I noticed a considerable lack of SPN on here lately. Luckily that obvious mistake can be corrected in no time. This time those two dorks are partly dubbed in Chinese. Let me just say I feel so privileged to be able to watch the series in English.

Kentsakad jõulud jätkuvad

No esiteks olen ma haige, teiseks üritasid mu sugulased eile Hiiumaale külla minna, aga jõudsid ainult Rohukülla, sest merevee tase on nii madal, et igasugune praamiliiklus peatati ja nad sõitsid sama targalt Tallinnasse tagasi ja kolmandaks oli meil täna kaheksatunnine elektrikatkestus, sest väidetavalt sadas lumi alajaama sisse ja miskid kaitsmed põlesid läbi ning nende vahetamine võttis neil terve päeva aega. Kaheksatunnine elektrikatkestus on tore, kui vee olemasolu nii kraanis kui WC-s sõltub elektrist, õnneks oli meil piisavalt lund, mida WC-s sulatada. Ja lumega seoses, neljandaks, - tänahommikune jõuluime - tuisu poolt öösel hoolega meisterdatud lumehunnikuke meie elutoa akna taga ;)

Selline vaatepilt avaneb siis toast õue vaadates. Mulle meenutab see toast vaadates igatahes ühte õnnetut Urri, kes advendikolmnurga valguse peale on kohale tulnud ja tule surnuks istunud. Elekter oli ju ära ja vahetult peale elektri ära minekut me selle Urri seal akna taga avastasimegi.

Käisime mingi päev, kui hästi külm oli, jõe ääres. Paar pildikest sealtki.

Advendikalender 2: extraspecial for Christmas Eve

The Feeling has recorded their version of yet another of my very favourite Christmas songs. Their Christmas message says:

You might remember that, last week, we asked you to send in pictures to be used in the video for a special cover version which Dan has recorded. Well over 100 of you did exactly that (thanks!) and Dan has been slaving over the video - sorry that we couldn't fit in all the pictures. So, here it is, just in time for Christmas...

Advendikalender: Happy Christmas!

Advendikalender: closer to Christmas

A true classic.

Advendikalender: Robbie, who else?

Well, we've listened to Robbie's new album a lot of times today and I discovered that I love this song :)

Blasphemy.

Advendikalender: Robbie, again...

Ott sang this song at the final of our version of X-Factor yesterday and it was absolutely amazing. Hence, I had an official reason to post Robbie again. By the way, he's all nice and cozy here, on this side of the looking-glass.

Advendikalender: Christian Kane

Since I posted Steve Carlson yesterday, it's time for Christian today. Actually they both belong to a band called Kane, which they formed in 1998 in LA. They call their style "outlaw country" and have released two independent albums. And I sort of started watching Leverage because of Christian.

Advendikalender: Steve Carlson

I've never started to listen to a band or a singer because of a TV series. Well, there's the first time for everything.

Advendikalender: TV shows

We're in the middle of the topic of reality shows and talk shows. That's only a part of what my students came up with for today :)

The Newlywed Game


Two clips from Whose Line Is It Anyway?

Advendikalender: Panto by Sooty

This is probably the Mõmmi ja aabits of British children. It's Sooty, the longest running children's programme in the UK (more than 60 years). In this particular Christmas episode Sooty, Sweep and Soo want to go and see a Christmas Pantomime, but it starts snowing, the roads are blocked and they can't go. So they decide to put on their own panto - A Little Red Riding Hood (the actual panto starts at around 5:30 of the first part, so you might want to start watching from there). Unfortunately I don't know which year this particular episode is from but it is rather old. And funny :) Enjoy the traditional British Christmas entertainment :)





Oh yes, I watched it in class. With my form 11 :p

Advendikalender: Newer stuff

For no reason, I just like the song.

Advendikalender: Little Drummer Boy

A Christmas classic I'm posting today because I went to a Christmas concert yesterday. It was a church concert with two singers - Ivo Linna and Jassi Zahharov. Linna sang it in Estonian and it was absolutely amazing (so was the whole concert). Here's a version by Ronan Keating (featuring Stephen Gately).

Advendikalender: Britain's Got Talent

Time to go back to May this year. I watched all the semifinals and the final and Susan wasn't my favourite, but neither were the winners. I'm posting this clip because of the faces of the judges. Hilarious. And Simon Cowell is love. I did watch the show because of him.

Sorry, embedding has been disabled.

Advendikalender: Happy 3rd advent!

All relevant additional information can be found here :)

