Trailers

This week I have been to see two films at the cinema: Creation (the story of Charles Darwin's personal life) and Up (the latest adventure from Pixar).

Before seeing these films I had seen the trailers to both.  The Creation trailer excited me greatly, the Up trailer made me think Pixar had finally run out of ideas.

I was disappointed with Creation - very little happens, there was not enough of Darwin's work and its effects on his and his wife's relationship, the science vs religion debate was barely mentioned, and that debate presented the issue as firmly either/or rather than both/and.  All the best bits of the film were in the trailer.  I would probably go as far as saying that the trailer was as good as the film.

In contrast, I was very impressed with Up - it was very well animated, laugh-out-loud funny, poignant and moving.  I felt the trailer did not do the film justice at all.

The differences between these two films and trailers really made me realise what an impact a trailer can have.  From the trailers, I was more excited about Creation than Up, but having seen the films, there is no contest as to my favourite.

On a similar note, the greatest ever trailer is the trailer for The Two Towers.  After the enormity of FOTR a year earlier and the agonising wait for the next installment, this trailer got me more excited about a film than I had ever been.

Clocks change

When the clocks go back, as they did last night, do you spen your extra hour awake or asleep?  I always stay up an extra hour, but most other people seem to prefer an extra hours sleep.

Bread plate

The bread plate is traditionally placed to a persons left during a meal. This seems silly to me because:

• It is further away from the knives
• A right-hander (i.e. most people) would have to reach across their main plate to pick up the bread, putting their sleeve in danger of touching their food

Does anyone know why the bread is placed to the right?

Second Hand

The other day, I noticed that the phrase 'second hand' has at least 3 meanings:

1. Not new
2. Part of a clock
3. Literally a person's second hand

I thought this was quite interesting, though maybe you realised it when you were 5 and the excitement has worn of for you.

Greatest Middle Eights

These are the songs that I think have the best middle eights.  If you know the song, but can’t quite hear the middle eight, hopefully the lyrics will jog your memory.  If you don’t know the song, get on Spotify and have a listen!

Anberlin – A Whisper and a Clamour – ‘It’s not the words that you say/But what the silence will scream’

Athlete – Black Swan Song – ‘And the rain beat down on the rooftops/But there was no sound, there was no sound/And all my friends and family carried me/They carried me home, carried me home’

Bloc Party – Kreuzberg (outro) – ‘After sex/The bitter taste/Been fooled again/The search continues/Concerned mothers of the west/Teach your sons how to truly love’

Bloc Party – Sunday – ‘When I’m with you I am calm/A pearl in your oyster/Head on my chest/A siklent smile/A private kind of happiness/You see giant proclamations are all very well/But our love is louder than words’

British Sea Power – Carrion – ‘When this Corpus Christic isle became a land of ocean blue/Again, she cried, you turned my eye, at mentions of, no matter why/And in the end, an August sun, and one by one we blew/Until the devil screamed in the evermore in envy of the grace we saw’

Coldplay – Fix You – ‘Tears stream down your face/When you lose something you cannot replace/Tears stream down your face/And I/Tears stream down your face/I promise you I will learn from my mistakes/Tears stream down your face/And I’’

David Crowder Band – The glory of it all – ‘After night comes the light/Dawn is here, dawn is here/It’s a new day, it’s a new day/And everything will change/Things will never be the same/We will never be the same/We will never be the same/We will never be the same/We will never be the same’

Delirious – My Glorious (ramble, if it can count!) – ‘Glory glory, sound of glory’

Delirious – Mountain’s High – ‘Your ways are high, too high for us/Only you, only you, only you can pull me your way’

Editors – Weight of the world – ‘You touch my face/God whispers in my ear/There are tears in my eyes/Love replaces fear’

Idlewild – American English- ‘You came along and found the weak spot, that you’ve always wanted/Let yourself be everything, that you’ve always wanted/It doesn’t have to be so decided, you’ve always wanted/No need for explanations, you’ve always wanted’

Idlewild –  El Capitan (outro) – ‘You were looking at pictures of the distance/Hoping to see the future in your pictures of the distance’

Jars of Clay – Worlds Apart – ‘I look beyond the empty cross forgetting what my life has cost/And wipe away the crimson stains and dull the nails that still remain/More and more I need you now I owe you more each passing hour/The battle between grace and pride I gave up not so long ago/So steal my heart and take the pain and wash my feet and cleanse my pride/Take the selfish, take the weak and all the things I cannot hide/Take the beauty take my tears, this sin-soaked heart and make it yours/Take my world all apart, take it now, take it now/And serve the ones that I despise, speak the words I can’t deny /And watch the world I used to love fall to dust and thrown away/I look beyond the empty cross forgetting what my life has cost/And wipe away the crimson stains and dull the nails the still remain/So steal my heart and take the pain, take the selfish, take the weak/And all the things I cannot hide, take the beauty take my tears/Take my world apart, take my world apart/I pray, I pray, I pray/Take my world apart’

