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I have told my students countless times about the great flamenco show my friends Eric and Encarna do every Tuesday evening at the Capitol Club (website) in Seattle. I convinced a group of students to trek over to Seattle for the evening of the 25th to see it for themselves. About 20 (including friends and boyfriends) showed up -- we filled the club! And Eric and Encarna (with a special guest appearance by Vassili) played a *great* show!!
A lot of pictures were taken during the performance, but the only one that I have from my camera is the one above (students, please send me your favorite pictures so I can post them!).
If you liked that show, I highly recommend that you get tickets to see their full band (Children Of The Revolution) on January 16th at the Triple Door. They will play two sets: one which is open to all ages (7.30pm) and one which is 21 and over (10pm). Get tickets here (buy tickets early -- both shows will sell out!!).
By the way, I go to the Capitol Club very often on Tuesday evenings to see Eric and Encarna play -- if any of you ever want to go again, just let me know!
Today was the last class of the quarter! :-((
9 students attended.
I started class with a non-music topic: I know that a lot of my students like shopping at the outlet malls and I mentioned that close to BCC there are a couple of places to shop for fashionable clothes cheaply:
- Nordstrom Rack (map Bellevue store, map Seattle store) is where they bring all the clothes that didn't sell in the regular Nordstrom stores. But most students seem to already know about The Rack...
- Loehmann's (website, map) is very close the Nordstrom Rack at Factoria Mall and has even more high-end fashion labels, but a smaller selection. But I find some pretty unique stuff here.
Ok, now on to the regular topic of our conversation, music! Everyone was pretty tired today, so we needed some energetic music. Nayoung had an excellent suggestion: The Extreme Crew Show (video). The dance is super modern, but includes some traditional parts to it, like the flute player. Wow, what athleticism!! I've never seen someone do one-arm push ups supporting their whole body weight! A very impressive spectacle! No wonder they won the Battle Of The Year breakdancing competition (info). Here's another video where you can see their amazing moves more closely. Check out their website or their MySpace page for tons more videos.
Nayoung knows these guys personally. She says they are nice guys and they have great bodies. She said they are performing in New York right now -- they should stop by Seattle and perform on their way back to Korea!
I don't remember anymore exactly how we got from Extreme Crew to Nil Karaibrahimgil (bio), but next we watched her song "Pirlanta" (video). Nil is a big star in Turkey and Ozlem likes her especially for her feminist attitude.
Next we watched a song "Muhabbet Bağına Girdim Bu Gece" (video) by another Turkish singer, Pamela (bio). (Actually, if you read her bio, she's not really fully Turkish, rather British/American/Turkish born in Germany...)
Then Ozlem told us that the Pamela version is an update to a more traditional Turkish song. We compared it to the traditional version (video). I love comparing different versions of songs!
We still needed upbeat music to raise the energy level in the room. So we watched The Peace (video) by a "band" called Morning Musume (モーニング娘。) (bio).
But Morning Musume isn't isn't really a band, rather it's a "brand" where the members change regularly; it's part of the "Hello Project" (bio) which creates the music and directs all the activities. The girls are all under 20 until they "graduate" to other projects under the Hello Project umbrella. (It's fascinating to me to learn about these Asian groups that I had no idea existed!)
Apparently there is a similar group in Korea: Girls' Generation (소녀시대) (bio). We watched their song "Kissing You" (video).
Surprise!, there's *another* Korean girl group!! Wonder Girls (원더걸스) (bio). We watched "Tell Me" (video) which features one of the members turning into Wonderwoman (info) to scare away a flasher.
All this talk of manufactured groups reminded me that New Kids On The Block (bio), a boy-band from the 80's, is doing a big reunion tour (coming to Seattle this weekend) that is a big nostalgia trip for a lot of people my age. However, most of my students weren't even born when the band was popular so I didn't think they would know any NKOTB songs. I tried out "Step By Step" (video, lyrics) on them. Nayoung recognized the song, because it was remade this year by a Korean band boy band called Battle (배틀) (bio) (video).
