Show 629 Friday 1 February

Watch today’s show at YouTube or BlipTV.

Hi I’m Sarah. Welcome to The Daily English Show.

Today’s song is: Gone by Jack Johnson.
I really recommend Jack Johnson’s music to study English. And just to listen to in general. It’s very calm and relaxing.

Jack Johnson was born in Hawaii and he was a professional surfer until he had an accident.
And “while he was recovering in bed, he spent his time writing songs and playing guitar.”
So, every cloud has a silver lining.

Gone is a really nice song. It’s about, well I think it’s about, consumerism and materialism.

This is how it starts:

Well look at all those fancy clothes
But these could keep us warm
Just like those.
And what about your soul
Is it cold?
Is it straight from the mould
And ready to be sold?

What he’s saying is that we might have lots of expensive stuff, but it’s not really necessary and what about the other things that are more important, like our mind and our soul.

Here’s a few lines from the second verse:

And cars and phones and diamond rings
Bling, bling
Those are only removable things
And what about your mind
Does it shine?

He’s repeating the same point here – that your mind is more important than those material things. And I totally agree.

Bling or bling-bling is relatively new slang word I think – the first time I heard it was when I went back to New Zealand a few years ago.

I just checked Wikipedia and bling-bling has its own page.

And it says:

While the specific term bling was first popularized in the hip hop community, it has spread beyond hip hop culture and into mass culture.

And what does it mean?

Bling-bling (usually shortened to bling) is a hip hop slang term that refers to elaborate, gaudy jewellery and other accouterments, and also to a lifestyle built around excessive spending and ostentation.

A few difficult words there.

accouterments – means, like, accessories I think
ostentation: the pretentious display of wealth, skill, or knowledge, designed to impress

So often in American hop hop lyrics people are saying, “Hey look at me, I’m so great, I have expensive cars and expensive jewellery” ... and that’s what bling-bling culture is I think.

One more thing, in the song it says:

Look at you out to make a deal
You try to be appealing but you lose your appeal
And what about those shoes you’re in today?
They’ll do no good
On the bridges you burnt along the way

burn your bridges is an idiom
to do sth that makes it impossible to return to the previous situation later

So what he’s saying here is that even if you have pretty, expensive shoes, they’re not going to help you if you’ve created trouble for yourself by your actions. So basically how you live your life, what you say and what you do is more important than the brand of your shoes. I think that’s his point.

So check out the song and the lyrics. And his other songs too. Jack Johnson is cool. Not just his music.

In 2004, he “co-founded the Kokua Hawaii Foundation, which is a non-profit organization that supports environmental education in the schools and communities of Hawaii.

Very cool.

Go and see him in concert too if you can. He’s actually coming to Japan soon. In April.
But it’s in Tokyo, so it’s too far for me. Maybe next time.

STICK NEWS

Kia Ora, in Stick News today a third undersea internet cable was cut in the Middle East.

On Wednesday two undersea internet cables off Egypt were damaged.
An expert says they were likely damaged by ships' anchors.
CNN reported the damage “has snarled internet and phone traffic from Egypt to India.”
Today a cable near Dubai was cut. Officials said it was unclear what caused the damage and a repair ship was on its way to fix it.

And that was Stick News for Friday the 1st of February.
Kia Ora.

THE SNOW REPORT
at Loaf Lounge

There are two dolls on display at Loaf Lounge. I’d never really taken much notice of them until someone pointed them out to me the other day.
They’re from a film called Up In Smoke, which came out the year I was born, which partly explains why I’d never heard of it. Anyway, I looked it up and I found out that one of the actors was the guy who played Leo, the old hippie character on That '70s Show.

* I found these dolls for sale online here.

friday joke

*I found this joke here.

An Aussie bloke is having a quiet drink in a bar and leans over to the big guy next to him and says, 'Do you wanna hear a Kiwi joke?

The big guy replies, 'Well mate, before you tell that joke, you should know something. I'm 190 cm tall, 125 kg and I played as a forward for the All Blacks."

"The guy next to me is 185 cm, weighs 115 kg and he's an ex-All Black lock."

"Next to him is a bloke who's 2 m tall, weighs 120 kg and he's a current All Black second rower. Now do you still want to tell that Kiwi joke?"

The first bloke says, "Nah, not if I'm going to have to explain it three times."

conversations with sarah
#383 How many albums has he made?

Step 1: Repeat Jim’s lines.
Step 2: Read Jim’s lines and talk to Sarah.

Sarah Another cool thing about Jack Johnson is that he’s not against sharing music on the internet?

Jim You mean downloading it without paying for it?

Sarah Yeah. There’s a quote of his in Wikipedia saying that that’s how his success started, by him giving copies of music to friends and them sharing it.

Jim How many albums has he made?

Sarah Five, I think.

Jim Which album is Gone off?

Sarah It’s off On and on, which came out in 2003.

notes

every cloud has a silver lining (saying)
every sad or difficult situation has a positive or hopeful side

links

today's news
today's STICK NEWS pictures

Jack Johnson's site
Jack Johnson's MySpace

Buy the album On and on here.
(This album has the song Gone on it.)

music

show start
artist: BrunoXe
album: aprendiendo desde 2004
track: Mandrake
from: Jerez, Spain
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
artist site

the snow report start
artist: Olga Scotland
album: Scotland Yard
track: Absolute
from: Moscow, Russia
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
artist site

friday joke start
artist: AdHoc
album: Toutes directions
track: Sumbala
from: Annecy, France
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
artist site

cws start
artist: San Sebastian
track: Happy Sad
artist site

qa start
artist: ioeo
album: Groovetracks
tracks: groovetracks ending
from: Saint Raphael, France
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
artist site

qa bgm
artist: NarNaoud
album: Green Vision
track: Dubbing Rules
from: Gironde, France
artist at Jamendo
album at Jamendo
artist site

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