Halloween

Halloween, the time of pumpkins, candies, ghosts, witches and much more, is annually celebrated on 31 October.

That's the night before All Saints Day. Its origins date back thousands of years to the Celtic festival of Samhaim or The Feast of the Sun, a most significant holiday of the Celtic year. This day marked the end of summer but also the season of darkness as well as the beginning of the New Year on 1 November.

Druids in Britain and Ireland would light bonfires, dance around them and offer sacrifices of animal and crops. The fires were also intended to give warmth to the households and to keep free from evil spirits. Through the ages these practices changed.

The Irish hollowed out turnips, placed a light inside to keep away the bad and stingy Jack. As the legend says, Jack was a man who tricked the devil and after Jack had died he was allowed neither in heaven nor in hell. With a lantern in his hand he began to search for a resting place on Earth. This was the original Jack-o-Lantern. Since Halloween came to America from Ireland (Scotland and Wales) people used pumpkins because they were bigger and easier to hollow out than turnips.

During the centuries the cultures have added their own elements to the way Halloween is celebrated.

Children love the custom of dressing-up in fancy costumes and going from door-to-door yelling "Trick-or-Treat". Adults instead join spooky parties which are nearly held all over the cities and villages on that special evening. A spooky decoration, games and "frightening food" are nuts and bolts for a Halloween party your friends won't soon forget.

QUIZ click here

Ulrike Schroedter wrote the text.

Swiss Artist Bio

Thomas Hirschhorn is a Swiss artist who is known for his sprawling works that transform traditional white cube spaces into environments taking on issues of critical theory, global politics, and consumerism. He engages the viewer through superabundance. Combining found imagery and texts, bound up in low-tech constructions of cardboard, foil, and packing tape, he props imagistic assaults in a DIY-fashion that correlates to the intellectual scavenging and sensory overload designed to simulate our own process of grappling with the excess of information in daily life. Created from the most basic everyday materials, his major works are concerned with issues of justice, injustice, power and powerlessness, and moral responsibility.... Read More

Thomas Hirschhorn studied from 1978 – 1983 at the University of Art in Zurich, Switzerland. His work has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions including the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Museu d'Art Contemporani, Barcelona; Kunsthaus Zürich; Art Institute of Chicago; and Museum Ludwig, Cologne; and Secession, Vienna. Additionally, he has taken part in many international group exhibitions, including Documenta 11 in Kassel, Germany, where his large-scale public work, Bataille Monument was on view; “Heart of Darkness” at the Walker Art Center; and “Life on Mars: the 55th Carnegie International.”

Hirschhorn was the recipient of the Prix Marcel Duchamp in 2000 and the Joseph Beuys-Preis in 2004 and represented the Swiss Pavillon in the 54th Venice Biennial in 2011.

                                         Watch Cavemanman(2 min) you tube video:  Click here

 

Listen to an interview with Thomas Hirschhorn: click here

 

Speak up!

Basic Greetings in English

greeting (noun): saying hello; a polite word of welcome
greet (verb): to say hello; to welcome somebody
(The opposite of greeting is farewell - saying goodbye.)

There are many ways to say hello in English. Sometimes you say a quick hello as you are passing somebody. At other times a greeting leads to a conversation. Friends and family members greet each other in a casual way. Business greetings are more formal.
On the following pages you can listen to and practise greeting people in a variety of situations.
In this lesson you will find:
Tips: language and gestures that native speakers use
Useful phrases: words and expressions that native speakers use
Pair practice: sample conversations with audio (practise with a learning partner)

Begin Here:

thank you EnglishClub

How to Address People in English

"What should I call you?"

First name	Surname Family name Last name
William	Shakespeare
Hilary	Clinton

English learners often feel confused about how to address people properly. Many feel uncomfortable asking the question, "What should I call you?" Even native English people find this question awkward. For example, many women don't know how to address their boyfriend's mother. On the other hand, some parents don't know what to call their children's teacher.

Note that:
for Mr we say "Mister"
for Mrs we say "Misses"
for Miss we say "Miss"
for Ms we say "Mizz"

Why is "What should I call you?" such a difficult question to ask? Perhaps it's because you are asking the other person to provide their status or position in the world in relationship to yours. This position may involve age, job, education, religion and even marital status.

