GEORGE ORWELL: HOMAGE TO ETHICS IN JOURNALISM

George Orwell

In a moment of lies, manipulations and false truths is very interesting to reread one of the most brilliant writers and journalists of the last century: George Orwell. 

Orwell is the creator of two brilliant works: Homage to Catalonia and Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic born in Motihari, Bihar, in British India.. His work is marked by lucid prose, awareness of social injustice, opposition to totalitarianism, and outspoken support of democratic socialism.

More information: Brain Pickings

Orwell wrote literary criticism, poetry, fiction, and polemical journalism. He is best known for the allegorical novella Animal Farm (1945) and the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949).

Homage to Catalonia Cover

His non-fiction works, including The Road to Wigan Pier (1937), documenting his experience of working class life in the north of England, and Homage to Catalonia (1938), an account of his experiences in the Spanish Civil War, are widely acclaimed, as are his essays on politics, literature, language, and culture. Orwell's work continues to influence popular and political culture, and the term Orwellian, descriptive of totalitarian or authoritarian social practices, has entered the language together with many of his neologisms, including Big Brother, Thought Police, Room 101, memory hole, newspeak, doublethink, proles, unperson, and thoughtcrime.

Homage to Catalonia is George Orwell's personal account of his experiences and observations in the Spanish Civil War. The first edition was published in the United Kingdom in 1938. The book was not published in the United States until February 1952, when it appeared with an influential preface by Lionel Trilling. The only translation published in Orwell's lifetime was into Italian, in December 1948. A French translation by Yvonne Davet, with whom Orwell corresponded, commenting on her translation and providing explanatory notes, in 1938–1939, was not published until five years after Orwell's death.

Download Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell

Big Brother is a fictional character and symbol in George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. He is ostensibly the leader of Oceania, a totalitarian state wherein the ruling Party wields total power for its own sake over the inhabitants.

Nineteen Eighty-Four Cover

In the society that Orwell describes, every citizen is under constant surveillance by the authorities, mainly by telescreens, with the exception of the Proles. 

The people are constantly reminded of this by the slogan Big Brother is watching you: a maxim which is ubiquitously on display. 

In modern culture the term Big Brother has entered the lexicon as a synonym for abuse of government power, particularly in respect to civil liberties, often specifically related to mass surveillance. 

Since the publication of Nineteen Eighty-Four the phrase Big Brother has come into common use to describe any prying or overly-controlling authority figure, and attempts by government to increase surveillance.

Download Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell

Early in life I have noticed that no event is ever correctly reported in a newspaper, but in Spain, for the first time, I saw newspaper reports which did not bear any relation to the facts, not even the relationship which is implied in an ordinary lie. 

I saw great battles reported where there had been no fighting, and complete silence where hundreds of men had been killed. 

I saw troops who had fought bravely denounced as cowards and traitors, and others who had never seen a shot fired hailed as the heroes of imaginary victories; and I saw newspapers in London retailing these lies and eager intellectuals building emotional superstructures over events that had never happened. 

I saw, in fact, history being written not in terms of what happened but of what ought to have happened according to various ‘party lines’.

George Orwell

A COLD WAR LINK: THE MOSCOW-WASHINGTON HOTLINE

John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev

The Moscow–Washington hotline, in Russian, Горячая линия Вашингтон -Москва, is a system that allows direct communication between the leaders of the United States and the Russian Federation. This hotline was established in 1963 and links the Pentagon with the Kremlin, historically, with Soviet Communist Party leadership across the square from the Kremlin itself. Although in popular culture known as the red telephone, the hotline was never a telephone line, and no red phones were used. The first implementation used Teletype equipment, and shifted to fax machines in 1986. 

Since 2008, the Moscow–Washington hotline is a secure computer link over which messages are exchanged by email.

More information: US. Department of State

Several people came up with the idea for a hotline. They included Harvard professor Thomas Schelling, who had worked on nuclear war policy for the Defense Department previously. Schelling credited the pop fiction novel Red Alert, the basis of the film Dr. Strangelove, with making governments more aware of the benefit of direct communication between the superpowers. 

The Moscow–Washington hotline

In addition, Parade magazine editor Jess Gorkin personally badgered 1960 presidential candidates John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon, and buttonholed the Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev during a U.S. visit to adopt the idea. 

During this period Gerard C. Smith, as head of the State Department Policy Planning Staff, proposed direct communication links between Moscow and Washington. Objections from others in the State Department, the U.S. military, and the Kremlin delayed introduction.

