Cowboys and Phantoms

Two questions that arose from our MOJ class were:
  • Why are spaghetti westerns so called?
  • Was Phantom of the Opera based on a true story?

What Are Spaghetti Westerns and Where Did The Name Come From

By the second half of the twentieth century, spaghetti had become so well known throughout the world as an Italian food, that the word spaghetti itself came to be a sort of metaphor for anything Italian. So it is not surprising that when Italian film companies began to produce western movies in the 1960’s, they quickly came to be referred to as spaghetti westerns.

 
Vocabulary:
 
a put-down -
 
lone (adj) -
 
alongside -
 
vastly superior -
 
broadly recognised -
 
highly acclaimed -
 
achievement (n) -
 
so much so -
 
a label -
 
endearment -
 
rather than -
 
to tend to -
 
fare (n) -
 
first and foremost -
 
readily available -
 
to blur the lines -
 
to give rise to stg -
 
to starkly contrast -
 
evil to the core -
 
interestingly enough -
 
to eventually begin -
 
to come up (a topic) -
 
to star (in a film) -
 
world-renowned -
 
to evolve -
 
to fall into a broad category -

a spoof -
   

Where the Phantom was born: the Palais Garnier 

The underground lake; the deadly chandelier; the buried corpse...where do myth and reality overlap at the Garnier Opera House? 

It began with the water. In 1861, Parisian workers attempting to lay the concrete foundations for a grand, 2,200-seat opera house in the centre of the city were baffled. The theatre had been commissioned by Emperor Napoleon III as part of his sweeping reconstruction of Paris, and 12,000 square metres of ground had been cleared. Yet a seemingly endless flow of water bubbled up from the swampy, newly cleared ground – and no one could do anything to stem it.
 
Thirteen years later, in 1874, architect Charles Garnier’s neo-baroque masterpiece, Le Palais Garnier, was finally complete. But rumours of a vast, fish-filled lake swirling beneath the building endured.
 
One Parisian who grew up with the rumour was the detective writer Gaston Leroux and in 1910 he would use it as the inspiration for his gothic love story The Phantom of The Opera.
 
 
  
Vocabulary:

deadly (adj) -

to bury (buried) -

to overlap -

a corpse -

to lay (laid, laid) -

concrete -

foundations -

baffled -

to commission -

sweeping -

seemingly -

a flow -

to bubble up -

swampy -

to stem sth -

a masterpiece -

to swirl -

to endure -

to blur -

a claim -

shrouded in mystery -

a lair -

rather -

to rise -

a grate

makeshift -

to recall -

an alcove -

to bother to do sth -

to be bound to -

to stretch out -

to join up with -

to have the run of a place -

eeriness -

horrid (adj) -

gloom (n) -

netherworld -

to weave (wove, woven) -

to kidnap -

to drag -

to release -

to blame sb -

to bear witness to sth -

to feed (fed, fed) -

to spot -

from time to time -

Comments

Roberto said…
Hi, Graham!. Very interesting post... I love a Spaghetti Western directed by Sergio Leone,named "Once Upon A Time In The West",I saw it when I was 15 or 16 years old,and it really impressed me. "The Elephant Man",by David Lynch,it was based on the true story of a man named Joseph Merrick,although the plot of the film is very similar to "The Phantom of the Opera"...
Graham said…
Hi Roberto,

I sometimes used to watch westerns when I was a kid but it's the sort of thing that you grow out of.


"The Elephant Man",by David Lynch was based on the true story of a man named Joseph Merrick...


I must have seen The Elephant Man at some time.


See you tomorrow.

Roberto said…
I suppose the meaning of "to grow out of" is "superar","dejar atrás",or something like that...
Graham said…
Roberto,

You got it.

Sometimes we don't grow out of things though.

José said…
There is a place in the Ministry of Justice where are phantoms. Several years ago they buried corpses from the war in this place. Lucía knows that when we are in English class in the basement of the building we heard strange noises. One day that Lucía didn´t come, as always, the English teacher was angry because his pupils didn´t study, then he was furious and he shouted: ¡Useless civil servant!, last time that you don´t do your homework. Suddenly, the windows of classroom opened, the lamp moved, the classmates were afraid and the teacher can´t speak. An inscription appeared in the wall: “You have to do that you must do it”. They called to security people and these went up but they did see anything.

Next day, the teacher came to classroom but it was empty and the teacher came back to the entrance of the Ministry and he asked to security people. They answered him that the pupils were in classroom. He came back, another time, to classroom and there is nobody. He was afraid and he went out in a hurry. It was 9 o´clock when the pupils left classroom because the teacher have not come. They asked to security people about the teacher and they answered that the teacher had come. They were scared and they ran as quickly as possible. Lucía and me cried. (It´s cryptic)

Good night Graham.
Montse said…
Oh, my godness!! I throw in the towell with José...jajaja!!!
Is that an April's fool day story???
Graham said…
José,

You have imagination - I'll give you that.


There is a place in the Ministry of Justice where there are phantoms.

... this is the last time that you don´t do your homework. Suddenly, the windows of the classroom opened, the lamp moved, the classmates were afraid and the teacher couldn't speak. An inscription appeared in the wall: “You have to do what you have to do”. They called security and these went up but they didn't see anything.

The next day, the teacher came to the classroom but it was empty and the teacher went back to the entrance of the Ministry and he asked the people at security where everyone was. They told him that the pupils were in the classroom. He came back, another time, to the classroom but there was nobody. He was afraid and he left in a hurry. It was 9 o´clock when the pupils left the classroom because the teacher had not come. They asked the people at security about the teacher and they said that the teacher had come.



You should write a book José.

Graham said…
Montse,

It's oh my god or oh my goodness!!
Graham said…
José,

I think that Montse and I are none the wiser after your explanation this morning. LOL