Homenagem a Rembrandt

O Google presta hoje homenagem a Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn (1606-1669), pelo seu 407º aniversário, com um doodle do auto-retrato do artista, que se encontra na National Gallery of Art, em Washington DC.

 (http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/Collection/highlights.html )

Em Londres, na Queen´s Gallery, em Buckingham Palace, podemos admirar o retrato de Agatha Bas.

Na National Gallery, em Londres, encontra-se o auto retrato do artista aos 34 anos 

e A Festa de Belshazzar

Em Lisboa, no Museu Gulbenkian, "Figura de Velho"

 No Museu Rijksmuseum, em Amsterdão, "The Night Watch"

Barbie is 54

Barbie, whose “real” name is Barbara Millicent Roberts, is a fashion doll manufactured by the American toy company Mattel. 

She was launched in March 1959 and was an immediate market success - around 300,000 dolls were sold in that year (the first doll was sold for $3.00). 

The mere mention of “Barbie” elicits a reaction and her name has been the subject of numerous controversies involving her lifestyle. "Barbie Syndrome" is a term that has been used to depict the desire to have the physical appearance and lifestyle of the Barbie doll. 

Over the years Barbie has collaborated with more than 75 different fashion designers, has had a dream house, a boyfriend - Ken (named after the son of Mattel founders Ruth and Elliot Handler) -, more than 50 pets, 130 careers and 40 different nationalities. Barbie is everywhere with girls today, a phenomenon that I have never really understood. Fortunately I never owned a Barbie doll - I always preferred baby dolls but eventually, somewhat unwillingly, bought some. For me, Barbie represents a frivolous life of which I am not fond.

This month an artist from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Nickolay Lamn, recreated the doll using proportions of the average 19-year-old woman: her neck is nearly twice as wide, her legs shorter and her head a tiny bit smaller. He said he wanted to see if an average-sized Barbie had market potential, and was pleased with how well she turned out.

Viva a França!

O dia 14 de julho é o dia nacional de França.

Apesar deste blog ter como objetivo principal fornecer informações sobre a cultura anglo-americana aos meus alunos de Inglês, não posso deixar de referir que a Revolução Francesa provocou enormes mudanças nas instituições políticas e sociais e teve repercussões em todo o mundo, que foi muito influenciado pelos seus ideais de Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité.

Considero o hino francês um dos mais bonitos de todo o mundo e a sua interpretação no filme Casablanca a melhor de sempre.

Viva a França!

Vive la France!

Hooray for France!

Aqui o artigo publicado no jornal da escola.

An Astronaut's Guide To Life On Earth

Chris Hadfield, Commander of the International Space Station, in 2013, orbiting the Earth during a five-month mission captivated the world with stunning photos and commentaries from space. Have you seen how he celebrated his last day aboard the craft by releasing an adaptation of David Bowie´s Space Oddity? 
(http://relvateresa.blogspot.pt/2013/05/commander-chris-hadfield.html) 

Now, in his first book, Chris Hadfield offers readers extraordinary stories from his life as an astronaut, and shows how to make the impossible a reality.

Written with humour, and a profound optimism for the future of space exploration, Chris Hadfield shares exhilarating experiences and challenges from his 144 days on the ISS and provides an unforgettable answer to his most-asked questions.

What's it really like in outer space?

Chris Hadfield decided to become an astronaut after watching the Apollo moon landing with his family on Stag Island, Ontario, when he was nine years old.

The book was not yet released but it will be published by Random House of Canada in October. 

Portuguese Man- of -War

Is it just in Portugal?

A summer cartoon by Danny Shanahan for the New Yorker Cartoons.

Are you a tile lover?

Today I went to the handicraft FIL (International Lisbon Fair) exhibition and found this interesting piece: a necklace made of a small hand painted tile.

If you are interested in tiles don´t miss Quinta da Bacalhoa

 in Azeitão, Portugal. 

Here you will find one of the oldest tiles in this country dating from 1565. 

