A photo shoot in the September issue of the Italian Vogue seems to have shocked a lot of people. The photo shoot features male and female models portraying the War in Iraq. The photos are somewhat suggestive and contain nudity. The British newspaper The Guardian describes it as “the most nauseatingly tasteless fashion pictures ever”. My daily paper (NRC.Next, a Dutch newspaper) spends a two page article about the shoot and even the morning news reported about it.
A photo shoot causing so much publicity and aversion, must be something terrible, I thought. I took a look at the slide show at Style.it, and I could not say I was shocked. Maybe it’s also a difference between the conservative United Kingdom (and maybe also the United States) and the Netherlands, were everything seems to be allowed, but I don’t see this photo shoot as disturbing or tasteless.
The photographer, Steven Meisel, is known for his controversial shoots, and this time he used the War in Iraq. The shoot contains male soldiers and woman (maybe whores?) in sometimes quite sexy positions. Some photos are suggestive, and could contain a link to the raping by soldiers. But that’s just the way you look at it. I do think Steven Meisel wanted to show his critics on the War in Iraq, just like so many people want, and this is the way he did it.
In general I think this photo shoot is beautiful and artistic; though I want to add that I do not have any relation with the soldiers in Iraq. I don’t have family or friends who are there, and I can imagine that for relatives, this photo shoot could come as a shock. Besides that I think it’s, as I stated before, also a difference in culture. People in the Netherlands tend to be more relaxed when it comes to nudity and other ’shocking’ things, while countries like the US and the UK are in general more conservative.

What’s your opinion about these photos?

You can watch the slide show here. Warning: these pictures contain nudity and could insult people.

November 10 I’m going to see Beth Hart :) A month ago I never ever heard of her, I accidentally started listening to her music and now I’m hooked. Women like her and Melissa Etheridge are unique and should be honored ;)

The English courses are killing me, in a positive way. It takes a lot of my time but I love reading about poems and literature, and to reveal the mysteries of the poems and the messages the poets send us. I love hearing about writing skills and to discuss with my classmates if woman spend more time in front of the mirror than men. I love learning words I never ever heard about. I applied for the American English course instead of the British English course. If I get accepted I will learn the American accent and the American writing style instead of the British. Men with British accents are sexy, but I can’t imagine myself speaking like that ;)

On another note: I’m aware of the fact that my English writing skills are bad. I hope this doesn’t cause too much ‘Oh my God’ thoughts to the readers, and I would really appreciate it if you could point out serious mistakes. I don’t mind at all and I would be really grateful :) If you just want to ignore my huge mistakes and just want to read about my life, that’s fine with me too.

University is killing me already! Besides our regular assignments, we are obliged to make extra assignments to receive extra credits. I do not mind to receive extra credits, but costs a lot of extra time too. I was just making my assignment-schedule for next week and the bunch of pages I need to read for International Law scares the hell out of me. Sometimes I just want to run to the coordinator and scream: “What the hell are you thinking? I’m also an English Language student, give me a break!” But it will probably make me look like a spoiled kid, and that’s of course the last thing we want, don’t we? Last year I complained about too much free time, and that’s the point right now. I’m not used to lots of assignments, because we never got that much homework in former preparations. I contacted the university counselor to ask help with planning and the way I make my assignments. I feel I’m doing something wrong, because I read everything, make summaries and though, during class, I can’t remember anything and I feel dumb between people who seem to do much less, and still have the smartest answers. Though, I enjoy learning so much about Law and English literature at the same time, and I don’t even think about quitting one of them!

On another note, I installed Microsoft Office 2007 yesterday and it’s lovely. The whole morning I have been staring at my screen and keep telling Niels how beautiful it looks and how beautiful the new standard font Calibri looks, I just love it! Overall I’m not a big fan of Microsoft and it’s software, because of all the extra hidden things and it’s capacity to slow everything down. At this moment I’m running a stripped version of Windows XP and a highly customized (meaning: I only installed the things I really need, and not all the extra stuff) version of Microsoft Office 2007 and it works perfect! So from now on, I can print all the English poems I need to read in lovely Calibri. I think I’m in love!

Mijn eerste week zit er al weer op. Veel leren, klimmen, Engels luisteren, gezelligheid en plannen maken voor een huisje samen in een boerendorp. Vandaag skip ik school omdat misschien-wel-toekomstige huisgenoten komen kijken en ik wil absoluut geen herhaling van huisgenoot R., dus vandaar. En daarnaast ben ik gewoon lui. Lui maar meestal wel vol zelfvertrouwen dat ik twee studies doe. Deze week voelde ik me nuttig, wat nog niet vaak gebeurd is vorig jaar (en ik spreek steeds meer mensen die naast Rechten nog een tweede studie doen, dus onmogelijk is het niet).

Zo, mn eerste dag zit erop. En wat kan ik er van zeggen? Saai. Maar stiekem ook wel weer erg leuk want vandaag besefte ik maar weer eens dat ik echt gewoon twee studies doe. Hoe gaaf is dat?
Afgelopen weekend was ook leuk. Zaterdagavond zijn Niels en ik in Den Haag naar Symphonic Echoes of Pink Floyd geweest en het was zó gaaf! Dat was het Noord Nederlands Orkest met drie zangers (Antonie Kamerling!) die liedjes van Pink Floyd deden en als ik eerlijk ben: veel mooier dan Pink Floyd zelf ;) Alleen jammer dat Ticketmaster (of dat gebouw in Den Haag) een fout had gemaakt waardoor we niet - zoals op ons kaartje stond - op de voorste rij zaten maar werden we ergens achterin de zaal gepropt omdat er schijnbaar helemaal geen foyer was tijdens dit concert. De zaalmeneer schoof het af als een fout van Ticketmaster dus Ticketmaster krijgt nu een lekker kwade brief want ik betaal geen vier euro servicekosten PER KAARTJE om daarna achterin de zaal gepropt te zitten in plaats van voorin waar je alles veel beter ziet inclusief de geweldige dingen die die mensen met instrumenten dededn.
Gister zijn we lui, erg lui geweest en hebben we de hele MTV Weekend Break Marathon gekeken wat stiekem soms best leuk is :) En ’s avonds heb ik Niels ingemaakt met Mario Party :D
Niels en ik zijn nu op een punt dat we samen via Google onze agenda’s delen omdat we anders echt niet meer weten wanneer we elkaar wel en niet zien ;) Heel triest eigenlijk, maar ook wel vermakelijk want we moeten nu echt onze agenda’s bij elkaar leggen om af te spreken wanneer we samen naar de film gaan ;) En dat terwijl we samen wonen :P

Ook heb ik besloten dat deze weblog binnenkort in het Engels wordt. Niet omdat ik jullie wil pesten, maar omdat dat een ontzettend goede oefening is voor mn studie. Dus ik hoop niet dat jullie allemaal gillend gaan wegrennen, maar deze weblog lekker blijven lezen :)