Last week Hugo had gone to see High School Musical On Ice (info). He said it was good and that he is a fan of Vanessa Hudgens (bio), who sang in the original High School Musical. We listened to her song "Committed" (video, lyrics).
This inspired a bunch of songs related to musicals for the rest of the class. First was "All That Jazz" (video, lyrics) from the movie "Chicago" (info).
Next we played "El Tango De Roxanne" (video, lyrics) from the 2001 movie "Moulin Rouge" (info). This is an excellent, creative version of the song "Roxanne"! I don't think most of the class knows the origin of the song "Roxanne", so I played a clip of the original version (from 1978!) by The Police (bio) [featuring a very young, not-yet-famous singer named Sting (bio)].
Back to the Moulin Rouge film (which I have actually never seen!), I played another song from the soundtrack that I like "Lady Marmalade" (video, lyrics).
Someone asked if I like the song itself or if I like the video and I replied that I have been a fan of that song since the 70's! I showed how old the song is with a clip from the 70's by original singer Patti Labelle (bio). I like both the old and the new versions!
Still on film music, remembered that I had watched the film "O Brother Where Art Thou" (info) this weekend and I decided to play a song I was sure my students had never heard: "I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow" (video, lyrics). Note the singer is George Clooney (bio)! (The song is a traditional American folk song, but I can't find a link to the original version.)
The last song of the day -- and therefore the quarter! -- was "Falling Slowly" (video, lyrics) from the movie "Once" (info).
With that we all went our separate ways for a few weeks. Well, the students will still see each other at their regular BCC classes until the end of the quarter. And some of us will go see the flamenco performance in Seattle on Tuesday night. And we plan on doing another dinner together (Japanese?) in December, so hopefully we will gather again before January.
For those of you 21 years old or over, a group of us will go to the Capitol Club in Seattle next Tuesday evening (25 November) to see the flamenco performance. Here are the details:
Where: Capitol Club in Seattle. 414 E. Pine Street, Seattle, WA 98122. Here's a map.
When: Tuesday, 25 November. The show starts at 9pm. It ends about 11pm.
Cost: Entry is free, but you are expected to buy two drinks (drinks can be cola or coffe or tea, not just alcohol).
Remember, you *must* bring your official identification (Washington driver's license or your passport) which proves you are 21 years old or older.
Please respond to me if you want to come to this show. Feel free to bring friends. In your response, tell me if you have a car or if you need a ride. If you need a ride, please remind me of the neighborhood you live in.
I hope a lot of you come to the show, it's really good -- Seattle's best kept secret!!
A note for you movie fans: The best theater to see the new James Bond film is in Seattle; it is called the Cinerama (www.cinerama.com) . This theater has a massive curved screen and is the best place to see action films. The theater is located in downtown Seattle (map).
9 students today and lots of conversation!
First of all I wanted to figure out the schedule for the rest of the quarter. It turns out that with the Thanksgiving holiday and the end of the quarter, this coming Thursday, 20 November will be our last regular meeting of the Fall Quarter! We will resume in January. Nonetheless, we will do some activities as a group -- at least a dinner and hopefully a concert -- during December.
On to music: This evening the Latin Grammy Awards were going to be on TV and I was sure to point that out to Diego. So we started by watching a couple of the artists who were most nominated for Latin Grammy's.
First up was "Me Enamore" (video, lyrics) by Juanes (bio). Diego told us Juanes is describing his perfect girl. Naturally I asked everyone in the group what the first thing is that they about notice a boy or girl they think is good looking at a party. (No, I will *not* reveal the answers from the students!)
At this point we started talking about how people in different cultures (in the US and in other countries) act when they pass each other on the street. For example, some people like that in the US complete strangers say "Hi" to each other as they pass whereas in other countries people will not look at each other as they pass. Ozlem said that in Turkey everyone looks at everyone!
