TOP 5: NEW SINGERS

What do teenagers listen to these days? Here you are going to know new music and the answer to the question in a top 5 of singers/bands. Hope you enjoy it!

NUMBER 5:

Emblem3 is an American reggae-pop band from Washington, consisting of brothers Wesley and Keaton Stromberg. They signed with Simon Cowell's (like One Direction) record label Syco Records and Columbia Records after finishing 4th on the second season of The X Factor USA. They launched their debut album called "Nothing to lose" on 2013 with Drew Chadwick, who later left the band, leaving E3's future uncertain.

They did a little tour and also performed at multiple festivals. They have done shows with many other artists like Jack & Jack (from Magcon, friends of Shawn Mendes) and they have a song with them called "Cheat codes".

They have a studio album, two extended plays and two singles with videos.

On The X Factor they performed good old songs like "Hey Jude" by The Beatles, "No One" by Alicia Keys and "Forever Young" by Alphaville.

GO AND LISTEN TO:

- Chloe (You're the one that I want)

- XO

- Forever Together 

- Nothing to lose

NUMBER 4:

5 Seconds of Summer -abreviated as 5SOS- is an Australian pop-punk band formed in Sidney and consists of Luke Hemmings (lead vocals. guitar), Michael Clifford (guitar, vocals), Calum Hood (bass guitar, vocals) and Ashton Irwin (drums, vocals). They were youtube celebrities, posting videos of themselves covering songs. They toured with One Direction on the Take me Home Tour where they opened their shows.

They cite bands like McFly, Blink182, Green Day and Busted as their influencies.

5SOS became popular when a member of One Direction, Louis Tomlinson, posted the link to their youtube video of their song "Gotta get out" saying that he'd been a fan of 5SOS "for a while". The connection between 5sos and One Direction extends to both artists being managed by London based Modest management. This has led to 5sos being called a boy band in the media. Unlike many boys bands, they write their songs, play their own instruments and they are not a dance group.

They have one studio album, six extended plays, five singles and eight music videos. Also, on 15 December 2014, the band announced their first live slbum, LIVESOS. Now, they're doing new music and launched "She's kida hot", the first single of their second album.

GO AND LISTEN TO:

- She looks so perfect

- Amnesia

- Good girls

- Try hard

NUMBER 3:

Victorian Loren "Tori" Kelly (born December, 1992) is and American singer and songwritter who slowly gained recognition after starting to post videos on youtube at the age of 14. When she was 16, she auditioned for the singing competition tv series American Idol. After being eliminated if the show, Kelly began to work on her own music. In 2012, she launched her first EP that she produced, wrote and mixed herself, called "Handmade songs by Tori Kelly". Scooter Braun (manages a lot of singers like Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande) became her manager and introduced her to Capitol Records. Also, she can play the piano, drums and the guitar.

GO AND LISTEN TO: 

- Dear no one

- Paper hearts

- Stained

- Celestial

NUMBER 2:

Shawn Peter Raul Mendes (born August 8,1998) is a Canadian singer. He began posting song covers on the popular video sharing application Vine. He caught the attention of Andrew Gertler and Island Records A&R Ziggy Chareton which led to him signing a deal with the record label and he realised his first single "Life of the Party" there.

Mendes toured as a member of the MagCon Tour where other young artists like Nash Grier and Cameron Dallas became popular. He was also on a tour with Austin Mahone as an opening act and recorded his EP. Now he is touring with Taylor Swift with his album debut called "Handwritten".

He did a song as featured artist with the band The Vamps, called "Oh Cecilia (Breaking My Heart)" and he is a friend of Ed Sheeran too.

GO AND LISTEN TO:

- Life of the Party

- A little too much

- Believe

- Air

NUMBER 1:

Edward Christopher Sheeran (born 17 February 1991) is and English singer-songwritter and musician. In early 2011, Sheeran did an independent extended play, "No. 5 Collaborations project", which caught the attention of both Elton John and Jamie Foxx: then he signed with Asylum Records.

Sheeran popularity abroad began in 2012. He made a guest appereance on Taylor Swift's album and wrote songs for One Direction. On 2013 Grammy Awards, he performed "The A team" with Elton John. Also, he performed 3 sold out concerts at Madison Square Garden and Wembley Stadium.

He started touring with Taylor Swift, where he opened her shows. Then he did his own tours called "+ Tour" and "x Tour".

GO AND LISTEN TO:

- The A team

- Thinking out loud

- Don't

- Give me love

This is the end of our TOP 5: SINGERS. Stay tuned for the next TOP 5: SERIES!

Santiago Vanella, Jazmín Mendoza and Iván Menoni - 4th Year

DEAR DIARY: FEAR CONDITIONS US

Dear diary,

Did you ever feel you wanted to run away and scream for a long time? Shouting. Feeling your soul escaping from your body, through your mouth. A shout of liberation; not to die in silence. It happens to me, and I can’t do anything about it. 

If you never felt this way, it’s easy to imagine. Suppose you are a cage. Inside you, there is a bird, longing to fly away. The doors are open and it’s still there, locked. It feels afraid and it’s alone. The outside looks scary. 

It’s difficult to say what we think without fearing society. 

I think being different shouldn’t be a problem, but rather something unusual. 

Live it. Don’t live it as a prejudice or something bad for you. Live it as a blessing. We are all different, yes, and despite our differences, I’d like all of us to look into a mirror. Don’t focus on the aesthetic aspect. Look deeply. We are made of body and soul. Nothing is worth more than a feeling, a desire or a thought; but it’s very easy to shut up and pass as indifferent (even when you know how different you feel). 

