THE BEST MOVIE QUOTES II

                                                                     
Here we are again with some of the best quotes from movies ever. As we said some months ago, when we published our first instalment, we are sure that you will think about lots of good movie quotes that you think we should have never forgotten. That´s what we want to propose you: Tell us which is your favourite one and which one(s) you think nobody can miss.

We hope you like them!!!


-"As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again!" Scarlett O´Hara (Vivien Leigh) is determined to survive and endure at any cost in Gone With The Wind.

                                                           



-"I love the smell of napalm in the morning". Lieutenant Colonel William "Bill" Kilgore (Robert Duvall) expresses his love for the smell of napalm as he watches the devastatinng effects of this poisonous gas over Vietnam local population. After all, "it smells like victory".

                                                         



-"A martini. Shaken, not stirred". First used by Sean Connery in Goldfinger , this catchphrase of British Secret Service agent James Bond is used in numerous films of the Bond saga.

                                                                   

-"Mama always said life was like a box of chocolates.    You never know what you´re gonna get". Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks) tries to convince the woman in the bench that life is full of surprises and that you can never be sure what will happen next. Unfortunately, the woman does not seem to be too interested.

                                                                       



-"I see dead people".  Cole Sear ( Haley Joel Osment) tells Malcolm (Bruce willis) his secret in The Sixth Sense: he sees dead people, walking around like ordinary people, not knowing that they are dead.

                                                                



-Houston, we have a problem.   Apollo 13 astronaut Jack Swiggert (Tom Hanks) communicates that something is going dangerously wrong (an explosion in an oxygen tank) in their spaceship as they are aproaching the moon. The phrase has been used since then humorously to report any kind of problem.

                                                                      



-"You talking to me?" Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) says these popular words as he stares at the mirror. This sequence of Taxi Driver has become iconicand according to De Niro himself, he took it from Bruce Springsteen after listening to him  at a concert.

                                                                          



-"E.T. phone home".  The most famous of friendly aliens come to Earth was excited because he was able to communicate Elliott that he needed to build a device to "phone home" and let them know where he was.

                                                                      



-"I'm flying".  Rose (Kate Winslett) says these words in perhaps the most famous scene in Titanic. In the beginning of the last day in the Titanic, Jack (L. DiCaprio) makes her stand on the railing of the ship, grabbing her arms and extending them out.

                                                                



-"Hasta la vista, Baby!"  This catchphrase was uttered by Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator 2: Judgement Day just before breaking into pieces the frozen T-1000 with a gunshot. The phrase is in Spanish in the original film, what created a problem for Spanish translators. They decided to solve it by using the equivalent farewell words in Japanese: "Sayonara, Baby".

                                                                                

That´s all for now! Hasta la vista, Babies!

                                                             

SOME OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL BRIDGES IN THE WORLD.

The Oxford Dictionary gives this definition for the word "bridge": A structure carrying a road, path, railway, etc. across a river, a road, or other obstacle.

But a bridge is much more than that. It is the structure that enables people from two shores to communicate with each other. On many occasions, these bridges offer startling views or seem to stretch in some impossible way.

There are many examples of bridges like these in English-speaking countries. We want to show you some of the most famous and spectacular ones. Come across them with us!


BROOKLYN BRIDGE (New York, US)

Completed in 1883, it is one of the oldest suspension bridges in the United States. A National Historic Landmark, the Brooklyn Bridge is an iconic feature of New York.

GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE (San Francisco, US)

More than 75 years old now, San Francisco Bay would not be the same without the beauty of this industrial age suspension bridge. It is one of the most recognizable bridges in the world.

ROYAL GORGE BRIDGE (Colorado, US)

This is the world´s highest suspension bridge at 359 metres above Arkansas River. Not surprisingly, it attracts lots of people who jump on parachute from it.

SUNSHINE SKYWAY (Florida, US)

This bridge of 6.67 kms. long connects St. Petersburg and Torre Ceia in Florida. The present bridge was completed in 1987, replacing an older bridge built in 1954 and partly destroyed in a collision in 1980.