Back to the Latin Grammy's: I had read that this Mexican alternative band, Cafe Tacuba (bio) was up for an award for their song "Volver A Comenzar" (video, lyrics), so we watched that song.
Next we watched "Git" (video) by Emre Aydin (bio).
I can't remember how we go to this one, but the next song was "Isn't She Lovely" (song only, no video, lyrics) by Stevie Wonder (bio). (Stevie Wonder is one of my favorite singers!)
Next song chosen was "I'm Yours" (video, lyrics) by Jason Mraz (bio). (Is it really possible that this video has been viewed 35 *million* times?!?) Ah, a little bit of summer atmosphere in the face of the cold, wet weeks we had been having!
This playful song about loving a girl made me think of a similar song from a few years ago: "Your Body Is A Wonderland" (video, lyrics) by John Mayer (bio).
All this talk of appreciating bodies led the next choice to be "Feedback" (video, lyrics) by Janet Jackson (bio).
At this point I had to mention that Janet started out here career in the 1980's as a much more "wholesome" (definition) reputation. One of her first hits was "Let's Wait A While" (video, lyrics). I wonder if she still does that song in concert...
I bet my students dont' know that Janet got her start on TV shows in the early 1980's. She was on Diff'rent Strokes (show info), one of my favorite shows as a kid. Here's a clip of her singing on that show. Here's an episode where one of the boys falls in love with Charlene (Janet).
My students also were not aware of the craziest Jackson of them all: La Toya Jackson (bio). Here's a clip where she looks more like Michael than Michael himself does.
Ok, back to the subject of dancing like Janet does: someone wanted to see Shakira (bio) (could it have been Diego?) and the group chose "Beautiful Liar" (video, lyrics) with Shakira and Beyonce (bio) together.
However, their belly dancing was a bit unimpressive, so Ozlem showed us a clip for a Turkish TV show (video). She did note that this a "slow" style of belly dancing; there is also a faster style.
Now we went further into Turkish traditional dancing. First we saw a traditional dance like at a wedding (video). Then we saw a traditional "knife dance" (video). Lastly we saw a "battle" dance (video) -- amazing footwork!
All this Turkish music set us up for the planned class trip to a Turkish restaurant Friday evening. See next blog entry about that!
8 Students today, 1 of whom was new.
Before I recount the discussions from today, a couple of notes about upcoming events we will be doing as a class:
* Friday, 14 November we will go for traditional Turkish dinner at Meze (location) in Kirkland. We will meet at the regular classroom at 5pm and drive together to Meze. Dinner will cost about $15. If you want to come with us, email me!
* Tuesday, 25 November (the Tuesday before Thanksgiving) a group of us who are over 21 years old will go to the flamenco performance at the Capitol Club on Capitol Hill in Seattle. It starts at 9pm. There is no cost to enter, but it is expected to buy two drinks (that's how the club makes their money). More details about how we will organize rides to/from Seattle that evening, but if you are 21 years old or older and want to come with us, mark your calendar. It will be fun!!
* My friends in the band Children Of The Revolution (see videos of them I have uploaded) will be playing on Friday, 16 January at the Triple Door in downtown Seattle. The early show (7.30pm) is open to all ages while the later show (10pm) is 21+ only. Every time I have taken my students to see COTR they have *loved* the show and I highly recommend you come see them play! The shows will sell out, so reserve tickets as soon as possible! This will really be a GREAT show and I hope a lot of my students will attend. Now to today's Language Of Music discussion: I started the day by asking if anyone attended any musical events this past week. No one had.
I asked if they have already talked a lot about the US presidential election in their other classes. They had.
Someone asked if I had in the end put on a Muppets costume for Halloween last week (see previous posts for that whole saga...). I hadn't. I said that my strategy was to just go to the party late when everyone else was already too drunk to notice that I wasn't wearing a Muppets costume ;-)) . I mentioned that I only stayed at the party for a short while before going to Beth's (reviews) to get a late-night breakfast. I was especially hungry from "hash browns" (pictured here) that night.
