Spider-Plant Man

Never fear, Spider-Plant Man is here.

Interval (sorry, but we're out of popcorn)

Just some publicity to competition...

Paranoland

This is a short movie I found on Youtube about a subject "as old as the World itself"... Maybe a little bizar...

Long hours ago, in a place not that far,
far away....

Episode III

A NEW HOP

Senator MadTasker, the former Queen of the River disappeared.

There is unrest at the Fishing Senate. Several thousands (or maybe less) have declared their intentions not to disclose the blog.

This separatist movement fears the changes under de leadership of the mysterious Count Malcolm, who can make difficult to the limited number of Jedi Fishermen to maintain peace and chaotic order on the River....



Note: right-click on the image and open link in a new page while reading

Yo

Hello chaps, was really pleased with your discussion on Saturday. Very interesting (despite a few fights between Inês and Nuno ;) You're all really brainy and knowledgable about science stuff, much more than me!

OK here's the homework for anyone who missed: Select a scientist to research. Select one of their achievements and make sure you can explain it in simple terms. Look at the circumstances which allowed or provided the background for their development as a thinker. Finally consider their social and family relationships and any apocryphal stories. Does this person fit the stereotype of the nutty professor, antisocial or nerd?

Ps. Has anyone been having nightmares since Sat about giant, cloned carrots on the rampage?? :) See you soon and have a great Easter x

silence of the lambs

I hope that just because you all have a new teacher you are not going to post here.  Well I won't be posting so much as I don't wan to  intrude on your space... 

In the meantime head on over to my newest blog.... T's corner

 you'll have to click on blog from the welcome screen  This means I can kill or start new blogs without having to invent new addresses :-)

I hope life is treating you all well.

Robots and other things

After our great discussion in class I though I'd follow up with a few details. Firstly, the name of the book I'm reading is Pandora's Star by Peter F Hamilton. It is in this book that the idea of rejuvenation and storing of memories is common.

Another book which discusses creating human clones is Spares  by Michael Marshall Smith, though this time it is far more sinister. 

The BBC also ran an interesting article yesterday about artificial intelligence reaching the complexity  of man's  in just over 20 years...

Let's just hope we are smart enough to use technology intelligently. The picture shows the danger of technology getting into the wrong hands :-)

Eurovision 2007 - France

Well, you know Eurovision, that amazing spectacle where super-star artists are revealed, like Verka Serdushka... Last year, another talent was discovered in the band Les Fatals Picards, with the music L'Amour A La France, or maybe not... no... not really... no way!

PS: I do not take any responsibility for any psychological traumas that this kind of videos may cause you

Hey hey!

Well...it's better late then never so...I'll post my Supergroup homework xP


"Dear Sirs / Madams

As the agent of a newly formed supergroup, “Pint’o Guiness”S, I hereby come to propose a deal to your recording company. The Band intends to start recording its first album and is already being touted as one of rock/metal’s greatest promises.

This six member band is performing a fresh and yet old Progressive/Heavy Metal/Rock genre, combining the freshness of symphonic and progressive rock with the fans favorite “Old-School” heavy metal. Small Tours done so far suggest fans will eagerly embrace the band and its music.

The Band’s members are all renowned in their field and have managed to achieve a level of understating beyond ordinary. As vocalists we have Norwegian, Kamelot’s power/progressive metal singer, Roy Khan, also known for his spells at Conception, and Dave Mustaine, a legend in the world of thrash metal, former Metallica lead guitarist and Megadeth’s central figure. Furthermore, he is also the guitarist of the band and is sure to take the fans back to the “Old-School” metal times with the help of his Megadeth string partner, bassist James LoMenzo whose genius his fans have long worshiped. But the twist here is that, besides thunderous rock drummer Neil Peart, the band counts with Celtic Woman’s fiddler Mairead Nesbitt and Dropkick Murphy’s Josh “Scruffy” Wallace playing the bagpipes and tin whistle. As you might have well noticed, the mix of genres makes it a unique musical experience.

Regarding the future of the band, all the members are enthusiastic and are sure things will flow mellifluously. Adding to some of the original pieces of work the band has already produced, is the fact that lyrics’ composer, Mustaine, claims to be full of ideas to help the band grab a place in History.

Hope you will consider supporting our great endeavor. You will certainly not regret it and neither will the fans.