What I want to say is: have you ever thought how much damage you can do to a person just by calling them ‘weird’? 

Yes, such a simple word. Just five letters to many people. But, maybe, for some people, it’s one of the reasons why they don’t express their feelings. It pushes them away. They feel alone, and that’s worse. 

The only thing people want is to be accepted. They don’t expect to be congratulated; they just want to be noticed, because differences fade away when we recognize other people. 

Someone did it for me once. I thought I’d never say this, but that caressed my soul. And things changed. I fear no more.

See you soon, dear diary.

MIA-

A HISTORY OF HORROR FILMS: PART II

1950 - 1970

Throughout the 50s, 60s and 70s British producer Hammer struck exposing high quality movies as  The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) , Dracula (1958) and The Mummy (1959). The star directors of that time were the English Terence Fisher and the American Roger Corman, who specialized in low-budget films, based on stories by the writer Edgar Allan Poe. 

The beginning of the Cold War gave place to new ways of seeing horror in cinema and films like Gojira / Godzilla ( 1954) by Ishiro Honda came to light.

In the 60s , George Andrew Romero had premiered the Night of the Living Dead, film that gave birth to another theme : that of zombies. These, like the werewolf or vampires, are part of folk tradition and the oldest folk tales. The contemporary horror, however, both in literature and film, deals with the zombies without any romanticist shade, trying to achieve in the reader or viewer -through the raw expression of his cannibal monstrosity- an effect of ancestral pure terror.

From the 70's we found two remarkable films. The Exorcist by William Friedkin (1973) is considered by many critics the scariest movie in the history of cinema; the same goes for that infamous Jaws (1975) by Steven Spielberg. 

A new topic was used in this decade: paranormal powers. This was perfectly demonstrated in Carrie (1976), based on the novel of the same title by Stephen King, who later entered the psychological terror with Dressed to Kill (1980). 

Then, the mixture of horror and science fiction literature by Lovecraft reappears with an excellent film called Alien (1979).

1980 - 1990

In the 80s, movies of "teen horror" became fashionable, addressed to that one group in particular. Friday the 13th by Sean S. Cunningham began a series of films in which the manager is a wild terrifying murderer operating in the dark. They were followed by A Nightmare on Elm Street another one signed by Wes Craven. Prom Night (1980), Terror Train (1980), Bloody Valentine (1981), Happy Birthday to Me (1981), The Slumber Party Slaughter (1982), Sleepaway Camp (1983), Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984), The Day Aprils Fool (1986), Devil Doll (1988), and Clownhouse (1989) all explored the same theme.

Other notable films of the decade were The Shining (1980) by Stanley Kubrick; The body (1981) by Sidney Furie; The Thing (1982) by John Carpenter; Poltergeist by Tobe Hooper; Re-Animator (1985) by Stuart Gordon; Hellraiser (1987) by Clive Barker. The Canadian David Cronenberg hit it again with The Fly (1986, a remake of the 50s version) and Dead Ringers (1988). The film that would close a decade of the best adaptations on the work of novelist Stephen King is Pet Sematary by Mary Lambert (1989).

The 90's brought lots of horror movies, like Interview with the Vampire (Neil Jordan, 1994); the production of the Canadian science fiction Cube (1997), powerful and innovative in its theme; the aforementioned Dracula by Francis Ford Coppola (1992), and the great success among teenagers Wes Craven's Scream (1996) and its sequels; besides I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) parodied in Scary Movie (2000, Keenen Ivory Wayans). 

The New Zealander Peter Jackson (trilogy The Lord of the Rings) had opened with the spectacular -although parody- entitled Braindead (1992) and Bad Taste (1987) . Indian-born director M. Night Shyamalan, gave us the original The Sixth Sense (1999), which has also been compared with the chilling Others by Alejandro Amenabar.

2000's

The 2000s were a quiet time for the genre. Horror films began to be based on sales rather than on creating original stories . The extended version of The Exorcist and blockbusters like Final Destination (2000) -which includes 4 years following- sequels-, Jason X  (2001) and Freddy vs. Jason (2003) were launched. The Jeepers Creepers series also succeeded . Films like Hollow Man, The Orphan, Wrong Turn, Cabin Fever and House of 1000 Corpses helped bring the genre back to qualifications restricted in theaters. Comic book adaptations such as Blade, Constantine (2005) and the Hellboy (2004) series also became box office hits. Adaptations of video games like Doom (2005) and Silent Hill (2006) also had a moderate box office success , while the Van Helsing (2004) and Underworld series had a huge box office success .

Style web videos featuring Slender Man became popular on YouTube in the beginning of the decade. Horror has become prominent on television with The Walking Dead, American Horror Story and The Strain. Many popular horror films have had successful television series made, like Psycho spawned Bates Motel, The Silence of the Lambs spawned Hannibal; while Scream and Friday the 13th both have television series in development. 

Horror cinema has grown since its very first movie came out. Nowadays, we can find frightening films for everyone, even on television. Some people think that old scary movies were better than today´s movies. We believe that times have changed and that we can find excellent cinematographic productions even today. Here are our top movies. Enjoy!

• The Amityville Horror (1979)
• Mama (2013)
• Carrie (1976)
• Friday the 13th (1980)
• Rosemary's Baby (1968)
• The Sixth Sense (1999)
• The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
• The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005)
• The Blair Witch Project (1999)
• Scream (1996)
• The Exorcist (1976)
• Psycho (1960)
• The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
• The Ring (2002)
• Paranormal Activity (2007)
• Insidous (2010)
• Grave Encounters (2011)

Nadia Palaziol, Iara Stendler, Ignacio Penzotti and Melina Estaras - 4th Year

REVIEW OF 'PAPER TOWNS'

John Green, author of the best-selling book ‘The Fault in Our Stars’, surprises us with a new story; this time without low punches. The adaptation was in the hands of the director Jake Schreier, who succeeds in not using clichés on a classic teen movie. 

