New Year’s eve photo reportage for 2013: Dam Square

New Year’s Eve at exactly 2013 – Dam Square, Amsterdam, Netherlands.New Year Shot 2013 number ONE!

On New Year’s eve I went to Dam Square, the central square of Amsterdam to see the fireworks and gauge the atmosphere, to do some impressionistic journalism, within a one hour unprepared framework. My tool was a HTC-Vision camera phone in the rain!

It held really well. At one moment the indispensable keyboard started adding gibberish in a cartoon-like manner which looked like cursing cartoon bubbles, to what I wrote, spewing characters in-between my captions. The next morning, it had dried out and came back to normal usage. This happens to me more often with electronics, always asking the most of them, so I knew, more or less, that it would recover. A very strong phone it is! I had to dry it constantly with my sleeves during the whole photo-shoot, as it was raining.

It was a pleasant evening despite the soaked wet rain pouring, in drizzle at times strong and sometimes less.

Arrived at destination, the place was packed (not properly visible on the photos). The crowd present was a mixture of “new Dutch”, tourists and a couple of ethnic Dutch. The “new Dutch” comprising mainly of Moroccan youth and a couple of other ethnicities.

When I was younger it was mainly Dutch and tourists. Traditionally the Moroccan youth celebrate not so far from my place, on the West side of Amsterdam, for example at a public square called Mercatorplein. This year seems some have shifted more to the center and claim their part of Amsterdam more centrally as “new Dutch”.

Just as Queen’s Day, New Year’s eve in Amsterdam is nowhere near what it used to be due to government decreasing the events and implementing stricter laws and surveillance,  by discouraging the amount of fireworks used and by doing so decreasing the firework tradition on New Year’s eve in Amsterdam.

Laws do not allow anymore an uncontrolled New Year’s eve celebration and Queen’s Day. In a way really a pity. It contrasted well with the strict mentality of Protestants of before and both days were very anarchistic in happening.

Yes, they were more casualties before, on both days. Queen’s Day used to have quite a lot of food poisoning and sometimes riots. New Year’s eve was an unlimited fireworks' happening with many casualties. The fireworks could be heard long before New Year. About a complete month before the change of the year to be precise. Usually by New Year, one had no more firework left.

The square is not necessarily the place to be on New Year, although I think it is, when it is not reserved for some live televised event.

Other places are Leidseplein, Rembrandtplein and the many drugged out night clubs, all in the city center. So my choice for public places is much more fun and interesting. Mainly drunken people having a “Happy New Year Celebration”. Sometimes a fight. There was one yesterday just when I tried to get to The Red Light District. The police was there even before anything could really happen, and dispersed a couple of people fighting. No arrests were made. At least not when I was there.

Here’s my photo reportage (chronological) for New Year’s eve 2013:

Ceinturbaan/Ferdinand Bolstraat crossing. 1 hour and 1 minute to THE NEW YEAR 2013! "On your left, construction for the dreaded North/South metro line (Noord/Zuidlijn) which should join Amsterdam with the North side of Amsterdam. It’s the biggest fiscal and architectural disaster for the whole of the Netherlands ever. Not only has it exceeded its budget by billions (this is not a joke!), it also destroys buildings all under it, cracking them, and is already years behind in construction. It is totally useless. The connections are quite fine between the historically separated Amsterdam and the North side of Amsterdam, separated by a big waterway called Het IJ, which is the beginning of the North Sea Canal, directing all ships out of the Amsterdam harbor area. The tunnel has already been drilled out a long time ago. However, the problem getting the metro line finished is almost impossible, due to construction problems. The truth is nobody even knows if it will ever be finished"

Ferdinand Bolstraat/Gerard Doustraat/Albert Cuyp Market crossing.1 hour to THE NEW YEAR 2013! LIVE caption delivered to Fb: "Soaked wet New Year, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, on the way to the city center on bike.1 hour from New Year."

Heineken Brouwerij, Amsterdam. 50 minutes to THE NEW YEAR 2013! ”Marie Heinekenplein, named after the family name of the world famous beer brewery (a museum now) around NEW YEAR 2013. A lonely Christmas Tree. It’s very busy. I can’t get a clear shot!”

Heineken Brouwerij, Amsterdam. 50 minutes to THE NEW YEAR 2013! ”Marie Heinekenplein, named after the family name of the world famous beer brewery (a museum now) around NEW YEAR 2013. A lonely Christmas Tree. It’s very busy. I can’t get a clear shot!”

