Summer Blockbusters

For the May Art Poll By Bob, I went floral in honor of those great post-April showers May flowers and asked, “Which of these beautiful bouquets would you pick for your garden of earthly delights?” In an Art Poll by Bob first, Gustav Klimt’s Country Garden with Sunflowers (1905-1906) beat out Vincent van Gogh’s Irises, Sait-Rémy (1889) 24 to 21, marking the first time that Vincent's not come out on top. Monet’s Monet's Garden, the Irises (1900) came in third with 16 votes and Frida Kahlo’s Flower of Life (1944) came in fourth with 9. Emil Nolde’s Flower Garden (1908) finished fifth with 7 votes, while Paul Gauguin’s Sunflowers (1901), Paul Klee’s Heroic Roses (1938), and Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s Roses (1890) all tied for sixth with 5 votes each. Eugène Delacroix’s Bouquet of Flowers (1849-1850) brought up the rear with 3 votes. Thanks to all 95 people who stopped to smell the flowers and voted.

With June’s arrival, I can’t help but think of Summer, and Summer Blockbusters. In recent years, there’s been no source of blockbuster material as reliable as comic book superheroes such as Batman, fighting a villain named, of course, Blockbuster (created by Carmine Infantino, but the Detective Comics #349 of March 1966 cover art above is by Joe Kubert). I admit that I still haven’t “outgrown” my fascination with superheroes. Part of me is still that little boy coloring in his Batman coloring book, which included Blockbuster smashing through walls, etc., and wishing I could draw like those incredible artists. So, for the June 2009 Art Poll By Bob, I ask, “Which of these great comic artist’s work would you want to see on the big screen?”:

Neal Adams. Batman versus Ra’s al Ghul (1971).

Dave Cockrum. X-Men (1975).

Jack Cole. Plastic Man (1941).

Steve Ditko. Doctor Strange (1960s).

Frank Frazetta. Conan the Barbarian (1970s).

Jack Kirby. Captain America (1976).

Joe Kubert. Hawkman.

Todd McFarlane. Spider-Man (1990).

John Romita, Sr. Spider-Man (1967).

Joe Shuster. Superman (1938).

I know that not everyone in my audience is a comic book fan such as myself, but I hope that everyone can take a second look at recognize just what kind of draftsmanship and creativity went into these images. Jack Cole’s Plasticman is a study in abstract art all by himself! I could go on and on about each of these artists and what memories they stir up inside me, but I’ll let the works speak for themselves. So, don your capes, put on your masks, get some popcorn, and vote for these blockbusters of the imagination!

Independence Day

This year, I’m celebrating Independence Day early. Herewith is my personal Declaration of Independence (minus the crinkly paper, fancy penmanship, and Thomas Jefferson’s inimitable style). Today, after almost twenty years of working in publishing, toiling in cubicles and offices, I’m giving my two weeks of notice and taking the next step forward with my life. I’m going to be a teacher—a high school English teacher, to be specific. For the next year, I’ll be studying towards a Masters in Education that, combined with my MA in English Literature, will allow me to help educate the next generation of leaders. I’ve briefly tried my hand at teaching in the past on the college level, but with the love and support of Annie and Alex, I’m taking the plunge and pursuing a whole new evolutionary stage of self. Teaching and learning are so intertwined that I’m sure that my love of learning will allow me to infect teenagers with the same drive to excel. The texts may be by Melville and Wordsworth, but the subtext will always be learning how to think about the world around us and communicate with the rest of humanity throughout time. Lofty goals, I admit, but after two decades of deadline pressure with little to show for it, I’m ready to tilt at windmills, although I’ll never believe that education’s a lost cause.

When I recently saw a picture of Bob Trotman’s installation sculpture titled Business as Usual (Coverup, Chorus, and Committee) (above), it struck me as the perfect symbol of my life in corporate America. For fifteen years, I belonged to a company that was bought and sold like chattel. We used to laugh at how quickly company letterhead had to be discarded to keep up with the latest name change. In 2001, however, we were finally sold down the river. A foreign company that couldn’t get past Clinton’s Department of Justice’s interpretation of a monopoly found the Bush Administration quite accommodating. The day of corporate judgment when the retained and the redundant were to be separated was scheduled for September 12th, 2001—yes, one day after 9/11. Two corporate suits unfortunately had seats on one of the hijacked planes and died. Out of respect, the company waited two whole weeks before axing 75% of my department. I was retained, but vowed never to forget the looks on the faces of my friends as they were labeled redundancies. In Trotman’s installation, I’m one of the Chorus in the middle, flailing my arms in frustration as such inhumanity is covered over and a committee of corporate types weighs the lives of people against the bottom line with all the compassion of a stone wall.

Two years after that, with an eye on starting a family with Annie, I made the jump from the for-profit world of publishing to the non-profit world, which was strangely making a better profit than the for-profit sector. Better benefits, especially for healthcare, lured me away despite a cut in pay. We were coming out ahead, at least at the beginning. Sadly, the corporate world seemed to follow me, with new corporate suits bringing their inhumane perspective to what was truly a great situation. The better benefits disappeared. Quality of life became a real issue. I started this blog in search of a way of finding a new creative outlet for all the things that I felt were trapped inside me. The job itself had become such a monotonous bore and the workplace a land of the living dead, ala George Tooker’s Landscape With Figures (above, from 1965-1966), that I needed a new escape plan. After much thought, Annie and I realized that teaching was not just an escape from, but also an escape to. I was escaping to the person that I wanted to be.

For the first time in a long time, I feel like my occupation will have real purpose. I’ve never found any real sense of identity in the publishing world. Actually, I’ve felt sorry for some of the people who’ve submerged themselves in their jobs to the exclusion of finding fulfillment in their personal lives. That’s a price I’ve never wanted to pay. The idea of teaching has me bursting with optimism, ala William Blake’s Glad Day (above, from 1796), except, of course, with my clothes on. I’ve always lived the life of the mind as a sideline, a hobby, but as a teacher I will finally be able to bring that part of my life to the front and center. I’m sure this sounds naïve, but I go into teaching clear-eyed. I know there’s drudgery and hierarchies to answer to in the educational world, too, but the final result is something I’m willing to work towards, which is something I just can’t say about publishing. The ethical and moral injustice I’ve witnessed in the field threatens to corrode my soul. Just the promise of teaching even one kid how to think better cleanses my spirit like a warm, summer rain.