Palácio do Marquês da Fronteira in Benfica and of course the Church of Madre de Deus and the Museum of Tile cannot be forgotten.

If you enjoy tiles and also have a sweet tooth go to Fábrica dos Pastéis de Belem and enjoy both: beautiful tiles and the delicious and the truly authentic custard tarts.

Banker of the year: António Horta-Osório

The chief executive of UK’s Lloyds Banking Group, António Horta-Osório won the banker of the year award- as part of Euromoney's Awards for Excellence 2013- for his efforts to restore the UK bank to profitability over the past two years. 

The awards were presented yesterday at a dinner in the City of London attended by more than 500 bankers from the world’s leading financial institutions. 

Collecting the award, António Horta-Osório said: “I am honoured to have won this prestigious award. It is testimony to the hard work done by teams across the business to support our strategy of transforming the Group into a simple, UK customer-focused, low-risk retail and commercial bank that is delivering real benefits for customers, colleagues and shareholders.” 

António Horta Osório is a Portuguese banker, economist and professor who became Lloyds Group Chief Executive on 1 March 2011. He is 49 years old, married with three children and is a keen tennis player and scuba diver. 

Euromoney is the world’s leading financial markets magazine. 

http://www.euromoney.com/Article/3229828/Wells-Fargo-Goldman-Sachs-and-Lloyds-chief-executive.html


http://sicnoticias.sapo.pt/economia/2013/07/12/antonio-horta-osorio-distinguido-como-melhor-banqueiro-do-mundo

The Consul of Bordeaux

Aristides de Sousa Mendes
 Portuguese Diplomat

João Paulo de Sousa Mendes do Amaral e Abranches, the last surviving son of Aristides Sousa Mendes, led successfully the attempt to revive his father`s memory. He died in California in 2009 and unfortunately was not able to see some of his legacy -films, books and magazine articles, celebrating the importance of his father.

João Paulo Abranches (in the middle) in Fall River in 2001

However João Paulo Abranches was in Massachusetts (New Bedford and Fall River) in 2001, where he attended a celebration and an exhibition organized by the Portuguese consul, members of the Jewish Community and the Diocese of Fall River about the major humanitarian achievements of Aristides de Sousa Mendes.

This week the New York Times published an article about The Consul of Bordeaux: In Portugal, a Protector of a People is Honored

In June the Portuguese magazine Visão produced a long article with interviews of some survivers of the Holocaust whose lives were saved by Aristides de Sousa Mendes.

The Coronation Festival

The Queen had a tour of the Coronation Festival today.





The Coronation Festival runs from 11-14 July at Buckingham Palace.

It will give members of the public the chance to enjoy the unique opportunity of meeting more than 200 companies that have supplied the royal family in the last five years and therefore hold Royal Warrants (they range from traditional craftspeople to global multinationals). The event will be held in The Gardens at Buckingham Palace.

The firms will be split into four areas - Homes & Gardens, Food & Drink, Design & Technology and Styles, Pursuits & Pastimes. 

The Gardens will also be the setting for a spectacular gala celebrating cultural life in the last 60 years.

Fortnum & Mason is in the list of Royal Warrant holders of the British Royal Family. I love this shop in Piccadilly, London just opposite the Royal Academy of Arts.

http://www.royalwarrant.org/

https://www.coronationfestival.com/

The Butler

The Butler is a look at the life of Cecil Gaines (Forest Whitaker) who served eight presidents as the White House's head butler from 1952 to 1986.

The film is based on the real-life of Eugene Allen (1919-2010). It is directed by Lee Daniels and has a famous cast.The music is by Rodrigo Leão, a Portuguese musician who was part of the ensemble Madredeus.

Virginia´s No BS! Brass Band

Watch here: No BS! Brass Band Tiny Desk Concert

Nik Wallenda's Grand Canyon Walk.

Nik Wallenda, 34 and a father of three is a member of the famed Flying Wallendas, whose ancestors traveled as a band of acrobats, aerialists, animal trainers and trapeze artists. In June 2013, he completed a walk across the Little Colorado River gorge near the Grand Canyon in Arizona without a safety harness, one year after crossing the Niagara Falls.