Heineken Brouwerij, Amsterdam. 50 minutes to The NEW YEAR 2013! LIVE caption delivered to Fb: “Heineken Brouwerij. 50 minutes to NEW YEAR.”

Muntplein, Amsterdam. 45 minutes to THE NEW YEAR 2013! LIVE caption delivered to Fb ”Muntplein. 45 minutes to NEW YEAR.”

Rokin, Amsterdam. 40 minutes to THE NEW YEAR 2013!

Rokin, Amsterdam. 40 minutes to THE NEW YEAR 2013! LIVE caption delivered to Fb: “Rokin. 4O minutes to NEW YEAR.”

Dam Square. 32 minutes to THE NEW YEAR 2013! LIVE caption delivered to Fb: “Arrived place of destination: DAM SQUARE AMSTERDAM. Parked bike. 32 minutes to NEW YEAR 2013.”

Dam Square. 26 minutes to THE NEW YEAR 2013! “”Officially this monument is called: “Nationaal Monument op de Dam.” It is where WW2 victims and the ones of subsequent wars are remembered every year on the 5th of May if I remember rightly. "Monument of the Fallen dead" is my fast translation for this strange and somewhat occult monument.””

Dam Square. 26 minutes to THE NEW YEAR 2013! LIVE caption delivered to Fb: “Monument of the Fallen Dead. DAM SQUARE. One worry: that phone holds the soaked rain. 26 minutes to NEW YEAR.”

Dam Square. Royal Palace. 27 minutes to THE NEW YEAR 2013!

Dam Square. Royal Palace. 26 minutes to THE NEW YEAR 2013! LIVE caption delivered to Fb: “Christmas Leftover: Queen's Palace. DAM SQUARE. 23 minutes to NEW YEAR.”

Dam Square. Direction China Town and end tourist Red Light District. 20 minutes to THE GREGORIAN NEW YEAR 2013!

Dam Square. Direction China Town and end tourist Red Light District. 20 minutes to THE GREGORIAN NEW YEAR 2013! LIVE caption delivered to Fb: “China Town/Tourist RED LIGHT DISTRICT. 20 minutes to NEW YEAR. Explosive are starting! Lookin' for a good spot for NEW YEAR shot 2013!”

Dam Square. Riot police guard the place at all entrances and stand firm in the middle of Dam Square. 11 minutes to THE NEW YEAR 2000 and 13! LIVE caption delivered to Fb: “Police guard DAM SQUARE as more and more serious explosives are being heard. some very loud explosions, shiver through me.11 minutes to NEW YEAR 2013.”

Dam Square. Security or Royals in the cupola of the Royal Palace? Not clear. 8 minutes to THE NEW YEAR 2013! Looks more like security.

Dam Square. Direction Central Station. 6 minutes and counting! Radio Silence. No more writing. I must find the perfect spot for my NEW YEAR SHOT 2013! LIVE caption delivered to Fb: “Crowd. 6 minutes to NEW YEAR. Radio Silence. No more writing.”

Here they are: New Year Shot 1 and 2!

New Year’s Eve at exactly 2013 – Dam Square, Amsterdam, Netherlands. New Year Shot 2013 number ONE!

Zoomed in and got the shot hereunder! Shot 2. Also interesting with the riot police van next to the fireworks. It must have been 2 seconds past 2013! Couldn’t see if my first shot was good due to the chaos and smoke. Uploaded this one with prepared text. Copy and paste under these conditions is not so easy. Soaked wet and smoke, explosions and noise all around!

It was uploaded and visible a few seconds after NEW YEAR on Fb. Fb screwed up afterwards and got confused due to the new dates with 2013 in them, registered it as 2012 later. Strange. Some 2013 Y2K bug in Fb’s programming. Very unusual. These picture are registered in Fb as if they were taken on the 1st of  January 2012. New Year Shot 2013 number TWO!

LIVE caption delivered to Fb: “"NEW YEAR SHOT 2013"

DAM SQUARE, AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS. SMOKE AND MORE SMOKE, EXPLOSIVES AND SOME DECORATIONAL FIREWORKS UNDER SOAKED WET CONDITIONS. SHOT TAKEN AT EXACTLY NEW YEAR.