I invite everyone to visit my “other” blog, a work in progress about my life as a teacher in progress—Disco Doceo, which roughly translates in Latin to “to learn to teach.” It has nothing to do with The Hustle or the Bee Gees, but will trace my progress learning the steps to the pedagogical dance. Art Blog By Bob will continue as before, but this new venture will surely color and, I hope, improve my writing and thinking about art and life.

[Infinite thanks to Annie and Alex for inspiring me to take this giant leap. I love you.]

F-se! Cristiano Ronaldo A Cold Blood

Um Momento 洋之 冨田 .

Hiroyuki Tomita

洋之 冨田 .

F-se! A Beleza Magoa.

PS.: Olha o "feio" y etc's.

Passion Play

Working as a teenager as apprentice to a glass painter and restorer, Georges Rouault came face to face daily with beautiful stained glass windows showing scenes of the life of Christ. Born May 27, 1871 to a poor, pious Parisian family, Rouault’s faith was always strong, but it was his friendship with the philosopher Jacques Maritain that drove Rouault to commit himself to painting primarily religious subjects. Rouault’s The Flagellation (above, from 1915) shows the lingering influence of stained glass window design in the cloisonnist dark lines separating the fields of color. Christ stands at the pillory in the center of the work to take the blows of the soldiers. World War I raged as Rouault painted this scene of suffering, which may allude to Europe’s self-flagellation in the name of nationalism. It is interesting that Rouault’s works concentrate almost exclusively on the passion and death of Christ, with no images that I know of depicting the triumph of the Resurrection. Rouault identified with agony more than ecstacy, saying once, “The conscience of an artist worthy of the name is like an incurable disease which causes him endless torment but occasionally fills him with silent joy.” Perhaps Rouault allowed himself a moment of “silent joy” upon completing The Flagellation, but the emphasis was definitely on the silence.

In 1920, Rouault painted The Crucifixion (above) in the same stained-glass style with the same contorted limbs. The Fauves claim Rouault as one of their own for his bold use of color. The Expressionists count him among their ranks for Rouault’s tortured rendition of the human body, usually Christ’s. Certainly Emil Nolde’s 1912 Prophet equals the religious fervor and Expressionist angst of Rouault’s religious works. I find it fascinating that Rouault paints Jesus in The Crucifixion without a beard, whereas other works show the familiar bearded face. Michelangelo chose to paint the Savior of The Last Judgment as a beardless youth to allude to the Greek ideal, casting Christ as a new Apollo bringing light into the world. I’m not sure that Rouault shared Michelangelo’s same faith in humanism, especially in 1920, when the aftershocks of the Great War continued to be felt throughout Europe. Maybe Rouault paints Jesus here as the beardless youth to stand for the whole generation of beardless European youth that met their end in the trenches and fields of wartime folly.

Before Rouault turned his attention to Christ-centered paintings, he painted series of works showing clowns, kings, and prostitutes as a way of commenting on the sad state of modern society. In Christ Mocked by Soldiers (above, from 1932) Rouault shows Jesus at the moment he is forced to play the clown king for the amusement of the soldiers, who crown him with thorns and place a reed “scepter” in his hands. In Christ Mocked by Soldiers, Rouault mocks the world itself, which he sees as prostituting itself for material things at the expense of its soul. “The richness of the world, all artificial pleasures,” Rouault lamented, “have the taste of sickness and give off a smell of death in the face of certain spiritual possessions.” By 1932, Rouault may have recognized, as did many others, the degenerating situation in the world that would eventually lead up to World War II. Rouault returns to the image of the bearded Christ here to emphasize the weariness of age rather than the innocence of youth of The Crucifixion. In his sixties himself, Rouault grew weary of the world and its self-destructive ways. Shortly before his death in 1958, Rouault destroyed three hundred of his own paintings, which would be worth a fortune today, as if to place them on his own funeral pyre and out of the reach of the materialists who valued them in currency instead of, as he did, in Christianity.

Band of Brothers

One of the most befuddling bands of artists for attributers remains the Le Nain brothers—Louis, Antoine, and Matthieu. Louis, who died on May 23, 1648, was born around 1593, followed by Antoine in 1599 and Matthieu in 1607, but even those birth years are partly conjecture. Complicating things even more so, the brothers signed all their works “Le Nain,” making conclusive individual attribution impossible. However, Louis, the eldest brother, usually gets credit for the peasant scenes the Le Nain name is best known for today. In Four Figures at Table (above, from the 1630s), a peasant family readies for a meal. The sepia tones of the painting lend an extra touch of nostalgia. Ironically, this portrait of peasant simplicity began as a portrait of a rich man. X-ray technology revealed the red touch in the boy’s face to be a pentimento, or painted over, portrait of a man wearing a red ruff. Whether the subject of that portrait failed to pay up is unknown, but his prosperous face was covered over much as the Le Nain brothers’ prosperous connections were covered over during a revival of their work in the mid-nineteenth century. Gustave Courbet saw recently installed works by the Le Nains in the Louvre and followed their example in creating such works as A Burial at Ornans. Little did Courbet suspect that a nobleman lurked beneath those peasants’ faces, or even that, as some critics today suspect.

During their lifetime, the Le Nain brothers made their fortune through commissions from the church and the upper class. Their Birth of the Virgin (above, from 1645) still hangs in the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. Such work, and other paintings by the brothers depicting popular mythological subjects, follows the tastes of the period. This conventionality and willingness to play the game well helped all three brothers become members of the French Royal Academy at its inception in 1648, the year that both Louis and Antoine died. Although Matthieu, the youngest, survived until about 1677, the “Le Nain” signature disappears on works after 1648, as if Matthieu let it die with his brothers. Matthieu, the official painter of Paris since 1633, eventually aspired to the nobility that he had served so well beside his brothers. That service, however, disserved the Le Nains during the French Revolution, when angry mobs targeted anything tainted by association with the church or the king. Associated with both blacklists, many of the church-related works of the Le Nain brothers met the flames during the revolution, effectively rewriting who and what they were until their “rediscovery” in the 1840s as painters of peasants.


Although much of their work is awkward in composition, dreadfully mainstream, or both, the Le Nain brothers sometimes could create a work as mysterious and compelling as Smokers in an Interior (above, from 1643). Caravaggio’s chiaroscuro clearly influences this painting, as it did so many other works in the seventeenth century. But Smokers in an Interior adds a mysterious (yes, smoky) element in the darkness. We don’t know who these men are or what they are doing together, or even if they are indeed together. Some of the men stare off blankly into space, disconnected from the rest of the pack. Others confront the viewer directly, as if caught performing some secret rite concluded by the conviviality of smoking together. In the balance of darks and lights here, the illuminations only serve to make the shadows rise in importance. Smokers in an Interior serves as the perfect visual emblem of the Le Nain brothers in its ability to generate question after question. Did Louis the eldest turn his attention from peasants to the middle class? Did Matthieu the overachieving baby of the family rise to the top of the class? Did Antoine, the middle brother, finally squeeze out of the obscurity of middledom? The Le Nain brothers keep their silence still.