The story has as a protagonist, Quentin (Nat Wolff), a teenager who is a few weeks away of finishing high school to begin an adult life in college. 

Since he was a child, he has lived in the same neighborhood as Margo (Cara Delevigne), a mysterious girl who he has always been in love with but never found the opportunity to tell her everything he feels about her. 

One night, Margo appears in Quentin’s room ad comes out with the idea of being partners in crime. She wants to take revenge of her friends who hurt her in the past. 

He fell in love even more, but then Margo disappears again –as usual- leaving a series of clues for everyone to find her. 

Quentin is really sure that the clues are for him and decides to make a 27-hour trip to find her before the prom ball. He is not alone; he is with his best friends: Ben and Radar.

The main theme could be finding Margo, but friendship becomes very important at this point. 

It is very well achieved because it doesn’t have the typical clichés we are so used to seeing in teen movies. 

In a film industry full of remakes, this movie has some really fresh things. 

I recommend it if you want to see something different: it has good performances and the script is even better that the book. 

Cielo Palavecino – 5th year

THE 'BEATLEMANIA'

Who hasn’t heard of the "Beatlemania" or about Abbey Road? Or has never seen the Yellow Submarine?

Let’s be honest, there is a chance that you may have not heard or seen anything about these four great men who changed the history of music. If you know nothing about them, in this article you'll find out everything you have to know.

The Beatles is a British group of rock and pop music, integrated in 1961 by John Lennon (1940 – 1980), Paul McCartney (Liverpool, 1942), George Harrison (1943 – 2001) and Ringo Starr (Liverpool, 1940).

In the second half of the 1950s, John Lennon and his friend Peter Shotton formed a band and they called it The Quarrymen, to which Paul McCartney was added in 1957, followed by George Harrison.

Finally they added a drummer, Peter Best, and got to play a concert in Hamburg. Best left the band because of disagreements with the rest of its members and was replaced by Ringo Starr. 

The formation of The Beatles was definitively consolidated with John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. 

In 1962, after listening to a performance, producer Brian Epstein hired them to record a single. This first album was titled “Love me do” and managed to place in the charts in the UK. As early as 1963, “Please, please me”, “From me to you” and “She loves you” would reach -again- positions of honor in the British charts.

That year can be considered the birth of the “Beatlemania”, a phenomenon of idolatry to the group. The “Beatlemania” was extended a year later to the United States, where issues like Love me do, She loves you or I want to hold your hand reached the top spot in the charts.

The Beatles shot several films, most notably: What night of that day! (1964) and Yellow Submarine (1968).

In 1967 they would launch their revolutionary work ‘Sgt. Pepper’s lonely Hearts Club Band’, an album that marked the birth of psychedelic music. 

Following the publication of “Le it be”, in 1970, the disagreements in training ended with the dissolution of the band and each member continued their musical career as soloists. 

The murder of John Lennon by a disturbed fan in 1980 had great impact worldwide.

The Beatles’ influence over the decades has been immense. It represents a lifestyle that fits perfectly with the deep concerns of 1960’s youth.

In our opinion, the Beatles are fantastic because their songs carry messages of peace and love for humanity; in addition to having participated in many charity events, donating millions to foundations. The best of all is that the Beatles is still famous worldwide and heard by generations of people for their messages of love and peace, despite their separation in 1970 and the death of two of its members. 

Their music is still alive!

Yazmín Vigo, Agustina Pasaragua, Nazarena Farías and Diana Acuña - 5th year

A BRIEF HISTORY OF FERNET BRANCA

We’d like to honor one of the favourite cocktails of the Argentineans. Everyone in Argentina has tried –at least once- a ‘Fernet con Coca’ (which means ‘Fernet and Cola’). Some like it strong, others prefer it softer; but it’s a fact that most people who like to drink alcohol, like to drink Fernet. 

This famous drink is great because it combines two ingredients: Fernet and Cola (duh!): the first one is very bitter and it’s balanced with the sweetness of cola. So, if you are someone who likes bitter drinks, you can prepare it with more Fernet than cola (or even just Fernet with soda water); if you like sweet drinks, you can prepare it with more cola and you’ll be drinking a smooth drink with a trace of a bitter taste. 

Its popularity never stops growing, especially among teenagers and young adults. 

But… where did it all start? 

Fernet is an Italian type of amaro with a bitter aromatic spirit. Fernet’s smell is described as ‘black licorice-flavored Listerine’. It’s very popular in Argentina, where production is around 25 million liters: 30% is sold in Buenos Aires and its capital city; 30% is sold in Córdoba and the rest around the country. 

Fernet can be mixed into different cocktails. It can replace bitters in recipes, for instance: the Fanciulli cocktail is a Manhattan with Fernet instead of Angostura bitters. 

It was made in Milan, Italy, by Bernardino Branca. It was mainly for medical use, but people used to drink it. He realized that he could earn more money by selling it as an alcoholic drink (this is similar to the Coke-Cola story: it was first sold as medicine and then as a regular drink. Maybe that’s the reason why they are so good together). 

This year marked the 170th anniversary of Fernet Branca’s first appearance. We are all familiarized with its symbol.

However, do you know how that famous image was born?

