Lusitania

The Lusitania ship is one of the main reasons why the United States decided to enter to the great war (Now called World War I). A German U-boat launched a torpedo to the U.S. ship, so the Americans decided to fight for their nation.

The lusitania ship was sinking, everyone was horrified and full of desesperation. This were de 18 minutes of terrror for those who were over the ship. Everyone died. This ship had weapons and guns, that’s why the Germans destroyed it. Althought, this is a very important part of history, and if it hadn’t happened, everything would be different.

John Brown

Borned in May 9, 1800; In the United States of America, Torrington. Brown almost abolished slavery. He is a very important man in the united states’ history. He was aprecciated by the slaves and the ones that had always wanted slavery to be destroyed, just like his father, Owen.

His toughts were the ones that led him do what he did. He tought that everyone should be treated as equals, and that we all deserve the same rights. Although he was a good man and had good intentions, he was sentenced and killed in 1959.

This man, was the one who opened the doors to the beginning of the american civil war from 1861.

The Three Stooges In You Nazty Spyi

The kingdom of Moronica has been brought down by the evil cabinet minister, so Moe becomes the new ruler with some merciless toughts. With the help of his assistants, Curly, who is a field marshal, and Larry, who becomes aa minister of propaganda, he succesfully prevents a spy from creating a chaos.  By the end of the short, the boys are run out of the office and eaten by lions.

This  disrespectful comedy short was the first sketch that had ever insulted the nazis, and specially Adolf Hitler. The three stooges was a rude film, but with smart political irony. They were some pretenders in the country of Moronica. The three stooges were jews, so they had the intention of disrespecting Hitler.

The spanish civil war

In 1936 a group of soldiers, called The International Brigade, went to Spain and fought on the side of the Republicans. Every member that fought was to defend their ideals, even against their own countrymen. This caused a civil war, which began on July in spain. Although, the government did’t take the situation to serious, which was a big mistake. The insurgent military was commanded by Francisco Franco, who won Germany and Italy compassion. Spain was now an Anarchy. There was a great possibility of the spread of soviet influence in the country. Italy sent bombs to Spain, while Germany sent u-boats (untersee boats), battleships and plenty fighter planes. 

 

Francisco Franco was named the government’s head on September 29. Later, on October he called himself The Head of the State. During this, political suspects were taken and massacred and Madrid experienced the first airstrikes on the city. The nationalists’ army was approaching all towns near Madrid. While the Milicianos lost tons of men. The citizens’ hope had to remain on the International Brigade.  On November missiles fell on the center of the city, still, the Madrigueños continued fighting, just like La Pasionara. The focus of the battle for the next four months, was still Madrid, but Germany and Italy recognized the Franco Regime was breaking the pretends of non-intervention, which began in London. 

 

On June 19th, 1937, Bilbao fell to the Nationalists. Every Brigade was damaged, and as some gave up, others continued fighting. There were more Nationalists than Republicans. After all, Franco was about to win the war. The fighting continued for a couple of months, as the republicans wanted to win they tried to attack Teruel, but they failed. Finally, everyone went home. The Republican army had been destroyed. On April 1st, 1939, the Civil War was over, and the winner was Francisco Franco. 

Upstairs, Downstairs: Guest of honour

This TV show is a British drama television made in the  70´s. It happens between 1903 and 1930. It talks about people living upstairs, the Bellamy family which is rich; and the people living downstairs, their servants.

In this episode the Bellamy family has a guest of honour, the king Edward VII. The family, and the servants as well, wanted to have a perfect dinner for him. They needed everything to be perfect, the food, the service, the guest list, the after dinning activities, everything! Unfortunately, Sarah, a very pregnant former maid who is supposed to be at South wold is going into labor and while the royal guest is occupied by his hosts, the staff managed to secrete her into an upstairs room and call for the doctor. This creates a chaos.

