CONNOR MACLEOD, THERE'S NO TIME & NO PLACE FOR US

Today, The Grandma and The Winsors have arrived to the Highlands in the north of Scotland where they ar visiting Connor MacLeod, the Scottish Highlander who can not die.

 

During the trip, the family has been studying some English grammar with Used to and containers. Finally, they have been talking about immortality with the figure of Henry Morgan and about sleeplessness with the story of the American troops in Vietnam war.

 

More information: Used to

 

 More information: 7ESL

 

More information: 'Forever' Dr Henry Morgan will live eternally

 

Connor MacLeod was born in 1518 in Glenfinnan, in the Scottish Highlander near the shores of Loch Shiel, a few years after King Henry VII of England gave his daughter in marriage to James IV of Scotland, leading to the Union of the Crowns in 1503.

MacLeod faced an evil Immortal referred to as The Kurgan during a battle against the Clan Fraser and was dealt what should have been a fatal blow, but he didn’t die and the townspeople (including his family) believed his recovery was the work of devil, and threatened to burn him at the stake. He escaped and tried to begin a new life but he discovered, quickly, he wasn’t a normal man: he was Immortal.

In 1541, he met another Immortal named Juan Sánchez Villa-Lobos Ramírez, who became his mentor and taught him the ways of Immortals. Connor led many different lives: Adrian Montagu, Jacques Lefebert, Alfred Nicholson and Rupert Wallingford, and he, constantly, kept his immortality a secret. During his lifetime, he fought in many wars and encountered many Immortals.

In 1985, MacLeod was living in New York in the guise of Russell Nash, when he had to fight against his ancient enemy, The Kurgan. Finally, he won the battle and confirmed the legend: There can be only one.

 

More information: UDiscoverMusic

Highlander is a 1986 British fantasy action-adventure film directed by Russell Mulcahy and based on a story by Gregory Widen. It stars Christopher Lambert, Roxanne Hart, Clancy Brown, and Sean Connery. 

The film chronicles the climax of an age-old war between immortal warriors, depicted through interwoven past and present-day storylines.

Connor MacLeod (Lambert) is born in the Scottish Highlands in the 16th century. After reviving from a fatal wound and being banished from his village, MacLeod is found by swordsman Ramírez (Connery), who explains they and others were born immortal, invincible unless beheaded.

Immortals wage a secret war, fighting each other until the last few remaining will meet at the Gathering to fight for the Prize. In 1985, the Gathering is finally happening in New York City and MacLeod must make sure the Prize is not won by his oldest enemy, the murderous Kurgan (Brown).

Highlander enjoyed little success on its initial theatrical release, grossing over $12 million worldwide against a production budget of $19 million, and received mixed reviews. Nevertheless, it became a cult film and inspired film sequels and television spin-offs. 

It is also known for songs recorded by the rock band Queen, with Princes of the Universe also used for the title sequence in the television series. The tagline, There can be only one, has carried on into pop culture.

Director Russell Mulcahy filmed Highlander using music video techniques including fast cutting and pacy music.

In preparation, actor Christopher Lambert spent months working four hours each morning with a dialect coach and four hours in the afternoons sword training with Bob Anderson, who had been a Darth Vader stunt double in the Star Wars franchise.

The scene where the MacLeod clan sets off to battle is supposed to take place in the village of Glenfinnan, on the shore of Loch Shiel in the Lochaber area, but was actually filmed at Eilean Donan Castle, which is in the same general area but is really on the shore of Loch Duich, a sea loch near Kyle of Lochalsh and the Isle of Skye.

The Highlander original orchestral score was composed by Michael Kamen. The British rock band Marillion turned down the chance to record the soundtrack because they were on a world tour, a missed opportunity which guitarist Steve Rothery later said he regretted. The band's Scottish lead singer, Fish, had also accepted a part in the film but pulled out because of the scheduling conflict.

David Bowie, Sting, and Duran Duran were considered to do the soundtrack for the film. The eventual soundtrack includes several songs by Queen, such as A Kind of Magic and Princes of the Universe (the latter also being used for the Highlander television series title sequence).

