@bnetherlands.bsky.social
A writer and photographer from Oregon who lives in the Netherlands. Posts range from serious news to haiku movie reviews and random photos of Dutch stuff. Someday I'll fix the cowboy banner. Someday...
Do we live in a bizarre and often terrifying world full of ridiculousness?
Absolutely, but how much different is this from propaganda efforts like Tokyo Rose? Govs have been doing stuff like this for a long time.
www.thedailybeast.com/iran-trolls-...
The cube is currently occupying a parking spot and I can't help but wonder if they're paying an hourly parking fee to keep it there.
Usually there's a limit to how long you can occupy a spot, too. Maybe they'll move it around?
2/2
The most bizarre bit of campaigning I've seen this election season?
This strange cube GroenLinks–PvdA set up in the middle of Leiden suggesting that parking spots could somehow be converted into housing for university students.
#Leiden #elections #Netherlands
1/2
I guess that's one way to field this ongoing debacle.
the new Jetten government has already announced it will copy Australia’s social media ban - but that one hasn’t worked at all
Meanwhile, Bryan Cranston was in a production of an Arthur Miller play in the theater next door. His fans came pouring out around the same time to do the same to him.
All in all, not a bad way to spend a Saturday night.
Afterward, around a hundred people waited by the stage door to get Erivo's autograph, but she went out through the front.
My partner got swept into the scrum and later reported that she's very short.
Does she sing? Of course. This is Elphaba we're talking about. Why wouldn't you let her sing?
The pace was also breakneck. She ran through the dialogue super fast and barely took a breath during the 90 or so minute running time.
The final stretch, which included a gigantic heart, a simulated snow storm, and music by Tchaikovsky and Bjork was amazing.
(yes, we were in the cheap seats)
It was an impressive technical feat and Erivo had to run around like mad, but as far as a coherent adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel goes? Ehhhh, not so much.
But the brief nod to Vampire in Brooklyn? Didn't see that coming. Rad!
The production uses augmented reality to allow her to play over 20 characters all by herself. The only other people on the stage with Erivo was a camera crew.
At one point, four other versions of herself were on a large screen. It was basically a one woman show.
www.theguardian.com/stage/2026/f...
Had the good fortune to see Cynthia Erivo in an ambitious, and very weird, stage production of Dracula in London over the weekend.
Here's a thread about that.
#London #WestEnd #Dracula #CynthiaErivo
If Ronnie Wood can charge €206.50 a ticket for his upcoming gigs at Paradiso, imagine how much it would cost if he'd confirm the identity of the mysterious "special guest" coming with him.
If it's Mick Jagger? Three times that.
www.paradiso.nl/programma/ro...
#livemusic #Paradiso #RollingStones
Movie Review Haiku # 28
Train Dreams
Has the PNW
ever looked so gorgeous on film?
Lush melancholy.
Grade: A
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Nk8...
#MovieReviewHaiku #BlueSkymovies #TrainDreams 📽️ Film
It's always so strange that mayors and aldermen never want these things parked near *their* homes.
And on the other side of the world...
bsky.app/profile/marg...
In all fairness, this makes about as much sense as parking a garbage truck in the middle of Dam Square every night.
#Amsterdam
The "Falcon Cam" over at De Lichtfabriek is up and running again. A Peregrine falcon has moved in and at least one egg has been laid.
#wild #Leiden #lente #spring
rtsp.me/embed/Q79AFA...
Near Emes was a row of cheeky tombstones. Check these out.
As for the life times and of Daniel St. John Smith, the "international man of mystery"? I wish I could tell you more, but a quick Google search turned up little. I guess he's destined to spend eternity as exactly that, a man of mystery.
Also stumbled upon the grave of Ian Emes, an animator best known for contributing animated sequences for Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon tour in the '70s.
Regardless, I was surprised to see the tombstone of Sex Pistols founder Malcolm McLaren already leaning. He died in 2010.
Gotta love that epitaph.
Much of Highgate is now basically considered a nature reserve and is arguably neglected. So many graves are leaning or have fallen.
The grave of bare-knuckle boxer Tom Sayers has a stone statue of his beloved dog, Lion, said to be the "chief mourner" at his funeral in the 1860s.
The grave of Douglas Adams is simple as well, but adorned with tributes from fans, some of them featuring the number 42. I left behind a Bic pen. I mainlined the Hitchhiker's Guide series in middle school and read through it at least twice.
George Michael has a simple, solemn grave beside his mother and sister featuring his birth name. His family has asked that it remain untouched, so any flowers or other stuff left behind by fans are quickly removed.
Communists and socialists still visit Karl Marx's tomb. A group of them asked me to take their photo with their fists in the air and I obliged. This corner of the cemetery is where like-minded others are buried.
And now a thread about London's Highgate Cemetery, the final resting place of George Michael, Douglas Adams, Ian Holm, and Karl Marx.
We visited the cemetery on Saturday despite the cool and drizzly weather.
Here's Holm's grave, which has a great bust.
#cemetery #London
Movie Review Haiku # 27
EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert
Best enjoyed with fans
who sing along, dance, and flash
finger guns mid tune
Grade: A-
www.youtube.com/watch?v=2s_d...
#MovieReviewHaiku #BlueSkymovies #Elvis 📽️ Film
What do a bizarre Santa Claus jumper from China, a 43,000 year old clump of mammoth hair, and a former pannekoekenhuysje have in common?
You'll find the answer in this article I recently wrote for Dutch News.
#Leiden #museum #Netherlands
www.dutchnews.nl/2026/03/weav...
A random tribute to one of the best ever episodes of The Simpsons on a sign in the London Underground?
I approve.
#Simpsons #Tube #London