At last it is raining in Spain.
To improve her diction Eliza Doolittle had to sing 'The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain.'
Eliza Doolittle was the character in a play, written by Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw, called Pygmalon. It was later adapted to the cinema under the name 'My Fair Lady'.
The phrase is not true at all but good for practising the sound /eɪ/
In case you are checking the blog to see what activities we are offering, here is a resumé of 2022.
So far we have discussed the Metaverse and NFTs(Non Fungible Tokens) on the suggestion of Belino who offered a fascinating glimpse into our new virtual reality with links to well documented articles.
We meet up on Wednesday evening after six on the first floor of La Universidad Popular in San Sebastián De Los Reyes where we chat informally about our news, borrow books and launch into our topic.
This Wednesday
As Spain is in dire need of some rain and people say here that if you sing badly you bring on the rain, we are going to lend a helping hand this week!
Lola has sent the words of three well known numbers. One to celebrate Carole King's 80th birthday! You've got a friend. Amazing.
The next one will be Hotel California by the Eagles and we will round off with American Pie, the reason being it was in the news recently because Taylor Swift has beaten its record as the longest hit to reach Number one in the American charts. Her song All Too Well is over ten minutes long.
Lola says she will save The Beatles for another day:)
And if you would like to join us, drop a note to asedow@gmail.com
The melody used to symbolize the EU comes from the Ninth Symphony composed in 1823 by Ludwig Van Beethoven, when he set music to the "Ode to Joy", Friedrich von Schiller's lyrical verse from 1785.
The anthem symbolises not only the
European Union but also Europe in a wider sense. The poem "Ode to
Joy" expresses Schiller's idealistic vision of the human race becoming
brothers - a vision Beethoven shared.
In 1972, the Council of Europe adopted Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" theme as its anthem. In 1985, it was adopted by EU leaders as the official anthem of the European Union. There are no words to the anthem; it consists of music only. In the universal language of music, this anthem expresses the European ideals of freedom, peace and solidarity.
However, the music became enormously popular once again in 1970 when Spanish singer, Miguel Ríos, had a worldwide hit with a rock song set to the tune of the ninth symphony by Ludwig Van Beethoven entitled Himno De La Alegría 'Come Sing A Song Of Joy'
This old Christmas song was the hightlight of the Home Alone movies and lifted the spirits of a generation of kids as Kevin got ready for his 'visitors'.
Rockin' around the Christmas tree
And another one for good measure. Before people were doing the rock 'n roll, they were jiving.
MERRY CHRISTMAS ! Happy dancing!
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| José, Ascen and Biddy |
Bye and best wishes as José, Ascen and Biddy turn over the running of the association to the new board.
We are happy to congratulate Laura, Juan and Jesús as they assume their new roles.
The Film Festival For Human Rights will take place in El Teatro Adolfo Marsillach in San Sebastián De Los Reyes from Nov 24 until Nov 27.
This window on the world is an opportunity to learn about life in different countries and here in Spain and about the great difficulties some people have to surmount.The festival starts with La Vida Era Eso on Wednesday 24th Nov. The director of this film David Martin de los Santos and the actress Petra Martínez will be there for a colloquy with the audience at 19:45h.
See our facebook page for the programme or go by la Universidad Popular, Avda Baunatal, San Sebastián De Los Reyes and pick up the brochure about this event.
Cine Doré Madrid 29th November 2021 at 20h.
The Irish Embassy in Madrid is hosting an
event to mark International Human Rights Day with the screening of the Irish
film The Queen Of Ireland (with Spanish subtitles) on 29th November,
a documentary about the most famous Irish Drag Queen Pantibliss.
This widely acclaimed film explores the
history of Drag Queens in Ireland and the advancement of LGBTQ rights in
Ireland.
The event is supported by The Irish Film
Institute, The Arts Council of Ireland and Culture Ireland.
Register for tickets
Contact us for more information
asedow@gmail.com
Many will be making travel plans while we are being cautioned to stay in our bubble as the only effective way to fight climate change as well as COVID.
Maybe that is why on top of the security measures adopted in the face of terrorism we now have to add all the proper travel precautions to stop the pandemic from spreading...to make travel as difficult and unpleasant as possible.
Add to that the tricky negotiations at the airport where cabifies, ubers and private cars all have to vie for the same space to pick up and drop off passenger, leading to frayed nerves.
Let's hope that 2022 will be the year that sensible measures will be taken and that there will be a breakthrough at long last in clean energy which will allow us to cross continents as freely and harmlessly as the birds in the sky.