Brian May was inspired to write Who Wants to Live Forever after watching the love scenes between Connor and his wife Heather, and the song ultimately accompanied the film.

More information: Empire

There's no time for us
There's no place for us

What is this thing that builds our dreams, 

yet slips away from us

Who wants to live forever?

Forever is our today

 

Queen

TIMES SQUARE, THE MAJOR COMMERCIAL PLACE IN NYC

Today, The Grandma has been walking across Times Square.

Meanwhile, The Newtons have continued preparing their Cambridge Exam. They have studied Used to.

More information: Used to

Times Square is a major commercial intersection, entertainment center, and neighbourhood in Midtown Manhattan, New York. 

It is formed by the junction of Broadway, Seventh Avenue and 42nd Street. Together with adjacent Duffy Square, Times Square is a bowtie-shaped space five blocks long between 42nd and 47th Streets.

Brightly lit by numerous billboards and advertisements, it is sometimes referred to as the Crossroads of the World, the Center of the Universe, the heart of the Great White Way, and the heart of the world. One of the world's busiest pedestrian areas, it is also the hub of the Broadway Theater District and a major center of the world's entertainment industry.

Times Square is one of the world's most visited tourist attractions, drawing an estimated 50 million visitors annually. Approximately 330,000 people pass through Times Square daily, many of them tourists, while over 460,000 pedestrians walk through Times Square on its busiest days.

Formerly known as Longacre Square, Times Square was renamed in 1904 after The New York Times moved its headquarters to the then newly erected Times Building, now One Times Square.

It is the site of the annual New Year's Eve ball drop, which began on December 31, 1907, and continues to attract over a million visitors to Times Square every year.

Times Square, specifically the intersection of Broadway and 42nd Street, is also the eastern terminus of the Lincoln Highway, the first road across the United States.

Times Square functions as a town square, but is not geometrically a square; it is closer in shape to a bowtie, with two triangles emanating roughly north and south from 45th Street, where Seventh Avenue intersects Broadway. The area is bounded by West 42nd street, West 47th street, 7th Avenue, and Broadway. Broadway runs diagonally, crossing through the horizontal and vertical street grid of Manhattan laid down by the Commissioners' Plan of 1811, and that intersection creates the bowtie shape of Times Square.

More information: Times Square

Times Square is the official name of the southern triangle, below 45th Street, but the northern triangle is officially Duffy Square. It was dedicated in 1937 to World War I chaplain Father Francis P. Duffy of the 69th New York Infantry Regiment, and is the site of a memorial to him. There is also a statue of composer and entertainer George M. Cohan, and the TKTS discount ticket booth for Broadway and off-Broadway theaters.

When Manhattan Island was first settled by the Dutch, three small streams united near what is now 10th Avenue and 40th Street. These three streams formed the Great Kill, in Dutch Grote Kil. From there the Great Kill wound through the low-lying Reed Valley, known for fish and waterfowl, and emptied into a deep bay in the Hudson River at the present 42nd Street. The name was retained in a tiny hamlet, Great Kill, that became a center for carriage-making, as the upland to the south and east became known as Longacre.

Before and after the American Revolution, the area belonged to John Morin Scott, a general of the New York militia, in which he served under George Washington. Scott's manor house was at what is currently 43rd Street, surrounded by countryside used for farming and breeding horses. In the first half of the 19th century, it became one of the prized possessions of John Jacob Astor, who made a second fortune selling off lots to hotels and other real estate concerns as the city rapidly spread uptown.

By 1872, the area had become the center of New York's horse carriage industry. The locality had not previously been given a name, and city authorities called it Longacre Square after Long Acre in London, where the horse and carriage trade was centered in that city. William Henry Vanderbilt owned and ran the American Horse Exchange there. In 1910, it became the Winter Garden Theatre.

As more profitable commerce and industrialization of Lower Manhattan pushed homes, theaters, and prostitution northward from the Tenderloin District, Longacre Square became nicknamed the Thieves Lair for its rollicking reputation as a low entertainment district. The first theater on the square, the Olympia, was built by cigar manufacturer and impresario Oscar Hammerstein I. According to Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898, By the early 1890s this once sparsely settled stretch of Broadway was ablaze with electric light and thronged by crowds of middle- and upper-class theatre, restaurant and cafe patrons.

