The house where William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was born and brought up is in Stratford-Upon-Avon. It is now a memorial to the poet and attracts visitors from all over the world.
I visited it in 1981, after graduating in English Language and Literature in Lisbon, and kept the admission ticket as a souvenir.
The old house belonged to his father and the ownership of the property passed to William Shakespeare and then successively to his elder daughter Susanna and to his only granddaughter, Lady Barnard. On her death in 1670 she bequeathed it to her cousin, Thomas Hart, whose descendants continued to own the property until 1806, when it was sold to Thomas Court.
Following the death of Court´s widow the interest in the site increased when an American entrepreneur, P. T. Barnum proposed to buy the home in 1846 and send it to the USA, where it would be kept over wheels to be in perpetual digression.
The idea was so frightening that a Commitee was formed and raised the necessary money to buy it one year later.
The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust also owns Anne Hathaway´s Cottage, where Shakespeare´s wife lived; Mary Arden´s House, where Shakespeare´s mother lived, New Place and Hall´s Croft, Shakespeare´s daughter´s home.
References:
Bryson, Bill. Shakespeare. Bertrand Editora, 2008
Fox, Levi. Pocket Guide to the Shakespearian Properties
"Looking back, we were really very privileged to live in that thin slice of history where we changed how man looks at himself and what he might become and where he might go,"
Neil Armstrong.
Neil Armstrong, was born in Ohio, on August 5, 1930. He was interested in flying even as a young boy, earning his pilot's license at age 16. Armstrong studied aeronautical engineering and earned degrees from Purdue University and University of Southern California. He served in the Navy, and flew 78 combat missions during the Korean War.
Armstrong took two trips into space. He made his first journey in 1966 as commander of the Gemini 8 mission, which nearly ended in disaster after a thruster rocket malfunctioned and caused it to spin wildly out of control.
During his next space trip in July 1969, Armstrong and fellow astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins made a 250,000-mile journey to the moon, which took them four days to reach. About six and a half hours after landing, Neil Armstrong became the first person to set foot on the moon, on July 20, 1969. Then he expressed the now-famous phrase: "That's one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind."
Armstrong was on the moon's surface for two hours and 32 minutes. He and Aldrin, who followed him, planted an American flag, collected moon rocks and started scientific experiments before returning to the main spacecraft.
All three returned home to a hero's welcome, and none ever returned to space.
Afterwards, Armstrong worked for NASA, coordinating and managing the administration's research and technology work.
In 1971, he resigned from NASA and taught engineering at the University of Cincinnati for nearly a decade.
Armstrong largely avoided the public spotlight and chose to lead a quiet, private life with his wife and children.
"Neil was among the greatest of American heroes -- not just of his time, but of all time," said President Barack Obama. "When he and his fellow crew members lifted off aboard Apollo 11 in 1969, they carried with them the aspirations of an entire nation. They set out to show the world that the American spirit can see beyond what seems unimaginable -- that with enough drive and ingenuity, anything is possible."
Neil Armstrong died yesterday. He was 82. A statement from his family, announcing his death, ended with a request: “For those who may ask what they can do to honor Neil, we have a simple request. Honor his example of service, accomplishment and modesty, and the next time you walk outside on a clear night and see the moon smiling down at you, think of Neil Armstrong and give him a wink”.
The borough of Manhattan is what most people think of when they speak of New York City, one of the most fascinating cities in the world. The other boroughs are: Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx and Staten Island.
Before the arrival of Europeans, the Indian tribe Algonquian inhabited the island and named it Manhattan, which meant “island of the hills”. The Dutch, the first Europeans to settle there, founded a city for commercial purposes called New Amsterdam, but as a consequence of the English and Dutch rivalries in Europe, the English took New Amsterdam and renamed it New York, after the Duke of York, brother of the English king Charles II, in 1664 (The borough of Queens was named after the wife of Charles II, the Portuguese Princess Catherine of Braganza).
