1 May 2008

14 Students today. The theme was "love" songs, though I realized that since it is "May Day" we should have made the theme "work" songs.

I started the class by trying to explain this idea. And I played the most "work" song in America: "Take This Job And Shove It" (song, lyrics) by Johnny Paycheck (bio). However, I think I failed in two ways with this song:

1. Most students didn't realize why anyone would dislike their job so much as to write a song about hating it.
2. I couldn't explain the phrase "shove it" very well in class, so I don't think most of the students understood it. Here is a defintion from Dictionary.com: "go to hell: a term of contempt, abuse, disagreement, or the like."

Before we sent into love songs, I asked if anyone had had any musical adventures in the past week. No one had. I asked Jorge if he has improved on his harmonica. He said he hasn't really, but he started learning how to play "Sweet Home Alabama" (song, lyrics) on his guitar. (I noticed there are a lot of videos teaching you how to play this song on YouTube.)

Lyrically there is a lot of commentary in this song, but I found it hard to explain to the class all the references. I think the problem is that most of the references are from the mid-1970's -- about 20 years before most of my students were born! Here's a Wikipedia article which explains the song.

I also mentioned that their song, "Free Bird" (song with lyrics) is considered an American song classic. I tried to explain that it is a joke in America at concerts for people to yell out "Free Bird" at the performers. I'm not sure myself why we all think this is so funny... Mercifully I did not make the class sit through the entire 9-minute song, including the *very long* guitar solos at the end. Here's more information about the song.

I explained, too that the band who wrote this song, Lynyrd Skynyrd, is a typical southern US rock band and that the band suffered a tragedy when it's airplane crashed, killing 3 of the band members, including the singer, but some of the band survived. The story of Lynyrd Skynyrd is an interesting tale of a prototypical American band.

Ok, enough of the Skynyrd, on to love songs.

First choice was "As long as you love me" (video, lyrics) by Backstreet Boys (bio). The student who picked the song says he likes it for the lyrics. Indeed, the lyrics are about true love: loving a person exactly for who they are and whatever they have done in the past.



The next song chosen was "Crucify My Love" (video with lyrics) by X-Japan (bio). The class really liked the lyrics to this song.







The X-Japan song had a melody that reminded me of the song "Calling You" (original song with clips from the movie, lyrics), which is one of my favorites, though it is very sad and melancholic. The song is from the movie "Bagdad Cafe" (info). I love the original version, but I also really like George Michael's version. I think he hits the restrained melancholy perfectly. Apparently Celine Dion also covered it, if you like her (dramatic) style. You can see, it's a very popular song!

As so often, I had never heard of the band (X-Japan) that the class chose, even though the band is extremely popular in Asia. I love finding out about new bands!

In fact, I am going to a concert on May 21st as a direct consequence of this class: I will go see the Yoshida Brothers (bio, a famous song/video) because one of my students once played their music in the class and I thought it was a great mixture of traditional Japanese music with modern music.


The next song chosen was "Friday I'm In Love" (video, lyrics) by The Cure (bio). I said that it's true that the song has the word "love" in it, but how is it is a "love" song? The answer: It's about loving the weekend, not a person. Good interpretation! :-)



Another student picked up on the theme of days of the week and chose "7 days" (video, lyrics) by Craig David (bio). Well, this use of the days of the week is much different than the song by The Cure! I think it's pretty clever ;-) .

We had recently heard another Craig David song and I mentioned in that post how he used the vocoder. I was surprised to hear that this song also uses a vocoder. Does he use a vocoder on *every* song?!? I mentioned the vocoder in class, but the students didn't seem to know what I meant, so I played the song which uses the vocoder effect to the maximum: Cher's "Believe" (video, lyrics). Vocoder overdrive!!


The next song chosen was "The Way You Look Tonight" (video, lyrics) by Rod Stewart (bio). (Note about Rod Stewart's bio: I wonder if the student who chose this song knows about his long history, ranging from rocker to disco quee... er, I mean king.)

