Sebasinho

allchimia:

Sebas and I are planning a trip to NY in May, any ideas or suggestions for must see places in NY?

allchimia:

{Real Beauty}For almost ten years now, Dove has created it’s marketing around the “Real Beauty” campaign, in which their photos are left unaltered and portray real woman. Their latest endeavor targets the very core of our perception of beauty: designers, photographer and professional retouchers. The advertising genius behind Ogilvy Toronto have created a Photoshop action. This action called Beautify, which claims to add a natural glow to skin only a click away, has been advertised in the very place where designers go for their tools of the trade and inspiration.  The action however aims to create awareness of the effects of Photoshoped images and how these alter our perceptions of beauty. A brilliant take on powerful and direct marketing!

allchimia:

{Monday Music} In the spirit of making Mondays a little less strenuous, I have decided to share an oldie but goodie. Although this song was released in 2009 by Matt Darey and Kate Louise Smith, See the Sun, it still sounds fresh and new today. Enjoy this Monday’s track!

Oldie but a Goodie! Great track!

storyboard:

In El Salvador, Gang Truce Can’t Stop the Violence

This story was produced in partnership with Mother Jones.

It began with a trip back home, to a small town in the country’s western valley, to visit his dying grandmother. More than a decade after El Salvador’s bloody civil war had ended, Juan Carlos, a 38-year-old photojournalist, wanted to see how life had changed. Was his country, one of the most violent in the Western Hemisphere, better off after 12 years of war? Sure, there were shiny new roads and malls, but was the country any safer?

Juan Carlos began by documenting infrastructure and families; education and health systems, traveling for long stretches between El Salvador, where he was born, and San Francisco, where he now lives. But it didn’t take long for a new focus to emerge: the gang culture, and accompanying terror, that had seeped into the fabric of everyday Salvadoran life. With an estimated 64,000 identified gang members, El Salvador’s street gangs — or maras, as they’re known to locals — operate like armies. They control traffic stops and neighborhoods. They hold press conferences. They are incestuously intertwined with the police. In other words, they call the shots — as well as fire them. In its peak, in 2009, the gangs were responsible for a homicide rate that reached 14 deaths per day.

Read More

allchimia:

{Monday Music} Music is definitely very personal, but there is no denying that some songs are universally beautiful and just take our breath away. Last week on Reddit, McSlurryHole posed a question to the community: “What is the most beautiful song you have ever heard?”  After about 9,600 comments, a list of the top 100 songs was created. Once the list had been assembled Redditor Dansecaribe created a Spotify Playlist which encompassed all 100 songs. I was pleasantly surprised when I found some of my favorite songs in the list including Sia’s Breathe Me, Bon Iver’s Holocene, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong’s Dream a Little Dream of Me and Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, some of which have been featured in Monday Music.

Today I would like to share the number one song on that playlist, a beautiful piano suite by Claude Debussy written back in 1890. Clair de Lune is the third movement in Debussy’s Suite Bergamasque; its name comes from Paul Verlain’s poem of the same name. The beautiful suite is filled with emotions and to me it brings great memories of my time shared with my inspiration, my grandma.

Does shutting down your smartphone before takeoff really matter? Let’s ask science.

allchimia:

{Childhood Memories} Tintin turns 84 today. The young boy reporter was created by Georges Remi, who wrote under the pen name Hergé, back in 1929 while he was working on the Belgian newspaper Le XXe Siecle, from then on Tintin caught young reader’s attention and since has been adapted to radio, television, theater and film. The young reporter was known for his  adventures that took him traveling all over the globe where he met peculiar characters and made new friends.  

I am not sure how I first stumbled upon Titin myself, but it happened while I was a child and ever since I have been hooked on his adventures along side Milou, his fox terrier companion.  Not only are his adventures incredible but so are Hergé’s illustrations. Hergé’s particular illustrations of Tintin have not only left their mark on children’s books but also on artists who have been inspired by his work, including Warhol and Lichtenstein. Both artist have used his technique (ligne claire) in their work and have even created works of art based on Hergé’s comics.

Schools Kill Creativity

One of the best Ted Talks I’ve ever seen! 

allchimia:

{Monday Music} Many new artist emerged this past year, some rose to fame unexpectedly, Psy’s Gangnam Style which now boosts over 1 billion views, some took us completely by surprise and not necessarily in a good way, who can forget Carley Rae Jepsen’s Call Me Maybe, and some left us wondering WHT (yes, Pitbull and all his songs this year). As the year comes to an end, we look back at some of the artists and songs that made this year something to remember and even though music is completely personal I would like to share some of the songs that made MY year something unforgettable. Without further ado and in no particular order my top 10 for this year…

• Skinny Love - Birdy
• Minnesota WI- Bon Iver
• Sweet Nothing - Calvin Harris ft. Florence Welch
• One and Only - Adele
• Levels - Avicii
• Turn it Down - Kaskade
• Ho Hey - The Lumineers 
• Don’t You Worry Child - Sweedish House Mafia
• We Are Young - fun 

And last but not least, Ellie Goulding’s Anything Could Happen, a little reminder for the year to come that really….anything can really happen!

Good tunes, some, unforgettable!

allchimia:

{A year in Review} 2012 was definitely an eventful year, a year filled with personal accomplishments, challenges and many learning experiences. My year was filled with great memories, including our first year Anniversary with Sebas, with great friends and their stories and with a loving family who supported me throughout my ups and downs. In this year we witnessed great accomplishments, including Felix Baumgartner’s jump from the stratosphere and at times we where left in awe at what some humans can be capable of. It was a great year all in all, a year that has left countless lessons and memories. In case you missed a couple of our best and worse, I leave you with a little video showing just some of the things that brought the world together for 2012.

Good recap of 2012!