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 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

Simon Carmiggelt (b.07Oct1913 – d.30Nov1987) was a Dutch writer who became a well known public figure in the Netherlands for his daily newspaper columns and his television appearances.
'Kronkel' was his alias for his columns; this book is a compilation of his very best and indeed is a tribute to his talent and work.

The subjects he wrote about, his observations, could not be common enough for Carmiggelt, but his writing turned it into something exceptional and amusing - if you appreciate his dry, wry wit and notice the serious undertone.
And while his writing dates from decades ago, Carmiggelt's writing is as current and enjoyable as, say, Mark Twain in my opinion.
See also my write up on his work in 2012

Wikipedia (Dutch)
Wikipedia (English)

This book is a photo document that manages to capture the essence of the USA without photos of the usual landmarks. After the very first images that feeling welled up inside me and I am pretty sure that anyone who has looked beyond the Disney parks or a condo in Florida, will be captivated by this photo document.
Two Dutch photographers / graphic designers travelling the US of America, shooting pictures with Nikon equipment and on Kodachrome slides, wearing a mindset somewhat similar as Walker Evans, Robert Frank, William Eggleston, Stephen Shore and Joel Sternfield.
When they had returned and compared results a pattern emerged.
What followed was a book.
The absence of Mr Slater.
Beautifully printed, no telling who took which picture, but what remains is photography detailing things such day & night, contemporary society, superficiality, disconnection, history, etc.
Lots of things, but it translates to a documentary feeling, as one snapshot of a society. It is clearly recognisable which society.
If I counted correctly: 98 pages, 106 images (book size 22,5 x 17,3cm).
Well done.

Ever since the late 1980s I have been buying faithfully the yearly editions of Snoecks.
The last few years they have been esspecially good, with a great diversity in photography. And I never skip the introduction with new literature been published in the past year (the edition is always in store by the end of the year). And I like the addition of the same sort chapter at the end of the book, on remarkable photobooks that have been published.
The ideal coffeetable book to pick up in those dark first few months of the year.

Long may this tradition continue!

www.snoecks.be
www.photodigest.be

Witch Hunt is one of a series of books by Ian Rankin published under the name of Jack Harvey originally.
This is not a DI Rebus novel, yet has all the markings I have come to expect from a Rankin book: a complicated and detailed storyline, with characters well defined but never slow, always at a good pace.

In Witch Hunt a terrorist is at large, a woman who can be hired by the highest bidder but who uses her price money for 'personal projects'. Which makes her targets unpredictable.
Her identity and background is unknown, but a retired policeman, Dominic Elder, has named her Witch. He came close to arresting her earlier in his career but failed. He suspects her to be involved in a personal tragedy, a bomb blast in Paris.
Dominic Elder returns from retirement since he's kept a large dossier on Witch and knows her best. He assists Police Inspectors Doyle and Greenleaf, or they assist him. And there is the young Barclay, a data processor who grabs the opportunity to do actual field work, and the coöperation with the French police in the personification of Dominique.
An international summit is being held in London and Witch is suspected to have a contract on one of the world leaders.
Trust Rankin to make the ending different from the obvious.
Good reading.

wikipedia.org - Ian_Rankin

The Bridge was the first joint creative and financed production between Sweden and Denmark. It was created and written by Hans Rosenfeldt.

The 2nd series aired in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Iceland over 10 weeks from 09Sep2013 to 24Nov2013.
Lumiere.be made it available in a dvd box, which is what I watched, captivated, this last week.

The second series starts 13 months after the end of the 1st series.
A coaster veers off course and rams into the Øresund Bridge. Saga Norén (brilliant role by Sofia Helin, probably even better than in the first series) arrives on the scene and finds the ship deserted save for 5 people – 3 Swedish and 2 Danish – chained below deck. Saga arranges to have Martin Rohde (played by Kim Bodnia again) assigned to the case. After the victims on the coaster die from pneumonic plague.
This is a start of a series of attacks by eco-terrorists.

