tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-313627732024-03-07T08:03:58.735-08:00THE LANGUAGE OF MUSICThis blog accompanies my English conversation group for foreign students in Seattle. The class is an opportunity for students to practice speaking English in a relaxed environment, talking about music. The songs/music we discuss are brought/suggested by the students themselves. Any genre or band or song is welcomed.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger221125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31362773.post-37503156682257387632021-02-23T23:58:00.000-08:002021-02-23T23:58:08.931-08:0018 February 2021 (Thursday)<p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">Today's theme: Songs that remind you of your family. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">But first we started talking about general things, like the snowstorm that hit Seattle the previous weekend!</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLR3K1TnBrH9xBcwH0Prq_ivDzWvGCm9azWZRi-eNO3sfTGZoxWuLpDMGlH_g_mXMMsAf_wfgw1jKgJGNTKmoZUIi9sEZLXTDVdL5oPPvd4xBimXVTr8bWhta9bMUr5VXPUX9a5w/s415/JimiSnow2021.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="277" data-original-width="415" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLR3K1TnBrH9xBcwH0Prq_ivDzWvGCm9azWZRi-eNO3sfTGZoxWuLpDMGlH_g_mXMMsAf_wfgw1jKgJGNTKmoZUIi9sEZLXTDVdL5oPPvd4xBimXVTr8bWhta9bMUr5VXPUX9a5w/s320/JimiSnow2021.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">I also asked if anyone did anything special for Valentine's Day, but no one in our group had. <br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-ibPX2XDFu6oYLN9gYep9-AYU6zOYZVk9Eqgm9VLQQOzo32UBPi0y-3m2y14virqgMvr20uskTN4ECytYTEUbSf5dTOCA9Par3da2cyG7EBtBS1kBZiKmRzkk78eF0sqd5WieKg/s440/MadisonMcFerrinNoTimeToLose.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="440" data-original-width="440" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-ibPX2XDFu6oYLN9gYep9-AYU6zOYZVk9Eqgm9VLQQOzo32UBPi0y-3m2y14virqgMvr20uskTN4ECytYTEUbSf5dTOCA9Par3da2cyG7EBtBS1kBZiKmRzkk78eF0sqd5WieKg/w200-h200/MadisonMcFerrinNoTimeToLose.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: small;">The past week I had discovered a new artist, Madison McFerrin (<a href="https://www.madisonmcferrin.com/" target="_blank">website</a>), who I thought one of the students would like. I played a bit of "No Time To Lose" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQJHlASUSYY" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/Madison-mcferrin-no-time-to-lose-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>), but Madison has a lot of other great songs. </span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">(Yes, she is the daughter of Bobby McFerrin (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_McFerrin" target="_blank">info</a>), the famous a capella singer who sang "Don't Worry Be Happy" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-diB65scQU" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_Worry,_Be_Happy" target="_blank">song info</a>)). <br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdNkhW-k7lH_a54xTqSd9sGazrlsXsNMQgV-sf2ywBj6kE2pEMpl_KX81HUbuIY4Aw4X3r2p-mzuNF6ALMlTPdMGC2z7DlHMUIy2nLrnPxuefm6eEBJzYN0iVJAb6cG88vaZMObQ/s330/330px-Spitzband.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="246" data-original-width="330" height="149" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdNkhW-k7lH_a54xTqSd9sGazrlsXsNMQgV-sf2ywBj6kE2pEMpl_KX81HUbuIY4Aw4X3r2p-mzuNF6ALMlTPdMGC2z7DlHMUIy2nLrnPxuefm6eEBJzYN0iVJAb6cG88vaZMObQ/w200-h149/330px-Spitzband.PNG" width="200" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: small;">The first song to our theme about family was "ロビンソン / Robinson" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51CH3dPaWXc" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://www.jpopasia.com/spitz/lyrics/116546/robinson/robinson-%E3%83%AD%E3%83%93%E3%83%B3%E3%82%BD%E3%83%B3/" target="_blank">lyrics</a>) by スピッツ / Spitz (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spitz_(band)" target="_blank">info</a>).</span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">The lyrics of this song are vague, which is charateristic of the band; even the student who chose the song doesn't know what the lyrics are about! But the reason he picked the song was not for the lyrics.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">This songs was a huge hit in Japan back when he was a child. He remembers hearing this song while driving around in the family car. So this song reminds him of his family because he "lived" it with his family as a young boy.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">This is a brilliant interpretation of the theme! :-)</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPMpox8H6LKUcjswOBtAAjOEhgKhvd0yEIx6_GRUFy6Rzet2mH9B0cPzztwnlIMPzp8zqLRQYWdA1x4uQlIyPzmk3-8s493dGIECiaNxuNhBlwOBxzy6YnKdmIyXDFNH_IU4yUnw/s440/LAM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="440" data-original-width="440" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPMpox8H6LKUcjswOBtAAjOEhgKhvd0yEIx6_GRUFy6Rzet2mH9B0cPzztwnlIMPzp8zqLRQYWdA1x4uQlIyPzmk3-8s493dGIECiaNxuNhBlwOBxzy6YnKdmIyXDFNH_IU4yUnw/w200-h200/LAM.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: small;">The next song was "Los Años Maravillosos" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOHaf91lHO4" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/Little-jesus-los-anos-maravillosos-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>) by Little Jesus (<a href="https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Jesus" target="_blank">info</a>). </span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">The student who chose it had his birthday the previous week. This song reminds him of his teenage years. The lyrics are about friendship. Our student wasn't a skater himself because he was afraid to break his bones, but many of his friends were skaters and he liked that culture.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu-9znrBCz7d21eMSMZtoJWJH0rZCidUQEHMuA6xYuqJCwEyHpspeNZ5OelkDYD19F9TF8fMF2xCxYntr5WqU-NLgqGnTonrrtgeOiw8Wnz53aX7Kv7MTxve0NBvFygF74BnseuQ/s600/SalifKeitaAfrica.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="516" data-original-width="600" height="172" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu-9znrBCz7d21eMSMZtoJWJH0rZCidUQEHMuA6xYuqJCwEyHpspeNZ5OelkDYD19F9TF8fMF2xCxYntr5WqU-NLgqGnTonrrtgeOiw8Wnz53aX7Kv7MTxve0NBvFygF74BnseuQ/w200-h172/SalifKeitaAfrica.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: small;">The next song was "Africa" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjeYxo4UBGw" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/Genius-south-africa-translations-salif-keita-africa-english-translation-lyrics" target="_blank">translated lyrics</a>) by Salif Keita (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salif_Keita" target="_blank">info</a>).</span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">Keita is one of the most globally recognized West Africa artists. The student's parents used to listen to his music a lot, and "Africa" is his most famous song outside of Africa.<br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVm2PqwSEzq9UZmtPASQsu39qbH0tnUK5aJTgakOT98cU1EISmFOIRK3zFiFAJ6PhG2jggc2Gjo0J3rpg0qxul3eZTLpUd7Dy3QtubZ6Zx3ByOEaFBp_fli99CMXctKISovYoBsg/s320/RamMcCartneyalbumcover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="320" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVm2PqwSEzq9UZmtPASQsu39qbH0tnUK5aJTgakOT98cU1EISmFOIRK3zFiFAJ6PhG2jggc2Gjo0J3rpg0qxul3eZTLpUd7Dy3QtubZ6Zx3ByOEaFBp_fli99CMXctKISovYoBsg/w200-h200/RamMcCartneyalbumcover.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: small;">My choice for the theme was "Uncle Albert / Admiral Halsey" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XI6C7L66zq8" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/Paul-mccartney-uncle-albert-admiral-halsey-medley-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncle_Albert/Admiral_Halsey" target="_blank">song info</a>) by Paul McCartney (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_McCartney" target="_blank">info</a>, <i>as if any introduction were needed</i>). </span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">I chose this song beause I used to make my sisters pretend to be a band with me and we would act out the instruments and singing parts in front of a mirror at home. The "hands across the water" part was choreographed with waving, naturally.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk6KwYaDFnLY78V27VsdsHYK30vRs8YkILXHUnkllNdDU8qNdpE_Rheb6k6VtxuFoGyCNCqVRwTXtbR5jNIMchLpcIyiUOfoWSMzN5K8WZcr5fZdAEifBT72fjhEAYlDgCm9cnPA/s446/Laylasingle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="446" data-original-width="440" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk6KwYaDFnLY78V27VsdsHYK30vRs8YkILXHUnkllNdDU8qNdpE_Rheb6k6VtxuFoGyCNCqVRwTXtbR5jNIMchLpcIyiUOfoWSMzN5K8WZcr5fZdAEifBT72fjhEAYlDgCm9cnPA/w198-h200/Laylasingle.jpg" width="198" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: small;">We started talking about the wives of Beatles, which led us to the song "Layla" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TngViNw2pOo" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/Derek-and-the-dominos-layla-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Layla" target="_blank">song info</a>) which Eric Clapton (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Clapton" target="_blank">info</a>) wrote about his love for George Harrison's wife. It's a bold move to write a love song to the wife of one of your friends! But what the song is most well known for is the great guitar solo in it.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">With that our time for the day was over.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Next week's theme: Songs from the year of your birth. </b><br /></span></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31362773.post-64057923876037782222021-02-23T22:36:00.004-08:002021-02-23T23:58:34.686-08:0011 February 2021 (Thursday)<p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">With Valentine's Day coming on Sunday, today's theme was "Love Songs".</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">Before we started talking about music, we talked about the coming snow storm headed toward Seattle. Thank goodness we had recently talked about "Songs about snow" to be prepared for this weather event, hahaha!</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">We also talked a little about Chinese New Year, since today is the eve of the Year of the Ox.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">The student from Mexico made an interesting comment about how the public in Mexico is dealing with Coronavirus/Covid. He said the middle-income people stay home, but the low-income people must go out in public to earn money. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">Finally we started talking about love songs! </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxTw1lgajiRffoGe4GelOKVSejKGPHAzlqdZXLNuX1av4218OsRreyZ52yFanQfKV-TWu40dE5OqiJ6vm9JySiSAdsKAc1vxFESNCihQHUQhWEB91k7dqBB-zMw-2xRbd3bLJgtg/s440/CurtisM.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="440" data-original-width="440" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxTw1lgajiRffoGe4GelOKVSejKGPHAzlqdZXLNuX1av4218OsRreyZ52yFanQfKV-TWu40dE5OqiJ6vm9JySiSAdsKAc1vxFESNCihQHUQhWEB91k7dqBB-zMw-2xRbd3bLJgtg/w200-h200/CurtisM.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: small;">The first song picked was "The Makings Of You" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klEgfqjP4Fw" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/Curtis-mayfield-the-makings-of-you-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtis_(Curtis_Mayfield_album)" target="_blank">song info</a>) by Curtis Mayfield (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtis_Mayfield" target="_blank">info</a>). The student who picked this song first heard the Tamar Braxton version (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBODZ5_TGoo" target="_blank">video</a>), then found out it was originally from Curtis Mayfield.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXv1l_o6Jk23Uu8j88nC8mX_LkC48t5gXj1uzI28SJJ_3C8hdpiHSS_4sAxhdTeweTsix6zVmmbKPYS4HShTnHlmBqzPsW6MvaT-yBFRfRkd20L1DiFHEQrCLIYq5YSU27D9PRnw/s516/westlifemylove.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="440" data-original-width="516" height="171" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXv1l_o6Jk23Uu8j88nC8mX_LkC48t5gXj1uzI28SJJ_3C8hdpiHSS_4sAxhdTeweTsix6zVmmbKPYS4HShTnHlmBqzPsW6MvaT-yBFRfRkd20L1DiFHEQrCLIYq5YSU27D9PRnw/w200-h171/westlifemylove.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: small;">The next song was "My Love" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulOb9gIGGd0" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/Westlife-my-love-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Love_(Westlife_song)" target="_blank">song info</a>) by Westlife (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westlife" target="_blank">info</a>). We talked philosophically about whether a love song is about true love if it's about a past relationship.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">We also talked about people showing love through actions, or by buying material things, as opposed to saying "I love you" to their romantic partner.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">I went around the group asking whether they would consider people in the cultures where they are from "romantic". It was interesting to hear the different perspectives, but naturally I won't go into details here.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">Continuing on the discussion about love in different countries, we talked about whether people marry for romantic love, or whether it's a logical choice (or whether the parents pick for them!).</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">Now we went back to love songs, with an interesting twist.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY9syh5r9JaRPOntDTTFerNSps2KW5J7Bddn_PK6vF2u2s5wMvbR-aggMyTtmIdN0Tfsz0yr-_P9Hbp31USxGWWoy4qsRgrXV-D3uRJSyGIVXueglvRsrmWcs_5Ipyoo_PHSVP4w/s440/LeifEriksonInterpol.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="440" data-original-width="440" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY9syh5r9JaRPOntDTTFerNSps2KW5J7Bddn_PK6vF2u2s5wMvbR-aggMyTtmIdN0Tfsz0yr-_P9Hbp31USxGWWoy4qsRgrXV-D3uRJSyGIVXueglvRsrmWcs_5Ipyoo_PHSVP4w/w200-h200/LeifEriksonInterpol.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: small;">The next song chosen was "Leif Erikson" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAoDT-y8T6I" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/Interpol-leif-erikson-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turn_On_the_Bright_Lights" target="_blank">song info</a>) by Interpol (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpol_(band)" target="_blank">info</a>). The student who chose this song said he thinks it has one of the best love song lyrics ever written. </span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">But the lyrics are not straightforward; they are open to interpretation. The link to Leif Erikson is not clear. But the student especially likes the lyrics about keepsakes.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">When he first heard this song, it wasn't the student's favorite song, but later he came to appreciate it very much.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">With all the talk about love in different cultures, we didn't have time to play any more songs. Which is fine -- the purpose of this meeting is to *talk*! :-)</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxIugOOpY7UXo3Yh_pemIR_bcRXiahXwkH817vFiUUOCnloiDVQqu0B1JZ6eL-X1y-qxldGILe7FiroZhkYN0YePs5__rVdJjS9kK5a7v0p1_MCFxnsksUIsqvkaEQpjkfMmDFkg/s440/BillyTalentStandUpAndRun.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="440" data-original-width="440" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxIugOOpY7UXo3Yh_pemIR_bcRXiahXwkH817vFiUUOCnloiDVQqu0B1JZ6eL-X1y-qxldGILe7FiroZhkYN0YePs5__rVdJjS9kK5a7v0p1_MCFxnsksUIsqvkaEQpjkfMmDFkg/w200-h200/BillyTalentStandUpAndRun.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: small;">I do have a bonus song for the week from one student who was not able to join us: "Stand Up And Run" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsmbGsj2WNs" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/Billy-talent-stand-up-and-run-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stand_Up_and_Run" target="_blank">song info</a>) by Billy Talent (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Talent" target="_blank">info</a>). The student sent me an email with his choice and explained that he really likes this lyric from it: "If the compass breaks, then follow your heart / And I hope it leads you right back into your arms".</span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXvfqSNrgQV4ppTCEHz0h6aIXt11tPgVoNHT9XFvJRqGQCkF7lKbQdjxdRrcptUt6G8NBVgJCgkFfN5W2CUezBII8QVg9MJaP5KQ6Vk3Pk3YogF61oY2vbOK8rTOrhL5G6rDLOJw/s220/StevieWonderAs.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="220" data-original-width="220" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXvfqSNrgQV4ppTCEHz0h6aIXt11tPgVoNHT9XFvJRqGQCkF7lKbQdjxdRrcptUt6G8NBVgJCgkFfN5W2CUezBII8QVg9MJaP5KQ6Vk3Pk3YogF61oY2vbOK8rTOrhL5G6rDLOJw/w200-h200/StevieWonderAs.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: small;">Lastly, my choice for a love song? Oh, there are so many options to choose from! But the first one that came to my mind is "As" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLbmdG8U60E" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/Stevie-wonder-as-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/As_(song)" target="_blank">song info</a>) by Stevie Wonder (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stevie_Wonder" target="_blank">info</a>). I like how he says he'll be loving her until impossible things happen, for example, the oceans cover every mountain and dolphins fly. </span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">I also like the part later in the song where he talks about how hard life can get, but that love is the solution.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"> (BTW, George Michael & Mary J Blige did <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3V726_HShyY" target="_blank">a version of "As" with a very cool video</a>, that I still don't get how they made it. My favorite thing in this version is the tone of Mary J Blige's voice.)<br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Theme for next week: Songs that remind you of your family.</b></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b> </b></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31362773.post-88772150577630997732021-02-08T23:16:00.002-08:002021-02-08T23:20:40.793-08:004 February 2021 (Thursday)<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span>Today I was joined by 4 students to discuss "Songs with music from another country, but with lyrics in local language".</span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span>Before talking about music, I asked what time people in different countries start greeting each other with "Good evening" rather than "Good afternoon" or "Good day".</span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span>Then I asked who is going to watch the Superbowl (American football championship) this weekend. To my surprise, most of the students didn't plan on watching it!</span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span>It's too bad that due to Covid I couldn't invite the local student to come watch the game with me. Back in February 2015 I watched the Seahawks in Superbowl loss with one of my Language of Music friends plus some of his friends from Mexico. It was fun to share that very American cultural event with international people. Too bad I couldn't do it this year... hopefully next year!</span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span>The Superbowl is of course interesting as the championship game for the season, but it is equally interesting for the commercials that are shown. As an example, I showed a commercial which will be shown on Friday about <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdsPvbSpB2Y" target="_blank">new electric vehicles by GM (starring Will Ferrell)</a>.</span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span>Ok, now on to music!</span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span>The first song chosen is originally Japanese, but re-done in Taiwanese:</span></span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span><span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhkeclDJXlh-7TS29QR9BZs4O2cPRMSLrsBu9az6Xu4RSgmv4E2a-NmG86ReIGAU_OaX17_pAgvGne8S96l3SnDZcnTTd2ec7z8e7UU1XbCREyIA-WhFeBqce6wU8HonsgBUAgwA/s320/Japaneseversion.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="180" data-original-width="320" height="113" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhkeclDJXlh-7TS29QR9BZs4O2cPRMSLrsBu9az6Xu4RSgmv4E2a-NmG86ReIGAU_OaX17_pAgvGne8S96l3SnDZcnTTd2ec7z8e7UU1XbCREyIA-WhFeBqce6wU8HonsgBUAgwA/w200-h113/Japaneseversion.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></span></span></span></div><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span><span> </span></span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-0i9xiLn-0" target="_blank"><span><span><span>Original Japanese version</span></span> </span></a></span></span></p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOBQa6ePJnUtU5fbAy5IWsRuii_woUD3HMMlvJ23q9FwvWIOBmjFQ3dj3dT0cBbFa0CXyv8xHcsn7FGa5i00G23koVJ5MMnv0LSWYzWE2OCUFnCyjGFE-lImtE8WyUKmvS5XM9Uw/s320/TaiwaneseVersion.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="180" data-original-width="320" height="113" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOBQa6ePJnUtU5fbAy5IWsRuii_woUD3HMMlvJ23q9FwvWIOBmjFQ3dj3dT0cBbFa0CXyv8xHcsn7FGa5i00G23koVJ5MMnv0LSWYzWE2OCUFnCyjGFE-lImtE8WyUKmvS5XM9Uw/w200-h113/TaiwaneseVersion.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><br /></span><span><span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jl0CAEZn9II" target="_blank">Taiwanese version</a></span></span><br /></span></span><div><div><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span>Obviously the melody is the same, but the translated lyrics are also the same concept (about a couple breaking up) even if it is not a direct translation. </span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span>The student explained that old Taiwanese people like this style of music. Some companies use this particular melody to appeal to older people.</span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span>He said that when he was in high school, many of his friends liked the old songs, especially when drinking beer.</span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span><span><span>Our Japanese student said this musical style is called "enka" (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enka" target="_blank">info</a>). All enka songs are about breaking up, usually sung by a male and a female singer. </span></span><br /></span></span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin_FqhHXU8IAGaEyRBhfIkx3EkaHJlvdoH8TNriLv1zRxHiBksOfXZg2k4LXHlYdG8ze8WWOM3YBYc3WsskhkN4jMBlQw2-XH77QYWA6HBPe-JIJ0JbNAEnrh7Qb6lCsSAuBVCpA/s330/330px-Los_%25C3%2581ngeles_Azules.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="220" data-original-width="330" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin_FqhHXU8IAGaEyRBhfIkx3EkaHJlvdoH8TNriLv1zRxHiBksOfXZg2k4LXHlYdG8ze8WWOM3YBYc3WsskhkN4jMBlQw2-XH77QYWA6HBPe-JIJ0JbNAEnrh7Qb6lCsSAuBVCpA/w200-h133/330px-Los_%25C3%2581ngeles_Azules.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span>The next song was "Mis Sentimientos ft. Ximena Sariñana (Live)" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BokdSWC2R68" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/Los-angeles-azules-mis-sentimientos-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>) by Los Ángeles Azules (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_%C3%81ngeles_Azules" target="_blank">info</a>). This band is from the student's hometown.<br /></span></span></span><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span>This song is very popular in Mexico -- just this one video has over 1 billions views!<br />People dance to it in the streets.</span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span>The musical style is called Colombian Cumbia (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumbia_(Colombia)" target="_blank">info</a>); it is originally from Colombia. It is a song for dancing, usually dance as a man/woman couple. But generally the women dance better than the men (as usual around the world, hahaha!). </span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span>The student said that when he was young he didn't like cumbia music, but while living in the States, he longed for it.</span></span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtqcXb_za8u8zVS59-jRzj4u4vb1_gj-KYdT5skcrU_fVz6vVhyphenhyphenoe7h8jfbd4T_0aA-LFVC-RTlZzNV_Iw17irEVNGmiXy20l4cCQxQA8L9wvyxQ1954V6tFTuiwWjbyu8kHCY3g/s300/StromaeTaFete.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtqcXb_za8u8zVS59-jRzj4u4vb1_gj-KYdT5skcrU_fVz6vVhyphenhyphenoe7h8jfbd4T_0aA-LFVC-RTlZzNV_Iw17irEVNGmiXy20l4cCQxQA8L9wvyxQ1954V6tFTuiwWjbyu8kHCY3g/w200-h200/StromaeTaFete.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span>The next song was "Ta Fete" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ublchJYzhao" target="_blank">video with translated lyrics</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ta_f%C3%AAte" target="_blank">song info</a>) by Stromae (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stromae" target="_blank">info</a>).</span></span></span><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span>This song shows Stromae's African roots, but contemporary Belgian life. <br /></span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span>This song was released as song for the Belgian team at the 2014 football (soccer) </span></span><span><span><span><span>World Cup</span></span>. Because it was connected to football/soccer, it was very popular at the time.</span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span>The student who chose it said that this song is often used in French classes for people learning French language because it is easy for non-native speakers to understand.</span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span>The next student was trying to make a choice of which song to play based on what we had heard so far. I taught the class the phrase, "He is making a decision on the fly" (it means he is making a decision right at this moment).</span></span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibg5Tdn3plllk53IDmjuOM4laNITllOqfUTnJBAUevlw8q9NLX9eTi5ZPMfNv8Un-QzQip5tjdGMqyupnzkOc6pZdztf9smGioGM554uhlXEt6PceY495j1RfC0Vo8HOUhXT8HDg/s275/ChampsElysees.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="183" data-original-width="275" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibg5Tdn3plllk53IDmjuOM4laNITllOqfUTnJBAUevlw8q9NLX9eTi5ZPMfNv8Un-QzQip5tjdGMqyupnzkOc6pZdztf9smGioGM554uhlXEt6PceY495j1RfC0Vo8HOUhXT8HDg/w200-h133/ChampsElysees.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span>He chose the song "Les Champs-Elysees" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oamRCeLNAWA" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/Joe-dassin-les-champs-elysees-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Champs-%C3%89lys%C3%A9es" target="_blank">song info</a>) by Daniele Vidal (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniele_Vidal" target="_blank">info</a>). This is one of the most famous songs in French. </span></span></span><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span> </span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span> </span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span> </span></span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicJuhKrel6ev5hExuznU5_oQmOT_kGlYLwoHqGiCnqTsZ4uuYxKGi0508a8eg4TRaH7VyvbCqZlKyDtuWM7sxh7-9dW5R7mm3Vr4JbPR7fKfEq2ZEJNMRT2nJHRxDpB6pzPSKauA/s200/jason-crest_380x215.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="195" data-original-width="200" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicJuhKrel6ev5hExuznU5_oQmOT_kGlYLwoHqGiCnqTsZ4uuYxKGi0508a8eg4TRaH7VyvbCqZlKyDtuWM7sxh7-9dW5R7mm3Vr4JbPR7fKfEq2ZEJNMRT2nJHRxDpB6pzPSKauA/w200-h195/jason-crest_380x215.png" width="200" /></a></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span>But very few people realize (I didn't!) that the melody comes from a British song called "Waterloo Road" (<a href="original: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6a2ePTpPCT0" target="_blank">video with lyrics</a>) by the band Jason Crest (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Crest">info</a>). The copyright for the song was sold to someone in France, where they did it in French and the rest is history!<br /><br />I am almost certain that the Champs-Elysee is a much prettier and romantic place than Waterloo Road!</span></span></span><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span>One of the other students recognized this song from a punk band that he likes. Here's <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f381G0k9Inc" target="_blank">the version by NoFX</a>.<br /><br />With that, out time for conversation for the day was over. I didn't have a chance to play my choice for the them, so here it is:</span></span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGjTY7AeuaHrcgOT6VOv_-i72_FlXIw7gnTZIuINfGjA9tef3BcfGTkI1THvOngiwqf5h-1pMXkQSamZtMxpm-rmF4drlrTSCVL66lePkqpqqTnPEIr46D-_X8IiOi6JeJwHYp5g/s440/VanessaBoaSorte.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="440" data-original-width="440" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGjTY7AeuaHrcgOT6VOv_-i72_FlXIw7gnTZIuINfGjA9tef3BcfGTkI1THvOngiwqf5h-1pMXkQSamZtMxpm-rmF4drlrTSCVL66lePkqpqqTnPEIr46D-_X8IiOi6JeJwHYp5g/w200-h200/VanessaBoaSorte.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span>"Boa Sorte" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSTWcsU91ZY" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/Vanessa-da-mata-boa-sorte-good-luck-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>, song info) by Vanessa De Mata (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanessa_da_Mata" target="_blank">info</a>) with Ben Harper (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Harper" target="_blank">info</a>). </span></span></span><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span>My choice doesn't exactly fit the theme in terms of geography, but it has Ben singing a direct English translation of Vanessa's Portuguese lyrics.</span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span> </span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span> </span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span> </span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span>Next week, in preparation of Valentine's Day on 14 February, <b>we will talk about love songs</b>!</span></span></span></span></p></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31362773.post-86332289870397418682021-02-03T19:38:00.006-08:002021-02-08T22:07:25.443-08:0028 January 2021 (Thursday)<div style="text-align: left;"><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">Today I was joined by three students to talk about "Songs about snow". </span></span></p></div><div style="text-align: left;"><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>(I had chosen this topic for this date a few weeks in advance, hoping our conversation might coincide with a snowy day in Seattle. But it doesn't look like we will have snow in Seattle this year. Just rain. I could make the theme every week "songs about rain" if I want it to coincide with the weather in Seattle...)</i></span></span></p></div><div style="text-align: left;"><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">When I first chose the topic of snow, I thought it would be an easy one to choose songs about. As easy as "Songs about rain". But in fact, it's *not* that easy! I had trouble finding more than a couple of options, and the students said they did, too.</span></span></p></div><div style="text-align: left;"><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">Before we started talking about songs in the theme, I mentioned that I read a news article that referred to the song "Do you hear the people sing", which the Taiwanese student had introduced to us under the theme "protest songs". </span></span></p></div><div style="text-align: left;"><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">But <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/22/business/china-covid-19-beijing.html" target="_blank">the news article I read</a> was about how it was posted on social media in China to protest the death of Dr. Li Wenliang, a doctor who raised the alarm about the Coronavirus in Wuhan early. It was interesting to hear that people on mainland China used the same song to protest as the people in Taiwan had done years ago by posting the video to social media. Were the Chinese inspired by the Taiwanese to use this song?</span></span></p></div><div style="text-align: left;"><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">Being able to connect these dots in the news I was reading with songs I had learned about in class highlighted once again why I love doing this English class -- I learn so much about cultures in the world! </span></span></p></div><div style="text-align: left;"><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">Now we moved on to "Songs about snow". We all comiserated that it is hard to think of a song about snow that is not a Christmas song. Someone mentioned the song "Last Christmas" by Wham!, but we are all so sick of hearing that song, we didn't play it.</span></span></p></div><div style="text-align: left;"><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqoKlcpiqXSMM-UhLsmg_2XjoWVV0YZoUCAbu2W2-DbydPN0yZI6f9EwINBHFod1m6iqtERsh64Txlheccn3U2cR4B2eSrbIVviU-aDotrBRi9alwwHxF_LfZag5yorTqSUx0Z7A/s316/Feeder_-_Seven_Sleepers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="316" data-original-width="316" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqoKlcpiqXSMM-UhLsmg_2XjoWVV0YZoUCAbu2W2-DbydPN0yZI6f9EwINBHFod1m6iqtERsh64Txlheccn3U2cR4B2eSrbIVviU-aDotrBRi9alwwHxF_LfZag5yorTqSUx0Z7A/w200-h200/Feeder_-_Seven_Sleepers.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">The first song chosen was "Snowblind" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFzDZOeXwZ8" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/Feeder-snowblind-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Sleepers_(EP)" target="_blank">song info</a>) by Feeder (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feeder_(band)" target="_blank">info</a>). This song is not obviosly about snow, except that the word is in the song title. But the student who chose this song had a very creative logic for how he chose it: Most of the time people romanticize snow; they think of it as beautiful and calm. But the student pointed out that snow can be scary or intimidating. In certain situations, being in a lot of snow can put you on edge.