IS IT ART?

Once I read a text that was about modern art and, honestly, I was surprised by the number of art pieces with absolutely nothing attractive or useful to it. Then, my teacher asked us to do the one thing I did not want to do: write about that pathetic text.
So, let´s talk art.
It is obvious that the concept of art is not the same that we had some years ago. Well, of course, years ago the world had genious, creative real artists. How come the beauty of this culture gets lost as days pass by, how come people judge so easily if our poor present can speak louder than our brilliant past?
Nowadays, everything you do, the basic and the complex, the black and white and the colorful, and even the way your hair falls during your bath making weird shapes that we cannot identify, can be considered art.
I´m sure this is sounding disrespectful and this is not my intention at all. Just like everything in life, modern art has decent and talented artists too, young people who think differently, who want to innovate the way art is done, and we all owe them a big and sincere "thank you" and an even bigger apology. Thanks for the dedication, the creativity and the love they put into painting, sculptures, photos, and so on. Sorry for the way we waste our time paying attention to meaningless representations of those who have nothing else to do and therefore decide to become artists.
Still, I believe people will always look up to the professionals we had in the past and that the world will not let pure art die in the middle of this so called "modern culture", that, as for innovations, seem to be even more old fashioned and than those princess and plebeian stories.
Rui Barbosa once said that is impossible to be inside the civilization and outside art. Anyway, I guess he was right...


Sophia Suh, who thinks Damien Hirst (the fella in the pic) and all his offspring should be doing something else with their lives, wrote this amazing piece. She is a CAE 2 student and she pretty much rocks.

AGAINST NARRATIVITY (A CHEEKY SIP)

We argue against two popular claims. The first is a descriptive, empirical thesis about the nature of ordinary human experience: 'each of us constructs and lives a "narrative" . . . this narrative is us, our identities'; 'self is a perpetually rewritten story . . . in the end, we become the autobiographical narratives by which we "tell about" our lives' 'we are all virtuoso novelists. . . . We try to make all of our material cohere into a single good story. And that story is our autobiography. The chief fictional character . . . of that autobiography is one's self'.

The second is a normative, ethical claim: we ought to live our lives narratively, or as a story; a 'basic condition of making sense of ourselves is that we grasp our lives in a narrative' and have an understanding of our lives 'as an unfolding story'.A person 'creates his identity [only] by forming an autobiographical narrative – a story of his life', and must be in possession of a full and 'explicit narrative [of his life] to develop fully as a person'.

But at times, a cohere single good story doesn´t necessarily means development. At times, we simply don´t cry for the trees. That´s when we become "Episodics", when we stop making sense of ourselves.

The following is just a sip of an Episodical dialogue we had with ourselves and our zillion different kinds of personalities.

-Yo dog! Long time no see, bitch! What happened to ya?

-You have to believe in God, son...daughter...it. Otherwise you are going to get so screwed.

-Don´t you dare going back into that lame meditation state of yours!

-Well, I have no choice. Plus, it reminds me of my daughter singing when she was young.

-That´s awesome! Was she any good?

-Yeah, hm... no, she wasn´t. I was four months pregnant, actually. And, you know, it wasn´t exactly what we would call a bed of roses. You see, at that time I was building myself a "I´ve-seen-Jesus-and-He-told-me-to-stop-with-the-dope" sorta crap, but it was really hard cuz...

-Wow! I don´t even wanna blink now! Cut me some slack, chum!

-That´s ok, kid, you can blink. That´s one of the demands I had previously approved and have recently taken back, becase I can, and because now my puppys can close their eyes everytime, everywhere, and so can our soldiers, as ther limbs burst and burn and fly away in the air, pretending to dance...

-Oh, dude! That´s hardcore! And... I wasn´t going to bring the subject up, but, you look kinda fat.KINDA. What´s up with that? Are you growing some kinda worm in there?

-You´re right, kid.There is no word dog backwards.There is no peace. You have to comprehend that the best things in life are health, FOOD, and less hopefully, love. It´s cold out there. It´s storming, it´s raining. But most sad, is the rain inside our hearts... I say seize the day. Pull the trigger. Drop the blade and watch the rolling hills...

-You son of a ...

-Sorry. For the first time in my whole life I guess I could have been polite.

-C´mon you skinny ecosexual freako! I´m here to argue about people being murdered in cold blood, about children being born with AIDS, and since you claim there´s no doG you wanna keep flowing, down on your knees, outshined and sleeping?

-Tsc, Tsc, Tsc... What a bad girl. You could have just said you are grateful. No bad words, no bitter feelings...

-Yeah, Yeah, sure... so, I´m gonna go now. Cuz you... this baloney... that´s lame and... anyways, you know where to find me. I´ve got some cows to milk. See you later, like, never.

-No, you suck.

