Words and Dreams

Television - Downton Abbey

2012-02-20T19:40:00.003Z

Downton Abbey is a British television period drama series, produced by British media company Carnival Films for the ITV network. The series is set on the fictional estate of Downton Abbey in the North Riding of Yorkshire, and features an ensemble cast.

It was created and principally written by actor and writer Julian Fellowes, and premièred on ITV on 26 September 2010.Reception of the programme was predominantly positive; ratings were extremely high for what is usually considered a "genre" show, and the first series picked up a number of awards and nominations after its initial run.

It has subsequently become the most successful British costume drama since the 1981 television serial version of Brideshead Revisited, and in 2011 it entered the Guinness Book of World Records as the "most critically acclaimed English-language television show" for the year, becoming the first British show to be so recognised.A second series aired in autumn 2011.

On 3 November 2011, ITV confirmed that a third series has been commissioned and will be broadcast from September 2012. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downton_Abbey )

Read more...

Manhattan in Motion

2012-02-19T13:08:00.000Z

Photographer: Mindrelic / Image Credit: Mindrelic
NYC

Mindrelic - Manhattan in motion from Mindrelic on Vimeo.

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SsSAaJ6BII

Fernando Pessoa

2012-02-19T12:15:00.000Z

Painter: José de Almada Negreiros

Retrato do poeta Fernando Pessoa | Portrait of Fernando Pessoa by Almada Negreiros

Oil on Canvas- 201 cm x 201cm

Museu da Cidade, Lisboa

Was 18 March 1914 the most extraordinary date in modern literature?

On that day, Fernando Antonio Nogueira Pessoa (1888-1935) took a sheet of paper, went to a tall chest of drawers in his room and began to write standing up, as he customarily did. 'I wrote 30-odd poems in a kind of trance whose nature I cannot define. It was the triumphant day of my life, and it would be impossible to experience such a one again.'

I

Whether we write or speak or do but look
We are ever unapparent.
What we are
Cannot be transfused into word or book,
Our soul from us is infinitely far.
However much we give our thoughts the will
To be our soul and gesture it abroad,
Our hearts are incommunicable still.
In what we show ourselves we are ignored.
The abyss from soul to soul cannot be bridged
By any skill of thought or trick of seeming.
Unto our very selves we are abridged
When we would utter to our thought our being.
We are our dreams of ourselves souls by gleams,
And each to each other dreams of others' dreams.

Fernando Pessoa (1888-1935)

Exist

2012-02-19T11:45:00.000Z

Direction and Animation: Tetsuka Niiyama

*

Exist by m.m.

Exist: to live or to be real!
You might also hear
Another and different excuse,
Let me make you a fresh pot of tea.
Open the window and let in some fresh air,
A piece of paper, a long sleep, smell or appearance.
Fresh news, a great influence on the way.
Especially
Changed to allow them to stay in one place
Where there are thoughts and feelings.
Be real... exigent, reasonable
existent, nonexistent, free to choose.

NASA | Twisting Plasma on the Sun

2012-02-18T20:05:00.000Z

Darker, cooler plasma slid and shifted back and forth above the Sun's surface seen here for 30 hours (Feb. 7-8, 2012) in extreme ultraviolet light...

Also...

Beautiful, interesting, and mesmerizing events seen by SDO:

Pedro Burmester - Schubert | Schumann

2012-02-18T19:22:00.000Z

Pedro Burmester

Photographer: Unknown

Pedro Burmester Schubert Schumann from Ricardo Garrido on Vimeo.

"He has a strong personality, imposes himself on the audiences, has an astonishing creativity in his interpretation and a perfect technical quality. His intelligence and culture are immediately noticed." - Alfred Brendel London

Pedro Burmester began his professional career at the age of 10 and since then he has performed over 1,000 solo concerts, also accompanying orchestras and in various chamber music ensembles in Portugal and abroad.

Flash Mob

2012-02-18T18:28:00.001Z

A flash mob (or flashmob) is a group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual and seemingly pointless act for a brief time, then disperse, often for the purposes of entertainment, satire, and artistic expression...The first flash mob was created in Manhattan in May 2003, by Bill Wasik...

Over 100 West End stars 'flash mobbed' London's Trafalgar Square on April 11, 2011. This incredible performance was filmed in just one take. Stars from Wicked, Mamma Mia!, We Will Rock You, Grease, Love Never Dies and Priscilla Queen of the Desert all took part in support of Love146, a non-profit organisation working to abolish child sex slavery and exploitation.

Snow 2012

2012-02-16T21:24:00.000Z

Yorkshire

Barbara Hannigan

2012-02-16T21:11:00.000Z

The soprano Barbara Hannigan is an artist who combines thrilling passion with exceptional technique. Blessed with a voice at once pure and hot, she has arrived, through challenging and diverse repertory choices, at a point of complete control, intensity and versatility. She also possesses a vital stage presence, whether in opera or on the concert platform. Much sought after in contemporary music - she has given over 75 world premières - she is no less brilliant and devoted a performer of Baroque and Classical music. Bringing freshness to older music and authority to new, she is among the very few singers whose every performance is an occasion.

Biography written by PAUL GRIFFITHS
June 2011
Not to be altered without permission

http://www.barbarahannigan.com/about.htm

Ligeti's Mysteries of the Macabre, conducted and sung by Barbara Hannigan.

London Olympics

2012-02-16T01:30:00.000Z

London Olympic Stadium

Image from Olympic Delivery Authority

http://cnn.com/video/?/video/business/2012/01/30/boulden-uk-olympics.cnn

Robonaut Shakes Hands - NASA

2012-02-15T18:28:00.002Z

Robonaut 2 (R2) extends its hand to ISS Commander Dan Burbank for the first "man-machine" handshake in space!

Pina Bausch

2012-02-15T17:48:00.000Z

This is Pina Bausch's Wuppertal Tanztheater performing the Rite of Spring.

Pina Bausch was a German performer of modern dance, choreographer, dance teacher and ballet director. With her unique style, a blend of movements, sounds and prominent stage sets, and with her elaborate cooperation with performers during the composition of a piece (a style now known as Tanztheater), she became a leading influence since the 1970s in the world of modern dance.

http://www.euronews.net/2012/02/14/pina-bausch-remembered-at-paris-opera-house/

Guernica - Picasso

2012-02-15T13:56:00.000Z

Guernica is a painting by Pablo Picasso. It was created in response to the bombing of Guernica, Basque Country, by German and Italian warplanes at the behest of the Spanish Nationalist forces, on 26 April 1937, during the Spanish Civil War. The Spanish Republican government commissioned Picasso to create a large mural for the Spanish display at the Paris International Exposition at the 1937 World's Fair in Paris.

Guernica shows the tragedies of war and the suffering it inflicts upon individuals, particularly innocent civilians. This work has gained a monumental status, becoming a perpetual reminder of the tragedies of war, an anti-war symbol, and an embodiment of peace. On completion Guernica was displayed around the world in a brief tour, becoming famous and widely acclaimed.

Paul Cézanne - The Card Players

2012-02-14T03:00:00.000Z

Artist: Paul Cézanne - The Card Players (1882-1885)
Courtauld Institute of Art - London

After Cézanne died in 1906, his paintings were exhibited in Paris in a large scale museum-like retrospective in September 1907. The 1907 Cézanne retrospective at the Salon d'Automne greatly affected the direction that the avant-garde in Paris took, lending credence to his position as one of the most influential artists of the 19th century and to the advent of Cubism.Cézanne's explorations of geometric simplification and optical phenomena inspired Picasso, Braque, Gris, and others to experiment with ever more complex multiple views of the same subject, and, eventually to the fracturing of form. Cézanne thus sparked one of the most revolutionary areas of artistic enquiry of the 20th Century, one which was to affect profoundly the development of modern art. A prize in his memory, called the Cézanne medal, is granted by the city of Aix en Provence, in France for special achievement in the arts. (Wikipedia)

A Poem by Robert Burns - Happy Valentine's Day!!!

