14 January 2015 (Wednesday)

The first meeting of Winter Quarter! I was curious to see how many students would return from last quarter and what the new students this quarter would be like. 9 students showed up, 5 from previous quarter and 4 new students.

As is the custom for the first class of the quarter I introduced the class quickly to the new students and had everyone tell where they are from and what kind of music they like.

To start talking about music I asked one of the returning students to tell me which song he listened to most while traveling around the US during the break. His answer was "Drive My Car" (video, lyrics, song info) by The Beatles (info). He likes the song because it is danceable.  

He heard this song the first time while seeing the Cirque du Soleil (info) production of "Love" (info) in Las Vegas. I envy him for seeing "Love" as I have long wanted to see Cirque du Soleil in general and I would especially love to see the show with the Beatles songs. Here is the official commercial for Love (video).

Speaking of Cirque du Soleil, they will be in the Seattle area doing their "Kurios" show (info) in Redmond, just outside Seattle from 29 January to 22 March. Tickets are not cheap, but if you can afford one I'm sure it's a great show.

Now I asked the new students to choose songs so we can get a sense of what they like. 

The first song was "'Cause You're My Zing" (video, lyrics) from the Hotel Transylvania movie (info). The student who chose it heard watching the movie. She likes horror movies but is afraid to watch them by herself.

Since she likes animated horror movies I suggested The Nightmare Before Christmas (info). In this class we have often watched the video for "This Is Halloween" (video, lyrics, song info) around Halloween.

The students started talking about scary video games, but it all went right over my head as I don't know anything about video games.

The next song was "Thinking Out Loud" (video, lyrics, song info) by Ed Sheeran (info). The student who chose it likes the dancing in the video. I asked how she discovered this song: she sometimes looks at the Billboard list of top songs and watches the videos.

Because she mentioned that she like the dancing in the video I told the class that there is a movie featuring dancing that every American knows, it is a classic piece of American culture: Dirty Dancing (info). The most famous song from that movie is "The Time Of My Life" (video, lyrics, song info). If you want to see a piece of true American culture, watch the movie (even though it's from the 80's).

Coincidentally, a musical production of Dirty Dancing will be in Seattle 20 January - 1 February (info). 

A student asked why it's called "dirty" dancing. "Dirty" is sometimes slang for "sexual".

The next song was "Making Love Out Of Nothing At All" (video, lyrics, song info) by Air Supply (info). The student who chose this song said his English teacher in Japan introduced the song in English class.

The next song was "Everybody's Changing" (video, lyrics, song info) by Keane (info). The student who chose it said this is his favorite song ever. Normally he doesn't like rock bands because he doesn't like guitars, but he loves this song because it doesn't have guitar. He discovered it by seeing the lyrics, then he listened to the song.

The first song by one of the returning students was "Cold Girl Lost Fiction" (video, lyrics) by Tesla Doesn't Know How To Cry (sorry, I can't find their website) [SZ note: that is a loooong band name!]. The student who chose it discovered it through YouTube suggestions and it is her "song for the start of 2015".

At this point some people showed up to use the room so we have to quickly pack things together without hearing more choices from the other returning students. :-(

Next week's theme will be "Your favorite song in 2014". This doesn't necessarily have to be a song released in 2014, rather the song you listened to the most or the one which describes best what 2014 was like for you.