Sua Incelença – Richard III

If you happen to be in São Paulo and likes Shakespeare, you can’t miss ‘The Clowns of Shakespeare performing Sua Incelença (Your Majesty) – Ricardo III. See how I and my students enjoyed them and visit the group’s site on http://www.clowns.com.br/site2011/index.php, the soundtrack brings Luiz  Gonzaga, surely one of the greatest Brazilian musicians of all time, together with Queen and Supertramp. I wish you could check it out.

You can also visit my school page http://joaopinheironarede.blogspot.com.br/ .

Let the Great World Spin

This photo came to me through Facebook. It impressed me so much how these men could feel perfectly at ease in such space. I had the immediate thought that perhaps they wouldn’t feel so comfortable at their own homes, so at peace. Sharing with each other what they have to share, only their friendship and fellowship, with some beer and cigarettes and laughter. While they are there upon the city,  city life goes on and nobody pays attention to them apart from the photographer. Then, the moment is registered forever. Their harmony, the feeling of belonging of these men to the city that hosts them, protects them and at the same time explores their workforce as it happens in every place. However, similarly to the movie ‘Dead Poets Society’ these men seem to whisper ‘carpe diem’. A whisper that creeps inside my ears directly to my soul.

By one of these fortunate coincidences of life, when the top picture found me at Facebook  I was reading the fantastic book ‘Let the Great World Spin’, by Column MacCann, which brings  exactly this sensation of life going on in its infinite ways without our noticing, passing by our distracted, indifferent eyes. The book starts in 1974 when the tightrope man defied human laws and the laws of physics and dared the first step. Philippe Petit walked a tightrope wire between the Twin Towers on August 7, 1974. From this point on the story unfolds itself bringing numerous characters of the city with their anonymous dramas that compose the immense mosaic of a world that won’t stop spinning. The sight of Petit’s face in this pic produces the same effect of a piercing question: ‘Can’t you see me? What are you gonna do of your day?

Well, I’ll put one foot in front of the another and keep going.

The first chapter of this book is available on http://www.oprah.com/omagazine/Free-Book-Download-Let-the-Great-World-Spin-by-Colum-McCann

You can also find additional information about the documentary Man on Wire on http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1155592/ and finally, you can join a very interesting discussion about this book on http://www.litlovers.com/reading-guides/13-fiction/546-let-the-great-world-spin-mccann?start=3

The Chicken, by Clarice Lispector

The Chicken (watch the video)

It was only a chicken, with no hopes or dreams, unaware of it’s imminent destiny: Sunday’s lunch main dish. In a rare instinctive spasm, it decides to escape flying over the fence. The now lunch-less family start to chase the direction-less bird. An adaptation of the hilarious homonym short story by Clarice Lispector.
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Animated by: Rafael Aflalo
Original soundtrack and sound design: Rogério Rochlitz

Clarice Lispector is one of the most important Brazilian writers, her short story is beautifully  represented by Rafael Aflalo and Rogério Rochlitz’s production. You can find much more about them on Vimeo.

Clarice Lispector (December 10, 1920 – December 9, 1977) was a Brazilian writer. Acclaimed internationally for her innovative novels and short stories, she was also a journalist. Born to a Jewish family in Podolia in Western Ukraine, she was brought to Brazil as an infant, amidst the disasters engulfing her native land following the First World War.

Learn more about her http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarice_Lispector

By Cora Coralina, Brazilian Writer

‘We Cannot add days to our life,

but we can add life to our days.’

See also her biography http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cora_Coralina

 

Learning How to Learn

Delicate, impressive, very touching. Which inspiring lessons we could teach from this story? Congratulations to Josh Burton and the great team who produced this beautiful work.

I know an old lady who swallowed a fly

I would like to share this amazing story with you all and also invite you to take a look at my students photo album of this story on http://brazilianfriends.multiply.com/photos/album/58/I-Know-an-old-lady-who-swallowed-a-fly and see how they enjoyed it, perhaps even more than I did. Maybe you want to take a step further and get some wiki information http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_Was_an_Old_Lady_Who_Swallowed_a_Fly.

Andrew Articles and Stories

Fantastic material for storytelling in ELT. According to the author:

‘This site is mainly intended to act as a library of stories and articles which I would like people to use if they find them of interest.

By offering what I have made I hope to put a grain of sand in the balance set against all the selfishness and greed, violence and prejudice in this world of ours.’

‘Modern technology is bringing down dictatorships…lets use it to build up companionship as well!’

Andrew Wright

The How to be British Collection

by  Martyn Alexander Ford, Peter Christopher Legon

Very funny way to describe British life.Drawing on their many years’ experience of teaching English as a Foreign Language the authors also offer the wider world a tongue-in-cheek guide on how to get around in English and at the same time make sense of our ‘funny ways’.  It’s a gentle brand of satire, and although there’s the occasional barbed arrow for bland food, fashion disasters or dubious standards of hygiene, the tone of The “How To Be British Collection” is more nostalgic than scornful, and the pet-loving, royal-watching, tea drinking characters that populate its pages are viewed with wry affection.

Learn more http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/products/martyn+alexander+ford/peter+christopher+legon/the+how+to+be+british+collection/3466442/

Shakespeare Death Scenes

A comedic compilation of a number of Shakespeare’s death scenes featured in Take Note Troupe’s Shakespeare 101: Passing The Bard. That would be a good idea visiting their site http://takenotetroupe.org/

Next by Barry Purves

William Shakespeare, without saying a word, gives a quick run through of all his plays in a very special audition. Fantastic.