Links to Geography Project!

Post 1- The West End

Post 2- Christian Dior

Post 3- Pizza

Post 4- Chicago, The Windy City

Post 5- Michael Flatley

Happy Reading :)

Geography Project Part 5 - Michael Flatley

In my last post I talked about Chicago and its nickname, 'The Windy City'. Now I'm linking this post to Michael Flatley.


Michael Flatley was born on the 16th of July 1958. He grew up on the south-side of Chicago with his Irish parents. At 12 he began dancing lessons and in 1975 he became the first non-European resident to win the World Championship for Irish dance. He can play the flute. In dance, Flatley was taught by Dennis Dennehy at the Dennehy School of Irish Dance in Chicago, then went on to producing his own show. After graduating from secondary school, he opened a dance school.

Michael Flatley was the first American to win the World Irish Dance Championships and also won numerous All-Ireland Flute Championships. From 1978 to 1979 he toured with Green Fields of America. He then toured with The Chieftains in the 1980s. In May 1989, Flatley set a Guinness Book world record for a tapping speed at 28 taps per second. 

Flatley choreographed the original Riverdance with Ms. Jean Butler. This led to amazing success after it was first performed as the intermission act in the Eurovision Song Contest on the 30th of April, 1994. He then starred in the full-length show that was developed from the original seven-minute act. He also took a starring role in the show's UK debut. After this he left the show following a disagreement to do with creative control in 1995. 


Flatley then went on the choreograph and direct his own show called 'Lord of the Dance'. In 1998 he put on a dance production called 'Fleet of Flames'.

He broke his own record for tapping speed in February 1998, by achieving 35 taps per second. Flatley also received Guinness Book recognition in both 1999 and 2000 for being the highest paid dancer, earning $1,600,000 per week and for having the highest insurance policy placed on a dancer's legs at $40,000,000. In 2004, Flatley received an honorary doctorate degree from University College Dublin and that same year received the prestigious Ellis Island Medal of Honor in New York.

Michael Flatley's newest Irish dance show is called 'Celtic Tiger', which opened in July 2005. It explores the history of the Irish people and Irish emigration to the US. It fuses a wide range of dance styles, like jazz. The show also includes popular elements from his previous shows, such as Flatley's flute solos and the line of dancers in the finale.


In March 2006, Flatley released his own autobiographical book titled Lord of the Dance: My Story. Flatley and Niamh O' Brien, (one of the dancer from Celtic Tiger) were married in a Roman Catholic ceremony in Fermoy, County Cork, on October 14, 2006. Niamh Flatley gave birth to a son, Michael St. James Flatley, on Thursday April 26, 2007.

In April 2010, he announced that he would be returning to headline the Lord of the Dance show. In March 2011, to celebrate St Patricks Day, Lord of the Dance 3D, the movie, debuted in cinemas worldwide. Filmed during Flatley’s return tour in the fall of 2010, the movie featured new sets, new costumes and state-of-the-art lighting.


Here is the intermission act of Eurovision from youtube, where Riverdance first became famous.

 Picture Sources:
http://images.mirror.co.uk/upl/dailyrecord3/mar2011/5/5/michael-flatley-image-1-858147904.jpg
http://www.scannain.com/media/lord-of-the-dance.jpg
http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/About/General/2010/10/13/1286992857094/Jean-Butler-and-Michael-F-006.jpg
http://www.nndb.com/people/599/000025524/michaelflatley03.jpg

Geography Project Part 4: Chicago-The Windy City

Geography Project Part 4:

Chicago: The Windy City.

In my last post I said that Chicago had its own type of pizza so now I'm linking this to Chicago.

Chicago has many nicknames but its probably most commonly known as 'The Windy City'. There are 3 possibilities for this and they are: the weather, the World's Fair and their rivalry with Cincinnati.

Weather: Chicago is a naturally windy city because it is on the shores of Lake Michigan, although it is not actually any windier then any other American City. The average annual wind speed of Chicago is: 10.3 mph (16.6 km/h).