Martin's life had been getting back in order since the death of his son August, even working out the trauma by visiting his son's killer Jens Hansen in prison. But Martin's wife Mette then announces that their marriage is over.
Saga has found a boy friend who moves in with her. But what she knows from relationships comes from books, these things don't come natural to her.
Next to these two we see Dag Malmberg as Saga's boss Hans Petterson), Martin´s boss Lillian is played by Sarah Boberg and an assistant team Pernille and Rasmus (resp. Vickie Bak Laursen and Henrik Lundström) contribute in the drama.
The number of female roles in powerful positions during the story is remarkable too: Caroline Brandstrup-Julin (by Lotte Munk) organizes an EU climate conference, Victoria Nordgren (Tova Magnusson) is CEO of a pharmaceutical company, Gertrud Kofoed (Camilla Bendix) a chief scientist in that company and sister-in-law of Victoria, Bodil Branstrup (Lotte Merete Andersen) a publishing editor & biographer of Victoria and sister to Caroline.

There is drama and suspense until the very last minute of the 10 sixty minutes episodes. It doesn't get better than this.

WIKIPEDIA

Sigurdir Óli sees no harm to answer to a plea for help from a friend, Patrekur, to pay a visit to a couple suspected of blackmailing friends of Patrekur. But he walks into a crime scene where the victim dies.
This puts Óli in a difficult spot and a collegue objects to his continued involvement; but both know a few things from each other and Siggi (he hates that nickname!) continues his detective work, walking on eggs.
Meanwhile he sees his relationship with Bergthóra being terminated.
There is also reference to police brutality.

Sigurdir Óli is one for the comforts of life, in awe for all things American, and so his surprised by his own fascination for Andres, who is very much a loser in his book. He suspects there is great human tragedy involved though he has no idea about the crime committed in this context.
Óli has other things on his mind and his investigations lead him from violent debt collectors to people in the world of finance and banking.

The original title of this book, the 8th of Arnaldur Indridason's Reykjavík novels translated to English, is Svörtuloft, 'the Black Fort'. This is both "what people call the Central Bank" and the name of a West Iceland promontory, where a desolate lava field falls down in sheer cliffs to the sea.

The story is set in 2009, before the collapse of Iceland's three major commercial banks. Óli's friend Patrekur voices his doubts over the expanding economy and borrowing, but we see others following the bubble, finance middle management and many others joining the dream of luxury.
We all know where it went.

Another gripping tale by Arnaldur Indridason.

Paul Binding's 2012 review on www.independent.co.uk
Arnaldur Indriðason on Wikipedia

Peter Sekaer (born Peter Ingemann Sekjær 1901 - 1950) was a Danish-American photographer and artist. In rebellion to his dominant father he ran away from home when he was 17 and sailed to the United States of America, land of hope and dreams.
Sekaer soon became acquainted with Ben Shahn, who may have been the one to introduce him to photography and who later introduced him to Walker Evans.
After 1933, he devoted himself exclusively to photography, studying with Berenice Abbott at the New School for Social Research, and assisting Walker Evans on the project of photographing The Museum of Modern Art's African sculpture collection.

From 1936 to 1942 Sekaer became a professional photographer and was hired by the federal government agency, the Rural Electrification Administration (REA).
In 1938 the REA sent Sekaer to the United States Housing Authority (USHA). The photographs Sekaer made for the USHA, an agency primarily concerned with the removal of city slums and sponsorship of public urban housing.
Transferred again in 1940 Sekaer photographed Navajo and Pueblo Indians for the Office of Indian Affairs.
After 1942 he continued working for other federal agencies photographing briefly for the Office of War Information (OWI).
Sekaer left Washington, DC for New York where he freelanced for several years, doing fashion and editorial assignments, until he died of a massive heart attack at home with his family, at the age of 49 in 1950.

The large photo is by Peter Sekaer and the small one by Walker Evans, both taken at the same occasion.
It shows how Sekaer travelled and learned from the established Evans as a photographer, but developed his own style: including people. Thus his photography earned itself a larger domension as a social document.

