Bullfighting, no longer an art form

One part of the Spanish population loves bullfighting. They enjoy seeing this “art”. They consider it as an essential part of their culture. They think Spain wouldn’t be anything without it; but, how can they love killing an animal?

Since the 18^th century, Spain has taken the tradition of bullfighting. It was taken from the tradition of the cult and sacrifice to the bulls. However, Spanish people took it wrongly. They started enjoying it, when in the first place it was not for having fun. Therefore, they took this practise to different countries, spreading the torture.

Bulls have never been aggressive animals. They have been bred to form part of a show that may satisfy people’s thirst of entertainment. As with every single animal, if you don’t make them angry, they won’t face you; but we have modified them so much, that they don’t even need anger.

In every Spanish celebration, a bullfight is present. The government has to be aware of the cruelness of this feast. For example, in Medinaceli, Soria, the bull runs through the town with the horns burning. They have to forbid these practices in every territory. Fortunately, some areas have started prohibiting it, but it is not enough. It needs to be banned not only in some areas, but everywhere.

For all these reasons, we have to fight. We have to fight to make these awful traditions change. We have to show everyone who is in favour of killing this animal that it is unfair. We have to show them that if they want to continue with this “art”, the bull and bullfighter should be in the same conditions. We have to end with this “art”. We really need it, and we have to do it as quick as possible.

Music and the Brain

People usually think that music is just a sequence of order sounds and silences. Nevertheless, it provokes emotional reactions in human beings, from depression to ecstasy. Moreover, music is good for us in a mental way. It makes us enjoy pleasant times, remember facts about the past and feel different emotions in songs. But do you know how music affects our brain?

To begin with, we must know that music is interpreted in our body by the brain. This organ separates music into its different elements (rhythm, tone and lyrics) and each of these elements is interpreted by different parts of the brain.

Once you have interpreted it, it begins to have effects on you. Music doesn't only have instantaneous effects, it also has long-term effects. It has been demonstrated for example, that the brain of a musician develops a different structure than the brain of a person who usually doesn't hear music.

There are a lot of studies which talk about music and what it produces in our brain. These studies show really interesting facts. One of those facts is that the people who have listened to music since their childhood have better language skills, are more creative and happy.

Listening to music helps lower anxiety levels, decreases pain and makes people more optimistic. The experts say that the field of music therapy helps a lot to elder people. This field formally debuted in 1950.

Recently, researches have focused on how music can benefit those who suffer from Alzheimer's disease. Anecdotal tests demonstrate that music can make people re-live memories and reduce anxiety, pain, cardiac frequency and arterial pressure. It can help accelerate the process of treatment, stimulate learning, improve neurological disorders and increase social interaction.

However, the researches about music and its effects are in their infancy. This has just begun. Experts will continue their investigations. But we can all agree that music is good for us in many ways, so, while the experts investigate, why don´t we hear some music?

Eurovision

Lot of people talk about Eurovision: some of them talk badly about it because they think the decisions are all based o politics; and some of them well because they love every song contestants sing. However, most of these people don’t know its origins.

Eurovision was an idea initially taken by Marzel Bezençon, who wanted to represent the idea of an Italian festival (Festival di San Remo). He wanted to unify European countries by means of songs. Finally, he got it the first time in 1956, with only 7 countries, but every country sang 2 songs each, one extraordinary case in this festival. 

From that year on, lots of countries have participated. Even, from African countries like Morocco. In the first decades, until the 80’s, there were already 20, although some countries decided not to participate anymore. However, the countries involved increased.

In 1992, Yugoslavia was divided, so this led to many countries whose aim was to continue participating. The quantity in 2000 was 24 countries, but it nearly doubled, and this year, they are 43 countries.

Eurovision has been done in lots of places. Mainly, in the ones in which the winner comes from. For example, this year, Eurovision is going to be done in Stockholm because Sweden won last year with Heroes and Mans Zelmerlow.

Spain has been participating since 1961. We have won only twice, in two consecutive years, 1968 with “La, la, la” and Massiel; and “Vivo Cantando” (I live singing) with Salomé. On the other hand, we have been in last place for four times. Spain, also, is part of the countries which passes directly to the finals, because it forms part of the “Big 5”.

This year, our performer will be Barei. He was chosen among 6 contestants: Barei, Salvador Beltran, Maria Isabel, Xuso Jones, Maverick and Electric Nana. Will he be a favorite this year? 

Best video games of 2015

2015 was a very good year for video games. A lot of new games were released, some of them stand out because they are very good and need a lot of hardware to work (Fallout 4, Star Wars: Battlefront...). However, in 2015, indie (independent) video games had a lot of success. Games like Nuclear Throne or Downwell are games done by a very small group of people, and they have very simple graphics based on the typical 16-bit quality (like the first Super Mario).