 Chicago has always prided itself as being an ideal summer resort because of its cool lake breeze. For years papers have issued statements on the refreshing winds of Chicago being perfect for summer holidays. 'The Boston Globe',July 8, 1873, said "a few years ago, Chicago advertised itself as a summer resort, on the strength of the lake breezes which so nicely tempered the mid-summer heats." The 'Chicago Tribune', June 14, 1876, said "Chicago as a Summer Resort" at length, proudly declaring that "the people of this city are enjoying cool breezes, refreshing rains, green fields, a grateful sun, and balmy air.

World's Fair: At the time of the 400th anniversary of Columbus' arrival, America planned to host a World's Fair as celebration. As news spread, many prominent cities started to compete for the honour of hosting this event. In the end the fight came down between New York City and Chicago.

 In 1890, Chicago won the bid to host the World's Fair, also known as the World's Columbian Exposition. Many New Yorkers were angry that Chicago had beaten them. 

It is a popular myth that the first person to use the term "Windy City" was The New York Sun editor, Charles Dana. He wrote, "Don’t pay any attention to the nonsensical claims of that windy city. Its people could not build a World’s Fair even if they won it".  

Rivalry with Cincinnati: Cincinnati and Chicago were rivals in the 1860s and 1870s. Cincinnati was well known in the meatpacking trade and it was called "Porkopolis" from around 1843. From the very early 1860s, Chicago surpassed Cincinnati in this trade and took the "Porkopolis" nickname. 

The baseball inter-city matches were really intense. The 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings were the champions of all baseball, so Chicago came up with a rival team called the White Stockings to defeat them. "Windy City" often appeared in the Cincinnati sporting news of the 1870s and 1880s. Here are some examples:

• 'The Cincinnati Enquirer', May 9, 1876, headline: "THAT WINDY CITY. Some Freaks of the Last Chicago Tornado."
• 'The Cincinnati Enquirer', May 13, 1876: "Only the plucky nerve of the eating-house keeper rescued the useful seats from a journey to the Windy City."

Picture sorces:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/de/Ferris-wheel.jpg/350px-Ferris-wheel.jpg
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYTm5LUwj8n9Vm49w3u73fG8lUSmT_WoPchI3YS934FMRYsg4-4uPd-COrS8L20sYE5dFU5pJ_oeFbyKO901RgxHom789XBKcRnGj1wa2CjakT8eOzZrQoMEcGgttwl2HtZ4Pfg47m3T3Y/s1600/lake-michigan1.jpg

Geography Project Part 3 Italy: Pizza

Geography Project Part 3

Italy: Pizza

Since Christian Dior died in Tuscany, I'm linking this to Italy.

Italy has a population of 58 million and the geographic size is 116,000 square miles. In northern Italy, temperatures can reach below freezing during the winters, with snow in the northern most areas. Southern Italy has a warmer, more moderate climate.

From evidence gathered, pizza seems to date back to ancient times. Egyptians and other ancient Middle Eastern cultures used to flat, un-leaven bread that had been cooked in mud ovens. The bread was like a pita, still commonly used in Greece and the Middle East today. It is known that ancient Mediterranean people like the Greeks, Romans and Egyptians were eating the bread, topped seasoned with olive oil and native spices. 

The familiar pizza that we know today is said to have first being served in Naples, Italy. In the late 1800s a Italian baker named Raffaele Esposito, created a dish for royalty. According to the story the Italian monarch King Umberto and his consort, Queen Margherita were visiting the area. In order to impress them, Raffaele served the Queen flat-bread topped with the colours that represented Italy, [red:tomato, white:mozzarella and green:basil]. The King and Queen were so impressed that news began to spread. To honour Raffaele's idea people called the pizza a 'Margherita'.


By the beginning of the 1900's pizza made it's way to the inner cities United States, thanks to Italian immigrants, mostly New York and Chicago, due to those cities having large Italian populations. Small cafes were the first to start selling the Italian dish. 


The bottom of the pizza, called the "crust", varies widely according to style—thin as i a typical hand-tossed pizza or Roman pizza, or thick pan pizza. It is normally plain, but can be seasoned with garlic, herbs, or stuffed with cheese. In restaurants, pizza can be baked in an oven with stone bricks, an electric deck oven, or, like in more expensive restaurants, a wood- or coal-fired brick oven. On deck ovens, the pizza can be slid into the oven on a long paddle, called a peel, and baked directly on the hot bricks or baked on a round metal grate.


