Friday 20 November 2009

Farewell with great expectations!!

My dearest students,

I intend to have a virtual closure to this project, but you shouldn't understand this as saying goodbye!

I am happy to see that most of you had wonderful posts here.

I myself got pressed by time and did not contribute the way I wanted.
However this space was yours much more than mine, and my role here was mediate your participation.
It worked quite well!

Your selection of films was fantastic I like many of them and those I haven't seen yet were already in my must-see list.
The forms of arts you've mentioned were varied and reflected a very critic perspective of everyday issues in our lives, such as ads, music, and games.
Clarisse's and Julia's posts about sports discuss the most relevant aspects related to its practice: it helps gathering people as well as keeping them healthy and fit. It is very democratic!! There are options to EVERYONE!


I am a dreamer, and as a dreamer I always have huge expectations!
I know that your lives will go on and I hope you have loads of things to do, but...
I'll be around here posting things every now and then, hoping that you come and visit our space.
I'd like to ask you two more things:
1. Write a short post about your plans for the future, particularly in terms of English.
2. Whenever you're online doing something else, just come around, check my posts and leave another one or a comment, or at least a "Hi".

Hope to see you around once in a while,

Janine

Wednesday 18 November 2009

Entertainment Art

I would write about cinema, but I change my mind and decided to write about other kind of art in my opinion as a fan: The creation of games and famous characters.

Electronic games (or video games), attracts people of different ages all around the world.
Since the first game created, the teams responsible for development of games has been seeking to improve each year, to make the best game possible with the technology available in games, create new characters that sometimes are so successful that become symbols of their companies (who ever heard about Mario? And Sonic?) and develop successful games like The Sims, Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter.

The game market is so large that companies which develop games gain millions in sales, sponsorship and even doing contests where people 'addicted' to play,compete in various games trying to get the title of best player and earn a high cash value.The growth of this type of art, estimulated the expansion of a market oriented parallel to serve the young consumers of these games, as various brands of magazines specialized in evaluating how to play certain games, TV shows and documentaries talking exclusively from the world of games and their news, and employees who are paid to play! They do tests in the office 'having fun at work' on the games to pass to consumers what they thought about a game.

Creativity is the secret for the success, that´s the reason for the existance of games of all imaginable kinds. Games of all sports, games based on movies, based on cartoons, on personalities and in most cases, based simply on the creativity of the development team, that create action/horror games as the successful series of Resident Evil or a game completely fairytale as the Zelda series. There are also games that give rise to films such as Tomb Raider and Resident Evil

I love games, on the computer, the platform (video game), the arcade (fliperama) or at phone. The objective is always have fun. I´m putting the link to a video showing parts of the game Resident Evil 4, where you can see quality and particularly the competence of the designers of this game:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEhtIqZ36jk

Film Review


I will finally post here and I decided to start writing about a strange movie that I saw last weekend: Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street. It was adapted from Broadway and is directed by Tim Burton (the exotic director of Edward Scissorhands, Beetlejuice, Sleepy Hollow, Big Fish and the new version of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory).

Johnny Depp is Benjamin Barker, a barber who after being exiled unfairly for 15 years in Australia, returns to London under the name of Sweeney Todd and with a new look, in order to get revenge of the judge Turpin who caused his exile and was responsible for the death of his wife Lucy and adopted her daughter Johana. He returns to work at his old shop, which became the Mr.Lovett´s restaurant (played by Helena Boham Carter, Tim Burton´s wife), a woman who falls in love with Todd and form an alliance with him: Upstairs, Sweeney would kill his customers with his razors silver while downstairs, she would use the victims' flesh as filling for their pies. Everything goes perfectly for them until the day Todd gets his revenge on Turpin. Ironically, on this day that he should be happy, he ends up having the worst day of his life because of a terrible discovery…

The film, despite the dark and gothic side (typical of Burton's films), the countless deaths and the massive amount of blood, can be sad but also funny, with several scenes of black humor, musical moments and a surprised final with a message. Sweeney Todd is a great movie, very well written, well played and deserved to receive the award for best art direction. I recommend.

Greenland - breath taking

Sports - page 129.

