The stuff collected here has not yet grown large enough to warrant their own pages. Maybe some day. We live in hope.
Learning French
I've been learning French for about two years now and I'm only just now becoming comfortable with speaking and writing the language. This page lists some of the Internet resources that I find useful regularly in helping me learning, reading and writing French. Later, I'll add more interesting stuff.
- French Pronunciation
- French Lessons at About.Com
- Fluent French
- Alternative French Dictionary
- How To Swear in French
- Talk Dirty To Me
One of the best resources to help you learn French is the crew at the Alliance Française. Apart from running classes and workshops in the language they (or at least the AF group in Brisbane, Australia) runs weekly conversation evenings where we all drink red wine and chat in French. It's a great tool for a beginner to hear the language spoken as often as possible. Find the group nearest you and get started!
Old-Time Radio
I think we've all listened to and loved Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds. There's more -- and not just sci-fi musicals. There's comedies, dramas, detective stories galore to be explored. This magical land is known as the Golden Age of Radio and its height was the post-war America until around 1960. Short-hand for these shows is OTR, which stands for Old Time Radio.
Again, there's not much here than a collection of links. When I have time, I'll do something more interesting. These links to some of my favourite programs should keep you going for a while.
- Box 13 with Alan Ladd. A reporter-turned-novelist is not blessed with imagination so he places an ad in the paper looking for adventures to write about. Great stuff!
- The Adventures of Nero Wolfe -- An unusual America take on a Sherlock Holmes and Watson style pair of detectives. The radio version starred Sydney Greenstreet in the title role.
- Dimension X -- A great anthology of the best sci-fi writers of the period: Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, James Gunn, and the list goes on.
- X Minus One -- Possibly the longest running sci-fi radio program in the history of the world. It ran intelligent sci-fi stories for more than three years.
- The Adventures of Philip Marlowe -- Remember Humphrey Bogart in The Big Sleep? This is the more of the same. I can't get enough of it.
- Captain Midnight -- Despite the aviation focus of the program, Cap is really a super hero whose special power is that he flies a plane.
- Bold Venture -- This is classic Bogart and Bacall. They run a gambling ship moored off Havana, Cuba, and get into all sorts of trouble. Bacall, as always, sizzles!