Due to Italian immigrants in America, the U.S have developed many regional forms of pizza. Chicago has its own style of deep-dish, Detroit also has its twice baked style, with cheese all the way to the crust and New York has developed its own distinct thin crust styles. Below is a video on how to make a traditional Margherita pizza.

Picture Sources:
http://cdn.solidrecipe.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Margherita-Pizza-Photos-2.jpg
http://i.infoplease.com/images/mitaly.gif

Geography Project Part 2: France: Christian Dior

In my last geography post I said that Phantom of the Opera was based on a French novel so I’m going to link it to France.

Christian Dior was born on 21 January 1905 in Granville, a seaside town on the coast of Normandy, France. Today the population of Granville is around 12,847. Originally Granville was created as a Viking Settlement, it then became part of English territory in France from the 14th century until 1442. The most important religious monument in Granville is the 17th century Church of Notre-Dame, in the historic centre and overlooking the sea, with the church tower acting as a beacon to arriving boats. The church is best known for its contemporary stained glass windows.

Dior had four siblings: Raymond, Jacqueline, Bernard, and Ginette. When Christian was about five years old, the family moved to Paris, but returned to Normandy for the summer holidays.  Dior and his family spent each summer at 19th century 'Villa les Rhumbs' and the house is now a museum dedicated to Dior’s fashion creations.

 His family had hopes that he would become a diplomat, but Dior was artistic and wanted to be involved in fashion.  To make money, Dior sold his fashion sketches from the outside of his house for 10 cents each. When he was 23 years old, Dior received money from his father so that she and his friend could open a small art gallery. They sold works of art by the likes of Pablo Picasso.

3 years later, after the death of his mother and brother, during The Great Depression they were forced to close the gallery. Up until 1940 he worked with fashion designer Robert Piguet. Then he was called for military service.

In 1942, Dior left the army and joined the fashion house of Lucien Lelong with Pierre Balmain. All throughout World War ll, he designed dresses for the wives of Nazi officers and French collaborators, as did other fashion houses that remained in business during the war, for example Nina Ricci.

On 16 December 1946 Dior founded his fashion house.  His first collection, presented in early 1947, was named ‘Corolle’, [meaning circlet of flower petals]. Dior's designs were more modern than the fabric-conserving shapes of World War II styles, caused by the rations on fabric. He was a master at creating shapes and silhouettes. He was known for using: the fabric percale, boned, bustier-style bodices, hip padding, wasp-waisted corsets and petticoats that made his dresses flare out from the waist, giving the wearers a very curvaceous form. Initially, women protested because his designs covered up their legs, which they had been unused to because of the previous limitations on fabric. There was also some backlash to Dior's designs due to the amount of fabrics used in a single dress or suit.

 

Dior never married. He died while on holiday in Montecatini, Italy on 23 October 1957. Today, there are still a number of rumours surrounding Dior’s death, examples of these are: heart attack, choking and a seizure. To this day, the exact circumstances remain undisclosed.


Picture sources:
http://www.osmoz.com/var/osmoz/storage/images/media/images/dior/472270-1-fre-FR/dior.jpg
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/images/h2/h2_C.I.53.40.5a-e.jpg
http://theartdepartments.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/christian-dior.jpg

Geography Project Part 1: West End Theatre London, Phantom of the Opera

These are plays performed in London’s main theatre district, ‘Theatreland’ called the West End. Seeing a West End show is a common tourist activity in London. Theatre in London flourished after the English Reformation.

 Last year for my sixteenth birthday, my parents surprised me by bringing me to London to see the Phantom of the Opera. It is a musical written and composed by Andrew Lloyd Weber. The Phantom of the Opera opened in the West End in 1986.

 It is the longest running musical in the West End and the second longest running show overall. With total worldwide box office receipts of over £3.5 billion, Phantom is the highest-grossing entertainment event of all time and the most financially successful theatrical show in history.

