Skatalà is the best ska band from Catalonia, together with Dr. Calypso and Discípulos de Otilia. This year, they celebrate their 25 birthday with a mini tour of 10 concerts in Catalonia, the first of them in Girona and the last in Barcelona.
When Adrià, Albert, Oriol and me knew that, we decided to go to the concert, it was last March, in ‘La Mirona’ (Salt). We went by train at the afternoon, and we go to Salt by bus from center of Girona, in Salt we went to ‘Espai Gironès’ to have breakfast and to have dinner, then, we meet with one friend who bring us by car to the concert.
In the concert room, we meet more friends from l’Empordà and we played ‘futbolín’ while we were listening ‘The kinky coco’s’ but when skatalà started to play, we separated and I go to the first line alone, there, I enjoyed a lot the concert. At the finishing of the concert, we meet my friends and danced the last songs.
The concert was great and we were very tired, for this reason, we return to home with Adrià’s mother.
Now, you can see one video of the concert:
SKATALÀ IN CONCERT
THIS IS ENGLAND
This is England is a film that talks about the starting of skinhead movement, in 80’s. The main character is a young boy, who is 12 years old and whose father died in Malvinas war.
He’s fat and not popular, and he feels bad with himself because he has not friends, but this situation changes when he meet a group of boys that helps him and give him confidence. These people wear military boots, Harrington jackets, black hat and hair shaven; they look after him and integrate him in the group.
Their ideology is not racist, so one member of the group is black, but they have a friend who has been in prison and has a nationalist and fascist ideology and wants to enter in politics. Some of the members of the group follow him, including the youngest boy. During days they come to different political meetings, but it finished when their friend wants that he join with him to start a racist movement, some of them back down and it caused a big discussion that finished with some deaths.
I like a lot this film because reflects the starting of an extended movement and the different ideologies of skinheads.
MONEY vs QUARRY
During this season, we have seen to ways to win: by the money or by the quarry, represented by R.Madrid and F.C. Barcelona, both ways are practical but only one will catch the glory.
On the one hand, last summer, Madrid has wasted a lot of money to sign the best players in the world, like CR9, Kaka’ or Benzema. These players are so good footballers and help his team with a lot of goals and with his qualities, but their ego causes some problems in the team and make the team worse. Although the quality of his players make that the team win a lot of matches and can be competitive.
On the other hand, Barcelona has not wasted too much money but has formed his young players, so players like Busquets, Bojan, Pedro, Messi, Xavi or Piqué haven’t been bought, they haven’t been formed. The feelings of this players about his team make that they play so well and they win a lot of matches too.
So, we have two winning teams by different ways. In my opinion, win with bought players has not merit because it causes that the richer club is the best club, and I think that the best club has to be the club that has formed the best players. For this reason, I would like that all the teams follow the way of life of Athletic Bilbao, that only play with players formed in the club.
POLITICS IN SPAIN
In our times, when there is an economical crisis, it’s too difficult for the voters to design the person who can solve the situation, moreover, in a lot of countries there are only two great political parties so, the power is distributed by only two people.
Now, the president Zapatero is not capable to solve the situation, but the other candidate is neither capable to solve the problem, this duality of power causes that people don’t show interest in politics and that the confidence in politicians is too low.
For this reason, I think that it’s important that people show interest in politics and say their opinion because it’s the base of the democracy. Democracy is not decide between two persons one time in 4 years.
VIOLENCE IN FOOTBALL
In this entry I want to talk about violence in football because it’s a real problem that affects all the football clubs. The most important violent groups in Spanish league are Ultras sur and Boixos nois, hooligans of Real Madrid and F.C.Barcelona, but there are more violent groups like Biris, Frente Atlético, Brigadas Blanquiazules and Ciareiros.
The organized violent groups started in England in 80’, and since the uefa champions league final of 1985 in Heisel stadium (Belgium) this phenomenon didn’t extended to the world.
This groups are formed by skin head people who have a radical ideology so a lot of this groups are identified whit fascist groups. By the other hand, there are some violent groups identified with anti fascist groups, the most important of them are Biris (Sevilla), Ciareiros (Deportivo) and the hooligans from Marseille. Another important feature of this groups is that all of them are nationalist.
