THE SCHELDT RIVER

;SCHELDT , one of the most important rivers of Belgium and the Netherlands. It rises in the French department of the Aisne; flows circuitously through Belgium; reaches Ghent, where it receives the Lys; at Antwerp attains a breadth of about 1,600 feet, and forms a capacious and secure harbor. About 15 miles below Antwerp, shortly after reaching the Dutch frontier, it divides into the East and West Scheldt, thus forming a double estuary. The whole course is 267 miles, about 210 of which are navigable. Until 1863, when navigation was made free by the Treaty of Brussels, the Dutch monopolized it and levied tolls on foreign vessels. As a result of the World War and the Peace Treaty of Versailles, control of the Scheldt became again a subject of controversy between Holland and Belgium.

Siberia

Siberia ( is an extensive geographical region, consisting of almost all of North Asia. Siberia has been part of Russia since the seventeenth century.

The territory of Siberia extends eastwards from the Ural Mountains to the watershed between the Pacific and Arctic drainage basins. Siberia stretches southwards from the Arctic Ocean to the hills of north-central Kazakhstan and to the national borders of Mongolia and China. Siberia is 77% of Russia (13.1 million square kilometres), but has just 27% (40 million people) of Russia's population.

 

Love,Life,Laughter

The BFI 75 Most Wanted is a list compiled by the British Film Institute of their most sought-after British feature films not currently held in the BFI National Archive, and classified as "missing, believed lost". The films chosen range from quota quickies and B-movies to lavish prestige productions of their day. The list includes lost works by major directors and those featuring top-name actors; also films which were top box-office successes in their time but have since disappeared, and works which are believed to be historically significant for some aspect of style, technique, subject matter or innovation.[1]

The earliest film on the list dates from 1913, the latest from 1983. The 1930s is the most represented decade with 24 entries, followed by the 1920s (16) and the 1940s (14). Maurice Elvey, with four films on the list, is the most represented director. Unsurprisingly, the "most wanted" Most Wanted of all is Alfred Hitchcock's 1926 feature The Mountain Eagle, described as "the Holy Grail of film historians".

Late in 2012, the BFI revealed that a number of the films on the list had been found.

 

Importance of filmscore

Film scores encompass an enormous variety of styles of music, depending on the nature of the films they accompany. The majority of scores are orchestral works rooted in Western classical music, but a great number of scores also draw influence from jazz, rock, pop, blues, New Age and ambient music, and a wide range of ethnic and world music styles. Since the 1950s, a growing number of scores have also included electronic elements as part of the score, and many scores written today feature a hybrid of orchestral and electronic instruments.

Dutch Facebook

Noddy headshots or noddies are a type of camera shot used in recorded news or current affairs interviews. The noddies consist of nods and other similar "listening gestures" made by the interviewer. If only one camera is available at the interview site, then these shots are recorded after the actual interview takes place. The shots are spliced into the interview during the editing process to mask any cuts that have been made. This editing technique is universally "read" by audiences as expressing realism and therefore creates the illusion of a seamless dialogue in the interview.

 

Big city song

What makes Amsterdam so attractive is the 17th century historical atmosphere combined with the mentality of a modern metropolis creating a friendly and relaxed environment. The small scale of the buildings and the intimacy of the streets, canals and squares create an atmosphere that visitors find unique.

The city has the highest museum density in the world and is home to cultural highlights, such as the Van Gogh Museum, Anne Frank House, Hermitage Amsterdam and the Rijksmuseum with Rembrandt’s world-famous Nightwatch. Other well known places of interest in Amsterdam are the Palace on the Dam, the Artis Zoo, Jewish Historical Museum and the Rembrandt House.