2012-02-14T01:00:00.000Z

To A Kiss

Humid seal of soft affections,

Tend'rest pledge of future bliss,

Dearest tie of young connections,

Love's first snow-drop, virgin kiss.

Speaking silence, dumb confession,

Passion's birth, and infants' play,

Dove-like fondness, chaste concession,

Glowing dawn of brighter day.

Sorrowing joy, adieu's last action,

Ling'ring lips, -- no more to join!

What words can ever speak affection

Thrilling and sincere as thine!

Robert Burns

Scale Models show 17th Century in France 3D

2012-02-13T09:15:00.002Z

Way before satellite photography and Google Earth, these intricate models give an amazing birds-eye view of French cities and forts from the 17th century.

(euronews.net)

Catarina Pinto Leite - Portuguese Painter

2012-02-13T09:04:00.000Z

Artist: © Catarina Pinto Leite

2006 - Mar sem Fim

Oil on Canvas

140cm x120cm

Catarina Pinto Leite is a portuguese artist.

Art by Herman Melville

In placid hours well-pleased we dream
Of many a brave unbodied scheme.
But form to lend, pulsed life create,
What unlike things must meet and mate:
A flame to melt - a wind to freeze;
Sad patience - joyous energies;
Humility - yet pride and scorn;
Instinct and study; love and hate;
Audacity - reverence. These must mate,
And fuse with Jacob's mystic heart,
To wrestle with the angel.

Art. Herman Melville

The Choice - Poem by William Yeats

2012-02-12T13:03:00.000Z

The Choice by William Butler Yeats

The intellect of man is forced to choose
perfection of the life, or of the work,
And if it take the second must refuse
A heavenly mansion, raging in the dark.
When all that story's finished, what's the news?
In luck or out the toil has left its mark:
That old perplexity an empty purse,
Or the day's vanity, the night's remorse.

William Butler Yeats (13 June 1865 – 28 January 1939) was an Irish poet and playwright, and one of the foremost figures of 20th century literature.

Artist: © Cy Twombly

Hero and Leandro

1985

202cm x 254cm

Private Collection

"Cy" Twombly, Jr. (April 25, 1928 – July 5, 2011) was an American artist well known for his large-scale, freely scribbled, calligraphic-style graffiti paintings, on solid fields of mostly gray, tan, or off-white colors. He exhibited his paintings worldwide.

Antoni Tàpies

2012-02-09T20:58:00.000Z

Artist: Antoni Tàpies

Pathos 1988

Charles Dickens

2012-02-07T20:42:00.002Z

A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other.~~Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens would have been 200 today... (07/02/2012)
Dickens's work has been highly praised for its realism, comedy, mastery of prose, unique personalities and concern for social reform...

http://www.dickens2012.org/

The Charles Dickens Museum:

The Charles Dickens Museum from martinib.eu on Vimeo.

Frida Kahlo

2012-02-06T18:09:00.000Z

Frida Kahlo

“I used to think I was the strangest person in the world but then I thought there are so many people in the world, there must be someone just like me who feels bizarre and flawed in the same ways I do. I would imagine her, and imagine that she must be out there thinking of me too. Well, I hope that if you are out there and read this and know that, yes, it’s true I’m here, and I’m just as strange as you.”

Frida Kahlo

A self-portrait by Frida Kahlo entitled Roots.

Homeless Battle Big Freeze

2012-02-05T11:14:00.000Z

It’s cold, very cold in Europe. The number of people who have died over the last few days because of the freezing conditions, especially in central and eastern Europe, has risen sharply.

Western European cities have also been hit by the bitterly cold temperatures. In Brussels, euronews decided to follow Red Cross volunteers who have been braving the freezing temperatures, around -12, to to help the homeless. Warm clothes, blankets, food and hot soup and coffee are just some of the vital supplies they offer for those who don’t want to spend the night in a hostel.

More: http://www.euronews.net/2012/02/03/brussels-homeless-battle-big-freeze/

UNICEF Tap Project 2012

2012-02-02T21:16:00.001Z

The UNICEF Tap Project calls on restaurants, dining patrons, students, volunteers, corporations, communities, celebrities and government supporters to help provide clean, safe water to children in need around the world!

During World Water Month, March 2012, restaurants across the United States will encourage patrons to donate $1 or more for the tap water they usually enjoy for free. In tandem, UNICEF Tap Project volunteers will support their efforts by conducting local fundraising events and activities.

All funds raised support UNICEF's efforts to bring clean and accessible water to millions of children around the world. With just $1, UNICEF can provide one child access to safe, clean water for 40 days.

Every Year

2012-01-31T18:04:00.001Z

Photographer: Sebastião Salgado

The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honourable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

When we think of being happy, we think about ourselves and also how we will benefit from such pleasure and contentment... But being useful, honourable, compassionate is more than that selfish and personal attitude because we are able to share different hopes, different dreams with the whole world... And if I happen to change the world... anyone's world, I will have made the difference! I would even dare to say... I would have achieved a very honourable goal... My own goal!!!

Rafael Ferreira 11F

Beggars at the Doorstep of a House

2012-01-30T19:57:00.000Z

Artist: Rembrandt

Beggars at the Doorstep of a House

1648

The race of mankind would perish did they cease to aid each other. We cannot exist without mutual help. All therefore that need aid have a right to ask it from their fellow-men; and no one who has the power of granting can refuse it without guilt.

Sir Walter Scott

Stravinsky - The Firebird

2012-01-29T12:49:00.000Z

The Firebird is a 1910 ballet created by the composer Igor Stravinsky and choreographer Michel Fokine. The ballet is based on Russian folk tales of the magical glowing bird of the same name that is both a blessing and a curse to its captor.

Jackson Pollock

2012-01-28T13:39:00.000Z

Pollock - Photograher - Hans Namuth

Jackson Pollock was an influential American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement.

"On the floor I am more at ease. I feel nearer, more part of the painting, since this way I can walk around it, work from the four sides and literally be in the painting."
Jackson Pollock

Gerhard Richter

2012-01-28T11:24:00.000Z

Gerhard Richter - River 1995
Oil on Canvas 200cm x 320cm
( http://www.gerhard-richter.com/art/paintings/abstracts/detail.php?8111 )

Gerhard Richter was born to Horst and Hildegard Richter in Dresden on February 9, 1932.
( Biography )

The "Panorama" exhibition at the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin looks back at over five decades of Richter's work, following a successful exhibition at the Tate Modern in London.Standing in front of Richter's "4900 colors," which spans a whole wall of the gallery, the curator of the exhibition Dorothee Brill explains why Richter is so loved by both the art critics and the public.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfZKNLGvpp0

Aurora Borealis - January 2012

2012-01-27T12:37:00.003Z

Time lapse of Aurora Borealis over Norway. Captured on the 23rd and 24th of January 2012.

Photographers at Work

2012-01-21T10:40:00.000Z

A new exhibition has opened in Catalonia, Spain, of work by French photographer and painter Jacques Henri Lartigue. The show incudes 230 photographs, along with his cameras, diaries and canvasses - and traces his life and the dramatic social changes which took place in Europe during the 20th century. The exhibition runs until 1st April.

( http://www.youtube.com/show/lemag )

Field of Light

2012-01-11T00:30:00.000Z

Bruce Munro's Field of Light ...

1863 - The World's First Underground Railway

2012-01-10T18:09:00.000Z

London

Photo: euronews

January 10, 1863: The world’s first underground railway opens in London. Initially around six kilometres of track were used to link Paddington Station to Farringdon Street via King’s Cross, with the resulting line named the Metropolitan Railway. Lines and stations have been added ever since and now a total of 408 kilometres of track are used by around three million people every day going between 275 stations.