Times Square is the site of the annual New Year's Eve ball drop. About one million revelers crowd Times Square for the New Year's Eve celebrations, more than twice the usual number of visitors the area usually receives daily. However, for the millennium celebration on December 31, 1999, published reports stated approximately two million people overflowed Times Square, flowing from Sixth Avenue to Eighth Avenue and back on Broadway and Seventh Avenue to 59th Street, making it the largest gathering in Times Square since August 1945 during celebrations marking the end of World War II.

On December 31, 1907, a ball signifying New Year's Day was first dropped at Times Square, and the Square has held the main New Year's celebration in New York City ever since.

More information: The Culture Trip

 It's New York City, you want to be shown in Times Square.
You want your picture there. You want those kind of things.
To inspire people, that's really what it's about.

RJ Barrett

LILIʻU LOLOKU KAMAKAʻEHA, THE LAST QUEEN OF HAWAII

Today, The Stones have been relaxing on their private beach. They have studied Used To and they have played some oral games to improve their speaking.

While The Stones were studying, The Grandma was reading about Lydia Liliʻu Loloku Walania Kamakaʻeha, the last Queen of Hawaii.

Liliʻuokalani aka Lydia Liliʻu Loloku Walania Kamakaʻeha (September 2, 1838-November 11, 1917) was the only queen regnant and the last sovereign monarch of the Hawaiian Kingdom, ruling from January 29, 1891, until the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom on January 17, 1893. The composer of Aloha ʻOe and numerous other works, she wrote her autobiography Hawaiʻi's Story by Hawaiʻi's Queen during her imprisonment following the overthrow.

Liliʻuokalani was born on September 2, 1838, in Honolulu, on the island of Oʻahu. While her natural parents were Analea Keohokālole and Caesar Kapaʻakea, she was hānai (informally adopted) at birth by Abner Pākī and Laura Kōnia and raised with their daughter Bernice Pauahi Bishop. Baptized as a Christian and educated at the Royal School, she and her siblings and cousins were proclaimed eligible for the throne by King Kamehameha III.

She was married to American-born John Owen Dominis, who later became the Governor of Oʻahu. The couple had no biological children but adopted several. After the accession of her brother David Kalākaua to the throne in 1874, she and her siblings were given Western style titles of Prince and Princess.

More information: Used to

In 1877, after her younger brother Leleiohoku II's death, she was proclaimed as heir apparent to the throne. During the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria, she represented her brother as an official envoy to the United Kingdom.

Liliʻuokalani ascended to the throne on January 29, 1891, nine days after her brother's death. During her reign, she attempted to draft a new constitution which would restore the power of the monarchy and the voting rights of the economically disenfranchised.

Threatened by her attempts to abrogate the Bayonet Constitution, pro-American elements in Hawaiʻi overthrew the monarchy on January 17, 1893. The overthrow was bolstered by the landing of US Marines under John L. Stevens to protect American interests, which rendered the monarchy unable to protect itself.

The coup d'état established the Republic of Hawaiʻi, but the ultimate goal was the annexation of the islands to the United States, which was temporarily blocked by President Grover Cleveland. After an unsuccessful uprising to restore the monarchy, the oligarchical government placed the former queen under house arrest at the ʻIolani Palace.

On January 24, 1895, Liliʻuokalani was forced to abdicate the Hawaiian throne, officially ending the deposed monarchy. Attempts were made to restore the monarchy and oppose annexation, but with the outbreak of the Spanish-American War, the United States annexed Hawaiʻi. Living out the remainder of her later life as a private citizen, Liliʻuokalani died at her residence, Washington Place, in Honolulu on November 11, 1917.

More information: History 101

The cause of Hawaii and independence is larger and dearer
than the life of any man connected with it.
Love of country is deep-seated
in the breast of every Hawaiian,
whatever his station.

