bono as one of his alteregos, the fly (u2spain.es)
while i have kinda lost track of u2 over the past couple of years, they have popped up (appeared) a couple times here on richyrocks.com and i still consider myself a fan. not everybody feels that way though. take a look at this headline from an article by annie zaleski on salon.com
Leave U2 alone: Why did one of our best rock bands become so loathed?
loathe means hate. leave alone means stop bothering or criticizing. michael jackson used it in this 1987 song directed to the media and haters
bono, u2’s lead singer, probably takes most of the negative energy directed at the band. zaleski explains
clumsiness is intrinsic to bono’s personality: despite his fame and ability to hobnob and hold his own intellectually with world leaders, he’s never quite grown out of being a loudmouthed irishman who’s cheerfully, proudly imperfect and always having to apologize for social gracelessness. depending on the level of fandom, this personality trait is either entirely charming or totally irritating.
words that end with -ness are nouns. clumsiness is the characteristic of being clumsy (uncoordinated, awkward). don’t confuse the suffix -ness with the suffix -less (without), as in ruthless and flawless.
gracelessness contains both suffixes and is actually a synonym for clumsiness (without grace).
bono hobnobbing with former microsoft chairman bill gates (u2station.com)
hobnob means socialize or schmooze. hold his own means compete. grow out of means mature, adopt a more adult behavior. loudmouthed describes a very vocal person. REMEMBER depends on in english is correct. depends of is spanglish, translated from depende de.
either indicates there are two alternatives. charming is charismatic, likeable.
prince charming from the shrek franchise. bono is much more charming.
zaleski says this in the singer’s defense
it’s rare that bono’s intentions are malicious, which makes the scorn he and the band receive that much more tiring.
rare is the opposite of common. it IS NOT usually the same as raro in spanish, which translates as weird (strange, eccentric) most of the time. scorn is similar to loathing from the headline of the story. tiring refers to something that makes u tired.
in 2014, some itunes users scornfully rejected the automatic addition of u2’s songs of innocence album to their playlists, even though it was free
in contrast to michael jackson, bono isn’t really asking to be left alone. on the contrary, dorian lynskey reported on theguardian.com
he got used to it 30 years ago. [bono said] “we were already annoying people, it was already divisive, it was already, ‘i can’t stand them, I want to kill them.’ it’s the job of art to be divisive”.
got used to it means he got accustomed to it; it was normal to him. annoying means bothering or irritating. can’t stand is yet another way to express hate (along with loathe and scorn).
fun english practice 
richyrocks english on youtube
and like amy zaleski, dorian lynskey believes
not every comment [bono] makes deserves to be twisted into something inflammatory.
deserve means merit or is worthy of. twisted means distorted or changed.
other uses of twist: the game twister and the eponymous dance (wayne croslin,associated press)
are u a u2 fan, or are they loathsome? or is your opinion somewhere in between? share your thoughts under leave a reply