This writing was done in one of the very first sessions of the club this semester, as an exercise. The brains behind it are those of Sophia Suh, Amanda Pertinhes and Luam Gabriel, the "Episodics" in question.

THE ULTIMATE WONDER OF OUR TOWN (A GUIDE ON HOW TO GET THERE)

1-Go to Uvaranas;

2-Go past Operário Club and walk along several Pizza Shops, Restaurants and one bus terminal;

3-Our place is not there. Go back!

4-Across downtown and go past the Mall;

5-Go along the avenue until you you see a huge piece of poop standing in the air (believe us, it´s impossible not to see that!).

6-Jump into the poop and have fun!

This useful piece was written by João Pedro, Marina, Thalita, Victor and Miguel, Action Three students and writers of the hour.

HOW TO GET TO HELL (A SHORT SHORT STORY)

First go past Xuxa´s house and turn left.

Walk down Gugu Road, go past Didi Square and turn right on Hello Kitty Avenue.

Go straight on, turn right on Bush Park, then go down til Lula Square.

Paulo Coelho lives there in the bird house. Ask him for the magic key. You must fight the three Apocalipse Dragons: Evo Morales, Preta Gil and Joelma.

If, I mean "IF" you survive, you need to cross the Hugo Chavez Bridge.

And there you are. At Hebe Camargo´s gates of hell!!!

This beatnik piece was written by João Pedro, Marina, Thalita, Victor and Miguel, Action Three students and writers of the hour.

ARMLESS TINA (A SHORT STORY)

At a quarter to seven she eats bread with cheese and drinks cat´s piss.

At seven twenty five goes to her far-west school and leaves her arm on the kitchen table.

At ten minutes to one she gets in her tower by the window.

At half-past one, in another dimension, she eats the grass of her horse, Suck-Sucker 2, at a wall-less kitchen.

At two forty she gets beaten the heck of by a HE-SHE worm shaped eyebrow person.

At a quarter past four she plays tennis in Mars and loses her chest.

At a quarter to seven she has pizza with her ass-cheek also armless four finger boyfriend.

At eight twenty she does her homework with white ink pens and some alien fleas come out of her hair.

At half past ten, she creeps towards her bed, once again, armless...

This beatnik piece was written by João Pedro, Marina, Thalita, Victor and Miguel, Action Three students and writers of the hour.

TOP 5 things we like about The Writing Club

Top 5 things that we like about The Writing Club:

5 - We are free to speak our minds

4 - We are free to be "gordinhos tensos"

3 - We are free to mock others

2 - We have the coolest and craziest teacher ever

1 - It's nice

Farewell

The writing club is the great answer for everyone who was searching a place
to speak own ideas.
With good subjects and a fun way to guide the students, Miguel, the teacher,
let everybody feeling comfortable to write, speak and improve their English. I support
the idea of writing club keep going on and, for sure, I'm talking by all
students who attend the club...

Regards to everybody

Adrian

A SHORT STORY

WHAT DOES BLACK TASTE LIKE?

1

Only imagine how would it be if couldn´t open your eyes anymore. What would it be if you couldn´t breath without a tube attached to your nostrils anymore. How would it be if you couldn´t even decide anything by yourself anymore. Now sleep over it, will ya?

2

I heard this sound. Some days ago I was supossed to pick up my sister at school as usual. A box with china in it being dropped from a guy at the penthouse of that fancy buildind next to your place may convey the image, the sound.

You see, I have this thing with run-down sidewalks. I keep wondering what it might have looked like from someone standing pretty high ,right above us, right above that street.

A freaking old school video-game game, damn it! That´s what it might have looked like. An arrow moving slowly towards me. Yet, so darn fast, that car.

Coconuts, with lotsa coconut water in it. Beaches. Sunny beaches. Ok then, happier analogies, so you can picture my head hitting the curb.

And everything didn´t turn into darkness. Just me.

3

September 4th 2004?

Don´t know.

Don´t remember.

4

Ok, you guys. That´s about it. I can´t do this, can I? I can´t pulled it off, right? Here, I mean, lying on this bed all day long. Communication, right? You cannot follow me, can you? Is this teenage rock-bottom, me here, all by myself, despite the fact I can hear them and I can feel them and I cannot see them and I cannot feel them.

5

This is worse. I mean, my situation.

During the Second World War, all the hospital all around Europe were jam packed.

So the German soldiers would came in and mistreat all patients who were already on a pretty bad shape, those with no legs and no arms and no heart left to be smashed but this wish to be buried by their beloved ones, their kins.

Then, the nurses and the doctors would relief their patients´suffering, would speed up the whole process, and in their mind they were just nipping the bud, cutting things short,

letting the jews

free,

to go.

