why, don’t ask me how. For one reason or another, suddenly I found myself thinking of a song I heard ages ago. By Bob Geldof. No, it was not ‘I don’t like Mondays’. Not that I don’t like the song or cannot relate to it. What working adult or school going child or teenager would disagree with that kind of title? The song content is…

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De Overrimpeling

Hans Dorrestein.Wat een stem.Wat een man.Enkele weken geleden was hij bij Pat Donnez op bezoek.Op Klara Radio.In Berg en Dal.Zoals eenieders leven dat soms wel eens is.Ze hadden het samen onder andere over een van zijn boeken, Het Rimpelperspectief.Hoe hij ooit oudjes was beginnen observeren.Om er uiteindelijk zelf eentje te worden.En hoe we misschien beter af zouden zijn zonder. Wat me meteen…

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Een kuitenflikker. Met één blozend been.

Na mijn tweede operatie in 2018 had ik in de zomer even een blozend been.

Net zoals het schaamrood eensklaps de wangen van iemands gezicht bedekken kan, zo bekende ook mijn been kleur. Ik had er geen enkele controle over. Ik wist niet eens wat de aanleiding ervoor was. Het kon vroeg in de ochtend, bij het uit bed komen spontaan gebeuren. Even goed gebeurde het na een voor mij dan toch hevige…

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An. あん。Sweet Beans.

I watched ‘An’ (あん) a while ago and I liked it. Most people, who saw and even reviewed it, did so as well. The Guardian dubbed the movie as “sweet but not cloying” and originally awarded it 4 out of 5 stars.

The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw, however, scored the film at 2 out of 5 stars, complaining that “Despite some touching moments, and earnest performances, I must confess to feeling exasperated…

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The GRAND STRATEGY of Philip II

I once read a tweet, article or blog post where Philippe Silberman recommended his readers or followers to read three books. Unfortunately, I happened to mislay my note about this and was unable to locate it ever since (Perhaps it was merely a mental one.).

I remembered one title only: ‘The Grand Strategy of Philip II’. To my surprise and delight, I managed to find it in the online catalogue of…

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​Tournée Minérale -  En Route

​Tournée Minérale –  En Route

Tournée Minérale. Het klinkt als een contradictio in terminis (Latijn voor “tegenspraak in termen”). De twee woorden lijken echt niet bij elkaar te horen. Spontaan denk je dan ook dat zoiets onmogelijk is. De bedenkers hebben het volgens mij bedoeld als iets verrassends, iets dat ons normale verwachtingspatroon doorbreekt en net daardoor onze aandacht krijgt.

Ze zullen het zeker niet spottend…

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Numero Zero

Numero Zero is the final novel of Umberto Eco, still released during his lifetime (2015). But it was not a lucky number seven novel. He died on February 19, 2016.

Summarised in one sentence, it’s a satire of the tabloid press in Italy in 1992.

The story is told by Colonna, a not very successful journalist, who is hired to work on a newspaper called Domani (Tomorrow) that will never be published,…

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When a SWOT becomes a SWAMP (part 2 of 2)

In part 2 of ‘When you’re SWOT becomes a SWAMP’, we’ll discuss how to overcome the SWAMP phenomena & rescue your SWOT exercise.

As indicated at the end of the first article, it sometimes goes wrong. And when it does, it can go really, really wrong indeed and your glorious SWOT eventually turns into a SWAMP, characterized by:

Self-promotion

Wangling

Abandonment

Mediocrity

Preservation

1.…

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Moriarty and The House of Silk

​Moriarty. And The House of Silk.

No.

The answer is no.

Just in case you wondered if Moriarty was a prominent character in the detective ‘House of Silk’.

He wasn’t.

In ‘Moriarty’, evidently, he’s omnipresent and at the very same time, he’s barely present at all. As far as I know, ‘Moriarty’ is only the second Sherlock-detective by Anthony Horowitz, the first of course being ‘The House of Silk’.

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Unheimisch

Early 2017 With 2016’s brutal attacks in Paris, bombings in Brussels, the atrocity of what happened in Nice, the coup after the coup in Turkey, the sniper shootings in the USA, Brexit, Berlin and Donald Trump (yes, catastrophes may present themselves in all colours and shapes) – already forgetting far too easily what went on and is still going on in Syria, Iraq and Libya: Angry and sad do not…

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Belfius

​Contrary to what you may have been led to believe, Belfius is not a bank company.

Its logo should already have made you suspicious.

Why on earth did the founders go for the equal sign? Did they explicitly want to express they were a bank for the common people, all being equal to everyone? Though some of their former clients and board members apparently were more equal than others, but that’s…

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Berezina

En side-car avec Napoléon (Sylvain Tesson)

Retraite de Russie – par Bernard-Edouard Swebach (musée Besançon)

Si pauvre ma portée du français est devenue… et quand-même: être capable de savourer les mots inconnus, quoiqu’ils me sonnent étrangers dans les oreilles, comme les gens qui passent autour de moi dans la ville dont seulement le visage se présente, cela me donne du plaisir.

D’ailleurs,…

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​The Buried Giant

SPOILER ALERT: Don’t read this post if you don’t want to have the plot revealed to you.

The Buried Giant is a novel by the British (Yes, British) author Kazuo Ishiguro, published in 2015.

A third person narrator introduces the story.

The novel is set right after the Britain of King Arthur with Britons peacefully living alongside Saxons. The story focuses on Axl and Beatrice, an elderly Briton…

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Toyota’s Setsuna is an amazing wooden concept car designed to last generations

Debuting at Milan Design Week next Monday, Toyota’s Setsuna is probably the most unique concept car to debut from a major automaker this year. If it’s not obvious from looking at it, this adorable little roadster is made almost entirely of wood — Japanese cedar and birch, to be specific — and was built using traditional Japanese carpentry techniques that don’t involve nails or screws. 

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Everyday Chinese or Chinese everyday?

Sorry to disappoint you, but this blog post is not about putonghua (普通话), the common or everyday language in China.

Quite the contrary, this short piece is all about the experience of visiting relatives or friends in China, and wining & dining with them, day in day out, throughout your stay. In other words: everyday Chinese. Food.

It’s about enjoying the ease of eating as many hot meals as you…