Thursday, August 21, 2008

Nelson Évora (Beijing 2008)



Nelson Évora (born April 20, 1984) is a Portuguese athlete who specializes in the triple jump and long jump. He is the current triple jump olympic and world champion. Évora currently competes for Portuguese sports club S.L. Benfica. He represented Cape Verde until 2002, when he got Portuguese citizenship, in June that year.

Biography
Born in Cote D'Ivoire, where his parents had come to live from Cape Verde, Nelson relocated to Portugal when he was five years old. He still holds the Cape Verdean records in both the long jump (7.57 metres) and the triple jump (16.15 metres).

Évora's family fixed in Odivelas, on the floor upon João Ganço, former Portugal record-holder and first man in Portugal to pass over 2m in the high jump. David Ganço, one of three sons of João Ganço, one year older than Nelson, became Évora's best friend. One day, João Ganço, seeing them playing in the street, suggested Nelson to start practicing athletics, following David's example, and, just like that, Nelson sportive career was started. João Ganço, then became Évora's coach.

Évora is a member of the Bahá'í Faith.

Sports career
He competed in the triple jump in the 2004 Olympics, without progressing from his pool, and finished sixth at the 2006 IAAF World Indoor Championships. He finished fourth in the triple jump final and sixth in the long jump final at the 2006 European Athletics Championships in Gothenburg, having set a Portuguese triple jump record of 17.23 metres during the qualification. At the 2007 European Athletics Indoor Championships he came in fifth place.

On August 27, 2007, he became the triple jump World champion at the 2007 World Championships in Athletics, in Osaka, Japan, estabilishing his personal best, portuguese national record and second best world mark of the year at 17.74 metres.

On March 9, 2008, he placed third in the triple jump competition at the 2008 IAAF World Indoor Championships, in Valencia, by jumping 17.27 metres.

On August 21, 2008, he edged out Phillips Idowu of Great Britain to take an Olympic gold medal with a 17.67 metres jump.

He is the great winner of triple jump in beijing 2008
You can see the video here


Personal opinnion:
You are really fantastic! Go Nelson,PORTUGAL with you(I am portuguese). I am your fan and due to your amazing work you should win a BIG prize!





Thanks to wikipedia for the biography and thanks to Youtube for this video!





Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Sara Bareilles(Love Song)

Sara Beth Bareilles (pronounced /bəˈɹɛlɪs/; born December 7, 1979) is an American singer-songwriter and pianist. She achieved mainstream success in 2007 with the hit single "Love Song", which brought her into the Top 5 on the Billboard pop charts.

Biography
Early life
Bareilles was born and raised in Eureka, California. She participated in the high school choir, Limited Edition, and local community theater musical productions, including her high school's production of Little Shop of Horrors as Audrey. She graduated from Eureka Senior High School in June 1998, having been voted "Most Talented" in the senior yearbook of that year. Bareilles attended UCLA, where she was a member of their a cappella group Awaken. The group's rendition of Bareilles' "Gravity" was featured on the Best of College A Cappella 2004 compilation CD. Sara also stated on MTV's TRL that she and the band Maroon 5 go back far to their younger days in California when the band was known as Kara's Flowers. She performed in the annual student concert, UCLA Spring Sing, winning twice.

