23 May 2012 (Wednesday)

As Spring Quarter goes on less students have been showing up for the weekly discussions.  I don't mind: I'd be happy to even sit and chat with one student.  But where there were consistently 10 - 12 students at the beginning of the quarter, the last couple of weeks it has dwindled to about 4.  Perhaps students have mid-terms and finals?  I think it is more likely to do with the fact that the weather has improved.

This week only two students showed up at first.  We talked in the regular room for about 30 minutes then I suggested that we three go to a nearby cafe, Cafe Solstice (info).  As soon as we arrived at the cafe I got a call on my mobile: 3 other students had shown up at the regular room and wondered where we were.  They joined us at Cafe Solstice.

Before I get into the diary of what we talked about this week a note about class meetings over the break between quarters:

• We will meet this Wednesday, 30 May.
• We will *not* meet for the two weeks after (6 & 13 June).
• The next class after this week will be 20 June.

Of course, during the break between quarters my students are welcome to ask me about music or cultural things happening in Seattle. Indeed, I might even organize going to a concert or something.

Like last week, this week we again didn't talk a lot about music, rather just general conversation.  

I had read an article about a Korean app that is like Facebook but just for couples called "Between" (article about the app).  I asked my students if they knew about this app but they said they had never heard of it.  Maybe it's not as popular in Korea as the article made it sound...

We looked through the concert and cultural listings in The Stranger newspaper (website).  I think this (free!) weekly newspaper is a good chance for students to learn about culture in Seattle.  The newspaper has articles and advertisements for food, music, film and theater.  Personally I don't often agree with the opinions written in The Stranger, but I find the newspaper useful to see what cultural events are going on in the city.

One student asked me where there is a pub in Seattle that has ping-pong.  We googled it and found out there is a place near the University District, Teddy's Tavern (info), at 65th & Roosevelt.  I had never thought of ping-pong and beer together, but later I saw an advertisement in The Stranger for another bar with ping-pong (sorry, I forgot which bar it is...)

As I did a Google search for bars with ping pong in Seattle I came across a result for The Eastlake Zoo bar (info). The Zoo (as it is called for short) is a classic Seattle "dive bar".  "Dive bars" are the pubs/bars where the drinks are cheap and the overall feeling of the bar is kind of dirty.  Dive bars are *not* where yuppies (definition) hang out drinking wine, rather it is where people go and drink beer. And more beer. And more beer. There are often drunk people at dive bars. Don't worry, dive bars aren't dangerous and in fact they are pretty fun.

One of Seattle best (and oldest) dive bars is right in the University District on 45th: The Blue Moon Tavern (info). When I was a UW student I spent many nights at the Blue Moon (in large part because I worked at a record store across the street)!  But sorry, no ping-pong there.

Here's a map of dive bars in Seattle. 

We didn't *only* talk about dive bars and ping-pong. The upcoming weekend was a 3-day weekend for the national Memorial Day holiday (info) which means that at the Seattle Center the Folklife Festival (info) was taking place.  There is lots of local music and art and I encouraged students to stop by and see this (free) festival at some point of the weekend. Here's a review of the festival. I am curious to learn at the next class how many people visited Folklife.

Speaking of music festivals: Every year on Memorial Day weekend one of the best music festivals in the United States takes place about 2 hours away from Seattle.  The festival is called "Sasquatch" and it is on the East side of the Cascade mountains so it is usually hot and sunny there even if it is cloudy in Seattle.  And the festival takes place in a beautiful setting -- one that is often voted the most beautiful place to see a concert in the whole country! Here's a review of this year's festival with a picture of what it looks like there. 

Speaking more of music festivals, in July (20-22nd) there is a festival of independent music in the Capitol Hill neighborhood.  It's called "The Capitol Hill Block Party" (info).

Speaking some more of festivals, every year on the Labor Day 3-day weekend at the end of summer (this year 1-3 September) another of the best music and arts festivals in the country takes place directly in city at the Seattle Center: Bumbershoot! Here's a list of the music/bands that are scheduled to play so far (more will be added in the coming months). I usually go to Bumbershoot all three days.