</span></span><p></p></div><div style="text-align: left;"><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">So for the theme, he focused on a song that creates the mood of tension, like people can feel when caught in snow. </span></span></p></div><div style="text-align: left;"><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">To illustrate this feeling he told about driving 300km through the snow one day last year in a car without tires for driving in snow. It was a nerve-wracking experience for him, worried that his car would lose control while driving.</span></span></p></div><div style="text-align: left;"><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">What a cool way to approach the theme of "Songs about snow"! </span></span></p></div><div style="text-align: left;"><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">Related to how snow can be un-romantic, the student from Taiwan told about his first experience seeing snow. The first time he experienced snow was in Kyoto, Japan. For the first 15 minutes he was excited to see the snow. But he didn't have a jacket with him, so for the next 50 minutes he felt like he was so cold he was going to die.</span></span></p></div><div style="text-align: left;"><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">No one else had a suggestion for a song about snow. Apparently the topic was too hard!</span></span></p></div><div style="text-align: left;"><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">So I played my first choice: It was to be a song by Kate Bush (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Bush" target="_blank">info</a>). </span></span></p></div><div style="text-align: left;"><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">Before playing it, I told two stories:</span></span></p></div><div style="text-align: left;"><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">1/ There is a saying that the Eskimos have "50 words for snow". It means, that since Eskimos live in a place covered with snow, they have many words to describe the variations of it, whereas most of the rest of the world just thinks of white frozen water. But it is a myth that Eskimos have 50 words for snow. </span></span></p></div><div style="text-align: left;"><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">2/ Kate Bush is one of my favorite singers. But when I was young -- a teenager and into my 20's -- I couldn't stand her voice! If I ever heard a song of hers come on the radio, I would immediately turn it off!</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">However, at some point through friends I was forced to regularly listen to Kate Bush songs (they were playing her music and I wanted to hang out with them, rather than leave the group). And one day, as if struck by lightning, her voice suddenly made sense to me! From that point on, I am a big fan of Kate Bush: I think she is an amazingly creative artist and performer, with an amazing voice!</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrjC1103d2bHnG7AEGtOy_vxaUjPriJ3QREBoEt6ADXz0odXg0x3FFReXFkdD5IVXYBx06PZgimNS6EpyeYv0YyD5l1_CYUMM38u2EKsKOWR8xKv4CfcrkjapuecISRBDW6Kb_Dw/s300/Kate_Bush_-_50_Words_for_Snow.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrjC1103d2bHnG7AEGtOy_vxaUjPriJ3QREBoEt6ADXz0odXg0x3FFReXFkdD5IVXYBx06PZgimNS6EpyeYv0YyD5l1_CYUMM38u2EKsKOWR8xKv4CfcrkjapuecISRBDW6Kb_Dw/w200-h200/Kate_Bush_-_50_Words_for_Snow.png" width="200" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">So on to </span></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">the song I chose for this week: "Snowflake" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEWMYfcg1o8" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/Kate-bush-snowflake-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>). </span></span></span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">This song comes from an album Kate did all about snow called "50 words for snow" (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/50_Words_for_Snow" target="_blank">info</a>). This song is sung from the perspective of being a snowflake, which is an interesting perspective of the world to have. </span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">The album is not my favorite by Kate Bush, but it fit the theme for the day.</span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIpDvxkiM33HHDP_sOrkmh8noTLsaOx8cu7xofFQ-ecnr0MVKkV58KV5YRlVe-7isimnFrDyax6jKM0-ksot-GD1k7HmtmMNUOxZNWNAcXHZy5ysXS0cFAtvFTgvOPFaJ52I4l0Q/s300/Black_Sabbath_Vol._4.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIpDvxkiM33HHDP_sOrkmh8noTLsaOx8cu7xofFQ-ecnr0MVKkV58KV5YRlVe-7isimnFrDyax6jKM0-ksot-GD1k7HmtmMNUOxZNWNAcXHZy5ysXS0cFAtvFTgvOPFaJ52I4l0Q/w200-h200/Black_Sabbath_Vol._4.png" width="200" /></a></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">No one else had a great choice for a song about snow, so we listened to a song with "snow" in the title, but which is not about the white frozen water -- it is about cocaine: "Snowblind" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crDTz1skj9c" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/Black-sabbath-snowblind-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>) by Black Sabbath (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sabbath" target="_blank">info</a>).<br /></span></span></span></span><p></p></div><div style="text-align: left;"><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">I also had a little story about this song. This song is the first song where I consciously realized I love electric guitars. I heard it at a friend's house when I was about 15 years old. Until that time, I just listened to the radio and had no idea about different genres of music. Looking back, I realize I liked songs with guitars a lot (ex. "Sultans Of Swing" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_7qkRwcMFc" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/Dire-straits-sultans-of-swing-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sultans_of_Swing" target="_blank">song info</a>) by Dire Straits (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dire_Straits" target="_blank">info</a>)), but I did not know there genres called "rock" or even "heavy metal". </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">That day at my friend's house I heard the guitars blasting from the speakers as "Snowblind" played, and it filled my mind with wonder! I loved it! I immediately went out and bought the album (Vol. 4 (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vol._4_(Black_Sabbath_album)" target="_blank">info</a>)) and listened to it every day for months. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">I have listened to that album at least 1,000 times in my life. And it led me to listening to many more albums featuring loud electric guitars. And it all started with the song "Snowblind". Which is not about snow. For me, it's about guitars!</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">We only had a few more minutes in the class, and I brought up a video that had nothing to do with music or snow: it was a TV commercial for a Seattle brand of beer (Rainier Beer) from the 1980's. The series of commercials are great examples of Washington State culture. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-AaKLZFZZNk3vXF6UhXhC1CIepYe2Mr5bhwrLKk5PgF4tfEgoVz6DpL6qFRTshjpBLyuXaN3PX-Y0odFBCHfCLPdytgsGUxQFnYtAG1YX9x2albxhKrt5QheM1ff7sMeM8P6cFg/s300/RainierMotorcycle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="300" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-AaKLZFZZNk3vXF6UhXhC1CIepYe2Mr5bhwrLKk5PgF4tfEgoVz6DpL6qFRTshjpBLyuXaN3PX-Y0odFBCHfCLPdytgsGUxQFnYtAG1YX9x2albxhKrt5QheM1ff7sMeM8P6cFg/w200-h112/RainierMotorcycle.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">I showed the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtWQK_O8UdQ" target="_blank">video with the motorcycle that sounds like it's saying "Rainier Beer" as it shifts through the gears</a>.</span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">The sound of this commercial made one of the students think of this <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAUK9hVgmNI " target="_blank">video with car racing</a>. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">We all laughed a lot, and with that our conversation time for the day was over. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Next week's topic: Songs with music from one country, but lyrics in the local language.</b> <br /></span></span></p></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31362773.post-23540659442226225282021-01-27T23:41:00.006-08:002021-01-27T23:58:07.182-08:0021 January 2021 (Thursday)<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Today I was joined by three students to talk about "The first song or album you ever bought (or listened to repeatedly)".</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Of those three students, one was new to our group! She is originally from Italy, now living near Seattle.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">She likes likes pop music all the way from 70's, 80's to current, but doesn't like country music nor old western music. </span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIHdSQiuWD-fM_o7gje_3IgiCASa8s7qVy0Z_9Z8m6KV3__RbQdt7jSqRQuqU5KSkJ3V5ufgTJT2jUh0HVvTz4s1j4bz-gpTkdo7OT7Hyv1b5Aye_Q-bHLqzCUKadJJU4j-5AGXQ/s768/alberto-urso.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="537" data-original-width="768" height="140" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIHdSQiuWD-fM_o7gje_3IgiCASa8s7qVy0Z_9Z8m6KV3__RbQdt7jSqRQuqU5KSkJ3V5ufgTJT2jUh0HVvTz4s1j4bz-gpTkdo7OT7Hyv1b5Aye_Q-bHLqzCUKadJJU4j-5AGXQ/w200-h140/alberto-urso.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I asked for an example of music she likes, and she chose "Accanto a te" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95gANtAqA3E" target="_blank">video with lyrics</a>) by Alberto Urso (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Urso" target="_blank">info</a>).</span></span><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Because none of us speak Italian, she explained that it is a romantic song where the singer expresses his feelings for a girl. He tells her he wants to be "next to you", which means he wants to be there more often for her and put time and effort into their relationship.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The student discovered Alberto from the Italian TV servies "Amici di Maria De Filippi" (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amici_di_Maria_De_Filippi" target="_blank">info</a>) where young people are taught to master their singing abilities. Alberto won the series he was on. <br /></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgenAUDfJmvI5rvaq_GdxrIdRCkkGxngt6SBo3bBrbZhIXODTsIO06MxfLZqb1l4nbLVhWGbo7RTmygJ4gS6RnXxR37LOYWjy_lelJeaOcrdX8ZjbKpHytVFkmWhKM475LeykGLPQ/s453/GagaInauga.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="453" data-original-width="330" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgenAUDfJmvI5rvaq_GdxrIdRCkkGxngt6SBo3bBrbZhIXODTsIO06MxfLZqb1l4nbLVhWGbo7RTmygJ4gS6RnXxR37LOYWjy_lelJeaOcrdX8ZjbKpHytVFkmWhKM475LeykGLPQ/w146-h200/GagaInauga.jpg" width="146" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">As we talked I realized I had not seen the Lady Gaga (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Gaga" target="_blank">info</a>) performance of the USA National Anthem at the Presidential Inauguration earlier in the week. So <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDvsGBnuHf0" target="_blank">we watched it</a>.</span></span><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">One student said he used to listen to Lady Gaga while preparing for University exams. He listened to her to get energy.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjscX2BWuWWCVaeFMZiCAIxasSCza14jJQMfTemvWFcGTE03phUuXH88Ju_fDIVV6o6hDVrtjtR_OOKdHxxvyYR3HNKmxHulQjBwEUwUi8cT2z-anFbSRfXZSELk4mN1OxqCfdaSQ/s316/Gotye_featuring_Kimbra_-_Somebody_That_I_Used_to_Know.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="316" data-original-width="316" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjscX2BWuWWCVaeFMZiCAIxasSCza14jJQMfTemvWFcGTE03phUuXH88Ju_fDIVV6o6hDVrtjtR_OOKdHxxvyYR3HNKmxHulQjBwEUwUi8cT2z-anFbSRfXZSELk4mN1OxqCfdaSQ/w200-h200/Gotye_featuring_Kimbra_-_Somebody_That_I_Used_to_Know.png" width="200" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">As we were watching videos on YouTube, someone noticed that in my YouTube history list was the song "Somebody I Used To Know" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UVNT4wvIGY" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/Gotye-somebody-that-i-used-to-know-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somebody_That_I_Used_to_Know" target="_blank">song info</a>) by Gotye (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gotye" target="_blank">info</a>). </span></span><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I had watched that video for the first time in many years recently. I always thought it is a cool video. But in the past week I had heard the song *without* the video for the first time ever, and I realized that my association with the song is so strongly tied to the video, that I had to go back and watch the video. That is why it was in my history list.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">We branched off from music for a moment as one student asked the Italian student if she has ever visited the Vatican (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vatican_City" target="_blank">info</a>). She had visited it, and told us about it and Rome in general.</span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib1N6GYkrDM8VPrE6-7osmkpjvpQoyGd9f28smbLXuGD3uyTlBNoQDKeIZrsK6GrPax69PyzJWVU1s94ChmvCt6DZwJaXjoCDKvMjXNexbvhZ1DdSNDvS_vgi0tJU4OdlOT-QMOg/s300/The_Lazy_Song.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib1N6GYkrDM8VPrE6-7osmkpjvpQoyGd9f28smbLXuGD3uyTlBNoQDKeIZrsK6GrPax69PyzJWVU1s94ChmvCt6DZwJaXjoCDKvMjXNexbvhZ1DdSNDvS_vgi0tJU4OdlOT-QMOg/w200-h200/The_Lazy_Song.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I can't remember the exact reason how we got from that topic to "The Lazy Song" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLexgOxsZu0" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/Bruno-mars-the-lazy-song-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lazy_Song" target="_blank">song info</a>) by Bruno Mars (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruno_Mars" target="_blank">info</a>), but we did. </span></span><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I asked each student when the last time they had a lazy day like this where they did nothing. The answer was, "a few days ago", with one student saying she is making a habit of having lazy days in her schedule, to consciously slow life down a bit.<br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Finally we needed to talk about first songs we bought or listened to regularly!</span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5_kZVWtO4xTFCy3GSOrfGTQxyaAH5O1wuKaTrYQdF6zo0YHUxjQ5xJe9NqLFg5aU-Z6EDxF9tqIzfg8ZhHXWHP9vbdqeQI2iBnvY9_2bKV3sf8uZOPfTBImN7Fstt0cA8oNVKJA/s300/Frozen_2013_soundtrack.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5_kZVWtO4xTFCy3GSOrfGTQxyaAH5O1wuKaTrYQdF6zo0YHUxjQ5xJe9NqLFg5aU-Z6EDxF9tqIzfg8ZhHXWHP9vbdqeQI2iBnvY9_2bKV3sf8uZOPfTBImN7Fstt0cA8oNVKJA/w200-h200/Frozen_2013_soundtrack.png" width="200" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">For one student is was the "Frozen" album (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frozen_(soundtrack)" target="_blank">info</a>). As an example of this album we listened to the song "Let It Go" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0MK7qz13bU" target="_blank">video with lyrics</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let_It_Go" target="_blank">song info</a>). This video has over 2 billion views!!</span></span><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">As he told us about his memories of this song, I learned that in Taiwan, by default in movie theaters for American films, the audio is in original English with Mandarin subtitles. I was surprised to hear that they don't dub the audio into Mandarin, but this is good for learning English!</span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9aqmRp4dOauszFXgFSivCmgQXGqF-nSgu8w7ModDuS2Q7v2x_XTKwrD8K4KZq_fjSq_qC-H1gmo6f-ez-kM6UmwP94keoHlOYFOCv_hdp3N3EsFAqZ4FXDOcQTbafVNh0_0TwNw/s316/Blonde_-_Frank_Ocean.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="316" data-original-width="316" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9aqmRp4dOauszFXgFSivCmgQXGqF-nSgu8w7ModDuS2Q7v2x_XTKwrD8K4KZq_fjSq_qC-H1gmo6f-ez-kM6UmwP94keoHlOYFOCv_hdp3N3EsFAqZ4FXDOcQTbafVNh0_0TwNw/w200-h200/Blonde_-_Frank_Ocean.jpeg" width="200" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">For the next student, her first album was by Blonde (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blonde_(Frank_Ocean_album)" target="_blank">info</a>) by Frank Ocean (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Ocean" target="_blank">info</a>). <br /></span></span><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">She loved Frank Ocean's music and had waited 4 years for him to put out a new album. She bought it digitally. She was earning her own money so she could buy it. She had to pay $15 to buy it on iTunes, but it was worth the money and the wait :-)</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">To this day she still plays song from this album almost every other day. As an example of a song from the album, we listened to "White Ferrari" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjyv5gKMn84" target="_blank">video with lyrics</a>). </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">She explained that the whole album follows the story of his first love. This song is about driving his boyfriend to the airport in a white ferrari.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">With that, our time for the day was up! </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">But here's a bonus contribution, sent to me via email by one of the students who usually participates, but couldn't make it this week. This is his email:</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">* * * <br /></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoP26tRTb1Qvb-9HelX8vWv57gjYKCsCoAqUNiWVTdBbC_7enTzGd7bS0xhUHo9nXJfhk01vJqaCUyAylilVKdhbL41FjO800f-qetAMttau7J-b821KtIGHYs17Pqy93XGmHXkw/s640/Def-Tech.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="363" data-original-width="640" height="114" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoP26tRTb1Qvb-9HelX8vWv57gjYKCsCoAqUNiWVTdBbC_7enTzGd7bS0xhUHo9nXJfhk01vJqaCUyAylilVKdhbL41FjO800f-qetAMttau7J-b821KtIGHYs17Pqy93XGmHXkw/w200-h114/Def-Tech.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Here's the song from the very first album I bought with my money. It's "Catch The Wave" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWGDt0pBbXQ" target="_blank">video with lyrics</a>) by Def Tech (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Def_Tech" target="_blank">info</a>), a Japanese hip hop/reggae duo.<br /><br />I remember me buying the album in 2006, when I was only 12. It was the time when I graduated from a grade school and entered a junior high school. Commuting time to the school has changed from 30 seconds to 40 minutes, which means that I had to use a train. It was the time when I was more free than I used to be, thus feeling more mature. For me buying a CD with "my money" was such an adult thing to do, while that "money" actually consisted of lunch money.<br /><br />I was listening to the album either through my old boombox in my room or a portable CD player with cheap earphones (I didn't have a fancy portable MP3 player back then). It was my first experience of carrying around the music everywhere I go, even though the school prohibited bringing in such devices. That feeling of breaking the law also made me feel more mature.<br /><br />The reason I bought the album was because I heard the song on a TV show and I liked it. I repeated the heck out of the album including the song, which damaged the CD a little bit and now some songs are unplayable. The plastic CD case is shattered and cracked as well, which is now barely functioning as a case. <br /><br />Now you might notice that the song is not rock at all, but this is because I bought this album before my musical taste was solidified. After all, I don't regret those days at all; the song always makes me reminisce about summer of 2006, the good ol' time when every single experience was fresh, new and enlightening. BTW now I've been listening to more hip hop/R&B stuff for several years, so I guess people can change over time. </span></span><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">P.S. That 30 second thing above is true! The grade school is literally in front of my house. <br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">* * * <br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Lastly, I didn't have time to introduce the first song I ever bought during the class. I actually can't remember that far back! There were songs I loved as a child, but those were from my parents' albums. What was the first song or album I ever bought on my own?...</span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm7X5dQWNQPzvhO9t7iIMYhW9fdjsG76CqweJDAa1UzM3IXfWAyej_9-P8YA2ahzq3LZoWsSRppwSYpu6jinh9K7k_j4wo9_KoXuXKZCD_1u-DWs1zP5B8yMy2avyR5jm2vf7xoA/s300/Black_Flag_-_Damaged_cover.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm7X5dQWNQPzvhO9t7iIMYhW9fdjsG76CqweJDAa1UzM3IXfWAyej_9-P8YA2ahzq3LZoWsSRppwSYpu6jinh9K7k_j4wo9_KoXuXKZCD_1u-DWs1zP5B8yMy2avyR5jm2vf7xoA/w200-h200/Black_Flag_-_Damaged_cover.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I think it was "Damaged" (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damaged_(Black_Flag_album)" target="_blank">album info</a>) by Black Flag (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Flag_(band)" target="_blank">info</a>). I think I had heard the song "TV Party" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6otjCKg594" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/Black-flag-tv-party-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>), which I thought was funny, on the UW radio station KCMU (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KEXP-FM#Early_years_as_KCMU" target="_blank">info</a>).</span></span><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The album had a sticker on the cover which said, "As a parent ... I found it an anti-parent record". In my rebellious youth, I thought
that was really cool. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">My favorite song was "Rise Above" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHR-rzUjCzU" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/Black-flag-rise-above-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>). I like the energy with which he talks about overcoming obstacles.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>The topic for next week's conversation: Songs about snow.</b> <br /></span></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31362773.post-51705135465843174492021-01-18T23:34:00.011-08:002021-01-18T23:57:52.307-08:0014 January 2021 (Thursday)<p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>Today's topic was "Protest Songs", inspired by the Dr. Martin Luther King holiday in the US on 18 January.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>The discussion turned out to be great! -- there was so much thought put into the explanations for the songs chosen! </span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span>I was also aspecial occasion to see another former student join us! He is now back in Mexico City. But it meant that today we had participants from Seattle, Tokyo and Mexico City. While I miss the in-person conversations, I am happy that we can gather from the four corners of the world online :-)</span></span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifQSgl9x-5pPUuGWT0oM0gYMiItREhDrsqQ6vqW_f1eSW_B6oSXINSSRSRyOVJLCoDX4Vc0cWoCmeOq2oGagZm3n9wepwS7-9KJ8M-aUV4Y7Pdi9SPZRo6DZfqxa29QRMtVI7mDg/s275/Targys.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="183" data-original-width="275" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifQSgl9x-5pPUuGWT0oM0gYMiItREhDrsqQ6vqW_f1eSW_B6oSXINSSRSRyOVJLCoDX4Vc0cWoCmeOq2oGagZm3n9wepwS7-9KJ8M-aUV4Y7Pdi9SPZRo6DZfqxa29QRMtVI7mDg/w200-h133/Targys.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></span></p></div><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>Before we started talking about protest songs, I reminisced about watching the infamous Seahawks Super Bowl loss with the Mexican student back in February 2015. It was at my favorite "dive bar" in Seattle: Targy's on Queen Anne (<a href="https://www.targysseattle.com/" target="_blank">website</a>).</span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span> <br /></span></span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpYWtQd5flEQ2_VQRg72eBJYPZOk3oltymNkl4IEmpmX9SnZEEnNL7hVfmqbQU75aly5ZJsJKzJ9YbHQvc-JQl6HEP8jLMqdSFE1DnCgde3wGYZPJeJITMDW747WLoLHFlIrf3ug/s390/Izakaya_Exterior_Gotanda.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="260" data-original-width="390" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpYWtQd5flEQ2_VQRg72eBJYPZOk3oltymNkl4IEmpmX9SnZEEnNL7hVfmqbQU75aly5ZJsJKzJ9YbHQvc-JQl6HEP8jLMqdSFE1DnCgde3wGYZPJeJITMDW747WLoLHFlIrf3ug/w200-h133/Izakaya_Exterior_Gotanda.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></span></p></div><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>I had to explain what a </span><span><span><span><span>"dive bar" is (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dive_bar_(drinking_establishment)" target="_blank">definition</a>), then the Japanese student told about us "izakaya" bars in Japan which are their equivalents of dive bars. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Izakaya" target="_blank">Info on izakaya bars</a>.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span>The Taiwanese student said they use the term </span></span></span></span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>"izakaya", but in Taiwan is it a regular Japanese restaurant with ramen and sushi; it is a place where business people go. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span>The students from different countries started asking each other about the types of alcohol in their home countries, especially what sake is like. We weren't talking about music, but that's ok -- the point of the group is to practice speaking conversational English!</span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>To end this part of the discussion, I mentioned that since people in the US tend to drink a lot of alcohol during December, a lot of people don't drink any alcohol during the month of January. It's called "Dry January" (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dry_January" target="_blank">information</a>).</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>Now on to protest songs!</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxgJ-9EFKNsnYhrUz2jsm8UuN1s7m4AVuVluQabZfApD442FnsG0UbU_mWwT7qOZqJpH960DSyXEs2mH3JTKyQuYsxpZ0ylwYLDHNfTpXwatpiDumGsSRPLQx08tn9kRF70tpDEg/s1280/DoyouHear.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="113" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxgJ-9EFKNsnYhrUz2jsm8UuN1s7m4AVuVluQabZfApD442FnsG0UbU_mWwT7qOZqJpH960DSyXEs2mH3JTKyQuYsxpZ0ylwYLDHNfTpXwatpiDumGsSRPLQx08tn9kRF70tpDEg/w200-h113/DoyouHear.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">The first song was "你敢有聽著咱唱歌 (Do You Hear The People Sing)" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8TTPAHPUwQ" target="_blank">video with lyrics</a>). </span></span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>The student explained that in 2004 a soldier in Taiwan as mistreated and he died from his injuries, which resulted in the civil population speaking out for more transparency from the army. They said that if there was not transparency from the army and the government, the people would be like slaves.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>Because the voices in the song are not shouting loudly, I asked the student if one can hear in their voices that the people are angry. He said, yes, you can hear that they are very angry; he said that in Taiwan slogans are more persuasive than shouting.<br /></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4fHf5aIkra_e0092Gw0qkvDaIMR35t0Im9p95vgjI10ItVnUNrGhj3vFEPvhJlzjQF8zYHg14iuex5efng_PdQrvxDfcnjuh3wYqqN0i6l5U8ZbZNC8WK3NCY0h3_BG9MmNIQ0g/s317/American_jesus_br.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="313" data-original-width="317" height="197" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4fHf5aIkra_e0092Gw0qkvDaIMR35t0Im9p95vgjI10ItVnUNrGhj3vFEPvhJlzjQF8zYHg14iuex5efng_PdQrvxDfcnjuh3wYqqN0i6l5U8ZbZNC8WK3NCY0h3_BG9MmNIQ0g/w200-h197/American_jesus_br.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">The next song was "American Jesus" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12kcpP-8jfM" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/Bad-religion-american-jesus-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Jesus" target="_blank">song info</a>) by Bad Religion (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_Religion" target="_blank">info</a>). </span></span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>The student who chose this song likes punk rock music, which means he had many choices of songs for today's theme. He was introduced to Bad Religion by his English teacher when he was young, but he didn't understand what this song was about until he learned English better.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>In short, it is a criticism of President Bush who said something to the effect that "We will win the Gulf War because God is on our side."</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>Often the members of punk bands are considered </span>uneducated people just complaining, but the singer for Bad Religion, Greg Gaffin (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Graffin" target="_blank">info</a>) has a PhD and is a professor! Bad Religion is intellectual punk rock!</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX2U_6EETDMRZmi1HR4VY6SKo3SNR7Fll3hKqvC7f3pDb8LkBszNmTtSUZuaO-l3zbzBqdPMRLfYYwFxd0bdQjxc5eiabyGTYhepbwbQR5Uu3YiGdXZJoKgm5fWk9TcGX5A1N_Nw/s398/Ej%25C3%25A9rcito_Zapatista_de_Liberaci%25C3%25B3n_Nacional%252C_Flag.svg.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="265" data-original-width="398" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX2U_6EETDMRZmi1HR4VY6SKo3SNR7Fll3hKqvC7f3pDb8LkBszNmTtSUZuaO-l3zbzBqdPMRLfYYwFxd0bdQjxc5eiabyGTYhepbwbQR5Uu3YiGdXZJoKgm5fWk9TcGX5A1N_Nw/w200-h133/Ej%25C3%25A9rcito_Zapatista_de_Liberaci%25C3%25B3n_Nacional%252C_Flag.svg.png" width="200" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">The next song was "EZLN" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcJCD5OZDDQ&t=105s" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zapatista_Army_of_National_Liberation" target="_blank">Wikipedia on EZLN</a>).</span></span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">This song is about the uprising in Chiapas in 1994 after the NAFTA treaty </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span>(<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Free_Trade_Agreement" target="_blank">info</a>) </span>was signed. The people in Chiapas were asking for more rice and education for the indigenous people. T</span><span style="font-size: small;">he army supported the uprising
against the government. The army movement became a political movement;
