Schlager

Today, while surfing the Internet the following sentence came across: "Most young people today consider Schlagermusik to be camp". Well...maybe this is true, maybe it isn't. However, it is a fact that even on stages of renowned theatres audiences are confronted with this interesting Central European traditional music style. Watch for example the nice but 'corny' video clip of the Dick Assley Quartet as they perform the unrivalled hit 'Wenn das Wasser im Rhein goldner Wein wär'.



For those who want to sing along, here are the lyrics (refrain):

Wenn das Wasser im Rhein goldner Wein wär,
Ja, dann möcht ich so gern ein Fischlein sein.
Ei, wie könnte ich dann saufen,
Brauchte keinen Wein zu kaufen,
Denn das Faß vom Vater Rhein wird niemals leer

TheatreSports Course

Yesterday I joined Remco's TheatreSports course in Amsterdam. It was my job to play the piano and accompany the actors on stage during some of their performances. One of my first musical tasks was to play a sequence of songs. For each song the actors were asked to step out of time, which is quite difficult. Further I accompanied some sketches where the actors had to sing a little song on regular intervals. The sentence 'Time for a song!' preceded each song. The actors performed hilarious sketches in groups and themes like 'at the zoo', 'the gym', 'the prison', and 'home for the elderly' came up. It was fun to play the piano and to hear and see amusing songs and plays. If you want to read more about theatresports, then click here.

Juggling Hero

An English Blog

As from today the main language of communication on the 'Iwan de Piwan' blog is English. Why? Well, at the moment an important (personal) goal is to improve my English writing skills; I hope this blog will help me to reach this goal. Further, my circle of friends, relatives and acquaintances 'internationalizes'. And since it is more than likely that the information on this blog is also interesting for the non-Dutch speakers among this 'circle', the transition from Dutch to English is probably a very smart move. But as the English put it: That's for the future to show.

Ameland 2006

Het laatste weekend van augustus stond in het teken van Het Vriendenweekend. Na enkele jaren Belgische Ardennen en Hoge Venen was het nu tijd voor 'good old Ameland'. Oude tijden herleefden: huisje naast De Lichtboei (vroeger disco, nu bouwval), Puinoord, Pizzeria San Remo, Nescafé, maar bovenal strand, wind, zon en regen. Twaalf volwassenen en drie kids maakten onze villa tot een levendige. Maar gelukkig waren daar ook de sauna en het bubbelbad om bij te komen van inspanning, storm en hectische klaverjasmomenten. Het was een goed weekend, eentje die navolging verdient! Meer Ameland? Klik hier.