CHRISTMAS VOCABULARY

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Christmas
It is the annual celebration, by Christians, of the birth on 25 December of Jesus Christ, hence the name Christmas.
It is an occasion for most people to spend time with their family and friends, send greeting cards and exchanges presents.
Traditionally the giving of a gift is symbolic of the three wise men giving gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to baby Jesus.

Advent
The arrival of a person or an important event. Here it refers to the month before Christmas and the arrival of Jesus.

Bethlehem
The town thought to be the birthplace of Jesus Christ.

Boxing Day
In the UK, December 26 is called Boxing Day. It was traditionally a day to give presents to the poor.

Candle
A round stick of wax with a central wick which is lit to give light as it burns.

Chimney
A vertical structure which extends through the roof of a house and allows smoke to escape from the fireplace.

Santa Claus (Father Christmas)
He traditionally enters a house through the chimney.

Christmas
The annual celebration by Christians of the birth of Jesus Christ on 25 December.

Christmas cake
A rich fruit cake covered with marzipan and icing, eaten at Christmas.

Christmas card
A greetings card sent to friends and family at Christmas.

Christmas carol
A joyful traditional song or hymn sung at Christmas.

Christmas Day
25 December, the birthday of Jesus Christ.

Christmas Eve
24 December, the evening or day before Christmas Day.

Christmas tree
An evergreen tree which people decorate with lights, tinsel, etc. at Christmas

Cracker
A decorated cardboard tube wrapped in paper, that makes a sharp explosive noise ("crack!") and releases a small gift when two people pull it apart.

Egg-nog
A traditional Christmas drink in the US made of beaten eggs, milk or cream, sugar and alcohol.

Frankincense
Sweet-smelling gum from a tree, burnt as incense : one of the gifts that the three wise men gave to Jesus.

Holly
Evergreen shrub with red berries used for decoration at Christmas.

Mistletoe
A parasitic plant with evergreen leaves and white berries, traditionally used as a
Christmas decoration. When 2 people walk under the plant, they are supposed to kiss.

Myrrh
Gum from a tree, used for perfume or incense : one of the gifts given to Jesus by the three wise men.

Ornament
A decoration which, at Christmas, is hung on a Christmas tree.

Reindeer
A large deer with branching antlers found in some cold climates, and thought to pull Santa's sleigh.

Santa Claus
An imaginary bearded old man, wearing a red suit, who lives at the North Pole and brings presents for children at Christmas. Traditionally Santa Claus travels in a sleigh pulled by reindeers and enters the house through the chimney on Christmas Eve.

Sleigh
A sledge or light cart pulled by horses or reindeer over snow and ice.

Tinsel
A glittering material produced in strips and used for decoration at Christmas.

Turkey
Large bird very often eaten at Christmas.

Wreath
Circular band of flowers or leaves used to decorate the front door of homes at Christmas.

Xmas
Abbreviation for 'Christmas'.

Happy birthday to my wonderful friends, Abdu and Rajan

MAY ALL YOUR DREAMS AND WISHES COME TRUE!!!

SING ALONG!

I was a quick ___________ boy
___________too deep for coins
All of your straight blind ___________
Wide on my plastic toys
And when the cops___________ the fair
I cut my long baby ________________
Stole me a dog-eared map
And ____________ for you everywhere

Have I found you?
Flightless bird, jealous, _______________
Or lost you?
American mouth
Big bill _____________

Now I'm a fat ____________ cat
Cursing my sore blunt ______________
Watching the _____________ poison rats
Curl through the wide/white fence cracks
_____________ on magazine photos
Those fishing lures thrown in the cold and clean
Blood of Christ mountain _____________

Have I found you?
Flightless bird, brown hair bleeding
Or lost you?
American mouth
Big bill, stuck going down

ANSWERS: WET - DIVING - EYES - CLOSED - HAIR - CALLED - WEEPING - LOOMING- HOUSE - TONGUE - WARM - KISSING - STREAM

From my Shelf Books

ESTHER´S INHERITANCE by Sándor Márai

What is it to be in love with a pathological liar and fantasist? Esther is, and has been for more than twenty years. Lajos, the liar, married her sister, and when she died, Lajos disappeared. Or did he? And Esther? She was left with her elderly cousin, the all-knowing Nunu, and a worn old house, living a life of the most modest comforts. All is well, but all is tired.

Until a telegram arrives announcing that, after all these years, Lajos is returning with his children. The news brings both panic and excitement. While no longer young and thoroughly skeptical about Lajos and his lies, Esther still remembers how incredibly alive she felt when he was around. Lajos's presence bewitches everyone, and the greatest part of his charm—and his danger—lies in the deftness with which he wields that delicate power. Nothing good can come of this: friends rally round, but Lajos's arrival, complete with entourage, begins a day of high theater.

Esther's Inheritance has the taut economy of Márai's Embers and presents a remarkable narrator in Esther, who delivers the story as both tragedy and comedy on an intimate scale that nevertheless has archetypal power.
Source: (fantasticfiction.co.uk)

UNDER THE SKIN by Michel Faber

"Isserley always drove straight past a hitchhiker when she first saw him, to give herself time to size him up."

In Michel Faber's suspenseful first novel, Isserley, an unusual-looking woman with strangely scarred skin, drives through the Scottish Highlands both day and night, looking for just the right male hitchhikers. She picks them up, makes enough small talk to determine she's made a safe choice, then hits a toggle switch on her car, releasing a drug that knocks her victims out. She then takes them to the "farm" where she lives-and where the "processing" takes place-a terrifying procedure involving the removal of various body parts.

