25 July 2012 (Wednesday)

Today was a beautiful 80F day -- I wondered how many students would show up. Plus 10 of us had met the day before (Tuesday) to watch sailboat races and go to flamenco, so maybe my students had had their fill of Steve Z for the week... But 5 students did show up and we had a fun, relaxed conversation until the building maintenance people kicked us out after only one hour.

As I was setting up the computer and projector one of the students was singing to himself as he did something on his mobile phone.  I asked him which song he was singing.  It was "Firework" (video, lyrics, song info) by Katy Perry (info).

The first thing I did was tell them about the Bumbershoot festival (website), one of the best music and art festivals in America, which takes place down at the Seattle Center (very practical to visit!) the first weekend of September each year. This year it will be September 1-3. I look forward to this festival every year and always go all three days. This year there are not that many world music performances, but there are a lot of indie rock bands I am interested in seeing. If the weather is good it will be a great weekend of music! Tickets are a little pricey ($40-$50 per day), but actually for the amount of music you see it's a great deal. 

One student had gone to the Capitol Hill Block Party (website), another music annual festival in Seattle, the previous weekend. But she wasn't very impressed with it.  We tried to find a video of the best band that she saw at the festival, but we weren't sure what the band's name was.

One of the artists who played the CHBP was Allen Stone (info), an up-and-coming singer from Eastern Washington. He is getting great reviews from around the country as have a great soul voice. I haven't seen him in concert yet so we checked out a video of his "Unaware" (video).

He's got a good voice and can hit all the notes, but his voice feels a little too "perfect" to me. A little more "rawness" sounds more soulful to me.

There's a female singer from England, Joss Stone (info) who is like Allen Stone (hey, they have the same last name!) in this way.  She's got a great voice, but it doesn't have much personality for me. To show her voice to the class I played the song "Super Duper Love" (video, lyrics, song info) for the class.

To contrast these two current soul voices, I played "Respect" (video, lyrics, song info) by Aretha Franklin (info). Aretha was about the same age as the Stones when she recorded the song, but listen to how much more soulful her singing is!

One student said she prefers lower voices, so I played her "16 Shells From A Thirty-Ought Six" (video, lyrics, song info) by Tom Waits (info).  But I think that was a little too low for her taste. I told the story about working in a record store when I was in college and how I *hated* Tom Waits' voice, but after being forced to hear it in the store about 100 times one day I suddenly "got it". It was like a light switch was turned on and now he's one of my favorite singers!

One of the students commented how a lot of heavy metal these days is sung very low. In English we call that "cookie monster" vocals.  The term comes from the puppet on Sesame Street who sings low. As an example I showed the class "C Is For Cookie" (video).

The Sesame Street puppets were the basis for the Muppets. My favorite Muppets song, of course, is "Mahna Mahna" (video, song info). 

My students didn't seem very aware of the Muppet Show (info), which is a class in American culture, so I played the opening sequence to the show (video) to introduce them to the characters.

Apparently Lady Gaga had a Kermit the Frog outfit made. I didn't know that! I wish I had never found out.

I asked if any of the students had a puppet show like The Muppets in their countries. 

I thought for sure there would be a puppet show from Asia, but the closest we got was this Korean video clip.

The student from Austria said Germany has something similar: The Augsburger Puppenkiste (info). We watched "Jim Knopf und die Wilde 13" (video).

In Austria they have a puppet character called Rolf Rüdiger. As an example we watched "Rolf Ruediger sucht das hohe C" (video).

One student asked our Austrian student to explain the differences between Austrian German and German spoken in Germany.  It is interesting to me that the common language between all my Asian students from different countries is English.  We talked a little about the role of English as the "world language" until the building security people kicked us out.

And with that another week's discussion was brought to an end.  See everyone next Wednesday!

18 July 2012 (Wednesday)

7 students again today.

As I was setting up the projector and computer for the class somehow I started talking with one student about his nickname. So I started the class asking which nicknames my students have in their home countries/languages. I could tell by their reactions that some of them were embarrassed to tell their nicknames. But some of them shared theirs with the class.

As usual I asked if anyone had any musical adventures/experiences in the past week. One student said she had gone to see Spellbinder (website) at the White Rabbit (website) in Fremont.  I was surprised to hear that she had discovered this band: the drummer for Spellbinder is Michael Shrieve (info), who was the original drummer for Santana (info), including playing in his band at Woodstock (info). He is considered one of the best rock drummers. And he plays *every* Monday at a bar in Fremont! I must say again, Seattle has amazing opportunities to see great music!

Speaking of opportunities to see great music in Seattle, the evening after class I was headed down to the Crocodile (website) to see a musician from Mali, Sidi Touré (info). I loved the concert, but I doubt any of my students would have really liked it as it was very traditional Malian music. Here's an example of what it was like: "Mali Song" (video). I love the intricacy of the music between the instruments, but I can understand that some people don't like the tones of the instruments.

