MetaFilter posts tagged with Belgium

Quoi, moi me préoccuper?

Skeptic — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 14:28:41 -0800

In 1948, in the aftermath of the Second World War, with Europe still in ruins, three young Belgian comic strip artists, Joseph Gillain (aka Jijé), Maurice de Bevere (aka Morris) and André Franquin, crossed the Atlantic with the intention of settling in the US. All three would eventually return to Belgium, their hopes of working for Disney ultimately dashed by the turmoil of the McCarthy years. However, in the meantime they made the acquaintance of their colleagues of the Charles William Harvey Studio in New York, including a cosmopolitan young wit named René Goscinny. Goscinny would follow them back to Europe, and eventually found Pilote magazine with Jijé and Franquin. He also collaborated with Morris as writer for "Lucky Luke". Of course, his most famous work was "Astérix", such a symbol for the resurgent France of the postwar era that even the first French satellite was named after him. Another French icon created by Goscinny was "Le Petit Nicolas", a series of good-humoured stories about a schoolboy whose gentle humour has had a lasting impact in French culture, best seen in films like "Amélie". And what did the remaining artists of the Charles William Harvey Studio do? Well, they coped.

The end of mystery meat?

minimii — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 19:20:38 -0800

Mobtown beats the meat while vegetarians bet Ghent.

Remembering the dead

MuffinMan — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 14:16:20 -0800

Every evening since July 2nd 1928*, at precisely eight o'clock, the Last Post has been played under the Menin Gate in Ieper (Ypres, "Wipers" as it was known to British tommies), Belgium. The ritual - performed by buglers from the local fire brigade - honours British and Commonwealth soldiers killed in the five battles at Ypres in the First World War. Today is the 27,888th day of the Last Post ceremony. Completed in 1927, the Menin gate is a memorial to the 54,896 Commonwealth soldiers who died without graves - the missing in action. The town itself has over 100 military cemeteries. Winston Churchill said of the town, "I should like to acquire the whole of the ruins of Ypres... a more sacred place for the British race does not exist in the world." *In fact, during the Second World War the Germans banned the ceremony, and the bugles were hidden away. On the day the Polish entered the town and retook it in 1945, the ceremony started again.

Do you ever dream of monsters?

embrangled — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 22:46:48 -0800

They follow you on the escalator and bother you at the bus stop. They spook your horses and frighten your children. But deep down, they just want to be loved. Belgian animators Thijs de Cloedt and Wouter Sel from Volstok Telefunken have imagined monsters for all occasions. [Website in Flemish]

But do you pronounce it "Tan Tan"?

Artw — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 14:41:03 -0800

Happy Birthday Tintin, whatever your sexuality! (maybe you're just confused)

Educative and informat-ta-tive

Senor Cardgage — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 18:39:03 -0800

Would you care to relax in the bosom of my family this christmas? Freed from the formality of working life? Christmas Tidings from Mr. Cholmondley-Warner and Grayson (SLHEYT) Sure, it's just a christmas youtube, but its a fantastic one and nowhere on it are the words "Made in Belgium" written.

"We had hoped to finish last, but Portugal decided otherwise."

grounded — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 12:09:16 -0800

Marc Moulin, Belgian pop culture polymath and electropop pioneer, has died. Moulin was probably best known outside of Belgium for the electronic group Telex, founded in 1978 with Dan Lacksman and Michel Moers. Telex scored an international hit with Moskow Diskow, made a great video for their version of Twist a Saint-Tropez, did anything but Rock Around the Clock and, most famously, entered the 1980 Eurovision Song Contest with a cheerfully mocking song titled Euro-Vision. Telex's stated goal for Eurovision -- to finish last -- was thwarted by Portugal, who for reasons not entirely clear, awarded them 10 points. The band continued on until the mid-eighties with songs like We're All Getting Old, L'Amour Toujours and Temporary Chicken. Moulin was a longtime presence on the Belgian jazz scene, from his early days with the fusion group Placebo up until his last release for Blue Note, 2007's I Am You. When not making music, Moulin was a playwright, journalist and radio producer.

Cette bud n'est pas pour vous

Artw — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 16:59:06 -0800

Save Budweiser! – An American beer titan may be bought up by evil Europeans, only you can save it!

Old Weird Europe

huskerdont — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 10:53:44 -0800

German newspaper Der Spiegel decided to take a look at Europe's oddest folk traditions and festivals. Perhaps you can have a metaphorical hard-on for the phallus festival of Tyrnavos, Greece. Maybe you're hungry for how a small Belgian town celebrates the practice of swallowing live fish. Or, alternately, you can look down on those bizarre practices... while chasing a giant wheel of cheese down a hill. Or maybe you'd just rather celebrate the annual fireworks war of Chios or jump over a baby while wearing a silly costume. Some of the festivals are recent inventions to boost tourism; others are relics of ancient paganism that survived Christianization. What are your favorites?

Blistering barnacles!