Liliʻuokalani

THE BEANS & THE HIPPIE MOVEMENT IN SAN FRANCISCO

Paqui Bean ready to enjoy Hippie lifestyle

Today, The Beans have been working some new aspects of the English grammar like Used to and Object Pronouns. 

The family is a little tired because of the rythm of the trips. They are doing exceptional efforts but they are hard workers and exceptional students and they are doing a great job.

More information: Used to 1, 2 and 3

The family has decided to stay in the hotel and talk about the history of the city that they are going to visit deeply during the next days. San Francisco is a city with a huge history, a great referent in all kind of social movements and the city where the Hippie movement born in the 60's like a peaceful movement against war policies.

The Beans have been talking about the importance of this movement not only for the history of the USA but for the universal history because it was a mirror for other countries and communities.

More information: Object Pronouns

If you talk about the Hippie movement, you must remember incredible voices and composers like Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, Jimmi Hendrix, Joe Cocker, Scott McKenzie, Jefferson Airplane and others. An exceptional generation of great artists who expanded the global message of peace and love around the planet.

Salvador Dalí, a genius of painting

The Grandma has also talked about the influence of the drugs in this movement, particularly, and how drugs have been used by the power to stop social movements and to control them. 

It has been a very hard moment because this is a theme that affects everybody in some senses and everyone of us has a closer experience to tell, to remember and sometimes, to forget.

Finally, the family has been talking about some important artists and writers like Arthur Conan Doyle, Salvador Dalí, Pablo Picasso, Mercè Rodoreda, Agatha Christie, Federico Garcia Lorca, Antonio Machado and Miguel Hernández.

More information: Cambrige 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

A hippie is a member of a counterculture, originally a youth movement that began in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to other countries around the world. The word hippie came from hipster and used to describe beatniks who moved into New York City's Greenwich Village and San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district. The term hippie first found popularity in San Francisco by Herb Caen, a journalist for the San Francisco Chronicle.

Jimmi Hendrix & Janis Joplin

The origins of the terms hip and hep are uncertain. By the 1940s, both had become part of African American jive slang and meant sophisticated; currently fashionable; fully up-to-date. Hippies created their own communities, listened to psychedelic music, embraced the sexual revolution, and many used drugs such as marijuana, LSD, peyote and psilocybin mushrooms to explore altered states of consciousness.

In 1967, the Human Be-In in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, popularized hippie culture, leading to the Summer of Love on the West Coast of the United States, and the 1969 Woodstock Festival on the East Coast. 

Hippies in Mexico, known as jipitecas, formed La Onda and gathered at Avándaro, while in New Zealand, nomadic housetruckers practiced alternative lifestyles and promoted sustainable energy at Nambassa. 

More information: All That Interesting

Hippies enjoying life in the 60's

In the United Kingdom in 1970, many gathered at the gigantic Isle of Wight Festival with a crowd of around 400,000 people. In later years, mobile peace convoys of New Age travelers made summer pilgrimages to free music festivals at Stonehenge and elsewhere.

In Australia, hippies gathered at Nimbin for the 1973 Aquarius Festival and the annual Cannabis Law Reform Rally or MardiGrass. 

Piedra Roja Festival, a major hippie event in Chile, was held in 1970. Hippie and psychedelic culture influenced 1960s and early 1970s young culture in Iron Curtain countries in Eastern Europe.

More information: The Culture Trip

Hippie fashion and values had a major effect on culture, influencing popular music, television, film, literature, and the arts. Since the 1960s, mainstream society has assimilated many aspects of hippie culture. The religious and cultural diversity the hippies espoused has gained widespread acceptance, and Eastern philosophy and spiritual concepts have reached a larger audience.

The hippie movement politicized my generation. 

When it ended, we all started looking back at our own history,  

looking, in my case, for motives of rebellion. 

Vivienne Westwood

PAULA BOND: A NEW HOPE FOR THE CLOSER FUTURE

The Bonds with their transports

Today, The Bonds, who are still in San Francisco, have practised Used to, Relative Pronouns and Such vs. So. 

More info: Such vs. So

The family is still working Telephoning English, which is a little difficult and they have created a new composition about a Majorcan legend named El salt de la bella dona.