In this upside-down world that Faber has so strikingly created, animals are human, and humans are known as "vodsels." Isserley, at one time a beautiful "human" covered in fur with a long tail, is now a foreigner in the "vodsel" world, sent there to collect as many victims as possible. And what becomes of the men she collects is just the beginning of an even more sinister secret. In this world, looks are extremely deceiving; it's what's Under the Skin that truly counts. A disturbing, yet thought-provoking metaphor for a society run amok, this ferociously creative fiction debut will linger in readers' imaginations long after they've passed the last hitchhiker on the highway.
Source: (fantasticfiction.co.uk)

GREY SOULS by Philippe Claudel

This is ostensibly a detective story, about a crime that is committed in 1917, and solved 20 years later. The location is a small town in Northern France, near V., in the dead of the freezing winter. The war is still being fought in the trenches, within sight and sound of the town, but the men of the town have been spared the slaughter because they are needed in the local factory. One morning a beautiful ten year old girl, one of the three daughters of the innkeeper, is found strangled and dumped in the canal. Suspicion falls on two deserters who are picked up near the town. Their interrogation and sentencing is brutal and swift. Twenty years later, the narrator, a local policeman, puts together what actually happened. On the night the deserters were arrested and interrogated, he was sitting by the beside of his dying wife. He believes that justice was not done and wants to set the record straight. But the death of the child was not the only crime committed in the town during those weeks. More than one record has to be set straight. Beautiful, like a fairy story almost, frozen in time, this novel has an hypnotic quality.

Source: (fantasticfiction.co.uk)

FILMS BASED ON NOVELS

Novel: Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
Film: Memoirs of a Geisha by Rob Marshall

Sayuri's story begins in a poor fishing village in 1929, when, as a nine-year-old with unusual blue-gray eyes, she is taken from her home and sold into slavery to a renowned geisha house. Through her eyes, we see the decadent heart of Gion--the geisha district of Kyoto--with its marvelous teahouses and theaters, narrow back alleys, ornate temples, and artists' streets. And we witness her transformation as she learns the rigorous arts of the geisha: dance and music; wearing kimono, elaborate makeup and hair; pouring sake to reveal just a touch of inner wrist; competing with a jealous rival for men's solicitude and the money that goes with it. But as World War II erupts and the geisha houses are forced to close, Sayuri, with little money and even less food, must reinvent herself all over again to find a rare kind of freedom on her own terms.

Memoirs of a Geisha is a book of nuances and vivid metaphor, of memorable characters rendered with humor and pathos. And though the story is rich with detail and a vast knowledge of history, it is the transparent, seductive voice of Sayuri that the reader remembers.

Source: (bookbrowse.com)

Novel: Smilla´s sense of snow by Peter Hoeg
Film: Smilla´s sense of snow by Bille August

A stunning literary thriller in the tradition of Gorky Park and the novels of John Le Carré.

Smilla Qaaviqaaq Jaspersen is the daughter of a Danish doctor and an Inuit woman from Greenland. Raised in Greenland, she lives in Copenhagen and, as befits her ancestry, is an expert on snow. When one of her few friends, an Inuit boy, dies under mysterious circumstances, she refuses to believe it was an accident.

She decides to investigate and discovers that even the police don''t want her involved. But Smilla persists, and as snow-covered Copenhagen settles down for a quiet Christmas, Smilla''s investigation leads her from a fanatically religious accountant, to a tough-talking pathologist, to the secret files of the Danish company responsible for extracting most of Greenland''s mineral wealth. Finally, she boards a ship with an international cast of villains - and a large stash of cocaine - bound for a mysterious mission on an inhospitable island off Greenland.

Source: (chapters.indigo.ca. Doubleday Canada)

Novel: The Green Mile by Stephen King

Film: The Green Mile by Frank Darabont

The book is a first-person narrative told by Paul Edgecombe, who worked as a Cold Mountain Penitentiary block supervisor on death row, nicknamed "The Green Mile", in 1932. It switches between the events that occurred there, and Paul in the "present" as an old man in a nursing home writing the story, and his "special friend" Elaine Connelly reading it.

The story centers on John Coffey, a 6'8" black man who is convicted of raping and murdering two small white girls. He is notable because of his size and strange behavior. Besides Coffey, there are two other prisoners on the cellblock during the main period the book focuses on: Eduard "Del" Delacroix, a Cajun arsonist and murderer who is cowardly and weak-minded, and William "Wild Bill" Wharton, a wild and dangerous multiple murderer who is determined to make as much trouble as he can before he is executed. Looking back, Paul also describes his experiences with a Washita Cherokee murderer named Arlen Bitterbuck, nicknamed "The Chief", and Arthur Flanders, nicknamed "The President", an insurance executive who killed his father to perpetrate insurance fraud. The story also features Mr. Jingles, an unnaturally intelligent mouse who appears early in the novel and befriends Del. The mouse learns various tricks and appears to follow commands. Del insists that the mouse whispers things in his ear.

Paul and the other guards are antagonized throughout the book by Percy Wetmore, a sadistic guard who enjoys aggravating the prisoners and tries to kill Mr. Jingles on more than one occasion. The other guards have to be civil to him despite their dislike of him because he is the governor's nephew. However, when he is offered a place at the nearby Briar Ridge psychiatric hospital as a secretary, Paul thinks they are finally rid of him. However, Percy informs Paul and his colleagues that he will not leave until he is "put up front" (allowed to supervise an execution), so Paul hesitantly allows him to run Delacroix's. Percy is supposed to soak a sponge in brine and tuck it inside the electrode cap to be strapped onto Del's head (to draw the electricity to the brain to kill faster and with less pain), but his resentment of the man leads him to deliberately omit this step. As a result, when the switch is thrown, the electric current causes Del to suffer an agonizing death and literally fry in the chair.

Over time, Paul realizes that there is something special about John Coffey: he possesses mystical healing abilities. These powers heal Paul's urinary tract infection and brings Mr. Jingles from the brink of death after Percy attempts to kill him by stepping on him. Paul also realizes that Coffey is very empathic and sensitive to the thoughts and feelings of others around him and all over the world. The guards drug William Wharton, put a straitjacket on Percy, and lock him in the padded restraint room. They then smuggle John out of the prison and take him to Warden Hal Moores' residence, where he cures his wife's deadly brain tumor with his magical abilities. When they return to the Mile, Percy is released from the restraint room and agrees to move to the Briar Ridge secretarial job straightaway. However, as he is leaving, John passes the "disease" which he took out of the warden's wife onto Percy. Percy goes mad and shoots Wharton to death, then falls into a catatonic state from which he never recovers. He is later transferred to Briar Ridge, but as a patient rather than a secretary.