There is an event this coming week (Friday, 1 June) which I think is a really unique and cool thing to do: The Seattle Art Museum Remix Party (info). The description on the website does not fully describe what a feast for the senses these parties are.  I highly recommend going (best is to go with some friends)!!  It's $20 for students but totally worth the money!

Looking ahead, I know that some of my students love watching soccer and the Euro 2012 championships begin Friday, 8 June (schedule; games begin at 9am and 11:45am Seattle time).  Here my recommendation for places to watch the games:  

• In the University District: Schultzy's (41st & The Ave)
• Downtown: Fado Irish Pub (1st & Columbia)

So you see, not a lot of talk about music this week, but a lot of culture/music information in this week's blog!

16 May 2012 (Wednesday)

Today was a small group: only 4 students. Maybe it's because the weather outside was so nice and most people wanted to hang out outside?

But in this small group we talked a lot.  Well, *I* talked a lot -- the students were asking me some things about places I have lived and where I have traveled and our "conversation class" became more of a "question and answer class" this week.  I didn't mind telling my stories. But we really didn't talk about music this week at all!

Somewhere at the beginning of class I mentioned that the Burke Gilman Trail, (map, info) which passes through the University of Washington, was previously a railroad track.  When the railroad track wasn't needed anymore they paved over it and made it a trail.  Because the trail is flat for so many miles it is a very popular route for joggers and bikers.  

We talked about which classes were the favorite (most fun) courses of the students at university.

They asked me where, of all the place I have lived was my favorite place.  The answer, for a number of reasons is Prague (info).

I told the story of traveling to Mount Roraima (info) in Venezuela.  That was a fascinating trip for me and I put my diary of the trip online to share with friends. (By the way, the landscape of Mount Roraima is the inspiration for the landscape in the animated film "Up"!)

We talked about traveling alone versus traveling with friends or a boyfriend/girlfriend. 

One student said she wants to travel to Peru (info).  I said that if she goes to Peru she *must* visit Machu Picchu (info), which I have heard is one of the most amazing places on Earth.

Though my entry for this week is a short, we actually talked for a long time, it's just that it wasn't about music and I don't have any links to put up.  But it was a fun change of pace.

15 May 2012, some miscellaneous notes

I have made some notes of things which the class might be interested in but which we haven't talked about in class so I'm just going to make a special blog post about them:

This past weekend a rising star musician, Kina Grannis (info), played in Seattle. I didn't see her concert.  But her video for "In Your Arms" (video, lyrics) is very creatively done, with art made of jelly beans in the background.  I know how many of my students like both music *and* food, so this is a good video for you!  Here's a clip about how they made the video.

If you are in Seattle over the Memorial Day weekend (25 - 28 May), definitely go down to the Seattle Center for the NW Folklife Festival.  It is free and there are lots of good local musicians and artists who play.  Here is the schedule. 

I have been asked what are some films which are about American youth culture.  Here is a link to Entertainment Weekly's list of the "Top 50 High School Movies".  If you are looking to learn more about American culture and you have Netflix online, check out a film or two.  (I particularly like "Ferris Buehler's Day Off" (info), but that's an old movie.)

Speaking of films, I recently saw information that the Korean Film Archives provide over 70 Korean film titles through YouTube. Access the films here.

Also on the subject of films, there is a movie currently out called "Jiro Dreams Of Sushi" (Seattle Times review). It is a very nice documentary about this man who has made it his life mission to make the best sushi possible.  But there is a Seattle connection to this movie!  The Seattle restaurant Shiro's (website) is owned by a man who was an apprentice to Jiro many years ago.  Additionally, one of the apprentices shown in the current movie about Jiro now works at Shiro's here in Seattle! Here is an article about the Seattle-Jiro connection. 


Those are just a few things I had noted to myself to share with my class, but which didn't really fit into the recounting of the weekly sessions.

9 May 2012 (Wednesday)

Today's class was smaller than last week: only 8 students.

I asked if anyone had had any musical adventures in the past week.  No one had, though one student went camping at Deception Pass (info), which is a very pretty place a couple of hours outside Seattle to visit.