Manhattan is the centre of American art, theatre, publishing, fashion, shopping, advertising, finance, and much more. It is divided into the East Side and the West Side. Fifth Avenue is the dividing line. Both the avenues and streets have numbers: avenues with lower numbers are on the east side and they increase as you move west; streets with lower numbers are in Lower Manhattan and they increase as you move north in the direction of Central Park. Therefore, it is hard to lose oneself in Manhattan.
To enjoy
the place you must walk in the crowds but take a taxi to discover why New York is
a mosaic of cultures, starting with taxi drivers.
See the beautiful
skyscrapers, visit the museums, go to
Broadway and shop (there are real good bargains) or window-shop in Saks, Bergdorf
Goodman, Brooks Brothers... The bookshops (Barnes & Noble) are a huge temptation,
but you must realize that you can´t bring back home all that weight in gifts…
Empire State Building
Rockefeller Center
A view of Central Park from the 85th floor of One57, a tower in Midtown Manhattan under construction
Nuno Madeira created a site that makes it possible to visit New York online.
August 15 is a public holiday in Portugal. As a
catholic country we commemorate the assumption of Mary into Heaven.
This picture by the Portuguese artist Paula Rego is in
the chapel of Belem Palace, the official residence of the President of the Republic,
who shared it on facebook.
The biggest religious procession in Madeira Island takes place in Monte every year on 15 August. It is organized to honour Our Lady of Monte, the Patroness of Madeira.
The Church of Our Lady of Monte (1818) is located in the picturesque village of Monte, 6 km away from Funchal. It is in this church that the last emperor of Austria, Charles I was buried. He died in Monte, where he lived in exile, in 1922.
It is also near the Church of Monte that the famous wicker basket guides, dressed in traditional white with straw hats, wait for their customers to start the toboggan ride, which Ernest Hemingway described as “the most exhilarating experience of my life”.
Julia Child (1912-2004) was known for her culinary books and television programs.
She married Paul Child when she was 34 and they moved to France when her husband was assigned there as a Foreign Office officer. In Paris she attended the famous Cordon Bleu cooking school and began teaching French cuisine to American women living in Paris. Later, in the USA, she became an author and was a star in numerous television programs about the culinary art.
On the 100 anniversary of her birth, this is how Google presented her.
Julia Child donated the kitchen from her home, which served as the set for three of her television series, to the National Museum of American History. It included the cabinets, appliances, cookbooks, kitchen table and hundreds of utensils and gadgets. The kitchen was designed by her husband and had high counters because Julia was very tall.
Julie & Julia ( 2009) is a film about the life of Julia Child ( Meryl Streep) in the early years of her culinary career in France and the life of young Julie Powell ( Amy Adams) , a New Yorker , who intended to cook all 524 recipes in Child's cookbook in 365 days, a challenge she described on her blog that would make her a published author.
In the film Julie cooked boeuf bourguignon for an important dinner party. Not just any boeuf bourguignon - Julia Child's boeuf bourguignon
After watching the outstanding show for the Queen´s Jubilee and the spectacular opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics my expectations were high for the closing ceremony.
Unfortunately I was very disappointed. There were a few highlights, but most of it was a typical rock show.
I was delightfully surprised by the homage to Freddy Mercury and the guitar performance by his fellow band member Brian May.
However I was not rocked by Jessie J´s “I will rock you”.
Preocupo-me, LOGO EXISTO! is an adaptation of the work by Eric Bogosian Pounding Nails in the Floor with My Forehead. It´s on stage in Lisbon. It is performed by Diogo Infante as a solo artist.
Preocupo-me, LOGO EXISTO! is a monologue which carefully analyses in a critical and sarcastic manner contemporary daily life with a strong sense of self criticism. It deals with politics, race, social obligation and responsibility, all very up-to-date questions. The characters, which are very often funny, but also cynical, possess a striking level of humanity.
