Could this be the winner of this year's Turner Prize?

Phil Collins

Phil Collins’s art investigates our ambivalent relationship with the camera as both an instrument of attraction and manipulation, of revelation and shame. He often operates within forms of low-budget television and reportage-style documentary to address the discrepancy between reality and its representations. In his projects, Collins creates unpredictable situations and his irreverent and intimate engagement with his subjects – a process he describes as ‘a cycle of no redemption’ – is as important for his practice as the final presentation in the gallery.

Phil Collins’s art investigates our ambivalent relationship with the camera as both an instrument of attraction and manipulation, of revelation and shame. He often operates within forms of low-budget television and reportage-style documentary to address the discrepancy between reality and its representations. In his projects, Collins creates unpredictable situations and his irreverent and intimate engagement with his subjects – a process he describes as ‘a cycle of no redemption’ – is as important for his practice as the final presentation in the gallery.


<----- click here ...........See what he has to say .....



For the return of the real / gercegin geri donusu 2005, originally commissioned by the 9th Istanbul Biennial, Collins invited people who felt their lives had been ruined by appearing on talk-shows and makeover shows to tell their extraordinary stories at a press conference. Furthermore, Collins hired a director of a Turkish reality TV show to conduct hour-long interviews with the participants. By putting these individuals under scrutiny once again, Collins makes the ethics of further exploitation one of the main subjects of the piece.

Gallo Ciego

O
Gavito's style is unique! For him, there are no easy steps, nor bad taste, he dances only with his soul, like the 'matador' he knows how to lead the beast!

Gavito y Duran - A Evaristo Carriego

Melhor do que isto é difícil!

El Flaco y Luna Palacios

Tango Negro

Tango Negro
Tango negro, tango negro
Te fuiste sin avisar
Los gringos fueron cambiando
Tu manera de bailar.

Tango negro, tango negro
El amo se fue por mar
Se acabaron los candombes
En el barrio e Monserrat.

Gavito y Geraldine

"The secret of tango is in this moment of improvisation that happens between step and step. It is to make the impossible thing possible: to dance silence"

I am

People practising birthday celebrations ... preparations continue

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvaAyZO2Ccc

Turn down your computer sound level a little - click on the above link - and watch to the very end to spot the family member who is warming up for big teia birthday celebrations!!

See the lovely birthday card I received with this link ... an uncanny likeness of the two sisters don't you think .....?

http://www.hallmark.com/ECardWeb/ECV.jsp?a=1275792001874M132510972Y

Teia's Birthday Wine - the preparations start ......

Portugal's Alentejo - Cortes de Cima

Along the side of one of the vineyards at Cortes de Cima is a long, rather bumpy looking strip, perhaps 20 feet wide - it looks like a couple of vine rows are missing. But this is proprietor Hans Jorgensen's landing strip. Inside a shed at the side of the winery there's a shiny, attractive light aeroplane. This used to be a tool of the trade when Hans worked running sugar plantations in the far east; now I get the impression it is a rather nice toy. Still, he's had rather scared employees hanging out of the side door taking photographs of the vines below in his own take on precision viticulture via airborne monitoring. Cortes de Cima is one of Portugal's two leading 'new world' wineries (the other being Esporão), and its very successful wines with good international distribution have helped put this region on the map. The new world approach begins in the vineyard, where Richard Smart (an Australian who is one of the best known viticultural experts) has been consulting.

The vines are trellised here with the Smart-Dyson system (illustrated above). This involves a tall vertical canopy with a special moveable system of catch wires. About half way through the growing season, while things are pretty vigorous, the guidewires are used to catch some of the sprawling shoots and direct them downwards. The result is a large green wall - the aim behind this system is to get vigorous vines (usually a bad thing for quality) in balance and produce relatively high yields of good quality grapes.



The wines are made in an unashamedly modern mould, and have proved tremendously successful with their accessible, forward fruit. Because of their success, the prices for the top wines are very high in Portugal, which tends to make them look a little expensive in the UK when compared with their peers. Still, you can't blame a winery for their prices: if they sell substantially below market value, then someone else gets to make the margin, which isn't really fair.



