Michael Wesch on…

I keep going back to Michael Wesch when I want to understand media, and have posted his work of 2009/10 here before. Here the first part of a very short talk from the same period is very engaging (especially min. 3:45-7:15). He summarizes here how in the pre-media (no-books) Papua New Guinea culture he had […]

Interview with an old potato

A few years ago when I was teaching English students at the LMU Munich, my students told me how in a creative writing class, Gill Woodman, head of Sprachpraxis there, had given them a bag of potatoes and told them to select one and imagine its personality, and then write its biography. Such a great […]

Little Big Berlin

What is it about this film that is so enchanting? Big, bad, smelly Berlin. Charming, diverse, unmistakable Berlin. All in matchbox format.

Teaching the present perfect

A longstanding client of mine recently wanted to pick up lessons again with the aim of refreshing his grammar skills, to increase his confidence in using the language which he is already quite proficient in and uses on a daily basis. While I generally am more of a business and communication skills trainer, teaching the […]

Goodbye, Facebook

I don’t like friending. I don’t like following. I don’t like liking. I don’t like the faceless, fake culture of having loads and loads of super duper friends, patting each other on the back and saying how fantastic everyone is. I was on Facebook for a few years and today left. The reason was that […]

Space Oddity/ Chris Hadfield

Commander Chris Hadfield, the Canadian astronaut, returned home on 14 May. He rerecorded David Bowie’s Space Oddity in flight… and describes the landing. David Bowie (and Chris Hadfield’s changes) Ground control to Major Tom Ground control to Major Tom Take your protein pills (lock your Soyuz hatch) and put your helmet on Ground control to […]

Herbie Hancock: Watermellon Man

I love, love, love how Herbie Hancock tells the story of how he composed Watermellon Man. Link to Woodie Herman’s hard bop version of 1962 Link to Mongo Santamaria’s hit of the same year Link to Herbie Hancock and the Headhunters’ funky version from the 70s The intro to that version played on a bottle, […]