6

October 13th 2004

This is fast. And nothing but clichés pop up. Remember when that guy told ya about the beauty of life? Remember that? About doing things while you can, while you are able to? So I know this story about a lady who was doomed to spend the rest of her days suffering like a dog because of a terminal cancer. She could talk, though, and so she chose. "I´ve lived long enough. I´ve had the time, and if there´s something still working inside of me, it´s telling me this could be a good ending, an honor, in fact, to be able to say SWITCH IT OFF, DOC.I WANT TO END IT AT THIS PART."And so she did it. She ended it.

7

Can you sell something you haven´t even finished paying for? I guess not, so the beach flat wouldn´t count.

Mom´s car.

College money.

All the savings.

Minor stuff too.

The new tv set.

The camera.

My laptop.

Someone once told me that music box is worth a good money. Hope they remember it.

My kidney.

My bike.

Jeez.

How the hell are they affording this hospital?

8

I actually try to show them I can feel their presence when they are in the room. Quite easy, actually. I´m getting good at it. For some moment, when I hear the doorknob turning (and that is one loud rusty doorknob) I think of uncle Joe and the pool. This summer day, a while ago, he grabbed me and threw me in the water, to my total dismay and resistance. Not knowing how to swim can easily lead one into panicking. So now, when my folks come over, I try and go back to those two seconds right before hiting the water, and my heart beats up faster and faster, and the beeping they hear from the machine is, in fact, me saying hello.

Natasha Bosch wrote this piece and we are really proud of her.

BLOOMSDAY AT CULTURA

The mass of the cult population got pretty amazed when the posters of "The First Bloomsday of Ponta Grossa" were left on many parts of the city. Those people, of course, didn't get the chance to meet the brain behind the plan. This guy who had the incredible idea of bringing James Joyce's masterpiece Ulysses to discussion, at Cultura Inglesa, known as the best english school ever. This guy is Miguel The Mocker, pretty intelligent guy, and the idea seemed to be working out for the rest of the world, so, why not try it here, in our city...I'm not gonna get into that issue, but the result of that combination was: two skinny guys (Miguel the Mocker and Bruno the Funny Guy) in front of many intelligent people, not trying to explain the book, but clearing up how James Joyce wrote it, and many many parts of his life that most people don't even know. And it was ok for people to not have read the book yet, because nothing was revealing on the lecture.

It started pretty amazing, not letting people out of the group, everyone got the chance to express themselves, speak their minds, talk about other books and the things that most impress them about the way that writers compose their masterpieces.It was not all about Ulysses tough; they talked about his other books, such as Dubliners, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Stephen Hero and more.

Techniques were discussed too. The most incredible thing that happened, was, actually, how those two fellas explain to people that James Joyce piece is not pornographic, just controversial, in several ways. At the end of the lecture, we all got amazing bottoms of James Joyce, and also a free snack, a bologna sandwich, that tasted delicious. For those who have no health problems (like ulcer and diabetes, and other things) they had Irish Coffee. Irish Coffee, is, for general knowledge, a coffee spiced with wiskhy.

In my opinion, it all turned out to be great, and it was a hell of a lecture! We all just have to thank Miguel and Bruno, and Cultura Inglesa for bringing us the Bloomsday, that for sure will be celebrated next year (at least we hope so). Now, don't you wanna live in Ireland, and walk by those streets that one day, Leopold Bloom has walked? We all want that.

Amanda Pertinhes, who sat on the very first row, came up with a review of the event. Thanks Mini!!! And we would also like to thank all the fellas who showed up that Saturday and made it so great for all of us. Thank you a whole fat bunch!!!

Cultura Inglesa Goes Into Rock! (And Cobain Pulled a Jesus)

Don’t tell Courtney Love about PSICODRAMA, a band from our city. The black widow of rock would definitely flip the noodle and fall in love with Psicodrama lead singer “give a damn to Daniel Johns” Luam Gabriel. This skinny guy with hard glasses and his band; a crazy teddy bear drummer called Panacho and a tall and weird “I’m sorry I gotta pee” bassist, Luimar, yeas, a trio! performed fac-similes of Nirvana anthems last Wednesday at Cultura Inglesa.
Some say Cultura Inglesa is kind of dreary reserved school… Could you crack a better joke, please? Rock and hot wine warmed our souls up on that cold day and knock this (if it really exists) square image out! The band and the school environment get married very well, so much it happened that I heard some “I’m pregnant” screams by girls. Girls got pregnant and boys go crazy singing, altogether, along with Psicodrama that, beyond the teen spirit of grunge stuff, also shook our bones and hearts with beautiful songs from Weezer till The Stereophonics.
We keep rooting for other rock days! These days in a life make us feel forever young and still the kids are loving The Beatles and The Rolling Stones.


Thank you

Adrian Lincoln

This is the letter received during the aftermath of the two gigs Cultura held on May 30th and 31st. Adrian is a Writing Club member and our dear friend.

