It was a varied and busy month, with as an absolute highlight the two Too Many Zooz shows in the Melkweg (Amsterdam) and in Bird (Rotterdam). And because I’m apparently not a Fimble but a Teletubbie, I’ll be going to their show again, again next month in Ekko (Utrecht). There are still tickets available for that show!
On my Goodreads it says that I read one book this month, but it was a great one: Nadia de Vries’ debut collecction Dark Hour. You can read an interview with her here.
Read – Online
An interview with Jaime Nyx. Yes, the same Jaime Nyx I interviewed earlier this month. Jaime investst so much time, energy and enthousiasm in her work that she deserves at least two interviews a month!
Birds! (unfortunately only in Dutch, but the drawings are great). I realised that I don’t know anything about birds and it’s embarrassing. Not that I’m a bird specialist now, but at least I know the difference between “hoppy bird”, “water bird”, “one of those big black birds”.
An interview with Lena Salmi, a 64-year-old Finnish skateboarder. #goals like whoa.
When Dutch ‘directness’ hurts. English article about how Dutch “jokes” aren’t that funny when you’re an international student who’s on the receiving end of them, and how you’re considered a whiner with no sense of humor when you tell people you don’t enjoy any of it. As a person who spent her entire childhood/teenage years having to deal with discriminatory shitty “jokes” because of my heritage and who, as she got angry, was told that it was all “just a joke” and that “they didn’t mean it that way” and that I “shouldn’t exaggerate”, I am very happy that people are now finally speaking up about it. Here’s to hoping things will change eventually.
Why Reverse Racism Isn’t A Thing. An article that clearly explans whyy “reverse racism” is nonsense.
‘I wouldn’t want this for anybody’s daughter’: will #MeToo kill off the rock’n’roll groupie? Nuanced article about (very young) groupies, rockstars and the fact that we can’t keep ignoring this lingering feeling of “this is not ok”.
8 tips for writing a childrens’ book. Dutch article giving 8 tips for writing a childrens’ book that are also applicable to writing for adults: 1) reserve time for writing, 2) write for the child that you used to be, 3) Invent a believable main character, 4) Describe this main character, 5) Introduce conflict in your main character’s life, 6) Tell a good story, 7) Don’t try to write all dopecoolawesome, 8) Make your readers laugh.
Listened to – Music
Grace Kelly (yes, that’s her real name) is not only an amazing saxophone player, but she’s also a phenomenal singer. She’s currently trying to gather funds to make a new album and posted an hour long studio session (with guests!) on Facebook: click!
Superfruit visual album. They made a video for every track of their Future Friends album – Beyoncé style. This album has been out for a while now, but I haven’t posted it here yet.
Pentatonix – Attention. Despite them being absolutely amazing singers, modern a capella always reminds me of this Ylvis video. But this song immediately made me go “Yesss!”
Francis and the Lights performed on Jimmy Fallon and rocked that performance so hard that I got all emotional ‘n stuff.
Listened to – Podcasts
DIPSAUS is, according to their website, THE biweekly Dutch podcast for women of colour and everybody else that’s interested in a different voice.
A Therapist Walks Into a Bar is, according to their website a podcast in a narrative, conversational style that speaks to how messy, lonely, terrifying, and beautiful being human can be.
VPRO Cinema Podcast, a Dutch podcast presented by Jasper Tonnon and Stephanie Louwrier plus a weekly guest, is a conversation about movies, makers and genres.
Watched – Films and Documentaries
Verloop van jaren – dichter bij Remco Campert. Dutch writer Remco Campert decided earlier this month to quit writing at 88 years of age, so I watched this documentary again.
Watched – TV and Youtube
Vet Gezellig in therapie! Alwin and Saske from YouTube chanel Vet Gezellig (roughly translated to “super awesome”) spent the month of March making videos about mental disorders. A wonderful series of vlogs, interviews and respectful conversations that show that mental problems are quite common, nothing to be ashamed of and treatable. Especially the interview they did with Anne about anorexia was great: it was pretty much the first time that I saw an interview about eating disorders that didn’t have that sensational tone, that didn’t have zoom ins on the person’s body or questions about “skinny models”. Really great work!
A New View of the Moon. Alex Gorosh took a telescope around the streets of Los Angeles to give strangers an up-close look at a familiar object.
Miscellaneous awesomeness
You wanna make art? Feel like you need an artistic license? Tadaa: a personalised artistic license!
Bread lamps! Also for the gluten free.
And finally: Lego Wonderwall. And behind the scenes of Lego Wonderwall.
Next week there’ll be a new post up here on Featured Mag! See you on Wednesday!
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