23 April 2014 (Wednesday)

I missed two classes while traveling -- it was good to see the 6 familiar faces who showed up!

As I set up the equipment for the class I told one of the students who loves Britpop that I had recently heard an album by a UK band (ooops, just found out they are American!) that I thought he'd like: Midlake (info). We listened to the title song from the album, "Antiphon" (video, lyrics, song info). The student seemed intrigued by the music but not immediately in love with it.

I talked a little about my trip to Turkey and said a highlight was learning the traditions around drinking rakı (info). I showed a commercial for the most popular brand of rakı in Turkey (video).

The first song shared by a student was "On Every Street" (video, lyrics, song info) by Dire Straits (info). The student who picked this song is a musician himself and very knowledgeable of music and it makes sense he picked this song since the guitarist, Mark Knopfler (info) is considered one of the best guitarists in rock music. The student had been listening to other Dire Straits albums and came back to this song.

The next song was "American Idiot" (video, lyrics, song info) by Green Day (info). The student who chose this song likes it because if its strong lyrical message.

The next song was "Do You Hear The People Sing" (video, lyrics, song info) from Les Miserables (info). The version we watched is special because it has people singing in 17 languages.

This led to a short discussion about musicals. Apparently there's a version of Mamma Mia! (info) done in China *in Chinese* (video)!

The next song was "Tong Poo" (video, song info) by Yellow Magic Orchestra (info). Again, this song was chosen for the musicianship: this band has a number of the best musicians in all of Japan, including Ryuichi Sakamoto (info).

The next song was "Amarantine" (video, lyrics, song info) by Enya (info). The student who chose this song likes it because the sound is pure and she likes the video.

Next was "Deliverance" (video, song info) by Yanni (info). The student who picked this song loves this song but hadn't heard it in a long time.

The last song of the day was "Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space" (video, lyrics, song info) by Spiritualized (info). Unfortunately I don't remember exactly why the student who chose this song chose it, but I remember we talked about it for a while.