Although Paul eventually discovers that John was innocent of the murders (which were actually the work of William Wharton), John elects to die anyway to escape the cruelty of the world. Near the end of the book, it is revealed that those healed by John gain an unnatural lifespan. In the end, Mr. Jingles lives to be at least 64 and dies of old age at Paul's nursing home and Paul reveals to the reader how his wife died. Paul also states that he is 104 years old and wondering just how much longer he will live. The book ends with this quote:

"We each owe a death, there are no exceptions, I know that, but sometimes, oh God, the Green Mile is so long."

Source: (wapedia.mobi)

SING ALONG!

AGORA by Alejandro Amenabar

To some, the name Alejandro Amenábar sparks instant interest. But if it does not, let me refresh your memory. In 1997, he wrote (with Mateo Gil) and directed the Spanish film Open Your Eyes -- which North American audiences know better by its ultra-strange U.S. remake Vanilla Sky. 2001 marked his English film premiere, the eerie Nicole Kidman thriller The Others (the only feature Gil hasn't co-written). And then in 2004, he went back to Spanish filmmaking with the Javier Bardem-starring Oscar winner The Sea Inside. Now he's grabbed the likes of Rachel Weisz, Max Minghella, and Oscar Isaac for a film that doesn't journey through facial reconstruction, ghosts, or euthanasia. It's a gorgeous, thought-provoking Roman epic called Agora.

The film focuses on one of the most impressive female figures in history – Hypatia, a leading thinker in the Rome-governed Alexandria, considered to be the first notable woman of mathematics. She studied philosophy and astronomy, and both pagan and Christian students from far and wide came together to study under her. "For all men on account of her extraordinary dignity and virtue admired her the more."

The film opens in 391 A.D. Alexandria. The streets are boiling with strife and clashes of faith as Christianity gains power, and men like Ammonius (Ashraf Barhom) make grand speeches and perform "miracles" to sway the disenfranchised commoners. Meanwhile, inside the walls of the Library of Alexandria, Hypatia struggles to extinguish the religious turmoil of her students whilst also staying free of romantic interest. Her slave Davus (Max Minghella) loves her, but cannot tell her, while her student Orestes takes every chance to make his love for her known – even after being rebuffed by her menstrual rags.

When a Roman is killed during one of Ammonius' speeches, "proving" his God's power on hot coals, everything changes, setting off a never-ending stream of desperate violence mixed with overwrought feelings of entitlement. Back and forth, the two sides fight -- each is desperate for something, whether that be the Christians' desire to gain power or the pagans' desire to keep theirs -- and both feel too entitled to make any concessions. The death of the Roman leads to bloody retaliation in the streets, and ultimately, the destruction of the Library and the knowledge it contains, as well as the life Hypatia has always known. Even Davus leaves her to join Ammonius.

Fast forward to many years later, and the same battles continue. However, now almost everyone, including prefect Orestes, is Christian. Now the religious turmoil is focused on the Jews, as well as women and children. Hypatia's rights and political influence are no longer secure, and this leads to her horrific and heart-breaking end. On paper, it stretches the bounds of horrific violent acts, but even watered down for the big screen, it packs a gut-wrenching punch you can't avoid.

It would be easy to say that this is an anti-Christian film, but to do so is utterly oversimplified and inaccurate. Beyond Hypatia's desire for all faiths to exist peacefully, no one side is all good or bad. Both the pagans and the Christians have their moments of honor – the quests for knowledge from the former, and the feeding and care of the masses for the latter – while also partaking in heinous violence; it is this balance that drives the film.

The production design, score, look, and momentum of the film are all grand to the extreme, but the path of Hypatia's story and the fall of Roman Alexandria are perfectly balanced. The gorgeousness and epic feel doesn't seep into the story and drive a path of twists for the sake of cinema.

(Source: cinematical.com, by Monica Bartyzel)

Alejandro Amenábar Interview - Agora from FirstShowing.net on Vimeo.

A few of my favourite violin virtuosi

I have loved the sound of the violin since I was a little girl. I will always have a great admiration for those that can play it.
Violin music touches my heart, clears my mind...

A present for you, AMALIA

I know you had some of the best times in your teens listening to The Smiths

Shyness is nice, and

Shyness can stop you

From doing all the things in life

You'd like to

Shyness is nice, and

Shyness can stop you

From doing all the things in life

You'd like to

So, if there's something you'd like to try

If there's something you'd like to try

ASK ME - I WON'T SAY "NO" - HOW COULD I ?

Coyness is nice, and

Coyness can stop you

From saying all the things in

Life you'd like to

So, if there's something you'd like to try

If there's something you'd like to try

ASK ME - I WON'T SAY "NO" - HOW COULD I ?

Spending warm Summer days indoors

Writing frightening verse

To a buck-toothed girl in Luxembourg

ASK ME, ASK ME, ASK ME

ASK ME, ASK ME, ASK ME

Because if it's not Love

Then it's the Bomb, the Bomb, the Bomb, the Bomb, the Bomb, the Bomb, the Bomb

That will bring us together

Nature is a language - can't you read ?

Nature is a language - can't you read ?

SO ... ASK ME, ASK ME, ASK ME

ASK ME, ASK ME, ASK ME

Because if it's not Love

Then it's the Bomb, the Bomb, the Bomb, the Bomb, the Bomb, the Bomb, the Bomb

That will bring us together

If it's not Love

Then it's the Bomb

Then it's the Bomb

That will bring us together

SO ... ASK ME, ASK ME, ASK ME

ASK ME, ASK ME, ASK ME Oh, la ...

