Sebasinho

New York, New York

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 11:28:54 -0600

allchimia: Sebas and I are planning a trip to NY in May, any ideas or suggestions for must see...

allchimia: {Real Beauty}For almost ten years now, Dove has...

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 16:27:10 -0600

{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...

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 21:05:13 -0600

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...

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 16:58:36 -0700

Inmates inside the Cojutepeque prison, which houses members of the Barrio 18 gang, listen to a religious service. (Juan Carlos/Tumblr)

Family members grieve the death of two men who were shot while having dinner. The murders happened in a community controlled by MS. (Juan Carlos/Tumblr)

The US Treasury has formally designated Mara Salvatrucha a transnational criminal organization, which prevents the U.S. from taking part in dialogue on how to solve the problem. (Juan Carlos/Tumblr)

Street vendors and small business owners are among the main targets for extortions solicited by gangs, who threaten to kill them if they do not pay. (Juan Carlos/Tumblr)

An inmate's tattoo reads FORGIVE ME MOTHER FOR MY CRAZY LIFE. The dialogue which lead to the beginning of the truce began inside the prisons. (Juan Carlos/Tumblr)

Notebooks with the names and dates of the missing sit on the desk of the coroner's office. Since the truce began last year, the number of missing has risen. (Juan Carlos/Tumblr)

Mass graves, like the one pictured here, are often reported by detainees or tips from the community. This has become a common way for gangs to hide their victims. (Juan Carlos/Tumblr)

Many communities live under the control of gangs. In many cases, they have more power than the police, making it unsafe and difficult to raise families. (Juan Carlos/Tumblr)

One of the demands of gang leaders is for better prison conditions. Reports show El Salvador has one the most overcrowded prison systems in the world. (Juan Carlos/Tumblr)

Evangelicals hold an outdoor prayer. The Protestant Christian has played a big role in trying to reach out to youth involved in gangs. (Juan Carlos/Tumblr)

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,...

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 11:43:41 -0700

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?...

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 15:46:51 -0700

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

allchimia: {Childhood Memories} Tintin turns 84 today. The...

Tue, 08 Jan 2013 16:12:23 -0700

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

Tue, 08 Jan 2013 11:47:32 -0700

Schools Kill Creativity: One of the best Ted Talks I’ve ever seen!

allchimia: {Monday Music} Many new artist emerged this past...

Mon, 31 Dec 2012 13:11:16 -0700

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...

Mon, 31 Dec 2012 13:09:57 -0700

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!

allchimia: A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to...

Tue, 11 Dec 2012 13:56:11 -0700

allchimia:

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to travel to Vegas, not only did I get to do this alone but with the company of the person I love the most, Sebas. I had never been to Vegas before and quite frankly I didn’t think I would like the city, but it proved to be quite the opposite. There is so much to see and do, that it’s hard to be disappointed by it. My time spent in Vegas was wonderful, even though I was traveling on business the city and company made my time unforgettable.

allchimia: Miike Snow’s latest video…Pretender. Thanks to Sebas...

Tue, 25 Sep 2012 12:29:48 -0600

allchimia:

Miike Snow’s latest video…Pretender.

Thanks to Sebas for the tip!

allchimia: Today’s Monday Music is a little ode to the 2012...

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 21:46:13 -0600

allchimia:

Today’s Monday Music is a little ode to the 2012 London Olympics, in case you missed it, Muse performed the official Olympic song, aptly titled Survival. Unexpectedly beautiful this song expresses a deep desire and a determination to win, a mantra all Olympic athletes, specially Guatemalan, surely adhere to.

For Guatemalans, this past Olympics were particularly significant, for this country in Central America it meant the first Olympic medal in history: Erick Barrondo, who participated in the 20 km Race Walk, won a silver medal. This Olympics will definitely change history for Guatemalan Atheletes, let’s just hope Rio 2016 will bring many more medals!

Yeah! Great Post!

funnyordie: Epic Dock-Jumping Fail This kind of beautiful pain...

Tue, 24 Jul 2012 21:54:27 -0600

funnyordie:

Epic Dock-Jumping Fail

This kind of beautiful pain can’t be choreographed.

allchimia: We could all use a little inspiration once in a...

Mon, 16 Jul 2012 21:44:41 -0600

allchimia:

We could all use a little inspiration once in a while, for some days now I’ve felt a little uninspired so today I decided to bring back a little inspiration in my life through art. Some pieces have a way of captivating the viewer and immerse him in the painting itself, to me this particular portrait does exactly that.

allchimia: Inspired by a comment, stating the song’s lyrics...

Mon, 09 Jul 2012 18:52:37 -0600

allchimia:

Inspired by a comment, stating the song’s lyrics resembled a Shakespearean soliloquy, Above and Beyond decided to take it as inspiration and cast a Shakespearean actor for the video of On my way to Heaven. The result is a beautiful soliloquy interpreting the song’s lyrics. Enjoy Monday Music!

allchimia: Graphic designer Victor Hertz, from Sweden has taken...

Wed, 20 Jun 2012 12:16:00 -0600

allchimia:

Graphic designer Victor Hertz, from Sweden has taken 8 rock bands or artists and transformed their most iconic songs into graphics. The captivating prints capture what words many times fail to capture and turn them into a new form of art.

Photo

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 16:41:59 -0600

Life gives us brief moments with another, sometimes in those...

Mon, 28 May 2012 22:48:00 -0600

Life gives us brief moments with another, sometimes in those brief moments we get memories that last a life time! So, live that your memories will be part of your happiness! ILU!

allchimia:

Most meaningful songs in our lives usually remind us of a special place, an unforgettable moment or an amazing person. To me Beautiful Girl holds true for all three; I can’t help but smile as wide as I can every time I hear this song and think of the one I love, Sebas!

This song brings back some good memories! allchimia: Glee’s...

Mon, 21 May 2012 21:47:06 -0600

This song brings back some good memories!

allchimia:

Glee’s version of Fun’s We are Young is my favorite by far, it just doesn’t get any better.