This book, 'The Signs of Life: Photographs by Peter Sekaer', includes an essay by his daughter Christina Sekaer (who found her father dead or dying when she was five years old) 'On Finding My father In His Photographs'. There is a lot to be learned about the person Peter Sekaer here, like that he probably had more empathy than his father he ran away from but was equally strong willed in finding his way.
Such as the fact he was married to a Norwegian woman, but he left her for Christina' s mother and drove a long way to be married as soon as possible.
He changed his name from Sekjaer to Sekaer also because he liked how it sounded 'See-Care', a nice name and image for a photographer.
Christina grew up learning very little about her father from her mother who had remarried. A family visit to Denmark in later life brought furher interest and questions; she also found that a large selection of her father's photos in her possession might be worth something.
Christina looked up her father´s photography assistent and it became evident she'd been more than an assistent to her father, who had moved from the family residence on a more or less permanent basis in his last years of his life.
While a tragedy for his children to loose their father at such a young age, he amassed a beautiful photographic legacy in his short life. This wonderful book bears witness to that in all respects.

WIKIPEDIA

Joep Bertrams (b. 07Mar1946) is a dutch political cartoonist who has seen his work published in newspapers such as Het Parool, weekly magazines such as De Groene Amsterdammer and on tv in NOVA.
Bertrams studied at first for a teaching job and then arts in The Hague (1967-72). During those years he made illustrations for union magazines.
At first he teached at schools in Breda, later in Hoofddorp. He made illustrations for magazines such as Taptoe, Okki and Ezelsoor. The first book he contributed work for was De Allersterkste (1977) by Karel Eykman. Others, with his illustrations, soon followed
Until 1989 he worked mainly as an illustrator for children books. In 1986 he was awarded with the 'Zilveren Penseel' for 'Salamanders vangen' by Wiel Kusters. In 1989 he was again awarded by the 'Zilveren Penseel'.
He had also designed puppets and worked at theatre decorations. 'Oren van je Kop' was a tv program he contributed to.
In 1982 he started work with the newspaper Het Parool, drawings for a children column 'Goochem'. This lasted until 1988 and at that time he was asked to become a political cartoonist for the newspaper.
His work was copied abroad by (e.g.) the Herald Tribune, The New York Times, Newsweek, Le Monde and de Süddeutsche Zeitung. Even the webmagazine ‘Slate’ published his humor.
Between 1991 - 2001 his work also appeared in the German weekly Die Zeit.
In 2001 he was awarded the 'Ton Smitspenning'. thousands enjoyed his work on Parool.nl.
In 2006 he was awarded a price for the best political cartoon of 2005.

Recently an exhibition was held in Amsterdam´s Persmuseum of his work. This is where I bought these two books. What better way than to look back over recent years browsing Bertram´s satire.

nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joep_Bertrams

Rejseholdet (International title: Unit One) is a Danish television crime series starring Charlotte Fich, Mads Mikkelsen, Lars Brygmann, Waage Sandø, Erik Wedersøe, Trine Pallesen, Lars Bom and Michael Falch.
Produced by Danmarks Radio (DR), the program aired 32 episodes, spanning 4 seasons from 2000 to 2004.
Each episode revolved around an elite mobile police task force called 'Unit One' that travels around Denmark assisting local police solve crimes.
Cases portrayed in the show were loosely based upon actual incidents of sensational crimes such as murders, kidnappings, cross-border sex traffic and child pornography.
Rejseholdet won the 2002 International Emmy Award for best drama series.

The dvd boxes above displayed depict Series 6 and 7. These were the last produced. Each episode, until the very last one, showed high quality crime drama. It feels like parting.
Previous episodes were discussed 2013 Q4 and 2013 Q2.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rejseholdet

Pamuk has established an actual 'Museum of Innocence', based on the museum described in the novel. It is housed in a building in the Çukurcuma neighbourhood of Beyoğlu, Istanbul, and displays a collection evocative of everyday life and culture of Istanbul during the period in which the novel is set.
After much delay, the museum was finally inaugurated in April 2012.

This book is about the museum, the text however deals also about the love story between Kemal and Füsun, as if Kemal and Orhan Pamuk worked together in establishing this museum in memory of Füsun - savouring the atmosphere of the novel.
I hope to visit that museum one day!

Wikipedia.org - The_Museum_of_Innocence