At this point I asked the class who has had a "love songs" compilation CD given to them. A couple of people raised their hands. One woman said she had received one, but had thrown it right away because she didn't like the guy who gave it to her. A couple of the guys have made love songs compilations cds for girls. Including me! ;-))


Next song chosen was "Beautiful Disaster" (video, lyrics) by Kelly Clarkson (bio). The student who chose this song like Kelly's voice a lot. But lyrically it's also an interesting twist on the "love" theme; similar to the first song, it's about loving someone just how they are.



The next song was "Everything" (video with translated subtitles) by Misia (bio). I asked the student why she chose this song and her answer is that she likes the voice and the lyrics: she wants to be everything for the guy she is in love with!




I hadn't asked Ira for a song in a while, so asked her which song she wanted to hear. Her brother had actually chosen one for her, so we listened to "Angel" (video, lyrics) by Massive Attack (bio). It is true that this song includes the word "Love", but it build too slowly and the music is rather foreboding, so we took it off rather quickly. That said, I actually like Massive Attack and their "foreboding" music a lot. My favorite song by them is "Teardrop" (video, lyrics), which is another very melancholic song. Like the song "Calling You" earlier, I like the woman's voice floating over the top of the simple, melancholic music.

These songs by Massive Attack reminded me that another British "trip-hop" (definition) band has just brought out a new album: Portishead (bio). Trying to work in the theme of "love" I showed a bit of the song "Sour Times" (video, lyrics), but I don't think the class is into this kind of music; it's rather dark... Their music is like soundtracks to films: in fact, I believe that's how they started -- writing film soundtrack music. I really like Portishead and look forward to hearing their newly released album "3".

The last song of the day was by the Korean grop Jewelry (bio), but I don't remember which song it was, sorry!

Mark you calendars: May 22 - June 15, Seattle International Film Festival

Hi Everyone,

This is not exactly music-related, but Seattle has a renowned yearly International Film Festival that I want to make you aware of. This year it runs May 22 - June 15. Here's the website:
http://www.siff.net/festival/ .

Note that the full schedule of films will be posted on May 8th.

Unfortunately it is hard to get tickets to most films as they usually sell out. But perhaps you will see a film is playing that you just *must* see...

Mark your calendars: May 23-26 Folklife Festival @ the Seattle Center

Hi Everyone,

Every year there's a great, *free* music festival over the 3-day Memorial Day weekend down at the Seattle Center (under the Space Needle). It is called "The Northwest Folklife Festival". Here's the website: http://www.nwfolklife.org .

The festival is about both seeing/hearing music but also about *participating* in the music and events.

Here's a link to the list of performers and events to participate in:
http://www.nwfolklife.org/P_F/festival.html .

If you are in Seattle over that weekend I highly recommend attending the festival.

24 April 2008

Theme for the next class (1 May): Love songs! (although, since it is May 1st, we *should* do "work songs"...)


Only 10 students today -- a relatively small class for this quarter... Coincidentally the students who often go to the evening English conversation group at a church in Kirkland after our class on Thursday afternoons were all gone -- was that church trying to take my students?!?! ;-) . Well, the 10 of us (including one new student) had fun anyway!

I arrived at class tired after a long day at work. I mentioned to the class that I wish I could take a "cat nap", which means a short nap where you don't fall into a deep sleep. The concept of napping started a short conversation about napping habits of people around the world. For example, where some of my students are from people sleep on buses and on trains, sometimes even standing up. One student from China said it is common to take a cat nap after lunch there -- I have to say that every day after lunch I get really drowsy and would like to take a short nap. But I never have the time for that!

I asked the class if anyone had any musical stories or adventures in the past week. EJ, one of the new students from Korea, mentioned that she feels like she needs to buy a violin so she can play. She asked if I know of a good violin store to recommend. I asked one of my musician friends who suggests Kennelly Keys (website), which has a store in Bellevue Square (map).

Naturally I wanted to ask the new student to introduce us to his musical taste, but first I mentioned to Pinar that there is an exceptional a capella vocal group called "Le Mystere de Voix Bulgares" coming to Seattle on May 27. This group became very famous in the late 1980's, but apparently still tour a lot. To show what the music is like I did a quick YouTube search and found this clip.


