SURREALISM, UNCONSCIOUS MIND TO EXPRESS ITSELF

Today, The Grandma has continued her English classes with The Bishops in Castelldefels.

First, they have been describing surrealistic works created by Salvador Dalí. 

Next, they have proposed a plan to survive a crisis of communication.

Finally, they have played Clue, also known as Cluedo, a fantastic board game when you have to question to discover the great mysteries of a murder: who the murderer is, where it happens and what kind of tool the murderer chooses to kill the victim.

More information: Salvador Dalí, Surrealism & Eccentricism in Púbol 

Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself.

Its aim was, according to leader André Breton, to resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dream and reality into an absolute reality, a super-reality, or surreality. It produced works of painting, writing, theatre, filmmaking, photography, and other media.

Works of Surrealism feature the element of surprise, unexpected juxtapositions and non sequitur. However, many Surrealist artists and writers regard their work as an expression of the philosophical movement first and foremost (for instance, of the pure psychic automatism Breton speaks of in the first Surrealist Manifesto), with the works themselves being secondary, i.e. artifacts of surrealist experimentation.

Leader Breton was explicit in his assertion that Surrealism was, above all, a revolutionary movement. At the time, the movement was associated with political causes such as communism and anarchism. It was influenced by the Dada movement of the 1910s.

The term Surrealism originated with Guillaume Apollinaire in 1917. However, the Surrealist movement was not officially established until after October 1924, when the Surrealist Manifesto published by French poet and critic André Breton succeeded in claiming the term for his group over a rival faction led by Yvan Goll, who had published his own Surrealist manifesto two weeks prior.

The most important center of the movement was Paris, France. From the 1920s onward, the movement spread around the globe, impacting the visual arts, literature, film, and music of many countries and languages, as well as political thought and practice, philosophy, and social theory.

More information: The Art Story

The word surrealism was first coined in March 1917 by Guillaume Apollinaire. He wrote in a letter to Paul Dermée: All things considered, I think in fact it is better to adopt surrealism than supernaturalism, which I first used [Tout bien examiné, je crois en effet qu'il vaut mieux adopter surréalisme que surnaturalisme que j'avais d'abord employé].

Apollinaire used the term in his program notes for Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, Parade, which premiered 18 May 1917.

The movement in the mid-1920s was characterized by meetings in cafes where the Surrealists played collaborative drawing games, discussed the theories of Surrealism, and developed a variety of techniques such as automatic drawing. Breton initially doubted that visual arts could even be useful in the Surrealist movement since they appeared to be less malleable and open to chance and automatism. This caution was overcome by the discovery of such techniques as frottage, grattage and decalcomania.

Surrealists believe that non-Western cultures also provide a continued source of inspiration for Surrealist activity because some may induce a better balance between instrumental reason and imagination in flight than Western culture.

Surrealism has had an identifiable impact on radical and revolutionary politics, both directly -as in some Surrealists joining or allying themselves with radical political groups, movements and parties- and indirectly -through the way in which Surrealists emphasize the intimate link between freeing imagination and the mind, and liberation from repressive and archaic social structures.

More information: Artsy

 Surrealism is destructive, but it destroys only
what it considers to be shackles limiting our vision.

Salvador Dalí

'I WANT TO BREAK FREE' PARODIES CORONATION STREET

Today, The Grandma has been reading about I Want to Break Free, the song sung by Queen, and written by John Deacon.

I Want to Break Free is a song by the British rock band Queen, written by their bassist John Deacon. 

It appears on the album The Works (1984), and was released in three versions: album, single and extended. The track became a staple of the bands during their 1984-85 The Works Tour and their 1986 Magic Tour.

The song is largely known for its music video for which all the band members dressed in drag, a concept proposed by drummer Roger Taylor, which parodied the long-running ITV soap opera Coronation Street.

The second part of the video included a composition rehearsed and performed with the Royal Ballet and choreographed by Wayne Eagling. Whereas the parody was acclaimed in the United Kingdom, where cross-dressing is a popular trope in British comedy, it caused controversy in the United States.

After its release in 1984, the song was well received in Europe and South America and is regarded as an anthem of the fight against oppression.

The single reached only number 45 on the US Billboard Hot 100, but reached number three in the UK and was certified silver with over 200,000 copies sold. It also topped the charts of Austria, Belgium, and the Netherlands. The song features on the band's compilation album, Greatest Hits II.

The song was written in 1983 by John Deacon and released in April 1984. Most of the song follows a traditional 12 bar blues progression in E major. It has three verses with one bridge, no chorus, and relatively little section repetition.

More information: Queen

The song features session musician Fred Mandel, who plays all of the keyboard parts; he was involved with the song when it featured only a drum machine and a guitar part. The keyboard solo at the end was done in one take on a Roland Jupiter-8 synthesizer, except the last note with a portamento down one octave, which was captured via punching in.

Besides the album version, a single version and an extended version were released.
The single version lasts 4 minutes 21 seconds and differs from the album version by the 40-second introduction and a longer synthesizer solo which starts at 2:33. The introduction is played on an electronic keyboard and is assisted by cymbals, drums and a guitar (Red Special). For the Bohemian Rhapsody soundtrack the single introduction is added to the album version creating a 3 minutes 43 seconds edit.

