The fado is the Portuguese music par excellence. And I should add: it´s a feeling, a way of understanding life, a deeply felt expression of the inward voice of these people. If we try to find a synonym for the word “fado”, we will be talking about homesickness, nostalgia, melancholy, etc. But all of them are terms that don´t fit into the complexity of the original one.

The fado is displayed through the music by means of the melodies, the lyrics and, above all, the performances of the musicians and singers. The voice is usually feminine. We may search for the reason in the sociocultural context: womens’ situations in Portugal have been linked to the Land (the work in the fields) and the Sea (the loneliness generated by the emigrational phenomenon). And that voice has distinguished performers throughout time. Maybe Amalia Rodrigues is the major reference in this sense.

But, how has the fado evolved? Nowadays we can Read the rest of this article »

http://www.imagesco.com/ufo/index.html

Over the years many UFO sightings have reported magnetic and electromagnetic disturbances. The UFO Detector is designed to sense these disturbances and will signal their presence by flashing an LED and beeping.

I don´t dare to say that there´s people out there who would actually buy these UFO detectors for the sake of… well, detecting UFOs, but you never know. Anyway, from a nerdologist point of view I think they could be classified as gadgets, as they are small, expensive and, unless you live near Roswell, you don´t really need them (but still want to try them, eh…).

By the way, don´t miss the explanation of how they work. Since asking a local ET to fly nearby to try the device seems a little bit unpractical (lots of bureaucracy, mainly), at least they give several alternative ways to see that it works (whatever that means).

All in all, these UFO detectors, though expensive, are probably the best gift for those who want to believe (sing the soundtrack with me: nanananán-nanán-nan-nin-nin-nin-nin).

Have you ever wondered what a synthesizer and a percolator have in common?

In my opinion, the answer is that the better the filter, the better the result.

… ok, I guess that unless you have some knowledge on synthesizers you´ll be raising an eyebrow right now. At least my friend Carlos did so, and when I told him that a good synthesizer filter should Read the rest of this article »

My friend Covadonga sent me a very nice step-by-step guide to making this origami envelope, originally attributed to Frances Levangia. She writes, “I made these diagrams based on paper models because otherwise I would forget how to make it, so when I like something, since I have no idea of how to diagram, I do it in this way”. Thanks Covadonga!

While searching for information on the envelope, I came across this site, where you will find a very nice collection of letterfolds and envelopes diagrammed by John Cunliffe. This same model is included among them; for those who are learning how to read diagrams, it could be interesting to compare it with Covadonga´s instructions to see how the drawings translate themselves into foldings.

Related Article: Origami cd case

If you do something, do it.

Masculinity can be defined by two aspects: the cocktail adrenalin+ testosterone added to the liking for shooters.

Shooters, generally on a coin-op platform, were a dominant genre in the realm of early videogames. It´s easy to recall Galaxian, or Tempest, one of the first games to bring deepness to game mechanics. I would like to highlight one among them: Robotron 2084, the first game I ever knew that needed two joysticks to be used simultaneously, one for movement and the other for shooting.

Of course, the genre never died. People everywhere, especially asians as it seems, keep on devouring one shooter after another: Ikaruga, Bangai-O, Radiant Silvergun… Read the rest of this article »

http://kilroytrout.blogspot.com

The antialiasing is real-time and perfect (no really it is) while the textures use conformal mapping which means no stretching or mapping artifacts like you get with typical projective mapping.

Jeff Anderson has updated his blog with some new videos showing Groboto, the 3D organic art program, in action. It seems that the hopes I showed in my last article on the beta are being confirmed. The interface proves to be friendly and powerful; you can rotate the model effortlessly at any moment, and manipulating the seed (the little shape you start with) or the lighting is also very easy. Everything casts shadows over everything, and the textures have a crisp look due to the special kind of bump mapping used.

There are still many things about Groboto that remain a mystery: will it feature predefined shapes like the previous version? will it have a genetics lab? what will the export options be? When the beta testing is open I´ll be able to answer those questions. Until then, the expectations are getting pretty high

Related Article: Groboto 2.0 in the works

Related Article: Groboto-beta: new screens

Who is Paul Greengrass? He is the director of two films as different as excellent: the brutally real “Bloody Sunday” and the more popular “The Bourne Supremacy”. Our target today will be the second title I’ve mentioned, perhaps the best action film (in my opinion) since “Die Hard”.

