A country I would like to visit.

 

 

The first country I would like to visit is Japan. I know it is difficult to be there due to the difficulty of the language, but it is a country that attracts my attention. I consider its culture and traditions very interesting. This is so for two reasons, the first is because I quite like anime and manga. It is incredible how a country (in addition to the US) has been able to influence the cultural and entertainment world of so many generations worldwide thanks to this art. The stories that can be found there deal with all kinds of topics, in fact many animes are cataloged for adults due to the complex content they address. Also, the stories in the anime and manga are set in very beautiful places in Japan that I would like to see. Besides, I would like to travel to Japan for work purposes. Since I am a classical guitarist, it would be ideal for me to travel there and dedicate myself to giving concerts of Latin American music, and my own compositions. I have been told that Japanese people have a great interest in music, to the guitar, and especially in Latin American culture, and for that reason I think it could be a good place to work as a musician giving concerts or guitar lessons.

Agustín Barrios "Mangoré" - An expert on my field.

 

 

Because music is my field of activity, specifically classical guitar performance, I have decided to talk about a guitarist and composer named Agustín Barrios “Mangoré”. This guitarist was born in 1885, in Paraguay and died in 1944, in El Salvador. His father was Argentine, but from the side of his mother he had Guarani bloodline. He is one of the most important figures in paraguayan culture and also in Latin America. He traveled through many countries and cities in Latin America, where he learned and rescued traditional dances and songs from almost all Latin American countries. His musical language is a mixture of Latin American folk music and European classical music. His concert programs included both the music of Bach and Beethoven, as well as his own compositions and folkloric pieces. It became known throughout Latin America under the pseudonym “Nitsuga Mangoré”, “Nitsuga” by Agustín written backwards, and “Mangoré” in honor of a legendary Guaraní cacique. In his research to represent his culture, Mangoré even costumed himself as a Guaraní indigenous for his concerts.

Agustín Barrios Mangoré is currently one of the most played composer by classical guitarists worldwide. His work includes around 300 pieces for solo guitar, for example, dances, preludes, studies and fantasies. In my opinion, he is one of the most important figures in the history of Latin American music and the guitar, because he transcended to the present day thanks to his investigative work, collecting folk music and taking it to the top of the culture. He is an artist and a role model that I greatly admire, and my personal project about music is inspired in Barrios, because I want to perform latinoamerican music, create a mixture of folclore and classical music, write my owns compositions, and rescue the typical music of us culture, similar to what Barrios did.

My childhood series

 

 

 

I remember when I was a child, the first cartoon I became a fan was Dragon Ball. It was transmitted on the national channels, and I didn't miss any chapter. Even, with my dad we tried to record the movies on VHS. Goku was a hero to me. I remember since I was kid playing to train some kind of martial art in the backyard of my house. I was such a fan of Goku that for a birthday of a friend I dressed up like him.

A few years later, with the arrival of Cable TV to my house, I began to see the Cartoon Networks and Nickelodeon cartoons. My favorites were Courage the Cowardly Dog and Cat-Dog. The stories in these cartoons were very rare, but I really liked the colors and the atmosphere created. Especially Courage, looking at it from my current point of view, I could consider this cartoon as surreal, due to the impossible of certain stories and the strangeness of the characters.

During my adolescence, I began to like Japanese cartoons or anime again, and at that time my favorite was Hunter X. I remember that after school I always rushed home to see it. Currently, in fact, I am still seeing this type of drawing, in series and movies. I find that it is quite an art, and Hayao Miyazaki's films are an admirable example of what a drawing can express.

 

The Story of a Picture

This picture was taken in Chiloé, exactly 2 years ago. In this picture we can see my colleagues from the Cuarteto Movimientos, guitar quartet which we formed in 2016. Together we have performed in various stages and theaters in Santiago, also in nearby towns such as Paine or Peñaflor. But we had never come as far from home as that time. This picture is from the educational concerts tour we did together, which started in Temuco, passing through Valdivia, then Puerto Montt and ending in Castro, all in one week.

I remember it was very exciting, because we were able to stay in incredible places like palafitos, share with school students and eat a lot of typical food from the south of the country. This entire tour was financed with the support of the National Music Fund and the entire itinerary was managed by a producer, Khalo, who is also a musician and he was the person who took this photo of us on stage.

I love this photo, it brings me back good memories of these concerts, nostalgia and wishes to perform again, soon as the quarantine is over.

My pets

At home, we have always had and took many cats and dogs in. My family loves animals, and it is a tradition to be sharing with them. Currently our partners are four; Chimuelo and Ginger are the cats of the house. Agnes and Tata are our dogs. All of them have come to the house because my sister, who is a veterinarian, has brought them. 

One of them is Ginger,  who has been at the house the longest, she arrived very small, just a few months old, and she is now around 5 years old. She is a very grumpy cat, and she is not very sociable, neither with humans nor with animals. Almost at the same time, Agnes came to our lives also with a few months old. At that time she was very small, smaller than a shoe. Now it is very large, when she is standing, she measures almost 1.50 meters. She is very playful and sweet. 

A few months later Chimuelo arrived. He is very shy and calm. We all love hugging him and giving him kisses, because he is very furry and soft, and fortunately he lets us do that, unlike Ginger, who rarely allows it. The last to arrive is Tata, I gave him that name because when he arrived at the house he was already old. This dog was rescued by my sister near a place where they were doing greyhound racing. Apparently, his older owners abandoned him, probably because he could no longer run like young dogs. I couldn't imagine a daily routine without being able to greet my fellow cats and dogs every morning.