The underground logo and the map developed by Harold Beck in 1933 are recognisable across the world.

Click here

( http://www.euronews.net/2012/01/09/back-in-the-day-the-worlds-first-underground-railway/ )

Philippe Halsman

2012-01-04T19:47:00.000Z

Audrey Hepburn
Photo by Philippe Halsman (Jumpology)

Salvador Dalí
Photo by Philippe Halsman (Jumpology)

From the 1940s through the 1970s, Philippe Halsman's sparkling portraits of celebrities, intellectuals, and politicians appeared on the covers and pages of the big picture magazines, including Look, Esquire, the Saturday Evening Post, Paris Match, and especially Life. His work also appeared in advertisements and publicity for clients like Elizabeth Arden cosmetics, NBC, Simon & Schuster, and Ford. Photographers, amateur as well as professional, admired Halsman's stunning images. In 1958, a poll conducted by Popular Photography named Halsman one of the "World's Ten Greatest Photographers" along with Irving Penn, Richard Avedon, Ansel Adams, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Ernst Haas, Yousuf Karsh, Gjon Mili, and Eugene Smith. ( http://www.npg.si.edu/exh/halsman/intro.htm )

Elisabete Matos - Portuguese Soprano

2012-01-02T13:03:00.000Z

Fhotos: Elisabete Matos
( Elisabete Matos © all rights reserved )

Don Carlo - Giancarlo Monsalve
Elisabetta de Valois - Elisabete Matos
Conductor - Martin André
13 October 2011 (LIVE)Teatro Nacional de São Carlos

Viisit Elisabete Matos' blog: http://elisabetematos.blogspot.com/ .

Elisabete Matos was born in Braga, Portugal, where she studied singing and violin at the local conservatory. Later, she moved to Madrid, Spain, where she finished her studies at the Madrid School of Singing with a scholarship from the Gulbenkian Foundation. She was awarded several prizes at singing competitions, including second place at the Belvedere Vienna Singing Competition. Ms. Matos has sung Donna Elvira from Don Giovanni at the Hamburg Staatsoper, Lisbon’s Teatro de São Carlos, Las Palmas and Palacio de Festivales de Cantabria; Chimène in Jules Massenet’s Le Cid at the Maestranza de Sevilla and Washington Opera; Alice Ford (Falstaff) at the Hamburg Staatsoper; the leading role in Antón García Abril’s Divinas Palabras at the reopening of Madrid’s Teatro Real, next to Placido Domingo; Dolly alongside José Carreras on a new production of Wolf-Ferrari’s Sly with the Washington Opera, Nice and Tokio, a role she would also perform with Mr. Domingo at Rome’s Teatro dell’Opera; the title role in Margarita la Tornera in Madrid’s Teatro Real, once more with Mr. Domingo; Elsa in Lohengrin on her debut with the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona; Mimì in La Bohème in Lisbon’s Teatro de São Carlos and Oporto; La Voix Humaine in Seville’s Maestranza; Zazà in Turin’s Teatro Regio and Opéra de Nice; Elisabetta in a new production of Don Carlo in Madrid’s Teatro Real and Palermo, Simon Boccanegra at the Teatro Massimo Bellini, in Catania and Teatro Real de Madrid; Freia in Rheingold in Turin, Festival de las Palmas and Liceu; the title role in Suor Angelica at Valencia’s Palau de les Arts; the leading female rol in Tosca in Cyprus (with the Arena di Verona), Venice’s La Fenice, Oporto, Bellini di Catania, Messina, Tokio, Sao Carlos de Lisboa, Maestranza de Sevilla and at Macerata’s Festival, La Vida Breve in Lisbon’s Teatro de São Carlos (...). http://www.elisabete-matos.com/

Ryuichi Sakamoto - Rain

2011-12-15T22:22:00.000Z

Ryuichi Sakamoto is a Japanese musician, composer, record producer, writer, singer, pianist, and actor, based in Tokyo and New York.

Street Art 3D

2011-12-14T01:50:00.000Z

Artist: Edgar Müller

At the cutting edge of 3D pavement art is german artist Edgar Müller. His creations transform everyday locations into fantastical scenes: sharks erupting from pavements, chasms bisecting suburban, streets and rivers cascading through towns.

Unesco Award for Portuguese Fado

2011-12-12T14:32:00.001Z

Fado Ambassador: Mariza 2011

Unesco has given Portugal an intangible, world cultural heritage award in recognition of its musical tradition, Fado. A special concert was held in Lisbon to celebrate, where award-winning singer and Fado ambassador Mariza took to the stage. Unesco award for Portuguese Fado | euronews, le mag

On its website, UNESCO describes Fado as the”urban popular song of Portugal,” stating:

Fado is a performance genre incorporating music and poetry widely practised by various communities in Lisbon. It represents a Portuguese multicultural synthesis of Afro-Brazilian sung dances, local traditional genres of song and dance, musical traditions from rural areas of the country brought by successive waves of internal immigration, and the cosmopolitan urban song patterns of the early nineteenth century. Fado songs are usually performed by a solo singer, male or female, traditionally accompanied by a wire-strung acoustic guitar and the Portuguese guitarra – a pear-shaped lute with twelve wire strings, unique to Portugal, which also has an extensive solo repertoire. The past few decades have witnessed this instrumental accompaniment expanded to two Portuguese guitars, a guitar and a bass guitar. Fado is performed professionally on the concert circuit and in small ‘Fado houses’, and by amateurs in numerous grass-root associations located throughout older neighbourhoods of Lisbon. Informal tuition by older, respected exponents takes place in traditional performance spaces and often over successive generations within the same families. The dissemination of Fado through emigration and the world music circuit has reinforced its image as a symbol of Portuguese identity, leading to a process of cross-cultural exchange involving other musical traditions.

Painter: José Malhoa
Fado 1910

Oil on canvas

152,5 cm x 185,5 cm

Festival of Lights in Lyon

2011-12-11T10:11:00.001Z

Cedits: euronews.net

'The Fete des Lumieres' in Lyon, France, has turned the city into a magical wonderland. Nearly four million visitors are expected to visit the 70 lighting installations throughout the city. The festival originates from a religious celebration of the city's patron Saint, the Virgin Mary.

Lyon's Festival of Lights takes place on 8th December during which the people of Lyon place little candle lamps in their windows in honour of the Virgin Mary. The origins of the festival date back over 150 years to 1852 when a statue of the Virgin Mary on Fourviere Hill was to be inaugurated. The event had been postponed several times and nearly didn't happen because a ferocious storm broke over the city. But it passed quickly and the people of Lyon spontaneously lit their homes with candles and came out into the streets to celebrate, and the Festival of Lights was born. The people of Lyon continue this visually spectacular tradition to this day. The modern festival is now a four-day event where contemporary light installations illuminate the city attracting thousands of visitors. As well as a time to celebrate, the festival also acts as a forum for communication with other cities in France and around the world where the issue of light in urban planning and town dwelling is discussed.

Leonardo da Vinci's Rare Paintings on Exhibition

2011-11-26T10:25:00.001Z

Leonardo da Vinci
Angel Detail from The Virgin of the Rocks

'Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan' is the most complete display of Leonardo's rare surviving paintings ever held. This unprecedented exhibition – the first of its kind anywhere in the world – brings together sensational international loans never before seen in the UK.