 Phantom began previews at Her Majesty's Theatre in London's West End on September 27, 1986. The play, which is still being performed in Her Majesty’s Theatre, celebrated its 10,000th performance on 23 October 2010, with Lloyd Webber and the original Phantom, Michael Crawford attending.

A 25th-anniversary stage performance was held in London on 1 and 2 October 2011 at the Royal Albert Hall and was screened live in cinemas worldwide. The production was produced by Cameron Mackintosh and directed by Laurence Connor.

This amazing musical is based on  based on the French novel Le Fantôme de l'Opéra by Gaston Leroux.


Picture Sources:
http://www.vam.ac.uk/users/sites/default/files/66615-large_0.jpg
http://s3.broadway.com/photos/large/144546.jpg
http://www.hermajestystheatrelondon.info/images/theater.jpg

Music Night!!!

Last night was St. Wolstans annual Music Night. It was a great night all 6 years had some kind of different act. I was involved in the production of Shake It Out by Florence and the Machine. Most of our group arrived early and we weren't allow to walk around because we were making too much noise so we all decided to watch the movie School of Rock, [It was actually scary to see how many people knew all of the lines off by heart!]. Eventually it was our turn onstage. It went really fast and afterwards everyone said that we were brilliant. Its nice to have these nights in our school because there is a great buzz everywhere. The only downside it that today we are all sooo tired!

A Little Lolly Goes Along Way!

On Friday, the 24th of Feb T.Ys were out and about in Dublin raising money for Oesophageal Cancer. It was great fun. When we arrived we were given t-shirts, caps, balloons and buckets full of lollys and badges, we were then put into groups and given a map of different points all over Dublin. We had to sell the lollipops and badges for €2.
We all really enjoyed this day out. We got to help out a very important charity while having a good time with our friends. I was in a group with two girls and we had great craic with all of the people we talked to.
Sorry that I am so late in this blog post but it was definitely one of the highlights from T.Y.

Work Experience at the Springfield Hotel

 Sorry guys, I haven't had the chance to update my blog in ages so hopefully I'll be able to fix that over the next few weeks!

For my work experience I initially wanted to go somewhere to do with art. I tried contacting many different places but I couldn't get a reply, so I started looking at local places. Eventually a got an email from the Springfield Hotel in Leixlip saying that they would be happy for me to work with them for a week.

Day 1: I was nervous going in for my first morning. Another girl from my school called Emma was going to the same hotel so I was happy not to be alone. When I went in I met up with the head waitress, Caroline and another girl on work experience called Clíondha. It was a nice first day. We cleaned up around the bar area and learned to make and serve tea and coffee to customers. At the end of the day we had to set up two of the function rooms which took a while for it to be perfect.

Day 2: Today was very busy. We had a funeral party and a confirmation around the same time. I was working around the bar area taking orders and cleaning up after them.

Day 3&4: These days were alot less busy but were more fun. I polished cutlery and glasses. I was allowed work behind the bar more serving tea and coffee as well as serving minerals.

Day 5: My last day was really busy. We had a wedding that day. My job was to help clean and polish all the cutlery. We also helped set up the function room where the ceremony was taking place. It was very sad leaving the hotel and saying goodbye to all the lovely staff.

The Springfield Hotel was a very good work experience but I won't recommend it for people that aren't interested in that line of work.

Jane Eyre Book Review

For this review I chose the book 'Jane Eyre' by Charlotte Bronte. I chose this novel because I greatly enjoyed the book 'Pride and Prejudice' and wanted to find a book with a similar writing technique. I also wanted to challenge my reading ability to help prepare for 5th year. The brilliance of Bronte is clearly seen in this novel as you can't help but to get drawn into the story as the world that you know around you quickly disappears, only to be replaced by the foreign world of England in the 1800s.