More info: Used to

The family has received an interesting present from The Grandma: a transport. In a few days, they're going to start to live alone without the support of the whole family and they must start to prepare this moment. If you have a transport, you can move wherever you want and it offers you a great independence.

More information: Relative Pronouns

After reading a new chapter of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, the family has talked about an interesting theme which Paula Bond has prepared: the educational system. It has been a very interesting moment to offer different points of view about this important theme and for The Grandma has been a great constatation about how far are still the real daily work of the teachers from the perception that the most part of the society has about them. 

Education is what remains after one has forgotten 

what one has learned in school. 

Albert Einstein

FROM LINCOLN TO GUEVARA: FREEDOM!

Abraham Lincoln

Yesterday, The Poppins continued with their English classes. They started doing some exercises about Social English and reviewing Used to. Later, they practised with the Relative Pronouns and paid attention to the importance of questions and short answers.

More information: Used to

The Grandma explained some stories about Cuba and Catalan economy during the XIX century, paying special attention to the figures of the Indians, Catalan-born people who travelled to Cuba to make business and returned to their hometowns where they tried to evocate the Caribbean country building the same kind of houses and planting the same sort of plants and vegetables. 

She also told about slavery in American countries and the abolition of it in The USA thanks to Abraham Lincoln.

After some days without reading Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, they continued working the plot of this interesting book and they created another plot about sharks, an animal well-known in Australia and one of the most dangerous enemies of swimmers and surfers like Esther Poppins’ new boyfriend.

Che

Talking about boyfriends, The Grandma, following the advice of her family, decided to say goodbye to her last lover, Dave Clipster. A misunderstanding about him created some tension between the members of the family and The Grandma had to take a decision: choose between The Poppins or Dave. It was easy. Obviously, The Poppins won.

Next, the family listened to some stories from its members about difficult and uncomfortable situations in the past and they analysed how to confront them.

Tomorrow, the family is going to listen to Lulú Poppins’ explanations about fashion and trend and they’re going to play poker.

Come on Poppins! The die is cast!

In matters of style, swim with the current; 
in matters of principle, stand like a rock.

Thomas Jefferson

FREDDIE MERCURY: FOREVER YOUNG

Freddie Mercury

After visiting the Pope, the Holmes have continued reviewing Past Continuous, Used to and Modal Verbs (May-Might). Moreover they’ve practised some Social English.

Next, they’ve created comparisons between Antoni Gaudí’s Sagrada Família and Vatican City and they’ve been talking about voodoo and its effects nowadays.

More information: May-Might

More information: Past Continuous Exercises

The family arrives to Venice tonight where they want to enjoy the Carnival during this weekend before going to Belgium to participate in Eurovision Song Contest. Because of this, today, they have read some interesting songs from Tom Jones, Queen, Suzanne Vega and Joan Baez.

Tomorrow, they’re going to prepare excellent songs to win the festival and continue travelling, this time, perhaps, to London. 

May you grow up to be righteous
May you grow up to be true
May you always know the truth
And see the lights surrounding you
May you always be courageous
Stand upright and be strong
May you stay forever young

 Joan Baez

MIDDLE AGE: CREATING A LEGEND

Today, The Holmes have reviewed Past Simple, Used to and First Conditional. They have been practising with some exercises and paying especial attention to the irregular forms.

Don Quixote & Sancho Panza

The Grandma has continued talking about William Shakespeare and Antoni Gaudí, two old friends who she admires a lot and all of the family has talked about the importance of literature in the Middle Age and its capacity of creating heroes like Orlando Il Furioso, el Cid, Roland, Tirant, Don Quijote or King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.

More information: First Conditional

More information: Used to

After that, they have described Antoni Gaudí’s works with a memo game.

Download Barcelona's Natural Wonder

Tonight, The Holmes have met the Pope in the Vatican City and they have spent good moments with him, especially Rosa who is a religious woman and Geni who is a… a… a… an excellent partner!

Download Antoni Gaudí's Works

Tomorrow, they’re going to homage Freddie Mercury preparing some songs for the Eurovision Song Contest where they are going to participate very soon.

No legacy is so rich as honesty

– William Shakespeare