Grammy awarded musician complains

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/jan/29/lorde-grammys-media-lecherous

Alicia Keys, No one

I just want you close
Where you can stay forever
You can be sure
That it will only get better

You and me together
Through the days and nights
I don't worry 'cause
Everything's going to be alright
People keep talking they can say what they like
But all i know is everything's going to be alright

No one, no one, no one
Can get in the way of what I'm feeling
No one, no one, no one
Can get in the way of what I feel for you, you, you
Can get in the way of what I feel for you

When the rain is pouring down
And my heart is hurting
You will always be around
This I know for certain

You and me together
Through the days and nights
I don't worry 'cause
Everything's going to be alright
People keep talking they can say what they like
But all i know is everything's going to be alright

No one, no one, no one
Can get in the way of what I'm feeling
No one, no one, no one
Can get in the way of what I feel for you, you, you
Can get in the way of what I feel

I know some people search the world
To find something like what we have
I know people will try, try to divide, something so real
So till the end of time I'm telling you there ain't no one

No one, no one
Can get in the way of what I'm feeling
No one, no one, no one
Can get in the way of what I feel for you

Natural woman

Here comes a great song focused on beginners. It contains mistakes, short forms and colloquial words that must be resolved by the students.
E.g. :
Using "i" instead of "I" as a subject.
" 'Cause " instead of "Because".
Wanna, colloquial word that means "want to"
*What ya done = What you have done (present perfect)

Looking out on the morning rain 
I used to feel so uninspired 
and when i knew i had to face another day 
lord it made me feel so tired. 
Before the day i met you, 
life was so unkind 
you're the key to my peace of mind 

chorus: 
'cause you make me feel 
you make me feel 
you make me feel like a natural woman (woman) 

When my soul was in the lost and found 
you came along to claim it 
i didn't know just what was wrong with me 
till your kiss helped me name it. 
Now im no longer doubtful of what im living for 
and if i make you happy i dont need to do more 

chorus 

ohh baby what ya done* to me (whatcha done to me) 
made me feel so good inside (good inside) 
and i just wanna be (wanna be) 
close to you you make me feel so alive 

Detroit : "A hard day"

DETROIT — The city of Detroit officially became the largest municipality in U.S. history Tuesday to enter Chapter 9 bankruptcy after a judge declared it met the specific legal criteria required to receive protection from its creditors.

Hand In My Pocket - Alanis Morissette

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQ8D5Ihe4hg

I'm broke but I'm happy
I'm poor but I'm kind
I'm short but I'm healthy, yeah
I'm high but I'm grounded
I'm sane but I'm overwhelmed
I'm lost but I'm hopeful baby

What il all comes down to
Is that everything's gonna be fine, fine, fine
'Cause I've got one hand in my pocket
And the other one is giving a high five

I feel drunk but I'm sober
I'm young and I'm underpaid
I'm tired but I'm workin', yeah
I care but I'm restless
I'm here but I'm really gone
I'm wrong and I'm sorry baby

What it all comes down to
Is that everything's gonna be quite alright
'Cause I've got one hand in my pocket
And the other one is flicking a cigarette


What it all comes down to
Is that I haven't got it all figured out just yet
'Cause I've got one hand in my pocket
And the other one is giving the peace sign

I'm free but I'm focused
I'm green but I'm wise
I'm hard but I'm friendly baby
I'm sad but I'm laughing
I'm brave but I'm chicken shit
I'm sick but I'm pretty baby

What it all boils down to
Is that no one's really got it figured out just yet
I've got one hand in my pocket
And the other one is playing the piano

What it all comes down to my friends, yeah
Is that everything's just fine, fine, fine
'Cause I've got one hand in my pocket
And the other one is hailing a taxi cab. 

UK city of culture 2017: Hull's 'coming out of the shadows' bid chosen

Hull's bid, which promises £15m programme of cultural events, is chosen ahead of Dundee, Swansea Bay and Leicester.

Link to video: Hull city council video celebrating city's strengths in city of culture bid

Hull has been chosen to be the UK's city of culture in 2017, beating three other shortlisted cities for the title.

The announcement was made in Westminster by the culture secretary, Maria Miller. "This is brilliant news for Hull and everyone involved in the bid there," she said.

She added: "This year's UK city of culture, Derry-Londonderry, demonstrates the huge benefits that the title brings. These include encouraging economic growth, inspiring social change and bringing communities together.

"It can produce a wonderful mix of inward investment, and civic pride and I hope Hull's plans will make the most of all that being UK city of culture can bring."

The leader of Hull city council, Stephen Brady, told the BBC: "What I'm saying is thank you to the panel for changing Hull. Never again will Hull have the reputation that some people have put on it in the past.

"The people here, the wonderful people of Hull, appreciate what's been done, the decision that's been taken and we are on the move".

Hull was picked ahead of Dundee, Swansea Bay, and Leicester. Former Hull East MP John Prescott welcomed the announcement by tweeting:"It's happy hour again", a reference to the best known song of the Hull pop group The Housemartins.

The poetry of Philip Larkin, Hull university's notoriously grumpy librarian, formed a key part of the city's bid. The bid also included the voices of immigrants, among them a Polish-born supermarket worker and an Albanian-born filling station attendant.