Career
After graduating from college in 2002, Bareilles performed at local bars and clubs (such as the Hotel Cafe and Genghis Cohen in Los Angeles), earning a following, before performing in larger venues. She issued two demos of mostly live tracks in 2003: The First One in April and The Summer Sessions in October. In 2004, she appeared as a singer in a bar in the indie film Girl Play, performing the song "Undertow".
In January 2004, Bareilles released her first studio album, Careful Confessions. She signed a contract with Epic Records' A&R executive Pete Giberga on April 15, 2005. The remainder of the year and early 2006 was spent writing and reworking songs for her upcoming album. Her song, "Gravity," appears briefly in the 2006 independent film Loving Annabelle.She also toured as the opening act in 2006 for Marc Broussard's "Carencro" tour. In 2007, Bareilles toured as the opening act for Aqualung and Mika. In mid-2004 she opened for Rocco DeLuca and the Burden during their inaugural headline tour, supported Guster on their first UK tour and co-headlined a tour with Jon McLaughlin. In late-2007, she opened for several shows on both Maroon 5 and Paolo Nutini's U.S. tours. She also opened for James Blunt on his U.S. Tour in association with VH1 You Oughta Know.
In June 2007, iTunes featured Bareilles' single "Love Song" as the free single of the week. The following month, her major-label debut Little Voice shot to #1 on the list of most downloaded albums of the music store in its first week of release, and debuted at #45 on the Billboard 200 chart. After being featured on a Rhapsody commercial in 2007, "Love Song" began climbing the pop charts, jumping from #73 to #16 in one week. As of December 27, 2007, "Love Song" has entered the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. Bareilles performed the song on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on Thursday, January 17, 2008, and on the Today show on Thursday, February 21, 2008.
As of February 14, 2008, "Little Voice" has been certified gold by the RIAA. As of February 27, 2008, the album has jumped to the top 10 of the Billboard 200 at #7.Bareilles' single, "Love Song" was certified 2X platinum in April 2008.
She is scheduled to tour with Counting Crows and Maroon 5 between July 22 and August 26, 2008. The first stop is Virginia Beach, Virginia and the last stop is Cleveland, Ohio.
-Discography;
-Studium albuns;
-iTunes;

Sara Bareilles` Official Site:
http://www.sarabmusic.com/site.html
Thanks to wikipedia for this information and thanks to youtube for this video.
My Opinion
I love her sucessful song, "Love Song". This song is very emotional, and ...I don´t have words to discribe this...It is amazing song. Congratulations Sara!













Jude Law


Jude Law (born December 29, 1972) is an English actor. He began acting with the National Youth Music Theatre in 1987, and had his first TV role in 1989. In 1997, his role in the Oscar Wilde biopic Wilde garnered him the Evening Standard British Film Award as "Most Promising Newcomer".
After starring in films directed by Andrew Niccol, Clint Eastwood and David Cronenberg, he was nominated for an Academy Award twice: for his role in The Talented Mr. Ripley in 2000, and for Cold Mountain in 2003, both directed by Anthony Minghella. He also won a BAFTA Award for his role in The Talented Mr. Ripley.

He is on the Top Ten List from the 2006 A-list of the most bankable movie stars in Hollywood. On March 1, 2007, he was honoured with the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres conferred by the French government; he was named a "Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres". In 2009, he will return to the theatre stage to perform the title role in Shakespeare's play Hamlet.

Early life
Law was born in Lewisham, South London, to teachers Maggie and Peter Law, who named him after both The Beatles song Hey Jude and Thomas Hardy's central character in his novel Jude the Obscure. His parents now run their own drama school in France. Natasha, his sister, is a well-regarded illustrator and artist, living in London. He grew up in Blackheath, a village in the Borough of Lewisham, and he was educated at "John Ball" Primary School in Blackheath and Kidbrooke School in Kidbrooke, before attending the Alleyn's School in Dulwich.

His Career.
1980s-1990s
In 1987 Law began acting with the National Youth Music Theatre. the United Kingdom's leading organisation for young people in the field of musical theatre. He played various roles in the Edinburgh Fringe awarded The Ragged Child, and one of his first major stage roles was as Foxtrot Darling in Philip Ridley's multi-award-winning The Fastest Clock In The Universe. Law went on to appear as Michael in the West End production of Jean Cocteau's tragicomedy Les parents terribles directed by Sean Mathias. He was nominated for an Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Newcomer, and he received the Ian Charleson Award for Outstanding Newcomer.
Following a title change to Indiscretions, the play was reworked and transferred to Broadway in 1995, where Law acted opposite Kathleen Turner, Roger Rees and Cynthia Nixon. This role earned him a Tony Award nomination and the Theatre World Award. In 1989, Law got his first TV role in a movie based on the Beatrix Potter children's book, The Tailor of Gloucester. After minor roles in British television, including a two-year stint in the Granada TV soap opera Families and the leading role in the BFI /Channel 4 short The Crane, Law had his breakthrough with the British crime drama Shopping, which also featured his future wife Sadie Frost.
He became more widely known with his performance in the biopic Wilde. Law won the "Most Promising Newcomer" award from the Evening Standard British Film Awards, for his role as Lord Alfred "Bosie" Douglas, the glamorous lover of Stephen Fry's Oscar Wilde. In Andrew Niccol's science fiction film Gattaca, he played the role of a disabled former swimming star living in a eugenics-obsessed dystopia. In Clint Eastwood's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, he played the role of the ill-fated hustler murdered by an art dealer (played by Kevin Spacey). He also played a mob hitman in Sam Mendes's 1930s period drama Road to Perdition.

