JogVlog Interuptus

click here to view vlog interuptus

At this time of year the Netherlands suffers from acute blue-sky deficiency. Today was a rare exception. The sky was deep blue so I went for a jog and decided to vlog it. Not one hundred meters from my house, I was stopped by a motor policeman who had obviously found my activities intolerably suspicious. Being totally taken aback I was unfortunately unable to shoot the first part of the questioning procedure but unobtrusively turned my camera on as the exchange progressed.
I’m glad I got something otherwise I would not have believed it myself. After extensive communication with police base camp the officer was compelled to concluded I was not an extremist terrorist and bid me on my way.
I did finish the JogVlog although by now I was no longer in the mood to do what I had in mind. I wasn’t anywhere close to a controlled area. The Amsterdam Police are extremely jumpy and they are not shy about it .I think GabeMac would agree.
Considered on a local level however, although I dislike getting stopped and questioned by the Dutch Police who are notoriously cerebrally deprived and impolite, two minutes walk from my house in the other direction, young men parade around provocatively in jalaba’s doing their best to mimic Bin Laden. The neighbourhood is a notorious feeding ground for the fundamentalist Hofstad group who are presently being tried for conspiracy to commit terrorist acts. One minute further on from there marks the spot where Theo van Gogh the film director was brutally murdered by an affiliate of the group. The existence of this active terrorist cell came to light when one of it’s key members was discovered filming potential targets such as the parliament buildings, the national airport, electricity generating plants and the national security agency’s head office….with a dvcam!

HampiVlog

The Queens bath tub at Hampi

click to start video

Hampi - Once the capital of the Vijayangara Empire
Now a World Heritage site.

In 1522 a Portuguese traveller, Domingo Paes wrote “Hampi is as large as Rome and very beautiful to the sight, the best provided city in the world”. It is now a World Heritage Site.
By the measure of the middle ages Hampi was an immense, powerful, wealthy and thriving metropolis, strategically well protected by mountains and rivers from unwelcome intruders . Its environment was permeated with rich, fertile vegetation providing all that was needed to sustain the city comfortably, and more. It was also a religious centre and a seat of learning in a intensely beautiful décor of palaces and temples sculpted out of the mysterious volcanic, moonlike, landscape of hard granite.
This place is truly the genus loci tangibly personified. It’s reputation became known far and wide but especially, and more importantly with the Moguls to the north who found the existence of place so close to paradise intolerable and made it their prime mission to see that it was destroyed.
In one blow, the city of Hampi was violated and every single sculpture and palace defaced. To destroy something made of massive granite requires extreme conviction.
The Virupaksha Temple seen in the video was the only building spared and therefore still standing to this day.
Yet another example of senseless destruction driven by ignorance, hatred, greed and intolerance.

This video is a short compilation of many hours of footage shot in 2000 on a Cannon X65 Hi8 so the quality leaves much to be desired but it's good enough to give a good impression of this amazing place.

LINKS
Hampi in the (vlog)map
World Heritage
Karnataka Toutist Bureau
More pictures and foto's

St. NickVlog - Christmas Dutch Style

click here to start video

Saint Nickolas - the Dutch Christmas

In Holland the festive season starts somewhat earlier than elswhere. For centuries, as legend would have it, Saint Nickolas comes to Holland on a boat all the way from Spain to celebrate his birthday on the 5th of December. Well in advance of this happy event, young children put out a shoe containing a carrot which is intended for St. Nick's white horse Schimmel (dutch for mildew). He is known coloquially as Sinter Klaas - which is not the only close similarity to Santa Claus.
If the children have behaved themselves throughout the year they can expect a present from St.Nick. Of course it is too much work for St.Nick alone to deliver all the presents on time to all the children's shoes, so he has a host of helpers who all are niknamed Zwarte Piet (Black Pete). They are mischievous young men with frightening deep black skin (?). Apart from St.Nicks presents they also carry canes to punish the children who have misbehaved in the preceding year. Young Dutch children are often petrified by these frivolous black strangers from Spain who add to the mystery and the excitement. The Black Petes deliver the presents by way of the intended recipients chimney!
This embeded tradition is the start signal for a month of extreme overindulgence - not only because in keeping with the rest of the overcommercialised world, the Dutch also celebrate Christmas.
On the 2nd or 3rd of January they are shocked back into reality, feeling guilty about their waist lines and their shrunken bank balances. So in short over here - it's just the same....but different!