PONTA GROSSA AND THE COFFEE SHOPS

This might be too late, but someone should complain about this random problem that ended up happening because of the ignorance of people: coffee shops -- or the lack of them. Ponta Grossa (Roça) has some coffee shops (two that actually HAVE coffee). I'm saying this 'cause most of the coffee shops here have the "coffee" word on its name, but no coffee actually to sell.

Some people need places like that -- to write, think, talk with friends, but mainly, to drink a nice, warm and GREAT cup of coffee -- but unfortunatelly we don't have that here.

What we do have is: bad service, noise, bad coffee, no cables for the notebooks of the rich writers (they might be writing the next best-seller that you're going to read).

People don't like coffee. People don't like to read, write, and they can't keep their freaking mouths shut.

Once a really wise friend of mine told me that we only have (quote) "like... 12 nice soldiers in the world" -- maybe we really need more of those, 'cause someone gotta solve the complains that I'm making.

Once again, introducing the wiz kid Amanda Pertinhes, Conversation Club and Writing Club member. Let´s have coffee, dude!!!

7 REASONS WHY I LOVE JOHNNY DEPP...

1- Johnny Depp is talented.

2- He is a movie star.

3- He is funny.

4- He has two kids.

5- Johnny Depp is american, you know?

6- He is married.

7- He is forty three years old.

The list above was written by the multi-talented and cute Bruna E. Campos, our Yelllow Flash 9 years old student. Go Bruninha!!!

R U STILL IN 2 IT

Are you still into it? It´s hard to know if there´s any hope for anyone, in any kind of relationship. And it´s even harder to know if there´s something left after a post-rock song.

Mogway (one of the most influential bands from the second half of the 90s and from the post-rock moviment), has been showing te world how a single song can provoke an explosion of feelings on those who listen to them. "R U STILL IN 2 IT", from their first album "Young Team", has the guest singer Aidan Moffat from Arab Strap (his vocal are close enough to speaking) and a banal lyric.

When the guitar starts, forming a circle with sad repeating notes, the melancholy takes me, I have the sensation that I miss something that happened a long time ago (somethig I really don´t know what it is), that I miss something that is happening right now ("We´d share a popcorn and we can go to the pub at night, we can get right tanked up and go home and have a fight") and that I miss something that won´t even happen, like I´m afraid to miss something in the future. The story itself isn´t terribly significant. There are no names, few details. For me the song is not about the end of a relationship with shame, hurt, love, anger or hope. I think that death is the only certainty in the song, it´s a goodbye song, where someone is dying, and this person is just missing his/her life, and also missing the one this person loves ("I will now leave here but don´t follow me / I will leave you and I will miss you"). As far as I´m concerned, this song comes down to one single feeling: DEATH, and it´s too late to do a damn thing about it. Maybe, this song (like so many other from Mogwai) says more about me than I can imagine.

For two more minutes the piano plays. It´s over. It ends like: gimme a razor I just wanna finish this shoot once and for all. Love will tear us apart, always.

We are now having these short essays on favorite songs, inspired by Nick Hornby´s "SONGBOOK". The piece above was written by the "you see, the cells of my eyes are dead" Maria Fernanda Rodrigues, PET 1 student.

The Human Way of Life

Human life is a Pandora’s Box. There were inside of it a lot of good and bad things, like the origins of well and evil in that box, which gives freedom to both, spreading it around the world. At the same moment, we got the benefits and the impairments, becoming life in a double way street.
The earth was harmoniously peaceful, the men lived together, hunting and, sometimes, killing without fear of God’s judge. It happened because there was no sin, no evil in human heart. Nowadays, men continue to hunt, to kill, to make the same things that the ancestors from caves made. The difference is that the current society hunts its own men, it is a mutual hunting justified by fights based on the most terrible human character: the desire for power.
It is really a fact that the evolution brings many ways to improve life quality. The medicine is everyday getting progress in many areas. The fight against illness like Cancer and HIV is giving hope to the sufferers. Some ills that not long ago made a lot of hostages, for example tuberculosis, plagues, smallpox and many others are almost finished. Industry, computers, automobiles, airplanes, all technology brings comfort to people. But comfort brings separations. The life time is increasing day by day, but everyday everybody is standing far from friends, other people and their own family, sometimes, it is no more than a screen paper on your office computer screen. The thirst to money, to get power, is spending all resources of natural human life.
Would you ask yourself now: why does my computer influences my family life? What did I do to turn the world in a lost land, which has money as its God, and everything that everybody does is with the final aim to get more and more power?
Maybe you did nothing.Which is the problem. Doing nothing is the most dangerous thing that we can do. Opening the newspaper, turning on the television, what is showed? Death, corruption, hedonism, talk shows exploring naked women, accelerating the growing of children, and a lot of human tragedies, all that you can watch is rules being broken.
What rules? Are there rules today?
Yes, there are rules. I can rate the most important of those.
Beauty overall, it is the first. If you are a good looking person, grade a charge on job is easier. It is no important to be efficient, the truth is to be beauty. Having an influential godfather, and to be in the right places at the right moment is important to make your career reach the sky.
Being a woman, forgive the studies to advance your professional life. Be a fancy girl, sleep with your boss and ok, you will get ahead.
No, I am not skeptic. I am just looking at the social context, that beauty is overall. To men, beauty is as important as for women. Being handsome, you can sell more and your subordinate will see you with more respect.
However, the serious and efficient people cannot lose hope. Somewhere out there there is a boss that will look at your work. As far as I´m concerned, you cannot sell yourself and your values for a promotion. Sometime your proficiency will be the winner. Meanwhile, do your job and try to be happy, despite the human way of life.