Yours Hopefully,

António Lopes"


I had a great movie of bassist James LoMenzo to show you but it seems the embedding was disabled so I'll just leave the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFi9NlxAJmE

Here's a clip from Megadeth (rock on! xD) with Dave Mustaine and James LoMenzo:


And a clip from Mairead Nesbitt:

Homework by Carolina Bruxelas

Hello! I hope this is what we were supposed to do...


Essay:


Music has an incredibly important role in our daily lives. It is present everywhere. What is happening with our soundtrack? What is its status in the world today? In this essay, I shall explore this theme from the professional musician’s and the school music teacher’s point of view, giving my own opinion on music in our society.

It is a fact that music is more available to us than ever before. From the music channels, continuingly broadcasting the latest releases, to the devices which enable us to store and transport in our pockets, what once were piles of CDs and thousands of vinyl, music is always surrounding us. It is very frequent to find live music in small local venues. In the subway, for instance, rare are the days when you do not hear music. But where is music more important than in a party? It is a fundamental part of any festivity.

Professional musicians are seen as highly skilled individuals yet their earnings do not always reflect their talent. In contrast to this, great well-known performers, as famous pop stars, gain a great deal. From the classical point of view, however, it is really hard to find orchestral positions, which is quite demoralizing for those who spent their lives improving their skills.

On the question of teaching music in school, teachers state that not enough is done. People tend to regard music as a less important part of the curriculum than mathematics. At the same time, children who learn music at a young age benefit academically. This is not to say that everyone should be able to read music, as it is not a fundamental life skill.

No one would dispute the fact that music brings many benefits. Not only it improves the social life of the performers, but it also allows people to be creative. Considering the advantages of listening to music, it is both relaxing and enjoyable.

Music is very important in our lives. If music was given more value, maybe much more talented performers would be discovered and maybe that would result in greater joy to us all.


Carolina

Homework, by Nuno Coelho

thomas, I could really use your email for sending you my homework, but since i don't have it i'll just paste it here on the blog

The aim of this essay is to examine the effect of music in society, having in account the perspectives of professional musicians and music teachers. My opinion shall sometimes be provided as well.

It is often said that music was born with mankind, providing a rather useful mean of communication, due to its universality; one cannot dispute that music is nowadays more available than ever before. Nevertheless, some find current music quite unpleasant – “way too noisy”. People don’t seem to realise the role of music in our society, and it is yet remarkably important: take marketing, for instance. Marketing experts have mastered the use of music for profit – recall the music you hear at the supermarket: it is proved that people will buy more or less according to what they’re listening to.

In what regards professional musicians, they can be split into three groups: those who play in local rock bands, profiting little from CD sales (even though many of them exist due to the fact that making one’s own CD is nowadays easy) and earning mainly from minor events; the classical performers, who fairly claim there to be little offer and low wages, regardless their skills and hard work – I personally find this worrying, as there will be ever less people to pursue this career; and the top performers, who make quite a profit. It’s certainly true that they are very skilled; however I think their earnings might be just a bit too high, especially when compared to those of classical musicians.

Moreover, music teachers rationally support the idea that some school subjects, such as Maths, are more important than music. On the other hand, they argue that children should have lessons from early age. I agree to this point, as it is true that children who develop musical skills tend to have more academic success.

From the teachers’ point of view, music brings other benefits besides the one previously mentioned: one argument in favour of this is that it has been proved that playing increases one’s creativity and self-acknowledgement; and listening is in fact relaxing and amusing.

After presenting all these arguments, I consider music to play an important role in society. Still, should everyone possess musical skills, in a way that would forbid a few people (professional musicians) to earn for their livings through music?

Little Tortilla Boy

Here's the next blockbuster:

dream theatre

after having known of your past tendencies, thomas, i suggest you watch this video: it's one of the best metal bands there is at the moment.
the vocalist tends to (how do you say "desafinar", by the way??) but the instruments are great!

