Hang on

Only eight days to go until queen Beatrix will abdicate and leave the throne to her son, Willem-Alexander. In the meantime, a big scandal occurred: the official "King's song", composed by John Ewbank and meant to be sung by all Dutch citizens for their new king, met with such harsh criticism that the composer decided to withdraw the song. It was to be expected, though: listen and judge for yourself - and if you really want to appreciate the lyrics, here's the singalong version.

Just to be clear: I completely disapprove of the excessive "bashing" of John Ewbank as a person on his Twitter and Facebook accounts and I do feel sorry for him. However, parallels with the well-known bard from Asterix (who always ends up tied to a tree whenever he wants to perform his music) were too strong to ignore. What's more, even the composer himself predicted he might end up much in the same way if people wouldn't like his song.

The title refers to the first sentence of the King's song Daar sta je dan ("There you stand, in the end") and substituted "standing" with "hanging".

Update: just shortly after I finished my cartoon, our official Song Committee declared the song is to be performed after all.

It's not easy being green

Not too long ago, a bunch of (former) classics students performed Aristophanes' comedy The Frogs. I played.. a frog, and an old-fashioned (even by the standards of 500 B.C.) poet called Aeschylus.
The drawing above is an impression of the play for student magazine Wau.

Spring cleaning

Risky business

Prime minister Mark Rutte encouraged the nation not to be too pessimistic and tried to motivate us to "take that small risk" and buy a new car (or a house, even better) - that's the way to beat the crisis! The number plate on the car says "Sociaal akkoord", which is the agreement reached between employers, employees and the government, and upon whose presentation the prime minister came up with his idea for boosting the economy.

Habemus museum

The Rijksmuseum reopened, after only ten years of restauration. It was celebrated with the Dutch queen and lots of orange smoke.
Title: Now it's us who made it to the world news
Text: "orange smoke?" "Habemus museum"

Somewhere over the rainbow

Putin is visiting Amsterdam, not too long after declaring the rainbow flag, symbol of the gay community, might soon be illegal in his country. Would our prime minister try to dissuade him, given the Dutch interests in Gazprom?

Text on red button: Stop gas supply

Walking on water

Three years ago, EO (a religious broadcasting corporation) started a new tradition by staging "The Passion": a one-and-a-half hour long singalong show with celebrities interpreting the last few days of Jesus Christ, set to Dutch pop songs. Last weekend, two and a half million people watched as Jesus walked on the water of the Hofvijver (a pond near the Dutch parliament).
SBS, a commercial broadcasting corporation, isn't nearly as successful: most of their formats (which usually feature obscure tv "stars" dancing, ice skating or finding their way through the jungle) end up being tremendous flops. Their only truly popular programme was "Sterren springen": stars jumping off a diving board. Many people remember 80's singer Patty Brard and her painful touchdown on the surface of the water after a failed jump.
Title: SBS already claimed the Hofvijver for next year
Text on banner: Stars walking on water
Text: "Patty, are you all right?"