Shopping Local! (vers 2)
Gary Kirkpatrick
Portrait of Frank Zappa
Musician who became popular in the 1960’s. 1940 -1993. From the Wiki:
He was an American multi-instrumentalist musician, composer, and bandleader. His work is characterized by nonconformity, free-form improvisation, sound experiments, musical virtuosity, and satire of American culture.[2] In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa composed rock, pop, jazz, jazz fusion, orchestral and musique concrète works, and produced almost all of the 60-plus albums that he released with his band the Mothers of Invention and as a solo artist.[3] Zappa also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed album covers. He is considered one of the most innovative and stylistically diverse rock musicians of his era.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Zappa
Shopping Local!
The browsing, selection and purchase of goods and commodities have become one of the defining activities of modern urban life. In this consumer culture, shopping has become a crucial ritual for shaping and transforming our identities. Artists have always been fascinated and intrigued by the consumer culture and the way it shapes our society.
At first perceived as the American phenomenon, the consumerist lifestyle has soon spilled over to the rest of the world through globalization and the rise of the free market economy. Unlike Pop Art’s playful and often ambivalent attitude towards the consumer culture, the generation of artists that came after took a more decisive and hostile stand towards it. Since advertising has always played a crucial role in perpetuating mechanisms and values of consumer culture, many of these artists have made it the center of their practice. For example, Ron English has introduced the concept of billboard hijacking where he appropriated the mass media messages and imagery to create subversive and political statements. Today, many contemporary artists explore and criticize the idea of consumerism in a variety of ways. Employing various visual and conceptual strategies to question consumerism, artists such as Gabriel Kuri, Josephine Meckseper, Irina Korina or Martin Basher explore various aspects of commerce and exchange such as models of trading with it as in selling and buying, the labor that generates these goods, global distribution networks, social and economic structures that support it, the notion of value or the role of goods consumption in construction of our identities. Rather than criticizing the consumption on a superficial level, they tend to deconstruct this phenomenon from the inside out.
Gouda
July 11, 2019
Gouda (pronounced as in ‘howda’) is 45 minute bus and train trip from our mooring on the Oude Rijn (Old Rhine, part of the Rhine river system) in Alfan aan Den Rihn. Aside from being the home of the well known cheese, much more varied and flavorful than the bland version sold in the U.S., it has a superb city hall, Stadhuis, dating from the 14th century, the oldest such in the country.
Today is a market day, with loads of activity. A woman’s chorus sang in front of the Stadhuis, a couple played a calliope while passing the hat. It was excellent. We made a contribution.
Aside from the rounds of Gouda cheese, much of the merchandise is the same from market to market. We did see a wooden shoe maker selling his wares in Delft. It is not an item the Dutch use much these days, although they do wear leather clogs, so the wooden version are marketed mostly to tourists.
The cheese is sold in several varieties. Jong Gouda is young, that is, aged just four weeks. There are various states of aging up to over 12 months. They become increasingly hard and sharp. They are all encased in a plastic coating to keep them from drying out. Most are industrially produced, however there are several hundred producers using traditional methods using unpasteurized cow milk, called Boerenkaas. Boerenkaas, Noord-Hollandse Gouda, and Gouda Holland have Protected Geographical Indication status in the EU.
Delft
July 7, 2019
Here’s another charming Dutch town, dating from the 13th century, important historically as well as being to this day the home of technological R&D in the Nederlands emanating from Delft’s University of Technology. It is also famous for Delft pottery, porcelain made using Chinese techniques developed in the 14th century and much prized in Europe from the moment of its arrival. Delft pottery came to be in the 16th century. It remains popular. Sales last year were in the $36M range.
Delft is a popular tourist destination, for its charming architecture and the excellent Delft porcelain museum, as well as shops galore. There are weekly street markets, at least in summer, like in many Dutch towns of this size.
Willem the Silent, the first of the House of Orange to reign in the country, is buried at the Nieuwe Kerk in 1584, where there is a monument to him. The succeeding members of the royal family are also buried there, the latest being Queen Juliana and her husband Prince Bernhard. The church, dating from the 14th century, has a magnificent spire.
