6 May 2015 (Wednesday)

Today 7 students came to talk about songs about flowers (or Spring). 
[Some students remarked that I had made the theme for 2 weeks ago "Spring", which is true, but this week I really wanted to do "flowers" but thought that some people might find that topic too limiting so I expanded it to "Spring" again.]

Before talking about songs on the theme I asked a new student for an example of the music he likes. He choose "Latin Moon" (video, lyrics, song info) by Mia Martina (info).

Before proceeding I asked the students who had gone with me to the Kurt Cobain movie "Montage Of Heck" (trailer) if they had any new impressions of the film in the days since we had seen it. One student said he felt the film did not highlight what a good lyricist Kurt Cobain was. An example of that, which fit the day's theme, is the song "In Bloom" (video, lyrics, song info). The student who chose this song likes the combination of the idea of people blossoming in youth and plants blossoming.

The next song chosen was a classic: "Here Comes The Sun" (video with lyrics, song info) by The Beatles (info). I mentioned that I often put this song at the end of a playlist of songs about frustration, especially if they are related to winter. I make lots of playlists of songs. 

This led me to asking the class who makes playlists of songs to themes, but surprisingly none of them do: at the most they just make playlists of "favorite songs".

 

The next "flower song" was a Chinese song -- picked by a student of Chinese, *not* a Chinese student! -- but I cannot find the song from my notes anymore :-((  I know is was uploaded by the Chinese Civilization Channel 2, but I can't find the exact song anymore. Apparently there is both a traditional version of the song and a reggae version. Sorry about not being able to find the video again!

Speaking of reggae and flowers, the next song was "A Flower" (video with lyrics) by Matzka (info), a Taiwanese band.

The last song of the day was "Haru Yo Koi" (video, lyrics) by Yumi Matsutoya (info). This is a very famous song about Spring in Japan.


I had to leave a little early today to attend a seminar so it was a short session and our time for the day was over.

Theme for next class: Since I am moving, the theme is "Songs to pack up your apartment to". One thing to think about this theme is all the memories in a place you are leaving as well as the physical things you are packing.