After showing the song I mentioned that the guy introducing the band in the clip is one of the most famous American television personalities of all time, Johnny Carson (bio). Every American over the age of 30 knows who Johnny Carson is!

Inspired by the Bulgarian a capella group one of the students showed a clip of an a capella group from China. This song is apparently to ensure a successful hunt.

Finally I asked the new guy -- another student from Colombia -- to choose a song. Inspired by the conversation about the violin he chose "Tabaco Y Chanel" (video) by Bacilos (bio). The violin intro to the video version of the song isn't the full intro he wanted to hear, so he played us the full intro through his iPod.

He said he's loved this song since he was in 4th grade. The song is about longing for a girl. The melancholic feeling of it has always spoken to him. Interestingly, the band is based in Miami and is made up of musicians from different Latin American countries.


At this point I had to show a clip of a great violin player from Seattle, Geoffrey Castle (website). Geoffrey plays often with my friends Children Of The Revolution. But his solo stuff is really good, too. To show his talent I played a live clip of his: "Float Downstream" (video).

I noted that he was creating layers of sound by recording a bit, then looping it and playing new bits on top of it. In this way he sounds like a whole quartet (or maybe quintet)!

To show another example of this layering technique I showed my favorite example of it: KT Tunstall (bio) doing "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" live on French TV (video, lyrics). My brain could not keep track of that layering!




Todays theme of songs was "Children's Songs" so I asked who had a children's song to play. Pinar had a whole list! She chose "Mozart - 12 Variation "Ah, vous dirai je, maman" K.265" (video) aka "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" played by the Turkish pianist Fazil Say (bio).

At this point we asked around the room who of the students play instruments. In the class we have pianists, a violinist and a couple of guitarists. It was suggested to make a band out of the musicians in the class. It would be great if the musicians would bring instruments with them to show their talent to the rest of the class ;-) .

Jorge, the new student from Colombia, showed us that he carries a harmonica with him as he is learning how to play it. We asked him to play a song and he obliged. He's good!

Back to children's songs: Dave, who is from Vietnam but studied in Russia, choase a Russian children's song (video). Apparently it's a song about smiling, but neither of our Russian students was in the class today so we couldn't ask for a translation...

The conversation moved to the topic of melancholic songs. A melancholic Turkish song "Ask-i Kiyamet" (video) by Emre Altug (bio) was chosen.








At this point I mentioned seeing a movie a few months ago about music in Turkey. The movie is called "Crossing The Bridge: The Sound Of Istanbul". I showed the movie trailer. The film is a great introduction to music in Turkey. It can be reserved and checked out from the King County Library (www.kcls.org).

Someone asked how big the Ottoman Empire was at its height, so we looked at a map of it.

Remember, the musical theme for the day was children's songs, so the next songs chosen was "Doraemon" (video), the theme song for a famous Japanese children's show.

Somehow -- I don't remember now exactly *how* -- we got onto the subject of animal sounds in different languages. We went around the table making the sounds of the following animals in each of our native languages:

• frogs
• roosters
• dogs
• cats

and more...

There was a lot of laughter around the table! How can different cultures hear the sounds of animals so differently?!?

Suddenly someone played one of my personal favorite children's songs on the screen: "Mahna Mahna" (video). More laughter in the room! (Here is a whole article just about this song!)




At this point I *had* to show the Swedish Chef: "making donuts". I don't think the class quite got how funny the Swedish Chef's style of talking is in English. But they did laugh about his method of making holes in the donuts.

I tried to explain that when the Swedish Chef talks he doesn't really make sense in English, rather it's just kind of funny sounding. In the US we call his talking "bork bork bork". Here's a full explanation of the Swedish Chef's charms.

I showed that you can choose "bork bork bork" and many other made-up languages for your Google interface. For example, click here to see the "bork bork bork" interface. Here is the "Elmer Fudd" interface. There are many other options in the "interface languages" list on the Google preferences page.

To end the day Jorge played a Maroon 5 song "Sunday Morning" (video, lyrics). With that we decided to make the theme for next week's class "Love Songs" -- it's been 2 1/2 months since Valentine's Day, after all!