(Prepared) Wishing you a 'HAPPY GREGORIAN NEW YEAR!!!!!' from Amsterdam, the Netherlands at 00:hours, 00:minutes, 00:seconds on 01.01.2013 Greenwich Mean Time +1 as I hit the «SHARE» button of my Facebook mobile application. 2013 should be a reasonably positive year for many according to my humble scholarship.

2012 was the Year in which Whitney Houston (48), Etta James (74) and Norman Schwarzkopf (78) died. My heart is grieved. The death of Whitney Houston was particularly tragic. Bless her soul. She was a Goddess upon Planet Earth and cannot be replaced.

Other celebrities who died this year: Donna Summer (63), Rodney King (47), Davy Jones (66), Gore Vidal (86), Gerrit Komrij (68), Neil Armstrong (82), Hendrik Jan Marsman ((J. Bernlef (75)), Ravi Shankar (92) and Dave Brubeck (91).

In about a month from now the ‘Chinese New Year’ will bring us to the ‘Year of the Snake’. Famous snakes are: Muhammad Ali, Bob Dylan, Art Garfunkel, Kim Basinger, Henry Fonda, Indira Gandhi, John F. Kennedy, Frank Sinatra, Grace Kelly, Feodor Dostoyevsky, Tracy Chapman, Jacques Brel, Pablo Picasso and Nick Nolte.”

Dam Square. 12 minutes after THE NEW YEAR 2013!

Dam Square. 13 minutes after THE NEW YEAR 2013!

Dam Square. 15 minutes after THE NEW YEAR 2013! LIVE caption delivered to Fb: “Quite a crowd present. Broken glass sound rinkeling and endless fireworks still heard 15 minutes after NEW YEAR.”

Dam Square. 20 minutes after THE NEW YEAR 2013!

Dam Square. 20 minutes after THE NEW YEAR 2013! LIVE caption delivered to Fb: “20 minutes after NEW YEAR.”

Spui, Amsterdam. 50 minutes after THE NEW YEAR 2013!

Spui, Amsterdam. 50 minutes after THE NEW YEAR 2013!

Direction Leidseplein, Amsterdam. Camera phone batteries finished! ONE hour after THE NEW YEAR 2013! 

ONE hour after THE NEW YEAR 2013! One more shot! Idyllic Amsterdam as I remember it in the 80’s.

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That’s it for today folks. God Bless. Thank you for this Blessed day!

A genius died — GEN Norman Schwarzkopf† (1934-2012)

A genius died. US Army General (GEN) Norman Schwarzkopf† (1934-2012) was a military strategist that fooled the Iraqis in the First Gulf War into believing that the US led troops, were somewhere else by using carton fakes of military equipment. That is one reason why there was almost no bloodshed and the short war ended abruptly. Don’t get fooled. It is thanks to this genius that this happened. It would have been a very bloody war with many casualties otherwise.

_-_-_-_- Facebook of the day-_-_-_-_

From Facebook :Benoît likes George Frederick Händel. Benoît likes Lincoln. Benoît likes Crazy Eyes. Benoît likes Killer Joe. Benoît likes Silent Night (2012). Benoît likes The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Benoît likes Kill Bill. Benoît likes Kill Bill: Volume 2. Benoît likes To Rome With Love. Benoît likes Hope Springs. Benoît likes Maximum Conviction. Benoît likes 360. Benoît likes The Dark Knight Rises. Benoît likes Donzoko.

A new entry has been published on"the Texian Space Port for your Soul"
It's the place where I publish , not only all my stuff uncensored, and unbiased. It's"the no-nonsense harbor of Art", called"Ulysses V", the Gateway to the Staaaaaaars!

Don't forget to visit the Haven of Redemption once in a while. It makes your stay upon the Internet worthwhile. It's great to have you onboard.
I am your Evil Kanival of Prose and Artist Universalis. At the moment I am finalizing my first cd in years! It's great and 100% Jazz.

The deadline was not met. I should reach it tomorrow evening. I took a break today. The playlist so far : http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL75FGffq0Wg4-oojc0b4KbulxwB_w6Dpi&feature=plcp

They will be some adjustments. Not all these songs will be on it.
Thanks for listening, enjoying etc.

This music is best listened to when in a Spiritual mood, at the End of the day, or at Dawn. It should make you enjoy Life simply as it is and remind you that Happiness is not spectacular at all, when simply using the gifts that God has Blessed you with. Love, Creativity, inventiveness, guts, enjoying the simple things in Life etcetera is the thin edge to what makes your Life a successful one or a total disaster.