Another genre that had good success in 2015 was the shooter. It consists on shooting and/or killing other players with weapons. It may seem simple, but it is very entertaining and can catch a lot of your hours. I think that happens because it makes you compete yourself in order to improve your skills in the game. Some examples of good shooter games in 2015 are Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, Battlefield Hardline and Star Wars: Battlefront.

The third successful genre in video games for 2015, is the sandbox, that consists of an open world in which you can complete assignments or just mess around in the map doing all the things that the game lets you do (things like killing people, driving cars, buying clothes, etc...) the best games in this genre that were released in 2015 are Fallout 4 and Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.

All things considered, I am giving you the 5 best video games and DLC´s (downloadable content) released in 2015. I am not only including the games with better quality, more hardware requirements, etc... I am also including the ones that I think can take you more hours to complete, and the most entertaining ones.

5. Fallout 4

Well... What more can be said about this video game? It is probably the best game in its genre. It is a sandbox game but controlled in first person, set in an post-apocalliptical world. It has an incredibly long campaign (around 40 hours), a lot of people around to talk with, a lot of weapons, and a lot of emotional attachment to the principal character. This game, could easily be in the first place, but as it has high hardware requirements, in consoles it does not work as good, and it did not live up to the hype. And to play it in PC, you need at least NASA´s PC. It has been released in PC, PS4 and Xbox One.

4. Bloodborne

Do you remember Dark Souls 2? It was a role video game that has one of the best stories ever. So Bloodborne, a game based on the highly popular Dark Souls 2, can make you stand hours and hours next to your television, thinking only of improving your skills and trying to defeat all the bosses that the game has. It is an incredible game, made for a niche group of people (the ones that like very difficult role video games). The setting that it has, that way in which you control your character and you kill the different monsters that appear in the world, the way in which you improve your personal skills, and the ones that the game offers to you... It is incredible the way in which you can become addicted to this video game... It is just incredible. This game was only released for the PS4.

3. Nuclear Throne

This game is an indie video game, whose genre is rogue (the world generation is completely aleatory and changes when you start a new run), which is definitely my genre, the one that entertains me more. These video games normally have one or more hidden secrets, and this one is not the exception. The goal of this video game is to complete different dungeons in order to advance, killing enemies and mini-bosses that are in your way until you reach “The Throne”, the final boss. It is very difficult to advance, and you will find different weapons, morphs and mutations in order to make your trip easy. This game was only released in PC, but there is a planned release for the PS4.

2. The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth

This is the only DLC that I have included in the list. This DLC is a complement of The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, which for me is the best video game of all time. It is a rogue-like game with a lot of Easter eggs related to religion. You are Isaac, a little kid that feels guilty of the death of his sister, Maggy. His mother, obsessed with religion, heard a voice that said that his son was corrupted by sin, so she had to take off all his toys and clothes and enclose him. After doing that, another voice told her that it was not enough, so she had to sacrifice his son. As Isaac didn't want it, he got into a flap that was in his room. From there, the story develops and you have to kill your mother and the different nightmares and the elements that make you get scared. Then, you have to decide if you go to the Cathedral or to the Dark Room in order to complete the game and be among the “good”, or among the “mad”. In the game, there are more than 400 different objects, that can modify your synergy or build it, which will help you to advance and complete the runs. What you use to kill the monsters are your tears (you are crying because your mother is trying to kill you). This game has more than 130 playable hours (but it is so entertaining that you can continue playing more and more). Is difficult to explain this video game in just a few words, so I will write another post explaining the story of the game a little bit and the religious Easter eggs that it has.

1. Super Mario Maker

The combination of simplicity and originality makes this the most addictive game that has been released in a long of time. This amazing game, designed by Satoru Iwata (dead the last year), consists of playing in Super Mario levels that have been created previously by other players, not by the designers of the game. It is also possible to create your own levels, publish them to the rest of the players around the world and share them to your friends. The graphics of the game is the same as any of the 2D Super Marios that were released before New Super Mario Bros 2. The best thing about this game is that the levels are unlimited, because people will be creating them constantly and you can play them whenever you want. You can also search levels, filter them by their difficulty, size, name, graphics, etc... For designers, this game is perfect because the levels are made by other people, and there are a lot of very good games released; and for the players it is fantastic because they can play unlimited levels, filtering them as they want and they can also create them and play the levels of their friends. For me, this is the masterpiece for 2015's video games. It is only available on the Wii U (Super Mario made by Nintendo).

So this is my SUBJECTIVE list of the top video games of 2015, I hope you liked it. Bye!