Rising Rivals

Olá a todos!

Finalmente a nova expansão de Pokémon foi posta à venda!

Rising Rivals irá trazer-nos ao longo de 120 cartas, entre outros, os Pokémons dos Gym Leaders e da Elite 4 da região de Sinnoh! ^^

Esta nova expansão promete revolucionar os decks que tem feito furor ao longo da Temporada...

Composta por nada mais nada menos do que 9 Pokémons Lv. X mais as 5 novas formas de Rotom, mais o seu criador, Charon, (Pluto na sua versão original), esta será certamente a melhor expansão Pokémon do ano 2009!

Para quem começou ou estiver prestes a começar a jogar Pokémon TCG, acreditem que rapidamente se tornarão grandes jogadores, pois esta colecção tem cartas tão boas, mas tão boas, que o difícil é não ganhar! XD

Grandes combates estão prestes a desenrolar-se!

Quem serão os grandes vencedores?

League Leader

Cutting Session

What sets black portraiture apart from the rest of portraiture as a genre? In Cutting a Figure: Fashioning Black Portraiture, Richard J. Powell argues that the difference lies “in the artistic contract between the portrayer and the portrayed: conscious or unconscious negotiations that invest black subjects with social capital… invariably linked to the subject’s sense of self—an awareness that through self-adornment, self-composure, and self-imaging upsets the representational paradigm and creates something pictorially exceptional.” What makes black portraits “exceptional,” in other words, is the way that the subjects “clothe” themselves psychologically to produce a “self” to be portrayed and understood by another. Romare Bearden’s collage titled Pittsburgh Memory (above, from 1964) embodies this building up of self from parts that Powell sees at the heart of the “subject-dominated portraits” of black subjects versus the larger history of portraiture in which the artist’s vision dominates. Powell riffs off the idea of collage and makes use of the phrase “cutting a figure” to capture “the sense of pride and exhibitionism implicit in this expression,” which are “often qualified by race, class, and historical circumstances.” What a white audience may view as immodesty, a black audience may view as self-expression. Powell cuts apart the different subgenres of portraiture to reassemble in the end a clearer picture of the power of portraiture to give a voice to the voiceless.

In the chapter titled simply, “Interlocutors,” Powell traces how early black portraiture dealt with the issue of slavery and the continued control of the white population over image making. The “thematic current that flows throughout these works, intentional and subconscious,” Powell writes, “is freedom: both personal, bodily emancipation and sovereignty in a more abstract, metaphysical sense.” Nathaniel Jocelyn’s Cinque (above, from 1840) neatly encapsulates this freedom-centered dynamic. When a group of Africans from Sierra Leone faced trial in the Amistad case recounted in the 1997 film, abolitionists commissioned Jocelyn to paint a portrait of the slaves’ leader, Sengbe Pieh, whose name was mispronounced as Joseph Cinque. Jocelyn shows Sengbe with startling humanity. “Looking more like a Greco-Roman divinity than a brutish marauder, and with a staff that invokes the insignia of an ancient shepherd or wanderer,” Powell writes of Cinque, “this representation contradicts the prevailing perception of Cinque and his fellow Africans as savages and instead embraces a republican ideal, an allegorical representation of Christian proselytizing, and a symbol of black activism.” Powell then moves from Sengbe’s passive role in propagandizing against slavery to the active roles of activists such as Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth. Both Douglass and Truth used their personal appearances as weapons in the fight against slavery. Rumors that the exceptionally tall Truth was actually a man compelled her to bare her breasts in public to silence critics, which drew even greater sympathy to her cause as both a black and a woman. In Douglass’ case, Powell notes, the sexual dimension aided his cause differently. “[T]he hypnotic power that [Douglass] and certain other black men had over spectators” created “a potency that combined race, gender, and sexuality to achieve psychological dominion over cultural perception and social stratification,” Powell asserts. Thanks to photography and paintings, Douglass and Truth spread the word of freedom through the power of portraiture.

In a fascinating and daring leap, Powell abruptly turns his attention to the case of Donyale Luna, the first internationally acclaimed African-American fashion model. Almost completely forgotten today, Luna’s “Nefertiti-like face” appeared in magazines and on television regularly in the mid to late 1960s. Much of that forgetting comes from how unforgettable Donyale once was in the fashion world. “Contesting the prevailing white/male/artist-dominated production of acquiescent black images,” Powell writes, “Luna’s aggressive figure cuts through the racial and gender hierarchies, imposes its own aesthetic will, and prevails.” American magazines actually banned Richard Avedon’s 1966 photograph of Luna in a dress by Paco Rabanne (above) for this very aggression. In this section, Powell gives convincing weight to the sometimes lightweight world of high fashion modeling as a real barometer of social attitudes and the role of portraiture in revealing those views. Donyale stepped outside the boundaries of modeling to pall around with the likes of Miles Davis and Andy Warhol, write and act in plays, and even appear in films by Warhol, Federico Fellini, and Carmelo Bene. Even Dali doodled on Donyale during an encounter in 1966. Sadly, drug abuse led to Luna’s early death in 1979, just as models such as Iman and Grace Jones began to follow her unconventional path. In tracing the trajectory of Luna’s rise and fall, Powell prepares the ground for a later discussion of how in the 1980s, blacks were suddenly omnipresent in American media, from The Cosby Show to Michael Jordan’s endorsement blitzkrieg. Jean-Michael Basquiat comes to embody the “black bohemia” of the 1980s art scene. After the height of Gatorade’s “Like Mike,” however, comes the low of the 1990s rap generation, who “for better or worse, revealed a nihilism and avarice that, while present within any socioeconomic grouping, had not previously been seen so broadly or explicitly in an African-American context.” Tupak Shakur and others come to represent “the unheralded but irrefutable demise of a representative blackness as it had been known,” Powell laments. The strength and freedom of Douglass, Luna, et al. disappears into the void of materialism and anarchy of “thug culture.”

