Archive for February, 2009

Congrats Pe!!

Penelope Cruz has won the Oscar for best supporting actress for playing passionate, mentally unstable Elena in Woody Allen’s Vicky, Cristina, Barcelona. She was absolutely over the moon and extremely nervous as she delivered her beautiful, moving speech:

I saw the film, and Woody Allen fan that I am, I didn’t like the film that much, it is obviously in a different league from his previous masterpieces Match Point or Cassandra’s Dream, but Penélope is great and so are Javier Bardem, Scarlett Johanson and Rebecca Hall which is what in my opinion saves an uncharacteristically weak story. So I don’t think that this is her best performance, nothing to do with her masterful Raimunda in Almodovar’s Volver but I do think she deserves the award because she is a good, hard-working actress, so congratulations Pe, you’ve made us proud!!

12th February

Sorry, you must be logged in to read this post

10th February

Sorry, you must be logged in to read this post

9th February

Sorry, you must be logged in to read this post

The four lads (Istanbul not Constantinople)

YouTube Preview Image
Last week I was delighted watching the film Monna Lisa smile on Principado de Asturias TV, the best  television for watching movies free of advertising, when a funny song performed by a group came up to my ears. But it only lasted a few seconds. At the end I was just searching on the net for the title and the  musicians. At first I only found the title, Istanbul (not Constantinople), but it took a longer search  to find the real group that performed the song, because on the film it appeared as Trevor Horn Orchestra when the fact is that the theme was composed and performed by the Four Lads. These boys were a male Canadian quartet that reached the fame on the 50´s, just with this song. It´s a lovely, rhythmic and soft theme, easy to listen to, despite the time gone by since  its first  realise. It reminds us the way of singing of those times, very similar, for example, to the Elvis Presley´s melodic songs. On the video the music is accompanied with marvellous pictures of Istanbul, which gives name to the song. So we can enjoy, at the same time, the music and the stunning landscapes and architecture of that city, and its monuments which rest on the shores of the Bosphorus Strait, the border between Asia and Europe, where they were faced up for centuries -like the two names of the city-  by Eastern and Western civilizations and they are still going on. Would you like to be there?

16 things that took me over 50 years to learn

This is a wise list written by Dave Barry, Nationally Syndicated Columnist:

1. Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.

2 If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be ‘meetings.’

3. There is a very fine line between ‘hobby’ and ‘mental illness.’

4. People who want to share their religious views with you almost never want you to share yours with them.

5. You should not confuse your career with your life.

6. Nobody cares if you can’t dance well. Just get up and dance.

7. Never lick a steak knife.

8. The most destructive force in the universe is gossip.

9. You will never find anybody who can give you a clear and compelling reason why we observe daylight savings time.

10. You should never say anything to a woman that even remotely suggests that you think she’s pregnant unless you can see an actual baby emerging from her at that moment.

11. There comes a time when you should stop expecting other people to make a big deal about your birthday. That time is age eleven.

12. The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion, economic status or ethnic background, is that, deep down inside, we ALL believe that we are above average drivers.

13. A person, who is nice to you, but rude to a waiter, is not a nice person.  (This is very important. Pay attention. It never fails.)

14. Your friends love you anyway.

15. Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that a lone amateur built the  Ark.  A large group of professionals built the Titanic.

16. Thought for the day: Men are like fine wine. They start out as grapes, and it’s up to the women to stomp the crap out of them until they turn into something acceptable to have dinner with

III Espiral Awards

Last year Bloggin’ away was awarded an Espiral Award at Edublogs 08. I felt honored, delighted and also moved to see how involved and proud my students felt of our blog.

This year I’ve been asked to participate in the new edition as part of the jury. I have gladly accepted the honour, although I’m sure it will be hard work because there will be lots and lots of wonderful blogs competing for the prizes and the task of evaluating and choosing can’t be easy, but I’m also sure that it’ll be a process from which I will learn a lot as I read through so many good projects by so many teachers that make an effort every day to help their students learn, by exploring and  using all the tools that are available to us nowadays.

If you are a teacher with a blog why don’t you enter it for the awards?

http://ciberespiral.org/edublogs09/

If only, it will give you the chance to meet other teacher/bloggers!

2nd February

Sorry, you must be logged in to read this post

Something to think about

I’ve received this video by e-mail, it’s an old video but I think that Its message still makes sense nowadays.

When I first saw it, I felt heartache, it’s incredible how a 12 year old girl can make the world feel ashamed.

YouTube Preview Image

The Face and the Voice: Anastacia

Anastacia is a white woman but her powerhouse singing voice brings to mindthe vocal strength of soul legends like Tina or Aretha Franklin.

Anastacia Lyn Newkirk was born in Chicago in September1968 but moved to New York in her early teens. She was working as a dancer when she got the big break in 1999 when she reached the final of, MTV´s talent competition, THE CUT. After that she recorded her debut album “ Not That Kind” a year later ( it was a huge hit).

She lives with the chronic intestinal illness Chron’s disease but the worst moment was in 2003 when she had to overcome a breast cancer.

Now Anastacia is back, with a new look, shorter hair an without her trademark tinted glasses but with the same voice. In her new album “The Heat Rotation” Anastacia explains that the meaning is that life can be heavy, but it all turns around and turns into something else. It seems to be the perfect title for the moment she is at in her life.”