Level 4 semester 2, 2019

Free themed topic. Favourite music

Since I remember, the music is one of the most important things in my life. I like to hear music, I like to play it, I love to sing, and listening other people playing music. I think music can connect people, and make a lot of changes in a place.
I don´t know if I can choose just one kind of music, but I love to playing latin music. I start to play guitar since like 7 years. I stat with rock songs, like Led Zeppelin or The Beatles. Then I became more grunge, and learn some songs of Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains and Mad Season. All this songs I learn in guitar to play it and sing were the best way to learn english. But latin music have something different, something more simpler, more acustic that I´ve always liked. You just need a guitar and desire to sing, nothing more.
I always listened to the classics Argentine rockers, and the Chilean folklorists, but it is very easy to leave them behind with all the Nothamerican music that surround us. On the other hand we have the reggaeton thay has created a stereotype of latin music, as if the only thing we want is dance in the beach.
So every year, at summer, I make the exercise of finding new latin music, from Argentina, Peru, Colombia, México or Chile. There is a lot of musicians coming out all the time, trying to enter in the market and losing chances among the American industry,so I thing we have to do our bit to help.

If you would like to listen some latin music, I can leave you some names here of my favourites:


Eterno retorno- Perota Chingo
Duda Morena- Churupaca
Si vai pal sur- Churupaca
Soledad- Jorge Drexler with María Rita
La muerte- Monsieur Periné
Negra Presuntuosa - Susana Baca
P.F.- Diego Lorenzini

A subject you´ve enjoyed studying this semester

Who is a person/expert on your field that you admire?

Denise Scott Brown is an American architect, born in South Africa in 1931.  She work with her husband and partner Robert Venturi and write with him one of the most important ideas of de postmodernism.

Was an african woman who succeeded in a world of men in the other in the other side of the world, North America. I think thats a very good reason to admire her and start to looking about her and her career.

The bad part of her career is that all the recognition for the work they did together was given only to him. In 1991, Venturi awarded the Pritzker Prize in Architecture, the most important prize in architecture, but the academy was not able to recognize the award to a woman.

Later, a group of women architects attempted to get her name in the prize, but they didn´t do anything. 

The most important book of the couple was "Learning from Las Vegas" a text that studies the fury of advertising and the new architecture born of that. But I think are two Denise´s papers that I recommend to understand her work : "The art in the waste" and "Learning form Pop".

As a feminist, I think it is fundamental to start looking for feminine references, and give them the value they deserve. I still find it hard to believe that she is so invisible when Robert Venturi is so renowned and named in our career. Look for your own female reference, I'm sure you will be surprised!

Video Games/Board Games

I love play video games. When I was little I saw my brothers play and they taught me how to play many of them. From Mortal Kombat to God of war. But the game consoles are too expensive so I learn to play others in the computer.

Is very silly, but my fauvorite computer videogame is always The Sims. Maybe I like it because you can build your house and decorate, maybe just like it because it´s similar to my career, but I´ve played ir thousands of times at diferent times in my life and I´ve always love it.

The last time I played it was in 2015 during the sit in. It was the way to waste my time at the end of it because the mobilisation start to decline.

There is 4 versions of the game, but the Sims 3 is by far the best.

My boyfriend plays a lot of computer videogames, much more than me, and he recommended me to play Skyrim. Is more like a epic game, with dragons and knights and free maps to make your own story. It looks really fun, so maybe I play it in summer because if I start now I will not stop.

A Photography you like

This photography was taken by New York City based photographer Jeff Mermelstein. The year when it was taken is not specified but it was first published in 1999, in a book named Sidewalk, compiling a series of photographs taken during the 90's.
The interesting part of this picture and the reason why I like it's the question, what does it show?
At the forefront we see a young woman wearing red sunglasses, but she is out of focus. Then we realise that the background is in focus, showing a chaotic scene, full of people and with no apparent interest. But by looking further, we see that the reflection on the red sunglasses of the young women on the foreground are also focused, showing showing a couple lonely windows in a rather classic looking building, like a scene completely unconnected scene that look more organised and simple.

Tv shows and series

My favourite tv show is Black Mirror. I love science fiction and in this series you can see details of today's technology deformed by science fiction in a not too distant future. Each chapter is a different story, where society loses morale at the hands of technology. Best of all is that since the chapters are not connected you can see  it in any order and not loose all your time hooked on it.

I have seen every tv show about science fiction and could recommend a lot of them. Now I'm starting West World, a series of the same kind that deals with artificial intelligence.
If any of you is interested in science fiction I also recommend that you read Phillip K. Dick, one of the creators of the genre that has inspired much of the films and futuristic series we know. My favourite book written by him is Ubik. I hope you find interesting, if you have not seen Black Mirror, it is time to do it.