Volendam: fish and tourists

Volendam is a popular tourist attraction in the Netherlands, well known for its old fishing boats and the traditional clothing still worn by some residents. The women's costume of Volendam, with its high, pointed bonnet, is one of the most recognizable of the Dutch traditional costumes, and is often featured on tourist postcards and posters (although there are believed to be fewer than 50 women now wearing the costume as part of their daily lives, most of them elderly). There is a regular ferry connection to Marken, a peninsula close by. Volendam also features a small museum about its history and clothing style, and visitors can have their pictures taken in traditional Dutch costumes

Hilaria: funfair

Humour is the tendency of particular cognitive experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement. The term derives from the humoral medicine of the ancient Greeks, which taught that the balance of fluids in the human body, known as humours (Latin: humor, "body fluid"), control human health and emotion.

People of all ages and cultures respond to humour. The majority of people are able to experience humour, i.e., to be amused, to laugh or smile at something funny, and thus they are considered to have a sense of humour. The hypothetical person lacking a sense of humour would likely find the behaviour induced by humour to be inexplicable, strange, or even irrational. Though ultimately decided by personal taste, the extent to which a person will find something humorous depends upon a host of variables, including geographical location, culture, maturity, level of education, intelligence and context.

ICE-sculptures

Ice sculpture is a form of sculpture that uses ice as the raw material. Sculptures from ice can be abstract or realistic and can be functional or purely decorative. Ice sculptures are generally associated with special or extravagant events because of their limited lifetime.

The lifetime of a sculpture is determined primarily by the temperature of its environment and thus, a sculpture can last from mere minutes to possibly months. There are several ice festivals held around the world, hosting competitions of ice sculpture carving.

Arles capital de Provence

Arles and the Rhone, the people of Arles and their river, a history of love and mistrust depending on the water’s mood.
In the 19th century, commercial activity on the docks and riverbanks was still flourishing. Van-Gogh, who mainly stayed clear of the local population, explored the city and its surroundings, unceasingly painting the transformations of nature in spring, the landscapes, workers in the fields or on the river. All that he saw inspired him and became art. He would rest his easel on the riverbank whenever the wind allowed him to.

My birthtown in one minute

Music videos use a wide range of styles of film making techniques, including animation, live action filming, documentaries, and non-narrative approaches such as abstract film. Some music videos blend different styles, such as animation and live action. Many music videos interpret images and scenes from the song's lyrics, while others take a more thematic approach. Other music videos may be without a set concept, being merely a filmed version of the song's live performance.

Downfall

The movie is well known as the inspiration for "Downfall parodies". One scene in the film, in which Hitler launches into a furious tirade upon finally realizing that the war is truly lost, has become a staple of internet videos. In these videos, the original audio of Ganz's voice is retained, but new subtitles are added so that he now seems to be reacting instead to some setback in present-day politics, sports, popular culture, or everyday life.

Clips from other films, such as Inglourious Basterds, Dear Friend Hitler, Hitler: The Last Ten Days and even films or footage that have little or nothing to do with Downfall's subject matter, are also juxtaposed for humorous effect. 

Parodies that make use of special effects or computer-generated imagery are also starting to become popular among fans, ranging from superimposing the characters' heads on other footage, to rotoscoping scenes from the film into different backgrounds.

Winter in Holland

A hidden camera is a still or video camera used to film people without their knowledge. The camera is "hidden" because it is either not visible to the subject being filmed, or is disguised as another object.
Hidden cameras are also sometimes used in reality television to catch participants in unusual or absurd situations. Participants will either know they will be filmed, but not always exactly when or where, or do not know they have been filmed until later, at which point they may sign a release or give consent to the footage being produced for a show.

Weirfishing on anchovies

A fishing weir, or fish weir, is an obstruction placed in tidal waters or wholly or partially across a river, which is designed to hinder the passage of fish. Traditionally they were built from wood or stones. They can be used to trap fish.


Alternatively, fish weirs can be used to redirect fish elsewhere, such as to a fish ladder.
As fish traps, fishing weirs date back to the Bronze Age in Sweden and to Roman times in the UK.)

In medieval Europe, large fishing weir structures were constructed from wood posts and wattle fences. 'V' shaped structures in rivers could be as long as 60 m and worked by directing fish towards fish traps or nets.

