1.
Hoorn
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Hoorn is a municipality and a town in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. It is located on the Markermeer,35 kilometres north of Amsterdam, Hoorn had a population of 71,888 in 2014. The area of the municipality is 53.25 km2 of which 33.00 km2 consists of water, the municipality consists of the following villages and/or districts, Blokker, Hoorn, Zwaag, and parts of Bangert and De Hulk. Cape Horn, the most southerly point of the Americas, was named after the town by Willem Schouten, the Hoorn Islands of the Oceanian nation of Wallis and Futuna are also named after this city. The origin of the name Hoorn, even in old spelling Hoern or Hoirne, is surrounded in myths, Hoorns name, according to Old Frisian legends, is derived from the stepson of King Redbad, called Hornus. A third version says that the name was derived from the shape of one of its first ports. The author of the Origo Civitatis Hornensis assumes that name Hoorn was derived from Damphoorn, Damphoorn is the medieval name for a weed that could be made into whistles, which grew in abundance in the area outside the dykes of Hoorn. Chronicler Velius rejects this statement because there are no old historical entries that Hoorn was called Damphoorn and he wrote, The name was from the start Hoorn, not derived from the weed Damphoorn, as the current sentiment holds. Velius also rejects the assertion that the origin is Dampter Horn, a neighbourhood of the village Dampten. The name is most probably derived from Hornicwed, a name that is popping up in early mediaeval documents, the medieval meaning of hornic is corner, with wed or wedor being the medieval word for water. Many places and neighbourhoods in the Netherlands are called, even today, Heurne, Huurne, Hornicwed would therefore refer to the location of a corner on the coastline, the location of Hoorn at the Zuiderzee. We see hornic in the meaning of corner also reflected in another municipality in the mediaeval County of Holland, Uithoorn, meaning uithoek and this area was abandoned and flooded after 1391, following the abandonment of the old dyke. A new dyke was built inland, resulting in a bay which is now the Hoornse Hop. Hoorn was already in existence then, founded in 716, Hoorn rapidly grew to become a major harbour town. During Hollands Golden Age, Hoorn was an important home base for the Dutch East India Company, the Hoorn fleet plied the seven seas and returned laden with precious commodities. Exotic spices such as pepper, nutmeg, cloves, and mace were sold at vast profits, with their skill in trade and seafaring, sons of Hoorn established the towns name far and wide. Jan Pieterszoon Coen is famous for his violent raids in Dutch Indies and he has a big statue on the Rode Steen square in the center of Hoorn. In 1618 Willem Bontekoe undertook his first and only voyage for the VOC, Bontekoe van Hoorn, begrijpende veel wonderlijcke en gevaerlijcke saecken hem daer in wedervaren
2.
George Baker (Dutch singer)
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George Baker is a Dutch singer and songwriter who, with his band George Baker Selection, scored two international hits in the 1970s, Paloma Blanca and Little Green Bag. Little Green Bag is used as the soundtrack for the movie Reservoir Dogs. Bouwens was born 8 December 1944, the child of a Dutch woman and his father was killed while attempting to escape, before Bouwens was born. He was raised in Hoorn, in a neighborhood, with only a radio. By 1967 Bouwens was living in Wormerveer and joined the band Soul Invention and they changed their name to George Baker Selection, Bouwens naming himself for a character from a detective novel. The band consisted of Jan Hop, Jacobus Greuter, George The, the song was written in reference to the American dollar and was titled Little Greenback but the record company misinterpreted the words. The new name stuck and it was used, however, the words in the song then, and now, are greenback not green bag. The success came as a surprise for Baker, who remembers hearing in on the radio at work, the single sold over one million copies globally, and received a gold disc. A string of singles and albums followed, the single, Dear Ann, was such a success that Baker quit his job in the lemonade factory. Besides scoring hits with his own band, he wrote songs for others, including BZN, The Shoes, Andy Star. In 1974 singer Lida Bond joined the band, and combining her voice with Bakers proved highly successful and their fifth album, Paloma Blanca, was released in 1975, and the single Paloma Blanca reached No.1 on charts in several countries. By this time Nelleke Brzoskowsky was the singer, she had joined in 1975, Paloma Blanca sold more than seven million copies worldwide, making it one of the most successful Dutch singles ever. In 1978 the George Baker Selection split up because the pressure had become too much, the band has sold over 20 million records worldwide. George Baker formed a new George Baker Selection in 1985, which stayed together until 1989, the band has released twelve albums and several compilation albums. The band experienced a return to the international charts in 1992 when the song Little Green Bag was used in the title sequence of the film Reservoir Dogs. The song is featured in a Moto X smartphone commercial circa 2013. In 2015 Little Green Bag was used in the fadeout of some episodes of the Australian drama LOVE CHILD, after the George Baker Selection split up in 1978, Baker performed as a solo artist until 1985, when he briefly returned with a new George Baker Selection. Since 1989 he has again worked solo
3.