THE BRIDGES OF MADISON (Iowa, US)

Although they are not the most beautiful bridges in the world, they became worldwide popular because of their important role in the Hollywood romantic drama movie The Bridges of Madison County (1995), starring Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep.

There are only six of these bridges nowadays. If you have seen the film, they will be quite familiar for you. Here you have pictures of two of them: Roseman Covered Bridge and Cedar Covered Bridge.

MACKINAC BRIDGE ( Michigan, US)

This 2,626 metres long suspension bridge connects the Upper and Lower peninsulas of the U.S. state of Michigan. It was completed in 1957 after many decades of struggles to begin construction.

TOWER BRIDGE (London, England)

A combined bascule and suspension bridge spanning the River Thames in London, it was opened in 1894. Undoubtedly, it is among the most iconic landmarks in a city filled with with iconic landmarks.

CLIFTON SUSPENSION BRIDGE (Bristol, England)

This suspension bridge spanning the River Avon Gorge was opened in 1864. It is used as a symbol of Bristol on postcards or informational websites and it is one of the most distinctive landmarks all over Britain.

SYDNEY HARBOUR BRIDGE (Sydney, Australia)

Nicknamed "The Coat Hanger" by Sydney locals because of its arch-based design, the Sydney Harbour Bridge opened in 1932 and is a focal point of Aussie (Australian) pride and celebrations (like New Year´s Eve).

HA´PENNY BRIDGE (Dublin, Ireland)

Not the most spectacular or the highest or the longest of bridges, however it is a very famous one. Officially known as the Liffey Bridge, it is a pedestrian bridge built of cast iron in 1816 on the River Liffey in Dublin.

It owes its nickname to the half penny toll that everyone crossing it had to pay for more than a century.

EDGAR ALLAN POE. THE MACABRE AND THE HORROR.

Edgar Allan Poe is one of the greatest American writers ever

You have probably heard before about Edgar Allan Poe. His name brings to mind images of murderers and madmen, premature burials and mysterious women who return from the dead. Moreover, he is considered to be the father of the modern detective story and also to have contributed to the emerging genre of science-fiction in the middle decades of the 19th century.

His life and even his death were quite mysterious too. He had to face poverty and loneliness more usually than he would have wanted. As a result, he fell into drunkenness. On October, 7, 1849, he died in Baltimore in very mysteryous conditions. He had disappeared for some days and when he finally appeared, he was delirious and in great distress, dying  a few days later.

The actual case of the death remains a mystery. Speculation has included delirium tremens, heart disease, epilepsy, syphilis, rabies, cholera or meningeal inflammation. Therefore, his death was as mysterious as many of his works, contributing to create for him the image of "mad genius" or "tormented artist" that he still has nowadays.

A mysterious man was leaving cognac and three roses
on Poe´s grave for more than seventy years

A curious fact that happened many years after his death was the appearance of the Poe Toaster. This is the nickname of a mysterious person who, for over seventy years, visited the original Poe´s grave, poured himself a glass of cognac and raised a toast to Poe´s memory. Then, he would vanish into the night leaving three roses and the unfinished bottle of cognac. It happened in the early hours of every January 19, Poe´s birthday since the 1930s to 2009. He hasn´t appeared in the last three years, adding to the mystery which surrounds the writer´s figure.



POE´S WORKS


The Raven

The Raven is one of the most popular poems of all time

This narrative poem, published in 1845, made Poe widely popular in his lifetime and remains one of the most famous poems ever written. It tells the story of a talking raven´s visit to a desperate lover, tracing the man´s slow fall into madness. It´s impossible to forget how the raven increases the lover´s distraught by constantly repeating the words "Nevermore".  Here you are the initial verse of the poem:


"Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
"Tis some visiter", I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door"-
                                                          Only this, and nothing more".



The Murders in the Rue Morgue

Recognised as the first detective story, it was published in 1841. In this short story, Poe created the character of the detective Auguste Dupin, who established a model for later fictional detectives such as Sherlock Holmes or Hercule Poirot.

This was the first detective story ever published

He created the figure of the brilliant detective, his friend who serves as narrator, and the final revelation being presented before the reasoning that leads up to it. This story has been adapted for radio, film and television many times.