The TV writer Phil Redmond, chair of the independent expert advisory panel, said: "It was the unanimous verdict of the panel that Hull put forward the most compelling case based on its theme as 'a city coming out of the shadows'.

"We were particularly impressed with Hull's evidence of community and creative engagement, their links to the private sector and their focus on legacy, including a commitment to enhance funding beyond 2017 and I'd like to congratulate all involved."

Hull's bid was delivered on two artist-designed bicycles, and promised a £15m programme with a cultural event every day of the year. This included an outdoor aerial spectacular honouring Larkin, built around his line "what will survive of us is love".

Larkin was born in Coventry, though he published most of his most famous work while living in Hull. Hull was the birthplace of the anti-slavery campaigning MP William Wilberforce, who also figures in the plans.

Wednesday's announcement comes after months of claims and counterclaims from the rival cities and last-minute final pitches to the judges in Derry, which currently holds the city of culture crown. The government first decided to create a UK city of culture every four years after Liverpool's tenure as the somewhat starrier European city of culture, brought the city an extra £753.8m.

Although Derry's year in the spotlight has been a critical success, and has brought crowds on to the streets for popular spectaculars such as the street theatre piece, The Return of Columcille, arguments have already started as to whether it was worth the money and the effort.

Sponsorship and income from ticket sales has been disappointing for many events; and what, if anything, the lasting legacy will be is debatable.

source: http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2013/nov/20/hull-chosen-city-of-culture-2017

The story of Ellis Island

    The small island in New York Harbor which, for millions of would-be immigrants, was their first experience of the Promised Land.

    The year is 1906, the date November 16th. Franz and Ulrike Schumacher and their three children have just disembarked from the Hamburg-Amerika line steamship that has carried them across the stormy North Atlantic Ocean from Germany.

    Like the thousands of other people milling around them, they are totally bewildered, caught up in a mixture of hope and apprehension, as they crowd into a vast waiting room. The room sounds like the Tower of Babel, for few of those in it speak a word of English. They speak German, Polish, Dutch, Hungarian, or Russian maybe, yet they have come, seeking a new life in a new world; and now they are on American soil for the first time. This is America! America! Or at least it is Ellis Island.

    After interminable hours of waiting, the Schumacher family are finally called to a desk; immigration officials study their papers, and ask them where they intend to go. They don't ask how long they're planning to stay, however, since they know the answer already. All those who pass through Ellis Island -- and that could mean over 11,000 people per day -- are would-be immigrants. They are looking to start a new life in a new world.

    For many, passing through Ellis Island was not so much a matter of stepping into a new world, it was stepping into a new life, a new character. And so it was that the man who finally led his family through the door and onto the ferry packed with a jostling crowd of new Americans was not Franz Schumacher any more, but Frank Shoemaker, even if he still didn't understand more than a couple of words of English.

* * *

    Ever since the Declaration of Independence in 1776, the United States has been a nation of immigrants. While today the pattern of immigration is not what it used to be  (most immigrants coming from Latin America or Asia)  and immigration policies are now designed to restrict entrance to the USA, things were very different in the early part of the twentieth century.
    Ellis Island, almost in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty at the entrance to New York Harbor, was the first stop on American soil for some twelve million immigrants between the years 1892 and 1954. For most, it was "a portal of hope and freedom"; for just a few, it was the "Island of Tears", when they were turned away for failing to meet the various immigration laws and requirements.
    During its years of operation, Ellis Island was the principal port of immigration into the United States, processing approximately 75% of all the immigrants into America over the period.
    The original three acre island got its name from a previous owner, Samuel Ellis. At the end of the eighteenth century, the State of New York secured the island in order to build fortifications as part of its harbor defense system.

    It was in 1890 that that Congress set aside funds to begin improvements on the island, so that a federal immigration station could be built to replace the existing facilities at Castle Garden, in lower Manhattan.

    The original island was expanded to several times its size, and the new immigration station opened on January 1st, 1892. Five years later, it was destroyed by fire; but it was soon rebuilt, with an impressive French Renaissance style brick building, which opened for business on December 17th 1900 and processed 2,251 immigrants that very same day. The part of the building whose image remained most clearly marked in the memories of those who passed through, was the vast registry room occupying the whole central section of the second floor; it was here that most of the processing of would-be immigrants took place.

    During the next half century, the small island grew to its present size, as it was joined by landfill to three adjacent islands. The main building was supplemented with a power house, kitchens, a hospital and contagious diseases wards, a dormitory building, a bakery and several other structures.
    In the early 1920's, though, immigration declined sharply, as restrictive immigration laws were passed. These put an annual ceiling on immigration, and established quotas for each foreign nation. They also made it compulsory for would-be immigrants to fill in papers at the US consulate in their country of origin, rather than on arrival. Thereafter, only those whose papers were not in order, or who needed medical treatment, were sent to Ellis Island.

    The facilities were increasingly used for the assembly and deportation of aliens who had entered the USA illegally, or of immigrants who had violated the terms of their admittance. And finally, on November 12th 1954, the Ellis Island immigration station ceased operation.

    Now it is open again, but as a museum, to tell the story of a fundamental stage in the making of modern America. The story needs to be told; what better place to tell it than on Ellis Island ?