Wednesday, May 23rd, 2007

Today 4 students showed up for what would turn out to be the last class for a while. I have been weighing job offers and accepted one at Microsoft that starts Tuesday, May 29th, and with my new work schedule I can't be at Seattle Central Community College at 4pm on Wednesdays. I love doing this class and will definitely find a new time to do the class, but I have to see how my work schedule goes for a while first.

So it was a little bittersweet, this last class. I really like my students at SCCC and will miss seeing them every week.

As I talked to the class about my new job Hyunjin asked if she could play something as background music. She played "Under A Violet Moon" (video, lyrics) by Blackmore's Night (bio). This choice was very funny for me -- it is the current band around Ritchie Blackmore (bio), the former lead guitar player for Deep Purple (bio) and Rainbow (bio), 70's and 80's heavy metal bands! I knew he was making music that was nothing like hard rock, but I had never heard it, then Hyunjin says this is one of her favorite bands! Hyunjin loves New Age music (info) and says Blackmore's Night is like that kind of music. She says that in Korea it is popular because the melody is dreamy and sad, which Koreans apparently like.



I told the class that my friends, Children Of The Revolution (website) are playing for free on Friday at the Folklife Festival (info) at the Seattle Center. I told them COTR is a great band and encouraged them to come see them perform. Titus asked to see a film clip, so I played the "Medley" (video) the band has on YouTube.


I can't remember now how we got started on this subject, but next we watched "Prince Of Cheju" (video) by Ryo Kunihiko (I can't find bio info on him!).

Then Emma, but I can't remember which clip :-( .




The conversation turned to Japanese anime (info) which is very popular among the students. I showed them a clip of Japanese anime I used to watch as a child: Speed Racer (info). Amazingly, they recognized it! I remember watching Speed Racer every day when I was about 7 years old (that would be ~1973!).

Now the whole conversation was about anime. We watched clips of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (aka "TMNT") (info) and Doreamon (info) but I can't remember which clips anymore :-(( .

Kanako has long asked me to show her Queen Anne hill (the part of Seattle where I live) so since there were so few people in class today we left a little early and I drove Hyunjin and Kanako to a Kerry Park, a famous park on Queen Anne hill with a great view of Seattle. Here are some videos taken from the park. We walked around the neighborhood a little then I took them back to Capitol Hill.



Stay tuned for the new time/place for the class!