The extended version lasts 7 minutes 16 seconds and features a longer introduction and ending. It lasts until 6:04, and the remaining minute contains fragments of other songs from The Works. The extended version was mostly distributed as 12-inch vinyl records and then reissued on the CD of The Works in 1991.

Besides The Works, the song was featured in the albums Greatest Hits II, Box of Tricks, Greatest Hits (1992 US Red edition) and Absolute Greatest and in the box-sets The Complete Works and The Platinum Collection.

More information: Story of Song

Following in the tradition of cross-dressing in British comedy, the music video for I Want to Break Free sees the members of Queen in a suburban house dressed as women, a parody of the characters from the ITV soap opera Coronation Street.

The video opens with a scene of typical British residential streets in the morning, intercut with shots of a teasmade waking Brian May's character up. The terraced houses are located in Leeds, in the neighbourhood Harehills. The roof of a terrace, most likely between Sandhurst Terrace and Dorset Rd, can be seen in the opening shot.

In the second scene the camera pans along a terrace and stops at the house where the action supposedly happens. It is located on 41 Dorset Mount in real life and has a slightly different floor plan than the set used in the video. A part of the Dorset Mount street name plate can be seen on its wall just a second before Brian May gets out of bed.

Mercury vacuums the floor and sings the first verse. He opens a door leading to a dark space, where the group appear surrounded by figures wearing miner's helmets. Mercury dances to a glowing box and reappears with several dancers dressed in spotted leotards, and perform a dance. In the house, Mercury sings and goes upstairs. The group appear in the dark space again.

More information: Radio X

But life still goes on
I can't get used to living without, living without
Living without you by my side
I don't want to live alone, hey
God knows, got to make it on my own
So, baby, can't you see I've got to break free?

 

Queen

BRANDING, EXPOSING YOUR NAME AROUND THE WORLD

Today, The Grandma has continued her English classes with The Bishops in Castelldefels.

First, they have been talking about plurals in English.

Next, they have practised must and should modal verbs again.

Finally, they have given some advice to Rennette Watson to improve her brand around the world.

More information: Plural

 

More information: Learning English with Oxford

In marketing, brand management begins with an analysis on how a brand is currently perceived in the market, proceeds to planning how the brand should be perceived if it is to achieve its objectives and continues with ensuring that the brand is perceived as planned and secures its objectives.

Developing a good relationship with target markets is essential for brand management. Tangible elements of brand management include the product itself; its look, price, and packaging. The intangible elements are the experiences that the target markets share with the brand, and also the relationships they have with the brand. A brand manager would oversee all aspects of the consumer's brand association as well as relationships with members of the supply chain.

More information: Twitter, Communications with 280 Characters

It is defined as the process of creating a relationship or a connection between a company's product and emotional perception of the customer for the purpose of generating segregation among competition and building loyalty among customers.

Brand management is a function of marketing that uses special techniques in order to increase the perceived value of a product. Based on the aims of the established marketing strategy, brand management enables the price of products to grow and builds loyal customers through positive associations and images or a strong awareness of the brand.

Brand management is the process of identifying the core value of a particular brand and reflecting the core value among the targeted customers. In modern terms, a brand could be corporate, product, service, or person.

RNT, Rennette's brand

Brand management builds brand credibility and credible brands only can build brand loyalty, bounce back from circumstantial crisis, and can benefit from price-sensitive customers. The earliest origins of branding can be traced to pre-historic times. 

The practice may have first begun with the branding of farm animals in the middle East in the neolithic period. Stone Age and Bronze Age cave paintings depict images of branded cattle. Egyptian funerary artwork also depicts branded animals. Over time, the practice was extended to marking personal property such as pottery or tools, and eventually some type of brand or insignia was attached to goods intended for trade.

Around 4,000 years ago, producers began by attaching simple stone seals to products which, over time, were transformed into clay seals bearing impressed images, often associated with the producer's personal identity thus giving the product a personality.

A number of archaeological research studies have found extensive evidence of branding, packaging and labelling in antiquity. Archaeologists have identified some 1,000 different Roman potters' marks of the early Roman Empire, suggesting that branding was a relatively widespread practice.

More information: The Branding Journal

In Pompeii (circa 35 CE), Umbricius Scauras, a manufacturer of fish sauce, also known as garum, was branding his amphora which travelled across the entire Mediterranean. Mosaic patterns in the atrium of his house were decorated with images of amphora bearing his personal brand and quality claims.

In the East, evidence of branding also dates to an early period. From as early as 200 BCE, Chinese packaging and branding was used to signal family, place names and product quality, and the use of government imposed product branding was used between 600 and 900 AD.

In Japan, branding has a long heritage. For many Japanese businesses, a mon or seal is an East Asian form of brand or trademark.

The impetus for more widespread branding was often provided by government laws, requiring producers to meet minimum quality specifications or to standardise weights and measures, which in turn, was driven by public concerns about quality and fairness in exchange. The use of hallmarks, applied to precious metal objects, was well in place by the 4th century CE in Byzantium.

Evidence of silver bars marked under authority of the Emperor Augustinian dates to around 350 CE, and represents one of the oldest known forms of consumer protection. Hundreds of silver objects, including chalices, cups, plates, rings and bullion, all bearing hallmarks from the early Byzantine period, have been found and documented. Hallmarks for silver and gold were introduced in Britain in 1300.

