sexta-feira, 10 de setembro de 2010

Cats

As I love cats (I have two), I decided to post some pictures of celebrities who also love them.
Clark Gable

Clark Gable and Carole Lombard

Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh

New Boy: Vivien's Cat







As you can see, Vivien was crazy about siamese cats.

James Dean and his cat Marcus that was a gift from Elizabeth Taylor.


Marlon Brando

John Lennon

George Harrison

Paul McCartney


Freddie Mercury - he was so fond of cats, that during the interval of recording the album Innuendo, he presented a song in tribute to his cat, Delilah.

Audrey Hepburn

Olivia De Havilland

Catherine Deneuve

Bette Davis

Ava Gardner

Carla Bruni

Jane Fonda

Brigitte Bardot

Truman Capote

Giorgio Armani

Donna Reed

Kurt Cobain

Kim Novak

Ingrid Bergman

and finally my cats
Luke
Anakin



quarta-feira, 8 de setembro de 2010

... Gone With The Wind

Since I am a movie fanatic, I decided to talk about my favorite movie.
"... Gone With the Wind" was produced in 1939 (yes, my favorite movie is 70 years old), and was based on the novel by Margaret Mitchell (which is also my favorite book)
The film begins in 1861, the eve of the Civil War and tells the tale of a headstrong Southern girl named Scarlett O'Hara, the daughter of an Irish immigrant who became a wealthy farmer in
Georgia. The story takes place during the war and postwar, and narrates her platonic love for Ashley Wilkes and her quarrels with the cynical (but irresistible) Rhett Butler, and as a backdrop, illustrates the devastation of the southern USA and the destruction of it and its society and a way of life that the wind (or war) led.
This is one of my favorite movies because it shows a bit of history (my favorite subject) and because of its
characters Scarlett and Rhett (main characters) are selfish and cheaters. They have no scruples, and still arouse more fascination and admiration from the public than the good, fair, honest and boring Ashley and Melanie Wilkes.

It is impossible for you not to cheer for Rhett and Scarlett and not fall in love with Rhett (or Clark, or both).



SPOILER

At the end of the movie when Rhett utters the famous line "Frankly, my dear, I do not give a damn", after Scarlett has declared her love for him, and he leaves, it hurts on who's watching. It is as if he said this directly to you. And you're like, how so? He's coming back right? And though the film has already almost four hours you begin to wish that still has at least one more (rather than the few minutes left) so that Scarlett could bring him back.


And that ends with Scarlett vowing to bring him back (after all tomorrow is another day ") the audience stays with the eternal question of whether or not she succeeded (perhaps a doubt as big as the question of whether or not Capitu betrayed Bentinho).
Another exciting scene is when Scarlett flees to Tara facing the enemies, to return to the protection of her mother, who always took care of everything and made the decisions, and finds that she's dead, her father became mad, her sisters are very sick, the farm was looted and destroyed , the servants had run away, they have no food and no money. Now all depends on her, she wanted to return to her mother who cared about everything and now she has to take her place. Now she has to find food, to work in the field, to get money and to protect her family.

When she finds some radishes, taken by the hunger she eats them with earth and everything and she swears to God that she or her family will never be hungry again, even if she has to lie, to steal, to kill and to cheat (and it really makes it all).





quinta-feira, 12 de agosto de 2010

Idioms

An idiom is a phrase that has a different meaning than the literal. The majority of idioms are marks of a language and can not be translated into other languages. Therefore the non-native speakers of the language may have difficulty to understand the meaning of some idioms.
Sometimes idioms can make difficult the translation of a song, text and even a movie. How many times have you seen a movie or series and a part of the subtitles simply made no sense?
Idioms are very present in daily life. In informal conversations or even in more formal situations the idioms are widely used.

Some idioms and their meanings:

Blue Moon: A rare event.
Go The Extra Mile: Going above and beyond whatever is required for the task at hand.
Head Over Heels: Very excited, especially when in love.
Lend Me Your Ear: To ask for someone's full attention.
Out Of The Blue: Something that suddenly and unexpectedly occurs.
Raining Cats and Dogs: A very loud and noisy rain storm.
With Flying Colors: Successfully
True Colors: Without masks, in reality
A White Lie: A lie to avoid hurting somebody’s feelings
Your Guess Is As Good As Mine: I have no idea.
White Elephant: Useless
White Wedding: Traditional wedding
You Can't Judge A Book By Its Cover: Decisions shouldn't be made primarily on appearance.
Rome Was Not Built In One Day: If you want something to be completely properly, then it is going to take time.