The Pflasterspektakel

The Pflasterspektakel is an annual street art festival in Linz, the capital of Upper Austria. The inaugural festival took place from 16 to 19 July 1987, under the name of Internationale Straßenmusikantentage (International Street Musicians' Days). 150 musicians participate in the inauguration, most of them from Austria and Germany, including a samba group from Munich. 

It was decided that the event should be repeated the following year, this time under the present name of Linz Pflasterspektakel and featuring acrobats, magicians and mimes in addition to the musicians.

It includes musical acts, juggling, acrobatics, pantomime, improvisational theatre, clownery, fire dancing, painting, samba parades. It takes place on three days during the second half of July. The opening ceremony is held on a Thursday at 4 p.m. and on the following Friday and Saturday, the festival starts at 2 p.m. At midnight the festival ends each day, but some musicians play in pubs until 1 a.m. By tradition, spontaneously formed groups of artists improvise a finale on Saturday evening on the main square.

Artists are performing at around forty locations throughout the city of Linz around the main square and the Landstraße. Two courtyards are reserved for musicians playing unplugged or a cappella. In case of rain, the event moves to the old city hall and other indoor locations.

In 2010, about 400 artists from over forty nations participated in the event.

NEWS

I found an article really interesting and shocking. 

In this article David Lennon, a sixteen-year old boy from Australia, has photographed different big cities and has shown them without contamination in the sky. These pictures shows us how the pollution is more obvious in the cities than in the small towns. All of this is produced by vehicles, factories... 

If we could decrease these amount of chemicals flying and covering the beautiful sky upon us, all of us could enjoy the fabulous view at night and we'll also decrease the contamination in general. 

I think that we could get used to this.

YOU SAY

I know that we had already do it with a rebellious song but I wanted to do it with one of my favorites songs. The song is called Unkiss Me and it's by Maroon 5. Maroon 5 is one of my favorite bands and last year I bought their new album called V. I was listening to every single song in the album when this song started. I felt in love with it and I just want to explain what the song is about and what means to me.

This song is about a hard love. You don't actually realize if there is or was a relationship between the two of them or if one is in love and the other not. But I think that they were in a relationship and they ended up badly because one of them didn't love the other anymore. 

The whole song is like their relationship. In the chorus is when they sang ''Unkiss me, untouch me'' and that's where I supposed they break up. There are also some parts when you can see that their relationship never was the best one and they had a lot of problems before.

I actually listen to this song when I am sad because, like most of the people do, listening to sad songs when you're sad is inevitable.

NEWS

Recentely the astronoms discovered a new exoplanet near the Earth. They've called it GJ 1132b and it's 39 light years away. It's a solid planet and has the same characteristics as our planet. Also it has an atmosphere which is the key of life. It's a bigger than the Earth and the experts think that maybe it would be possible to inhabitate. They say so because we are killing our planet and, if we want to remain, we'll have to find another place to live.

I personally think that the experts are right because if we don't react we'll disappear and so would our planet. But what if we don't have the best reaction and destroy the planet before the exoplanet is available to be living in it? That's why I've chosen this article because we should take these types of news in mind because this is more important than who won the last football match. It's our planet. Our live. That's not a game and it will literally kill us if we don't react together.

NEWS

Everyone knows what happened in Paris the 14th of November. I know that the whole world has said something about it and I would like to share my opinion too. 

I remeber that when the attacks happened I was having dinner with my friends because It was a simple Friday night. When I arrived home I checked my phone and went to Instagram, that's where I founf out everything. I was confused because everyone was posting photos of Paris using the hashtag Pray For Paris. I started to search any clue of what happened and then a lot of articles came up. I was shocked. The first question that came through my mind was WHY? Why there's people so evil and crazy that even kill themselves? I don't and I won't never understand that. 

When I was feeling more relax I started to think about all the innocent people that had died when they were just celebrating the starting of the weekend. Just like me and my friends. It could've been anyone. 

Then I started to feel very angry and furious. I just wanted that the ones who did this were punished for the awful things that they've made.

Now, a few days after, I'm still with the same feeling. They think that they are the kings of the world and want to show it to the whole world. They want us to be afraid and give up but we can't do that. We need to demostrate that we will never give up because of some crazy group of ''people''. How are we going to do that? I really don't know because if we attack them, innocent people will also die and that's what we don't want. Only time will tell what we and ther are they capable of. 

E-MAIL TO MY TEACHER

Hello! I'm Paula Valenzuela Turró and I'm going to explain a few things about my life and who I am.

