Author Archives for Ellen

Taylor Swift
I like some of her songs. I haven’t heard them all. I do know she writes on of her songs herself, most of the time together with other people. She is extremely popular.
“She really is that girl in the tiny little bedroom at home writing songs about the things she hopes and dreams and feels.”
I’m not sure what to think of her myself. It is hard when you do not know someone in real life anyway. It is also hard with the media putting up shrines and mirrors all the time. Let’s just see what will happen.

Katy Perry
Katy perry is someone i am also really unsure about. These people are living at such a distance from me, it is hard to relate to them. I do know we all have the same desires, but so many different ways of trying to attain them. I read things i like about her. Queen of quirk. I like that. I don’t like all her songs. I only know the hits anyway. A song like Roar i basically can not listen to. But i do like California Gurls. And i do like her clothes, and the hair. The clips i like too, nut sure how much of a say she had in them though. I do think she deserves a place on my world map. Still.. not sure entirely.

Paul McCartney
Pfff… my sister actually went to one of his concerts here int the Netherlands a couple of weeks ago. And i do remember young people asking “Who is this guy” after he did something with Kanye West. I won’t insult you with telling his life story here. You can click on his name and read about him on wikipedia if you want to. His name simply popped in my head. Hard to ignore to be honest. I love many of his songs. Eleanor Rigby, Fool on the hill, Hey Jude, Let it be, Penny Lane, Band on the run, Live and let die. I do also know i don’t like all the things he did. He does have a sort of .. soapy side to him. A bit too sweet. But yet. I find myself thinking now i would like to read a book about the Beatles and Lennon / McCartney. I did do a search for a bio, of which there are plenty. To find the right one though.

Paul Thomas Anderson
A film director. I watched his movie Boogie Nights in the cinema. I loved it.
“But while it’s very funny, Boogie Nights taps into something much deeper with its on-target depiction of the shifting political and social tides of the ’70s and ’80s and thoughtful relationships between characters. It’s a deeply satisfying movie.”
Magnolia i’m not sure if i saw it in the cinema. I do have the dvd. Some long shots are embedded in my mind. I’ve seen it like 3 to 4 times. But its been a while. To me film directors are just creating magic. I don’t know how they get to this point of making a film. Of course it is a long journey, with many try outs. Not a journey i ever wished for myself no. But i greatly admire people who wanna try and do it.

Philip Seymour Hoffman
I probably saw Hoffman in Boogie Nights first. I do think i saw another film he plays in on the Rotterdam Film Festival, Happiness directed by Todd Solondz. Capote, in which Hoffman plays the lead roll, i saw later on. The Master, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, i did try to watch, but i stopped halfway. Maybe one day i’ll try again. It’s just, i know it’s good, excellent even, but a part of me rejects the darkness and.. well… masculinity of these movies. Not sure i’m saying this right. I don’t know.

Julianne Moore
I just read on the wikipedia page she played a part in Spielberg’s sequel to Jurassic Park, The Lost World: Jurassic Park. I might have seen it on tv. But i did see her in Boogie Nights. I love it she is so braod in her work, ranging from independent movie’s to large-scale Hollywood productions. I don’t know anything about her personal life, apart from the fact that it’s deeply private. I did read though she is a writer too. I’m liking that!

Meryl Streep
To be honest, i just wanted her picture on the map. I think i’ve seen most of her movies, from The Deer Hunter, Kramer vs. Kramer, Sophie’s Choice, Adaptation, The Devil wears Prada, Julie & Julia, The Iron Lady, Into the Woods. And there are so many more.

“So I’ve always been really, deeply interested, because I think I can understand the solace that’s available in the whole construct of religion. But I really don’t believe in the power of prayer, or things would have been avoided that have happened, that are awful. So it’s a horrible position as an intelligent, emotional, yearning human being to sit outside of the available comfort there. But I just can’t go there.”

Tinkebell
I do follow Tinkebell on twitter. I thought i did too on facebook, but i just looked at the page i liked at the last activity was in 2014. So it seems another page is the page where she is most active on. I just liked that one.
I do remember reading about the handbag she made of her cat in 2004. The book she made in 2009, with hate mail and death threats she had recieved over the years. The 2013 calendar she made for 2 girls living in the Philippines.
Now i read her posts on twitter. I sometimes click through and read columns she writes for the Dutch newspaper Trouw.
I do really admire her. She has guts. She stands for what she believes in. She fights for it. In the gleaming thirsty eyes of the media. Deep bow.

Jeffrey Zeldman
I bought his book Designing with Web Standards in 2003. It changed my professional life. The way i wanted to live it.
30 May his website was twenty years old. He wrote a post about being “creative“. Which i do agree with, wholeheartedly.

A List Apart was launched as a mailing list in 1997. The next year it turned into a website. It is still part of my rss feeds. It’s not that i read every article published, but some i do love. Salute!

Joris Luyendijk
Joris Luyendijk’s last book is a smash hit in the Netherlands, Dit kan niet waar zijn (This cannot be true). Basis of this book was his time spend in the London City and writing a blog with interviews with City bankers for the Guardian. I haven’t read any of his books yet, but i did follow his interviews about his last book. A good journalist. Chapeau!

Ewald Engelen
Ewald Engelen i noticed with his criticism on Europe, universities, TTIP, banks, economics among other things. He writes a column for the Groene Amsterdammer. He is not afraid to speak his mind. Most of his articles are in Dutch. On several issues he linked to on Facebook i got very upset. Quite mad actually. I still can. Bow.

Matthijs van Nieuwkerk
A television presenter of still one of my favourite shows on Dutch tv, De wereld draait door (The world keeps turning). It’s on 5 times a week during the season, from September till December, January till May. It is known for its fast talking presenter, short interviews with the current news worthy guests. I usually do check out if there are any interesting people or subjects in the show. My favourite thing to watch is the Top 2000 à Go-Go shown in December. Even though i do realise there is a hard formula behind the show, with many decisions made to keep people watching, i still do enjoy it. I do like van Nieuwkerk. He looks cute too. Too bad he is married. 🙂 Kudos!

David Foster Wallace
When i started this map, i decided i wasn’t going to put in anybody who was dead. That excluded many many people. And then i thought of David Foster Wallace. I have his book Infinite Jest. I haven’t read it yet, but i’m pretty sure i will once during my life. Hoping, of course. I also have his book Everything and more. Still reading that one. But i’m afraid my reading these days doesn’t have the highest priority. Half of it goes beyond my understanding, but i still enjoy it. So after some thought, i decided to put in David Foster Wallace. Because of his commencement speeches. His interviews. His books. His sad death. Rest in peace.

“Because here’s something else that’s weird but true: in the day-to day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And the compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of god or spiritual-type thing to worship—be it JC or Allah, be it YHWH or the Wiccan Mother Goddess, or the Four Noble Truths, or some inviolable set of ethical principles—is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never have enough, never feel you have enough. It’s the truth. Worship your body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly. And when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally grieve you. On one level, we all know this stuff already. It’s been codified as myths, proverbs, clichés, epigrams, parables; the skeleton of every great story. The whole trick is keeping the truth up front in daily consciousness.”