vol. 3 #13 - 3 August 2010
The Sentinel Amsterdam
Integrity, heart, humour
FEATURE
GLORIOUS ORANGE perspectives
RELATIONSHIP IS A VERB Lifestyles OPINION TRENDs CARTOON SPORT CLASSIFIEDs
CONTENTS
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In this issue FEATURE p. 03 perspectives
Glorious Orange (almost) Tot ziens.
P. 08 column
“Life is a verb. Life is not a noun, it is really ‘living’ not ‘life’.”
P. 10
Stud marks Football: possibly the new couch sex.
trends p. 11 sport p. 12 more:
Fan or Vuvuzela Football meets fashion?
Cricket: The Embers
The Rest Of The World Pit Vipers in open session.
Compost corner Cauliflower
p. 11
Film review Room 2C
p. 11
Cartoon Premier Donna
p. 12
Football Season Preview
p. 14
Football p. 15 Fantasy Football 2010-2011 Classy classifieds
p. 18
ColoPHon The Sentinel Amsterdam
Editors – Gary Rudland & Denson Pierre Design, realisation and form – Andrei Barburas & No-Office.nl Webmaster – Simon O. Studios Webhost – Amsterjammin.com
Contributors – Shane Brady, Marshall Erskine, Krishna Prem, James Naylor, Graham Jones, David King, Colin Bentley, Maureen Kamp & Dirkje Bakker e-mail: sentinelpost@gmail.com website: www.thesentinel.eu
FEATURE
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Glorious Orange (almost) Denson Pierre reflects on a month of football in the first World Cup finals staged on the African continent and praises the nearly men of the Netherlands.
FEATURE Photos by Denson Pierre, Shane Brady and Marshall Arts Studio
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FEATURE
It is fair to say that the Netherlands did not turn themselves into the vanguard of open and exciting football but, instead, a blood, sweat and hope for glory outfit, up to and including their performance in the recent World Cup final. As I write, there are more than 200,000 fans and general public singing along to those familiar but peculiarly Dutch songs and dancing to Armin van Buuren (the world’s number-one DJ) in celebration on the Museumplein, some five minutes away. A truly stupendous reception is taking place in the city of Oranje, for this proud second-placed team and its technical staff. In total, it is estimated that some 700,000 people took to Amsterdam’s streets today, especially along the picturesque canal route, to wave, shout and dive bomb the players through. One can only wonder what the atmosphere and sensations felt would have been like had the team played with the same qualities demonstrated throughout the tournament by their captain. Having scored the most perfect goal of the tournament, he did not allow himself to be drawn into the dirty play characteristic of the final game. This alone makes him worthy of the honour of the Order of Dutch Knights bestowed upon him at his arrival in The Hague today. The coach also received a similar honorary title for almost masterminding the ultimate journey in football.
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Video footage of the matches, incidents and the amazing scenes in Amsterdam are available all over the internet, if you have not already had enough of bright orange.
Words of caution
As the 2010 World Cup is consigned to history, it is important to note that it is sometimes better to believe in the hype of hope about people and countries, rather than dredge for dirt and cynical confirmations of ill. There was way too much of the latter in the run-up to the tournament. Well done to FIFA and South Africa, and it is just a little bit of a shame that too many teams dishonoured the competition by bringing unfit players to the show. The African teams have also not yet learnt that 35-metre screamers are as rare as the sublime goals scored by Honda, Forlan and Gio. The African teams, in general, wasted so much possession going for World Cup moments for their collections, they forgot to score the simpler chances which occur much more frequently and might have served them better. Thanks to the UK, Dutch and Belgian broadcasters, through which we all enjoyed the matches. One word of advice to the NOS and other football broadcasters is that they might wish to consider adopting the two-person commentary and analysis set-up. Too often, there was too much for one commentator to remark upon. So many incidents and visual stimuli benefit from a slightly different or reinforcing perspective to enhance the experience, and not simply the constant stating of the obvious.
FEATURE
His moment of magic, for me, came early on.
Clarence Seedorf was a blessing for the BBC and it was great to see a still-active football legend convey a downto-earth appraisal of the football we were watching. His moment of magic, for me, came early on, when he demonstrated how to adjust to the new and supposedly troublesome Jabulani ball from 25 metres. One practice attempt, to feel the weight and adjust the striking technique, then‌ Boom! A stunning and perfect free-kick.