More information: Crypto Museum

The 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis made the hotline a priority. During the standoff, official diplomatic messages typically took six hours to deliver; unofficial channels, such as via television network correspondents, had to be used too as they were quicker.

The Moscow–Washington hotline

During the crisis, the United States took nearly twelve hours to receive and decode Nikita Khrushchev's 3,000-word initial settlement message, a dangerously long time. By the time Washington had drafted a reply, a tougher message from Moscow had been received, demanding that U.S. missiles be removed from Turkey. White House advisers thought faster communications could have averted the crisis, and resolved it quicker. The two countries signed the Hot Line Agreement in June 1963, the first time they formally took action to cut the risk of starting a nuclear war unintentionally.

More information: History.com

The first message transmitted over the hotline was on August 30, 1963. Washington sent Moscow the text: The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog's back 1234567890. This included all the Latin alphabet, as well as all Arabic numerals and the apostrophe, to test that the keyboard and printer were working correctly.

Today's difference between Russia and the United States is that in Russia everybody takes everybody else for a spy, and in the United States everybody takes everybody else for a criminal. 

Friedrich Durrenmatt

LOUIS MORITZ: THE ALSACIAN BEER IN BARCELONA

The Grandma in the Fàbrica Moritz Barcelona

Today, The Grandma has decided to have breakfast in The Barcelona Moritz Brewery where she spends lots of mornings reading, drinking some of the best beers and eating fantastic dishes.

Moritz is a brand of Catalan beer, with its headquarters in Ronda Sant Antoni in Barcelona. Unlike its crosstown rival Damm, Moritz markets itself as the only beer brand in the world whose labeling is entirely in the Catalan language. 

The company was founded in 1856 by an Alsatian immigrant, Louis Moritz Trautmann. After ceasing production in 1978 due to the energy crises, the brand was relaunched in 2004 by Trautmann's descendents.

More information: Moritz

Louis Moritz Trautmann, the company's founder, emigrated to Barcelona from Pfaffenhofen, Alsace, in 1851. By 1856, he was brewing his own beer, and three years later, he bought the brewery of Joan Maurer. 

Moritz Logo

Initially, Trautmann used Maurer's brewery, located in the Raval district of Barcelona, on the Carrer del Portal de Santa Madrona. 

By 1864, the company moved to a larger facility at the nearby Ronda de Sant Antoni, outside the city's walls, which eventually included the Cerveseria Moritz beer-hall. This factory was in use for a century and was closed in 1966 when production was moved to Parets del Vallès.

Louis Moritz died in 1920, and the company was passed on to his heirs, who named the business Fábrica de Cervezas Moritz, S.A.

Production was collectivized during the Spanish Civil War, leading to a drop in production. However, with the factory returned to the family by 1939, and increasing beer consumption in Spain, the company again prospered. 

More information: Via Empresa

In 1966, the company bought land for a new factory to meet growing demand, creating Cervezas de Barcelona, S.A. However, with the energy crises that emerged in the 1970s, the company was unable to avoid being dissolved in 1978.

The Grandma in the Fàbrica Moritz Barcelona

In 2004, the descendants of the Moritz family relaunched the brand with much success. The beer is now produced under license in the brewery La Zaragozana, in Saragossa (Aragon). The former factory building on the Ronda de Sant Antoni was renovated by Jean Nouvel, and now houses the company's offices, a beer museum, a small showcase brewery, and a tasting bar.

The Moritz brewery manufactures three beers:

-Moritz: A pale pilsner made with mineral water from the Font d'Or, pale malts, and Saaz hops.

-Moritz Epidor: Based on an earlier recipe from 1923, it was relaunched in 2009. A strong pale lager, with an alcohol level of 7.2º.

-Aigua de Moritz (Moritz Water): An alcohol-free version of Moritz.

In addition, the Fàbrica Moritz Barcelona, on the Ronda Sant Antoni, sells Moritz Fresca, unpasteurized beer brewed on the premises.

More information: @MoritzBarcelona

I've only been in love with a beer bottle and a mirror. 

Sid Vicious

TONYI POPPINS EXPLORES THE COSTA RICAN JUNGLE

Tonyi Poppins in La Cascada path, Costa Rica

Tonyi Poppins has visited Costa Rica, the amazing and wonderful Central American country, whose national natural parks are one of the most wonderful things around the planet, and whose people are charming, pleasant and unforgettable.