One camera showed the view looking down to the river 457 meters below. Wallenda stepped slowly and steadily and stopped twice during the 22 minute walk. The winds were higher than expected, and he said it took every bit of him to stay focused.

If you are afraid of heights, forget about this video

I visited the amazing Grand Canyon 9 years ago in a much safer way and took lots of pictures.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57590641/nik-wallenda-completes-tightrope-walk-across-gorge-near-grand-canyon/

Mapping Children´s Chances

The biggest ever global picture of children´s well-being, education and family life in a series of maps by the University of California, Los Angeles in BBC News. See HERE.

This makes me think how we choose to treat our children.

Laurissilva da Madeira

A palavra Laurissilva deriva do latim Laurus (loureiro, lauráceas) e Silva (floresta, bosque).

Laurissilva é o nome dado a um tipo de floresta, composta maioritariamente por plantas da família das lauráceas e endémicas da Macaronésia ( do grego “ilhas afortunadas”), região formada pelos arquipélagos da Madeira, Açores , Canárias e Cabo Verde.

A Laurissilva remonta à era terciária. Muitas espécies chegaram a ocupar grandes extensões no sul da Europa, mas devido às alterações climáticas acabaram por ter como último refúgio as regiões insulares, onde, devido à menor flutuação climática proporcionada pelo efeito amenizador do Oceano Atlântico, conseguiram sobreviver e até mesmo prosperar.

A Floresta da Laurissilva encontra-se nas terras altas do norte da ilha da Madeira, de relevo e acesso difícil, clima frio e húmido (devido à exposição dos ventos predominantes de nordeste- os alíseos). Ocupa o equivalente a 20% da área total da ilha. 

Na Laurissilva encontramos o til (Ocotea foetens), o loureiro (Laurus novocanariensis), o vinhático (Persea indica) e o barbuzano (Apollonias barbujana).

A Floresta da Laurissilva da Madeira foi considerada pela UNESCO como Património Natural da Humanidade em 1999.

TIL

A madeira, quando recentemente cortada tem um cheiro forte e desagradável.

LOUREIRO

A sua madeira é inferior à das outras lauráceas.

Na ilha da Madeira, o óleo obtido da baga do loureiro endémico é conhecido por possuir propriedades anti-inflamatórias, sendo utilizado localmente como remédio caseiro para diversas maleitas, podendo cada litro atingir preços de mercado elevadíssimos.

Os seus galhos são também utilizados para espetar a carne de vaca nas famosas “espetadas” e as folhas como tempero de comida.

Também é a madeira preferida para fazerem colheres de pau e o pau da poncha ( a bebida mais tradicional da Madeira) 

A planta é conhecida desde a Grécia antiga, onde as coroas feitas de folhas de louro eram entregues aos vencedores de competições como símbolo de vitória. Daí a expressão "louros da vitória".

BARBUZANO

A sua madeira é muito pesada e dura, difícil de trabalhar.

VINHÁTICO

Ao longo dos tempos a madeira de vinhático, de cor amarelada ou rosada, foi muito valorizada. Conhecida como mogno da Madeira, foi muito utilizada em marcenaria. Uma mobília de vinhático era uma mais valia. A casca foi utilizada para curtir peles.

Também fazem parte da Laurissilva cerca de 66 espécies diferentes de árvores e arbustos, como perados, folhados, sabugueiros, pau branco, musgos e fungos

A floresta é essencial para a sobrevivência dos Madeirenses: além da beleza que proporciona e das raras espécies botânicas que abriga, garante o abastecimento de água aos centros urbanos e irrigação dos campos agrícolas.

A partir da segunda metade do século XX, as águas, transportadas por extensas "levadas" (canais de irrigação), passaram a produzir energia nas centrais hidroelétricas.

