With Halloween just one day away, families throughout the world are prepared for the celebrations.
Halloween became an occasion to note on the Spanish family calendar around the year 2000, the onset of the Third Millenium. November 1, All Saints' Day, has been observed for centuries across Spain, with adults visiting cemeteries to sit at an ancestor's grave through the night.
October 31 is an increasingly recognizable day, along with Halloween parties and related events held throughout our country.
When I was younger, Halloween was not a big thing, but now it is not only foreigners who celebrate it, but also Spanish families. Pumpkins are for sale in local shops, even if this seems to be a tradition followed more by expatriate families. Spaniards are happy wearing fancy hats, make-up and masks, and young children enjoy going out to "Trick or Treat". What do you think about it?
I have attached a video of the great song ´This is Halloween!´ from the movie ´The Nightmare Before Christmas'. Enjoy it!
Well done, dear Elena!
Now, would you like to learn a little more about the origins of Halloween and its importance in American society today? How about watching this nice short video on the History Channel?
Although there are hundreds of motor programmes on TV, all of them seem to be the same. They are presented by a good-looking girl, who, I find it hard to believe, is there because of her speaking skills. Besides, most people cannot afford those expensive sports cars they show as if they were runabouts. Finally, a man’s voice-over tells us how incredibly majestic all the cars are.
Fortunately, exceptions do exist; yes, I am speaking about a TV-show called TOP GEAR. This programme is hosted by three men, Jeremy, James and Richard, who test cars and make funny interviews to VIPs. They do not intend to sell every single car as the best ever, and above all they do it humorously. They also test themselves any other kind of vehicle through very extravagant trials, which clearly demonstrate the programme’s ultimate intention, which is entertainment. However, like the rest of its competitors, TOP GEAR mainly tends to show expensive cars.
If your curiosity is now growing, I have attached a funny video of the show, so you will be able to notice why it is famous and successful worldwide. In Spain you can watch it daily from 8.15 to 10.15 a.m. on CUATRO (available in English, of course).
Thank you so much, Jose. Well, I can only say I utterly love the show, everything about it: from the opening music (a classic rock song, The Alman Bros' "Jessica") to Jeremy Clarkson's dry, often politically incorrect humour, and the wacky car tests, but above all, when the show puts celebrities in a "reasonably priced car". To give you an example, let's watch Spain's #1 public enemy as regards F1, indeed Lewis Hamilton, who visited Top Gear after his debut season in 2008. It's a good laugh to hear him say that our Fernando (his teammate then) "is a bloody good driver" before Jeremy jokingly boasts he once overtook him on an Oxford ring road!
But how about something a little more glamorous? This is Cameron & Tom (Diaz and Cruise, that is) in another reasonably-priced car. Who'll do the fastest lap?
C'mon folks, do as Jose and send your posts for our blog!
As you know, this Wednesday our American colleague in Peñaranda's satellite school, Steve, came to our class to play a small gig on his acoustic guitar. He explained that he's involved in a project on teaching English through music, which sounds terribly interesting.
We were all amazed at his single-handed guitar playing technique, which he started developing years ago after he suffered an unfortunate accident which paralysed his right arm.
Steve performed both his own material and well-known songs (well, some of them probably more than others), which we really enjoyed and sang along to. It was good fun indeed!
As he was singing, I thought I could write a post on our blog about the songs he chose for the recital. (except for Let it Be, which of course you know perfectly well). Starting with one of the most famous folk songs ever about America (the USA, that is), legendary singer-songwriter Woody Guthri's "This land is your land". Legen has it that he wrote it in the late 40s when he got sick and tired of endlessly listening on the radio to "God Bless America", which he found excessively patriotic and complacent. Often deemed a communist in his native America, Woody altered the verses over the years and gradually made the song into a political statement, as he firmly believed workers had the same rights as the rich and powerful.
There's a famous live cover I love by "The Boss", which is the clip I embed here. The lyrics scroller does not faithfully reflect Bruce's actual delivery but it'll give you an idea of the song's true meaning. By the way, listen carefully to his moving opening speech ...