Diogo Infante is absolutely captivating in the 8 characters he performs: he switches between roles with ease and is very convincing whether playing the salesman, the racist taxi driver, the drug addicted superstar, the Devil, the doctor describing the side effects of the medicine he’s prescribing or the common man at the end who reflects about the play. His style is confrontational- he speaks directly to the audience.
An excellent play that is a must for anyone interested in theatre!
Eric Bogosian is an American playwright and actor known for his plays Talk Radio and Suburbia as well as numerous solos: Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll, Pounding Nails in the Floor with My Forehead and Wake Upand Smell the Coffee. He was born in Boston (MA) in 1953.
Diogo Infante is a very versatile and awarded Portuguese actor who has worked on stage, in the screen and on television. Diogo Infante was director of the Portuguese National Theatre D. Maria II. He was born in Lisbon in 1967.
Este blog iniciou-se há um ano, a 7 de agosto de 2011. Teve como
objetivo fornecer informações sobre a cultura anglo-americana aos alunos da EB
Paula Vicente, por considerar que muitos manuais não contemplam esta matéria. Os
primeiros artigos tinham sido publicados no jornal digital da escola, o qual,
no final do ano letivo 2010/11, atingiu o seu limite de capacidade. Escrevi artigos
em Inglês, destinados a alunos nos anos mais avançados e outros em Português. Todos
os assuntos foram de início abordados nas minhas aulas de Inglês.
No entanto, constatei que manter
o blog atualizado ultrapassava o objetivo inicial e escrever passou a ser um
passatempo que me dá um gozo especial, fundamentalmente, porque descobri ser
uma forma de partilhar ideias e curiosidades. Obviamente, não conheço nem 1/1000
das pessoas que visitaram o THIS and THAT,
porém tive muito gosto em saber que talvez tenha suscitado aos meus alunos e a
muita gente dos quatro cantos do globo um renovado interesse de saber mais
acerca de variados temas. Depois, este meu blog,
numa época onde o futuro já não parece possível sem o recurso à internet deu-me a plena consciência que
o mundo é, finalmente, como diz o velho adágio, uma “aldeia”. E a partilha de leituras
e o aprofundamento de velhos conhecimentos, resultantes desse avanço espantoso
da tecnologia, revela-se útil e uma forma de me sentir cidadã dessa cidade universal.
Assim, a vastidão dos mares, a altura das montanhas e as fronteiras nacionais
deixam de ser intransponíveis - por momentos, todos nos aproximamos uns dos
outros graças à “blogoesfera”.
The Mars Curiosity rover landed safely on the surface of Mars on August 6, 2012.
It is part of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL). Curiosity is a nuclear-powered Mars rover, which carries the most advanced scientific equipment ever used on the surface of the red planet. This extraordinary accomplishment represents a step forward for Martian exploration.
The MSL spacecraft that carried Curiosity was launched on November 26, 2011.
On 5 August, the world´s fastest man, the Jamaican sprinter, Usain Bolt, won the men´s 100m gold medal in 9.63 seconds- a new Olympic record, justifying his nickname, Lighting Bolt.
Calm, focus, natural talent, hard work and amazing physical fitness will all make Usain Bolt a legend! On 9 August the untouchable Jamaican won the 200m and became the first sprinter to win the 100 and 200 metres in consecutive Olympics. He finished in 19.32 seconds. On 11 August Bolt won his third gold medal in the London 2012 Olympics by leading the Jamaican men´s 400m relay team in a new world record time of 36.84sec.
“Hollywood
is a place where they'll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss and fifty cents
for your soul.” Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn
Monroe was born as Norma Jean Mortenson in Los Angeles, California in 1926 and
died on August 5, 1962, precisely 50 years ago.
She came
from a broken home. She never knew her father and her mother, Gladys, was
mentally and financially unable to take care of her, so she spent her childhood
in different foster homes.
