English, baby!

30 Seconds to Mars

Date: May 24 2010

Themes: Music

Grammar: Adverbs

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Intro

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Most people would be satisfied if they could make millions doing just one thing, let alone two. But Jared Leto was already a successful actor before he started his second career as a musician. His band 30 Seconds to Mars has put out three albums, including the most recent, This Is War.

It’s hard to know if Leto’s band is famous in its own right, or only because Leto is famous. Either way, it must be fun to be a movie star and a rock star. Find out if Beren and Ella think Leto is a true Renaissance man.

Dialog

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2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.

Beren

Ella

Beren: So do you know anything about 30 Seconds to Mars? It’s that Jared Leto band?

Ella: That’s about the extent of it. And supposedly there was some giant controversy with the…their contract. That’s about all I know about them.

Beren: Oh, what happened?

Ella: Well, supposedly, they were supposed to do three records, and then there was some type of settlement, so now they just put out their new record just to fulfill that last contract or something.

Beren: That’s interesting that they got sued for not releasing their album, because these days people don’t really sell that many records. Do you know how much they got sued for?

Ella: Um, supposedly 30 million. You know, chump change.

Beren: Whoa. More than they would ever probably make selling the record. That’s interesting. That’s smart business.

Ella: Yeah.

Beren: It’s always interesting when actors decide to start playing music, or you know, maybe he played music before, but it’s funny that now his career…he’s probably more well-known at this point for his music, or for being in a kind of bad band, than being a good actor.

Ella: Yeah, exactly. He probably did it ‘cause you know, he’d probably have people who were fans of his movies be interested in his music just for that fact, you know?

Beren: Totally.

Ella: Girls who are like “Oh, I’ll pay 30 dollars to go see him, even if I don’t like the music.”

Grammar Point

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Discussion

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Both Beren and Ella only know about the band 30 Seconds to Mars because Jared Leto is in it. Leto is a famous actor who first became known for his role on the cult TV show My So-Called Life.

Ella says that 30 Seconds to Mars recently got sued by their record label for failing to put out an album they had promised to make. Beren says that records don’t make a lot of money anymore. Eventually the band did put out the promised album, This Is War.

Beren thinks Jared Leto is now more well known for being in a band than for being an actor. But Ella thinks he only started putting out albums because he knew people would buy them since he was already famous.

Do you think it is better to try to develop multiple talents, or to focus on just one thing? Do you know anyone who is a Renaissance man?

Did you know that Ebaby! met Jared Leto in Beijing? Watch the video!

Comments

abannasiri

Iran, Islamic Republic Of

BEST. like to thank the lowest

Mikobella

Poland

I love them sooooo much- just the best band in the world;).

dc-united/21

Germany

30 Seconds to Mars is definitely one of the best bands in the world. They’re mixing amazing lyrics with a stunning sound of guitars.

Can’t get enough of this! I noticed Jaret Leto for the first time as lead singer of this band and much later I found out he’s an actor, too.

Marcelolic

Brazil

Humm I guess I'm a focused person so I do just what I do perfectly ;)

I don't know there is no one that makes everything perfectly…I prefer to do one thing very well than doing many things more or less ;)

iwori

Japan

Majority of actors try to put out their records and be musicians but I think that's nonsense. Of course that has advertising effect more or less and it could be used.

After all I want to say is being great acotor or musician is not easy, so one who really wants to be top in a certain business can't pay attention to other thing.

rosendo

Mexico

watch it out

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXwWrz8c1-c&feature=related

rosendo

Mexico

oohhh yeah "Requiem for a dream " was an cool flick , and also the sound track was remasterized by GMS fuck group of phychodelic trance , pretty good movie

Jane2891

Russian Federation

It's not seldom nowadays when a famous actor or actress starts to sing professionally. And if a person is really successful at it(Like Jared Leto), so go ahead, develop your talent. But unfortunately, more often happens that his or her singing is awful, in such cases I think, he or she'd better focus on his or her actor career…
Btw, Jared Leto and 30 STM are the best!!!

ciccleo

Brazil

I've never heard about Jared Leto in my life, but I know the band since the first album and I love it!

I think it's important to all people develop multiple talents. It's healthy.

Dreamcather

Thailand

Impossible !! actually they can not go to mar in 30 seconds. Am I right ?

Ahshan

China

i do not have any idea about such band!

kelly_abd

China

it's normal that actors set foot in musics or musicians set foot in movies~but it's hard to get success all of them

L'elfe forrestier

Russian Federation

Sure, it's better to try developing multiple talents. You can never know what things are yours until you try them.

Dalo3ah

Saudi Arabia

yes , surelly it's important to improve the talent we have instead of focusing on one thing … And that improvment can found in many different fields not only on the music…

Thanks for the topic…^^