DutchVlog 1 - Is it cool to vlog in Amsterdam

DutchVlog 1 - Is it cool to vlog (In Amsterdam)?

3 min 53 secs

click to view video

Precisely two weeks ago I suddenly became chronically digitally aroused after watching a short news item on the Dutch RTL4 TV channel. It featured this fresh new stuff from New York called vlogging and a few clips from RocketBoom. I was astounded. So I immediately got into my mouse and googled as fast as I could to RocketBoom and before you could say “digital cut” I was watching his vlogselency Mr Verdi. It got very late that night – and every night since then. (so if I am incoherent now and again I’m sure you’ll forgive me). But I have to face it ; I’m hooked! Thank God - I mean Bill Gates – that there is also this Yahoo group where I can openly ventilate my overindulgence without feeling ashamed! (Steve Garfield also has bags under his eyes now and again so I don’t feel so isolated – but in his case it ‘s well worth it because he makes really funky stuff – thanks Steve). I would have thought by now, after two weeks, that the vlogmap of this microscopic marsh, called Holland, would be completely red with vlog balloons when considering the raw statistics;- The Netherlands has the second highest relative density of domestic broadband connections in the world after South-Korea – and the general level of computer literacy is also extremely high. But it does not seem to be the case. Strange! The number of vloggers in the whole country can still be counted on three hands. In my opinion vlogging and the vlogger are the best thing since sliced bread. Dutch television is so abominably bad it makes my stomach turn and it's only going te get worse. The complete media landscape here is going to undergo comprehensive overhaul very soon – naturally for the worse – so TV in Holland is as good as dead! It has always been a sickly child since it's inception. Thank God – I mean Bill Gates – that we have cable so channels from Belgium, France, Germany, UK, Italy are spuwed into our living rooms. The lack of vlogging her must change! So I have decided to hang a website www.dutchvlog.nl onto this vlog to try and encourage a bit more activity over here. The Dutch could use it! Eventually it will also be in Dutch simply explaining that the vlogoshere exists, how to get around and directing them to Freevlog as a start.
This stuff needs exposure. It should not be kept from the world for one second longer than necessary! Comments welcome!

SailVlog - Sail o5 Amsterdam

Sailo5 Amsterdam - Tall Ship Festival

click to start video

Sometimes a city is momentarily transformed, leaving it’s daily metropolitan struggle and strife to focus on and celebrate its roots. Such was the case in last August in Amsterdam. I live in the transformed and revitalised harbour area on the eastern side of the central city, on a group of islands called Zeeburg and surrounded by water. This location is often the stage for the four yearly Tall Ship Festival - this year it was Sail o5. All the famous operational Tall Ships from all the great seafaring nations of the world – from Chilli to Iceland - gathered here, just around the corner from my house, to show themselves proudly to Europe. Within the space of four days more than three million visitors came to see the unbelievably spectacular event. For these four days Amsterdam was momentarily released from the stranglehold of the blanket of shock, disbelief and shame of an event the year before that changed the city for good - and from which Amsterdam has not yet recovered. In these for days Amsterdam was imbued with some of the magic that drew me to this city in the first place many years ago, and there was a true and tangible sense of civil pride. You could see and feel what an incredible place The Port of Amsterdam must have been a hundred year ago and more, when those elegant, slender masts still adorned the waterfront, beckoning young men to adventure in far off places. History was truly alive and kicking. Just around the corner from my house in the other direction, now just over a year ago, another event took place in a very dull and ordinary shopping street around nine in the morning when everybody was on their way to work. Theo van Gogh, the director, filmmaker and criticaster was ritually slaughtered by a radical Moslem in the middle of the street. After shooting him several times the assassin calmly attempted to ritually decapitate Van Gogh with a ceremonial knife but ceased his efforts due to lack of progress and calmly walked away commenting “he had it coming to him” in perfect Dutch to an astounded onlooker. The trail has gripped the nation for the past year as the unimaginable details became public bit by bit. These were indeed truly difficult parts of reality to deal with. But for those four days Amsterdam again acquired the frivolous innocence for which it was famous.