In 1942 she
married Jim Dougherty in an attempt to get rid of foster care. During the war
she started working in a factory and was encouraged to apply to a modeling
agency. As they were looking for light hair models she coloured her brunette
hair blond. She appeared in many magazine covers and became very successful.
She divorced Jim Dougherty in 1946.
In the same year Norma Jean caught the
attention of film executives and after changing her name to Marilyn Monroe made
her debut in some films in non-speaking roles. After several movie flops and in
desperate need of money, she agreed to pose nude.When a calendar of her nude colour photos was discovered the studio went
out of control. Marilyn calmly confirmed that she had needed the money and the problems
quickly receded.
In 1953,
during the wedding of Eunice Kennedy (one of the Kennedy sisters), someone
decided that in honour of the bride´s family everyone should sing “Maryland, my
Maryland”. That was fine until the Kennedys started singing “Marilyn, my
Marilyn” in honour of Marilyn Monroe. (Leamer 426)
In January 1954 she married Joe DiMaggio, a
baseball player. In response to a question about married life, she said: “Ballplayers
make good husbands. Joe and I want a lot of little DiMaggios.” (Cramer362)
Gentlemen
Prefer Blondes
and Diamonds
Are a Girl´s Best Friendscontributed
to her popularity.
She won one
of her most notable film roles in The Seven
Year Itch. In September 1954, she appeared in a white summer
dress standing on a subway grate with her skirt blowing up, as if cooling
herself with the wind from the train below (this scene was on Lexington Avenue at 52nd Street
in New York City, but was never seen in the film-it
was only for publicity).
Publicists knew that wherever she went, the town
stopped around her. One of them even said: “The Russians could have invaded
Manhattan, and nobody would have taken any notice”. In the crowd was her
husband who didn´t like what he saw. That night, there was a fight in their
suite on the 11th floor of the St Regis and that fight would stay
famous as the end of their marriage. (Cramer 366)
In 1956 she
married Arthur Miller, an American playwright who wrote in his memoirs: “This
golden girl was like champagne on the screen…with all her radiance she was
surrounded by a darkness that perplexed me” He once told her: “You´re the
saddest girl I´ve ever known”.
InSome
like it hot,shewon the
Golden Globe award for best comedy actress (1960) and started filming The
Misfits, (her last completed film) a short story by Arthur Miller
adapted to screenplay. Before the film's premiere in 1961, they divorced.
Monroe started filming another film, Something’s Gotta Give, in
1962. However, her deteriorating physical condition, her mood swings and
her emotional instability (she forgot her lines and missed numerous shoots)
reached a point that she was eventually dropped from the film. She saw
her psychiatrist almost daily and her doctor several times a week.
“She seemed
to have a mind of immense capacity that had been assaulted by life, bludgeoned
by a culture that asked only enticement of her. She had acted that role, and
now she was petitioning to display another dimension, but in some difficult-
to- grasp way she could not get a hearing, and this was hurtful when like any
actor she was almost totally defined by what was said and written about her” (Miller
425)
On May 19,
1962, she made her last public appearance, singing “Happy Birthday, Mr
President” to President John F. Kennedy at Madison
Square Garden.
Monroe died of a possible drug overdose. Her
ex-husband, Joe DiMaggio, came forward to manage her funeral. This happened50 years ago but
her myth continues…
Andy Warhol´s paintings that feature Monroe`s likeness are based on 1953 publicity for the
film Niagara.
Elton
John’s tribute to Princess Diana, “Candle in the Wind,” was originally written
to commemorate Monroe’s life: (Goodbye Norma Jean…)
References:
Cramer,
Richard Ben. Joe DiMaggio. Simon
& Schuster. New York, 2000
Laurence
Leamer. The Kennedy Women. Fawcett
Columbine, New York, 1994
Miller,
Arthur. Timebends. A Life. Grove
Press. New York, 1987
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