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27/01/2012

All about Time

Here's the pop moment of the day: a good one to sing along and try to get all the syllables in!
Puts me in a very good mood, so I hope you like it, too ;-)

Down the street and through the halls
Corridors and shopping malls
We're moving to an inner beat
Heart disconnected from our feet
I'm moving to a song that drives me on
My heart beats strong
My heart beats wrong
We're zombies in the shopping mall
Laden down with spoils of war
Wearing all the clothes we stole
Adding skin to break our fall
Dragging cases full of junk
We pilgrims stagger to the dump
The lemmings' call
Take it easy take it easy
The stars the sky
The sun and moon and tides
Descending to the underground
Crowded out by subway sounds
Buried heads in headline frowns
Even the children look ground down
By taxes adverts terrorists
Compassion crawls money fists
I need a full-time therapist
So I can hang onto my bliss
God give me something I can do
To help me rise above the zoo
Make me famous make me rich
Distract me from this burning itch
While starving homeless orphans fight
While I can waste a day online
Shopping for a butter knife
Take it easy, take it easy
The stars, the sky
The sun and moon and tides
Johnny's on the phone, Johnny's online
Johnny's in love, everything's aligned
Johnny thinks it all about fate
But it's all about time
Johnny's on the phone, Johnny's online
Johnny's in love, everything's aligned
Johnny's in an altered state
Guess's it's all about time
There's memory buried in the stone
A new King sits upon the throne
This fool is self-deceiving
Won't give up the world he's bleeding
Our Cities are all history full
The fall of feet on cobbled streets
The fossil records show
All that remains is in the bones
Johnny's on the phone, Johnny's online
Johnny's in love, everything's alive
Johnny thinks it's all about faith
But it's all about time
Johnny's on the phone, Johnny's online
Johnny's in love, everything's alive
Johnny's in an altered state
Cos it's all about time
Roller blader full of grace
Pirouette then flat on your face
I never thought that falling down
Was so beautiful

23/01/2012

What Love and Punctuation Are All About


Look how important punctuation can be in the following email, which John received one day from his new girlfriend. Consider how pleased he must have felt to read this note from Jane:
Dear John,
I want a man who knows what love is all about. You are generous, kind, thoughtful. People who are not like you admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me for other men. I yearn for you. I have no feelings whatsoever when we're apart. I can be forever happy--will you let me be yours?
Jane
Unfortunately, John was far from pleased. In fact, he was heartbroken. You see, John was familiar with Jane's peculiar ways of misusing punctuation marks. And so to decipher the true meaning of her email, he had to re-read it with the marks altered:
Dear John,
I want a man who knows what love is. All about you are generous, kind, thoughtful people, who are not like you. Admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me. For other men, I yearn. For you, I have no feelings whatsoever. When we're apart, I can be forever happy. Will you let me be?
Yours,
Jane

17/01/2012

The four ways sound affects us

As a follow-up to the listening comprehension exercises we did yesterday in class, here's a video that you can watch with subtitles in English where Julian Treasure explains the four ways in which sound affects us.