FIFA World Cup 2010 Concert! (revised)

On June 11 of 2010 people throughout the world will experience an amazing combination of my two biggest passions: Soccer and music!

The Kick-off Celebration Concert will be held the night before the official start of the cup on the Orlando Stadium, Johannesburg at 8:00 p.m. It will count with great national and international performers, as well as several legendary soccer players.

It also makes me really proud to inform that 2 out of the 12 artists are colombian! Yes, I'm talking about Shakira and Juanes, who will share the stage with 10 other amazing bands:

Alicia Keys
Amadou & Mariam
Angelique Kidjo
Black Eyed Peas
BLK JKS
John Legend
The Parlotones
Tinariwen
Vieux Farka Touré
Vusi Mahlasela 

This is a great oppurtunity for both Colombian artists to gain more international recognition (as Shakira did in 2006's Germany World Cup when being chosen to interpret the cup's official song Hips Don't Lie Bamboo) and to help others benefit from their music, as they are worldwide recognized for their humanitarian work: Shakira's "Pies Descalzos" foundation which helps low resource kids in Colombia, and Juanes' "Mi Sangre" foundation which helps victims of the anti-personnel mines.

The concert will be organizd by Kevin Wall (Emmy winner producer) and his company "Control Room". These had also participated in the world's biggest concert "Live Earth", 2007 which counted with the participation of 150 performers on all the continents through 24 hours.

When asked about the Kick-off Celebration Concert, Wall said:

“We believe sports and music transcend cultural, language and geographic barriers, and through the official FIFA World Cup Kick–off Celebration Concert, Control Room will present the sights and sounds of unity and celebration for an unforgettable, must-see experience,”

 And offcourse this concert has a good purpose. It is a fund-raising concert to help the "20 Centres for 2010" campaign, which intends to build 20 helthcare, education and soccer centers across Africa. The centers will be focused in helping Africa's most disadvantaged communities exceed their major social problems through soccer:

"The creation of a Football for Hope Centre begins with identifying both the local challenges as well as a local organization that successfully uses football-based programs for social development. The centre and the programs that are run there, e.g. HIV/Aids awareness, literacy, gender equality, disability and integration, are created to meet the needs of the community."

I am looking foward for this event and the cup itself.  Only 14 days to go...

Video: http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/organisation/concert/index.html

Aphorisms revised

1. Honesty and appropiate-timing are the best ways to avoid punishment.
2. The truth can always be told in a nicer, more sensible, less-dramatic way to others.
3. Express your feelings through a smile: love, pain, regret, etc... because it will always end up cheering you up.
4. Some use their brains. Some use their looks. But the best way to win someone's heart is by smiling.
5. Uniqueness is so varied, everyone in the world has it in their own way.
6.Shout, run, jump, laugh and cry as long as you do it because you feel to.
7. The desperate search for uniqueness is so common.
8. He who critizes the first, thinks the least.
9. Brave ones aren't heroes. They just relize the risks last.
10.  Success in not measured by the amount of money in your pockets. Success is being capable to look back into your life and have no problem with what you see.

*I changed some words to make fit the maxium's style

MY aphorisms!

1. Honesty and goog-timing are the best ways to avoid punishment.
2. The truth can always be told in a nicer, prettier, less-dramatic way to others.
3. Express every feeling through a smile. Love, pain, regret, etc... because it will always end up cheering you up.
4. Some use their brains. Some use their looks. But the best way to win someone's heart is by smiling.
5. Uniqueness is so varied, everyone in the world has it in their own way.
6.Shout, run, jump, laugh and cry. As long as you do it because you feel to, is okay.
7. The desperate search for uniqueness is so common.
8. He who critizes the first, thinks the least.
9. Brave ones aren't heroes. They just understand the risks last.
10.  Success in not measured by the amount of money in your pockets. Success is being capable to look back into your life and have no problem with what you see.

Maus vs. Night

Both are very interesting and exciting books, that basically tell a similar story, but with different points of view. Both authors talk about the Holocaust, one from his own point of view (because he went through it) and the other by the father's experience.

In Maus the story is told by Art Spiegelman about how his father (Vladimik Spiegelman) had to escape the people who chased him down in Poland. He was a wealthy man, who could afford payind for hidding places and favors. He remained hidden for a long time, but unfortunately, he was sent to a camp at the end. The book uses the animal metaphor, in which rats are Jews, cats are Germans, Poles are pigs, and U.S citizens were dogs. This is a perfect metaphor because dogs chase cats, who at the same time chase rats. Pigs are the only neutral animals. Maus part I mainly talk about what Vladimik did to avoid camp, and everything him and his wife went through when they were hidden. They don't talk about his life in the camp at all.

Night, on the other hand, is a memoir told by Elie Weisel who was tajen from Transylvania, Hungary. In Hungary things were way better than in Poland. Jews were taken almost at the end of the Holocaust, and even though people from Elie's town were warned about the dangers of staying, they didn't cared. But sooner or later, the day when the Germans inveded them came, and they took Elie and his family when he was just a boy. His family was split and he went to a camp with his father. Most of this story tells their experiences in the camp, all the inhuman conditions they went through and how they changed every day that went by. Elie endures all the Holcaust, but his father died three month before being liberated. His mother and sister also died, but the book doesn't specify how.