What is the plural of Prius?

                        

Cry out!

Stéphane Hessel

'Indignez-vous !': The essay that's shaking France up

By Matthieu Boisseau
04/01/2011

A political essay written by a 93-year-old former resistance hero Stéphane Hessel is smashing all publishing records in France. This 30-page best-seller, entitled 'Indignez-vous' ('Cry out'), calls on readers – and especially youths - to be outraged about the state of modern society.

600,000 copies have been sold - eight times more copies than the second most popular book, a Goncourt prize-winning novel by Michel Houellebecq «La carte et le territoire» - and publishers predict it will reach a million. The French book world has been taken by storm by this unlikely publishing sensation, on sale for an uncommonly cheap 3 Euros, and translations are even underway for the Italian and other European markets.

A Resistance hero's cry for insurrection.

The unexpected success of the book is mostly down to Hessel's charisma and his life story. Hessel was a German Jew, born in Berlin in 1917 and emigrated to France aged seven. During the Nazi occupation of France, Hessel, who was active in the resistance, joined General Charles de Gaulle’s Free French organisation in London. But when he returned to France in 1944, he was captured, tortured and sent to two different concentration camps in Germany, both of which he managed to escape from (the first one by managing to take the identity of a  prisoner who had just died). After the war, he helped to draft the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, becoming one of the most famous French advocates for Human Rights around the world. It undoubtedly gives Hessel's book a real credibility, especially when he argues that French people should re-embrace the values of the French resistance. This is why Hessel's genuine call for peaceful and non-violent insurrection has been such a success.

A political manifesto.

The success of the book could be an important straw in the wind as France enters a political cycle leading to the presidential elections of May 2012. Hessel denounces, among other things, the growing gap between the very rich and the very poor, France's shocking treatment of its illegal immigrants, the need to re-establish a free press, protecting the environment, the plight of Palestinians and the importance of protecting the French welfare system. Rejecting the "insolent, selfish" power of money and markets and defending the social "values of modern democracy", Hessel's book could be considered as the first real ideological project for the Socialist Party in preparation for the 2012 presidential elections.  Hessel has already announced he will be supporting the  head of the Socialist Party, Martine Aubry.

The essay also contains a lengthy denunciation of Israeli government policies, especially in the Gaza Strip, and harshly condemns the country's military operations. Hessel's stances on this polemical issues – whose father was a German Jew - have stirred up huge controversy, as he has been accused by French Jewish organisations of "anti-semitism".

In the vein of Zola 'J'accuse', 'Indignez-vous' sounds like a call for a collective realisation. And it is quite a breath of fresh air to see that a book written by a 93-year-old man, which contains no sex, no jokes, and deals with all modern stakes, can be a publishing phenomenon.

I think I've heard that before #2

 

 Madonna 'begged' Abba for sample

Madonna has admitted that she wrote a grovelling letter to Swedish superstars Abba asking if she could sample their music on her latest single.

Gimme Gimme Gimme features on new track Hung Up, only the second time Abba have allowed another act to use their work.

"I had to send my emissary to Stockholm with a letter begging them and telling them how much I love their music," she told Attitude magazine.

"They never let anyone sample their music. Thank God they didn't say no."

Songwriters Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus have only allowed one other act to sample one of their tracks before, when the Fugees used part of The Name Of The Game on their 1996 track Rumble In The Jungle.

Madonna said: "They had to think about it, Benny and Bjorn. They didn't say yes straight away."

Andersson told last weekend's Sunday Telegraph that he and Ulvaeus said yes because "we admire Madonna so much and always have done".

"She has got guts and has been around for 21 years. That is not bad going," he added.

"Hung Up is really good. If it wasn't any good we would not have said yes. It is a wonderful track - 100 per cent solid pop music.'' 

Read, no matter what?

Teacher who put pupils into their own sex'n'drugs novel awaits tribunal result

English teacher was sacked for gross misconduct over book containing sexual references and swearwords

 

Leonora Rustamova's references to the Mr Gay UK competition in her novel, Stop! Don’t Read This, caused a furore. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian

A much-praised teacher who persuaded difficult pupils to read by making them characters in their own, grittily realistic novel is about to find out whether an employment tribunal will allow her to relaunch her career.

Leonora Rustamova, nicknamed Miss Rusty by pupils at the high school where she taught English for 11 years, was sacked for gross misconduct in 2009 after the book appeared on an internet self-publishing site.

Its sexual references and a comparison between two teenagers and "gorgeous Mr Gay UK finalists" led to a furore. But Leeds employment tribunal heard from Rustamova's lawyer that the project had initially been encouraged by Stephen Ball, the head of Calder High school at Mytholmroyd, West Yorkshire. He had described the printing of bound copies for each pupil as a "lovely" gesture.

Ball said he was initially supportive of the project to publish the book, Stop! Don't Read This, although he had some reservations.