Modernism in the Arts

Visual Art  

• Edouard Manet – Le dejeuner sur l’herbe

• Claude Monet – Impression: Sunrise

• J.M.W. Turner – The Slave Ship

• Gustave Caillebotte – Paris Street, Rainy Day

• Paul Cezanne – L’Estaque

• Vincent Van Gogh – The Starry Night

• Georges Seurat – A Sunday on the Grand Jatte

• Henri Matisse – A Glimpse of Notre Dame in the Late Afternoon

• Edvard Munch – The Scream

• Gustav Klimt – Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I

• Charles Demuth – I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold

• Georges Braque – Still Life – Le Jour

• Pablo Picasso – Guernica

• Salvador Dali – The Persistence of Memory

• Giorgio de Chirico – The Red Tower

• Yves Tanguy – Indefinite Divisibility

• Remedios Varo – Celestial Pabulum

• Paul Klee – The Red Bridge

• Piet Mondrian – Composition with Yellow, Red, and Blue

• Wassily Kandinsky – Composition 6

• Jackson Pollock – Number 1

• Robert Motherwell – Elegy to the Spanish Republic No. 110

• Barnett Newman – Onement 1

• Constantin Brancusi – Bird in Space

• Albert Giacometti – 3 Men Walking

• Henry Moore – Reclining Figure

• Alexander Calder – L’empennage

 

I found most paintings beautiful, but, in my opinion, the best ones are:

• Erik Satie – Gymnopédie No.1Impression: Sunrise. By Claude Monet.
• L’Estaque. By Paul Cezanne.
• The Starry Night. By Vincent Van Gogh.
• A Sunday on the Grand Jatte. By Georges Seurat.
• Still Life – Le Jour. By Georges Braque.
• Composition with Yellow, Red, and Blue. By Piet Mondrian.
• Composition 6. BY Wassily Kandinsky.

I really like the color and shape this painters give to their own paintings, but those are not the only factors that contribute to have a great art work. Painters should now the technic they are going to use and have an idea of what they are going to do. Even paintings with bunch of colors everywhere with no logic or shape at all have an strategic way of being done. Every painting has its own magic.

Music

After listening:

• Erik Satie – Gymnopedie No. 1
• Gustav Mahler – Symphony No. 1: 2nd Movement
• Claude Debussy – Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun
• Charles Ives – The Fourth of July
• Arnold Schoenberg – Pierrot Lunaire: Moondrunk
• Igor Stravinsky – The Rite of Spring: Excerpt
• Leos Janacek – Glagolitic Mass: 3rd Movement
• Anton Webern – Symphony
• Edgard Varese – Ionisation
• Bela Bartok – Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta: 2nd Movement

I enjoyed them all, butArt my favorites are:

• Mahler Symphony #1 «Titan» : movement 2
• Debussy, Prelude to ‘The Afternoon of a Faun’ (animation)
• Béla Bartók- music for strings, percussion and celesta, II

As I enjoy instrumental and relaxing music, I liked it. They are interesting, somehow.

Adolf hitler

 

Biography project (click here to see the presentation)

«Someone in a tree»

From Pacific Overtures

OLD MAN 
Pardon me, I was there. 

RECITER 
You were where? 

OLD MAN 
At the treaty house. 

RECITER 
At the treaty house? 

OLD MAN 
There was a tree … 

RECITER 
Which was where? 

OLD MAN 
Very near. 

RECITER 
Over here? 

OLD MAN 
Maybe over there, 
But there were trees then, everywhere. 
May I show you? 

RECITER 
If you please. 

OLD MAN 
There were trees 
Then, everywhere. 

RECITER 
But you were there. 

OLD MAN 
And I was there! 
Let me show you. 

RECITER 
If you please. 

OLD MAN 
(tries to climb) 
I was younger then … 
(tries again) 
I was good at climbing trees … 
(again) 
I was younger then … 
(again) 
I saw everything! … 
(again) 
I was hidden all the time … 
(again) 
It was easier to climb … 
(again) 
I was younger then … 
(again) 
I saw everything! … 
(again) 
Where they came and where they went — 
I was part of the event. 
I was someone in a tree! 
(tries once more) 
I was younger then! 