Sports used to be the main way of keeping in touch and relaxing with friends. And it still is, sometimes, although it is not as it used to, mostly because nowadays people don't have much time to "waste" with this kind of stuff, and also because technology improved, and people have so much more options and things to do than then.


Even when people do sports, they prefer to go to a gym an do it quickly than play something with other people. They do this not to have fun or to relax. They just do it because they want to get each time thinner, such as their idols.


Nowadays, there are many kinds of sports, and almost all of them have great personalities, and those people can do a enormous influency all over the world, because we all see them as idols, and we admire them. So, lots of kids wanna be as their favourite soccer player or their favourite swimmer.


Because of that, they receive millions and millions to do publicities and marketing to every sort of items. And as people see the people they want to be like using that thing, they also want to buy the thing, and sometimes they don't even need them.



Media and television are always showing new standarts of beauty and fashion, and as people see they are different of them, they start to feel bad about theirselves and want to change their body, in order to get like what they think is beautiful, they go to the fitness centres.

Sport is so popular because it can unite the world. And it can also change people's life.

Monday 16 November 2009

I've gotta feeling...

Hey guys! I'm posting my composition about sport, from page 129.

The feeling brought by sport

There is a growing tendency today of worrying about health and keeping fit. It is true that the cases of overweight have never been so many, however it is also true that our beauty standards are different from the ones we had before. Just by taking a look in a painting from the Renaissance we can notice that by that time man appreciated chubby woman. And you don’t even need to go that far: the pin-up girls from the 1920’s were a lot curvy. Nevertheless, today the girls that appear in TV and magazines have zero fat, just muscles. And the girls from fashion runways… sometimes just the bones! Having said that, it’s easy to understand why is the pressure for having a perfect body so on nowadays.

In addiction to that, sport has been also recognized for its importance when it comes to health itself, once it was already proved by science that people who exercise regularly improve their life quality and tend to live better and longer, avoiding illnesses like heart attack, strokes and stress.
Sport can also be seen as a kind of entertainment, for people who practice it and even for those who enjoy watching others playing. Some sports can reach a high difficulty level, so people who are able to play them well are, in a way, worshiped. And today this phenomena has reached a great proportion. An common example are the cereal boxes from the United States: they don’t come with pictures of mathematic geniuses, TV presenters and not even popstars. Who appears there are sportsmen such as basketball and football players.

It doesn’t matter if it’s teamwork or individual achievement, the fact is that we are a lot influenced by sportspeople. The ability of swimming well or dealing well with a ball for many times beat other abilities like singing, and dancing in terms of popularity. Basketball players can become as famous as Hollywood actors. Handsome soccer players are as harassed as models. The key for their success if probably the fact that their activities are seen as more difficult and less glamorous than others like singing and acting. This way, people end up feeling closer to them.

The American politician Earl Warren had a very interesting quote: “I always turn to the sports section first. The sports page records people's accomplishments; the front page has nothing but man's failures”. Well, we can’t deny that sport has also its disappointments… But the difference from the other disappointments lies, for example, in things such as the following sentence, said by the supporters of a particular Brazilian soccer team: “The feeling can not stop”.

PS.: I am not a vasco supporter, let’s made it clear!!!!! Hahahha But my brother is a “sick” one, so I can’t help to get in touch with things like this. Anyway, I thought it was a good way to end the text… hahah

Friday 13 November 2009

Pieces of art

Hey, guys!

Or girls, better saying... LOL!

I didn't have any doubts of my theme when Janine said we'd write about Art...
I really like movies, paintings and dancing, but nothing grabs my attention as much as music does.

And You guys are in a lucky day, 'cause I could stay ours talking about music, bands, styles, music culture and artists, but it's getting late and I'm too tired for that. So, I guess these few lines will have to be enough...

Music is good for everyone, every time, everywhere. No surprise they have soundtracks for the most different scenes about the most different people, in the most different situations. There are dozens, hundreds, thousands of songs that could express one's suffering for love, but there's always "that special one" that fits the details, and says everything you wish you said instead.

