Ja mensen, uw Fred zit sinds vandaag achter een nieuwe(!) iMac. Wat is dat toch een schitterend apparaat. Die iMac. Thuis heb ik een MacBook. Eveneens een prachtig apparaat. Schitterend, gewoon. Daarnaast heb ik dan de witte iPhone 16Gb. Ik ben helemaal hip. Maar dat wist u al. Aan de andere kant, helemaal weg- en vastgeroest aan alle ouwe rotzooi in mijn huis. Ouwer dan ikzelf. Het leven is toch maar mooi.
Of ik een verhaaltje wilde schrijven over mezelf. Nou, dat doen we dan maar. Kijkt u even mee? En het is dan allemaal in het Engels.
Fred Händl
Support
Hello, my name is Fred Händl. I was born ('72) in Chicago, Ill and raised in Eindhoven, in the south of The Netherlands. I have an insatiable appetite for all things creative (music, arts, literature but also graffiti, advertising and cinema). I have done a variety of studies (conservatory of music, musical therapy) and am now completing my studies at the University of The Hague (Communication and Multimedia Design - CMD). I enjoy very much building and maintaining websites. For myself, as well as for my friends. In my spare time, I like to play piano, watch movies and go for a walk in the dunes, that are fortunately very close to the house.
Piano, Guitars, DVDs, CDs, Books, Music
In 1984 (I was twelve) my father brought one of the first CD-players home. A Philips (forgot the type, sorry about that) with a built-in pre-amp. The thing weighed a ton! Living in the city where the technology of transferring digital audio through laser was actually invented (at Philips NatLab, Eindhoven), my father (a Philips employee - like almost 50 per cent of the people living in Eindhoven at that time) got a big discount on that player. It costed him 2,400 Dutch guilders (appr. $ 1,500 US Dollars). Man, THAT was a lot of money back than.
The player had no remote control, but came with 4 FREE CDs! 'Let's Dance' by David Bowie, 'Love over Gold' by Dire Straits, 'Seven and the Ragged Tiger' by Duran Duran and a classical music sampler from the Archiv label. I was in awe.
It was simply the most wonderful thing I had ever seen and heard! I remember too that with the player and the disc, a catalog was issued. A book, consisting of a mere 200 pages. Containing ALL the then available CDs. With cover art and descriptions! The Full CD Guide 1984/1985. It's insane what happened since. A couple of years back, I bought The Penguin Guide To Jazz On CD. A massive book, with over 1,500 pages and only the index counts around 250 pages. And that's "jazz".
1984, the year of Purple Rain (Prince, one of my all time heroes), will never be forgotten. It was the start of my addiction.. er.. collection. It started with those three CDs that came with the player (my father kept the classical music sampler).
Three years ago, I started collecting DVD's. My collection not being as voluminous as my CD collection, but already sporting almost 1,000 titles.
And then there's my instrument collection (three spanish guitars, four electric guitars and one grand piano).
My life is pretty much about music. I have been playing piano since the age of five (give or take a year) and I've been playing guitar now for about twenty years. I have a very broad taste in music, but some of favorite musicians/composers/ ensembles are Frank Zappa, Yosuke Yamashita, Chucho Valdés, Chick Corea, Michael Angelo Batio, Nobukazu Takemura, Paul Gilbert, Prince, The Beatles, Tom Waits, Dweezil Zappa, Steve Vai, Erroll Garner, Jelly Roll Morton, Dream Theater, Meshuggah, Uri Caine, Ryuichi Sakamoto, John Zorn, Edgar Varèse, Johann Sebastian Bach, Frederic Chopin, Dmitri Shostakovich, Charlie Haden, Al Di Meola, Joe Satriani, Yngwie Malmsteen, en zo nog.
I write a weekly column for an online music magazine and I have written and published two books.
At Collectorz.com
On March 15th (that's today!) I joined this great team and my job is to answer all your questions regarding the use of the collecting software and to make sure the online FAQs, support pages and online manuals are up to date. I'm a user, too.
© Fred Händl - 2010
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