people agreed the demands were fair and this movement led to the Left government Mexico now has.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">The song uses a </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span>Manu Chao (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manu_Chao" target="_blank">info</a>) song as the background, with the manifesto of the army on top of it.</span> It was not a mainstream song, but it was popular among the people who supported the army.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">There are a few Manu Chao songs that I really like, but they are ones about being happy and having a light heart. But he is very respected in Latin America as an activist, not only in his solo music, but also in his previous band, Mano Negra (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mano_Negra_(band)" target="_blank">info</a>), which was a very political band.</span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7m2yWmFr_Wt_6mx1RUuuxj5xfozReUsz4PnTwL-b3CEXpFWF-G-uSz-aoC1hA_mmfenNNrR5hdZPJ6JwNQaTnI4y7MmXriEkpe15qeG659qx2J7Ie7yDpoaYgSSl21GdsfUckTQ/s300/TRWNBT_album.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7m2yWmFr_Wt_6mx1RUuuxj5xfozReUsz4PnTwL-b3CEXpFWF-G-uSz-aoC1hA_mmfenNNrR5hdZPJ6JwNQaTnI4y7MmXriEkpe15qeG659qx2J7Ie7yDpoaYgSSl21GdsfUckTQ/w200-h200/TRWNBT_album.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">The next song was "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmkzYM_QKtU" target="_blank">video with lyrics</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Revolution_Will_Not_Be_Televised" target="_blank">song info</a>) by Gil Scott-Heron (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gil_Scott-Heron" target="_blank">info</a>). This is a really great choice related to US history!</span></span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">The student who chose it says she likes it because it is a call to action, rather than sitting at home. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">This song is credited as the birth of rap music; it was birthed of outrage and taking poetry and applying it to songs. </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span>Lyrically the song refers to a lot of people of the time it was written (1970), but many of the statements are still 100% valid today.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>We talked for a while about how to change a political system (or even a company). Should revolution come from working inside the system, within its constraints, or should it come from outside the system. It was very interesting to hear what the students had to say on the topic. </span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7PFgLVmMlqZamd0CNcaTyrAqY-0UxdQAQe5fsE3nuuVffw8-hxKZsKW7Itx6eGCt2aHzArXHdYfCYIz260VWJEtjVc9itZ_KCHFGDoYt6ObVonF0YO6KVXKzPyYNUM6TaVmu52g/s474/GraffitiNoSera.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="355" data-original-width="474" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7PFgLVmMlqZamd0CNcaTyrAqY-0UxdQAQe5fsE3nuuVffw8-hxKZsKW7Itx6eGCt2aHzArXHdYfCYIz260VWJEtjVc9itZ_KCHFGDoYt6ObVonF0YO6KVXKzPyYNUM6TaVmu52g/w200-h150/GraffitiNoSera.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">The student from Mexico City said that the phrase "The revolution will not be televised" is often said and written in Latin America. He knew the phrase, but didn't know the song. We wondered what came first: the phrase in Latin America, or the Gil Scott-Heron song.</span></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNukwrdnf67GT6c5SG89k4GSWSX6KXzKQd7nppXvbwrqPk2_K6K1Vn4-A75M-4-754P0gvzP0amKGzCxg2q_g7Tg9wm7dPc3ekClZiv3J2bUlcqqQoXzvR0cMDUemQzKMiy2s2dg/s443/FightPower.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="443" data-original-width="440" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNukwrdnf67GT6c5SG89k4GSWSX6KXzKQd7nppXvbwrqPk2_K6K1Vn4-A75M-4-754P0gvzP0amKGzCxg2q_g7Tg9wm7dPc3ekClZiv3J2bUlcqqQoXzvR0cMDUemQzKMiy2s2dg/w199-h200/FightPower.jpg" width="199" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">My choice for protest song was "Fight The Power" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmo3HFa2vjg" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/Public-enemy-fight-the-power-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fight_the_Power_(Public_Enemy_song)" target="_blank">song info</a>) by Public Enemy (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Enemy_(band)" target="_blank">info</a>) from the movie "Do The Right Thing" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BT2al2t2jnU" target="_blank">video trailer</a>). </span></span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">The film is a classic social commentary on race relations in America. I realize it would be hard for international students to understand the accents and dialogue in the movie, to say nothing of the visual social commentary which goes to the heart of race relations in America, but this movie really is one of the best, most powerful, commentaries about American society.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">And this song is a perfect audio addition to that commentary. <br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">With that our time for the day was over. It was a really great conversation, I left the meeting very happy. :-)</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Next week's topic: The first song or album you bought (or played repeatedly).</b></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b> </b><br /></span></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31362773.post-70365608815368121132021-01-18T21:46:00.007-08:002021-01-18T22:08:05.049-08:007 January 2021 (Thursday)<p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">Today 4 people joined me online to discuss the songs we listened to most over the holidays.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">One person was new to our group -- from Turkey, one of my favorite countries in the world! :-)</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">Before we talked about music, we caught up on what everyone did over the holidays. Actually, in Japan, December was basically a regular working month, so nothing exciting to report from our Japanese representation.</span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi-hwdm69VxRfxmx6QeskoTbNYJpCZP6VWpxNcjzS6PlOa_v9HxTNgSFdmUFe7aYbHy7l3s43pCjVNxaStSmSBtldXT5mYv9f90XITK600GK0TaREIo26xb8UHu3JbZsHXhWUUrg/s200/Angela_pandora1.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="200" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi-hwdm69VxRfxmx6QeskoTbNYJpCZP6VWpxNcjzS6PlOa_v9HxTNgSFdmUFe7aYbHy7l3s43pCjVNxaStSmSBtldXT5mYv9f90XITK600GK0TaREIo26xb8UHu3JbZsHXhWUUrg/w200-h200/Angela_pandora1.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">The first song we listened to was "隱形的翅膀 (Invisible Wings)" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0H38RjvW0s" target="_blank">video,</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandora_(Angela_Zhang_album)" target="_blank">song info</a>) by Angela Chang (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angela_Zhang" target="_blank">info</a>). The student who chose it came across this song when it was put into his YouTube suggestions. The song was popular when he was in junior high school; students used to play this song on the piano during lunch time. </span></span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">It has been 10 years since the student was in junior high school and he has lost connection, and hasn't met, his former fellow students. Thinking about that time long ago and the lost connections was on his mind during the holiday period, so he chose this song.</span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqoD8Zgc9V5-IY99iMFzCDtTad1CBL0gSJue6la_TI95pr_bb1g0zHHaLAj5rwnz7q8_C58FcEVm2suNhy5ynL1JweJU5zOaECS9IXMHs9Oo1qlenVofaVEsLnORiHGmPhB2SlKQ/s325/Chicfreak.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="307" data-original-width="325" height="189" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqoD8Zgc9V5-IY99iMFzCDtTad1CBL0gSJue6la_TI95pr_bb1g0zHHaLAj5rwnz7q8_C58FcEVm2suNhy5ynL1JweJU5zOaECS9IXMHs9Oo1qlenVofaVEsLnORiHGmPhB2SlKQ/w200-h189/Chicfreak.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">When I was in junior high school the students were allowed to play records during lunch, and for some reason "Le Freak" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXgSHL7efKg" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/Chic-le-freak-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Freak" target="_blank">song info</a>) by Chic (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chic_(band)" target="_blank">info</a>) remains in my memory to this day from one of those lunchtimes a long, long time ago. </span></span><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Note: while writing this blog, I see that "Le Freak" is considered "culturally, historically, or artistically significant" by the American Library of Congress. Wow!</i><br /></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQMARVZWLUikLsl4eeELAjTksu5nchJaChXNdPS8U9iY4CMgea9aAsEW5I-RslGDVxj_HMHyJyW3kO65O3iyWec7K0UGNwI6RrPzx8_UUo1Ni0ChjvPuuXrCFvecE_hkZuaADLqA/s280/Get_Lucky.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="280" data-original-width="280" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQMARVZWLUikLsl4eeELAjTksu5nchJaChXNdPS8U9iY4CMgea9aAsEW5I-RslGDVxj_HMHyJyW3kO65O3iyWec7K0UGNwI6RrPzx8_UUo1Ni0ChjvPuuXrCFvecE_hkZuaADLqA/w200-h200/Get_Lucky.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">But there is a connection of my old song with current music! The guitar player for Chic, Nile Rodgers (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nile_Rodgers" target="_blank">info</a>) has a unique guitar style/sound, and he is highly in demand to this day. You can hear his style from Le Freak in "Get Lucky" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkeIwhKIi84" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/Daft-punk-get-lucky-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Get_Lucky_(Daft_Punk_song)" target="_blank">song info</a>) by Daft Punk (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daft_Punk" target="_blank">info</a>).</span></span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh31AuG0S1nBwU2oB6hx5Ts9z6JpeE2QNgic0DaIyiO0-oZkqJIMCkKo0OhhUxByHzB1v0B0wxqCP7g4_ZLHirdL7INQjmdHz7NcvzJJMZIm9Oc_DNddGFXyP_GVEZbuGxFm-tmPQ/s300/SZA_-_Good_Days.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh31AuG0S1nBwU2oB6hx5Ts9z6JpeE2QNgic0DaIyiO0-oZkqJIMCkKo0OhhUxByHzB1v0B0wxqCP7g4_ZLHirdL7INQjmdHz7NcvzJJMZIm9Oc_DNddGFXyP_GVEZbuGxFm-tmPQ/w200-h200/SZA_-_Good_Days.png" width="200" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">The next song we listened to was "Good Days" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oh64haEP9g8" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/Sza-good-days-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Days" target="_blank">song info</a>) by SZA (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SZA_(singer)" target="_blank">info</a>). The student likes SZA a lot, and since this song was released during December she listened to it a lot over the break.</span></span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">She said she likes how SZA is evolving with her music. She is growing as a person and maturing. The student said that to her SZA sings "in cursive/italic" because the lyrics get blurred: it's more about the sound and feeling she puts across than the exact words.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqQVNCeBHAbbm8cVxS_9j3mRJkFbgA2kNqaNKbnTKDHvZwRDsWvfFtJU_iZNVbV7C0EQAU9AxuTSpXkOTHyev74IrXyJLHccObgHD3XZ1CgGgyqJOtJKWCX9pZ7LeFbW37u_jXFA/s450/The-back-horn-live.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="450" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqQVNCeBHAbbm8cVxS_9j3mRJkFbgA2kNqaNKbnTKDHvZwRDsWvfFtJU_iZNVbV7C0EQAU9AxuTSpXkOTHyev74IrXyJLHccObgHD3XZ1CgGgyqJOtJKWCX9pZ7LeFbW37u_jXFA/w200-h133/The-back-horn-live.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">The next song was "コバルトブルー (Cobalt Blue)" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSMdHwrWR7U&list=RDMMEosMazKaPbU&index=4" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://www.jpopasia.com/thebackhorn/lyrics/42576/best-the-back-horn/cobalt-blue-%E3%82%B3%E3%83%90%E3%83%AB%E3%83%88%E3%83%96%E3%83%AB%E3%83%BC/" target="_blank">lyrics</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Headphone_Children" target="_blank">song info</a>) by the band The Back Horn (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Back_Horn" target="_blank">info</a>). This song is about kamikaze pilots in World War II. The student explained that the kamikaze pilots -- sent on suicide missions to die crashing their airplanes into American warships -- were often quite young: as young as 16 years old. The lyrics are imagining their feelings flying to death. </span></span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">But the student who chose it listened more to the instruments than the lyrics. He has loved this song since he was in high school: it gives him energy and courage when he needs to get pumped up.</span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyTVbZDUUSTpgz4BDBQbPSszhQzx2S-ckwjfr2E1FrMkQFB_Xyo28kCWacAsDNkktkoYxqofLRNjXIq10M2CGo4uHKwimSxWg3aRTvGLcWm7BwgsLZhw5V8mzoHT4jwBx67PShyA/s442/BowieHeroesSingle.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="442" data-original-width="440" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyTVbZDUUSTpgz4BDBQbPSszhQzx2S-ckwjfr2E1FrMkQFB_Xyo28kCWacAsDNkktkoYxqofLRNjXIq10M2CGo4uHKwimSxWg3aRTvGLcWm7BwgsLZhw5V8mzoHT4jwBx67PShyA/w199-h200/BowieHeroesSingle.jpg" width="199" /></a></span></span></div><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">The next song came from our new student, who told us that his prefered music is instrumental soundtracks. But he is educating himself on classic rock,
like AC/DC and Pink Floyd.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">The song he chose is from the movie "The Perks Of Being A Wallflower" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5rh7O4IDc0" target="_blank">video trailer</a>). It was "Heroes" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXgkuM2NhYI" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/David-bowie-heroes-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%22Heroes%22_(David_Bowie_song)" target="_blank">song info</a>) by David Bowie (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Bowie" target="_blank">info</a>). He chose this song because the timing of its use in the movie was perfect and it brings back the good feelings he had while watching the film.</span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMR6-I8IEO1nBfg7o9W1_RoFb0tJs1lsjQWFXPAmExImW4zbrGNm9zXZx3dnMT4mGKqrbpsENwPJHQLdx_u1dxvkW5gIr1MHutbPa-f9ItBOqPtq-Xu8rV9amDWtLXc7T9_eBiXA/s700/PlumWidowspeak.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="700" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMR6-I8IEO1nBfg7o9W1_RoFb0tJs1lsjQWFXPAmExImW4zbrGNm9zXZx3dnMT4mGKqrbpsENwPJHQLdx_u1dxvkW5gIr1MHutbPa-f9ItBOqPtq-Xu8rV9amDWtLXc7T9_eBiXA/w200-h200/PlumWidowspeak.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></div><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">We didn't talk about it during the class, but the song I listened to the most over the holiday break was "The Good Ones" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4hjbrIAWwI" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/Widowspeak-the-good-ones-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>, <a href="https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/widowspeak-plum/" target="_blank">Pitchfork album review</a>) by Widowspeak (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Widowspeak" target="_blank">info</a>). </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">Spotify put this into one of the playlists they automatically create for me to discover new songs, and I liked it! </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">I especially like the lyric "You're one of the good ones" and I like the drums + the bass melody. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">Because I like this song so much I listened to other songs by the band, but this is the only one I like by them, hahaha.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">With that our time was over for the day. <b> </b></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Next week's theme is inspired by the Dr. Martin Luther King holiday in the United States: Protest songs.</b></span></span><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31362773.post-49434526377494702342021-01-06T12:24:00.008-08:002021-01-06T12:28:48.492-08:005 December 2020 (Thursday)<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Today 5 people -- including 2 new students -- gathered online to discuss "Favorite songs of 2020".</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Because we had new students, the first thing I did was to ask them about what kind of music they like.</span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqAT_AMCajLHqKWVtL2nzT6fy5fldMefUjottxW5Lc7SzcAq77yr2k4hnNShj29LWdjIXink_7H0xu0KIJaLVyes-KpIlS2lOuLc81fQd20NrpyEzbqU_UVGA3OItl3TammJmBhQ/s440/TheQuiett.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="440" data-original-width="330" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqAT_AMCajLHqKWVtL2nzT6fy5fldMefUjottxW5Lc7SzcAq77yr2k4hnNShj29LWdjIXink_7H0xu0KIJaLVyes-KpIlS2lOuLc81fQd20NrpyEzbqU_UVGA3OItl3TammJmBhQ/w150-h200/TheQuiett.jpg" width="150" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The first person played "Bentley 2" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ct9OB0_mE4">video with lyrics</a>) by The Quiett (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Quiett">info</a>). This choice had a few reasons behind it:</span></span><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">This song is dedicated to the that brought Korean Hip-Hop to the world. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illionaire_Records" title="">Illionaire Records</a>. But in 2020 (November 11th), they disbanded the label.</span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">This song is about how the label changed the world.</span></span></li></ul><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The student likes that this music is real, straight from the artists, not created by a producer with people playing parts. He likes that the artists on this label have the freedom to do what they want.</span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNTh59t5nfc-cGB7z9W9NcoNC9dfZKoOABvNQFeN3bOWV5iFARjwPiDSn5KOYNDkY4N0RKIj6lV_nVS49J7-75ttJNkKrSBoSM-COJy1cfdpFhwoSuS0gqyoCGdAi0831w5raHhg/s300/Billie_Eilish_-_Therefore_I_Am.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNTh59t5nfc-cGB7z9W9NcoNC9dfZKoOABvNQFeN3bOWV5iFARjwPiDSn5KOYNDkY4N0RKIj6lV_nVS49J7-75ttJNkKrSBoSM-COJy1cfdpFhwoSuS0gqyoCGdAi0831w5raHhg/w200-h200/Billie_Eilish_-_Therefore_I_Am.png" width="200" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The other new student chose "Therefore I Am" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUQl6YcMalg">video</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/Billie-eilish-therefore-i-am-lyrics">lyrics</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Therefore_I_Am_(song)">info</a>) by Billie Eilish (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billie_Eilish">info</a>). </span></span><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The student likes that this song is about having a positive body image, that a woman does not always need to look perfect in public. She also likes that the song is bass-heavy. Lastly, she relates to Billie since they are the same age.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Now on the favorite songs of 2020:</span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHBUbqdWjMgtHCwcBTonZCic3SB7iMMVmWpNfeo6jUhVPvEgc-62UwN01kASPeWd9HrmkVJjCDWBUHx7IaIHkN5j3N_7IpAyoNFyE8H5Ki7xrVXWbno-1dhNrRnnxI9DcRjGcOfw/s450/lossy-page1-450px-Billy_Talent_2019.tif.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="450" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHBUbqdWjMgtHCwcBTonZCic3SB7iMMVmWpNfeo6jUhVPvEgc-62UwN01kASPeWd9HrmkVJjCDWBUHx7IaIHkN5j3N_7IpAyoNFyE8H5Ki7xrVXWbno-1dhNrRnnxI9DcRjGcOfw/w200-h133/lossy-page1-450px-Billy_Talent_2019.tif.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">"I Beg To Differ (This Will Get Better)" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBUOrVHhJ8s">video with lyrics</a>) by Billy Talent (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Talent">info</a>). This song and video were recorded before anyone knew what was going to happen in 2020, but because it is such a hopeful song, the student feels it is the best song for the year.<br /></span></span><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1HQtfuJ1teQDvrnYx0PhQCGeGO7bLq95DITm-UZ7pvAH1DD74Hv2n_DYmb8LBh1gEHW8f-JeuQn8iGFh0TH3ljaPk-K2_BJQObdyyNy3oNQhxY6kFFukXNj__6ytr_tejyL8X5w/s300/Enya_-_Wild_Child.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1HQtfuJ1teQDvrnYx0PhQCGeGO7bLq95DITm-UZ7pvAH1DD74Hv2n_DYmb8LBh1gEHW8f-JeuQn8iGFh0TH3ljaPk-K2_BJQObdyyNy3oNQhxY6kFFukXNj__6ytr_tejyL8X5w/w200-h200/Enya_-_Wild_Child.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The next song was "Wild Child" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wM7A6Eht7s">video</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/Enya-wild-child-lyrics">lyrics</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Child_(Enya_song)">song info</a>) by Enya (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enya">info</a>). There were a couple of reasons the student chose this song:</span></span><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">2020 is the first time for him to be in the US</span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">It was his second pandemic experience (first time was SARS)</span></span></li></ul><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">He said that going through another pandemic shows that in life you don't know what will happen. But when the rain comes down around you, keep going forward. He also said being in the US makes him feel wild (I guess referring to feeling free from expectations in his home country).</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">At this point, one of the other students said that after spending time abroad, when he returned home he appreciated his parents more than ever.</span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyoDogKkj-7ryQyjh29S2UQ2sBSdcsGuDwA6Y9xoBD3HGK6yTy8IjgcV5cMBX_nNKxFcltgxu2D1ysyygwpbHjCdHuAS16qMORhJksgjkwRk4lX3aslS-ZTQ1r0l2aacregrHjlQ/s1163/LadyBlackbird.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="628" data-original-width="1163" height="108" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyoDogKkj-7ryQyjh29S2UQ2sBSdcsGuDwA6Y9xoBD3HGK6yTy8IjgcV5cMBX_nNKxFcltgxu2D1ysyygwpbHjCdHuAS16qMORhJksgjkwRk4lX3aslS-ZTQ1r0l2aacregrHjlQ/w200-h108/LadyBlackbird.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Now I played one of my favorite songs of 2020: "Blackbird" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g79SYfmzRHo">video</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/Nina-simone-blackbird-lyrics">lyrics</a>) by Lady Blackbird (<a href="https://www.ladyblackbird.com/">website</a>). This song is a cover version of Nina Simone (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nina_Simone">info</a>), but updated to sound current. </span></span><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The main theme worldwide in 2020 was the Coronavirus, but in the US (and which also extended worldwide) a major theme for the year was racial injustice and systemic racism in society. This song to me is fitting to that, expressing the feeling from the side of the oppressed.</span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgX-GsVW_1HTe6skpkq404ObozI7urmGCX900XF3nIQkEpqmYx16avG0m3N611qgsPLRr3gUT4AFHC9zyKi3H9wyRQcY91m0jthYrU_zdFc_0ieZkashFEtnrew6AjoIIHBtiwQXw/s437/330px-SZA_August_2017.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="437" data-original-width="330" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgX-GsVW_1HTe6skpkq404ObozI7urmGCX900XF3nIQkEpqmYx16avG0m3N611qgsPLRr3gUT4AFHC9zyKi3H9wyRQcY91m0jthYrU_zdFc_0ieZkashFEtnrew6AjoIIHBtiwQXw/w151-h200/330px-SZA_August_2017.jpg" width="151" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The next song was "20 Something" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnZcB5oA4U4">video</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/Sza-20-something-lyrics">lyrics</a>) by SZA (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SZA_(singer)">info</a>). </span></span><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The song came out a couple years ago, but now that the student is 20-something herself, the lyrics resonate with her.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8f2BRgiqia83aebB2dSYGmpicKaEm-qANmZ_sTLLzSjZK7AX9w7umgcsLtLCWC2ZMqiWfD_7WW4eQs4-7TXf5oqJaMEZb2uvEKbjKYICkNOvEEr4UsmlOHK0JMSSioW7rN_eNVQ/s312/Enyatrainssingle.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="312" data-original-width="312" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8f2BRgiqia83aebB2dSYGmpicKaEm-qANmZ_sTLLzSjZK7AX9w7umgcsLtLCWC2ZMqiWfD_7WW4eQs4-7TXf5oqJaMEZb2uvEKbjKYICkNOvEEr4UsmlOHK0JMSSioW7rN_eNVQ/w200-h200/Enyatrainssingle.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The next song chosen was another Enya song: "Trains And Winter Rains" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuDDPF6vE6Y">video</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/Enya-trains-and-winter-rains-lyrics">lyrics</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trains_and_Winter_Rains">song info</a>). This song reminds the student of when he took his high school entrance exams. The day he took his, his mom took him for some sukiyaki (his first time eating sukiyaki). </span></span><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The day he took his exames was the day Germany reunified after the cold war, so he also thinks of that milestone. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">This song always reminds him of the hard times studying for the high school exams; it feels like yesterday.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">At this point the conversation veered off from music to what people will do over the holiday break. One student will visit Oregon for the first time. He plans to buy things there since there is no sales tax in Oregon, meaning prices feel like about 8% lower. </span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU9R60G49DbGZTKmrN0j82yY27hG8_uzR2WUorGJYxsrZjVd3zSzJio-M3s-6nHa3b2_qc8CXFJaAJfR2RdA3uXKlg16BgkClfjH9cSAlBSvVVMo6gOKp76OvvCqsb3z3rnt3lGg/s1920/1920px-PowellsBookstore.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="954" data-original-width="1920" height="99" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU9R60G49DbGZTKmrN0j82yY27hG8_uzR2WUorGJYxsrZjVd3zSzJio-M3s-6nHa3b2_qc8CXFJaAJfR2RdA3uXKlg16BgkClfjH9cSAlBSvVVMo6gOKp76OvvCqsb3z3rnt3lGg/w200-h99/1920px-PowellsBookstore.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I mentioned that if he is in Portland, he should visit Powell's Books, which is the best (and largest?) book store in America. (<a href="https://www.powells.com/">website</a>) <br /></span></span><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDLJm0VG_CJ42_beJ2rSwV4MyIHGhnOtc46JGCpDLr6mHJ46Bf3Kp5jXdzycF0i0lWOuCT-dRhFlOimddd0RM-CwdqUNTPS4-Rho8oIBDBemE7Ja11BlWXznmkhA-sl1KA6Re4Zg/s136/katsuburger.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="136" data-original-width="126" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDLJm0VG_CJ42_beJ2rSwV4MyIHGhnOtc46JGCpDLr6mHJ46Bf3Kp5jXdzycF0i0lWOuCT-dRhFlOimddd0RM-CwdqUNTPS4-Rho8oIBDBemE7Ja11BlWXznmkhA-sl1KA6Re4Zg/s0/katsuburger.png" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I told the group that an American friend of mine who now lives in Tokyo visited Seattle recently and he had the Mt. Fuji burger at Katsu Burger Ballard (<a href="https://www.katsuburger.com/">website</a>).</span></span><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">With that we all wished each other happy holidays for the coming weeks.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The conversation group will meet next on Thursday, 7 January at 5pm Seattle time. Topic will be "The songs you listened to most over the holiday break."<br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></span></p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31362773.post-241156823341427332020-11-27T23:03:00.036-08:002020-11-28T09:21:03.937-08:0019 November 2020 (Thursday)<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span>A small group today to talk about "Songs about family or thankfulness".</span></span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span>In fact, while we waited for more people to join us, we talked about other things than music, and that conversation ended up going quite long. Which is fine with me: this group is about practicing conversational English, and whichever topics that ends up being is fine with me as long as the conversation flows. </span></span><span><span> </span></span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkHqv4QNXjiyqA3n4RR4DOrXRNBq9g5J3l6hpcfbHAZeloOpFXGjqKESPo3kcKtatNU7xOLWEn-a-D3Jrd1xg-iz-MEoWCSD8gulYX2rrz8xNtXCm2uu0_HIFo1iRCe8dgaEyvVw/s640/HerdingCats.gif" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="640" height="113" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkHqv4QNXjiyqA3n4RR4DOrXRNBq9g5J3l6hpcfbHAZeloOpFXGjqKESPo3kcKtatNU7xOLWEn-a-D3Jrd1xg-iz-MEoWCSD8gulYX2rrz8xNtXCm2uu0_HIFo1iRCe8dgaEyvVw/w200-h113/HerdingCats.gif" width="200" /></a></span></span></span></p></div><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>One of the students talked about his experience back in his home country taking a group of young kids learning English to an event. I taught him one of my favorite American English idioms: "something is/was like herding cats". It is used when a person has to get control of a chaotic situation. It usually means a person is not successful at getting it all organized. Imagine you have 10 cats and you need to get them all to go together down the street. It's impossible, right? Here's the <a href="https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=herding%20cats" target="_blank">Urban Dictionary definition</a>. </span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span>We also talked about what we will do for Thanksgiving. The student from Taiwan said he will have hotpot with his friends. Even if that's not turkey, it's a good Thanksgiving meal! And most importantly, with friends!</span></span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjacpNgSTfiANcNqN2x3sOJTypxemPDKbFDwbS9PWrjLeDQPN7uIcz4N1BkiFm2-XJXkpiBMwHpCQSlZO8T1Sx0jiJfC0IpYoiosb3s3qWFefZ_o50OoXC9RU0K2SL11zUv8xy9Kg/s724/MapWithMagnusonPark.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="724" data-original-width="677" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjacpNgSTfiANcNqN2x3sOJTypxemPDKbFDwbS9PWrjLeDQPN7uIcz4N1BkiFm2-XJXkpiBMwHpCQSlZO8T1Sx0jiJfC0IpYoiosb3s3qWFefZ_o50OoXC9RU0K2SL11zUv8xy9Kg/w187-h200/MapWithMagnusonPark.jpg" width="187" /></a></span></span></span></span></p></div><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span>I mentioned at some point in the conversation that on the weekend I will go for a walk at Magnuson Park. Magnuson Park is a very large park in Seattle, northeast of the University of Washington on the shores of Lake Washington. </span></span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span>Until 1970 it was a military base with an airfield. That is why it is so big. In 1975 it was given to the city of Seattle to be converted into a park. </span></span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span>For music fans Magnuson Park is a landmark: there is an outdoor scultpture here called A Sound Garden (<a href="https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/a-sound-garden" target="_blank">information</a>) which makes sound as the wind passes through the pieces. It's a very cool thing to hear. As you might guess, the Seattle band Soundgarden named themselves for this sculpture.<br /></span></span></span></span></p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_747RsMYtTJEHBck5-gzr3Czftb46aSVI3SxVeY6WudK1-s8i8na3xAb7n5LbQ1peas7zYYKls_6ltm6suIJcNVL5XTA_IZ2rUWiszJ4qLznbQqAf8E7gAJLXS5v0esmzwrfPLw/s768/Cutting_away_the_cofferdam_at_the_Montlake_Cut_between_Lake_Washington_and_Lake_Union.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="768" height="158" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_747RsMYtTJEHBck5-gzr3Czftb46aSVI3SxVeY6WudK1-s8i8na3xAb7n5LbQ1peas7zYYKls_6ltm6suIJcNVL5XTA_IZ2rUWiszJ4qLznbQqAf8E7gAJLXS5v0esmzwrfPLw/w200-h158/Cutting_away_the_cofferdam_at_the_Montlake_Cut_between_Lake_Washington_and_Lake_Union.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></span></span></p></div><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span>Somehow that talk about little-known-Seattle-facts led me to tell the students that water that the University Bridge crosses ("the Montlake Cut") is actually man-made: until 1916 Lake Washington and Lake Union were two separate lakes, unconnected. In 1916 they cut a channel in the earth, connecting the two. This lowered the water level of the entire Lake Washington by 8.8 feet (2.7 meters)! <a href="https://green.uw.edu/blog/2015-11/history-behind-montlake-cut" target="_blank">Short history of the project</a>. <a href="https://www.historylink.org/File/10221" target="_blank">(long history)</a>.</span></span></span></span></p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span></span></span></span></span></p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span>Much time had passed, but I wanted to be sure to talk about some music!</span></span></span></span></p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span></span></span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXnjzlegwiyJNVVdh8PBF8PitOGFIevImW3ZClstwdBQoOUSEeYGxJWLnAj_RIoJ5zF8uzV45xO61eBpV1O9JhzSeeZ4PX593fiv5R-VBARtM6TodlhA6I63HjlutxNppFV23WHw/s300/LeanOnMe_Single_cover.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXnjzlegwiyJNVVdh8PBF8PitOGFIevImW3ZClstwdBQoOUSEeYGxJWLnAj_RIoJ5zF8uzV45xO61eBpV1O9JhzSeeZ4PX593fiv5R-VBARtM6TodlhA6I63HjlutxNppFV23WHw/w200-h200/LeanOnMe_Single_cover.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></span></p></div><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>The first song suggested was "Lean On Me" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7P8wusL1Z0" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lean_on_Me_(song)" target="_blank">song info</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/Bill-withers-lean-on-me-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>) by Bill Withers (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Withers" target="_blank">info</a>). </span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>The lyrics of this song are about people -- friends and family -- supporting each other, and is therefore a *perfect* choice for the theme. Bill Withers is one of my favorite singer/songwriters from the 1970's. </span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span style="font-family: verdana;">(If that version of the song is too slow for you, check out <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbyjaUJWWmk" target="_blank">the Club Nouveau version</a> from the 1990's.) <br /></span></span></span></span></p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjuxLnQNQeNtfwMWAecvTDIDdvYNXhEZnks6NmZTqy_cCiMppkuq9JKSHvPQWL5cVDsreprD4s0e2EkLN3G3g_vTfRNiT56GniN4tB4hMhzb7G4h_7V-BkRI6Oy8gK-2hmJ5334A/s300/Withers-justasiamcoverart.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjuxLnQNQeNtfwMWAecvTDIDdvYNXhEZnks6NmZTqy_cCiMppkuq9JKSHvPQWL5cVDsreprD4s0e2EkLN3G3g_vTfRNiT56GniN4tB4hMhzb7G4h_7V-BkRI6Oy8gK-2hmJ5334A/w200-h200/Withers-justasiamcoverart.JPG" width="200" /></a></span></span></span></p></div><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>Another song by Bill Withers that would have fit this theme very well: "Grandma's Hands" (<a href="https://youtu.be/qv5pagal-ls?t=68" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandma%27s_Hands" target="_blank">song info</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/Bill-withers-grandmas-hands-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>).</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp0XXPTNKav5ap8NSbjKrwNrm7_d6gt0UOyuPWchH4cdDhMzIHahRjT1qHG2E4B-cgJ5Vpu4BuePnr40pC2QLFQdQOIuitpfrpihz5vKQXgANRCcO4zGLdUPaZJf0N-lxA4r305A/s316/No_Diggity.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="316" data-original-width="316" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp0XXPTNKav5ap8NSbjKrwNrm7_d6gt0UOyuPWchH4cdDhMzIHahRjT1qHG2E4B-cgJ5Vpu4BuePnr40pC2QLFQdQOIuitpfrpihz5vKQXgANRCcO4zGLdUPaZJf0N-lxA4r305A/w200-h200/No_Diggity.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></span></p></div><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>"Grandma's Hands" was sampled for the famous rap song: "No Diggity" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KL9mRus19o" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Diggity" target="_blank">song info</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/Blackstreet-no-diggity-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>) by Blackstreet (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackstreet" target="_blank">info</a>).</span></span></span></p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdHtZBVhyphenhyphenbZaeaiChb5gG-khJXgSBKgX17yKEtUonfH67qt3WVaqLbQMsKhwlRFpJgAiJHCx1qPP3rXz6c68lp7nknQ4ArUspT4iRxHE2HdwM5Mfc95-vr1AeEShvmNHBRlzBrzw/s316/BeastieBoysPaul%2527sBoutique.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="316" data-original-width="316" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdHtZBVhyphenhyphenbZaeaiChb5gG-khJXgSBKgX17yKEtUonfH67qt3WVaqLbQMsKhwlRFpJgAiJHCx1qPP3rXz6c68lp7nknQ4ArUspT4iRxHE2HdwM5Mfc95-vr1AeEShvmNHBRlzBrzw/w200-h200/BeastieBoysPaul%2527sBoutique.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></span></p></div><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>We talked for a while about rap songs that use samples from old songs from the 70's. I think one album that used the most samples was Paul's Boutique (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul%27s_Boutique#Production" target="_blank">info</a>) by The Beastie Boys (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beastie_Boys" target="_blank">info</a>).<i> </i></span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><i>From Wikipedia: In total, 105 songs are sampled, including 24 individual samples on the last track alone.</i></span></span></span></p><p><br /></p></div><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheKC-samH6IfPhQfcdOzj9jcmWVyN2mPda6ms7fTH21ybNgm-1SQDg63n1z69tMR18fZEJ8IPGM8xM-hkSgXnufA6UaK6tim2csLfJV3zhJMKD1ojPM1asBb1eYOThIJCHtylL2A/s284/We_Are_Family_-_Sister_Sledge.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="284" data-original-width="283" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheKC-samH6IfPhQfcdOzj9jcmWVyN2mPda6ms7fTH21ybNgm-1SQDg63n1z69tMR18fZEJ8IPGM8xM-hkSgXnufA6UaK6tim2csLfJV3zhJMKD1ojPM1asBb1eYOThIJCHtylL2A/w199-h200/We_Are_Family_-_Sister_Sledge.jpg" width="199" /></a></span></span></span></p></div><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>For the last song of the day on our theme, I chose "We Are Family" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pc0JtFRMUQ" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/Sister-sledge-we-are-family-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Are_Family_(song)" target="_blank">song info</a>) by Sister Sledge (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sister_Sledge" target="_blank">info</a>). <i> </i></span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><i>(Note, I chose this version of the song because it includes Avril Lavigne, who was mentioned as a favorite singer earlier in the quarter.)</i><span> </span></span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span> </span></span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span> </span></span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span>But wait, there's one more song that was sent to me via email by one of the regular students from Japan!</span></span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDXU4LI2flUUihHuOyz3C_QoY9I086J_fAIkx5MJLgVOJ2Hbvcg-L_8sEBiQKZ6xpEA6Cp_Uo1zo6Uy0lNjIacxOsnaUfQPcpKMTyKFQ5YuyI-1nGH0x9x77iWScuRWWl9U4l01g/s293/OzzyOsbourne_MamaImComingHome_Single_1991.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="291" data-original-width="293" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDXU4LI2flUUihHuOyz3C_QoY9I086J_fAIkx5MJLgVOJ2Hbvcg-L_8sEBiQKZ6xpEA6Cp_Uo1zo6Uy0lNjIacxOsnaUfQPcpKMTyKFQ5YuyI-1nGH0x9x77iWScuRWWl9U4l01g/w200-h199/OzzyOsbourne_MamaImComingHome_Single_1991.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></span></span></p></div><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span>"Mama, I'm Coming Home" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0siYUjV9UM" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mama,_I%27m_Coming_Home" target="_blank">song info</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/Ozzy-osbourne-mama-im-coming-home-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>) by Ozzy Osbourne (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozzy_Osbourne" target="_blank">info</a>). In his own words, why the student chose this song for today's theme:</span></span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><i>Now it seems like "Mama" in this song means his wife Sharon, but