I can say I have my "moments"... A moment to cry and mourn for how unfair life can be sometimes, a moment to laugh and hang out with friends, a moment to feel, fall and think about love, a moment to criticize society and protest about what's happening to humanity, one to relax and feel culture in it's most pure and intuitive way, one to think about nothing at all, and many others. But what's more interesting about music is that it's flexible, it's elastic! Music can fit all the situations of life you can think about. It's just magic.

Thinking of that, I made a selection of songs that can fit some moments of our lives, but it'd be too many videos to one single post, so I thought it was better to put only the links to youtube.

( Before you start thinking I'm crazy not to put the most known songs, and before you start thinking it's too weird that you don't know many of these, let me make something clear: I have some problems with the "money maker" songs, and with the songs that are said to be great but have very poor musical and lyrics content... So, I'd rather listen to good - although quite unknown -selected music than to accept that everything is music and turn my ears into a bin from time to time...)

here it goes!

Song for very sad or nostalgic moments:
Greensleeves

Song for happy moments and night out with girlfriends:
Open toes- Katharine Mcphee

Song for love deception and "elbow pain" (lol- the best ones are these, aren't they?):
Split screen sadness - John Mayer

Song for happy in-love moments:
Better man - James Morrison
and
Morena - Los Hermanos

Song for turn over moments (these ones deserve special attention to the lyrics):
This is your life - Switchfoot

and Dare you to move - Switchfoot (too)

Song for quiet nice moments:
The call - Regina Spektor

Song for trips:

Wordplay - Jason Mraz

Song for thinking about the world's problems (the Iraq war, in this case):

Coming home- John Legend

So... these are some of my many favorites...
lol
Hope you guys like them and look for these singers' other songs.. they are really good!
x)
be seein' ya!




Monday 9 November 2009

Film Review



Breakfast at Tiffany's is mix of comedy, romance and minor tragedy. It's a classic movie that always keep's my attention during the few hours.



George Axelrod did a splendid job of adjusting Truman Capote's novel for the screen. Audrey Hepburn, this is her movie, and it's impossible to imagine another actress in her place. She's just that good that inspire thousands of women around the world with her attitude and her elegance, including her must-have Givenchy dress.



Holly Golightly is a young woman, who lives in the Upper East Side in New York, full of fantasies and has only one passion: Tiffany's jewelry store, she always goes there when feels sad and depress. Escaping from an early marriage with a much older man, she comes to NY looking after your happiness. She's a high price "date”, who dreams to marriage with a millionaire guy. When she's trying to find her husband, she meets Paul Varjak (George Peppard) that seems to fall for her since the first minute together.


They build a friendship, but Paul wants more than this. However Holly only wants to find a man between the 50's richest men in whatever country.



To my mind the perfect scene is one of the last scenes when she realizes that is with Paul that she could and might be happy.


Another point that really needs to be placed is her without-name-cat. So cute, but when gets all wet, poor cat, might be suffering a lot according the screaming and noises.



So I recommend for who really likes classic movies. It's awesome how cinema grows but I keep trying to find out the most beautiful scenes of all past and present times.

Saturday 7 November 2009

Film Review




The Phantom of the Opera was written by french guy named Gaston Leroux (Le Fantôme de l'Opéra) and was addapted to musicals (even in Broadway) and to movies, and the best of them, in my opinion, the last one is the best of them and had three Oscar's indications.


It's starred by Gerard Butler (as the Phantom), Emmy Rossum (as Christine Daae) and Patrick Wilson (as Raoul) and directed by Joel Schumacher.


It manages o combine romance, horror, fiction, mistery and tragedy. And as a huge fan of all this things, I couldn't love more the movie.


It happens in the century XIX, in a theatre believed to be haunted by a phantom, that always causes weird accidents, but it's actually THE Phantom, who was a guy that lived above he theatre, in an underground way, where he had he most unwaited stuff, such as boats, horses and others. He lived hiding because he had a side of his face mangled, and that's also why he wore a mask. The "accidents" happened when the owners of the theatre denied something he had asked, as money and the best chair of the theatre in every presentation.


In the same theatre lives Christine Daae, a young lady who lost his parents while her chidhood and became a ballerina, and believes that his father sent her an "Angel of Music" (that actually is the Phantom, who is in love with her) and she has to replace a singer, because her voice is really charming.