In Medieval Europe, branding was applied to a broader range of goods and services. Craft guilds, which sprang up across Europe around this time, codified and reinforced, systems of marking products to ensure quality and standards. Bread-makers, silversmiths and goldsmiths all marked their wares during this period.

By 1266, English bakers were required by law to put a symbol on each product they sold. Bricui et al. have argued that the number of different forms of brands blossomed from the 14th century following the period of European discovery and expansion.

More information: 99 Designs

Branding was more widely used in the 19th century, following the industrial revolution, and the development of new professions like marketing, manufacturing and business management formalised the study of brands and branding as a key business activity.

Branding is a way of differentiating product from mere commodities, and therefore the use of branding expanded with each advance in transportation, communication, and trade.

With the rise of mass media in the early 20th century, companies soon adopted techniques that would allow their advertising messages to stand out; slogans, mascots, and jingles began to appear on radio in the 1920s and early television in the 1930s. By the 1930s, these advertising spots, as the packets of time became known, were being sold by the station's geographical sales representatives, ushering in an era of national radio advertising.

From the first decades of the 20th-century, advertisers began to focus on developing brand personality, brand image and brand identity-concepts.

By the 1940s, manufacturers began to recognize the way in which consumers were developing relationships with their brands in a social/psychological/anthropological sense. Advertisers began to use motivational research and consumer research to gather insights into consumer purchasing. Throughout the late 20th-century, brand advertisers began to imbue goods and services with a personality, based on the insight that consumers searched for brands with personalities that matched their own.

Among the most highly visible and recognizable brands is the script and logo for Coca-Cola products. Despite numerous blind tests indicating that Coke's flavor is not preferred, Coca-Cola continues to enjoy a dominant share of the cola market.

Modern brand management also intersects with legal issues such as genericization of trademark.  Yet, in a sense, reaching this stage of market domination is itself a triumph of brand management, in that becoming so dominant typically involves strong profit.

More information: Branding Mag

 

  

Your brand is your name, basically.

A lot of people don't know that they need to build their brand;

your brand is what keeps you moving.

Meek Mill

IRENE CARA ESCALERA, FAME! I'M GONNA LIVE FOREVER

Today, The Grandma has received terrible news. Irene Cara, the American singer and actress passed away two days ago.

The Grandma wants to pay tribute to this amazing artist talking about her unforgettable songs and her great career.

Irene, you are part of our lives, and we will remember your name.

Irene Cara Escalera (March 18, 1959-November 25, 2022) was an American singer and actress.

Cara rose to prominence in 1980 for her role as Coco Hernandez in the 1980 musical film Fame, and for recording the film's title song Fame, which reached number 1 in several countries. In 1983, Cara sang and co-wrote the song Flashdance... What a Feeling (from the film Flashdance), for which she won an Academy Award for Best Original Song and a Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance in 1984.

Prior to her success with Fame, Cara portrayed the title character Sparkle Williams in the original 1976 musical drama film Sparkle.

Cara was born in The Bronx, New York City, the youngest of five children. Her father, Gaspar Cara, a factory worker and retired saxophonist, was Puerto Rican, and her mother, Louise Escalera, a movie theater usher, was Cuban. Cara had two sisters and two brothers. At the age of three, Irene Cara was one of five finalists for the Little Miss America pageant. She began to play the piano by ear, studied music, acting and dance seriously, and began taking dance lessons when she was five.

Her performing career started with her singing and dancing professionally on Spanish-language television. She made early TV appearances on The Original Amateur Hour (singing in Spanish) and Johnny Carson's The Tonight Show.

In 1971-1972, she was a regular on PBS's educational program The Electric Company as a member of the show's band, The Short Circus.

More information: Irene Cara

As a child, Cara recorded a Spanish-language record for the Latin market and an English-language Christmas album. She also appeared in a major concert tribute to Duke Ellington, which featured Stevie Wonder, Sammy Davis Jr. and Roberta Flack.

Cara attended the Professional Children's School in Manhattan.

Cara appeared in on- and off-Broadway theatrical shows including the musicals Ain't Misbehavin', The Me Nobody Knows (which won an Obie Award), Maggie Flynn opposite Shirley Jones and Jack Cassidy, and Via Galactica with Raúl Juliá. 

Cara was the original Daisy Allen on the 1970s daytime serial Love of Life. She later took on the role of Angela in the romance/thriller Aaron Loves Angela, followed by her portrayal of the title character in Sparkle.

Television brought Cara international acclaim for serious dramatic roles in two outstanding mini-series, Roots: The Next Generations and Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones. John Willis' Screen World named her one of twelve Promising New Actors of 1976; that same year, a readers' poll in Right On! magazine named her Top Actress.

The 1980 hit film Fame, directed by Alan Parker, catapulted Irene Cara to stardom. Cara was originally cast as a dancer, but when producers David Da Silva and Alan Marshall and screenwriter Christopher Gore heard her voice, they re-wrote the role of Coco Hernandez for her to play. 

As Coco Hernandez, she sang both the title song Fame and the film's other single, Out Here on My Own. These songs helped make the film's soundtrack a chart-topping, multi-platinum album. Further history was made at the Academy Awards that year: It was the first time that two songs from the same film and sung by the same artist were nominated in the same category. Thus, Cara had the opportunity to be one of the few singers to perform more than one song at the Oscar ceremony; Fame, written by Michael Gore and Dean Pitchford, won the award that year.