Next Steve sang "Proud Mary", by the awesome Creedence Clearwater Revival, one of my favourite American bands of the 60s. Front-man John Fogerty wrote the tune about the namesake "paddle-wheel", one of the many picturesque river boats rolling on the Mississippi River. I love the energy of John's powerful voice and the pounding of the guitar riffs!
Sadly, Steve ran out of time before he could deliver his last song, Bob Marley's "No Woman, no Cry", a politically-charged reggae classic ("the hypocrites mingle with the good people we meet"), whose lyrics depict the "government yard in Trenchtown", the slums where Bob himself used to live as a young man. He reassures a woman (his mother?) as he's leaving the place that the slum won't get her down and everything will be alright, so she should "shed no tear". Down below I embed his famous live rendition. Enjoy!
Thank you so much, Steve, for your spirit and a great lesson!
One of my students from the intermediate group this year, Sergio, is a versatile, multi-faceted young man from Valladolid, whose many interests range from music to film-making. He writes and directs his own shorts, plays in a rock band and even has a home recording studio.
I first met Sergio some three years ago through a local poet, Gloria de Castro, who in turn I had met thanks to a former student of mine at the time - and a good friend now -, Ana. To cut a long story short, Gloria once invited me to one of her recitals at a lively salsa dancing pub you may know, El Savor, where she usually reads her heart-felt poems to the accompaniment of Sergio's guitar playing. On Tuesday Gloria read her latest stuff with the help of her inseparable Sergio and there I was with a few students (not many, sadly!) to watch them live.
The thing is that he had told us in class that he runs his own blog - which you should visit here to find out what an accomplished artist he is - and I was overjoyed to see that he had written - in Spanish, though! - a short but lovely post about the recital. I liked it so much that the idea dawned on me right away: I had taken a few pics of Sergio and Gloria on stage and recorded bits and pieces on my i-pod, so why not publish the whole thing on this blog? So I put pen to paper (or to my Mac, to be precise) and translated his words as accurately as I possibly was able to.
Today, I’ve just arrived home from one of those “Savor-y” nights that are celebrated in the namesake pub every evening. The only difference being that I myself was on the stage and not just listening in the audience. Tonight I accompanied local poet Gloria de Castro on my guitar. Maybe it’s because I hadn’t played in this temple of Salamanca’s nightlife for a long while, or because the sound was particularly good, or simply because I take great pleasure in breaking the total silence that fills the bar by playing my guitar while we perform.
Cover versions of Gary Moore, Dire Straits, The Eagles, Elvis Presley, as well as songs from soundtracks, or even my own songs, are enough to accompany a poet’s voice. I love the freedom of being all alone in the face of music so as to complement the poetry, and of feeling free to come and go, change the tonality, move from one song to another, or join them together … in a nutshell, of trying to contact and relate to the audience. Indeed poetry played the leading role tonight but I feel that there is a part of me on the stage for which I am responsible and I try to rise to the occasion.
As if that were not enough, I have a whale of a time with what I do. The subtle light, the silence of the pub, a finely-served drink of rum and the perfect sound coming out of the audio mixer make these nights special. On other occasions I also have great fun accompanying singer-songwriter Juanjo Dominguez, Amanda G. Monge or even my own voice.
Being a "pucelano" who lives in Salamanca, I must say that it is a gift for me to relish a spot in these music-filled midweek evenings that once in a while us the performers delight ourselves with, as do my friends and the public that drop by.
Once again I'm heading back home with a good “Savor” (taste, that is) in my mouth ...
Needless to say I earnestly recommend you guys to go to El Savor on a future occasion and enjoy a lovely evening of poetry and music courtesy of two relatively unknown but really talented artists, Gloria de Castro and Sergio Merino. By the way, she's having her debut novel published shortly. A noir mystery, I hear.
Yesterday I read in a digital newspaper the horrible news of a German tourist who had died in French Polynesia in mysterious circumstances. It was said that he may have been eaten by cannibals, isn't that scary and ... hard to believe?
So much for tourist destinations - we saw a short piece of a video from the e-workbook - and their dangers ... That German tourist was surely aware of the probability of unexpected events, because he was on an adventurous world tour, but he would never have thought of his own tragic death.