Lifehouse – Simon – ‘Refuse to feel anything at all/Refuse to slip, refuse to fall/Can’t be weak, can’t stand still/Watch your back, cos no-one will/You don’t know why they had to go this far/Traded your worth for these scars, for your only company/Don’t believe the lies that they have told to you, not one word was true/You’re alright, you’re alright, you’re alright’

Lifehouse – Quasimodo – ‘Have you ever felt like your only comfort was your cage?/You’re not alone, I’ve felt the same as you/Have you ever felt like your secrets give you away?/You’re not alone, I’ve been there too/Cos everyone is looking, and everyone is laughing/But I think everyone feels the same/Everybody wants to feel ok, everybody wants too, everybody wants to feel’

Linkin Park – Papercut – ‘The sun goes down/I fell the light betray me’

Live – Run to the Water – ‘Yeah, I can see it now lord/Out beyond all the breaking of waves and the tribulation/It’s a place and the home of ascended souls/Who swam out there in love!

Live – They stood up for love – ‘We made it to the moon but we cant make it home/Waiting on a rescue that never comes/Made it to the moon but we cant make it home/Maybe home is where the heart is given up to the one, to the one’

Mew – 156 – ‘One five six, don’t you just love goodbyes?’

Mew – She came home for Christmas – ‘Come home, come home, Jan, Jan’

Sabio – Mother – ‘Losing our identity, slowly fading our thumbprints/We’ve let fashion fit the access to the code of fitting in/Tumbling downhill, escalating at some pace/Spinning, twisting, turning, the world is falling on its face today/This world needs a place it can escape/Oh my mother, would you open heaven’s gates, would you open heaven’s gates?’

Strangeday – Fogpilot – ‘I want to fly, I want to fly, I want to fly’

Most of the songs from my list of 'contenders for greatest song ever' are above (Carrion, The Glory of it All, My Glorious, American English, Worlds Apart, Quasimodo, Run to the Water, Mother, Fogpilot), which would suggest that, for me, an important factor in what makes an outstanding song is an excellent middle eight.  The songs from my favourites list that aren’t above (other than the worship songs) are:

Enya – Wild Child

Feeder – Morning Life

The Kissaway Trail – Smother + Evil = Hurt

Mew – Am I Wry? No

Stellastarr – Lost in Time

Attractive people

This is slightly random.
I was walking through Durham after training on Saturday and noticed something that I'd noticed before but not to this extent.  I noticed that (and this may sound horrifically cheesy) in my eyes people are just really attractive.  Everyone I walked past was attractive.  I didn't see anyone who I'd consider ugly.  Thinking about it, I can't think of anyone I know who I'd say isn't nice-looking.  I know it's cheesy but I just think that people are inherently attractive.
As far as I know, this is unusual.  As far as I know, most people observe others with some sort of scale of attractiveness.  Is that the case?
Either I am unusual in this, or I'm mistaken about how everyone else views people.  Comments please.

Moaning teachers

Teachers often moan or complain about their work.  Other people can get tired of this, as teachers get long holidays.  Lines such as 'well you chose the career' are uttered.  As a teacher, I think I understand why teachers complain so much.
It's not because teachers don't like their job, and it's not because they really hate the kids.  It's because teaching is genuinely a very difficult job (that's why we need the holidays!), and complaining (or 'downloading' as I prefer to call it) is an important coping mechanism.  Ranting is satisfying and helps release the stress.  The best people for teachers to rant to are other teachers.  It's about 10 times more helpful to moan about school to another teacher than to a non-teacher, simply because you know that another teacher faces similar difficulties.

Geeks and nerds

A few years ago, a friend and I stayed up until about 4 in the morning discussing the use and meaning of the terms ‘geek’ and ‘nerd’. I realised afterwards that our disagreement stemmed from the fact that the word geek has two main uses in English.

The first use of the word geek is to refer to someone with an unusually intense and deep devotion to a particular subject (e.g. music geek, maths geek, computer geek, film geek).

The second use refers to someone who is typically interested in:
a) computers,
b) science fiction and/or fantasy, or
c) both
(right: the fantasy geek, playing Dungeons and Dragons)

As a mildly interesting aside, I am a geek in both ways. I am interested in fantasy, as well as being unusually devoted to certain topics such as music, Harry Potter, and the creation/evolution debate.

The word nerd, in contrast, refers to a person who is typically very intelligent but socially and physically awkward.
(right: a nerd)

In America, the meanings of these two words are swapped. Nerd refers to either someone with an unusually intense devotion or someone interested in computers and/or fantasy. Geek refers to the socially awkward genius. Hence, while I am a geek (in English), I would not fit on the American show Beauty and the Geek.