An eagle holds a bottle of Fernet Branca while flying around the world. The logo –which over the years became the symbol of the company- has an important source: the author is Leopoldo Metlicovitz, born in Tiesta in 1868. He is a reference for many young artists like Marcelo Dudovich. 

After a few years of use, the official logo was inscribed in the Ministry of National Economy of Italy, in 1905. 

Although in Argentina is the most famous drink, lots of celebrities have claimed to like it:

Angel Cabrera (a golf player) says he loves it. In the movie ‘The Dark Knight Rises’, you can see Alfred (Bruce Wayne’s assistant) order a Fernet in a bar. This is also done by Hugh Laurie in the series ‘A bit of Fry and Laurie’. 

Fernet is considered the drink of friendship (right after beer). In Argentina, you don’t go to a friend’s house and drink a gin-tonic with friends. You drink Fernet (or a beer, of course). 

Fernet and Cola is the drink that Argentineans choose to share with friends and loved ones. That’s why it means a lot for us; because Fernet is like a symbol that reminds us a lot of cool experiences that we had together. 

Cheers!! 

Brian Ferrari, Facundo Silva, Gabriel Maiolo and Ignacio Morales- 5th year

THE HISTORY OF BOCA JUNIORS

Boca Juniors was founded in the year 1905 in Buenos Aires.

Since the beginning of Boca Juniors, football is the most important sport. From 1905 to 1930 the club was amateur, then it became professional.

Is the second institution with the most amount of international titles of the world…but, how did it all start? 

The foundation of Boca Juniors was a work of six teenagers, children of Italians and neighbors of La Boca, neighborhood of immigrant workers and strong Genoese identity –‘xeneize’ in its dialect-: Esteban Baglietto, Alfredo Scarpatti, Santiago Pedro Sana, Tomás Movio and the brothers Juan Antonio Farenga and Teodoro Farenga.

The club recognized Esteban Baglietto as its first president. Esteban was born in 1888 in Buenos Aires -though his parents were Genoese- in the bosom of a very humble family. He was the first president of the institution and also a player of the first team.

The certain thing is that it turns out to be inappropriate to speak about a president since –back then- Boca Juniors was just a boys' team joined by the only desire to play football; very distant from answering to an institutional worry or to an organization with legal status.

The first football team was formed by eleven players who, by that first participation, have a place in history. Some of them were the following: 

De los Santos (goalkeeper), Vergara and Cerezo (defenders), Priano, Antonio Farenga and Bacigaluppi (scorers).

THE SUPER-CLASSIC

The super-classic of Argentine Football is the match in which the two most popular football teams play against each other: Boca Juniors and River Plate. The first official super-classic was disputed on August 24, 1993: River won 2-1 to Boca.

The ‘Super-classic’ of Argentine football is the party that faces the most popular soccer teams of the country: River Plate and Boca Juniors. This sports’ spectacle concentrates the attention of the big masses not only in Argentina, but in many countries of the world. 

Very few international matches have the heat, the color, and the vibration of a River-Boca: the previous reunion of friends, sharing food and beer, the coffee conversations over the match, the discussions between ‘xeneizes’ and ‘hens’, everything is part of the best folklore that football has to offer to fans. 

This rivalry began at the beginning of the 20th century when the above mentioned clubs were sharing the neighborhood of La Boca.

The most important players throughout the history of Boca Juniors are:

Juan Román Riquelme

Diego Armando Maradona

Gabriel Batistuta

Carlos Tévez

Martín Palermo

Bruno Blas, Felipe Tozzini and Agustín Converso - 3rd Year

DO TEENAGERS READ?

It's not strange to hear adults saying that 'the habit of reading is lost' and that 'teenagers are always using computers and mobile phones but NEVER pick up a book'. We bet you know what we are talking about, whether you are a teen or a grown up. 

But, is this really true?

To find out, we asked students in our school if they ever read. If that was the case, we asked what they read and how or where. 

Here's what we came up with.

What do teenagers read?

According to our questionnaire, most adolescents read these four genres:

Horror

Horror novels are genres of literature, which are intended to, or have the capacity to frighten, scare, or startle their readers by inducing feelings of horror and terror.

It's usually supernatural, though it can be non-supernatural. Often the central menace of a work of horror fiction can be interpreted as a metaphor for the larger fears of a society. 

The genre of horror has ancient origins with roots in folklore and religious tradition focusing on death, the after life, evil, the demonic and the principle of ‘the thing’ embodied in the person. These were manifested in stories of beings such as witches, vampires, werewolves and ghosts.

Fan-fiction

The term fanfiction or fan fiction, often abbreviated to fanfic or fic, refers to works of fiction written by fans of a literary or dramatic work (film, novel, tv show, video game, anime...). In these stories the character, situations and environments described in the original of the author's own creation are used and new roles for these are developed. 

This kind of reading, often leads to writing: it's one of the most important sources of inspiration for teenagers to start writing their own stories. 

Romance

The romance novel or romantic novel is a literary genre. Novels of this type of genre fiction place their primary focus on the relationship and romantic love between two people, and must have an 'emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending'. There are many subgenres of the romance novel including fantasy, historical, science fiction and paranormal.

According to the Romance Writers of America, the main plot of a romance novel must revolve about the two people as they develop romantic love for each other and the work to build a relationship. Both the conflict and the climax of the novel should be directly related to that core theme of developing a romantic relationship, although the novel can also contain subplots that do not specifically relate to the main characters` romantic love.

