Today was the last class of Spring Quarter! Since I won't be hosting the class during the summer, this also means the last last until October when we start again for Fall Quarter.
6 students showed up for this last class -- 2 of them new students!
My notes say that the first song we listened to was "mighty Inagaki with Capricorn" but as I write this I can't find any video that looks like the one we watched in class! Sorry!
The next song chosen was "Thrift Shop" (video, lyrics, song info) by Macklemore (info). The student who chose it didn't know Macklemore is from Seattle -- he had just heard the song in a club and liked the phrase "This is fucking awesome!".
The latest single from Macklemore is "Can't Hold Us" (video, lyrics, song info), but most people in the class prefer "Thrift Shop".
I think it's very cool that Macklemore has achieved so much success as an independent artist, but I am a little worried that "Thrift Shop" will be a novelty song, one that is very popular now, but in the future will be seen as a one-hit-wonder. Seattle has already had that experience with a rapper: Sir Mix-A-Lot (info) did a funny song called "Baby Got Back" (video, lyrics, song info) but what people mostly remember now is how funny the song was.
The next song chosen was a cover song: Tiffany Alvord (info) covering "Both Of Us" (video, lyrics, song info). Here's the original song.
The next song was another song by the Scorpions (info). The student who said she likes that band last week remembered this week which is her favorite song by them: "Moment Of Glory" (video, lyrics, song info). She likes male voices which sing high.
Speaking of singers who sing high, we talked about the band Queen (info). I asked each student which Queen song is their favorite. "I Was Born To Love You" (video, lyrics, song info) was chosen. "Don't Stop Me Now" (video, lyrics, song info) was also chosen.
One student said he doesn't know the band Queen. We told him "Of course you do!" and played "We Are The Champions" (video, lyrics, song info). He recognized that song.
One student asked me which Queen song is *my* favorite one. I like a lot of Queen songs, but the one I listen to most is "Dragon Attack" (video, lyrics, song info) because I like the guitar solos (starting around 2 minutes). I also played a little bit of "Love Of My Life" (video, lyrics, song info) because it's such a sweet song.
Time was running out for our last class together so one student chose as the last song "You've Got A Friend" (video, lyrics, song info) by Carol King (info). It was a nice way to end the quarter.
This quarter there were about 7 students who came every week to class and it was really fun getting to know them more and sharing our favorite music and cultural experiences. I already miss seeing you guys every week. I look forward to continuing the class in October. I hope to see some of you then, though I know some of you will have already returned to your home countries. I wish you safe travels over the summer!
5 students joined me today.
I started class by asking if the students did anything interesting on the weekend. One student went to a Seattle Mariner's baseball game. At a bar after the game he heard the song "The Macarena" (video, song info).
It was a huge hit, back in the mid-1990's. It reminds me of the current one-hit-wonder "The Harlem Shake". We watched a video of UW students doing the Harlem Shake.
We talked for a long time about baseball in Japan. We watched a video clip of fans in the stands singing songs and drumming, but I can't find that clip anymore. It looked like a great atmosphere. I was also surprised to learn that each Japanese player has his own song!
I can't remember how we came to this, but someone asked to hear "99 Luftballons" (video) by Nena (info). This was a big hit in the early 1980's. I showed the English version of the song: "99 Red Balloon" (video, lyrics, song info) to show the difference between the German and English sounds of the lyrics.
Speaking of German bands one student said she really like the Scorpions (info). As an example of a song she likes we watched "Send Me An Angel" (video, lyrics, song info). Their biggest hit was "Wind Of Change" (video, lyrics, song info).
Speaking of German bands and Germany, especially during the Cold War, I told about being a high school exchange student in Berlin in 1983/1984.
The most popular band from Germany today is Rammstein (info) so I played one of their most popular songs: "Du Hast" (video, song info). If you like that song, you'd probably like all their songs. I saw a concert of theirs in Spain and watching the crowd and the fireworks was really impressive. Very theatrical. Definitely worth seeing!