Never walk alone

The introduction of the Beta VCR in 1975 and VHS in 1976 heralded a revolution in the making of home movies. Videocassettes were extremely inexpensive compared to film and they could even be erased. This had the effect of greatly increasing the hours of footage of most family video libraries. It took a few years before consumer video cameras and portable VCRs were introduced, and later combined to create camcorders, but by that time, many consumers already had the playback equipment in their homes.

First schoolday

Scene from “Alleman”
Haanstra was born in the town of Holten and became a professional Dutch documentary film maker in 1947. He won international acclaims. He directed several fiction films. Fanfare, a comedy situated in a small Dutch village, is still the Netherlands' second most popular film ever (measured at the box office), only surpassed by Paul Verhoevens Turkish Delight.
In several shorts and in long documentaries like Alleman Haansta reflected on The Netherlands and its inhabitants. All these films made him one of the most popular filmmakers in the history of Dutch cinema. The documentary Alleman was seen in the cinema by 20 percent of the total Dutch population.

 

 

Alarum clock

9.5 mm film is an amateur film format introduced by Pathé Frères in 1922 as part of the Pathé Baby amateur film system. It was conceived initially as an inexpensive format to provide copies of commercially made films to home users, although a simple camera was released shortly afterwards.

It became very popular in Europe over the next few decades and is still used by a small number of enthusiasts today. Over 300,000 projectors were produced and sold mainly in France and England, and many commercial features were available in the format

 

 

Next year Princes Carnival

In Holland, carnival is a holiday mainly celebrated in the south of the country. The provinces Limburg and Noord-Brabant are the predominantly Catholic provinces of the Netherlands, where most inhabitants celebrate Carnival. Though some people take the Carnival traditions very seriously, most people keep it simple and just drink, sing and dance wearing a colorful outfit.
The Carnival celebrations start after the mayor symbolically hands over the key to the city to Prince Carnival. For three days, the Carnival Prince has control of the city and, together with his subjects, celebrates the temporary establishment of their Kingdom of Fools.

 

Bits & Pieces

The term silent film is therefore a retronym—that is, a term created to distinguish something retroactively. The early films with sound, starting with The Jazz Singer in 1927, were referred to as "talkies", "sound films", or "talking pictures". Within a decade, popular widespread production of silent films had ceased and production moved into the sound era, in which movies were accompanied by synchronized sound recordings of spoken dialogue, music and sound effects.

A September 2013 report by the United States Library of Congress announced that a total of 70% of American silent feature films are believed to be completely lost. There are numerous reasons for the loss of so many silent films, three chief causes being: (a) intentional destruction by film studios after the silent era ended, (b) damage due to environmental degradation of the films themselves, and (c) fires in the vaults in which studios stored their films.

First Dutch soundfilm

Willem van Oranje (1934) was the first Dutch talking feature. It was shot at the Philips Studios ('Philiwood') in Eindhoven, using the 'Philips-Miller Filmband', a new system for recording sound. In the year of the film's release, the inventors of the 'Philips-Miller Filmband' were lauded at the Geneva 'Union Internationale de Radiodiffusion'.
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With the economic crisis looming over production, all the parts of the extras were filled out by unemployed inhabitants of Eindhoven.

Music music music

Independent filmmakers have also pressed low-cost consumer and prosumer cameras into service for digital filmmaking. Though image quality is typically much lower than what can be produced with professional digital cinematography cameras, the technology has steadily improved, most significantly in the last several years with the arrival of high-definition cameras in this market. These inexpensive cameras are limited by their relatively high compression ratios, their small sensors, and the quality of their optics. Many have integrated lenses which cannot be changed.

Sketches of StPetersburg

A sketch is a rapidly executed freehand drawing that is not usually intended as a finished work. A sketch may serve a number of purposes: it might record something that the artist sees, it might record or develop an idea for later use or it might be used as a quick way of graphically demonstrating an image, idea or principle.

