Today was the last class of Fall Quarter. 4 students came. Many students are going back to their home countries this month. I hope to stay in touch with them via the Language Of Music Facebook group.
At the start of the class I asked one student if she would buy very much stuff here in Seattle before returning home. She said she'll buy a lot of clothes because they are cheap in the US. Additionally, there are a number of chains/stores in the US which are not in Taiwan; they don't have H&M, American Eagle Outfitters, Gap nor Abercrombie & Fitch. I am surprised those companies are not in Taiwan!
I asked the class if anyone had any songs in mind about going home. No one had one immediately in mind so I played one of *my* favorite songs about "home": "Maybe Tomorrow" (video, lyrics, song info) by Stereophonics (info).
Then I played another of my favorite videos about travelling the world: "I Will Possess Your Heart" (video, lyrics, song info) by Death Cab For Cutie (info). The video is about traveling, but the song lyrics are about a guy trying to convince a girl to be with him. I think it's a romantic song. But the students didn't really like it: they said the beginning part of the song, before singing starts, is too long.
One of the students suggested the song "No Day But Today" (video, lyrics) from the musical Rent (info). He finds the song to be positive because even if a person has a sad day, it is just one day; the next day will be better. And the song is about enjoying every moment of life.
I can't remember how we got onto the next subject, but we talked about how New Year's according to the Western calendar is celebrated versus when/how local/traditional New Year's celebrations take place. Apparently in Asia children often get money from their parents and grandparents for New Years. That made me think about the tradition of the Tooth Fairy (info) in the US, where children get money in exchange for their tooth when their first teeth fall out.
Then I asked which restaurants in Seattle make the best food from the students' home countries. One student from Japan said that the best teriyaki in Seattle is at Hana (website) on Capitol Hill. Another said the best Japanese food is at Kozue (website) in Wallingford. There's a famous Taiwanese restaurant called Din Tai Fung (website) that has a restaurant in Bellevue.
With that our last class for the quarter was over -- we hardly talked about music today, but I enjoyed the conversation. And I enjoyed the students who came to the class this whole quarter. I look forward to continuing the class in January 2013.
Today only 3 students showed up. But we had a nice conversation nonetheless.
I told the students I am going to see a concert that night: the band RNDM (info). I actually didn't know anything about the band, had just been invited to the show by a friend. To find out what kind of music RNDM play I showed the video for "Modern Times" (video). None of us really liked it; one student said the music is kind of flat.
The bass player for RNDM is in the famous Seattle band Pearl Jam (info). To show what kind of energy Pearl Jam have, in contrast to RNDM, I showed the video for "Even Flow" (video, lyrics, song info).
Next one of the students showed a video on her phone of her band in Japan. Unfortunately the video is not online so I can't link to it here.
The next song was "These Days" (video, lyrics, song info) by Foo Fighters (info). The student who chose this song likes how powerful the lyrics are. We talked a little about whether heartbreak and/or disappointment has its positive side; whether it makes a person stronger.
The next song was the musical version of "21 Guns" (video, lyrics, song info) by Green Day (info). The student who chose the song had heard it on Pandora (info). This song is taken from the "American Idiot" musical (info). [For contrast, here is the original version of the song (video).]
Since "21 Guns" is about a person losing his/her way, for the last song of the day we listened to "Rehab" (video, lyrics, song info) by Amy Winehouse (info).
With that, class was over for the week.
Note: Next week's class (4 Dec) will be the last one for this quarter. The Language Of Music will start again in Winter Quarter (January 2013).