Speaking of Maroon 5, I showed the class a website where can find a lot of (legal!) downloads of live concerts, including Maroon 5 and Smashing Pumpkins. The site is www.archive.org and it has a list of all bands with live recordings on the site.


See everyone on Thursday, May 1st -- be ready to play us your favorite love songs!

17 April 2008

Theme for April 24: Children's songs.


16 Students today, including 4 new students! It's great to have so many people show up. And I am glad when I see them talking amongst themselves on the side -- the hour is about conversation, anyway!

The new students introduced themselves: name, where they are from and what kind of music they like.

For those Asian students who have an English name (as opposed to here using their name from the country where they are from) I asked how they cam to choose the English name they use. There are many answers. Often it is the parents who chose the English name. Or they choose an English name that sounds similar to their Asian name.

To start with the music I asked one of the new students, EJ, to choose a song. She likes classical music and has recently been getting into "crossover" music. She chose Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 (video) played by Maksim Mrvica (bio). EJ mentioned a few times as we watched the video that she thinks Maksim is very good looking ;-)) .

Mrvica is from Croatia and I ended up explaining that my last name, Zitkovich, is also Croatian. And I told about how it was annoying when I was in school to be called Zitko-bitch by the other school kids. But all in all I didn't have a traumatic school experience and nowadays I am happy to have a unique name.


The next new student is from Colombia. Everyone in the class wanted to know who besides Shakira (bio) is popular in Colombia. Carlos chose "Me Enamora" (video) by Juanes (bio). I have never heard of Juanes but apparently I have had my head stuck in the sand -- all my international students knew about him and the video has been watched over 6.5 million(!!) times.

I asked Carlos if Juanes is a good guy and Carlos said yes, he has the impression that Juanes is a good guy. I have read his Wikipedia bio and it mentions Juanes's humanitarian work, so it does sound like his is a good guy! This was an excellent choice to introduce the class to another singer!


The next new student, Kiseo, chose Clazziquai Fiesta (song without video) by Daishi Dance, a house DJ from Japan. I can't find any biographical information about this guy!






In that song I noticed a melody similar to the main one in Tom's Diner (video) by Suzanne Vega (bio). [I saw Suzanne play here in Seattle this past Autumn -- it was a great show! You can see a video of her playing shortly afterwards in Amsterdam at www.fabchannel.com.]



As we watched that video someone commented how typical 80's the dancing was. I said that the most typical 80's dancing in my view is "U can't touch this" (video) by MC Hammer (bio). It's amazing how much money that guy burned through: he had $33 million and wasted it *all* until he had to claim bankruptcy (definition).


Everyone in class knows that song by MC Hammer, but I just had to ask if they knew the "original" version of that song: Super Freak (video) by Rick James (bio). None of them knew that MC Hammer had really just re-worked an existing song from 1981. And they were a little shocked by the tawdry (definition) nature of the video. Read the Rick James bio to see what a sad fate he also had. Note to self: I think the song "Super Freak" brings bad luck to anyone who sings it...

Next up we watched a video from a Chinese artist. But all the YouTube keywords were in Chinese and now I can't find it to link to :-(( . I noted that the video was posted by someone named "rainie777" but that person has 827 videos posted and I can't find the one we watched from all those videos!

The next choice was "Goodbye My Lover (live)" (video, lyrics) by James Blunt (bio). The student who chose this song specifically wanted the "live" version because he says it is much more emotionally performed than the "studio" version from the album.

The conversation moved to Blunt's other big hit "You're Beautiful" (video, lyrics). Some of the students didn't realize how the song is about longing.

Speaking of misunderstood songs, I mentioned (as I have in previous classes) that the song "Every Breath You Take" (video, lyrics) by The Police (bio) is actually a song about controlling another person. People play it at their weddings because they think the lyrics about being together with their loved one are sweet, but in fact the song is exactly opposite -- it's about control, not love!

I asked Marianna if she is going to a concert soon. She will go see Eyes Set To Kill (MySpace, official website). As an example of their music she chose the song "Darling" (video, lyrics).






