A look at the protests in Venezuela .

Simón Bolívar in the past said " to make the revolution in South America is like plowing the sea." Three centuries past, the same country where he was born implemented a new revolution , dubbed Bolivarian led by Hugo Frias Chaves who left to posterity ... a divided nation . The history of Venezuela is wrote in blood, iron and fire, as well as throughout Latin America, and this is more true than today. When I watched the news about the country that birth me, brothers fighting brothers, the constant attacks on civil liberty that leads students to protest in the streets of Caracas, young women being savagely beaten by the guards of the people, opposition leaders detainees accused of secessionism and grieving mothers marching in honor of the memory of their dead sons, I remember the words of the liberator and deeply regret every drop of blood spilled in favor of this utopia , it is possible after all the social and political equality in a nation driven by the power of black gold?

It is a musical recording of Adriana Calcanhotto.

Fortunately for the world there is Adriana with her velvet voice, her guitar and her delightfull words. She does not samba, does not break , does not scale, does not Jeer, does not punish and perhaps that is why " "já reparô?" she is one of the great female voices of Brazil. Her " microbe of samba " drifted for " microbe live " that carries the entire universe of Calcanhotto and the apparent simplicity of her melodies to the stage and we do not even notice the difference , this is perhaps her greatest strength , her serene and beautiful figure accompanied only by guitar, her songs and her unmistakable voice is as hypnotic in CD as live, melts even the most impenetrable soul drought of emotions. It is impossible to be indifferent. I chose this album perhaps because it is one of the least known, which does not imply is a smaller work, quite the contrary , I " live to smile " when I hear it and I am inspired by the small stories that she tells throughout this record work which is a tribute to samba Adriana style, classy , tasteful and " so chic" , as everything she does in her life, so accept this " invitation to samba " and "come and see!"

It is a novel written by Francisco Azevedo .

Palma's rice is one of those books that makes my mouth water, starting with the title and as you will find out soon by yourselfs as passing the pages, the hunger joins the desire of eating and you achieve the end full and happy with the outcome. The author may even be Brazilian , but the story he tells is very portuguese and has little or no surprises and this is not at all a derogatory statement, quite the contrary . Is is curious how Francisco Azevedo, with an unpretentious and dusted writing, traces the route of this emigrant family in a loving, fun and exciting way without being sappy and everything is based on a bag of rice! It's true. This novel is a worthy tribute to the women in his life, the author deftly captures the nature of these Portuguese women averse to large demonstrations of ostentation, their peculiar wisdom alleged in the complicity between mothers, daughters and sisters, their unconditional love for the family, their personal sacrifices and everything it entails and their innate discretion undervalued, but that does not mean at any moment that is a sign of weakness . I think there is no doubt about the fact that I enjoyed immensly this reading of "Palma's rice " and a kind advice read it with a full tummy. Have a delightful reading.

Luís Filipe Borges is one of the most familiar faces of the Portuguese television, he is one of the host of " five minutes to midnight ", but not only, he is also a screenwriter , writer and comedian. These are the various facets of this Azorean that make him one of the names to retain the national art scene .

Laughter is still the best medicine?
Luís Filipe Borges : I do not really like those phrases. I'm sure that laughter is one of the best palliative and beyond. It is the best way to face the most difficult and one of the best weapons time to reflect on them, telling the truth thru a laugh as people say.

We know that comedy is one of the areas that do not suffer much from the crisis, is that a fact because Portuguese need to laugh more .
LFB : Do not accept that afirmation, the comedy suffers from a crisis like any other area, for example, me and Antonio Raminhos have done more shows than ever, but we take chances. To come to Madeira we paid the plane tickets to go anywhere we do not have a cachet, we depend on the theater ticket and suffer like any other area suffers. When there is no money to pay a combined cachet to match, as it would be ideal, we have two options, either we stopped doing things, or risked and so we opted for the latter and in that sense a comedian suffers as any other person. In the more philosophical level the crisis has always more inspiring material, but there is a level of responsibility that increases exponentially because people enjoy themselves more easily when the problems of their life are not as dramatic. As a host in "five to midnight " I look for more light themes because I feel it would be irresponsible of me to be doing jokes about holidays, for example comparing the Portuguese culture with other countries and at the same the subtly message I convey ( to the viewers ) is that they cannot travel but I can, it would be something delicate these days . I think we have a noble social responsibility that is entertain people undoubtedly distract them from their plight for some time, but I do not believe in the comedy made of non sense we must distract people, but at the same time touching the wound. That's why I say that our responsibility as comedians, even increases with the crisis.

