B To Y Of Akkerman Inks

[Renfield]

They are available in the shop. I posted pictures here: https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/260133-pw-akkerman-new-smaller-size/page-4?do=findComment&comment=2895382

 

Thanks for the post!

 

As usual, the fickle FP community gets what they want, and is not happy....... Interesting thread though!

[Darcy1978]

Today's theme is music.

 

Shocking Blue, one of most popular Akkerman inks judging from the forum posts, is named after the famous 1960s/1970s rock band Shocking Blue. I think Akkerman deserves kudos for not going for a more obvious choice, like the most famous of The Hague rock bands ever: the Golden Earring, of hits such as Radar Love, Twilight Zone and When the Lady Smiles. Golden Earring-lead singer Barry Hay was the first singer of Shocking Blue but he left in the early 60s, to be replaced by another singer and finally by the woman who became the icon of the group: Mariska Veres. They had a number of hits, including Venus, which made it to number 1 in the US Billboard top 100 - a first for a Dutch group. The band dissolved in 1975 and got back together in 1993. Sadly, Mariska Veres died of cancer in 2006, which also meant the end for Shocking Blue. Interestingly, the band apparently used to be called the Shocking Blue, just like the Golden Earring. Both bands dropped the definite article at some point.

 

http://i59.tinypic.com/xm72n7.jpg

Shocking.

 

Koninginnenach Blauw - lit. Queen's Night Blue. Before we can talk about Queen's Night, we have to talk about Queen's Day. Queen's Day is the birthday of the Queen, who is not actually the Queen, and whose birthday it in fact isn't. Let me try and explain. Since 1813, the Netherlands have had four kings, three queens and one regent. In chronological order: 1813-1840: William I; 1840-1848: William II; 1848-1890: William III; 1890-1898: Emma (regent); 1898-1948: Wilhelmina; 1948-1980: Juliana; 1980-2013: Beatrix; 2013-present: Willem Alexander. Note that the final dates are not (necessarily) the year the monarch in question died, since Dutch kings and queens have a tradition of abdication - they can simply (and without shame) resign when they feel they've spent enough time being regal and signing laws. This allows for heirs to the throne to become monarch when they haven't reached their pensions - hello UK!). Since the late 19th century there used to be some form of national festivities on the birthday of the queen (or the then princess Wilhelmina). Now, Queen Juliana's birthday was April 30. When Beatrix took the throne in 1980 she thanked her mother (who was obviously still alive, she died in 2004) and as a sort of thank-you gift she proclaimed her mother's birthday, which also happened to be the date of the succession, to remain Queen's Day. Beatrix own birthday is January 31st, so by this proclamation she prevented a day off for everybody in the dead of winter. Queen's Day is a national holiday on which everybody tends to go outside and visit massive flea markets that are organised everywhere; city centres are filled with people drinking beer and there is generally a lot of music and good cheer. Our new King Willem Alexander - who also likes his beer by the way - fortunately was also born in April, so from now on we will be celebrating King's Day on April 27 (except when it's a Sunday, in which case the feast moves to April 26). The royal family always visits one or two towns somewhere in the country, which is a televised event.

 

Queen's Night, then, used to be the night before Queen's Day, and the name of a massive music festival in the Hague. There is outdoor and indoor music and it goes on all through the night. The name of the festival is in the Hague dialect, which omits the t at the end of the word: [kauninginnenâch]. In 2011 the festival changed its character and became the Life I live festival, a reference to another iconic 1960s pop group from the Hague: Q65.

 

http://i57.tinypic.com/2hyzz9y.jpg

The Queen and her subjects. Note the guy to the right is not a security guard but youngest son Constantine.

 

http://i58.tinypic.com/vhx7xy.jpg

 

Queen's Night

Edited February 10, 2014 by Darcy1978

[RMN]

Darcy, thanks again, I'm enjoying this topic tremendously.

 

D.ick

[Darcy1978]

I just got a message from Tim who kindly let me use his explanation of Bekakt Haags. There are more explanations elsewhere on the forum but I did not want to just copy them without permission.

 

 

ll colour names refer to the city of The Hague (Den Haag in Dutch). The adjective of Den Haag is 'Haags'.
The Hague is commonly known in the Netherlands for having some rather posh areas. The Dutch name for (speaking) posh is 'bekakt'.
The name Bekakt Haags therefor means 'The Haguean posh'
.
That leaves us with the matter of the colour brown. The root word of bekakt is kak. And kak in Dutch in fact also means .......... pooh.
Hence the colour brown.

 

http://i58.tinypic.com/2cg51l.jpg

Pooh people

Edited February 10, 2014 by Darcy1978

[flyingfox]

Dank je wel!

 

Thank you very much for this great thread! I have been enjoying learning about Dutch culture very much! It is a good idea as well, to keep all the explanations in one place, for easier reference.

[Runnin_Ute]

Thanks for all your hard work on this Darcy!! This has been a fun thread to follow. Perhaps once done it can be pinned?

[amberleadavis]

Great work!

[tinta]

I didn't know the name of the Dutch band, Shocking Blue, but the Hungarian name of singer Mariska Veres immediately caught my eye.

Though the name is written in reverse (as it would also be written here in Canada), could Veres Mariska have been of Hungarian descent? A quick peek into Wikipedia confirmed that she was.

 

I am always curious about the distribution of my countrymen throughout the World. My wife, who's not Hungarian often says: "They must be everywhere".

Thanks to this thread I have been introduced to interesting places, stories, people (& now music) connected to the Hague.

As I intend to buy more Akkerman inks, I'll Bookmark this thread for future reference.

Thanks!

Istvan

.