The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus

We went to see Doctor Parnassus a week ago. It was one of the most peculiar films I had ever seen. But peculiar in a good way as I was staring at the screen mouth open half of the time, not quite believing my eyes. What else would you expect from a man who has directed both Monty Python and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas? And even though it started at 11 p.m. and it was a Friday night and it had been a loooong week, I never felt like falling asleep.
Visually it's a sort of mix of LOTR, HP, Narnia, Willy Wonka, Sweeney Todd, Stardust and about a zillion other films of that kind. There's the Knight Bus from Harry Potter and the (imaginary) chains around the girl's ankle from Stardust, the übercolourful land of Willy Wonka and the death and decay of the darkest places near Mount Doom and of the London of Sweeney Todd's time. And it's got the most deliciously dreadful London I had ever seen - everything from the beauty of St. Paul's and the magnificent Tower Bridge to the underside of Blackfriars Bridge, the run-down docklands and the most dilapidated houses on the banks of the Thames.
I loved the visuals throughout - as I already said, London was fabulous, the clash between now and then too apparent - mobile phones, the drunk clubbers, consumerism and shopaholics with their high heels and perfect hair-dos versus the shabby but too colourful horse-drawn carriage parked and opened in the most unexpected places. The various imaginary worlds were even more enchanting than reality. There were definitely some places reminding you of Monty Python and some psychedelic images from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. But in addition, there were crumbling buildings next to the almost Teletubbies-like world of the greenest green pastures, flamboyant flowers and everything else in the brightest and happiest colours. There were also Salvador Dali-like endless ladders to heaven next to the deep and menacing gorges leading straight to hell.
And there was Heath, of course. I was quite surprised to see how much footage they had managed to shoot before he passed away. It might sound strange, but even when he wasn't on screen, his presence was almost palpable. It was his film from the beginning till the end, Johnny, Jude and Colin were just assisting. I was sure I wouldn't like to see Tony transform and would notice it immediately, but to my astonishment I actually didn't notice the first transformation happening when Johnny took over. I just discovered probably some minutes later that it wasn't Heath any more but Johnny instead and I don't know how it was possible as they aren't especially look-alikes, save the similar clothes and make-up. I had been contemplating about the colour of Tony's eyes during those few minutes, though, as Johnny's are much lighter brown then Heath's, so one can't say I wasn't suspicious at least.
To avoid any misconceptions, let's put it very clearly - I loved the film and the underlying story. It was so surprisingly absurd that it actually made a lot of sense.

Advendikalender: back in time again

ABBA and Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! It's a B-side from 1979. Abba always reminds me of the film Mamma Mia ever since I saw it, the sunniest film I've ever seen (yes sunniest not funniest).

Advendikalender: Specially for T, Happy Birthday :)))

Nickelback, Gotta Be Somebody, without doubt one of my most favourite songs by them.

Tänase päeva parim kõnelus

Küsimus: Kas te olete ära otsustanud, mis teemal ettekannet teete?
Vastus (väga entusiastlikult): Jaaaa!!! Me teeme neist metsavihmadest!

Advendikalender: something new for a change

It's The Big Pink and Dominos. For some reason I just like this song.

Advendikalender: Laul Põhjamaast

Nonii, peale kogu seda x-rated Robbie teemat ma kohe tundsin, et ma pean siia postitama midagi karget, karmi ja põhjamaist :p Et siis üks ilusamaid eesti laule üldse, filmist "Kevad südames". Pole just kõige õigem aastaaeg, aga noh...

Advendikalender: The Script live @Ellen Degeneres

Saw them live on June 24 this year and just had to buy their album afterwards. They're great :)

Advendikalender: RW again

Robbie's new single You Know Me from his latest album Reality Killed the Video Star is out today. Well, as you can see from the video, Robbie has come through the looking glass and has joined me here. How very considerate of him! A bunny is exactly what I needed. But I have to say, it's much more exciting here now :p

Advendikalender: Nipernaadi

Tuleme siis peaaegu 20 aasta võrra tänapäevale lähemale - sedakorda siis aastasse 1983 ja jupike Nipernaadi filmi muusikat :)

Advendikalender: Older Goodies

Aren't they incredibly cute? :p Help! comes from 1965 and was written by John Lennon.

Advendikalender: Ronan! Ronan! Ronan!

Ok now, if you don't want to listen to Ronan every day till Christmas (I won't have absolutely any problems with that by the way), then I suggest I post four vids today. After all, it's the fourth today as well.

First there's the interview on GMTV. His accent is pure love. Fullstop.



And now to those Winter Songs. High time to feast on some Christmas spirit :) It's Only Christmas is a new song by him on the album.



Caledonia. It's a modern Scottish folk ballad, originally sung by Dougie MacLean in 1970s. Ronan has done some miracles with the chorus part, smoothness.



And last but not least, Ring Them Bells (original by Bob Dylan). I honestly adore his voice here. And his voice's got so much better over the years. I don't even dare to tell how many years I've been listening to him. As for the song, then it's perfectly normal to listen to a song for about a dozen times non-stop, isn't it?

Advendikalender: MJ

This Is It, Michael himself...

Tänase päeva pärlid

Caravan tõlge: kaasaskantav maja
***
"Et te andsite teistele lehe ziljoni sõnaga?"
"Jah täitsa õige ja sinu leht on mul siin raamatu vahel."
***
Gerund versus to infinitive.
"Any example sentences?"
"I love Heinz."
"Not a good example. Heinz doesn't have an -ing at the end, does he?"
***
"Ja kus see vastus kirjas on?"
"Esimese lause viimases lõigus."

Advendikalender: Walt Disney Pictures presents

BA's brand new song You've Been A Friend to Me from the soundtrack of the film Old Dogs. I wouldn't like to see the film, but Bryan is Bryan. I love the absurd video.

Advendikalender: London calling

And the honour of opening this year's advent calendar goes to .... drummms .... Robbie Williams, performing the 1979 classic Video Killed the Radio Star together with Trevor Horn from the Buggles at the BBC Electric Proms in The Roundhouse on 20 October this year. The choice is obvious - here you'll get to see videos for the next 24 days and the title is a play on words of Robbie's newest studio album Reality Killed the Video Star :)