STING & THE MORGANS WERE WALKING ON THE MOON

Yesterday, The Morgans and The Grandma visited Wallsend, an English town known for one of their favourite sons: Sting. The family had a fantastic day in the company of this exceptional musician, who made them walk on the moon.

Today, The Morgans have studied English grammar with the Past Continuous and Some & Any Compounds. They have finished the grammatical part and will spend more time listening, reading and speaking.

More information: Past Continuous

More information: Some-Any Compounds

Sting, whose real name is Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner, is an English musician, singer-songwriter, actor, and activist. He was born in 1951 in Wallsend, England, and became famous as the lead singer, bassist, and principal songwriter of the rock band The Police. The group achieved worldwide success between the late 1970s and early 1980s with hits such as Every Breath You Take, Roxanne, and Message in a Bottle.

After the breakup of The Police in the mid-1980s, Sting launched a highly successful solo career. His music combines many styles, including rock, pop, jazz, reggae, classical, and world music. Some of his best-known solo songs include Englishman in New York, Fields of Gold, and Shape of My Heart. Over his career, he has sold more than 100 million records both as a solo artist and with The Police.

Sting has received numerous awards and honours, including 17 Grammy Awards, a Golden Globe, an Emmy, and several Oscar nominations. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of The Police in 2003 and has also received recognition for his contributions to music and humanitarian causes.

Beyond music, Sting has acted in films and theatre productions and is known for his activism on environmental and human rights issues. He has also supported rainforest conservation projects and other charitable causes throughout his career.

More information: Sting

The Police was a British rock band formed in London in 1977 by Sting, Andy Summers, and Stewart Copeland. They became one of the most influential and successful bands of the late 1970s and early 1980s thanks to their unique mix of punk, reggae, jazz, and pop-rock.

Their debut album, Outlandos d’Amour (1978), included hits such as Roxanne and Can’t Stand Losing You, which helped launch their international career. Later albums like Reggatta de Blanc, Zenyatta Mondatta, Ghost in the Machine, and especially Synchronicity (1983) made them global superstars. Their best-known song, Every Breath You Take, became one of the biggest hits of the decade.

The band was admired for combining catchy pop melodies with sophisticated musicianship. Sting's distinctive vocals and songwriting, Summers's atmospheric guitar style, and Copeland’s energetic drumming created a sound that strongly influenced later rock and pop artists.

Despite their enormous success, tensions within the group led to their breakup in 1984, with Sting later pursuing a highly successful solo career. The band reunited briefly in 1986 and again for a major world tour in 2007-2008.

Overall, The Police sold more than 75 million records worldwide, won several Grammy Awards, and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2003. They remain one of the defining bands of the new wave era.

More information: The Police

I see music as one language.
If one musical form eats its own tail, it dies. 
So it needs to be a mongrel, it needs to be hybridised.

Sting

'LE FANTÔME DE L’OPÉRA', 'THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA'

Today, The Grangers & The Grandma are enjoying a wonderful musical. They have chosen  the Phantom of the Opera, one of the most popular shows in Broadway.

Before this, The Grangers have been preparing their Cambridge Exam. They have studied Some & Any Compounds & So/Such.

More info: Some & Any Compounds

More information: So/Such

The story of the Phantom of the Opera was originally published in a series of articles in La Galois and then in a book in 1911 entitled, Le Fantôme de l’Opéra written by a French journalist, Gastón Leroux. 

When the story was first published it was not popular and the book went out of print.

Leroux whose speciality was investigative journalism based his story on true-life incidents. In fact, many who have researched this subject believe with just a few exceptions the story has several elements that are true.

The opera house in the story was based on the real Opera Garnier in Paris. The Opera Garnier does have underground tunnels and it also has an underground lake. Leroux used this setting in several dramatic scenes in his story.

There was an incident where a chandelier did fall in the Opera Garnier setting the building on fire and killing a woman.

Leroux used a falling chandelier in his story as a distraction so his Phantom could kidnap Christine.

The romance between the Phantom and Christine in the story is just fantasy but it is believed that Leroux based both characters on real people.

 

More information: The Phantom of the Opera

The Phantom is based upon a man named Erik who was born in a small village in Normandy, near Rouen. He was born with a horribly disfigured face so his parents abandoned him when he was eight. A circus basically took him and for 7 years he was used as an attraction.