Science fiction

Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginative content such as futuristic settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, time travel, faster than light travel, parallel universes and extraterrestrial life. It usually eschews the supernatural, and unlike the related genre of fantasy, its imaginary elements are largely plausible within the scientifically established context of the story. Science fiction often explores the potential consequences of scientific and other innovations, and has been called a 'literature of ideas'.

Where do teenagers read?

When people say we don't read, they may be actually wrong. Teenagers are used to reading in a very different way, far from traditional books. We might be reading in a bus, right next to you, but you think we are checking our phones or social networks. 

PDF

If you are looking for a particular book, all you have to do is Google the title up, generally followed by 'PDF'. When the results appear, you click on the site chosen and download the file. You can do this in your tablet, mobile phone, ipod and laptop -among others-. 

Wattpad

You must log in to an account in Wattpad via Internet or by downloading the application. Once done, you can follow your favourite writers to see all their publications. All novels or stories you find here are adaptations, none will be original except the stories created by users (you can also do it) and add to 'your library' what you want to read. In each text you have the option to rate and comment freely.

Facebook

This might be news for a lot of people, but you can also read books on Facebook. There are lots of FB pages that upload fanfics and stories written by several users. All you have to do is click on the album and you will find the consecutive chapters under the pictures. 

So, next time you hear someone say that 'teenagers don't read anymore', remember our words...WE STILL READ!!

Brisa Gómez and Florencia Migliavacca - 3rd Year

DEAR DIARY: CHANGES

I write because I need someone out there, reading. I’m not the only one that is lost in this life, but I may be the only one going public. 

I am not alone, we are four. Please, don’t try to discover who we are because, then, you could discover who I am. 

We will refer to ourselves using a common name, because –again- we don’t want to be identified. 

My name is MIA. I’m a regular teenager, with a regular diary…and a story to tell. 

Are you ready?

Dear Diary,

Sometimes I wonder if dreaming is good or bad. After a lot of thinking, I came to a conclusion: what if we dream so much that we end up believing those dreams, confusing illusion and reality? 

It’s frustrating to realize that these are just repressed desires, constantly fighting to emerge out of our subconscious. More frustrating is doing nothing to change things. But, are we guilty for not having the life we desire?

Yes, believe me. I’m not talking about poverty or lack of resources. This is the work of fate and some luck, I think. 

I’m talking about basic things, like our welfare. I’m talking about feelings, and if you think this is corny, then wait for the end of this publication. 

I will talk about me. As in any case, if you give examples, you must begin with yourself. 

What I wanted throughout my life has changed. Sometimes it was clear, sometimes it wasn’t. 

But deeply inside, thinking it over, I always arrive to the same place. That’s the point. What I want or wanted are pure fantasies. I invent stories. Love stories with happy endings that are not similar to my reality. 

I always knew something was wrong. 

I started blaming everyone. It’s clear now that I’ve been mistaken for a long time. Because, why would people expect me not to have what I wanted? 

It was always me. I am my own obstacle and, on time or not, I realized it. I’m the reason why things don’t turn out as I hoped. I’m taking the wrong roads, with the wrong people, at the wrong time. I’m my own stone in my shoe. 

Instead of stopping to get it out, I’ve been ignoring it. The difference between knowing what you want and ignoring it; and knowing what you want and doing something about it, is a blister on your foot. 

But I’m not here to talk about podiatry, maybe some other time. 

This is the key moment. I’m walking on the edge. I know what I have to do, my head is spinning. Part of it wants to continue dreaming; the other one wants to end this eternal nightmare. 

What I didn’t know is that you can’t live out of fantasies and, whether you like it or not, that has to stop. 

Time to change. It’s time to close stages in my life. Minutes run fast and I haven’t got seconds to loose. 

I wish a long and happy life to who could have been a great love. I loved you with every part of my body and I remember you that way. 

But life goes on…

See you soon, dear diary.

MIA.-

A HISTORY OF HORROR FILMS - PART I

Horror is a film genre seeking to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's primal fears. Inspired by literature from authors like Edgar Allan Poe, Bram Stoker and Mary Shelley, horror films have for more than a century featured scenes that startle the viewer. The macabre and the supernatural are frequent themes; as a result they may overlap with the fantasy, supernatural, and thriller genres.

Horror films often deal with the viewer's nightmares, hidden fears, revulsions and fright of the unknown. Plots within the horror genre often involve the intrusion of an evil force, event, or personage, commonly of supernatural origin, into the everyday world. Prevalent elements include ghosts, aliens, vampires, werewolves, demons, gore, torture, vicious animals, evil witches, monsters, zombies, cannibals, and serial killers. Conversely, movies about the supernatural are not necessarily always horrific.

Since this is one of the most popular genres among cinemagoers, we decided to investigate about famous films from the moment of its invention to the 1950’s.

1890-1920s 

The first depictions of supernatural events appear in several of the silent shorts created by the film pioneer Georges Méliès in the late 1890s, the best known being Le Manoir du Diable, which is sometimes credited as being the first horror film. Another of his horror projects was 1898's La Caverne maudite. Japan made early forays into the horror genre with Bake Jizo and Shinin no Sosei, both made in 1898. In 1910, Edison Studios produced the first film version of Frankenstein, which was thought lost for many years. Edison's version of Frankenstein followed the 1908 film adaptation of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the first of many film adaptations of Stevenson's 1885 novel, in a slue of other literary adaptations including the works of Poe, Dante, Shakespeare and many other authors. This trend instilled a macabre element intro these early films and made it synonymous with the horror film genre. 