it can be interpreted literally as your mother at least for us
listeners. Either way it suits the theme for this week. I also like how
Ozzy, the Prince of Darkness himself, is proudly releasing such a
wholesome power ballad even though some of the fans might hate it a lot.</i></span></span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span>There will be no conversation group on Thursday, 26 Nov due to the Thanksgiving holiday in the US. </span></span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span>The last conversation group meeting of Fall 2020 Quarter will be Thurday, 3 December. <b>Theme will be "Favorite songs of 2020".</b><i><br /></i></span></span></span></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31362773.post-91349978251048673082020-11-17T15:13:00.007-08:002020-11-17T17:00:42.454-08:0012 November 2020 (Thursday)<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Today our group was 5 people to talk about "Duets".</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">As usual, before starting in on our topic, I asked if anyone had any interesting musical experience during the previous week.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUj74KK3lmuI5ojHjhOGBR7ja4ukPxniJsBDakjTF0U1DqYhb8l8QSZIW2Fyd1j_PyaYWYlbabxh_EwV7PFAOAQhuVy10LLsLPKSSYEdBJtzmtjQOv6m5ffC5eb1SMGdzjHNKmeA/s330/330px-Shame_Shame_%2528Foo_Fighters_song%2529.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="251" data-original-width="330" height="152" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUj74KK3lmuI5ojHjhOGBR7ja4ukPxniJsBDakjTF0U1DqYhb8l8QSZIW2Fyd1j_PyaYWYlbabxh_EwV7PFAOAQhuVy10LLsLPKSSYEdBJtzmtjQOv6m5ffC5eb1SMGdzjHNKmeA/w200-h152/330px-Shame_Shame_%2528Foo_Fighters_song%2529.png" width="200" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: small;">One of my long-time students from Japan raised his hand. His favorite band is Foo Fighters (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foo_Fighters" target="_blank">info</a>), which has been well-documented in the pages of this blog :-) The "musical event" for him this past week is that the Foos released a new song: "Shame Shame" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1G6-RUz3OA" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shame_Shame" target="_blank">song info</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/Foo-fighters-shame-shame-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>).</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">A new song by his favorite band is great news for him, however he has mixed feelings about it since he is not sure he likes the song. (I like it, though!)</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfRpp1bn6XqUwlhuSN0hY6gTtNum_3nh0h7FHT5WaOkvfRbFxRyIRO2m5cCQ2Kt5jOOUMVQLOM1EZWiNiRbaX945Skm5UjnEaNPrCBNuKvZIQvu2NVL06USJCUYKZzAGek2orApA/s330/Brandi%252BDavePikePlace.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="330" data-original-width="330" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfRpp1bn6XqUwlhuSN0hY6gTtNum_3nh0h7FHT5WaOkvfRbFxRyIRO2m5cCQ2Kt5jOOUMVQLOM1EZWiNiRbaX945Skm5UjnEaNPrCBNuKvZIQvu2NVL06USJCUYKZzAGek2orApA/w200-h200/Brandi%252BDavePikePlace.png" width="200" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I asked him if he was aware that David Grohl (founder/singer/songwriter for Foo Fighters) and local musician Brandi Carlile (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandi_Carlile" target="_blank">info</a>) did an impromptu busking session at the Pike Place Market in Spring of 2019. He was not aware of that event. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvIb2eSHEdk" target="_blank">Here's the video of it</a>.</span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: small;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijj_2wHxZXOl_f31m8ZoqDsIPnFqflYhnveuXswebPJm3fgqPR8lWDIa3Ysx4bxBmmm5g8Cy0C4KJkoqrycD_CyzXq70_ftQvxmL_BI-5ytxrLdtrkylZUns0ilAKlmHnNIJwqrQ/s519/TokyoToNagano.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="446" data-original-width="519" height="172" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijj_2wHxZXOl_f31m8ZoqDsIPnFqflYhnveuXswebPJm3fgqPR8lWDIa3Ysx4bxBmmm5g8Cy0C4KJkoqrycD_CyzXq70_ftQvxmL_BI-5ytxrLdtrkylZUns0ilAKlmHnNIJwqrQ/w200-h172/TokyoToNagano.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In another musical event of the week, the same student drove from his home in Tokyo to Nagano as part of the Japanese government program to support tourism within Japan that has been hit by COVID-19.</span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The connection of this roadtrip to music is that while driving, he listened to a band that he had never previously really given a chance, but he discovered that he really like them! And now his trip to Nagano will always be connected to the band.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPrWlkeR8m_hXhxgRYeBEEQRZFK6c-gG2wSN6RnrBETkPfB2_Yopi4J7xBUkEMASPeaeR_SFUBxan7VY0BQJaG9k5-HB2tiEbhAmRU7pk_jkGT9dye0Nd_jtT7tcDOcZ2o4LjHOg/s274/Rewrite.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="274" data-original-width="270" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPrWlkeR8m_hXhxgRYeBEEQRZFK6c-gG2wSN6RnrBETkPfB2_Yopi4J7xBUkEMASPeaeR_SFUBxan7VY0BQJaG9k5-HB2tiEbhAmRU7pk_jkGT9dye0Nd_jtT7tcDOcZ2o4LjHOg/w197-h200/Rewrite.jpg" width="197" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The band is Asian Kung-Fu Generation (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_Kung-Fu_Generation" target="_blank">info</a>), and as an example of one of their songs he played "Rewrite" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGjtrWhvAhA" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rewrite_(song)" target="_blank">song info</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/Asian-kung-fu-generation-rewrite-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>). He said this is the most famous fong by AKFG because it was used in an anime.<br /></span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Now it was time to talk about duets!</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5zmySNp5wz7nSX7oriJPzqFxkMErbrnU3VXRC2OYlHdFTHP_n3ZyX-GaIbHgJahHXHQr4gkW-5htaRr2jRV7dso-UzXxNNG6MUjYzPDpH3i7d_Qyvgt0LWF0ot42rCIQfjdwb1w/s1280/Ari%252BAnthony.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="113" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5zmySNp5wz7nSX7oriJPzqFxkMErbrnU3VXRC2OYlHdFTHP_n3ZyX-GaIbHgJahHXHQr4gkW-5htaRr2jRV7dso-UzXxNNG6MUjYzPDpH3i7d_Qyvgt0LWF0ot42rCIQfjdwb1w/w200-h113/Ari%252BAnthony.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The first song chosen was "If You Want Me To Stay" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3a-VOvJ7ao" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If_You_Want_Me_to_Stay" target="_blank">song info</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/Sly-and-the-family-stone-if-you-want-me-to-stay-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>) by Ari Lennox (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ari_Lennox" target="_blank">info</a>) with Anthony Ramos (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Ramos_(actor)" target="_blank">info</a>). The student who chose this song said that Ari is one of her favorite singers. And it is interesting that Anthony is more known as an actor than a singer, but that he can sing very well, too. </span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Indeed, I found that the way the two voices sound together is GREAT! This was a perfect choice on the theme of duets!</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I asked the other students if they liked this song. The song was new to all the others. One likes it because it sounds fresh (<i>what a coincidental choice of words -- this song is originally from an album called "Fresh"!!</i>). Another said he prefers background music, but that this is ok. Another student, who plays guitar and bass said he needs to learn to play bass like this :-D . <br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0AH0yCwscIODbbFQdpNygUDGRr3aik9VkIHXUFDnF6bbQRJK35gCDzwuVNKBanLeQJPCNG3jewqGgUqzmE6Y0ceWzzrKEXIf4nuf1OPbd3hHfL2VU1C3ir0ihk3tf5AiwlokuXg/s316/The_Script_-_Superheroes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="315" data-original-width="316" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0AH0yCwscIODbbFQdpNygUDGRr3aik9VkIHXUFDnF6bbQRJK35gCDzwuVNKBanLeQJPCNG3jewqGgUqzmE6Y0ceWzzrKEXIf4nuf1OPbd3hHfL2VU1C3ir0ihk3tf5AiwlokuXg/w200-h199/The_Script_-_Superheroes.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The next song chosen was "Superheroes" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIm1GgfRz6M" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superheroes_(song)" target="_blank">song info</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/The-script-superheroes-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>) by The Script (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Script" target="_blank">info</a>). While this song doesn't feature to different singers together like a typical duet, the reason he chose it is because all the people singing together reminds him of when he did his military service back home: many times people would gather around and sing together.</span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></span></p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJjAKhPlyUn-w4oLUS7M2ewAnKsQuosMFZZnIO8LKNl9QbUfX2UnUUq3eGrt4Gysiks8xW5DDG7ifAnuhCerhXhYbd64kSmy8ErWSq3qvGMT40bZRrxYnoaUUmNCln0OCtlIFAfQ/s325/Once_%25282006_film%2529poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; float: left; font-family: verdana; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="325" data-original-width="220" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJjAKhPlyUn-w4oLUS7M2ewAnKsQuosMFZZnIO8LKNl9QbUfX2UnUUq3eGrt4Gysiks8xW5DDG7ifAnuhCerhXhYbd64kSmy8ErWSq3qvGMT40bZRrxYnoaUUmNCln0OCtlIFAfQ/s320/Once_%25282006_film%2529poster.jpg" /></a></p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The next song was "Falling Slowly" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8mtXwtapX4" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falling_Slowly" target="_blank">song info</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/The-swell-season-falling-slowly-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>) by Glen Hasard & Marketa Irglova, from the movie Once (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Once_(film)" target="_blank">info</a>). The student who chose it says that this song has the special power to calm her any time she is in a stressful situation. For example, she listened to it before taking her SAT test. </span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">As with the discussion of music from films last week, where the one student talked about liking the movie Trainspotting because it shows people in real life, Once is the same kind of story, but based on music. So I highly recommended him to watch Once, too! Especially because he is fascinated with Dublin!</span></span></p><p><br /></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqUXeN_9FuY1UUmta4bFZuEH4wbyVucqdZzEqHZcUtnLIv8MwvQU_m90gd-hpTJm4N1cvEcOtwWbQXG_0Ufl7MEkOqxfguZxOmOa_DWDlMWpYpJhbKY73CcgrEMsFfzYwBg2rxLA/s316/MK_Sailing_to_Philadelphia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="316" data-original-width="316" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqUXeN_9FuY1UUmta4bFZuEH4wbyVucqdZzEqHZcUtnLIv8MwvQU_m90gd-hpTJm4N1cvEcOtwWbQXG_0Ufl7MEkOqxfguZxOmOa_DWDlMWpYpJhbKY73CcgrEMsFfzYwBg2rxLA/w200-h200/MK_Sailing_to_Philadelphia.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The next song was "</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Sailing To Philadelphia</span></span>" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrLdKYRBOEE" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sailing_to_Philadelphia" target="_blank">song info</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/Mark-knopfler-sailing-to-philadelphia-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>) by Mark Knopfler & James Taylor. The student who chose this one said he had a hard time finding a good example of a duet, as opposed to a song with a main singer and featuring another singer. But he loves the guitar playing of Mark Knopfler (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Knopfler" target="_blank">info</a>). He also said he likes this song because it is timeless, and it is a song he will like even when he is old. Already he is aware that he might not still be listening to punk music and the Foo Fighters when he is 60 years old, but he's sure he will still be listening to this song at that age.</span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLnijzwmwO23GfLzvKDThjEEpFk0nl6FvKX-Po0az2HcpWsPx7_bgtcRCJhi3ZiihkQGmiEwcIlpVABkpZLfIdRCPYySzjWHopbFMrVw9CpW7Z6CD8wAoH9Y-cWD89rfQQkxLRTw/s340/Inside_Llewyn_Davis_Poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="340" data-original-width="220" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLnijzwmwO23GfLzvKDThjEEpFk0nl6FvKX-Po0az2HcpWsPx7_bgtcRCJhi3ZiihkQGmiEwcIlpVABkpZLfIdRCPYySzjWHopbFMrVw9CpW7Z6CD8wAoH9Y-cWD89rfQQkxLRTw/s320/Inside_Llewyn_Davis_Poster.jpg" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">As we talked about what kinds of musical styles we like, one student gave "500 Miles" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAZJAzCshN4" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/500_Miles" target="_blank">song info</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/Carey-mulligan-five-hundred-miles-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>) from the movie Inside Llewyn Davis (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inside_Llewyn_Davis" target="_blank">info</a>) as an example of his musical taste.</span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgVMP3nvRpdAwRwj-QQCyhcvCGxnWQWa91ff8pnAikusMUikiVhs8XYJdqbr0ONbOjYDiF2VK3FeiFFe2OICasabu6KYUk9HvB5sW54aSAxNeoiPkA1mO-IvUeLHpHEUP2Av4q0w/s200/GreaseYoureTheOneThatIWant7InchSingleCover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="200" data-original-width="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgVMP3nvRpdAwRwj-QQCyhcvCGxnWQWa91ff8pnAikusMUikiVhs8XYJdqbr0ONbOjYDiF2VK3FeiFFe2OICasabu6KYUk9HvB5sW54aSAxNeoiPkA1mO-IvUeLHpHEUP2Av4q0w/s0/GreaseYoureTheOneThatIWant7InchSingleCover.jpg" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">As our session was winding down, I mentioed to the group that one of the most famous musical movies in America is Grease (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grease_(film)" target="_blank">info</a>), from 1978. It is an idealized version of the United States in the 1950's. </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">It is a fun movie to watch to see American culture. </span></span></span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Here's a duet from Grease: "You're The One That I Want" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itRFjzQICJU" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You%27re_the_One_That_I_Want" target="_blank">song info</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/John-travolta-youre-the-one-that-i-want-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>). Yes, that is a young John Travolta (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Travolta" target="_blank">info</a>) in the movie!*<br /></span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">With that, our time was over for the day.</span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>In honor of the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday in the US, the theme for next week's conversation will be "Songs about family or thankfulness".</b> (Or, as always, any song you want to talk about!)</span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i></i></span></span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEDhbblw_RmXmuvVWKznpgNJfROHZSMJnJAD-ruwYpO05-h9G-VbfrG26iNt-M3uGkFizQRaOn2BKY8FpXeUpp1U7C3VvPz3N3RrEOrHCGnEFyM2RCBq7TUalKDN3JwKGz1QW-Bw/s404/VinnieBarbarino.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="404" data-original-width="294" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEDhbblw_RmXmuvVWKznpgNJfROHZSMJnJAD-ruwYpO05-h9G-VbfrG26iNt-M3uGkFizQRaOn2BKY8FpXeUpp1U7C3VvPz3N3RrEOrHCGnEFyM2RCBq7TUalKDN3JwKGz1QW-Bw/w146-h200/VinnieBarbarino.jpg" width="146" /></a></i></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>*My first exposure to John Travolta was in the 1970's when he was still on television, before he started making movies. I loved watching the show "Welcome Back, Kotter" (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welcome_Back,_Kotter" target="_blank">info</a>), about a teacher in New York City. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=df73uwfVVdY" target="_blank">Example of a scene with John Travolta</a>. </i><br /></span></span></span></span><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31362773.post-28009173504657601692020-11-11T18:48:00.005-08:002020-11-11T19:09:20.764-08:005 November 2020 (Thursday)<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Today I was joined by 2 students, and the FIUTS coordinator, to talk about "Songs from movies."</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The first thing we discussed was whether I should have done a better job illustrating the day's conversation, since only 2 people showed up. In other words, would more people have shown up if I had chosen a more current or popular film to illustrate the conversation topic?</span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0f5hXign5Np0AwJqX_Wrbxd6qYVXgWeqaPF-60ZvudjMJBacxy9egVZwBksX3yBiVG9QtLUv6wRiX4y-5hDVwsbdp-qqitLDyEYq_ReQX_kXXlnxO4Ih69T5MWWkzJfbCbnNlwA/s339/Titanic.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="149" data-original-width="339" height="88" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0f5hXign5Np0AwJqX_Wrbxd6qYVXgWeqaPF-60ZvudjMJBacxy9egVZwBksX3yBiVG9QtLUv6wRiX4y-5hDVwsbdp-qqitLDyEYq_ReQX_kXXlnxO4Ih69T5MWWkzJfbCbnNlwA/w200-h88/Titanic.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">On the FIUTS Virtual Conversation Facebook page I used a picture of the movie Titanic.</span></span><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaxVdS29Oys6DpMVsxhbxaMHAw1LNxgXUm7cLpaPs7rek82iHnKBI16jnlWd3Kqx9Wm3cDCtq9_WM2svoVvP2dOrELRadAy7n7f75evlxBYwApAKbzeOHmqMfGAqj_u0AANXse5A/s1280/TheSoundOfMusic.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="113" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaxVdS29Oys6DpMVsxhbxaMHAw1LNxgXUm7cLpaPs7rek82iHnKBI16jnlWd3Kqx9Wm3cDCtq9_WM2svoVvP2dOrELRadAy7n7f75evlxBYwApAKbzeOHmqMfGAqj_u0AANXse5A/w200-h113/TheSoundOfMusic.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">On the Language Of Music Facebook page I used a picture of The Sound Of Music.</span></span><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">We didn't reach a definitive conclusion about whether either of these illustrations turned off potential participants. I guess I'll never know if more people would have come if I had used a different movie to illustrate the theme.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2wB8tjq9tW3yS5S73Ry9HjHOYncpI04BzPCXB1-XQyhOi-8CLeAeJuOro07EukuQbZmLFQ5KqG958TV4Ge3Gm_D_d7B08NqV7_IgpZyHiXjSqI6Ko15jpDzP5ZwMtSB23hue5Hg/s300/JPbandwithcheerleaders.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="300" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2wB8tjq9tW3yS5S73Ry9HjHOYncpI04BzPCXB1-XQyhOi-8CLeAeJuOro07EukuQbZmLFQ5KqG958TV4Ge3Gm_D_d7B08NqV7_IgpZyHiXjSqI6Ko15jpDzP5ZwMtSB23hue5Hg/w200-h112/JPbandwithcheerleaders.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I asked the students if anyone had any musical event in their life in the past week. One of them had! He had band practice with some friends of his from high school. This was one of the songs they played: </span></span><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> サカナクション / 新宝島 (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIlZCmETvsY" target="_blank">video</a>)</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> <br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I also asked if anyone did anything special for Halloween on the previous weekend. One student had a BBQ with friends. They carved 8 pumpkins! Sadly no pictures of the pumpkins, however. :-(</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ36au3-zrGuRc4MmuFUoNw0x_iosheNBPea_M_WjkK6XWiFdbwq0Uw5Pwp3SOkRY1umAQ0zkoT-i5zj9A6a7cDfLVWkZ7YTSIIHMZ0KcHYxw97vsVF9TN_P9XxaYc2KzE93CHhw/s367/Poster_-_Fast_and_Furious_Tokyo_Drift.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="367" data-original-width="248" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ36au3-zrGuRc4MmuFUoNw0x_iosheNBPea_M_WjkK6XWiFdbwq0Uw5Pwp3SOkRY1umAQ0zkoT-i5zj9A6a7cDfLVWkZ7YTSIIHMZ0KcHYxw97vsVF9TN_P9XxaYc2KzE93CHhw/w135-h200/Poster_-_Fast_and_Furious_Tokyo_Drift.jpg" width="135" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Now we started talking about songs from movies. The FIUTS facilitator said that perhaps I would have attracted more students if I had illustrated the post with an image from movie The Fast & The Furious "Tokyo Drift" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuJDhFRDx9M" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo_Drift_(Fast_%26_Furious)_(song)" target="_blank">song info</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/Teriyaki-boyz-tokyo-drift-fast-and-furious-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>) by Teriyaki Boyz (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teriyaki_Boyz" target="_blank">info</a>).</span></span><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_PrqW4-NBL7yi5tZ_dbLB2atYJ7RhMmhyphenhyphenXKc6Gu9zIVDqjhLh6gU9Ieqa2B0grTgwU2B8ZztY01vmzc00YZyeSKqO-fRY1DQDcUxHnxlP5ik1mjUfreTIXQyg-vjeG6sktYa2QA/s387/Walking_on_Sunshine_%2528film%2529.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="387" data-original-width="258" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_PrqW4-NBL7yi5tZ_dbLB2atYJ7RhMmhyphenhyphenXKc6Gu9zIVDqjhLh6gU9Ieqa2B0grTgwU2B8ZztY01vmzc00YZyeSKqO-fRY1DQDcUxHnxlP5ik1mjUfreTIXQyg-vjeG6sktYa2QA/w133-h200/Walking_on_Sunshine_%2528film%2529.jpg" width="133" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">One of the students said, he likes the movie "Walking on Sunshine" (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walking_on_Sunshine_(film)" target="_blank">info</a>) because it has lots of songs from the 80's in it. As an example, we watched the title song from the movie (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wSzBGZwWD4" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walking_on_Sunshine_(Katrina_and_the_Waves_song)" target="_blank">song info</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/Katrina-and-the-waves-walking-on-sunshine-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>).</span></span><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">For the next choice the student offered to play us either a depressing song or a happy song. We said we want *both*!</span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzWwG8KfT7s39HNRGA_1jPZ1zF6oaob7JkKP0o6HDRxLDEMiMqvnrHSInc3I7HmScaM85wN1bTvcPBSgLw-cfY-MKJsr8uqXlWjqxNeBxlj4_29CLBCfHIK990pzNDuJIcNxsiTg/s1079/Port_Arthur_DVD_Front.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1079" data-original-width="763" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzWwG8KfT7s39HNRGA_1jPZ1zF6oaob7JkKP0o6HDRxLDEMiMqvnrHSInc3I7HmScaM85wN1bTvcPBSgLw-cfY-MKJsr8uqXlWjqxNeBxlj4_29CLBCfHIK990pzNDuJIcNxsiTg/w141-h200/Port_Arthur_DVD_Front.jpg" width="141" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">We started with the depressing song: 防人の詩 (An Ode By An Ancient Japanese Coast Guard) (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjtmzOeRAMY" target="_blank">video</a>). This from a movie called The Battle of Port Arthur (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Battle_of_Port_Arthur" target="_blank">info</a>), which is about a specific event in the early 1900's, during the war between Russia and Japan. The film is from the 80's, from the student's parent's generation.</span></span><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">As we talked about this song, it was mentioned that this movie would only be known in Japan, since it is so specifically tied to an event in Japanese history. That discussion led me to explain to the class the American phrase "big in Japan". Generally, we use the phrase ironically. For example:</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Person A: "Your band writes terrible songs."</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Person B: "That might be your opinion, but we're big in Japan".</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The irony/joke of saying something is "big in Japan" is that before the internet, no one could verify whether a band was popular in Japan or not. So someone could claim to be popular in Japan, and no one could deny it. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_in_Japan_(phrase)" target="_blank">Here's the Wikipedia explanation of the phrase</a>.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">A famous true story of an American band being big in Japan before anywhere else in the world was Cheap Trick (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheap_Trick" target="_blank">info</a>). They released an a live album, At Budokan (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheap_Trick_at_Budokan" target="_blank">info</a>), only in Japan, but it became popular in the United States, selling so many copies imported from Japan that they released it in the US and this album made them stars. </span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPI1jsD_y9yHIQcACCxhZcqUt-Zyy1bnX3igVECqhaNMgB5EPeoWqJAcc3Ao_NOHprv5GY_oJD9M4ZM5lsAgpRvmlkmJh9oXbEYLp6qGgrk-a76UoTvB-DcR-XPNXEcWoipqDXrg/s300/CheapTrick_Live_atBudokan.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="296" data-original-width="300" height="197" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPI1jsD_y9yHIQcACCxhZcqUt-Zyy1bnX3igVECqhaNMgB5EPeoWqJAcc3Ao_NOHprv5GY_oJD9M4ZM5lsAgpRvmlkmJh9oXbEYLp6qGgrk-a76UoTvB-DcR-XPNXEcWoipqDXrg/w200-h197/CheapTrick_Live_atBudokan.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Cheap Trick's most famous song is "I Want You To Want Me" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qgpewMCVjs" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Want_You_to_Want_Me" target="_blank">song info</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/Cheap-trick-i-want-you-to-want-me-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>). It is a really simple song, with really simple lyrics. But one of the things I have learned in teaching this class, is that people enjoy singing songs in another language, so simple lyrics are *good* for international audiences!</span></span><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">This was also the first of many of their albums where they put the two good looking guys on the front cover, and the two less-attractive guys on the back, hahaha.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> <br /></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlHM6ZGnARTRm4CHt1gy6mrgTp56Avxlbym99QB-E84kjp1Dgcmbmjr4CoxF6Us7z560azSBoLZEJnD3tgRvv8DwYM4ifFVRPLKVciCWIH1kiJzoo5S5HV0T_6jWI67Y8Q-D3r0g/s302/Trainspotting.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="167" data-original-width="302" height="111" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlHM6ZGnARTRm4CHt1gy6mrgTp56Avxlbym99QB-E84kjp1Dgcmbmjr4CoxF6Us7z560azSBoLZEJnD3tgRvv8DwYM4ifFVRPLKVciCWIH1kiJzoo5S5HV0T_6jWI67Y8Q-D3r0g/w200-h111/Trainspotting.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></div><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Now we went to the not-depressing choice from the student: "Lust For Life" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQvUBf5l7Vw" target="_blank">video with scenes from the movie</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lust_for_Life_(Iggy_Pop_song)" target="_blank">song info</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/Iggy-pop-lust-for-life-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>) by Iggy Pop (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iggy_Pop" target="_blank">info</a>) from the movie Trainspotting (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trainspotting_(film)" target="_blank">info</a>).</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The reason the student chose this song is because:</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">1/ He thinks Iggy Pop is great!<br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">2/ He likes this movie. He likes that the movie is about lowlife guys trying to get money, not about idealized heroes like James Bond. He likes that the movie is about real life, not fantasy.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">One student had never heard of Iggy Pop before. He said he looks homeless.</span></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizw2MmH60EYIesH0_EkIge-qIHxI5qPdARMz73LKHCQHQjAaddSWpGPWHEh4dPD46i_hzZjRw2F6Fb3D5O-efQulWsaeyIi1nSXCxZsYy0ODqDWbjxAireKwrBR8Z4W5kc9kCsfQ/s300/Iggy_Pop_-_The_Idiot.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizw2MmH60EYIesH0_EkIge-qIHxI5qPdARMz73LKHCQHQjAaddSWpGPWHEh4dPD46i_hzZjRw2F6Fb3D5O-efQulWsaeyIi1nSXCxZsYy0ODqDWbjxAireKwrBR8Z4W5kc9kCsfQ/w200-h200/Iggy_Pop_-_The_Idiot.png" width="200" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I said that looking homeless, or like a total loser, is done on purpose by Iggy. He's actually a very smart guy, but throughout his career he played a dum-dum guy. One of his albums is even called "The Idiot". </span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">But it takes a lot of intelligence to play so stupid. In fact, David Bowie, who is considered a creative genius, idolized Iggy Pop. They were friends and David wished he could be as free in his spirit as Iggy. The song "Lust For Life" was co-written with David Bowie.<br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Yes, Iggy had a long history of doing a lot of drugs. It is amazing he didn't die from drugs. But he has always been a very intelligent guy.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">BTW, the first CD I ever bought in my life was Iggy's first band: The Stooges "Funhouse" (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fun_House_(The_Stooges_album)" target="_blank">info</a>). To this day I listen to that album regularly.<br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">With that our time in the discussion group was over. But I have one more song to share!<br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">One student from previous classes was not able to join our discussion, but he took the time (thank you!) to write down which song he would present, if he were able to join us today. Here is his choice + explanation:</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">- - - <br /></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLX8R28_WBtoIHpfrQDx1Orc_iXjuwz0sXV-pojXAzeaALzWwG8n3Jf4DW5w0hPGCGsL3k1WMGWU7erX6bbDlq4GVaC4t2UZvWKJjOVx9JCaXBQU9TR76q_3KSPuvSWaDzYpwMbA/s1500/LegendOf1900.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="1500" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLX8R28_WBtoIHpfrQDx1Orc_iXjuwz0sXV-pojXAzeaALzWwG8n3Jf4DW5w0hPGCGsL3k1WMGWU7erX6bbDlq4GVaC4t2UZvWKJjOVx9JCaXBQU9TR76q_3KSPuvSWaDzYpwMbA/w200-h200/LegendOf1900.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I want to recommend my favorite song from the film. The song is called “Lost Boys Calling” (<a href="https://youtu.be/Q9M4-myfudU" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/Roger-waters-lost-boys-calling-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>) from the film, “The Legend of 1900”. (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Legend_of_1900" target="_blank">info</a>) </span></span><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The film was made by legendary tag, Giuseppe Tornatore and Ennio Morricone. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">As you know, they also made “Nuovo Cinema Paradiso” too. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The song, “Lost Boys Calling” is the theme song of “The Legend of 1900” and was composed by arranging the instrumental main theme song of the soundtrack for pop song. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In addition, the participants of the song was so gorgeous, Ennio Morricone, Roger Waters (ex-Pink Floyd) and Eddie Van Halen! </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">They arranged Morricone’s original soundtrack very well. Don’t miss the beautiful melodies, the lyrics influenced by the story of the film, Eddie’s impressive guitar sound and Roger’s vocal! </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I think the song was a kind of “playing of the gods”.<br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">- - - <br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Next week's topic: Duets (songs with two singers) </b></span></span><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31362773.post-80875287565463058012020-11-03T21:49:00.016-08:002020-11-03T22:16:49.033-08:0029 October 2020 (Thursday)<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span>Today 4 students joined us to share "scary songs" in preparation for Halloween.</span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span>Before we started talking about scary songs, I first asked one of the new students to tell us what kind of music he likes. He said he likes Pop music. </span></span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFM8TWO7hHhFB0n6IZ9RfQbaNtLFOmIUal8VQeNv_C0X0tZ9f-1YLKCAzhRHoAuh8jta544T5U__jwPN2Wx9LZB_vTUXunMIfrg5NrU7qf13RJEoEU-QsEbC1gMFUVzJNIXErEcw/s300/Shape_Of_You_%2528Official_Single_Cover%2529_by_Ed_Sheeran.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFM8TWO7hHhFB0n6IZ9RfQbaNtLFOmIUal8VQeNv_C0X0tZ9f-1YLKCAzhRHoAuh8jta544T5U__jwPN2Wx9LZB_vTUXunMIfrg5NrU7qf13RJEoEU-QsEbC1gMFUVzJNIXErEcw/w200-h200/Shape_Of_You_%2528Official_Single_Cover%2529_by_Ed_Sheeran.png" width="200" /></a></span></span></span></span></div><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span>As an example of the kind of music she likes, he chose the song "Shape Of You" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGwWNGJdvx8" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shape_of_You" target="_blank">song info</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/Ed-sheeran-shape-of-you-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>) by Ed Sheeran (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Sheeran" target="_blank">info</a>). </span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span>He likes this song because it is pop and has a sexy/romantic feeling to it.</span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><br /></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span> <br /></span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span> </span></span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghb64fN-aG2dFx0oWPZ6KyV1UqCYpv6CWRYfM7zIu48QvWTKpOTxMMUibbUu-Tr30-Wj6RVBOaTCnzO4Om9a2lutViEzZJjx30KTUjuJIFDBZxHryieRsjC1oHP7lTZiqN0LzBSQ/s316/Ed_Sheeran_Perfect_Single_cover.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="316" data-original-width="316" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghb64fN-aG2dFx0oWPZ6KyV1UqCYpv6CWRYfM7zIu48QvWTKpOTxMMUibbUu-Tr30-Wj6RVBOaTCnzO4Om9a2lutViEzZJjx30KTUjuJIFDBZxHryieRsjC1oHP7lTZiqN0LzBSQ/w200-h200/Ed_Sheeran_Perfect_Single_cover.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></span></span></div><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span>One of the other students said she likes Ed Sheeran, too. But she has a very specific reason: on her birthday a couple of years ago her boyfriend made a video for