At that point we started talking about food for a long time. Someone said I should consider re-naming the class "The Language Of Food." Actually, it's a good idea for a conversation group! As many people are food fanatics as there are music fanatics!
As we talked about food and drink I noted that in America we have a strange separation of ages at which you gain responsibility:
- 16 years old you can drive a car.
- 18 years old you can vote and you can join the Army (i.e. go die for the country)
- 21 years old you are finally allowed to drink alcohol legally. But no one waits until 21 to drink alcohol -- it's a big national lie that people don't drink until 21.
Why not be honest about it and make the legal drinking age 18, the same age as you can vote and go to the army?!?
It was finally time to talk about music a bit! I asked the new student what kind of music she likes. She hesitated a bit but then told us she plays the Gu Zheng, a traditional Chinese instrument (info). We watched this video to see what the instrument is like. I found particularly interesting how the woman moves her arms so fluidly while she plays.
Ozlem said that this instrument reminds her of a traditional Turkish instrument. We watched this video as an example. Unfortunately I do not know the name of this instrument. I see a big difference between these instruments in that on the Chinese one the woman bends the strings with her left hand, while on the Turkish one the strings are static. I asked if this kind of music is popular in Turkey and Ozlem said it's mostly listened to in traditional settings and usually a lot of Raki (info) is drunk while listening!
Diego said they have a traditional harp instrument in Colombia and choose this video to illustrate it. Note that the video includes this band's phone number, in case you want to book them for a wedding or party ;-) .
Since we were on the topic of harp sounds, I mentioned that I am going to a concert this weekend featuring the kora (info), an instrument from West Africa that sounds like a harp. I've been talking about this for a few weeks already, so just quickly showed a minute of this video.
Ok, enough of harp music! Time for a change of pace!
One student said that the music and fashion style "Tecktonik" (info) is very popular in South Korea. To show an example we watched "A Cause Des Garcons" (video, lyrics) by Yelle (bio). Our student said she would like to learn to dance like that, but can't yet. She then showed us a video of a Korean university student spontaneously(?) doing a Tecktonik dance in class! Someone has posted a lot of videos of this dance in public places in Korea!
Tecktonik is a mix of "techno" and "electronic" music. As an example of electronic music we watched to "Satisfaction" (video, lyrics) by Benny Benassi (bio).Thinking of techno music, I asked if anyone has heard of the Loveparade (info) which originated in Berlin and has now been replicated in other places. Here's a video of some scenes.
Someone said DJ Tiesto (bio) is the best DJ in the world. We watched "Traffic" (video). Note, he also played Loveparade 2006 (video).
One person mentioned that they don't much like that this kind of music is pure beat, with little melody. I agree. I like music which makes you sway from side to side, not just jump up and down. To give an example of music which makes you sway, I showed a bit of Aretha Franklin (bio) doing Chain Of Fools (video, lyrics). [Note: just this week Aretha Frankin was voted the greatest singer of the rock era by Rolling Stone magazine. I agree -- I *love* that woman's voice!!!]
On the subject of dance, we watched a video of tango dancing.
Finally, one of our students, Candy, showed a video of herself dancing: a waltz and a jive number. It was great, but the videos are linked from her Facebook page, not YouTube, so I can't link to them.
I mentioned that if she or other students want to go dancing the Century Ballroom in Seattle (location, not far from where the flamenco show takes place very Tuesday!) has dancing, including lessons (info).
Someone saw that there is Salsa dancing (info) there and I said one of my friends, Vassili (the lead singer of Children Of The Revolution), is a professional salsa dancing teacher. I showed a clip of COTR playing "Isla Margarita" (video) -- at the end of the song is a long salsa dance. If you like that song, buy tickets to see one of their shows 16 January!!
To end the class we agreed on a date to go as a group to see my friends' weekly flamenco performance: We will go Tuesday, 25 November -- the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. As a little taste of what to expect there I showed a clip of them doing flamenco at a concert earlier this year.
