Next class = Thursday, 3 April in room L100C

Hi everyone,

I hope you have had a good break from classes.  As you can see from the posts below, during the break some of us went to concerts during the time off.

We will have class as usual on Thursday (3 April) at 4.30pm.  However, we are changing rooms: The new room is L100C -- the room just across the cafeteria from where we have been meeting.  So go to the cafeteria as usual, just go to the other room off of it.

See you Thursday!

Steve Z

Field Trip: Nada Surf concert Thursday, March 27

In the end we were a group of 10 that attended the Nada Surf show (Hong Bo met us after this picture):

Here's a picture from the concert:

Click here to see all the pictures that people in our group sent me.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

(This is a copy of the email I sent to my students Sunday evening. I am posting it here in case the email went to the spam folder.)

Hello my music-loving friends,

As we have talked about in the Language Of Music class, I suggest our next "field trip" be the Nada Surf concert on Thursday, March 27. The band is very popular (their concert on Friday night is sold out) and it will be a good chance for all you under-21-year-olds to see a typical Seattle rock concert (there is no age limit to attend this concert!).

Here's some info:

* Tickets are $18 (includes service charges)

* The concert is at the Showbox club in downtown Seattle, (on 1st Avenue, across from the Pike Place Market).

* The first band will play at about 8.30pm. Nada Surf will go on stage at about 9.30pm. The concert will end about 11.30pm.

Here's where you can hear some Nada Surf music and learn more about the band:

- http://www.myspace.com/nadasurf

- www.nadasurf.com

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nada_Surf

WHAT I NEED FROM YOU

To organize this group event I need to know some information from you:

* Please respond to me by the afternoon of Wednesday, March 19 if you want to go to this concert. -- I will buy tickets for everyone who wants to come, then you can pay me back on the day of the concert.

* I am happy to pick people up and drive them home, but I only have room for 4 people in my car: if more than 4 people want to go, we need to have othercars pick people up and drive them home.

-- Please let me know if you could drive and how many people you can take with you.

* I will write an email on Thursday to the people who say they want to go with more information about what time we will meet and who will be driving.

Thanks!

Field Trip: Flamenco performance, Tuesday, 18 March 2008

The flamenco evening was fun!  Here some pictures:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

A few of us from class -- those over 21 years old since it is a bar -- are going to see a flamenco performance Tuesday evening (18 March).

There is no entry charge to get into the club, but you are supposed to buy 2 drinks.

The performance starts at 9pm.

It is at the Capitol Club at 414 E. Pine St. on Capitol Hill. Here's a map.

Anyone who wants to come is welcome as long at they are over 21 years old: the club is a bar and you have to show ID/proof that you are over 21 years old to get in. At least one of my former students will be at the show. She is from Korea and will be returning home at the end of March so this is one of her last chances to see the show. She has seen the band play before and loved it so she is excited to see them play again before she leaves Seattle.

13 March 2008

Today was the last class of the Winter Quarter. I will post the notes soon.

Next class will be Thursday, 3 April at 4.30pm in room L100C -- the room just across the cafeteria from where we have been meeting.

6 March 2008

[ Dear students, I am very sorry about my tardiness in updating the blog with notes from our classes. I don't know why I have become so slow to do it the last few weeks :-( . I will be better next quarter! ]


10 students today. I've been really happy about the high number of students who have come to our discussion hour all quarter. I asked the class how many would like to continue the conversation class next quarter and all said "yes". I know a couple of people will be leaving BCC, so they will stop coming, but it looks like we will continue to have a lot of people for Spring Quarter.



Reminder: The last class of this current quarter will be Thursday, 13 March. We will have a break until the next class on Thursday, 3 April. And we will be in a new room, L100C, across the cafeteria from where we meet now. However, I hope to do an activity or two outside of BCC during the break.



One idea is to go see the band Nada Surf (bio) on Thursday, 27 March at the Showbox in downtown Seattle. I played a couple of songs for the class ("Whose Authority" [video, lyrics] and my personal favorite, "Concrete Bed" [fan-made video, lyrics]) but the class didn't seem very interested. Nonetheless, I recommend the class come with me to see this concert as it will be a great experience to see a very popular rock band's concert in Seattle -- a good cultural experience! Oh, and the show is an all-ages show, so all of the class can go!

I will send an email to the class asking who is interested in going to this show and then buy tickets accordingly.