her with the song "Perfect" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Vv-BfVoq4g" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_(Ed_Sheeran_song)" target="_blank">song info</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/Ed-sheeran-perfect-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>) as the soundtrack. What a romantic, thoughtful guy! </span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span> </span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span> </span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span> </span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtW_WHM5h2sQexV-uNkWHb5Zz2iM-NbI756Q1kooJVzucl_VzflOijDq7Jl0Tb2ZDLMjGfbirJ7HzQmBMLMSKUsrFPW9cTzegUlaI8Ks3HCKM-N6uJh4lMuQX18KR1hjJCmCfDZg/s1280/MarryMeScreenshot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="113" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtW_WHM5h2sQexV-uNkWHb5Zz2iM-NbI756Q1kooJVzucl_VzflOijDq7Jl0Tb2ZDLMjGfbirJ7HzQmBMLMSKUsrFPW9cTzegUlaI8Ks3HCKM-N6uJh4lMuQX18KR1hjJCmCfDZg/w200-h113/MarryMeScreenshot.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span>The story of her boyfriend making a video for her reminded me of a video I have shown in the past: it's a video showing how a man got all his friends together to do a live-dance in the street for him to show his girlfriend how much he loves her. And at the end of the video, he asked her to marry him!</span></span><span><span> </span></span><span><span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_v7QrIW0zY" target="_blank">Here's the video</a>.</span></span></span></span></span><p></p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span><br /></span></span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjleAKRbPX658oAYvY6j0hzPFH4ORqZdZbSgUUK15bhslcPo1-Z5yOU0fvEnvE3CGwdD_r0ZX9ZGtuJ31MMVWISGiWqaXubYvUv3-AreqCFYqOw7njb2L6wUgC9x28o2ZlRqIJNWw/s301/Devil_In_A_Midnight_Mass_single_cover.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="301" data-original-width="301" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjleAKRbPX658oAYvY6j0hzPFH4ORqZdZbSgUUK15bhslcPo1-Z5yOU0fvEnvE3CGwdD_r0ZX9ZGtuJ31MMVWISGiWqaXubYvUv3-AreqCFYqOw7njb2L6wUgC9x28o2ZlRqIJNWw/w200-h200/Devil_In_A_Midnight_Mass_single_cover.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span>Ok, so we got sidetracked from scary songs by romantic songs! To start songs for Halloween, one student chose "Devil In A Midnight Mass" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nv5kkI5X1QM" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil_in_a_Midnight_Mass" target="_blank">song info</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/Billy-talent-devil-in-a-midnight-mass-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>) by the band Billy Talent (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Talent" target="_blank">info</a>). </span></span></span></span><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span>The student who chose this song says that when he was young and heard the song, musically it made him feel uneasy. </span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span>Something that makes the song even more unsettling is that the lyrics are based on a true story about kids being abused by Catholic priests. The fact it is a true story is very sad.</span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span>The next song chosen was "A Faker" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECBZwlRzv3A" target="_blank">video with lyrics in the comments</a>) by 跳房子. This song has dissonant tones and clearly the singer wants to express a bad feeling. But I'm not really sure what the song is about.</span></span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvD4TyIlG8iiG9YEkqo2cX8uinoDNtjudhBO3ZRbzoZzT6k_nDWlPAtTuwkTt8x9VnQ-q_u_npPsbKdnqF0VrNvLfhSLAmN8GD4LDKLFP1UirTThmj1zAtStdRidJaRULcJr8LsA/s300/Blackparadecover.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvD4TyIlG8iiG9YEkqo2cX8uinoDNtjudhBO3ZRbzoZzT6k_nDWlPAtTuwkTt8x9VnQ-q_u_npPsbKdnqF0VrNvLfhSLAmN8GD4LDKLFP1UirTThmj1zAtStdRidJaRULcJr8LsA/w200-h200/Blackparadecover.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span>Next was "Welcome To The Black Parade" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRKJiM9Njr8" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_Parade" target="_blank">song info</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/My-chemical-romance-welcome-to-the-black-parade-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>) by My Chemical Romance (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Chemical_Romance" target="_blank">info</a>). When she was younger, this was the favorite band of the student who chose this song. What is most scary about the song is the visual of the video; it is made to be unnverving.</span></span></span></span><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span> </span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span> </span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span> <br /></span></span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqzg0osd-FnwfdTYt6A6ldRQgwUniSGlMZWHPJdIViYHwTLKoVXC3eZ6KsFWrFL0kw6j9yxu4WTCn7AEZ4EvtQNQeFP1XYFifcOLndgWtm5MErvshe1F7QbgF3rMyctCJFFsqGyQ/s200/Rocky_Horror_Picture_Show_Soundtrack.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="200" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqzg0osd-FnwfdTYt6A6ldRQgwUniSGlMZWHPJdIViYHwTLKoVXC3eZ6KsFWrFL0kw6j9yxu4WTCn7AEZ4EvtQNQeFP1XYFifcOLndgWtm5MErvshe1F7QbgF3rMyctCJFFsqGyQ/w200-h200/Rocky_Horror_Picture_Show_Soundtrack.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></span></span></div><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span>Now I chose a classic Halloween song: "The Time Warp" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umj0gu5nEGs" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Warp_(song)" target="_blank">song info</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/Patricia-quinn-time-warp-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>) from the classic movie The Rocky Horror Picture Show (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rocky_Horror_Picture_Show_(soundtrack)" target="_blank">info</a>). </span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span>This movie is a favorite among students and young people in America. One of the unique things is that when it is shown in the theater, people in the audience go in front of the screen and play the parts of the actors with the movie. And they throw rice in the theater. And the audience talks to the actors on the screen. It is an immersive experience. <a href="https://youtu.be/U74EpC9lJno?t=2122" target="_blank">Here's an example of what it's like</a>.</span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span>I asked the students which Halloween costumes they would wear if they could go to a Halloween party this year. The funniest answers was one student saying he would dress up like Covid. That is dark humor! :-D .</span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span>Then a student showed a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqvDBGNGR4M" target="_blank">video with the joke of "What is a skeleton's favorite snack?"</a> (In case you don't understand the answer to the joke in the video, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spare_ribs" target="_blank">here it is</a>.)<br /></span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span><span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS8GI7XAgPCLeQHjRTwvZ8pL4ccOyzh-KIAYuTRCv4z8Z0AkwCQQdsk4C56TIoBV_LHBuqdN-ukBMSLXn-AqoTabBIqvEB6tiGFGXmzzc0SauiK1hcolNd2eTaA3klGckgdFWjGw/s362/Caterpillar_film.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="362" data-original-width="274" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS8GI7XAgPCLeQHjRTwvZ8pL4ccOyzh-KIAYuTRCv4z8Z0AkwCQQdsk4C56TIoBV_LHBuqdN-ukBMSLXn-AqoTabBIqvEB6tiGFGXmzzc0SauiK1hcolNd2eTaA3klGckgdFWjGw/w151-h200/Caterpillar_film.jpg" width="151" /></a></span>For the last song of the day, we heard "The Caterpillar (芋虫)" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vJEMwLH-kM" target="_blank">video</a>) by the Japanese band Ningen Isu (人間椅子) (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ningen_Isu" target="_blank">info</a>). The song is based on a story by the Japanese author Rampo Edogawa (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edogawa_Ranpo" target="_blank">info</a>; <a href="https://matthewlegare.com/blog-post/7-edogawa-ranpo-recommendations/" target="_blank">more information about his books</a>). (The student noted that this artists name is taken from the real author Edgar Allen Poe's name.)</span></span><span> </span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span>Musically this song sounds heavy and unhappy, like Black Sabbath (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sabbath" target="_blank">info</a>). But it is the text which is very scary: it is based on a Japanese story called The Caterpillar (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caterpillar_(2010_film)" target="_blank">movie info</a>) where the guy has no arms, no legs and can't move his body at all, but his mind is still functioning. In other words, he is trapped in his body. That *is* a very scary idea!</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span>There is a real life story similar to that, about which the movie "T</span></span><span><span><span><span>he Diving Bell and the </span></span>Butterfly" (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Diving_Bell_and_the_Butterfly_(film)" target="_blank">info</a>) was made.</span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span> <br /></span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span>With that our time was finished for the week. <b> </b></span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span><b>Next week's theme: Song from movies.</b> <br /></span></span></span></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31362773.post-22605734001520544332020-10-29T00:26:00.003-07:002020-10-29T00:29:12.845-07:0022 October 2020 (Thursday)<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Today's topic was "Songs from your high school years".</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">This week was special: it was kind of a reunion, as three of my previous students -- coincidentally all from Japan -- joined us! It was great to see them again after so many years (though we have kept in touch through the Language Of Music Facebook group)!</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In addition to those three from Japan, we had a returning student, and we had a new student, joining us from China.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Before we started talking about music, the Japanese guys showed some of the vinyl LPs they have recently bought. As someone who grew up with vinyl as the way to listen to albums, I am happy that Japan still has the habit of buying LPs. I think it's a shame that the big-format artwork, plus all the detailed information, that used to be on LPs has been lost in the era of CDs, and now streaming. <br /></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu35LuXgKac6y21_Jrn3O7au1Fq4c8GCtF56txPbKuNiheKFWtFSXYY1_R5L3p6apT_ctur3hpJabvuE4syWcDx2pWrXfEIByCblBNRQj9YihA6k6vtdMb0wvdLgHMFgIOFoYj3w/s300/U2_Sunday_Bloody_Sunday.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu35LuXgKac6y21_Jrn3O7au1Fq4c8GCtF56txPbKuNiheKFWtFSXYY1_R5L3p6apT_ctur3hpJabvuE4syWcDx2pWrXfEIByCblBNRQj9YihA6k6vtdMb0wvdLgHMFgIOFoYj3w/w200-h200/U2_Sunday_Bloody_Sunday.png" width="200" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The first song was chosen by one of the Japanese students: "Sunday Bloody Sunday" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EM4vblG6BVQ" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunday_Bloody_Sunday" target="_blank">song info</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/U2-sunday-bloody-sunday-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>) by U2 (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U2" target="_blank">info</a>). He said that when he was in high school, he was impressed by the message of the song.</span></span><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I mentioned that when I was a college student (at the UW!), for one
class I had to write an analysis of a poem, and I did that for the song
"Drowning Man" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMQTnOgDnxA" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/U2-drowning-man-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>) from this same U2 album, War
(<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_(U2_album)" target="_blank">info</a>).<br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAAG7bYtxfSQlWbgjRCcMaQyzbUS8cwmBcrhZq81Kl4k8itM8uanTE9kAoRJNXw8vJh4vpEcwF2QDHiscws587QBlkxnGqmKthePK4xaUWmaMv1T1p4pwbC7q_zOTR9-4vaHiJyA/s300/U2-360-tour-logo.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAAG7bYtxfSQlWbgjRCcMaQyzbUS8cwmBcrhZq81Kl4k8itM8uanTE9kAoRJNXw8vJh4vpEcwF2QDHiscws587QBlkxnGqmKthePK4xaUWmaMv1T1p4pwbC7q_zOTR9-4vaHiJyA/w200-h200/U2-360-tour-logo.png" width="200" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">One of the other students said that he saw the U2 360 tour (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U2_360%C2%B0_Tour" target="_blank">info</a>) when he was in high school. And that was the only tour when they played the song "I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight". I said I am not very fond of that song, but he said that the live version they did on that tour was better than the album version. (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llHlZ9FT7VU" target="_blank">live video</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%27ll_Go_Crazy_If_I_Don%27t_Go_Crazy_Tonight" target="_blank">song info</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/U2-ill-go-crazy-if-i-dont-go-crazy-tonight-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>) </span></span><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Speaking of U2, one of the other students said he really likes the guitar sounds on the album "All That You Can't Leave Behind". U2's guitarist, The Edge (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Edge" target="_blank">info</a>) is famous for his unique guitar sound.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I said my favorite U2 albums is "Achtung Baby" (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achtung_Baby" target="_blank">info</a>) because it was recorded in Berlin, which is a city close to my heart as it was my first experience abroad as a high school student. </span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmcNzgUDacw0IH0Y8aK2smVpM-dNLMqDLYI2F-6ft-sMwHGog3oknLvzNT1JRvuuSQmwBs3ySYklE-sejCt_fDKh598YboS224fImE7PmweI4LcHcmulaUxkTlJ1BbWlxfq4ExiQ/s280/Green_Day_-_Boulevard_of_Broken_Dreams_cover.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="280" data-original-width="280" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmcNzgUDacw0IH0Y8aK2smVpM-dNLMqDLYI2F-6ft-sMwHGog3oknLvzNT1JRvuuSQmwBs3ySYklE-sejCt_fDKh598YboS224fImE7PmweI4LcHcmulaUxkTlJ1BbWlxfq4ExiQ/w200-h200/Green_Day_-_Boulevard_of_Broken_Dreams_cover.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The next high-school era song was "Boulevard Of Broken Dreams" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Soa3gO7tL-c" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boulevard_of_Broken_Dreams_(Green_Day_song)" target="_blank">song info</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/Green-day-boulevard-of-broken-dreams-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>) by Green Day (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Day" target="_blank">info</a>). The student who chose this song said the song reminds him of the year 2010, when he was in senior high school in Japan, when a lot of things were happening in his life and he realized that everyone must take their own path in life.</span></span><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">He gave further context to this song on its album: he said that the song is part of a whole cycle of songs about life in the suburbs. While the lyrics for "Boulevard Of Broken Dreams" are a bit depressing, the next song on the album is more hopeful. His comments were a good reminder that sometimes songs have a wider context than just the song itself.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">This was the first time our Taiwanese student had ever heard this song. He said the lines of "I walk alone" fit to life during the pandemic. He liked that it mixes art with rock music.</span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv1jnpWerjZsLuq3atqvQsFdokBVePoHgakVYQuYZbLTnVlpsZoGA5jW6dqXRPNMNU0VFfwO8L7j94ih4aSbFabNB2CppXEZRR95yyLs98IdXFMUH_KP-JOUIp2kplKzbnDZL7MA/s316/Fish_leong_album_02.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="316" data-original-width="316" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv1jnpWerjZsLuq3atqvQsFdokBVePoHgakVYQuYZbLTnVlpsZoGA5jW6dqXRPNMNU0VFfwO8L7j94ih4aSbFabNB2CppXEZRR95yyLs98IdXFMUH_KP-JOUIp2kplKzbnDZL7MA/w200-h200/Fish_leong_album_02.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The next song was chosen by the Taiwanese student. It is called "Courage" or "Encouragement" ("勇氣") (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVpXUyXPKOg" target="_blank">video</a> ; <i>lyrics are on the YouTube page</i>). He said it is about overcoming obstacles together. It was popular during his high school years, so that is what he relates it to. </span></span><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The song later was used to support the LGBTQ rights movement in Taiwan. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">One of the Japanese students said this song sounds like a JPop song from around the year 2000. <br /></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0cObJhOtwg48as_TWbpky8O1vjSEeObWJFOakl7GdVNZXep4qKWT7KFynTQ0sPvRynKBFhlJYmGxWr06dE1IiKa3KgrzuXSx7myf0L9BcJ8quo3kVpkdTIk5Alg9oqrbHoSIH7w/s316/Champagne_Supernova_sleeve_cover.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="316" data-original-width="316" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0cObJhOtwg48as_TWbpky8O1vjSEeObWJFOakl7GdVNZXep4qKWT7KFynTQ0sPvRynKBFhlJYmGxWr06dE1IiKa3KgrzuXSx7myf0L9BcJ8quo3kVpkdTIk5Alg9oqrbHoSIH7w/w200-h200/Champagne_Supernova_sleeve_cover.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">One of the Japanese students next chose a song originally by Oasis (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oasis_(band)" target="_blank">info</a>), but he chose a more recent version sung by just the singer with piano and cello accompaniement: "Champagne Supernova" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UUo5IdjEIg" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champagne_Supernova" target="_blank">song info</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/Oasis-champagne-supernova-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>).</span></span><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">He chose this song because Oasis is his favorite band, but they split up while he was in high school (2009).</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">A string quartet played this song at his wedding, we don't have a video of that, hahaha.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">We were talking about how sometimes a great song can get a new life when it is done a different way, like how this new version of Champagne Supernova (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tI-5uv4wryI" target="_blank">original version</a>) was just centered on the piano rather than a full rock band. </span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC13jIFttYrJvWPHLeBbYFV_4KyET1Gbjb-lHMd7OlvZtyjWEzMXhjkmRffSHR7j00lslwG-PpFMwQJkzWaJvB6BfPnpITC0BXUfgUtCidBGcJGdOQUhvJkXKoU4MODfpYI0dTMQ/s300/Love_Is_Hell.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC13jIFttYrJvWPHLeBbYFV_4KyET1Gbjb-lHMd7OlvZtyjWEzMXhjkmRffSHR7j00lslwG-PpFMwQJkzWaJvB6BfPnpITC0BXUfgUtCidBGcJGdOQUhvJkXKoU4MODfpYI0dTMQ/w200-h200/Love_Is_Hell.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">One of my favorite examples of this is another Oasis song, "Wonderwall" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bx1Bh8ZvH84" target="_blank">original video</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wonderwall_(song)" target="_blank">song info</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/Oasis-wonderwall-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>) re-done as a slow, sad song (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gVxRvNfFLg" target="_blank">video</a>) by Ryan Adams (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryan_Adams" target="_blank">info</a>). I like both versions of this song. The Oasis one has a youthful exuberance, while the Ryan Adams version feels weary.<br /></span></span><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihOlY3Q7rk40Xg647CdruLsme1Zao4EVBJlaXnQLRiccao2j2Az3Chj8omnF5UncmceHq1nUBMnToe9B50SL6O_Y0fB13MLlWGfAV6O2sr_-eSbuxUMbzD9D_AdUjVeaNA-AjaMw/s280/All_Along_the_Watchtower_single_cover.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="272" data-original-width="280" height="194" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihOlY3Q7rk40Xg647CdruLsme1Zao4EVBJlaXnQLRiccao2j2Az3Chj8omnF5UncmceHq1nUBMnToe9B50SL6O_Y0fB13MLlWGfAV6O2sr_-eSbuxUMbzD9D_AdUjVeaNA-AjaMw/w200-h194/All_Along_the_Watchtower_single_cover.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">One student says that nowadays, when Noel Gallagher (the original writer of "Wonderwall") plays the song, he plays it like Ryan Adams did. This is similar to how the Jimi Hendrix version of "All Along The Watchtower" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmGFFJtkDXA" target="_blank">video</a>) has become better known than the original version (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bT7Hj-ea0VE" target="_blank">video</a>) by Bob Dylan. Nowadays, when people cover "All Along The Watchtower", they do it like Jimi did it.<br /></span></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicWC6AUJMYJJzaULcz-SECeMBHmAvG776WYV2Jxk4iM3lu_blInp-y6yrKXSQtxYO8KnBIzdV6iNKSDiW6V6-kVZi6wExaagTUMk5ldRCXdov-AcV-s2rq4hVyQULUbr6jqxxonQ/s300/Obsesion.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="256" data-original-width="300" height="171" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicWC6AUJMYJJzaULcz-SECeMBHmAvG776WYV2Jxk4iM3lu_blInp-y6yrKXSQtxYO8KnBIzdV6iNKSDiW6V6-kVZi6wExaagTUMk5ldRCXdov-AcV-s2rq4hVyQULUbr6jqxxonQ/w200-h171/Obsesion.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The last song of the day was "Obsesión" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DK6ZaRVRsXo" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obsesi%C3%B3n_(Aventura_song)" target="_blank">song info</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/Aventura-obsesion-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>) by Aventura (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aventura_(band)" target="_blank">info</a>). The student who chose this song was learning Spanish and wanted to listen to songs sung in that language to practice. She liked the melody of the singing, but when she translated the lyrics, she found out they are actually not sweet at all!</span></span><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBGQn9tm_Gpkry2W2lvlPrIBrOQ3MJvYK2wIZgc68ruoc0aeC_LXDmyVpHMKBxnETs6xWau8BBbefz1umVx_6mqb51SlVxujzdl2Ow3eg5RBrrrrx9QUDR__cv5vc5TxfI3hEsmg/s304/The_police_-_every_breath_you_take.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="304" height="197" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBGQn9tm_Gpkry2W2lvlPrIBrOQ3MJvYK2wIZgc68ruoc0aeC_LXDmyVpHMKBxnETs6xWau8BBbefz1umVx_6mqb51SlVxujzdl2Ow3eg5RBrrrrx9QUDR__cv5vc5TxfI3hEsmg/w200-h197/The_police_-_every_breath_you_take.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">One of the students pointed out that this is the same case with "Every Breath You Take" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMOGaugKpzs" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Every_Breath_You_Take" target="_blank">song info</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/The-police-every-breath-you-take-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>) by The Police (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Police" target="_blank">info</a>). Some people think it's a love song, and even have it played at their wedding, but if you read the lyrics it is about surveillance and obsession -- not at all what love is about! In fact, Sting later wrote the song "If You Love Somebody, Set Them Free" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSGl3d4KOMk" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If_You_Love_Somebody_Set_Them_Free" target="_blank">song info</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/Sting-if-you-love-somebody-set-them-free-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>) as antidote to "Every Breath You Take".<br /></span></span><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">We closed the discussion after just one hour today because I wanted to watch the last US presidential debate. While I enjoy talking about music more, I just needed to see if the second debate would be a car-crash scenario like the first one. In a pleasant surprise, it was not.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">With Halloween coming up, next weeks topic = scary songs.<br /></span></span></p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></span><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31362773.post-43638023753634569792020-10-19T23:14:00.017-07:002020-10-19T23:29:09.436-07:0015 October 2020 (Thursday)<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The second week of the new quarter. We had two students (one returning, one new) to talk about "Songs about rain, or for a rainy day."</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Actually, we had a third "virtual" student: one of my former students from a few years ago sent over some songs via email on the theme since he could not participate personally this week. Hopefully he can join us from Japan in the future. <br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The first thing we did was learn a little about what kind of music the new student likes. He mentioned Celine Dion, Queen and The Beatles. He said his musical taste was heavily influenced by his father playing CDs of those artists at home in Taiwan.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">As we were talking the FIUTS facilitator mentioned liking Afrobeats music (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afrobeats" target="_blank">info</a>). Afrobeats is a relatively new style of music, and should *not* be confused with Afrobeat (without the "s") on the end (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afrobeat" target="_blank">info</a>).</span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMlb8pOK86dx9bbnTPcHiZb5HZIjku1xroQhjdUyvaot2euTvW3tLs08ZC6A1xPiNAWL3pwbQ-TCsYZBkQ65vPyLZiz5JX3dD_0HCRBdhljrwYertWASKoM1hyphenhyphenJbBtxap5fxKRmg/s300/Burna_Boy_-_African_Giant.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMlb8pOK86dx9bbnTPcHiZb5HZIjku1xroQhjdUyvaot2euTvW3tLs08ZC6A1xPiNAWL3pwbQ-TCsYZBkQ65vPyLZiz5JX3dD_0HCRBdhljrwYertWASKoM1hyphenhyphenJbBtxap5fxKRmg/w200-h200/Burna_Boy_-_African_Giant.png" width="200" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">As an example of Afrobeats music, the FIUTS facilitator suggested we listen to the song "Anybody" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=so4dgTRaWFk" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/Burna-boy-anybody-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>) by Burna Boy (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burna_Boy" target="_blank">info</a>), who is the biggest Afrobeats artist in the world.</span></span><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The FIUTS facilitator commented that Afrobeats videos show that Africa makes modern music, and that people do things that people in industrialized countries do, like go to dance clubs. This is a great point she made: too often people think of Africa as undeveloped economically, but while much of the continent is poor, it is not *all* poverty and life in villages.<br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>Side note: I am a big fan of Fela Kuti (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fela_Kuti" target="_blank">info</a>), the originator of Afrobeat music. I found out after the class that coincidendally today, 15 October, was Fela's birthday!</i></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>The drummer for Fela's band, Tony Allen (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Allen_(musician)" target="_blank">info</a>) is my favorite drummer. I had the great fortune of seeing Tony play in a small club in Switzerland once. I watched him the whole show as if in a trance -- I couldn't believe I was standing so close to this musician from so far away who I revered.</i></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG9WfiE-foJo_fgklYr-3pkAmP1Jg1A1-IBx6uBxMe__GTbWSQuvLlejiiJKTBA-9DILq8acZ_I52IqjXJNWsxVWmEsLmcYpE4o4qPzF_CiHgGN-qHoxjETirqKssUlH5UXXwamA/s376/Your_Name_poster.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="376" data-original-width="265" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG9WfiE-foJo_fgklYr-3pkAmP1Jg1A1-IBx6uBxMe__GTbWSQuvLlejiiJKTBA-9DILq8acZ_I52IqjXJNWsxVWmEsLmcYpE4o4qPzF_CiHgGN-qHoxjETirqKssUlH5UXXwamA/w141-h200/Your_Name_poster.png" width="141" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Now I asked the new student if he has a "song for a rainy day". He chose "Your Name" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2GujJZfXpg" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Your_Name" target="_blank">song info</a>) by Radwimps (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radwimps" target="_blank">info</a>). In this song he likes the mix of piano and fluctuations of tones in the music. He finds it relaxing. He said that even when it is raining outside, a person needs to keep a positive mindset.</span></span><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">At this point I asked him if he has gotten used to all the rain in Seattle. We talked about the difference in rain between Seattle and Taiwan.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The student from China said that the fact that the rain in Seattle goes on for a long time -- with no rainbow at the end to celebrate the end -- is depressing. <br /></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqSfM50wTh5_FUc-j5dixIY2tFQJgdjd2ck-z4JF-Z8eW8TzFbbXyvcWZi6zrUXhy3GnuLW8bOaV3RhN8VuJJ7-rPgyQNnGk3QRrov2YePmILqvV63OHt4bdq1VVVwo26KMu_36Q/s316/Hozier_album.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="316" data-original-width="316" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqSfM50wTh5_FUc-j5dixIY2tFQJgdjd2ck-z4JF-Z8eW8TzFbbXyvcWZi6zrUXhy3GnuLW8bOaV3RhN8VuJJ7-rPgyQNnGk3QRrov2YePmILqvV63OHt4bdq1VVVwo26KMu_36Q/w200-h200/Hozier_album.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">She chose the song "Jackie & Wilson" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSWqxbswQAY" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/Hozier-jackie-and-wilson-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>) by Hozier (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hozier_(musician)" target="_blank">info</a>) as a rainy day song. She said that on rainy days she likes to play rock music, something with energy. </span></span><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh96HbqoFXgtMZTnlQyE6Xh44Laf6LU0esdGaBdaFCK5sr1fAp80fBJoMl9ONxCL4Y8PjteD3LoXQSqTnA3yxGE8wf_LuV570TYIm2nW_BJVPq1-svpwECWRF9h0nq4pYwPRwx7LA/s300/Avril_Lavigne_Head_Above_Water.