Caperucita Roja App update

I'm so excited to see this new video on the progress of CaperucitaApp. Everything about it is so beautiful: Paloma Valdivia's incredible art and characterizations - so full of invention and surprises!, the beautiful little animations, the design. I think the way the lines of poetry need to be placed to understand the text and to reveal more of the picture is just brilliant. The music is so moving - it's fantastic that  original music has been commissioned and  recorded professionally. I love the way all the characters vocalize with musical sounds, like in Peter and the Wolf. And I love love love the narration done by an incredible actor! This is truly a work of art in the making. Almost nothing done in the English-speaking children's app world can compare to this. Here, there is very little practice of collaboration with artists in different fields, such as musicians, poets, and actors.
I have the app of Es Asi and the lite version of this one. I'm so looking forward to see this rich, innovative artwork made especially for the platform of children's apps.

Animations from Travel Sketchbooks

Diarios de viaje animados from Maria Lorenzo on Vimeo.
One of my favourite presentions at Confia 2013 was by Dr Mariá Lorenzo. Here is a Diarios de viaje animados, a documentary video version of her presentation.

Successful Confia presentation

"Transmission"  by the brilliant Nina Paley expresses my conference  experience

My hard work on my Confia slide presentation and paper really paid off. People really seemed to like it and I got a lot of questions during and nice comments afterwards. I'm very happy.
The other attendees were really friendly and engaged. I met some wonderful people with whom I hope to stay in touch (some are pictured below in photos gleaned from facebook albums of Confia and conference speaker, Yan Zheng).

showing flip animation in The Incredible Book Eating Boy 

   

giving my talk

my panel with dusk falling on Porto behind us

Hans-Martin Rall spoke on comics for reportage

 

  lovely Yan, children's lit PhD candidate

        

fantastic keynote by Paul Wells, animator

                       

Dr Marià Lorenzo on animated travel sketchbooks

Thoughtful & articulate illustrator Roderick Mills, & brilliant writer on picturebook illustratn, artist Martin Salisbury

group photo of Confia 2013 attendees

Mister Got to Go Where Are You? postponed

Dear, oh dearie me! The book arrived a week ago, only to be minus text on two of the spreads. So it has to be reprinted, which will take another two months (sob!).

Lisbon day 3 and Porto

Fresh mint and pineapple juice at Nova Pombaline at Rua Madalene and Rua do Comércio

Jardim da Estrela - an extremely beautiful park with many kinds of giant cacti.

A walk down a posh street with a stop for terrific pastry at a pastelaria

The wonderful E28 that took me there and back

The Cemitério dos Prazeres. Deserted and a bit scary

              

                           

Feral cats at the cemetery entrance

A tuk tuk taxi in the Alfama district - taking the #28 in the other direction

And the view

The fashion of Felipe Oliviera Baptista in the design Museum. Unfortunately, I wasn't allowed to photograph anything from the history of 20th C design in the first floor exhibit. I really liked that one.

The archway at the foot of Rua Augusta opening out onto the expanse of the Praça do Comércio

Waiting for the train to Porto in Lisbon station

a meal in a Porto caf after a day of travel

 The next pictures were taken on the Sunday after the conference as I wandered around a quiet city of closed shops. Porto is more quite rundown and a bit dreary after Lisbon's polish. Portugal's precarious financial state is more evident here.

a transplanted Ukrainian trumpetist busking in the centre of Porto.

 

A strange fountain with a black cube and vast outdoor seating for a cafe beside the river

   

The same fountain from a different viewpoint to show the buildings behind it.

   

Buildings piled up the hills like lego.

I bought most of my souvenirs in the stalls along the water's edge.

The car of the funicular to climb one of the city's steep hills

Looking up the hill from inside the funicular

Inside the tram. Unlike Lisbon, Porto's trams are not part of the city's transit system.

The trams are moving museum pieces with short circuits for 2.50 Euros.

Lovely fresh coconut sweet after a lunch of fried fish sandwich and fresh orange juice. 

Porto is on the River Douro. 

A riverside walk

The day is winding down and my legs are tired. Heading back to the hotel.

Lisbon Day 2

Cold, dazzlingly sunny weather continues in this beautiful city.

Had a little spill on this beautiful uneven pavement which is everywhere. It's probably called the Lisbon Trip. I only brought one long-sleeved shirt which I've been wearing everyday, so was desperate for a laundromat. The hotel told me they don't have self-service laundries in Lisbon, so off I went in search of a traditional laundry. Then stumbled onto a 2-week old laundromat with a wonderfully kind proprietor who told me I had to go to the district of Chiado because it had lots of nice shops and the streets were full of life. They were - I liked it very much and walked for miles up and down hills.

 Lavámil https://www.facebook.com/lavamil.lavandaria.selfservice/info

She told me that Lisbon was built on 7 steep hills and that you need to take elevators, funiculars, the old trams, and escalators to get to the high districts. Here's the incredibly steep escalator located in the metro station. First you go way down and then you go way, way up.

   

In Chiado, I visited The Museu Nacional de Arte Contemporanea. A very grand name but a very small, and so-so collection. Here's two pieces I liked. I wrote the names of the Portuguese artists down on a piece of paper that I seem to have lost. 

                           

A very European park at the top of Miseracordia

And the view

Snack of apple pastry and a galao at a cafe outside the metro station