The second monster to appear in a horror film: Quasimodo, the hunchback of Notre Dame, who had appeared in Victor Hugo's novel, Notre-Dame de Paris (1831). Films featuring Quasimodo included Alice Guy's Esmeralda (1905), The Hunchback (1909), The Love of a Hunchback (1910) and Notre-Dame de Paris (1911). 

German Expressionist film makers, during the Weimar Republic era and slightly earlier, would significantly influence later films, not only those in the horror genre. Paul Wegener's The Golem (1920) and Robert Wiene's The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (also 1920) had a particular impact. 

The first vampire-themed movie was made during this time: F. W. Murnau's Nosferatu (1922), an unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula. The Man Who Laughs (1928), based on the Victor Hugo novel of the same name, released by Universal Studios shows the influence German Expressionism had on early American horror films. 

Hollywood dramas used horror themes, including versions of The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) and The Monster (1925) both starring Lon Chaney, the first American horror movie star. Other films of the 1920s include Dr. Jekyll And Mr Hyde (1920), The Phantom Carriage (Sweden, 1920), The Lost World (1925), The Phantom Of The Opera (1925), Waxworks (Germany, 1924), and Tod Browning's (lost) London After Midnight (1927) with Chaney. Another great film from this period is, also a Browning/Chaney collaboration, The Unknown (1927). These early films were considered dark "melodramas", the word "horror" to describe the film genre would not be used until the next decade after Universal Pictures released Dracula (1931) and Frankenstein (1931). These films were grouped in with melodramas because of their stock characters and their emotion heavy plots that focused on romance, violence, suspense, and sentimentality.

The trend of inserting an element of macabre into these pre-horror melodramas was continued into the 1920s. Directors known for putting a large amount of macabre into their films during the 1920s were Maurice Tourneur, Rex Ingram and Tod Browning; many of his works have already been mentioned above. The Magician (1926), a Rex Ingram film, provides one of the first examples of a "mad doctor" and it is said to have had a large amount of influence on James Whale's version of Frankenstein. The Unholy Three (1925) starring Lon Chaney and directed by Tod Browning is a great example of Browning's use of macabre and shows his own unique style of morbidity. Browning remade the film in 1930 as a talkie which also starred Chaney and it became the actor's only sound film.

The Terror (1928) was the first horror film with sound.

1930s–1940s

During the early period of talking pictures, the American Movie studio Universal Pictures began a successful Gothic horror film series. Tod Browning's Dracula (1931), with Bela Lugosi, was quickly followed by James Whale's Frankenstein (also 1931) and The Old Dark House (1932), both featuring Boris Karloff as monstrous mute antagonists. Some of these films blended science fiction with Gothic horror, such as Whale's The Invisible Man (1933) and, mirroring the earlier German films, featured a mad scientist. These films, while designed to thrill, also incorporated more serious elements. Frankenstein was the first in a series which lasted for many years, although Karloff only returned as the monster in Bride of Frankenstein (1935). The Mummy (1932) introduced Egyptology as a theme for the genre.

Other studios followed Universal's lead. Tod Browning made the once controversial Freaks (1932) for MGM, based on "Spurs", a short story by Tod Robbins, about a band of circus freaks. Rouben Mamoulian's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Paramount, 1931), was remembered for its use of color filters to create Jekyll's transformation before the camera. Michael Curtiz's Mystery of the Wax Museum (Warner Brothers, 1933), and Island of Lost Souls (Paramount, 1932) were all important horror films.

With the progression of the genre, actors were beginning to build entire careers in such films, most especially Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi.

Frankenstein (1931)

After Lugosi turned the part down, screen legend has it that Boris Karloff was plucked from obscurity in the studio canteen to play the Monster. Studio executives thought his character was so peripheral to the movie that they did not even invite him to the premiere, yet it is his lumbering, pathetic creation that is now synonymous with Frankenstein. James Whale, still numbered amongst the best horror directors of all time, directs with great attention to both spectacle and detail.

The Mummy (1932)

The Tutankhamen Exhibition toured the world in the 1920s and 1930s, and the concept of Egyptologists suffering the effects of an ancient curse was part of contemporary urban legend. Audiences were fascinated by the concept of 3000 year old remains, and the Ancient Egyptians' rituals that ensured immortality. The film, which may seem overly slow-moving to modern viewers, introduced the concept of the desert escape and terrible, ancient evil to movie audiences. 

The main action takes place in Cairo (or the Universal backyard’s version of that city) and revolves around a mummy who is brought to life by the accidental reading of a spell. He then hunts down the reincarnation of his lost love, only to be thwarted, and reduced to the dust from whence he came. The storytelling is slow and atmospheric, and, as with all Karloff characters, the monster is imbued with a sense of tragedy. Its influence can be seen in assorted films like The English Patient (The Mummy revolves around a similarly tragic love story) and... um... Stargate.

The reboot of the franchise in the 2000s focuses more on blockbuster action sequences, but it's interesting to note that both Clive Barker and George A. Romero were attached to the project as directors at some stage. It would have been interesting to see this property regenerated as low-budget horror rather than a multi-million dollar special effects festival.

Camila Fernández, Micaela Rolle and Belén Rivera Tola - 4th Year

URBAN LEGENDS: PART II

Following our previous article, we bring you two more scary urban legends from our country: Argentina. 

Get ready…

The Bus Driver

In Rosario, Argentina, there is a legend that keeps drivers awake when driving at night. It was a cold, winter night and a 114th Line bus was heading home after a long shift. The driver was extremely tired and trying not to fall asleep. His eyes closed for just a few seconds. 