But media television exposure helps your career, although you have focused the inherent difficulties .
LFB : Oh yeah that helps. Television is a medium of extremely strong masses, to do a program like " five minutes to midnight " which is much appreciated, of course brings more work.

You focus the theme of the holiday , but outside the context of the crisis, as a comedian you have taboo subjects ?
LFB : There are taboo subjects. I think I do not have a theme, but there are limits , I'll give an example, if what happened four years ago in Madeira where died a lot of people if it happened yesterday I wanted to see what was the comedian who would make a joke in public about it, because most professionals are fond of saying that there are no limits to comedy, the only limit is the taste, or intelligence. Of course , there are ethical limits, I always saw things like that, there are timing issues and themes. In Portugal, began a subculture of black humor, or at least consider it so, I think the Portuguese black humor is miserable, Rui Sinel of Cortes is its peak , I never laugh at his jokes, because I think a comedian not practicing self -deprecation and who demand only the free shock is not someone interesting, the shock for shock it's easy, for this I came to a full theater lower my pants for sure that people will laugh.

It is a short film by Nuno Dias .

This is a film without lines. All the action takes place in an open environment, free of geographical references, may or may not be in the Alentejo, but that does not matter, what matters is to extend the idea of absolute loneliness, desolation and the sense of drift of the character, which makes the action even more exciting and interesting , the natures noises act as sound auxiliary in this noir short film whose premise is simple, " when she finds a dead man in the middle of nowhere, she decided to take his only possession ," and that is enough to understand perfectly the story, the way it was filmed is truly captivating, just noticed one catch, a small mistake , a spotlight that "chases " the character in the back as she walks by drifting thru the wasteland in the middle of the night. I really enjoyed the work of the young actress, Rita Martins, of her physicality , the expressions of her face that do not leave anyone indifferent, her performance was superb, totally convincing until the last second, making her earn the prize for best actress in " Los Angeles International Underground Film Festival" . The ending is unexpected for its raw brutality and the make up of the character is simply wonderful! Look at this " shadow " as a good example of Portuguese cinema.

Teresa and Helena Jané, are sisters and artists who bet on a brand that is not defined as a style, but as a concept that covers the various aspects of creative ceramics and beyond. It is above all a personal vision that are based on various influences that surround them and they carry it to their pieces.

What attracted you in ceramics?
Jané Helena : I think I was their plasticity and the many possibilities of the material itself . As the area was very familiar, our mother was a teacher of arts and fire crafts very early we learned to recognize great works of Portuguese ceramic artists, we watched our mother in these stages and it was indeed a very familiar area. Otherwise, our brother, already in 1998, also had a project connected to ceramics, tiles. I think that was many factors, knowing the market, what was done and was developed by the artisans and watching the whole process of creation of our mother, we decided to bet on something different.

What sets the THJané style?
HJ : It's not a style. I think we managed to build an identity that does not fit this idea , quite the contrary, when we started the project was a given, because we had different backgrounds, knowledge and broadened our professional activity we work in many cultural events, extra THJané, it help one of our major goals that was to diversify, never fit, or let us engage our creativity in a certain genre and is also a questions of motivation. This is perhaps one of the reasons that lead us to introduce few elements in a collection. We worked various materials and have a diverse portfolio ranging from painting, sculpture to ceramics. This was also another object that was not been loyal to a style, but I think we're building an identity. It is our paradigm .

One of your bets are the accessories, what inspires you to create the collections ?
HJ : The jewels are one of our most aspects related to fashion . The sources of inspiration are very different, particularly for the large collections we launched, the present and its consequences in our personal and professional lives. The nature, talks over coffee, an informal discussion between friends can serve to remind us of a certain accessory. I think that 's basically it . We have pieces that are purely decorative, but always tried to bring some history, some concept behind this same piece. At first when we moved in 2004 with the jewelry , the handles were in 2002, we were more inclined to nature, for more visual aspects of our daily lives, lately our source of inspiration is very connected to our experience, the day -to-day, the present, the crises, personal issues, the loss of loved ones, all this interferes very much so and makes us do much more conceptual collections, with more history than initially.