I told the class that I had had a musical adventure on the weekend: I had attended a performance at Teatro Zinzanni (official website).  I showed a promotional clip of what the performances are like. The performances there are really fun to watch, but unfortunately rather expensive.  But if you have the money to attend a performance, I highly recommend it!

One student had heard that a big concert had come through town last week: The Black Keys (info).  She had never heard the band so she asked me to show a song.  I chose "Tighten Up" (video, lyrics, song info) since I think it's has been their biggest hit.  The band is very popular in America right now, but I think they are at the top of their popularity; I can imagine they will stay at this level for a few years, but I don't think they will get even bigger.

The Black Keys are a duo: a guitarist and a drummer.  A few years ago there was another band with the same configuration that was very popular: The White Stripes (info). To show an example of The White Stripes' music I played "Seven Nation Army" (video, lyrics, song info), which I think is their most popular song.  My personal favorite video by them is "The Hardest Button To Button" (video, lyrics, song info).

However, The White Stripes broke up because the drummer didn't want to tour anymore.  The guitar player is named Jack White (info) and he is basically the "coolest" musician in America right now.  He has worked on a lot of different projects in the past few years and he just released his first solo album. I haven't heard his solo album yet. I played "Sixteen Saltines" (video, lyrics, song info) from that album to show the class what kind of music he is making. I like the song, but the video is kind of violent.  

For a different kind of song of his, mellower, check out "Love Interruption" (video, lyrics, song info).

Jack White really is an interesting artist.  I respect him highly, even if I don't personally like *everything* he puts out.  One of my favorite songs from his other side-projects is "Steady As She Goes" (video, lyrics, song info) which he did with the band The Raconteurs (info).

A side note: If you like hearing about how famous guitar players get their sounds, there's a great documentary film called "It Might Get Loud" (info) which features Jack White along with Jimmy Page (info) from Led Zeppelin and The Edge (info) from U2. What is amazing about this is that Jack White, a relatively young guy, is put next to two guys who have established as the best guitarists in the world over decades.

As we were talking about these bands I referred to them as "independent rock" bands.  A student asked me what "independent" in this context means.  That's a very good question!  For me the short definition is independent musicians make music because they just want to make music; they don't do it with the motivation of getting rich or famous. Sometimes they do get rich and famous, but their motivation starts with just making art. Here is how Wikipedia defines independent rock.

One of the students said that Korea also has a band, 10cm (info), which is a duo doing independent music, though the music is much softer than the first bands we listened to. We listened to the song "Tonight I'm Afraid Of The Dark" (video, lyrics) by them.

Speaking of duos and independent music, I told the class about a duo from Mexico who moved to Dublin and played music on the streets for money ("busking") and then they got famous.  The duo is called Rodrigo Y Gabriela (info).  They have a very interesting style of playing and there's one song where Gabriela plays with her knuckles against the guitar: "Diablo Rojo" (video, song info).  I saw them live once and though I wondered how interesting it would be to see just two guitars playing instrumental music, they have a very interesting light show and visuals from cameras attached to their guitars: they are great to see live!

Speaking of "busking", there's a Korean band called Busker Busker (info).  We watched "Makgeolli-na" (video) from their Korean Idol performance. They have an American drummer and this song is about a Korean alcoholic drink (info); at the beginning of the song they ask the drummer if he knows the drink.

The next song chosen was "Google Translation" (video). It wasn't much of a "song" and I was a little confused about it. But one of the students totally understood what the point of it was: it was the melody of the sound of the phonetics of the translation of the text in Google to Chinese.  Very creative!

The next song chosen was "I Gotta Feelin' (live in Chicago 2009)" (video, lyrics, song info) by Black Eyed Peas (info).  What was really interesting in this video was the effect of seeing progressively more and more people in the crowd dancing.

That video made me think of a famous video where a bunch of people did a dance in the middle of a mall: "Praise You" (video, lyrics, song info) by Fatboy Slim (info).

At this point the room we were in was booked for another meeting.  Normally we would go down the hall to another room to continue, but since it was sunny I decided to take the group to one of my favorite places to go on a sunny afternoon: the nearby restaurant, Agua Verde (website) for Happy Hour margaritas!