For Powell, the 1970s represent a “golden age” of black portraiture, in which “attention-grabbing hair-styles, along with clothing made of leather, polyester, and cotton with African-style prints, became the primary means by which African-Americans announced themselves anew, challenged the white status quo, and probed the more extroverted sides of their personality.” No artist got as down and funky in a fine arts way as Barkley L. Hendricks. Hendricks recognized that young African-Americans formed a sense of “blackness” from clothing and attitude. In a 1977 self-portrait titled Brilliantly Endowed, Hendricks painted himself nude except for some jewelry, striped socks, Converse sneakers, and an applejack cap perched on his head to emphasize the role in how clothes made the man, even when it was just the accessories. Later travels to Africa impressed on Hendricks the role of a specific black “attitude” via clothing in black cultural survival. During one of those trips, Hendricks encountered the singer and activist Fela, whom he painted posthumously in 2002 in Fela: Amen, Amen, Amen… (above). “Hendricks’ Fela employs his art as a creative offense,” Powell writes, “and his body as a jump-suited defense against moral hypocrisy, political corruption, and, above all, social invisibility.”

The decorative background of Hendricks’ portrait of Fela draws immediate comparisons to the iconic hip-hop portraits of Kehinde Wiley. In Wiley’s “Passing/Posing” paintings, however, Powell sees not the subject-centered portraiture of Hendricks but, instead, “Tupac Shakur-like ‘thug fiction’ where macho self-deception and hip-hop ‘fronting’ cut straight into the heart of representational matters.” Sadly, the subject center no longer holds in black portraiture for Powell, one of the many symptoms of a larger identity void that plagues not only African-Americans and America as a whole. “Through self-fashioning, provocative role-play, and other insignia,” Powell concludes, “peoples of African descent and their artistic delineators have slashed away at the fixed boundaries imposed upon black bodies in the public, predominantly Euro-American arena.” Like Jean-Paul Goude’s four-part portrait of Grace Jones (above, from 1978), the idea of the black portrait remains a fluid, ever-changing work in progress. Powell’s approach to the subject mimics that of a great jazz musician taking themes from here and there to create a new, personal composition full of individual flavor. Young jazz musicians looking to challenge the established lions would enter “cutting sessions” in which no mercy was shown. (Charlie Parker recalled having a cymbal thrown at him on his first attempt.) In Cutting a Figure: Fashioning Black Portraiture, Richard J. Powell enters the lion’s den of art history to do battle with the long legacy of portraiture and succeeds in emerging with a new vision of the black portrait as a valuable tool for self-fashioning in the past and, hopefully, for the future.

[Many thanks to the University of Chicago Press for providing me with a review copy of Richard J. Powell’s Cutting a Figure: Fashioning Black Portraiture.]

F-se! Obama: Anti-Christ With A New World Odor ( http://petersantilli.com/ @PeterSantilli)

" Obama: Anti-Christ With A New World Odor
Posted on May 26, 2009Filed Under Uncategorized 2 Comments
(@PeterSantilli )

People who know me understand why I voted for Obama and campaigned for him so vigorously.

For four years, I was so upset with George Bush & his so-called “War On Terror”; 9-11, in my opinion, was the greatest hoax perpetrated on America.

The 12 billion dollar per month Iraq War, the economic crisis, and a whole host of other issues Obama promised Americans he would change. Over 100 days into his historic presidency, and the only thing that has changed is himself.

He’s a 180 degree opposite of the man I wanted to be my President, primarily because he’s done the polar opposite of almost everything he promised.

For a very short period, I detached myself from Republican roots & basked in the “liberal” name-calling inflicted upon me. It was new & exciting to be called a liberal, if only because I was an Obama supporter. The newness has worn off. Calling me a liberal would mean I am associated with a large group of people who tolerate Obama’s totalitarianism & reckless behavior.

In December 2007 I heard a convincing campaign speech on Iraq. Obama was adamant: When he became President, the United States was NOT going to spend $12 billion per month on the Iraq war.

He was absolutely right; the nation could not afford it….and that was well before the economic crisis to us to the edge of the abyss.

In just over 100 days, we’re realizing that the nation cannot afford four years of Obama either.

Here’s a few reasons why:

Oppressing Liberty

Obama Supports Treaty Outlawing Gun Possession

Obama Administration crafts “preventive detention”

Obama offers security at the expense of liberty

Debt

“There is no doubt that we’ve been living beyond our means and we’re going to have to make some adjustments.” — Obama during the campaign.

The $49 million inauguration — triple what taxpayers spent at Bush’s first inauguration. Obama has asked his Cabinet to cut costs in their departments by $100 million — a whopping .0027%!

“Chicago has yet to recoup the $1.74 million cost of President Obama’s victory celebration in

Grant Park — despite a burgeoning $50.5 million budget shortfall that threatens more layoffs and union concessions.” — Chicago Sun-Times, 2/20

This year’s budget deficit: $1.5 trillion.

Obama - The Great Orator

“Mr. Obama is an accomplished orator but is becoming known in America as the ‘teleprompt president’ over his reliance on the machine when he gives a speech.” — Sky News, 3/18

When we voted for Obama, we trusted that he would continue being a great orator. He’s a tele-prompter-zombie & we fear what he would say if the power goes out.

Census

In early February, the 2010 census was moved out of the Department of Commerce and into the White House, politicizing how federal aid is distributed and electoral districts are drawn.

AIG Bonuses

Executives at AIG get $165 million in bonuses, despite receiving an $173 billion taxpayer bailout.

“For months, the Obama administration and members of Congress have known that insurance giant AIG was getting ready to pay huge bonuses while living off government bailouts. It wasn’t until the money was flowing and news was trickling out to the public that official Washington rose up in anger and vowed to yank the money back.” — Associated Press, 3/18

Health Care Reform

“The Obama administration is signaling to Congress that the president could support taxing some employee health benefits, as several influential lawmakers and many economists favor, to help pay for overhauling the health care system. The proposal is politically problematic for President Obama, however, since it is similar to one he denounced in the presidential campaign as ‘the largest middle-class tax increase in history.’ ” — New York Times, 3/14

Pork Barrel Spending

“Obama criticized pork barrel spending in the form of ‘earmarks,’ urging changes in the way that Congress adopts the spending proposals. Then he signed a spending bill that contains nearly 9,000 of them, some that members of his own staff shoved in last year when they were still members of Congress. ‘Let there be no doubt, this piece of legislation must mark an end to the old way of doing business, and the beginning of a new era of responsibility and accountability,’ Obama said.”

Hope Versus Fear

The same politician who proclaimed during his inauguration that ‘on this day we have chosen hope over fear’ soon warned Americans that the US economy would be forever destroyed if the stimulus bill was voted down.

