Nirvana

Hello my bloggers! How was your weekend? I hope it was really good! Today I’m going to talk about one of the most important music groups of grunge. They were active from the latest 80’s to the early 90’. Yes my friends, we are speaking about NIRVANA.

Last week (February 20th) would have been Kurt Cobain’s 45th birthday. If you don’t know this group, probably you will be wondering who he was. He was the singer of NIRVANA. He was born in Seattle in the year 1967. He had his first guitar when he was 14. He loved music more than other abilities like sport. When he was in the high school he wanted to form a band, but he didn’t find what he was expecting. Finally, after many drummers, he found the one he liked. And in 1991 the good NIRVANA was founded when they published their album Nevermind. However, Kurt, didn’t like the idea of all the people listening their songs if they didn’t feel them. With that and many other problems, on the 5th of April in 1994 he was found dead in his house. In consequence, NIRVANA never returned again. Even though time has passed, he was considered in 2003 by the Rolling Stones magazine the 12th of 100 best guitarists in history. It doesn’t stop there, he was also considered the 45th best singer out of 100 greatest singers ever.

If you like the topic, here I leave some of the most famous songs of this fantastic group:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6P0SitRwy8

Another one!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTWKbfoikeg&ob=av3e

As Kurt would have said: I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not.”

This is all! I hope you liked it! Bye!

Jumpstyle

You have probably heard about this type of modern dancing or have seen it, but do you know its story, how to dance it or about its popularity?

Jumpstyle is a developed form of oldschool, hardcore dance from the beginning of the 90s. The Jumpstyle appeared like a musical genre in Belgium and Holland during 1997 and it was played in discos by the oldschool boys. Initially, it wasn´t very popular and it didn´t have great success, however, through the next years jumpstyle began to be danced by a group of boys called “The Jumpers” in Holland, and its sophisticated and elegant style was rapidly adopted in the country over next two years. In 2006, with the first contests in Holland, France, Spain and Russia popularised the dance and it travelled from Holland to all of Europe. Jumpstyle is nowadays “conquering” North America and Australia.

You can find Jumpstyle in your own city too, there are little groups of boys called “Jumpers”, who can be seen near your house, in your high-school (I have seen people in my high-school who are thirteen years old dancing), or in your city´s square. Sometimes in Facebook you receive an invitation for an event to take part in a big concentration of jumpstyle in a huge city. These concentrations take place in mostly the biggest squares of the cities, nearing up to 10,000 people dancing at the same time.

Although it seems easy, it is a complicated dance and you must control your movements in a precise way so as not to fall or to get lost. The first thing you may learn while dancing jumpstyle is to warm up your legs for 10 minutes as it requires a high concentration and flexibility of your legs. I´m sure you are thinking that arms are not necessary… you are wrong. When you are dancing jumpstyle the coordination of movements between the opposite arm from the leg you are moving makes the “magic” in this dance. When you have finished of warning up you can look for Patrick Jumpen's website and learn how to dance it with tutorial videos.

I am now practising to dance Jumpstyle, and it is really difficult! Would you like to dance jumpstyle? Here you are two videos I like!

Erik Johansson and his optical illusions.

Could you imagine a house lifted up by four strings? And could you imagine a fish whose upper part is an island? Or could you imagine a scissor dividing the ground and a house by two? Nowadays, with technology, all these “crazy” images possible.

Erik Johansson is a 23year old Swedish man. Nowadays he is studying computer engineering. However, he is a passionate about photography. Moreover, he shows a great talent manipulating images captured by his camera lens. Erik has made all the images above (and many more) possible with a camera and some photomontage.

The technique used by Erik Johansson to achieve these incredible and unbelievable images is image overlay. He makes you feel as if everything in the photograph is real, and maybe it is. A photograph made up by a real fish and a real island which he places together. Johansson’s’ images are never just one photograph. He uses several photos and fuses them into several layers.

His last creation took place in a square in Stockholm. He created a cliff in the middle of this square. Obviously, this cliff was just a result of great photo retouching and much imagination. Well, it doesn’t seem extremely difficult. Maybe one day you and I will be doing this kind of photography!

Here I leave you a link to Erik Johansson web site. Here you can observe all of his creations and be aware of every of his new creations!

Carnival

What did you do during carnival? Did you go out with your friends? Or did you travel with your family away from your town? Are you bored of not doing anything during carnival? Here, I’m going to show you how people enjoyed their carnivals, so you will have an idea for next year!

The first option is going out with your friends. You get up early and are nervous Saturday morning, thinking about what you are going to do. Then, a friend calls you. He or she says that you are going to dress up in an incredible costume, and you are going to a party.

So this morning you don’t do any homework, you go out with your friends to prepare the costumes. Finally, you decide what you are going to be. Furthermore, you spend all afternoon getting ready for the party. When you leave your house, you realise that your costume is a zombie, or a pirate, or both: a zombie pirate. Because of that, you feel like it is in Halloween and you feel confused. But when you are at the party with your friends, you know that it is going to be the best Carnival ever!

Anther option is going out of town. For example, this Carnival, I went with my parents and some friends to ski. We went to the Pyrenees, where the closest ski resorts are. We had a very good time there. We dressed as cows, because it was the only costume that allowed us to ski. We skied every day, until the directors of the resort told us to leave, at five or six in the afternoon. During the rest of the day, we did homework or played and we all had dinner together. This is another way of enjoying Carnival. And I can guarantee that you will have a lot of fun!

Those are the options you have if you want to dress up during Carnival. On the other hand, if you don’t like costumes or Carnival’s parties, you can also enjoy this little holiday.

Some of my friends don’t like going out dressed up in strange ways, but they enjoy this long weekend, too. They meet in a house and pick a pizza and a film they all like. So they can enjoy a great afternoon all together. You can do the same. If you are alone, don’t worry, you can have fun watching a movie on the sofa, or reading a book.

So here you have, my favourite ways of enjoying a Carnival weekend. And remember, it does not matter if you are alone or not, if you like costumes or not, the important thing is that you have a great time.