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Yahoo
15-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Famous birthdays for July 15: Brian Austin Green, Taylor Kinney
July 15 (UPI) -- Those born on this date are under the sign of Cancer. They include: -- Artist Rembrandt van Rijn in 1606 -- Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini in 1850 -- Writer Iris Murdoch in 1919 -- Hassanal Bolkiah, sultan of Brunei, in 1946 (age 79) -- Musician Linda Ronstadt in 1946 (age 79) -- Musician Artimus Pyle (Lynyrd Skynyrd) in 1948 (age 77) -- Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, prime minister of United Arab Emirates, in 1949 (age 76) -- WWE Hall of Fame member/former Gov. Jesse Ventura in 1951 (age 74) -- Actor Terry O'Quinn in 1952 (age 73) -- Musician Marky Ramone in 1952 (age 73) -- Actor Celia Imrie in 1952 (age 73) -- Musician Ian Curtis (Joy Division) in 1956 -- Musician Joe Satriani in 1956 (age 69) -- Musician Mac McAnally in 1957 (age 68) -- Actor/filmmaker Forest Whitaker in 1961 (age 64) -- Actor Brigitte Nielsen in 1963 (age 62) -- TV personality Adam Savage in 1967 (age 58) -- Actor Eddie Griffin in 1968 (age 57) -- Actor Jim Rash in 1971 (age 54) -- Actor Scott Foley in 1972 (age 53) -- Musician John Dolmayan (System of a Down) in 1972 (age 53) -- Actor Brian Austin Green in 1973 (age 52) -- Actor Diane Kruger in 1976 (age 49) -- Comedian Gabriel Iglesias in 1976 (age 49) -- Actor Lana Parrilla in 1977 (age 48) -- Musician Ray Toro (My Chemical Romance) in 1977 (age 48) -- Actor Travis Fimmel in 1979 (age 47) -- Actor Laura Benanti in 1979 (age 47) -- Actor Taylor Kinney in 1981 (age 44) -- Actor Yahya Abdul-Mateen II in 1986 (age 39) -- Actor Aimee Carrero in 1988 (age 37) -- Actor/musician Tristan Wilds in 1989 (age 36) -- Actor Mason Dye in 1994 (age 31) -- Actor Iain Armitage in 2008 (age 17)
The Guardian
13-03-2025
- The Guardian
Rembrandt's Amsterdam – walking the Amstel River 750 years after the city's birth
For visitors in search of scenic walking routes, the province of North Holland is perhaps not an obvious choice. The landscape is famously as flat as the local pancakes and picturesque mountains, forests and waterfalls are in short supply. The Guardian's journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more. Head into the countryside south of Amsterdam, however, and you can find lovely walking routes amid a quintessentially Dutch landscape of green fields, windmills and waterways. Walks along the Amstel River, which flows north into Amsterdam, also offer an opportunity to follow in famous footsteps. Rembrandt van Rijn lived for much of his life close to the river, was fond of walking its banks and produced some beautiful pictures here. With Amsterdam about to celebrate its 750th birthday in June, it's a good moment to see the city from another angle, along the waterway which gave the city its name. My walk in Rembrandt's footsteps begins in Ouderkerk aan de Amstel, a small town a few miles south of Amsterdam. Ouderkerk isn't big but it's exceedingly pleasant; a warren of narrow brick streets cradled by the river, with a tall church tower standing at the centre like an upturned drawing pin. I don't linger long but take a moment to see the Beth Haim Jewish cemetery, where dozens of old gravestones tilt in the soft grass. Nearby, streets are filled with diggers piling sandbags, and signs warning: Let op! Drijfzand (Watch out! Quicksand) – a reminder that much of the area I'll be walking through was reclaimed from the water over many centuries, and remains below sea level today. Leaving Ouderkerk, I walk north along a narrow gravel footpath that tracks the Amstel like a handrail. It is a glorious sunny day, with birds flitting in and out of the tall rushes on the riverbank, and rowers skimming across the water like skittery insects. Yet despite all this movement, the Amstel itself is as tranquil as a mill pond – in a land without hills, you can barely tell many waterways are moving. As I walk north, the Amstel is at first lined with terrace houses but the landscape soon opens out, with raised riverbanks offering views across the emerald fields beyond. During Amsterdam's Golden Age in the 17th century, many of the city's wealthy merchants owned weekend homes here. Today, most of the older