Suddenly, while passing by ‘El Salvador’ cemetery, his eyes went wide open when he saw something that looked like a girl, on the road.

He couldn’t stop the bus and ran her over. The man was frightened. What had just happened? Why there, in front of the cemetery? Feeling too scared to check on the girl, he left her there and drove away. 

After a few minutes driving madly to escape, he looked through the rear view mirror. 

He was petrified, stone cold. The girl from the road was sitting in the back row, sobbing and staring at him. 

What ever happened to the bus driver, no one ever knew. It remains a mystery. 

The Lady in Black

The second legend, very famous in our country, is the one about the woman in black.

In Saint Gregory, a town near Venado Tuerto –Santa Fe- the neighbors were shocked by the story of a cryogenic worker. 

One drizzling morning, he was heading for work. He took the usual road: ROUTE 14. 

He was driving along when he saw a woman dressed in black, hitchhiking. He stopped, asked her where she was going.

After answering she was going downtown, he agreed to give her a lift. When they got there, the woman said her name was Nancy Núñez, thanked the driver and left.

When the man got to his work place, he told the story to his work mates. He couldn’t believe his ears: Nancy Núñez had died a year and a half before, when a light airplane lost control and crashed on the car she was driving. She died instantly. 

He was even more frightened when he learnt that the terrible accident took place where he saw the woman in black. 

Hans Fritzler, Camila Monteros, Pablo Contreras and Micaela Cruz - 3rd Year

THE WAY WE COMMUNICATE

A virtual community or social network is a website on the internet that brings people together to talk, share ideas and interests or make new friends. This type of collaboration and sharing of data is often referred to as "social media". Like traditional media, that is often created by no more than 10 people, social media sites have content that has been created by hundreds or even millions of different people.

The first network, not currently known, was called "Six Degrees". This network was initiated in late 1997, but the server was released in 2001. It is currently one of the networks that have disappeared. It was founded by Andrew Weinreich, and developed by the company Macro View. This site gave the users the option to create their profile and friends list. The name was based on the theory that any human being is connected to any other by a maximum of 6 know people. Nowadays, this social network has disappeared due to its low popularity.

Some companies quickly enter social networks. Google launched Orkut in January 2004 to support an experiment of one of his employees in his spare time. In 2005 admitted 360 Yahoo and others.

The operation begins when once the technical support is finished, a group of initiators invite friends and acquaintances to join the social network, each new member can bring many new members and the growth of the social network can be geometric.

A good example of this is Facebook, a social network focused on students, much like Myspace, where millions registered and where there has been a major advertising investment from Microsoft users.

Another is Del.Icio.Us which has already reached a million users.

And speaking of this network Myspace.com has over one hundred million users, owned by News Corp positioning itself as the largest of its kind and includes areas as diverse as search for missing persons.

Nevertheless, social networks continued to grow and became extremely popular. The most used ones today are: WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

What are those?

WhatsApp is a free instant messaging application for mobile phones, to send and receive messages via internet, complementing mail services, instant messaging, short message services or multimedia messaging systems.

Facebook is a social network created by Mark Zucherberg while studying at Harvard University. His aim was to design a space where students at university could communicate and share content easily through the internet. His project was so ground-breaking that eventually spread to be available for any user on the network.

If we are registered on its website users, we can manage our own personal space: create photo albums, share videos, write notes, create events or share your mood with other network users.

The large number of users at its disposal, the acceptance that has had, and facilities providing accessibility, as access to the platform for mobile terminals, has allowed this network to grow rapidly in a short time.

The main use of this page is to share resources, views and information with people you already know (friends or relatives).

Twitter is a network where you can send plain text messages of short length whit a maximum of 140 characters called tweets, which are displayed in the user's home page. Users can subscribe to other users tweets. This is called "following" and people become "followers". By default, messages are public and can be disseminated privately showing them only certain followers. Users can tweet from the web service, with external applications, or by short message service (SMS) available in certain countries.

Instagram is a social network application for sharing photos and videos. It allows user to apply photo effects like filters, frames, retro and vintage colours; these can be shared in different social networks like Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter.

A distinctive feature of the application is that gives a square shape to photographs in honor of the Kodak Instamatic and Polaroid cameras, contrasting with the aspect ratio 16:9 currently used by most mobile phone cameras.

However, not all social networks are used properly. There is a lack of control and anonymity and they give access to inappropriate content.

Here are some of the disadvantages that they may present:

• They are dangerous if not properly configured;
• They are addictive;
• They are used by criminals to know the details of their victims.

When these networks are used correctly, they can be very useful to contact old friends or distant relatives; besides, their use allows communication in real time. In addition, the information is continually updated.

Jennifer Dillon, Camila Alcuri, Brenda González and Bruno García - 3rd Year

A HISTORY OF COMEDY FILMS

Along with the documentary, comic film is the oldest genre in the entire history of cinematography. As cinema emerged in the late nineteenth century, its first intention was to surprise the public with a playful, festive and attractive offer. 

The most convincing model to achieve that goal was the music hall, and therefore screen cinema got the same stereotypes that had already worked on stage. In any case, dynamic situations, runaways, where there is no shortage of misunderstandings and violence is sublimated to lose every threatening shade.

It is here where it’s clear the subtle and shaky difference between comic film and cinema of comedy, later intermixed with no apparent contradiction. Comic film promotes hilarious situations through stunts and visual conventions, and comedy gets it through linguistic effects. In both cases, cinema practices the humor, causing that bankruptcy on the expectations that according to the psychoanalysts produce our laughter. 