I know, this is a macabre contribution to our blog, but it made me reflect on the safety of traveling: What is considered a safe destination?
The following video is much more pleasant and fits our topic about cities. It's the official video clip of Alicia Keys' song "New York" which I really like (Juanjo, what do you think about the piano?). That city must be wonderful and really exciting, so I'd love to visit it (... after Glasgow?). Everyone I know who has been there is fascinated by New York.
Thanks a lot, Susanne, for both the macabre news (ha ha, only joking!) and the lovely song, whose full title is "New York Empire State of mind (part 2)" . As you can see, I've even found the scroller online so that you can all read the beautiful lyrics as you listen to Alicia. Just one thing: I've found out that the song was originally penned by Brooklyn natives Angela Hunte and Janet Sewell-Ulepic, who were pretty homesick during a trip overseas.
Do you think English is the only language the inhabitants of the British Isles speak? If you do, I’m afraid you are wrong. Just like Spanish shares our country with other languages, such as Galician, Catalan or Basque, English has a handful of “roommates” too: the Celtic languages. Needless to say, English is, by far, the most spoken language in the British Isles nowadays, so some of these Celtic languages are in serious danger of disappearance.
For example, just 2.000 people speak Manx (the Isle of Man’s native language), which actually disappeared as a first language in the 70’s when all its native speakers died. Fortunately, it came to life again as a second language some years ago.
Other Celtic languages are healthier: Scottish Gaelic is spoken by 60.000 people in Scotland and some more in other places (the USA, Canada, New Zealand or Australia) while 600.000 people speak Welsh as their first language. Not too bad, don’t you think?
Irish or Irish Gaelic is one of the luckiest, since it has been recognized as the first official language of the Republic of Ireland (English is the second, can you believe it?). Children must study Irish at school, although there are just 72.000 native speakers. The rest of them (about 2.5 million people) range from fluent speakers to people who can say only a few words (in fact, the bigger group). No wonder the Government tries its best to encourage the use of Irish by all means. Some of them are as original as this one:
Thanks a lot, Lucia! The topic came in just handy with the reading text "Languages alive and well" by David Crystal (page 15 of your textbook). And may I say I had a good laugh with the funny short!
The thing is I've always loved "all things Irish" since I first travelled to the Republic in 1992, and I'm really fond of the country's music and culture. That's why I thought I could extend your entry a little bit by embedding this beautiful, heart-felt old song in Gaelic performed by one of my favourite Irish artists, the great Mary Black: Mo Guile Mear (My Gallant Darling) is a tribute to Bonnie Prince Charlie (the descendant of Mary Stewart, Queen of Scots), who had sought to sit on the throne of Britain.
If you want to read the original lyrics and their translation into English, click here.
Last weekend my family and I stayed with some friends in a nice cottage in Tarouca, near Peso da Regua, in Portugal. That is located in the Alto Douro region, which I learnt is included in UNESCO's world heritage list. I was really impressed by the beauty of a landscape where viniculture is the predominant element.
Many years ago I worked for a wine import company, which is when I became interested in wine and viniculture. In Regua we also visited the Douro Museum, where you can see how hard the work of the wine growers was until only a few decades ago. I would have liked to show you all an entertaining video, but regrettably there was none on Youtube. However, I believe that the text on this UNESCO link is quite interesting, even though a bit long:
Thanks a lot Suzanne, very interesting indeed! You know, I've been, like you unsuccessfully, searching high and low for a related video, but at least I managed to find this photo gallery of the Portuguese region, which I hope suits your entry just fine.
I just can't help it! You know how mad about basketball I am and really proud of our local team, Perfumerías Avenida. That's why I've decided to embed this audiovisual presentation designed by the Spanish Basketball Federation (FEB) on its official website on the occasion of the fantastic win at the Spanish Supercup. It very much depicts the bustling energy that our cosy, always packed, Würzburg arena oozes whenever the team plays a thrilling home game, as well as the endless talent and charisma of the girls.
