Mes: noviembre 2010

To Have and Have Not, by Howard Hawks (1944)

Directed by Howard Hawks, To Have and Have Not (1944) is a romance-war-adventure film. It starred Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, in her first film. Although it is nominally based on the novel of the same name by Ernest Hemingway, the story was extensively altered for the film. Howard Hughes sold the book rights to independent director Howard Hawks, who sold them to Warner Bros. William Faulkner, “out of print and broke”, was on the payroll, helping with the script.

This was Lauren Bacall’s first film, at the age of 19. Hawks’ wife «Slim» noticed Bacall on the cover of Harper’s Bazaar and showed the photo to her husband, who soon sought out Bacall and signed her for the role. After filming began, a romance developed between Bacall and Humphrey Bogart, despite the disapproval of Hawks. This romance eventually led to the end of Bogart’s marriage to Mayo Methot, his third wife, and to Bacall and Bogart getting married. The memorable onscreen chemistry between Bogart and Bacall, would continue in The Big Sleep, Dark Passage, and Key Largo.

The film is set in the Caribbean city of Fort de France, Martinique, under the Vichy regime in the summer of 1940, shortly after the fall of France to the Germans. In this exotic location, the world-weary fishing-boat captain Harry ‘Steve’ Morgan (Humphrey Bogart) is urged to help the French Resistance smuggle some people onto the island. He refuses, until the client, Johnson (Walter Sande), who has been hiring out his fishing boat (and owes him $825) is accidentally shot before paying him.

Watch the famous «whistle» scene with Spanish subtitles.

Did you know? (I)

Fantastic video on the progression of information technology, researched by Karl Fisch, Scott McLeod, and Jeff Brenman. It explains with a very visual approach how technology influences and is influenced by human capital, globalization and our changing planet.

3º CAL 1st Term Test

Hi, folks. This is a quick exam reminder for you. Remember that the Listening, Reading and Writing exams will be held on Thursday, 9th December, starting at 18:00 with the Listening part (one listening, twenty minutes), then the Reading part (one reading, sixty minutes). We will have a fifteen-minute break, to end with the Writing part (one writing and grammar and vocabulary exercises, seventy-five minutes approx.).

Please, be punctual for the exam, especially for the Listening part, as I can’t repeat it as many times as we have done in practice. If you’re late, it’ll be a problem for both of us: you and me (but particularly you, I’m afraid…).

During the exam, we’ll assign the two turns for the Speaking exams which will take place on the 16th December, just in case you still haven’t chosen yours. I also remind you there will be three parts in the Speaking exam. The test will be done in pairs.
– 1st part: an oral interaction between student A and student B
– 2nd part: a picture description (individual)
– 3rd part: a brief topic discussion (individual)

We will discuss the rest of the details in class.

The annoying orange

The Annoying Orange is a comedy web series whose first episode was uploaded on October 9, 2009. By June 2010, the Annoying Orange videos had amassed more than 200 million views on YouTube. When the first Annoying Orange episode reached 11 million views from its channel, the author was inspired to make an Annoying Orange YouTube Channel. As of October 10, 2010, the channel is ranked as the 10th most subscribed channel of all, and 61st most viewed of all time. In total there are over one million subscribers to the YouTube channel, «realannoyingorange».

The show features a talking orange called Orange. Orange heckles other fruits, vegetables, or nearby animated objects, with puns and laughter. Orange lives on a kitchen counter, which he shares with his best friend Pear. To animate the characters the author will superimpose their voice-actor’s eyes (or more accurately, one of their eyes duplicated) and mouth on the object they are playing. You can see here the first three videos from the series with Spanish subtitles.

In the second episode, Orange meets Pumpkin (or Plumpkin, as Orange annoyingly remarks; plump stands for overweight).

And in the next one, Orange confuses Tomato with his old friend Apple.

Keane: This is the last time

«This Is the Last Time» is a song performed and composed by the English rock band Keane, released in 13 October 2003 as their second commercial single. Although this song was one of the biggest hits in music in 2004, the single reached only 18, considerably less than other earlier singles by the band. The song is about regret, confusion and the difficult times two people undergo when separating.

You can have the lyrics for the song if you click on this link: Keane This Is The Last Time lyrics

Lloyd Price: Personality

Lloyd Price (born March 9, 1933) is an American R&B [Rhythm and Blues] vocalist. He is known as «Mr. Personality», after the name of one of his biggest million-selling hits. His first recording, «Lawdy Miss Clawdy» was a huge hit on Specialty Records in 1952, and although he continued to turn out records, none were as popular until several years later, when he refined the New Orleans beat and achieved a series of national hits, among which we can find this song, «Personality«. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998.

Click next to read the lyrics: Lloyd Price Personality Lyrics