Tintin

Watch Tintin - L'Ile Noire - Belvision in Animation | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Need I say more???

Growing up reading Tintin, he will always remain a favorite "children's" graphic novel hero. A hero that made me discover about all these incredible and myserious cultures - far far away! Even if today I see him in a very different light (Herge probably hated women ... and the stories are so politically incorrect), I still enjoy re-reading the stories every blue moon or so! Strange how seeing this animated piece from the series of Tintin cartoons which were created in the 60s by Belgian studio Belvision brings on a certain nostalgia. I had actually never seen an animated version until this post ... I just read the good old books.

For those of you who are fans of Herge; there is now the Herge Museum in Belgium.



Musee HERGE
Rue du Labrador, 26
1348 Louvain-la-Neuve
Belgium

Tel: (32) 10/488 421

Wim Delvoye

Louis Vuitton tattooed pig 'Louise' was raised, fed, pampered and then tattooed at Wim Delvoye's Art Farm in China (where animal welfare regulations turn a blind eye to tattooing - side thought: is branding still allowed in the west?). Though Wim Delvoye has 'inked' many other pigs (including human ones) with various designs ... Louise and her LV logos remains my favorite ... so chic! I admit I am both amused and horrified by this ... but I have to say: it takes guts (I'm talking about the pig: the animal, not the man ... the pig!!!!! No, NOT the man, the little four-legged furry animal ... then again, I haven't met the artist.

More at https://wimdelvoye.be/
https://www.artsy.net/artist/wim-delvoye

Arne Quinze

Stilt Houses

"Dream Saver": this design is a 12-meter long tunnel
lined with hanging chains of Swarovski crystals.

Uchronia,
by Jan Kriekels and Arne Quinze at the 2006 Burning Man Festival

Cityscape, Brussels

" I love chaos
I'd love to freeze one of these sublime moments
when the logic of chaos, the only thing that is real,
reveals its incomparable beauty and harmony. "

- Arne Quinze (The Uchranians)

Arne Quinze's talent lies in his ability to fuse polar extremes -
passion and chaos with controlled elegance. He creates immaculate, urbane and polished works that are balanced with a certain contradicting tension, giving them a refined yet exuberant appearance. He realizes his ideas with verve and is able to generate crossovers between art and architecture as if it's child's play.

His headquarters in Kortrijk, Belgium, are located in a complex of 10,000 square meters. A unique creative platform where Quinze has surrounded himself with architects, urban developers, product and graphic designers, video artists, copywriters and sculptors. The Art Studio in Miami is another volcano for his creative artistic outbursts. Every new creative breed captures his research and study on interaction, urbanity movement, speed and light in present-day society. Quinze scans a city in a blink of an eye and divulges the ongoing rhythm running through multifarious buildings and settlements expressing the continuously evolving of human beings and their surroundings. Man cannot survive alone, we find refuge in one another. Neglecting our human needs we live in an era where social interaction has been well-nigh diminished to nonexistent.

More at http://www.arnequinze.tv/

BrusselsPictures.com

If you would like to get a great visual account of what Brussels has to offer without actually going there - this is a new site I stumbled upon as I was looking for pictures for the Cook & Book feature, a few entries below. The pictures are beautiful and make you want to enter each image to discover what's hiding behind it, or to steal a piece of chocolate.

Above are just a few shots of inspiration ...

More at http://www.brusselspictures.com/

ENJOY!

BEhive - a webmagazine

BEhive is a cool webmagazine that showcases Belgian art, design, food, leisure, lifestyle and travel.

Just thought you might like to check it out!

More info at http://www.behive.be/

Cook & Book

Opened in 2006, Cook & Book is a new concept eatery & store from the creative minds of Deborah Drion and Cedric Legein. In Brussels, situated across the Woluwe-Saint-Lambert performing arts theater, and around its open air outdoors' performing center; this convenient location allows the merging of cultures, pleasure and gastronomy to interact easily and flawlessly.

Both a restaurant and a library, there is a total of 9 spaces one can choose from to sit down (inside or out) and enjoy eating fresh and simple foods and/or just relishing a glass of wine from their impressive wine bar. With a menu in French, Flemish and English as well as a section dedicated to books in English, Cook & Book is fast becoming an meeting place with an international clientele.

