Mas (Provençal farmhouse)

A mas (Occitan: [ˈmas], Catalan: [ˈmas]) is a traditional farmhouse found in the Provence and Midi regions of France, as well as in Catalonia (Spain) where it is also named masia (in Catalan) or masía (in Spanish).

A mas was a largely self-sufficient economic unit, which could produce its own fruit, vegetables, grain, milk, meat and even silkworms. It was constructed of local stone, with the kitchen and room for animals on the ground floor, and bedrooms, storage places for food and often a room for raising silkworms on the upper floor. Not every farmhouse in Provence is a mas. A mas was distinct from the other traditional kind of house in Provence, the bastide, which was the home of a wealthy family.

The mas of Provence and Catalonia always faces to the south to offer protection against the mistral wind coming from the north. And because of the mistral, there are no windows facing north, while on all the other sides, windows are narrow to protect against the heat of summer and the cold of winter. A mas is almost always rectangular, with two sloping roofs. The mas found in the mountains and in the Camargue sometimes has a more complex shape.

Más (Nelly Furtado song)

"Más" ("More") is a single released by Canadian singer-songwriter Nelly Furtado. It was the first of four songs to be released during an iTunes promotion counting down the release to her fourth studio album, Mi Plan. The song was written by Nelly Furtado, Lester Mendez and Andrés Recio and produced by Lester Mendez.

Commercial release

Más was released as a promotional download single on July 21, 2009. There were two different download packages available: a single version, which included two tracks, and an E.P that includes both Más and six live acoustic performances recorded in Freiburg on June 3, 2009. The live songs are "Broken Strings", "Bajo Otra Luz", "Más", "Say It Right", "I'm Like a Bird" and "Manos al Aire".

Music video

The music video premiered on Friday, November 13, 2009 on VIVA. The video is a continuation to the video for "Manos al Aire". It shows Furtado and her boyfriend in different situations. Scenes with Furtado singing in a room with a big mirror and an armchair are also featured. First, Furtado and her boyfriend are shown during breakfast. Furtado hands him the plate, but he does not look at her. Then he leaves and at night, when Furtado is already in bed, he comes home late and goes to bed, too, but he does not look at her again. Then they sit in the living-room; he is chatting on his laptop and when he leaves the room, she looks at it. She realizes that he betrays her. So she drives to the address and waits for her boyfriend and his affair to come out of the house. She gets out of the car and shouts at the two. She fights with her boyfriend and at the end of the video, she returns to her car, followed by her singing the last line of the song in front of the mirror.

Más (album)

Más is the fifth studio album recorded by Spanish singer-songwriter Alejandro Sanz.

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Alejandro Sanz. 

Re-release

Más (Edición 2006) is the re-release of the album Más containing a CD and DVD. The CD contains 13 tracks and the DVD contains 15 videos.

Track listing

CD

DVD

Bliss

Bliss may refer to:

People

Bliss (image)

Bliss is the name of the default computer wallpaper of Microsoft's Windows XP operating system. It is an image of a rolling green hill and a blue sky with cumulus and cirrus clouds. The landscape depicted is in the Los Carneros American Viticultural Area of Sonoma County, California, United States.

Overview

Former National Geographic photographer Charles O'Rear, a resident of the nearby Napa Valley, took the photo on film with a medium-format camera while on his way to visit his girlfriend in 1996. While it was widely believed later that the image was digitally manipulated or even created with software such as Adobe Photoshop, O'Rear says it never was. He sold it to Corbis for use as a stock photo. Several years later, Microsoft engineers chose a digitized version of the image and licensed it from O'Rear.

Over the next decade it has been claimed to be the most viewed photograph in the world during that time. Since it was taken, the landscape in it has changed, with grapevines planted on the hill and field in the foreground, making O'Rear's image impossible to duplicate for the time being. That has not stopped other photographers from trying, and some of their attempts have been included in art exhibits.

Bliss (2006 film)

Bliss (Chinese: 浮生; pinyin: Fú shēng; literally: "Floating Lives") is a 2006 Chinese family drama film directed by Sheng Zhimin and produced by Hong Kong director Fruit Chan. The film was Sheng's first as a director, having previously served as a line producer for Chan and Jia Zhangke on films such as Durian Durian and Platform.

Though primarily a mainland production, the film was financed in part by the Hong Kong-based See Movie Ltd. and was distributed by Hong Kong's Golden Network Asia.

Cast

Plot

Bliss tells the story of a modern and non-traditional family living in Chongqing. Lao Li (He Xingquan) is a once-divorced retired police officer, currently living with his second wife Zhang Xiu'e (Guan Jiangge). Lao Li's first wife ran off years ago, forcing him to raise his son, Jianjun alone.