To start with the students' choices of music, the first song selected was "5am" (video with lyrics in notes) by SomethingALaMode (website). I can't remember exactly why the student chose this song; maybe because it is popular in France?

The student from Austria wanted to show us an Austrian folk band he likes. Like my explanation for liking Sidi Toure, he said he likes this band for its many textures and its energy.  He really likes seeing them live.  The band is Hotel Palindrone (website) and the song he showed us was "An Dro 'Samo Riba'" (video).

The music style changed for the next song: "OSCA" (video) by Tokyo Jihen (info). (Actually, we watched a different version of this video, where there are dancers and the band is in the background called "Dance Chapter", but that video has been removed from YouTube now.) I like this song!  The student who chose it says she likes that usually the singer (Ringo) sings with a sweet voice, but in this song she screams and sings rawly. And my student likes how in the video she is so emotionless as she sings wildly.

The next song was "Fall For You" (video, lyrics, song info) by Secondhand Serenade (info).  The student who chose this song discovered it on the iPod that her sister gave to her as a present when she came to Seattle.  She likes working out to this song.

The next song chosen was an oldie: recorded before any of the students in the class were even born!  It was "A Horse With No Name" (video, lyrics, song info) by America (info).


I asked the student how he knew of such an old song!  He said he had heard it when he was young and was somehow reminded of it when he woke up this morning.

One of my students is really interested in learning about local Seattle bands.  He played "Until The Day You Die" (video) by Abney Park (info) for us. The student is interested in this this "steampunk" style of music. I didn't know about this band or "steampunk" music, but I like this song!

That song reminded me to tell the students that one of Portland's most popular bands, Pink Martini (info) will be playing at the Seattle zoo this summer.  Every year they have concerts in the park at the zoo; it's called ZooTunes (website). It's a very relaxed atmosphere with people sitting on the grass watching the concert.  Lots of children around! 

To show what kind of music Pink Martini do I played their most famous song, "Sympathique" (video).  Our student from Belgium/France translated the chorus for the class: "I don't want to work, I don't want to eat lunch, I just want to forget, So I smoke." 


I think attending the Pink Martini concert would be a fun experience for my students, besides being expensive both concerts are sold out, so unless they really make an effort to buy tickets from Craigslist or something, no chance.


A student asked me what "ska" music is. That's a hard one for me to describe, so here's the Wikipedia definition of ska.

The next song chosen was "Airtap" (video) by Erik Mongrain (info). I had never heard of this guy, but he is amazing!


For some reason seeing someone so talented on guitar made me think of the famous video of North Korean children playing guitars (video). But we all agreed that video is weird and looks more like child abuse than actual joy of playing music.

To clear our minds of that last video we watched "Payphone" (video) by Sungha Jung (info), another YouTube guitarist phenomenon.


At this point we got kicked out of the room by building maintenance: normally we stay and talk until about 6pm but during the summer quarter they are closing the building at 5:30pm.

As the class left the room I promised to send an email to organize a "field trip" for the following Tuesday to go to Gasworks Park to watch sailboat races (they happen every Tuesday evening in the summer) plus going to a flamenco performance.

11 July 2012 (Wednesday)

After a break for the 4th of July last week and sunny skies with temperatures in the 80's, I was curious to see how many people would show up today. In the end it was 9 students!  However, it was 8 guys and 1 woman: I warned her that the music selections today might be a bit more hard rocking than usual.

We started with me asking if any of the students had any stories from the 4th of July, especially what they thought of the fireworks. There were no great stories, thankfully no reports of firecrackers damaging fingers or eardrums, but no one seemed really impressed by the Seattle official fireworks. 

One student said that at a 4th of July party he heard about a Seattle band called Helms Alee (Facebook page). The student had never yet actually heard the band and I have never heard of them so we looked to see we could find on YouTube. The song with the most views is "8/16" (video) so we watched it to see what the band is like. Clearly the band is very creative, but the song didn't really seem to grab us: it's like a lot of songs all thrown together in a blender.  The video to this song is kind of funny as they do parodies of famous videos.

Another student recently heard Silversun Pickups (info) for the first time.  He had heard the song "Panic Switch" (video, lyrics, song info) so we listened to that. (Here's how they did this song on the Letterman late-night tv show.)

I have liked the Silversun Pickups for a few years now. I like how their music is progressing, but I have to admit that I like their earliest songs best, for example "Well Thought Out Twinkles" (video, lyrics, song info) and "Lazy Eye (live on tv)" (video, lyrics, song info). 

If you like what you've heard here, Silversun Pickups are playing an outdoor concert at Marymoor Park in Redmond on 6 September 2012 (info).

