28 March 2012 (Wednesday)

After a pause of 2 weeks for Spring Break, today was the first class of the Spring Quarter.  Only 5 students came, 4 of whom were regulars last quarter, and one new student.  We had a great discussion and I hope that more students come as the quarter progresses.

One of the first things I have talked to the class about was doing something outside of class.  I had been to my friends' flamenco performance the previous night (Tuesday) on Capitol Hill and this is definitely something I want to take my students to some time soon (they do the flamenco performance every Tuesday).

But for this week we decided to to see The Hunger Games (info) at the IMAX theater at the Seattle Center (Pacific Science Center) on Sunday evening.

I hadn't made a theme for today's song selections but since everyone in the class had traveled over Spring Break a theme kind of naturally became clear: "Road Trip" songs, i.e. the songs which remind them most of their travels over the past couple of weeks.

It turns out a few of the students went to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon. They didn't go together, rather their separate trips coincidentally took them there.

I asked one student if he saw a show in Las Vegas.  He was embarrassed to admit he had seen "Jubilee" (video), but I don't think there's anything embarrassing about that -- that kind of thing is what Las Vegas is all about!

I asked the new student to give us an example of the music she likes.  She chose "Sherlock" (video, song info) by SHINee (info) which is currently a big hit in Korea. I had never heard of this band, but that song is good club music!




Now we went back to "road trip songs".  We heard "A Flying Butterfly" (video) by YB Band (info).  The song is about how caterpillars transform into butterflies and the student felt like his road trip was a similar kind of transformation for his future.


By the way, the band also did an English-language version of this song (English lyrics are in the notes below the video).

The next song was "Without You" (video with English subtitles) by Dynamic Duo (info). I asked the new student what her favorite Dynamic Duo song is and she said it is "Solo" (video, lyrics).  


The new student also told us that Dynamic Duo will play a concert on 13 April in Seattle!  In my favorite concert hall in the world, the Showbox!  She's only been here two weeks but knows better about this cool concert than I do!  How did I miss this concert announcement?!?  I'd like to see the band and the scene, but tickets are $42 and that is a bit expensive for me to pay to see a band that I only like in passing.

The next song chosen was "Drive By" (video, lyrics, song info) by Train (info).  The student who chose this song said she heard it on the radio a lot during her trip to Alaska.

One student asked me to explain the meaning of the term "Drive By". It is a term with a long history in American culture.  It started by being the term "drive by shooting" which is when gangsters drive by a house or a person in a car and start shooting at the person or house without stopping the car.  But nowadays it is used in regular language to mean "something unplanned and for just a moment".  For example, in an office sometimes people say "I am going to do a drive-by meeting with Bob" which means "I am going to walk by Bob's office and see if he is there and if he is, I will talk to him for a few minutes."  In this song by Train he is saying to the girl "I like you and care about you, the romantic moments we had together were not just me driving by and then forgetting you." However, personally I don't like to use this term, even at work, because it has such violent origins and I think people who have experienced a "drive-by shooting" don't think it's a funny term at all. But I'm sure this song by Train will be a big hit across America this summer because it uses a lot of phrases and words that Americans think are light-hearted and fun -- summer-like!

The same student who chose "Drive By" said there was another song which described her Alaska trip: "Like An Idiot" (video with lyrics) by Crowd Lu (info).  This is a very funny, cute video.

The student told us that Crowd Lu often sings songs about breakfast so I asked what people usually eat for breakfast in their home countries.  The Taiwanese "breakfast shops" sound very interesting.  Apparently they eat hamburgers for breakfast!  I found this video describing Taiwan breakfast shops -- I want to try a Taiwanese vegetarian breakfast hamburger! ;-)

I played a song that I have been listening to a lot the last couple of weeks: "Until You Remember" (video, lyrics) by Tedeschi Trucks Band (info).  I had checked out the CD from the library just to hear what this popular American bands sound like and while the album didn't really catch my ear, this particular song stuckout for me.  I really like the sound of her voice as she sings the chorus!


With that class was over. The theme for next week's class: songs about eating and drinking!

On a different note, on my way in to LOM class I saw a poster advertising a showing of the film "Black Power Mixtape" (film info) on Monday, 2 April in Thomson Hall 211 from 5:30pm - 7:30pm.  I think this film will be a very interesting insight to American culture from about 40 years ago: it was a time of big changes in American society and music played a big role in those changes. If you are interested in learning about music's influence on current American culture, join me Monday afternoon.