Leonardo the artist: While numerous exhibitions have looked at Leonardo da Vinci as an inventor, scientist or draughtsman, this is the first to be dedicated to his aims and techniques as a painter. Inspired by the recently restored National Gallery painting, The Virgin of the Rocks, this exhibition focuses on Leonardo as an artist. In particular it concentrates on the work he produced as court painter to Duke Lodovico Sforza in Milan in the late 1480s and 1490s.As a painter, Leonardo aimed to convince viewers of the reality of what they were seeing while still aspiring to create ideals of beauty – particularly in his exquisite portraits – and, in his religious works, to convey a sense of awe-inspiring mystery.

Painter at the Court of Milan exhibition at the National Gallery in London.

http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/leonardo-da-vinci-painter-at-the-court-of-milan

Alaska Underwater World

2011-11-20T16:29:00.000Z

Alaska Underwater World - Short Version from Alex.Be. on Vimeo.

http://vimeo.com/25656437

The world as I see it

2011-11-19T19:44:00.000Z

Artist at work

The world as I see it...
by Tiago R. 11C
( abridged and adapted)

The world evolves and so does society. When we examine people's lives we often see how personal values guided them. People value formation and education and the fact that they are capable of feeling a sense of accomplishment when they finish a task. If there is one thing that life has already taught us is that what isn't broken doesn't need fixing... We often forget that each one of us provides many benefits to society and that success in life is picked up in bits and pieces along our journey.

In Work We Trust

2011-11-18T21:24:00.000Z

Work?... By César AF (11B)

ARA

ARTIST: Nick Gentry
IN TECHNOLOGY WE TRUST2010
Mixed paint and used computer disks on wood / 40cm x 70cm

*

Work... What does it mean? It has something to do with the person and still we are somehow bound by it...

If we find ourselves alone, we quickly realize that what we are looking for is exactly what sets us free... When it comes to work we develop a sense of self-worth which seems to follow one single rule: If you want it, come and get it!

Rain

2011-11-17T20:20:00.000Z

Credits/ Photo: Rui Palha ©
Wet Jump

"Let the rain kiss you.

Let the rain beat upon your head

with silver liquid drops.

Let the rain sing you a lullaby."

~~ Langston Hughes

When I was younger...

2011-11-16T12:36:00.000Z

Artist: Unknown

When I was younger... by Hugo P. (11C)

When I was younger I had this silly dream of becoming the CEO of a big company where everyone would have high expectations and would see me as someone trully important. I dreamed of becoming a public figure and I even thought how important it would be to be remembered. I even had plans to change the world, to make it a better place. As time went by I realized I was the one who had to change! I also realized that in spite of being what others thought of me or what they expected from me, I was the one that would have to make the right choices!

The future is called perhaps...

2011-11-15T20:50:00.000Z

The future is called "perhaps," which is the only possible thing to call the future. And the only important thing is not to allow that to scare you. ~Tennessee Williams

Fragments Stairs

Mixed / Canvas 120 cm x 120 cm

The future is the indefinite time period after the present. Its arrival is considered inevitable due to the existence of time and the laws of physics.

LONE TRAVELLER...

2011-11-13T16:48:00.000Z

Lone Traveller, a painting by Jessie Rice Sandberg

Going from one place to the other looking for a better life, avoiding doing something that might be a mistake. Many foreigners have faced unpleasant situations from which is hard to escape. Nevertheless, they still have dreams and hope that things change for better...

Life

2011-11-12T16:32:00.000Z

Photo: Gregory Colbert ©

LIFE
By Helena M.G. (11B)

We have the need to justify our lives and why we deserve them. It's a necessity that has been around our societies for centuries.

From the common working citizen to the isolated tribes in South Africa, most human beings find a 'reason to live' in their regular acts, or even in particular ones.

Without the sense of self-worth most people would classify themselves as dispensable, due to the lack of positive contribution they could give the others. They also like to feel they are of some value in other people's lives, being it little or not.

Have you wondered how your life is important in the middle of so many?

Steve McCurry

2011-11-11T10:23:00.000Z

Photo/ Credits: Steve McCurry
Sharbat Gula, Peshawar, Pakistan, 2002.

"Sharbat Gula, 2002. Originally photographed as a young girl at a refugee camp in Pakistan in 1984. Her picture came to represent the three million Afghan refugees around the world. Seventeen years later, the photographer went back with a team to locate and identify the girl in the photo."

- George Eastman House

Steve McCurry, recognized universally as one of today’s finest image-makers, has won many of photography’s top awards. Best known for his evocative color photography, McCurry, in the finest documentary tradition, captures the essence of human struggle and joy.McCurry’s work has been featured in every major magazine in the world and frequently appears in National Geographic magazine with recent articles on Tibet, Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, and the temples of Angkor Wat, Cambodia. McCurry is driven by an innate curiosity and sense of wonder about the world and everyone in it. He has an uncanny ability to cross boundaries of language and culture to capture stories of human experience. “Most of my images are grounded in people. I look for the unguarded moment, the essential soul peeking out, experience etched on a person’s face. I try to convey what it is like to be that person, a person caught in a broader landscape, that you could call the human condition.”

Visit:

http://stevemccurry.wordpress.com/

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2002/04/afghan-girl/index-text

For many of us... [2]

2011-11-10T20:39:00.000Z

For many of us... By Sandro C. 11D

Photo by Kristen-nicole

People

( art/People-63466063 )

*

We are born and we build our destiny and it seems so easy.
We also make choices and aren't even aware of them and all the consequences they might have.
We learn the meaning of life with our parents and then at school and we somehow move on to a new level, just like a road, a path... And everyone expects us to fight for our dreams, to be fair when dealing with others... To be happy!...

For many of us...

2011-11-09T17:49:00.000Z

For many of us... by Beatriz R. (11F)

Paradise exists every single time we close our eyes!
We want to fall asleep in order to fly higher up and away of our fears and far from our problems.
I don't deny that we live in a tiny soap ball so that we can protect ourselves from reality.
People are just that: PEOPLE! And there is more. The world is full of greed, poison and most of all the cold wars everywhere, here and there.. Human beings should live together so as to enjoy happiness and joy and the sadness should disappear... Most likely scenario is quite different. Let's pretend we close our eyes and we could find - HAPPINESS!

Credits / Photo: All rights reserved by elsakawai™
(flickr.com/photos/elsakawai/120321291/)

Illegal Interview Topics

2011-11-08T10:53:00.000Z

State laws prohibit prospective employers from asking certain questions that are not related to the job they are hiring for. Questions should be job-related and not used to find out personal information.In a nutshell, employers should not be asking about your race, gender, religion, marital status, age, disabilities, ethnic background, country of origin, sexual preferences or age.

http://jobsearch.about.com/od/interviewsnetworking/a/illegalinterv.htm

What does it feel like to fly over planet Earth?

2011-11-07T08:03:00.000Z

A time-lapse taken from the front of the International Space Station as it orbits our planet at night. This movie begins over the Pacific Ocean and continues over North and South America before entering daylight near Antarctica. Visible cities, countries and landmarks include (in order) Vancouver Island, Victoria, Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles. Phoenix. Multiple cities in Texas, New Mexico and Mexico. Mexico City, the Gulf of Mexico, the Yucatan Peninsula, El Salvador, Lightning in the Pacific Ocean, Guatemala, Panama, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Lake Titicaca, and the Amazon. Also visible is the earths ionosphere (thin yellow line), a satellite (55sec) and the stars of our galaxy.

Credits: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/multimedia/iss_sts119_images.html

Ronaldo Awarded Golden Boot

2011-11-06T16:00:00.000Z

Portuguese International Cristiano Ronaldo was awarded the ‘Golden Boot’ for a second time on Friday for finishing the 2010-11 season as the top scorer in all European leagues.

Feelings

2011-11-06T10:46:00.000Z

                                                Edvard Munch (1863-1944) - The Scream

     The landscape in the background is the Oslofjord, viewed from the hill of Ekeberg, in Oslo (then Kristiania), Norway.