Please enjoy these final few images from Shane Brady, Marshall Arts Studio and myself, as the Orange world climaxed.
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FEATURE
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perspectives
Relationship is a verb By Krishna Prem
I met Marcia on the hippie trail in the early 1970s, beginning in Venice, California. We travelled together to India on one-way tickets, since we didn’t have enough money between us for two round trips. It was simply two one-way tickets to ride or no way out. In any case, we were living on love.
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perspectives Our first home together in Mother India was under a cashew tree in Arambol, a virgin beach in Goa (remember, I am talking about the 1970s here), before heading north to the Himalayas. Right smack in the middle of the trail, we met Osho and our lives changed forever. Meeting Osho was a happy beginning for me and equally an unhappy ending of my relationship with Marcia, now Krishna Priya. My gut told me that my relationship was in trouble and I went to Osho to get to the heart of the matter. I was sure Osho’s advice would not only heal my relationship, but perhaps also help people like you, as we finally hear the truth about relating. I booked a leaving darshan (audience) with Osho, to say goodbye as I travelled full circle by returning to California, to open a commune based on his meditations. Krishna Priya chose to stay behind until my dream came true, then she would join me. Osho agreed with Krishna Priya, while I simply wasn’t sure which way was up. In front of a burning candle, I rehearsed my questions to Osho about my relationship, until all that was left of me was a wax wave on my wooden floor. Creeping doubts I hadn’t been apart from my beloved for two years and I was nervous about being without her. I wanted to ask Osho whether I could trust that she’d follow me to California. Could I be sure that she wouldn’t fall in love with someone else? I was simply beside myself. By now, I was even jealous of Osho, as I was no longer the most important man in my woman’s life. I didn’t know whether to “relation-shit or go blind”. The darshan, in 1975, was in Lao Tzu House on the front car porch. Ten of us were scheduled to sit with Osho, one to one, and I was going to be the last. It felt like an eternity before it was my turn. Finally, he looked at the boy in ninth position and his eyes were so big, they overflowed on to me and I thought he was gesturing me to come forward. Eagerly, I stood up but it wasn’t my turn, of course, and he told me to have patience, so I promptly sat down again. I was so embarrassed I nearly died. The ninth boy came to sit in front of Osho and as soon as he sat down, he began to cry. He wouldn’t stop crying but Osho waited and finally broke the silence, saying to him, “What seems to be the problem?” The boy related his story: “I bought a brand new pair of sandals today and when I got out of Kundalini Meditation at five-fifteen, my sandals were gone!” And then he burst into tears again. Words of wisdom Osho closed his eyes and when the boy stopped crying, Osho opened his eyes again and said, “I can’t help you with your loss, but what I can suggest is that tomorrow you go MG Road and you buy another new pair of sandals. When you go to Kundalini Meditation, take one new sandal off and put it on the top middle shelf. Put the other new sandal on the bottom shelf on the far left.” He then added: “No one ever steals one sandal!”
