US officially a Police State as Obama signed the “National Defense Authorization Act "

What was only conspiracy theory, idea of anti-Americans or domestic terrorist is now a reality: Americans are under Martial Law, under a police state.

It means that the constitution is no longer respected and citizenship has lost it`s meaning.

The reason? to protect the country from terrorists, Al Qaeda and... whatever.

Any American can arbitrarily be imprisoned under the suspicion that s/he is an enemy, a domestic terrorist. for any time, even indefinitely.

The NDAA inaugurates the totalitarian America something that many people think would be impossible. A once inconceivable idea is happening and it reminds the Acts that was imposed to South Americans countries in the seventies.

For Brazilians is just like seeing the Institutional Act Number 5 - AI5 happening again. The US was one of the responsible and now they are inflicting the same to their own citizen. There were arrests, torture, murders... and the scars are still on the mind of those who lived fearing, lost loved ones and are survivors.

Funny, AI-5 and NDAA were both instituted in December.

I'm appalled.

Image: Surveillance 2010 by Will Varner.

Sweet Charity: the adventures of a girl who wanted to be loved starring Shirley Maclaine

 


Sweet Charity: the adventures of a girl who wanted to be loved, 1969, starring Shiley MacLaine directed and  awarded choreographed by Bob Fosse, the Cabaret's filmmaker, is the great movie I did chose to start the year.

It was originally a 1966 Broadway production also directed by Bob Fosse that was inspired by a  
What amazes is that it is timeless whether you consider the story or the choreography, the costumes, music and sounds arrengements and it was the first movie Bob Fosse worked as a filmmaker as well as a choreographer starting a very successful career.

The movie has many fans and still astonishes the young generation that was born in the clip era and inevitably compares it to some of today's clips. There are some elements that are in fashion today in clothes, make-up, Charity having a tattoo and the environment they create.

The most important aspect I did choose is Charity optimism always ready for the next adventure that might break her heart again but "living hopefully ever after." is her fate that is already inscribed in her name Charity Hope Valentine.

Shirley MacLaine is perfect for the role with her kind off girlish movements and innocence.
The three videos are the most known ant the two that have been receiving new interpretations are "Big Spender" and "The Aloof". There are some at YouTube like The Pussycat Dolls, this version of some Canadian girls for "Big Spender".

I tried to publish the videos that only shows the dancing but they are not available. You can skip the first minute and go straight to the dancing part. The music "Big Spender" is a little catchy and you may find yourself singing "Hey, big spender!" or "Do you wanna have fun, fun fun?..." but it I assure it will go away.

Great movie, great performances, great choreography that inaugurated some trends and is still new. Some of the scenes of Prince's "Get Off" and "Kiss" clips reminded of it.

Happy New Year 2012: Dream

I wish us all a little touch of magic, imagination, dreaming, enchantment, strolls in fantastic places even if the use of spells is necessary.
Relearning to dream this is my new year's resolution.
Come with me.

Happy New Year!

Wordless Friday: Banksy

By Banksy. Click the image to enlarge.

Top 2011 news in Cartoon: Geneva convention interpreted by US and its allies

2011 top news: State of Palestine is UNESCO's member

The vote of Unesco’s full membership was 107 to 14, with 52 abstentions.

Palestine became the 195th Unesco member.


No: Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, Germany, Israel, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Palau, Panama, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Sweden, US, Vanuatu.


Abstentions*: Albania, Andorra, Bahamas, Barbados, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Colombia, Cook Islands, Ivory Coast, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Fiji, Georgia, Haiti, Hungary, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kiribati, Latvia, Liberia, Mexico, Monaco, Montenegro, Nauru, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Poland, Portugal, South Korea, Moldova, Romania, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, San Marino, Singapore, Slovakia, Switzerland, Thailand, Macedonia, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, Uganda, Ukraine, UK, Zambia. Yes: Afghanistan, Algeria, Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Chad, Chile, China, Congo, Costa Rica, Cuba, Cyprus, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Finland, France, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Honduras, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Lebanon, Lesotho, Libya, Luxembourg, Malawi, Malaysia, Mali, Malta, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Qatar, Russian Federation, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Slovenia, Somalia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Tanzania, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen, Zimbabwe.


Absent* (includes states that lost right to vote because membership fees were not paid): Antigua and Barbuda, Central African Republic, Comoros, Dominica, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Madagascar, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Mongolia, Niue, Sao Tome and Principe, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Swaziland, Tajikistan, East Timor, Turkmenistan.


Read here some of the consequences of having Palestine in UNESCO. Not recognizing Palestine as a state is something beyond me. It is time for inclusion and learning to cope with differences.