The Oude Kerk dates from 1246. It has a noticeable lean that builders tried to correct as it rose, without success. Its most massive bell dates from 1570. Due to its nine tons and the resultant vibrations, the ring it only on special occasions, such as the burial of a Dutch royal family.
We toured Prinsenhof, Willem’s residence during the revolt from Spain. Aside from some excellent portraits, it is also the interesting as the location of his assassination, ordered by the Duke of Alba, King Phillip’s representative. You can still see the bullet holes on the staircase, enlarged by probing fingers before it was protected by a plastic cover.
Johannes Vermeer (1632–1675) was born in this city. Delft streets and home interiors were the subject of his fabulous paintings. We visited the Vermeer Center. There are no original paintings, while the reproductions are of modest quality. The narrative is excellent, however, and all the explanations and the short video are in English.
The Dutch East India Company was founded in 1602. Delft then became a trading center, producing its wealth of architecture.
Girl with Stuffed Animal, watercolor painting
In private collection
Willemstad, on the Hollands Diepe
July 3, 2019
This is Willemstad, a neat small town with a brick clad windmill, as well as a lovely old houses. l. There was an army of large vessels on this beautiful day. Below you will see a traditional sailing barge, not particularly large but lovingly restored.
In the morning following our arrival we were looking for a place for our guests to try an uitsmijter, a hearty Dutch breakfast. Nothing was open, the only sign of life being those headed for work by bike, bus or car, and a man walking his dog. I asked him if there were any cafes open. “Nay,” he said. Realizing we were tourists, he explained that the town was a major naval port until the 1950’s. This explains the octagonal shape and the bunkers. They built the large bunkers in the middle of the 19th century, so my speculation that they were part of Hitler’s WWII defense system was wrong.
The brick clad windmill still works, grinding wheat, I think he said.
From Willemstad we back tracked about 5 km then headed north to Oud-Beijerland on the Spui River. It’s narrow entrance on the Spui River is a bit of a challenge as the current is about 3 km per hour, so the boat crabs towards the entrance. You have to straighten out at the last moment, once the river releases its grip. It was lunch time, so we found a lovely place on the harbor. On the menu: mustard soup. Sounds odd, I know, but the cream, onions, garlic and leeks make the mustard just a tangy addition. We all loved it! Salmon with various lettuces on dark bread, fries (the Dutch can’t have a meal without them), thin slices of smoked tuna. Not a English menu in sight, the waitress had limited English, so the chef came to the table to help where our restaurant Dutch was inadequate.
We were unable to stay the night to participate in the many activities, including loud music (playing reggeton, one of my least favorite), so we decided to try for Delft, the home of the famous ceramics. This took us through Rotterdam harbor, one of the busiest in the world. Huge ships and lots of them, so we dodged where we had to and otherwise stuck to the shore until we had to cross to go north. Our preferred route took us further to the west than the one we ended with. After entering the lock, the lock master told us a bridge was down along the way, so we had to back out of the lock. Boats do not do well going backwards, but we managed. Then we had to scoot across the waterway, head a few kilometers towards the center of Rotterdam, then make our way across yet again. The small lock’s bridge was just tall enough for us to pass beneath, otherwise we’d have had to wait for several hours for it to open, as it was rush hour. Once through we passed through one very low bridge, then found a nice marina on starboard side. And there we rest.
Dordrecht, an island in a recovered land
June 25, 2019
Dordrecht is an island in an inland sea, less obvious now given the recovered land. However, in the 14th, some three hundred years after its 11c founding on the banks of the Thuredrith River, a huge storm created what is now called the National Park of the Biesbosch, through which we traveled from our original starting point in Eindhoven. This left the city isolated, but of course, they had boats! It was not until the 17th century that enough silting had occurred that wealthy individuals in Dordrecht began the process of making polders, recovered land. In 1953 another massive storm once again left Dordrecht surrounded, leaving thousands dead in the country. Even after the major flood control efforts that followed, there are still flooding issues here.
