Recently in newspaper Category

Today's newspaper. The drawing is a patchwork of some of the many photo's the China correspondent sent me. Strangely enough a lot of those photo's were of the earthquake, but there isn't a word about the earthquake in the article. Never mind. Most of his story is about a village that is still governed according to strict Maoist rules. In other parts of China they are referred to as a nostalgic myth. I wonder if the same goes for our little Chinatown here in Toronto. We are always puzzled by the magazine section in the shop where we buy our TTC tokens. Mao left right and centre. We call it the Mao shop. They are a DVD rental too, mysterious films play while we wait for our turn at the cash register. Other customers are usually gambling. Which I don't think Mao would approve of.

This is the cover of the monthly NRC Handelsblad magazine. My usual newspaper, they have a monthly glossy, and this is my first time in it. Honoured! If you get your hands on it, you should also look for the article about Walter Trier that Paul Steenhuis wrote. He was here last month, remember? And we visited the AGO where we saw all these boxes full of wonderful Walter Trier drawings. That's what the article is about. Paul wouldn't even have known about Trier in Canada, had it not been for me, ha! And about Canada, have you heard how we are helping those poor Americans out in their elections? OMG, my cheeks hurt from laughing, before I even had breakfast yet. And by the way, I have completely stopped listening to Dutch media, I don't think they are very well informed anymore. I follow three blogs, the NYT and some random political bloggers, and I get everything. This for example is an interesting article. And I listen to NPR radio, which is more than excellent, they only repeat too much. But it is by far not as dumbed down as Dutch news radio.

Yesterday the Belgian article had to give way for the Joint Strike Fighter. I can dig that, a little more money involved there. And now that my Summer series is finally finally over, I should relax and blog blabber about some different things. Truth is, there aren't many different things yet. Maybe I have to get used to real life again. I bought a blender. My old blender died. Stopped blending. So I bought a bigger one, and now I am making smoothies. And I watched two episodes of Dr. House with Otger. Michiel is having dinner with work people. Michiel is using Dr. House as a roll model, even though he doesn't look much like Hugh Laurie. (Which reminds me, watch this.) Piffin is with girlfriend. God, we are boring. And we went running this morning, I am astounding myself.

I wouldn't dare compare Toronto to Abidjan, but Toronto also stinks today. It was the first thing I smelled when I stepped out this morning to go jogging, thick smog. On the track down by the river it was worse, the car exhaust from the Don Valley Parkway seemed to trapped right there. I had to give up a minute before the podcast was done, I just couldn't breathe more filth. Threatening storm weather for the rest of the day, but nothing more than three drops of rain. Maybe there will be some relief tonight. If you want to be relieved tonight, listen to Casa Luna, you'll hear me. I don't feel like I have much to say though.

Almost back on schedule. I think I will steal a couple of night hours, when it's cool also. Listen to Dutch early morning radio. And then after the one I am doing now, just one more. Out with a bang, Belgium. Belgiyummie. And after that, on to a brand new client, Querido no less. I am becoming such an established illustrator, you have no idea. Rich and famous. I'm just doing the famous part first. Rich will follow. One day. For now, I am just very happy not to be Indonesian. And Otger's school started, he picked up his schedule today. Full of mysterious course codes and names of teachers he doesn't know. He (smart, Piffin's idea) googled the course codes to check if he had the courses he signed up for. And he has. Life is perfect.

Who would have pictured an image like this in the newspaper twenty years ago. At the time the papers printed squeezed Outspan oranges. Does Outspan still exist as a brand? I still associate it with something you're not supposed to buy. Like Granny Smith's apples. But those weren't South African.

I sent him the drawing before he even wrote the article. He could have easily written yellow blouse in stead of black T-shirt, I don't think anyone would travel to North Dakota to check what the waitress is actually wearing. I guess NRC correspondents can't lie, good for them. My cold is much better, thank you. I can go for my morning jog with Michiel. Yeah. I know. I'll tell you about that another time. After I finish my -not English, Willemijn- landscape.

Hey, I am quite happy with this one!