The next song was "I don't wanna know" (video, lyrics) by Mario Winans (bio). The students had some questions about the lyrics mean, like what "playin' me" (="don't play me for a fool") and "keep it on the low" (="don't talk about it").




The next song chosen was "Hysteria" (video, lyrics) by Muse (bio). Jay said he tried to learn this bass part but it is too difficult. I should have pointed him to a transcription of the bass tabulature for the song.





A lot of people who like Muse also like Jeff Buckley (bio). Jeff is considered one of the best rock singers in the 1990's yet he tragically died at age 31. To show an example of his singing I showed two videos: "Hallelujah" (video, lyrics) to show his vocals and "Grace" (video, lyrics) to show he could rock out, too (hence the appeal to Muse fans).


The last song of the day was "Walking Away" (video, lyrics) by Craig David (bio). I personally like the use of the vocoder on his vocals on the song. I had the tune stuck in my head for a few hours after class!






Theme for the next class (April 24): Children's songs.

10 April 2008

Although I usually keep it a secret among my friends and co-workers, last week I mentioned to the class at the end of last week that the next class, April 10th, falls right on my birthday this year.

When I arrived at class I was showered with cards -- including two which play music when you open them ;-) -- presents and a cake. I was very touched by the kindness of my students!! I am not good at accepting presents because I can't express enough how much it means to me. So I just stood there saying "Thank you, thank you, this is so kind of you" but I don't know if they understood how much it touched me that they organized all this for me.
Here's a picture of the cake:
And here is the whole class while I cut the cake:


Everyone sang me "Happy Birthday" and then Happy Birthday was sung in each language represented in the class. We watched lots of birthday-related videos. The assigned theme for the week was "Saturday night songs" and we watched some, but unfortunately I didn't take notes during the class today and I have forgotten all the songs/videos we watched. Students, do you remember what we listened to and watched?

Two new students came today. What a strange introduction for them to the Language Of Music discussion group! I hope they still remain interested in how the class "usually" runs to come back!

3 April 2008

(placeholder until I type up my notes from the class)

Next class = Thursday, 3 April in room L100C

Hi everyone,

I hope you have had a good break from classes.  As you can see from the posts below, during the break some of us went to concerts during the time off.

We will have class as usual on Thursday (3 April) at 4.30pm.  However, we are changing rooms: The new room is L100C -- the room just across the cafeteria from where we have been meeting.  So go to the cafeteria as usual, just go to the other room off of it.

See you Thursday!

Steve Z

Field Trip: Nada Surf concert Thursday, March 27

In the end we were a group of 10 that attended the Nada Surf show (Hong Bo met us after this picture):

Here's a picture from the concert:

Click here to see all the pictures that people in our group sent me.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

(This is a copy of the email I sent to my students Sunday evening. I am posting it here in case the email went to the spam folder.)

Hello my music-loving friends,

As we have talked about in the Language Of Music class, I suggest our next "field trip" be the Nada Surf concert on Thursday, March 27. The band is very popular (their concert on Friday night is sold out) and it will be a good chance for all you under-21-year-olds to see a typical Seattle rock concert (there is no age limit to attend this concert!).

Here's some info:

* Tickets are $18 (includes service charges)

* The concert is at the Showbox club in downtown Seattle, (on 1st Avenue, across from the Pike Place Market).

* The first band will play at about 8.30pm. Nada Surf will go on stage at about 9.30pm. The concert will end about 11.30pm.

Here's where you can hear some Nada Surf music and learn more about the band:

- http://www.myspace.com/nadasurf

- www.nadasurf.com

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nada_Surf

WHAT I NEED FROM YOU

To organize this group event I need to know some information from you:

* Please respond to me by the afternoon of Wednesday, March 19 if you want to go to this concert. -- I will buy tickets for everyone who wants to come, then you can pay me back on the day of the concert.

* I am happy to pick people up and drive them home, but I only have room for 4 people in my car: if more than 4 people want to go, we need to have othercars pick people up and drive them home.

-- Please let me know if you could drive and how many people you can take with you.

* I will write an email on Thursday to the people who say they want to go with more information about what time we will meet and who will be driving.

