The death of Margaret Thatcher has led to an outburst of celebration in the UK that has been absolutely astonishing to someone like myself, on the outside looking in. I had no idea that her policies could excite anything like these emotions so many years later. What I want to know is: Where does the energy for all the spitefulness come from?

The Guardian has put together an excellent report.

In the late 1980s, Elvis Costello wrote a brilliant and  bitter song about her, Tramp the Dirt Down.

Elvis Costello: Tramp the Dirt Down

I saw a newspaper picture from the political campaign
A woman was kissing a child, who was obviously in pain
She spills with compassion, as that young childs
Face in her hands she grips
Can you imagine all that greed and avarice
Coming down on that childs lips

Well I hope I don’t die too soon
I pray the lord my soul to save
Oh I’ll be a good boy, Im trying so hard to behave
Because there’s one thing I know, I’d like to live
Long enough to savour
That’s when they finally put you in the ground
Ill stand on your grave and tramp the dirt down

When england was the whore of the world
Margeret was her madam
And the future looked as bright and as clear as
The black tarmacadam
Well I hope that she sleeps well at night, isnt
Haunted by every tiny detail
Cos when she held that lovely face in her hands
All she thought of was betrayal

And now the cynical ones say that it all ends the same in the long run
Try telling that to the desperate father who just squeezed the life from his only son
And how it’s only voices in your head and dreams you never dreamt
Try telling him the subtle difference between justice and contempt
Try telling me she isn’t angry with this pitiful discontent
When they flaunt it in your face as you line up for punishment
And then expect you to say thank you straighten up, look proud and pleased
Because youve only got the symptoms, you haven’t got the whole disease
Just like a schoolboy, whose heads like a tin-can
Filled up with dreams then poured down the drain
Try telling that to the boys on both sides, being blown to bits or beaten and maimed
Who takes all the glory and none of the shame

Well I hope you live long now, I pray the lord your soul to keep
I think I’ll be going before we fold our arms and start to weep
I never thought for a moment that human life could be so cheap
Cos when they finally put you in the ground
They’ll stand there laughing and tramp the dirt down

other, songs | 1 Comment »

This has been the coldest spring on record. They say temperatures are going up to 9 degrees this week. Come, wanton spring!

Talk Talk – April 5th

from The Colour of Spring, 1985/6

Here she comes
Silence in her sound
Here she comes
Fresh upon the ground
Come gentle spring
Come at winter’s end
Gone is the pallor from a promise that’s nature’s gift
Waiting for the colour of spring
Let me breathe
Let me breathe the colour of spring
Here she comes
Laughter in her kiss
Here she comes
Shame upon her lips
Come wanton spring
Come for birth you live
Youth takes its bow before the summer the seasons bring
Waiting for the colour of spring
Let me
Let me breathe
Let me breathe you
Let me breathe
Let me breathe you
Let me breathe

Songs

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Wow. Kishi Bashi. I hadn’t seen the ads, instead discovering him through Paste Magazine. All that attention to detail, craftsmanship and polish. Animal Collective meets Andrew Bird and classical Japanese music.

They are hosting a video-based riddle contest for idioms like

• wearing _ _ _ _ h _ _ _ _  _ _  your  _ _ _ _ _ _”
  
• “x” _ _ _ _ _ the  _  _ _ _
• _ _ _ ‘ s knees
• _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ driver

You’ll find the gap-fill here – and the video here:

Some answers and associations:

to be framed, It’s all Greek to me, paint it black, the elephant in the room, be the spitting image, back seat driver, ride shotgun, eye candy, free ticket, it costs an arm and a leg, give me a hand, buy a lemon, throw someone a bone, he’s got your number, bite the bullet, (the) truth is written all over his face, (it’s the) bee’s knees, bird’s eye view, hell in a basket, A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, break a leg, birds of a feather flock together, kill two birds with one stone, X marks the spot, kick the bucket,  a penny for your thoughts, piece of cake, icing on the cake, have your cake and eat it too, (have) a bone to chew, when pigs fly, key to my heart, once in a blue moon…

To use in class, here are many of the idioms on cards:

• kishi-bashi-idioms

Concert on KEXP:

• Bright Whites lyrics (turned into an ad for Windows 8)
• Wonder Woman, Wonder Me lyrics
• Atticus, In the Desert lyrics
• It All Began With a Burst lyrics (ad for Xperia Tablet 5)

short film, songs | 1 Comment »

A Ukrainian reporter caused a scene in Moscow when, as one of a crowd, he asked Will Smith for a hug. WS obliged and gave him a “man hug” (patting him on the back). The reporter responded by trying to give him kisses on both cheeks, almost kissing him on the mouth. Will Smith reacted angrily, by pushing him away,  saying “Come on, man, what the hell is your problem, buddy?” – and gave him a backhand slap.

What do you think was going on here?

• An otherwise obliging star deals with an unusually pushy reporter?
• A star-struck reporter makes unfortunate error in judgement resulting in a faux pas?
• An American and a Ukrainian don’t understand each other’s culture?

I find it hard hard to simply describe what I see without judging, though that’s the first step to understanding incidents. I mean, look at each of the above statements again and you’ll see each contains an assumption of some kind. I’m not sure this incident was really an issue of intercultural miscommunication, or if it was, whether it was about national cultures. Some instances of kissing are – note scenario 6 in this excellent list of everyday intercultural incidents (link) – but here the reporter himself admits to “wanting to make an impression”. That would suggest that he in fact intentionally overstepped certain understood, or at least acknowledged, demarcations, and simply misjudged what that would get him. For his 15 minutes of fame as the otherwise nameless “kissy reporter”, watch below:

Will Smith’s take:

The reporter apologizes and explains:

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short film | 2 Comments »

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We’re just organizing a conference here in Berlin, we being a group of lecturers working across institutions, using a Ning platform we’ve called EULEAP to connect internationally. The institution that will be hosting this conference, the Humboldt Language Centre, is directed by Cornelia Hacke and the whole project is powered by the impressive David Bowskill and his team. At ELTABB we’re providing support. Michelle Teveliet has set up a great conference site here: EAP Conference 2013. You couldn’t wish for a better team. The lineup for the conference is impressive, the topics good, and it’s free to participants thanks to the great sponsors.
Now, the only issue is that we have limited space – only 100 people can attend including the organizers and speakers. That means we needed a way to organize signup. Michelle wisely opted for SurveyMonkey. But initially we hit a major snag. Just a day after the conference was first posted in a forum on the EULEAP Ning and had started being announced across various informal networks, and just before we wanted to go live and send out a formal mail shot to all interested partners, SurveyMonkey had technical trouble and shut down. Shock! They’ve explained what happened here. Anyway, that was the bad news, a bit of a bad morning here. But the good news is that they were back after 4 hours, and there was some nice person with a good sense of humor and a lot of patience tweeting away, calming the nerves of hundreds of users who were also missing the service. I can only second what A Crock wrote: Top customer service.  Here’s a brief history of those 4 hours documented on Twitter.

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