Follow this link:

Thank you EnglishClub.com

Write your own Artist Bio

A biography is a quick yet important summary of your CV. It belongs in your portfolio. It will change and transform as you change and transform. It is a summary of how you got to where you are in life. It is written in prose and in the third person (like a novel or story).  Basically you are writing about yourself using the ‘he’ or ‘she’ form. The Artist’s Bio may also say something about key themes to your ‘inner artist’.    

It is one to two paragraphs and is usually around one half of a page. The bio (also known as biog) gives information such as where you went to school, what degrees/education you have, if you've led or participated in any workshops, major exhibitions where your artwork has been exhibited and any major collections that your work is a part of.  

Sample Artist Bio CLICK  HERE

 

STEPS TO WRITING A BIO
                                                                                                        

Key information in an artist’s biography:

·   Your name & where you are from

·   When you were born

·   What you are creating;  the medium that you work in(or are interested in)

·   A sentence about the key themes, concerns of your practice

·   Your background in this medium (schooling, past projects, shows, awards…)

·   Your education (include art related education)

·   What you are working on currently (themes, projects, ideas…)

·   Other interesting information relevant to your practice or career as an artist (e.g. collaborations or arts collectives, aspects of your career that inform your practice)

·   Where you live, work, or study now/ upcoming exhibitions, residencies or study plans

·   Written in the 3rd person (he, she form)

·   Keep it short and simple

·   Cool picture or formal picture

Depending on where the bio is being displayed you could be as formal or casual as you want. What is most important is that you are accurately represented!

An Artist’s Bio is as individual as you are.

To begin, write a list/outline to plan what is important to mention.

Vacation time-at the airport

Improve your listening skills.

Begin here

Review of the Simple Present and Present Progressive Tenses.

Fill in the spaces with the correct form of the verb in simple present tense or present progressive tense. Rachel's Diary – Do Not Touch!!! September 29, 2010 – My First Day Here Today (be) _______(1) the first day at my new school. Right now, it is lunch time, and all of the students (eat) _______ _________(2) their lunches. They (sit) _______ _________(3) around the big table in the cafeteria, (talk) ________(4) in small groups. I (sit) _______ ________(5) alone. I (be) _______(6) pretty nervous. I (hope) _______(7) the other students (not, think) _______ _______ ________(8) I am weird. I (write) _______ ________(9) in my diary right now to look like I (have) _______(10) something important to do. For lunch today, I (have) _______(11) an apple, pretzels, and a tuna fish sandwich. I (hate) _______(12) tuna fish, but my mom (love) ________(13) it. She (say) _______(14) it is good for me. She (pack) ________(15) it for me every day, so I (guess) ________(16) I have to eat it. I (also, have) ________ ________(17) some cookies. At least I (like) ________(18) to eat those. Hey! The girls at the big table (look) _______ ________(19) at me! What (they, want) _______ ________ ________(20)? They (laugh) _______ ________(21) at something. What ( Oh my gosh! One of them (come) ______ _________(25) this way! Stay calm, Rachel. She is not going to hurt you. She is just another girl like you, right? Wait. Now she (hold) _______ _________(26) out her hand to me. Does she (want) ________(27) to be friends? What (she, do) _______ ________ _________(28)? Oh, I know! She (invite) _______ _________(29) me to her table! Maybe I (be, not) _______ _______(30) that weird after all! they, laugh) _______ ________ _________(22) at? I hope they (not, laugh) _______ _______ _________(23) at me. I (get) _______ ________(24) nervous again.

Perfect Tense

Let's attempt to explain the present perfect tense.  It makes sense to me. No fair-  I know.  It is my mother language.  I am just trying to help.

Practice will  help you with this.
BEGIN HERE

Future forms practice

There is often very little difference between the future tenses. Yet...it is quite important to be able to use the tense correctly.

It often depends where you live (in Britain or the USA) and when you use the sentence (in spoken or written communication).
 
In newspapers we often use the will-future, when the going to-future is used in oral communication.
newspaper:
The headmaster will close the old gym.
oral:
The headmaster is going to close the old gym.

 
Here are some selected practice pages :

 

http://www.englishexercises.org/makeagame/viewgame.asp?id=7229

http://english.lingolia.com/en/grammar/tenses-comparison/future-tenses/exercises

http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises/tenses/future.htm

Basic Verb Tenses

For each sentence, choose the best word or phrase to complete the gap from the choices below.

BEGIN HERE

"Autumn Fires" by Robert Louis Stevenson

A Thanksgiving activity

Begin here