We can find one example of this violence in catalan derby in Lluís Companys stadium when boixos nois started to destroy the stadium and light flares.
Crisis in Greece
The world is in a very important crisis of the economy, this crisis was caused by the speculation of the banks and of the people. It started in U.S.A in 2008, and it arrived to quickly to Europe.
Mediterranian countries are the most affected by this crisis, our country is in a very difficult situation with a lot of bussiness closing and a lot of families that can't pay all of his debts. The worst situation is in Greece, where the people is manifesting against the government because of his politics.
I think that the things are did bad since the starting of the construction and the speculation, because the people pay too much for a house, the construction bussiness rise the prizes and the people start their mortgaiges but they can't pay it, it causes that people haven't any house and bussiness haven't money from the people.
In conclusion, the greed of the bussiness men and the ignorance of a great part of the population have cause the crisis.
In this image you can see a lot of people manifesting against government:
Rivaldo
In this entry I want to talk about one of my favourites players when I was young. Rivaldo is a brasilian player that camed from Deportivo de La Coruña to Barcelona at the summer of 1997, since I were in his first mathc, he becamed my favourite player.
His best feature is the shoot, he can shoot from every where of the stadium and he can score a goal, another important feature is that he can dribble every player.
He won the league and the national cup with Barcelona and the World cup ’02 scoring 6 goals in 7 matches, individually, he was the best player of the world in 1999, thing that causes that Milan sign him in 2002. In this moment, Rivaldo started to fall and to be injured a lot of matches.
Now, Rivaldo is playing for one of the bests teams of Asia, Budyoksport, in Uzbekinstan, with one of his best friends in the football world: Luis Felipe Scolari.
Althought he is not in the best level of football, he’s still playing as a children, and being the most important player of his team.
Before of finish this text, I want to talk about the best moment of Rivaldo in Barcelona, it was when he scored a had trick against Valencia in the last match of the season, scoring a goal at the last second doing an acrobatic moviment.You can see the goals of this mathc in this video:
Castelló d'Empúries
In this text I want to write about my village, Castelló d'Empúries, that`s a very historical village with a urbanization where there are a lot of tourists in the summer.
First, I will talk about the history of my town: Historically, Castelló was the most important village of the north east of Catalonia, but during the times, the village was losing importance against Figueres, that now is the capital of 'l'Alt Empordà'. The most important moment of the history when Castelló lose the great part of his importance were when Castelló dismissed the possibility to have the train, it caused that Figueres was the city of the north east with the best train station.
Second, I would like to explain a little bit the most important buildings of the village. The most important is the 'Basilica de Sta. Maria', that is the second most important church in Girona; another important building is 'El rentador' that is near our High School and was very popular for the people of the village because it was where our families camed to clean the clothes; another building that I want to explain is 'La farinera', a old factory where there worked a lot of people from Castello, it's at the end of 'el rec del molí' and now is converted in a museum.
Finally, I want to talk about the most important urbanization, Empuriabrava. The most popular feature of this zone is that there are a lot of watercourses, and the tourist can travel by them. Another important feature of Empuriabrava is the tower, built at the starting of the project is one of the most popular images for the turism.
Extra podcast!
(toc toc)
- Come in, please
- Hello.
- Good morning, you’re Mr Sanz, aren’t you?
- Yes, I’m coming to apply for the job of engineer.
- Right, please take a seat. I’m pleased that you could come. You said you’re interested in working in our company. First of all, how old are you?
- I’m twenty four.
- And what called your attention about this offer?
- Well, I came across an advertisement in the newspaper and a friend has said me.
- So, this means you have made experiences in this sort of job, have you?
- Not at all, but I have done the doctorate of my career so I had to do some employement practises.
- And why do you think would you enjoy being an engineer in our company?
- That’s an interesting question. Of course I want to work because I need some money to live, furthermore I finished the career with the best mark I could so I have a lot sort of hopes to do a good job contribuing the infraestructures of my country.
- These are good reasons, in fact. And do you think you would be able to cope with the French language?
- Yes, I suppose so. I’ve been studying French for four years, so I believe this wouldn’t be any problem.