When Christine, meets an old friend named Raoul, the Phantom feels really betrayed and takes her to his "house" and amazes her with his own voice, but then she takes his mask off and sees his face. After that, she decides she doesn't like the Phantom anymore and she would prefer Raoul, breaking the Phantom's heart and letting he down.

The best thing are the songs. They lyrics are really cute, and the characters sing beautifully...


And this is my favourite scene of the whole movie:

Monday 26 October 2009

Welcome!

My most sincere welcome to your posts, girls!!
I was just check around and I promise to write an adequate post to each one of you as soon as I can.
I expect to have post from the others!!
Please, try to keep track of time, 'cause I need your posts here by the end of November, so that I can calculate your grades for the WGP.
So... go, go, go!!

See you all the day after tomorrow!

***DON'T FORGET ABOUT THE GROUP PHOTO!!***

Janine

Arts

Well, I know I'm totally late, but is't because I couldn't decide what was my favourite kind of art, and I finally realized that I don't have one.
When I thought about that, I saw that art is everywhere and that's why I wasn't able to choose just one: in the streets, the grafittis were so creative, the cars were so original, each building were different of other...
So I started paying atention to people, notice their tattos full of details, the clothes they were wearing, the shoes, the bags... even their hair and nails were about art!
Then I decided it was better to talk about the art that use words, and couldn't avoid thinking about poetry and literature, so I got a bit jealous of those who can express feelings and thoughts through the words, like the best composers, who manage to write awesome lyrics and put them in a song.
So, I chose some these songs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ss9cmDPupk0
This one is a tribute to Freddie Mercury by Elton John and Axl Rose. Actually, this is one of my favourites songs of Queen, played by my favourites composers, one of the best bands of all times, with my favourite vocalist ever.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLoQteiJNOU
This one is so cute... It's writen by Axl Rose and in this version is played by Guns N' Roses and Eltn John (again). It's really beatiful! And the guitar solo is also fantastic, but I don't recommend the clip, casted by Stephanie Seymour, because it's too sad, but it's also soulful.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivFYVAntpw0&feature=PlayList&p=978E0DD40C3EAD9F&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=45
The last one is the best song of Skid Row in my opinion. It's really cute and it's not sad as the other one.

Hope you like them!
That's it!

Film Review




Hey, guys!


It´s my first post here, so... I don´t guarantee it´s gonna be one of the best!




Well, I´ve got a thing with movies, I just love them! I love going to the cinema, watching them at home, with or without popcorn, cookies, soft drinks and stuff like that.


I´m not that into thriller, horor or suspense films... However, I really enjoy comedies, romantic comedies, dramas, action and epic movies. And the type of movie that I like most is the one that you have to think to understand, and that mixes your concepts up, so that you start looking at something or things in a different way.




I´ve wathced one of these films recently and it got me days thinking about it: GAMER.
It´s about games developed in the future by a Tecnology company.
One is named "Society" and in it, actors and actresses, hired to work as gamers, are completely controlled by the players wills and create a new society rulled by drugs, perversion, and many kinds of self-destruction.
The other one is called "Slayers", in wich prisioners of the death corridor volunteer to be gamers, agreeing that, in the game, while they're "on", they'll get other names and no control of their actions as the players pay for controlling them. The objective of the game would be killing the enemies and surviving for as many games as possible. If the gamer/prisioner survives the 30th game, he gets his freedom.
Kable, the new name of Gerald Butler, is one of the "Slayers" gamer, the one who has reached the surviving record of the game's history. His wife, after his prision, had to work as an actress in society to keep the pot boiling. By doing that, she lost the custody of their only daughter.
The girl was adopted ALMOST at random by a multibilionaire man, Castle, who comes to be the evil creator of the games "society" and "slayers" and now has a master plan to rule the entire human race.
Now Kable has to save his wife and daughter, and might possibly save the world, but first he has to break the chains and save himself.
Rushing adrenaline and astonishing special effects would describe well this exciting movie, although we can't possibly forget to mention the striking soundtrack and the complex sociological and political background environment.
I strongly recommend this movie for it is indeed one of the greatest of the last years.

Sunday 25 October 2009

Chocolate - a universal passion!!