And selected for Teia's Birthday Celebrations:-

Cortes de Cima Touriga Nacional 2003
Fantastic open Touriga nose, which is highly perfumed with a subtle herby edge. The palate displays ripe berry fruit with good definition and spicy, tarry structure. Expressive and satisfying, with the fruit having the upper hand. Great balance. Very good/excellent 93/100

The Gambler

"... Tell me have you any occupation except gambling?"
"No none ..."
He began cross-examining me. I knew nothing. I scarcely looked into the newspapers, and had literally not opened a single book all that time.
"You've grown rusty," he observed. "You have not only given up life, all your interests, private and public, the duties of a man and a citizen, your friends (and you really had friends) - and you have not only given up your objects, such as they were, all but gambling - you have even given up your memories. I remember you and at an intense and ardent moment of you life; but I am sure you have forgotted all the best feelings that you had then; your dreams, your most genuine desires do not rise above pair, impair, rouge, noir, and the twelve middle numbers, and so on, I am sure!"

from The Gambler: Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Poverty in Portugal

Despite some positive macroeconomic trends, poverty and social exclusion continued to cause considerable concern in Portugal in the 90s, particularly when compared with other EU countries.

All the studies on poverty in Portugal in the 90s prove that this continued to be an important phenomenon in Portugal, both in absolute (high and intensive poverty levels and relative terms (compared with other EU countries).

In contrast to the situation at the end of the 80s, absolute poverty increased in the first half of the 90s. This increase is true for the rate, the intensity and also the severity of poverty (among other factors, the greater inequality in the distribution of income, reflected both by the Gini index and the ratio between the extreme deciles of income).


A more detailed analysis clearly shows that, in the 90s, poverty and social exclusion
are linked mainly to the following population groups: pensioners and the retired; agricultural workers; persons with disabilities; long term unemployed; women in single parent families; people with low education levels; families with three or more dependents; older persons living alone; those living in the interior of Portugal, in particular in Alentejo, etc.

The extreme poverty rate was calculated as 4.8% of Portuguese families in the mid 90s. It can therefore be said that in both absolute and relative terms, poverty and
social exclusion in Portugal reached very high levels in the 90s .....

from: THE FIGHT AGAINST POVERTY AND SOCIAL EXCLUSION IN PORTUGAL

Alentejo Blue by Monica Ali

About the Author

Monica Ali was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and grew up in England. She has been named by Granta as one of the twenty best young British novelists. "Brick Lane" won Barnes & Noble's Discover Award for New Writers and Quality Paperback Book Club's New Voices Award. It was translated into thirty languages. She lives in London with her husband and two children.


Alentejo Blue by Monica Ali
Maybe it's the cooking, maybe it's the recipe
Abstracts from Review By Catherine Taylor
Published: 04 June 2006

Monica Ali's first novel, Brick Lane, was that elusive, enviable thing: a work which attracted critical and commercial plaudits in equal measure. Shortlisted for, among other awards, the Man Booker Prize, it ensured its author a pre-publication place on Granta's much-coveted once-a decade-list of Best of Young British Novelists, while its strong characterisation and vivid narrative made it a hit with the wider reading public. The story of Nazreen, who struggles in her arranged marriage amid the Bengali immigrant community of London's East End was dense, complex and deftly rendered - in short, as neat and accomplished a contemporary tale as one could wish for.

Those eagerly turning to Ali's follow-up, Alentejo Blue, might initially be appeased, but will ultimately feel disappointed. Set in the fictional village of Mamarossa, in Portugal's remote, unspoilt Alentejo region, a self-consciously disparate group of locals, expats, and holidaymakers live, love and sometimes collide in catastrophic ways, but mostly dream and regret.

More a series of montages than a cohesive novel.

Ali's bold style is apparent in flashes, but overall it lacks depth. The locals are just so much background: stereotypes who watch Brazilian soap operas all day or slide into doleful, platitudinous observations. Ali seems more confident with the English characters, but abandons them once their stories ignite a flicker of interest. The landscape is faithfully, if monotonously evoked. It is as if the major themes of Brick Lane - community, displacement, the telling of tales, passion, political undercurrents - have been awkwardly transplanted to another environment, where they cannot flourish. As Joao notes at the beginning of the novel: "The tomatoes too would come early and turn a quick, deceiving red. They would not taste of anything." The same can unfortunately be said of this frustratingly diluted novel.

Martin Kippenberger II

I really liked this part of the exhibition too: a large room full of all kinds of desks and chairs.

