Holland, Michigan

Kidman is creepy as fuck.

Is it in one of white trash militia parts of Michigan?

Have a good friend who moved there last year. She describes it as Stepford meets Pleasantville meets Vladivostok.

Used to have a sizable Dutch population, hence the name. I think they may an annual Wooden Shoe Festival (or something like that).

Lots of cathlicks

Sure isn't NYC.

"a plot centered during the city’s renowned Tulip Time Festival."

[quote]Is it in one of white trash militia parts of Michigan?

Yes.

It's the Amsterdam of the upper midwest!

Herman Miller is there.

I read the script years ago. It’s actually really funny. I don’t want to give the plot away but it’s about a housewife who suspects her husband is having an affair and it gets darker.

The funniest little thing I remember is this scene where she breaks into his office at work and goes all undercover detective. And she’s looking through his drawers to find clues and she finds a bag of candy and starts eating it. Lol. I don’t know why that stuck out but it was hilarious reading it.

The Dutch Reformed Church, deeply conservative, is the dominant religion and city and county officials are church members.

[quote]Lots of cathlicks

No, lots of Dutch and Christian Reformed, who have a low opinion of Catholics. I know two people from the Holland area who were raised in the Reformed religion and were completely disowned by their families for marrying Catholics. Granted, it was 40 and 50 years ago, but none of their kids or grandkids have ever met anyone fro the Reformed families.

Kidman is SUCH a phony cunt.

My husband is from the area. Grand Rapids itself is an OK city but the surrounding region is dull, conservative, religious and white bread.

Isn’t saugatuck home to the infamous Douglas Dunes gay resort?

Yes, Saugatuck is a big summer destination spot for rich Chicago gays.

Visited there when we visited Saugatuck - there aren't many hotels in Saugatuck (it's more of a rent-a-property kind of place) and stayed in a very nice new modern hotel in Holland.

The downtown is very cute. Lots of cute shops, and a little area where holiday markets and farmers markets are set up.

HOWEVER

Holland is home to an evangelical college and as others have mentioned, Grand Rapids aka Betsy Devos' Cavernous Cunt Landing Pad is not that far away.

We went into a restaurant on the main drag and they were blaring Fox News. Lots of olds there.

I liked the area a lot and we went back a few times....but yeah, it's not exactly nirvana.

"The Dutch settlers and the Ottawa people never got along. Dutch settlers began stealing sugar and venison from the Ottawa. The Dutch were unwilling to accept the Ottawa people's mix of Catholic and Native culture. Soon, Dutch leaders tried to force the natives into wooded land in Allegan County. Eventually, the natives moved north to preserve their way of life and culture. Chief Peter Waukazoo and Reverend George Smith decided to move the community and the Ottawa Mission from Holland up to Northport (on the Leelanau Peninsula), voyaging on boats and canoes."

R16 - That place is such a complete dump nowadays, along with most of the rest of Douglas & Saugatuck. Old and worn out. Was hot stuff 20 years ago.

[quote]Holland is home to an evangelical college and as others have mentioned, Grand Rapids aka Betsy Devos' Cavernous Cunt Landing Pad is not that far away.

Betsy grew up in Holland and one of her and her husband’s many homes is there.

^^^ Gag me with a spoon, to use old lingo...

That's trashy overkill if I ever saw it.

And yes, the Dutch Reformed till hold sway in Holland, Mi. and adjacent areas.

It's unfortunate that most of the Dutch-dominated places in the US are populated by the ultra conservative, brain dead folks out of the Reformed Church who would vote for a a republican candidate under federal indictment rather than for a Democrat. Anyway, that's how they tend to vote in their various enclaves in Michigan, New York and Iowa.

Erik Prince lived in the area (he's the brother-in-law of one of the DeVos') until he bailed out for I think Dubai- apparently he was worried he was going to be arrested or something else.

When did Nicole Kidman turn into a creepy albino lizard?

FYI: erik prince and besty devoss are brother and sister...

This woman makes Martha Stewart look like trailer trash. She's the reno queen of Grand Rapids.

I've hatewatched her Magnolia show because she's so fah fah fah pretentious. LOL

Does Nicole ever take time off?

R26 Amateur

I live in Grand Rapids. We used to vacation every summer at Holland Beach on Lake Michigan. It's a pretty area, it used to be very conservative but times are changing.

What's Grand Rapids like R29? I've heard the name.

Thrillist:

Grand Rapids, Michigan

Big beer and thriving arts a stone’s throw from Lake Michigan

City population: 201,890

Average rent for a 1-BR: $920

Twenty years ago, if you’d have told anyone under 60 that Grand Rapids was one of Michigan’s coolest metro areas, they would have scoffed. But while Detroit was hogging the spotlight as the state’s resurgently cool city, Grand Rapids was padding its resume. Today, you could reasonably argue that GR is the greatest beer city east of the Mississippi thanks to the groundwork laid by pioneering Founders that sprung into a 40+ brewery movement.

