My favourite movie

PEDRO MACHUCA!!!!!!!!

This is maybe the first sentence that comes to you when you hear about Machuca, the film. 

This is a 2004 Chilean film written and directed by Andrés Wood. It starts in 1973, and in Chile there where a big social agitation, due to the Unidad Popular government. Salvador Allende was the first Socialist President elected in the History, and soon there will be a coup d'etat, and started the Dictatorship.

Set in Santiago from Chile, where the ENU program was discussed.  This proyect wanted to make an integral transformation from the education system in Chile. One of this transformations was to take some childrens from public schools, and then go with them to a Private School, where only the high-class people studied. In the film, they made reference to the "Saint Patrick´s School", inspirated in a real "Saint George School" social integration project, achieved in the ENU context.

Gonzalo Infante comes from a rich family, while Pedro Machuca, one of the new students,comes from an indigenous background and lives in very poor conditions. They became good friends in the school, and as political unrest in Chile grows, the boys' friendship begins to be tested. 

I like this movie, because it shows how was the general and particular situation in a very important period of our recently history. If you haven´t see it yet, I recommend to watch it ASAP.

Postgraduate studies

I think that everybody has to be studying and learning the whole life. But the question is if it´s necessary to be institutionalized to study. When you see the prices for the graduate studies, you will see that there is a very big deal too. The Universities promise you in general the opportunity of "social ascent", and there is even a social pressure to have a postgrade to get better jobs.
Now, in a hypothetical situation, I`ll like to study a magister of musical composition, in another country.
On the other hand, I asked myself up to what point can you study to "compose" or "create" music. At this times, and even more in the future, there will be a lot of machines, softwares and other supports that will do the work of compose music...
Nevertheless, if i have the chance to make a postgrade for free, I think that will be my decision. Europe is a good place for that. For example, Netherlands has a lot of places with a large tradition for music studies.
But for the moment I want just to make the grade from Theory of Music in the University of Chile.

My future job

When the people asked me on a dreamed job, I have an extensive amount of jobs to choose that constantly cross my mind. So, I think that this dreamed job has to be a mix of different interests that I have.

It would definitely have to be related to music, and I’m interested in a work that involves other arts and history, and to travel too. So I think that my current job will be great, but in a more professional way. “Santiago Freak” is the Cultural Organization where I work, we do walking tours around the city (and sometimes we make special tours for private groups in other cities too), so I have the opportunity to know a lot of people from different parts of the world and from Santiago too. In this walking tours we talk about a lot of thematics, like the prehispanic city (Santiago Origins), the ghosts stories (Santiago Paranormal) or the  Coup d'état (Santiago 1973), for example. We have some original comics for this tours too. In some tours there are intervention of actresses, and I`m working in the musical part of the tours, to have original music for every tour, to sell it to the tourists or to deliver them as a souvenir.  

But I think that in my case it´s not just one favourite job. I like teaching a lot too, so I liked to complement this other job with 1 or 2 hours of classes at week in a school or a highschool. 

I believe that when you do what you love, there`s no space for this typical pathetic situations that most people lived: To have an exhausting worday just to earn money (living an empty experience), and answering “Yes” to the question “Do you like your work?”, because “I earn good money and I can choose which day I´ll be free once a mouth”, for example.

¿Do you know Tom Ze?

                                             
This is Tom Ze, a composer and multi-instrumentalist from Brazil. He`s 80 years old, and began his career together with Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso and Maria Bethania, when all of they were very young and fast unknown. Into his musical references we can find the local folklore and the traditional afro-brazilian sambas, among others. He participated in a series of concerts with this musicians and the "Tropicalia movement" from Brazil.
In the 60`s, he joined a popular culture center that acted as a cultural resistance organization during the military dictatorship. Later he moved out of the plublic eye and began a period of experimentations with "hybrid" instruments, new composition styles, music full of irony, and some erudite music references. Due this strange music experimentations, he was always ignored by the industry and the audiences. Tom was so depressed at this time, that he decided to leave the music and return to his small hometown to work in a gas station, but In 1989 he was re-discovered by David Byrne. While visiting Brazil, David Byrne found a used copy of "Estudando o Samba" and he became amazed whith Tom Ze´s work. That was the beginning of a new career for Tom: Byrne did sign Tom as the first artist of his "Luaka Bop" record label. I knew Tom Ze in a documentary called "Fabricando e Tom Ze", I enjoy his work a lot and I think that he´s like a kind of brazilian "Florcita Motuda" (or Motuda a kind of chilenian "Tom Ze").

The grey shrike

                                    

This post is about one of the most terrifying animals in the whole world, who´s in this picture. Maybe you will think that I´m just joking or that I have almost lost my mind, or maybe you are asking yourself how could this lovely bird been one of the scariest and sadistic in the world.

It`s true that it seems like a funny and innocent little bird, but nothing could be farthest from that appreciation.

The “gray shrike” (in Spanish alcaudón gris) is a songbird specie who lives in northern Europe, Asia and Northamerica. It´s an migratory bird, and normally a solitary one too. It´s just about 24 cm long and it typically weighs is around 65 g.

It´s songs consists of lovely whistles and pleasant trinos (trrriii). This bird call with its songs and its mime to other singing birds (or other animals like rodents or lizards), imitating their own songs, but its intentions are really creepy. When the “gray shrike” finally gets the attention from the other birds and they arrive for its meeting, it captured them and hit them to death and make an impalement in pointed elements, like cords wires or great thorns. Then, it likes to show its victims and sometimes even enjoys to make a ring of impalement victims to mark territory...