15 January 2014 (Wednesday)

Today was the first day of back after a long break over the holidays and between Fall and Winter Quarters! 10 students showed up, mostly people returning but a couple of new people, too.

We started the class by catching up with what everyone did over the break between quarters.

When I said, "We should talk about music, too!" one student asked if I thought he should buy a ticket to see the upcoming Pixies (info) concert. Before I gave my opinion I decided to play a Pixies song and ask the class to give their advice on whether he should buy a ticket to the concert. So we listened to "Where Is My Mind" (video, lyrics, song info). In the end the class didn't seem to like the song very much and no one advised him to buy a ticket to the show. I agree it's not worth the money as the best, most interesting years of the Pixies were about 25 years ago, when Nirvana were still a garage band and trying to be like the Pixies...

Speaking of the Pixies just before writing this blog this evening a cover of the Pixies song "Cactus" (video, lyrics, song info) by David Bowie (info) came on my phone on shuffle, so I have to put a link here. I like this Bowie version a lot! I guess I should link to the original version for comparison.

The same student who was considering going to the Pixies said that concert is one day before Paul Simon (info) with Sting (info). He loves Paul Simon and is very much looking forward to the concert!

Another student mentioned she is going to the Justin Timberlake (info) concert in Seattle on Friday (17 January). I read a review of the Justin Timberlake concert and it sounds like it was excellent. I'll ask the student for her review next class!

Another student said she is going to see a concert by the band Imagine Dragons (info). I don't know that band so we listened to "Radioactive" (video, lyrics, song info).

The same student is very excited to go to the Franz Ferdinand (info) concert. To get a taste for FF we listened to "Right Action" (video, lyrics, song info), though the first song she ever heard by FF was "Take Me Out" (video, lyrics, song info), which she heard while shopping (as usual, hahahaha!).

It's a great experience to see concerts away from one's home city/country/culture, I'm glad so many students are going to see concerts!!

The next song was "Young Wild & Free" (video, lyrics, song info) by Wiz Khalifa (info). Yes, our Wiz Khalifa fan was back! :-)

The next song was "The Messenger" (video, lyrics, song info) by Johnny Marr (info). The student who chose this song loves British rock and feels that this recent Johnny Marr album is a masterpiece.

One of the students travelled to New Orleans (info) over the break so he chose "What A Wonderful World" (video, lyrics, song info) by Louis Armstrong (info), for whom the New Orleans airport is named (SZ note: cool!! Seattle's airport can't even decide which city it's in, Seattle or Tacoma, let alone have an inspired name) and who introduced jazz music to the world. I've always loved the lyrics to this song!

For a more modern, "rock" version of this song, I've always liked the Terence Trent D'Arby (info) version (video). And since I have your attention, I'll put up another Terence Trent D'Arby song that I like: Elevators & Hearts (video, song info). The guitar part on this song always remind me of his version of his version of "What A Wonderful World".

The last song of the day was "Fighter" (video, lyrics, song info) by Christina Aguilera (info).

With that our time was done for the first meeting of Winter Quarter. I look forward to next class! 

Theme for the next class will be songs of unrequited love -- either about a person who loves someone but they don't notice or still being in love with someone you broke up with -- or break up songs. Of, if that's too depressing, students can play any songs they are listening to a lot this week!