Thanks!

Field Trip: Flamenco performance, Tuesday, 18 March 2008

The flamenco evening was fun!  Here some pictures:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

A few of us from class -- those over 21 years old since it is a bar -- are going to see a flamenco performance Tuesday evening (18 March).

There is no entry charge to get into the club, but you are supposed to buy 2 drinks.

The performance starts at 9pm.

It is at the Capitol Club at 414 E. Pine St. on Capitol Hill. Here's a map.

Anyone who wants to come is welcome as long at they are over 21 years old: the club is a bar and you have to show ID/proof that you are over 21 years old to get in. At least one of my former students will be at the show. She is from Korea and will be returning home at the end of March so this is one of her last chances to see the show. She has seen the band play before and loved it so she is excited to see them play again before she leaves Seattle.

13 March 2008

Today was the last class of the Winter Quarter. I will post the notes soon.

Next class will be Thursday, 3 April at 4.30pm in room L100C -- the room just across the cafeteria from where we have been meeting.

6 March 2008

[ Dear students, I am very sorry about my tardiness in updating the blog with notes from our classes. I don't know why I have become so slow to do it the last few weeks :-( . I will be better next quarter! ]


10 students today. I've been really happy about the high number of students who have come to our discussion hour all quarter. I asked the class how many would like to continue the conversation class next quarter and all said "yes". I know a couple of people will be leaving BCC, so they will stop coming, but it looks like we will continue to have a lot of people for Spring Quarter.



Reminder: The last class of this current quarter will be Thursday, 13 March. We will have a break until the next class on Thursday, 3 April. And we will be in a new room, L100C, across the cafeteria from where we meet now. However, I hope to do an activity or two outside of BCC during the break.



One idea is to go see the band Nada Surf (bio) on Thursday, 27 March at the Showbox in downtown Seattle. I played a couple of songs for the class ("Whose Authority" [video, lyrics] and my personal favorite, "Concrete Bed" [fan-made video, lyrics]) but the class didn't seem very interested. Nonetheless, I recommend the class come with me to see this concert as it will be a great experience to see a very popular rock band's concert in Seattle -- a good cultural experience! Oh, and the show is an all-ages show, so all of the class can go!

I will send an email to the class asking who is interested in going to this show and then buy tickets accordingly.



The other activity I am organizing is to go see my friends' flamenco performance on the evening of Tuesday, 18 March. It starts at 9pm and since it is in a bar only people 21+ can go. Kaoru will return to Japan the week after so I hope she can come see this very special performance. Another of my former students, Hyunjin from Korea, will return to Korea at the end of March and she wants to come see the flamenco show, too. She has seen my friends perform before and she loved it! Any of my students who are over 21 years old are encouraged to come ot the Capitol Club (map) on Tuesday the 18th with us!


I started class with my standard question: Did anyone have any musical adventures this past week? No one had any tales to tell. I mentioned that I had been to a concert on Tuesday night: The Gutter Twins (bio, website). I explained what a gutter (definition) is and how the two main guys in the band (Gregg Dulli [bio] and Mark Lanegan [bio]) have histories of hard-living (especially drugs) and that their songs are pretty dark. The students said they would like to hear the music! I hesitated but I just so happened to have the CD of the band in my bag so I passed it around while I looked for a song.

I then mentioned that one of Nirvana's most famous songs is their version of "Where Did You Sleep Last Night" from their Unplugged show (video, lyrics) in 1994. But what most people don't realize is that back in about 1988 it was Mark Lanegan who did a version of that song on his album The Winding Sheet with Kurt Cobain (then an unknown guy in the Seattle scene) playing guitar. Here's Lanegan's version.

Our theme for the day was "songs from movies and tv." The first pick was "The Crow" (video) by Brandan Lee (bio). The student who chose this songs said she likes the movie because it's a horror movie about love.

One of the other students in the class mentioned that Brandan Lee was the son of Bruce Lee (bio) and that he died in an accident during production of a movie. When the student mentioned that story I remembered hearing about that accident many years ago. Both Brandon and Bruce Lee are buried in Seattle.