Cara earned Grammy Award nominations in 1980 for Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, as well as a Golden Globe nomination for Best Motion Picture Actress in a Musical.

Billboard named her Top New Single Artist, while Cashbox Magazine awarded her both Most Promising Female Vocalist and Top Female Vocalist. Asked by Fame TV series' producers to reprise her role as Coco Hernandez, she declined, wanting to focus her attention on her recording career; Erica Gimpel assumed the role.

Cara died at her home in Largo, Florida, on November 25, 2022, at the age of 63.

More information: The Guardian

I'm gonna live forever
I'm gonna learn how to fly
(High)
I feel it coming together
People will see me and cry
I'm gonna make it to heaven
Light up the sky like a flame
(Fame)
I'm gonna live forever
Baby, remember my name.

Irene Cara

THE WHITE RABBIT, 'OH DEAR! I SHALL BE TOO LATE!'

Today, The Grandma has been reading about White Rabbit, the song written by Grace Slick and recorded by the American rock band Jefferson Airplane for their 1967 album Surrealistic Pillow.

The White Rabbit is a fictional and anthropomorphic character in Lewis Carroll's 1865 book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. 

He appears at the very beginning of the book, in chapter one, wearing a waistcoat, and muttering Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late! Alice follows him down the rabbit hole into Wonderland.

Alice encounters him again when he mistakes her for his housemaid Mary Ann and she becomes trapped in his house after growing too large. The Rabbit shows up again in the last few chapters, as a herald-like servant of the King and Queen of Hearts.

Download Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Download Through the looking glass

White Rabbit is a song written by Grace Slick and recorded by the American rock band Jefferson Airplane for their 1967 album Surrealistic Pillow.

It draws on imagery from Lewis Carroll's 1865 book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its 1871 sequel Through the Looking-Glass.

It was released as a single and became the band's second top-10 success, peaking at number eight on the Billboard Hot 100. The song was ranked number 478 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time in 2004, number 483 in 2010, and number 455 in 2021 and appears on The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.

White Rabbit was written and performed by Grace Slick while she was still with The Great Society. Slick quit them and joined Jefferson Airplane to replace their departing female singer, Signe Toly Anderson, who left the band with the birth of her child. The first album Slick recorded with Jefferson Airplane was Surrealistic Pillow, and Slick provided two songs from her previous group: her own White Rabbit and Somebody to Love, written by her brother-in-law Darby Slick and recorded under the title Someone to Love by the Great Society.

The Great Society's version of White Rabbit was much longer than the more aggressive version of Jefferson Airplane. Both songs became top-10 hits for Jefferson Airplane and have ever since been associated with that band.

More information: Jefferson Airplane

White Rabbit is one of Grace Slick's earliest songs, written during December 1965 or January 1966. It uses imagery found in the fantasy works of Lewis Carroll -1865's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its 1871 sequel Through the Looking-Glass- such as changing size after taking pills or drinking an unknown liquid.

Slick wrote the lyrics first, then composed the music at a red upright piano she had bought for US$50 with eight or ten keys missing -that was OK because I could hear in my head the notes that weren't there"- moving between major chords for the verses and chorus. She said that the music was heavily influenced by Miles Davis's 1960 album Sketches of Spain, particularly Davis's treatment of the Concierto de Aranjuez (1939).

She later said: Writing weird stuff about Alice backed by a dark Spanish march was in step with what was going on in San Francisco then. We were all trying to get as far away from the expected as possible.

Slick said the composition was supposed to be a slap to parents who read their children such novels and then wondered why their children later used drugs. She later commented that all fairytales read to little girls have a Prince Charming who comes and saves them. But Alice did not; she was on her own in a very strange place, but she kept on going and followed her curiosity  -that's the White Rabbit.

A lot of women could have taken a message from that story about how you can push your own agenda. The line feed your head is about reading, as well as psychedelics feed your head by paying attention: read some books, pay attention.

Characters Slick referenced include Alice, the White Rabbit, the hookah-smoking caterpillar, the White Knight, the Red Queen, and the Dormouse.

More information: Louder Sound

Slick reportedly wrote the song after an acid trip.

For Slick, White Rabbit is about following your curiosity. The White Rabbit is your curiosity. For her and others in the 1960s, drugs were a part of mind expansion and social experimentation. With its enigmatic lyrics, White Rabbit became one of the first songs to sneak drug references past censors on the radio. 

Even Marty Balin, Slick's eventual rival in Jefferson Airplane, regarded the song as a masterpiece. In interviews, Slick has related that Alice in Wonderland was often read to her as a child and remained a vivid memory well into her adulthood.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Slick mentioned that, in addition to Alice in Wonderland, her other inspiration for the song was Ravel's Boléro. Like Boléro, White Rabbit is essentially one long crescendo. The music combined with the song's lyrics strongly suggests the sensory distortions experienced with hallucinogens, and the song was later used in pop culture to imply or accompany just such a state.

The song was first played by the Great Society in a bar in San Francisco in early 1966, and later when they opened the bill for bigger bands like the Grateful Dead. They made a series of demo records for Autumn Records, for which they were assisted by Sly Stone. 

