Welcome to my Blog!
I hope to share here my irrepressible thoughts on news, music, books, arts and such like. In general these will be items, events and issues which I feel have no place on my website (which focusses on aviation history and my travel photography).

The item immediately below this would be the latest posting.

Anybody, providing he knows how to be amusing, has the right to talk about himself. - Charles Baudelaire
Esse est percipi (To be is to be perceived) - Bishop George Berkeley

In 2013 I started a series of photo albums on Blurb.com, named '36Exp' (a subject adressed in 36 exposures, a reference to the exposures on most common rolls of 35 mm film: 12, 24 & 36.). The books can be ordered directly from the Blurb.com website.
http://www.blurb.com/user/ruudleeuw

CURRENT BLOG

Found this in the CD I bought: 'Songs From The Road' by Leonard Cohen. I guess Mr Cohen found this On The Road and wanted it to be shared; I will go along with that.

UPDATE: Leonard Cohen died 07Nov2016. See Blog 2016 Q4.

For the past few weeks I've been spell-bound by the many episodes of this tv crime drama.
I don't have the patience and discipline to follow weekly episodes on tv and I prefer crime drama to be completed in a short span of time. But I bought this series in a dvd box and watched double (sometimes even triple!) episodes in a relative short span of time. And got absolutely hooked!

The Killing is a Danish crime TV series produced by Danmarks Radio. It was known as 'Forbrydelsen' (The Crime) in Danish. The first season was aired in 2007 on DR in Denmark, in 2008 on ZDF in Germany; Austria, Australia, Belgium, France followed afterwards.

The storyline starts simple enough: Sarah Lund is looking forward to her last day as a detective with the Copenhagen Police department. She is supposed to move to Sweden with her fiancée, but everything changes when a 19-year-old girl, Nanna Birk Larsen, is found raped and brutally murdered.
Sarah meets her replacement, and doesn't quite like his approach to this murdercase. She takes the lead, her superiors postpone her departure, put her temporarily in charge. The interaction between Lund and Meyer is an interesting one (he is much more 'normal', how most of us would approach the case probably, while Sarah Lund is overly focussed - but she picks up the trail each time it fades).
One of the storylines is about a local politician Troels Hartmann, he is in the middle of a hard election campaign to become the new mayor of Copenhagen when evidence links the city hall to the murderer. This murdercase brakes up relations and shady dealings and doubtful morals in 'Politics'.
At the same time, the girl's family and friends struggle to cope with their loss, relations get strained, pressure become unbearable.
Over a span of 20 days, suspect upon suspect is sought out as violence and political pressures cast their shadows over the hunt for the killer. Drama develops in every episode.
Sarah Lund, an impressive performance by Sofie Gråbøl, gets more and more isolated in her hunt for the killer: first her collegues and her superior become weary of her, than her son decides to live with her ex husband, even her mother finally gives up on her, the fiancée takes a big step back and her new start in life is seen drifting away... She hardly sleeps, eats on the go, her eyes become as black and fathomless as a deep space telescope, her mouth is set as a bull terrier, the body language is dismissive to anything and anyone on her path to solving this crime. Or on her road to personal destruction.
Like reading a well-written book, the drama and story becomes (almost?) more important than the solution of this murdercase.
Brilliant stuff.

Finished this weekend the third book by Tad Houlihan, all about 1950s / 1960s commercial flying with former WWII planes, a second (or third, maybe fourth..) life for well worn skytrucks.
Don't seek literary finesse here, but the books do describe in a nice readable style of the days when you could start a business practically all over the world with an aircraft and flying skills.
The other two books are titled 'Flying Cowboys' and 'The 3 and Me' and you'll find the contents explained on my Aviation Books page.
There was still adventure in aviation those days, but making money wasn't easy and the big bucks most often did not go to the pilots. There were ways around regulations, planes got heavily overloaded, making it from A to B could be a matter of survival and upon arrival the crew often found they were on their own or an angry (military) mob with guns at the ready...

The author was raised in a small town in northern California's Sierra Nevada mountains. He started flying during WWII and at the age of 19 became a B-17 Flying Fortress pilot.
After the war he found work flying for socalled non-scheduled airlines in the US, until he was called back to active duty in the Air Force to fly C-54's on the Berlin Airlift.
At the outbreak of the Korean War it was off to fly C-47's and C-54's in the Combat Cargo Command until his return to civilian life in 1953 andreturning to civil air carriers. He finished his commercial piloting career as a personal pilot to the president of a major US corporation, based in San Francisco, in 1990.

Tad Houlihan is a pseudonym and he lives, with his wife Genevieve, in the US Pacific Northwest.

Climate changes: we may disagree on the cause (human intervention or cycles endured by our planet) but it does seem that drier parts on this globe seem to get even less rain, storms are more violent and parts of this world who endure rains get often more than they can handle...

Such as the fires in Russia (in August some sources reported over 700 fires) getting out of control, laying waste to grain crops, burning down entire communities and even threatening a nuclear powerplant...
And monsoon rains over Pakistan cause massive floodings, causing many to be evacuated, abandoning house and livestock.
Do we blame climate changes? Or are both situations also due to the well known human factor: mismanagement?

Above screenshots came from www.time.com, which offered excellent photography to capture the grimness of both disasters.

The largest contribution made by the Dutch to American English proves to have been in the area of foodstuffs, where no fewer than 28 loanwords have been adopted. This is rather surprising, given that the Dutch are hardly renowned for their culinary achievements.

It is particularly the names of confectionery and candy that the Yankees adopted, such as cookie, cruller, olykoek, pannicake and waffle in the 17th or 18th century, which are still fairly widespread in the US.
And banket, letter and oliebollen in the 19th or 20th century, which are only known in a small circle.
Considering all this confectionery, it is no surprise that the verb 'snoepen' (meaning 'to eat sweets' ) was adopted as to snoop, although this verb has acquired an entirely different meaning in American English.

