Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Rotterdam's Bird Man







Right now, somewhere in the city of Rotterdam (Netherlands), there's a man living in an enormous nest attached to the side of a skyscraper (above). From time to time, he dons a feather headdress. There's also a giant egg involved (below). What's the meaning of all of this? Your guess is as good as mine. You see, the guy's website is entirely in Dutch. I have a sneaking suspicion it's ART of some sort. (Though wouldn't it be great if it were all deadly serious?)

Any Dutch speakers out there who'd care to clue us in?







via Neatorama

21 comments:

Ms. Bookworm said...

This is what google translate understands of the first text:

A 24-day-long theatrical you who 50 mtr bovenhet weena rotterdam unfolds in the tragic course of a man comes and looks in an attempt to embrace his audience falls

And under the blogposts are a button who says ENG and if you take your mouse over that it'll translate the post ^^ But... I still can't understand why he does it :P Well, awesome no matter what!

Ms. Bookworm said...

Well, now I got it to understand some more and i think it stands like this:

A 24-day-long theatrical who is 50 meters above the ground after rotterdam unfolds in the tragic course of a man comes and looks in an attempt to embrace his audience falls


But... I still don't get it! Is he going to fall? Is he a idiot in pink feathers? Is he stupidly brave? Is there something wrong with Google Translator? Well, I admire his courage...

Kitty said...

Nope, don't understand Dutch at all. XD I wonder how it's like up there....

International Mastermind said...

Wow. That's pretty cool. Crazy, but cool.

Patsee said...

(Sorry if this goes through twice-- my computer's evil)

For the first page, I got mostly the same as Ms. Bookworm, but for the second page, this is what I got from a translator, if you can make heads or tails of it:

Yesterday various sophie the devil , closing bid ijsheiligenkoningin.Vandaag tendency within Rotterdam worn 50 meter altitude toe the weenatoren one nest.Nest comes can nidus , with humble and sit. Nest is vestigen.Nestelaar is hj / they who sit down , somewhere worn broedtmaar too nothing doetDraler aarzelaarHij who solely with trouble tevoorschijn komtAarzelen ( is within the trend with one's {backside} walk scarcely tendency worn major altitude )





On second thought, most of the images look photoshopped, particularly the one of a man walking across a street strewn with straw.

spiffy said...

Yeah if you put your mouse over the ENG it sort of translates to english.

sekrit7 said...

Anyone ever consider the guy was just weird? = D

Sekrit7 said...

http://www.bookpeople.com/index.php?com=camps


CLICK IT!!!!
I would kill to go to this camp. And I am not exagerating at all. But I live all the way in SF. If anyone lives in/near Austin, you should totally go. But you have to tell us all about it! I WANNA GOOOO!
Wow, I sound really bratty in that post, sorry!

Anonymous said...

ok, like ms.bookworm, I understand what he's doing because of the english button,(though sometimes its rather hard to understand even then) but not sure why... heres what i got out of the home page though:

a 7-day 24 long drama presentation who are 50 m. the above weena in Rotterdam unfolds During the tragiche (tragic?) of a man who komtziet (???) enin (?) a attempt to embrace audience falls...

But then what? Anyway, I think this guys a little crazy. youd have to be to do anything like this, no matter what reason you had. Im not saying crazy is a bad thing... I myself am. :P

-hidden

Anonymous said...

ok... so there is one page that doesnt have an english button, so I tries trnslating it. (ugh)

in Rotterdam against the weenatoren a nest hangs high. Insists on a man. He has plumes on his head. It is blowing hard. The man explains his head into the wind to survive to continue.

It goes on like that. Yeah, thats guy is weird.

-hidden

Anonymous said...

i call san luis obispo!!! ps i am reading Flora Segunda (almost),now. pps a friend at my homeschool thingy would LOVE the raidoactive lemmings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

once you put the cursor over the ENG, it translates the Dutch. but in one part it said the word "XXXX" and it also said "XXXX"

the actual words are not shown in my comment.

Random Irregular said...

Birds are nice. Teehee.
Reading all these translations is confusing.

E-star said...

Omg, that is very cool but very, VERY strange! ;) I think the guy probably just wants publicity. Boring answer, I know. But that is acctually what I believe.

Or maybe he has some sort of transforming-into-a-bird-thing going on?? xp

Kirsten Miller said...

Ms. Bookworm, Patsee, and Anonymous: Thank you so much for your translating efforts!

Anonymous #4: Does that mean that they're curse words?

dangerous said...

Form all the weird translations, i gather that the website doesn't have anyone who speaks english very well, so we're all in the same non-bilingual boat

dangerous said...

"A tendancy to follow your arse, unwise at high altitude". pg 2, second paragraph. hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
hahahahahahahahahahahhahaahhahahahaha
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
:)

Anonymous said...

yeah, there are some "cuss" words in there.

that includes s***

Patsee said...

When I clicked on/moused over the "eng" button., it just sent me up to the top of the page... Odd.

ss chick said...

thats so rad! hahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! hooo, just to awesome. and no, i'm not mocking him. i think it's really cool.

Arlie said...

een 7 dagen 24 durende toneelvoorstelling die zich 50 mtr boven het in Rotterdam ontvouwt de tragische loop van een man die komt ziet hen in een poging zijn toehoorders omarmen valt


I got....


7 days a 24-long theatrical moving 50 meters above the Rotterdam unfolds in the tragic course of a man who will see them in an attempt audiences embrace falls