     Edvard Munch was a Norwegian artist whose brooding, anguished paintings and graphic works, based on personal grief and obsessions, were instrumental in the development of expressionism.

   The feeling of frustration and panic...

Child Labour Robs Millions of Children of Their Dreams

2011-11-05T10:00:00.001Z

Only estimates exist, but at least 250 million children work for a living in developing countries, nearly half of them full time. At least 60 million children worldwide are exploited under extreme forms of child labour such as debt bondage and prostitution. Child labour is a human rights violation on many different levels. A result and also a cause of poverty, child labour is a prison that withers both capabilities and potential.

Child labour robs millions of children of their dreams!

Visit http://www.unicef.org/ !

What do you see?

2011-11-04T10:27:00.000Z

M.C. Escher - Relativity 1953
27,7 cm x 10,9 cm

Relativity is a lithograph print by the Dutch artist M. C. Escher, first printed in December 1953.It depicts a world in which the normal laws of gravity do not apply. The architectural structure seems to be the centre of an idyllic community, with most of its inhabitants casually going about their ordinary business, such as dining. There are windows and doorways leading to park-like outdoor settings. Yet all the figures are dressed in identical attire and have featureless bulb-shaped heads. Identical characters such as these can be found in many other Escher works.

WHAT DO YOU SEE?

Amadeo Souza-Cardoso

2011-11-02T20:16:00.000Z

Amadeo Souza-Cardoso
Bridge - 1914
Oil on canvas - 33cm x 41 cm

Amadeo Souza-Cardoso
Painting 1914
Oil on canvas - 49cm x 33 cm

Amadeo Souza-Cardoso
Head 1913
Oil on canvas - 61 cm x 50 cm

Amadeo Souza-Cardoso
Entrada 1917
Oil on canvas - 93,5 cm x 76 cm

The Amadeo Souza-Cardoso Museum is located in Amarante, Portugal.

http://www.amarante.pt/museu/

Amadeo Souza-Cardoso was born in Mancelos, a parish of Amarante. At the age of 18, he entered the Superior School of Fine Arts of Lisbon and one year later (on his 19th birthday) he went to Paris, where he intended to continue his studies but soon quit the architecture course and started to study painting. In Montparnasse, he experimented with Impressionism and later with Expressionism and Cubism, and dedicated himself exclusively to painting. His first experience was drawing, especially caricatures. In 1908, he installed himself in number fourteen of the Cité de Falguière. There, he went to ateliers in the Académie des Beaux-Arts and the Viti Academy of the Catalan painter Anglada Camarasa. In 1910 he stayed for some months in Brussels and, in 1911, he displayed works in the Salon des Indépendants. He became close with artists and writers such as Gertrude Stein, Juan Gris, Amedeo Modigliani, Alexander Archipenko, Max Jacob, the couple Robert Delaunay and Sonia Delaunay, and Constantin Brâncuşi, as well as the German artist Otto Freundlich. He was also befriended by the Italian Futurists Gino Severini and Umberto Boccioni.In 1913, Amadeo de Souza Cardoso participated in two seminal exhibitions: the Armory Show in the USA, that travelled to New York City, Boston, and Chicago, and the Erste Deutsche Herbstsalon at the Galerie Der Sturm in Berlin, Germany, directed by Herwarth Walden. Both exhibitions showed modern art to a public that was still not used to it. Amadeo was among the most commercially successful of the exhibitors at the Armory Show, as he sold seven of the eight works he showed there...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amadeo_de_Souza_Cardoso

LOVE

2011-11-01T10:11:00.000Z

Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other but in looking outward together in the same direction. ~~~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Wind, Sand and Stars, 1939.

The Last Train!!! Animation and Imagination

2011-10-31T17:14:00.002Z

"The Last Train" is an animated short movie that was made as part of The Animation Hub, a collaboration between staff and students of the Irish School of Animation (ISA) at Ballyfermot College of Further Education (BCFE), staff and students of Trinity College’s Graphics, Vision and Visualisation Group (GV2) and the recently established animation studio Giant Creative (giant.ie), set up by BCFE graduates.

The Animation Hub, which received support from the Irish Film Board and Science Foundation Ireland, ran for 3 months over the summer in 2011 and involved Giant Creative working with animation and computer science students to create a one minute animated short fusing motion capture techniques with naturalistic 3D character animation.

The Last Train from Animation Hub on Vimeo.

7 BILLION on Oct. 31

2011-10-31T13:35:00.000Z

On May 2011 the United Nations announced that the world's population will reach an historic 7 billion people on Oct. 31, 2011. World population hit 1 billion people in 1804. It took 123 years to add the next billion, but less than a century to cruise past the next four billion -- from 2 billion people in 1927 to 6 billion people in 1999. Though it's impossible to say exactly when it will happen, demographers have chosen the date to mark the milestone.
Read more:

Autumn Song by Baudelaire

2011-10-31T10:54:00.001Z

Autumn Song by Baudelarire

I
Song I Soon we will sink in the frigid darkness
Good-bye, brightness of our too short summers!
I already hear the fall in distress
Of the wood falling in the paved courtyard.

Winter will invade my being: anger,
Hatred, chills, horror, hard and forced labor,
And, like the sun in its iced inferno,
My heart is but a red and frozen floe.

I hear with shudders each weak limb that falls.
The scaffold will have no louder echo.
My spirit is like a tower that yields
Under the tireless and heavy ram blow.

It seems, lulled by this monotonous sound,
Somewhere a coffin is hastily nailed,
For whom? Summer yesterday, autumn now!
This mysterious noise sounds like a farewell.

II
I love the greenish light of your long eyes,
Sweet beauty, but all is bitter today.
Nothing, not love, the boudoir or the hearth
Is dearer than the sunshine on the sea.

Still love me, tender heart!
Be a mother Even to the ingrate, to the wicked,
Lover, sister, ephemeral sweetness
Of fall's glory or of the setting sun.

Short-lived task! The tomb awaits, merciless.
Ah! Let me, my head resting on your knees,
Savor, regretting the white hot summer,
The autumn's last rays yellow and tender.

"Charles Baudelaire was one of the greatest French poets of the 19th century. His work has been a major influence on Western poetry and modern poetry in general as, thematically, he was one of the first poets (along with Rimbaud) whose subject was often urban life and its dark side, with all of its evils and the degradation of its temptations. His poems, classical in form, introduced Symbolism, he is also known as a writer of the Decadent group. Baudelaire was moody and rebellious, imbued with an intense religious mysticism, and his work reflects an unremitting inner despair. His main theme is the inseparable nature of beauty and corruption. His major work, Les Flers du Mal, translated as The Flowers of Evil (1857), originally condemned as obscene, is recognized as a masterpiece, especially remarkable for the brilliant phrasing, rhythm, and expressiveness of its lyrics." (http://studiocleo.com/librarie/baudelaire/biography.html )

******
Baudelaire - Chant d'automne

I
Bientôt nous plongerons dans les froides ténèbres ;
Adieu, vive clarté de nos étés trop courts !
J'entends déjà tomber avec des chocs funèbres ~
Le bois retentissant sur le pavé des cours.

Tout l'hiver va rentrer dans mon être : colère,
Haine, frissons, horreur, labeur dur et forcé,
Et, comme le soleil dans son enfer polaire,
Mon coeur ne sera plus qu'un bloc rouge et glacé.

J'écoute en frémissant chaque bûche qui tombe ;
L'échafaud qu'on bâtit n'a pas d'écho plus sourd.
Mon esprit est pareil à la tour qui succombe
Sous les coups du bélier infatigable et lourd.

Il me semble, bercé par ce choc monotone,
Qu'on cloue en grande hâte un cercueil quelque part.
Pour qui ? - C'était hier l'été ; voici l'automne !
Ce bruit mystérieux sonne comme un départ.