2000s
He has been nominated for an Academy Award twice; once as Best Supporting Actor for his performance in The Talented Mr. Ripley in 1999, and then again as Best Actor in a Leading Role for Cold Mountain in 2003, both directed by Anthony Minghella. For the former film, he learned to play saxophone and earned a MTV Movie Award nomination together with Matt Damon and Fiorello for performing the song Tu Vuo' Fa L'Americano by Renato Carosone and Nicola Salerno. He learned ballet dancing for the film Artificial Intelligence: AI (2001).
He portrayed the title character in Alfie, the remake of Bill Naughton's 1966 film, playing the role originated by Sir Michael Caine. In 2004, Law was named the Sexiest Man Alive by People magazine. He took on another of Caine's earlier roles in the 2007 film Sleuth adapted by Nobel Laureate in Literature Harold Pinter, while Caine played the role originated by Sir Laurence Olivier. Law, an admirer of Olivier, used the famous actor's image in the 2004 film Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. Using computer graphics, footage of the young Olivier was merged into the film, playing Dr.Totenkopf, a mysterious scientific genius and supervillain.
Law is one of three actors taking the place of the actor Heath Ledger in Terry Gilliam's film The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. Along with Law, actors Johnny Depp and Colin Farrell will portray the "three separate dimensions in the film." He will appear opposite Forest Whitaker in the dark sci-fi comedy Repossession Mambo. In 2009, Law will return to the London stage to portray Prince Hamlet in Shakespeare's play Hamlet, under the direction of Kenneth Branagh, at the Donmar Warehouse.
Law is on the Top Ten List from the 2006 A-list of the most bankable movie stars in Hollywood, following the criteria of James Ulmer in the Ulmer Scale. On March 1, 2007, he was honoured with the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres conferred by the French government, in recognition of his contribution to World Cinema Arts. He was named a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres.

Other project
Law is the face of the new male perfume of Dior. Since 2005, he has represented British-based men's luxury goods maker Dunhill as an "apparel ambassador" in Asia. In 2008, he became the international face and appears in the worldwide spring/summer advertising campaign, apart from TV commercials in North America.
In 2002, he directed a Respect for Animals anti-fur cinema commercial. The commercial used music composed by Gary Kemp, and included appearances by pop singer Mel C, Helena Christensen, Sadie Frost, Supergrass's Danny Goffey, Chrissie Hynde, Rhys Ifans, Jude Law, Sir Paul McCartney, Stella McCartney, George Michael and Moby. In 2007, he encouraged the Friends of the Earth /The Big Ask campaign, asking British Government to take action against Climate change

Charity activities
In 2004, Law launched a campaign to raise £2.5 million towards the Young Vic Theatre's £12.5 million redevelopment project. He is currently Chair of the Young Vic committee and has said that he is proud to help make the Young Vic "a nurturing bed" for young directors. He is an enthusiastic football fan and a supporter of the English football club Tottenham Hotspur. In 2006, he joined Robbie Williams in the "Soccer Aid" celebrity football match to benefit UNICEF.
Law also does charity work for organizations such as Make Poverty History, the Rhys Daniels Trust, and the WAVE Trauma Centre. He supports the charity Make-A-Wish Foundation and the Pride of Britain Awards. He is the chair of the Music For Tomorrow Foundation, to help rebuild Katrina-devastated New Orleans.
In 2006, he starred in an anthology of Samuel Beckett readings and performances directed by Oscar-winning director Anthony Minghella. With the Beckett Gala Evening at the Reading Town Hall more than £22,000 was donated for the Macmillan Cancer Support. Also in 2006, Frost and Law directed a Shakespeare play in a South African orphanage. He travelled to Durban, South Africa, with Frost and their children in order to help children who have lost their parents to AIDS. In July 2007, as patron of the charity, he helped kick off the month-long tour of the AIDS-themed musical Thula Sizwe, by The Young Zulu Warriors.
Jude Law is an ambassador of HRH The Prince of Wales' Children & the Arts Foundation.

