A Book

Hi Blogheads:

Today is a free post so I thought I'd like to write about my favourite British authors.

I started reading at quite a young age. I was also a very fast reader and if I liked a book I had a tendency to search for and read books by the same author.

As a child, I read everything by Enid Blyton, C.S.Lewis (the Narnia books), Arthur Ransome. As I got older I read everything Tolkien and Orwell. I then got into Science Fiction and read hundreds of Sci-Fi books. Authors I read included Micheal Moorcock, Robert Heinlein and Frank Herbert. Later I got into more existentialist stuff like Sartre and Camus plus authors like Kafka & Dostoyevsky. I later discovered Mervyn Peake who wrote the Gormenghast trilogy and which is possibly my favourite read of all time. 

Since arriving in Chile I've read many books in Castellano. I read many things by Garcia Marquez plus Bolano, Sabato y others. More recently I have been reading British author David Mitchell - who is wonderful - and Haruki Murakami. The last novel that really blew me away was The Book of Strange New Things by Dutch writer Michel Faber. It's sort of something "spiritual" in a Science Fiction setting - but it isn't really Sci-fi. Here's a like to the wiki page: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_Of_Strange_New_Things

I read this year I have read a really good book about the stomach called The Gut and the first half of a book by Murakami but I haven't had too much time to read many novels. 

Write a 200-word post on a book or genre of fiction you like.
Say:
What the book or genre is,
Why you like it,
When you read it for the first time.
Mention anything else you think is important or interesting. Leave a comment on your teacher's blog & on the blogs of 3 classmates.

Technology

Hi Friday Bloggers:)
Post 1 is about a piece of technology you use. I'm a big fan of technology and I try to keep up to date with new electronic gadgets. I love playing with photographic cameras, video cameras, computers and that sort of thing. I guess these appliances have had a big effect on my life. When I was a child my parents brought their first television (black & white!) when I was 6 years old. The Higginson family got its first record player when I was 11 and digital watches and electronic calculators became common whilst I was at secondary school (I could never afford either!). Many of the appliances that people nowadays take for granted have become common during my lifetime, things like digital cameras, cell phones and computers didn't exist when I was a boy. I think the first piece of technology I owned was a synthesizer, a Korg MS10 which I bought in 1978. I never really learnt to use it properly and I must have sold it a few years later when I moved to London. 

My favourite piece of technology nowadays has to be my sampler. I bought it a few years ago and, although I still haven't had time to learn all its functions, it gives me hours of fun. It's an Akai MPC 5000 which is the biggest sampler in the MPC series. It has 16 in pads in 4 banks which means up to 64 samples can be loaded and then played into sequences. Each sequence can have up to 99 tracks. The sequences can then be programmed into songs. Traditionally, the MPC is used to make hip-hop but I experiment will lots of other styles too. Here's something I did on the MPC with a Chilean friend:
Write about your favourite piece of technology. 
Say: 
What it is, 
When you got it, 
What you use it for, 
Why you like it.
Mention anything else you think is important. Write at least 150 words. Leave a comment on your teacher’s blog and on at least 3 of your classmates’ blogs.

A Friend

Hi Striking Bloggers!

Today I'm going to talk about a friend. The person I'm going to tell you about is Martin. I first met him in 1978 when he auditioned as a drummer for the band I played in. I was 18 or 19 and he was 16. We got on well from the start. I like Martin because he has a good sense of humour and is generally a very easy going person. I guess the main things we did together apart from playing music was to go for a drink or watch movies together. We also went to a lot of concerts together like The Clash and David Bowie. We played in the same band for about 5 or 6 years then Martin went to study art in Hull, a city in the North of England, and I moved to London. We kept in touch and Martin used to come and stay with me whenever he was down south. When he finished university he moved to London and we lived in the same place for about 6 months. A few years later we lost touch. I was living in Spain and Martin moved to the USA. We had no contact for about 10 years but I finally managed to track Martin down on the internet. Nowadays Martin lives in New York working as an illustrator and doing restoration of old artworks. About 10 ago, I went to stay with Martin for a week. It was my first time in New York and it was great to have someone who lived there show me all the sights. We spent lots of time walking and talking and it was really nice to catch up after all this time.

Here's a photo of when we were younger:)
 Write about a good friend.
Say:
Who they are,
How long you've known them
Why you like them,
What things you do together.
Mention anything else you think is important.
Write at least 200 words.
Leave a comment on my blog and on the blogs of 3 classmates.

A Group or Artist

Hi Blogheads!

Today I'd like you to write about a group you have seen or would like to see. I'm lucky in that respect because I have seen 100's of great bands. As a teenage I started going to concerts (gigs) from the age of about 14 years old. Some of the artists I've seen include David Bowie, Nina Simone, The Clash, Joy Division, Prince, and lots of groups you most probably have never heard of. Today I'll write about Massive Attack who I seen here in Chile twice.
Massive Attack are a trip-hop band from Bristol. Trip-hop is a style of electronic hip-hop made in Britain at the end of the 1980's and into the 1990's. After Massive, the most well known artists are Moloko, Portishead and Tricky (all of whom I've seen live over the years).
I saw Massive Attack in Espacio Riesgo - which isn't a great place to see bands but by no means the worst. The band had a really spectacular live show with lots of slides or clips being projected on to the stage behind the band. They also work with various singers on record by use 2 or 3 when performing live. One of the main singers with the band is Horace Andy a Jamacian Singer who is about 65 years old. He has a special way of phrasing that I really enjoy listening to. The band also have some amazing songs like Safe from Harm, Unfinished Sympathy & Protection. Most people here in Chile know them for their 3rd album Mezzanine.
The thing I enjoyed most about the gig was just the fact of finally getting to see the group live, I'd been following them since their first official release in 1990 and every time I'd been in a position to see them live something went wrong and I could go. It was quite strange that I finally got to see them in Chile. I actually meet one of the band at my nephew's house in 2001, 3 years before I saw them live. Here is a video of the band on their 2nd visit to Chile in 2010.