This down-to-earth piece was written by our great friend Leandro Azevedo Thereza, PET2 student and Writing Club member.

If You Don’t Look At Me… How Can I See Myself ?

Walking, going out, even staying home we are always selling an image, or giving it for free. We don't have the permission to mean nothing. Nothing necessarily means something in our world that keeps itself as the, so mentioned by Plato, “world of appearances”.
We are symbols of many things, it depending on what we want to mean, what we mean and on our audience. Everyone has and is an audience and we are, most of the time, not just living but for sure, linking or not, or maybe role playing. Always! And since it is as good as it looks, we become what we show and what other people’s eyes say about us. Those are the real mirrors. We just survive for the reason that other people are thinking about our actions and it’s not just about gossiping stuff. It’s human to think about other people. Only around other people we are what we are. They are our limits, screaming every time we are not them; we are us, only us. Is the prettiest goal worthwhile without any audience? On these days, the answer is no. We just feel alive with a place in the world after having gone through other people’s judgment. “Hell is other people” Sartre said, but they are also our heaven, we say! We need them, we dress up for them, we tidy up our rooms for them, we paint our houses and we buy things to wear, to show, to be one of them, different, unique just like them, just like everybody is. So besides selling and giving our image, we buy it.
The tickets to a rock concert, for example, are the prices to be there, to have the chance to be seen there and what it leaves us is just the waiting for anyone who wants buy our images, otherwise we might go out for hunting. And whereas we are always in that kind of place, our outlook starts being known by the other visitors and if we miss it for one night our absences are felt. Even staying home, we are selling ourselves! On the streets we are recognized by the clothes we wear, by our hairdo. That’s the first, and a lot of times the main, impression. We are like dolls of ourselves. We are always making up our faces, our way, our speech.
It’s a hard work to be authentic in our world of appearances; it’s hard to say something new but we are just like this. And this is our worst or best, without the slightest doubt, the only hope to feel like a real thing, even with an everlasting gaze over us.

This fantastic piece was written by the outstanding Adrian Lincoln, our Writing Club member and dear friend.

THE REASON WHY

Once upon a time (probably around 1897) there was a little boy called Adolf Hitler. You know, the dude who killed 6 million people - which by the way, it´s not much, coz Nicolau 2 killed much more, but anyways... His dad was a bit of a drunk, and his mom had this little jewish "friend", who was always buying Adolf (or Adolfinho) candies, but under one condition: that he would go to the farest place to get it. So while Adolfinho was at a candyshop across the city, the jewish fella, that we are going to Trebônio (coz I want to), would have sexual intercourse with Adolfinho´s mom.

The problem in this pic was that Adolf, obviously, couldn´t even begin to imagine that that kinda stuff was actually going on, naive he was.

And one day, he decided no to go the candyshop, he decided to stick around, and what he saw was blinding, if you may.

But he really loved his mother, so what he did was that he decided to transfer all the anger he would feel towards her to the jewish fella Trebônio.

The rest is, as we all know, history.

And now you know why the heck he hated jewish people that bad. I would too.

This elucidating piece was written by the wiz kid of the hour, Amanda Pertinhes, Conversation Class student and Writing Club member.

The Ultimate Guide on How to Become an Ecosexual

-You hafta be social and environmentally conscious;

You hafta protect the animals: whales, chickens, cows, monkeys, elephants, don’t eat and try to keep people from eating them;

You hafta be an ethical-eater crap and avoid all kinds of meat and animal related food such as dairy, and then you start to avoid wearing and buying organic items. So then you can consider yourself a hardcore die-hard vegan;

You hafta drive a hybrid car, if you can afford one;

You hafta exchange tofu recipes and look for “sexy-conservationists” people on the internet;

You hafta avoid going to circus, cuz they have animals. Or go there just to protest.
And of course, you have to protest. Annoy the society against everything. These things that keep you awake all night long such as cows and chickens being brutally murdered in millions everyday;

You have to avoid drugs and sympathize with yoga and meditation baloney;

You hafta to recycle stuff;

You hafta be that alternative kind of person, with cool hair, cool trainers, yada-yada;

You hafta be cool, cool and smug;

You hafta be a nice person with everybody;

You hafta wear unusual kinds of piercing in unexpected places, such as broader-piercing;

You hafta smell your own farts cause you’re better than everyone else and you think they actually smell kinda good;

You hafta think about living in a cave for some years, or at least you should;

You hafta belong to the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement, a group of people dedicated to phasing out the human race in the interest of the health of the Earth.

