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Alanis Morissette

Date: Oct 20 2008

Intro

1. Learn Vocabulary - Learn some new vocabulary before you start the lesson.

2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.

If you haven’t listened to her lately, it may be hard to recognize Alanis Morissette. Her latest album, Flavors of Entanglement, is full of electronic sounds. The Canadian singer’s voice is a little lower, but she still has the unique pronunciation and style everyone will remember from the folk and rock songs of 1995’s Jagged Little Pill.

But one thing has remained constant: the lyrical content. Morissette continues to show her spiritual and emotional sides in songs about her relationships. Listen to Amanda and Devan talk about Morissette’s biggest heartbreaks.

Dialog

1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.

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

Amanda

Devan

Amanda: OK, so, you know how I always say you have kind of interesting tastes in men.

Devan: What? You do?

Amanda: Anyway…Well not to your face! But I was thinking about Alanis Morissette and she’s kind of parallel to you in that sense.

Devan: Well, this is all surprising news to me, but OK. Let’s talk about this…Are you saying that my ex-boyfriend is like Dave Coulier?

Amanda: What are you talking about? Full House? Why are you talking about him?

Devan: Because he dated Alanis Morissette.

Amanda: When?

Devan: A long time ago. That’s who the “You Oughta Know” is about.

Amanda: No it’s not.

Devan: Yes it is.

Amanda: Shut the front door.

Devan: It’s 100% true and I’m quite offended that you…

Amanda: That song is so angry though and angst-ridden. He’s a fun guy.

Devan: That’s why it offends me that you would compare my love interest to Dave Coulier from Full House.

Amanda: I was thinking more of you and your love interest to the Alanis Morissette-Ryan Reynolds thing.

Devan: What? Ryan Reynolds?

Amanda: Yeah, the hottie from Just Friends?

Devan: Isn’t he dating Scarlett Johansson?

Amanda: Yeah, he was actually engaged to Alanis Morissette, which I actually do think is an interesting combination, maybe an “opposites attract” thing…

Devan: How do you go from Dave Coulier to Ryan Reynolds?

Amanda: I know. Maybe the funny guy thing. The humor thing. Humor equals sexy. I don’t know. Funny is the new sexy? That’s something Mason would say. Anyway, he left her for…dun dun dun! Scarlett Johansson.

Devan: Oh, so Alanis must feel burned, so that’s an even bigger burn than what Dave Coulier did to her to make “You Oughta Know.” So what’s her new song gonna be called?

Amanda: I don’t know, but it’s gonna be awesome!

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Discussion

Amanda says that Devan makes “interesting” choices when it comes to men. She means that she probably wouldn’t date the people Devan does. This reminds her of Alanis Morissette.

Although the artist says she will never tell for sure, it seems likely that her most famous song, “You Oughta Know,” is about Dave Coulier, who acted in the TV show Full House and broke Morissette’s heart when she was a teenager.

Recently she was dumped again, this time by actor Ryan Reynolds. Maybe her biggest song yet will come out of it!

Have you ever been heartbroken? Do you find that emotions like anger and sadness make you creative?