The Fall of The House of Usher

This story is considered a masterpiece of American Gothic literature and Poe´s most famous prose work. The narrator travels to his old friend Roderick Usher´s house, who has asked for his help. This friend suffers from hypocondria, acute anxiety and hypersensitivity.

The macabre pervades the whole story of "The Fall of The House of Usher"

Usher´s sister dies and they both entomb her in a vault. One week later, they discover that she wasn´t really dead. She appears in front of them and hugs her brother, and both fall on the floor as corpses. The narrator runs away from the house just to see how it breaks in two .

The Tell-Tale Heart

One of the classics of the Gothic fiction and one of Poe´s most famous short stories. The narrator describes a murder he committed. He killed an old man with " a blind vulture eye" and hid his dismembered body under the floorboards.

One of the first illustrations of the story depicts the old man´s murder

 But finally the narrator breaks down and confesses his crime as he can´t stop hearing the man´s heart beating under the floorboards, reminding him of his guilt.



The Masque of The Red Death

Another example of short gothic story. The plot shows Prince Prospero trying to avoid a dangerous plague known as the Red Death by hiding in his palace. He and his nobles have a masquerade ball.

Nobody escapes the Red Death

 A mysterious figure disguised as the Red Death appears in the ball. Prospero himself dies after confronting this stranger. The rest of guests die in turns die in turn after realizing that the figure is actually the Red Death itself. It has been considered an allegory about the inevitability of death.

Finally, we are breaking our own rules puting up a song in Spanish. It´s Annabel Lee, by Radio Futura, one of the main bands of the so-called "Movida madrileña",  which is based on one of Poe´s poems. So you will be able to see the importance of Poe´s work in the history of art.





HALLOWEEN.

Trick or treat!

 We are sure you have heard these words every year when Halloween is near. It is also more than possible that you have said their Spanish equivalents ("¡Truco o Trato!" ) while going from house to house in your neighbourhood asking for candy.

This is one of the most popular traditions related to Halloween or All Hallows'Eve, a celebration that takes place in many countries every October 31, the eve of the Christian feast of All Saints (or All Hallows).

Trick or treating is not the only custom associated to this celebration. We are making a summary of the most important ones:

-Attending costume parties. People dress up in costumes modeled after supernatural figures such as ghosts, skeletons, monsters, witches and devils.

-Carving pumpkins into jack-o´-lanterns.

-Lighting bonfires.

-Visiting haunted attractions.

-Playing pranks (mischievous jokes).

-Telling scary stories.

-Watching horror movies.

Have you ever seen most of them? We think you have, since Halloween has extended to places where it had never existed, like Spain. 

We wish you have a frightening and scary Halloween. Enjoy the videos! They can help you to feel its atmosphere.

Here we show you some videos of two famous Tim Burton's movies: "Nightmare Before Christmas" and "Corpse Bride"

IDIOMS: PARTS OF THE BODY.

Do you remember the idioms we saw last year realted to animals? we give you now a new series of idioms, but in this case they make reference to parts of the body.

An idiom is a combination of words that has a meaning that is different from the meaning of the words themselves. To refresh your memory, we give you an example:

To sit on the fence can literally mean that one is sitting on a fence: "I sat on the fence and watched the game".

However, the idiomatic meaning of to sit on the fence is to not clearly choose a side regarding an issue: "The politician sat on the fence and did not clearly state his opinion about the tax issue".

Well, now that we have reminded you what an idiom is, you can look at the body idioms list below. We hope it will be some use for you.

-AS DRY AS A BONE

Very dry.

"The river bed was as dry as a bone at the end of the summer".

-BLOOD IS THICKER THAN WATER

Family members are closer to one another than to others.

"Blood is thicker than water and people usually support and help their family in times of trouble."


















-CAN´T STOMACH (SOMEONE or SOMETHING)

To dislike someone or something very much.

"I can´t stomach the new man I work with."












-EYES ARE BIGGER THAN ONE´S STOMACH

Taking more food than one can eat.

"My eyes were bigger than my stomach when I went to the buffet table and took too much food."

-GET A FROG IN ONE´S THROAT

To get soreness in your throat that prevents you from talking well.