This hilarious piece was written by the great Luam Gabriel, a writing club member, conversation pal and great duderino.

THE WORST FRIEND IN THE WORLD IS SOMEONE WHO ...

IS ALWAYS AFTER MONEY

Johnny is so kind. He tries to borrow money from me even when we run into each other at funerals.


DOESN´T RESPECT YOUR SPACE

Claudia really understands the definition of the word space. She keeps asking if Thiago kisses in a good way.


IS ALWAYS IN TROUBLE

Raphaela is the kind of friend who´s permanently in trouble. When I try to tell her about my problems she says I don´t have any and I should stop making a big deal out of minor things.


HAS A WEIRD HAIRDO

Sometimes I lose the keys of my house in Leandro´s hair.


DOESN´T SHOWER

Sandro is such a good company. You always know he´s coming over. The stink of rotten meat announces him.


DOESN´T LISTEN TO YOU

Lucia follows my advices. But only after listening to 100 people who tell her exactly the same thing I did, but in a different way. And then she goes: "You know, Pedro´s so smart!"


IS A DOWNER

"Did I tell ya my kid´s already reading and writing?"
"Really? But how´s his handwriting?"


This one came from the always-willing-to-write Helena Flávia de Mello Pistune, FCE 2 student.

TIPS ON HOW TO DEAL WITH ...

1-Phony People

Phony people usually pretend they are your friends when in front of you and then, when you leave, they laugh at your face. Well, we must assume that, if they do that they are not your real friends. The best thing to do is actually to laugh at them too!

2-Vain People

Vain people are materialistic. They think the world is all about clothes and shoes and cars and parties... In general, they have nothing to say on real issues or social problems. Normally they hang in groups, cuz is too difficult to put up with them. But you shouldn´t worry about vain people. They in fact have no brain to plot something against you.

3-Liars

There are many sorts of liars. People that lie a little and people that lie a lot. This last group tends to believe in their own lies. In that case you have two options: you can either demoralize them in front of many people or you pretend you believe them and later, at home, laugh a lot.

4-Braggers

Braggers are disgusting. Ignore them.

5-Selfish People

Selfish people think the world turns around their navel. It´s quite difficult to get along with them. You should never argue with this kind of people because they will always overestimate what they think and won´t hear your point of view, so it´s a waste of time and energy. The best solution is to agree with everything they say. You know that you are smarter than all these people put together.

This killer piece was written by Sárila Ferronato. PET 2 student.

7 REASONS WHY INTELLECTUALS STILL BELIEVE AND LIVE IN BRAZIL

1- Because they know that if they don´t do that, no one will...
2- Because they know they are the only chance for the poor people, knowing that nobody likes poor folks, only intelectuals.
3- Because they want to be remembered as someone who has changed their country.
4- Because maybe they were rejected in some university abroad, and decided to show how relevant they actually are and that they can change their country from inside out. They really would prefer to do that from far away, but since they can´t ...
5- As most intelectuals know how to make money, they discovered Brazil is one of the best countries to live, since you really make the money here ...
5- Because they have found a reason to LOVE it...
6- Or cuz they found someone to love IN it...
7- Maybe they feel good among people in a country where almost everybody is completely stupid. Even not being their fault, that´s the way they where brought up ...

This dripping-irony piece was written by the amazing and always clever Natasha Bosch, Advanced Gold 1 student. Cheers, Nastácia!

7 REASONS TO WATCH SIMPSONS

1- It tells the story of a typical blue-collar american family.

2- It´s funny cuz it shows us regular things that happen with everybody but in a very hilarious way.

3- It has amazing characters. From the leading ones to the minor ones, they are all equally to crack up.

4- Stupidity ends up being funny almost all the time.

5- The stories always have some sort of reference to bands or movies.

6- It´s cutting edge.

7- It has been on for such a long time, they have almost 400 episodes, and let´s not forget this is cartoon.

This Hornby-like list was written by Laura, Valesca and Nader, Connexion One students.

11 REASONS TO LOVE SETH COHEN

1-He´s hot.

2-He´s hot and sarcastic.

3-He´s rich.

4-His hair is curly.

5-His favorite bands are Death Cab and Bright Eyes.

6-He wears cool T-shirts.

7-He has his own comic book / graphic novel.

8-He´s a geek, and geeks are the new hips.

9-He makes fun of tragic stuff, like his grandma´s death.

10-His bedroom is cool.

11-He´s romantic (a little gay, but again, he´s hot!).