The next song chosen was "Mondo Bongo" (video) from the movie "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" (info). The student chose it because it reminds him of his first girlfriend. I wonder if she looked like Angelina Jolie...

Next song was from the movie "A Tale Of Two Sisters" (info). We watched "Epilogue" (video). But here is a version with more music. The composer is Korean.

Pinar wanted to find Samuel Barber's "Angus Dei" from Lorenzo's Oil, but we couldn't find a good clip so moved on.

Kaoru chose "The Godfather Theme" (video) because she like Robert Deniro (bio).

Next was "Before I Fall In Love" (video, lyrics) by Coco Lee (bio) from the movie "Runaway Bride" (info). I asked the guy who chose the song why he likes it and he said he likes Coco's voice. (I suspect he has more interest in Coco than just her voice!)

Next was a song (video) by Faye Wong (bio) from the movie Chungking Express (info). The song is actually a remake, sung in Chinese of the Cranberries songs "Dreams" (video, lyrics)! The director of Chunking Express is Wong Kar-wai (bio), who I had never heard of before, but was told he is a very famous, popula director across Asia. His movies are very intellectual. Every one he makes is a hit, even though they are not "light" entertainment.

Next up was another movie with Julia Roberts: "She" (video) by Elvis Costello (bio) from the movie Notting Hill (info).

Now I picked a song: "Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life" (video, lyrics) from the Monty Python (info) film "The Life Of Brian" (info). My choice was a flop (definition). But I still think Monty Python is brilliantly funny!

The last song of the day was "Don't Look Back In Anger" (video, lyrics) by Oasis (bio) from the movie "Arizona Dream" (info).

With that I reminded the students that this weekend the US set its clocks to "summer time" -- Saturday night everyone needs to "spring forward" by one hour.

Theme for next week's class is "Springtime". (However, since I am posting these notes so late, I don't know if anyone will bring Spring-related songs...)

28 February 2008

[this post is not yet finished!]

Today only 7 students showed up -- the smallest class of the quarter. No one was sure why so many people were missing.

We started by talking about the class schedule. We will have sessions through Thursday, March 13th, then take a break until resuming again on Thursday, April 3rd.

On the Sunday I had taken a ferry trip across Puget Sound and I told to my students that this is a great short trip to take some time. I recommend taking the Bainbridge Island Ferry (info and schedule). You can walk on as a foot passenger, on the Bainbridge side walk around the small town of Winslow (info), then walk back onto the ferry and go back to Seattle. The views from the ferry are great and it's a classic Northwest thing to do. It's great to get a perspective of Seattle *from* the water!

Speaking of the view of Seattle from the water, I suggested that I will organize an evening out on Lake Union with the students when the weather gets warmer. You can rent boats and go around on the lake. If we have 10 people it will only cost about $10 per person for 2 hours. It's another classic Seattle activity ;-) .

We also talked about the Underground Seattle tour. I have actually never been on that tour! But I would like to go some day.

21 February 2008

(this is a placeholder until I get time to transcribe my notes from the session)

14 February 2008 (Valentine's Day)

Valentine's Day -- 13 students showed up to share their favorite songs about love and/or heartbreak!

Minnie and Marianna supplied chocolate and I contributed the classic Sweethearts candy hearts.

The first song of the day was "I don't wanna be in love" (video, lyrics) by Good Charlotte (bio). I asked the student why she chose this one and she said it's mostly because she likes to dance to it, but also because it is appropriate for the day.

One student asked me what I think of the concept of "not wanting to be in love." I said my philosophy is that you cannot choose love, love chooses you. In other words, you can't decide to not be in love (though one can certainly make it hard to be in love or to be loved!).

We talked about arranged marriages for a while; about whether people in arranged marriages are happy in those relationships. We talked about how marriages fulfill different desires and needs for different people and in different cultures. For example, people may want to be in a relationship or marriage for security or for companionship. Or their family might require them to be in a marriage. There are many variations for why people get married, sometimes for love, sometimes for other reasons. But only each individual can say whether he or she is happy in that situation: no one from the outside can decide whether someone is happy in a relationship because only each person individually knows why he or she is in that relationship and what he or she is getting out of it.