\m/ for everyone!!!
we must all go to a metal concert \o/

scatterbrain

ludichrist was rather interesting. however, scatterbrain was a bit of a fusion of different songs: for instance, i was able to immediately recognize two well-known riffs: the one from "seek and destroy" by metallica, and the off-the-scale-of-coolness riff from Led Zeppelin "heartbreaker"
that improved the song. nevertheless, i must say i don't think covering and fusing songs is that cool

homework - My supergroup

To whom it may concern,
I am writing to you with a new idea for a brand new album from a brand new band.
For the last couple of years I have been gathering a supergroup. This supergroup will be playing Celtic folk music but with a twist.This means it will revolutionize folk music as we see it nowadays, while it maintains its origins.
For the last 3 months this supergroup called The Green Leprechauns travelled on a major tour, which has been largely cheered amongst online pools.
The Green Leprechauns members came from bands like The Dubliners, The Corrs, The Chieftains, Nightwish and has the exclusive participation of James Galway.It has a range of instruments such as violins, drums, Irish flute, flute, electric guitar and bass and for amazing voices.
Our project is to release an album which will include old traditional themes like "I'll Tell me Ma",
"Danny Boy", "Irish Rover", "Whiskey in the Jar" as well as new themes composed by the supergroup members.
On the current tour we have the special participation of the dance group, Lord Of The Dance, and we would like to maintain this alliance for this album with a DVD bonus, and perhaps for future albums and tours.
We sincerely hope you find this supergroup and this album idea appealing and achievable.
We hope to hear from you soon
Inês Figueiredo (the manager)


P.S. I'll also post some videos of the members original bands

By the way,

here's a guy I like to listen some time and give a laugh. You probably already heard about him: Weird Al Yancovich. He basically plays spoof musics. I’ll leave some examples:

Smells like Nirvana [spoofing Smells like Teen Spirit by Nirvana]

Pretty Fly (for a Jedi) [spoofing Pretty Fly (for a White Guy) by The Offspring]

Yoda

Don't Download This Song

The Ruler

Hello everyone!

Well, I know I'm a little late (I said I'd post this a long time ago), but here is the link to the blog me an Inês Pott had two years ago.
It was different from this one, but it's quite funny as well :) It was supposed to be a newspaper, and we even had an agony aunt!
We posted there our homework and then the other groups would comment on them. The point was to get us to write informal English quite often, I think.
There were other two blogs in our class, “The Tight Spot” and “No News is Good News”, the latest doesn’t work, I don’t know why, but the links to these are in our blog.

Here is the link, but here stays the warning: THIS BLOG HAS SOME SERIOUSLY SILLY CONTENT!! That’s what you get when you let teenagers come up with and try to solve life problems!

http://www.therulerc1.blogspot.com/

Have fun C=

Carolina

Music you probably never knew about

After hearing some of the posted music in the post about VG music, I was reminded of my thrash / heavy metal years (Yes! I had long hair and thought I was cool) and one particular band who I loved for their outlandish music and original ideas. It's a pity they all but disappeared, as some of the things we talked about in class were their scene (classical metal) and many of their ideas have been copied since (fusing metal with rap etc etc)

Anyway I leave you with a couple of examples of their crazy antics (and maybe you'll understand why my parents had so little patience for my taste in unusual music :-)  )

 

Scatterbrain's Down with the ship

and the excellent Don't call me Dude

P.S. If anyone tracks down any of their classical metal PLEASE let me know! ( I had it on cassette and anyone over 15 knows what happens to cassettes after some time)

and finally here they are in their early days when they were known as Ludichrist  

VG Music

Let my show then a load of the potencial of VG Music:

First, I was talking about Powerglove, the band who makes heavy metal covers for VG music - click here and listen at least Mario Minor and Tetris. Listen also to Mute City from F-Zero (ignore de images).
Back to Nobuo, here's some other hits:

Aeris Theme

To Zanarkand (listen to the end)

See also Video Games Live website.

HOMEWORK (American Recordings- UNION PIONEERS)

To whom it may Concern,


I am writing this letter, proposing the next super group, in which I think your Record label would be interested. It is a 6 member punk/rock/alternative music band, whose artists need no further introduction:
Lead Vocals- Serj Tankian ( System of a Down)
Back Vocals/ Keyboard- Hayley Williams ( Paramore)
Guitar- Billy Joe Armstrong (Green Day)
Bass- Michael 'Flea' Balzary (Red Hot Chilli Peppers)
Violin- Sergey Ryabtsev ( Gogol Bordello )
Drums- Erik Sandin ( NOFX )

The group received it's name recently through an online contest held by the fans: Union Pioneers.
The Union Pioneers levels of popularity have been increasing since it's first public appearence, in The High Punker Rock Music festival, many of their fans were already big supporters of the band members in their original groups, but the number of "new" fans is getting bigger everyday.
Considering this, Union Pioneers are currently working on an Album, which contains covers of big punk/rock Hits chosen by the band members themselves such as: "Pretty Vacant" (Sex Pistols),
"News from the front" (Bad Religion) and even "Franco Un-American" (NOFX).
That is why, in the name of the band , we would like to express our interest in this Album beeing recorded by American Recordings, as we feel it would be the best choice for our musical project.