The icing on the cake is the background song chosen for the montage, one of my all-time favourite rock anthems by the legendary British band The Who: the awesome, ever so energetic "Baba O'Reilly", which you may recognize as the introductory theme song of the famous criminal drama CSI: New York.
The clip features some spectacular images of Salamanca and, after the music-filled report, some post-game interviews with the players (including one in English with the Supercup MVP, American power-forward DeWanna Bonner), President Jorge Recio and, of course, our Shrek lookalike, coach Lucas Mondelo!
Have you heard the news? Well, it´s true. Big Ben, one of the most prominent symbols of both London and England, is tilting, and it´s now visible to the naked eye.
Experts think that the situation is getting worse. The tower is sinking more quickly on the north side of the Palace of Westminster. The tilt has increased by about a centimetre a year since 2003, and the top is now just under half a metre off the perpendicular, which means that it would take another 4,000 years or so for it to match the angle of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, which leans by about four degrees.
The problem apparently has been caused by the construction around the foot of the tower of a tube line and an undeground park in the 1970s. But the worse thing is that the leaning clock tower is already causing cracks in the walls of other parts of the House of Commons.
It’s time to take another trip to London, isn´t it?
Thanks a lot Elena, you're indeed our architectural correspondent!
Now, I'm sure you would like to watch this short ITN report on the news I've found on YouTube. I guess the authorities in Pisa are now seriously concerned and wondering if tourists will all of a sudden start travelling to London instead, looking for that coveted picture of themselves apparently holding up a tilting tower!
Do you know what The Zeitgeist Movement is? I’m sure you have heard something recently on TV or read the newspapers about the slogan “Occupy the Financial World". If any of you are interested in those kinds of news and want to know what’s behind the scenes, you should watch the video down below and visit the movement's website.
As I see it, the coincidence with “15-M” isn’t accidental, is it? Has the “Spanish revolution” found its echo in The States? Watch and decide for yourselves … But before that, just as a matter of interest, let me explain that “zeitgeist” is the Hegelian term to describe the “spirit” of a particular period of History, what contemporary historians describe as “mentality”.
I must confess I am a Mac user (or should I say a Mac lover?) I haven't got an Iphone or an Ipad, but all my computers have been made by Apple Co. for ten years (most musicians use them) And I listen to music from my Ipod (it has inside more than 7000 songs and hundreds of podcasts in English!)
Yesterday, the Apple co-founder, Steve jobs, died of cancer, and I think his success story could be very interesting to everybody. I'm not a mythomaniac, and I've always preferred the actual works rather than their makers, but I believe Steve was an amazing man and his speech in Standford in 2005 is a valuable sample of capacity and perseverance (and not very difficult to understand).
Thanks a lot Juanjo! May I just say I also love Apple gadgets and gizmos and nowadays I'm a diehard Mac user. I converted to it a couple of years ago after painfully suffering, for way too long, Bill Gates' unreliable OS, the infamous Windows, a necessary evil, I guess.
Some twelve years ago I videotaped (those were the days of non-digital technology!) this two-and-a-half-minute clip from the famous travel programme on the BBC, Holiday. I've always treasured the recording (that's why I later digitalized it and eventually uploaded it on Youtube), as it reminds me of the programme's hugely popular host in those days, the gorgeous Jill Dando, who was tragically murdered a few months later outside his London home by an unknown gunman.
Dando does not appear on the video, but one of her co-presenters instead, whose Indian name I'm unable to remember right now. But that's another story. Anyway, I've transcribed the script down below. Then (no script available this time, sorry!) a former British politician, Michael Portillo, whose father was a Spanish law professor at our university in Franco's days and, being a staunch Republican, went into exile to the UK, came to Spain on a rather spiritual journey searching for his roots. The last stage was, not by chance, our beautiful town. Just one thing: the sound and the picture are slightly out of sync (more noticeably during Portillo's part), but I can't fix the glitch.
Holiday Presenter: A couple of hours down the road to another of Castille’s great cities, Salamanca, which clothes like gold, if you’ve been poetic, or, more prosaically, like sandstone, which is what it's made of. The hotel itself literally grafted onto the ruins of an old church. In fact, this is the kind of place where you can’t fall out of bed without tripping over a monastery or a cathedral. This extravaganza is inside the convent of St. Stephen.
