David Joseph: The music industry will survive the digital revolution

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/feb/14/david-joseph-universal-music-brit-awards

Vocabulary

• to overhaul: revisionare, rivedere (he's overhauled the Brit Awards)
• to steer: guidare, governare (Universal boss can steer his label)
• label: etichetta discografica
• charged with: accusato di 
• breakthroughs: scoperte 
• shutdown: chiusura
• billing: fatturazione
• long-mooted: a lungo dibattuto
• thought leading: pensiero guida
• retail: vendita al dettaglio
• fulfil: adempiere
• bold: coraggioso

Idiomatic expressions

• with sales down a further _%
• a decline in _ sales
• a fallow period for
• the collapse of (a company, a business...)
• to be in decline
• an expected/unexpected fall
• to break an act
• to brooze up

What if Star Wars had never existed?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/mar/18/what-if-star-wars-never-existed

Hypothetical and conditional forms

• "Would cinema be better off if George Lucas had ditched the films..."

           Mix 3/2: hypothetical past (if had ditched) affects a hypothetical present (would cinema be) 

• "How would cinema have been affected had Akira Kurosawa made it as a painter and never made Seven Samurai?"

          3 Unreal past

• "What if the 1998 best picture Oscar had gone not to Shakespeare in Love, but Gummo?"

          3 Unreal past

• "Where would we be now had there never been a Star Wars?"

          Mix 3/2: hypothetical past (had there never been) affects a hypothetical present (would we be)

Alice in Wonderland (1951)

http://videomaxim.com/2010/02/alice-in-wonderland-1951/

Listening practice


"If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary-wise; what it is it wouldn't be, and what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?" 


Mad Hatter: Would you like a little more tea? 
Alice: Well, I haven't had any yet, so I can't very well take more. 
March Hare: Ah, you mean you can't very well take less. 
Mad Hatter: Yes. You can always take more than nothing.

Frank Sinatra - My Way

And now, the end is here
And so I face the final curtain
My friend, I'll say it clear
I'll state my case, of which I'm certain
I've lived a life that's full
I traveled each and ev'ry highway
And more, much more than this, I did it my way

Regrets, I've had a few 
But then again, too few to mention
I did what I had to do and saw it through without exemption
I planned each charted course, each careful step along the byway
And more, much more than this, I did it my way

Yes, there were times, I'm sure you knew
When I bit off more than I could chew
But through it all, when there was doubt
I ate it up and spit it out 
I faced it all and I stood tall and did it my way

I've loved, I've laughed and cried
I've had my fill, my share of losing
And now, as tears subside, I find it all so amusing
To think I did all that
And may I say, not in a shy way,
"Oh, no, oh, no, not me, I did it my way"

For what is a man, what has he got?
If not himself, then he has naught
To say the things he truly feels and not the words of one who kneels
The record shows I took the blows and did it my way!

Morgan Freeman winning an Oscar® for "Million Dollar Baby"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHQdXGfOdQQ&playnext=1&list=PLE0DD8A6D00E3045E

This is a video with Morgan Freeman winning an Oscar® for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in "Million Dollar Baby", one of my favourite movies. His english is very easy!

My Checklist

http://seansenglishclassroom.pbworks.com/w/page/11442650/Sentence-Structure

1. Verb structure -to ask someone for something, to search for-
2. Vocabulary - phrasal verbs: to get off (not to descend), to take out (not to extract)-
3. Fixed phrases -one at a time, little by little, to wake with a start-

Is this the start of the second dotcom bubble?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/feb/20/is-this-the-start-of-the-second-dotcom-bubble

_Loss-making Twitter has been valued at $10bn. Facebook is said to be worth more than Ford. Now, for some investors, the alarm bells are starting to ring_

This article at the Guardian explains the reason why the high valuations of social tech companies could led to a second dotcom bubble. There's a big gap between the real value of internet companies and their sky-high valuations; there's the sense that this isn't real money but abstract money. Alan Patrick said that a bubble is defined by too much money to invest in assets, greater production of those assets, and  the need to find a greater fool who buy them. According to Patrick, there are 10 indicators that tell us when a bubble is being blown; and already 8 of these are present in the social tech boom.

Vocabulary

• Gold Rush
• To be worth
• To burst
• Hangout
• Claim
• Odds

Idiomatic expressions

• Dumb.money companies
• A flurry of new investements 
• Stupid money