- Ok, I think that is all. I’m going to look through your documents again and we will give you a call when we have the decision. If we take you on, you can start this summer.
- Thank you for everything. I look forward to hear from you again, and I would be really grateful if you gave me this opportunity.
- Just be optimistic, I think you have a good curriculum to work as engineer in our company, I think too you complain all the expectatives we have to contract an employer.
- Thanks again, and good bye.
- Good bye Mr Sanz.
Madrid and Catalan press
Since lasts months there are a 'war' between journalists from Madrid and journalists from Barcelona.
In Madrid, the press says that there is a conspiracy in the Spanish Federation with the objective that Barça win the league, it's because Joan Laporta voted for Ángel Maria Villar, the president of the Spanish Federation, and they think that Villar wants to make happy Laporta, with the intention of be the president another time.
By the other hand, in Barcelona the press wants to deny this information saying that press from Madrid only wants to unbalancing the club.
With this situation, I can conclude that spanish journalism only wants to make money, they are not worried if the information that they write in the newspaper is true or not. The only think that they can cause is conflict between catalan and spanish people.
In this video, you can see an example of this battle, an image of Pedro that has been retouched by Madrid press with the objective of say that Barça is helped by the Federation, I'm sorry for the bad definition of the video and for the sound, but I thing is a very good example.
MY NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS
When the new year starts all the people want to do something new to their lives, and this year 2010 I want to retake some things of my life, my more important objective to this year is to pass the selectivitat exam and go to Girona or Barcelona to study some career that can make me more worker and can give me a good future.
Second, my second goal of the new year is to enjoy all the moments of the year and to use it to do something funny and that get my more happiness. Finally, my third objective of this 2010 is to respect the others making their lives more comfortable and happy by the respect and the cooperation.
To finish this text I want to wish you a happy new year, full of great moments with the family and friends!
SKA
Ska is a kind of music created in 60’s by Rude Boys in Jamaica, Rude Boys wear smoking and a blac had, they were black people who wants to had the apparence of the rich people. This kind of music is like soul and reggae, but had more ritm.
During the times, this kind of music have been changed having more ritm and a lot of variances, you can see the difference comparing bands of the statrting of this ritm, that are very similar than reggae and soul with the bands that have bornt recently, that have a lot of changes of ritm and parts of punk or rock.
In Catalonia, the pioners of this music were Skatalà, Dr. Calypso or Discípulos de Otilia, that play a music more quit but there are songs more speeds, ska has resurged in the lasts times, with bands like Skalariak (Basque Country), Salida Nula (Madrid) or Deskarats (Catalonia).
In ska concerts there are a lot of rude boys, or red skins, that have the aparience of skinheads but they are not nazis, they are antinazis, they think that they are the original skinheads, appeared in U.K . in 80’s. They can be comunist, anarchist, nationalist,.. but they have a common objective: fight against nazis.
In conclusion, ska is the music of rude boys, that have becamed skinheads, and the music have changed to be more ritmic and more political letters.
You can see one of the best songs of Dr. Calypso, there's only music, not lyrics. PLAN 10!
BRAVEHEART
I saw the film Braveheart with David in english class. The film talks about a scottish men, whose wife was killed by english soldiers, since this moment, he wants to release the scottish country. He can herd a lot of scots who whit the same goal, and arrive to fight a difficult battle against the most strong country of the moment, England, and he can command their people to the win, but they wanted more and more and at the final he was deffeated by the english army. But William Wallace showed the way to deffense the freedoms.
This film, which was produced by Mel Gibson, it’s a film full of meaning, that show how a only one man can organize one country and how this country can fight against a stronger one. I think that the best part of the film is the battle that win the scottish people, the pride of the english soldiers, the tactics of scots… but in special the William Wallace’s speech, that can motivate a lot his soldiers and can convince the undecided scots, who wants to go to their houses and live all of their lifes under the english control. The principal idea of the speech is that this battle is the only one oportunity that this humble people has to get the freedom by a country (England) that submited the scotish people during centuries. This historical oportunity produce a special motivation that helps a lot in the moment of the battle.
I think that another important part of motivation is the face of William Wallace, whose idealized by the scots, painted like the tradicional people that lives in Scotland before they, the celtic people.
