It Takes Two to Tango

 
 

Objection (Tango) is a song recorded by Colombian singer-songwriter Shakira for her fifth studio album and first English-language album Laundry Service (2001). It was the first song Shakira wrote in English after being encouraged by American singer Gloria Estefan to record material in the language. American singer Gloria Estefan, whose husband Emilio Estefan was managing Shakira at that time, felt that Shakira had the potential to crossover into the mainstream pop industry. However, Shakira was initially hesitant to record songs in English as it was not her first language, so Estefan offered to translate Ojos Así into English in order to show her that “it could translate well.” A Spanish version of the song, entitled Te Aviso, Te Anuncio (Tango), was also recorded by the singer.

Wanting to “find a way to express my ideas and my feelings, my day-to-day stories in English”, Shakira bought rhyming dictionaries, started analyzing the lyrics of songs by Bob Dylan, reading poetry and the work of authors like Leonard Cohen and Walt Whitman and took English lessons from a private tutor.

The music video directed by Dave Meyers

 
 

 
 

This Isn’t Everything You Are is a song by Northern Irish-Scottish alternative rock group Snow Patrol. The track is the second single from the band’s sixth studio album, Fallen Empires, it was released as a digital download on 14 October 2011.

Gary Lightbody said to The Sun: “When we’d finished that song, we were going, ‘F*** me, this could be a big song’. It’s three stories in one — each verse is a different person in my life that was going through a tough time.” “Then the chorus is about trying to explain that everything isn’t as bad as it might seem.”

In another interview, Lightbody told Billboard magazine that he wrote the song “to try to protect” the three people experiencing difficulties, adding that he wanted, “to show them that there were people there for them whenever they needed. Sometimes it’s hard to reach out, it’s hard to ask for help. It’s a recurring theme on the record.”

The radio and video edit of the song excludes the lines “Is he worth all this, is it a simple yes? / Cause if you have to think, it’s fucked / Feels like you loved him more, than he loved you / And you wish you’d never met.”

A music video to accompany the release of This Isn’t Everything You Are was first released onto YouTube on 14 October 2011 at a total length of four minutes and twenty-two seconds. It contains footage filmed in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It was directed by Brett Simon and finds Snow Patrol becoming a house band.

Appearances Can Be Deceiving

Stills from Lisa the Skeptic (Directed by Neil Affleck and written by David X. Cohen)

 
 

Lisa the Skeptic is the eighth episode of The Simpsons‘ ninth season, first aired on November 23, 1997. On an archaeological dig with her class, Lisa discovers a skeleton that resembles an angel. All of the townspeople believe that the skeleton actually came from an angel, but skeptical Lisa attempts to persuade them that there must be a rational scientific explanation. The episode’s writer, David X. Cohen, developed the idea after visiting the American Museum of Natural History, and decided to loosely parallel themes from the Scopes Monkey Trial in Dayton, Tennessee, which dealt with issues of separation of church and state and the debate between creationism and evolution. The episode received generally positive reviews.

It has been discussed in the context of virtual reality, ontology, existentialism, and skepticism; it has also been used in Christian religious education classes to initiate discussion about angels, skepticism, science, and faith.

 
 

Un señor muy viejo con unas alas enormes (A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings), is a short story by author Gabriel García Márquez written in 1955. It was inspired by a young boy named Armand Tait and his life as a farmer.

 
 

A group of The Simpsons enthusiasts at Calvin College have also analyzed the religious and philosophical aspects of the episode, including the issue of faith versus science. The episode has been compared with Gabriel García Márquez’s short story A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings and utilized as a teaching tool in a Saugerties, New York grade school class. In an exam on the subject, students were asked to use details from both  A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings and Lisa the Skeptic, in order to analyze the quotation “Appearances can be deceiving”.