Netherlands and more

Blog about life in Holland
(and a lot of other stuff)

Aikido seminar in Nijmegen

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It was my very first visit to the Dutch city of Nijmegen, which is located near the German border.

The reason for my going there was a joint aikido seminar led by three senseis:

  • Tom Dijkman (6th dan aikido aikikai);
  • Jan Thesing (5th dan);
  • René Habraken (5th dan).

So I was brave enough to not get scared off by storm Ciara (but nonetheless happy to be back home before dark).

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Musicellaneous ‣ Ostura

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Photo by Ostura.

It’s Friday again, which means—another gulp of exotic music in the eleventh edition of Musicellaneous!

This time I’m going to sidestep the tradition of reviewing instrumental djent stuff. Our guests today are the cinematic progressive metal band (in their own words) Ostura from Lebanon.

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Farewell, Great Britain

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This day marks the end of the 47-year-long history of the Great Britain as a part of the European Union.

Even though it doesn’t directly affect me, I find it a bit sad. I second Boris Akunin’s opinion it’s a regress and a victory of retrogressive thinking.

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Musicellaneous ‣ Andromida

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Photo by Ramon Gutierrez.

It’s Friday again! This tenth edition of Musicellaneous features another unique project by a talented individual. I’m talking about the instrumental progressive metal band Andromida, which is in fact just one person: the American Ramon Gutierrez.

The band is unique because Ramon is “legally blind”, which was discovered when he was as little as three years old.

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Learn Dutch ‣ Het-noun cheat sheet

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One of the tricky things in Dutch is the mapping of a noun to one of the two grammatical genders:

  • Common, which is masculine and feminine combined. Such nouns are called de-woorden because they are prepended by the de definite article.
  • Neuter, nouns of which are het-woorden as you put the het article before them.

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Musicellaneous ‣ Gru

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Friday is always imminent! For this eighth edition of Musicellaneous I had to dig a wee bit deeper this time. So I’ve dug out one of the most mysterious characters of the instrumental prog who is hiding behind the Gru monicker.

And I do hope it isn’t related to GRU whatsoever.

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