This sugarcoated list was written by Amanda G. Pertinhes, a current Conversation Class student.

ARE MUSEUMS THAT IMPORTANT?

Nowadays the dominant lifestyle imposes us high velocity as for information, the workplace (lots of results in a small amount of time) and even during our lunch time. If we stop to think about it, we might wonder why we are becoming more and more slaves of our schedules and deadlines. Are we losing our identity? How has all this process started? And how were things before that? These are questions that History can perfectly answer for us. History can make us see clearly bad mistakes commited in the past whose influences may be felt to the present day, or great and revolutionary accomplishments that changed the course of countless people.

And how important are museums for us? They are not deposits of old things, but rather organized spaces where people can look around and reconstruct all the information they have learnt at school, and sometimes even touch some really ancient objetcs. As long as museums are well built and preserved, they keep historical facts and its protagonists alive in popular imagination, giving contribution when it comes down to understanding the path which brought us here the way we are, why economy works the way it does, the very origin of ancient costumes and many other relevant questions. Like laboratories are for science, museums are for history. And by the way, such fact reminds me that if it is easier to learn from a practical class, then visiting a museum might be a good idea for those who are willing to improve their comprehension of the world.

However, there are some problems to be dealt with. Museums demand specialized professionals, hence it is important to invest on their education first and foremost. Sometimes there are delicate processes of conservation of ancient objects, which need expensive chemical products, and that means museums have very high costs. While countries in general continue struggling against other problems (such as bad public health care, starvation, nature degradation, etc), most people will certainly believe that the idea of maintaining museums is just a huge waste of money.

To sum up, obviously there are some obstacles, but with good sense of administration, government and population can together solve several problems and still preserve their identity, understand their present world and keep history alive, at last.



This outstanding piece was written by Helena Flávia de Mello Pistune, FCE 2 student.

DIVORCED PARENTS

The number of divorces is increasing incredibly nowadays.But when some study is made about this topic, people don´t take seriously the point of view of children involved in the situation. Kids suffer maybe even more than adults, and they have to receive attention in order not to have problems in the future, either with their parents or with any relationship.

Having divorced parents is traumatic if you take into account shocking breakups. If children see their moms and dads having arguments and fights, it makes them think that all relationships can be like that. And kids always take the side of one of them, which harms the contact with the other parent. Everything that has been told about one of the parents by the other one can influence the child to think likewise.

On the other hand, with peaceful breakups, children suffer less. Of course they´ll have some problems with the new organization of the family, but they´ll get used and even like it. If you have two families, you get two gifts on your birthday, you have two possibilities to have fun, you can have more brothers and sisters, and if you need your folks, both of them will be there for you.

Concluding, having divorced parents can be a good thing. Nobody wants parents that are fighting all the time, but together not to traumatize the kids. A bad thing is to have parents who can´t get along well, divorced or not, and show it to their children. The best way to deal with this family issue is taking divorce as something that can be good to everybody, and giving your kids the love they deserve, no matter what.

Tuanny Honesko is the responsible for this great article over such a difficult issue to cover. She is a PET 1 student.

THE ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE

The worry about health and the search for different ways to have a healthy life are increasing day by day. Our society is getting more inquisitive and cleared up as for the medicines we take.

Traditional medicine is known for giving an efficient and fast way to solve our health problems, however sometimes it might debase or even bring up other little diseases as well.

The alternative medicine is coming over to give another option to those disappointed individuals who no longer trust the traditional one. It is much more concerned with illness´prevention and thus, it takes a bit longer to treat people who are already sick.

So far, as alternative medicine is having its efficiency proved, more and more people will get to adopt it. And they are completely right! We should avoid assailing our bodies with all these drugs we are accustomed to take for all our lives each and every time we catch a weak cold.

This piece was written by the soon-to-be a doctor, Raisa Baraus Olinek, PET 1 and 2 student.

WHAT WE´RE REALLY LIKE

Some time ago I watched a Simpson´s episode that took place in Brazil.

It told the story of a little poor boy from here asking for help so he could remodel his orphanage. Lisa Simpson sent some money to help him and after some time she received a videotape made by the boy inviting her to visit our country. This videotape had shown that with the money sent by Lisa the orphanage had bought a door and therefore, due to Lisa´s help the monkeys wouldn´t get to enter in their rooms anymore.

The Simpsons then decide to come down here and during the whole episode they show Brazil as the "samba, carnival and bikini" country.

I have never been to United States or Europe, but I think this is the view of the majority of north american and european people. A tropical world with monkeys walking down the streets, snakes under beds, giant spiders in the shoes, violence, all sorts of crimes, indians all over the place, samba and carnival all year long as they are used to teaching at their conventional schools: all kinds of foolish things that make Brazil the first country when we talk about stupid things.