The next song chosen was "A Little Party Never Killed Nobody" (video with lyrics, song info) by Fergie (info).
Since the title of that song is totally incorrect English grammar (double negative), I told the class the story of how I came up with the concept for this English class based on talking about music. My original idea came from the Stevie Wonder (info) song "You Haven't Done Nothin'" (video, lyrics, song info), which has a double-negative and inspired me to think about songs as language learning tools.
With that our time was finished for the day. Only one more class left in the quarter! :-(
7 students came today.
I started by asking what plans the students had for the long weekend coming up. One student was going to New York City for the weekend!
I said I am going to the city of Walla Walla (map, info) where there are a lot of wineries.
One student said the name of that city reminded her of a chain of bars in Japan called "Wara Wara".
The first video was a funny video that the student's children like watching. It's called "Dumb Ways To Die" (video with lyrics, song info).
For the rest of the class we talked about children's cartoons -- we didn't even talk about music today!
I mentioned that as a child one of my favorite cartoons was Speed Racer (info), which is a Japanese animation. Here's the opening theme song for the each show.
During the discussion we watched the opening for Doraemon (video) which was (is?) apparently *very* popular among children in Japan.
The conversation flowed about children's TV in different countries and animations and I don't have more notes to write down about it... But it was a fun conversation day!
A rainy day in Seattle; 7 students came to talk music.
The rainy weather inspired the first song choice: "Don't Cry For Me Argentina" (video, lyrics, song info) by Madonna (info).
The student who chose this song had seen the musical it comes from, Evita (info) on Broadway, featuring Ricky Martin (info). Here's a clip of that production (video).
As we talked about Ricky Martin someone said he sang the official song for the World Cup 1998: "Cup Of Life" (video with lyrics, song info). I watch soccer all the time but don't usually pay attention to the "official songs" of the tournaments so was not aware of this song.
Since we were talking about soccer I asked the guys, who were all from Asian countries, how many players Japan has playing in Europe and how many Korea has. I can't remember the exact numbers.
At this point I had to play my favorite "soccer song": "Umbabarauma" (video), a song from Brazil. This song is on my "jogging mix".
One student said Umbabarauma reminded him of this song: "Tunak Tunak Tun" (video, song info). Hmmm, I see a slight similarity, but I could not listen to this song more than a couple of times -- it's too... energetic(?) for me!
I then showed an old tv commercial with Ronaldinho (info) showing his amazing ball control skills while trying out some new shoes (video -- go to 1:43) and asked the class if they thought he really bounced the ball off the goalpost back to himself or if that was a video trick.
For people who love soccer, there is a movie which is simply a soccer match where the camera follows Zinadine Zidane (info) through the whole match. The film is called "Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait" (info) and the music -- there is no commentary -- is by the British band Mogwai (info). Here's a clip from the film.
After this we somehow went back to Ricky Martin and watched "Livin' La Vida Loca" (video, lyrics, song info). The girls in the class think Ricky is hot -- the classic problem for women: gay men are attractive!
A Japanese guy, Hiromi Go (info) did a cover version of "Livin' La Vida Loca" called "Goldfinger 99" (video with lyrics).
The next song chosen was "Extreme Ways" (video, lyrics, song info) by Moby (info). I mentioned that Moby became famous in the early 2000's when he licensed *every* song from his "Play" album for commercials: no one had ever licensed every song from an album before!
Somehow we got back to soccer: the next song chosen was "Fire" (video, lyrics, song info) by Kasabian (info), which is the official song of the English Premier League.
There are only a couple of songs I like by Kasabian, but I very much like their song "Where Did All The Love Go" (video, lyrics, song info).
This got us talking about British bands and someone chose "Don't Look Back In Anger" (video, lyrics, song info) by Oasis (info). The student who chose this likes songs when people sing along in concerts.
With that our time was done for the day! A fun day of talking music and soccer!