Netherlands
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The Netherlands, also informally known as Holland is the main constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a densely populated country located in Western Europe with three territories in the Caribbean. The European part of the Netherlands borders Germany to the east, Belgium to the south, and the North Sea to the northwest, sharing borders with Belgium, the United Kingdom. The three largest cities in the Netherlands are Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague, Amsterdam is the countrys capital, while The Hague holds the Dutch seat of parliament and government. The port of Rotterdam is the worlds largest port outside East-Asia, the name Holland is used informally to refer to the whole of the country of the Netherlands. Netherlands literally means lower countries, influenced by its low land and flat geography, most of the areas below sea level are artificial. Since the late 16th century, large areas have been reclaimed from the sea and lakes, with a population density of 412 people per km2 –507 if water is excluded – the Netherlands is classified as a very densely populated country. Only Bangladesh, South Korea, and Taiwan have both a population and higher population density. Nevertheless, the Netherlands is the worlds second-largest exporter of food and agricultural products and this is partly due to the fertility of the soil and the mild climate. In 2001, it became the worlds first country to legalise same-sex marriage, the Netherlands is a founding member of the EU, Eurozone, G-10, NATO, OECD and WTO, as well as being a part of the Schengen Area and the trilateral Benelux Union. The first four are situated in The Hague, as is the EUs criminal intelligence agency Europol and this has led to the city being dubbed the worlds legal capital. The country also ranks second highest in the worlds 2016 Press Freedom Index, the Netherlands has a market-based mixed economy, ranking 17th of 177 countries according to the Index of Economic Freedom. It had the thirteenth-highest per capita income in the world in 2013 according to the International Monetary Fund, in 2013, the United Nations World Happiness Report ranked the Netherlands as the seventh-happiest country in the world, reflecting its high quality of life. The Netherlands also ranks joint second highest in the Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index, the region called Low Countries and the country of the Netherlands have the same toponymy. Place names with Neder, Nieder, Nether and Nedre and Bas or Inferior are in use in all over Europe. They are sometimes used in a relation to a higher ground that consecutively is indicated as Upper, Boven, Oben. In the case of the Low Countries / the Netherlands the geographical location of the region has been more or less downstream. The geographical location of the region, however, changed over time tremendously
4.
Wormerveer
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Wormerveer is a town in the Dutch province of North Holland. It is a part of the municipality of Zaanstad, and lies about 13 km northwest of Amsterdam, Wormerveer has a population of around 11,225. Wormerveer was a municipality until 1974, when it became a part of the new municipality of Zaanstad. Railway station Wormerveer There are 4 trains per hour from Monday to Friday to Amsterdam,2 trains per hour operate on Saturdays and Sundays. Herman Gorter Gerrit Mannoury Hamlet Oddsocks prominent LTO member Piet-Hein Out Dutch circus photographer J. Kuyper, Gemeente Atlas van Nederland, 1865-1870, map of the former municipality, around 1868
5.
Otis Redding
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Otis Ray Redding, Jr. was an American singer, songwriter, record producer, arranger, and talent scout. He is considered one of the greatest singers in the history of American popular music and his singing style influenced many other soul artists of the 1960s. During his lifetime, his recordings were produced by Stax Records, based in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1958, he joined Johnny Jenkinss band, the Pinetoppers, with whom he toured the Southern states as a singer and driver. An unscheduled appearance on a Stax recording session led to a contract and his first single, These Arms of Mine, Stax released Reddings debut album, Pain in My Heart, two years later. Initially popular mainly with African-Americans, Redding later reached a wider American pop music audience, along with his group, he first played small gigs in the American South. He later performed at the popular Los Angeles night club Whisky a Go Go and toured Europe, performing in London, Paris and he also performed at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967. Shortly before his death in a crash, Redding wrote. The song became the first posthumous number-one record on both the Billboard Hot 100 and R&B charts, the album The Dock of the Bay was the first posthumous album to reach number one on the UK Albums Chart. Already on the verge of bankruptcy, the label soon discovered that Atlantic Records owned the rights to his song catalog. Redding received many accolades, including the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In addition to The Dock of the Bay, Respect and Try a Little Tenderness are among his best-known songs, Redding was born in Dawson, Georgia, the fourth of six children, and the first son, of Otis Redding, Sr. and Fannie Mae Redding. Redding senior was a sharecropper and then worked at Robins Air Force Base, near Macon, when Otis was three the family moved to Tindall Heights, a predominantly African-American public housing project in Macon. At an early age, Redding sang in the Vineville Baptist Church choir and learned guitar, from age 10, he took drum and singing lessons. At Ballard-Hudson High School, he sang in the school band, every Sunday he earned $6 by performing gospel songs for Macon radio station WIBB. His passion was singing, and he often cited Little Richard, Redding said that he would not be here without Little Richard and that he entered the music business because of Richard – he is my inspiration. I used to sing like Little Richard, his Rock n Roll stuff and my present music has a lot of him in it. At age 15, Redding left school to help support his family, his father had contracted tuberculosis and was often hospitalized. He worked as a digger, as a gasoline station attendant