But for real, we are a country without denomination. Brazil? Just a south american country where people are experts in soccer, enjoy the carnival and walk almost naked around the streets.

Yes, we have monkeys entering the houses, walking on the streets.

The truth is that we have a have a monkey as a president, we have monkey senators, monkey lawyers and monkey parlamentaries. Just like in the United States or Europe. The difference is the level of poverty and the grades of corruption.

We do have crime and violence. But which place doesn´t have it? Our violence and poverty is fruit of American and European domination. While we keep being the workforce of these dominator countries nobody will respect us.

The world can´t see our real wonders, except from Ronaldinho Gaúcho, Gisele or Pelé. And when they take a closer look at it they suddenly seem to continue what the Portuguese settlement started: the exploration of the colony.

A great example of that is the huge number of brazilian scientists who leave their home to go to U.S. or Europe. Our natural wealth is the target of several food and pharmacy industries around the world. Poison and medicine made by the indians are stolen by researchers from all over, walking into our forests undercovering themselves under the flags of ONGs.

Our "monkeys" are leaders in the production and research of renewable fuel(sugar-cane alcohol, biodiesel, etc.), soy bean production and research, the number one country in paper technology and so many other things the world is ok to use but refuses to give us credit for.

A big part of the world´s life is made in Brazil.

This overwhelming piece was written by Leandro Azevedo Thereza, PET 1 student.

BEHIND NEVERMIND

Almost sixteen years have passed and Nirvana is still remembered as a band that changed the "metal poser" era to bring a liberal and alternative style for new bands such as The White Stripes and The Strokes.

It was on September 24th, 1991 that Nevermind came in the stores to change the way people used to see music. The album was the first of the contract with Geffen Records and was produced by Butch Vig, an important name from the 90´s and mixed by Andy Wallace who had worked with metal bands like Slayer.

The song which opens Nevermind was the first single of the album. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was born out of a joke that Kathleen Hanna wrote about Kurt on a wall: "Kurt smells like teen spirit"(the name of a popular deodorant in U.S.). Until today people discuss about the meaning of the lyric, some say that it was about incomformity and teen revolution, while others prefer the story about the break up with Toby Vail. The video for the song achieved a nice spot in MTV and became a real fever arond the world.

The album had a lot of fast and violent songs like "Breed", an acoustic song, "Polly", and a lot of classic songs that became symbols of a new generation of rock fans. Tunes like "In Bloom", "Come As You Are" and "Lithium" are still listened with frequency and have become huge influence to a lot of great bands nowadays.

This change of thoughts about music created a new awareness in people around the world who are now more open to alternative songs and not imprisoned by pre-fabricated pop bands or metal bands that are more worried about breaking guitars than sounding like something original(and also have a horrible sense of fashion). The cool now is the simple, light and direct sound that Nirvana made. The modest and melodic sound now is more appreciated than the mess that the 80´s brought to the world.

And now, every day a new fan of Nirvana is born. Sometimes is a 13 year old boy who was not even alive when Nevermind came out to change rock context and rock thoughts. That is great!

This killer piece was written by Jenny Slompo, a PET 1 student.

Why, Oh Why?

So, yeah.
When I first thought over the idea of having a writing club here at Cultura my main aim was actually to help out our students with their writing issues (obviously, ace!)... I simply couldn´t cope with the fact that most of my students, and I ain´t talking over regular show up-what time is the class over-kinda students cuz I´m lucky enough to have some creative and talkative and funny bunch of people studying with me, so why the heck they always seemed to be so insecure about their writings, or even worst, so stucked when it came down to speaking their minds thru a piece of writing?
Most of these guys are really willing and open to learn more about how to write and show overwhelming curiosity about writers and stuff. Hence... The idea came to happen when I simply couldn´t help associating some writers to some students, as if their personalities could perfctly fit the style of some of my favorite writers and their characters. So, while they were working on their activity books during my classes I would fly miles away and start thinking:
Laura is such a Holden Caufield...
Conrado Locomia is such a John Hughes character... and so are Guilherme and Peter...
And Ro... Oh my God, Ro... She is such a Faulkner character... so witty...
And Fabricio... I´m sure he could be any character from any Jonathan Safran Foer book...
Vivi and Hy-Hy just came out of a Dorothy Parker short story, and Natasha and Sophia are as elegant as Zadie Smith, and Maria Ligia has the experience of a Heminghway and so has Wilma...
Tuh could be a character from Vendela Vida as well as Maria Fernanda, or Mayara...
Juliano is more of a Jonathan Franzen type, alongside with Mauricio...
Mary sounds like a Hornby kind, and so does Raisa and Vanessa and Helô...
This could be such a huge list...
So, to sum up... If we get the chance to sit down for an hour and talk about writers and writing and come up with ideas for stories and ways to improve them... then I´m glad and I´m ok... cuz I believe in these folks...
I just hope they believe themselves.