Now you can see the famous speech.
MY RESEARCH PROJECT
This history started last March, when our teacher asked to all of my partners about what we have thought about the topic of our project, I couldn’t answer their question and when I arrived to my house, I was searching in intertnet for a good topic for my ‘TDR’, I find the different national symbols of Catalonia, when I saw that, I decided to present this topic, it was accepted by a teacher who I didn’t know, he wanted to talk about the project whit me, and I started to search information to do the project.
When summer arrived, I met with my personal teacher and he said me that it was very possible that he left the school, because of that, I couldn’t do anything during the summer, but I enjoyed so much this two months.
But It was different when the school returns, I had to work a lot because we have to do the project for 15th of December, but I didn’t have personal teacher who helps me to do the ‘tdr’. All of that changed when I sent a e-mail to Francesc Vernet saying that I need a teacher, the next day, he met me my new personal teacher, who is helping me now to do the project. Next three weeks I will be working all the day to finish the project at time… I hope I can do that….
You will recive more information about my research project see you!
Football!
This season, I play for St. Peter football club because the team where I played the last 12 years didn’t have the minimum numbers of players.
I started the season in August and it was different than Esplais, it was more relaxed and not so demanding, we are a very good group of football players, the best of us is Bemba, who played last year with me in Esplais.
We started the league bad, we were 1-3 when only were 5 minutes to the final but the final result was 3-3, since last day we won all the matches that we have played, included the last against Cadaqués, when we were all the match shooting but the ball didn’t want to entry at the dep, and were the final where finishing, I could score the definitive goal, in this moment I felt so happy and all my partners were congratulating me.
Last weekend, wa played agains Base Roses, the first clasificated, all of us were very happy to can exceed them in the table, but we can’t because they won the match 1-3, we played so good but they were more efective than us. At the end of the match I was so angry, but life continue and I want to win the next match.
I hope that this year continue as the first months, because I am very happy to play this year in St. Peter.
In the photo:
Paco, 'Shin shan', Ramon Verés, Pau, Cesar, Guillem, Lamin, Bemba, Mankey, Lluís, 'Gins', Marc, Kevin, Mamadou seidu, Alex Vicente, Edu Valls, Noel Cordon, Aleix Font and David Marín
SKA-P CONCERT
Last 23 of October, I went to the ska-p concert with Roger, Adrià, Andreu and Adrià’s cousin. We left to Badalona at 3 pm, we met in my grandfather’s house and he carry us to Figueres, when we catched the train to Barcelona. When we have arrived to Barcelona, we walked to the underground, but we are a little bit confused and it was difficult to find the undeground that go to Badalona. When we have catched the undergound, we had 1 hour to the ‘Pavelló Olímpic de Balaona’, where the concert will be celebrated, because that, we have been walking for 25 minutes and we can arrive at the hour.
The concert started with another group, called ‘Depiedra’, and at 9 pm started the good concert, ska-p was starting the concert! They have been playing their best songs for 2 hours, when the concert was finishing, I decided to go alone in front of the stage, there I met Andreu, we dance the last song and go out of the people because we were very tired, while we were walking I didn’t find my wallet, I have found it while I was dancing.
When it finishes, we phone my father because we were tired and when he arrived we can sleep all the journey.
Now, you can see one song that ska-p played in the concert, I hope you like it!
MY OWN BLOG
The last year, I didn't have my own blog because it was shared with David Marín, and because that the last teacher that we had were very angry. This year, the teacher advises me that I had to make my own blog, and after of some problems, yes, I have my own blog, called guillemsanz19.blogspot.com.
This is the first entry of this term, and it's important to remember that it will be the blog and the portfolio, so all my writtings will be there. I think that it's better than last year because we can try how to do our work.
Before to finish my first entry, I want to write about me:
My name is Guillem Sanz, I'm 17 and I live in Castelló d'Empúries, but I play football in St.Pere, it's because the football in Castelló d-Empúries have failed last summer, in St. Pere I wear the number 19 in my t-shirt, the day of my birthday.
I hope that this year will be the last in the high school, so I also hope that it will be the last blog and portfolio that I will do there.