2 May 2012 (Wednesday)

12 students today plus a special guest: Zorana, from Bosnia!  

Zorana was part of a group of high school students traveling in the United States and I had met her at a reception a couple of weeks previously. When she met she told me she is crazy about K-Pop and J-Rock so I invited her to come visit the Language Of Music class so she could talk with my students from Asia about those musical styles and bands.  So we spent the first hour of class just talking about K-Pop and J-Rock with Zorana.

We started with Zorana explaining where she is from.  I forgot the exact town she is from, but it is in Bosnia (map + info), not Sarajevo, the capitol.

For an example of Bosnian popular music that fans of K-pop might like, we watched "Fejs" (video, lyrics) by Milan Stanković (info).

Next I asked Zorana what the first K-Pop or J-Rock band she ever heard was.  She said it was The Gazette (info) and chose the song "Filth In The Beauty" (video, lyrics, song info).

Zorana says the band will soon release a new album and she is very excited about it. She also thinks the singer is very cute.

The Gazette have a much more heavy-metal sound than the most of the music my students choose so it was interesting for me to learn about this other style of music within J-Rock.

Given the example of The Gazette I asked the class to suggest some other bands that Zorana might not know about but that play similar music. One song suggested was "Anata" (video, lyrics, song info) by L'Arc En Ciel (info). The student who suggested this song said he was amazed to see a video of the band playing to such a huge crowd in Paris.

As I write this blog entry, for the next few songs I can't remember whether Zorana was familiar with these bands or whether the class was turning her on to new bands... It's possible she was telling *my students* about the bands -- she knows about some K-Pop/J-Rock bands that even my students aren't familiar with!

We listened to "DoraDora" (video, lyrics, song info) by U-Kiss (info).

The next song was "Mirotic" (video, lyrics, song info) by TVXQ (info).

Next we listened to "Hands Up" (video with translated lyrics, song info) by 2PM (info).

Because Zorana had played that band with a bit of a heavy metal edge I next played "Rising" (video) by Yoshida Brothers (info).  I don't think anyone in the class had heard this song or band before, but I like how they combine traditional Japanese shamisen instruments with modern rock sound.

I think Zorana chose the next song, which I believe none of my students knew about before: "Lacrimosa" (video, lyrics + song info) by Kalafina (info).  Again, I can see why the melodies in this song appeal to European ears.

Next we listened to "I Am The Best" (video, lyrics, song info) by 2NE1 (info).  I can't remember who chose this video, but I think it was Zorana again, as it's got a harder edge than what my students usually pick.

At this point we had time for one more song before Zorana had to leave the class. I asked the students to give find one more singer that she might not already know.  We showed her "Ringo no Uta" (video, lyrics, song info) by Ringo Shiina (info), which is one of the Japanese student's favorite Ringo songs.


With that we said goodbye to Zorana. It was really fun having her visit us and I hope she continues to follow the class -- and even contribute to our discussions via this blog! -- from home in Bosnia.

The next song chosen was "Hey Soul Sister" (video, lyrics, song info) by Train (info). The student chose this song because she was recently gloomy and hearing this song picked her up.


She used the word "gloomy" to describe her mood that day.  We talked about other words that can be used to describe that feeling, like "bummed", "bummed out", "blue" and "down".  You can say "depressed", too, but in American English "depressed" sounds quite serious -- it is stronger than just a passing mood.

Speaking of the word "gloomy", a student suggested we listen to the song "Gloomy Sunday" (video, lyrics, song info). We listened to the version by Billie Holiday (info).  This song has a lot of history to it -- read about it here.

The next song chosen was "Moonlight Sonata" (video, song info) played by Valentina Lisitsa (info).

We continued with another song featuring the piano: "Your Song" (video, lyrics, song info) by Elton John (info).  The student who picked this song said that her brother had turned her on to Elton John and this song relaxes and calms her.

The next song was "What Is Troubling You" (video with translated lyrics) by Sodagreen (info).  The song is about the cycle of life and how everything will be ok: it gives hope and a positive message.