Costa Rica or the Republic of Costa Rica is a country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Ecuador to the south of Cocos Island. It has a population of around 4.9 million, in a land area of 51,060 square kilometers; over 300,000 live in the capital and largest city, San José with a population of an estimated 333,980 in 2015.

More information: Costa Rica

Costa Rica has been known for its stable democracy in a region that has had some instability and for its highly educated workforce, most of whom speak English.

Tonyi Poppins in the Costa Rican jungle

Other challenges facing the country in its attempts to improve the economy by increasing foreign investment include a poor infrastructure and a need to improve public sector efficiency.

Historians have classified the indigenous people of Costa Rica as belonging to the Intermediate Area, where the peripheries of the Mesoamerican and Andean native cultures overlapped. More recently, pre-Columbian Costa Rica has also been described as part of the Isthmo-Colombian Area.

The oldest evidence, stone tool making, of human occupation in Costa Rica is associated with the arrival of various groups of hunter-gatherers about 10,000 to 7,000 years BCE in the Turrialba Valley. The presence of Clovis culture type spearheads and arrows from South America opens the possibility that, in this area, two different cultures coexisted.

Agriculture became evident in the populations that lived in Costa Rica about 5,000 years ago. They mainly grew tubers and roots, like carrots. For the first and second millennia BCE there were already settled farming communities. These were small and scattered, although the transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture as the main livelihood in the territory is still unknown.

More information: Lonely Planet

Accounts differ as to whether the name la costa rica, Spanish for rich coast, was first applied by Christopher Columbus, who sailed to the eastern shores of Costa Rica during his final voyage in 1502, and reported the presence of vast quantities of gold jewelry among the natives, or by the conquistador Gil González Dávila, who landed on the west coast in 1522, met with the natives, and appropriated some of their gold.

Tonyi Poppins in her Costa Rican hut

Like the rest of Central America, Costa Rica never fought for independence from Spain. On September 15, 1821, after the final Spanish defeat in the Mexican War of Independence (1810–1821), the authorities in Guatemala declared the independence of all of Central America. That date is still celebrated as Independence Day in Costa Rica even though, technically, under the Spanish Constitution of 1812 that had been readopted in 1820, Nicaragua and Costa Rica had become an autonomous province with its capital in León.

Historically, Costa Rica has generally enjoyed greater peace and more consistent political stability compared with many of its fellow Latin American nations.

More information: Visit Costa Rica

Since the late 19th century, however, Costa Rica has experienced two significant periods of violence until its first democratic election under the new constitution in 1953. Since then, Costa Rica has held 14 presidential elections. The country is the region's most stable.

During the 41 years that have elapsed since Costa Rica abolished its army, our fundamental freedoms have never been threatened, 

nor do we know a shameful history of repression.

Óscar Arias

B. SPRINGSTEEN & M. DEL MAR BONET: WORLDS APART

Bruce Springsteen published Worlds Apart in 2002. The song was included in the album The Rising. 

Two years later, Maria del Mar Bonet adapted this song to Catalan language and published Mons apart in her album Amic, Amat, a work inspired in Ramon Llull, the Majorcan philosopher who talked about respect, peace and understanding between all cultures and religions in the 13th century.

More information: Quis est Lullus?

Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American singer known for his work with the E Street Band. 

Nicknamed The Boss, he is widely known for his brand of poetic lyrics, Americana, working class, sometimes political sentiments centered on his native New Jersey, his distinctive voice, and his lengthy and energetic stage performances, with concerts from the 1970s to the present decade running at up to four hours in length. 

His artistic endeavors reflect both his personal growth and the zeitgeist of the times.

I hold you in my arms, yeah that's when it starts
I seek faith in your kiss and comfort in your heart
I taste the seed upon your lips, lay my tongue upon your scars
But when I look into your eyes we stand worlds apart

Where the distant oceans sing and rise to the plain
In this dry and troubled country your beauty remains
Down from the mountain road where the highway rolls to dark
'Neath Allah's blessed rain we remain worlds apart

Sometimes the truth just ain't enough
Or is it too much in times like this
Let's throw the truth away we'll find it in this kiss
In your skin upon my skin in the beating of our hearts

May the living let us in before the dead tear us apart
We'll let blood build a bridge over mountains draped in stars
I'll meet you on the ridge between these worlds apart
We've got this moment now to live then it's all just dust and dark

Let's let love give what it gives
Let's let love give what it gives

More information: Bruce Springsteen

 

Maria del Mar Bonet i Verdaguer (born 1947 in Palma, Majorca) is a Balearic singer from the island of Majorca. Bonet studied ceramics in the school of arts, but eventually decided to dedicate herself to music. 