Parade with prince

A parade (also called march or marchpast) is a procession of people, usually organized along a street, often in costume, and often accompanied by marching bands, floats or sometimes large balloons. Parades are held for a wide range of reasons, but are usually celebrations of some kind. In this case on the occasion of Carnival/Mardigrass

Dads Army

Dad's Army was voted into fourth place in a BBC poll to find Britain's Best Sitcom. It had been placed 13th in a list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes drawn up by the British Film Institute in 2000 and voted for by industry professionals. The series has influenced popular culture in the United Kingdom, with the series' catchphrases and characters being well known. It highlighted a hitherto forgotten aspect of defence during the Second World War. The Radio Times magazine listed Captain Mainwaring's "You stupid boy!" among the 25 greatest put-downs on TV.

 

Mardi grass parade

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Music videos use a wide range of styles of film making techniques, including animation, live action filming, documentaries, and non-narrative approaches such as abstract film. Some music videos blend different styles, such as animation and live action. Many music videos interpret images and scenes from the song's lyrics, while others take a more thematic approach. Other music videos may be without a set concept, being merely a filmed version of the song's live performance.

An expensive Ferrari

It’s already hard enough to part with a quarter-of-a-million dollars to buy a Ferrari 458 Italia , but can you imagine the rationale behind the man who would fork over that much money to buy a book?
Yeah, neither can we.
Now if you’re wondering if such a book even exists, then prepare to be introduced to the “Official Ferrari Opus”.
The book’s publisher, Opus Media Group, is calling it the “most exclusive book in the world”, and with the most expensive version retailing at $275,000, we find it hard to believe that there’s another book that’s being sold for that much.
Ridiculous as the price tag of this book may be – believe us, there’s nothing justifiable about a book that costs more than an actual car

Olympictures

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 Sports films have been made since the era of silent films, such as the 1915 film The Champion starring Charlie Chaplin. Films in this genre can range from serious (Raging Bull) to silly (Horse Feathers). A classic theme for sports films is the triumph of an individual or team who prevail despite the difficulties. Men often identify with sports films in ways they wouldn't with other genres, such as spy films.

Fun with Smoked sausage

 

In film, a remake is a motion picture based on a film produced earlier. The term remake can refer to everything on the spectrum of reused material: both an allusion or a line-by-line change retake of a movie. However, the term generally pertains to a new version of an old film.
In film, a remake is a motion picture based on a film produced earlier. The term remake can refer to everything on the spectrum of reused material: both an allusion or a line-by-line change retake of a movie. However, the term generally pertains to a new version of an old film.
With the exception of shot-for-shot remakes, most remakes make significant character, plot, and theme changes.

Doublestreet carnival catwalk

Carnival is not only a feast of eating and drinking, but also serves as social role reversal feast which allows people to behave outside the usual acceptable social norm. People will dress up as a character, much as seen during halloween in the Celtic and Anglo-Saxon culture which though has developed from a different origin. During the Dutch carnaval people will often dress colourful and take on roles like jesters, occupations, animals, other genders and sexes, archetypes or fairytale characters, well known people, subcultures, historical figures or foreign cultures. Masks and face paint are often used in combination with the costumes. The costumes allow people to change their identity and role in society for a few days without being judged for it by their fellowman during and after the carnaval.

 

Mexico remix

The history of Mexican cinema goes back to the ending of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, when several enthusiasts of the new medium documented historical events – most particularly the Mexican Revolution – and produced some movies that have only recently been rediscovered. During the Golden Age of Mexican cinema, Mexico all but dominated the Latin American film industry.
The Guadalajara International Film Festival is the most prestigious Latin American film festival and is held annually In Guadalajara, Mexico. Mexico has twice won the highest honor in the Palme d'Or, having won the Grand Prix for Maria Candelaria in 1946 and the Palme d'Or in 1961 for Viridiana, more than any other Latin American nation. Mexico City is the fourth largest film and television production center in North America, behind Los Angeles, New York City and Vancouver, as well as the largest in Latin America.