The tribunal has retired to consider Rustamova's claim for compensation, after hearing that her life was "in ruins" because she became over-excited by the project's success. She told the hearing: "I am an idiot but I had good intentions." One parent had told her that the book was the first her 15-year-old son had read from beginning to end.

Rustamova, 40, wrote the 96-page story after taking charge of a recalcitrant group nicknamed the Commy Boys, who were allegedly given to sexist and racist language and showed little interest in learning. She wrote five of them and herself into a plot involving a drugs gang which was foiled by the pupils, but with sexual fantasies, bad language and truancy along the way.

The tribunal heard how Rustamova read draft instalments in class and pupils gradually became interested in adding their own contributions. Inevitably, this ratcheted up the tally of swearwords and risque episodes, but Matthew Pascall, Rustamova's barrister, said the book did not subvert "positive attitudes and values" and its denouement involved the teacher and her "five favourites" calling in the police.

Rustamova defended the Mr Gay UK passage, claiming she had thought it harmless.

There were pupil demonstrations and protests from parents when Rustamova was suspended, then sacked in May 2009 by the board of governors. Another former English teacher at Calder High, Stephen Cann, who was suspended over the project and later retired, told the tribunal that the head had praised Rustamova for "persevering with a group of lads who had largely been written off".

The school is a highly regarded comprehensive serving Mytholmroyd and the characterful community of Hebden Bridge. Andrew McGrath, representing its governors, said Rustamova had been dismissed for serious errors of judgement.

These did not only involve the book, he said, but also out-of-school activities with the boys and a "failure to acknowledge or comprehend sufficiently the seriousness of the school's concerns".

He said the text had been available on the internet for five months, after Rustamova's husband used a self-publishing site to provide 22 bound copies for pupils and staff.

Rustamova said she had been aghast when she was suspended from her £34,000-a-year job. She said: "I got a letter congratulating me on my promotion to social cohesion co-ordinator and then this happened the next day. I was in deep shock for a couple of days. I was utterly astonished."

Rustamova is out of work and relying on benefits to support her daughter. She said her sacking was wrong and her treatment by the school had "rendered me untouchable". 

I think I've heard that before #1

Dear student,

You can't imagine the enormous amount of music you hear nowadays that was written twenty or thirty years ago (or even more). The problem is nobody tells you what you are really listening to. There's always been covers of old songs reinterpreted by new artists. Nowadays, we hear the word "sampling" far too often. Some years ago we used the word "plagiarism". The music industry is trying to make us believe that copying the melody or the sounds of an old song is "sampling", as if doing this was less wrong or required having certain musical talent. Don't settle for what the industry puts on your plate. Good music is timeless. Search for the original. It is so much better most of the times.

Today, we have "Call on me" by some Eric Prydz. The chorus of Steve Winwood's song repeated over and over again. What can I say? The talent of this "artist" matches perfectly the hideous and disgraceful video clip.









 Steve Winwood - Valerie

So wild, standing there, with her hands in her hair
I can't help remember just where she touched me
There's still no face here in her place
So cool, she was like jazz on a summer's day
Music, high and sweet, then she just blew away
Now she can't be that warm with the wind in her arms

Valerie, call on me
Call on me, Valerie
Come and see me
I'm the same boy I used to be

Love songs fill the night, but they don't tell it all
Not how lovers cry out just like they're dying
Her cries hang there in time somewhere
Someday, some good wind may blow her back to me
Some night I may hear her like she used to be
No it can't be that warm with the wind in her arms

So cool, she was like jazz on a summer's day
Music, high and sweet, then she just blew away
Now she can't be that warm with the wind in her arms

It's all Greek to me

'Perdidos', una de las series que más "miedo al spoiler" ha generado.

• Foros, blogs y webs están llenos de términos televisivos incomprensibles que pueden llegar a despistar incluso a los televidentes más fieles.
• En ellos, una 'lata' o un 'duplex' no son lo que parecen.
• 'Flipping', 'grazzing'... mira otros términos televisivos raros aquí

No es un diccionario de otro idioma, tampoco uno publicado por la Real Academia Española, simplemente son algunos de los términos más utilizados por aquellas personas relacionadas con el mundillo de la televisión: profesionales, fans irredentos, teléfilos... Una auténtica jerga, con muchas expresiones tomadas del inglés, que en ocasiones despista más que aclara. No se líe, nosotros se lo explicamos.

 

Blooper: Son las meteduras de pata en la grabación de un reportaje o serie. En El príncipe de Bel-Air era habitual mostrarlos al final de cada capítulo. También sirve para referirse a las pifias que se cuelan en las ficciones y que detectan los espectadores, como en la tv movie Felipe y Letizia.

Cliffhanger: El baño de sangre en el que murieron cuatro protas de Los hombres de Paco en la séptima temporada. Son esas escenas impactantes con las que concluye un capítulo o temporada. Los guionistas -en España lo llaman dejar las tramas en alto- las usan intencionadamente para dejar al espectador con el gusanillo y que siga enganchado.