Why was it that same man who promised to put Americans’ interests ahead of his own political ambitions chose instead to use the suffering of citizens to advance his agenda?

Maybe he was following the guidance of Rahm Emanuel, who famously said, ‘You never want to waste a good crisis.’

Treasury Secretary Geithner

Timothy Geithner nomination as Secretary of Treasury was almost torpedoed when it was discovered he had failed to pay $34,000 in Social Security and Medicare taxes. He also employed an illegal immigrant as a housekeeper. He was confirmed anyway.

Geithner, simply put, is a former Fed Mob Boss, and a well documented member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Bilderberg attendee, and target of every conspiracy theory known to the modern world.

Cronyism

“Barack Obama has been embroiled in a cronyism controversy after reports that he intends to make Louis Susman, one of his biggest fundraisers, the new US ambassador in London. The selection of Mr. Susman, a lawyer and banker from the president’s hometown of Chicago, rather than an experienced diplomat, raises new questions about Mr Obama’s commitment to the special relationship with Britain.” — Telegraph, 2/22

Samantha Power, who resigned from the Obama campaign after calling Hillary Rodham Clinton a “monster,” was hired to a position on the National Security Council.

Adolfo Carrion was confirmed as Director of White House Office of Urban Affairs, but is serving under a cloud after allegations that he accepted thousands of dollars in cash from developers whose projects he approved.

Seven of the Obama campaign’s top 14 donors consist of officers and em­ployees of the same Wall Street firms charged time and again with looting the public and newly implicated in originat­ing and/or bundling fraudulently made mortgages.

Lobbyists

After saying he wouldn’t have lobbyists in his administration, Obama made 17 exceptions in the first two weeks in office; including Tom Daschle, who worked as a top lobbyist yet was going to be appointed Secretary of Health and Human Services — until his failure to pay income taxes derailed his nomination.

Transparency

“The Obama administration has directed defense officials to sign a pledge stating they will not share 2010 budget data with individuals outside the federal government.” — Defense News, 2/19
Remember when Obama said that Americans would know where every stimulus dime is being spent? Guess what’s worse than his lack of accountability. The American public’s failure to do anything about it.

Oversight

“The GAO study asserts that officials from most of the states surveyed ‘expressed concerns regarding the lack of Recovery Act funding provided for accountability and oversight. Due to fiscal constraints, many states reported significant declines in the number of oversight staff — limiting their ability to ensure proper implementation and management of Recovery Act funds.’ ” — ABC News, 4/23

Trade, Labor & Environmental Issues

Obama quietly announced that he would not press for new labor and environmental regulations in the North American Free Trade Agreement, going back on a campaign promise.

Military Spending

Obama asked Congress for an extra $83.4 billion to fund operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, a special funding measure of the kind he opposed while in the senate. As a candidate, Obama promised to cut the cost of military operations.

Militant Governance of the Private Sector - Dictatorship

“The United States government has no interest in running GM. Your [GM] warranty will be safe. In fact, it will be safer than it’s ever been, because starting today, the United States government will stand behind your warranty.” — Obama

Firing Rick Wagoner as president of GM

Threatening to fire Vikram Pandit as CEO of Citigroup.Threatening to fire anyone the administration doesn’t like from any company.

Forced banks that didn’t want TARP money to take it, then added on stipulations about pay and government control after the fact. Secretly forced Bank of America to buy Merrill Lynch, then allowed the bank to be criticized for overpaying.

Stimulus Spending On Infrastructure

In the stimulus, of the more than $200 billion that went directly to states and cities, nearly 70% went to education and healthcare spending. Only 24% went to infrastructure spending.

But the states and cities in the most trouble already spend way too much on education and healthcare, pushing taxes up and sending private industry away. They don’t spend nearly enough on infrastructure, which attracts the private sector and builds the real economy.

As David Walker, former comptroller general of the US, said at the Regional Plan Association’s annual meeting, nationwide, we are the ‘highest in the world’ on education. We are ‘the highest in the world’ on healthcare. ‘Nobody comes even close.’ On infrastructure, by contrast, we are ‘below average’ in both critical new investments and in much-needed maintenance spending. And, as Democratic governor of Pennsylvania Ed Rendell said at the same conference, when President Dwight Eisenhower left office, infrastructure spending was about 12.5% of non-military domestic spending. Today, it’s about 2.5%.

Consider: almost half of China’s $585 billion economic-stimulus program, announced last November to much fanfare, is earmarked for infrastructure spending on railroads, highways and power grids. Another 25% will go to reconstruct entire towns in Sichuan province that were devastated by last year’s earthquake. These are “shovel-ready” infrastructure projects.

Contrast China’s economic rescue effort with the stimulus package recently signed into law by President Barack Obama. In the U.S., despite all the talk about shovel-ready construction projects, only about $100 billion of the $787 billion in stimulus spending will go toward new infrastructure this year. Another $282 billion goes to tax cuts or rebates, much of which, as economist Nouriel Roubini argues, will most likely be saved, not spent. A big chunk of the rest of the package will go, via the states, toward social services: increased unemployment benefits, more money for food stamps and for health-care spending for the poor and the elderly

In other words, Washington is providing lots of funding for “social safety net” programs — precisely the kind of programs that poor and unemployed Chinese really need and the government barely provides. Meanwhile, China is throwing money at infrastructure projects to a degree that the U.S. — with its creaky bridges, potholed roads, crumbling schools and obsolete airports — hasn’t seen in decades. There is some infrastructure spending in the U.S. plan, to be sure, but not enough, many economists believe, to deliver a real jolt to a moribund economy.

These are indisputable facts. Obama is either extremely misguided by his advisors, or is proceeding as the world’s anti-christ by single-handedly destroying the American empire.

Don’t forget, I was a loyal Obama supporter up until I started realizing that he’s making decisions totally in contradiction with his campaign promises.

Obama’s making terrible decisions, but most importantly, he’s betraying the people who put him in office. What are we gonna do about it?

F-se! What are we gonna do about it? Faço das Palavras do Peter Santilli tb as minhas. ( Claro que com as devidas distâncias salvaguardadas...)