Back to music!

Next song was "And I love her" (video, lyrics) by the Beatles (bio). A very idealistic song about love!

I asked the class if some of them have made compilation cds of music for a boyfriend or a girlfriend. 2 girls said they had made cds for boys. One guy said he has made a cd for a girl.

I asked the guy to tell us one of the songs he put on the compilation for the girl. He cited "Love, love, love" (video with lyrics), a rap song sung in Korean by Epik High (bio).

The next song was "November Rain" (video, lyrics) by Guns N Roses (bio). (This video has a whole big story to it!) The student who chose it thought of it as a song about love because the video shows a wedding, but as we looked at the lyrics we decided it is more a song of heartbreak. The student said she likes this song especially because of the lyrics and the melody. But she also like the video a lot. We talked about the melodic guitar playing and I had to show one of my favorite guitar solos: The end solos in "Sweet Child O Mine" (video, lyrics). And that's another good Valentine's song!

Next song was "Hitomi wo tojite" (video) by Ken Hirai (bio) (who we have heard in this class before). Actually *two* students chose this same song. So I taught the class the phrase "to kill two birds with one stone" (which means "to take care of two things at one time"). I've always felt this is quite a violent image. In German you say "kill two flies with one swatter" which is still kind of violent, but only against flies. So I asked the students how this concept is presented in their languages. Apparently birds are the most common victims around the world!

Next song chosen was "I'll Make Love To You" (video, lyrics) by Boys II Men (bio). The student said he chose this song because it's a standard Valentines Day song and because he likes how the voices all sound together.

We now got to the more "rock" fans in the class. "I remember you" (video, lyrics) by Skid Row (bio) was chosen. (The term "skid row" actually means a run-down part of town and it started in Seattle! It was the road which they slid logs down the hill to the port.)

Skid Row inspired the next student to choose "Someday" (video, lyrics) by Nickelback (bio). I was trying to figure out if this is a love song or a heartbreak song. One of the students in the class is familiar with the story of the video. To summarize it goes like this: girl reads about boy's death (boy is in the video, but doesn't realize he is dead), girl is distraught, girl dies, they meet in the afterlife. But I am still wondering if that's a love story or not...

I asked the class for another heartbreak song. I got "Crazy In Love" (video, lyrics) by Beyonce (bio). It was chosen because "love is crazy". But I actually think this is a love song, or at least about the joys of love, so I was still looking for a heartbreak song.

Minnie chose a song by Kelly Clarkson (bio), but she chose a version by Lyn (bio), a famous singer in Korea. She chose the song "Never Again" (video, lyrics). Minnie said that Lyn is the best singer in Korea. Lyn usually sings ballads and Minnie went to a concert by her and it was boring, but Minnie likes this version of the song because Lyn sings it "hard" not "soft."

Somehow we got onto the subject of YouTube in Korea. Apparently YouTube just launched in Korea last month, but Korea already has so many user created content (UGC) sites that YouTube is blasé there.

The next song chosen was "Every Way I Can" (video) by a Turkish singer called Sertab Erener (bio). This song won the Eurovision contest in 2003. I asked why this Turkish singer sings in English and the student told me that in order to win Eurovision you *must* sing in English. I wonder how many non-English songs have won the Eurovision contest in its history?

I picked the next song: "Every Breath You Take" (video, lyrics) by The Police (bio). I explained to the class that a lot of people chose this song for their wedding thinking it's so sweet to think about being together all the time, but if you look closely at the lyrics, the song is actually about surveillance and control -- it's not at all a love song!!

Pinar shared with us the songs that was her first dance with her husband at their wedding: "From This Moment On" (video, lyrics) by Shania Twain (bio).

Lastly we watched "Shoulda Coulda, Woulda" (video, lyrics) by Brian McKnight (bio). The students were all commenting on how American youth speak so strangely ("coulda" rather than "could have") that it's often hard to understand them.

With that everyone had chosen at least one song and it was time to let everyone go celebrate Valentine's Day. Or not celebrate the day, as the case may be :-( .