Huub den Ouden: ‘I have a great love for songs that go completely off the rails’

As an audiovisual manager, Huub den Ouden is a man from behind the screens. But he is also a member of the University Council. Now he is climbing the barricades for the organization of the Tilburg relay strike against education cuts. A good occasion to ask him 13 questions.

1. What did you want to be as a child?

‘There were two things, I wanted to be a football player, or a funfair worker. As a child I was very fascinated by the Tilburg funfair, that was instilled in me from an early age. And I liked playing football, we actually did nothing else when we were little.’

2. What are you most proud of?

‘Instinctively, I immediately say my two daughters. But if I focus a bit on my career here? I have experienced the entire conversion from analogue to digital. I started here cleaning overhead projectors and could tell you everything about slide projectors. But now I can also tell you everything about our video platform. I came in with training as a nurse and am proud of the growth I have experienced.’

3. What is your biggest fear?

‘I hate insects. Crane flies, large spiders, when it comes to those I’m a wimp. My daughters make fun of me for that.’

4. Which book would you recommend to everyone?

‘Out of Mind by Bernlef. If you want to be able to imagine what it is like to have dementia, that is a good book to get a feel for it. You experience the transition of someone who is slowly becoming demented, I think it’s very cleverly described. I’m not an avid reader, but that’s a book that has always stayed with me.’

5. What music can’t you get enough of?

‘I’m a big music lover, but it varies. Last weekend I went to a Slowdive concert. And lately I’ve also been listening to Teenage Fanclub.

‘But that can change daily, if you ask me next week, I might just name two other bands. I have a great love for the Beatles and perfect pop songs, but I have an equally great love for songs that go completely off the rails.’

6. What should be common knowledge (but isn’t)?

‘That it’s okay to say that you don’t know something. That you can refer people to someone who does know, instead of pretending to be someone you are not.’

7. You have an unexpected afternoon off, how do you spend the time?

‘Then I would go to the music store in the city center to buy a record or CD. I don’t visit to the city that often anymore. And otherwise, I’ll go to the heath with my girlfriend to walk the dog.’

‘Huub is not the name my parents gave me’

8. What wise lesson would you give to your younger self?

‘In my adolescence I was pretty mmuch go with the flow. In retrospect, I should have put more effort into taking a serious look at what I wanted to do at the time. It wasn’t until I was over 20 that things really started to take off.”

9. What do few people know about you?

‘That Huub is not the name my parents gave me. I don’t want to say more about that.’

10. What does really get your goat?

‘Election campaigns, especially for The Hague politics. Politicians that focus on short-term memory and promise mountains of gold and free beer, while we all know that we live in a coalition country and that everything will be the result of a lot of negotiations. I miss realism.’

11. What really needs to change at the university?

‘I think we are to some extent all working on separate islands of services departments and schools, and that we need to take a good look at ourselves for ways we can work together better.’

‘As a Willem II supporter, you need to maintain the calluses on your soul by going to see the games regularly’

12. Never work again or never go on holiday again?

‘I can’t really imagine what it’s like not to work, but I think never going on holiday again is quite drastic. Since I put my private life above my work life, I say never work again.’

13. Never go to Willem II again or never go to a concert again?

‘That is a very sick choice. I wouldn’t want to miss Willem II, I’m very attached to that club. As a Willem II supporter, you also have a lot of calluses on your soul, that need to be maintained by going to see the games regularly. But I have also been to a lot of concerts and I am a volunteer at 013. A diabolical dilemma, but then I’ll never go to Willem II again.’

_Advertentie.