Peace activities
In July 2007, Law and Jeremy Gilley were in Afghanistan over a period of 10 days to document peace commitments and activities there for an upcoming film and for marking the UN International Day of Peace. Accompanied by UNICEF Representative Catherine Mbengue, they travelled and filmed in treacherous areas of eastern Afghanistan with a film crew, interviewing children, government ministers, community leaders and UN officials. They also filmed at schools and visited various UNICEF-supported programmes inside and outside the capital. These efforts of Peace One Day are coordinated in celebration of the annual International Day of Peace, on September 21. The film named The Day After Peace premièred at the Cannes Film Festival. On September 21, 2008, the film will be shown at a Gala screening at the Royal Albert Hall. A New York POD event will be held at the Nokia Theatre on the 9th of September.

Personal life
Marriage to Sadie Frost
Law met actress Sadie Frost during the work on the film Shopping. They married on September 2, 1997. He is the father of four children: Finlay Munro (stepson of Law, born September 20, 1990), son Rafferty (born October 6, 1996), daughter Iris (born October 25, 2000) and son Rudy (born September 10, 2002). They divorced on October 29, 2003.

Relationship with Sienna Miller
At Christmas 2004 he became engaged to Sienna Miller, his co-star in Alfie. On November 12, 2006 Law and Miller announced their breakup.





Jean-Michel Jarre(Oxygène, Equinoxe, Rendez-Vous 4...)


Jean-Michel André Jarre (born 24 August 1948) is a French composer, performer and music producer. He is highly regarded as one of the pioneers in the electronic, synthpop and New Age genres, as well as the organiser of record-breaking outdoor spectacles of his music, which feature laser displays and fireworks, linking music with the surrounding environment and architecture. Jarre has sold an estimated 80 million albums and singles over his career.

Musical career
-Musical upbringing
Jarre was born in Lyon on August 24, 1948, the son of Maurice Jarre, a famous composer of film music, and France Pejot, a member of the French resistance during World War II. His grandfather, André Jarre, was one of the inventors of the first audio mixing consoles used by Radio Lyon, and he was also involved, after World War II, with one of the first portable phonographs (the Tepazz) , which he gave to his grandson as a present.
When Jean Michel was five, his father departed for Hollywood, and Jarre would not have much contact with him from then on . It was at this time that Jarre began studying classical piano. His interest in music was not yet passionate, and he had to change piano teachers several times. It was only when he discovered a strange trumpet or violin instrument in a local flea market that his interest really took off. On his tenth birthday, his mother took him to a Paris jazz club called "Le chat qui pêche" (The Fishing Cat), where he was introduced to the saxophonists Archie Shepp and John Coltrane, and the trumpet players Don Cherry and Chet Baker. Jarre stated in the 1997 documentary, Making The Steamroller Fly that this event really triggered his passion for music. Jarre then started to take courses in harmony and counterpoint at the Conservatoire of Paris, under the guidance of Jeanine Rueff. He was studying for a degree in law and economic science at the same time. Eventually he quit the classical studies, and turned to modern music theory instead.

Personal life
Jarre was married to Flore Guillard from 20 January 1975 until 1977. Later he was married to British actress and photographer Charlotte Rampling from 7 October 1978 until 1998. In 2002 he became publicly engaged to French actress Isabelle Adjani, but later she ended this relationship. On 12 May 2005 he married French actress Anne Parillaud.