09 The boy’s tears turned into laughter, and it looked to me like Osho was very proud of himself. He was just beaming with the biggest smile you’ve ever seen in your life. Everyone else was laughing. Then Osho reached out and held the boy’s hands, they stood up at the same time and, as if music began playing, Osho did a tiny dance with the boy. Then, still beaming, Osho gave a Namaste salutation to his beloveds and walked out. And that was the end of the darshan. I felt like a sannyasin left out in the cold. To this day, I still don’t know anything about relationships! So you, my friend, are on your own. I say I don’t know anything about relationships, except I have learned the hard way that relationship is a verb called relating. I did, however, found the Geetam Sannyas Ashram in Lucerne Valley, California, for Osho in 1975, which turned out to be the biggest meditation centre in the United States. My now ex-girlfriend has never stepped on to the property once. It just goes to show that you never can tell… Meditation, like love, is not what you think. About the author Krishna Prem is American born and raised. At the age of 30, he left the United States in search of himself, on a oneway ticket to India. There, he met his friend and teacher, Osho, and began his inner journey. For the past 30-plus years he has been leading meditations in both the East and the West. Even though his journey continues, he no longer searches for himself. He now knows that the journey is the goal and enjoys being intimate with his friends all over the world. He finds the best way to go in is to go out with people. By always remembering that ‘meditation is not what you think’, he has learned to laugh at himself and is intimately in touch with the cosmic joke called life. “Life is a verb. Life is not a noun, it is really ‘living’ not ‘life’. It is not love, it is loving. It is not relationship, it is relating. It is not a song, it is singing. It is not a dance, it is dancing. See the difference, savor the difference.” Osho (www.osho.com)
LIFESTYLES
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Compost corner By James Naylor & Graham Jones
Vegetable of the month – Cauliflower There are three types of cauliflower: summer, autumn/winter and spring. By planting successively, you can harvest cauliflower for most of the year. Summer cauliflowers have a tenderer, milder flavour than those grown in winter and spring, and they and are not hardy enough to survive the winter. True cauliflowers have a creamy white head, called a ‘curd’, but there are hybrids with purple, lime-green and even orange curds. The inner leaves curl around the curd to protect it, making a nice hiding place for insects, so always clean them well before eating. We start off the seeds in modules and transplant into 10-centimetre pots when the shoots are six centimetres tall. We transplant them into the allot-
Recipe of the month ment when the plants are 15-20 centimetres in height. You need to cover cauliflowers with nets throughout their entire growing season, as birds love them and can decimate the whole crop overnight. The cauliflowers need to be planted at least 60 centimetres apart from each other and each plant will take 4-5 months to mature. This requires a large amount of space, so we only manage a few at a time in the allotment. We have just eaten the summer plants and are now starting on the crop for Christmas dinner, along with the sprouts and parsnips! The spring cauliflowers will be planted in the autumn. Cauliflower is very low in saturated fat and cholesterol. It is also a good source of protein, thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, magnesium and phosphorous, and a very good source of dietary fibre, Vitamins C, K and B6, folate, pantothenic acid, potassium and manganese. Cauliflower is packed full of anti-oxidants that help to prevent cancer. One note of caution: do not eat cauliflower if you suffer from gout or kidney stones, as cauliflowers produce uric acid, which causes gout.
Breaded Cauliflower (serves 4) Ingredients 1 large cauliflower 3 eggs 2 tbsp milk 75g dry breadcrumbs 1/2 tsp salt Vegetable oil 1. Cut the cauliflower into individual florets and steam these for 2 minutes. 2. Beat the eggs and milk together. 3. In a separate bowl, mix the breadcrumbs and salt. 4. Dip the cauliflower florets in egg mixture then breadcrumbs (repeat this process for a thicker, crispier coating). 5. Fry the coated florets stalk-up in half a centimetre of oil, turning carefully and regularly until golden. 6. Drain on kitchen paper before serving. The following ingredients may be added to the breadcrumbs before serving with a chopped fresh coriander yogurt: 2 tsp cumin seeds 2 tsp coriander seeds 1 or 2 dried red chillies 10g very finely chopped almonds, cashews or peanuts (unsalted) This is a wonderful accompaniment to a summer barbecue, with boiled potatoes and a simple salad.
Film review
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Room 2c film By David King
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) Would you erase me? We are not talking about a Terminator solution but a chance to surgically remove from your brain the memories of one previously loved. Charlie Kaufman writes this story superbly (boy, has this man been broken), as Joel tries to remove all lasting memories of his ex, Clementine, before realising he still loves her. If you’ve ever experienced true love then watch out, because some scenes will give your heart a good kicking.