BRAZIL

TERRY GILLIAM'S ''Brazil,'' a jaunty, wittily observed vision of an extremely bleak future, is a superb example of the power of comedy to underscore serious ideas, even solemn ones. ''Brazil,'' which was not scheduled for 1985 release until the Los Angeles Film Critics Association voted it best film of the year, was slated, as of yesterday, to open on Dec. 25 for one week in order to qualify for Academy Awards consideration. However, the opening was suddenly advanced, and it began its weeklong engagement today at Loew's New York Twin. It is scheduled to reopen on Feb. 14.
''Brazil'' may not be the best film of the year, but it's a remarkable accomplishment for Mr. Gilliam, whose satirical and cautionary impulses work beautifully together. His film's ambitious visual style bears this out, combining grim, overpowering architecture with clever throwaway touches. The look of the film harkens back to the 1930's, as does the title; ''Brazil'' is named not for the country but for the 1930's popular song, which floats through the film as a tantalizing refrain. The gaiety of the music stands in ironic contrast to the oppressive, totalitarian society in which the story is set.
The plot itself, from a screenplay by Mr. Gilliam, Tom Stoppard and Charles McKeown, is rather thin; it exists mainly as an excuse to lead the viewer into various corners of an unexpectedly humorous Orwellian world. Mr. Gilliam's answer to Mr. Orwell's Winston Smith is one Sam Lowry, a gray-suited bureaucrat who has a forbidden love, a lively fantasy life and a socialite mother. Ida Lowry (played hilariously by Katherine Helmond), who is constantly in the company of her in-house plastic surgeon, spends most of her time lunching with lady-friends and a bit of it worrying about her son's limited career. So Ida - whose fashion sense dictates that she wear hats that look very much like upside-down shoes - arranges a promotion for Sam. He winds up in an office so small that he has only half a desk and half a poster sharing both with the bureaucrat next door. This change somehow propels Sam into a romance with a woman who may be a terrorist and into a series of hellish nightmares.
Much of the cleverness of ''Brazil'' has to do with its tiny details, the sense of how things work in this new society. Signs glimpsed in the background say things like ''Loose Talk is Noose Talk'' and ''Suspicion Breeds Confidence,'' while television advertisements are for things like fashionable heating ducts ''in designer colors to suit your demanding taste'' (the production design makes sure that heating ducts are everywhere). Politeness counts for everything, as in an early scene where one hapless Mr. Buttle is arrested in his own living room, stuffed into what looks like a large canvas bag, and led away, never to be seen again. At least Mrs. Buttle is given a written receipt for her confiscated husband.
Harry Tuttle, the man the police were actually after until a large bug dropped into a computer and caused a typographical error, is played by Robert De Niro as a combination repairman and commando. Mr. De Niro has only the briefest of roles here, but he makes it count for a lot, as does Bob Hoskins as a sinister fellow passing himself off as a rival repairman. The friends of Sam's mother are also nicely played, particularly Shirley (Kathryn Pogson), who tells Sam shyly that she doesn't like him at all. Michael Palin is both ominous and funny as Sam's friend Jack Lint, and Jonathan Pryce is especially good as Sam. Giving his regards to Jack's twins and learning that they are triplets, Sam responds by saying ''Triplets! How time flies.''
Also in ''Brazil'' is Kim Greist as the pretty young woman who fascinates Sam in reality and in his dreams; in the latter, she has angelic blond hair and he appears as a magnificent winged silver creature swooping through the skies. Earlier in his career, Mr. Gilliam might have staged such a scene more facetiously, but here it has a real poignance. For all its fancifulness, ''Brazil'' and its characters seem substantial and real.

(Source: Review by JANET MASLIN in an article of the NY Times)

“This film is a surrealistic wonder that causes incredulity and marvel in spite of its long footage. It is a futuristic fable of basic human traits such as romance, imagination, man’s dreams, need for freedom, etc. It is a reality where the oniric world is constantly present and intertwined in a fantastic whirl of emotions that leads to a non conclusion. By many critics judged as a master piece and by none something less than an excellent showing of the seventh art.
I truly recommended Brazil to the blog author who, in spite of being a film lover, was not aware of the existence of this film and, as a matter of fact this is a not well-known movie. But it is impossible to remain untouched by it as it is dense and deep in content and meaning. For all these reasons my friend decided to add in her blog a space dedicated to this marvelous movie.
I hope you remain baffled by these few words and decide to watch one of my favourite films and, maybe, feel the urge to comment on it."

Written by L. F.

Literature and Cinema

FILMS BASED ON NOVELS

Novel: The Wings of the Dove by Henry James

Film: The wings of the dove by Iain Softley

Set amid the splendor of London drawing rooms and gilded Venetian palazzos, The Wings of the Dove is the story of Milly Theale, a naïve, doomed American heiress, and a pair of lovers, Kate Croy and Merton Densher, who conspire to obtain her fortune. In this witty tragedy of treachery, self-deception, and betrayal, Henry James weaves together three ill-fated and wholly human destinies unexpectedly linked by desire, greed, and salvation. As Amy Bloom writes in her Introduction, “The Wings of the Dove is a novel of intimacy. . . . [James] gives us passion, he gives us love in its terrible and enchanting forms.”

(Source: LibraryThing.com)

Novel: A Passage to India by E. M. Forster
Film: A Passage to India by David Lean

The main incident of the novel is the accusation by an English woman that an Indian doctor followed her into a cave and attempted to rape her. Doctor Aziz (the accused man) is a respected member of the Muslim community in India. Like many people of his social class, his relationship with the British administration is somewhat ambivalent. He sees most of the British as enormously rude, so he is pleased and flattered when an English woman, Mrs. Moore, attempts to befriend him.Fielding also becomes a friend, and he is the only English person who attempts to help him--after the accusation is made. Despite Fielding's help, Aziz is constantly worried that Fielding will somehow betray him). The two part ways and then meet many years later. Forster suggests that the two can never really be friends until the English withdraw from India.