II

J'aime de vos longs yeux la lumière verdâtre,
Douce beauté, mais tout aujourd'hui m'est amer,
Et rien, ni votre amour, ni le boudoir, ni l'âtre,
Ne me vaut le soleil rayonnant sur la mer.

Et pourtant aimez-moi, tendre coeur ! soyez mère,
Même pour un ingrat, même pour un méchant ;
Amante ou soeur, soyez la douceur éphémère
D'un glorieux automne ou d'un soleil couchant.

Courte tâche ! La tombe attend ; elle est avide !
Ah ! laissez-moi, mon front posé sur vos genoux,
Goûter, en regrettant l'été blanc et torride,
De l'arrière-saison le rayon jaune et doux !

Work

2011-10-31T10:30:00.001Z

Fernand Léger (1819-1892)

Les constructeurs 1950
Oil on canvas

Fernand Léger

Still Life with a Beer Mug 1921

Oil on canvas

Léger was born in Argentan, Orne, Basse-Normandie, where his father raised cattle. Fernand Léger initially trained as an architect from 1897–1899 before moving in 1900 to Paris, where he supported himself as an architectural draftsman. After military service in Versailles,Yvelines in 1902–1903, he enrolled at the School of Decorative Arts; he also applied to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts but was rejected. He nevertheless attended the Beaux-Arts as a non-enrolled student, spending what he described as "three empty and useless years" studying with Gérôme and others, while also studying at the Académie Julian. He began to work seriously as a painter only at the age of 25.

Work by Tiago S.

Demands, challenges!!

There are so many professions all over the world which may be considered dangerous and risky as you all know. I would like to have a job which allows me to be part of something important even though it is risky and dangerous. I would like to do something to prevent violence and to solve problems that might save people's lives...

Should I? [ 2 ]

2011-10-31T09:56:00.001Z

Starry Night Over the Rhone (1888)

Van Gogh

Oil on canvas (72,5 cm x 92 cm)

Musée d'Orsay - Paris

Should I... ? By Jorge P. and Pedro G.

Should I care about change?

Many years have passed by since I

asked this same quuestion.

But the more I think about it, the less the hope and expectations.

Things remain the same.

People don't seem to care.

Human lives are no longer a priority... Money is!

The money we spend and the one that is forgotten ...

Better use it may have...

For the ones starving and feeling cold...

We don't want to feed hate, hate among others, among us!

Life is priceless! Money NOT.

Should I ? [1]

2011-10-31T09:44:00.000Z

The Bedroom, 1888

Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)

Oil on Canvas, 72 X 90 cm

Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

Should I... By Ana C. and Carolina S.

Should I ignore the world?

Should I ignore the people?

Should I smile or cry?...

Should I see what is in front of me?

The answer?... I don't know!

I don't know if I really want to know.

Life is becoming worse and worse or

it seems so...

The world is uglier and uglier, today, yesterday, every day.

The sooner we realise that, the sooner we will see

the best in every choice...

Life isn't just hard or ugly,

there is a lesson in every single minute.

The past was... The future will be...

Imagine Cup - Your chance to change the world

2011-10-26T19:04:00.000+01:00

Since 2003, more than 1 million students have challenged themselves to use technology to make a positive impact in the world. This year we dare YOU to step up to the challenge. Will you be the one to end illiteracy, stop the spread of malaria or teach the world about environmental conservation? Register for Imagine Cup 2012 and find out!
Imagine Cup 2012 - Trailer por Microsoft_Etudiants

The Microsoft Imagine Cup is the world’s premier student technology competition. We invite all eligible students to use their imagination and passion to create a technology solution that addresses the Imagine Cup 2012 theme: Imagine a world where technology helps solve the toughest problems. In ten years, the Imagine Cup has grown to be a truly global competition focused on finding solutions to real-world problems. Since 2003, over 1.4 million students have participated in the Imagine Cup with 358,000 students representing 183 countries and regions registering for the Imagine Cup 2011 competition. The Imagine Cup 2012 competition is your chance to:Solve tough problems facing the world today, and maybe even turn your ideas into a business.Learn new technological skills.Test yourself against the brightest students around the world.Make new friends.Win cash, grants , and prizes – plus, a chance for a free trip to Sydney, Australia, next July to compete at the Imagine Cup 2012 Worldwide Finals!

http://www.imaginecup.com/

Leonardo da Vinci

2011-10-22T10:45:00.000+01:00

As a painter, Leonardo aimed to convince viewers of the reality of what they were seeing while still aspiring to create ideals of beauty – particularly in his exquisite portraits – and, in his religious works, to convey a sense of awe-inspiring mystery.

http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/leonardo-da-vinci-painter-at-the-court-of-milan

Portrait of a Musician, about 1485-8 and Portrait of a Woman (La Belle Ferronnière), about 1492–4...

Related Articles:

Infinite Jest - MET

2011-10-19T18:58:00.000+01:00

<p>Please enable flash to view this media. <a href="http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/">Download the flash player.</a></p>

Please enable flash to view this media. Download the flash player.

Check out this video:

http://www.metmuseum.org/metmedia/video/directors-message/dm-september-2011-infinte-jest

Director Thomas P. Campbell discusses Infinite Jest with the exhibition's curators, Nadine Orenstein and Constance McPhee.
Transcript
Thomas Campbell: Hi, I'm Tom Campbell, director of the Metropolitan Museum, and I'm in our galleries of drawings and prints, where we've just opened an exhibition, Infinite Jest: Caricature and Satire from Leonardo to Levine, which is on until March in 2012. I'm with the curators of the exhibition, Nadine Orenstein and Constance McPhee.

Looking around, I see you've divided the show into different themes. Could you tell me a little bit about—

Constance McPhee: Yes. Well, we start out by establishing really the language of humor—how artists conveyed humorous ideas in different ways, through exaggerating bodies, gathering faces and showing profiles, comparing people to animals or objects. We then have a section that has to do with social satire where we see human weakness on display: people eating too much, people gambling, extreme fashion.

Thomas Campbell: I'm amazed, for example, looking at some of the caricatures of fashion. I mean, we look at contemporary fashion and the extreme shapes. You know, we've just had our McQueen exhibition with some very exaggerated costumes, but looking at some of these, with the padding or the bustles, it makes you realize there was a long antecedence to the kind of exaggeration of the McQueen costumes.

Nadine Orenstein: I should say that a lot of the caricatures were sold in shops, print shops. People would stand outside the shops, these caricatures would be lined up in the windows and people from all different classes would stand out there talking about them, and it really was a common point of discussion about political subjects. I mean, much the way—

Thomas Campbell: I mean, some of them are vicious.

Nadine Orenstein: Yes, and it's much the way The Daily Show or Saturday Night Live works today. It's a common experience that everybody would be talking about.

Thomas Campbell: And then you go through to political satire.

Constance McPhee: Very few people come off as perfectly pure and wonderful. We have a little section that focuses on Napoleon because he is so well known. And, in fact, caricaturists and satirists like Gillray helped to establish our contemporary view of Napoleon.

Nadine Orenstein: So there's that wonderful print of Napoleon and George III, and George III sort of looking at him as this tiny, little figure. I mean, that really sets in our mind this image of this tiny general.

Constance McPhee: Whereas actually, he was of average height but today most people would think of him as short.

Thomas Campbell: Yes, fantastic.The show comes all the way through to the modern day.

Nadine Orenstein: Yes.

Thomas Campbell: Do you see commonalities, common threads that run all the way through?Nadine Orenstein: Yeah. Well, people like David Levine really come out of the tradition of nineteenth-century caricature artists who made these images of well-known celebrities with big heads and very small bodies We have, you know, a caricature of Delacroix, or a caricature of Victor Hugo by Daumier that's very much the tradition that David Levine was following, so you really see the continuity of approaches over time, but each one building on what came before.

