A Man's World

Postcard NL-2458110 from the Netherlands, sent on April 22, 2014, has arrived within 3 days. It shows a 2006 oil painting on panel "A Man's World" (Mannenhuishouding) by Dutch artist Marius van Dokkum. Born in 1957 in Andijk, he studied at the Christian Academy for Expressive Art in Kampen, majoring in Illustration. He moved to Apeldoorn after the academy, working as art painter, illustrator and designer.

To see more examples of his work, visit his web site or follow him on Pinterest. 

Bakkie Doen?

Postcard NL-2316706 from the Netherlands shows a popular phase "Bakkie doen?" in Dutch, meaning "Let's have a cup of coffee?"

There was a short documentary film titled "Bakkie doen!" that was made during the 48 Hour Film Project at Breda, the Netherlands in 2011, when 37 teams of filmmakers went out for a weekend of filmmaking in Breda. Based on a randomly assigned genre, a character, a prop and a line of dialogue, filmmakers would wrote, shot and edited a movie in 48 hours. 30 out of the 37 finished on time. All completed movies were shown at Pathé Breda during the International Film Festival Breda on March 27th, 2011. "Bakkie doen!" won the awards of the Best Directing, the Best Female Acting, and the Public Choice. It was a Runner-up for the Best Film.

Las Vegas will also host the 48 Hour Film Project around April, 2014.

Giant Rubber Duck in Taoyuan, Taiwan

The yellow duck came from Taiwan as a private swap. It was one of those world's largest rubber ducks, created by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, usually at 16.5 × 20 × 32 meters in dimension and over 600 kg in weight. Since 2007, several ducks in various sizes licensed by Hofman have toured several countries and territories such as Amsterdam in Netherlands, Lommel in Belgium, and most recently Taoyuan in Taiwan.

Hofman created the giant rubber duck for a tour named "Spreading Joy Around the World" in 2007 by bringing back people's childhood memories. After the display at the Glory Pier in Kaohsiung went off without a hitch from September 19 to October 20, 2013, the Land Art Festival (桃園地景藝術節) in Xiwu Township, Taoyuan had its own debut of the 18-meter-tall, 18-meter-wide and 25-meter-long yellow duck on October 26, 2013. However, it became a high-profile victim of a 6.3-magnitude earthquake when an air pump went out of service on November 1 during a power outage triggered by earthquake. As a result, it deflated before exploding during an attempt to re-inflate it in high wind.

Organizers at the Taoyuan County Cultural Affairs Bureau borrowed the duck commissioned by Kaohsiung city government that drew 4 million visitors. Yet the strong winds kept the alternative duck on dry ground for another few days, which made it the first Hofman's duck displayed on land. You can watch a video clip "Giant rubber duck pops in Taoyuan following earthquake" on Youtube.