Thursday, 27 July 06

Today's class was again 8 students. It seems we have a core of about 10 people who regularly come. The conversations are getting more fluid and students are not as inhibited to speak their minds.


Following up the topic of concerts at The Gorge in Eastern Washington, I brought in a DVD of The Dave Matthew's Band shot at that location to show the students what it looks like there. I played the song/video "Grace Is Gone" which includes a lot of footage of the area around the Gorge as well as of the concert venue itself.

The class had never heard of Dave Matthews. He is one of those megastars in the US who is virtually unknown abroad. The class quite liked the song "Grace Is Gone".

I mentioned that the Dave Matthews Band is playing 3 consecutive nights at the Gorge, September 1-3 and asked how many students will still be in Seattle at that time, but out of the eight people in the class today, only a few will still be here then. But for those who will still be here, it would be a great cultural experience to see the DMB at the Gorge. On the other hand, that is the same weekend at the Bumbershoot festival in Seattle, one of the best music and arts festivals in the US. A tough choice to make... but I suppose I would recommend Bumbershoot over Dave Matthews.


Next we finally got to talking about the Sleepless in Seattle soundtrack. Jun played his favorite song from the album, "When I Fall In Love" by Celine Dion and Clive Griffin (lyrics). Jun likes this album for its calming effect. Most of the class likes the song and they are fans of Celine Dion (ex. "My heart will go on" from Titanic is also a favorite).

Many of the students in the class haven't seen the movie "Sleepless in Seattle", which surprised me. When I am abroad and tell people I am from Seattle, the #1 response is "Oh, Sleepless in Seattle! I love that film!" (The #2 response is "Nirvana!"). If you have spent time in Seattle, it's good to see the movie to be reminded of the city. I also enjoy seeing movies set in places I have lived (latest example is "The Devil Wears Prada" which has some scenes shot in Paris, including one just a few streets from my apartment in the 5th Arrondissement). If you like grunge music, another film to that is set in Seattle to see is "Singles". It's not really an accurate depiction of what life was like in the music clubs in Seattle pre-Nevermind, but it's kind of fun to watch anyway if you want to see the Seattle backdrop combined with music.

The next topic was Ukranian pop music. Inna had a cd full of mp3's and played a lot of snippets of songs which are currently popular in the Ukraine. I can't remember any of the names of the bands, but we agreed that pop music is pretty similar in all countries, only the singing language changes.

We found out today that Joan from Andorra will be leaving Seattle with his family Friday to go back home. That's a shame, as Joan is one of the most active participants and clearly enjoys a wide variety of music. To commemorate Joan leaving, we took a picture of the class (unfortunately Anna is not in the picture as she is behind the camera):

Tuesday, 25 July 06

Today's class was only 8 people. But the mood was upbeat and the conversation flowed nicely.

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 Seattle soundtrack (song tbd)
* Green day (song tbd)
* Everything but the girl (“Missing”)
* If we have time, Ukrainian music.

Thursday, 20 July 06

The agenda for today's session was:

* Pearl Jam's new album
* Dixie Chicks
* Keane
* Linkin Park
* Sleepless in Seattle soundtrack


I began by asking how many people in the class (there were 14 today) know Pearl Jam's music. My question was met with blank stares. One person (Joan) is familiar with the band. Another person (Victor) has heard of them; to him they are an old band.

I thought, "This can't be right -- one of the biggest bands from the 90's?!?" I played a bit of "Alive" for them. Then "Jeremy". No reaction. No familiarity, no interest. Ok, fair enough, but what a surprise! The grunge phenomenon has officially fallen off the world radar screen.

I had made copies of the latest Pearl Jam album reviews from the Seattle Times and Seattle P-I and passed them around, but I realize now that the students must have received the copies with puzzlement.


We moved on to the Dixie Chicks. The two Ukranian girls who have been travelling through the US for a few months brought in the album "Taking The Long Way". They had never heard of the band before coming to the US and it was their host family who had turned them on to the Dixie Chicks.

In preparation for the class I had printed out part of the DC biography from Wikipedia about the political controversy around them a few years ago and passed the copies to the class.

We played the songs "Long Way Around" and "I Hope". The girls explained how the songs are the soundtrack to their travels around the US, both in terms of the content (theme of travelling while friends are settling down in "Long Way Around") and in terms of style of music, which is very American.

There was some talk about how typically American the band is, in terms of music and lyrical content. One student said they strike him as conservative and that they sing about typical American themes.


Our next song was Keane "Somewhere only we know" (lyrics). The girl who brought it in said she likes the melancholic melody. We discussed whether the singer is singing about the past, present or future.


We ran out of time to listen to a Linkin Park song or to talk about the Sleepless in Seattle soundtrack. Those will be our first two topics for next Tuesday's session.

The songs for next Tuesday are:
* Linkin Park (song to be determined)
* Sleepless in Seattle
* James Blunt "Beautiful"
* Green Day (song to be determined)
* Aerosmith (song to be determined)

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 .