"The remarkable installation 'The Happy End of Franz Kafka's 'Amerika' 1994, which consists of an array of tables and chairs organised on a green basketball court, and is a commentary on Kafka's description of the series of interviews faced by immigrants on arrival in the USA"

Martin Kippenberger

We went to see the Martin Kipenberger exhibition at the Tate. Had some interesting things. Some weird things too. This is the painting I found most interesting - it's a self portrait.

"Martin Kipenberger: was among the most influential artists of the last thirty years, producing a remarkable body of work between 1970's and his death, aged only 44, in 1997. His immense output drew upon popular culture, at, architecture, music, politics and history, as well as countless stories and events prompted by his own nomadic life."
If you want to find out more about the artist http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/kippenberger/

Life continues to prosper on Mars where Phil Glenister plays Det Chief Insp Gene Hunt. He's an unlikely sex symbol with millions of adoring female fans after the huge success of Life On Mars. Phil Glenister returns to Manchester next month to start filming a second series as maverick old-style seventies cop, Det Chief Insp Gene Hunt.

Actress Beth Goddard, who is married to Phil in real life, admits neither of them was prepared for the impact his role as the "Gene genie" has had on the nation's women.

"Can you believe it? I don't think he can, actually," she laughs. "It's a scream. I never thought he'd be a sex symbol, but I'm very pleased for him. He's been waiting for that for a long time," smiles Beth.

The Life On Mars - Connections Quiz

Who is this woman? Yes it is Beth Goddard?

click above to see video clip

She is married and to the much loved Phil Glenister! Click below to see a preview of the TV program "Life on Mars".






Watch a clip of this charming man in action?

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Hiding behind the dragoeiro

Walking the dogs

Beautiful morning flowers

http://boss.streamos.com/wmedia/astralwerks/gabin/mr_freedom/video/into_my_soul_hi.asx" width="200" height="200" type="video/x-ms-asf" loop="true" autostart="true">

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..... to a holiday theme tune!


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New look!

Here I am with my professional look, and my new braces!
Please comment!

Cousins

There goes my cousin with her friends... Her Greadgrandfather António and my Greatgrandmother Leopoldina were brother and sister ;)

Beautiful Flowers :)

Besides the three 'sapatinhos', can you see my next white orchid on its way? Also blossoming is a beautiful tulip straight from Amsterdam ;) I'll send a photo of it later on...

Pleasant jogging ;)

Healthy_Eating ;)

Gym Time at Clube Naval

Ready to dive at Clube Naval

Bond

A very confident James Bond walks into a bar and takes a seat next to a very
attractive woman.
He gives her a quick glance then casually looks at his watch for a moment.
The woman notices this and asks, "Is your date running late?"
"No," he replies, "Q has just given me this state-of-the-art watch. I was
just testing it."
The intrigued woman says, "A state-of-the-art watch? What's so special about
it?"
Bond explains, "It uses alpha waves to talk to me telepathically."
The lady says, "What's it telling you now?"
"Well, it says you're not wearing any panties...." The woman giggles and
replies, "Well it must be broken because I am wearing panties!"

Bond smirks, taps his watch and says, "Bloody thing's an hour fast."

.... and all the things we used to know ....

Listen




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My happy twins ;)

My favourite view

The sun will make it better ;)

Music Noticeboard

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Poor Bouganvilea

Will it manage to survive the demolitions around it?...

Eu e a Inês

Arte

A Question for William Shakespeare

Dear William
Why did you call Twelfth Night, Twelfth Night?
Yours,
Skippy

Dear Skippy,
It’s nice, for once, to have a relatively straightforward question (some people are very up close and personal). Many of my plays were written to be performed at specific season in the life of the court; Twelfth Night is one of these. In our festive seasons, which were modelled on the religious calendar, ‘twelfth night’ is the last night of the Christmas season and the end of a great time of entertainment, merry-making, misrule and general festivity.

Many of the games and puzzles we indulged in during this season were about what you might call a kind of topsy turvy world, where those with power were made powerless and vice versa. Twelfth Night takes this idea to an extreme. The powerful are impotent, girls become boys, and identity is unstable so what you think you know you discover you don’t know at all. And so on. It’s as simple as that.
Was your Christmas like this Skippy?

Yours,
William

The most recent demolition :(

Daytime Electrodynamics in Sintra

A prize to the person who guesses what happened after this misterious spiritual event ;)

Cactus

Out of the dark and dry cement, a wonderful cactus...

New Year Resolutions