Friday Blog

Hi FAU Bloggers: I guess one of the interesting people I follow on social media is Janelle Monae. She is a singer/actress from Kansas. I first heard of her in 2010 when she released the album The ArchAndroid. It was a really amazing concept album that mixed various musical styles (hip-hop/rap/rock/soul/jazz/classical/pop). I found her to be the most interesting artist of her generation because she was doing something different and extremely creative. She was very open about here influences which ranged from "The Godfather of Soul" James Brown to Pop/Rock Icon Bowie  and on thru Debussy and Science-Fiction author Philip K.Dick  After The ArchAndroid I followed her career with interest because she what she does goes beyond music. Actually, her first album is still my favourite but I think she is an interesting celebrity who is trying to push the barriers and create change, especially towards things related to racism, feminism and the LGBT community.  As both her music and actin

 Hi FAU Bloggers, Today you have to do a couple of different activities.  Part 1 First you need to go to: https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/grammar/b1-b2-grammar/conditionals-zero-first-second Please read the information about English conditionals and do the exercises. Part 2 Once you've done Part 1, please write a blog post reviewing the British Council Learning English website. Mention:  2 or 3 things you liked, and why 1 or 2 things you didn't like, and why Would you recommend this website to other English learners? Why/Why not? Do you think you will you visit this website again? Why/Why not? What score would you give it out of 10? Sum up your experience in one sentence.

Hi FAU Bloggers! Today I'd like you to write about something you did last weekend. I actually went to the beach last weekend, to celebrate my mother-in-law's birthday. Her birthday was actually last week but we didn't like the idea of going to the beach for the May 21st holiday because no doubt it would be busy. As a birthday present, I invited my wife and her mum to Las Cruces, a beach they both love. We left on Saturday morning at midday and reached our destination at about 2pm. We went to collect the keys from the apartment and then we went to have lunch. We met up with Claudio, a friend of ours who lives in Algarrobo and we ate in a beachside restaurant in Las Cruces called Bellavista. It is a little bit expensive but the food is very good and my mother-in-law really likes it.  After lunch we said goodbye to Claudio and we went to the apartment. My mother-in-law, who is 85-years old, watched the sea from the balcony (and then the TV) while my wife and went for a short w

  Hi FAU Bloggers, Today I'd like to tell you about a country I would like to visit. The country I'm going to write about is Cambodia. I guess I've been lucky when it comes to travelling as I visited all the countries on my Bucket List (a “list of things to accomplish before one’s death”), so anything else is a bonus. Actually, when I almost went to Cambodia in January 2020. My wife and I were living in Guangzhou, China and I wanted to visit Angkor Wat - a huge Hindu-Buddhist complex - for the Chinese New Year. Unfortunately, my wife's passport had less than 6-months remaining so she needed to renew it at the Chilean Consulate in Guangzhou. By the time she got it back COVID regulations were in place so we couldn't travel. Travelling from China would have been very easy. From Chile the trip woud be via Dubai or Ethiopia, and much more expensive. Anyway, the main reason I wanted to visit Cambodia was to visit Angkor Wat. I know other people who have been and they say

Hi FAU Bloggers, Today I'm going to write about a concert I really enjoyed. So, as you may know, I love music:) I've been lucky enough to see hundreds of artists play live and going to see live music is something I've been doing for a long, long time. The last known bands I saw live in Chile were all in 2019, just before I went to live in China. I went to 3 concerts in a short space of time and saw Gorillaz, De La Soul & The Arcade Fire. I'd seen Arcade Fire before at Lollapalooza and I'd seen Gorillaz mainmain Damian Albarn in Caupolican but Gorillaz and De La Soul were firsts. I'm going to talk about De La Soul today. I first heard De La Soul in 1989 when they released their first album,  3 feet high and rising . This is a really important album in hip-hop. It's a concept album about the lives of the 3 group members. They formed part of a movement called The Daisy Age (Daisy meaning " da inner sound, y’all" along with other groups like A Trib

Hi FAU Bloggers, Today I'd like to tell you about my main hobby, which is making music. It's something I've done for most of my life. I have lots of other hobbies like reading, walking in natural places, playing football or cooking (to name a few ), but making music is my current favourite. I do this hobby whenever I have free time. Obviously, it's better if I can dedicate a few hours to doing it, but often I'll just make minor adjustments to songs or pieces of music I'm working on. The equipment I use most is my computer, a microphone, a midi-keyboard (that connects to my computer) and a guitar. Then I use a programme, a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation), to record and mix my creations. I've had this hobby for many years. I wrote my first song when I was about 13 or 14 and started recording when I was about 18. After that, I played in bands and did lots of home recording for at least 10 years. Nowadays, Technology has made music making a lot more accessible T