I was born the 21st of March 1999 in Figueres. I'm blonde and blue eyed just like my mother and everyone says that we look alike so much. I'm really shy around new people but once I get to know them I become very confident and friendly.

My parents are called Mercè and Facundo, he's Argentinian. Nowadays I live in Castelló d'Empúries with my mother and my stepfather because my parents got divorced when I was little but they still have a great relationship. I have two stepbrothers Florentina, who is 23 and lives in Argentina, and Mateo, who is almost 3. 

I play basketball since I was 9 and at the moment I'm playing with the Club Bàsquet Castelló, my hometown team. We train twice a week and we have matches at the weekend.

I like to do sports,read, listen to music and hang out with my friends. I've read books like The Hunger Games or The Maze Runner but my favorite books are The Mortal Instruments saga. Lately I've been listening the pop-punk/ punk-rock genre and turns out that It has become my favorite genre of music. Maroon 5, 5 Seconds of Summer and Blink-182 are my all time favorite bands but other bands that I like a lot are Nirvana, Sum 41, Green Day, 30 Seconds to Mars, Fall Out Boy and Sleeping with Sirens. 

I love to spend the winter days in my sofa with a blanket watching my favorite TV Shows, some movie or Youtube videos.

And that's pretty much all you have to know for know the most important things about me.

ORAL PRESENTATION

After seeing the video and my experience while doing it, I'm really proud and happy with the presentation. I really like the topic and I was excited and interested while searching information or stuff. 

In general I think that we can say that we did a good presentation because we spoke quite fluently and the information was pretty clear. 

Personally I think that I need to more confident and don't be nervous because at one moment I was blocked and I did a little pause. It's really hard for me to be confident infront of people but I think that I'm less nervous than other years because at least I wasn't shaking like the other times.

YOU SAY

I decided to do one YOU SAY about a band that I discovered not so long ago and It has already became one of my favorites.

Sleeping with Sirens is an American rock band from Orlando, Florida. The band was formed in 2009 by members of For All We Know, Broadway, and Paddock Park. The actual members are Kellin Quinn, Justin Hills, Gabe Barham, Jack Fowler and Nick Martin. Their music style are usually pop rock or alternative rock.

I like them because they can make a really loud and rythmycal song but the lyrics can be so romantic and sweet. My favorite song by them it's probably Better Off Dead, but I really love most of the songs. Also, I couldn't forget to mention the incredible voice of the singer, Kellin Quinn. They are the perfect combination and I'd love to attend one of their concerts.

YOU SAY

This summer I went to Ireland for three weeks. I went there with Mar and Paula, my two best friends. But we didn't went there for vacation or anything like that. We spent the three weeks going to high school from Monday until Friday. I know it seems like that was boring or something like this but I wasn't at all. I met a lot of people, made a lot of friends and improve my English. 

When we arrived our new families were waiting for us and we stayed with them the first day. My Irish family was really kind and sweet and they made the three weeks very pleasant. We also went to a lot of beautiful places in Ireland because on Saturdays we spent all day visiting places. Also, in the afternoons we met up in the shopping center that was near the school and we always were laughing and having a great time. 

The worst part was when we had to leave or when someone that we became really close had to go home. When that happened everyone started crying and hugging each other because maybe you won't see some of them anymore.

YOU SAY

This time I'm going to talk about a movie that I have seen called WAKE. 

The story follows Carys Reitman, a girl who is having a bad time and she starts to go to stranger's funerals. At one fateful funeral she meets Tyler , a man mourning his fiancée. Carys finds herself connecting to someone for the first time. Searching for answers, Carys goes to see her mother to confront her past. And as she tries to open herself to the risks of love with Tyler, she realizes she may have more to fear than just a broken heart.

I actually don't like to watch romantic movies because I think that they're all the same and are too sweet and unreal but I basically watch it because Ian Somerhalder, my favorite actor, was in the movie. But I was surprised because I really like it. It wasn't the traditional story when two people fall in love at first sight, but of course it was romantic and all. But the fact that they met at his fiancée's funeral changed the romantic thing and I like it.

Rebel song

UNDERCLASS HERO-SUM 41

The song that I have chosen is Underclass Hero by the canadian punk-rock band Sum 41. 

The song talks about the fight between the high-class and the underclass. In the song there are some rebellious sentences against the government, the law in general and they identify themselves as part of the underclass. They want to express that you don't have to act like everyones else and the others don't have to tell what is good or bad.

I've chosen this song because Sum 41 is one of my favorite bands and I think that the majority of teenagers can feel identified in this song because they express really well the idea of revolution.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEz2d49XTk0