Rub a Dub Dub

Any parent will tell you that one of the most “interesting” parts of their day is bath time. Thanks to a small armada of toy boats, Mr. Bubble, and assorted other tricks, Alex usually enjoys his bath time. After pulling my slippery three year old from the suds and wrapping him up in a dry towel, I sweep him up in my arms and hold him close to keep him warm. For that brief moment, he’s our little baby again. Although never a parent herself, Mary Cassatt painted many scenes of mothers and children during bath time. Born May 22, 1844, Cassatt met Edgar Degas and worked closely with him. Degas’ interest in the female nude in a bath setting may have spurred Cassatt’s interest in her own bath pictures, which have a more acceptably “female” approach in the motherly relationship between child and parent. Cassatt’s The Bath (above, from 1891-1892) shows the early style of Cassatt, not yet fully Impressionist yet no longer entirely the strict realism of her PAFA training. Around the time of this painting, Cassatt saw an exhibition of Japanese prints as part of the larger Japonisme fad of the age. Elements of Japonisme appear in The Bath in the diagonal of the child’s body crossing against the near diagonals of the mother’s striped dress. The flatness of much of the color also shows the influence of Japanese prints. In addition to all these styles straining against each other simultaneously, Cassatt tenderly depicts the intimacy of the mother and child at the moment that the child is the most vulnerable.

In Jules Being Dried by His Mother (above, from 1900), Cassatt depicts the next stage of the process. Degas loved to show women after the bath, especially during that awkward transition from water to dry ground. Little Jules here looks straight ahead while his mother’s eyes lock on his face with affection. In this painting, the intimacy seems almost one-sided. Cassatt paints their disconnect rather than a connection here. Little Jules is not so little anymore. He seems ready to do things for himself. Jules’ expression shows almost a kingly tolerance of his mother drying his limbs. The elaborate dress of Jules’ mother appears almost courtly rather than realistic, adding to the regal indifference of princely Jules. (I personally prefer a t-shirt and running shorts when administering ablutions.) Stylistically, Cassatt begins to turn more Impressionist. Jules Being Dried by His Mother shows an almost Renoir-like softness in the modeling of faces and bodies, an interesting divergence from the influence of Degas. Although unrealistic, the pattern of yellow and white as well as the shimmering highlights of the mother’s dress make it the star of the painting.

In After the Bath (above, from 1901), Cassatt copies the gestural pastel technique of Degas in the parallel lines that make the picture almost seem to move. Degas allowed himself to grow bolder and bolder in this technique to the point that the bathers or dancers in the work became almost superfluous to the technique. Cassatt, however, continues to center the image on the relationships of the subjects. In After the Bath, Cassatt returns to the intimacy of mother and child, but with the added twist of a love triangle formed by the presence of an older sibling. Sigmund Freud and his idea of sibling rivalry developing from the Oedipus complex were not yet mainstream ideas, but any student of human nature such as Cassatt instinctively knew that siblings will fight among themselves for more face time with parents. Is the older child’s grip on the baby’s wrist a gesture of affection of an attempt to break the contact between baby and mother? The painting doesn’t offer any clues as to motivations or final outcome but does allow for the possibility of connection or conflict. As a woman, Cassatt felt limited in her range of subjects. Painting in the acceptable genre of bath time, Cassatt could subversively explore avenues in the human heart that exist at every age.

Nacional de Pokémon!

Olá a todos!

Ontem decorreu o maior evento da Temporada Pokémon em Portugal, o Nacional de Pokémon!

Este ano tivemos uma verdadeira enchente de treinadores!

Nunca houve tantos participantes num torneio deste género!

Mais de 90 participantes, de norte a sul de Portugal, reuniram-se em Almada para decidir quem seriam os sortudos que irão representar Portugal em Agosto!
Crianças e adultos, rapazes e raparigas, a todos movia a mesma paixão, o Pokémon! ^-^

Tudo isto, mais o facto de terem colocado à venda as cartas da nova expansão, "Rising Rivals" tornaram este dia inesquecível para todos!

Durante todo o dia, até bem perto das 21 horas, todos os participantes combateram contra oponentes bastante renhidos, pois todos queriam vencer!

No entanto, muitas vezes acaba por ser a Sorte a decidir quem vence!

A grande Final, disputada por Miguel Silva (Porto) contra Filipe Cardoso (Lisboa) acabou com a vitória de Miguel Silva!

Um grande jogo, bastante intenso, onde cada segundo daqueles 50 minutos foi crucial!

Uma grande vitória, embora as surpresas não tivessem terminado aqui!

Nas vitórias por escalão tivemos:

No escalão junior, 10 participantes, quase todos ganharam prémios, a competição foi engraçada, mostrando um pouco do que podemos esperar dos futuros Masters Trainer de Pokémon em Portugal!

(Não tenho aqui a lista dos vencedores, por isso quem tiver mande-me pf)

No escalão Seniores, 3 das Estrelas que subiram ao Pódio dos 8 melhores jogadores de Portugal foram: Joana Cartaxo, Rui Ribeiro e João Lagrifa, todos eles da Liga Pokémon do Porto!

O grande vencedor foi Igor Sampaio (Lisboa), uma antiga promessa dos Juniores e que com a experiência que já possui, marcou pontos no novo escalão!

No escalão Masters, o Porto uma vez mais voltou a marcar pontos!
Entre os melhores de Portugal estão agora: Nuno Azevedo, André Silva, Miguel Silva, todos eles jogadores da Liga Pokémon do Porto!

André Silva, que o ano passado venceu o Nacional de Pokémon na Divisão Seniores, este ano no seu primeiro ano a jogar no Escalão Masters, conseguiu um fabuloso 2º Lugar!

O grande vencedor foi Filipe Cardoso (Lisboa)!

Isto gerou alguma confusão no final do evento pois Filipe tinha perdido na Final e ainda assim conseguiu sagrar-se vencedor.

O motivo foi o mesmo de sempre: o sistema de pontos atribuídos pelo programa da "The Pokémon Company International" (ex-PUSA) que atribui pontos e faz os seus "desempates" através de um sistema de percentagens invulgar, baseado nas percentagens de vitórias dos oponentes dos oponentes (omfg!!!)

Creio que o mais lógico seria atribuir a vitória a quem venceu a Final, ou fazer uma Finalíssima como há 2 anos atrás no Porto.

Sinto-me muito orgulhoso e feliz por ver tantas jovens promessas encarregues do futuro do Pokémon em Portugal!

Eu, como Gym Leader do Porto, sinto-me bastante orgulhoso dos esforços e de todos os treinos em que envolvi os meus treinadores durante toda a Temporada, pois todos fizeram imensos progressos e alguns deles nem começaram a jogar à muito!

Um dos meus "New Star Trainer" começou apenas à 2 semanas e conseguiu vencer 4 das 6 rondas no Escalão Senior!

