Tuesday, 1 August 06

Today's class was 7 people.

As usual for Tuesday, I asked the class if anyone has a music-related story to tell from the weekend. Apparently not much happened this weekend: no one attended the Capitol Hill Block Party or any concerts.

Actually, on Friday I had gone to see a free in-store concert at Easy Street Records and a few students had come along. The show was by Pete Yorn, an American singer-songwriter who is releasing a new album in August. He is currently doing a little solo acoustic tour to promote the album and his show at the Crocodile Cafe was sold out, so the in-store was the only chance to see him this time around. The set was only 30 minutes long, loose (he abandoned a song halfway through) and laid back. He didn't play any songs that I am familiar with, but it was worth going down and seeing him.


*I* had the next story from the weekend, well, actually Monday night, to tell: I helped a local world music band, Children of the Revolution put on a short concert at Benaroya Hall opening for a political fundraiser for Senator Jim McDermott, with special speaking guest former president Bill Clinton.

I played a video of one of COTR's songs, "Isla Margarita" which features salsa dancing at the end. I asked the class if they would like to see another song and they enthusiastically replied "yes!" So I showed another song. Clearly most of the class liked the band. I mentioned that two of the members play flamenco music every Tuesday night at the Capital Club and suggested we will do a class "field trip" there one week. Unfortunately only those students over 21 years old can go, which is a bitter disappointment to our two Ukranian students...

I also mentioned that while it was a political event where Children of the Revolution played on Monday night, they were censored: they were not allowed to sell their latest CD in the foyer due to its "controversial" title ("Life, Love (and Guantanemo Bay"). And they were asked to not say or sing anything politically sensitive. So much for free speech and open exchange of ideas.

The rest of the class was spent playing and discussing Green Day songs.

First up was "Wake Me When September Ends" (lyrics, video) . Green Day is popular in the class with most of the guys; the women (except Inna) are a little more sceptical. They like the quiet beginning of the song, but then it gets a little loud for their tastes.

When I asked one of the women how she liked the song, she said "It's ok, but I like Children of the Revolution better!"

Next up was "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" (lyrics, video).

Victor mentioned that Green Day videos are very artistically done which I have to admit I was not aware of.

BTW, as I searched for Green Day videos, I came across this interesting mash-up video of Boulevard of Broken Dreams by Green Day, Wonderwall by Oasis, Writing to Reach You by Travis, and Sing for the Moment by Eminem.

On Thursday we plan to talk about “Missing” by Everything But The Girl and... we'll see! I may bring the Schoolhouse Rock DVD.