My favorite piece of technology

I must confess that my favorite piece of technology is really, quite dated, but still insuperable to me, I mean; the record-player or turntable and the vinyl record. I choose those because I love listening to music, and I consider this as the best music player. 

I have listen music from CDs, cassettes, music in delicate formats such as flac, even with the best headphones, but these experiences do not exceed the sound quality offered by the record player. Of course, to have a good sound experience, you need two importants resources; A vinyl in good condition and a good needle. This is so because many old vinyl records are scratched, and this causes us to listen with interruptions, or listen over and over again, as in a musical loop. However, even if we have a new vinyl, we will not be able to fully enjoy its sound if we do not have an optimal needle that reproduces it. The needle is crucial, because it is the device that captures the vibrations produced by the grooves drawn on the vinyl, similar to what happens with wind instruments, which use a reed to produce the vibration in the instrument, and thus produce sounds.

 The vinyl and the record-player together are a kind of musical instrument for me, because with them is possible listen to music on vinyl without the need of a speaker, because when the vinyl is turning and the needle vibrates, an acoustic sound is produced, not electronic, as in the case of other music player devices. For all these reasons, I consider the vinyl and the record-player as an insuperable device to this day. If you have the opportunity to listen to a good vinyl, do not hesitate! It is very similar to listening to live music.

My Study Trip in London

Day		Place		Entrance Fee	Tube Station	Travel Zone
Monday	AM	Hop-on hop-off bus tour (24 hours tour)		£28	None.	Central London
	PM
Tuesday	AM	Big Ben and Westminster Abbey		£17	Westminster Station	Westminster 1
	PM	London Eye		£20 student	Waterloo Station	Waterloo 1
Wednesday	AM	Buckingham Palace		£40 + £2.40	Victoria	Victoria, Central London 1
	PM	Hyde park		£0	Hyde Park Corner	Hyde park 1
Thursday	AM	Warner Bros. Studio Tour London - The Making of Harry Potter		£46.95 + £10	Watford Junction	Leavesden, Watford
	PM	Paddington Station and Little Venice		£7.60	Paddington Station	Paddington 1
Friday	AM	Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum		£32	Baker Street	1
	PM	Jack the Ripper Museum		£13 + £2.40	Tower Hill Station	1
Saturday	AM	Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre		£13.50	London Bridge Underground	Bankside 1
	PM	Tate Modern Museum		£0	London Bridge Underground, Bankside	Bankside 1
Sunday	AM	The British Museum		£0	Tottenheim Court Road	1
	PM	Embankment Pier to Tower Millenium Pier on River Bus, and Tower of London.		£8.70 + £2.40 + £19.30	Travel for Thames: Embankment to Tower of London	1
			Total Costs	£263.25

For the first day of this travel, I will take a Hop-on hop-off bus tour, because this is a good way to give a preview of all the city, before of visit each important place. This tour has a maximum duration of one day, in which I can freely choose the stops that interest me or call my attention. The next day i will start to know some famous and iconic places of the city. On the tuesday morning i will go to know Westminster Abbey, from inside and Big Ben only from outside. These are very close (50 mt.). After that, I will walk across the Westminster Bridge, until I reach the London Eye. Here I will pay the ticket to get on that giant 135 meter wheel, because I really like that kind of entertainment, besides that it will give a beautiful view of the city.

To the next morning, I will go to explore the Buckingham Palace. I will pay the complete tour to know The State Rooms, The Buckingham Palace, The Queen’s Gallery and the Royal Mews. I think this place is perhaps one of the most important in the whole world. After to know the Palace, I will take the Tube on Victoria Station to Hyde Park Corner. I want to know the Hyde Park because is the largest park in London, and I am struck by the fact that it is located right in the center of the city.

Thursday will be a movie day. This because I want to visit the Harry Potter Studios. I am a fan of the saga, those movies marked my childhood, and I would feel very sad if I couldn't go to visit that place. To get there, I will take the Tub to Watford, and a bus too, to Leavesden. This should take me an hour at lest, for these reasons, for this day in particular I will need to get up very early. After that, I will return to London, and I want to stop of this travel on the Paddington Station, because here was filmed another movie that I like, about a bear with the same name of the Station. To finish this day, I will go for a walk on the Little Venice. This place is very close of the station, and is a beautiful kind of replica of the Venice Waterway, and it appears in a scene from the movie too.

If the mood of Thursday will be the fantastic world of movies, for Friday I pretend to create a day to the mystery and horror. On morning I will go to visit the Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum. This place has wax sculptures of many famous people, but I am interested to visit The Chamber of Horrors, because here you could see a strange collection of serial killers, dismembered bodies and other curious things like that. Following with the topic, I will need to take the Tub from Baker Street to Tower Hill Station, to end the day visiting the Jack the Ripper Museum.

To the two last days of this travel I want return to visit some historical sites of London. On the Saturday morning I will go to the Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, that even if it is a rebuilding, I am sure that I will love it. After that I will go to visit the Tate Modern Museum. This museum is few steps to the Globe, on Bankside too, and has thousands of paintings, sculptures, photographs, drawings, and artistics installations of the modern and contemporary Art.

My farewell to the city will begin in The British Museum, because this place brings together thousands of objects and works that are invaluable for both London and universal culture. After that, I will take the Tub from Tottenheim Court Road Station to Embankment Station, because I want to get on a River bus from the Embankment Pier to Tower Millenium Pier, sailing the Thames. Finally, after about 15 minutes on the river, I get off at the Tower Pier, to see the Tower Bridge from afar, and to visit the Tower of London, in order to say goodbye to the city.