3 op Reis: Go fishing in Finland | Learn how the Portuguese work cork oak

It ain't bad this '3 op Reis' Dutch TV program they do. They have an episode about Portugal and Finland that I thought was really interesting.

http://www.npo.nl/3-op-reis/21-06-2015/BNN_101374531

It also shows that the Dutch love doing stuff even whilst they are on holiday. The average Italian going on the average vacation in the country do a maximum of 4 trips of no more than 2 km in total in one day.

1. From the house to the beach
2. From the beach to the kitchen 
3. From the kitchen to the beach with a dip after strictly 2 hours 
4. Back from the beach to the dinner table and an after dinner stroll to the same street where everybody goes.*

*The so-called 'la vasca'

Mark Rothko at Gemeentemusum in The Hague

unexpected #MuseumSelfie gazing a wonderful painting by Mark Rothko @gemeentemuseum

A Glass Music Hall is looking for a new home

A Glass Music Hall in the Beurs van Berlage building in Amsterdam will be given away for free or destroyed. The centrally located building needs more conference space and therefore took the decision to dismantle the structure that was built 25 years ago and that was used a rehearsal space by the Dutch Philarmonic Orchestra.

Io Sono Li

I perceived Io Sono Li, a film by documentary maker Andrea Segre, like a piece of conceptual art. That type of conceptual art that twists an ordinary object into something different, showing you a new angle, maybe a more poetic side, or a deeper meaning. Italy in the last two decades has been a point of arrival for many low skilled foreign workers, including Chinese. Shun Li is one of them, sent first to Rome, and then moved to Chioggia (La Petite Venise), by an undefined Chinese organisation. She starts working in an "osteria" in the dock area where local fishermen and pensioners meet for a drink, a game of cards, a celebration for the end of one's working life. One of them, himself an immigrant from Yugoslavia who arrived 30 years earlier, feels a connection with the new barista who speaks few words of Italian, let alone the local dialect. Bepi, who calls his real home a shack on the water of the laguna, is locally known as "the poet" and is the type of man that sees things with eyes wide open, a cut above the rest of the group, a simple wise man that is curious and understanding. The two characters break walls and boundaries that are normally very high in the everyday experiences of Europeans rubbing shoulders with Chinese. And this is what is most interesting about this film for me, learning that no matter what differences and hardships people experience they can learn to connect. This is what makes popular culture alive (and in fact Chinese and Italian cultural references feature in the background, becoming universal). We can be affected by macro economic theories, social policies, geopolitics, criminal organisations activities and all of that, but in the end it's up to us to find ways to learn about each other and see things from a perspective which is closer to us than we think.

This film is a true gem that can hardly be seen in the mainstream. Hopefully, having won the European Parliament Lux Prize, it will be distributed at a cinema near you. Do not miss its bittersweet taste.

Phoenix Litzsomania Brat Pack Mash up

A mash up video of films from the 1980's with Phoenix's song Litzsomania spurred a number of incredibly fresh videos from across the world. The original was taken down for copyright reasons, but you can still find it on You Tube with embedding disabled. (watch now) Brat Pack is a slang term, it refers to a group of actors from the 1980's making a number of films with at least two of the original Brat Packers. Some of these films from the 1980's are The Breakfast Club (1985), Pretty in Pink (1986), The Outsiders, Class, Sixteeen Candles, Oxford Blues, etc. But in general brat pack refers to a group of successful people working in the same professional field.

Now a fresh contemporary take on this concept can be found in these videos. A group of friends having genuine fun.

Let's start with Brooklyin, New York.



Then follows San Francisco



Let's go to Europe now and see Amsterdam



The band Phoenix comes from Versailles, Paris. I like the span of generations in this one



The one from Riga is introducing us to another corner of Europe



But let's go Brasil now, Rio de Janeiro has some amazing views. It's so colourful and warm



And let's finish with Boston, hoping to find some more mash ups from different parts of the world. London, Barcelona, Turin...



And let me end by thanking Lawrence Lessig for letting me know about this. Let's keep the internet free and let copyright control understand this. Share culture.