Artw — Thu, 22 May 2008 15:44:12 -0800

But is it art? Apparently so - A page of original Tintin artwork by Belgian artist Hergé becomes part of the Pompidou Centre's permanent collection of Modern Art, the first comics artwork to do so despite Frances vibrant comics culture.

CSI Baarle

Skeptic — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 15:16:27 -0800

Baarle-Hertog/Baarle-Nassau has been previously mentioned in MeFi. A historical quirk and geographical jigsaw, these days the complicated border criscrossing this Belgo-Dutch town had become little more than a tourist attraction. What happens, however, when a dead body is found, and nobody knows in which country it lies?

Subtropical sea-louse! It's the Tintinologist

Rumple — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:02:51 -0800

Subtropical sea-louse! It's the Tintinologist, an encyclopedia of Tintin, including such treats as all 195 of Captain Haddock's curses and an interview with Tintin's longtime translators.

Belgium (1830 - ?2007)

athenian — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 02:56:08 -0800

Interesting goings-on in Belgium (really). "Plucky little" Belgium, HQ of the very post-national European Union, is in the throes of a deep political crisis, driven by strong nationalistic feelings. The winner of the recent general election, Yves Leterme, has proved [FL] unable [FR] to form a government across the Flemish-French divide, and talk of the country splitting two (or even three) is more serious than ever before. [more inside]

My idea of pork

PeterMcDermott — Sun, 13 May 2007 01:26:46 -0800

400,000 jobs? Or 40,000 blowjobs?

World's deepest indoor pool

Burhanistan — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 20:52:13 -0800

At 33 meters, Nemo 33 in Brussels, Belgium is the world's deepest indoor pool.

Ladies and gentlemen, we interrupt our program of dance music to bring you a special bulletin from the Intercontinental Radio News.

goodnewsfortheinsane — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 05:26:40 -0800

Belgium is no more. Flanders has unilaterally declared independence, and the king has left the country in protest, RTBF reports.

One-Nil to Google against old media.

feelinglistless — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 13:49:43 -0800

One-Nil to Google against old media. As Inside Google says, the search engine "responding to Belgian newspaper’s complaints about being included in Google News and the Google cache, as well as a court ruling that they remove those newspapers from their services, decided to show them who’s boss and banned the newspapers outright from Google Belgium’s search results." Or, news organisation misunderstands the benefits of new media and pays dearly.

High Speed Photography

tellurian — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 22:16:26 -0800

Dancing droplets begets Water figures. The full set.

Everytime you toss a kitten, God pisses on a parade.

If I Had An Anus — Tue, 09 May 2006 08:14:23 -0800

Kattenstoet, a triennial cat parade is this weekend in Ypres, Belguim. The festival culminates with Kattenworp, the hurling of kittens from the Cloth Hall Belfry, a continuation of Europe's long ambiguous history of fascination with the feline. [more inside]

Monks and Beer

TheOnlyCoolTim — Sat, 04 Mar 2006 21:30:32 -0800

Trappist Ale. (warning, music on first link.) The six Belgian breweries Achel (little English), Chimay, Orval, Rochefort (unofficial site), Westmalle (no English), and Westvleteren, along with the Dutch brewery De Konigshoeven/La Trappe (first is English link to monastery, second is non-English brewery site.) are the only recognized producers of Trappist beers, although the latter was only recently granted the appellation after several years without it. Ranging from the relatively commercial and large-scale operations of Chimay and La Trappe to the other extreme of Westvleteren, who want to live quietly and don't want their beer distributed, these beers are considered some of the best in the world.

Belgian vs. American students

slater — Sat, 14 Jan 2006 07:03:12 -0800

The Belgian kids cleaned the American kids' clocks. For "Stupid in America," a special report ABC will air Friday, we gave identical tests to high school students in New Jersey and in Belgium. [...] The Belgian kids called the American students "stupid." Interesting insights into the different school systems employed in both countries.

Free .be domain names

Count Ziggurat — Sun, 13 Nov 2005 14:07:33 -0800

Belgian authorities allow free registration of .be domain names in a temporary promotion. Hilarity ensues. (apparently metafilter.be is still available)

The Sims 3?

davehat — Thu, 21 Apr 2005 02:50:11 -0800

Teenage Mum. A public information film for the gaming generation (embedded Quicktime movie). [via Edge]

Makes Keanu look like Olivier

Pretty_Generic — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 19:10:45 -0800

Straight outta Belgium, it's "The Matrix: The Beginning". This is a see-it-to-believe-it occasion. [20m WMV; Trailer for those with a lower tolerance for this sort of nonsense; Main site]

Spain becoming Southern Sweden?

sic — Thu, 30 Dec 2004 18:17:50 -0800

Spain to legalize Same Sex Marriages. Fulfilling a campaign promise, Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's socialist government is on the verge of making Spain only the third country in Europe to legalize same sex marriages after the Netherlands and Belgium. This and other progressive legislation has led angry bishops of the Spanish Church and other religious groups to start a campaign against Zapatero's “social revolution” that is converting Spain into one of the most liberal countries in all of Europe. [more inside]