While I like the Silversun Pickups, the truth is that they are really just an updated version of the Smashing Pumpkins (info), with the mix of heavy-and-light parts to songs. And they even have a woman bass player! I really liked early Smashing Pumpkins songs in the early 90's, especially "I Am One" (video, lyrics, song info) and "Siva" (video, lyrics, song info). They had good songs, and bigger hits later -- and are even still active, though the only original member is the singer -- but the earlier songs had more musical bite for me.

At this point I asked one of the new students to pick a song. He chose "Rack City" (video, lyrics, song info) by Tyga (info). When I asked him why he likes this song he said he likes how rhythmically Tyga raps and he likes that he can understand the lyrics.

Speaking of speed of rapping, someone suggested we watch "Pale Kid Raps Fast" (video with lyrics) by George Watsky (info). 

I noticed on the video that the guy is touring and while it's entertaining to hear the guy rap fast with funny lyrics, but really, can he keep an audience entertained for more than an hour? If you want to find out, he is doing a concert at the Crocodile Cafe in downtown Seattle on 26 July (info).

I asked the class if they are familiar with Andy Warhols's "15-minutes of fame" statement. Watsky is clearly trying to make the most of his 15-minutes, maybe even stretch it to 16.  Better hurry up, Watsky, the clock is ticking!

The next song chosen was a big stylistic change: "Lucky" (video, lyrics, song info) by Jason Mraz (info). Why this is such a nice summer song is self-explanatory. 

BTW, Jason's part of this video was shot in one of my favorite cities in the world.

The next song chosen was "Risingson" (video, lyrics, song info) by Massive Attack (info).  The student who chose this song said he had listened to a it a lot over the past week when the weather was so bad.

The next song was "Sex On Fire" (video, lyrics, song info) by Kings Of Leon (info).  The student who chose this song said he become aware of Kings Of Leon when they played the Grammy Awards.

The next song was "Beautiful Girls" (video, lyrics, song info) by Sean Kingston (info). The student who chose this song said that he likes it because it's addictive and easy to sing along to.

I pointed out that the name "Sean" in English can be spelled three different ways, all of which sound the same: Sean, Shawn and Shaun.

The last variation reminds me of the movie "Shaun Of The Dead" (info), which is very funny.

The next song was "Call Me Maybe" (video, lyrics, song info) by Carly Rae Jepsen (info). Apparently I am the last person on the planet to hear this song. It's quite catchy! We could have started the whole "15-minutes of fame" discussion again about Ms. Jepsen's future, but I decided against bringing it up.

I went around the room asking all the guys if they would call Carly if she gave them her number. The answers will remain secrets to our class :-) .

Though I hadn't heard the song before I *had* seen news headlines about "Barack Obama, Call Me Maybe" but didn't know what it was about. So next we watched the with videos of Obama spliced together to make it sound like he's "singing" the song (video). Pretty funny!

The next song was "A Leap Into The Dark" (video, lyrics) by Aequitas (band website). What is special about this song is that it is a collaboration of people adding their parts via the internet.

The next song was "I Can Talk" (video, lyrics, song info) by Two Door Cinema Club (info). Apparently this song is very popular in France.

The last song of the day was "Nothing Else Matters" (video, lyrics, song info) by Metallica (info).  The student who chose this song said he feels that it is the best song for introducing people to heavy rock/heavy metal who have never heard it before.

With that our discussion time for the day was done. 

That evening I went to see a concert by a band who I had heard a lot about, but I actually didn't know their music: Novalima (info) from Peru.  It was a *great* concert!  Here's an example of what the concert was like: "Festejo" (video).

27 June 2012 (Wednesday)

Today was the first sunny day in what seemed like forever: I wondered how many students would come sit inside as opposed to hang out outside, soaking in sun.  I was very surprised that 15 students showed up, 5 of whom were new!

To start with I asked one of the new students for an example of what kind of music he likes. This student is European and I have to say that led me to not being surprised when he chose "Map Of The Problematique" (video with lyrics, song info) by Muse (info).

If I remember correctly the student who chose this song said he uses this song to wake up to in the morning.  I decided to ask around the room about the students' morning routines:

1/ What time does their alarm go off,

2/ How long after the alarm goes off do they actually get up!

It seems like most of the students are good about not over-using the snooze feature of their alarm clocks!

For the summer quarter I have a second European student in the class and I asked him what his favorite Muse song is.  It is "Super Massive Black Hole" (video with lyrics, song info).

I like the riff + melody of this second song more than "Map Of The Problematique".  But Muse lyrics are not about relaxing, are they?...