Liberation of NorthBrabant

Bolex is a Swiss company that manufactures motion picture cameras and lenses, the most notable products of which are in the 16 mm and Super 16 mm formats. The Bolex company was initially founded by Jacques Bogopolsky in 1927. Bolex is derived from his name.. Bolex cameras were particularly important for early television news, nature films, documentaries and the avant garde, and are still favoured by many animators today. While some later models are electrically powered, the majority of those manufactured since the 1930s use a spring-wound clockwork power system. The 16 mm spring-wound Bolex is a popular introductory camera in film schools.

Bolex no longer manufactures its cameras in series, but will produce 16mm and Super 16 cameras for customers on special order.

Mexicolor

A representation of additive color mixing. Projection of primary color lights on a screen shows secondary colors where two overlap; the combination of all three of red, green, and blue in equal intensities makes white.

The RGB color model is an additive color model in which red, green, and blue light are added together in various ways to reproduce a broad array of colors. The name of the model comes from the initials of the three additive primary colors, red, green, and blue.

The main purpose of the RGB color model is for the sensing, representation, and display of images in electronic systems, such as televisions and computers, though it has also been used in conventional photography. Before the electronic age, the RGB color model already had a solid theory behind it, based in human perception of colors.

Found footage of elevencities tour

The Elfstedentocht, is an almost 200 kilometres (120 mi) long skating tour which is held both as a speed skating match (with 300 contestants) and a leisure tour (with 16,000 skaters). It is held in the province of Friesland in the north of the Netherlands, leading past all eleven historical cities of the province. The tour is held at most once a year, only when the natural ice along the entire course is at least 15 centimetres (6 in) thick;  sometimes on consecutive years, other times with gaps that may exceed 20 years. When the ice is suitable, the tour is announced and starts within 48 hours.

Vacations in Sweden

Amateur Film is the low-budget hobbyist art of film practiced for passion and enjoyment and not for business purposes
Amateur films were usually shot on 16 mm film or on 8 mm film (Either Double-8 or Super-8) until the advent of cheap video cameras or digital equipment. The advent of digital video and computer based editing programs greatly expanded the technical quality achievable by the amateur and low-budget filmmaker. Amateur video has now become the choice for the low-budget filmmaker and has boomed into a very watched and even produced industry.

 

The musical star

Before the advent of movies, the term "star" was already in use in the milieu of the Music Halls, at the time the most popular form of entertainment. "Star" already meant much the same as it came to mean in the context of films – i.e. entertainers who were well-known and highly popular, and who were therefore paid significantly better than fellow performers. The term "Star" was for example used extensively during the 1907 strike in Britain which came to be known as "The Music Hall War", when Stars were praised for standing by their lesser-paid fellows and actively participating in the strike

Streets of Madrid

• Light Quality: The hardness or softness of the light. Soft light is the standard because it's more flattering and aesthetically pleasing from a traditional perspective, but don't shy away from hard light sources if it will help key the audience into a character's state of mind or emotion.

• Light Intensity: The brightness (or lack thereof) of different lights throughout the scene. Manipulating intensity is a great way to create contrast in your scene and to guide the viewer's eye to key points in the frame. Varying intensities of light are also an incredibly effective way to create depth in a shot.

Service and security in Holland

A parody , in current use, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on or trivialize an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of satiric or ironic imitation. As the literary theorist Linda Hutcheon puts it, "parody … is imitation, not always at the expense of the parodied text." Another critic, Simon Dentith, defines parody as "any cultural practice which provides a relatively polemical allusive imitation of another cultural production or practice. Parody may be found in art or culture, including literature, , animation, gaming and film

 

Water and Forts

The Dutch Waterline was a Dutch defense line on the basis of Inundierung. In the defense case, the land could be flooded as 40 inches high.
Construction began in 1816 and lasted, with an interruption in 1824 to 1839 to the 1860. As part of the defenses, which were called Fortress Holland further expansion works have been made to 1885 later. However, the forts were with the invention of the explosive grenade in 1880 no longer appropriate, since their attachment in case of war would not be sufficient.