The Sentinel Fantasy Football League 2010 -2011
days a few Only o sign up ’s t ason left his se for t tition! e p com
Pick your own Premier League team and get: Regular weekly score updates Analysis of the weekly table The chance to win great prizes - Only €20 for a full nine months’ entertainment Rules and entry forms available from sentinelffl@yahoo.com. What are you waiting for?
column
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Stud marks By Maureen Kamp
The World Cup is over. Some of you may have forgotten about it already, since it was over for you a long time ago. Some of us might never get over it. And a lot of us must be broke. I know I am. What’s the conclusion after all of this? For me, it was the World Cup of the Good, the Bad and the Ugly. You can all work out for yourselves which is which and, fair enough, congratulations to the Good ones. But the World Cup also shed new light on an old discussion, and I don’t mean the one about video technology. It’s the one about there being too many foreign players in the Premier League. The England team’s demise has brought the issue into focus, once again. But that’s all in the past and we have a new season of football ahead of us. My honey loves football. My honey lives football. We have all the football because of digital television. We only have digital television because of the football. So I watch the occasional game next to my honey on the couch, being shushed whenever I try to speak. I always refer to the football, but my honey is not interested in footballers’ hair styles, ugly outfits or the latest WAG gossip. But football is about entertainment, not just tactics, and it’s for everyone!
‘What comes from afar tastes so much better...’ Being a genuine football lover, I thought it was about time I shared my thoughts with the world, since my honey won’t listen. There must be some like-minded people out there. I’ve competed in the Fantasy Football League for the past five years and have never won anything. So, this season I have decided on a whole new strategy for my FFL team, based on one factor alone: cute players only. This way, I will really have something to look forward to when I take my seat on the couch. And I’ll be sharing my thoughts with you, too, in The Sentinel! Which brings me back to where I started; is it really such a bad thing that we have so many foreign players in the Premier League? My thoughts on this are, as the Dutch like to say, ‘what comes from afar tastes so much better...’ In the meantime, please send your cute Premier League footballer tips to sentinel.studmarks@gmail.com and become part of my team!
Cartoon By Colin Bentley
AAAAGHHH!
Premier Donna
THAT’S A BLATANT FOUL, REF! SHE MUST GET A CARD FOR THAT! OUTSIDE THE SPORTS BAR...
TRENDS
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Fan or vuvuzela? By Dirkje Bakker
It’s strange how a city can change its colours within the span of a few weeks. Just a short while after Amsterdam was stampeded by legendary orange masses, these have been replaced by a crowd of flamboyant, high-heeled (watch out for heels that are getting higher and higher this summer), fan-waving, densely made-up, always-busy and, at the same time, bored-looking fashion crowd.
filled with colourful fashion people waving their black frills to the rhythm of the deafening show music. White printed liquor logos popping out from these fans in the twilight surrounding the catwalk made me think back to the prominently branded, and in some cases very tightly fitting, football shirts I had grown so close to during the rainy beginning of the Dutch World Cup summer.
I am sure I was not alone in rather sadly changing my orange cowboy hat for some fashionable designer black, as I got on my bike and headed out to see some of the new talent in Dutch fashion, say hi to some people whose names I don’t know and have a few cold drinks and a laugh with friends I had missed during the football month.
The way football lovers talk about the designs of new kits – the colours, the striping, the length of the shorts, the tightness of the shirt and the shininess of the fabric – you would almost think it is fashion, with the vuvuzela being the fan. But, seriously, is it really fashion? In tough economic times, do football shorts get shorter?
The most prominent item at this year’s Amsterdam Fashion Week became apparent after the first chilled white wine (prosecco is out, white wine is back): fans are suddenly everywhere.
‘In tough economic times, do football shorts get shorter?’
The Fan Black (at least some black lace or frills), a touch of flamenco, intricate Chinese woodcutting, preferably in black and decorative flower patterns; as long as it is as feminine, sexy as possible and you wave with a nonchalance that makes it seem as if you’ve never done anything else. Especially in the big hairy hands of some of the prominent Dutch fashion personalities, it felt like, yes, we are in the world of fashion now and orange will never be the new black. The trend had already spun out of control on tribunes
Trends are a strange phenomenon. Some are just there from one minute to the next, some you see coming from a long way off and others seem to be the fashionable solution to global warming. One tip: go out and get yourself a fan before this hot summer is over. There must be some space left in your cupboard where there was previously orange.
sport
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Season preview
A new beginning The World Cup has come and gone for another four years, and now it’s back to the annual feast of football provided by the English Premier League. Gary Rudland can barely contain his excitement and he hopes some of it rubs off on you.