Well, I love cinema, therefore it is very difficult for me to write about one particular film. Instead, I decided to start a thread following a similar theme: chocolate.

The first film I'll briefly comment is Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. This film reminds me of my pleasant and dear childhood. I was about 7 when I first saw it on TV. It is pure magic for me, till nowadays. Despite the rudimentary special [d]effects, the imagination and creativity of the director and the rest of the staff, who worked in this film, must be great. They must be, or have been, geniuses. The cast is fantastic. Gene Wilder, as the looney Willy Wonka, would carry the films on his back if necessary, but the kids were also great. Charlie, the unknown Peter Ostrum, had a fascinating fascinated look in his eyes, which would trigger our own fascination, mainly when he first saw the eatble sweet garden and the chocolate river. That's one of my favorite parts of the film.
Check it out!!

I also like the songs very much. They move me a lot.
The message conveyed in the story is timeless. Politeness, humbleness, temperance, rectitude and love for the family are virtues that should always prevail.
It is a must-see film for people of all ages.

This film has a more modern version, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, that, in fact, has a more dismal atmosphere. Wonka, played by Johnny Depp, reveals a resentful miserable side which makes the film heavier than the original story. The special effects are great, the soundtrack is nice, the film as a whole is good, but I still prefer the old one.

Following my thread... I'd like to comment on Chocolat, with the same Johnny Depp, in a much more romantic and charming role af a gypsy, and Juliette Binoche, as the owner of a recently open chocolate factory and store. The conservative society of a small city is totally changed for the inspiring flavoured chocolate candies this woman produced. It is a nice and somewhat misterious film.


There is also the Mexican film called Like Water for Chocolate. It was adapted from a book with the same name and tells the story of a woman, Tita, who falls in love with a man named Pedro. However, they cannot be together because Pedro is forced to marry her older sister. They have some kind of virtual relationship through the spicy food Tita prepares for the family. Quite sometime later, Pedro becomes a widower and decides to marry Tita. Their honey moon ends tragically with both of them dead.
It may seem non-sense, but it is a very good film. The acting and the plot are great.

I've "spoken"a lot, now it is your turn!!

See ya!

Film Review

Hey guys!

As Janine asked, I'm posting here the last composition (film review).


My life would suck without you

BRIDE WARS is the new movie by Gary Winick, director of From 13 to 30. Anne Hathaway (from The Princess’ Diary) plays Emma, the patient, good girl who is afraid of rejection, while Kate Hudson (How to loose a guy in 10 days) plays Liv, a tough bossy type.


The two woman “complete” each other in a friendship that lasts ever since kindergarten. Thought out all these years, they have always fed the dream of throwing a great big weeding party at Plaza Hotel in the month of June. However, when their wedding end up being scheduled for the same day, their “friendship of a lifetime” is strongly challenged, and old resentments start to come out.

The movie is a typical American comedy to be watched in a Sunday night. The acting is good for the movie’s purpose, nothing extraordinary, just adequate. Happy ending, clichés all around. But still, it doesn’t fail in the aim of making us think about the value of a friend. Despite the informal approach, the movie remind us of this very important message: sometimes we give so much importance to a specific thing that we forget about that other one that has always been there, in a way that we have never imagined how would it be to live without it.

Friday 23 October 2009

ad's world

I do enjoy arts, in general - painting, music, dance, cinema… But, my favorite type of art is advertisement. I am really fascinated by the “ game of the words”, the relation between the verbal text and the non-verbal text, and, especially, the creative way the messages are send. That’s why I wanna do social communication at college.
To do a good ad, you need to care about the message that you, how this message will be send and to who this message is sent. It’s very important to invent a creative slogan, because it will fix in people’s mind, choice good colors and images to call consumer’s attention. And, if it is a video or a radio ad, you have also to think about a good jingle.
Ads are considered very important. Not only the function of motivating people to buy thing, they have also the function of informing and showing things that people do not know.
In this example the ad is warning the population of the environmental problems: http://www.orkut.com.br/Main#FavoriteVideoView?uid=11887390603348073556&ad=1243679043
In this example the ad is selling a product and also encouraging people to accept their selves ( on a moving way): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUsKIApTewQ
I’m gonna finished my post with an ad that’s very good (but, it’s in Portuguese; sorry, janine). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6t0SK9qPK8M

Wednesday 21 October 2009

Define dancing!!