Maria del Mar Bonet i Verdaguer

She arrived in Barcelona in 1967, where she began to sing with the group Els Setze Jutges. 

She has published many folk music albums in Catalan, in spite of the ban on the Catalan language and its music during Francisco Franco's dictatorship. 

In 1985, as a result of her interest and research into North African music, she recorded Anells d’aigua with the Ensemble de Musique Traditionelle of Tunisia.

Jo no sé com has guardat la bellesa entre l'infern
ni com vas poder fugir de l'horror que t'ha esquinçat.
Quan et llepo les ferides veig al fons del teu esguard
el que no puc esborrar: que hem nascut en mons a part.

Més enllà dels oceans, més enllà del crit del mar
on la pluja té l'arrel beneïda per Al·là.
On la lluna cau dels estels sobre un món empolsegat
s'han trobat els nostres cors en un pont que hem aixecat.

En aquests temps que ens ha tocat no serveix la veritat
fem un temps pel nostre amor ple de vida entre la mort.
Acompanyen els estels el camí que hem inventat
el teu cor amb el meu cor per damunt dels mons a part.

Amb la sang i la foscor que hem après a tuejar
no tenim altre moment, no l'hem pogut triar.
La tristesa de la mort dels nostres mons separats
però que doni el nostre amor tot allò que pot donar.

More information: Maria del Mar Bonet

 If understanding followed no rule at all, there would be no good in the understanding nor in the matter understood, and to remain in ignorance would be the greatest good.

Ramon Llull

SEAN CONNERY: FROM FOUNTAINBRIDGE TO 007'S DR.NO

Sean Connery aka James Bond

Thomas Sean Connery (born 25 August 1930) is a retired Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards, one of them being a BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award, and three Golden Globes, including the Cecil B. DeMille Award and a Henrietta Award.

Connery was the first actor to portray the character James Bond in film, starring in seven Bond films between 1962 and 1983. In 1988, Connery won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in The Untouchables. His film career also includes such films as Marnie, The Name of the Rose, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, The Hunt for Red October, Finding Forrester, Highlander, Murder on the Orient Express, Dragonheart, and The Rock.

More information: The Official Website of Sir Sean Connery

Connery has been polled as The Greatest Living Scot and Scotland's Greatest Living National Treasure. In 1989, he was proclaimed Sexiest Man Alive by People magazine, and in 1999, at age 69, he was voted Sexiest Man of the Century. 

Sean Conney aka Guillem de Baskerville

Sean Connery was born in Fountainbridge, Edinburgh, Scotland on 25 August 1930. His mother, Euphemia McBain was a cleaning woman, and his father, Joseph Connery, was a factory worker and lorry driver. His paternal grandfather's parents emigrated to Scotland from Ireland in the mid-19th century. The remainder of his family was of Scottish descent, and his maternal great-grandparents were native Scottish Gaelic speakers from Fife, unusually, for a speaker of the language, and Uig on the Isle of Skye.

Looking to pick up some extra money, Connery helped out backstage at the King's Theatre in late 1951. Connery first met Michael Caine at a party during the production of South Pacific in 1954, and the two would later become close friends.

More information: Biography.com

Connery's breakthrough came in the role of British secret agent James Bond. He was reluctant to commit to a film series, but understood that if the films succeeded, his career would greatly benefit. 

Sean Conney aka Dr. Henry Jones

He played 007 in the first five Bond films: Dr. No (1962), From Russia with Love (1963), Goldfinger (1964), Thunderball (1965), and You Only Live Twice (1967), then appeared again as Bond in Diamonds Are Forever (1971) and Never Say Never Again (1983). All seven films were commercially successful. James Bond, as portrayed by Connery, was selected as the third-greatest hero in cinema history by the American Film Institute.

Following the successful European production The Name of the Rose (1986), for which he won a BAFTA award, Connery's interest in more commercial material was revived.

More information: The Official James Bond 007 Website

Connery is a member of the Scottish National Party (SNP), a centre-left political party campaigning for Scottish independence from the United Kingdom, and has supported the party financially and through personal appearances. 

To cultivate an English accent is already 

a departure away from what you are. 