The city is also rich in art, food, music, and every other big-city amenity, only in a quieter package. But it won’t stay quiet for long; to goose growth, a recent investment of $1 billion is throwing up residential towers, entertainment venues, and hotels. Even still, Grand Rapids maintains the vibe of a much smaller city, and some of America’s best beach towns are a (Petoskey) stone’s throw away.

Petoskey stones are pieces of fossilized coral strewn about a swathe of Michigan after the last ice age or something like that. Some of them even fluoresce.

In Holland, Michigan all seems to breathe freedom and peace, and to make one forget the world and its sad turmoils.

It certainly all seemed very nice. I liked that the area had cultural elements but wasn't super big.

But yeah, I don't know if I could deal with the evangelical-slash-provincial elements.

R33 What's not to adore?

Already discussed here, nearby Grand Rapids is one of what I label as "quiet cities"; i.e. cities that sort of fly under the radar until they don't. Indeed some cities have sort of emerged from that status and had breakout moments in the national media. And Grand Rapids seems to be slowly emerging in that manner. It's akin to the concept of "getting the word out".

Not too far away from Holland & Grand Rapids is a city in northeast Indiana called Fort Wayne that, given it's size, should be heard about occasionally but which is almost never heard about or thought of.

Grand Rapids is noticeably larger as a metro but the almost absolute "quiet" of Fort Wayne is almost puzzling in a way.

A small city that hit the national stage in a way and had it's breakout is Des Moines. And that largely happened because much media presence periodically dropped in on the city as a part of the coverage of the Iowa Caucus political events. And much of the media was pleasantly surprised at what they saw and liked it and wrote and talked about it.

The sad thing for Des Moines today though, is that it is attached to the rest of the state of Iowa which has slid severely away from it's former status as a purple state politically-speaking and also on a social level.

It’s where I picked up a word salad of heart break!

I wanted an Airedale. They have an Airedale rescue. Claire was a puppy mill dog and they told me about potential health and mental issues. Holy Fuck! I had to return her after 4 years because she kept biting everyone.

I have had the best pets and, with Claire, I felt like I had taken in Dana Plato. I failed as a gay AND as a vapid consumer.

The funniest part of the gay resort The Dunes in Douglas is that there's an open parking lot and woods in the back of the resort. Closeted straight men will drive for miles and cruise the back woods - there used to be a barn back there where things would happen - but a lot of it is out in the open.

Lots of minivans with the family stickers on the back. Or In Christ decals.

I'd never go back there - fucking mosquitoes and chiggers - ain't worth it.

Will we (or should we) see "The Dunes" resort in an upcoming episode of Dateline?

R38 - Sorry to break the news to you, but that land has been developed with condos and none of that exists anymore.

Paul Schrader grew up in Grand Rapids in a Calvinist family, not seeing a movie until he was 17. He holds a B.A. from Calvin College. It's a strange background for a director, but I think it informs his writing. Supposedly [italic]Hard Core[/italic] is based on his background, but I've never seen it. He wrote [italic]Taxi Driver[/italic] and [italic]Bringing Out the Dead[/italic] as well.

Is it a ripoff of this?

R29 A lot of parks, biking trails, lakes, beaches nearby. Great restaurants, brew pubs, art and entertainment. Family oriented and some areas are conservative but becoming more liberal with younger generations. Areas around downtown there are historic houses and very gay friendly. Nice airport and I recently took the Amtrak to Chicago which was a nice way to travel.

R30 the message above is for you.

West Michigan is minted. Wisconsin across the lake is too.

R36 I cross shopped cities to flee from Chicago, and Des Moines, Grand Rapids and Madison were on my short list. Fort Wayne wasn’t even on my radar despite being relatively large. Ended up in the westernmost of those 3 I mentioned.

R38 I went as a visitor to the Dunes Resort and the cabaret act went on and on about the woods in the back.

She's playing a jilted housewife who chases down her husband's affair?

Wouldn't an actress need to have a functioning face to be able to run that gamut of emotions on screen?

She is white to the point of looking bloodless.

Holland has the additional benefit of being in Michigan, which is widely expected to be very resilient to climate change (in large part due to being surrounded by the large supply of fresh water in the world - the Great Lakes) and which may become a 'climate refuge'. I expect at some point we will be arguing over building a wall on the Indiana border to keep the former climate deniers out.

I really kinda want to live in that part of Western Michigan. Benton Harbor/St. Joe is also charming, if a little more rough (parts of it are more like Gary). It seems to be conservative but not as full on loony/Proud Boys as other areas.

Driving up was the first time I experienced a horizontal blizzard. Pickup trucks were spinning out on the road, but my toaster Element kept going.

She must be shooting the sequel to M3GAN there. I’m so happy for her!

Does she still "consistently deny" having had ANY plastic surgery?

Who the fuck does she think she's kidding at this point? Sweet Jews for Jesus! Even Joan Rivers looked more natural at this point!