I started by asking if anyone had any "musical" experiences over the weekend. Joan had taken his family over to the Pearl Jam concert on Saturday at the Gorge: in my eyes, a great "Seattle cultural" experience. To the left here is a picture of what the venue looks like (click on the picture for a larger version). It's a great place to see any band, but Pearl Jam usually plays inspired concerts there. And the set list for Saturday sounds excellent as far as I am concerned though I am not sure I could have handled the heat...Joan made some interesting observations about the show: why are there chairs at the *front* of the stage for a rock show? He thought it was funny that people over 21 who wanted to drink alcohol had to wear a special bracelet. And most absurd was that beer/alcohol was only served until sundown!
Joan's 14-year old son got bored, except when PJ started playing some oldies at the end of the set. All in all Joan deemed it a good experience.
The Seattle newspapers also liked the show, here their reviews: Seattle Times, Seattle P-I.
One of the girls in the class then had a (somewhat) music-related story to tell about her weekend: she and her friends went to a gay bar one night. She isn't sure what part of the city it was in (I am guessing Capitol Hill) the experience appears to have perplexed her: so many "good looking men" but so little clothes and such "dirty dancing". Clearly an impressionable experience for her. I asked if she'd go to a gay bar again. She hesitated and replied "Yes, when I'm a little older, like 25." I asked what difference being older would make and she doesn't really know, but in any case, it may be a while before she ventures out to a gay bar again.
We moved on talking about songs some students had brought in. One guy brought in "In the end" by Linkin Park. We played the song and read the lyrics. We talked about whether this is a good attitude to have to an ex-girlfriend/boyfriend.The guy who brought the song in says he likes to listen to it when he has to work hard on a task, to get through something. One of the girls in the class also likes this song and it makes her think of some of her friends back home. Others in the class were neutral about it, though even those who are not fans of heavy music found parts of it appealing.
The next song discussed was "You're beautiful" by James Blunt.The girl who brought it in said that she originally wanted to bring in a song called "You're So Beautiful" which she likes (she doesn't know which artist sings it), but when she read the lyrics to that song they were so bad that she didn't want to talk about it.
We watched the video for "You're Beautiful" and read the lyrics. The girl who brought it in said she likes it particularly for its romanticism. The conversation mostly centered on the video and different theories about why he takes off his clothes, despite the cold weather, and then jumps in the water. Is he cleansing himself? Suicide for a lost love? We didn't reach a conclusion, just theorized.
Today's songs had a common theme of love for someone who a person is not with. I mentioned one of my favorite lyrics about love, from Temple of the Dog:
"But when it's my time to throw the next stone
I'll call you beautiful, if I call at all"
And on the theme of cleansing, my favorite Pearl Jam song -- which they coincidentally started their concert at the Gorge on Saturday with -- is "Wash" with the refrain of "wash my love": I like the idea of "washing" an intangible.
With that today's session was over. Thursday we plan to talk about:
* Sleepless in
* Green day (song tbd)
* Everything but the girl (“Missing”)
* If we have time, Ukrainian music.
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