Advertising Done Right

I just came across an ad and I thought it was one of the best commercials I have ever seen. It's the Sainsbury's 2014 Christmas Ad and it's really worth watching. Check it out below!

The best thing about it: It's based off of a true incident. You've probably already heart about the Christmas Truce of 1914 and if not, I'm going to tell you what happened.

On Christmas Eve in 1914, the first Christmas Eve of World War I, in France British and German soldiers lay in their trenches. It was freezing cold and it started to snow. Suddenly, the Germans started singing "Stille Nacht" and the Brits joint in. They sang christmas carols together. 

After a while, they even started to slowly approach each other. After one single soldier was brave enough to take the first step, all the other soldiers moved into No Man's Land as well. They exchanged christmas greetings, traded gifts like chocolate, newspapers, postcards and alcohol – not really allowed but nobody would have to know and they were already bonding with the enemy – and even had a soccer match. All of that while most of them barely understood let alone spoke the "enemy's" language.

When the generals heard of that, they had to do something. They made the soldiers resume the fighting. The recruits, however, grew so close that even though did start the shooting again but they aimed at the sky.

The Christmas Truce was never repeated. Future attempts to stop the fire on holidays were thwarted by the official's treats of disciplinary action. 


There is also a song about The Christmas Truce. It's called "Christmas On The Trenches" and it's by John McCutcheon. Here's a link to the lyrics and I put a video of John McDermott singing it below.

Happy early start of advent and have a great weekend!

And the fire obviously caught...

Here's just a little update to my last post. It's a link I just found and I thinks it's perfect for showing how many protests there have been in the States after the announcement of the grand jury's decision. I put it below. Check it out if you want to!

"13 Photos Show Tonight's Protests across America"

"Fire is Catching!

...If we burn, you burn with us!"
-Suzanne Collins, Mockingjay

If you opened up one of your social media accounts recently, chances are you saw something about one of the many protest and riots happening. There are so many lately, that you could easily loose track of them. So I decided to try and make a short summary of what gets people on the streets currently.

#Ferguson

Protest flared again at the beginning of this week after it went public that Darren Wilson, the white police officer who shot 18 years old, black and unarmed Michael Brown back in August, will not be indicted.

The fact that the decision was made by a St Louis County grand jury, consisting of 9 Caucasian members and 3 African-American members, fueled the protestors' outrage even more. There have been various protests and clashes with the police for the last few days in Ferguson right after the announcement by St. Louis County prosecutor, Robert P. McCulloch. The protest, however, did not restrict to Ferguson. In many other American cities – including New York and Los Angeles – people took to the street as well.

Source: www.nytimes.com/

#Mexico

After the disappearance of 43 male students on September 26th, 2014 there have already been many protest throughout Mexico. The students are believed to have been kidnapped by corrupt police members and handed over to one of Mexico's many criminal gangs. The drug gang probably killed and burned them in a pyre of wood and tires.

The angry citizens want President Enrique Peña Nieto to resign, since the whole case shows the corruption of the country. Especially since the mayor of Iguala, where the students went missing, is alleged to have had ties to said drug gang since he assumed office.

Last Thursday more protests fell on the same date as celebration day for the 1910-17 Revolution and papers have already called the protests the new Mexican revolution.

Source:america.aljazeera.com

#London

Remember, Remember the Fifth of November...

On November 5th 2014, Guy Fawkes Day, thousands of activists and protestors gathered in London to join the annual Million Mask March in London. The protestors including Russell Brand marched through the city, many of them wearing Guy Fawkes masks. They started at the Parliament Square and made their way towards other locations such as Buckingham Palace and BBC's central studios.

The police presence was enormous. At least five people were arrested during a standoff with the police, but all in all the march went quite peacefully.

Source: www.ibtimes.co.uk

#Hong Kong

Yesterday, on November 26th, 2014, parts of the streets in Hong Kong were cleared by authorities. The streets have been blocked by thousands of protestors for the last two months, when the "Umbrella Movement" started.

It all started back in September when Beijing refused to allow universal suffrage* in 2017 in Hong Kong. The decision was followed by groups of activists camping outside the Hong Kong Government headquarters and masses of demonstrators blocking the main roads. Their demand: reform the democracy.

The protests have been on-going for the past two months. They have, however, been loosing steam. Yesterdays clearance and the arrests of about 100 people including student leader Joshua Wong is believed to reinvigorate.

*universal suffrage: every adult is allowed to vote

Source: www.bloomberg.com

#France

Last month there have been protests against the building of a controversial dam near Toulouse. The dam should be built on the cost of 40ha of forest and will mainly benefit some industrial farmers.

During a protest on the 25th of October one of the activists, Remi Fraisse, was killed. The 21-year-old was hit by a so-callled 'offensive grenade' by the police and died immediately. His death fueled the civil unrest even more. In the following days numerous protests and marches took place and the civil unrest continues on.

I hope this could give you a better overview of what's going on in the world right now. See you soon!

Devon Aoki

A few months ago I came across a drawing and was immediately fascinated by it. It was just so incredibly detailed and colourful that it stuck in my head. Said picture was Devon Aoki by Minjae Lee or Greno89, an South Korean painter and illustrator. So I thought, I'm going to tell you a bit more about him today.

Above: Devon Aoki

paper, mixed media

Source: grenomj.com

Lee Minjae is a Seoul based artist. He was born in 1989 and started to do art at the age of 17. He finished high school, but decided not to attend university in favour of becoming an professional artist. Even though he was unsure at first, now at the age of 25 he is glad about his decision. His work is well received all around the world and private collectors from all continents scramble to get one of his works. In 2013, he even was on the cover of Art Business News summer issue "Top 30 Artists in the World under 30".

Above: Kiss II

paper, mixed media

Source: grenomj.com

25-year-old Lee mainly draws with markers because of their vibrant colours. He is, however, always experimenting with various mediums. On his deviantART profile, you can find pencil drawings as well as acrylic and digital paintings.

Dramatic expressions and colours characterize Lee’s work. He mainly finds inspiration in people –primarily females–, abstract movement and colour. In an interview he mentioned, that women’s faces fascinate him because of how much emotion they show.

Above: Indian

paper, mixed media

Source: greno89.deviantart.com

The South Korean’s art work is also dominated by patterns and texture. One of the first things to catch your eye are the comprehensive designs. Because of the great detail, the drawings take rather long to finish. Greno needs between 3 to 15 days to finish an A3 marker work. Acrylic paintings require more time: between 2 weeks and a month.

The drawings and paintings also differ in size. While most of them are A3 or A4, there are some exceptionally huge ones. Check out the pictures below from a live painting event in Tel Aviv (The Castro Street Art Project). The whole drawing was done with Copic markers.

Source: design-milk.com

Source: greno89.deviantart.com

So, let's hope that we're going to see more of his art!

If this actually got you curious about him, I put a list of links to his social media accounts below.

http://www.grenomj.com
http://instagram.com/grenomj
http://greno89.deviantart.com
https://www.facebook.com/grenomj

Welcome to my blog!

So you found the blog I set up for my English course at the University of Graz. I am currently studying English and French at the department of translation and this blog is one of the projects we're going to do. Maybe you've already seen a blog of one the other students – there's a few of them floating around here!

As for my posts, there's going to be a few posts I will be required to do, but otherwise I'm free to blog about whatever I want. So maybe I'll share a recipe with you or I'll recommend a book or its something completely different. We'll see but I hope you'll enjoy it!

Also, if you wondered where my blog name came from: it was named after a song by Californian Indie artist Jhameel. It was the first song I heart by him and I fell in love with it immediately-I still am. Check it out below if you want to!