The novel begins with a 10 year old Jane Eyre struggling to deal with the trials of being orphaned and being left in the care of her cruel Aunt, Mrs Reed and her spoiled children, John, Eliza and Georgiana. From the very beginning of this book we see that Jane must deal with hardship and inequality. Jane is intelligent, honest and fair. It is these attributes that get her sent away to a strict school for girls. During her eight years at Lowood School, Jane blossoms into a strong and sensible young woman and later finds herself in the new position of governess to the french ward of a Mr Edward Rochester, named Adele. Over the course of the next few months, Jane enjoys her stay at Thornfield, even with her having to overcome mysterious events in the house, the prejudice of Mr Rochester's friends and potential wife, Blanche Ingram and most important, dealing with her developing affections for Mr Rochester. She even goes so far as to say that Thornfield "is my home-my only home".

Besides Jane, the other main character in the novel is of course Mr Rochester. When he first entered the story, I found that he was very mysterious and hard to read. He is strong, intelligent and sometimes can be really witty. I liked the character but personally throughout the book I found it easier to relate with Jane rather than him. I think it could be due to the fact that Jane was alot closer in age to myself than Mr Rochester was. I often found myself siding with Jane and sympathising with her, especially in the middle of the book where Mr Rochester and Jane got closer but then the horrible mystery at Thornfield began to unravel, causing Jane to flee desperately.

My favourite character in this novel was Jane. I found her a very strong heroine especially for the way that women were generally portrayed in that time period. I liked the way that we got to see Jane grow up from an unhappy girl to and independent woman from the feeling of alienation from her family to the happiness that she felt at Thornfield. Throughout the novel she learns to balance love and freedom. I also liked that Jane didn't hold back her opinions of the different social-classes that were all over England. Although Mr Rochester was seen as her superior in several ways, she never held her tongue on pointing out his faults, which often made him laugh. I found the character Jane funny, optimistic and very likable, she always acted with dignity and tried to never to anything wrong or that would cause others pain.

I found the novel of "Jane Eyre" a good read, I sometimes found the writing style difficult to understand, and sometimes the plot a bit lacking. Overall I would recommend this book to those who like to challenge their English skills but I would advise that readers be prepared for a long read. I found this book took a long time to finish as you often have to revise what you have read to fully understand the meaning of the language used in this novel.

St. Brigids Trip

On Tuesday, all T.Ys were brought to Kildare Town to celebrate St. Brigids Day. The week before our religion teachers taught us all about St Brigid and some of the legends surrounding her e.g when she spread her cloak over the Curragh. First we went to the Heritage Centre where we watched a short video on the work of St Brigid. Afterwards we went to the Church of Ireland across the street.
We then took a walk around the town before stopping for a short lunch. After that we went to see the first of the two St Brigid wells. This was the oldest of them. It had a pathway in the middle and everyone got the chance to walk across and bless ourselves. On our way back we visited the other well. This one was my favourite. It was very peaceful and pretty. Usually people who came tied a piece of material on the branches of the trees. People are also welcome to take some of the Holy Water from the well. All of my year had a great day because it was a new experience for everyone.

Ready... and ACTION!

Every year T.Ys get the chance to compete in a drama competition that is open to all schools around the country. Ther are two stages. The first stage is when schools either go to a theatre in Mullingar or Cork. A judge watches your play and then gives you advice on what could be improved. If you get through to the second stage, you and your group get to go to the finals in Cork. The over-all winners win a trip to a different country. Two of the classes in our year took part so we had four dramas all together. My group based our play on the song 'Concrete Angel'.
Everyone was nervous on the day but it went by really quickly. All the plays went really well and afterwards we were allowed get lunch in the town. We also got to see some plays from other school which were very good as well. All in all it was a great day and I hope that at least one of the groups from our school get through to the finals. Good Luck Everyone!  

Fighting Words

We went on another trip recently, on the 16th of January my English class got to go to 'Fighting Words' in Dublin. It is a creative writing centre set up by the author Roddy Doyle. It was a fun experience as we all had to work together and make up a good story. The challenge was that we had two characters who were best friends and one of the friends was to have a crush on the others brother. The employees were very nice and helpful, as well as funny when they helped give us different ideas. It was interesting to see everyone creativeness and funny to see the absolute randomness of it all. I'm glad that we got to go because it gave us a few pointers for next year when we are backing to writing seriously again in 5th year.