Reading is sexy

By the way, browsing El Mundo's Aula's website I have found a very interesting section which suggestive heading opens this post. Can you imagine which POEt is the star of its latest article? I'll give you a clue:



Click here and unveil the mystery...

An interesting article

Hello again!

Look at the interesting article that has been published today in El Mundo on the use of blogs to improve your English (you can click on the images to enlarge them). I found it on a specific section on education which is called Aula and has its own internet site. You can find it here.

If you read the article, you'll find that it mentions some specific online resources. For your convinience, I have included the links it gives in this post, so that you can visit the sites just by clicking on them.

http://elblogdelingles.blogspot.com
http://pronunciaringles.com
http://www.queimbrich.com

I'd recommend you to visit them to see if they could be useful for you, or even to surf the web and search for your own resources... There are many blogs and sites in the internet for English learners, and some of them are really good (and some of them quite funny as well).

And don't forget to share your findings or experiences with us!

More Monty Python

¡Hi!

As I promised you, the Monty Python troupe is back.

On his comment on the post on Wednesday 14th January, mysterious Blue Savannah Man said:

I think that the best Monty Python sketch is the Ministery of The Silly Walks

Here is the sketch in question so that you can tell for yourselves if he's right or wrong. (Spanish subtitled version here).



By the way, I want to take advantage of this opportunity to introduce one additional sketch in this post which is an unvaluable help to understand the working of contradictions in English, a topic we dealt with back in Unit 1. (Spanish subtitled and abridged version here).



Enjoy it!

Happy Ox Year!

Hello everybody!

As I told you on Monday, we have just entered the Chinese year of the Ox, i.e. 4.707 according to their calendar.

If you want to know more about what this new year will bring to us, you can have a look at this link. Although the design of the target website is not one of the World Wonders, I think that the information it contains is interesting enough.

If you like this kind of things, I would highly recommend you to surf the web and find which is your sign according to the astrological systems of different cultures. I have done it myself and have discover that...

...according to the Mayan Horoscope I am a Blue Overtone Night. (Sounds beautiful, doesn't it?).

...according to the Aztec Calendar, I was born on the day of the Monkey on the week of the Serpent. (Wow!).

...according to the Celtic Calendar, I am a Willow. (Yes, like the itsy bitsy tiny winy little wizard of that film).

...according to the Chinese Horoscope, I am a Fire Dragon. (---).

There are as many astrological systems as different cultures in the world, and the ones I have included in this post are just a mere sample. Enjoy your curiosity and surf the web for other systems (Vedic, American Indian, African...). Some of them are quite beautiful, even poetic, and I'm sure you will get surprised with the results.

That's all for now. Good Luck for everyone!

And don't forget to share your findings... ;)

Annabel Lee

Regarding the influence of Poe in many different artistic areas, Marisa (thank you very much) has kindly remind us that there is a famous song by Radio Futura based on Annabel Lee, which is one of Poe's most celebrated poems.



Nevertheless, this is not the only version of this poem. There is another Spanish version by Bunbury -which is in fact a cover of Radio Futura's cover-, and I was also able to find a classical version by a choir, a rock-ballad version by an Israeli musician called Gilad Hesseg, and another cover by Stevie Nicks, a really really famous American singer.

If you wish, you can read the original poem in www.poemhunter.com, a fantastic poetry site. Click here if you want to be directly redirected to the poem.

It goes without saying that you can add your comments to this post and say which version did you liked the most, or just to share with us any other interesting findings.

Keep readin'!

Uncle Ed

As I already told you in class, yesterday (19/01/2009) it was Mr. Edgar Allan Poe's birthday. As he's one of my favourite authors, I have decided to share him with those of you who still don't know anything about him or his work.

You can easily find many details about him just surfing the internet, but, in any case, I would recommend you to visit his entry in Wikipedia, as I think it is really complete and it includes quite a nice "Selected list of works".

Knowing Poe is very important, due to his untold influence over the world of literature, as well as over the world of popular culture: It is quite easy to find Poe's references, influence and quotes on many unexpected places... For example, try having a look at Green Day's St. Jimmy's lyrics...

Just for your delight, I invite you to watch the following short movie by Tim Burton, much in Poe's mood and style. It is entitled "Vincent" and the narration is done by Mr. Vincent Price, quite a famous B-movie and horror film actor who starred many cinema adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe's works under the direction of Roger Corman (Spanish subtitled version here).




And finally, I don't want to end this post without including The Raven, Poe's most amazing poem. I have decided to include two versions: The first one is read by Christopher Walken, a famous actor you probably know (Spanish version here.)



And the other version... Well... This is the other version, and that's all.



And that's all folks! I hope you liked it...

Yes, this is SPAM (but please, read it)

As we are currently working about news in class, I'd like to take advantage of it and encourage you (or at least to those of you who haven't done it yet) to have a look at your high school's magazine, Brocal.

Apart from being a really nice publication with many interesting contents, it also has some sections in English which can make a very good reading (or maybe even writing) practice for us.

It is in one of those English sections, Odds and Oddities (page 5) where Ana María Lopez González unveils the mysterious origin of the word "spam", feared and hated by internet users all over the world. In a nutshell, what she says is that this term comes from a very famous sketch by the comic troupe Monty Python... The following sketch, to be precise...



Should anyone need it, there's a Spanish subtitled version here.

By the way, I'm sure you already knew about Monty Python (is there anyone who hasn't seen "The Life of Bryan" yet?), but if you didn't, I'd really encourage you to discover them (they've got their own website and youtube channel). I really love them, and I think that they are really funny (and I'm sure they will appear in this blog again).

That's all for now.

Hope you liked it!

Back to work!

Welcome back!

After this long Christmas silence, I'd like to wish you a Happy New Year.

I hope you feel a little more participative in 2009! ;)

Keep on blogg... ahem... Let's start bloggin'! (Much better...)