Until class on Thursday and Turkish dinner on Friday!
10 students today, 2 of whom were new.
Before I write about the music we watched a note: As part of the idea to get authentic food from the international students' home countries, we decided that we will go together to a Turkish restaurant on Friday, 14 November. We will meet at our regular classroom at BCC at 5pm, then go to Meze (map), a Turkish restaurant in Kirkland. The meal will likely cost about $20 each. We have three confirmed cars going for a total of 13 people (including drivers) that can go. I will send more information about this activity in an email, but please think about whether you would like to participate.
On to this week's music!:
Before class I didn't suggest a theme for today's songs but on the spot decided we would talk about bands whose concerts we have seen. With that as a theme I mentioned that after last Thursday's class I had seen a band called Toubab Krewe (bio). An example of what that concert was like is here with "Lamine's Tune" (video).
I said that some interesting concerts are coming to town. In the next week I will see Secret Machines (bio, "Nowhere Again" [video, lyrics]) who are renowned for their amazing light show. I have seen this band twice already and am looking forward to seeing them again and being dazzled by their light show.
Another band I will see soon is Ozomatli (bio). This band is renowned for their great live shows. I will see them Saturday, 8 November, which is a show only for 21+, but the next night (Sunday, 9 November) the show is open to all ages. If any students can get down to the Showbox Market (map, it is right across the street from the Pike Place Market main entrance) Sunday night, it will be a great show and a unique cultural experience!
I tried to find some songs which are representative of Ozomatli. Here a couple:
* "City Of Angels" (video, lyrics)
* "Saturday Night (live)" (video, lyrics)
We looked at a website (Pollstar) for a list of upcoming concerts in Seattle to see if any of the students recognized a band they would like to go see. (Note, there is a link on this blog called "Big list of national/int'l concerts coming to Seattle" where you can see a current list of upcoming concerts. Next to that link is another link with information about local clubs and DJ shows.)
As we looked at the list of concerts someone asked how big each concert hall is. Here's a list of the main big concert halls and their capacities:
Key Arena (info) - 16,641
Wamu Theater - 7,000 Paramount Theatre (info) - 2,807 Moore Theatre (info) - 1,419
Showbox Sodo (info) - 1,500
Showbox Market (info) - 1,150Neumo's (info) - 800
Benaroya Hall (info, 2,500 capacity) is where the Seattle Symphony (info, website) plays.
As we looked through the list of concerts I saw that local band Death Cab For Cutie (bio), who have had an extremely successful couple of years, are coming back for a concert in December. I mentioned that they had the #1 album in the US earlier this year. Naturally I had to play my favorite video by them, which is one of my favorite videos of all: "I Will Possess Your Heart" (video, lyrics). Everyone in the class liked this song, too and it was fun identifying all the cities and places shown in the video.
Now, to the concerts students in the class have seen! Hugo saw Eason Chan (bio), though it was not really his intention to see this concert and it was a funny story to hear how the situation came about. As an example of the music we watched this video (I don't know what it is called).
The next concert memory was of No Brain (bio), a band from South Korea. We watched this live clip (again, I don't know the name of the song).
Someone mentioned that this band reminds them of the American punk band Green Day (info), also the whole story about how long they were an underground band before breaking through to the big time. Many of the students don't know who Green Day is, so I played a couple of songs:
* "Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)" (video, lyrics)
* "American Idiot" (video, lyrics)
* "Boulevard Of Broken Dreams" (video, lyrics) (their biggest hit song -- some people recognized this one!)
The last song of the day was "Agent J" (video) by Jolin Tsai (bio). I don't think it had anything to do with a concert, but it was a fun video to watch.
With that today's discussion was over. More about the trip to eat Turkish soon!
(My apologies for taking so long to post the notes from the last class -- sorry!)
12 students today, four of whom were new. But for some reason the energy in today's class never really got rolling...