(Source:classiclit.com)

Novel: The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
Film: The Remains of the Day by James Ivory

The novel The Remains of the Day tells the story of Stevens, an English butler who dedicates his life to the loyal service of Lord Darlington (mentioned in increasing detail in flashbacks). The novel begins with Stevens receiving a letter from an ex colleague called Miss Kenton, describing her married life, which he believes hints at her unhappy marriage. The receipt of the letter allows Stevens the opportunity to revisit this once-cherished relationship, if only under the guise of possible re-employment. Stevens' new employer, a wealthy American, Mr Farraday, encourages Stevens to borrow a car to take a well-earned break, a "motoring trip." As he sets out, Stevens has the opportunity to reflect on his unmoving loyalty to Lord Darlington, the meaning of the term "dignity", and even his relationship with his father. Ultimately Stevens is forced to ponder the true nature of his relationship with Miss Kenton. As the book progresses, increasing evidence of Miss Kenton's one-time love for Stevens, and his for her, is revealed.
Working together during the years leading up to the Second World War, Stevens and Miss Kenton fail to admit their true feelings. All of their recollected conversations show a professional friendship, which came close, but never dared, to cross the line to romance.
Miss Kenton, it later emerges, has been married for over 20 years and therefore is no longer Miss Kenton but has become Mrs Benn. She admits to occasionally wondering what her life with Stevens might have been like, has come to love her husband, and is looking forward to the birth of their first grandchild. Stevens muses over lost opportunities, both with Miss Kenton and with his long-time employer, Lord Darlington. At the end of the novel, Stevens instead focuses on the "remains of [his] day", referring to his future service with Mr Farraday.

(Source: Wikipedia)

Novel: The Four Feathers by A. E. W. Mason
Film: The Four Feathers by Shekar Kapur
The novel tells the story of British officer, Harry Feversham, who resigns his commission from his regiment just prior to Sir Garnet Wolseley's 1882 expedition to Egypt to suppress the rising of Urabi Pasha. He does this for his own personal reasons, rather than cowardice. However, he is faced with censure from three of his comrades for cowardice, signified by the delivery of three white feathers to him, from Captain Trench and Lieutenants Castleton and Willoughby, and the loss of the support of his fiancée, Ethne Eustace, who presents him with the fourth feather. His best friend in the regiment, Captain Durrance, becomes his rival for Ethne.
Talking with Lieutenant Sutch, a friend of his father, an imposing retired general, Feversham questions his own true motives, and resolves to redeem himself by whatever means necessary, travelling on his own to Egypt and Sudan, where in 1882 Muhammad Ahmed proclaimed himself the Mahdi (Guided One) and raised a Holy War. On January 26, 1885, his forces, at the time called Dervishes, captured Khartoum and killed its British governor, General Charles George Gordon. It is mainly in the eastern Sudan, where the British and Egyptians held Suakin, that the action takes place over the next six years. Durrance is blinded by sunstroke and invalided home. Castleton is reported killed at Tamai where a British square is briefly broken. Feversham's first success is with Willoughby, by recovering lost letters of Gordon. He is aided by a Sudanese Arab, Abou Fatma. Later, disguised as a mad Greek musician, Feversham gets imprisoned in Omdurman, where he rescues the now Colonel Trench, who had been captured on a reconnaissance mission, and they escape.
Returned to England, Feversham has his honour restored and the feathers returned. Trench admits he instigated the feathers. Durrance yields Ethne, and travels to Germany to seek a cure for his blindness. Ethne and Feversham wed. The story is rich in characters and sub-plots, which the filmed versions perforce trim, along with making major changes in the story line, with the best known 1939 version centered on the 1898 campaign and battle of Omdurman, only hinted as a future event in the novel.

(Source: Wikipedia)

Painting and music

Painter of classical, historical, and literary subjects. John William Waterhouse was born in 1849 in Rome, where his father worked as a painter. He was referred to as "Nino" throughout his life.
In the 1850s the family returned to England. Before entering the Royal Academy schools in 1870, Waterhouse assisted his father in his studio. His early works were of classical themes in the spirit of Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema and Frederic Leighton, and were exhibited at the Royal Academy, the Society of British Artists and the Dudley Gallery. In the late 1870s and the 1880s, Waterhouse made several trips to Italy, where he painted genre scenes.
After his marriage in 1883 to Esther Kenworthy, Waterhouse took up residence at the Primrose Hill Studios (number 3, and later, number 6).
Nino married Esther Kenworthy at St Mary's Church, Ealing, LondonPhotograph by Rob Cartwright
Future occupants of the same Primrose Hill studios would include the artists Arthur Rackham and Patrick Caulfield. Waterhouse painted primarily in oils, yet he was elected to the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour in 1883, resigning in 1889. In 1884, his Royal Academy submission Consulting the Oracle brought him favourable reviews; it was purchased by Sir Henry Tate, who also purchased The Lady of Shalott from the 1888 Academy exhibition. The latter painting reveals Waterhouse's growing interest in themes associated with the Pre-Raphaelites, particularly tragic or powerful femmes fatales, as well as plein-air painting. Other examples of paintings depicting a femme fatale are Circe Invidiosa, Cleopatra, La Belle Dame Sans Merci and several versions of Lamia. In 1885 Waterhouse was elected an associate of the Royal Academy and a full member in 1895. His RA diploma work was A Mermaid. However, as this painting was not completed until 1900, Waterhouse offered his Ophelia of 1888 as his temporary submission (this painting was 'lost' for most of the 20th century--it is now in the collection of Lord Lloyd Webber).
In the mid-1880s Waterhouse began exhibiting with the Grosvenor Gallery and its successor, the New Gallery, as well as at provincial exhibitions in Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester. Paintings of this period, such as Mariamne, were exhibited widely in England and abroad as part of the international symbolist movement. In the 1890s Waterhouse began to exhibit portraits. In 1900 he was the primary instigator of the Artists' War Fund, creating Destiny, and contributing to a theatrical performance. The pictures offered to the War Fund were auctioned at Christie's. In 1901 he moved to St John's Wood and joined the St John's Wood Arts Club, a social organization that included Alma-Tadema and George Clausen. He also served on the advisory council of the St. John's Wood Art School where young and upcoming "neo Pre-Raphaelite" artists such as Byam Shaw numbered amongst his pupils.
Despite suffering from increasing frailty during the final decade of his life, Waterhouse continued painting until his death from cancer in 1917. From 1908-1914 he painted a series of paintings based upon the Persephone legend. They were followed by pictures based upon literature and mythology in 1916 (Miranda, Tristram and Isolde). One of his final works was The Enchanted Garden, left unfinished on his easel at his death, and now in the collection of the Lady Lever Art Gallery in Liverpool.
Very little is known of Waterhouse's private life - only a few letters have survived and thus, for many years, the identity of his models has been a mystery. One letter that has survived indicates that Mary Lloyd, the model for Lord Leighton's masterpiece Flaming June, posed for Waterhouse. The well-known Italian male model, Angelo Colorossi, who sat for Leighton, Millais, Sargent, Watts, Burne-Jones and many other Victorian artists, also sat for Waterhouse.
Waterhouse and his wife Esther did not have any children. Esther Waterhouse outlived her husband by 27 years, passing away in 1944 at a nursing home. Today, she is buried alongside her husband at Kensal Green Cemetery in north London.

