Only-apartments' blog

ONLY BE AMSTERDAMMER

ONLY BE BUDAPESTER

ONLY BE VENETIAN

ONLY BE BARCELONIAN

ONLY BE BERLINER

ONLY BE VALENCIAN

ONLY BE ISTANBULITE

ONLY BE FLORENTINE

ONLY BE LISBOETA

ONLY BE LONDONER

ONLY BE NEW YORKER

ONLY BE MADRILENIAN

ONLY BE MALAGUEÑO

ONLY BE MILANESE

ONLY BE PARISIAN

ONLY BE PORTUENSE

ONLY BE PRAGUER

ONLY BE ROMAN

ONLY BE SEVILLIAN

ONLY BE PROXIMAMENTE

ONLY BE ATHENIAN

ONLY BE COMING SOON

Last posts

Beauty Eurasia 2011 in Istanbul

Mónica Boixeda Istanbulite, Only-Be

Between 16 and 18 June some of the leading manufacturers of beauty products will be attending Beauty Eurasia, a trade fair that is being held in the Tuyap Exhibition Centre in Istanbul. The trade fair will bring together 400 producers from 40 countries. They will be exhibiting the most sophisticated perfumes, creams, make up and beauty products. Who doesn’t like to be considered beautiful, attractive and seductive? This is the question upon which the beauty industry bases its success; an industry that has been around for as long as humans have walked the Earth. According to the worldview of the Egyptians, beauty and physical harmony were integral to their wellbeing and played an essential part in pleasing their creator-god. Their god cried when seeing the loveliness of his people and his tears watered the Earth. This need to be attractive led the Egyptians to develop their knowledge about the plants, animals and minerals which could help them maintain their health and beauty. The paint that the men and women used around their eyes was made with lead sulphide, obtained from galena, or antimony sulphide, which came from antimonite. As well as increasing a person’s sex appeal, this makeup was an excellent fly repellent, and was also useful in preventing eye disease and lessening the impact of the sun’s rays. Peeling was achieved by the Egyptians by mixing alabaster dust with red natron sediment, salt from Lower Egypt and honey, and then applying the mixture to their face and body before washing it off with pure water. The war against ageing led them to develop products from herbs, minerals and... read more

El Trieste de Claudio Magris in Barcelona

Mónica Boixeda Barcelonian, Only-Be

On the border with Slovenia, in the North of Italy, and on the banks of the Adriatic coast, is the beautiful and mysterious city of Trieste. An ancient, originally Illyrian town, it flourished during the Roman colonization, making it, after the fall of Empire in the West, a coveted object of desire for both the Byzantines and Francos, who tried unsuccessfully to seize it – before it finally fell in the 13th century into the hands of the Venetians. Then in 1382, it was subject to the Austrian Hungarian empire; under which it remained until the end of the First World War. It was particularly from 1719 that its position was a matter of petty conflict, as Trieste became a Franco port. As the only exit to the Adriatic, it became a place of much commercial and industrial investment, which brought with it the birth of a multicultural, cosmopolitan society – one which went on to influence writers such as Stendhal, Rilke (who named his famous elegies after Trieste´s Duino castle) Italo Svevo, James Joyce (who lived there from 1905, and wrote much of Ulysses and Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man in the city) – and, Claudio Magris. It might be said that the city´s climate is mild, and sunny – that is apart from the harsh wind which blows down from the Alps, which sometimes reaches 190km/h. When this happens, the citizens of Trieste have no choice but to cling to the streets and just pray they don´t get blown away. Its perhaps the effect of the wind, and the rough seas which brings us... read more

OFFF at CCCB in Barcelona

Mónica Boixeda Barcelonian, Only-Be

The eleventh International Festival of creation and digital culture OFFF is back with: Let´s feed the future at Barcelona Contemporary Cultural Center between 9 and 11 June. After an absence period, due to a tour in which the festival visited important cities as: New York, Berlin, Paris and Lisbon, the festival director, Hector Ayuso, said that this new edition of OFFF would be an important meeting point for lovers of art and innovation. OFFF was born in Barcelona in the early twenty-first century, with the purpose of holding a festival with an innovative approach to the post-digital culture. This art philosophy is meant to encourage people to look at the constant evolving process of art. One of the festival’s new proposals is to answer the question: How ordinary citizens react, when they look at world’s creations: how was it done? This year OFFF has opened the festival to new innovative proposals. For this reason, it will bring famous and new artists together in numerous lectures, workshops and experimental methods to let people know everything about their creations. The full program will feature 70 activities including: performances, lectures, animations and documentaries. The areas of the festival are divided into: Roots, which is a forum where leading artists display their work; Openroom, a space designed for new artists to show their proposals; Workshops, Showplace, an area for products exchange; Cinexin, where people can watch movies or videos and Chillax, a special area for relaxation. Another innovation of OFFF is the Speaker´s Corner. This event is designed for young artists to showcase their works; they will have all the needful technological setting... read more