Cook & Book is very Belgian because it is first dedicated to European graphic novels (aka Bande Dessinees or 'BD') and mangas, then to childdren's books, art books, travel books, culinary books, decoration & living books, music ... and one can eat right smack in the center of all these individual sections, in dedicated sections of the space around these themes, and/or outside in one of the different terraces where you can even lounge when there is a ray of sun. There is also a really cool wine bar located in the music section.

Another wonderful thing about their location, concept and practicality of both the indoor and outdoor spaces is that there is always the room and possibility for some type of exhibition happening, performance, (book) fair, fashion shows, open air cinema and more ...

I invite you to check out their site and really taking the time to explore the different aspects they offer as pictures speak a thousand words ... and they were clever enough to design a site where pictures can't be copied and placed onto other people's blogs for example ... hum ...

I can't wait for someone to create this in LA - anyone - anyone?

PS: most of the pictures above were 'pick pocketed' from a fellow blogger (what??? - it was hard finding pictures of the place!!! ... I did this for you!). More details and pictures of the place, including the outside (which I purposely left out because it is not the greatest looking place ... aesthetically) at http://www.brusselspictures.com/tag/cook-book/

More info at http://www.cookandbook.be/

251 av. Paul Hymans
1200 Bruxelles
(32)-2-761-26-00

Antwerp Train Station Dance

You probably have seen this a dozen times already as it was going round and round on the web, but in case you haven't seen it yet ... it is quite fun and charming.



ENJOY!

Cha-Cha candy bars by LU

Cha-Cha is the name of a 'filled wafer with caramel and coated with milk chocolate' candy bar that is only available in Belgium! Though its packaging later changed, I remember - back in the day - shopping at the neighborhood Delhaize supermarket (known as The Food Lion in the states) ... the tiger stripes packaging in yellow and gold seemed to always call my attention as my mom and I were cruising the aisles of the store in search of .... certainly NOT candy! Chocolate? Maybe - I am not at liberty to say. PS: I was between 2 and 12 ... Funny how the candy bars were always positioned at the exact height of the eyes of a 3 year-old .... now THAT'S how you make an addict for life!!@%$#!*&!!!!

Anyways - good times ... some people had Woodstock, we had Cha-Chas!

Thank GOD for drug pushers .... and one such site - where you can buy the now infamous Cha-Chas is http://www.chockies.net/ I do not know if they ship to the US (for all you Cha-Cha craved Belgians), but I leave it up to YOU to investigate as I had my fill just a few weeks ago ... thanks to my new step-mother (not sure if I like her for that or not ... still debating). Anyways ...

ENJOY!

I have just been informed that Cha-Cha has its own Facebook page! Who knew?

More at http://www.lu.be

Belgian candy makers JORIS

"... Joris Van den Driessche, the grandfather of the current manager Hans Van den Driessche, set out the course of this marvellous adventure in the years '20-'30. During the years '30-'40 his son Jan Van den Driessche took control of Joris: in his small kitchen he did everything himself and he managed to produce at least 50 kilos of sweets a day! Everything was manually produced, as well the chocolate truffles as the hard confectionery, the soft toffees, the coated tablets, the nougat and the gums. When the Second World War broke out, the production was disturbed: the only remaining ingredients were sugar and gelatin. As a result, Joris concentrated on the production of gums, a product that was only a small part of their product range. It was a judicious choice as Joris is currently the Belgian market leader in quality gums ..."

From their website http://www.joris-sweets.be/ENG/Html/ontstaan.htm

As a child, I was addicted to the traditional Belgian candies manufactured the old fashioned way by JORIS. Above are just a few samples from their line of hard and soft gum candies. My favorites? The hard sour gums and the hard licorice coins. With very few ingredients, these little devils in disguise are packaged in biodegrable cellophane (and that, way way WAY before being 'green' was "in").

Now, JORIS manufactures 'BioGom' aka Organic Sweets that are also fair trade!

Above are just a few samples from their line of Organic hard gum candies.

Bio gum is a organic sweet, made of natural acacia gum (a resin of the Acacia tree from Sudan), organic cane sugar 40% (Fair Trade), organic wheat syrup, natural flavors, fruit and plant extracts.

Some qualities of acia gum are: soluble fiber, poor in calories, stimulates the capacity of the intestine, can help to reduce the cholesterol level ...

Contains: calcium, potassium, magnesium, and sodium

JORIS is only available in Belgium.

More info at http://www.joris-sweets.be/ENG/Html/ontstaan.htm