(Source: johnwilliamswaterhouse.com)

Music: "Tu chiami una vita" by Jan A.P. Kaczmarek

Lyrics by Salvatore Quasimodo ("Tu chiami una vita")

"Fatica d'amore, tristezza, tu chiami una vita che dentro, profonda, ha nomi di cieli e giardini. E fosse mia carne che il dono di male trasforma."

Fatiga de amor, tristeza, tú llamas una vida, que dentro, profunda, tiene nombres de cielo y jardines.Y fuese mi carne lo que el don del mal transforma.

Jan A. P. Kaczmarek

Jan A. P. Kaczmarek is a composer with a tremendous international reputation that continues to grow. As a successful recording artist and touring musician, Jan turned to composing film scores as his primary occupation.
Jan's first success in the United States came in theater. After composing striking scores for productions at Chicago's Goodman Theatre and Los Angeles' Mark Taper Forum, Jan won an Obie and a Drama Desk Award for his music for the New York Shakespeare Festival's 1992 production of John Ford's "Tis Pity She's A Whore," directed by JoAnne Akalaitis, starring Val Kilmer and Jeanne Tripplehorn. Newsday wrote that Jan's score "undulates with hypnotic force that gets under your skin," while Frank Rich of the New York Times found it worthy of the films of Bernardo Bertolucci and Luchino Visconti. Educated as a lawyer, he abandoned his planned career as a diplomat, for political reasons, to write music in order to finally gain freedom of expression. First he composed for the highly politicized underground theater, and then for a mini-orchestra of his own creation, "The Orchestra of the Eighth Day". The major turning point in his life, he says, was a period of intense study with avant-garde theater director, Jerzy Grotowski.
"Playing and composing was like a religion for me," Kaczmarek explains, "and then it became a profession."
"The Orchestra of the Eighth Day" began touring Europe in the late 1970's and to date, has completed eighteen major tours. They appeared at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, the VPRO Radio International Contemporary Music Festival in Amsterdam,the Venice Biennale, and the International Music Festival in Karlovy Vary, Czechoslovakia, where Jan won the Golden Spring Prize for the Best Composition. He is a five-time winner in Jazz Forum's Jazz Top Poll. At the end of the Orchestra's first American tour in 1982, Kaczmarek recorded his debut album, Music for the End, for the Chicago-based major independent Flying Fish Records.
Jan returned to America in 1989 to find a label for his latest composition for the Orchestra. Jan stayed in the United States where he expanded his horizons by composing for theater as he had already done in Poland with great success, capped by two prestigious New York theater awards in 1992. Having also composed music for films in Poland, he focused his attention to that medium, achieving recognition as a film composer with scores to such films as "Total Eclipse", "Bliss", "Washington Square", "Aimée & Jaguar", "The Third Miracle", "Lost Souls", "Edges of the Lord", "Quo Vadis" and Adrian Lyne's "Unfaithful."February 2005, Jan won his first Oscar for Best Original Score on Marc Forster's highly acclaimed film, "Finding Neverland."J.A.P.K. also won The National Review Board's award for Best Score of the Year, and was nominated for both a Golden Globe and BAFTA's Anthony Asquith Award for Achievement in Film Music. In addition to his work in films, Jan was commissioned to write two symphonic and choral pieces for two important national occasions in Poland. “Cantata for Freedom” (2005) to celebrate 25th anniversary of Solidarity movement, and oratorio “1956” (2006) to commemorate 50th anniversary of bloody uprising against totalitarian government in Poznan, Poland. Both premiers were broadcast live on national television.Jan is also setting up an Institute inspired by the Sundance Institute, in his home country of Poland, as a European center for development of new work in the areas of film, theatre, music and new media. The Institute website (currently under construction) is: http://rozbitek.org/. It is anticipated that Rozbitek will begin accepting students in 2007.

(Source: created by WIERZBICKI.ORG /jan-ap-kaczmarek.com)

SERRA do CARAMULO

The Serra do Caramulo is a place where nature reigns supreme and man has learned to live with it and for it, never against it. It is a place full of surprises and magnificent views.You will notice the green fields and woods, the grey of the granite, the bright colours of the heathers, ganisters, oleanders or brooms and ancient small and picturesque villages.