Julia, I told you your post reminded me of many video snippets and songs.

I'll be posting them now and again, particularly beacuse the site takes ages to upload the files.

Hope you, and everyone else, enjoy!!

Janine.


Wii in gyms

Hey guys!

Remember I told you about Wii being used as a workout tool in gyms.
So, I found an article talking about that on this site (there are illustrations).

http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN2335120220070724

Take a look at it and leave your comments here.
Don't forget to post your compositions from the book here in order to get a good WGP mark.

See ya!

Janine

Thursday 15 October 2009

Fast but serious!!

Hello again!!

I am feeling virtually lonely, as if I am always talking to myself!
Please, don't forget to come here once in a while...
And also, whenever you have time, you could visit the blog below

http://haveyoursayenglishway.blogspot.com/

It is an Express Master 3 group and I believe it would be great for you and them to exchange info and stuff.

See you!

Janine

Tuesday 13 October 2009

The time has come to take a stand...

Hi folks!!

What about becoming a climate ally?

It is extremelly simple: access the link, watch the video and download the song for free!! I've already done my part, now I hope you join me.

http://www.timeforclimatejustice.org/

Bye for now!!

Janine

Wednesday 7 October 2009

Art fan #1!!


Hi there, dear folks!


I am a huge fan of arts, although I do not know about arts into deep.

I'll be posting some of my favorite pieces of everything I consider expressions of art, from the most traditional ones to those more contemporary!

Hope you can appreciate and enjoy them.



X O X O

Janine



This is the Sistine Chapel! I think not only Michelangelo's painting is art but also the building!




This is one of Monet's paintings! It's name is Saint-Georges Majeur au crépuscule!




Maurício de Souza reinvented some of the most famous masterpieces of many different artits! I saw his work in Rio about 7 years ago! It was great! Check it out!!


I also witnessed this show in which the audience sang along with the band one of Queen's biggest hits right after Freddie's death!! It was awesome! Even the guys were surprised with the people's response!





That's it by now!

See you all in class or around here.

Friday 25 September 2009

Freshman!!!

As you all know, this is the first time I venture on this thing of blogging. So I get kind of lost sometimes. Hopefully, I have been managing to tips here and there, which will probably make this project possible!

See ya!

** Don't forget to study for PC1 (Sept 30).

Monday 21 September 2009

My favourite pieces of art

In my opinion, art is a kind of language. It can be verbal (books, quotes, lyrics) or non verbal (music, dance, drawings, fotos). I'm really fond of verbal arts, I like reading and writing. However, even being a person who likes words, I have to admit that there are non verbal types of art that strikes me more than a group of letters.
Dancing is one of them: I really love it, because it's not just moving you body according to the sound your hear, it's much more. It's about working with you body's limits and getting though them. It's about "feeling the music", as Patrick Swayse said in Dirty Dancing. And it seems to me that when the dancer is really feeling the music, the ones who are just watching can feel it too. I always say that dance and music are something contagious. So if they are not art, I don't know what else is!

The first video I would like to show is from Moulin Rouge. There isn't much dancing, but their voice is so beautiful and powerfull, and their acting seems so real that it doesn't fail to move me :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmdgJE6FfYk&feature=related

The second one is a scene from Chicago. I think it is like the best musical scene ever!!!! Well, I'm a bit suspicious because I really love tango... hahah
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoCZEmfnE-M&feature=fvst

The last one is a routine from the ballet The nutcracker. Actually, what I like the most about it is the music. It really moves me, I don't even know why... And as I love ballet too, this video is one of my favourites.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qq3kAvcd0O0

Well, that's all for now... I hope you enjoy and make comentaries if you want! And remember... "If you like dancing, then you where made to dance"

Hey guys this is just a test for me to see if I can post correctly... As soon as possible I'll post something decent, teacher!

Wednesday 16 September 2009

WELCOME, DEAR STUDENTS!!

LET'S USE THIS SPACE TO ENHANCE OUR "TALKING" TIME!