(Suddenly, a Young Boy appears, scurries across the stage, and up the tree.) 

BOY 
(to the Old Man) 
Tell him what I see! 

OLD MAN 
I am in a tree. 
I am ten. 
I am in a tree. 

BOY 
I was younger then. 

OLD MAN 
In between the eaves I can see — 
(to the Boy) 
Tell me what I see. 
(to the Reciter) 
I was only ten. 

BOY 
I see men and matting. 
Some are old, some chatting. 

OLD MAN 
If it happened, I was there! 

BOTH 
I saw/see everything! 

OLD MAN 
I was someone in a tree. 

BOY 
Tell him what I see! 

OLD MAN 
Some of them have gold on their coats. 

BOY 
One of them has gold. 
(to the Reciter) 
He was younger then. 

OLD MAN 
Someone crawls around passing notes — 

BOY 
Someone very old — 

OLD MAN 
(to the Reciter) 
He was only ten. 

BOY 
And there’s someone in a tree — 

OLD MAN 
— Or the day is incomplete. 

BOTH 
Without someone in a tree, 
Nothing happened here. 

OLD MAN 
I am hiding in a tree. 

BOY 
I’m a fragment of the day. 

BOTH 
If I weren’t, who’s to say 
Things would happen here the way 
That they happened here? 

OLD MAN 
I was there then. 

BOY 
I am here still. 
It’s the fragment, not the day. 

OLD MAN 
It’s the pebble, not the stream. 

BOTH 
It’s the ripple, not the sea. 
Not the building but the beam, 
Not the garden but the stone, 
Not the treaty house, 
Someone in a tree. 

WARRIOR 
(slides panel open underneath the house) 
Pardon me, I am here — 
If you please, I am also here — 

OLD MAN 
They kept drinking cups of tea. 

BOY 
They kept sitting on the floor. 

BOTH 
They drank many cups of tea. 
(to each other) 
No, we told him that before. 

WARRIOR 
If you please, I am here. 

RECITER 
You are where? 

WARRIOR 
In the treaty house. 

RECITER 
In the treaty house? 

WARRIOR 
Or very near. 

RECITER 
Can you hear? 

WARRIOR 
I’m below. 

RECITER 
So I notice. 

WARRIOR 
Underneath the floor, 
And so I can’t see anything. 
I can hear them, 
But I can’t see anything. 

RECITER 
But you can hear? 

WARRIOR 
But I can hear. 
Shall I listen? 

RECITER 
If you please. 

WARRIOR 
I can hear them now … 
I shall try to shift my knees … 
I can hear them now … 
I hear everything … 
I’m the part that’s underneath, 
With my sword inside my sheath. 
I can hear them now … 
One is over me … 
If they knock, then I appear. 
I’m a part of what I hear. 
I’m the fragment underneath. 
I can hear them now! 

RECITER, OLD MAN, BOY 
Tell us what you hear! 

WARRIOR 
First I hear a creak and a thump. 
Now I hear a clink … 
Then they talk a bit … 
Many times they shout when they speak. 
Other times they think. 
Or they argue it … 
I hear floorboards groaning … 
Angry growls … Much droning … 
Since I hear them, they are there, 
As they argue it. 
I’m the listener underneath. 

BOY 
(peering into the house) 
Someone reads a list 
From a box. 

WARRIOR 
(listening) 
Someone talks of laws. 

OLD MAN 
Then they fan a bit. 

BOY 
Someone bangs a fist. 

WARRIOR 
Someone knocks. 

OLD MAN 
Now there was a pause. 