Write about a group or artist you have seen (or would like to see).
Say:
Who they are,
What kind of music they play,
Where you saw them,
What you enjoyed about the concert.
Mention anything else you think is interesting. Write at least 200 words. Leave a comment on my blog and on the blogs of at least 3 classmates.

A Walk you would like to do again

Write about a walk you did that you would like to do again. 

My family is a family of keen walkers. When I was a child, my parents would often take us out for walks at the weekend. One of my favourite walks was up a Welsh hill called Moel Famau. Normally we would start from home in Mynydd Isa and walk about 5 kilometers through Mold to Loggerheads. Depending on the weather or how much time we had, we would then decide whether to do a walk up to the summit of the hill or to do a full trail. The walk up the hill is about 6km and the full trail is about 17km.

My favourite was doing the full trail because part of it was though a country park called Cat walk because it was a very narrow path that was quite high (especially for a young child!). Also, this part of the walk was through woods and along a river, the other part was pine forest and bare grassland at the top of the hill. I must have walked up that hill at least 50 times in my life. One of my aunties lived in a farmhouse at the foot of the hill and I often stayed with her in my summer holidays from school. She had a son who was a year older than me. However, when I was about 10 years old he had a car accident and lost one of his legs and so, unfortunately for him, his walking days were over. I think the last time I climbed Moel Famau was in the 1980’s but I’d love to do this walk again as it would bring back all my childhood memories. There’s a website with information about the country park here:

http://www.walkmag.co.uk/walks/wales-loggerheads-country-park-flintshiredenbighhire/

It even has a Facebook page!

Obviously, these didn’t exist when I was younger but at least you can get an idea of what it’s like.

Write about a walk you would like to do again.

Say:

Where it is,

When you did this walk before

Why you enjoyed it,

Why you would like to do it again.

Mention anything else you think is important. Write at least 200 words. Leave a comment on my blog and on the blogs of at least 3 classmates.

A Hobby

Hi Blogheads,

Today I'd like you to write about something you enjoy doing in your free time. I guess my favourite hobby is making music and home-made videos. I've been making music since I was about 12 or 13 years old when I started to play guitar.  I added the video making in the last 10 years or so. Everything I do is self-taught and I don't have a strong background in music but I have lots of fun creating songs or pieces of music. Most of the music I do nowadays is electronic. I use a program called Ableton Live which is an amazing piece of software as it allows me to make music using nothing more than my PC keyboard. I can also record other instruments and vocals so it's basically turning my PC into a recording studio. I've been trying to record music for a long time so I've picked up some recording tips along the way. I think I generally manage to get a good mix. I don't think I have a particular sound as I tend to record different styles, often mixing acoustic and electronic instruments. I like House music and that may come across in some of the more chilled-vibes. Occasionally I sing.

The video making I do is very experimental and I often mix time-lapse video and stuff I've recorded on my phone or camera. Sometimes I use found footage. I like treating images and saturating them to create something new. I use iMovie as it's very easy to use (and it came free with my computer). I usually spend 5 or 6 hours a week doing this hobby. I'll like to do it more often but there are always so many other things to do (like writing my blog!!).

Write about something you do in your free time.

Say:

What it is,

How long you have done it,

What it involves,

Where you do it,

What equipment you need,

How often you do it.

Try to write at least 200 words. Leave a comment on your teacher's blog and the blogs of at least 3 classmates.

A Photograph

Hi FAU Bloggers;

Today I'd like you to write about a photograph that you like. The photo I've chosen must have been taken in about 1971 or 1972, or possibly a bit later. I think it's one of the few family photos that includes all eleven of us (my parents plus 8 siblings). It was taken in our living room. The photographer was in front of the window, most probably because of the light. However, I don't know exactly what he was doing that stopped half of us from looking at the camera. My mum, sister Clare (top row, left-hand side),  brother's Adrian (with a crazy grin) and baby brother Gerald (sitting on the floor) are looking at the camera. The rest of us are looking to the right of the cameraman except little sister Lizzie (Elizabeth) who is obviously in a world of her own (and still is!!!). She is staring off into the distance.
I love this photo because it's exactly how I like to remember my brothers and sisters. I love the (now retro) fashion. My two eldest sisters (Terry & Clare) have a definite hippy look while Moria (sitting in the middle) has a "Skinhead" influenced look. I also like how brothers Adrian & Colin are wearing the same shirt, and the twins (Francis & Elizabeth) are wearing smocks made by my mother. I don't think it's a very good photo of me but I love having such a great family and that's what I remember when I see this photo.
At the moment, I don't have a copy of the original, this is a photo of the photo:)

Write about a family photo you like.
Say:
When it was taken.
Where it was taken,
Who appears in the photo,
Why you like the photo,
What you remember about your life in the time the photo was taken.

Mention anything else you think is important. Write at least 200 words. Leave a comment on your teacher's blog and the blogs of at least 3 classm