Like most bloggers, I've got a bazillion tabs open on my internet browser at any one time. Whenever I run across anything that I want to post to Extreme Craft or Readymade, I just open a tab and get back to it whenever I can. Unfortunately, some things wait and wait for me to post them, but I never find the inspiration or the right moment to do it.
One such thing is this YouTube clip of Arthur van Poppel, a very committed, very talented... perhaps very disturbed one-man-band from the Netherlands. You might already know him from such Dutch Television shows as "Man bijt hond " and "Hart von Nederland". Mr. van Poppel came into my radar about a month ago when I ran across a story about his musical/mechanical creations, which seem to be spiraling out of control! Witness the above photo of his "Nautilus", a modified steampunk golf cart-cum-Captain Nemo pleasurecraft that allows him to play any number of instruments while making fire shoot out the back.
There's also The Music Car--the hot pink pussy magnet featured above. The Music Car actually includes a scissor lift that lifts Mr. van Poppel, Garth Brooks-like, high above the city streets of the Dutch towns he busks in.
Talented as he is, like most Dutch street performers, Mr. van Poppel loooooooves him some John Denver. You can find other clips on YouTube of him performing a version of "Take Me Home, Country Road" that will have you tapping your wooden shoes.
His whole schtick is super endearing. Check out how Mr. van Poppel stays abreast of trends. His Music Car is decorated in that hot-pink and confetti color scheme that Urban Outfitters' color scientists have spent the past few years working out. The Nautilus is going to have crushed velvet clad steampunks clamoring for more John Denver. I wish he was my crazy uncle (Dutch uncle?).
I'm actually posting this right now to attempt to purge him from my consciousness. Every time I restart my browser, the YouTube clip at the top of this post automatically loads and plays his version of "If I Had a Hammer", complete with his little "doodle-oodle-oodle-oodle-oodly-doo" yodeling bit.
I'm closing that tab now...and spreading my sickness to the rest of you. Mission accomplished.
LINK to Mr. van Poppel's website