Sean Connery

SANTS & TERRA D'ESCUDELLA: ENJOY THE TRADITION

Enjoying in Plaça Osca, Sants

Today, The Grandma is in Sants, a beautiful neighborhood in the southern part of Barcelona. She has received a wonderful visit when Laura Collins, Tonyi Poppins and Isa Doe have arrived to participate in Festa Major, the Sants Festival, and have dinner in Terra d'Escudella, one of the best restaurants of the Catalan city.

Sants is formerly an industrial town on the plain bordering Barcelona, known as Santa Maria de Sants, it belongs nowadays to the district of Sants-Montjuïc and is bordered by the districts of Eixample to the northeast, Les Corts to the northwest, and by the municipality of l'Hospitalet de Llobregat to the south.

Sants is a neighborhood with a clear identity because of its historical origins. It was the main core of an independent village until 1897 when it became part of Barcelona, the former municipality of Sants included most of the actual neighborhood of Sants-Montjuïc district. By then, Sants had a population of 19,105 inhabitants, and the neighbourhood had a strong industrial character, home to some of the most important manufacturers of textiles, such as Espanya Industrial and Vapor Vell.

More information: Sants-Montjuïc District

In the spring of 1883, the municipalities of Sants and Barcelona decided by mutual agreement to merge the two respective municipalities. One year later, the central government annulled the merger due to technical issues. The process was again put in motion the following year. 

Tonyi Poppins dancing with Toni Manero

City hall sent a request for aggregation to the Diputació Provincial de Barcelona, but this request was not fulfilled for more than two years. In March 1889, the Civil Government asked the Deputation to solve the case, which ultimately reflected the interests of the city. A commission presided by Rius i Taulet traveled to Madrid to help move along the case. However, once more, the Deputation took no action.

The main artery of the neighborhood is Carrer de Sants, popularly known as Carretera de Sants, which unites Plaça Espanya with the neighbouring municipality of L'Hospitalet de Llobregat. It is one of the most commercial streets in Barcelona. Among the places that stand out in Sants are the Barcelona Sants railway station, the major railway station in Barcelona, and the Parc de l'Espanya Industrial.

More information: Història de Barcelona (Catalan version)

The most famous feast is the Festa Major, which is celebrated yearly in honor of the patron saint, Bartholomew the Apostle. During the week-long feast, the traffic is cut off in several parts of the neighborhood, where multiple popular activities are organized outdoors, such as butifarrades, xocolatades -gatherings where people drink chocolate-, concerts, Sardanes, and Habaneres. The neighbors decorate the streets with allegorical themes. Another feast, the Festa Alternativa, is celebrated simultaneously with great success.

Enjoying Sants and Terra d'Escudella

Festa Major de Sants 2017 started on Saturday 19th August 2017. Many of the main activities are being place in Parc de l'Espanya Industrial and it's nice to walk around the 22 streets in the Sants Festival area which are decorated by residents in colourful themes.

Visitors can enjoy papier-mache giants and big heads -called gegants and capgrossos- on various events including the opening parade and at the giants ball. There are also a chance to see festive and impressive Catalan traditions like the correfoc firerun which usually starts at Plaça Osca for children and for aducts and there is usually a human castle building event at Plaça Bonet i Muixí. Sporting highlights of the Sants Festa Major are the bike race and the 2 kilometres run.

The Sants neighbourhood Festa Major festival finishes with a Piromusical fireworks and music display at Parc Espanya Industrial. 

Isa Doe, Laura Collins, Tonyi Poppins and The Grandma have enjoyed a wondeful afternoon-evening in Sants taking lots of photos of its streets, enjoying the charming character of its inhabitants and having dinner in the best restaurant of the neighbourhood: Terra d'Escudella.

More information: Terra d'Escudella

Welcome everybody to this Festa Major and enjoy it!.

Popular productions have their own identity, unmistakable and very difficult to define, the folds of the human soul are immensely multiple and diverse, as are the folds of the collective soul, or of the people.

Joan Amades

N. SACCO & B. VANZETTI, UNFAIRLY TRIED AND CONVICTED

Bartolomeo Vanzetti and Nicola Sacco

Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were Italian-born American anarchists who were convicted of murdering a guard and a paymaster during the April 15, 1920 armed robbery of the Slater and Morrill Shoe Company in Braintree, Massachusetts, United States. 

In August, 27 1927, they were executed in the electric chair at Charlestown State Prison. Both men adhered to an anarchist movement that advocated relentless warfare against a violent and oppressive government.

