Meme from the past.

I know I posted yesterday that I'd stay clear of posting stuff about politics because they tired me.
But I just couldn't resist posting this when I thought of it.
It seemed appropriate. For those of you too young to know what the phrase means: check out the knowyoumemes.com site.

www.gwendolynruttenlookslikeahamster.be

http://www.gwendolynruttenlookslikeahamster.be

New website to be launched shortly.

Click below for a sneak preview.

Ah come on. She does doesn't she?

No cue for cats

The only difference between the two pictures is that there are no people cueing to see Mouser on top of the Waterloo Lion's Mound.

Headline hegemony part 2

I've been following the World Championships Athletics in Moskow on and off for the last couple of days.
Today the Borlée brothers were running their semis.
One of them didn't make it.
Incidentally one of our national newspapers sported two pictures next to each other.
The left hand caption says: "Firstly, point to what's going wrong" where the 'loopt' could be interpreted as 'running' when translated literally.
Right hand caption says: "Jonathan Borlée through to WC final, Kevin eliminated.

I can tell what's going wrong. He's on the phone, not entirely focussed on his race. Kids these days. Can't go without their cell phones for 5 minutes these days...

Mihi.

Which one?

So how are these Italian elections going to pan out?

Le Déménagement

Here's an idea for a French movie rooted in reality: 

The Title: 'Le Déménagement' and will be in theatres across Europe in 2013.

The Plot: A wealthy French couple, the Dépardots, played by Gérard Dépardieu  and Brigitte Bardot, are hounded by the French State's tax department and collectors (Pierre Richard). Their close friend and President of the French Republic (played by Daniel Autieul)  is -because of political pressure- not able to help them and advises them to move to Belgium to avoid paying huge amounts of money. 

They end up buying a house in a sleepy Belgian village called Estaimpuis. What seems like a simple moving of house quickly turns into chaos as they encounter the mayor of Estaimpuis (Benoit Poelvoorde) and a former Russian hitman (Jean Reno) trying to persuade them to assume the Russian nationality.

120 mins. Mrs B Productions.

Cast: Brigitte Bardot, Gérard Dépardieu, Jean Reno, Benoit Poelvoorde, Daniel Auteuil, Pierre Richard.
Rating: PG

Dead but popular

Despite him being dead for over a week now, Michel Daerden is still the second most popular politician in Belgium, only losing about 3,6% compared to the week before, according to a mixture of polls on the rtbf news website.
That should get him re-elected in October, things are looking up for comrade Porsche even after his demise.

What's wrong with this poll?
Well, it's very obvious it's fake, that's what.

Elio Di Rupo is a fictional character

I knew it all along. Elio Di Rupo, Belgian's Prime Minister, doesn't exist.
He has a flickr-page with pictures of him meeting and greeting people.
But according to his Flickr profile he has not given a real name.

Therefore he is a made-up character.
A figment of the imagination.
A ghost in the machine.
A creation of the media and the internet.

Mihi.

Belgium is no longer a country

It has been lingering in the foul smelling air for some time now, but as of this week it has been made official:
According to the message I got on youtube, Belgium is no longer a country.
And if it's on the internet it must be true. :-/



The RTBF (the French speaking community's broadcasting corporation) has blocked me from viewing a trailer for Rundskop because I live in the Flemish speaking part of Belgium. Which is according to the copyright restriction ... in another country. Ironically enough the film was financed with money from the Flemish, Brussels, Walloon and Dutch governments.
And it is an international trailer.

So does that mean the international film trailer will only be available in the Walloon part of the universe?

Reasons Greetings from a profoundly confused Belgian.

Finally

Mouser's bed-in protest seems to have worked.
We have something resembling a government.
Radio presenter Koen Fillet finally got to shave his beard after 320+ days.
Dr Livingstone said he'll not shave until this new government throws in the towel.
Or, I guess the price of razor blades drops dramatically.

Out of the door, line on the left, one cross each.

Mouser's bed-in protest seems to have speeded up the negotiations, the formateur announced they had reached an agreement on the budget up till 2014.
Eerily enough, the press photo's show a vaguely familiar scene.
I seem to remember someone sitting in the middle being crucified a short while later.

