Taking a small break from "Blast from the Past" to share this innovative teaching method which ensures full cooperation from your students, by threatening to reveal... spoilers from their favourite series!
Read and enjoy!
Tuesday, 25 March 2014
Thursday, 20 March 2014
A blast from the past #3 - Part 2
The list continues...
(5) Captain Power
(6) Centurions
(7) Defenders of Space (aka Phoenix King)
(8) Dinosaucers
(9) Dragonball
(10) Dungeons & Dragons
(11) Gargoyles
(12) Getter Robo
Jealous yet?
(5) Captain Power
(6) Centurions
(7) Defenders of Space (aka Phoenix King)
(8) Dinosaucers
(9) Dragonball
(10) Dungeons & Dragons
(11) Gargoyles
(12) Getter Robo
Jealous yet?
Wednesday, 19 March 2014
A blast from the past #3 - Part 1
Blast from the past continues with awesome TV cartoon series. This is going to be a multi-parter, simply because there were so many of them.
This list contains cartoon series that we used to get on the telly in Greece, or (at most) at the local video shop - in VHS format, naturally... Stuff like file-sharing and DVD-rips did not exist back then, so you didn't have many options as to what to watch.
Now, I know that everyone has a special connection to the cartoons he or she was watching as a child and feels sort of indifferent towards other cartoons that came before or after. One might still appreciate the before-after cartoons for their theme or their animation, but they do not evoke the certain stirring feeling you get when watching and old favourite; you know, the "Oh my God, I used to watch this when I was 8!" sort of thing...
Having said that, I honestly believe that all the cartoons on this list really are the créme de la créme of cartoons E V E R! Later productions cannot even begin to compare with these gems. Again, this judgement is based solely on what I used to get on TV versus what later generations got on TV. Growing up in Greece during the mid-80's to mid-90's was hands-down the best time to be a child!
There is a very logical explanation to this. In the mid-80's the TV network in Greece was rather limited, consisting of the grand total of two channels, both of which were state-owned. So, options were simply not there, although both channels did air some good cartoon series. The big bang came around 1990, when private TV channels were founded. These were of course for-profit organisations, so they needed to attract customers. And what is a better target group than children?
This list contains cartoon series that we used to get on the telly in Greece, or (at most) at the local video shop - in VHS format, naturally... Stuff like file-sharing and DVD-rips did not exist back then, so you didn't have many options as to what to watch.
Now, I know that everyone has a special connection to the cartoons he or she was watching as a child and feels sort of indifferent towards other cartoons that came before or after. One might still appreciate the before-after cartoons for their theme or their animation, but they do not evoke the certain stirring feeling you get when watching and old favourite; you know, the "Oh my God, I used to watch this when I was 8!" sort of thing...
Having said that, I honestly believe that all the cartoons on this list really are the créme de la créme of cartoons E V E R! Later productions cannot even begin to compare with these gems. Again, this judgement is based solely on what I used to get on TV versus what later generations got on TV. Growing up in Greece during the mid-80's to mid-90's was hands-down the best time to be a child!
There is a very logical explanation to this. In the mid-80's the TV network in Greece was rather limited, consisting of the grand total of two channels, both of which were state-owned. So, options were simply not there, although both channels did air some good cartoon series. The big bang came around 1990, when private TV channels were founded. These were of course for-profit organisations, so they needed to attract customers. And what is a better target group than children?
What followed was a torrent of pure awesomeness. Of course we'd get all the Warner Bros/Disney stuff like "Looney Tunes", "Merrie Melodies", "Duck Tales" and "Darkwing Duck", along with "classics" such as "The Smurfs" and "Dennis". But we'd also get anime. Yes, that's right. Anime. The robots-fighting-aliens, sci-fi grandeur kind of anime. On TV. Every day. So, without further ado, read 'em and weep:
(1) Area 88
Well, Part-1 concludes here 'cause it's already getting rather long. There's more to come, stay tuned.
Wednesday, 12 March 2014
Politicians and humour...
I know, I know, this one's a long debate. Yes, politicians are public figures, they hold positions of responsibility, some of them even run entire countries, so they need to be careful and comport themselves in a certain fashion and so forth and so on... However, they are still humans and nothing comes more natural to our species than a sense of humour (OK, there are actually many things that come more natural to humans than humour, but I digress.)
To be honest though, I really believe that most politicians do not have a sense of humour. It's not that they are trying to be careful, they are genuinely not funny people. Whenever a politician does something funny (or at least tries to), this generally means that we laugh at them. Failed attempts at playing football (a certain Greek ex-Prime Minister comes to mind), failed attempts at riding a racing bicycle (another Greek ex-Prime Minister comes to mind), failed attempts at doing anything normal and logical (Boris Johnson, anyone?), each country has at least one politician who fails to show any degree of humour.
And then you see this show...
Now, I don't live in the States so I am really not in a position to judge Barack Obama on his policies (or lack thereof, depending on your POV). But really, kudos to him for this appearance. Like him or not, he is the President of the US, and still he owns my fellow-countryman Zack. I'm trying ever-so-hard to imagine different politicians at a similar setting... no luck so far, but I'm open to ideas.
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