More information: Barnum Review

After a few hours' deliberation on July 14, 1921, the jury convicted Sacco and Vanzetti of first-degree murder and they were sentenced to death by the trial judge. 

They were sentenced to death

A series of appeals followed, funded largely by the private Sacco and Vanzetti Defense Committee. The appeals were based on recanted testimony, conflicting ballistics evidence, a prejudicial pre-trial statement by the jury foreman, and a confession by an alleged participant in the robbery.  

All appeals were denied by trial judge Webster Thayer and also later denied by the Massachusetts State Supreme Court. 

More information: Famous Trials

By 1926, the case had drawn worldwide attention. As details of the trial and the men's suspected innocence became known, Sacco and Vanzetti became the center of one of the largest causes célèbres in modern history. In 1927, protests on their behalf were held in every major city in North America and Europe, as well as in Tokyo, Sydney, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, and Johannesburg.

Protest to demand justice for Sacco and Vanzetti

Investigations in the aftermath of the executions continued throughout the 1930s and 1940s. 

The publication of the men's letters, containing eloquent professions of innocence, intensified belief in their wrongful execution. Additional ballistics tests and incriminating statements by the men's acquaintances have clouded the case. 

On August 23, 1977, the 50th anniversary of the executions, Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis issued a proclamation that Sacco and Vanzetti had been unfairly tried and convicted and that any disgrace should be forever removed from their names. Writer Bruce Watson, in his introduction to the 2007 re-printing of The Letters of Sacco and Vanzetti, noted Sacco and Vanzetti are still on trial and probably always will be.

More information: The New York Times (August, 23 1927)

Sacco was a shoemaker and a night watchman, born April 22, 1891 in Torremaggiore, Province of Foggia, in Puglia, Italy, who migrated to the United States at the age of seventeen. 

Vanzetti was a fishmonger born June 11, 1888 in Villafalletto, Province of Cuneo, in Piemonte, who arrived in the United States at age twenty. Both men left Italy for the US in 1908, although they did not meet until a 1917 strike.

Here's to you, Nicola and Bart.
Rest forever here in our hearts.
The last and final moment is yours.
That agony is your triumph.
 

Joan Baez

JOHN LEE HOOKER: MISSISSIPPI COUNTRY BLUES

John Lee Hooker

John Lee Hooker (August 22, 1912– June 21, 2001) was an American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. The son of a sharecropper, he rose to prominence performing an electric guitar-style adaptation of Delta blues. Hooker often incorporated other elements, including talking blues and early North Mississippi Hill country blues. He developed his own driving-rhythm boogie style, distinct from the 1930s–1940s piano-derived boogie-woogie.

Hooker's date of birth is a subject of debate; the years 1912, 1915, 1917, 1920, and 1923 have been suggested. Information in the 1920 and 1930 censuses indicates that he was born in 1912. It is believed that he was born in Tutwiler, Mississippi, in Tallahatchie County, although some sources say his birthplace was near Clarksdale, in Coahoma County.

More information: The Official Website of John Lee Hooker

The Hooker children were home-schooled. They were permitted to listen only to religious songs; the spirituals sung in church were their earliest exposure to music. In 1921, their parents separated. The next year, their mother married William Moore, a blues singer, who provided John Lee with an introduction to the guitar. Moore was his first significant blues influence. He was a local blues guitarist who, in Shreveport, Louisiana, learned to play a droning, one-chord blues that was strikingly different from the Delta blues of the time. 

John Lee Hooker

Another formative influence was Tony Hollins, who dated Hooker's sister Alice, helped teach Hooker to play, and gave him his first guitar. For the rest of his life, Hooker regarded Hollins as a formative influence on his style of playing and his career as a musician. Among the songs that Hollins reputedly taught Hooker were versions of Crawlin' King Snake and Catfish Blues.

He worked in factories in various cities during World War II, eventually getting a job with the Ford Motor Company in Detroit in 1943. He frequented the blues clubs and bars on Hastings Street, the heart of the black entertainment district, on Detroit's east side.Hooker's popularity grew quickly as he performed in Detroit clubs, and, seeking an instrument louder than his acoustic guitar, he bought his first electric guitar.

More information: All Music

Hooker's recording career began in 1948, when Modern Records, based in Los Angeles, released a demo he had recorded for Bernie Besman in Detroit. The single, Boogie Chillen', became a hit and the best-selling race record of 1949. Despite being illiterate, Hooker was a prolific lyricist. In addition to adapting traditional blues lyrics, he composed original songs. 

