Test your English, The Great Man, oh and President Sarkozy...

Mon dieu! President Sarkozy is being sarky again....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7484564.stm

I couldn't get the video to work, but you can find the complete video here.... to be honest, it's very long and, in total, not very interesting... now, if he had been hit by a piano or something - that would have been interesting. ...like on the roadrunner cartoons, a grand piano falls from the sky and lands on him:

http://www.dailymotion.com/fr/cluster/news/featured/video/x5yyb9_sarkozy-en-off-sur-france-3_news


Test your English:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4246472.stm

I got 16 / 20... but two of them were careless mistakes.... and then I'm kind of tired this morning - plus they're building a house opposite my flat - it's distracting. And then there's music the workers are listening to.... so much Phil Collins! ....so really, it's like 22 / 20, when you think about it. ;)


Finally, and none of you will be interested in this, but.... the great man himself. 'Le Shate', as he is known in France. 'Lo Shatto', as the Italians refer to him. 'Il Shatto magnifico', his Mexian name. 'Um Shat Doh (the man of a thousand pauses)' as the Thai people call him. ...William Shatner:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7482823.stm


Why is Willian Shatner great? ...because he keeps trying. He's a performer who has been under-estimated and under-valued his whole career. From his time on Star Trek as Captain Kirk, through TJ Hooker to the present day. He has been the subject of ridicule, even abuse. But at the end of the day, all he has ever tried to do is entertain.

There's telling line in that interview. When asked if there were any roles he regretted not taking, he replies, 'I can't think of any that I did not accept. There are a few that I accepted that I wish I hadn't.' Shatner took the chances that came his way. He didn't sit back, safe from the possibility of looking stupid or failing. He tried. And, on occasion, he failed. And, on occasion, he looked stupid. But he kept trying. A lesson in there for all of us, no?

Of course... we probably shouldn't take singing lessons from him ;)

Some poetic ramblings of mine, from many a month back, on the subject of Mr Shatner....


‘Shatner’


Poetic commotion, misplaced devotion

Syntax? Epileptic, drunken through the eyes of William!

Structure swallowed, emotions borrowed
And
Backwards followed, the insignificant emphasised, the important passed-by

Lucy is in the sky

I!
Hit her, with my, rocket
Man!

Monumentally average
Spoken cheese jazz sandwich
Spells

Self delusional to the point of clarity
Hilarity by pathos
Aimless and, thus, always on
Target
Never meant to be forever
Egotistical in his self-deprecation
Resplendent


Miscarried pause

Shatner.

Clint Eastwood, Culture and Sleep

Culture Culture Culture....

For those of you who like to read, and like to listen, the BBC world book club....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/programmes/world_book_club.shtml


For those of you who work in Marketing, a piece about TV advertising....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/7453357.stm


For those of you who enjoy cinema, an interview with Clint Eastwood, a filmmaker who has quietly gone about building a body of work that would rival most of the, far more acclaimed, cinema masters...

http://film.guardian.co.uk/interview/interviewpages/0,,2283921,00.html

TobytheTeacher's entirely unscientific list of five Clint Eastwood movies you should all sell your last Tic Tac to see:

The Outlaw Josey Wales

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/outlaw_josey_wales/

Unforgiven

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1041911-unforgiven/

Million Dollar Baby

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/million_dollar_baby/

Letters from Iwo Jima*

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/letters_from_iwo_jima/

*though I would watch 'Flags of our Fathers' first. The contrast between the two is interesting.

Heartbreak Ridge

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/heartbreak_ridge/

Always bold, always telling it straight, and more often than not, funny, Clint Eastwood movies rank amoung some of the most important and entertaining American movies ever made.


And finally, a poem that I wrote back in April. It's written in a form I came up with and was playing around with. The form is called 'name form', details are as follows....

The form describes a concept or object. The first letter of each line spells the concept / object in question. The last word of each line rhymes with the concept / object in question. Each line has the same number of syllables as the concept / object in question has letters.

Each line is a description / metaphor of the concept / object in question.

The final line of the poem is a stand alone line that consists of only one word, the word in question (this is the only time in the poem the word in question can be used).

The word in question also forms the title of the poem. Thus,

‘Sleep’

Sunday morning streets
Leaves that bed down deep
Elephants heaped
Effortless moon-leaps
Pressure off my feet

Sleep


TobytheTeacher