FAU on Friday

Hi Friday morning Bloggers I noticed that one or two of you mentioned that you like reading so, today I'd like you to talk about a book you can recommend. Actually, I started reading at a very young age and reading has always been one of my hobbies. However, I think there are lots of books that I love that maybe aren't so easy to read or that many people wouldn't find interesting. For example, a couple of years ago I read 2066 by Chilean author Roberto Bollaño in Spanish. It's a long novel (sort of 5 novels in one) and it took me about 3 months to read. It was very rewarding though as he is an amazing writer. One of my favourite books in recent years is a book by a Japanese author called Haruki Murakami. The book is called  Kafka on the Shore  and I read it in 2005. I discovered it because a British author I like called David Mitchell reviewed it in a magazine and said it was great. Then, a few weeks late The New York Times printed the first chapter. I read it and then

Having a week off mid-term is a great idea. Being able to do other things apart from work or study can have a positive impact on motivation and wellbeing.  Today I'd like to write about the top 5 activities I did during the past week. 1. Sleep I guess this will be high on most people's list:) I normally get up at 6.45 - 7.00 am every week-day, so being able to sleep in until 9 or 10 am was great. I think I enjoyed it more because of the time of the year. There have been a lot of grey, sun-less days recently, and being able to stay in bed when its cold outside is wonderful. 2. Hobby Time Extra time off always means having a little more time to dedicate to doing hobbies. As you may know by now, my main hobby is making music. I combine electronic instruments and rhythms with live guitar and, occasionally, vocals randomly. This past week I fine tuned a couple of songs I'm working on and started a couple of new projects. I had hoped to get more done this week but I guess the tra

My cultural snapshot at the moment contains the following items: Music: Actually, the songs I have stuck in my head at the moment are all the demo songs I´m working on for a solo album I hope to release next month. It´s the first time I´ve worked on a collection of songs with lyrics for about 20 years. My favourite tracks are ¨Can U Lift Me Up¨ & a duet I sing with my wife called ¨Hope¨. I guess they are sort of electronic with elements of Pop & Soul. My artistic name is Experiment SH1310 (you can follow on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/intl-es/artist/08XQBuGhFGeu0SXOfpwLmz?si=Gmei-psGQuORP8FxEGmrWg). My other bands on Spotify are: The Regular Cats (Hip-Hop) and Amateur Beauty (Electonic/pop/experimental). Check them out!!! Book The book I´m reading at the moment is called ¨Tomorrow, and Tomorrow and Tomorrow ¨ by Gabrielle Zevin. I think it´s a modern love story (but I´m not quite sure). It´s about 2 friends who worker together creating video games. It´s very easy to read a

The first thing I do most mornings is to read The Guardian newspaper with a cup of (British) tea. I tend to scan the headlines to see if anything important or interesting has happened and then head to the sports's page to read about football. Later in the day, when I have more time, I go back and read other parts of the newspaper that may interest me. I've read The Guardian since I was about 18 and although the journalism has become a little "comic like" at times, it still holds true to it's left-wing ideals (nowadays it's pinkish rather than red😂😂😂😂). Today, I'd like to use a Guardian idea as an inspiration for today's blogpost. We are going to read an article on cultural recommendations given by a well-known person (well, in the UK at least). Click on the Guardian "On My Radar" link here:  theguardian.com/culture/series/on-my-radar Scroll down and select an article to read (by someone you have heard of or think might be interesting). Th

I have been lucky enough to attend some AMAZING festivals, exhibitions & shows during my lifetime (remember I am very ancient). As a teenager I hitched-hiked from my home town of Chester to London to see the biggest ever exhibition of Salvador Dali. In 1979 I went to FUTURAMA - the world's first Science Fiction Music Festival and saw bands like Joy Division, Orchestral Manouvres in The Dark (OMD) and  PIL amongst others. I have been to the Notting Hill Festival countless times & the Fallas de Valencia 4 or 5 times. S.U.E, Lollapalooza, Primavera Fauna..... a long list. Today I'm going to write about an exhibition I saw out of pure luck but is a cultural highlight for me. In 2017, I found 2 cheap-last minute flights to Japan on the, now defunct, LAN Last Minute Offers webpage.  It was the country my wife and I had always wanted to visit. I bought the tickets without hesitation. 2 weeks at the beginning of February. Two days after buying the flight tickets I saw an advert