Grace Slick said: We were so bad that Sly eventually played all the instruments so the demo would sound OK. When Slick joined Jefferson Airplane later in 1966, she taught the song to the band, who recorded it for their album Surrealistic Pillow.

White Rabbit is in the key of F-sharp which Slick acknowledges is difficult for guitar players as it requires some intricate fingering.

More information: Far Out Magazine

One pill makes you larger
And one pill makes you small
And the ones that mother gives you
Don't do anything at all
Go ask Alice
When she's ten feet tall

 

Jefferson Airplane

CUBISM, THE 20TH C. AVANT-GARDE ART MOVEMENT

Today, The Grandma has been reading about Cubism, the early-20th-century avant-garde art movement.

Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture.

In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassembled in an abstracted form -instead of depicting objects from a single viewpoint, the artist depicts the subject from a multitude of viewpoints to represent the subject in a greater context.

Cubism has been considered the most influential art movement of the 20th century. The term is broadly used in association with a wide variety of art produced in Paris (Montmartre and Montparnasse) or near Paris (Puteaux) during the 1910s and throughout the 1920s.

The movement was pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, and joined by Jean Metzinger, Albert Gleizes, Robert Delaunay, Henri Le Fauconnier, Juan Gris, and Fernand Léger.

One primary influence that led to Cubism was the representation of three-dimensional form in the late works of Paul Cézanne. A retrospective of Cézanne's paintings was held at the Salon d'Automne of 1904, current works were displayed at the 1905 and 1906 Salon d'Automne, followed by two commemorative retrospectives after his death in 1907.

In France, offshoots of Cubism developed, including Orphism, abstract art and later Purism. The impact of Cubism was far-reaching and wide-ranging. In France and other countries Futurism, Suprematism, Dada, Constructivism, Vorticism, De Stijl and Art Deco developed in response to Cubism.

More information: The Art Story

Early Futurist paintings hold in common with Cubism the fusing of the past and the present, the representation of different views of the subject pictured at the same time or successively, also called multiple perspective, simultaneity or multiplicity, while Constructivism was influenced by Picasso's technique of constructing sculpture from separate elements. Other common threads between these disparate movements include the faceting or simplification of geometric forms, and the association of mechanization and modern life.

Historians have divided the history of Cubism into phases. 

In one scheme, the first phase of Cubism, known as Analytic Cubism, a phrase coined by Juan Gris a posteriori, was both radical and influential as a short but highly significant art movement between 1910 and 1912 in France.

A second phase, Synthetic Cubism, remained vital until around 1919, when the Surrealist movement gained popularity. English art historian Douglas Cooper proposed another scheme, describing three phases of Cubism in his book, The Cubist Epoch. According to Cooper there was Early Cubism, (from 1906 to 1908) when the movement was initially developed in the studios of Picasso and Braque; the second phase being called High Cubism, (from 1909 to 1914) during which time Juan Gris emerged as an important exponent (after 1911); and finally Cooper referred to Late Cubism (from 1914 to 1921) as the last phase of Cubism as a radical avant-garde movement.

Douglas Cooper's restrictive use of these terms to distinguish the work of Braque, Picasso, Gris (from 1911) and Léger (to a lesser extent) implied an intentional value judgement.

Cubism burgeoned between 1907 and 1911. Pablo Picasso's 1907 painting Les Demoiselles d'Avignon has often been considered a proto-Cubist work.

In 1908, in his review of Georges Braque's exhibition at Kahnweiler's gallery, the critic Louis Vauxcelles called Braque a daring man who despises form, reducing everything, places and a figures and houses, to geometric schemas, to cubes.

More information: Art Lex

Cubism was an attack on the perspective
that had been known and used for 500 years.
It was the first big, big change.
It confused people: they said,
'Things don't look like that!'

David Hockney

'SCOOBY-DOO', THE AMERICAN ANIMATED FRANCHISE

Today, The Grandma has been reading about Scooby-Doo, the American animated media franchise.

Scooby-Doo is an American animated media franchise based on an animated television series launched in 1969 and continued through several derivative media.

Writers Joe Ruby and Ken Spears created the original series, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, for Hanna-Barbera Productions. This Saturday-morning cartoon series featured teenagers Fred Jones, Daphne Blake, Velma Dinkley, and Shaggy Rogers, and their talking Great Dane named Scooby-Doo, who solve mysteries involving supposedly supernatural creatures through a series of antics and missteps.

Scooby-Doo was originally broadcast on CBS from 1969 to 1976, when it moved to ABC. ABC aired various versions of Scooby-Doo until canceling it in 1985, and presented a spin-off featuring the characters as children called A Pup Named Scooby-Doo from 1988 until 1991.

Two Scooby-Doo reboots aired as part of Kids' WB on The WB and its successor The CW from 2002 until 2008. Further reboots were produced for Cartoon Network beginning in 2010 and continuing through 2018. Repeats of the various Scooby-Doo series are frequently broadcast on Cartoon Network's sister channel Boomerang in the United States and other countries. The current Scooby-Doo series, Scooby-Doo and Guess Who?, premiered on June 27, 2019, as an original series on Boomerang's streaming service and later HBO Max.

In 2013, TV Guide ranked Scooby-Doo the fifth-greatest TV cartoon of all time.