Thomas Campbell: I love the Levine of Claes Oldenburg as one of his own works of art.

Constance McPhee: Yes, he's shown as the soft toilet And if you look at him closely, you think he's simply wearing a cap but then you realize that's the toilet lid.

Thomas Campbell: I see museums come in for quite a good ribbing as well.

Constance McPhee: Yes, they do. Crowds at exhibitions are nothing new. There are many prints, especially from the nineteenth century, when public exhibitions really were established as something people enjoyed going to for entertainment. And from the very beginning, they were crowded and popular, and some of our funniest prints show people trying to get up to the top floor of the Royal Academy Exhibition in London, tumbling down the stairs—

Thomas Campbell: That would never happen today with modern health and safety regulations.Now, we tend to think of museums as being serious places. How do you feel a show like this fits into the Metropolitan Museum?

Constance McPhee: There's a lot of serious things going on. Humor is a very important way of dealing with some of those things, not only to give you immediate pleasure but also to help you consider them. And sometimes it's a way of getting past being too serious and too analytical and to actually get to the heart of the matter without even realizing it.

Thomas Campbell: Well, congratulations to you both, it's a wonderful exhibition.It's on exhibition at the Metropolitan until March 2012. I strongly advise you to visit; it's a cornucopia of humor and satire and there's a beautiful book that accompanies the exhibition, so come and see it.Thank you.

http://www.metmuseum.org/metmedia

Credit: http://www.metmuseum.org/

Be Happy!

2011-10-17T18:51:00.001+01:00

Fake Wallaby Mom

2011-10-12T10:06:00.000+01:00

Baby wallabies are taken from one mother and put into the pouch of another wallaby species in order to help population growth...

Painting Reality

2011-10-11T09:40:00.000+01:00

500 liters of waterbased environmentally-friendly paint on asphalt spread by 2000 cars on Rosenthaler Platz Berlin. By IEPE & the anonymous crew. Directed by AKIZ.

Teams working to assist wildlife - New Zealand

2011-10-10T09:00:00.000+01:00

Efforts to recover oil from a ship carrying nearly a half million gallons of heavy fuel that ran aground after striking a reef off New Zealand are being hampered by high winds and strong swells, officials said Monday.

(...)
A rescue centre has been set up in the city of Tauranga to clean oil from animals affected by the spill and MNZ has 14 teams working to assist wildlife. Nine birds have been recovered -- seven little blue penguins and two shags, the agency said.

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/10/09/world/asia/new-zealand-oil-spill/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

For Steve Jobs

2011-10-09T08:34:00.000+01:00

for steve jobs from Casey Neistat on Vimeo.

"It was that computer that got me into films and provided me with the career I have today." Casey Neistat

Part of complete coverage on Steve Jobs:

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/10/05/opinion/garfield-steve-jobs-fonts/index.html

An Edinburgh time lapse movie

2011-10-08T17:57:00.000+01:00

The New World Trade Center

2011-09-28T20:15:00.001+01:00

Commissioned by Silverstein properties for visual effects company Piranha NYC, “The New World Trade Center” visualizes the full restoration of Lower Manhattan, when Ground Zero ceases to be a vast construction site, but instead, the active urban corridor it is hoped to become. The film, which was presented a couple of weeks back for the tenth anniversary of 9/11, begins with high-res video capturing the choreography of the on-going construction: workers raise and lower steel beams, pour concrete, and man machines–all set to jittery bleeps and paranoiac strings ostensibly pinched from the soundtrack of a Bourne film. This real footage gives way to a virtual landscape, with acrobatic flybys over the fully planted WTC Memorial Site and park and up the sides of the four WTC towers. The completion of the site unfolds before your eyes with an impressive level of photographic realism and clarity that seamlessly appends the new towers to the existing skyline...
The New World Trade Center from Piranha Nyc on Vimeo.

Say Something Nice

2011-09-05T11:51:00.002+01:00

This is one of over 100 different missions Improv Everywhere has executed over the past ten years in New York City. Others include Frozen Grand Central, the Food Court Musical, and the famous No Pants Subway Ride, to name a few. Visit their website to see tons of photos and video of all of their work, including behind the scenes information on how this video was made.
"For our latest mission we constructed a custom wooden lectern with a megaphone holster and an attached sign that read, "Say Something Nice." The lectern was placed in public spaces around New York and then left alone. We wanted to see what would happen if New Yorkers were given the opportunity to amplify their voices to "say something nice." This project was produced by Improv Everywhere as part of the Guggenheim Museum exhibition stillspotting nyc."
Backstory: http://improveverywhere.com/2011/08/22/say-something-nice/
Full credits:http://improveverywhere.com/2011/08/22/say-something-nice/

Happy Feet heads home to Antarctica - video

2011-09-02T19:22:00.000+01:00

Emperor penguin stranded in New Zealand and given the nickname Happy Feet finally heading home after undergoing operations to remove sand and debris from its stomach. It boarded the research vessel Tangaroa and spent its first night at sea as the ship heads for the Southern ocean to release it.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2011/aug/30/happy-feet-heads-home-antarctica?CMP=twt_gu

How space station research could save lives

2011-09-01T09:08:00.000+01:00

How could many International Space Station experiments improve or save lives on Earth? Astronomy Now's Dr. Emily Baldwin finds out as she interviews International Space Station flight engineer Ron Garan during the last ever joint Space Shuttle/Space Station press conference.

Undocking - Space Shuttle Atlantis

2011-07-19T12:52:00.000+01:00

Space shuttle Atlantis undocks from the International Space Station during STS-135, the final shuttle mission.

Atlantis is scheduled to land at 5:57a EDT at Kennedy Space Center, Fla. Thursday July 21. watch on http://t.co/W8kdg39.

AUSTRALIA | What a cool story!

2011-07-04T11:44:00.002+01:00

Tourism Western Australia: Extraordinary Taxi Ride from The Glue Society on Vimeo.

The Fun Theory

2011-06-19T14:53:00.001+01:00

"Take the stairs instead of the escalator or elevator and feel better" is something we often hear or read in the Sunday papers. Few people actually follow that advice. Can we get more people to take the stairs over the escalator by making it fun to do? See the results...

The winning idea of the fun theory award, submitted by Kevin Richardson, USA. Can we get more people to obey the speed limit by making it fun to do? This was the question Kevin's idea answered and it was so good that Volkswagen, together with The Swedish National Society for Road Safety, actually made this innovative idea a reality in Stockholm, Sweden.

http://www.thefuntheory.com/

Space 2011

2011-06-15T16:20:00.004+01:00

Aquarius SAC-D Launch (201106100016HQ)

A Delta II rocket launches with the Aquarius/SAC-D spacecraft payload from Space Launch Complex 2 at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. on Friday, June 10, 2011. The joint U.S./Argentinian Aquarius/Satélite de Aplicaciones Científicas (SAC)-D mission, set to launch June 10, will map the salinity at the ocean surface, information critical to improving our understanding of two major components of Earth's climate system: the water cycle and ocean circulation. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Exhibition... Now and Then... June 2011

2011-06-14T12:49:00.001+01:00

Artwork by Diogo Gomes

Artwork by Helena Guerreiro

Artwork by Sara Inácio

Artwork by Rita Oliveira

In the time it takes you to understand a 14-year-old, he turns 15. ~Robert Brault

*

Life would be very boring without hobbies; we would appear like robots, without feelings, like colour blind creatures, like aliens on our own planet. Hobbies give sense to our existence.
Since early childhood we have a daily routine, since our first nursery school day. Therefore, in order to keep a balance between busy moments and free time we take up hobbies.