Brand new moon

by Ana
Picture: unknow

Almost Wordless Wednesday

Work by Banksy.

Van Gogh's Bedroom: Painting's reproductions in danger

These details of Van Gogh's bedroom, and the Bible of his "L'Arlesienne, this post, are great examples of the way reproductions by internet could give a more accurate notion of how a painting is seen in reality.

Unfortunately these are rare even thou now people go to museums with cameras but they prefer taking a picture of themselves next to their favorite or most famous paintings they find.

When only paper was available and a single picture of a painting was published in different books there was always a great disappointment in front of the real canvas. I felt fulled.

When I saw this version of Van Gogh's bedroom for the first time I questioned everything I knew about all the artists I had never saw at least five original works.

I could never imagine that the brushstrokes were that sick and he used impasto.

I could not take my eyes from the pillows and, sorry conservation team, I touched the left pillow because I simply could not restrain this impulse.

What I'm witnessing now is a degradation of images of paintings.

There are several sites selling famous masterpieces by repainting them and they are found at search engineers as the first answers if one looks for an artist.

People are publishing these paintings as originals over blogs because they rush to publish the first picture without reading they are fake and has little to do with the original. Usually the colors are different or brighten to make it more appealing giving that plastic flower effect on the table instead of the real one.

It is getting harder and harder to find a good reproduction over the www.

Most museums, I thought they would promote their masterpieces through the web, are not helping publishing good images and are more interested in using interactive experiences that only change angles in a suspicious 3D environments, or other kind of interaction.

In same cases, they don't publish 10% of what they have and are always inviting us to go to their next exhibition even though we are at the other side of the ocean.

For the moment I'll watch these two Bedroom's details: look that, as he said in a letter to Theo, he uses green at the pillows and a little bit of white.

Strange sign next to Eurodisney

Photography by Alice McNutt Miller

Time Person of the year 2011: Correction

"The Baby Songbook" by Tom Seidmann Freud

Thought about Sigmund Freud, yes, it is his niece. The name is Martha but changed to Tom due to some of her views and beliefs.

The illustrations above are from the child's book "The Baby Songbook" that has many beautiful images.

At her site there are information about her and copies of her great illustrations:

"As an adult, she was noted for her eccentricities as well as her artistic talent, in particular, her decisions to adopt a man's first name and to wear men's clothing. A long history of emotional instability preceded a major breakdown after the failure of her husband's publishing venture and his suicide in 1929; she took her own life the following year. Seidmann-Freud has been characterized as a member of the Jugendstil (German Art Nouveau) movement. Her artwork often featured people and objects simply but precisely rendered in ink, their outlines carefully filled in with watercolors using the pochoir (stencil and layering) technique.

It is sad that she took her life but the silence, the taboo that surrounds the topic suicide must be broken because it is part of human condition and every ten minutes someone commits suicide.

But today is Christmas... exactly. Christmas is not a happy occasion for many and suicide is high during this period of the year.

I'll be doing some posts about suicide in 2012. Don't worry. Death is part of life and before dying people do a lot of amazing things just like Martha, or, Tom Freud did.

Another woman that dressed like man is George Sand, the French novelist, born Aurore that changed to George when she became a writer. She had a relatioship with the composer Chopin and was friend of Frederic Liszt, Delacroix and other artists.

Merry Christmas, and if you are not happy I can assure you that the club has many members.

NORAD tracking Santa Claus: call them toll-free

Till the moment the mainstream media claims that this year NORAD is receiving numerous phone calls, e-mails and the tracking is a success in Facebook and Twitter.

I just took a look at Google Earth and did these pictures and learned that it all started in 1955 and they are keeping the tradition.

This is something very strange for me but if you want you can call toll-free to know where is Santa or when will he be at your town.

Remember that if you didn't behave... no gifts for you!

As explained at this post NORAD stands for "North American Aerospace Defense Command. Military" and having both Santa Claus and NORAD at the same phrase is weird but that's the way it is.

You can also call NORAD for the latest news of Santa’s flight. The NORAD Tracks Santa Operations Center will be open from 6 a.m. today to 5 a.m. on Christmas. Call 1-877-HI-NORAD (1-877-446-6723) toll-free

Merry Christmas!

NORAD Tracks Santa relies on corporate sponsorship, and is financed by neither American nor Canadian taxpayers

Séraphine, the cleaning lady that was a painter, movie by Martin Provost

I watched the movie Séraphine by Martin Provost and loved it. It is the story of Séraphine de Senlis a cleaning lady that painted.

What I liked the most about the movie is that the story unfolds without any drama and not emphasizing any aspect of Séraphine biography, it is a true story,  with the talent of Yolande Moreau interpreting Séraphine.