The line was partly due east of the Old Dutch Waterline, so that Utrecht was within the line. In those places where the Inundierungen were intersected by roads, dikes, or railroads, forts were built.
The New Dutch Waterline was occupied at the outbreak of the Franco-German War in 1870 and during the First World War. Even in 1940, the line was not put into use. One but decided at the last moment, the defense continues to lead in the east Grebbe line where you stand up to a few days. When they finally did retire to the water line is, this was bombed already broken at Dordrecht and Rotterdam.

 

Largest Igloo in the world

 

Students of the university of Eindhoven have build this iglo in Finland

The Eindhoven University of Technology (Dutch: Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, abbr. TU/e) is a university of technology located in Eindhoven, Netherlands. Its motto is Mens agitat molem (Mind moves matter). The university was the second of its kind in the Netherlands, only Delft University of Technology existed previously.  In 2003 a European Commission report ranked TU/e at third place among all European research universities (after Cambridge and Oxford and at equal rank with TU Munich), thus making it the highest ranked Technical University in Europe.

 

Carnival in the fifties

A newsreel is a form of short documentary film prevalent in the first half of the twentieth century, regularly released in a public presentation place and containing filmed news stories and items of topical interest. It was a source of news, current affairs, and entertainment for millions of moviegoers until television supplanted its role in the 1950s. Newsreels are now considered significant historical documents, since they are often the only audiovisual record of historical and cultural events of those times.

Newsreels were typically featured as short subjects preceding the main feature film into the 1960s. There were dedicated newsreel theaters in many major cities in the 1930s and 1940s, and some large city cinemas also included a smaller theaterette where newsreels were screened continuously throughout the day.

Metro of St Peterburg

Animation is the process of creating a continuous motion and shape change illusion by means of the rapid display of a sequence of static images that minimally differ from each other. The illusion—as in motion pictures in general—is thought to rely on the phi phenomenon.
Animations can be stored or recorded on either analogue media, such as Flip book, motion picture film, video tape, on digital media, including formats such as animated GIF, Flash animation or digital video. To display it, a digital camera, a computer, or a projector are used.
Animation creation methods include the traditional animation creation method and those involving stop motion animation of two and three-dimensional objects, such as paper cutouts, puppets and clay figures. Images are displayed in a rapid succession, usually 24, 25, or 30 frames per sec.

 

on Air in helicopter

Aerial shots are usually done with a crane or with a camera attached to a special helicopter to view large landscapes. This sort of shot would be restricted to exterior locations. A good area to do this shot would be a scene that takes place on a building. If the aerial shot is of a character it can make them seem insignificant. Circular shots are also possible.

Eveline donates hair

A number of celebrities, have popularized wigs.. They may also be worn for fun as part of fancy dress (costume wearing), when they can be of outlandish colour or made from tinsel. They are quite common at Halloween, when "rubber wigs"
Wigs are used in film, theater, and television. Only a few actors starring in big- budgeted films and television series will grow their hair so that it may be cut to the appropriate hair style, and forgo using a wig.
Wigs are worn by some people on a daily or occasional basis in everyday life. This is sometimes done for reasons of convenience, since wigs can be styled ahead of time. They are also worn by individuals who are experiencing hair loss due to medical reasons (most commonly cancer patients who are undergoing chemotherapy, or those who are suffering from alopecia areata).

 

The Spanish Earth

This documentary tells of the struggles during the Spanish Civil War. It deals with the war at different levels: from the political level, at the ground military level focusing on battles in Madrid and the road from Madrid to Valencia, and at the support level. With the latter, a key project was building an irrigation system for an agricultural field near Fuentedueña so that food could be grown to feed the soldiers.