So how do you transpose all these ideas for ceramics ? I checked you use unusual materials in your pieces, like the string, there is a certain influence of Africa .
HJ : The question of the objects that surround us in our day- to-day, since we were girls, since ever, not just pass by ceramics. Are mixed with other works that came from Africa, that our parents brought from Angola, during or inspired by the stage that my mother was running as a teacher and also we are not from a wealthy family, because we did not have many resources were four children and our parents were both civil servants, there was never much money, it was always instilled in us trying to achieve our objectives to meet our needs, so we used to do great juggling, to invent things and at the same time being very practical people, we ended up bringing all this to our project . We are ceramist yes, and we are in an era that we liked , with brutal national creativity and beyond, to stick us in the shelf of ceramics and have a certain bias to any material, I think that this will not help make us different and bring innovation to the market. The mix of materials is indeed important, its organic is something that concerns us, we understand that there are certain materials that do better with ceramics, more land, which has more to do with what we do, so we opted for fabrics, yarns, some of them we make, others acquired, but always give a different touch, embroider, always bring innovation to the piece , as was the case of rubber, the " Fisgay " where everyone was all in doubt if it would be a necklace or an object. I joke because in the CCB ( Centro Cultural de Belém ) was exposed as being a jewel and there was a question of interpretation by the tenant and the management , but I think that there should be that concern. Also because a ceramic jewelry is limiting, we always need support to make toughest the pieces, more wearable collection and we believe it is necessary to apply different kind of materials there .

A fourth race of horses in Portugal was officially recognized .

The Pony of the Terceira was finally recognized as an indigenous breed. Gone are 14 years of field work carried out by the scientists at the Biotechnology Center of the Azores, Artur Machado, who led the whole process, taking the official request itself been done for about two years, to the General Directorate of Food and Veterinary of Breed of Indigenous Equines. Initially a survey was made of the animals on the island, after a group that corresponded to the typical features of the Pony of Terceira was chosen before recognition being asked there was an increase of animals selected.
Currently there are 118 specimens according to the census of the researcher, in the University of the Azores are only 54 and six were exported to the continent as an attempt to disclose the race.
What distinguishes the Pony of the Terceira as a breed is the fact that morphologically resembles a horse, but has the size of a pony, which makes it ideal for teaching riding horse in young people, although it is always used the populations of the island of Terceira to transport supplies and people and used inthe past for farming .

Is a musical project, led by Paulo Gouveia , which is a fusion between jazz , electronic music and the repercussions . A unique and unusual experience that results from ongoing improvised dialogue between musicians and despite the audience's applause it ended , left the "best of 2014 " to listen and be amazed .

When eletrustic arise ?
Paulo Gouveia : In June 2013, was a proposal a friend of ours Paulo Lima , from the freshmoods , they asked us to create something within the jazz improvisation , which is an area me and João Correia, the trumpeter , we are more connected. We wanted to do something different, outside the usual and tried to bring electronic music to improvisation, or vice versa , depends on how you look at it. What happened was some concerts, a trio with João on the trumpet and Juan Pestana across the keys,
the digital area, samplying light and other tools. For me, I'm a drummer , I tried to look for some different sounds far appart from the instruments I use. We tried to meet electronic music , with the concept of jazz improvisation . The project eventually gain a larger view than Portugal and end it not happenning, because Juan will leave the country and will play out for a few years , then this will be our last concert . By the end of the month we will have available our album, which will be called "the best of 2014 ."

It is the first EP that throw ?
PG: Yes.

But how did the musical selection if it is done on the basis of improvisation ? Record every concert ?
PG : Yeah, we recorded improvisation sessions and chose certain tracks to compilled on a record , if that's what you might call it.

What you have to take into consideration to select certain musical moments , what the others had not ?
PG : Improvisation as any kind of dialogue have happiest heights, others less , although we function under some patterns that are programmed and tried always select an environment where we noticed that things worked better, and this process is still ongoing . But it is a very exciting project in that sense, work on improvisation in different environments, to which jazz musicians are not use to, such as house music , drummer bass, and even other languages with the same root, but have another reputation nowadays. People are use to listen Dj's , doing their work and think what transpired in this project was to fascinate viewers in that sense, seeing how things are played, in which the sounds are not all adulterated. This has also been a fascination for me, searching for sounds of other universes .

A revisited trip to Delft because of a man with an obsession .