I mentioned to the class that Muse is one of those bands which are very popular in Europe, but not very well known in the US. I have found that most of my Asian students are not familiar with them, either. But there are some band who are stars in the US and totally unknown in Europe.  As an example I gave Dave Matthews (info) [who is originally from South Africa but actually lives in Seattle now] and played my personal favorite song of his (which was his first big hit many years ago) "Crash Into Me" (video, lyrics, song info).  

Dave Matthews plays for a weekend at the Gorge Amphitheater 2.5 hours away from Seattle at the end of the summer every year.  Attending one of his concerts there would be a really typical American experience, if any of the students has a chance to go over there for a day or even the whole weekend.

The next song chosen was "I Won't Give Up" (video with lyrics in the notes, song info) by Jana Kramer (info).

This song made me think that if someone like's Jana's music they would probably like local Seattle singer Brandi Carlile's (info) music, too. I know I have been telling my students about Brandi a lot lately, but really, she's one of the best musicians to come out of Seattle in recent years. As an example of her music I played the song "The Story" (video, lyrics, song info).

My students were pretty shy about choosing songs today so when I asked for another suggestion I just heard crickets (yes, there were crickets in the classroom).  One of the European students chose a song to reflect the summer day called "Himmelblau" (video, lyrics, song info) by the band Die Ärtze (info).  This band is a punk band from Germany so I had to ask if the positive message of the lyrics is meant honestly or if it is sarcastic (as punk lyrics often are).  The student who chose the song said he thinks that in this case the song has an honestly positive message.

Since the last song was sung in German, and because I wanted to avoid hearing the crickets again, I decided to show the class what "typical" German singing sounds like. Of course there is no "typical" because there is a lot of variations, so it was more of an excuse on my part to play a song by Rammstein (info), a band from Germany which is very popular across Europe and which is famous for all the fire in their live concerts.  As an example of Rammstein I chose the song "Du Hast (live)" (video, lyrics, song info), though I realized while playing the song that it didn't really show a lot of German language, just the title of the song repeated over and over. But I can tell you from personal experience that even non-German audience (ex. in Spain) love singing this song along with the band.

I guess the heavy music from today's class was starting to influence the song choices: next song was "Kryptonite" (video, lyrics, song info) by 3 Doors Down (info).  

I asked the class how many of them know what "Kryptonite" (info) is from the Superman comics.  Some recognized the name, but not all of them.

The next song choice slowed things down a little bit: "The Letter (김광진)" (video with lyrics) by Kim Kwang Jin (sorry, I can't find information about him in English). The lyrics of this song are a letter written by a guy whose girlfriend left him.  The lyrics are almost unchanged from the original text written by the heartbroken guy. Wow, that's powerful!

That theme made me think of the song "Dear Boy" (video, lyrics, song info) by Paul McCartney (info) where he wrote a song to the previous boyfriend of his wife; basically Paul was telling the guy "You didn't realize what a great woman you had, what great luck you had!"

The next song chosen was back to a hard rocker: "Walk" (video, lyrics, song info) by Foo Fighters (info).

Since this song features the chorus "I never wanna die!" I went around the class asking to which age the students want to live.  I was surprised to find some say "70 is enough" but most seem to want to get to 80 or 85.  To me that is still young -- I want to get to 100!  Well, as long as I am healthy and can live independently.  That seems to be the same opinion for the students, too.

Along the theme of wanting to live forever, the next song chosen was "What A Wonderful World" (video with lyrics, song info) by Louis Armstrong (info).

Continuing the theme of loving life was "I'm Alive" (video with lyrics in the notes, song info) by Celine Dion (info).


One of the students in the class speaks French as his native language so I asked him to explain to the class how French spoken in Canada sounds different from French spoken in Europe. 

For the next song the *opposite* of our "it's good to be alive" theme was chosen.  There is a song by Metallica called "Until It Sleeps" which is about someone with cancer, but the student chose the (instrumental) version of that song by Apocalyptica (info): "Until It Sleeps" (video, song info).  

I think the Apocalyptica concept of playing heavy metal music on cellos is very interesting. The student said he actually prefers the Apocalyptica version of this song to the original. Here is the original Metallica version of the song (video, lyrics, song info).

As an example of a song where the cover version of the song is much more mellow than the original I played Ryan Adams (info) covering "Wonderwall" (video with lyrics in notes, song info) which is one of Oasis's (info) most famous songs (original version of "Wonderwall" video, lyrics, song info). I love both versions of this song, though I find the Ryan Adams version more atmospheric.


We had time for one more song. A student chose "Marry You" by Bruno Mars (info). A couple of months ago a video on YouTube became very famous where a guy proposed marriage to his girlfriend by making a video of this song with his friends. (This actually was done in Portland, OR!) Some people in the class hadn't seen that video, so that's the version of the song we watched: "Marry You" video, lyrics, song info.


With that our time for this week was over.  Due to the 4th of July holiday next Wednesday the next class is July 11th.