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh96HbqoFXgtMZTnlQyE6Xh44Laf6LU0esdGaBdaFCK5sr1fAp80fBJoMl9ONxCL4Y8PjteD3LoXQSqTnA3yxGE8wf_LuV570TYIm2nW_BJVPq1-svpwECWRF9h0nq4pYwPRwx7LA/w200-h200/Avril_Lavigne_Head_Above_Water.png" width="200" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">On the subject of rock music, the Taiwanese student said the Hozier songs reminds him of Avril Lavigne (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avril_Lavigne" target="_blank">info</a>) because she is the most popular rock singer in Taiwan. As an example of a song he knows by Avril, we listened to "Head Above Water" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKF6ghfcQic" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_Above_Water_(song)" target="_blank">song info</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/Avril-lavigne-head-above-water-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>). </span></span><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In this song the student likes the high tones and the dramatic quality of the songs. He finds the song dynamic and strong.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The Chinese student noted that the style of this Avril song is different from her earlier songs, when she was more rebellious.</span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDlBkKTKMpuMLYgkO_kZvZK0bZQXCQqSmc6OYOUb8QVlpyTIr0umTIOKHP9nW8NuhqjzgUJeBtGaURyNGIgqSFXFAQOTbQWw1ZzueEzrzW29C-tnpOb-UZXZgNPdRIWTVRX0Se3w/s300/Quadrophenia_%2528album%2529.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDlBkKTKMpuMLYgkO_kZvZK0bZQXCQqSmc6OYOUb8QVlpyTIr0umTIOKHP9nW8NuhqjzgUJeBtGaURyNGIgqSFXFAQOTbQWw1ZzueEzrzW29C-tnpOb-UZXZgNPdRIWTVRX0Se3w/w200-h200/Quadrophenia_%2528album%2529.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></div><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Now I played a "rain" song. I chose "Love Reign O'er Me" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhLsC2FpDZk" target="_blank">video with lyrics</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love,_Reign_o%27er_Me" target="_blank">song info</a>) by The Who (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Who" target="_blank">info</a>). </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> In addition to the mood of the song being good for a rainy day, I like the way the title has a homonym for "rain" ("reign"). The word reign is used for how a King or Queen is the highest power over the people. In this case, it's like saying "love" has the highest authority. Additionally, it plays with the idea of love raining on someone, like washing over him/her. I like all these intertwined concepts. And I like the music and singing a lot, too!</span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU2KDgw_LiE5GoJpeK2AkO67_owotFDH0k-cooRBJGExLXLvGAcXQTrZHrG565Fip9ovdQ5OS0DEsXygyUSjAXbrUt2c-a75z5qBW5T212b0sjtINO3D5VUGrtJ9yimYlmUMI3FA/s330/PearlJam-Lostdogscover.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="299" data-original-width="330" height="181" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU2KDgw_LiE5GoJpeK2AkO67_owotFDH0k-cooRBJGExLXLvGAcXQTrZHrG565Fip9ovdQ5OS0DEsXygyUSjAXbrUt2c-a75z5qBW5T212b0sjtINO3D5VUGrtJ9yimYlmUMI3FA/w200-h181/PearlJam-Lostdogscover.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">A song with a similar concept about love and washing is a song by a Seattle band, Pearl Jam (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearl_Jam" target="_blank">info</a>) called "Wash" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xL1dzQPUtO8" target="_blank">video with lyrics</a>). The first lyric of the song is "Oh please, let it rain today", which is perfect for Seattle. But most of all I really like the idea in this song about "washing" love -- washing something which is not physical.</span></span><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> <br /></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2mIu4MYy7AYDHNN9zB4k3I7BJv1dzmaFU-maZAztE11FTR4Pcp96BBY7291fKivuTf2lXxQe3PTLm-7bnHz9lEJyBG8GfYuEKWpLYmnBT6s-KZato94Y8P0jt0G4N3zMYY529EQ/s598/X_EndlessRain.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="306" data-original-width="598" height="103" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2mIu4MYy7AYDHNN9zB4k3I7BJv1dzmaFU-maZAztE11FTR4Pcp96BBY7291fKivuTf2lXxQe3PTLm-7bnHz9lEJyBG8GfYuEKWpLYmnBT6s-KZato94Y8P0jt0G4N3zMYY529EQ/w200-h103/X_EndlessRain.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></div><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The next song we played was "Endless Rain" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dq9q5PsVvv0" target="_blank">video with lyrics</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endless_Rain" target="_blank">song info</a>) by X-Japan (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_Japan" target="_blank">info</a>). The student who chose it likes how powerful the emotion is, especially the chorus where they sing in English.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">As our meeting for the week was coming to an end, it was mentioned that there are many songs about rain. For example:</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">"November Rain" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SbUC-UaAxE" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/November_Rain" target="_blank">song info</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/Guns-n-roses-november-rain-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>) by Guns N Roses (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guns_N%27_Roses" target="_blank">info</a>).</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">-- Trivia fact: the bass player for Gun N Roses, Duff McKagan (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duff_McKagan" target="_blank">info</a>) grew up in Seattle, and after moving to Los Angeles when he was young to make a career in a music, now lives here again with his family. <br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">"Purple Rain" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvnYmWpD_T8" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purple_Rain_(song)" target="_blank">song info</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/Prince-and-the-revolution-purple-rain-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>) by Prince (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_(musician)" target="_blank">info</a>).</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">-- Speaking of Prince: one of the most famous concerts in American history was Prince's peformance at the the Superbowl Halftime in 2007: it was in a monsoon-like rain storm, and yes, he played "Purple Rain". <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NN3gsSf-Ys" target="_blank">Concert + story of the day</a>. <br /></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxiYi2VQrXuFbCt8OmeaTZ_mc1QVHS4-FcZxXsFt8oc16S9t9M-KhU5ee3C6PX7mRpD9OY59jZYVcYHvPLFi-5rYWF_SRhCGf5J6d_tj0u6dTk27a-KEFPrDHOdV_lKTEbtpeMJA/s300/Rain-Paperback_Writer_US_aa_sleeve.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxiYi2VQrXuFbCt8OmeaTZ_mc1QVHS4-FcZxXsFt8oc16S9t9M-KhU5ee3C6PX7mRpD9OY59jZYVcYHvPLFi-5rYWF_SRhCGf5J6d_tj0u6dTk27a-KEFPrDHOdV_lKTEbtpeMJA/w200-h200/Rain-Paperback_Writer_US_aa_sleeve.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The last song I played was "Rain" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cK5G8fPmWeA" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rain_(Beatles_song)" target="_blank">song info</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/The-beatles-rain-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>) by The Beatles (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beatles" target="_blank">info</a>).</span></span><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span> </span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span> </span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span> </span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span> </span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span> </span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span> </span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span>While we didn't play the songs my former student sent over during the class, I want to include them with his commentary here:</span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span>~ ~ <br /></span></span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-5ceaba80-7fff-5ef8-fcc0-e17d94416f65" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Whenever I think about the songs related to rain, I always think about the scenery of rainy places. Thus my choices for this week are related to those places; specifically Seattle and Dublin. SDRE and The Script are from those two cities, and MV for The Script song was shot in Dublin. </span></span></span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></span></span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Rain Song" </span></span></span>(<a href="https://youtu.be/Q6vB-AyzN0s " target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/Sunny-day-real-estate-rain-song-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>) by <span><span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sunny Day Real Estate (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunny_Day_Real_Estate" target="_blank">info</a>).</span></span></span></span></span></p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Breakeven" </span></span></span><span><span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(<a href="https://youtu.be/MzCLLHscMOw" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakeven_(song)" target="_blank">song info</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/The-script-breakeven-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>) by </span></span></span><span><span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Script (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Script" target="_blank">info</a>)</span></span></span></span></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span>~ ~ <br /></span></span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span> </span></span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span>Those are all the "rain" songs we had time for today! </span></span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span>Next week's theme: "Favorite songs from when you were in high school." </span></span></span></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31362773.post-34804501414440919002020-10-10T12:04:00.011-07:002020-10-10T21:06:21.628-07:008 October 2020 (Thursday)<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">After a break of 5+ years while I lived in Europe, today was the return of the Language Of Music! (At FIUTS, at the University of Washington, it is called "Music Conversation Group".)</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The big difference between now and previously is that, because of COVID-19, the group is meeting online, not in person. I was curious to see how many people would come to the group, and it would work to have conversation online rather than in person.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The bad news is that only one student came to the conversation group this first day. Nonetheless, I hope this first time gets the ball rolling, and more people will join us in the coming weeks.<br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The good news is that we (me, the FIUTS facilitator and the student) had a very fun conversation!</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Today's theme was "Favorite songs (of all time, or recently)" as a way to get to know about each others' tastes.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">As we talked the FIUTS facilitator said she likes "all kinds of music". I have often told my classes that people claiming to like "all kinds of music" actually mean, "everything except opera and country music," hahaha.<br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Our student guest is from China and isn't familar with what "country" music sounds like. It is worth noting that "country" music in the US is different from "folk music". The term "country music" sounds like it refers to traditional music from the countryside, and perhaps that is how it started, but nowadays it is a style of modern music, like "rock" or "pop" or "soul" are styles, and has very little to do with traditional music from a century ago. I would say that "folk" music has closer roots to traditional music than any other modern musical style.</span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNioHSCfgKGq9Q_0To9K39k09EMWnTGpN_dnotL6qYmbjg40hkdT_ZLQwidoO5x4AeaX-1s3oMHqLcTiiT2K1jFmGNSPP9ylk5kIdcZeo4Hgl1_Gh4ywcHvbX_mqOI_OCI4odWvA/s280/Garth_Brooks_-_Friends_in_Low_Places.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="279" data-original-width="280" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNioHSCfgKGq9Q_0To9K39k09EMWnTGpN_dnotL6qYmbjg40hkdT_ZLQwidoO5x4AeaX-1s3oMHqLcTiiT2K1jFmGNSPP9ylk5kIdcZeo4Hgl1_Gh4ywcHvbX_mqOI_OCI4odWvA/w200-h199/Garth_Brooks_-_Friends_in_Low_Places.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">As an example of what "country" music sounds like, we listened to "Friends In Low Places" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0_der_5hRM" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/Garth-brooks-friends-in-low-places-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friends_in_Low_Places" target="_blank">song info</a>) by Garth Brooks (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garth_Brooks" target="_blank">info</a>). </span></span><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">This song is to my ears a great example of country music:</span></span></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The vocal melodies go up and down</span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The lyrics tell the story about having bad luck, having a truck, hanging out with friends, and drinking beer.</span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The title is a "play on words" by referring how his friends are "in low places" rather than "friends in high places" (which is often referred to when someone gets a good job or receives favors in life).<br /></span></span></li></ul><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Of course, there are many country songs which deal with other subjects -- especially love songs -- but this is an excellent example of a typical "country" song. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I have often said that most people don't like country music, but that is not true, and it shows a bias on my part: in fact, country music is extremely popular in the United States, especially in the center of the country (and Texas!) and in rural areas. Country music is not very popular in the big cities like where I have lived most of my life, so that is why I say people don't like it, but that is really not a true statement. It is very popular and very big business in the United States. Nashville, TN (<a href="https://goo.gl/maps/h8cfj1MjQGBpqozRA" target="_blank">map</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nashville,_Tennessee" target="_blank">info</a>) is considered the home of country music in the US.<br /></span></span></p><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbxxVS0PjvD5IHgT6fy1GYpZJdjg8RkPWomQooNPXh4Af9u8qWuDOyGy4g2i6ISVfq6VLNPWqJMDWCpWwzDSSmWVAxr7D-eHLQ73VNCqVi8GaFwh_ooF1h4BT5l624E-GXw53ZjA/s330/Maki_Asakawa.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="302" data-original-width="330" height="183" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbxxVS0PjvD5IHgT6fy1GYpZJdjg8RkPWomQooNPXh4Af9u8qWuDOyGy4g2i6ISVfq6VLNPWqJMDWCpWwzDSSmWVAxr7D-eHLQ73VNCqVi8GaFwh_ooF1h4BT5l624E-GXw53ZjA/w200-h183/Maki_Asakawa.png" width="200" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Now it was time to get an example of the type of music our student likes. She choose the Japanese singer Maki Asakawa (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maki_Asakawa" target="_blank">info</a>). We couldn't quickly find exactly the song the student wanted to hear, but we listed to the start of the album Blue Spirit Blues (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOMBUkxVAos" target="_blank">video</a>). The student said this is representative of Maki's music that she likes.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The student said she likes Maki's voice, which is emotional and powerful. She likes that the melody is sad, but she does not find it depressing.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I told her that in English we often say this feeling is "reflective", which means to look inside oneself, like in a mirror. We often say a person is in a "reflective mood", or a person "reflects on the past." This is good music for those times :-)<br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">It is not very often that my young students like such "old" music, but this student said she likes a lot of music from Japan from the 70's & 80's. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I had never heard of Maki Asakawa before, but I am intrigued by what I heard: I will check out more of her music!</span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcJ-UCryc2iSovXnhAkIAuhQcFLI-TpYH63t-yC_DgXq7BlWOu4MpdCQXAGKoMBSeJ8bgaf3KRBEwd6bN13cQU_EuRmDxioC6OCfvHQaK28-kqGDsr5qTjSttl2f4IWkAobdsnPA/s238/index.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="211" data-original-width="238" height="177" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcJ-UCryc2iSovXnhAkIAuhQcFLI-TpYH63t-yC_DgXq7BlWOu4MpdCQXAGKoMBSeJ8bgaf3KRBEwd6bN13cQU_EuRmDxioC6OCfvHQaK28-kqGDsr5qTjSttl2f4IWkAobdsnPA/w200-h177/index.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I realized that there is a song by my favorite singer in the world, Oumou Sangaré (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oumou_Sangar%C3%A9" target="_blank">info</a>) which musically fits well to the Maki Asakawa song we had just heard: Magoya (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlmOSPnlmww" target="_blank">video</a>). Musically this song is similar and it showcases Oumou's amazing voice. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">At this point our FIUTS facilitator had to leave the group, but the student and I continued talking for a while.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE6-6VeKmGJlqlZB2wOkSDjKysROmz92Sfmhri5A4_5f5qpDUU850vamf18yvKfFT2BAGAkBTN17ojq6bww9_c0zqdYOlCdLIoSmBXvj-JEzIG3BQMNXvFdwOPxWei-dKNK8X8jA/s440/https+_images.genius.com_92e6ef7151a3ece56d2754dd38ef58d3.1000x1000x1.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="440" data-original-width="440" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE6-6VeKmGJlqlZB2wOkSDjKysROmz92Sfmhri5A4_5f5qpDUU850vamf18yvKfFT2BAGAkBTN17ojq6bww9_c0zqdYOlCdLIoSmBXvj-JEzIG3BQMNXvFdwOPxWei-dKNK8X8jA/w200-h200/https+_images.genius.com_92e6ef7151a3ece56d2754dd38ef58d3.1000x1000x1.png" width="200" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">We continued with "Beautiful People, Beautiful Problems" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vs_sURGuYys" target="_blank">video</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/Lana-del-rey-beautiful-people-beautiful-problems-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beautiful_People_Beautiful_Problems" target="_blank">song info</a>) by Lana Del Ray (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lana_Del_Rey" target="_blank">info</a>).</span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The student said she likes the use of the colors in the lyrics. She also likes the second singer's voice. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I noted that Lana's music sounds sad, like the Maki Asakawa song the student had chosen before. She said that she often likes songs in minor keys, that it creates an atmosphere of mysteriousness.<br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigijQMWA6QLMI_6fl62DOJI7puZMbINfm_vioibHU9L7F-In2vTki-dEKEPYDg8mW7sZIyOapjhCaXtnk3JaSAwA0kSCNANK5TbfhUyDCGk_gyU-Y0JRd29CUcF8esB19BsF1KuA/s300/FMacRumours.PNG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigijQMWA6QLMI_6fl62DOJI7puZMbINfm_vioibHU9L7F-In2vTki-dEKEPYDg8mW7sZIyOapjhCaXtnk3JaSAwA0kSCNANK5TbfhUyDCGk_gyU-Y0JRd29CUcF8esB19BsF1KuA/w200-h200/FMacRumours.PNG" width="200" /></a></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">That second voice is Stevie Nicks (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stevie_Nicks" target="_blank">info</a>), an icon of American music. Stevie was/is in Fleetwood Mac, whose album "Rumours" (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumours_(album)" target="_blank">info</a>) is one of the biggest selling albums of all time in America. It is the perfect soundtrack for romantic relationships breaking up, hahaha.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The student said she likes when a new singer does a duet with an older singer.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">She asked me if Oumou had done a duet with Beyonce. It turns out, Oumou's voice was used in the background of a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uxvt1KX2Y0" target="_blank">Beyonce remix</a>, but that wasn't a proper duet.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOR5kbN_IN0OJLllAS9TKAH8LRmPjcTfIrheU0f3BNWdxg_1v0AUNDLxN8xWXtr6DAUEv0Tax3ICLYzaljCDkD13vK0d_X1pfQGK_LnL6hu8mbvNIEwrFxG01vHU8xqP8MGIHeCw/s962/BeyonceSuperBowl.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="574" data-original-width="962" height="119" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOR5kbN_IN0OJLllAS9TKAH8LRmPjcTfIrheU0f3BNWdxg_1v0AUNDLxN8xWXtr6DAUEv0Tax3ICLYzaljCDkD13vK0d_X1pfQGK_LnL6hu8mbvNIEwrFxG01vHU8xqP8MGIHeCw/w200-h119/BeyonceSuperBowl.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">On the topic of Beyonce, I said that I appreciate how Beyonce makes strong statements in support of women and social justice for black people in the US. As an example of that, I showed the video of Beyonce's performance at the halftime of the Superbowl* in 2016 (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hZFz3bHUAg&t=28s" target="_blank">video</a>). We talked about the messages that the visuals in that performance, as well as the lyrics of the song, send to different people in different parts of American society.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>*The Superbowl is the championship game of American Football at the end of each season. The Superbowl is the biggest television event of the year in America, each year watched by about 100 million people. </i></span></span> </div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzup1WeQpjZJ9qp5FX5e97S-NUIQTtmZQpnnCIoCVnmqi43Nv5KUBqyDFJ_ZN_eVGomyeYK53qpNQCWrldFJoWgHNdnR2Mm7x7EseAnx5dF0zJgvhcssDRkWTsfNWMq9NYbLuIDw/s300/Alicia-keys-fallin-single.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="251" data-original-width="300" height="167" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzup1WeQpjZJ9qp5FX5e97S-NUIQTtmZQpnnCIoCVnmqi43Nv5KUBqyDFJ_ZN_eVGomyeYK53qpNQCWrldFJoWgHNdnR2Mm7x7EseAnx5dF0zJgvhcssDRkWTsfNWMq9NYbLuIDw/w200-h167/Alicia-keys-fallin-single.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Lastly, on the topic of duets, I played a duet of Alicia Keys (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alicia_Keys" target="_blank">info</a>), one of America's top soul singers, with Oumou Sangare. They did a live duet of Alicia's first big hit, "Fallin'" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBpInJbiw6M" target="_blank">live duet</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Urdlvw0SSEc" target="_blank">original version</a>, <a href="https://genius.com/Alicia-keys-fallin-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallin%27_(Alicia_Keys_song)" target="_blank">song info</a>). Because I like this song so much, I was excited to see this duet. But, as the student commented, it seems like they are singing two different songs simultaneously: Alicia is very controlled, while Oumou sings very freely. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Today I met new people, had an enjoyable conversation and discovered a new singer -- what a great re-start to the Language Of Music! :-)<br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Next Thursday's topic:</b> Songs for a rainy day, or songs about rain. Or, as always, any song you want to share and talk about! <br /></span></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31362773.post-42281861837402949732020-08-24T11:04:00.015-07:002020-10-08T13:20:24.681-07:00LOM will return in October 2020!<div style="text-align: left;"><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I have been moving around Europe for the past 5 years and didn't stay in one place long enough to re-start the Language Of Music conversation group. <br /></span></span></p></div><div style="text-align: left;"><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Now that I have returned to Seattle, I will host the weekly English conversation group through FIUTS at the University of Washington! </span></span></p></div><div style="text-align: left;"><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>The group will meet every Thursday afternoon from 5pm - 6pm (or longer, if people want to keep talking) Seattle time starting in October 2020.</b><br /></span></span></p></div><div style="text-align: left;"><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Due to Coronavirus, we will meet online with Zoom.</span></span></p></div><div style="text-align: left;"><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I have missed the conversations about music very much and can't wait to do it again!</span></span></p></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31362773.post-31674740015018909142015-10-17T00:35:00.001-07:002015-10-17T00:37:59.911-07:00LOM on hiatus<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In June 2015 I moved from Seattle to Europe to look for a job. When I have settled into a city I will continue with The Language Of Music conversation class there.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Until that time, "Rowing" by Soundgarden is my theme song (<a href="http://genius.com/Soundgarden-rowing-lyrics" target="_blank">lyrics</a>).</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6anTpe1WGAA" width="560"></iframe></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31362773.post-4658185314150244442015-05-12T23:56:00.012-07:002020-08-24T15:16:14.406-07:006 May 2015 (Wednesday)<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;">Today 7 students came to talk about songs about flowers (or Spring). </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;">[<i>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.</i>]</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;">Before talking about songs on the theme I asked a new student for an example of the music he likes. He choose "Latin Moon" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrQYqhWr3GA">video</a>, <a href="http://www.metrolyrics.com/latin-moon-lyrics-mia-martina.html">lyrics</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devotion_%28Mia_Martina_album%29">song info</a>) by Mia Martina (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mia_Martina">info</a>).</span></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDH5Ik5ZZvCidU7VGiW1zL4NSF5F7UXMqYdRIAz86UReY26YycMZ0EAbXr1eGYHAnCj1BaM03URaEWBFTbauokv054-TQfYbbmzbIdn_agOXkRMct7QsrU1asElkXCafIjaIdGBQ/s600/NirvanaInBloom.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="541" data-original-width="600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDH5Ik5ZZvCidU7VGiW1zL4NSF5F7UXMqYdRIAz86UReY26YycMZ0EAbXr1eGYHAnCj1BaM03URaEWBFTbauokv054-TQfYbbmzbIdn_agOXkRMct7QsrU1asElkXCafIjaIdGBQ/w200-h180/NirvanaInBloom.jpg" width="200" /></a></div></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;">Before proceeding I asked the students who had gone with me to the Kurt Cobain movie "Montage Of Heck" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqyPMyC2T0s">trailer</a>) 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" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbgKEjNBHqM">video</a>, <a href="http://genius.com/Nirvana-in-bloom-lyrics">lyrics</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Bloom">song info</a>). The student who chose this song likes the combination of the idea of people blossoming in youth and plants blossoming.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;">The next song chosen was a classic: "Here Comes The Sun" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxzEeKfpyIg">video with lyrics</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Here_Comes_the_Sun">song info</a>) by The Beatles (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beatles">info</a>). 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. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;">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".</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;">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 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=chinese+civilization+channel+2+hd">Chinese Civilization Channel 2</a>, 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!</span></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB4qiZDNGsCpqEw1AY8hwC8FCzrpes74En4EbVfzQ3bRsH8k7V-mP87tuKtchjprTTKU_TvviTd3NEx8KV_esxtYAz9jyQ9QCAlLRFljOHRiMXYRIukyvMDmRib7eyWMlViwW13w/s425/51eNhvuJblL.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="425" data-original-width="425" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB4qiZDNGsCpqEw1AY8hwC8FCzrpes74En4EbVfzQ3bRsH8k7V-mP87tuKtchjprTTKU_TvviTd3NEx8KV_esxtYAz9jyQ9QCAlLRFljOHRiMXYRIukyvMDmRib7eyWMlViwW13w/w200-h200/51eNhvuJblL.jpg" width="200" /></a></div></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;">Speaking of reggae and flowers, the next song was "A Flower" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91B1ecIUlqw">video with lyrics</a>) by Matzka (<a href="https://www.facebook.com/matzka.official">info</a>), a Taiwanese band.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;">The last song of the day was "Haru Yo Koi" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6__GdAGGtQ">video</a>, <a href="https://misachanjpop.wordpress.com/2012/03/22/haru-yo-koi-matsutoya-yumi/">lyrics</a>) by Yumi Matsutoya (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yumi_Matsutoya">info</a>). This is a very famous song about Spring in Japan.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;">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.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;">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.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31362773.post-4929171754956440232015-05-05T17:52:00.001-07:002020-08-24T15:02:30.325-07:0029 April 2015 (Wednesday)<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;">Today 8 students came to share songs on the subject of "Protest Songs" (inspired by May 1st at the end of the week and how each in Seattle there are "anti-capitalist" protests on May 1st).</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;">Before getting into protest songs we followed up something from the previous weekend: Taiwanese band Magic Power (<a href="http://www.jpopasia.com/group/magicpower/">info</a>) had played a free concert at the UW as part of a Taiwanese cultural festival. I had gone to see some of the show and it was a very interesting cultural experience for me. I asked one of the students who went to the concert which is her favorite song by Magic Power and she said "Who Am I" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWaLD5s_6vg">video with lyrics</a>). </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;">Also before starting class an announcement about a musical event, the Global Gala (<a href="http://www.fiuts.org/events/global-gala">info</a>) at the UW on Saturday 9 May from 8pm - midnight was made. Here's the description of the event from the website: "Global Gala is the FIUTS Student Board's farewell party for all students leaving or graduating at the end of the academic year. It is a chance to come together and celebrate one more time with all the friends, facilitators and staff you've met at UW."</span></span><br />
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<a href="http://www.tvweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/kurt-cobain-montage-of-heck-hbo.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://www.tvweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/kurt-cobain-montage-of-heck-hbo.jpg" width="135" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;">I suggested to the class that we go see the documentary about Kurt Cobain, "Montage Of Heck" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqyPMyC2T0s">trailer</a>) this coming weekend. We decided to go to the movie Sunday evening.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;"><i>[Report after the movie: 5 students joined me to see the movie and it seems like everyone had a good time, especially seeing the documentary about this cultural icon in his hometown of Seattle. BTW, a very good documentary about the whole early Seattle music scene is "Hype!" (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hype!">info</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5u5raLr1-fc">trailer</a>).]</i></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ9phu5ts3UNxZhGw8EOh2I4ZQ1zdTbI-dhCp6w-jhrazaIoz-GP5d5jkRssM4qmKYoruD4IL6u6iqkEtbZUL1JqIzBeEKsTEkXnc8xFwNPKBwNw40bW3FLnZkd0Pfx6nD17_dwQ/s828/Bumbershoot_2015.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="828" data-original-width="640" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ9phu5ts3UNxZhGw8EOh2I4ZQ1zdTbI-dhCp6w-jhrazaIoz-GP5d5jkRssM4qmKYoruD4IL6u6iqkEtbZUL1JqIzBeEKsTEkXnc8xFwNPKBwNw40bW3FLnZkd0Pfx6nD17_dwQ/w155-h200/Bumbershoot_2015.jpg" width="155" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;">We had one more topic before protest songs: The previous day the <a href="http://bumbershoot.com/images/ugc/uploads/misc/Bumbershoot_WebPoster_1500.jpg">lineup</a> for this year's Bumbershoot Festival (5, 6, 7 September) was announced. The general consensus among the group, including me, is that it's a weak lineup this year. </span></span><br />