We are moored in the old town just off the river, where the passing barges and ships send motion through the narrow entrance to the harbor, causing the boats to rock and wiggle in their mooring boxes, tied at the front end to a post and to a small, low floating dock. We exit the boat off the rear ladder. It is just a two minute walk to the restaurants that sit on the river’s edge. From there you see the busy river traffic, as ships come from the sea, Germany and the north of Holland laden with containers of goods, and the usual sand laden barges as well. The water taxi zooms from one side of the river to another, it’s radar keeping an eye on the likes of us.
On these warm days pleasure craft head for the Biesbosch in large numbers, as there are not many days when you can swim off your boat. I took a dip on the way to Dordrecht, and planned on another in the Biesbosch. However the engine cut off switch was not working so we ended in Werkendam. I took a look below. The wire wire was disconnected. It was a simple matter to replace then clamp down the connection to prevent another occurrence. You have to be a bit of a mechanic to operate a boat.
Dordrecht was at the center of the revolt against the Holy Roman Empire. The city was walled, with thirteen towers controlling entrance.
In July, 1572 the 80 Years War was intensifying. William of Orange sought to free the Dutch from the Spanish Phillip II, the head of the Empire. High taxes and famine were motivators, as well as the persecution of Protestants by the Catholics. He sent a representative to the organizing meeting in Dordrecht, after which William was recognized as the Statholder by the States of Holland. This event is dramatized in a film at the Het Hof van Nederland museum, located in a historic neighborhood laden with grand architecture.
There is a display showing changes in the religious make up of the country over the centuries. You see the wave of Protestantism originating in Germany and Switzerland. The Canons of the Dutch Reform Church were written here in 1619, following doctrinal disputes, and remain the basis of the Church in the Nederlands, South Africa, North America and Australia. The major issue concerned predestination. Both the Remonstrants and the Counter-Remonstrants believed in predestination, but not to the same degree. They spent a year at the table before the latter prevailed.
These days the Dutch are the most non-religious people on earth. About 50% of the people declare themselves to be atheists, compared to around 10% in the US. About 48% are members of a church, although many of those join for cultural reasons and are also declared atheists. Churches are treated as museums in many cases, preserving the architecture and the art that survived destruction by the iconoclasts, who opposed artistic representations of the Christian deities. They are magnificent if not quite up to par with what you see in Paris and Rome.
Muiden Castle, water color
Muiden is a small town near Weesp. It’s castle protected the entrance to Amsterdam from the southeast. There’s a large lock controlling entrance to the Vecht River where the moated castle is located.
‘s Hertogenbosch
June 16, 2019
‘s Hertogenbosch
This city of 150,000 offers a mix of traditional and modern architecture in its downtown area. There are restaurants, bars and cafe’s galore, most of them busy this beautiful Sunday. Meanwhile, huge silos of a defunct factory have been painted by artists in celebration of graffiti art. A break dance competition judged by three people of African origin with a black dude as announcer continues on the other side of the silos. But then it turns weird in a friendly way.
A small boat the size and shape of a grand piano floats by. Live piano player and a live singer maneuver through the harbor. Meanwhile a float with a tower holds a half dozen or so people dressed as coal miners who are then attacked by people in white outfits. Back in the canal an eight armed octopus lifts its arms while moving along, preceded by what looks like mushroom caps, followed by contraptions and what not, some of which would take long descriptions that just won’t communicate the scene adequately, so here are some pictures.
Aside from the costumes, which allure to times ranging from the medieval to the industrial revolution, we were unable to fathom what it all meant, nor did anyone else we talked to other than one participant who said they were preparing for an event next week, suggesting this was all a dress rehearsal. We did indeed watch them towing various platforms with small outboards.
Two other items of interest are the bosche bol, a chocolate covered profiterole filled with real whipped cream, a local treat we are told are produced in the thousands by a local man, and sausage filled rolls. We shared onf of the the former in a dessert and finger food joint around the corner from the mooring. Quite the rich treat with a crunchy bit of chocolate, a thin layer of dough following by the richest cream this side of Ire;and.