You can turn anything around, at any moment, at any second, in any Months in the Year, and in any Year! Don't let yourself be fooled by consumer society. It has only one thing to offer. Greed and unhappiness, unsatisfied desires which when achieved anyway don't make you Happy. So, put them aside. Make your Life an enjoyable one, by being Happy, by using the gifts God has Blessed you with.

Alright enough said, wishing you a most enjoyable Saturday evening, from my time zone, into yours, in whatever Village, town, Mountain or Metropolis you are living in.

http://www.theemperoroftexas.com/2012/11/prelude-to-ladders-of-god-5-songs.html

Paige Runningbrooke, the most beautiful model on Earth.

You make me dream... You have such a clear vision!

Movements of Paradise - Ladders from God

Changed a song and burned the first cd. Not true. Look at the picture!

I am at song 19, as I write this. I still got to do the cover and rename a couple of songs and do the dedication. The last part is always the most difficult.

1 - Song of Thunder in the Air (I)
2 - Song of Awakening
3 - Song of Learning and Rising
4 - Song of Pondering and Thought
5 - Song of a Thought of Joy
6 - Song of Thunder in the Air (II)
7 - Song of a Moment of Reflection
8 - Song of Amplitude
9 - Song of a Raindrop condensing upon the Evening Sun
10 - Song of a Variation undefined
11 - Song of a Wandering thought
12 - Song of Abundance
13 - Song of Thunder in the Air (III)
14 - Song of a Regain in Pace (I)
15 - Song of Finding the Notes (II)
16 - Song of a Thought dissolving
17 - Song of a beginning Odyssey
18 - Song of a Fluctuation
19 - Song of Finding the Piano Harmony
20 - Song of a Change of Perspective
21 - Song of Discordance (II)
22 - Song of Indian/Arabian Thunder in the Air
23 - Song of Discordance (III)
24 - Song of a Synthesis
25 - Song of a long Session (II)
26 - Song of Thunder in the Air (IV)
27 - Song of a prolonged Accordance
28 - Song of a Distortion on the Way
29 - Song of an Ascension
30 - Song of a Mystery unraveled
31 - Song of a Happy Ending (Very Tired Notes!)

The whole cd can be listened to on Youtube at an inferior sample rate and volume balances: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL75FGffq0Wg4-oojc0b4KbulxwB_w6Dpi&feature=plcp

So this cd is a special edition! The release cd will have at least 12 minutes less, and the songs will be in a different order, with a few renamed. Not easy to get the right effect. It's slightly too long. It doesn't need to be that long.

Benoît likes Kathy Paysen’s poems.

Coat of Arms | Poems at The Poetry Showcase

BAD wrote: “Really love this one. A most beautiful poem. A Merry Christmas to you dear Kathy. All my best wishes from the other side of the Atlantic. Not much Christmas atmosphere around here I must say. I do remember wonderful real Christmases in France when I was younger, with Tree and all and even snow! They were big family happenings in Rouen in a very Catholic family a long time ago. I have fond memories of them. Something that I keep all my life. The Christmas Spirit of Love and Sharing. Looking at your Fb wall reminds me of the grandeur of Christmas that I completely forgot. It's great!”

"Merry Christmas dear Benoit Arnaud Duval. ~ Kathy Paysen"

The Sun Rose in Me Today | Poems at The Poetry Showcase

Moonlight Painting | Poems at The Poetry Showcase

 A Dreamer's Armada | Poems at The Poetry Showcase

Illuminations | Poems at The Poetry Showcase

Christmas Eyes | Poems at The Poetry Showcase

The Olive Branch | Poems at The Poetry Showcase

 The Little Red Kite | Poems at The Poetry Showcase

Depth and Breadth of Living | Poems at The Poetry Showcase

I Love You | Poems at The Poetry Showcase

BAD wrote: “A master piece of truth! Gently carved words in elevated love.”

For the Good of All ~ Vincent Van Gogh | Poems at The Poetry Showcase

The Night Before Christmas | Poems at The Poetry Showcase

Into Love We Must Fall | Poems at The Poetry Showcase

 Three Ships of the Desert | Poems at The Poetry Showcase

Kathy Paysen shares some really beautiful paintings with us.