A number of names for cold meats or meat dishes have been adopted: apples and speck, rolliche and speck in the 17th and 18th centruy.

By far the best-known word is coleslaw, which is currently regarded as a typical American product and is exported to other countries under its American English name.


American English also borrowed 'brandy' for the well-known liquor.

Another Dutch word that was originally used to refer to a (savory) sauce is pickle, which stems from the Dutch word pekel and has been used in British English since the 15th century.
The sauce was first used to flavor meat and later to conserve fruit and vegetables. Pickle then began to mean vegetables kept in vinegar or salt water. The next step was made primarily in the US, where pickles was increasingly used to refer to sour cucumbers or gherkins. This Ducth word entered the American continent via British English, rather than Dutch.
Source: 'Cookies, Coleskaw and Stoops' by Nicoline van der Sijs (Amsterdam University Press)

In 1958 Jan Nowee died of cancer. Book no.20 had not been completed. By permission of the family the publisher had it finished by another writer, but it wasn't done in the proper style. It was decided not to publish it.
But Jan's son, Paul, had just completed his military service and started work as a journalist. Secretly he decided to finish the book his father had been working on. His uncle Leo, another well-know writer of children books, was asked to proofread the book and he couldn't see where Jan Nowee had stopped and the 23-year old Paul had started. Arendsoog en de Goudkoorts (=Goldfever) became the title.
Paul Nowee wrote no.23 and kept on writing. Over the years Paul changed Bob Stanhope/Arendsoog from a cowboy gradually into a detective.
Paul died on 30Sep1993, aged 57; like his father he never visited Arizona, due to a failing health.

UPDATE 11-2018: The publishing rights are controlled by (a.o.) Annette Portegies, a grandchild of Jan Nowee and reprints rest anno 2018 with publisher Overamstel. The first edition of 'Arendsoog' has been made available again (€7,50), while the other 62 titles are available through 'printing on demand'.
Arendsoog lives on!

This film was given to me and what a great gift it was: thank you Alexander.

The greatest accomplishment for photography, writing, films, etc is to move you. And this film certainly did move me!

Into the Wild is based on a true story, and the book written by Jon Krakauer (1996).

After graduating from Emory University, top student and athlete Christopher McCandless abandoned his possessions, starts his ramble through the U.S., disappears from his family and reaches his goal: Alaska. He starts to live in the wilderness.
Before he gets there, along the way, Chris (he introduces himself as Alexander Supertramp) encounters a series of characters who shape his life. But he is determined to reach Alaska and leaves them all behind too.
There is great filming and photography, witnessing the beauty of nature in the U.S.A. and Alex takes it all in.

McCandless survived for approximately 112 days in the Alaskan wilderness.

There is great acting by the entire cast. I loved Hal Holbrook's part, equally so the many parts by others. And there is of course the tremendous role by Emile Hirsch, who playes the main character. Sean Penn can be credited for making a phenominal film and document, honouring Chris McCandless.
The brilliant soundtrack, by Eddie Vedder, is worth mentioning here too.
A truly fantastic film.
IMDB.com
Wikipedia

It is a good opportunity to quote some lines (in part) here by Loudon Wainwright III on his album RECOVERY:
"The movies are a mother to me
There's nothing like a good movie
To mother me back to sanity
When I have gone insane

Sometimes I am my own enemy
Sometimes my own enemy it is me
Then my enemy and me go see a good movie
and we come out friends again"

During the holidays I had a chance to read my first book by Kader Abdolah. I've often come across his name in our newspapers, often commenting on cultural differences or integration etc, so the name was familiar but 'De reis van de lege flessen' (the travels of the empty bottles) was to be my first book.


"De reis van de lege flessen" is the 3rd book by Kader Abdolah. This was his 1st novel.
Kader Abdolah is a political fugitive from Persia. He came in 1988 to the Netherlands and took the couragous decision to write in the language of his new homeland.
The book offers an excellent insight into the obstacles in the way of someone finding a place in a different society, trying to make a new start in life, in an entirely different culture.

Kader Abdollah is the penname of Hossein Sadjadi Ghaemmaghami Farahani. Both 'Kader' and 'Abdolah' were friends who were executed and the penname is a tribute.
He was born 12 December 1954 and studied physics in Arak College of Science; he fled the country as a political refugee in 1988. Today he lives in Delft, the Netherlands.
[Wikipedia EN and Wikipedia NL]

Fabulous Thunderbirds website
Fabulous Thunderbirds on Wikipedia

The tv-series Kurt Wallander, a Swedish policeman, made me start reading books by the author of these series.
This particular book by Mankell, which I recently finished reading, is not about the policeman Wallander, nor is it a crime novel.
I don't think I have ever read a book, so compelling, with so few (3) main characters. And it more or less remains in one place, on an island.
Other people are by far more competent to review this book; suffice for me to say that I was amazed that the book fascinated me so, in spite of the possibly depressing first impression when you see or hear what it is all about.

Henning Mankell (born 3 February 1948) is a renowned Swedish crime writer, occasional children's author and dramatist, best known for a series of mystery novels starring his most iconic creation, Inspector Kurt Wallander.
Mankell was born in Stockholm, Sweden, and grew up in Sveg (Härjedalen) and Borås (Västergötland). Mankell's father Ivar was a judge and his grandfather, also called Henning Mankell (1868–1930), was a composer. At the age of 20 he already started a career as author and assistant director at the Riks Theater in Stockholm. In the following years he collaborated with several theaters in Sweden. [Wikipedia...]