Two Artists & More

Diego Rivera

Pan Unity Mural at CCSF

This week we read about muralist Diego Rivera from Mexico. Above is an example of one of his murals that we have here at City College of San Francisco.  Click here to see more of it.

We also read about Vincent Van Gogh from the Netherlands.

Van Gogh

Here's a video of a song by Don McLean called Starry, Starry Night named for one of Van Gogh's most famous paintings.  The video shows many of his paintings.  Below are the lyrics.

"Vincent (Starry, Starry Night)"

Starry, starry night
Paint your palette blue and gray
Look out on a summer's day
With eyes that know the darkness in my soul

Shadows on the hills
Sketch the trees and the daffodils
Catch the breeze and the winter chills
In colors on the snowy linen land

Now I understand
What you tried to say to me
And how you suffered for your sanity
And how you tried to set them free

They would not listen, they did not know how
Perhaps they'll listen now

Starry, starry night
Flaming flowers that brightly blaze
Swirling clouds in violet haze
Reflect in Vincent's eyes of china blue

Colors changing hue
Morning fields of amber grain
Weathered faces lined in pain
Are soothed beneath the artist's loving hand

Now I understand
What you tried to say to me
And how you suffered for your sanity
And how you tried to set them free

They would not listen, they did not know how
Perhaps they'll listen now

For they could not love you
But still your love was true
And when no hope was left in sight
On that starry, starry night

You took your life, as lovers often do
But I could've told you Vincent
This world was never meant for
One as beautiful as you

Starry, starry night
Portraits hung in empty halls
Frame-less heads on nameless walls
With eyes that watch the world and can't forget

Like the strangers that you've met
The ragged men in ragged clothes
The silver thorn of bloody rose
Lie crushed and broken on the virgin snow

Now I think I know
What you tried to say to me

And how you suffered for your sanity
And how you tried to set them free

They would not listen, they're not listening still
Perhaps they never will

And, finally, here's some vocabulary from this week.                                                                                             

Happy Spring Holidays!

 

People who are Jewish have been celebrating Passover this week, and Christians here will celebrate Easter on Sunday.   Although this is a religious holiday, many celebrate it with a visit from the Easter Bunny who brings chocolate eggs.  Little kids go on egg hunts.  Every year, there is a big Easter egg roll at the White House.   Check it out here.

Special Vocabulary Practice for Level 7/8 (High Intermediate):

We had some very tough vocabulary over the last couple of weeks.  Click here to practice some of the words we had from our problem solving unit.  We did the crossword in class but there are many other activities you can do.

This week's Level 5/6 Vocabulary is here.

Bye for now.
 

Week 12 Vocabulary

I can't believe that this semester is almost over.Click here to practice a few new words from this week.

I went to see Rosanne Cash last night.  She is great!  One of the songs she sang was this:

The vocabulary is difficult but the song tells an interesting story.  Here are the lyrics to Ode to Billy Joe:

It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day
I was out choppin' cotton and my brother was balin' hay
And at dinner time we stopped and walked back to the house to eat
And Mama hollered out the back door "y'all remember to wipe your feet"
And then she said "I got some news this mornin' from Choctaw Ridge"
"Today Billie Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge"

And Papa said to Mama as he passed around the blackeyed peas
"Well, Billie Joe never had a lick of sense, pass the biscuits, please"
"There's five more acres in the lower forty I've got to plow"
And Mama said it was shame about Billie Joe, anyhow
Seems like nothin' ever comes to no good up on Choctaw Ridge
And now Billie Joe MacAllister's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge

And Brother said he recollected when he and Tom and Billie Joe
Put a frog down my back at the Carroll County picture show
And wasn't I talkin' to him after church last Sunday night?
"I'll have another piece of apple pie, you know it don't seem right"
"I saw him at the sawmill yesterday on Choctaw Ridge"
"And now you tell me Billie Joe's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge"

And Mama said to me "Child, what's happened to your appetite?"
"I've been cookin' all morning and you haven't touched a single bite"
"That nice young preacher, Brother Taylor, dropped by today"
"Said he'd be pleased to have dinner on Sunday, oh, by the way"
"He said he saw a girl that looked a lot like you up on Choctaw Ridge"
"And she and Billie Joe was throwing somethin' off the Tallahatchie Bridge"

A year has come 'n' gone since we heard the news 'bout Billie Joe
And Brother married Becky Thompson, they bought a store in Tupelo
There was a virus going 'round, Papa caught it and he died last Spring
And now Mama doesn't seem to wanna do much of anything
And me, I spend a lot of time pickin' flowers up on Choctaw Ridge

And drop them into the muddy water off the Tallahatchie Bridge


What do you think they dropped into the water?