Tuesday 18 July 06 (first class)

Today was the first class so it was dedicated to introductions and orientation. I brought in copies of The Stranger and Seattle Weekly newspapers.

There were 10 students, mostly from Asia plus two from Ukraine and one from Andorra. The musical tastes in the class are quite varied, but there is a lot of emphasis on pop music.

For Thursday's class we will talk about and listen to the following:
* Pearl Jam's new album
* Dixie Chicks (song tbd)
* Keane "Somewhere only we know"
* Linkin Park (song tbd)
* Sleepless in Seattle soundtrack

A funny linguistic/cultural thing came up: A student asked where a good cd store is in Seattle. I replied that my favorite store is "Easy Street Records". I explained that it is on the other side of Queen Anne hill. As I was thinking out loud which street it is on the student said, "It's probably on 'Easy Street', no?" I explained that in American English when someone says he "lives on Easy Street" it means he/she has few problems in life.

I have created a page with answers to frequently asked questions on my websites at www.zitkovich.com/thelanguageofmusic .