The Saturday briefing
YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED
Is there anything you’re yearning to know? Send your questions, on any subject, to the contacts given below, and we will do our best to answer them…
Q
I have recently seen the film Whiplash about a jazz drummer whose teacher puts pupils through hell to achieve greatness. Miles Teller plays the student drummer brilliantly – is he a big noise in the music world too?
Kenny Naylor, Walton-on-the-Naze, Essex
A
Actor Miles Teller had piano and saxophone lessons as a child but he taught himself how to play the drums, after getting a drum kit aged 15, and he says he had “a natural knack” for it.
His mother wanted all her children to play instruments and be a kind of Partridge Family. In a TV interview Miles said his house was always filled with music. He also took additional lessons for four hours a day to prepare for the 2014 Oscarwinning film and watched footage of jazz drummers Jo Jones and Buddy Rich for inspiration.
British star Riz Ahmed has been nominated for the Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of a heavy metal drummer who loses his hearing in Sound Of Metal.The StarWars actor had drumming lessons for seven months, practising for several hours a day with a “patient” instructor.
Christian Bale had to learn how to play the drums for his role in The Big Short. In the film he plays the maths genius and hedge fund manager who predicted the financial crash of 2007 and who would let off steam with his drum kit.
Bale had seven lessons, over two weeks, with a heavy metal drummer.
Q Why do we build sandcastles?
Claudine Brindle, Harrogate,
NYorks
AWe’ve been sculpting with came out top for building, with its sand for centuries – it is red sand. Bridlington in East thought ancient Egyptians made Yorkshire, Great Yarmouth in sand models of the pyramids. Norfolk and Tenby in Wales also One of the earliest mentions of ranked highly. sandcastles as we know them The experiment also found that today comes in a book from 1838, the perfect castle requires one where a father shows his sons bucket of water to eight buckets how to build one with a moat and of dry sand, and the more angular a flag made from a stick and the grains of sand, the better they notepaper. stick together, so shell fragments Sandcastle-building help too. competitions were all the rage at
Q
seaside resorts by the end of the My dad used to say our
19th century.There was even a summers were “sun before
sandcastle scandal in 1900 after seven, cloud before eleven”. Is this
Bovril sponsored a competition just a UK phenomenon, as I’ve not
in Rhyl in Wales, where entrants noticed it abroad?
had to include its brand name on Roy Daniels, Luton, Beds
their designs.A local spirit
A
merchant decided to run a similar Other countries might have competition the following week, more dramatic weather but with children having to feature Britain’s is more unpredictable the name of a whisky brand in and varied, from a heatwave one their constructions. It horrified day to sleet the next.And it’s why the local temperance society, Britain has no shortage of which protested and weather folklore. countered it with a Another common saying is sandcastle competition “rain before seven, fine by that denounced the eleven” and the thinking behind demon drink. both is the same – that weather Sedimentologists, systems tend to move through our who study fragments island quickly, with the westerly of rock, have airflow off the Atlantic. But it is carried out not guaranteed, as some weather research into the sticks around. perfect sandcastle Britain’s position on the planet and found that – between the giant land mass of Torquay in Devon Europe and the Atlantic Ocean
– means we are in a place where several air masses come together.
These bodies of air are either polar or tropical, depending on where they came from, and they battle it out where they meet and the winner dictates our weather.
Japan is pretty much the only other place in the world with this kind of scenario, but it has it in reverse. It is an island with the Eurasian continent to the west and Pacific Ocean to the east, so the weather can be just as unpredictable.
Pine cones are a great way of predicting if rain or sun is on the way. If the cones are opening up, it is a sign of good weather to come, as when the air is dry, the scales on a pine cone become stiff and stand out.
When there is wetter weather coming, the atmosphere has more moisture, so they become more flexible and shrink back up.
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● By email: put “questions” in the subject line and send to kay.harrison@reachplc.com
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