In an email to the class I had suggested the theme for this week be songs that remind them of Fall/Autumn. Diego had one in mind: "Nubes Negras" (video, lyrics) by a band from his native Colombia, Los de Adentro (MySpace). Diego played this song in a band back home in Colombia.
Next up was a choice from one of the new students. She is from Switzerland and she chose "What's Love Got To Do With It" (video, lyrics) by Tina Turner (bio) (Tina Turner also lives in Switzerland now). I asked the class if they agree with the lyrics: that it's better to keep your heart from falling in love in order to keep from being hurt ("Who needs a heart when a heart can be broken"). But no one wanted to talk about this topic... I mentioned the English phrase "It is better to love and have lost than to have never loved at all."
Tina Turner was a star long before most of the students in the class were even born, so I mentioned to them that she was a big star in the 60's and was in a very bad relationship, the story of which was made into a movie called, coincidentally, "What's Love Got To Do With It" (film info). She continues to look GREAT for her age.
To show how little Tina has aged, I showed a bit of a clip of her from 1971: Come Together (video - this is a Beatles song; lyrics are in the box next to the video).
(Side note about looking great as you age, my goal is to look at good at 60 as David Bowie (bio) does.
They even did a commercial for Vittel water (video) playing on the fact that Bowie looks amazingly young for his age. [Note, all the other "people" in that commercial are the characters/persona's Bowie has been during his long music career.])
Now back to the subject of Autumn songs: Next song was "İstanbul'da Sonbahar" (en = "Fall In Istanbul") (video) by Teoman (bio). An excellent songs and it definitely evokes Fall!
At this point the conversation somehow moved to talking about Halloween. Minnie said she is going to be Dipsy (pictured left) from the Teletubbies (show info).
I am not familiar with the Teletubbies characters and wanted to see how Dipsy acts. When I searched on Dipsy the first thing I found was this video of Dipsy doing some gangster dance (video). Minnie theorizes this is a normal video of Dipsy, just sped up. We all laughed heartily.
Speaking of Hallowen and non-human characters, I mentioned that I have been invited to a party where everyone is to come as a Muppet character. I asked the class which character I should be. Here's the whole cast of the Muppet show:
One suggestion was to be one of the old guys in the balcony.
Another suggestion was Bert. We watched the clip of "You're It" (video) with Bert and Ernie to see what Bert is like.
Hmmmm, am I really like the most conservative muppet characters?!?!
We now went back to music: Halloween songs. A great one is "This is Halloween" (video, lyrics) from the movie "The Nightmare Before Christmas" (info).
(After class Banu sent me a link to another Halloween-related video: "Jump In The Line" (video, lyrics) from the movie Beetlejuice (info) -- good choice!!)
Now we talked about who likes watching horror films. We watched the trailer to the movie "The Saw" (video). When I mentioned that I don't like to see blood someone suggested the movie "The Others" (video).
I don't remember how we got onto the subject, but somehow I asked if my students are familiar with the book "The Alchemist" (info) by Paulo Coelho (bio). Some of them know the book, some do not. It is one of my favorite books!
As I described "The Alchemist" being about pursuing dreams, one student asked if I am have read the book Don Quixote (info). I have started, but not finished, reading that book. Nonetheless, one of my favorite words in the English language comes from the story: quixotic (definition).
Speaking of philosophical authors, we touched on the name Rumi (bio). I have two books of his poetry.
As time was coming to a close, I mentioned to the class an idea that I have had but haven't yet organized: I would like to organize a series of trips restaurants (ex. we go to a Korean restaurant) where students from that country advise me and the others what is the most popular kinds of food to eat in their country and how people go out to eat: I would love to get insight to local food customs!
I also will take the students to the best Mexican restaurant in Seattle: La Carte De Oaxaca (website) in Ballard.
As people left the class I explained the origin of the phrase "trick or treat" that children say when they go from house to house on Halloween. It originally meant "Give me a treat or I'll play a trick on you." Here's thorough information about trick or treating.
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