Bed-in protest for quick Belgian government formation

Bedroom eyes. My bed has eyes. Pretty scary ones too.
Oh wait. It's not monsters. It's just Mouser having a little bed-in protest for a quick government formation. We are currently 531 days without one after june 2010's elections. I think we have broken all intergalactic records by now.

You are all remembered

At the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, the Great War ends.
The First World War left nine million soldiers dead and 21 million wounded, with Germany, Russia, Austria-Hungary, France, and Great Britain each losing nearly a million or more lives. In addition, at least five million civilians died from disease, starvation, or exposure.

World War I was known as the "war to end all wars" because of the great slaughter and destruction it caused.

The King's Speech

The King's Speech was something almost worthy of an Oscar. I ran it through wordle and here is the word cloud it came up with.

Most used words are:
Onze (Ours)
Alle (All)
Land (Land)
Regering (Government)
Europese (European)
Europa
Nieuwe (New)
Samen (Together)
Burgers (Citizens)
Moeten (Must)
Recht (Right)

Surprisingly he only used België once.

The Party Crasher King

King Albert II of Belgium, delivered a landmark speech yesterday. Today we celebrate our National Holiday and are officially 402 days without a government. Very touchingly he expressed his anxiety about all Belgians suffering under this and the impact it has on the image of the country on a European scale.

Surprise in all media about the body language the King used, wildly gesticulating with hands. This is what he also probably looks like while enraged with his son Laurent.

Alas, no one has noticed the similarity between the King of the Belgians and The Party Crasher in the excellent John Badham movie The Hard Way. I think everyone must be told.

Happy Birthday dear blog

4 years in the blogosphere today. What has happenend during the last year?
- We've moved house (again) and become houseowners, which is probably the biggest thing that could happen.
- Dr Livingstone's back and other skeletal bits and bobs have taken a turn for the worse.
- My bookcollection has grown (but not much).
- I've spent some lovely hours in the archive browsing through relicts from the past
- We still have no government after the elections in 2010 and we'll probably end up being the record holders of the entire universe [after Nepal]
- I haven't used the folding bike I bought back in October, my elbows still are not ok and I'm not even able to carry the thing a couple of meters.

What's coming next year?
- Finishing up two degrees in Art History.
- Dr Livingstone is negotiating a status quo for his aching body by going swimming three times a week.
- Refurbing a room or two and/or part of the garden.
- Helping out dear Dr Livingstone in his shop. The soldering art historian.
- Writing a lot of interesting papers and spending more time in dusty archives.

\o/

George Friedrich de Wever

Slap a wig on him and you wouldn't notice the difference! It is uncanny how Bart de Wever, the man famous for using Latin expressions, resembles Georg Friedrich Händel, the man famous for setting Latin words to music.
Are they by any chance related? I think we must be told.

I found the image in one of Dr Livingstone's old study books on music. I chuckled when I first saw the section on the baroque composers.
I had an exam on musical history today. It went quite well considering I have damaged hearing. So I couldn't really tell if the instrument we had to recognize was a french horn or a trumpet.
Oh, and the professor said I did Mahler an injustice by ranking him as the more conservative composers in the romantic period. I told him Mahler really wouldn't have minded since he is long dead.

He gave me a funny look. I don't know if that was a bad thing or not.

Quick lookalike

Same hair, different decades.
Joelia Timosjenko and Princess Leia.

No OS

It's funny 'cos it's true.

Belgium World Record Holder Government Formation

At midnight Belgium is the World Record Holder. We have gone 249 days without a government after elections.
Although some caution should be exercised. Nepal is right on our heels waiting to snatch the record from us...

I haven't been blogging these last few days because I was all tense, waiting for my exam results.
Finally, an Tuesday at 6.33 pm I got an email saying I could check my results online.
Yeah, right. Me and thousands of other students waiting to find out. Like that would work.
Of course the server crashed big time. Only around 7.35 am Wednesday morning I was able to see them.
And one result was missing too...
Argh.
But now all is well. The missing grade has been retrieved.
It was as expected, all straight A's except the history of history one.
But I will probably be using a special joker card to eradicate that grade and not have to retake the exam. I'll just wait and see what happens during the exams in June. If all is well and I think I can do even better I will retake it. But not sure at the mo.