Believe it or not, there actually was an Avant Garde movement in the town of Drachten, The Netherlands in the beginning of the 20th century. The movement was spearheaded by two brothers, The Rinsema's, otherwise engaged as cobblers in the same town. Today we went to the museum in Drachten to see the special exhibition.

Thijs Rinsema, Flowers, little statue and book, 1943

Tonight we went to the Opera in Amsterdam. Kitesh, a Russian opera by Nicolay Rimski-Korsakov from 1907.

This opera has never before been performed in the Netherlands and it is a production on a scale seldom seen here. The story is about the choice between good or bad, positive or negative. Everlasting bliss, so we learn from the pure Fevronia, does not come when complaining about your sufferings, but from showing happiness and compassion for others. It was a rare insight into the Russian soul of the beginning of the 20th century.

A friend of mine Kees has a really nice tradition going. Every year on - or near - his birthday he organizes a walk for family and friends. This walk always follows the same route through the dunes and along the beach near his home town of Beverwijk, The Netherlands.


I have participated twice now and really enjoyed it. How many birthday parties have you attended in which you basically sat around a table in a living room?

For the second time I was the photographer for the occasion. All of the pictures are here.

Today we visited the Jan Sluijters exhibition in the Singer Museum , Laren. This is one of those museums we never before got around to visit. The painting which struck me most was one of a dance hall in Paris painted in 1907 called Bal Tabarin. This was one of the first dance halls were electric lights were installed to impress the clientele, I am sure.
The impression the electric lights made on the sensitive retina of the artist is shown here.

Skating on the canals in Utrecht February 4th 2012. Just like those old famous Avercamp paintings.

Today colleague Berni Drop left the Interstudie NDO offices for the last time. Her she is accompanied by Ton van Wanroij. Berni is leaving Interstudie NDO for a new position as princicpal of the Montessori College in Arnhem.


As usual I shot the pictures for this occasion.

Today Janne celebrates her 19th birthday with family and friends. Every year she gets a birthday card from her mom & dad with a written message. This picture was taken at the very moment she reads this year's birthday card.

Okay, so I am a big fan of handheld photography, using high ISOs if necessary to shoot in dark environments.
Time to test my Canon EOS 7D camera on a tripod to see what that can do. Using a tripod I shot the hallway in our apartment building with a 13 second exposure. The result is shown here and is a good reminder of when a tripod is really useful to make a nice picture.

The sculpture is made by Rien Goené in 1990 and is called Action.

In the 1980's and 1990's I visited Florida, USA many times. The last time I was there was in the year 2000. More than 10 years later and a different man I revisited Florida in December 2011 - January 2012.

Some of the places were familiar: Key West, Miami Beach and some were new: Key Largo and the Everglades.

What remains a constant is how easy I find my self immersing in the American Way of Life. This really makes me think about the concept of 'Alternate Universes' in which I would have made different choices in the past. This is mind boggling.



It was very nice to see that the Tropical Deco buildings in Miami Beach which were struggling to survive in the '90s are now all protected and well taken care of.

How to make your Linux server appear on the Windows Vista/7 network map like in the picture below.



It is easy to find info on the net on how to install the lld2d responder on a linux server. However, if the Microsoft provided Sample Code is used as is, your linux box is represented as a wireless AP/switch on the map. This is so because in the sample code information is encoded that defines the machine as a wireless AP/switch. You must change this to reflect the fact that your linux box is wired and not a multifunction switch/bridge. This is not hard to do, see the instructions below. For the details you have to read the protocol specification at: Link Layer Topology Discovery Protocol. Not to worry, this is only for the die-hards ...

Instructions

1. Get the Rally-LLTD-PortingKit.exe. Unpack and copy folder to a suitable directory on your Linux server. cd to the Sample Code directory

2. Add the line: #include <limits.h> to src/state.c just after the line #include <assert.h>

3. Edit the file src/osl-linux.c . Make all TLV get-functions relating to wireless/multifunction devices return a simple constant: TLV_GET_FAILED. The functions you must edit are those with the numbers: 5,6,8,9,A,D,14,15,19 and 1A. Do not touch any of the other functions. THIS IS THE CRUCIAL STEP.

4. cd to the native-linux directory and run make. Install the resulting executable lld2d to /usr/sbin

5. Use an icon editor to make a Windows 48x48 pixel icon of your choice. I have used tux, obviously. Copy this *.ico file to /etc on your server.

6. Edit lld2d.conf to set proper path and name for your own icon

7. Copy lld2d.conf to /etc also

8. Run /usr/sbin/lld2d eth0. If necessary replace eth0 with your own ethernet device

9. Optionally create an init script.

10. Generate a new network map in Windows 7/Vista and watch the results in awe ...

Have fun!

This painting, which was thought lost for hundreds of years, tells the fascinating story of a scandalous Renaissance occurrence. The protagonists are Pope Alessandro Borgia and his lover Giulia Farnese, which is the reason why this work was initially condemned to be destroyed, and then – saved only by the strength of its irresistible beauty – was simply destined to oblivion. The work re-emerges only now from this condition, thanks to an impressive series of concomitances which seem to wish to demonstrate how powerful the unpredictable influence of fate is – in determining both the human course of events and the history of art. See Baby Jesus of the Hands. I managed to take a nice photograph of the painting. Clicking on the thumb image opens a new window showing the painting in its full glory.

The Expulsion from the Garden of Eden is a fresco by the Italian Early Renaissance artist Masaccio. The fresco is a single scene from the cycle Life of Peter painted around 1425 by Masaccio, Masolino and others on the walls of the Brancacci Chapel in the church of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence. It depicts the expulsion from the garden of Adam and Eve. Three centuries after the fresco was painted, Cosimo III de'Medici, in line with contemporary ideas of decorum, ordered that fig leaves be added to conceal the genitals of the figures. These were eventually removed in the 1980s when the painting was fully restored and cleaned.

The Mausoleum of Galla Placidia is a Roman building built in 425-430 AD in Ravenna, Italy. It was listed with seven other structures in Ravenna in the World Heritage List in 1996. The UNESCO experts describe it as "the earliest and best preserved of all mosaic monuments, and at the same time one of the most artistically perfect". The interior of the mausoleum is covered with rich Byzantine mosaics, and light enters through alabaster window panels. The inside contains two famous mosaic lunettes, and the rest of the interior is filled with mosaics of Christian and Apocalyptic symbols. The central bay's upper walls are decorated with four pairs of apostles, including St. Peter and St. Paul, acclaiming a giant gold cross in the center of the dome against a blue sky of yellow stars. The mausoleum is reputed to have inspired American songwriter Cole Porter to compose "Night and Day" while on a 1920s visit.