Maybe in the hands of another filmmaker her madness, she was locked at an asylum where she spent the rest of her days, her poverty or weirdness, she talked to trees, to angels and Virgin Marie would be depicted in a heavy way making the artist disappear as it was done with many artists.

This is the opposite and Séraphine's paintings are the most important and by watching the movie we get in touch with her style, her flowers that are quite unusual, almost unique and get in touch with the great collection of work she left.
This would be a great movie for Christmas since Séraphine had a catholic education and talked to Virgin Marie.

I'll not write too much because this movie should be seen by those who like art and for those who love nature or wants to reach the sublime, a rare occasion in today's filmography.

The movie, there are English captions, speaks for itself and focus on the woman, not the lunatic that painted. Maybe this is one of the reasons it was awarded.

Séraphine de Louis is currently exhibited in the Musée Maillol in Paris, the Musée d'art de Senlis, the Musée d'art naïf in Nice, and the Musée d'Art moderne Lille Métropole in Villeneuve-d'Ascq.

I just found this video where Martin Provost speak about the film and I'm glad that he says he didn't want to make Séraphine's biography. I'll translate what he says and publish another post about this movie and the artist. There is a biographic book but I don't want to know details of her life. It doesn't help me 
SEEING.

Wordless morning

Problem with size: I'll try to fix it today

I took out one badge and the template has changed it's size. Everything is tiny and I can't fix it now.

Be back later I'm sorry. It is only happening when I use Google Chrome. I don't know how to fix it and if it is only happening to me. I'll try to fix it later. Please if you're using Google Chrome tell me if you seeing it clearly of images and texts are tiny. Thank you in advance! Update: December, 24 SOLUTION Just found it: If it happens to you just click at the wrench icon and put the "Zoom" to 100 %.

Santa Claus will visit few homes in US: NORAD failed

In this video, made by an amateur on December, 22, Santa Claus was rehearsing because he feared the possibility of a terrorist attack and wanted to find a safe way to go to Americans homes.

Santa was caught by an anti-missile system hidden in a Christmas tree.
Unfortunately the North American Aerospace Defense Command "NORAD" will only work on December 24:

“PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. -- The North American Aerospace Defense Command is ready to track Santa, and media are invited to participate in a variety of ways, to include conducting live interviews with senior NORAD officers on Dec. 24.
“NORAD stands the watch protecting the skies of North America 365 days a year, but on Christmas Eve the children of the world look to NORAD, and our trusted partners, to make sure that Santa is able to complete his mission safely,” said General Charles H. Jacoby, Jr., NORAD Commander." read article here.

We received a Skype-call from Santa where he claims that 87% of presents to American children were destroyed and he will not have time to make it all over again.
"How can it be that they only watch over me on December 24? By this time this NORAD organization should know I always rehearse." said Santa in a very indignant intonation.

This is a very sad news but the security of their citizens is the top priority of US government what should be taken into consideration by Santa whose behavior could also put in danger American citizens.

Unforgettable gift and Happy Xmas

I'm going very slowly and not doing controversial posts because I'm quieting my mind and trying to produce this effect on the four readers of this blog, thank you mom, dad, my friend Neil and nephew.

What was the present you received that you liked the most or you'll never forget?
Xmas is arriving and let's face it: we say a little prayer and and only think about the presents.
Your unforgettable present is not necessarily one that you received in Xmas.

I’ll never forgetr when someone gave me a Fort Apache by accident. I was a girl but I don't know why I was given this boy toy very famous in the 70ies. You can see here a boy who remembers when he was given it for Xmas.

I loved it. I remember sitting on the floor opening the box and start assembling the fort, putting the soldiers, horses, indigenous and some other pieces at their places. I just don’t have the recollection of fights among the soldiers and indigenous which is the aim of the game.

Merry Christmas!

The Four Dogs

Fourteenth of The Four Dog series. 

"Here comes the sun, little darling, and I say, it is all right."

Have a great Thursday!

Reading experience: e-books, reading glasses and pencils

When reading the mind is in a different state than in the oral register.
The words are combined according to other rules, instigate the imagination in many different levels and make abstractions a little more tangible.

How will e-books and other gadgets affect reading is still in debate but I hope that the capacity of almost touching the unthinkable while capturing a paragraph remains even if other medias are added to the reading experience. I wonder if the young generation will have another relation with silent words once they know that a video is about to come or photos and other visual resources that are still in project.

As know how the invention of the printing press caused a change not only in literary genres but in education, how information is acquired just to name a few. For the e-books I can only be sure that reading glasses will no longer be necessary and it is quite an achievement, better, no more pencil at the right hand to highlight.

Pictures: I found them in a site without attribution.