John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd and John Lee Hooker

Hooker performed Boom Boom in the role of a street musician in the 1980 film The Blues Brothers. In 1989, he recorded the album The Healer with various other notable musicians, including Carlos Santana and Bonnie Raitt. He recorded several songs with Van Morrison, the Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton.

Hooker spent the last years of his life in Long Beach, California. In 1997, he opened a nightclub in San Francisco's Fillmore District called John Lee Hooker's Boom Boom Room, after one of his hit songs.

Hooker fell ill just before a tour of Europe in 2001 and died in his sleep on June 21, 2001, in Los Altos, California, at around 88 years of age. He was interred at the Chapel of the Chimes in Oakland.

More information: The Guardian

Among his many awards, Hooker was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1980, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991 and the Memphis Music Hall of Fame in 2016. Two of his songs, Boogie Chillen and Boom Boom, were included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's list of the 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll. Boogie Chillen was also included in the Recording Industry Association of America's list of the Songs of the Century. He was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000. He also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

 I want to play music when I want, write a song if I want 

or watch a baseball game if I want. 

John Lee Hooke

JOSEP LLUIS SAVALL: THE CAMBRILS FISHERMEN VOICE

Josep Lluís Savall

Josep Lluís Savall Rom (1959-2006) was born on the Beach of Cambrils in a family of fishermen. He arranged the family office with the studies of Catalan Philology in the University of Tarragona, when it was still part of the University of Barcelona.

He was a founding member and also president of the artistic-literary group La Gent del Llamp.

Among his publications, it is worth mentioning several texts of literary creation and a study-prologue to a selection of Poetry by Jaume Vidal Alcover. He was head of the area of ​​activities of the Maritime Museum of Barcelona.

In the field of research, Josep Lluís Savall presented, in February of the year 1990, as a degree thesis, the work that was titled The Vocabulary of the Fishermen of Cambrils. This was an exhaustive study that semantically ordered the terms used by fishermen, masters of hawk and cameraman shipowners and it gives the definitions very often accompanied by precise drawings that complement the graphic vocabulary of the sailor.

Peace has always been my greatest concern. 

 I learnt to love it when I was but a child. When I was a boy, my mother, an exceptional, marvellous woman, would talk to me about peace, because at that time there were also many wars. 

What is more, I am Catalan. 

Catalonia had the first democratic parliament, well before England did. 

And the first United Nations were in my country. At that time, the Eleventh Century , there was a meeting in Toluges -now France- to talk about peace, because in that epoch Catalans were already against, AGAINST war. 

That is why the United Nations, which works solely towards the peace ideal, is in my heart, because anything to do with peace goes straight to my heart. 

Pau Casals, United Nations Speech 1971

PERE QUART: "ODA A BARCELONA" (1936)

Joan Oliver aka Pere Quart

Joan Oliver i Sallarès, who used as a poetry-writer the pseudonym Pere Quart, (Sabadell, 1899-Barcelona, 1986) is considered one of the most important writers in Catalonia, specially because of his rebelliousness and social commitment.

Joan Oliver is a writer who is difficult to place from the generational standpoint. He was born in 1899 and hence is of the batch of Carles Riba, J.V.Foix, Josep Maria de Sagarra and Joan Salvat-Papasseit. 

He published his first book, a collection of short stories, in 1928 but did not become known as a poet until 1934, a circumstance that brings him closer, in chronological terms, to Salvador Espriu, Bartomeu Rosselló-Pòrcel and Joan Vinyoli. 

More information: UOC

Again, with his commitment to the Republican cause and subsequent exile, he reached his peak of fame in the 1960s through the points of contact in his work with what was known as historic realism.

Milers de finestres i cors
t’esguarden com bulls i et regires.

La nit s’atarda.

Els coixins esventrats de la memòria,
la flama del teu somni,
la sang nova del crim,
la infàmia morta, el clam i la barreja!

Barcelona!
Barcelona, ferida i eixalada.
Repiquen les campanes soterrades,
volen les creus,
ocells d’incert auguri.
Els murs suporten voltes invisibles,
fumeres, panys de cel,
roba blanca de núvol.

D’aquí estant, Barcelona,
el tumult és ordre.
L’or pàl·lid ni respira.
Bressen els asfaltats
deliris de les rodes inflades de tempesta,
veles terreres i envilides.

