Valencia: America's Cup by Louis Vuitton post # 11

Team Emirates New Zealand
Valencia, 24 06 2007
America’s Cup Match by Louis Vuitton
Emirates Team New Zealand.
©ACM 2007/Photo:Guido Trombetta

Day 2 of the best of nine Sailing Match over the 32nd America’s Cup by Louis Vuiton brought a win of the Kiwis Emirates Team New Zealand, over the Swiss Team Alinghi.
Now we are talking! Luckily no walk over from either side yet.

Groningen and Valencia: America's Cup by Louis Vuitton post # 10

In Groningen, one of the smaller Dutch cities up north in the Netherlands, the Dutch Junior (under 21) soccer team beat the Serbian team and won the European Junior Soccer Championship.

In Valencia The Swiss beat the Kiwis in the first best of nine Sailing Match over the America’s Cup with 35 seconds Delta.

Rotterdam: A Small Hotel…in a big city

Today someone told me that yesterday, June 20, 2007, A Small Hotel, 6 rooms only, opened its doors.

More to follow.

The Hague: Summer Solstice Shopping Spree

The Hague has a new initiative: “Winkelnach” which means so much as the title of this post indicates. Tonight, June 21st, most shops in the City Center will stay open until midnight. The idea is that it has to become a same sort of happening as “Koninginnenach”, or Queen’s Night, the night before Queens Day when the Dutch celebrate the Queen’s birthday.

I will keep you posted.

The Hague: shooting of topless video clip not allowed!

I do not particularly like this item. Especially because it enhances the view of foreigners that the Netherlands is full of sex. I don’t like that view. It is not true and there is much more to The Netherlands (or Holland) than over permissiveness. Furthermore I believe the clip is tasteless. So I was hesitant to post it.

However, what happened here has a lot of humor in it.

This is really about going back to the 60ies:

A rather R rated Dutch DJ, Darkraver, is making a video clip in a shiny 60ies Cadillac on the boulevard of Scheveningen (the beach suburb of The Hague):

Besides: recently they dug up a similar car that was buried 50 years ago as a sort of time capsule to find out that it was rusted away almost entirely. So the owner of this Cadillac deserves a compliment.

In the sixties topless sunbathing was definitely not allowed on the Dutch beaches. Nowadays it is. The beach is two steps from the boulevard. The The Hague Police Department arrives with a van full of ME. ME is the special police force to combat riots. So the police definitely shows a lot of overkill. It is not clear whether the DJ got a fine or merely an order to stop. From some reports it appears that the police came because the DJ had not applied for a permission to shoot a clip, suggesting that if he had applied for a license to shoot the clip nothing would have happened.

Is it a set up?

  • The Hague Police Department wanting to advertise they are alert? Every “nomal” Dutchman immediately comments: “Hey cops go catch thieves!”
  • The DJ not applying for a permit to shoot the clip while hoping the police would appear and give him some attention he is in dire need of?
  • The Hague (Police Department) only wanting to give a message that not every nude is permitted?
  • The Hague (Police Department) wanting to give a message that the clip is not to their taste?? HaHa then we get into the freedom of speech discussion.
  • The Hague (Police Department) wanting to give a message the permissiveness of Dutch Society is going back to the years before the 60ies? Basically the same political party is ruling now as was ruling in the 50ies and 60ies.

Yes, I am a Baby Boomer who saw it all happen: The fighting of the youth against the impermissive rulers of the 50ies and the early 60ies.

Latest News, added 16.45 hr: It is a Hoax!
A spokesperson of the The Hague Police Department claims the whole thing is a hoax of Mr R rated DJ: He has taken video footage from the police and copied it into his video. The policeman you see standing next to the car had indeed been standing there, but the ladies were fully dressed. He added that if they would have been topless, they would have forbidden it. So actually they were not that alert and I am a bit sorry I posted this. However I now know how to copy and paste a YouTube clip in a post.