A good way to visit the Serra do Caramulo is exploring the mountains on foot. Just outside the town Caramulo starts a very beautiful hiking trail along an old Roman Road.It goes all the way up to the lonely top, Caramulinho. The last part is very steep, but there are granite steps to help you up, and you will have a spectacular panoramic view.The Black Clay Pottery of MolelosThe craftsmanship of Molelos has been kept alive in the Serra do Caramulo for several generations. All sorts of decorative and useful items are for sale, for use in the house, or to decorate a corner — and to take away as the perfect souvenir of our mountains. Molelos is the first village you come trough after you turn off the IP3 to go to the Serra do Caramulo.

(Source: quintadoriodao.com )

THE CARAMULO MUSEUM

The history of the Caramulo Museum explains why it is really two different museums: it was founded in the 1950´s by the brothers Abel and João de Lacerda, the first an art lover, the second a lover of antique cars.The art collection is extremely varied. It contains for instance paintings by artists such as Picasso, Dali, Dufy and Legér, but also a fine selection of ceramics from many different periods, and four monumental 16th century tapestries.The car museum has 70 cars and 30 motorcycles in permanent exhibition, all with the original motor, and in running condition. They are taken out on the road during the antique car festival that takes place every year in September.Among the cars that can be seen in the museum are: the oldest car in Portugal that still works (a 1899 Peugot), the Bugatti that broke the speed record at more than 200 km/h in 1931, and two cars owned by the Portugese dictator Salazar (an armoured Mercedes-benz and a Cadillac).

(Source: quintade bispos.com)

Art Collection

Started in 1953, by Abel Lacerda, based on the principle of the generosity of benefactors, the art collection at the Museu do Caramulo was made up of gifts from both collectors and contemporary well-known artists, such as Vieira da Silva, Jean Lurçat, Salvador Dali and Pablo Picasso.
The art collection is very diversified given the different categories of the objects on show. covering a long period of history, from the age of Antiquity up to the Contemporary period.
The rooms of the museum have paintings, sculptures, furniture, objects in gold, glass, enamel, textiles and ceramics. In this last section, the objects reveal the taste and technology of ceramics from different periods, from the Han and Tang dynasties in China, to a jug by Picasso, Delft and Ming porcelain, and most particularly, the famous bottle by Jorge Álvares of 1552.
In the textile sector, there are four monumental tapestries, ordered by the King of the Discoveries – D. Manuel I – and made in Tournai in the first quarter of the XVI century. Given their extraordinary cultural value, these pieces are an exceptional means of understanding the XVI century, and the relationship between Portugal and Flanders and show the influence of the Portuguese Discoveries in Western art.
In paintings, the Museu do Caramulo exhibits a selection of works by consecrated Portuguese artists, such as Grão Vasco, Silva Porto, Columbano and Amadeo de Sousa Cardoso. There are also works by the Flemish artists such as Frei Carlos, Quinten Metsijs, Isembrant, Jaco Jordaens and of French artists such as Hyacinthe Rigaud, Frans Pourbus, Raoul Dufy and Fernand Leger.
The collection of sculptures is made up of works made by Portuguese artists such as Salvador Barata Feyo, Canto da Maya, Leopoldo de Almeida or António Duarte, and also works by foreigners such as José Cañas and José Clará.
The Museum of Caramulo is rightfully considered one of the principle museums in Portugal, reflecting the careful and rigorous selection of the works on show, made up by an extraordinary collection that covers all areas of Art.

(Source: museu-caramulo.net )

Automobile collection

The Automobile, Motorcycle and Bicycle Collection in the Museu do Caramulo started with João Lacerda, in 1955, when he bought a 1925 Ford Model T. The collection has grown ever since and is on show in the museum.Given the success of the museum and its prestige, several pieces have been added to the collections due to the donations from private and public entities.However, to be put on show each car must be completely restored and in full running condition, just like when it was manufactured. To achieve it the vehicles have to run at least once a year for maintenance purposes. The participation in various events, such as races, rallies, competitions orpublic demonstrations are crucial, not only to guarantee its correct roadworthy condition, but to reach out to the enthusiasts and general public with live and running pieces of history.This was idea was taken in account, when the second building was constructed, to house the growing automobile collection. Its design allows each vehicle to exit easily, without restrictions.The Museu do Caramulo has a permanent collection of 30 motorcycles, and 70 cars (of which 14 are vintage cars), representing 36 different makes and 7 countries. The oldest is an 1886 Benz and the most recent a Ferrari 456, of 1998. There are also collections of antique bicycles and tricycles.Many of the cars on show are connected to the History of Portugal. In the permanent collection at the museum one can see:
The oldest car in Portugal, still in running condition, an 1899 Peugeot;
The Bugatti 35B that in 1931 established the speed record in Lehrfeld at more than 200 km/h;
The bullet proof armoured Mercedes-Benz and Cadillac that were in the service of Oliveira Salazar;
The Pegaso, given by General Francisco Franco to President Craveiro Lopes;
The Chrysler Imperial belonging to the Portuguese Secret Service (PIDE) that was used in the escape from the Caxias Prison;
The Renault that belonged to "conselheiro" João Franco;
The Rolls-Royce that was used by Queen Elizabeth II, President Eisenhower, Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul II during their state visits to Portugal;
The Fiat offered to João de Lacerda, by the President of the Fiat Group.

SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE wins Oscar 2009 for Best Picture

Slumdog Millionaire is the story of Jamal Malik (Dev Patel), an 18 year-old orphan from the slums of Mumbai, who is about to experience the biggest day of his life. With the whole nation watching, he is just one question away from winning a staggering 20 million rupees on India s Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?But when the show breaks for the night, police arrest him on suspicion of cheating; how could a street kid know so much? Desperate to prove his innocence, Jamal tells the story of his life in the slum where he and his brother grew up, of their adventures together on the road, of vicious encounters with local gangs, and of Latika (Freida Pinto), the girl he loved and lost. Each chapter of his story reveals the key to the answer to one of the game show s questions.Each chapter of Jamal s increasingly layered story reveals where he learned the answers to the show s seemingly impossible quizzes. But one question remains a mystery: what is this young man with no apparent desire for riches really doing on the game show?When the new day dawns and Jamal returns to answer the final question, the Inspector and sixty million viewers are about to find out.