É em dias como o dia de ontem que sinto que vale a pena ser o que sou no "Mundo Pokémon".

Não é fácil, é preciso muita paciência e dedicação, mas valeu bem a pena! ^^

Parabéns a todos, vencedores ou não, pois a festa foi feita com a ajuda e a participação de todos!

Um grande abraço,

League Leader

P.S. - Quem tiver fotos do evento e queira vê-las aqui publicadas ou desejar partilhar comigo e com todos os outros alguns dos momentos desta grande festa, por favor enviem para o meu email: lightdragon4ever@hotmail.com

Urban Myths

Henri Rousseau, better known by some as “Le Douanier” or “The Customs Officer” (his occupation until his retirement in 1893), painted in obscurity during his lifetime but is known well today for his mysterious, almost childlike paintings of wonder such as Sleeping Gypsy and The Snake Charmer. Born May 21, 1844 in the Loire Valley, Rousseau’s most famous works present a strange jungle world, yet he himself inhabited the urban jungle of Paris for most of his career. Rousseau’s Self-Portrait of 1890 (above) shows him situated in a civilized setting, yet still retains the simplicity and unstudied charm of his other works. During his lifetime, Rousseau withstood the ridicule of other artists who couldn’t understand his primitive style. However, Jean-Léon Gérôme, an academic painter himself, gave tips to his friend Rousseau as “Le Douanier” pursued painting past the point of being a hobby into a true outlet for his unique perspective. As much as I love Rousseau’s dark jungles, I find it equally fascinating how he applied his unique vision to the real world around him, spying modern wonders with that same childlike fascination.

When Rousseau painted The Eiffel Tower (above, from 1898), Gustave Eiffel’s colossus was less than a decade old. Anyone who has visited Paris has some visual memory of the tower, either from a vantage point in the city or, if you’ve taken the ride up, from above, looking down upon Paris itself. The Eiffel Tower anchors Paris like a lighthouse shining its beacon to guide lost travelers home. With that powerful effect in mind, it’s fascinating that Rousseau chooses to literally cut the Eiffel Tower down to size in a painting named after it. He reduces the landmark to the size of a gift shop replica hanging from a key chain. Instead, the waterways of Paris dominate the scene as the Parisians who work the banks go about their daily jobs. Rousseau flips the idea of importance on its head in this painting. All adults “know” that the Eiffel Tower is the most “important” thing in this painting, but children don’t know such things. Children visually value the waterways and the workings of the people just as much, if not more, as Rousseau tries to show in this painting.

Before his death in 1910, Rousseau got to witness the advent of powered flight, which began with the Wright Brothers first flight in 1903. In View of the Bridge at Sevres and the Hills at Clamert, Saint Cloud and Bellevue (above, from 1908), Rousseau paints a Wright Brothers-style plane sputtering across the sky. Nearby, a type of dirigible flies. The early twentieth century saw a “golden age” of blimps and dirigibles. Races were even held above Paris using the Eiffel Tower as a turning stake. In the distance between the plane and the dirigible, a hot air balloon floats. The first manned balloon ride happened in Paris in 1783 in a contraption built by the famous Montgolfier brothers. Rousseau’s arrangement of these three flying machines suggests the advent of the plane and blimp and the decline of the hot air balloon technologically. (Thomas Eakins’ 1871 Max Schmitt in a Single Scull creates a similar hierarchy by showing older, slower watery craft in the distance behind the Schmitt’s sleek racer.) To Rousseau’s old, yet young eyes, these new flying machines must have seemed magical. Critics credit Rousseau for opening up avenues of seeing that paved the way for the Surrealists, but in his more “real” works of wonder, Rousseau showed us more importantly the value of seeing as a child sees and recognizing the magic all around us every day.

Superstar

The long and often tragic history of Germany is tied up in large part with an identity complex. Like many European countries, the idea of Germany as a country with clear borders is a relatively modern one. Wars and kingships have moved borders back and forth so often that what was German land and what wasn’t remained an enduring question. In the late nineteenth century, Germany tried to fill this identity void by creating truly Germanic heroes. In the world of art, Albrecht Durer was crowned the first and truest German superstar. Born May 21, 1471, Durer brought the Italian Renaissance north, where it became the Northern Renaissance. Yet, just as Germany itself was a work in progress, Durer had to grow into his superstardom. The Self-Portrait of 1493 (above) shows the 22-year-old Durer at the beginning of his career, just starting to travel across Europe to accrue the mixture of influences that would inspire his mature work. Durer painted this self-portrait in Basel and shipped it back to his intended back in Nurermberg, writing “Things with me fare as ordained from above” at the top of the picture. From the very beginning, Durer sensed his fate was in God’s hands.

Just five years after painting the awkward Self-Portrait of 1493, Durer paints the self-assured Self-Portrait of 1498. Durer now sits up straighter than before. Whereas the 1493 portrait is isolated, the 1498 portrait includes a window onto the world. Durer had just returned from Venice with the Italian Renaissance still fresh in his mind. The world had literally broken wide open for Durer in the span of just five years. Legend has it that Durer’s dog barked and wagged his tail upon seeing the 1498 portrait for the first time, fooled into thinking it was actually his master. The realism of this portrait as well as the opulence of the clothing Durer wears show that Durer had mastered the techniques of the Renaissance masters and was turning a fine profit for himself. Yet, Durer remains turned slightly away, as if he can’t yet bring himself to face the viewer full on. His mission was not yet complete.

In the final painted Self-Portrait of 1500 (above), Durer faces the viewer directly in total confidence of his powers. He wears kingly clothing and his hair cascades down like a lion’s mane, proclaiming him the king of the German cultural jungle. Durer assumes visually the mantle of the King of Kings, Christ himself, in this final self-portrait not out of blasphemous braggadocio but instead to illustrate how the artist imitates God himself in the creative act. If imitation is the sincerest flattery, Durer imitates Christ to praise him as the source of all artistic and creative power. In a 1522 drawing, Durer lent his features to Christ again, but this time as the Man of Sorrows instead of Christ triumphant. As age began to take its toll on Durer, he identified increasingly with the Suffering Servant side of Christ’s story, recognizing that his ascension to the rank of creator had ended. Of all the artists in different media adopted by the Nazis at the apex of German nationalism, Durer and perhaps Beethoven seem to be the two left untainted by that association. As the German Expressionists recognized (especially Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, who fashioned himself a modern-day Durer through his own self-portraiture), the stellar light of a superstar such as Durer can never be tarnished by mere mortals.

