A few weeks ago we were discussing parenthood issues in class, remember? We actually watched one episode of Modern Family, in which we saw three intertwined families dealing with their garden-variety family life, from the most stereotypical one to the gay couple and their adopted Vietnamese girl. Well, after watching it we had a class-discussion on the different issues depicted, and one of your fellow students wrote up a review which brings up one issue we didn't comment on but it's certainly important. Please, click on the link below to find out more about this. Thanks, Garasi, for your work and for sharing your opinion with us.
Now that we're done with the mid-year exams, we might as well just stop for a while, have some time off to think and reflect on what we have achieved this year, which is quite a lot! (more than we would think, for sure), and shake off the stress we carry around as we are in motion, fast motion, from work to school, from school to our daily chores, etc... People from the Slow Movement know about this feeling, and some years ago started sending out this message for us to regain a more humanlike pace, and stop living like powered up robots.
What follows is a description of this movement posted in wikipedia, and a really nice talk by worldwide-known advocates of Slowness.
The Slow Movement promotes a cultural shift toward slowing down life's pace. It began with Carlo Petrini's protest against the opening of a McDonald's restaurant in Piazza di Spagna, Rome, in 1986 that sparked the creation of the Slow Food organization. Over time, this developed into a subculture in other areas, such as Cittaslow (Slow Cities), Slow Living, Slow Travel, and Slow Design.
And now watch the video. I suggest that you sit back on your chair, breathe, make yourself comfortable, and, importantly, leave the cell aside, no whatsapps to be checked and that kind of stuff... just relax and listen to these people talking about how to start shifting our minds.
Human Planet is a British television documentary series produced by the BBC with co-production from Discovery and BBC Worldwide. It describes the human species and its relationship with the natural world by showing the remarkable ways human have adapted to life in every environment on Earth.
After watching the episode Arctic: Life in the Deep Freeze, now it's time to check your answers to the questions discussed in class, so click on the link below to find out!
Banksy is a pseudonymus England-based graffiti artist, political activist, film director, and painter. His satirical street art and subversive epigrams combine dark humor with graffiti done in a distinctive stencilling technique. Such artistic works of political and social commentary have been featured on streets, walls, and bridges of cities throughout the world. To see a slideshow of his best creations, click on the link below, and then watch the video to hear more about his last exhibit in the Bristol City Museum, and complete the quiz questions to test your understanding.
After watching the episode of Modern Family which deals with parenting issues, now it's time to review the words and expressions we worked on together in class. Below you can find the vocabulary sheet and the video, in case you wanna watch it again: A second viewing is surely gonna be of great help to understand all the things that are going on during this episode, and to catch all the jokes!
Wintertime is really at its peak right now! Just the perfect time for some cozy reading on the couch, huh? I suggest expanding our English vocabulary and our understanding of the human soul as we read a short story from one of the greatest contemporary Canadian writers: Alice Munro. The story "Chance" was published in 2004, in her book New Selected Stories. The idea is to have a brief literary workshop in class in a couple of weeks, when all of you have read the story and reflected on the discussion questions below. Also, and for your convenience, check out the glossary I made for you, before and while reading, as you like.
In case you feel like listening to more stories by Munro, here's a couple of audio files containing two stories from Munro's last collection, Too Much Happiness, really recommendable too!
The triptych of The Garden of Earthly Delights (1503-1504)
Hieronymus Bosch, born Jeroen Anthonissen van Aken (c. 1450 - August 9, 1516) was an Early Netherlandish painter of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Many of his works depicts sin and human moral failings. Bosch used images of demons, half-human animals and machines to evoke fear and confusion to portray the evil of man. His works contain complex, highly original, imaginative, and dense use of symbolic figures and iconography, some of which was obscure even in his own time.
The video that follows is a short extract from a full documentary film produced by BBC FOUR, called Hieronymus Bosch and the Delights of Hell. While concentrating on the artist's central themes and imagery, the film also examines the medieval culture in which he worked. The extract below corresponds to part 1 (out of 5), and lasts 10 minutes. It has no English subtitles, except for the part they speak in French, but the narrator speaks fairly clearly and slowly. Now that we have analysed The Conjurer in class, maybe you feel like exploring more of his groundbreaking paintings. If so, the BBC FOUR documentary can be a good start!
.jpg)