This song reminded a student of a phrase she recently learned for a homework assignment: "This too shall pass". In looking for the definition of that phrase she came across the song by the same name by OK Go (info).  So we watched "This Too Shall Pass" (video, lyrics, song info).  It's a very creative video!

This band is famous for making videos shot in one take.  They first became famous by putting their video "Here It Goes Again" (video, lyrics, song info), which was shot in one take with treadmills, on YouTube.

With that our time was up for the day.  I told the students that Saturday, May 5th, will be a big day because it is both opening day of boating season in Seattle, which meant a parade of boats under the Montlake bridge, and the annual "Cinco de Mayo" parties around town, which are a celebration of Mexican culture. Or an excuse to drink too much Corona beer and eat too many chips & salsa.

25 April 2012 (Wednesday)

A low turnout today: only 6 students.  Perhaps due to mid-terms?

One of the students, from Saudi Arabia, was new to the class.  I started by asking him to give us an example of the kind of music he likes.  He chose "The Show Must Go On" (video, lyrics, song info) by Queen (info).  When I asked the student why he chose this song he said he chose it because it is lyrically a very powerful song as it is Freddie Mercury's (info) way of saying goodbye to the world before he died of AIDS. 

The next song was "Bizarre Love Triangle" (video, lyrics, song info) by Frente! (info). The student who chose it said she just likes the melody, but doesn't pay attention to the lyrics of the song.  

In fact, this song is a cover of a New Order (info) song.  So we listened to the original version (video, lyrics, song info).  

The student who chose the Frente! version said she likes the sad, Frente! version over the New Order one: musically, the New Order version feels too "up".

My personal favorite New Order song is "Crystal" (video, lyrics, song info). I particularly like the background vocals which just say "hey" and "woo hoo".

The next song was "A Boy" (video, lyrics, song info) by G Dragon (info) who is from the boy band Big Bang (info).  

The girls in the class were talking about how cute G Dragon is so I asked them to vote for who is the cutest one in Big Bang. They agreed G Dragon is also the cutest in Big Bang.

I asked if the girls in the class would have a problem dating a guy with tattoos.  They aren't against tattoos, but they said it would  have to be small, subtle tattoos, ones that had a purpose or meaning, rather than showy, big tattoos.

One of the students wanted to hear a Santana (info) song.  Though Santana started in the 1960's, I thought the students would recognize "Smooth" (video, lyrics, song info).  I think they recognized it, but they didn't seem impressed.

The student who wanted to hear Santana wanted to hear the song "Into The Night" (video, lyrics, song info) because he prefers the singer (Chad Kroeger (info)).

One of the students has often said she likes jazz.  That made me think that there was a really good jazz concert in Seattle last week by Esperanza Spalding (info).  She is originally from Portland, OR, so she is kind of a local artist, but she won a Grammy Award (info) for "Best New Artist" in 2011 so she is getting more and more popular around the US.  Her concert was in a big theater, the Paramount Theatre (info).  

To give an example of Esperaza Spalding's music I played "Grooves"(?) (video).  

But the student who likes jazz didn't like that song -- it's too mellow.  She said she prefers stuff like "The Lady Is A Tramp" (video, lyrics, song info) by Lady Gaga (info).

Then we watched a version of the same song by Tokyo Jihen (info) with Ringo Shiina (info) singing: "The Lady Is A Tramp" (video).

One of the other students observed that by "jazz" the one student probably means more like "Broadway" style jazz.  I think she's right!  There is a very popular band from Portland that often plays in Seattle that plays music like that -- the band is called Pink Martini (info).  My favorite song by them is "Sympathique" (video, lyrics). The song is sung in French and repeats the line "I don't want to work".

One of the students remarked that she is going to see Coldplay (info) in concert this evening.  That's a great cultural experience for her!  Her favorite Coldplay song is "Viva La Vida" (video, lyrics, song info) because the tempo of the song is strong.  

My personal favorite Coldplay song is "God Put A Smile Upon Your Face" (video, lyrics, song info) mostly because I like the vocal melody and the tone of his voice.

I am curious to hear her report on the concert next week.  For now, here was the concert review in the Seattle Times.

With that we had to end class a little early because FIUTS needed the projector for a different event.