*

Now and Then…

Beautiful!!!!!

Artwork by 10B, 10 C, 10F
(June 2011)

In Our Time: The Museum of Modern Art

2011-06-12T19:40:00.000+01:00

Eduardo Souto de Moura - The Pritzker Architecture Prize 2011

2011-06-03T09:29:00.001+01:00

Cinema House, Manoel de Oliveira, Porto, Portugal

Eduardo Souto de Moura, a 58 year old architect from Portugal, was the jury’s choice for the 2011 Pritzker Architecture Prize. The formal ceremony for what has come to be known throughout the world as architecture’s highest honor was in one of Washington, D.C.’s finest classical buildings, the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium on June 2.

Biography: http://www.pritzkerprize.com/laureates/2011/bio.html
Selected Works: http://www.pritzkerprize.com/laureates/2011/works.html

Volcanic Eruption in Grimsvotn, Iceland 2011

2011-05-26T09:20:00.000+01:00

Volcanic Eruption in Grimsvotn, Iceland May 21 2011 from Jon Gustafsson on Vimeo.

Volcanic Eruption in Grimsvotn, Iceland 2011...

Of Forests and Men

2011-05-02T09:28:00.002+01:00

Yann Arthus-Bertrand was appointed by the United Nations to produce the official film for the International Year of Forests.
Following the success of Home which was seen by 400 million people, the photographer began producing a short 7-minute film on forests made up of aerial images from Home and the Vu du Ciel television programmes.
This film was shown during a plenary session of the Ninth Session of United Nations Forum on Forests (24 January - 4 February 2011) in New York. It is available to all for free so that it can be shown worldwide.

With the voice of EDWARD NORTON.

www.goodplanet.org/forets
http://www.un.org/en/events/iyof2011/

The Hourglass

2011-04-28T09:57:00.000+01:00

The Hourglass from Ikepod on Vimeo.

Marc Newson's latest creation for Ikepod sees the Australian designer interpret the most iconic timepiece of all: The Hourglass. Director Philip Andelman traveled to Basel, Switzerland, to document the designer's modern take of the classic hourglass inside the Glaskeller factory. Each hand made hourglass comprises highly durable borosilicate glass and millions of stainless steel nanoballs, and is available in a 10 or 60 minute timer.

Portugal

2011-04-26T09:06:00.002+01:00

Spring

2011-04-07T10:15:00.000+01:00

In the spring I have counted one hundred and thirty-six different kinds of weather inside of four and twenty hours. ~Mark Twain

Endeavour - NASA Retargets Space Shuttle Endeavour's Launch for April 29

2011-04-06T09:04:00.000+01:00

The 25th and final flight of shuttle Endeavour will slip 10 days to April 29, clearing the way for the previously scheduled launch of a robotic Russian space freighter and its arrival at the International Space Station.

Endeavour and six astronauts aim to deliver a $2 billion cosmic ray detector that could shed new light on the origin, evolution and fate of the universe.

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?collection_id=14554&media_id=77304081

Paula Rego - Portugal

2011-04-04T09:17:00.002+01:00

Casa das Histórias Paula Rego, Cascais, Portugal from Pedro Kok on Vimeo.

'Casa das Histórias Paula Rego' exhibition space in Cascais, Portugal. Designed by architect Eduardo Souto de Moura.

Artist: Paula Rego

Dog Woman

1994

Pastel on canvas

120 x 160 cm

Inspired by a story a friend had written for her, Paula Rego draws her Dog Woman in pastels, referencing the raw physicality of Degas’ drawings. “To be a dog woman is not necessarily to be downtrodden; that has very little to do with it,” She explained, “In these pictures every woman's a dog woman, not downtrodden, but powerful. To be bestial is good. It's physical. Eating, snarling, all activities to do with sensation are positive. To picture a woman as a dog is utterly believable."

Souto de Moura Wins 2011 Pritzker Architecture Prize

2011-03-29T10:28:00.003+01:00

Eduardo Souto de Moura, a Portuguese architect who has worked mainly in his native country, designing a major soccer stadium and numerous private houses, has been awarded the 2011 Pritzker Prize, architecture’s highest honor.

www.pritzkerprize.com/2011mediakitphotos.pdf

2005-2009 Paula Rego Museum - Cascais, Portugal
(Casa das Histórias Paula Rego)

Earth Hour 2011

2011-03-25T10:39:00.000Z

One person has the power to make change...

This Earth Hour 2011 - 8:30 pm Saturday 26th March - Switch off your lights for Earth Hour...

What Cousteau's packing for Arctic Trip - CNN

2011-03-24T10:38:00.000Z

Clothes, sleeping bag and a urine bottle are among the items Philippe Cousteau's packing for his Arctic trip.

Check out this article:

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/americas/03/11/arctic.expedition/index.html

Chagall

2011-03-21T08:54:00.004Z

The Chagall mural on the ceiling of the auditorium of l'Opera Garnier, Paris.

Chagall (1887-1985) was born in Vitebsk, Byelorussia.
Chagall painted with a variety of media, such as oils, water colors, and gouaches. His work also expanded to other forms of art, including ceramics, mosaics, and stained glass. Among his most famous building decorations are the ceiling of the Opera House in Paris, murals at the New York Metropolitan Opera, a glass window at the United Nations, and decorations at the Vatican.

YTSO 2011 - 20th March

2011-03-20T10:36:00.000Z

The Grand Finale performance by YouTube Symphony Orchestra 2011 will be accompanied by spectacular projections by Obscura Digital on the iconic sails of Sydney Opera House. Tune in on Sunday 20th March from 8pm Sydney time for the live concert which will be rebroadcasted throughout the day in your city.

Live: http://www.youtube.com/symphony?feature=ticker

Tsunami dogs stick together - Japan

2011-03-18T02:47:00.001Z

Follow the trail of two tsunami-battered dogs who stuck together.
CNN's Jeanne Moos reports. http://on.cnn.com/f3iuqu

http://edition.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/offbeat/2011/03/17/moos.tsunami.dogs.follow.cnn.html

There are many animal rescue groups over there helping out the animals that were affected by this disaster.
Jerry, the Setter is at a vet now and the Brittany is in a shelter. Now if only some one will foster them.

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/03/17/japan.animal.rescue/

Salman Khan: Let's use video to reinvent education

2011-03-16T00:06:00.001Z

Salman Khan talks about how and why he created the remarkable Khan Academy, a carefully structured series of educational videos offering complete curricula in math and, now, other subjects.

Tommy Ingberg Artwork

2011-03-15T10:34:00.000Z

(Never Mind -2010)

http://www.ingberg.com/index.asp?page=myart

Tommy Ingberg lives in Upplands Väsby, a short drive north of Stockholm, Sweden. Like so many others he has the need to express himself, and photography has become his medium.

The artist's blog: http://www.ingberg.com/index.asp?page=blog

Yuja Wang plays Rachmaninov

2011-03-13T23:08:00.000Z

Twenty-three year old Chinese pianist Yuja Wang is widely recognized for playing that combines the spontaneity and fearless imagination of youth with the discipline and precision of a mature artist. Regularly lauded for her controlled, prodigious technique, Yuja’s command of the piano has been described as “astounding” and “superhuman,” and she has been praised for her authority over the most complex technical demands of the repertoire, the depth of her musical insight, as well as her fresh interpretations and graceful, charismatic stage presence. Following her San Francisco recital debut The San Francisco Chronicle wrote “The arrival of Chinese-born pianist Yuja Wang on the musical scene is an exhilarating and unnerving development. To listen to her in action is to re-examine whatever assumptions you may have had about how well the piano can actually be played,” and The Washington Post called Yuja’s Kennedy Center recital debut “jaw-dropping.”

http://www.yujawang.com/