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/15/Kraftwerk_Radio_Activity_album_cover.jpg/220px-Kraftwerk_Radio_Activity_album_cover.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/15/Kraftwerk_Radio_Activity_album_cover.jpg/220px-Kraftwerk_Radio_Activity_album_cover.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;">Ok, now we finally listened to our first protest song: "Radio-Activity (live in Japan 2012" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWsQgmq-fNs">video</a>, <a href="http://genius.com/Kraftwerk-radioactivity-lyrics">lyrics</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioactivity_%28song%29">song info</a>) by Kraftwerk (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kraftwerk">info</a>). You can see from the video how strongly the Japanese audience reacts to this song since Fukushima disaster. The student who picked this song had seen Kraftwerk perform it live and he said it was very powerful. It is notable that this song is not a typical "loud" protest song; it is quiet and that makes it more scary.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH_d0w_hmjuOs0kRvhrFMR5CIFlREGrqeU8vbBhBu74PK9QHedE5102EV6tb1gB2Q9oW5B3wdfUjIj2qcBdjixuzCoKzOiyTvu5Epq0W8EsZ3LKCDy4P_OwZsxPx6vuRw_BmaLVw/s640/Island%2527sSunriseFireEx.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="640" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH_d0w_hmjuOs0kRvhrFMR5CIFlREGrqeU8vbBhBu74PK9QHedE5102EV6tb1gB2Q9oW5B3wdfUjIj2qcBdjixuzCoKzOiyTvu5Epq0W8EsZ3LKCDy4P_OwZsxPx6vuRw_BmaLVw/w200-h200/Island%2527sSunriseFireEx.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>The next song was "Island's Sunrise" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iV8JDbtXZm4">video with lyrics</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunflower_Student_Movement">song info</a>) by Fire Ex (<a href="http://www.islandofsound.org/punksounds/fire_ex.html">info</a>). This song is from Taiwan and was a protest about the Taiwanese government passing legislation to change business rules with mainland China in just 30 seconds, without a public debate. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;">However, the subject of relations between mainland China and Taiwan is very emotional for both sides and it was clear that some of the Chinese students did not agree with this song. I have learned from teaching this class to generally stay away from China-Taiwan political discussions because it often leads to arguments.</span></span><br />
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/9a/U2_Sunday_Bloody_Sunday.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/9a/U2_Sunday_Bloody_Sunday.png" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;">So we moved on to another protest song. This time it was "Sunday Bloody Sunday" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EM4vblG6BVQ">video</a>, <a href="http://genius.com/U2-sunday-bloody-sunday-lyrics">lyrics</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunday_Bloody_Sunday">song info</a>) by U2 (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U2">info</a>). Interestingly the student who choose this song about UK vs Ireland relations back in the 70's and 80's is from France. He had very interesting interpretations of the song, about how it mixes peaceful and militaristic actions/protests, including the militaristic drumbeat and carrying out a white flag while doing a militaristic march, without actually saying one is right and one is wrong.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;">Speaking of US protest history, I played a little bit of "Ohio" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkg-bzTHeAk">video</a>, <a href="http://genius.com/Neil-young-ohio-lyrics">lyrics</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio_%28Crosby,_Stills,_Nash_%26_Young_song%29">song info</a>) by Neil Young (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Young">info</a>). This song is about when 4 students at Kent State University were shot dead by the American National Guard while protesting against the Vietnam War. It is a deep scar in American society that this happened.</span></span><br />
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f8/BornInTheUSAsinglecover.jpg/220px-BornInTheUSAsinglecover.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f8/BornInTheUSAsinglecover.jpg/220px-BornInTheUSAsinglecover.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;">The next song was a very intelligent pick for protest songs: "Born In The USA" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPhWR4d3FJQ">video</a>, <a href="http://genius.com/Bruce-springsteen-born-in-the-usa-lyrics">lyrics</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Born_in_the_U.S.A._%28song%29">song info</a>) by Bruce Springsteen (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Springsteen">info</a>). I have talked about this song often in class, but in short, most Americans only listen to the chorus "Born in the USA" and think of it as patriotic, but if you read the lyrics it's a protest song against how hard life can be for some people in the USA and how the guy in the song gets sent off to Vietnam just because he's not rich enough to get out of it, which mirrors the reality at that time: many men of fighting age during the Vietnam War did everything they could to avoid going there to fight and it was the poor ones who had less ways/opportunities to find ways to avoid service.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;">The last song of the day was not a protest song. I asked one of the new students to share a song she likes so we could get a sense of her taste in music. She chose "Cosa Siamo" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4g3dRUe062c">video with Italian lyrics in notes</a>) by Tatiana Sporzon. This student said lyrics are very important to her when listening to music and she discovered this song by watching a video that had the lyrics translated into Chinese and she was touched by the lyrics. I like this song but can't find any more information about the artist or the song! :-(</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;">With that class was over for the week. In English we say "April showers bring May flowers" so my suggested theme for next week's class is "flowers". But of course, any song the students want to share with the class are welcome! </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31362773.post-39545125840198129742015-04-28T23:35:00.001-07:002020-08-24T15:06:13.539-07:0022 April 2015 (Wednesday)<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;">Today 7 students (2 new) came to talk about their first song/cd they bought.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;"></span></span><a href="http://www.jpopasia.com/i1/celebrities/1/30065-wagakkiband-y5bj.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="99" src="http://www.jpopasia.com/i1/celebrities/1/30065-wagakkiband-y5bj.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;">While I set up the equipment we watched a bit of a song by by Wagakki Band (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wagakki_Band">info</a>) which was a band YouTube suggested to me when I wrote last week's blog. I posted a question to the LOM Facebook group asking if any of the Japanese students know about this band, but it turns out that in my class only Chinese students know about this Japanese band, hahahaha! However, since the name of the song we watched was in Japanese, I can't find it again as I write this blog, sorry!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;">The first song chosen on the day's topic was "Koi No Maiahi" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4N2Jzv-FXo">video</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragostea_din_tei#Lyrics">lyrics</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragostea_din_tei">song info</a>) by O-Zone (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O-Zone">info</a>). What's funny about this song is that to my ears it sounds like it's sung in Japanese, but it's actually sung in Romanian!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;">One of the Chinese students recognized this song so we watched the Chinese version of it (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dU8XfgxOOB4">video</a>), which is in Chinese, not Romanian! Since this is the karaoke version, sing along!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;">At this point I asked everyone in class about whether music was often played in their family home. Most students apparently didn't have a lot of music playing at home!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA89fO_Pt1ra5sH87qhCWqrrzjH-bXRx9NLl0Eg5A_jy1cDIp20B6zUpoDsfi5RbI68xz01Tinmy9AFhQTmxXBMVCnRJ4bd6bgPuE-FJU0Np3nKyTSLgxnrQJ0Is_6t4wJbSLLMQ/s376/MaydayYourLegend.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="370" data-original-width="376" height="197" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA89fO_Pt1ra5sH87qhCWqrrzjH-bXRx9NLl0Eg5A_jy1cDIp20B6zUpoDsfi5RbI68xz01Tinmy9AFhQTmxXBMVCnRJ4bd6bgPuE-FJU0Np3nKyTSLgxnrQJ0Is_6t4wJbSLLMQ/w200-h197/MaydayYourLegend.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>Next I asked one of the new students what kind of music she likes. She said her favorite band is Mayday (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayday_%28Taiwanese_band%29">info</a>). As an example of Mayday we watched "Your Legend" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XYcCNY-ass">video</a>, <a href="http://asiapacificarts.usc.edu/w_apa/showarticle.aspx?articleID=19733&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1">lyrics + song info</a>), which is not necessarily the student's favorite song, just a recent song by the band. We talked about how bands start independent then seem to lose connection to passionate songwriting as they become more successful.</span></span><br />
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/zh/c/c3/Mayday_1st_Album.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="168" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/zh/c/c3/Mayday_1st_Album.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;">The first song that got the student into Mayday was "Embrace" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEgc1mS0_Ms">video</a>, <a href="http://www.jpopasia.com/group/mayday/lyrics/the-world-is-ours/embrace::37165.html">lyrics</a>), so we had to hear that one! :-)</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;">The next "first song bought" was "No Dejes Que" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrYfuNAxSUA">video</a>, <a href="http://www.musica.com/letras.asp?letra=74597">lyrics</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_silencio">song info</a>) by Caifanes (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caifanes">info</a>), a band our student from Mexico City has played for us before. He bought this song on cassette originally. Caifanes was his favorite band as a pre-teen and this song was the first one he ever learned to play on guitar.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;">Next up was "光と影の間" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlWuzBZGgzQ">video</a>) by Atlantis Airport (<a href="http://atlantisairport.com/contents/">website</a>) which is pretty much the opposite of the first song the student bought -- it's a new band she likes. It sounds related to her recent interest in modern jazz music. Cool song!</span></span><br />
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/6/65/Jaychou_fantasy.jpg/220px-Jaychou_fantasy.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="190" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/6/65/Jaychou_fantasy.jpg/220px-Jaychou_fantasy.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;">The next song was "Nuncucks" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OR-0wptI_u0">video with lyrics</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy_%28Jay_Chou_album%29">song info</a>) by Jay Chou (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Chou">info</a>). I was surprised that the student chose this song as the student usually likes more mellow songs. He said it is true that he normally likes mellower songs. So we listened to another, mellower song of Jay, "Common Orange Jasmin (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEfQJaYFonw">video with lyrics and translation below video</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Jasmin_Orange">song info</a>). While this song was playing all the Chinese students in the class talked about how this song brings back childhood memories.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;">To end the day I asked the other new student what kind of music she likes. She had had time by this point to think about what the first song she ever bought was so we listened to it: "Sk8er Boi" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIy3n2b7V9k">video</a>, <a href="https://play.google.com/music/preview/Txkrgfniy34wd4escpawkdjm5xi?lyrics=1&utm_source=google&utm_medium=search&utm_campaign=lyrics&pcampaignid=kp-lyrics">lyrics</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sk8er_Boi">song info</a>) by Avril Lavigne (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avril_Lavigne">info</a>). She said she used to listen to it on repeat in the car. I asked how long her parents put up with that, and she laughed. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;">With that our time for the week was over. In honor of 1 May, which always brings riots in downtown Seattle and on Capitol Hill, this week's theme is protest songs. Or songs about May Day from your country. Or any song you have been listening to lately.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31362773.post-53572378041686516322015-04-21T01:14:00.001-07:002020-08-24T15:10:10.802-07:0015 April 2015 (Wednesday)<span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Today only 4 students came to talk music. Maybe it was because people decided to stay outside and enjoy the sunny spring weather? </span></span><br />
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/0/03/Chick_Corea_Trilogy.jpg/220px-Chick_Corea_Trilogy.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/0/03/Chick_Corea_Trilogy.jpg/220px-Chick_Corea_Trilogy.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I had read an album review about a jazz piano album ("Trilogy" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Owo2UR7N4jM&list=PL08RbedBncJYSQHX4JJp3ajIMwLr3mKXg">music</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trilogy_%28Chick_Corea_album%29">info</a>) by Chick Corea (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chick_Corea">info</a>) that said it was wonderful so I started class by asking one of the students, who is learning piano, if he also likes jazz piano music, in addition to the classical piano he plays. He said he much prefers classical.</span></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">By the way, my favorite instrument in jazz is the drums.</span></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Speaking of jazz, Sunday, 19 April, I saw a GREAT concert by a local "jazz" band called Tuatara (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuatara_%28band%29">info</a>). But calling their music "jazz" gets into the whole question of "what is jazz?" because what they play is very different from Miles Davis, Chick Corea or bohemianvoodoo, all of which are considered jazz. </span></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">By the way, while the group is led by Barrett Martin, who was the drummer for Seattle grunge bands Screaming Trees and Mad Season, and Mike McCready from Pearl Jam is a guest artists on the album, it's definitely NOT rock. But it *is* very groovy and very creative. It's not rock music, but it rocks! Here's an example of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNq8S8fHv0M">what Tuatara's music is like (video)</a>.</span></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Before we started talking about specific songs I asked the Japanese student in the class whether I should go see a performance of traditional Japanese "Gagaku". But once we watched a little <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OA8HFUNfIk">clip of Gagaku</a> I realized it's probably a bit too slow for me.</span></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUQ9Ee9muCuvwIngSQUyzbD9YkdZkvrqsvNIgMzEfVkw08liKV0lbWLR46I-Lwne_-O82lkWqFYdtVQAm8n5IXF4e7GBYZ3mQNy_N0pVrnIqrmoXHnL9G8bYzDZ5f4Wzbur73E4A/s599/YoshidaRising.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="590" data-original-width="599" height="197" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUQ9Ee9muCuvwIngSQUyzbD9YkdZkvrqsvNIgMzEfVkw08liKV0lbWLR46I-Lwne_-O82lkWqFYdtVQAm8n5IXF4e7GBYZ3mQNy_N0pVrnIqrmoXHnL9G8bYzDZ5f4Wzbur73E4A/w200-h197/YoshidaRising.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>But it did remind me of how one of my very first Language Of Music students played Yoshida Brothers (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshida_Brothers">info</a>) "Rising" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_CzD0GBD-4">video</a>) for the class as an example of traditional + modern Japanese music. This song is really cool. And a few months later Yoshida Brothers played a concert in a small theater in Seattle and I went with the student to see the show. It was great -- I got to see a band I had never heard of before and she got to see a band that only plays big venues in Japan in a small Seattle theater!</span></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">[As I was writing this blog and looking for the Yoshida Brothers video YouTube presented me with an advertisement for a band that is doing the next progression of this modern + traditional concept: a band of all hot chicks and boys playing a whole host of traditional instruments overlaying frantic heavy metal (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=K_xTet06SUo">video</a>). I'm kind of fascinated by this mix but I can't exactly say I like it.]</span></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">At this point in the class I started talking about some business ideas I have. I described the concepts to the class and asked them if they like the ideas. Let's just say I better hope I have a different target audience than my students.</span></span><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLz0JA_naY0P9wueIqKDZwvoMPLMluEiLYqWQluPZzTGaV7YTt-xtNx0W24aLrPtqmBnQVJrKNd_7Knj1y6IkaSQmkberAmWQh7TK7imma_2lBMpe0kZEI9BSlRT_oX_vQd6Fwuw/s480/LosDynamite.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="480" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLz0JA_naY0P9wueIqKDZwvoMPLMluEiLYqWQluPZzTGaV7YTt-xtNx0W24aLrPtqmBnQVJrKNd_7Knj1y6IkaSQmkberAmWQh7TK7imma_2lBMpe0kZEI9BSlRT_oX_vQd6Fwuw/w200-h150/LosDynamite.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The next song we played was "Ready Ready" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Za-YaOsjZjA">video</a>, <a href="http://www.lyricsbox.com/los-dynamite-lyrics-ready-ready-3p8v997.html">lyrics</a>) by Los Dynamite (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Dynamite">info</a>). Unusually for Mexico, this band sings mostly in English.</span></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">We talked a bit about bands singing in English rather their mother tongue. This led to watching the video for "Real Thing Shakes" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OX3ZrmfnlbA">video</a>, <a href="http://lyrics.wikia.com/B%27z:Real_Thing_Shakes">lyrics</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%27z_The_Best_%22Treasure%22">song info</a>) by B'z (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%27z">info</a>). Apparently this band was very popular in Japan in the 1980's -- how have I never even heard of them?!? </span></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In the 1980's the Japanese band all my friends liked was Loudness (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_(band)">info</a>). Their most famous song in the US was "Crazy Nights" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Q-sspKzRx4">video</a>, <a href="http://www.metrolyrics.com/crazy-nights-lyrics-loudness.html">lyrics</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunder_in_the_East_%28album%29">song info</a>). But no one in the class liked this song.</span></span><br />
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/ae/Perfume_-_LEVEL3.png/220px-Perfume_-_LEVEL3.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="197" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/ae/Perfume_-_LEVEL3.png/220px-Perfume_-_LEVEL3.png" width="200" /></a></div>
<span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The last song we listened to was by the band Perfume (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfume_%28Japanese_band%29">info</a>) from their performance at SXSW (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-7UPZg_qOM">video</a>). Perfume is the most successful Japanese electronic bands currently. The presentation of the band isn't exactly musical, but it is creative and visually fascinating. I would file this more under "visual performance with music background" than "music". But it's all entertainment, right?</span></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">With that our time for the week was over. I'm still trying to decide what the theme for next week's class will be...</span></span><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31362773.post-70080166658570587572015-04-14T23:37:00.002-07:002020-08-24T15:13:10.613-07:008 April 2015 (Wednesday)<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;">The first class of Spring Quarter! 7 students came, 2 of whom were new.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;">I started class by asking each student what they did during the Spring break. And I asked what music was the soundtrack to the break.</span></span><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYaG-YJvXXDRm-irSt-lk7KIZ7oPSb17RrcWC0Y1V67XVrXqgFjQyav9wvLJqgHTNg4KXtWrZ7EWCD0z32KNPKtYvoM_QAsqFdgSyGYIHOR8z58TqCN8Iobi-41s5FNzD1cXRuww/s400/Bohemiavoodoo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="400" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYaG-YJvXXDRm-irSt-lk7KIZ7oPSb17RrcWC0Y1V67XVrXqgFjQyav9wvLJqgHTNg4KXtWrZ7EWCD0z32KNPKtYvoM_QAsqFdgSyGYIHOR8z58TqCN8Iobi-41s5FNzD1cXRuww/w200-h200/Bohemiavoodoo.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;">One student said she started listening to a lot of jazz during the break. An example as "Adria Blue" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjDrEdEzfQc">video</a>) by bohemianvoodoo (<a href="http://bohemianvoodoo.jp/">website</a>). She said she likes the music to start the day because it's relaxing.</span></span><br />
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/9c/MilesDavisKindofBlue.jpg/220px-MilesDavisKindofBlue.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/9c/MilesDavisKindofBlue.jpg/220px-MilesDavisKindofBlue.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;">There are many "kinds" of jazz from traditional to relaxing to challenging. I've said it before and I'll say it again, one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever recorded was Miles Davis's (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miles_Davis">info</a>) "Kind Of Blue" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqNTltOGh5c&list=PLdhGk7gKuZxb4O6tA2mcrIoV1eiPfDEOu">videos</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kind_of_Blue">album info</a>). </span></span><br />
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/82/Sspu_ps_cover.jpg/220px-Sspu_ps_cover.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/82/Sspu_ps_cover.jpg/220px-Sspu_ps_cover.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;">Another student discovered the band Silversun Pickups (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silversun_Pickups">info</a>) over the break. He heard song "Panic Switch" </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;">(<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AG8fugqFn9Q">video</a>, <a href="http://www.metrolyrics.com/panic-switch-lyrics-silversun-pickups.html">lyrics</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_Switch">song info</a>) </span></span>in a Starbucks in Portland, OR and Shazamed (<a href="http://shazam.com/">website</a>) it to find out which band it is. He said that so far he has only listened to the one Silversun Pickups album: he wants to become very familiar with it before moving to one of their other albums. Maybe he'll find a new favorite song later. </span></span><br />
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<a href="http://mediamedusa.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/animal.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="135" src="http://mediamedusa.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/animal.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;">SZ note: the drummer in the "Panic Switch" video looks to me like Animal from the Muppets (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=qisaGTajtvk#t=71">video</a>). I wonder if he does that on purpose?</span></span><br />
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/26/Anastacia-IBtY.jpg/220px-Anastacia-IBtY.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="173" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/26/Anastacia-IBtY.jpg/220px-Anastacia-IBtY.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;">One of the new students is from Italy so a student asked to hear a typical Italian singer/song. The song chosen was "I Belong To You" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ei5CP4ydgak">video</a>, <a href="https://play.google.com/music/preview/Tdeepul7mflryudfbyzztb6e3cu?lyrics=1&utm_source=google&utm_medium=search&utm_campaign=lyrics&pcampaignid=kp-lyrics">lyrics</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Belong_to_You_%28Il_Ritmo_della_Passione%29">song info</a>) by Eros Ramazzoti (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eros_Ramazzotti">info</a>) with Anastacia (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anastacia">info</a>). Interestingly, Anastacia is American but nobody in America knows about her while she is a huge star in Europe.</span></span><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxodKZ97k5qnFgQLoStTInsBl1m3tNg__c0xz3GbsDcudQT994xfDVWR6dnpRTYOpG1SkMYZDeNCxPsFthJF7ZnXo0ZXauczf2MNJOkbPGlxem0f5BiBa3oi2bYYv3xJLEoIQ2wQ/s500/IlVoloElTriste.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="500" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxodKZ97k5qnFgQLoStTInsBl1m3tNg__c0xz3GbsDcudQT994xfDVWR6dnpRTYOpG1SkMYZDeNCxPsFthJF7ZnXo0ZXauczf2MNJOkbPGlxem0f5BiBa3oi2bYYv3xJLEoIQ2wQ/w200-h200/IlVoloElTriste.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;">The next song was an other Italian group: Il Volo (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Il_Volo">info</a>) singing "El Triste" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAu1zTbAocE">video</a>, <a href="http://letras.com/il-volo/el-triste/">lyrics</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Triste">song info</a>). </span></span><br />
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/71/Sourgirl.JPG/220px-Sourgirl.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="176" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/71/Sourgirl.JPG/220px-Sourgirl.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;">Two students from class were going to see a concert tonight: Stone Temple Pilots (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_Temple_Pilots">info</a>). I asked one of the students to pick one of his favorite STP songs. He chose "Sour Girl" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxS4lqppZ6Y">video</a>, <a href="https://play.google.com/music/preview/Tbprvejmghvmj2chi34uonnxaia?lyrics=1&utm_source=google&utm_medium=search&utm_campaign=lyrics&pcampaignid=kp-lyrics">lyrics</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sour_Girl">song info</a>). Which is a nice song! But I think of the band as being more loud than that song: I think of them more like their first single, "Sex Type Thing" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUdOXyBUG3Q">video</a>, <a href="http://www.metrolyrics.com/sex-type-thing-lyrics-stone-temple-pilots.html">lyrics</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_Type_Thing">song info</a>). </span></span><br />
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/22/Westlife-facetoface.jpg/220px-Westlife-facetoface.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/22/Westlife-facetoface.jpg/220px-Westlife-facetoface.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;">Now we asked the other new student to choose a song he likes. He chose "You Raise Me Up" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bxc9hbwkkw">video</a>, <a href="https://play.google.com/music/preview/Tkhulpxseu5owitnlxkuluhphpq?lyrics=1&utm_source=google&utm_medium=search&utm_campaign=lyrics&pcampaignid=kp-lyrics">lyrics</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Raise_Me_Up">song info</a>) by Westlife (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westlife">info</a>). There can hardly be a bigger difference between Westlife and Stone Temple Pilots, but that's one reason I love hosting this conversation group!</span></span><br />
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<a href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51uHufss6GL._SY300_.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51uHufss6GL._SY300_.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;">The next song chosen was "Put The Gun Down" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5chkHjTNFgk">video</a>, <a href="http://www.metrolyrics.com/put-the-gun-down-lyrics-zz-ward.html">lyrics</a>) by ZZ Ward (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZZ_Ward">info</a>). The student who chose this song heard it first on the TV show The Voice (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Voice_%28TV_series%29">info</a>). I have to admit, I kind of like The Voice. Here's the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ts0hVypeUK0">version of "Put The Gun Down" from The Voice</a> that the student originally heard; she prefers this version to ZZ Ward's original.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;">Speaking of The Voice, there's a contestant originally from Seattle in the current season: Kimberly Nicole (<a href="http://www.nbc.com/the-voice/artists/season-8/kimberly-nichole">info</a>). "The House Of The Rising Son" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSRa6F4lhHM">video</a>).</span></span><br />
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/2e/KT_Tunstall_-_Black_Horse_%26_The_Cherry_Tree.jpg/220px-KT_Tunstall_-_Black_Horse_%26_The_Cherry_Tree.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/2e/KT_Tunstall_-_Black_Horse_%26_The_Cherry_Tree.jpg/220px-KT_Tunstall_-_Black_Horse_%26_The_Cherry_Tree.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;">The rhythm of </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;">"Put The Gun Down" </span></span>reminded me of the song "Black Horse And The Cherry Tree" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DehtqLVmdcA">video</a>, <a href="http://www.metrolyrics.com/black-horse-the-cherry-tree-lyrics-kt-tunstall.html">lyrics</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Horse_and_the_Cherry_Tree">song info</a>) by KT Tunstall (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KT_Tunstall">info</a>). My favorite version of that song is the one where she plays it live on a TV show in France and builds the parts of the song up piece-by-piece using a sampler on stage, see link above. I could never keep track of all those parts!</span></span><br />
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/58/Damon-albarn-everyday-robots.jpg/220px-Damon-albarn-everyday-robots.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/58/Damon-albarn-everyday-robots.jpg/220px-Damon-albarn-everyday-robots.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;">The last song of the day was "Hostiles (live)" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VZd-U-8PeU">video</a>, <a href="http://genius.com/Damon-albarn-hostiles-lyrics">lyrics</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everyday_Robots">song info</a>) by Damon Albarn (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damon_Albarn">info</a>).</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;">With that, the first class of the quarter ended. Next week's class will be in the same room, HUB 307. Theme for next class will be "Songs About Springtime".</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="" style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31362773.post-14865829402072279352015-04-07T01:03:00.000-07:002015-04-07T01:03:18.817-07:0011 March 2015 (Wednesday)<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Today was the last class of Winter Quarter -- this quarter flew by! Only 6 students showed up, I guess attendance was low because people were studying for finals.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The theme today was music which students listen to while studying. </span></span><br />
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/ce/Edward_Elgar.jpg/275px-Edward_Elgar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/ce/Edward_Elgar.jpg/275px-Edward_Elgar.jpg" height="200" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The first song we listened to was "Salut d'Amour" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecM7_3rs5gU">video</a>) by Edward Elgar (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Elgar">info</a>), which is the song one of the regular students who plays piano is practicing.</span></span><br />
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/71/Get_Lucky.jpg/220px-Get_Lucky.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/71/Get_Lucky.jpg/220px-Get_Lucky.jpg" height="200" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The first "study" song chosen was "Get Lucky" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5EofwRzit0">video with lyrics</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Get_Lucky_%28Daft_Punk_song%29">song info</a>) by Daft Punk (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daft_Punk">info</a>). The student who chose this song likes the melody and the lyrics, especially "we've come to far to give up", as it relates to studying.</span></span><br />
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/89/Chicfreak.jpg/220px-Chicfreak.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/89/Chicfreak.jpg/220px-Chicfreak.jpg" height="189" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I mentioned to the class that this song reminds me a lot of the song from the 70's "Le Freak" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1qQ1SKNlgY">video</a>, <a href="http://www.metrolyrics.com/le-freak-lyrics-chic.html">lyrics</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Freak">song info</a>) by Chic (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chic_(band)">info</a>). Man, I *loved* this song when I was in middle school! It's probably not a coincidence that the guitarist for Chic plays on "Get Lucky". </span></span><br />
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d1/Robin_Thicke_Blurred_Lines_Cover.svg/220px-Robin_Thicke_Blurred_Lines_Cover.svg.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d1/Robin_Thicke_Blurred_Lines_Cover.svg/220px-Robin_Thicke_Blurred_Lines_Cover.svg.png" height="200" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Bands/songs often wear their influences on their sleeves but this week the landmark decision was made in US court that the song "Blurred Lines" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyDUC1LUXSU">video</a>, <a href="http://www.metrolyrics.com/blurred-lines-lyrics-robin-thicke.html">lyrics</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blurred_Lines">song info</a>) by Robin Thicke (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Thicke">info</a>) and Pharrell (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharrell_Williams">info</a>, also on "Get Lucky") had copied "Got To Give It Up" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75BlzjqGVcc">video</a>, <a href="http://genius.com/Marvin-gaye-got-to-give-it-up-lyrics">lyrics</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Got_to_Give_It_Up">song info</a>) by Marvin Gaye (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Gaye">info</a>). We talked a little about whether this court decision is fair.</span></span><br />
