60 minutes sports - Garrett McNamara and the big wave!

Garrett McNamara, the legendary surfer who holds the world record for the tallest wave ever surfed, describes what it's like to ride such a huge wall of water. He takes Anderson Cooper into the waters off Portugal where he rode that 78-foot wave -- and may have recently caught one even larger -- to experience the power and the danger in waves many believe are the biggest on the planet.

The Short Story Prada contest! Give it a try!

With the aim to discover promising writers, PRADA has called a Contest aimed at the accomplishment of short stories of a minimum of 10 (ten) pages and a maximum of 20 (twenty) pages on A4 sized sheets, each page to contain approximately 400 words, written in Bodoni –DTC dim. 11 style (hereinafter the “Short Story” or “Short Stories”), focusing on the inquire of the reality and its perception, especially: Views of the world. Images, marks, idea (hereinafter the “Contest”).
The Short Story may be proposed in any language chosen by the Contender without any restriction.

Portuguese music to celebrate the arrival of the month of May!

Emmy Curl was born in 1990 in northeast of Portugal. This girl grew up with lot of interests in arts like music, painting, play and photography. She began to produce by her self all her songs in her father's studio when she was only fifteen. To celebrate the first day of May I picked her version of Maio Maduro Maio. This song it's a cover. She made a great cover in my opinion. 

The author of this song is the great Zeca Afonso. It belongs to the Cantigas Do Maio which is the fifth album by the this Portuguese protest singer. This is, maybe, his best album. Some of his most famous songs are in it, one of them becoming a revolutionary anthem - it's Grândola Vila Morena, the song picked to be the code used by the Armed Forces Movement to start what would become the Carnation Revolution.

Zeca was an influential folk and political musician  and he used his music and poetry as a tool of resistance against Oliveira Salazar dictatorial regime.He was persecuted by the Fascist Police and saw many of his concerts cancelled. He was arrested and jailed for 2 months in the political prison of Caxias. After the Carnation Revolution took place in 1974  he continued to compose political folk songs. He continues to be listened all over the world and he remains an inspiration for the young artists like Emmy Curl.

May1st is bank holiday in Portugal. It's International Workers' Day. This celebration was harshly repressed during the fascist dictatorship regime.

Visit Jean-Philippe's site about Portuguese music!

Hello friends and Zazzlers!

A couple of weeks ago a young student contacted me and showed his project, a website he created to promote Portuguese music. Be an ambassador of your musical heritage by promoting your homeland music, Jean-Philippe wrote in his site. His full name is Jean-Philippe Costa and he lives in Washington. His parents are Portuguese but he was born in France. Nevertheless he chose Portuguese music, not French music for  his assignment. How cool!

GWSB (George Washington University School of Business) students have developed websites  for their digital marketing course. Google Analytics is being used to track the success of the students’ websites. At the end of the current spring semester, the student who gets the most unique visitors to the site will win a gift certificate to Founding Farmers – restaurants in the Washington, D.C. 

Please do me a little favor. Take a moment of your time and visit Jean-Philippe's site. It's called Your music your culture and it will introduce you to Portuguese music on the fly. He collected a significant sample of video links. You can also learn about Portuguese music evolution. Jean-Philippe covered the origin of fado, the state of music before the outburst of the revolutionary April 1974 (the "Carnation Revolution") and what genres flourished around the country after that event. 

If you're Portuguese and know our music well, you can give Jean-Philippe an extra helping hand! Go to his site and fill in the form available with your contribution.

You think the content of the site is not enough? You are right!
We need your contribution 

Fill in the required information, and leave as many suggestions as you like in the "comment" field. Your suggestions will thereafter be published on the website according to their content.

For your suggestions to be published in History and heritage

- Provide accurate facts (with dates, historical context)
- Any other idea that you deem relevant

For your suggestions to be published in Portuguese Artist:

- Provide the name of the Band/artist
- Provide the musical genre it belongs to
- Optional the name of your favorite songs/album

I was curious about  Jean-Philippe I asked Jean about himself, his life and projects for the future. He was kind enough to answer! 

1. Tell us your name, your age, where you live...
My name is Jean-Philippe Costa Mota or Jean-Philippe Antunes Mota... it depends if I use my Portuguese or French passport. This being said I am Portuguese “de alma e coração”. I am currently about to turn 25 next month, I was born and raised in France, my parents are Portuguese and Portuguese was actually the 1st language I learnt.
Like I usually like to say : My education as an individual is Portuguese since I have been raised by a Portuguese family, and my education as a citizen is French since I have been also “raised” by French institutions. I am finishing my Master of Science in Business in Washington, DC and will move to Brazil to start my career.

2. Why did you go to USA?
I decided to come to the US to conclude my master program for a semester.

3. Do you enjoy living there?
I enjoy life in Washington DC. When I first arrived I was afraid to miss the strong European culture, its history, literacy and of course its gastronomy. Hopefully I discovered here a wonderful country, very diversified. DC is a fun city to live at my age. But I must confess I miss food back home lol.

4. What do Americans think about Portuguese people?

Americans have very few knowledge about Portuguese culture. It’s not a myth that Americans are very self-centered and they might not pay a lot of attention to other cultures. Plus the US are a big country, I believe they know more about Portuguese in areas like New Jersey. All in all, Portuguese have the reputation to be hard and serious workers, and this no one can’t take away from us!

5. Why did you pick Portuguese music as a theme for this school project?
I choose to do this project about Portuguese music because I know myself; I know that to go the extra-mile and do a great job, I have to be passionate about what I am doing. I am passionate about our music. Besides, it gives me a sense justice, I feel like our artists should be recognized in an international level. I had the same feeling last year when I was in Brazil, and it was even more frustrating. I am proud to be an ambassador of our music thanks to this web-site.

6. What Portuguese music is available in the USA?
The cruel truth is ... none.

7. Besides music, what are your main interests?
I like listening to music, music makes me alive, lately I have been teaching myself guitare and harmonica and it feels awesome. Aside from that I love martial arts which I have been practicing for 9 years and of course I love going out and enjoying what life can offer to a young person earger to discover the world. Travelling is certainly my biggest passions.

8. In what country do you imagine living in the future?
I am only in the US for a short period of time. My parents are currently in France, so I would guess my home is there. Nevertheless one day I do intend to go live a couple of years in Portugal. At the end of the day, I believe it is where I belong and it’s just a matter of time before I undertake to spend time in Portugal.

Got news from The Sketchbook 2013 Tour!