In other words, what makes us laugh is to verify that a character, in which a particular action is expected, makes another quite different, sometimes crazy. In the case of comic cinema, that action would have visual character, and will be led by a dynamic line. However, comedy film inherits from its theatrical antecedents the pun, the replicas and contra replicas that cause laughter through dialogues and situations.

The Biter Bit, 1899, is often cited as the first antecedent of this genre that in our days is still practiced by actors like British Rowan Atkinson whose character Mr. Bean has obtained a deserved popularity.

Despite its continuity, it’s inevitable to identify comic cinema and silent movies, because it was in the period before the onset of sound when the genre reached its moments of glory.

Among the stars that triumphed over this period include Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Max Linder, Harry Langdon, Charles Chaplin 'The Tramp' and Laurel & Hardy.

Comic cinema held some force with the arrival of sound. In fact much of the interpretative effectiveness of comedians like Danny Kaye, Jacques Tati and Jerry Lewis comes from their visual gags, developed without explanatory dialogues.

Being a theatrical genre with a long traditional, comedy quickly adapted to the range of preferences of moviegoers. Comedy credited in film a satire, teasing, mocking quality with more or less propensity towards the grotesque of social customs. Comedy achieved humor through a disruption of the established order, putting the rules inside out and disintegrating the urbanity criteria to, at the end of the show, restores the order altered before. 

Comedy films choose, from the beginning, the snappy dialogue and the play of misunderstandings. In the thirties, Mae West in I’m no angel, 1933 and W.C. Fields personified the mischievous comedy both on stage and in front of the camera. The surreal absurdity was embodied by the Marx Brothers in movies like A Night at the Opera, 1935, while Cary Grant in His Girl Friday, 1940, was presented as the wealthy ladies man from films imbued with a certain romance in their plots. 

The Marx’s wild and verbal comedy was even intellectualized by comedians like Woody Allen in plays like Sleeper, 1973, and Annie Hall, 1977. And the romantic and festive comedy directed by filmmakers like Howard Hawks (Bringing Up Baby, 1938) remains today, albeit with a lower dose of talent in the dialogues. 

Diane Keaton and Woody Allen - Annie Hall

In the development of comedy film played a prominent role German Ernst Lubitsch especially with The Merry Widow, 1934, and To Be or not To Be, 1942, and Austrian Billy Wilder with Sabrina, 1954, Some Like it Hot, 1959, and The Apartment, 1960, that led American cinema to the Central European rhythm.

Cinema of comedy from recent decades has gathered its main inspiration from the small screen. For example, eighties’ films are characterized by the presence of comedians from television, like Steve Martin, Richard Pryor, Chevy Chase, Dan Aykroyd, Eddie Murphy, John Belushi, John Candy and Bill Murray. 

As it happens with other films genres, comedy is interspersed with other thematic trends and today is linked to productions of adventurous genre where there is no shortage of comic situations.

Finally, here are some examples of different comedy subgenres:

Romantic comedy

It (1927), City Lights (1931), It's a Wonderful World (1939), The Shop Around the Corner (1940), Sabrina (1954 and the 1995 version), Annie Hall (1977), When Harry Met Sally... (1989), Pretty Woman (1990), Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994)

Parody

Get Smart, Casino Royale, Young Frankenstein, Airplane! Top Secret, Hairspray (1988, then the 2007 version), Hot Shots, Scary Movie, Tropic Thunder, Austin Powers, High Anxiety.

Musical

Sweeney Todd, Grease, Singin’ in the Rain, Mamma Mia! West Side Story, Chicago, My Fair Lady, Rent, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Step up, Annie.

Fantasy comedy

Being John Malkovich, Ernest Saves Christmas, Ernest Scared Stupid, Night at the Museum, Groundhog Day, Click and Shrek.

Sci-fi comedy

Back to the Future, Spaceballs, Ghostbusters, Evolution, Innerspace, Galaxy Quest, Mars Attacks! Men in Black and The World's End.

Military comedy

Shoulder Arms,  Buck Privates, Carry On Sergeant, Catch-22, Delta Farce, the Flagg and Quirt series,  the Francis (1950 film) series,  Good Morning, Vietnam,  How I Won the War,  I Was a Male War Bride,  M*A*S*H,  Military Intelligence and You, Mister Roberts,  No Time for Sergeants, Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., Operation Petticoat,  Major Payne, Private Benjamin,  The Private War of Major Benson,  The Secret War of Harry Frigg,  See Here, Private Hargrove, Stripes,  Teahouse of the August Moon,  Up the Academy,  McHale's Navy,  What Did You Do in the War, Daddy?, Forrest Gump, Enlisted.

Horror comedy

Little Shop of Horrors, Haunted Mansion, An American Werewolf In London, Dead Alive (1992), Evil Dead (1981), The Toxic Avenger (1984), and Club Dread.

Action comedy

Midnight Run, Rush Hour, 21 Jump Street, Bad Boys, Starsky and Hutch and Hot Fuzz, The Incredibles, Hancock, Kick-Ass and Mystery Men, The Hard Way.

Black comedy

Arsenic and Old Lace (1944), Monsieur Verdoux (1947), Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949), The Ladykillers (1955), Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), The Loved One (1965), MASH (1970), Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (1983), Brazil (1985), The War of the Roses (1989), Heathers (1989), Your Friends & Neighbors (1998), Keeping Mum (2005), and Burn After Reading (2008).

Top 5 Recommended movies

1. Mamma Mia!
2. Bringing Up Baby
3. Mr. Bean
4. Horrible Bosses
5. The Hangover trilogy 

Magalí Nenezian, Federico Vargas and Kevin Vera - 3rd Year