I am looking forward to hearing from you soon,


Yours faithfully


Inês Pott

Homework, by Nuno Coelho

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing to propose a group which I find to be of your interest due to its originality and since I am certain it will hit records in sales.

After having put much time and effort into it, I have firstly come up with a rather interesting music genre. I was thinking of an epic progressive symphonic hardcore speed power metal band, which I consider to be a really appealing genre and yet not a part of our culture – yet, I mean. If you accepted my idea, your label would most likely profit a lot. It is the first band to play such a “wide” genre.

Furthermore, I have thought of a few names for the group members. I took into consideration their fame and acknowledgement amongst the masses their experience and, most importantly, their exceptional talent. This sure gave me a though time, since I had to exclude many musicians that met all those requisites, and even more. You will most likely appreciate the names I will present.

For the drums, I was wondering if you would enjoy counting with the skills of Lars Ulrich. Although he is at the present moment performing with Metallica, I am rather sure he would agree to start this earthshaking forthcoming project. I would also, by the way, suggest we asked James Hetfield to lend us his voice and his guitar, since he has great talent for metal. This might sound difficult, but I was also thinking of having Steve Vai and his mentor, Joe Satriani, in the group. They are very well-known and they are remarkably formidable guitar players. They would be the lead guitarists, collaborating with John Petrucci, from Dream Theatre, in his amazing, astoundingly fast power metal solos. Their technique is perfect and I believe the four guitarists would manage to flawlessly produce their best riffs and solos.

Moreover, I was considering asking the bassist Michael Balzary from Red Hot Chilli Peppers to join the project. I find him superb! For the keyboards – one turned into violin and one “not-distorted” – I suggest we had Luca Turilli, former-Rhapsody member, and Jordan Rudess, who currently plays in Dream Theatre. These two keyboards would confer a both epic and classical “mood” to the band. I consider the combination with rock and metal would provoke an excellent effect. This epic mood I mentioned would certainly be magnified with a flute. However, I have not figured out a worthy player yet.

Please find enclosed information on the artists required.

I have currently contacted Luca Turilli, John Petrucci, Jordan Rudess and Steve Vai, who were pleased with my suggestion. They even claimed they would work on a song called "The Appocalythical and Divine Creation of the Universe by Lord Nuno". I consider it will be a hit in no time.

I would appreciate if you took my ideas into consideration, and am looking forward to hearing from your label soon.

Yours faithfully,

Nuno Coelho

Homework (A letter to Virgin Records)

Dear sir / madam,

I’m writing as the manager of the “The Prophets of Harmonic Chaos”, a band formed two years ago, starring Samuel Hudson (as known as Slash) in the electric guitar, Marc Bell (also known as Marky Ramone) on the drums, Verka Serducka as the main vocalist, Celine Dion playing the panpipes and Joaquim Barreiros (as known as Quim Barreiros), the accordion.

Being the first folkloric punk-rock celtic pop band ever and after the great success of the concerts we have performed in the last sixteen months, we decided to record our first album and enlarge horizons. Therefore, we believe that Virgin Records would be the ideal record label.

As an annexe to the letter, I’m sending a compact disk with our demo, which includes our greatest hits: “Joseph Cat”, “Somebody stop us”, “Chaos & Love”, “Russia, goodbye!” and “The Ice-cream Dealer”. As shown on these tracks, the purpose of the band is to create harmonic melodies by heavy and soft accords combined with love and joy themes, providing new sound experiences to the fans. Recently we were also granted permissions to produce covers for some hits from Guns’N’Roses, Metallica and O-Zone, that we would like to include in the album.