Crowded Out

Along with Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck, Jacob Jordaens helped make the Antwerp school famous during its day. Born May 19, 1593, Jordaens was younger than Rubens and slightly older than van Dyck, who sandwich him in the minds of art historians today to the point of being crowded out, much as he crowded himself out in his Self-Portrait with Parents, Brothers, and Sisters (above, from 1615). Jordaens forces us to play some Dutch version of Where’s Waldo? to find him among the familial fray, and even squeezes in a pair of cherubs over his head to fill out the last empty space. The individuality of the portraits in this group recalls the touch and technique of van Dyck, whose portrait style took England by storm and continued to influence British artists centuries later. At the same time, the comedy of the crowded room, which reminds me of the “stateroom scene” from The Marx Brothers’ movie A Night at the Opera, follows the line of conventional Dutch genre painting illustrating daily life with all its ups and downs. Rubens and van Dyck walked with royalty, but Jordaens never lost his common touch, which may be why he’s become the Zeppo of the Antwerp School.

Rubens actually hired Jordaens to create larger-scale versions of some of his original designs—a common practice in the apprenticeship world of guilds. This outsourcing proves that Rubens recognized Jordaens’ talent as well as his Rubenesque style. Jordaens’ Prometheus (above, from 1640) reinterprets Rubens’ famous Prometheus Bound of 1611. First, Jordaens flips the composition of Prometheus Bound and the vulture, creating a mirror image. Next, he concentrates more on showing Prometheus’ anguish facially rather than through the contortion of his body, thus inserting a van Dyck style portrait into a Rubens. Finally, whereas Rubens left Prometheus alone on the crag to fight the vulture forever, Jordaens shows the moment at which Hermes comes to the rescue. It is almost as if Rubens was comfortable with the idea of eternal torment (perhaps reflecting an idea of man’s inherent sinfulness), whereas Jordaens couldn’t allow the story to not have a happy ending. Jordaens desire to save Prometheus falls in line with his happier view of humanity, flaws and all.

Of course, not everything is sunny in Jordaens’ world. The shadow of Caravaggio falls heavily on some of Jordaens more mysterious work, particularly the enigmatic Apparition by Night (above, undated). A young man tosses and turns in his sleep as a ghostly nude female figure walks across the room. Two women open the door to look in on the youth and their candle lights the room just enough for us to see the spectral seductress. Whereas Caravaggio’s chiaroscuro sharpened his scenes with the stark dark and light drama, Jordaens’ brand of chiaroscuro forces us to look as through a glass darkly. The nude ghost seems to walk not only in darkness but also underwater, making her murkier and more apparitional. I can’t help contrast Apparition by Night with Henry Fuseli’s Nightmare and Silence, which also muddy the visual waters to conjure ghosts in the night. Jordaens’ Apparition by Night seems almost Romantic by that association with Fuseli even though he paints a full two centuries before the “Romantic” age. Like the apparition, we see Jordaens only fleetingly in the shadows of his bigger countrymen, but wish we could see him in a stronger, more revealing light.

Como ir ao Nacional De Pokémon? Artigo para todos os que vão pela 1ª vez e são da Zona Norte

Vou deixar aqui os dados que disponho de momento sobre como ir para Almada e os preços que disponho.

Autocarros TURILIS/ AVIC

Horários

Sai do Porto às:

09.15

13.50

19.30

01.15

08.15

Chegam a Lisboa às:

13.20

17.10

23.10

05.00

11.40

Para virem embora:

Sai de Lisboa (Gare do Oriente) às:

08.30

12.30

18.00

18.30

19.00

21.00

Chegam ao Porto às:

12.10

16.10

21.40

22.10

22.40

00.40

Quanto aos preços cada viagem fica por 15,50€ ou seja ida e volta ficaria por 31€.

Mais informações em www.avic.pt

Nota: Relembro que têm de sair na Gare do Oriente e de lá arranjar transporte para Almada.

Se quiserem ir de comboio:

Apanham os comboios em Porto-Campanhã nos seguintes horários:

Se forem na 6ª feira e pernoitarem na pousada:

Intercidades:

14:52

16:52

19:52

Chegam a Lisboa Oriente ou (Lisboa Santa Apolónia 8 minutos depois):

17:52

19:52

22:52

Se preferirem o Alfa Pendular:

Porto Campanhã:

13:47

15:47

16:47

17:45

18:47

20:47

Chegam a Lisboa Oriente ou (Lisboa Santa Apolónia 8 minutos depois):

16:22

18:22

19:22

20:29

21:22

23:22

Caso prefiram ir no sábado:

Porto Campanhã:

Intercidades:

06:52

Chegam a Lisboa Oriente ou (Lisboa Santa Apolónia 8 minutos depois):

09:52

Alfa Pendular:

05:47

06:47

Chegam a Lisboa Oriente ou (Lisboa Santa Apolónia 8 minutos depois):

08:22

09:22

Para virem embora depois do Evento:

Lisboa Santa Apolónia (8 minutos depois está em Lisboa-Oriente):

Intercidades:

17:30

19:30

21:30

Chegam a Porto Campanhã:

20:41

22:39

00:39

Se vierem de Alfa Pendular:

Lisboa Santa Apolónia (8 minutos depois está em Lisboa-Oriente):

* 18:09 - (este comboio a esta hora parte directamente de Lisboa-Oriente)

19:00

20:00

Chegam a Porto Campanhã:

20:44

21:46

22:52

Os preços dos bilhetes de comboio são os seguintes:

Intercidades - 19,50€

Alfa Pendular - 27,50€

Ou seja, ida e volta no Intercidades fica por 39€.

Ida e volta no Alfa Pendular fica por 55€.

Nota: Horários e preços podem sofrer alterações, convém informarem-se uns dias antes.

Segundo o que apurei quem comprar bilhete de ida e volta tem um desconto de 20%, mas nada como consultarem os horários e os preços em :

www.cp.pt

Já sabemos até agora então os horários das viagens, os preços e os meios de transporte para chegarmos até Lisboa.

De momento desconheço qual o meio de transporte ideal que vos possa levar até à Pousada da Juventude de Almada. Podem ir de barco, de comboio, de táxi ou de autocarro.

Sobre a Pousada da Juventude de Almada:

Os preços rondam os 14 euros por quarto múltiplo e os 38 euros por quarto duplo com wc.

Para poderem saber mais informações:

www.pousadasjuventude.pt

Por último...

Um grande abraço a todos,

Desde já votos de muito boa sorte,

League Leader