If I had to sum up the World Cup in one word, it would be: disappointing. It had its moments, of course – Germany and Argentina put on some good displays, the Netherlands’ run to the final was exciting and Spain were probably worthy winners – but I won’t miss the ball, the vuvuzelas or England’s dismal performances. So, enough of that; there’s a brand new football season on the horizon, kicking off in just 11 days. The first match of the new Premier League season sees Spurs take on Man City and the fixture computer could hardly have done a better job. Spurs pipped Man City to fourth place in the league last season, thus breaking Chelsea, Man Utd, Arsenal and Liverpool’s monopoly on the Champions League qualifying places. The opening fixture of this season provides an immediate test of whether Spurs still have the edge on their big-spending rivals. Home-grown talent In fact, new rules have been introduced this season, which will perhaps reduce the impact of spending big on new signings. Clubs are now required to register a squad of up to 25 players at the end of each transfer window, which must include at least eight ‘home-grown’ players. These home-grown players do not have to be English, but are defined as those who ‘irrespective of nationality or age, have been affiliated to the English or Welsh FA for a period of three seasons or 36 months prior to their 21st birthday’. Changes to this squad can be made only during transfer windows or in exceptional circumstances (e.g. goalkeeper injury crises), although clubs can supplement their squads at any time with unlimited numbers of players under the age of 21. It will be interesting to see how these new rules pan out at the end of the August transfer window. Will we see more youthful squads among the less-rich clubs? Will the richest
Chris Hughton has steered Newcastle back into the top flight, but can he keep them there?
clubs buy more ‘home-grown’ players? And who will be left out of the biggest squads? It is expected that quite a few of the players left out of the 25-man squads will go out on loan to lower league clubs, which could be interesting for clubs like the one I support: Watford. But if players like these do not make a swift return to their parent club, we could see a lot of transfer activity during the next window. Opening fixtures Back to the opening weekend of the season. Aston Villa vs West Ham looks like an interesting match. West Ham won their opening fixture of last season, away at Wolves, but did not win another league match until 4 November, when Aston Villa visited Upton Park. In the evening, Chelsea take on newly promoted West Brom at Stamford Bridge and that can only be good for the champions’ goal difference. Perhaps the most exciting fixture of the opening weekend has been saved for Sunday, however, when Liverpool, rebuilding under new manager Roy Hodgson, take on
sport
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Last season’s top scorer, Didier Drogba, is hoping to recover from surgery in time for the new season
Fun and games Luka Modric: an increasingly influential figure in Spurs’ midfield
Arsenal, who are becoming increasingly desperate for silverware after five barren seasons. The opening fixtures of the new Premier League season are completed on Monday evening, when Man Utd entertain another newly promoted team: Newcastle. A few years ago, Newcastle won at Old Trafford on the opening weekend of the season. Can they repeat the feat and put United on the back foot from the start? Uncertainty As you’ve probably gathered, I’m full of questions but have very few answers. But isn’t that the beauty of football? You never really know what’s going to happen, especially at the start of a new season. The World Cup may have been disappointing to me – perhaps not to everyone – but with hundreds of fixtures spread over nine months, not to mention European competitions, the Carling Cup and the FA Cup, the Premier League rarely disappoints. Roll on Saturday 14 August, I say.
Fantasy Football League 2010 -2011
We can only guess who will end up winning the Premier League next May but many readers like to make a sport of guessing what’s going to happen throughout the season. The Sentinel Fantasy Football League has been running for at least the past five seasons and provides nine months of entertainment for its 40-50 competitors. No-one has ever won it more than once and last season, we had our first female winner. The competition is easy to enter: you start by picking a team of 11 players from any of those listed on the You The Manager (YTM) website (http://youthemanager.co.uk). You can make 12 substitutions throughout the season and the entry fee is €20, which works out to about €0.50 per week. There are a few other rules of which you should be aware and these are available from sentinelffl@yahoo.com. Why not join in the fun and have a go this season? Just e-mail the address above to get the ball rolling.
sport
Cricket With the Embers return match on August 8th fast approaching The Rest Of The World Pit Vipers practice. The England XI have been in closed sessions. Photos Shane Brady & Denson Pierre
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sport
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CLASSIFIEdS
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we are looking for: - Account Manager Market Media - (Internship) International Marketing Executive www.consultancymarketmedia.com
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