English learning - Quaint motorcars

(Modern motorcar)

(Vintage motorcar)

I tend to be fascinated all the way by words like 'motorcar'. Those words seem quaint and suggest certain historically technological or scientific progresses. For instance, the 'motor' in 'motorcar' tends to hint that motor for vehicles was a fancy thing, when the word was coined. 'Motorist' is also interesting in that sense. Some other English words approximate to "motorcar". One nice example would be 'motorbike'.

Don't you think the current word 'car' to be a little curt, comparing with 'motorcar'? :-)

On a different note, in American English, people don't regard the word 'car' coolly in their minds. They have certain emotional attachment to it. It indicates 'liberty', 'freedom', 'mobility' and so on, to my knowledge.

Applicable to English learning too - 日本语达人之道 - 豆瓣

Certain ideas on the web page 日本语达人之道 - 含MP3光盘 - 豆瓣 can be applied to English learning too, I suppose. And those are:

文化是日语的基本精神——少了它，处处不对味

虽然知道不少单词句型，却抓不住日本人的精神，只能表面沟通，达不到深层沟通。

Music video - Eminem feat Elton John - Stan (Live)

Here go the lyrics, which are too rabid and painful and may offend some people.


/
When the sounds proximately emerged and parted from Elton John, the beauty of music came to life.

Eminem, as well as a host of black and colored rappers, raps cathartically. I can feel the anger in their music. On the other hand, it can be hard for a Han Chinese like me who grew up in a largely monolithic China to entirely fathom the frustration of the American black population, which the rap culture was born in.

Trench coat, pea coat, or sweater coat?

(Image from http://bit.ly/cQ3LvQ)

You can tell, pea coat is in the canon of the received dress code in Canada, for the most part. So a few weeks ago, while the blasts of the fall blew, I went into a W store, with the meme that a pea coat would preen myself a wee bit. I bought one over there. But it's a glance at a sign "Sweater coats" in the store that sent me scrambling to find out the distinctions among trench coat, pea coat, and sweater coat. I just vaguely figured out. The differences between trench coat and sweater coat are still not crystal clear to me.


Alas. It's such a painstaking trek to acquire the myriad of English nouns and phrasal nouns designated to clothing items. Too many of them are in active daily usage! 'Garment', 'apparel', 'outfit', 'outer coat','suit', 'jacket', 'bridge coat', 'trench coat', 'pea coat', 'sweater coat', 'shirt', 'T-shirt', 'wife beater', 'hoody', 'sweater', 'denim', 'jeans', 'sweater pants', 'trousers'... Endless. And these are only for the comparatively simple arsenal of men's clothes. Not to mention the plethora of nouns and phrasal nouns describing women's clothing items. Gee.

Atmospheric music videos - The Corrs - Breathless, live in Trafalgar Square and so on

The lyrics are here: http://bit.ly/1aj5Uv

Four other versions of the fantastically well received song:


























In the first video, you can see that the fans at the site were enraptured, transfixed, yet moved all the way by the performance.

I can scarcely believe that I hadn't heard of The Corrs back when China was still my abode country. The band was so hot and groovy! And for the most part, its music is just pretty.

By the way, the Trafalgar Square, where the first live concert above was held, celebrates the historic sea battle between Britain and France, which took place in Spain.

What our infant daughter needs

What she demands day in and day out is proximateness to us, intimacy, interaction, and feeding, yes, lots of feeding. Ah, girls always need attentive company, straight from day one. :-)

Notification - I'm switching from Reddit to Google Bookmarks to recommend excellent articles

(Image from http://bit.ly/9IHUtO)

Because Reddit.com is too much a hassle to deal with, I'm switching from it to Google Bookmarks, in order to refer to groovy articles that I'd like to share with you.


Here goes my newly inaugurated Google Bookmarks public list: http://bit.ly/cM4XeO . Thanks.

Marvelous music / video - Summer Wine

The edition by The Corrs / Bono




The version by Nancy Sinatra / Lee Hazlewood



Lyrics:
http://bit.ly/6XEmlm



I go into raptures every time when I listen to the music in this particular song "Summer Wine".

The song made its way into the canon of the world pop music in the 1960s, then it has been revitalized time and again by various artists since. The Corrs' version above is appealingly modern, while the Nancy Sinatra's more picturesque and golden. Personally I love the classic edition by Nancy Sinatra / Lee Hazlewood more, due to the texture, tone and so on of their voices.

As outlined in the lyrics, an impostor presenting herself as a welcoming girl plays havoc on the male protagonist. All swindlers tend to have charming surfaces, don't they?

On a different note, I suspect that Nancy Sinatra derived some proximate glamour from her father, Frank Sinatra. Or she didn't?

News - Embraer takes aim at Bombardier

Here goes a piece of news from The Gazette: Embraer takes aim at Bombardier.

I generally commented on that issue the other week in this post.

