Discover Bar & Restaurant Milú: Lunch / Dinner / Meetings / Events Bar & Restaurant Milú recently opened its doors in the heart of The Hague, at the border of the historical ‘Hofkwartier’, opposite the Old City Hall. Its exclusive private space on the first floor makes it an ideal location for private dinners and drinks, receptions, workshops, meetings, events and (wedding)parties. The bar & restaurant on the ground floor offers a large selection of specialty beers, open wines, cocktails and Gin & Tonics. Recommended is the tasting of special beers; a tasting of their 3 varying special draft beers, served on a cute wooden platter. Not a beer drinker? Try out their cocktails, every Wednesday from 5 pm it’s cocktail night, with cocktails for only €5,-. But Milú is not only worth visiting for drinks, the dinner menu is surprising mix of small international dishes, perfect to try many things and/or to share them with your table companions. With its warm industrial interior and a year-round heated terrace in front, this unique new venue is definitely worth a visit. www.restaurantmilu.nl    

By Dmitry Badiarov, independent contributor to the Diplomat magazine Russian-born violinist Sergey Malov, known for his mastery of three instruments, namely the violin, the viola and the recently rediscovered violoncello da spalla, gave a truly impressive performance at Concertgebouw in Amsterdam on July 23, where he played with the Concertgebouw’s frequent guest, the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, led by Bernhard Forck. Before the concert, the artists and audience stood for one minute of silence in memory of the victims of flight MH17. The program included a concerto by Unico Wilhelm van Wassenaer, the cello concerto in D by the Neapolitan Leonardo Leo, the Brandenburg Concerto No.3 and Orchestra Suite No. 2 by Johann Sebastian Bach, and the violin concerto in B by Giuseppe Tartini. Malov performed both as violinist and cellist. In the opening Wassenaer concerto Malov and Forck offered beautiful and powerful solo parts on the violin. Sergey Malov performed Leo’s cello concerto with breathtaking virtuosity on the shoulder-held violoncello da spalla, an instrument much in use in the 18th century. One of Malov’s assets is his fluency in a broad range of musical styles, from the Baroque to contemporary music and even jazz, and connoisseurs knew that some improvisation was to be expected. But the audience were given to hear something that went far beyond their expectations as Malov treated them to a dazzling abundance of ornamentations and cadenze improvised ex tempore. His magnificent cadenza in the Tartini violin concerto in B deserves a description of its own, not only because of its impressive length, but because of its great wealth of musical invention – all of it perfectly true to the style of the concerto. At the same time, Malov suprised connoisseurs among the audience with a display of entirely innovative bowing techniques. He also allowed himself a musical pleasantry by inserting several improvised passages from the cadenza into the following orchestral reprise. Sergey Malov has been invited to play concertos on both the violin and the viola by the London Philharmonic, the Tokyo Philharmonic and the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks in Munich, the Camerata Salzburg and the Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg. The Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin (AKAMUS) chose Malov as their soloist for a programe of Italian concertos for the violin and the violoncello da spalla at to be performed at the Berlin Philharmonic Hall on 15 November 2013. Malov’s Baroque instrument collection consists of a violoncello da spalla and a baroque violin built by luthier Dmitry Badiarov (2011 and 2013, The Hague) and at this moment he is working on the modern violin for him. On September 5 Malov gave a recital with pianist Florian Birsak at the Festival Oude Muziek in Utrecht. Their performance was more than noteworthy indeed.

Indeed life is unpredictable

By Guillaume Kavaruganda, Minister Counselor at the Embassy of Rwanda in Netherlands Even though my hobby is reading (fiction and non-fiction) I never fought that one day I will read poetry, until I got a book written by Charles Bukoskwi. The writer was unknown to me by then. I got intoxicated with the book and took the decision to buy and read all he has written. In a very short time I had finished all his 6 novels. The remaining was his prose and poetry.  Since my thirst regarding the author was not satisfied, I started reading his poetry. From then on I changed my mind on poetry. Who is Charles Bukoskwi? Henry Charles Bukowski (born Heinrich Karl Bukowski on August 16, 1920 – and passed away on March 9, 1994) was a German-born American poet, novelist and short story writer. His writing was influenced by the social, cultural, and economic ambience of his home city of Los Angeles. His work addresses the ordinary lives of poor Americans, the act of writing, alcohol, relationships with women, and the drudgery of work. Bukowski wrote thousands of poems, hundreds of short stories and six novels, eventually publishing over sixty books. In 1986 Time called Bukowski a “laureate of American lowlife”. Charles Bukoskwi has changed the way the majority, intellectuals and not, perceived poetry. He is the best known contemporary writers of poetry and prose, and many claim it’s most influential and imitated poet. All of his books have now been published in translation in more than a dozen languages and his worldwide popularity remains undiminished. In writing this column, I want to invite you to discover the author with the hope that you will enjoy his writing as I did. Your feedback would be appreciated. You can use my email gkavaruganda@gmail.com .  His books and poetry can be found at American Book Center, in The Hague and Amsterdam. Welcome on board. gkavaruganda@gmail.com

By William Rumley-van Gurp. That’s what the report “CTR-ALT-DEL” from the University of Twente says is lost each year for the whole of the Netherlands because of low computer skills.  What this means, is that each worker is losing on the average of 7 minutes each hour trying to find a command, do something new, or asking a colleague how to do it. All of this is because people are not getting basic business computer skills training. One of the problems is that in the Netherlands most computer training is in Dutch.  Training courses in English are limited to groups of ten or more and then the trainer is not experienced with a cross cultural situation of the student needs.  Moreover, the use of non-native English speakers may not be enough for proper understanding and knowledge transfer, especially when the receivers are also using English as a second or even third language. I am an American who understands the needs of the International community and with over 16 years’ experience providing courses in the Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint). I am very happy working with a group of people from many different backgrounds and languages as they work to learn the technical terms and best business practices in these computer applications. If you need help with your computer or you see a need with your staff on the computer I can help. You can find out more on the website or Facebook page below: www.cftrainingtoday.com or www.facebook.com/CandlesFlameTraining