Underwater filming

 

The primary difficulty in underwater camera usage is, of course, sealing the camera from water at high pressure, while maintaining the ability to operate it. The diving mask also inhibits the ability to view the camera image and to see the monitoring screen clearly through the camera housing. Previously the size of the video camera was also a limiting factor, necessitating large housings to enclose the separate camera and record deck. This results in a larger volume which creates extra buoyancy requiring a corresponding use of heavy weight to keep the housing underwater (about 64 lbs. per cubic foot of displacement or 1 kilogram per litre in the ocean). Early video cameras also needed large batteries because of the high power consumption of the system.A final problem is the lower level of light underwater. Early cameras had problems with low light levels, were grainy, and did not see much color underwater without auxiliary lighting. Large unwieldy lighting systems were problematic to early underwater videography. 

Casa Battlo Barcelona

Casa Batlló, built between 1904 and 1906 in the heart of the city, is the most emblematic work of the brilliant Catalan architect.

Gaudí gave Casa Batlló a facade that is original, fantastical and full of imagination. He replaced the original facade with a new composition of stone and glass. He ordered the external walls to be redesigned to give them a wavy shape, which was then plastered with lime mortar and covered with a mosaic of fragments of coloured glass and ceramic discs.
At the top of the facade, the roof is in the shape of an animal’s back with large iridescent scales. The spine which forms the ornamental top is composed of huge spherical pieces of masonry in colours which change as you move along the roof-tree from one end to the other.

 

Gaudis' design

Casa Milà , better known as La Pedrera , meaning the 'The Quarry'), is a building designed by the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí and built during the years 1906–1912. It is located at 92, Passeig de Gràcia (passeig is Catalan for promenade) in the Eixample district of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.

It was a controversial design at the time for the bold forms of the undulating stone facade and wrought iron decoration of the balconies and windows, designed largely by Josep Maria Jujol, who also created some of the plaster ceilings.
Architecturally it is considered an innovative work for its steel structure and curtain walls – the façade is self-supporting. Other innovative elements were the construction of underground car parking and separate lifts and stairs for the owners and their servants.

In 1984, it was declared a World Heritage site by UNESCO. The building is made open to the public by the CatalunyaCaixa Foundation, which manages the various exhibitions and activities and visits to the interior and roof.

Happy New Year from the Netherlands

New Year's Day is observed on January 1, the first day of the year on the modern Gregorian calendar as well as the Julian calendar used in the Roman Empire since 45 BC. Romans originally dedicated New Year's Day to Janus, the god of gates, doors, and beginnings for whom the first month of the year (January) is named. Later, as a date in the Gregorian calendar of Christendom, New Year's Day liturgically marked the Feast of the Circumcision of Christ, and is still observed as such in the Anglican Church and Lutheran Church. In present day, with most countries now using the Gregorian calendar as their de facto calendar, New Year's Day is probably the world's most celebrated public holiday, often observed with fireworks at the stroke of midnight as the new year starts in each time zone.

Cologne and Christmas

A Christmas market, also known as Weihnachtsmarkt, is a street market associated with the celebration of Christmas during the four weeks of Advent.
The history of Christmas markets goes back to the Late Middle Ages in the German-speaking part of Europe and in many parts of the former Holy Roman Empire that includes many eastern region of France and Switzerland. Dresden's Strietzelmarkt was first held in 1434. The Christmas markets of Bautzen (first held in 1384), Frankfurt (first mentioned in 1393) and Munich (1310) were even older.
In many towns in Germany and Austria, Advent is usually ushered in with the opening of the Christmas market or "Weihnachtsmarkt". Generally held in the town square and adjacent pedestrian zones, the market sells food, drink, and seasonal items from open-air stalls, accompanied by traditional singing and dancing.

Appletalk

Improvisation is a creative process which can be spoken, written, or composed without prior preparation. Improvisation, also called extemporization, can lead to the discovery of new ways to act, new patterns of thought and practices, or new structures. Improvisation is used in the creation of music, theater, and other various forms. Many artists also use improvisational techniques to help their creative flow.