Action movies usually have a bad press, due to the dreadful quality (it´s true) of some of these products. Many of them attempt on the audience’s intelligence: We are fed up of watching bad guys killing lots of people with great precision, only to become true idiots when it´s about killing the hero. “The Bourne Supremacy” fortunately respects our capacity of thinking.

When Greengrass was hired to take up again the character of CIA agent Jason Bourne, after the great reception obtained by “The Bourne Identity”, he found himself with some questions to Read the rest of this article »

This past Saturday I took the bus to Montreal, Quebec for the 4th annual BASSOON DAY. I got a chance to try out different bocals and instruments, as well as shop for bassoon accessories including everything from mandrels and awesome reed cases to bassoon pliers and several different types of cane. The day also included a free master class with Laurent Lefèvre (principal bassoonist of the Paris Opera) and the “Bassoon Extravaganza” concert which included the ensemble comprised of the bassoonists in attendance. I even got to have lunch with 8 other bassoonists! I have to say that the highlight of the day was trying out the mini bassoon (I would like one for my future children, please)!

This article has been contributed by Stephanie Briana Unverricht. Stephanie is currently studying music performance (Bassoon) at the University of Ottawa in Canada, and she´s also our editorial advisor, who proofreads the articles and corrects every mistake and typo with endless patience.

Some time ago my friends in the Origami Group showed me how to make a box model originally designed by Clemente Giusto. I found it interesting, especially since when folding it you have to use a “twisting” technique that afterwards, when the model is finished, allows you to open and close it without needing to make a second matching part.

The fact is that the flaps of paper on top of the box made it look kinda strange, as they were really big in comparison to the rest of the piece. Therefore, I started fiddling with it to see if I could Read the rest of this article »

Last Updated 01.07.06

If you have ever been to this site before, you most likely have seen the “cool lil´pic” to the left, in the sidebar. As the sentence said, the pictures there were… little, so clicking on them had no effect. Well, from now on not only can you click on the picture, but I encourage you to do so! Every week I´ll be adding a new flash game playable within the site, which can either be accesed from www.envelooponline.com/nan/games, or directly (and more conveniently, I believe) from said space in the sidebar.

This said, I thought on keeping the lil´ pictures along with the games´ pictures in the sidebar, but I thought I risked cluttering the area too much. Anyway, if you would like to see the little pics too, just let me now. I hope that you enjoy this new feature, brought you by nan! MwaHahahahaha!! (another step in the making of a media empire, Pinky!!)

Update 01.07.06 As part of the site´s latest (still ongoing) updates, I removed entirely the “little image” from the sidebar, since now games can be accessed from the main navigation menu. More important, I changed the way the games´pages are made (now they´re part of /nan and I can create them within wordpress), so it is much easier for me to add new games.

http://www.arcadeflyers.net/

a repository for arcade related promotional flyers that are used by the arcade industry to promote the sales of their games.

The product of a fusion between two already big flyer collections, the Arcade Flyer Archive is, since 1999, an evergrowing showcase of arcade flyers and a paradise for the video game enthusiast.

In wandering through the many images available (usually there are several flyers for a single videogame,) you will find amazing artworks covering the entire story of arcades from 1971 to almost yesterday (the database is constantly updated). From an aesthetical point of view this is enough to Read the rest of this article »

Nature does not do anything in vain.

The smoke and the Truth

When the lights went on a sepulchral silence filled the room. I thought that most of the audience had found it difficult to digest this wonderful but complex film, not suitable for the general public (better for journalists and such), shot in a glorious black and white as the story it tells is one of those stories which can only be recalled in black and white. Some of the audience ran away most likely to smoke as soon they could, since in “Good night, and good luck”, people smoke lots and with such class, especially the main character, Edward R. Munrow (David Strathairn). The smoke itself is actually another character, so good that it would have Read the rest of this article »

Hello everybody. This morning I was listening to the radio and heared the tune “Don’t cry for me Argentina”. Then I asked myself a question: Why do some people use the term “rock opera” when talking about some affected musicals created by Weber, Rice and company? Is it logical? I don´t think so.

In case you don´t agree with me, let’s bring up the first works of this genre. The Who’s “Tommy” represents the opening title of this rock style music, and it was followed by distinguished albums (“The Wall”, for example). “Cats” is not rock, but a mixture of pop and soft rock.

I have been searching for some current equivalent to those previous extraordinary conceptual rock pieces. It has to Read the rest of this article »