ALL 
Then they argue it: 

WARRIOR 
«But we want …» 
«No, you can’t 
And we won’t …» 
«But we need it, 
And we want …» 
«Will you grant — ?» 
«If you don’t …» 
«We concede it …» 

OLD MAN WARRIOR 
And they sat I can hear 
Through the night Them. 
And they lit 
Yellow tapers. BOY 
I was I’m a And they 
There Fragment of the Chat 
Then. Day. And they fight 
And they sit 
Signing papers. 
If I If I I am 
Weren’t, who’s to Weren’t, who’s to There 
Say Say Still. 
Things would Things would If I 
Happen here the Happen here the Weren’t who’s to 
Way Way Say 
That they’re That they’re That they’re 
Happening? Happening? Happening? 

ALL 
It’s the fragment, not the day. 
It’s the pebble, not the stream. 
It’s the ripple, not the sea 
That is happening. 
Not the building but the beam, 
Not the garden but the stone, 
Only cups of tea 
And history 
And someone in a tree.

This song is from a play «Pacific Overtures», based in Commander Perry’s expedition to Japan in 1853. This scene talks about an old man, as a boy in a tree, explaining his version of that day. They both sing but, as I got it, they are the same person. Later, a young warrior appears sitting under the floorboard of the pavilion explaining his version. They are, as they say, «A fragment of the day», «If i weren’t who’s to say things would happen here the way they’re happening?»

As they keep telling their story, we can realize that neither they know what happened that they, as the boy couldn’t hear and the warrior couldn’t see; Making oral history seem awful, and unknown with some lies and mistakes, such as rumors. 

Empire

The Clapham Sect: A leding group of Anglican activists, including William wilberforce and zachary macaulay, that wanted to fight slavery. This group led the british government to abolish slavery in 1807.

David Livingstone: Born in 1813, he was an explorer and a missionary. As a kid, he was poor, but so hard worker. He fought to have the education neccesary to become a succesful doctor. He began his missionary work in south africa, and began to focus in exploring the african interior, becoming a real indiana jones. In africa he discovered slave trade was being practiced. After years of hard work and exploration slavery began to be abolished in east africa in 1873, the same year livingstone died.

 

The Sepoy Mutiny: Sepoys were native indian soldiers who formed a “warrior class”, just like sparta. They were mostly Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs. Many british were killed becuase of the sepoy mutiny. When a rumour about how their new rifle cartridges were sealed with pork and beef fat, this mutiny set off.

Henry Morton Stanley: American journalist that set out to find livingstone and located him on Tanganyika.

Podcast

Laissez-faire capitalism: type of capitalism, from the French, which means, “let it be”. The government is leaving private business alone as much as possible, because there are laws. The government has to be involved in the economy.

Free market:  the law of supply and demand will determine the price of good. Adam smith talked about it.

Law of supply and demand: high demand but low supply the price of that good will go up, when there is a big supply but a low demand the price will go down.

Law of self-interest: people made decisions in their self-interest, without mattering if it is right our wrong. Making independent decisions for our own good.

Law of competition: Businesses is in competition with each other to sell more products.

The invisible hand: An invisible force of all people’s decisions together, is what forces the economic. It would work to everyone’s good – Adam smith.

Contract: Agreement between 2 or more parties

Free trade: economic dealing with free countries.

Balance of trade: difference between your imports and your exports.

Zero-sum game: A company gains exactly what another company losses

Protectionism: To not allow any interaction of other countries in the commerce

Embargo: Law that won’t allow commerce with another country.

Quota: The limit of price of imported supplies

Tariff: form of protectionism.

Comparative advantage: Lower the prices of goods to beat the competition

Trading partner: Company or region that agrees to interchange supplies and information

Niche product: Special product, only sold in a certain market

Specialization: When a company focuses in a certain commerce area or product

Life expectancy: How many years the population of a region is expected to live

Birth rate: How many newborns appear every day in comparison with how many die in a certain region

Replacement rate: An income workers must pay that is a percentage of what they will earn in their retirement pension.

Carrying capacity: Maximum fitting load

Utilitarianism: A philosophy in which the population’s happiness is the best resource in a region