From Brownsville to Spain: a cultural life-changing trip

Extraordinary iniciative by Eric Jordan, an English teacher at Frederick Douglass Academy VII situated in a poverty-striken suburb in New York, who is taking his students to Spain to learn about culture and life from a travelling experience, as he did himself years ago.

 To make this happen , the teacher has launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise the money for the trip. For all the students it is going to be their  first trip across the Atlantic ocean .

The main purpose of the trip is to provide the students with a unique opportunity to learn from experience and to awake them to other different worlds from their own realities that can change their present and future prospects.

The tour includes visits to Madrid and Barcelona and also to our home town, Zaragoza. We are delighted with it !!! Congratulations on the iniciative. Thank you for choosing our country for such a splendid iniciative! We hope you have a great time!!


Brownsville to Barcelona promo video from patersonday on Vimeo.

"Don't reach the bottom" Russian campaign against alcohol abuse

A picture is worth a thousand words.

Interesting iniciative against alcohol abuse in a country where it is deeply rooted and widespread causing so much pain in Russian society at large.

1,000 wine bottles were printed visualising dramatic situations derived from alcohol abuse that become visible as the bottle is being emptied until the drinkers "reach the bottom" of the bottle.

The logo is clearly a metaphore of the negative effects for people when they reach the bottom of life through alcohol abuse.

      

Alice Guy-Blanché, another hidden figure

She was the first movie director and a pionner in the development of film-making industry.She was a groundbreaker in the field of film narrative technology and changed the format of filmmaking forever.
She wrote, directed, or produced more than 1,000 films and she was the first woman to build and run a film studio.
 Forgotten by the film industry , filmmaker Pamela Green wants to change that by paying homage to Guy- Blanché s through her film Be Natural, in reference to the acting style Alice encouraged the actors to use , paving the way for modern professionnal acting career 

Another unfair case of a woman's erasure from history , when history is written by men.


Be Natural Trailer from Be Natural on Vimeo.

FOR FURTHER READING : : The First Woman Behind a Camera, Now Forgotten

Art through music: "Dust my shoulders off"

               

Dust My Shoulders Off

Jane Zhang

Just had a bad day
Had car trouble on the highway
My stupid boss don't like me
Spilled hot coffee on my blue jeans
I'm low on money and ain't shit funny
But it's still sunny outside
So I keep smiling, I won't start wilin'
I just keep living my life

Can't keep me down, me down
(It's only temporary)
Can't make me frown, me frown
(So I ain't even worried)
'Cause the world keeps spinnin'
Life goes on and on
I won't cry for long
(Won't cry for long long long)
'Cause I'll still be winnin'
When things are going wrong
I turn on my favorite song
And dust my shoulders
(I dust my shoulders off)
(I dust my shoulders off)
(I dust my shoulders off)
I don't worry 'bout nothing, just dust it off
(I dust my shoulders off)
(I dust my shoulders off)
(I dust my shoulders off)
I don't…

Banksy's art

        

Banksy de marinosa

Analysing Art

This video by Phil  Hansen analyses the concept  of art in order to get insight of the different aspects involved in its definition.

                     
               Enumerate different criteria to judge works of art.

              Who well-known artists does the video mention? why? What do their works seek to
              express?


              What should we take into account in order to understand what art is?

Drawing techniques and games

Let us analyse some basic drawing & shading techniques in English,  how texture is created through an artistic interpretation of everday items using line and tone,  as well as some drawing games to improve listening and creative skills.