(Source: Imdb.com)

OSCAR ACCEPTANCE SPEECH TRANSCRIPT

"Thank you so much to the Academy. As you can see, our film was a collaboration between hundreds of people, and I am so happy that so many of them could be with us here tonight to share this moment. Together we've been on an extraordinary, extraordinary journey. When we started out, we had no stars, we had no power or muscle. We didn't have enough money really to do what we wanted to do. But what we had was a script that has inspired mad love in everyone who read it. We had a genius, for a director. We had a cast and crew who were unwavering in their commitment and whose talents are up on the screen for all of you to see. We had partners in Film4 and Celador. In Pathe and FOX Searchlight, who had the courage to support us. We had a shared love for the extraordinary city of Mumbai, where we made the movie. Most of all we had passion and we had belief and out film showed that if you have those two things, truly anything is possible. I want to thank on a personal note, my mum and my dad for their support over the years... And I want to thank all of you very much indeed. Thank you."

(Source: mahalo.com)

Etiquette

How to Greet someone in Britain
The Handshake

A handshake is the most common form of greeting among the English and British people and is customary when you are introduced to somebody new.

The Kiss

It is only when you meet friends, whom you haven't seen for a long time, that you would kiss the cheek of the opposite sex. In Britain one kiss is generally enough.

Formal greetings

The usual formal greeting is a 'How do you do?' and a firm handshake, but with a lighter touch between men and women.

‘How do you do?’ is a greeting not a question and the correct response is to repeat ‘How do you do?' You say this when shaking hands with someone.

First person "How do you do?"
Second person " How do you do?"

'How are you?' is a question and the most common and polite response is "I am fine thank you and you?"

First person "How are you?"
Second person "I am fine thank you and you?"

Nice to meet you – Nice to meet you too. (Often said whilst shaking hands)

Delighted to meet you– Delighted to meet you too.

Pleased to meet you – Pleased to meet you too.

Glad to meet you - Glad to meet you too

Good Morning / Good Afternoon / Good Evening

Informal greetings

Hi - Hi or hello

Morning / Afternoon / Evening ( We drop the word 'Good' in informal situations).

How's you? - Fine thanks. You?

Thank you / thanks / cheers

English people sometimes say 'cheers' instead of thank you. You may hear 'cheers' said instead of 'good bye', what they are really saying is 'thanks and bye'.

Acceptable Behaviour in England

Terms of Endearment - Names British people may call you

You may be called by many different 'affectionate' names, according to which part of the Britain you are visiting. Do not be offended, this is quite normal. For example, you may be called dear, dearie, flower, love, chick, chuck, me duck, me duckie, mate, guv, son, ma'am, madam, miss, sir, or treacle, according to your sex, age and location.

Visiting people in their houses

When being entertained at someone's home it is nice to take a gift for the host and hostess. A bottle of wine, bunch of flowers or chocolates are all acceptable.

Time

British people place considerable value on punctuality. If you agree to meet friends at three o'clock, you can bet that they'll be there just after three. Since Britons are so time conscious, the pace of life may seem very rushed. In Britain, people make great effort to arrive on time. It is often considered impolite to arrive even a few minutes late. If you are unable to keep an appointment, it is expected that you call the person you are meeting. Some general tips follow.

You should arrive:

* At the exact time specified – for dinner, lunch, or appointments with professors, doctors, and other professionals.
* Any time during the hours specified for teas, receptions, and cocktail parties.
* A few minutes early: for public meetings, plays, concerts, movies, sporting events, classes, church services, and weddings.
If you are invited to someone's house for dinner at half past seven, they will expect you to be there on the dot. An invitation might state "7.30 for 8", in which case you should arrive no later than 7.50. However, if an invitation says "sharp", you must arrive in plenty of time.

Manners are Important. DOs and DON'TS (Taboos)

Do stand in line:

In England people like to form orderly queues (standing in line) and wait patiently for their turn e.g. boarding a bus. It is usual to queue when required, and expected that you will take your correct turn and not push in front. 'Queue jumping' is frowned upon.

Do take your hat off when you go indoors (men only)

It is impolite for men to wear hats indoors especially in churches.
Nowadays, it is becoming more common to see men wearing hats indoors. However, this is still seen as being impolite, especially to the older generations.

Do say "Excuse Me":

If someone is blocking your way and you would like them to move, say excuse me and they will move out of your way.

Do Pay as you Go:

Pay for drinks as you order them in pubs and other types of bars.

Do say "Please" and "Thank you":

It is very good manners to say "please" and "thank you". It is considered rude if you don't. You will notice in England that we say 'thank you' a lot.

Do cover your Mouth:

When yawning or coughing always cover your mouth with your hand.

Do Shake Hands:

When you are first introduced to someone, shake their right hand with your own right hand.

Do say sorry:

If you accidentally bump into someone, say 'sorry'. They probably will too, even if it was your fault! This is a habit and can be seen as very amusing by an 'outsider'.

Do Smile:

A smiling face is a welcoming face.

Do open doors for other people:

Men and women both hold open the door for each other. It depends on who goes through the door first.

Do not greet people with a kiss:

British people only kiss people who are close friends and relatives.

Avoid talking loudly in public:

It is impolite to stare at anyone in public. Privacy is highly regarded.

Do not pick your nose in public:

People are disgusted by this. If your nostrils need de-bugging, use a handkerchief.

Avoid doing gestures such as backslapping and hugging:

This is only done among close friends.

Do not spit:

Spitting in the street is considered to be very bad mannered.

Do not burp in public:

You may feel better by burping loudly after eating or drinking, but other people will not! If you cannot stop a burp from bursting out, then cover your mouth with your hand and say 'excuse me' afterwards.

Do not ask personal or intimate questions:

People like their privacy. Please do not ask questions such as "How much money do you earn?" "How much do you weigh?" or "Why aren't you married?".

(Texts taken from and copyright of projectbritain.com)