We’re looking forward for your response,

Yours faithfully,
Eduardo Beja Martins
(manager)

Homework

Really nice post, the one about human tetris! It made me laugh for more than ten minutes!
As for the homework composition as was wondering about the word limit, would it be fine between 200 and 300 words?
Thanks

Homework

Imagine you have put together a supergroup. Write a letter to a record label proposing your group and what you intend to record. Say who is playing what and the type of music you want to make. (be imaginative and think outside the box)

You may post your answers to the blog :-) (with youtube examples if you want)

(to add you tube vids just take the embed code on the youtube video and click edit html on the post box)

Here are some (rather naf) examples of some people for a couple of supergroups

Have fun!

Human Tetris

Like Tetris? Ever got tired of the 2D blocks that just fall and destroy themselves forever? Now you have Human Tetris in 3D!!

My online playlist

(If you can't see the flash object, please go to http://www.imeem.com/dialogs/standaloneplaylist/?autoStart=true&resize=true&p=cqe_-Pqw )
I couldn't post the music I wanted alone, so I had to post my entire playlist.
The tracks that I was talking about were 4 to 6;
Since I've posted the playlist, here's a quick description of the tracks:
- 1 and 2 are from The Godfather, only symbolic here; :P
- 3 comes in sequence of the two previous;
- 4 is the first in the list composed by Nobuo Uematsu, my favourite composer (some people here might know him)(he almost always composes for other projects in the areas of gaming and cinema). New Age music, dedicated to my favourite character (of my favourite video game, by the way);
- 5 is New Age. When you listen to this one, try to imagine yourself laying on a net suspended in two palm trees, with an Hawaiian shirt and drinking lemonade, having the sea, the beach and all the palm trees as background;
- 6, New Age too, but more dedicated to green environments;
- 7, Pirates of the Caribbean "main theme";
- 8, "Spider-Pig, Spider-Pig / Does whatever a Spider-pig can./ Can he swing from a web? / No he can't, he's a pig. / Lookout: he’s a Spider-Pig" All heil Hommer!;
- 9, the greatest song ever... not really... it's just for the lols;
- 10, Eurovision 2007 second place, funnier to watch the videos on Youtube;
- 11, Scrubs "main theme", catchy;
- 12, one of the few songs I like from the band;
- 13, Supertramp, what else there is to say?;
- 14, I just like the first part by Cesária Évora, it gives that nostalgic feeling;
- 15, really don't have that much to say. Catchy;
- 16, rock. It was originally written by Dexter Holland as part of a Bad Religion music contest, but ended up The Offspring's;
- 17, symphonic rock by Nobuo Uemastsu, awesome;
- 18 and 19, symphonic rock;
- 20 & 21, rock. Although the lyrics are not the best (they aren't harmonically "forced"), the guitars truly rock;
- 22, Eurovision 2006 first place, music by "klingons" :P:
- 23, Symphonic rock. Well... Halo is HALO!;
- 24, Good rock from Halo;
- 25, Neo-Classical Metal... Ok, this is kind of noisily strong, but is one of Nobuo's masterpieces. Electric guitars and cellos combined, drums and Latin lyrics together. Feel the rage!
… I admit I don’t have a common taste for music.

Details

1) Evil Machines is a story set in the:
a) 20th C or
b) 21st C

2) Is it a:
a) Musical
b) Drama

3) On which day is the last performance if Evil Machines?
a) Jan 31
b) February 3

4) Who are the two creators of the performance ‘Evil Machines’?
a) Michael Palin and John Cleese
b) Terry Jones and Luis Tinoco

Track from class

2nd post?

Once upon a time, in a land of injustice, where war prevailed and where a thousand man, bunnies of might and magic and mischievous brussel sprouts,along with twisted-minded dolphins, coexisted (however unpeacefully); aurora borealis in the mountains predicted the epic, forthcoming event:

Edward, the Fisherman, after sealing a pact with his allies, agreed to teach the English language to us, mythical creatures attending classes on Saturday afternoons at the deep depths of hell, British Council.

Should you find any mistakes, please let me know.

lord Nuno =P

First day post

Well it looks like we're up and running. That's good news.... What's not so cool is my nickname :-(

So I promised some links from today's class so here they are :

BBC Radio podcasts

iTunes (for podcasts) 

iTunes podcast instructions

An interesting music exploring site that I didn't get round to showing you

and finally: Spore the game

Have fun and be sure to comment on anything that appeals to you.

Thanks to Eduardo for setting up the blog and thanks in advance for making it look better :-)