Crossover: Cruce de personajes entre series que normalmente son de una misma cadena o productora. Uno de los más impactantes ha sido el triple crossover entre CSI Miami, NY y Las Vegas para dar caza al asesino del compás. En la ficción nacional: los abuelos de Médico de familia en Periodistas o El comisario en Los Serrano.

Development Hell: Hay pozos en los que una serie se mete y no sale. Puede ser tanto por razones de guión (Flashforward) como de programación (Hermanos y detectives).

Duplex: Conexiones en directo. Por ejemplo, cuando desde Espejo público (Antena 3) en Madrid entrevistan a Patxi López en Gernika.

Factual: Es un tipo de televisión que no pasa por un plató y que tiene componentes de género documental. El primer ejemplo en España llegó con Mi cámara y yo (Telemadrid) y luego sus creadoras lo trasladaron a Cuatro. Así nacía Callejeros.

HD: Alta definición. Tiene cinco veces la calidad de emisión de la tele convencional. Tiene que haber tres componentes en HD para que se considere así: producción, emisión y recepción. Si falla una no es HD.

Holdback: Cuando una cadena emite una serie en exclusiva durante un tiempo. Siempre llegan primero a los canales de pago que al abierto, de ahí una batalla auténtica por estrenar antes que el resto.

Hot from the USA: La ventana de estreno inmediata tras EE UU. Como no da tiempo a doblarlo se emite en versión original subtitulada (véase House en Fox). Es la forma que tiene la industria televisiva para luchar contra la piratería.

Infoteinment: Mezcla de información y entretenimiento, como en España directo.

Jumping the shark: Literalmente, 'saltando al tiburón'. Se emplea en EE UU por los críticos para describir el momento en el que a una serie se le introduce un giro absurdo en la trama para recuperar audiencia. Sobrenatural y Expediente X son un ejemplo perfecto.

Lata: Una o varias temporadas de una serie que una cadena compra para emitirla doblada. La lata más vendida de Globomedia ha sido Un paso adelante.

Midseason: Periodo dentro de la temporada televisiva estadounidense. También sirve para designar a las series más cortas que las cadenas se guardan para reemplazar sus fracasos. Ha habido series de midseason exitosas, como Canción triste de Hill Street o Malcolm, que luego se han desarrollado.

PVR (Personal Video Recorder): Disco duro para grabar algo de la tele que no podemos ver en ese momento. Una versión modernizada del VHS.

Screenings: Es la forma de denominar los visionados que hacen las cadenas de sus estrenos. A ellos acuden compradores de canales internacionales y prensa.

Showrunner: Alma mater de una serie. La persona que se encarga de estructurar la continuidad y el tono de una ficción. Tina Fey (Rockefeller Plaza) o Damon Lindelof (Perdidos) son dos de ellos.

Spin off: Serie que ha nacido de otra. Normalmente se coge a un personaje que tiene tirón y se le da una serie propia para sacarle más partido. En España Aída fue la primera. Al otro lado del charco están Joey (Friends), Angel (Buffy), Sin cita previa (Anatomía de Grey)...

Spoiler: Contenido que puede destripar parte de la trama por lo que su presencia se anuncia con antelación. Cuando se emitió el final de Perdidos, la Red se llenó de spoilers y los fans que no lo habían visto debían tener cuidado.

Stunt casting: Cuando un famoso hace una aparición estelar en una serie no siempre es un mero cameo. A veces es una excusa para impulsar su carrera (Britney Spears en Cómo conocí a vuestra madre, Lindsay Lohan en Ugly Betty) o un intento descarado de enganchar a la audiencia cuando la cosa está floja (Concha Velasco en Hospital central).

Sweeps: Barridos de audiencia muy exhaustivos que se realizan al margen de las mediciones diarias. Dos de ellos se hacen al inicio de la temporada.

Talent: El famoso. Las cadenas se desviven para cumplirles todos los caprichos. Cuando la actriz Jennifer Carpenter, hermana de Dexter y ex mujer de Michael C. Hall en la vida real, visitó Madrid quiso ir a la Pasarela Cibeles... Y hubo que buscarle un vestido apropiado.

Teaser: Pequeño aperitivo de los contenidos que una cadena quiere publicitar antes de un estreno, pero sin desvelar mucha información.

URST (Unresolved sexual tensión): La tensión sexual no resuelta entre personajes es un ingrediente que no falla. Ya les pasaba a los detectives Maddie y David en la mítica Luz de luna. Más actuales son los tira y afloja de Booth y Brennan (Bones) o los celos de Beckett y Castle en la serie del mismo nombre.

VOD (Video On Demand): El vídeo a la carta permite al usuario configurarse su propia parrilla para ver cuando quiera y donde quiera los contenidos a través de Internet.