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Archive for February, 2010

Charlotte Gainsbourg: Heaven Can Wait

Posted by Anne on February 16th, 2010

Charlotte Gainsbourg, daughter of Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg,  won best actress Cannes 2009 for Lars van Trier’s totally horrifying “Antichrist” after having gone through brain surgery (9/2007). These doubtlessly destabilizing experiences have gone into her collaboration with Beck on her album IRM. The “Heaven can wait” song video (Keith Schofield) gives us “the dregs [...]

Grammar Guru: 90′ x 90′

Posted by Anne on February 15th, 2010

“The boat is very simple. It’s a 90 foot x 90 foot platform, trimaran, with three hulls, with a magic wing, close to 200 feet high.”
Read “90 by 90“, “90 times 90” or “90 to 90“?
In 1851, a boat named America won the 100 Guinea Cup in a race around the Isle of Wight. The [...]

Ogden Nash: To My Valentine

Posted by Anne on February 14th, 2010

To My Valentine
by Ogden Nash
More than a catbird hates a cat,
Or a criminal hates a clue,
Or the Axis hates the United States,
That’s how much I love you.
I love you more than a duck can swim,
And more than a grapefruit squirts,
I love you more than gin rummy is a bore,
And more than a toothache hurts.
As a [...]

Question: When does remixing become second-hand living?

Posted by Anne on February 13th, 2010

Germany has been rocked by scandal this past week, as Helene Hegemann, the 17-year old writer of an astonishing novel called Axolotl Roadkill, has been shown up by Munich blogger Deef Pirmasens (Gefühlskonserve) to have lifted whole passages of her book from the writings of one Airen, a blogger in Berlin. Her publisher had asked [...]

Fly tricks: Early science films

Posted by Anne on February 13th, 2010

Source: New Scientist
science-films
“(Percy Smith) made a gimcrack device made up of a see-saw and two old tin cans. The tin cans slowly filled up with water, and when it would reach the bottom, clunk! it fired the shutter of the camera. And using this extraordinary home-made piece of aparatus, Percy Smith made the very beautiful [...]

The Google “search stories”

Posted by Anne on February 9th, 2010

Google has a series of charming ads on YouTube called “Search stories” that are just perfect for English lessons. This one was broadcast on Sunday during the Superbowl. I’m going to play a few of the series in my classes tomorrow and have groups develop the profiles and tell the stories of the people doing [...]

Animal Collective: What would I want? sky!

Posted by Anne on February 9th, 2010

The sky’s the limit.
Red (sky) at night, sailor’s delight. Red (sky) in the morning, sailor take warning.
If the sky falls we shall catch larks. (1670 English Proverb)
The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in one dewdrop on the grass.

Knock on the sky and listen to the sound. (Two Zen proverbs)

On their [...]