homes have been replaced by modern mansions, but there's still one magnificent 18th-century creation left, the Oostermeer, with a sweeping gravel drive. I take a photo and resolve that if my little book on Amsterdam turns out to be a bestseller, I'll buy a palace here too. Continuing north, I pass a stone obelisk as high as a house, engraved with the words Terminus Proscriptionis. Studying my map, I realise it is a banpaal (ban pole), marking the outer boundary of Amsterdam, which any criminal banned from the city would be forbidden to pass. Rembrandt, as a notorious spendthrift and love rat, may have been lucky to have avoided being banished himself. A mile or so later, on a big bend in the river, there's a pretty windmill next to a big statue of Rembrandt kneeling on the grass in hat and cape, sketching on a pad that rests on his knee. Looking south, I see a view that hasn't changed much since Rembrandt etched it in 1641: a rumpled meadow, a slender church tower in the distance, and a small boat sailing along the river. Five miles after leaving Ouderkerk, I arrive in Amsterdam proper. After the tranquillity of the countryside, the bustle of the city comes as a shock. The narrow riverside trail is replaced by wide streets with clanging trams, joggers, cars and cyclists. Here, the Amstel is perhaps half as wide as the River Thames, and lined with big old sailing barges converted into houseboats. Rembrandt sketched another picture showing this area, known as the Omval, with a massive tree standing like a gnarled fist by the river. Things look rather different these days. Just after midday on a weekday, restaurant terraces overlooking the Amstel are already filled with people drinking white wine and eating expensive salads. The Dutch work some of the shortest hours in Europe, and it shows. I continue north, past the H'ART museum, which will host a Rembrandt exhibition from 9 April. Then I cross the river over the stately Blauwbrug, or blue bridge, which isn't blue. Rembrandt drew a famous view of the Amstel from the Blauwbrug in the late 1640s, now in the Rijksmuseum. Looking west I see the grand waterside home of Rembrandt's patron Jan Six, who commissioned many works. If you ask nicely, many weeks in advance (via the Six Collection website), you may be allowed inside to see the portrait Rembrandt did of Jan Six in 1654, now hanging so Six appears to be keeping a watchful eye on the river. Sign up to The Traveller Get travel inspiration, featured trips and local tips for your next break, as well as the latest deals from Guardian Holidays after newsletter promotion After a brief detour to see the big Rembrandt statue on the touristy Rembrandtplein , I head away from the Amstel to the Nieuwmarkt, a wide square ringed by bars and cafes. The space is dominated by the Waag, a big turreted building. It was here that Rembrandt created one of his most famous works, The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp, showing doctors dissecting the corpse of an executed criminal. Nearby, on the Nieuwe Doelenstraat, you can also see the spot where Rembrandt delivered his most famous work: The Night Watch. I walk south along the Sint Antoniesbreestraat. My final stop is hard to miss: in a street of ugly modern buildings there's one beautiful 17th-century facade; a five-storey brick mansion with red shutters on the windows like the doors on an Advent calendar. This is the house where Rembrandt lived for nearly two decades, now a museum. The interior is largely a modern reconstruction but it's hard not to feel a shiver of excitement when you see the sunlit studio where he painted some of history's most famous art. The museum closes and I decamp to the Sluyswacht, a pub just across the street in a little lockkeeper's cottage which looks as if it's been lifted from the pages of a fairytale. This place is not quite as old as Rembrandt – it was built 26 years after he died – but it is surely one of most picturesque pubs in Europe. I sit outside by the canal, drink a pilsje of beer and eat a plate of cheese, and think: that Rembrandt, he had good taste. The Invention of Amsterdam, A History of Europe's Greatest City in Ten Walks by Ben Coates is published by Scribe UK (£12.99). To support the Guardian and the Observer buy a copy at Delivery charges may apply