Barcelona,
els teus fills no t’acaben d’entendre,
bruixa frenètica,
matalàs d’esperes.
Escabellada, ronca,
Perds la vergonya i la senyera,
però et guanyes la vida,
entre la mort i la follia.

Danses encara
i et pentines un xic amb les estrelles
i maquilles tes nafres amb pólvores i cendres.
Però fills teus et deserten,
els que aviciares massa,
enguantats, clenxinats,
patriotes ha ha!
No et reconeixen sense el teu posat
de monja llamenca.
Et maleeixen
quan ja no ets polida, oficiosa,
inscrita en el joc brut de la riquesa
dels favorits i les bagasses.

Barcelona, cantes
una cançó maligna que ens eixorda
i despertes els altres que ja arriben,
davallen, s’apleguen;
després pugen
com un torrent contracorrent,
Rambla amunt,
Passeig de Gràcia amunt.
Xiulen, flastomen, s’empentegen,
ullen estades senyorials,
persianes porugues, barrots tremoladissos,
portes que es clouen subreptíciament.
Riuen els homes del carrer
i es destrien en escamots
que esfondren reixes,
comminen ascensors perquè s’afanyin,
invaliden panys dobles;
amb una escopinada
enceguen els senyals d’alarma.
Els passadissos, llagoters, s’escurcen,
però les sales-rebedor malreben
i les catifes comuniquen
tímides queixes a les espardenyes.
Els balcons s’esbatanen
i entren alenades goludes de carrer,
sang, bruel, pols,
llambordes dreçades a cops d’ungla furiosa.
Fueteja el serpent,
fibla la llum el llarg llampec vermell:
“Estatge incautat per les Joventuts Revolucionàries”.

Barcelona,
rumbeges el barri aristocràtic
amb roba proletària.
Somriu amb urc, amb impaciència
la gent nova i jove.
Ai ton capritx fill de l’antiga enveja,
que finalment caldrà que ofeguis!
Sofrí tant!
I no pas fam o nuesa:
l’exaltació xarona del privilegi.

La veritat erecta.
L’atzar estult.
L’oprobi de la beutat antiga.
La pau de l’ànima
bescanviada per monedes i voluntat esclava.
El treball prostituint-se
en les cambres secretes del negoci,
enllefiscant-se
en les llacors del luxe.

Els crisantems, les clavellines
de les floristes mamelludes
tenen set i migranya.
Les roses, ai! les roses
enyoren el marcir-se
en aires capitosos.
La Venus de Clarà, a la gatzoneta,
no ha perdut ni un cabell,
mes té una piga tendra a l’anca esquerra.
Els coloms volen i peonen
com espectres preciosos
d’un àngel mort,
dels temps que tristament plovia lluna,
i alzinetes d’argent i baladres nafrats
protegien besars i mans nuades
per pactes de desig i jovenesa extrema.

Tanmateix, Barcelona,
la mar no et deixa i et gombolda.
Allitaràs tos sofriments
en faldes suaus i tombes provisòries
on operen amb punya
les forces dures de la renaixença.
Al cap d’anyades
t’arribarà l’eco:
sospirs, gemecs, renecs, esclats,
sanglots, udols, xiscles, esclats!
I ja tindràs l’himne triomfal
sota la bandera de la quàdruple flama.

Barcelona:
pairal ciutat de Catalunya,
de València i les Illes.
Les comarques
gerdes, eixutes, alteroses, planes.
Màquines i collites.
Tiges en estol,
bestiar i aigües submisos.

Barcelona,
esdevindràs, si vols, la capital altiva
d’una pàtria novella de rels velles,
quasi feliç, penosament fecunda.
Mestressa sobirana,
sola en ton clos obert com una rosa
dels vents, als vents de mar, de terra!

Barcelona, contempla’t.
Barcelona, no cantis.
Ausculta aquest cor teu que s’escarrassa a batre.
No et deturis. Plora una mica cada dia
quan la Terra comença
un altre tomb, ullcluca.

A poc a poc, no et distraguessis
amb les fulles que el vent requisa als arbres.
Ni amb el presagi de les ales noves.

Treballa. Calla.
Malfia’t de la història.
Somnia-la i refés-la.

Vigila el mar, vigila les muntanyes.
Pensa en el fill que duus a les entranyes.

Els llibres han guanyat més batalles que les armes.

Joan Oliver / Pere Quart