More information: Warner Bros

In 1968, parent-run organizations, particularly Action for Children's Television (ACT), began protesting what they perceived as excessive violence in Saturday-morning cartoons. Most of these shows were Hanna-Barbera action cartoons such as Space Ghost, The Herculoids, and Birdman and the Galaxy Trio, and virtually all of them were cancelled by 1969 because of pressure from the parent groups. Members of these watch groups served as advisers to Hanna-Barbera and other animation studios to ensure that new programs would be safe for children.

The first episode of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! What a Night for a Knight debuted on the CBS network Saturday, September 13, 1969, at 10:30 AM Eastern Time. The original voice cast featured Don Messick as Scooby-Doo, Casey Kasem as Shaggy, Frank Welker as Fred, actress Nicole Jaffe as Velma, and Indira Stefanianna as Daphne.

Scooby's speech patterns closely resembled an earlier cartoon dog, Astro from The Jetsons (1962–63), also voiced by Messick. Seventeen episodes of Scooby-Doo Where Are You! were produced in 1969–70. The series theme song was written by David Mook and Ben Raleigh, and performed by Larry Marks.

Gold Key Comics began publication of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! comic books in December 1969. The comics initially contained adaptations of episodes of the television show drawn by Phil DeLara, Jack Manning and Warren Tufts. The comic books later moved to all-original stories until ending with issue #30 in 1974. Several of these issues were written by Mark Evanier and drawn by Dan Spiegle.

Charlton published Scooby comics, many drawn by Bill Williams, for 11 issues in 1975. From 1977 to 1979, Marvel Comics published nine issues of Scooby-Doo, all written by Evanier and drawn by Spiegel. Harvey Comics published reprints of the Charlton comics, as well as a handful of special issues, between 1993 and 1994.

In 1995, Archie Comics began publishing a monthly Scooby-Doo comic book, the first year of which featured Scrappy-Doo among its cast. Evanier and Spiegel worked on three issues of the series, which ended after 21 issues in 1997 when Warner Bros.' DC Comics acquired the rights to publish comics based on Hanna-Barbera characters. DC's Scooby-Doo series continues publication to this day.

More information: Scooby Addicts

In 2013, DC began a digital bi-monthly comic book titled Scooby-Doo Team-Up, crossing over Mystery Inc. with other DC and Hanna-Barbera characters. Since then, the series has become a monthly comic book available in print.

In 2004, a limited series of a 100 comic books called Scooby-Doo! World of Mystery was released. In each issue, Mystery Inc. go from country to country solving mysteries. Each issue came with a pack of exclusive cards, with 350 in total able to be collected.

In 2016, DC launched a new monthly comic book entitled Scooby Apocalypse, with the characters being reinvented in a story set in a post-apocalyptic world, where monsters roam the streets and Scooby and the gang must find a way to survive at all costs, while also trying to find a way to reverse the apocalypse.

Early Scooby-Doo merchandise included a 1973 Milton Bradley board game, decorated lunch boxes, iron-on transfers, coloring books, story books, records, underwear, and other such goods. When Scrappy-Doo was introduced to the series in 1979, he, Scooby, and Shaggy became the foci of much of the merchandising, including a 1983 Milton-Bradley Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo board game.

The first Scooby-Doo video game appeared in arcades in 1986, and has been followed by a number of games for both home consoles and personal computers.  

Scooby-Doo multivitamins also debuted at this time, and have been manufactured by Bayer since 2001.

More information: Cartoon Research

Yeah, but, how do we know
the phantom will ever chase Scooby-Doo?
He’s a dog.

Shaggy

THE PARTHENON, HISTORY ON THE ATHENIAN ACROPOLIS

Today, The Grandma has continued her English classes with The Bishops in Castelldefels.

They have been practising some oral English and the have done some exercises to learn the articke 'The' in English.

More info: Definitive Article

Today, The Grandma has been reading about the Parthenon, the former temple on the Athenian Acropolis in Greece, dedicated to the goddess Athena.

The Parthenon, in Ancient Greek Παρθενών, is a former temple on the Athenian Acropolis, Greece, that was dedicated to the goddess Athena during the fifth century BC. 

Its decorative sculptures are considered some of the high points of Greek art, an enduring symbol of Ancient Greece, democracy and Western civilization.

The Parthenon was built in thanksgiving for the Hellenic victory over Persian invaders during the Greco-Persian Wars. 

Like most Greek temples, the Parthenon also served as the city treasury.

More information: History

Construction started in 447 BC when the Delian League was at the peak of its power. It was completed in 438; work on the decoration continued until 432. For a time, it served as the treasury of the Delian League, which later became the Athenian Empire. In the final decade of the 6th century AD, the Parthenon was converted into a Christian church dedicated to the Virgin Mary.

After the Ottoman conquest in the mid-fifteenth century, it became a mosque. In the Morean War, a Venetian bomb landed on the Parthenon, which the Ottomans had used as a munitions dump, during the 1687 siege of the Acropolis. The resulting explosion severely damaged the Parthenon. 

From 1800 to 1803, the 7th Earl of Elgin removed some of the surviving sculptures, now known as the Elgin Marbles, reportedly (but controversially) with the permission of the Ottoman Empire.

