Song of the Day

In keeping with my Oz theme, I have chosen for my song of the day a song which is also coincidentally one of my favourites although it has nothing to do with the film. It's Elton John's "Goodbye Yellowbrick Road". Enjoy!

Follow the Yellow Brick Road

It has been a while since my last post; I've been a bit under the weather and not really feeling up to it. However, last week I saw Oz The Great and Powerful, the long awaited (by me anyway) prequel to one of my favourite films of all time, The Wizard of Oz. I must say I was not disappointed. I was worried that this could be a treacherous second walk (or third, or fourth, or fifth if you count the official and unofficial sub-par sequels that have been made over the years) down the Yellow Brick Road , ruining the franchise if it were badly made. But for a film in which they had to tread carefully, since they could not touch anything they didn't have the rights to from the original film which was made by a different studio, and one released 73 years after the original, they did a pretty darn good job. It hearkened to the original material but was yet original and contained very beautiful visual effects without overdoing it.  I saw the film in 3D, dubbed into French since the original language version was not shown in theatres here, but I enjoyed it nevertheless. The Wizard of Oz and all the other Oz books are now in the public domain and are therefore available for download free on iBooks and I believe Kindle Store as well. I'm looking forward to the sequels which I am sure are in the works now due to the film's success at the box office. Here's the trailer:

Song of the Day

This week I am doing a lesson on news stories with my students and the video I show them has a clip of Gotye's 'Somebody that I used to know'. I'd forgotten how catchy it was. The video has over 380 million views on Youtube! Since I can't get it out of my head, it's today's Song of the Day. Enjoy!

Bubble Tea

Ok so I am back after a brief hiatus. Was a bit under the weather then went on holiday for a bit. I visited Berlin recently and had my Bubble Tea fix there. For those of you who don't know what bubble tea is it's a Taiwanese tea-based drink mixed with fruit or milk and usually containing chewy balls referred to as 'pearls'. You slurp the liquid and the straw is oversized so you can suck up the pearls. Mine was kiwi yougurt-flavoured with mango-flavoured pearls. I first saw Bubble Tea in Berlin when I first visited a few years ago and wondered what was this thing people were drinking with these black balls in it. I really like trying strange new foods and drinks. I finally tried it on a trip to Canada a couple years later and loved it. Then I was surprised to find a Bubble Tea place at Price Plaza at home in Trinidad. Try some Bubble Tea today!

Word, Quote and Song of the Day

Ironically I didn't even know there was a word for this. Today's word is lethologica. Click on the word to learn the definition and find out why it's ironic.

The Quote of the Day is "Don't stay in bed unless you can make money in bed." George Burns.

And finally the song of the day. Since it's Carnival in Trinidad and Tobago I chose this song. It's a bit old now but it's one of the few Soca songs I felt had crossover appeal. It's 'You' by Machel Montano. Judge for yourself.

The Godfather Series

I posted a while ago that I'd watched The Godfather for the first time; now I'm in the process of watching the sequel, The Godfather II. So far I've watched disc 1 so that leaves disc 2. While The sequel is not bad I don't find it as intriguing as the original. I borrowed the boxed set so there is also The Godfather III which I will watch at some point. If you haven't seen them I would definitely recommend it.

Word, Quote and Song of the Day

Just about to watch The Godfather II for the first time (just saw part one last week for the first time, excellent film). Earlier I was snacking on some dates, and since I like to know what I'm eating I decided to Wikipedia them. That's where I came up with the Word of the Day, which is dioecious. The date palm is dioecious. Click on the word to find out its meaning and also check out Dictionary.com's homepage for their word of the day.

The Quote of the Day is "People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily." Zig Ziglar. (Click his name to find out who he is.)

Today a colleague asked me if I like Linkin Park. I hesitated then said I didn't hate them. Then I told her one of their songs I did appreciate was "In the End". It was aptly very popular just around the time I graduated from secondary school. Whenever I hear it I think about those times. What memories does it bring back for you?