It was believed that someone was secretly living in the opera house and many felt it was the ghost of the real Erik. In fact, many claimed that near Box 5 they heard ghostly voices and whispers when the area was unoccupied.

There were other witnesses that stated that they saw this phantom running through various parts of the opera house. Even more eerie these witnesses stated this figure wore a black cape and a mask over its face.

Renata de Waele in 1993 wrote a narrative that compared the fictional to the real stories. She worked in public relations at the Opera Garnier for many years. 

Some of her speculations have been proven others have not. So reality is blurred with fiction which leaves the curious with an intriguing mystery. 

Download The Phantom of The Opera by Gastón Leroux

 

Every legend, moreover, contains 

its residuum of truth, 

and the root function of language 

is to control the universe by describing it. 

James A. Baldwin

THE BEANS: EVERYBODY, EVERYWHERE, EVERTYTHING...

Nereyda Bean and occupational hazards

Today, The Beans have continued with their English classes. They have revised som aspects of grammar like Future Continuous (Be going to), Question Tags, Demonstratives, All-Both-Neither and Some & Any Compounds.

It has been an intensive morning and the family has been talking about the present problems of some great cities: the increasing price of homes and the way to regulate the massive tourism.

More information: Demonstratives & Some-Any Compounds

The Beans have written some messages of hope, love and friendship in their Venice banners and have congratulated Nereyda Bean who has passed another level of her favourite mobile app: How to survive at work without being damaged.

After the breakfast, the family has listened an interesting Anton Bean's story about The Coco Island and The Grandma has been talking about chemistry and how satellites are helping to find human remains witnesses of wars and genocides.

Finally, they have decided to buy The Coco Island and built a little resort for all the members of the family because Anton Bean is sure that the island still keeps three hidden treasures and The Beans want to find them.

This afternoon, The Beans have visited the Golden Gate Bridge, perhaps the most popular symbol of San Francisco.

More information: Universitat de Barcelona I & II

 

The Beans on the top of the Golden Gate Bridge

The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the one-mile-wide 1.6 km strait connecting San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. The structure links the American city of San Francisco, California, the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula, to Marin County, carrying both U.S. Route 101 and California State Route 1 across the strait. 

The bridge is one of the most internationally recognized symbols of San Francisco, California, and the United States.  

It has been declared one of the Wonders of the Modern World by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

The Frommer's travel guide describes the Golden Gate Bridge as possibly the most beautiful, certainly the most photographed, bridge in the world. At the time of its opening in 1937, it was both the longest and the tallest suspension bridge in the world, with a main span of 1,280 m and a total height of 227 m. 

Today, the Golden Gate Bridge is neither the longest nor the tallest in the world, but remains the tallest bridge in the United States.

More information: Golden Gate

San Francisco has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate characteristic of California's coast, with moist mild winters and dry summers. San Francisco's weather is strongly influenced by the cool currents of the Pacific Ocean on the west side of the city, and the water of San Francisco Bay to the north and east. This moderates temperature swings and produces a remarkably mild year-round climate with little seasonal temperature variation.

Grandma's memories in the 30's

Among major U.S. cities, San Francisco has the coolest daily mean, maximum, and minimum temperatures for June, July, and August. 

During the summer, rising hot air in California's interior valleys creates a low pressure area that draws winds from the North Pacific High through the Golden Gate, which creates the city's characteristic cool winds and fog. 

The fog is less pronounced in eastern neighborhoods and during the late summer and early fall. As a result, the year's warmest month, on average, is September, and on average, October is warmer than July, especially in daytime.

More information: History.com

Because of its sharp topography and maritime influences, San Francisco exhibits a multitude of distinct microclimates. The high hills in the geographic center of the city are responsible for a 20% variance in annual rainfall between different parts of the city. 

They also protect neighborhoods directly to their east from the foggy and sometimes very cold and windy conditions experienced in the Sunset District; for those who live on the eastern side of the city, San Francisco is sunnier, with an average of 260 clear days, and only 105 cloudy days per year.

It’s an odd thing, but anyone who disappears 

is said to be seen in San Francisco.
 

Oscar Wilde