Salamanca’s other claim to fame is its university, built in the 13th century and once as prestigious as Oxford. But that was before the Inquisition got its claws into the place. You have to wonder what was going on in the mind of the sculptor who came up with these creatures.
Salamanca is overwhelmingly one colour: sand. It’s a very nice colour, but when you’ve done the university … sand, the cathedral … sand, the convent … sand, just about all the houses … sand, you get to feel maybe enough is enough and you’re parched for a bit of colour. Did I say … a bit of colour?
The turn-of-the-century Casa Lis is a deluge of colour. It’s now a museum of art nouveau and art deco, with some stunning bits and bobs on display. It’s an oasis in the sand, and the playful contrast to the pomp and circumstance outside.
Night falls on one of the most beautiful Plaza Mayors in Spain. The whole town seems to be here, among them the temporary residents: students, who’ve also come out to play.
Student 1: I think the fact that it’s such a small place and everything is packed into it. It’s not really lacking anything: I mean, nightlife, people, the restaurants, I mean the buildings.
Student 2: It’s the true Spain what you experience when you come here.
Presenter: True Spain? Well, it’s certainly a vision of old Spain which time has not withered.
Simon Calder, a British travel writer, visits Salamanca for 48 hours and is seduced by our lovely city, where he mingles with the university students and comes across an astronaut among the carvings of the cathedrals.
Then American historian Rick Steves immerses himself in the high and vast plateau of central Spain and visits a sunny, sandstone town and the finest Plaza Mayor in Spain. With the help of a local guy he samples a glass of Rioja and a plateful of ham and "bravas" and savours some people-watching. He finally takes in the centuries-old troubadour tradition of "tuna bands.
Did you know that today is World Architecture Day, which is celebrated on the first Monday of October each year? This year’s theme is “Cities, magnets of hope”. Chosen by United Nations as a reminder to us all that our human race is witnessing the greatest migration of people from towns into cities in our history.
Would you like to watch a funny video to celebrate this day? I hope you like it!
By the way, talking about other things, I´ve just read this bad headline in El Pais: "NIEMEYER CENTER ANNOUNCES SURPRISE END". I send you the link in case you are interested in reading it.
Don't panic, this is not a warning of an imminent alien virus attack or the title of the latest Hollywood blockbuster, but simply the topic of the clip which Marina sent with her email, remember? I was telling her that I find the thing a bit scary, all the more these days when I'm in two minds whether to take the flu vaccination, which I've never done in my entire life, to get protected against the disease.
Fair enough. Down below is the YouTube clip on the subject of viruses attacking our oft fragile body:
I wish you all a healthy, virus-free autumn and winter! Cheers mates!
You see, I've run this web for the last 3 years in the hope that it will give my students ample opportunity to not only read and watch extra material in English but, above all, contribute their own stuff.
And what a better way to start the new academic year than with a couple of great Youtube clips some of my Avanzado students sent me yesterday.
Firstly, Elena remembered a talk by Sir Ken Robinson, a leading authority in education, on the subject "Changing education paradigms" at the Royal Society of Arts. The good thing is that it has been adapted into a great animation which you should all watch:
Then Juanjo, a reputed pianist himself, forwarded this entertaining video by another English contemporary great, Benjamin Zander (funnily enough, they are both Brits but live in the States), a prestigious conductor who is also well known not only for his charisma and unyielding energy but also for his enlightening lectures prior to concerts. In this particular one below, Benjamin (not knighted by his Queen just yet) talks to a delighted audience about his passion for classical music while performing a few recognizable pieces on the piano. Not to be missed!
As I keep telling you guys every year, do not stop sending the Youtube clips, Internet links, songs and stuff but also write a few lines in English about them: your feelings, if you agree or disagree with the ideas expressed in them, whatever. Then, ideally, your mates will think it right to make some comments themselves.
Thanks a lot, dear Elena and Juanjo. Way to go!
Goodbye for now.