A new tab has been added to my website. I am not yet where I want to be, still slowly, slowly my endeavors are starting to take a positive result. Just got to publish more instead of being busy with technicalities. Having said that, despite this fact “THE EMPEROR OF TEXAS . COM” contains over one and half million of my words, including poetry, impressionistic journalism, prose, music, movies, spirituality, paintings, audio shows, lifestyle changes, health and many more things plus a lot of very serious art from others. My stuff has even been spied upon by Fb. I have being talking of people's stuff already for 3 years now. They now have incorporated this term in their program. This happens to me more often. My XP already look like Vista, years before it was introduced. I forgot to mention, my website is also about visionaries.

Don’t forget to watch this small movie.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nH1bypdW6c

And visit my website once in a while:

http://theemperoroftexas.com/

Next year the layout will be slightly different. It’s been Dark for over 3 years now. So next year a new adaptation which will be called “The Mount Fuji Cherry Blossom Tree Template” (something like that) and will replace “The Dark Typewriter Template” aka “DTT”.

A petition to end child labor in India

As the times are changing this becomes more and more apparent as a serious problem and crime. I remember working as a kid. It had some good points. No school for example. I really enjoyed it. This however, is very serious, so I signed it, with mixed feelings though. Child slavery is unacceptable. We are here more talking about slavery than labor. This problem is still a long way from being resolved in poorer countries. China is another place were children work, from 12 years on, sometimes. This also is due to political reasons. Often it concerns Catholic children who are not accepted at school due to their faith and then have no option then to work in sewing workshops. Children are being born often just for the labor and made to work for nothing in the poorest countries such as India. In China for example it is more a political problem. When this is the case I rather call it child “slavery”, not labor or work. Don’t forget to do the same!

“THE EMPEROR OF TEXAS . COM”'s visits in percentage by country over the last 6 months.

Don't forget to read the latest entry on"The Texian Space Port for your Soul!"

It's called"A Prelude to Ladders from God (5 songs)" Be the next one in my statistics!

http://www.theemperoroftexas.com/2012/11/prelude-to-ladders-of-god-5-songs.html

The main attractors are keywords, references to music and art in general, to people and movies, search engines, Google images and Youtube, Wikipedia and bots that hook on to almost anything and create new queries and references in search engines.

For example this very old reference by an automated bot making money on me : http://archiver.co/profile/benoit4u

Do I care? Not really. Any reference is good. I want to bring back people to a simple and spiritual life, where people simply enjoy life as it is, instead of participating in the ongoing rat race going on around the world. Art is my main ingredient. People are all Blessed with gifts from God, but do not use them and get lost in"the mechanical world view." Society encourages this. I discover these mysterious web pages, not created by myself, when people click on them and end up on my website. Some are quite cool.

Don’t forget to listen to my latest Chirbit. It’s 20 minutes short!

Movements of Paradise - Ladders from God - The playlist so far

I still got three days to meet the deadline to finish my cd. Here are the songs so far. I got much too much recording material. So, even this selection, which is already diminished, will be diminished. Only the best songs will be on the cd. I still got an hour and half of music to go through, all recorded on the 12th of November in the Year of our Lord Two Thousand and Twelve. I should meet the deadline, just! Alright, enough said.

Enjoy some of the songs which will be on my first cd in years which will be called"Movements of Paradise - Ladders from God".

It's a pleasure to have you onboard!

Playlists don't start in Fb, as far as I know, so here's the direct link:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL75FGffq0Wg4-oojc0b4KbulxwB_w6Dpi&feature=plcp

So, folks, sorry too busy to take a look what everybody is sharing. In the mean time I am still in Nirvana, after having finished my first cd in years.

Don't forget to listen to it! Inspired on the moment, recorded on the 12th of November in the Year of our Lord Two Thousand and Twelve.

Thanks for passing by. It's great to have you onboard! I took a break from Season 8 which is almost finished. Next on Ulysses V will be a Chirbit, as I make my comeback into Gangland and fight my Foes with all my might. I can tell you this dear Friends, they are crumbling!

In the mean time don't forget to listen to this 100% Jazz release on this link:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL75FGffq0Wg4-oojc0b4KbulxwB_w6Dpi&feature=plcp

Here’s a song from“Movements of Paradise – Ladders from God” to End this Entry. This one is called”A Beginning Odyssey”.

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That’s it for today folks. God Bless. Thank you for this Blessed day!