Laurissilva foi o tema de uma belíssima exposição de pintura de Pedro Vaz na Galeria 111 em Lisboa, em Abril deste ano.

Referências:

Augusto da Silva, F e C. Azevedo de Meneses. Elucidário Madeirense Vol II. Secretaria Regional de Turismo e Cultura. Funchal 1998.

Quintal, Raimundo. Madeira. The Discovery of the Island by Car and on Foot. AAPEF, 2005

http://www.pnm.pt/

http://www.madeira-web.com/pagesp/protected-areas/laurissilva.html

http://www.igespar.pt/pt/patrimonio/mundial/portugal/118/

https://revistajardins.pt/laurissilva-floresta-da-madeira/?fb_ref=lNnfwPDg7k-Facebook&utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=ShareButton&utm_campaign=GetSocial&fbclid=IwAR2t8zpUCZAySaxkbBUJBsAcUmd5f45M_xpEEjD-QV0k9K7SbsRCXdP44QY

Who do you believe?

One day a friend visited Hodja and said:

- Hodja, I want to borrow your donkey.

- I´m sorry, replied Hodja, but I´ve already lent it out to someone else.

As soon as he said this, the donkey brayed.

- But Hodja, I can hear the donkey! It´s in the stable!

Shutting the door in his friend´s face, Hodja told him with dignity:

- A man who believes the word of a donkey above my own, doesn´t deserve to be lent anything!

More Nasreddin Hodja´s Jokes

The Fourth of July

The Fourth of July holiday is coming up, and Americans all across the United States will be celebrating with events to commemorate the signing of the Declaration of Independence by the Founding Fathers on July 4, 1776.

     John Adams  

                 Thomas Jefferson

By incredible coincidence John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, two Founding Fathers who helped draft the Declaration of independence, and later became Presidents of the USA, died on the same day- July 4, 1826- 50 years after the historic document was signed.

Monticello

http://www.monticello.org/site/house-and-gardens

When Jefferson's health began to deteriorate he called his family and then asked. "Is it the fourth yet? His doctor replied, ''It soon will be". Some hours later Thomas Jefferson died in his home in Monticello, Virginia.

On the other hand, when John Adams was told that it was the Fourth, he answered clearly, "It is a great day. It is a good day." His last words have been reported as "Thomas Jefferson survives".

However Jefferson had died hours before Adams did.  

                 http://www.nps.gov/adam/historyculture/index.htm

Read more about the 4th of July (in Portuguese):

http://relvateresa.blogspot.pt/2011/08/4th-of-july-independence-day-in-usa.html

"History is the sum total of the things that could have been avoided"

Konrad Adenauer (1876 - 1967)

This is how Paulo Portas started a conference two years ago. A very up- to- date quote.

Cork Boat

I have just finished reading Cork Boat, a memoir book. 

It was written by John Pollack and published in 2004 by Pantheon Books, New York.

Most people have childhood dreams; however few of us ever fulfill them. John Pollack followed an idea he had in his mind since he was six years old: to build a boat out of wine corks and take it on an epic journey.

In this book the author tells the charming and inspiring story of his adventure. Overcoming one obstacle after another he managed to collect all the corks he needed, most of them donated by Cork Supply USA.

He teamed up with an old friend and architect, Garth Goldstein, recruited a hundred volunteers to do hard manual work, and built a boat made of 165,321 wine corks held together entirely by rubber bands.

The boat that took them two years to complete (1999-2001) had a wooden deck, a Viking-style V-shaped prow, and two oars. 

 Later he won sponsorship for a launch in Portugal in a trip down the Douro River from Barca d'Alva, near the Spanish border, till Oporto in a 17-day journey. 

John Pollack had become disillusioned by his job in Washington, D.C where he worked as a former speechwriter for a Congressman, so he decided to quit his job, although he sometimes wondered “Had I made a mistake, leaving behind a steady job with perks and benefits just to build a cork boat?” (page 36). Later, when his savings were running out, he accepted a job in the White House, where he worked as one of President Clinton´s speechwriters while he was still assembling the corks to build his boat and collecting more corks from the White House. 

