The Cree Indian Prophecy

The Cree are one of the largest groups of Native Americans in North America. Cree tribes spanned over a broad territory, from the Rocky mountains all the way to the Atlantic Ocean. Men were hunters and fishermen, whereas women took care of their children, built their family's house, and gathered plants to eat and herbs to use for medicine. Nowadays, each Cree community lives on its own reservation. Both genders take part in storytelling, artwork, music, and religious festivals.
Click on this link to read more about the famous prophecy we just saw in class.

Still working on some barriers to be removed! Art may be another powerful tool to free ourselves

Poses (2011), a living by Yolanda Domínguez, visual artist and performer

“Poses” is a direct criticism of the absurd and artificial world of glamour and of fashion that magazines present. Specifically, the highly-distorted image of women that they transmit through models that do not represent real women and that avoid all those who are not within their restricted parameters.

These images are virtually the only feminine reference in the mass media and they have a great influence in both men and women when building our roles in terms of behavior and ways of thinking. 

Using these impossible  stances of the  fashion publishing houses as a symbol of how  grotesque and unreal this industry is, a group of real women transfer these poses to daily scenes: the queue of a museum, the supermarket or the bus stop, sparking off the reaction of the spectators (on the other hand, regular consumers of these images).

The aim: to make it clear how ridiculous, and at times harmful, it can be to follow these models that the world of glamour imposes on us.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Search the words related to Thanksgiving on this word search
Find out more about this big-time celebration in North America in wikipedia

Theater evening in Madrid: Would you like to join us?

Check out the proposal for a theater evening on Saturday December the 3rd: 

Saturday, December 3rd 5pm
Teatro Alcázar - C/Alcalá, 20- Madrid 
10 euros if we make a party of 20 people
Sign up at Conserjería!

An interview with pianist Keith Jarret

Listen to this interview with pianist Keith Jarrett and relax... The speakers speak slow, the interview is accompanied by music, and the questions I'm posing below shouldn't be too difficult for you to answer, so this exercise is meant to make listening comprehension not a stressful but a relaxing experience ;-)

1. On April 9th 2011, Jarrett presented the album he had been working on for two years. True or false?

2. What factors does the pianist mention as guiding his compositions?

3. What does the pianist mean by having "an out-of-the-body experience"?

4. What's the disadvantage of playing solo, according to Jarrett?

5. The story Jarrett is telling in his last album is the story of his divorce. True or false?

6. Having played for so many years makes it easier for the pianist to perform in front of an audience. True or false?

7. According to Jarrett, it was the atmosphere in Rio that determined the success of his concert. True or false?

Click on this link to read the transcript

How often are we actually wrong?

Can you think of the last time you thought you were wrong about something? Probably a while ago, right? We could all use watching this really stirring talk about how humans deal with feelings of being right or wrong. At the end of the day, if you think about it, it's not a big deal to be wrong once in a while, don't you think? Enjoy!

If you wanna see this talk with English subtitles on it, go directly to the TED webpage, search for the title "On being wrong" and select English at the bottom of the image.
Take a look at the Real English vocabulary and make sure you understand these expressions in context. You may wanna use a monolingual dictionary.