Early years
In 1964, he formed a band called Mystère IV ("Mystery 4"). He spent so much time in the group that his mother confiscated his instruments. In 1967 Jarre played guitar in the band "The Dustbins". They played the hits of The Shadows and The Spotnicks. The group appeared on stage in a party scene in the movie "Des garçons et des filles", the soundtrack for which featured two of the band's songs. A single was released, but only ten copies were made.
In 1968, he started experimenting with tape loops, radios and other electronic devices, and in January 1969, he joined the Groupe de Recherche Musicale (GRM), under the direction of Pierre Schaeffer, the "father" of musique concrète. Here he was introduced to the first synthesizers in Europe: the EMS VCS 3 and the Moog modular synthesizer. In GRM, Jarre was taught to think about music in terms of sounds instead of notes, and this had a huge influence upon him. He also studied foreign musics (African, Indian, Chinese and other oriental music) from which he learned a lot. For a period of two-three months, Jarre studied with Karlheinz Stockhausen in Cologne.
In his GRM period, Jarre had his own flat in Paris at rue de la Trémoille, not far from the Champs-Elysees, and it was here that he was able set up his first studio in a converted kitchen: an EMS VCS 3 and EMS Synthi AKS synthesizer, and two linked Revox tape machines. To fund the studio's equipment and himself he painted pictures which he sold locally. For an exposition at the "Maison De Culture" (Cultural House) in Reims he wrote a five minute song called "Happiness is a sad song" (unreleased).
Jarre released his first solo single "La Cage/Erosmachine" in (1971), but it was a failure. This was likely due to its experimental or futuristic sound. Only 117 singles were sold, and Pathé Marconi destroyed the remaining stock. Jarre became the youngest composer to see one of his works played at the Paris Opera, at its reopening in 1971. It was the first time that electronic music had been allowed to be used, and Jarre even had to paint his speakers gold to match the decor of the opera house. There he performed with the Paris Opera Ballet and choreographer Norbert Schmucki. He created the first electro-acoustic opera called "AOR". This music is still unreleased as of 2008, with the exception of AOR Bleu, which was released on Live Printemps de Bourges 2002. Jarre composed the music for two additional operas: Le Labyrinthe (1972) and Dorian Gray (1973). He also wrote music for commercials and started to collaborate with artists like Dominique Webb, Samuel Hobo, Bill and Buster, Blue Vamp, and the group Triangle. Jarre also wrote lyrics for artists like Patrick Juvet and Christophe.
In 1972, Jarre added a modified Farfisa organ and an ARP 2600 to his collection. He released several singles under aliases: 1906 - Cartolina/Helza, Jamie Jefferson - Black Bird/ Pop Corn. One of his first successes, the song Zig Zag Dance, was released in numerous guises, under various aliases, and differing slightly each time. His first solo album Deserted Palace (Sam Fox Productions/Dreyfus Records) was released at this time.
Jarre composed the soundtrack for the film Les Granges Brûlées (Dreyfus Records, not released on CD until 2003) in the following year. In 1974 he met Michel Geiss, an electronics wizard and musician. A friendship was struck between them that has lasted ever since.
In 1975, Jarre wrote some music and lyrics for Françoise Hardy and Gérard Lenorman. Two of these songs were later to be re-used: La belle et la bête (which later became the basis for "Rendez-vous 2"), and La mort du cygne (which eventually evolved into "Rendez-vous 3"). He also acted as director for Christophe's Olympiashow that year, which featured a flying piano.
See "The Dreyfus years", "Metamorphoses", "The AERO years", "Back To Roots"

Personal life
Jarre has three children:
Emilie, with Flore Guillard.
Barnaby Southcombe, Charlotte Rampling's son from a previous marriage.
David, Charlotte and Jarre's son.

Chart positions
Oxygène - #1 France #2 UK #78 U.S.
Equinoxe - #11 UK #126 U.S.
Les Chants Magnetiques - #6 UK #98 U.S.
The Concerts in China - #6 UK #1 Portugal
Rendez-Vous - #9 UK #52 U.S.
"Rendez-Vous 4" (single) - #1 Portugal
Revolutions - #3 UK

-Awards and recognition
-Jean Michel Jarre discography
-List of Jean Michel Jarre concerts