Reggie Watts

 
Many times English sounds to me just like that. Here it is the most confusing TED talk I have ever seen. It is worthy to listen to it.

Bob Dylan

I could have choosen any song from Dylan because I like most of them, but this one has a special meaning for me. I bought this 'cassette', Desire, the first time I went to London at the age of 16, too much rain has fallen...:)

Anyway, music makes feel you young and I have found this amazing version from The White Stripes. The moment I found the former one from Bob Dylan I will post it. Enjoy.

"One More Cup Of Coffee"

Your breath is sweet
Your eyes are like two jewels in the sky
Your back is straight your hair is smooth
On the pillow where you lie
But I don't sense affection
No gratitude or love
Your loyalty is not to me
But to the stars above

One more cup of coffee for the road
One more cup of coffee 'fore I go.
To the valley below.

Your daddy he's an outlaw
And a wanderer by trade
He'll teach you how to pick and choose
And how to throw the blade
He oversees his kingdom
So no stranger does intrude
His voice it trembles as he calls out
For another plate of food.

One more cup of coffee for the road
One more cup of coffee 'fore I go.
To the valley below.

Your sister sees the future
Like your mama and yourself
You've never learned to read or write
There's no books upon your shelf
And your pleasure knows no limits
Your voice is like a meadowlark
But your heart is like an ocean
Mysterious and dark.

One more cup of coffee for the road
One more cup of coffee 'fore I go.
To the valley below.

Robert Zimmerman, probably the name doesn´t say anything to you but what if I say Bob Dylan?

Since he was a teenager, he wrote beautiful songs and performed them in local coffee houses. After his season in Greenish Village, in New York, he began to gain reputation and soon he started to create unforgettable and emblematic songs that defended civil rights and anti-war movements like Blowing in the Wind and The Times are Changing, becoming in this way the voice of a generation.

It was not until 1965 however, that he reinvented himself musically shifting from acoustic music to electric one, not being afraid of the consequences that this change could provoke on his fans; just simply he got a new audience. He had no precedent on lyric writing and in the mid 60’s the reached his creative peak.

In 1980 his popularity declined after commercial disappointments but he teamed with George Harrison, Tom Petty, Jimmy Hendrix and Roy Orbison creating the band The Traveling Wilburys.

Modern Times became  singer-songwriters' first #1 album in the USA since 1976's Desire. At age 65, Dylan became the oldest living person at the time to have an album enter the Billboard charts at number 1.

Today is Dylan's 71st birthday, let's congratulate him  for all these years of good music.

Here it is a video related to "flow". It is concise and clear and it shows perfectly well how people learn and which is our compromise as teachers. Lets try to put it into practice. Let's nurture creativity.

Do you feel like learning about English language in a funny way?

Do you know what anamorphosis is? Well, I didn´t know until Emilio showed us that painting by Hans Holbein “The ambassadors”, do you remember it?

In this picture, there is a clear example of this technic where the artist fits an anamorphic object in a scene painted with a normal perspective. This object is seen as a spot when you look at it from the front. Nevertheless, the painting was conceived to be exposed at a side of the stairs. Therefore, when the spectator went up the stairs, the picture was seen obliquely and the spot became a skull, a traditional symbol of the passing time and the ephemeral life.

As you can see this technic, it is not new since the above picture dates from 1533.

This oil painting is shown at the National Gallery in London, but if you cannot to visit London at the moment (by the way it must be really busy these days) I can offer you another alternative. This morning my nephew and me made an attempt of painting in an anamorphic way this morning, and taking into account that we had no the appropriate materials neither the right colours and also considering  that it is our first work it can be said that  it resulted in a  quite acceptable picture. It is called “The crack”. If we continue with this hobby, I will let you know.