The Parthenon replaced an older temple of Athena, which historians call the Pre-Parthenon or Older Parthenon, that was demolished in the Persian invasion of 480 BC.

Since 1975, numerous large-scale restoration projects have been undertaken to preserve remaining artefacts and ensure its structural integrity.

More information: Smart History

The origin of the word Parthenon comes from the Greek word parthénos (παρθένος), meaning maiden, girl as well as virgin, unmarried woman. The Liddell-Scott-Jones Greek-English Lexicon states that it may have referred to the unmarried women's apartments in a house, but that in the Parthenon it seems to have been used for a particular room of the temple.

Although the Parthenon is architecturally a temple and is usually called so, some scholars have argued that it is not really a temple in the conventional sense of the word. A small shrine has been excavated within the building, on the site of an older sanctuary probably dedicated to Athena as a way to get closer to the goddess, but the Parthenon apparently never hosted the official cult of Athena Polias, patron of Athens. 

The cult image of Athena Polias, which was bathed in the sea and to which was presented the peplos, was an olive-wood xoanon, located in another temple on the northern side of the Acropolis, more closely associated with the Great Altar of Athena.

The colossal statue of Athena by Phidias was not specifically related to any cult attested by ancient authors and is not known to have inspired any religious fervour. Preserved ancient sources do not associate it with any priestess, altar or cult name.

More information: Smithsonian Magazine

Earth proudly wears the Parthenon
as the best gem upon her zone.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

DANONE, THE BOY WHO BORN IN EL PASSEIG DE GRÀCIA

Today, The Grandma has been reading about Danone, the Catalan multinational food-products, now French.

Danone S.A. is a French multinational food-products corporation based in Paris.

It was founded in Barcelona, Catalonia.

It is listed on Euronext Paris where it is a component of the CAC 40 stock market index. Some of the company's products are branded Dannon in the United States.

As of 2018, Danone sold products in 120 markets, and had sales in 2018 of €24.65 billion. In the first half of 2018, 29% of sales came from specialized nutritional preparations, 19% came from branded bottled water, and 52% came from dairy and plant-based products (including yogurt).

More information: Danone

Danone was founded by Isaac Carasso, a Salonica-born Sephardic Jewish physician from the Ottoman Empire, who began producing yogurt in Barcelona, in 1919.

The brand was named Danone, which translates to little Daniel, after his son Daniel Carasso.

In 1929, Isaac Carasso moved the company from Catalonia to France, opening a plant in Paris.

In 1942, Daniel Carasso moved the company to New York. In the United States, Daniel Carasso partnered with the Swiss-born Spaniard Juan Metzger and changed the brand name to Dannon to sound more American.

In 1951, Daniel Carasso returned to Paris to manage the family's businesses in France and Catalonia, and the American business was sold to Beatrice Foods in 1959; it was repurchased by Danone in 1981.

In Europe in 1967, Danone merged with Gervais, the leading fresh cheese producer in France, and became Gervais Danone. In 1973, the company merged with bottle maker BSN. The company changed its name to Groupe Danone in 1983.

The Danone Institute is a non-profit organization established to promote research, information and education about nutrition, diet and public health. One of the organization's main objectives was to increase nutrition knowledge amongst medical professionals, educators and parents.

The company set up its first Institute in 1991 in Paris, France, and officially launched as a private non-profit organization in 1997.

The institute is led by nutrition experts and Danone company executives.

More information: Medium

 Don’t cry over spilled milk.
By this time tomorrow, it’ll be free yogurt.

Stephen Colbert

BOSTON CONSULTING GROUP MATRIX & THE PRODUCT

Today, The Grandma has continued her English classes with The Bishops in Castelldefels.

First, they have practised must and should modal verbs.

Next, they have created a BCG matrix.

More information: Should/Shouldn't

More information: Must/Mustn't

The growth-share matrix (aka the product portfolio matrix, Boston Box, BCG-matrix, Boston matrix, Boston Consulting Group analysis, portfolio diagram) is a chart created in a collaborative effort by BCG employees: Alan Zakon first sketched it and then, together with his colleagues, refined it.

BCG's founder Bruce D. Henderson popularized the concept in an essay titled The Product Portfolio in BCG's publication Perspectives in 1970. The purpose of the matrix is to help corporations to analyze their business units, that is, their product lines. This helps the company allocate resources and is used as an analytical tool in brand marketing, product management, strategic management, and portfolio analysis.

To use the chart, analysts plot a scatter graph to rank the business units (or products) on the basis of their relative market shares and growth rates.

-Cash cows is where a company has high market share in a slow-growing industry. These units typically generate cash in excess of the amount of cash needed to maintain the business.

-Dogs, more charitably called pets, are units with low market share in a mature, slow-growing industry. These units typically "break even", generating barely enough cash to maintain the business's market share.

-Question marks (also known as a problem child or Wild dogs) are businesses operating with a low market share in a high-growth market. They are a starting point for most businesses. Question marks have a potential to gain market share and become stars, and eventually cash cows when market growth slows.

-Stars are units with a high market share in a fast-growing industry. They are graduated question marks with a market- or niche-leading trajectory. The hope is that stars become next cash cows.

As a particular industry matures and its growth slows, all business units become either cash cows or dogs. The natural cycle for most business units is that they start as question marks, then turn into stars. Eventually, the market stops growing; thus, the business unit becomes a cash cow. At the end of the cycle, the cash cow turns into a dog.