The other activity I am organizing is to go see my friends' flamenco performance on the evening of Tuesday, 18 March. It starts at 9pm and since it is in a bar only people 21+ can go. Kaoru will return to Japan the week after so I hope she can come see this very special performance. Another of my former students, Hyunjin from Korea, will return to Korea at the end of March and she wants to come see the flamenco show, too. She has seen my friends perform before and she loved it! Any of my students who are over 21 years old are encouraged to come ot the Capitol Club (map) on Tuesday the 18th with us!


I started class with my standard question: Did anyone have any musical adventures this past week? No one had any tales to tell. I mentioned that I had been to a concert on Tuesday night: The Gutter Twins (bio, website). I explained what a gutter (definition) is and how the two main guys in the band (Gregg Dulli [bio] and Mark Lanegan [bio]) have histories of hard-living (especially drugs) and that their songs are pretty dark. The students said they would like to hear the music! I hesitated but I just so happened to have the CD of the band in my bag so I passed it around while I looked for a song.

I then mentioned that one of Nirvana's most famous songs is their version of "Where Did You Sleep Last Night" from their Unplugged show (video, lyrics) in 1994. But what most people don't realize is that back in about 1988 it was Mark Lanegan who did a version of that song on his album The Winding Sheet with Kurt Cobain (then an unknown guy in the Seattle scene) playing guitar. Here's Lanegan's version.

Our theme for the day was "songs from movies and tv." The first pick was "The Crow" (video) by Brandan Lee (bio). The student who chose this songs said she likes the movie because it's a horror movie about love.

One of the other students in the class mentioned that Brandan Lee was the son of Bruce Lee (bio) and that he died in an accident during production of a movie. When the student mentioned that story I remembered hearing about that accident many years ago. Both Brandon and Bruce Lee are buried in Seattle.

The next song chosen was "Mondo Bongo" (video) from the movie "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" (info). The student chose it because it reminds him of his first girlfriend. I wonder if she looked like Angelina Jolie...

Next song was from the movie "A Tale Of Two Sisters" (info). We watched "Epilogue" (video). But here is a version with more music. The composer is Korean.

Pinar wanted to find Samuel Barber's "Angus Dei" from Lorenzo's Oil, but we couldn't find a good clip so moved on.

Kaoru chose "The Godfather Theme" (video) because she like Robert Deniro (bio).

Next was "Before I Fall In Love" (video, lyrics) by Coco Lee (bio) from the movie "Runaway Bride" (info). I asked the guy who chose the song why he likes it and he said he likes Coco's voice. (I suspect he has more interest in Coco than just her voice!)

Next was a song (video) by Faye Wong (bio) from the movie Chungking Express (info). The song is actually a remake, sung in Chinese of the Cranberries songs "Dreams" (video, lyrics)! The director of Chunking Express is Wong Kar-wai (bio), who I had never heard of before, but was told he is a very famous, popula director across Asia. His movies are very intellectual. Every one he makes is a hit, even though they are not "light" entertainment.

Next up was another movie with Julia Roberts: "She" (video) by Elvis Costello (bio) from the movie Notting Hill (info).

Now I picked a song: "Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life" (video, lyrics) from the Monty Python (info) film "The Life Of Brian" (info). My choice was a flop (definition). But I still think Monty Python is brilliantly funny!

The last song of the day was "Don't Look Back In Anger" (video, lyrics) by Oasis (bio) from the movie "Arizona Dream" (info).

With that I reminded the students that this weekend the US set its clocks to "summer time" -- Saturday night everyone needs to "spring forward" by one hour.

Theme for next week's class is "Springtime". (However, since I am posting these notes so late, I don't know if anyone will bring Spring-related songs...)

28 February 2008

[this post is not yet finished!]

Today only 7 students showed up -- the smallest class of the quarter. No one was sure why so many people were missing.

We started by talking about the class schedule. We will have sessions through Thursday, March 13th, then take a break until resuming again on Thursday, April 3rd.

On the Sunday I had taken a ferry trip across Puget Sound and I told to my students that this is a great short trip to take some time. I recommend taking the Bainbridge Island Ferry (info and schedule). You can walk on as a foot passenger, on the Bainbridge side walk around the small town of Winslow (info), then walk back onto the ferry and go back to Seattle. The views from the ferry are great and it's a classic Northwest thing to do. It's great to get a perspective of Seattle *from* the water!

Speaking of the view of Seattle from the water, I suggested that I will organize an evening out on Lake Union with the students when the weather gets warmer. You can rent boats and go around on the lake. If we have 10 people it will only cost about $10 per person for 2 hours. It's another classic Seattle activity ;-) .

We also talked about the Underground Seattle tour. I have actually never been on that tour! But I would like to go some day.

21 February 2008

(this is a placeholder until I get time to transcribe my notes from the session)