"I got a frog in my throat just as I answered the phone to talk to my professor."

-GET BUTTERFLIES IN ONE´S STOMACH

To get a feeling of fear or anxiety in one´s stomach.

"I got butterflies in my stomach just before I took the exam."

 


-GIVE SOMEONE THE COLD SHOULDER

To ignore someone, to reject someone

"The office staff gave the man the cold shoulder when he did not go to the farewell party."

-HEAD AND SHOULDERS ABOVE (SOMEONE or SOMETHING)

To be superior to someone or something.

"Our soccer coach is head and shoulders above the other coaches in the city."

















-JOINED AT THE HIP

Two people spending all their time together.

"The two boys are joined at the hip and never spend any time apart."





















-A PAIN IN THE NECK

An annoying or bothersome person or event.

"This customer is a pain in the neck and is always complaining about something"

HYDE PARK: PETER PAN´S GARDEN IN LONDON.

Hyde Park is probably the best-known of central London parks. Well, we must start by saying that it is really two parks joined into one (Hyde Park, 142 hectares; and Kensington Gardens, 111 hectares). Its 253 hectares in total make it one of the greatest urban parks in the world and it can even make you forget that you are in the middle of one of the biggest cities all over the world.

In Hyde Park, you can do lots of different things: It offers various recreational activities including open water swimming, boating, cycling, tennis and horse riding.

Not everybody knows that the origin of Peter Pan´s story has its roots very near this park. But in fact, Peter Pan´s author, J.M. Barrie, lived close to Kensington Gardens and used the park for inspiration. He even chose the spot where the statue now stands.

Last but not least, the park has been and still is an important venue for events like concerts. Last July, the Rolling Stones played two concerts in the park to commemorate a famous one they held there in July 1969. But the park has been the venue for many other famous rock concerts: Fleetwood Mac, Pink Floyd, Queen, Elton John or Bruce Springsteen.

Hyde Park is home to a number of famous landmarks including the Serpentine Lake, Speaker´s Corner and Princess Diana´s Memorial.


THE SERPENTINE LAKE

Taking its name from its snakelike shape, this recreational lake was a venue for triathlon events in the London 2012 Olympics.

SPEAKER´S CORNER

If you want people to know your ideas about any subject or if you want to listen to the most eccentric opinions you can imagine, you must go to the north-east corner of the park. It´s a very special place.

PRINCESS DIANA´S MEMORIAL

It was opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 2004 and it´s now one of the most visited places in the park.

Here there are images of the two Rolling Stones´ concerts.

To finish with, we want you to see a video clip by Cooper, the band from León, which takes as its setting Hyde Park. It´s in Spanish but we consider that it is worthwhile.

PASSENGER: THE BEST BRITISH FOLK

You may have listened to a song called "Let Her Go" without even knowing the name of the singer. You are not to blame! He is not the most famous artist in the world, not even in Britain-at least for the moment being.

His name is Mike Rosemberg and he is called "Passenger" since he chose to keep the name of his previous folk-rock band. He was born in Brighton (England) in 1984. There he founded "Passenger" with Andrew Philips in 2003. The band only released an album, Wicked Man´s Rest, before separating.

As a solo artist, he has produced three albums: Wide Eyes Blind Love (2009), Flight of the Crow (2010) and All The Little Lights (2012).

It would be with that song from this album (Let Her Go) that he became successful, topping the charts in at least 16 countries all over the world. It´s one of those few cases when a fantastic song finds its way into the most popular musical radio programmes (nobody knows how).

Let´s hope that this unexpected success doesn´t have a counterproductive effect on his career. We want to show you that there is much more about Passenger than a song (no matter how good it can be!)

There is a curious anecdote about him and Spain: Some months ago, he started to play the guitar and sing in Preciados Street in Madrid, to many people´s amazement, when suddenly he was asked to stop singing by the police, who had no idea who that man could be. They might have listened and enjoyed his music from then on.

As we usually say, enjoy some of his best songs!

                                                               The Wrong Direction

                                                                          Holes

                                                                   I Hate

                                                                  Wide Eyes