As BCG stated in 1970, only a diversified company with a balanced portfolio can use its strengths to truly capitalize on its growth opportunities. 

The balanced portfolio has:

-Stars whose high share and high growth assure the future;

-Cash cows that supply funds for that future growth; and

-Question marks to be converted into stars with the added funds.

More information: BCG

The financial markets generally are unpredictable.
So that one has to have different scenarios...
The idea that you can actually predict
what's going to happen contradicts
my way of looking at the market.

George Soros

TROUBADOURS & TROBAIRITZES, OCCITAN LYRIC POETRY

Today, The Grandma has been reading about the troubadours, the composers and performers of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages.

A troubadour was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages (1100–1350). 

Since the word troubadour is etymologically masculine, a female troubadour is usually called a trobairitz.

The troubadour school or tradition began in the late 11th century in Occitania, but it subsequently spread to the Italian and Iberian Peninsulas.

Under the influence of the troubadours, related movements sprang up throughout Europe: the Minnesang in Germany, trovadorismo in Galicia and Portugal, and that of the trouvères in northern France.

Dante Alighieri in his De vulgari eloquentia defined the troubadour lyric as fictio rethorica musicaque poita: rhetorical, musical, and poetical fiction. After the classical period around the turn of the 13th century and a mid-century resurgence, the art of the troubadours declined in the 14th century and around the time of the Black Death (1348) it died out.

The texts of troubadour songs deal mainly with themes of chivalry and courtly love. Most were metaphysical, intellectual, and formulaic. Many were humorous or vulgar satires.

Works can be grouped into three styles: the trobar leu (light), trobar ric (rich), and trobar clus (closed). Likewise there were many genres, the most popular being the canso, but sirventes and tensos were especially popular in the post-classical period.

More information: Midi-France

The English word troubadour was borrowed from the French word first recorded in 1575 in an historical context to mean langue d'oc poet at the court in the 12th and 13th century.

The first use and earliest form of troubador is trobadors, found in a 12th-century Occitan text by Cercamon.

The French word itself is borrowed from the Occitan trobador. It is the oblique case of the nominative trobaire composer, related to trobar to compose, to discuss, to invent.

Trobar may come, in turn, from the hypothetical Late Latin *tropāre to compose, to invent a poem by regular phonetic change. This reconstructed form is based on the Latin root tropus, meaning a trope. In turn, the Latin word derives ultimately from Greek τρόπος (trópos), meaning turn, manner. Intervocal Latin shifted regularly to in Occitan (cf. Latin sapere → Occitan saber, French savoir, to know). The Latin suffix -ātor, -ātōris explains the Occitan suffix, according to its declension and accentuation: Gallo-Romance *tropātor → Occitan trobaire (subject case) and *tropātōre → Occitan trobador (oblique case).

The 450 or so troubadours known to historians came from a variety of backgrounds. They made their living in a variety of ways, lived, and travelled in many different places, and were actors in many types of social context. 

The troubadours were not wandering entertainers. Typically, they stayed in one place for a lengthy period of time under the patronage of a wealthy nobleman or woman. Many did travel extensively, however, sojourning at one court and then another.

More information: TrobEu

The Consistori de la Gaya Sciència de Barcelona, Academy of the Gay Science of Barcelona, was a literary academy founded in Barcelona by Joan I El Caçador, John the Hunter, King of Aragon and Count of Barcelona, in 1393 in imitation of the Consistori del Gay Saber founded in Toulouse in 1323.

The poetry produced by and for the Consistori was heavily influenced by the troubadours.

The Consistori's chief purpose was to promote correct styles and themes and discourage vices (vicis) by awarding prizes in competition to poets who adhered to the rules of poetic composition.

The names of few poets laureate have come down to us and despite some excellent descriptions of the Consistori's activities, associated persons and poems are obscure.

At Pentecost, 31 May 1338, a contest was held at Lleida before Pere El Cerimoniós, Peter the Ceremonious, Joan's predecessor, at which those poems adjudged the best were given awards. A panel of judges was designated in advance by the king. It was to pass judgement super arte dictandi et faciendi pulcra carmina sive cantars, on the art of speaking and composing beautiful songs, that is, cantars.

The winning poets received a rosa d'or (golden rose) and piece of expensive golden satin called diasprell. With its floral prize, the 1338 contest emulated the Jocs Florals (floral games) already being held in Toulouse and to be held eventually in Barcelona as well.

Much about this event, however, remains unknown: the language of composition was vernacular (cantars), but which vernacular is uncertain (Occitan or Catalan), and the names of the poets or any portions of their work have not survived.

More information: British Library

Les poèmes racontent des libertés, des fratries unies;
ils dessinent des pays fidèles comme aucun homme,
qui mêlent l'haleine tiède des arbres
à la peau diaphane des rivières, des landes,
des dunes et des marais.
Mon pays.
Les troubadours me le rendent à chaque fois.

The poems tell of freedoms, of united siblings;
they draw countries faithful like no man,
which mingle the warm breath of the trees with
the diaphanous skin of the rivers, the wastelands,
the dunes and the marshes.
My country.
The troubadours give it back to me every time.

Clara Dupont-Monod