We've got a winner!

Martijn van Santen, who used to be in our class at the Willem de Kooning Academy, has won the VPRO debut prize 2010 for his comic book Werk in uitvoering (Work in Progress)! He received his award, a shitload of money, last week at the Haarlemse Stripdagen. The book was indeed a work in progress for a long time, he has been working on it for years, so it's great to see his hard labour being rewarded. The drawings are fantastic (Martijn is really a proper comic artist) and the jury was raving about the intelligent yet funny story. Buy the book at one of the Selexyz book shops or visit Martijn's website to order directly from the artist himself.

Soul, Steel and Show

I was just surfing a bit, checking out some music blogs when I suddenly stumbled on this post about The Dutch Rhythm Steel & Show Band at the Funk my Soul blog. Having a soft spot for the steel drum I immediately downloaded the MP3s this kind blogger had ripped off the LP Soul, Steel and Show. It was - I kid you not - the best thing I heard in a long time! This album is such a gem (and priced accordingly.. it is very sought after), I just have to share it with you.

The Dutch Rhythm Steel & Show Band consists of musicians originally from Suriname and Trinidad and apparently they had several hits in the Netherlands and Germany in the seventies. I learned a few other interesting facts about the formation on the extensive Zaanse Pophistorie website. Like that they were founded by Adolf J. Tevreden, that their manager was Joop Koekkoek (which I found funny because that's my dad's name), that they were sampled by DJ Shadow and that they're still together. So I'm wondering: when's their next show??


Dutch Rhythm Steel & Show Band - Theme From Shaft. Get it here (YSI).


Dutch Rhythm Steel & Show Band - Feelin' Allright. Get it here (YSI).

Where there's a Street With No Name

It’s not always easy for the Dolls to be living in different countries. We miss each other a lot. During the day I miss not working together (thank god for Skype), at night I miss not partying together and I miss the other Doll dearly at certain other occasions, like heart breaks and birthdays for example…

We hadn’t seen each other since March so we had all the more reason to meet up for my birthday and celebrate! We chose to meet sort of half way in Ghent, Belgium. We’d never been there before but we heard lots of good things about it. And rightfully so! We had a great time. We went on a boat tour through all the pretty canals and we ate proper fries with delicious Belgian mayonnaise (slightly more sour than Dutch mayo). We went to the excellent museum for contemporary art S.M.A.K. and to a crafty market (so nice to be on the other side of the stall for once!). We enjoyed Belgium beer in the sun and went clubbing till the wee hours. And of course we went for some (secondhand) shopping. Geeske extended her collection of weird objects with eyes and iffy 80s pop singles, while I bought some kitchenalia to add to my collection of food shaped objects (my latest obsession - also added to my collection that weekend: a hamburger phone, a birthday gift from my dear friends).

But what I loved most about Ghent were the street names. Like…

Little Shaking Fish Steet

Smut Street or Sludge Street.

And what about...

Zonder-Naamstraat - Street With No Name

Pensmarkt - Paunch or Gut Market

Kluizenaarstraat - Hermit Street

Pekelharing - Pickeled Herring

Heilige-Geeststraat - Holy Spirit Street

Gelukstraat - Lucky Street

Kapucijnenham - Capuchinham

Zwartezustersstraat - Black Sisters Street

But my absolute favourite was…

Little Street With No End

Which was of course a dead end street. Aah, gotta love the Belgians!

Illustratie Biennale!

This saturday will be the first edition of an event called Illustratie Biennale. Which is (as you might think) all about dutch illustration and design! Some of my personal heroes will be there, so exciting..

The event will be held in Haarlem and was initiative of the famous Piet Zwart Institute, a centre for postgraduate studies connected to the Willem de Kooning Academy and responsible for some great names in design-land. The place will be divided in several different areas with exhibitions, a shop and a digital presentation with over a hundred designers! I will be involved in the shop part where I will be selling some Dutch Dolls stuff and some zines called zo ordinair (so tacky) with solo-art (see the picture above!). I am also part of the digital exhibition with some drawings... and will be playing some tunes during the day.

The biennale will be opened at 11.30u by Joost Zwart and will be finished at 18.00u. Take a look at the website for more info!

Ladies First!

This friday the 27th will be the opening of the groupshow Ladies First at Lev Kaupas, Amsterdam. It will be no surprise that all participants will be female even though their is work surprisingly un-female! Expect drawings, screenprints, performances, food-art, 3d objects and more... I have made a couple of new drawings with an odd theme and a really tiny pen. The work will be on exhibition for a month, but the opening will be extra special. You will be entertained by all female DJ's and dancers, but men are more than welcome ;-) It'll be a night to remember!

Oh, and if you want to come: send an email to the adres at the bottom of the flyer, the opening will be on invite only!

De Kooning Te Rijk!

For the past couple of months, I have had the privilege of being a subsitute teacher at Rotterdam Art Academy. For about eleven mondays in a row I got to hang out with an awesome group of second year illustration students. Which was of course, very cool!

My last assignment was a rather difficult one. Because the students had to take the assignment of another course which was pretty vague, abstract and not very visual and turn it into a sellable product. This caused sweat, pain and yes... I even saw some tears. But even though I have to be patient for a little while longer, I believe the endresult will be stunning.

The students' work will be on exhibition (and for sale!) this friday at Gallery Blaak 10, Rotterdam.

Time: 17.30 - 21.00u, Place: Witte de Withstraat 7a

"What kind of beer do you like?" "Heineken." "HEINEKEN?! FUCK THAT SHIT, PABST BLUE RIBBON!

Ah, it arrived just in time: The Hipster Handbook by Robert Lanham. Because this weekend I’m going to this All Tomorrow’s Parties festival, which is like a Mecca for Hipsters. I’ve been twice before and every time I felt hopelessly normal. Aaaah, what to wear, which beer to order, which bands to see?!?

I don’t think I ever heard the term Hipster before I spent a semester at an art school in Boston in 2003. But I sure got to know it there; plenty of Hipsters were attending the Art Institute of Boston and loads of them would gather at night in a nearby dive called the The Model to drink PBR’s. I couldn’t quite put my finger on what made these people stand out, until one day I found The Hipster Handbook in a bookstore. It had nice illustrations by Bret Nicely of all the hipster looks, their hairdo’s and their accessories (ranging from cigarette and beer brands to tattoos). It has a glossary of the Hipster slang (which I suspect is a little outdated now – are deck and fin still ‘key words’ for Hipsters?) and lists of their favorite music, movie stars and books. And at the end of the book there’s a quiz that helps you determine whether you’re a Hipster or not through questions like how you would name your new male French bulldog, how you prefer your armpits to smell, which font you would chose for your business card and whether you have margarine in your fridge (Hipster answers would be Kit or Jimmy; naturally musky or unscented; you have no business card; false). I must say it proved to be bizarrely accurate and it has been very insightful, ever since I’ve been able to spot a hipster from miles away.

Just before I left Boston I bought the book for a friend of mine and I have always regretted not getting a copy myself. The ATP festival triggered my memory of the book (and with it the fond memories of my time in Boston), so I ordered it online for just £0.67 (!). Of course I would never use it as a source book on what to wear and what beer to order. Although I do check most of the boxes on the Hipster music list (Pavement, Yo La Tengo, Stereolab, Public Enemy, Stan Getz, The Kinks and so on), I now check quite a lot of boxes on the Symptoms Of Hipster Depreciation list. And "as a Hipster ideally possesses no more than 2% body fat", I am simply "too fat to be a Hipster".