Fruit

Rutger Hauer, Monique van de Ven and a bottle of champagne

I just got this weird all-Dutch chain reaction of culty associations;
- There was this Dutch top-culty movie Turks Fruit from 1973
- after a book from famous Dutch writer/artist Jan Wolkers
- made by famous Dutch director Paul 'Basic Instinct' Verhoeven
- with Rutger 'Blade Runner' Houwer as the artist-stud
- and Busty Dutch Celeb Monique van de Ven (right) as Olga Stapels

[Of course, I copy-pasted this next text. So don't blame me when it sounds like an add. I edited it a bit and it is now to-the-point]

Turks Fruit [1973] has recently been voted as Best Dutch Movie Ever. I can see why, "Turkish Fruits" is the candy that he brings her on a hospital visit. The movie is a delicious treat and perfectly mixes a heavy love story with dramatic and realistic and sexy moments that life is filled with.

It is a fine example of good story-telling. The movie was made from a book of the famous Dutch writer Jan Wolkers. Rutger Hauer, Monique van de Ven and Dolf de Vries really are some fine actors. Paul Verhoeven shows with this movie that he also is a great actor director. It marked the real big breakthrough for both Rutger and Monique and also for Paul himself.

The movie is filled with some typical and subtle humor which I really enjoyed. Some of the characters might seem a bit odd but I can assure you that all of the characters are very realistic and the softish kinks are not uncommon in the Netherlands.

The movie is really daring, especially for its time [1973] and is not afraid to show some explicit sex scenes. All of it is done with lots of wit and style so the movie never becomes offensive, it all serves some purpose, so it never really shocks the viewers. Verhoeven is a master in this. This is the first Verhoeven movie were he uses the same style which he still puts in his movies these days. The first typically, recognizable Verhoeven movie you can say.

The soundtrack was composed by Rogier van Otterloo who later also worked on the famous Dutch WWII "Soldaat van Oranje" movie [1977] also with Rutger Hauer and Paul Verhoeven.

This was just an all too long intro to Andre Rieu, another great Dutch artist who makes classic music popular with his big orchestra. There was a scene in the "Turks Fruit" movie where the father of Olga is dying from cancer and enjoys the the Radetzky Marsch for the last time.

The links for the "Turks Fruit" movie are here;
Tu.Fruit.part1
Tu.Fruit.part2
Tu.Fruit.part3
Tu.Fruit.part4
Tu.Fruit.part5
Tu.Fruit.part6
Tu.Fruit.part7
Tu.Fruit.part8
Tu.Fruit.part8

Enjoy

Calvi

the Calvi citadel from the beach

Calvi is a coastal town on the French isle of Corsica. I was there about 5 or 6 times on holiday, many years ago. It just gives me some silly romantic memories. There are some barracks in the citadel of the French Légion Etrangere. These great guys always were spic-and-span dressed in the disco. I took a lot of pictures from the citadel.

And then I re-found these French soldier songs, not from the Légion but from the French Military Academy Ecole Superieure Militaire de Saint-Cyr
- Le Pékin de Bahut
- La Galette
- Les Casos

Corsica is an island and not strictly French. They have their own habits and musics and even a liberation movement. I posted this Corsican music a long time ago, but it still sound pretty OK to me. It's a kind of local folkish acapella - several male voices without music. These guys just do it on the beach, I was so lucky to hear some of them 'live' while I had my Salade Nicoise and white wine.
- A Cumpagnia, Barbara Furtuna
- Canta U Populu Corsu, Paghjella
- I Muvrini, Agnus Dei

And there was this restaurant, way up in the citadel where famous people came around. I never went inside, but it has a great story.

And there was this cheep/lousy/great back-pack 'Hotel Du Centre' near the village-square where I always stayed. It's so great & simple, I love the guy who is running this h/motel in the centre of the town.

The f*cking problem is, that I can't give you any more google-info/pix. It is probably all too 'exotic'. When you are in Europe (God Forbid) try to visit the isle of Corsica for a week or so - recommended.

Good heavens, I could go on-and-on

Enjoy

Last

James Last [1929]

I'm not sure I ever blogged this German guy, probably too embarrasing. Like Dutch band leader André Rieu (and some others) this goes as the lower-of-lowest in musical taste in this part of the world.

I think this type-of-music is underestimated. The music sounds very professional and perfectly OK - nothing wrong with that. You just love/hate this stuff for some other reason. My old folks loved this music and James is pretty culty now in Australia, so who am I to disagree.

James Last did his farewell concert in the Netherlands a few months ago. You can find a lot of James's albums on Grumpy's Corner.

Here are just some of my favorite tracks;
- Tico Tico
- Adios Muchachos
- Tulips from Amsterdam

Remember me for blogging André sometime, he's even better than James.

Enjoy

Rihanna

sexy Rihanna Wallpaper

Rihanna [1988] is a smart and serious multi-talented girl, not just one of the many MTV chicks (but it sure helps). Of course I like her looks and her bitchy personality but her music is not bad too. Her [2007] Good Girl Gone Bad album has this sexy-bitchy flavour that we all like.

"Bad is not sleazy. Bad has its own term to every individual and in my case it just means I've gotten a little rebellious on the album, broken out of my shell and I'm taking risks ... Michael Jackson's 'Bad' kind of way".

Here is her pretty kinky Disturbia clip from the tube.

Enjoy

Carice

Dutch actress Carice van Houten [1976]

Carice just got a reward last week here in Holland for best ever world famous Dutch actress of the century. She is really very good on film and on stage [every critic says] and she is so very cute [that's me talking]. She is now doing some 'serious' work in Hollywood.

Her international breakthrough was the 'Zwartboek' (Black Book) movie with (also Dutch) director Paul 'Robocop' Verhoeven.
I have this strange feeling, that I blogged Carice before.

Enjoy

Fado

Christina Branco

I blogged about Fado before and now I was triggered again, because my iPal just came back from a holiday in Portugal, It's just great music and GR probably missed all of this stuff while staring at his laptop on the beach.

Fado is a traditional Portuguese type of folkish music. Amália Rodrigues is the Grand Old Lady in this style of music. Even more interesting are the new young Fado chicks on the block. There's even a Fado girl singer from Holland that I still have to hunt down. Indeed, it looks like there are only female Fado singers.

Fado translates into Destiny or Fate, but this album sounds like sunny and happy Portugal. Semplicemente Il Meglio [1998] from Amália Rodrigues is a nice [35MB.] album to start your Fado quest.
Here is the joyfull La Tramontana song from the Amália album.

Enjoy

Pole

There was this item in my newspaper a few days ago. About some pole dancing championship here in Holland. Sexy and arousing poses were not allowed, because pole dancing is not about sex - it's an art [lust u nog peultjes].
Some sexy tubes to compensate;
- A Lindsey Lohan clip
- Lindsay Lohan and Rose McGowan
- Lovely Fergie is dancing the pole
- Miss Pole Dance Australia 2006

Enjoy

Ron

Ron Jeremy and Christy Canyon

This blog is not for your kids. Ron Jeremy is among my heroes [about my age]. He is so incredibly ugly [me not] but he still gets all the girls. I guess he is just a very friendly guy [like me]. I'm doing something wrong. I'm sure you can find zillions of clips from Ron for yourself. I just like this picture of Ron and Christy, because I once saw a bio-docu about Ron.

Enjoy