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/ad/XTRMNTR_album_cover.jpg/220px-XTRMNTR_album_cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/ad/XTRMNTR_album_cover.jpg/220px-XTRMNTR_album_cover.jpg" height="200" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The next "studying" song was "Swastika Eyes" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtAnM8YegF0">video</a>, <a href="http://lyrics.wikia.com/Primal_Scream:Swastika_Eyes">lyrics</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XTRMNTR">song info</a>) by Primal Scream (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primal_Scream">info</a>). The student who chose this songs likes fast, loud music when he is studying. I can't imagine studying to this racket, but he got into one of the best universities in Japan, so it must work for him!</span></span><br />
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<a href="http://static.tumblr.com/06365f6dd8530d70d1939abe89ff2cc9/63a5dh9/VbFmpdjus/tumblr_static_lj_peque.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://static.tumblr.com/06365f6dd8530d70d1939abe89ff2cc9/63a5dh9/VbFmpdjus/tumblr_static_lj_peque.png" height="200" width="198" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The next song chosen was "Azul" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsNBHqRV664">video</a>, <a href="http://www.musica.com/letras.asp?letra=2141937">lyrics</a>) by the band Little Jesus (<a href="https://es-es.facebook.com/thelittlejesus">band Facebook page</a>). The student who chose this song says it puts him in a happy mood.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">That student mentioned that this weekend the Vive Latino Festival (<a href="http://www.vivelatino.com.mx/">info</a>), the best music festival in Mexico each year was taking place.</span></span><br />
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<a href="http://s1.ticketm.net/tm/es-mx/dbimages/104163a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://s1.ticketm.net/tm/es-mx/dbimages/104163a.jpg" height="147" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">One band playing the festival is Nortec Collective (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nortec_Collective">info</a>). We checked out their song "Tijuana Sound Machine" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAkk3MqxOY8">video</a>).</span></span><br />
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/95/Gotan_Tango3.0_Cover.jpg/220px-Gotan_Tango3.0_Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/95/Gotan_Tango3.0_Cover.jpg/220px-Gotan_Tango3.0_Cover.jpg" height="200" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">This made me think of the band Gotan Project (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gotan_Project">info</a>). Their mix of modern and traditional tango style music is interesting to me. As an example of their music I played "La Gloria" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFzk_MX1DCo">video</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tango_3.0">song info</a>).</span></span><br />
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<a href="http://d1ya1fm0bicxg1.cloudfront.net/2015/01/clean-bandit-tickets_04-22-15_17_54b99cd99bdf0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://d1ya1fm0bicxg1.cloudfront.net/2015/01/clean-bandit-tickets_04-22-15_17_54b99cd99bdf0.jpg" height="117" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Someone mentioned that Clean Bandit (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_Bandit">info</a>), who has that sweet song </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>"Rather Be" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-M1AtrxztU">video</a>, <a href="https://play.google.com/music/preview/Tgia5gw2jipeycojwcgvrzdc5za?lyrics=1&utm_source=google&utm_medium=search&utm_campaign=lyrics&pcampaignid=kp-lyrics">lyrics</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rather_Be_%28Clean_Bandit_song%29">song info</a>)</span> is playing at the Showbox (<a href="http://showboxonline.com/">website</a>) on 21 April.</span></span><br />
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<a href="http://www.israbox.com/uploads/posts/2011-07/1310918747_500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.israbox.com/uploads/posts/2011-07/1310918747_500.jpg" height="200" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The next studying songs chosen were "Arabesques" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28Qi4jLtigc">video</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deux_arabesques">song info</a>) by Debussy (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Debussy">info</a>) and Kaleidoscope (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bm-Ijm5X84w">video</a>) by DJ Okawari (<a href="http://www.djokawari.com/home.html">website</a>).</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">At this point I learned that two of the students in today's class will be leaving Seattle at the end of this quarter! I asked them if they have any songs which mean "Seattle" for them. </span></span><br />
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4f/Allofmejohnlegend.jpg/220px-Allofmejohnlegend.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4f/Allofmejohnlegend.jpg/220px-Allofmejohnlegend.jpg" height="200" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">One chose "All Of Me" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=450p7goxZqg">video</a>, <a href="https://play.google.com/music/preview/Tm3frvdfnyjp762fuukqgkkatga?lyrics=1&utm_source=google&utm_medium=search&utm_campaign=lyrics&pcampaignid=kp-lyrics">lyrics</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_of_Me_%28John_Legend_song%29">song info</a>) by John Legend (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Legend">info</a>).</span></span><br />
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/2b/Bruno_Mars_-_Treasure.jpg/220px-Bruno_Mars_-_Treasure.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/2b/Bruno_Mars_-_Treasure.jpg/220px-Bruno_Mars_-_Treasure.jpg" height="200" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The other chose "Treasure" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPvuNsRccVw">video</a>, <a href="https://play.google.com/music/preview/Tuibwtagcscd276nttl67fl4xdy?lyrics=1&utm_source=google&utm_medium=search&utm_campaign=lyrics&pcampaignid=kp-lyrics">lyrics</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treasure_%28Bruno_Mars_song%29">song info</a>) by Bruno Mars (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruno_Mars">info</a>) because this quarter she was in Seattle is a treasured good memory.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">With that our time for the day -- and the quarter -- were over. We will continue again on 8 April.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31362773.post-43268528867570925762015-04-06T23:51:00.001-07:002015-04-06T23:51:22.913-07:004 March 2015 (Wednesday)<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Today 9 students came to class.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The previous week I had mentioned to the class what my phone ringtone is and that led me to wanting to hear what the students have as their ringtones. So I started class by asking each person what his/her ringtone is.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">To my great surprise, almost everyone has the default ringtone! They said it's too much hassle to change it or create a new one. </span></span><br />
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/d/d4/Taylor_Swift_-_22.png/220px-Taylor_Swift_-_22.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/d/d4/Taylor_Swift_-_22.png/220px-Taylor_Swift_-_22.png" height="200" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The one person who has a custom ring tone has "22" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgFeZr5ptV8">video</a>, <a href="http://www.directlyrics.com/taylor-swift-22-lyrics.html">lyrics</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/22_%28Taylor_Swift_song%29">song info</a>) by Taylor Swift (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taylor_Swift">info</a>). She put it on when she turned 22 years old herself and just hasn't changed it since.</span></span><br />
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/7e/Dontlookbackinanger.jpg/220px-Dontlookbackinanger.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/7e/Dontlookbackinanger.jpg/220px-Dontlookbackinanger.jpg" height="200" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Someone said they previously had "Don't Look Back In Anger" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8OipmKFDeM">video</a>, <a href="http://www.metrolyrics.com/dont-look-back-in-anger-lyrics-oasis.html">lyrics</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_Look_Back_in_Anger">song info</a>) by Oasis (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oasis_(band)">info</a>).</span></span><br />
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<a href="http://www.tekste.com/photo/artist/290050.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.tekste.com/photo/artist/290050.jpg" height="133" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Another student had had "From Nowhere (demo version)" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0hGsPP4rj4">video</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaquero_%28album%29">song info</a>) by Vaquero (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaquero_%28band%29">info</a>).</span></span><br />
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<a href="http://i.ytimg.com/vi/J7or0noYfMA/hqdefault.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i.ytimg.com/vi/J7or0noYfMA/hqdefault.jpg" height="150" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I know we next watched "Summer (live version)" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEb4TG10jW8">video</a>) by Joe Hisaishi (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Hisaishi">info</a>). But now I can't remember if the person who chose it said it was formerly a ringtone.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Someone else said they had a ringtone from "Saints Row" (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saints_Row">info</a>) video game, but I don't know which song or part of the game he used.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">So much for ringtones... now we got into regular song choices.</span></span><br />
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<a href="http://dvfnvgxhycwzf.cloudfront.net/media/ArticleSharedImage/image350/ArticleSharedImage-21778.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://dvfnvgxhycwzf.cloudfront.net/media/ArticleSharedImage/image350/ArticleSharedImage-21778.jpg" height="200" width="199" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">One student said he is going to a concert this coming Sunday by </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">2:54</span></span> (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2:54">info</a>). We watched their song "</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Scarlet</span></span>" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGH7bKlABIc">video</a>, <a href="http://twofiftyfour.tumblr.com/lyrics">lyrics</a>). Cool song! </span></span><br />
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<a href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/713mDptPKrL._SL1282_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/713mDptPKrL._SL1282_.jpg" height="179" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">One of the other students reminded us that she went to see a concert by Leighton Meester (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leighton_Meester">info</a>) the previous week. She said that it was a good concert. Her favorite song was "Heartstrings" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4qG2k4R3cA">video</a>, <a href="http://www.metrolyrics.com/heart-strings-lyrics-leighton-meester.html">lyrics</a>). </span></span><br />
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/54/Searching-for-sugar-man--poster.jpg/220px-Searching-for-sugar-man--poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/54/Searching-for-sugar-man--poster.jpg/220px-Searching-for-sugar-man--poster.jpg" height="200" width="151" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In an class a few weeks ago a student had said she was really into the artist Rodriguez (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sixto_Rodriguez">info</a>), especially his lyrics, who the film "Searching For Sugar Man" (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Searching_for_Sugar_Man">info</a>) was made about. A student mentioned he watched the film. I still need to see that movie!</span></span><br />
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/b0/Lykke_Li_-_Wounded_Rhymes_album_cover.jpg/220px-Lykke_Li_-_Wounded_Rhymes_album_cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/b0/Lykke_Li_-_Wounded_Rhymes_album_cover.jpg/220px-Lykke_Li_-_Wounded_Rhymes_album_cover.jpg" height="200" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The next song chosen was "Youth Knows No Pain" </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">(<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QohnNnuPpDk">video with lyrics</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wounded_Rhymes">song info</a>) by Lykki Li (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lykke_Li">info</a>). The student who chose this song </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">likes the 60's sound of the song. He </span></span>discovered it by a friend emailing a different song by Li, which the student didn't like, but then tried this song and likes it. </span></span><br />
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/46/The_Age_of_the_Understatement.jpg/220px-The_Age_of_the_Understatement.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/46/The_Age_of_the_Understatement.jpg/220px-The_Age_of_the_Understatement.jpg" height="200" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The 60's sound of that song inspired me to ask if one of the guys in the class who *loves* Arctic Monkeys has ever heard of the band The Last Shadow Puppets (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Shadow_Puppets">info</a>), which features the singer/guitarist for Arctic Monkeys. To me it's a brilliant update on the 60's sound. As a sample I played "The Age Of The Understatement" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGV8xCkpXjE">video</a>, <a href="http://www.metrolyrics.com/the-age-of-the-understatement-lyrics-the-last-shadow-puppets.html">lyrics</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Age_of_the_Understatement_%28song%29">song info</a>).</span></span><br />
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<a href="http://www.otonomai.net/forum/index.php?app=downloads&module=display&section=screenshot&record=63637&id=54854" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.otonomai.net/forum/index.php?app=downloads&module=display&section=screenshot&record=63637&id=54854" height="200" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">For some reason we started talking about "shoegaze" music (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoegazing">definition</a>) and the next song chosen was "Uzu Ni Naru" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=S00Ej2e2kwQ#t=0">video</a>) by Kinoko Teikoku (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinoko_Teikoku">info</a>) as an example of "the most shoe gaze of all shoe gaze bands". The student who chose this band like *all* their music!</span></span><br />
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<a href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51KCmZRmK8L.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51KCmZRmK8L.jpg" height="198" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The next song chosen was "おしゃかしゃま" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MaF-bWeLGw">video</a>, <a href="http://j-lyric.net/artist/a04ac97/l015e03.html">lyrics</a>) by Radwimps (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radwimps">info</a>). The student who chose this song said the band was very popular during his high school. He listened to them again this past weekend or the first time in a long time.</span></span><br />
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<a href="http://www.jpopasia.com/img/album-covers/1/5177-with-w0sz.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.jpopasia.com/img/album-covers/1/5177-with-w0sz.jpg" height="200" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The next song was chosen by a new student: "Lalala" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4cz_X87Z90">video</a>, <a href="http://www.generasia.com/wiki/With">song info</a>) by Standing Egg (<a href="https://www.facebook.com/standing.egg">Facebook page</a>). She started liking this band before they got popular.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Unfortunately I don't remember the explanations for why the last two songs of the day were chosen, but the songs were: </span></span><br />
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/2e/In_Rainbows_Official_Cover.jpg/220px-In_Rainbows_Official_Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/2e/In_Rainbows_Official_Cover.jpg/220px-In_Rainbows_Official_Cover.jpg" height="200" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">"15 Step (live at the Grammy's)" </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyX-Mjaq8Hk">video</a>, <a href="http://genius.com/Radiohead-15-step-lyrics">lyrics</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Rainbows">song info</a>) </span></span>by Radiohead (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiohead">info</a>). </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">and</span></span><br />
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/c8/Give_You_What_You_Like_by_Avril.png/220px-Give_You_What_You_Like_by_Avril.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/c8/Give_You_What_You_Like_by_Avril.png/220px-Give_You_What_You_Like_by_Avril.png" height="200" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">"Give You What You Like" </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">(<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rF-_4vwiMs">video</a>, <a href="http://www.metrolyrics.com/give-you-what-you-like-lyrics-avril-lavigne.html">lyrics</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Give_You_What_You_Like">song info</a>) by Avril Lavigne (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avril_Lavigne">info</a>).</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">With that our time for the day was over.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31362773.post-48757391989449803592015-03-04T00:29:00.001-08:002015-03-04T11:38:48.812-08:0025 February 2015 (Wednesday)<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Today 13 students -- 4 of whom were new! -- came to class. Our topic was "duets".</span></span><br />
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<a href="http://i.simplecd.me/JC9TdYCK.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i.simplecd.me/JC9TdYCK.jpg" height="197" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The first duet was "Miagete Goran Yoru no Hoshi wo" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uL1tJEMA91o">video</a>, <a href="http://www.jpopasia.com/lyrics/13534/tomiko-van/miagete-goran-yoru-no-hoshi-wo.html">lyrics</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miagete_Goran_Yoru_no_Hoshi_o">song info</a>) by Masafumi Akikawa (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masafumi_Akikawa">info</a>). The student who chose this song likes it because of the contrast of the woman's voice and the man's voice.</span></span><br />
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/d/dc/SukiyakiCover.jpg/220px-SukiyakiCover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/d/dc/SukiyakiCover.jpg/220px-SukiyakiCover.jpg" height="200" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">That song was originally sung by Kyu Sakamoto (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyu_Sakamoto">info</a>). Mr. Sakomoto was the only Japanese singer to ever have a #1 song on the US Billboard charts (in 1963)! He did it with "Sukiyaki" </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">(<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C35DrtPlUbc">video with lyrics</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sukiyaki_%28song%29">song info</a>).</span></span><br />
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/35/Akon-Lonely.jpg/220px-Akon-Lonely.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/35/Akon-Lonely.jpg/220px-Akon-Lonely.jpg" height="200" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The next song was "Lonely" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EEW-9NDM5k">video</a>, <a href="http://www.metrolyrics.com/lonely-lyrics-akon.html">lyrics</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonely_%28Akon_song%29">song info</a>) by Akon (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akon">info</a>). This was a great, creative choice of a duet, it made me laugh! I can't tell if Akon is being serious in this song or just being goofy. I mean, the lyrics are serious, but with the weird voice it takes away from the seriousness.</span></span><br />
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/aa/MrLonely.jpg/220px-MrLonely.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/aa/MrLonely.jpg/220px-MrLonely.jpg" height="199" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The weird voice in that song is actually the vocal from the song "Mr. Lonely" </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">(<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djU4Lq_5EaM">video</a>, <a href="https://play.google.com/music/preview/Tqdg4wv3zq6p3vvx7ukoa5wx3xe?lyrics=1&utm_source=google&utm_medium=search&utm_campaign=lyrics&pcampaignid=kp-lyrics">lyrics</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Lonely">song info</a>) by Bobby Vinton (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Vinton">info</a>).</span></span><br />
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/7d/Hatari.jpg/220px-Hatari.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/7d/Hatari.jpg/220px-Hatari.jpg" height="200" width="126" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The student who chose "Lonely" mentioned that she had that song as her phone ringtone for a while. With that comment I told the class that my ringtone is the first song I ever fell in love with: "Baby Elephant Walk" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1z4JfxFb6c">video</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_Elephant_Walk">song info</a>) by Henry Mancini (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Mancini">info</a>). </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">While writing this blog I came across this super-cute version of the song by some Japanese schoolgirls (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZLtEfiJbTM">video</a>). OMG, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wNZY14Z-hA">here's another one</a>. Hey, it's better than me posting cat videos, isn't it?</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">That interlude inspired me for next week's theme, see below :-)</span></span><br />
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/13/T-Pain_-_5_O%27Clock.jpg/220px-T-Pain_-_5_O%27Clock.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/13/T-Pain_-_5_O'Clock.jpg/220px-T-Pain_-_5_O'Clock.jpg" height="200" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The next song was "5 O'Clock" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noLrCDzAp5M">video</a>, <a href="http://www.metrolyrics.com/5-oclock-lyrics-t-pain.html">lyrics</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5_O%27Clock_%28T-Pain_song%29">song info</a>) by T-Pain (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Pain">info</a>). The student who chose it saw T-Pain in concert and he was impressed by how crazy the crowd went.</span></span><br />
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<a href="http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20141220021924/glee/images/thumb/4/4c/Jlt.jpg/300px-Jlt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20141220021924/glee/images/thumb/4/4c/Jlt.jpg/300px-Jlt.jpg" height="138" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The next duet was "I Feel The Earth Move Under My Feet/Hand In Pocket" </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">(<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KygFX8VkX7w">video</a>, <a href="http://glee.wikia.com/wiki/Hand_in_My_Pocket/I_Feel_the_Earth_Move">lyrics and song info</a>) from Glee (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glee_%28TV_series%29">info</a>). Of course this is not only a duet of two singers, but it's a mashup of two songs -- another creative choice!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Here the originals of those two songs: </span></span><br />
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<li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">"I Feel The Earth Move" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoHuxpa4h48">video</a>, <a href="http://www.metrolyrics.com/i-feel-the-earth-move-lyrics-carole-king.html">lyrics</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Feel_the_Earth_Move">song info</a>) by Carol King (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carole_King">info</a>).</span></span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">"Hand In Pocket" </span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">(<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTgrASzzUXU">video with lyrics</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand_in_My_Pocket">song info</a>) by Alanis Morissette (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alanis_Morissette">info</a>).</span></span></span></span></li>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The student who chose this song is remarkable for her knowledge of American culture and television. Speaking of American "culture" I asked if she or the class knows about the tv show "The Bachelor" (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bachelor_%28U.S._TV_series%29">info</a>). It's so trashy, but like a car crash sometimes you just can't look away!</span></span><br />
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/id/thumb/b/be/Ressa_Herlambang.jpg/220px-Ressa_Herlambang.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/id/thumb/b/be/Ressa_Herlambang.jpg/220px-Ressa_Herlambang.jpg" height="200" width="133" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The next song was "Khilaf" </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">(<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFZpsS-pG6c">video</a>, <a href="http://www.liriklagu.info/r/ressa-herlambang-khilaf.html">lyrics</a>) by Ressa Herlambang</span></span> (<a href="https://www.facebook.com/ressa.herlambang.509">Facebook page</a>). Unfortunately I can't find any more in English on Ressa and for some reason I didn't take any notes on why the student chose this song. Sorry! I remember in class thinking it was a woman's voice, but now that I hear the song again it is clearly a guy. I like the vocal melody!</span></span><br />
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<a href="http://youshikibisblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/uverworld-fight-for-liberty-wizard-club-cover4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://youshikibisblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/uverworld-fight-for-liberty-wizard-club-cover4.jpg" height="198" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Next was "Wizard CLUB" </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">(<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9uCprUMo4M">video with lyrics</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%98_Choir_%28UVERworld_album%29">song info</a>) by UVERworld (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uverworld">info</a>), who seem to have challenges with capitalization of letters in words, hahaha. This song was chosen because the previous week one of the other students said a song wasn't loud enough for her so this week one of the other students chose a "loud" song for her; it was a nice gesture, but I think it was too loud for her, however ;-) Actually, it's quite melodic and the saxophone is an interesting texture.</span></span><br />
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<a href="http://gritaradio.com/files/2012/10/Necesito-Cambiar-Dapuntobeat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://gritaradio.com/files/2012/10/Necesito-Cambiar-Dapuntobeat.jpg" height="200" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Next up was "Necesito Cambiar"</span></span> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">(<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtNOacGXe2w">video</a>, <a href="http://www.musica.com/letras.asp?letra=2122201">lyrics</a>) by Dapuntobeat (<a href="https://www.facebook.com/Dapuntobeat">Facebook page</a>). This is a Mexican band that doesn't have a set singer: they collaborate with many different singers.</span></span><br />
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b4/Wicked-poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b4/Wicked-poster.jpg" height="200" width="125" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The next song was "Popular" </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">(<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2dRALQ8-pI">video with lyrics</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popular_%28Wicked_song%29">song info</a>) from the musical "Wicked" (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicked_%28musical%29">info</a>). </span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">This song was actually covered in a different variation </span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">by Mika (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mika_%28singer%29">info</a>) with Ariana Grande (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mika_%28singer%29">info</a>): </span></span></span></span></span></span>"Popular" </span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">(<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmcdLOjGVzw">video</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popular_Song_%28Mika_song%29">song info</a>) . It was interesting to compare the two songs!</span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/36/Libertines-DontLookBackIntoTheSun.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/36/Libertines-DontLookBackIntoTheSun.jpg" height="200" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Next was "Don't Look Back In The Sun (Live at Reading 2010)" </span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">(<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yBl81Jstk4">video</a>, <a href="http://www.metrolyrics.com/dont-look-back-into-the-sun-lyrics-libertines.html">lyrics</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_Look_Back_into_the_Sun">song info</a>) by The Libertines (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Libertines">info</a>). The reason the student chose the live version of this song is because not only are there two singers in the band, but the audience is singing, too -- so it's like a trio-et (no, that word doesn't exist in English, I made it up). Another very creative interpretation of the "duet" theme for today!</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-t1OCysBdjNNEUJNWG0dDTSK4u4Pf4tFoRior36M33GctdnEyNSI9zORoc5QkPmL0RuLUpeQ5y3LE2tzbSq4tmYp7WGe89lGFpAJKz9xYaOAaZTOZP3P1bKzk0MN3qL0xo1m9mg/s1600/Jolin-Tsai_I'm-not-yours_feat_+Namie-Amuro.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-t1OCysBdjNNEUJNWG0dDTSK4u4Pf4tFoRior36M33GctdnEyNSI9zORoc5QkPmL0RuLUpeQ5y3LE2tzbSq4tmYp7WGe89lGFpAJKz9xYaOAaZTOZP3P1bKzk0MN3qL0xo1m9mg/s1600/Jolin-Tsai_I'm-not-yours_feat_%2BNamie-Amuro.png" height="200" width="199" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Next was "I'm Not Yours" </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">(<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7wRb9adQUc">video with lyrics</a>) by Jolin Tsai (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jolin_Tsai">info</a>) and Namie Amuro (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Namie_Amuro">info</a>). This song is a combination of two top female singers from China and Japan -- another cool variation on the "duet" theme.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/b0/Beyond_(band)_in_1993.jpg/180px-Beyond_(band)_in_1993.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/b0/Beyond_(band)_in_1993.jpg/180px-Beyond_(band)_in_1993.jpg" height="200" width="103" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The next song chosen was "Glorious Years" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwSQQoWqeBs">video</a>) by Beyond (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beyond_%28band%29">info</a>). Apparently almost all Chinese people like this band because the lyrics are down to earth and people can relate to them. Tragically the singer died from a fall off the stage.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">With that our time for the day was over. But we had listened to so many songs, it was great! </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Next week's theme: well, no theme for songs to pick -- think of a song or two you have been enjoying a lot lately -- but I *am* going to ask everyone in class to play their ringtone on their phone and explain why they chose that ringtone or, if they haven't customized it, why they haven't personalized it. </span></span><br />
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/e/ed/R.E.M._-_Lifes_Rich_Pageant.jpg/220px-R.E.M._-_Lifes_Rich_Pageant.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/e/ed/R.E.M._-_Lifes_Rich_Pageant.jpg/220px-R.E.M._-_Lifes_Rich_Pageant.jpg" height="198" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Bonus duet: a student posted to the Facebook group that he would have also chosen "Begin The Begin (live with Eddie Vedder)" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XaoF8bDMcM">video</a>, <a href="https://play.google.com/music/preview/Tr6wdole7zgrcqqmdrad5i6rbly?lyrics=1&utm_source=google&utm_medium=search&utm_campaign=lyrics&pcampaignid=kp-lyrics">lyrics</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Begin_the_Begin">song info</a>) by REM (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R.E.M.">info</a>). A little known fact: the only time I have played music in front of an audience I played bass on this song! </span></span><br />
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