Now does the proximate head-to-head competition from Embraer worry Bombardier's top brass? You bet.

Notification - I've put up a page for first-class resources for English learning

(Image from http://bit.ly/9IHUtO)

Here's the new page. You might really want to take a peek at it, if you're an English learner.

A spooky night walk

(Image from http://bit.ly/a2JGhc)

I was taking a walk on the street around 2AM the other night. For sure no one was out and I was by myself all the way.

Then this squat and portly guy in his forties appeared, about thirty meters away from where I was. I had seen him around before, for few times. But still, observing him drifting quietly in this dark fall night? It didn't make me feel comfortable. Anyways, he walked past me undisturbingly.

Two minutes later, I spotted another tall man in a trench coat, moving quickly toward my position. He was crossing a street corner. Due to some shrubs and the likes, I could only see his lower body. O.K. That did it. I became spooked.

I hurried towards the 24/7 convenience store at the gas station at the major intersection, where I could expect to find and see a few real and unspooky people.

Music - Captain Nemo - Ace of Base

The lyrics are here: http://bit.ly/4Crl7w



Ace of Base once was the world's favorite all the way and used to have abundance of ardent fans. Their fantastic air and acute music used to know no bounds.

For sure the band's popularity sagged in recent years, given that it's been on the world's pop music stage since 1987. Nothing, definitely nothing, can mitigate any pop star's decline, I suspect.

By the way, the abode of Ace of Base is Sweden, which has spawned glamorously popular singers and bands such as ABBA and Ace of Base. Sweden, Iceland, and Finland, which are cultural and business innovation powerhouses, are in proximity to each other. And that group of Nordic countries never ceases to amaze me.

Saint Joseph's Oratory & the recent sainting of Brother Andre

The Saint Joseph's Oratory in Montreal, the largest church in Canada, was initiated and founded by Brother Andre. And he got canonized by the Pope in Vatican lately. What an enormous event for Quebec Catholics that is! Will Catholicism rally a bit in Quebec in the wake of this high profile event?

The miracles and good deeds emanated from Brother Andre left their mark on Quebec, Canada. The canons of modernity seem to only suggest secularity and materialism. But religion, and people's inner yearning for something higher, is here to stay.

University of Geneva

Wow. University of Geneva was founded by John Calvin! It's almost surreal for me. He created it.

U of Geneva must be a significant keeper of the precious original documents of the John Calvin canon, I guess.

Elegant Geneva, Switzerland and its monkey business of private banking

Geneva, Switzerland is never a vapid and rapid city like some others are. Pretty scenery, gourmet foods, tasteful cultures, high science establishments such as CERN, ... They have it all.

Now the private banking biz of Geneva, which has been always under lock and key for decades and decades, is prone to cracking and rupturing, due to the public leak of the tax evasions scandal. All the nations' governments, I believe, must have gotten enchanted and enraptured by the case and be watching or involving in the development of it closely. Well, that should be "bliss" for the banking industry of Switzerland.

Barnes & Noble Nook

The Barnes & Noble Nook, Amazon Kindle, Sony Reader, and the likes constitute an elegant range of e-book readers for consumers to choose from. People do need the kind of raptness when they read a good novel or something. And that's why James Patterson's fictions have been such hot commodities all these years.

All the same, the sordid DRM things will kill some businesses here and there.

News - Security Council rejection a deep embarrassment for Harper

Is this news article cunning enough? I'm waiting for The New York Times to try its hand at reporting and analyzing the causes of the particular fiasco.

Not being inside the UN Security Council would leave Canada's successful defense

Bern, Switzerland

(Image from http://bit.ly/a8OmE6)

I haven't been aware that Bern, or Berne, is the capital of Switzerland.

Ah, the zesty and tasty Europe. Asia's developing countries have seemed to be held so rapt with the U.S.A. They're not quite aware of Europe's strengths and richness, for my money.

On a different note, the edict of secret banking services offered by Switzerland is intriguing and loathsome to other nations, if you will. Think about the current scandal of discovered tax evasions by some HSBC Private Banking clients residing in Canada, France, U.K., etc.

Exceeding - Music video - Two songs by Elliott Smith

"Miss Misery"







"Miss Misery" Live








"Fond Farewell"
(Unfortunately, no good live version of "Fond Farewell" is to be found on the web for the time being.)




And their lyrics are:
http://bit.ly/a2hrYK (I especially appreciate the part "That you left lying around" in it.)
    &
http://bit.ly/7zSyMI

Elliott Smith with his art, vis-a-vis vices, is too tragic. His savage death is juxtaposed with his beautiful art.

These two songs are a blast from the past for me. I go into poignant raptures about Elliott Smith every time I listen to them.

Sir Wilfrid Laurier - The Man with the Silver Tongue - The Canadian Experience

A part of transient politicians became portly statesmen in a nation's history and heritage. Mr. Wilfrid Laurier is one of them for Canada. It would be an odious wrong for the state-of-the-art generations