15 August 2012 (Wednesday)

Today was the last class of the Summer Quarter -- the Language Of Music conversation group will take a break until Fall Quarter starts in early October.  Nine students came today, but of those nine, five will be leaving in the next weeks :-( .

Because it was the last class of the quarter the themes for songs were:

* Songs about home

* Songs about Seattle

* Goodbye songs

The first song chosen had *nothing* to do with any of those topics!  It was a parody of "Call Me Maybe (Chatroulette Version)" (video). I guess its choice was inspired by a little pre-class conversation we were having as I set up the equipment about which Olympic sports have the best looking athletes (I asked the question to both guys and girls in the class).

With the next song we started in on the themes: "Goodbye America" (video with lyrics in notes) by Nautilus Pompilius (info).

Next our Austrian student chose "Vienna Calling" (video, lyrics) by Falco (info). 

The next song was "Never Say Goodbye" (video, lyrics, song info) by Bon Jovi (info).  This is an old Bon Jovi song so I asked how the student knows it: he said that when he was young he liked hard rock and listened to Bon Jovi at that time. Now he doesn't like hard music as much, however.

The next song was "A Passionate Goodbye (뜨거운 안녕)" (video) by Toy (info).

Next we listened to a song in Chinese which wishes the listener to "have a nice trip", but I unfortunately can't find the video on YouTube anymore. Sorry!

The next song was "Hey Jude (at the London Olympics)" (video, lyrics, song info) performed by Paul McCartney (info).  The student chose this because of the line "take a sad song and make it better".

The next song was "Farewell" (video) by Apocalyptica (info).

Then we listened to "Dear My Friend" (video) by W&Whale (info in Korean).

 

One of the students who couldn't attend class in person today sent me a few songs which she would have chosen to play if she were with us.

I played the first song on her list: "台灣的心跳聲 Heart beat of Taiwan" (Song of Taiwan Pavilion at Expo 2010 Shanghai) (video).

Here were her other choices: 

* "Hello Seattle" (video, lyrics, song info) by Owl City (info)
* "Goodbye" (video, lyrics, song info) by Avril Lavigne (info)
* "International Love ft. Chris Brown" (video, lyrics, song info) by Pitbull (info)

The last song chosen was "The End" (video, lyrics, song info) by The Doors (info).  An appropriate title, but the lyrics of that song are pretty crazy!

As we gathered up the equipment I played a song which I thought is appropriate: "Wish You Were Here" (video, lyrics, song info) by Pink Floyd (info).

 

With that class was over for the day and for the quarter. I enjoyed sharing discussions with the students who came to the class this year. Those leaving I wish safe travels home. And for those staying in Seattle, I hope to see you around Seattle, at the latest for Language Of Music conversations group in October!