 

 

[RobertS]

Fascinating thread, Darcy1978. Thanks = = = and I look forward to future installments!

[RMN]

I didn't know the name of the Dutch band, Shocking Blue, but the Hungarian name of singer Mariska Veres immediately caught my eye.

Though the name is written in reverse (as it would also be written here in Canada), could Veres Mariska have been of Hungarian descent? A quick peek into Wikipedia confirmed that she was.

 

I am always curious about the distribution of my countrymen throughout the World. My wife, who's not Hungarian often says: "They must be everywhere".

Thanks to this thread I have been introduced to interesting places, stories, people (& now music) connected to the Hague.

As I intend to buy more Akkerman inks, I'll Bookmark this thread for future reference.

Thanks!

Istvan

Her father was an Hungarian musician, mother from Germany.

 

 

D.ick

Edited February 12, 2014 by RMN

[RMN]

By the way, more pen related:

 

One of the famous numbers of Mariska and Shocking Blue was: Ink pot.

 

Another was: Send me a postcard

 

D.ick

[Darcy1978]

By the way, more pen related:

 

One of the famous numbers of Mariska and Shocking Blue was: Ink pot.

 

Another was: Send me a postcard

 

D.ick

 

Yes I love that fact. So much so I changed my avatar. The text of Inkpot by the way is quite horrible, but the song (imho) still stands.

[mrcharlie]

[Darcy1978]

Zuiderpark Blauw-Groen, lit. South Park Blue-Green. This has nothing to do with foul-mouthed 8-year olds, but everything with a large park in The Hague. The Park, built between the two World Wars, provides a nice day's outing for the inhabitants of the Hague

 

http://i58.tinypic.com/2rmrtpz.jpg

Going down to South Park

 

Parkpop Purper refers to the annual free music festival held in late June in the Zuiderpark: Parkpop. It started out in 1981 with 35.000 visitors and has now grown to a massive festival catering to 275.000 music lovers. It is one of the largest free music festivals in the world (only surpassed by a Polish festival) and features Dutch as well as international artists. Recent festivals saw performances by Sinead O'Connor, Bob Geldof, Manic Street Preachers, Jamie Cullum, etc. In a rare instance of local government interference, the mayor of the Hague decided in 2010 that Snoop Dogg would not be allowed to perform as his presence would interfere with the 'open and friendly character' of the festival.

 

http://i59.tinypic.com/10z2r1h.jpg

A friendly festival

[Darcy1978]

Well there I was, happily writing the second of two long articles, when my browser crashed and everything was gone. I'll start over now, but this will be briefer than the first version - which you obviously haven't seen

 

First let me make a correction. I said earlier in an aside that the Netherlands did not have colonies in the West Indies, but as the eloquent Jerome Tharsis pointed out to me that was obviously not true. The Netherlands had colonies in what is now Surinam and the Dutch Antilles. The status of the Antilles is complex and is comprehensively explained in the video below, which I recommend you watch if you want to know more about the small country by the sea that is the Netherlands.

 

 

Now on to some more inks.

 

Pulchri Pink is named after a society of artists called Pulchri Studio ("for the love of the beautiful") and their monumental building of the same name in central The Hague. The artists exhibit their works in the lush rooms of Pulchri Studio, which are rented out after 5pm for receptions, book presentations, etc. I have had the good fortune to have been there once, at a reception and dinner, and it was quite an experience, both from a culinary and an architectural perspective. Interestingly, Pulchri Pink seems to be the only ink name that uses an English word to refer to the colour - if the rest of the name isn't English as well, like Shocking Blue and China Town Red. Akkerman probably thought the alliteration was too good to pass up. (Dutch for pink is roze).

 

http://i62.tinypic.com/r91y5s.jpg

Pulchri Posh

 

Garuda Rood refers to the Indonesian restaurant Garoeda, There is a good piece on the restaurant elsewhere on the forum by AnneM, and I'm sure she/he won't mind if I quote it here:

 

 

Indonesia was a colony of The Netherlands until 1948. After the Indonesian National Revolution (1945-1948) around 300,000 people, pre-dominantly Indos, left Indonesia to settle in the Netherlands. This migration was called repatriation. The majority of this group had never set foot in the Netherlands before, and most of them found a home in The Hague. In the heart of this city, one of the repatriates opened the restaurant Garoeda in 1949. He decorated the interior of the restaurant with wood engravings from Bali, so the repatriates could feel comfortable. Nowadays a lot of elderly people still go there (the interior never changed) to have lunch or dinner and the restaurant is also frequented by politicians. One of the former Dutch cabinets overcame a moment of crisis during a meeting in Garoeda that lasted for 24 hours or so (correct me if I'm wrong, it was before my time).

 

http://i57.tinypic.com/sg07ww.jpg

Where geriatrics go for gado-gado

 

[amberleadavis]

WOW - thank you!

[RMN]

I love that video.....

 

 

D.ick

[ashokdad]

This is a fantastic thread. Thank you. I learned today from my uncle in the Netherlands the "Oranje Boven!" is a kind of Dutch national cheer... Something like "Orange above all!" Is there more to this color name that is specific to The Hague, other than the link to the royal family? Thanks!

[inkstainedruth]

Cool thread. How did I not run across it before now? Especially since I'm getting three inks in the group buy for DCSS (although not Shocking Blue, as it happens... )

I remember the Shocking Blue song "Venus" (I think I was in about 5th grade when it was originally getting airplay) -- always kinda liked it. Had absolutely no idea that the band was Dutch.

As for the Holland vs. the Netherlands video, that was a complete hoot! Thanks for posting the link.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Argentum]

Wow, thank you so much for creating this thread! Fascinating information, and I love the Holland vs the Netherlands video.