He gives us an account of the cork wars with their plastic rivals and quoted Paulo Portas, our current Minister for Foreign Affairs: “Paulo Portas, a prominent Portuguese politician, told the Guardian: This is a campaign based on falsewoods” (page 39)

In Portugal he was interviewed by Expresso and answering a question about why he had chosen Portugal and the Douro, John Pollack said: “ Portugal was the king of cork, exporting more cork than any other country in the world; that the Douro region was known worldwide both for its beauty and its wine; and that Portugal had produced some of history´s greatest navigators- Magellan, Cabral and Vasco da Gama. Finally I noted that our sponsor, the Cork Supply Group, was based in Portugal. How could we celebrate the Cork Boat´s maiden voyage anywhere else?” (page 171). 

When the book was published the cork boat remained in Portugal. 

Cork Boat is a happy story of friendship, determination, the power of imagination and humor. In the epilogue “…the wooden bowl is filling up again (with corks). But Garth says that for our next project, we ought to build a rocket ship out of bottle caps. I´ve always wanted to go to the moon”. 

http://www.corkboat.com/author.html

DINING & WINE

Eric Asimov is an American wine critic for The New York Times. In DINING & WINE he wrote about the Portuguese Vinho Verde. “Vinho Verde means green wine, suggesting not the color but that they are intended to be enjoyed in their energetic youth. The Vinho Verde category in fact does not discriminate by color. It comprises red and rosé wines, too, though, practically speaking, the whites have come to dominate production and consumption in the last 30 years”.

Read more.

This was not the first time Eric Asimov wrote about Portuguese wine . In A Love, Fortified he wrote about Madeira wine.

Os 27 países da UE e suas capitais The 27 EU countries and their capitals

ALEMANHA  (Germany) BERLIM (Berlin)

ÁUSTRIA  (Austria) VIENA (Vienna)

BÉLGICA  (Belgium) BRUXELAS (Brussels)

BULGÁRIA  (Bulgaria) SOFIA (Sofia)

CHIPRE  (Cyprus) NICÓSIA (Nicosia)

CROÁCIA (Croacia) ZAGREB (Zagreb)

DINAMARCA (Denmark) COPENHAGA (Copenhagen)

ESLOVÁQUIA (Slovakia) BRATISLAVA (Bratislava)

ESLOVÉNIA (Slovenia) LIUBLIANA (Ljubliana)

ESPANHA (Spain) MADRID (Madrid)

ESTÓNIA (Estonia) TALLIN (Tallinn)

FINLÂNDIA (Finland) HELSINQUIA (Helsinki)

FRANÇA (France) PARIS (Paris)

GRÉCIA (Greece) ATENAS (Athens)

HUNGRIA (Hungary) BUDAPESTE (Budapest)

IRLANDA (Ireland) DUBLIM (Dublin)

ITÁLIA (Italy) ROMA (Rome)

LETÓNIA (Latvia) RIGA (Riga)

LITUÂNIA (Lithuania) VILNIUS (Vilnius)

LUXEMBURGO (Luxembourg) LUXEMBURGO (Luxembourg)

MALTA (Malta) LA VALETA (Valletta)

PAÍSES BAIXOS (Netherlands) AMSTERDÃO (Amsterdam)

POLÓNIA (Poland) VARSÓVIA (Warsaw)

PORTUGAL (Portugal) LISBOA (Lisbon)

REPÚBLICA CHECA (Czech Republic) PRAGA (Prague)

ROMÉNIA (Romania) BUCARESTE (Bucharest)

SUÉCIA (Sweden) ESTOCOLMO (Stockholm)

A Croácia tornou-se o 28º membro da União Europeia no dia 1 de julho de 2013/Croatia became the 28th member of the European Union on 1st July 2013.

No dia 31 de janeiro de 2020 o Reino Unido deixa formalmente a União Europeia/The UK formally leaves the European Union on 31 January 2020.