Arts and Culture : The Power of Film

Many people talk about the power of film, and I was struck by this ‘power’ just last week whilst watching Paul Greengrass’s magnificent ‘Captain Phillips’.  Based on the true story of the hijacking of Captain Phillips’ ship off the coast of Somalia, the film is a thriller with tension levels off the scale.  Tom Hanks, in the title role, gives a phenomenal performance and Barkhad Abdi’s portrayal of Muse, the Somali pirate captain, was so good he won this year’s BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor – pretty amazing, as this was his first film role.
As a family, we felt we’d all been on a journey through watching this film.  We were all completely immersed by its tension and characters.  We talked afterwards about what made it such a ‘good’ film, and here are some of our responses:

Challenge: Learning to Play the Piano #4

Hi again, and welcome to the piano challenge.  Things have changed a little since my last post two weeks ago.  I found myself becoming very bored with the tuition book I was using – it seemed to be all reading and theory, and , well...  I was bored, found myself not wanting to do it and, subsequently, I was getting nowhere.  So, I changed tack.  I picked up my daughter’s first piano book, Piano Time by Pauline Hall (Oxford University Press, 2004), and have spent the odd half-hour here and there over the last fortnight working through the book.  So far, I’m up to page 15, and Au clair de la lune, and can already combine the left and right hand (which feels like you’re splitting your brain in half!), read the music more readily and I feel excited about learning to play.  It doesn’t feel like a chore or an academic exercise now, and I can’t wait to move on to the next stage.

Musical Selection - Earth Prelude

Merry Christmas

SEASON'S GREETINGS

 

FROM

VAL AND DORI

 

 

Video courtesy of The Piano Guys ~ "Angels We Have Heard on High"