When I visited the Netherlands one of my favorite stops was Delft, for the city , but especially to visit the places where the painter Vermeer lived and I even went to the small local museum and had time to sight the facade of the house where he painted some of his most famous masterpieces . Not to mention the famosso Rijskmuseum where I was delighted for hours with the large pictorial works of the Dutch masters, him included.

And for those who do not know , Johannes Vermeer has been the subject of heated academic and artistic discussions over the years because of the almost inexplicable and mysterious hyperrealism of his paintings. The question many ask is how did Vermeer to achieved that kind of perfection in the seventeenth century ? Philip Steadman professor of architecture and the artist David Hockney argued that the accuracy of some of the details of his paintings stemmed from some sort of camera obscura, or large optical equipment that allowed him access to the smallest details in order to create some of his famous domestic scenes, yet were only theories until recently .

Interestingly, a few days ago I came across an insightful and curious interview abput a documentary called " Tim's Vermeer" , about an American, Tim Jenison , inventor and entrepreneur driven by a passion for the works of the Dutch artist, coupled with his natural curiosity and obsessive persistence he discovered the answer to the unusual method of Vermeer : a lens and a small angle mirros, that is, the lens focuses the scene intended to be painted, but eventually the reflection is inversed, upside Down, then a small mirror near the face of the artist flips back the image with the desired accuracy . Eureka ! And in hindsight did we really needed to known how? Does this discovery somehow takes the away the merit of the artist ? It is up to each of us to answer this question as it feels like it, to me, the simple answer is no! When we looked for any masterpiece of painting, regardless of the author , we were fascinated by the almost supernatural beauty of the canvas, some of the paintings almost touch the divine, at least in the eyes of a mere mortal, as is my case.

Diana Coelho is a young jewelry designer who was born in Lisbon , moved to England when was 21, where completed a Master of Arts in the London Metropolitan University . Founded her brand in 2010 , a funky design concept of urban contemporary jewelery and still she continues to develop new concepts . Currently resides in India where she teaches in a school of design .

Wish you'd talk me out of your career , how is that a Lisbon inhabitant takes the course in London and ends in India ?
Diana  Coelho : It's true I lived in Lisbon , I was in junior high in the art grouping , since I always had a taste for small crafts and thought this would be my career path . I ended up opting for architecture , but did not finished, attended classes for only two years , because at the time had a different idea of the course , after all it was very technical and I thought I did not want to be an architect for the future . I decided to venture into jewelery , I ended up doing technical training in working with gold and silver. London appears later, still got to enroll me in school in Portugal , but my father suggested me to take the course in this England while learning English. I took it and went for the adventure was a total change in my life , I was used to my comfort zone and London is a completely different world . When I finished the course I returned to Lisbon , because of the family longing and worked as a jewelry designer for four years, doing my own pieces and created for several Portuguese companies . The crisis ended up changing my plans a bit and thought it was worth continuing to grow professionally outside Portugal . Always bet in international environments and this opportunity arose in India . I am working for a private corporation in Singapore , which has design schools in Asia .

But just teach ?                                                                                                                                                                                                 DC: I teach design and jewelery and in the technical side teach also students to work metal or other materials , I've been here for one year and one month and has been very good .

How has that experience been so far?
DC:It's been a big challenge that has gone well , the principle was a certain fear for being such a different culture and found some obstacles, there is a lot of chaos, is a country with many people , the food is different , but it's an adventure . I like it, so has been a very good in personal and professional growth , it is enriching to be in such disparate culture, I think everyone should come to India . Even those who say they would never come to this country, if only to learn to appreciate what we have , we're so lucky compared to the Indians, here the contrast is very large , they are very poor and do it all with a lightness in life.

In terms of jewelery itself , you still create collections ?
DC: Of course my time is more limited , due to classes. In terms of my personal work I do not say it was cast aside, I've always lived of my own brand while combined with other projects . In terms of my jewelry, since I came to India I have had many ideas that never would have in Portugal, even in terms of materials . So I do not see it as something that hurt me , but as a complement what I am as a designer , be in contact with students is not only to teach , but also to accept their ideas and visions , even if they have less experience. Indian jewelery is very important in cultural terms, mostly for marriages . But also in the way they see life , are the largest consumers of gold in the world . My personal vision of jewelery turns out to be very different and it turns out to add another perspective that would not have before. In Europe it is more a design concept , the jewels are more contemporary . Here's more symbolic rituals connected with the family, to give a bride gold jewelry is almost a dowry and all that inspires me , gives ideas and turns out to be an asset to what I am as a designer .