Tuesday, 8 August 06

The class remained small today at only 5 people. Edgar again didn't bring any of his favorite music, so we had to improvise.

Improvisation is no problem for Inna: she hopped in front of the computer and started searching YouTube.com for her favorite songs. We watched Nelly Furtado "Promiscuous". I actually hadn't heard the song yet. I've never much liked Nelly Furtado, feeling her music and image is too calculated, but this song/video is calculated to be "sexy" which adds up to cheap as far as I am concerned. Sexiness is enhanced by leaving something to the imagination, not making everything obvious. The class agreed that she has changed for the worse and is trying to be like Christina, Britney, et al. There are enough of their ilk!

Nonetheless, I am always interested to see how artists try to make the next leap to stardom by using a big producer like Timbaland (who is *great* with Missy Elliot) and using all the skin-sells tricks. But it usually isn't as cool as what they are trying to emulate and that is true here, too.

Victor said he had been wanting to hear Norah Jones's "Come Away With Me" on the weekend so we punched that in to YouTube. After all the commotion of "Promiscuous" it was definitely a change of pace and both Inna and Edgar yawned.

One thing I like about Victor's taste in music is that it ranges from Green Day to Norah Jones. Props to not being put in a musical box!

However it did inspire an interesting conversation: Victor said he likes listening to Norah Jones when he's on the beach back home in Thailand. I asked which city he and his girlfriend (Sunny, also in the class) are from. They are from Pattaya (info, map), a resort town. I have never been to Thailand so I had to look it up on a map.

Victor and Sunny said they are leaving Seattle this coming Saturday to go to Virginia for a year(!). That's a shame as they are fun to have in the class. But I wish them good luck. (I have to get used to students moving every few weeks...)

Since they are leaving I insisted that we spend the rest of the hour listening to Thai music. Sunny's favorite band from Thailand is called Flure and she played her favorite song by them, "Mai Care" from her mp3 player (sorry, I can't find an online clip of the song). The song is about following your heart and dreams.

We continued with another song, "Rue doo tee chan ngao" (video) which is Flure's most popular song in Thailand. It is about the "season of loneliness" which is especially in the rainy season.

At the end we watched the "Honeymoon" video. It is funny that the videos are all karaoke-ready!

For Thursday Edgar *promises* to bring something he likes. Sounds like it will be Eric Clapton and/or Aerosmith.

Thank God for internet access and YouTube in this class!