Peter, Bjorn & John - Young Folks

I just love this song. I came across it when zapping and the video was playing on one of the local channels. Just stuck in my head as did the video.

Click here to find out more about Peter, Bjorn and John.

Zita Swoon By Minas

, originally uploaded by minαs.

This was taken by one of Thessaloniki's finest photographers, Minas. I freely admit to copying his style whenever I get a chance. This was taken at a Zita Swoon concert that he attended and which I unfortunately missed.

Going Home - Jon Allen

The music is Going Home by Jon Allen. you may recognise it from the LandRover ads. You can download it free of charge from Allen's site if you click here. All photos by Teacher Dude.

The Wraiths

The Wraiths, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

The music scene in Bristol is chocked full of great new acts. Such a change from when I was growing up when all there seemed to be were tired old pub bands and third rate punk stuff.

To hear the Wraiths click here.

The concert at the end of the world

, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

I came across these guys performing on stage in Aristotelous Square. It turned out that the lead guitarist was one of my ex-students. Something I didn't even twig until another students told me. Forgot to ask the name of his band as well, Yikes, I'm losing the plot big time.

Death Cab for Cutie - Soul Meets Body

I just love this song. However, I can't believe how nerdy they are. There is hope for us all yet.

I was listening to the lyrics more carefully and I came across this;

"Cause in my head there’s a greyhound station
Where I send my thoughts to far off destinations
So they may have a chance of finding a place
where they’re far more suited than here"

Click here for the rest of the lyrics.

This is basically why I blog.

Reasons to love music

I just can't get this song out of my head. Hold Your Colour by Pendulum.



Slam.

Using Lyrics

Lesson Plan

1 Think of a piece of advice that would you give somebody who is going to finish school.

2 Students swap advice and comment on how useful it would be.

3 Explain that the students the song contains pieces of advice to people finishing school/college.

4 Play the song and ask students to write down as many pieces of advice as they can.

5 Students get together and compare answers.

6 Hand out the lyrics. Play the song again.

7 Student compare their advice list with the lyrics.

8 Students choose their top five most useful tips and then compare their choice with one another.

Everybody's Free - Lee Perry & Quindon Tarver

Ladies and Gentlemen of the class of '97,

"Wear sunscreen

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it
The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists,
whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own
meandering experience.

I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth, oh never mind, you will
never understand the power and the beauty of your youth until they've
faded. But trust me, in twenty years, you will look back at photos
of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now, how much
possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked.

You are not as fat as you imagine.

Don't worry about the future or worry that know that worrying is
as affective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble
gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never
crossed your worried mind. The kind that blindsides you at 4 PM on
some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing every day that scares you.

Sing.

Don't be reckless with other peoples' hearts; don't put up with people
who are reckless with yours.

Floss.

Don't waste your time on jealousy, sometimes you're ahead, sometimes
you're behind.

The race is long and in the end, it's only with yourself.
Remember compliments you receive, forget the insults.
If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.
Keep your old love letters; throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch.

Don't feel guilty if you don't know what to do with your life.
The most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted
to do with their lives, some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I
know still don't.

Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to knees, you'll miss them when they're
gone.

Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't.
Maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't.
Maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the 'Funky Chicken'
on your 75th wedding anniversary.
Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much or berate
yourself either.
Your choices are half chance, so are everybody else's.

Enjoy your body.
Use it every way you can, don't be afraid of it or what other people
think of it. It's the greatest instrument you'll ever own.

Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your own living room.

Read the directions even if you don't follow them.
Do not read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents.
You never know when they'll be gone for good.
Be nice to your siblings.
They are your best link to your past and the people most likely to
stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go.
But a precious few, who should hold on.
Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, for as the
older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were
young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard.
Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.

Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths: prices will rise, politicians will
philander, you too will get old and when you do, you'll fanaticise
that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were
noble and children respected their elders.

Respect your elders.

Don't expect anyone else to support you.
Maybe you have a trust fund, maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse but
you'll never know when either one will run out.

Don't mess too much with your hair or by the time you're forty, it
will look eighty-five.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply
it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing
the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly
parts and recycling for more than it's worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen."

A chill out list

I was just making a list in itunes today of stuff that that help me unwind and relax. What do you listen to ?

1 I Will Follow You into the Dark by Death Cab For Cutie.
2 Rue St Vincent by Yves Montand
3 Two by Konstantinos Vita
4 Old Man by Neil Young
5 The Piano Has Been drinking by Tom Waits
6 Help Yourself by Death in Vegas
7 Midnight Cowboy by John Barry
8 Life on Mars Seu Jorges
9 Coming Back to Me by Jefferson Airplane
10 Mad world by Michael Andrews.

Good night and sweet dreams.

Tunes that won't leave you in peace

You know that feeling when you hear a song and you just can't get it out of your head. I have had that a lot recently. First was Konstantinos Vita's 2, the music from the opening ceremony of the 2004 Olympic games which a friend lent to me. The other is Philip Glass's 1000 Aeroplanes on the Roof which I came across on Last FM. Here is a short snippet from the first;



For those in the mood for something more Pop-py the check out Mika;



I think I'll use something from one of the two albums as the basis of my next video.

An Ending - Ascent by Brian Eno

Inspired by Brian Eno's 77 million paintings I decided to make this video using An Ending, also by Eno. All photographs used were taken in Thessaloniki over the last week or so. You can check out the originals at my Flickr page.

All this was done using Microsoft's Photo Story 3, which you can download free from their site. The only problem is that you need Windows Media Player 10 (but you can also download that as well, free from here).

Blade Techno Theme - Director's cut

A new, improved version with extra portions of added weirdness.

Teaching through doing

And that means doing things yourself. I asked my FCE class to produce their own music video last night, they're all crazy about music and often we use songs in class (their choice) as part of our listening practice. Now it's time to take it up a notch and get them to produce a video using images from the web. Hopefully, the activity will interest them enough to overcome the technical difficulties they will inevitably face.

As I keep on telling them, they have to learn this kind of stuff on their own as no one else, at least meaning their regular school teachers or parents, have the slightest clue. Unfortunately, as computer/internet access is limited at school, I can't really do much to help either. Still, I will post any effort they care to make.

In the meantime my latest effort.

Gutenberg's jukebox

One of the benefits of having access to the internet is that I can now find the kind of music I love, the songs and albums that i grew up with, Whether it be through ripped cds, internet radio stations such as Last FM or other services such as Limewire I now have access to a huge range of music that was unavailable beforehand. When I was a students in the 80's I was the proud owner of over 200 albums. The other guys I shared the house with were equally avid music fans so between us we probably had close to a 1000 albums that reflected our rather eclectic listening tastes.

The monetary value of those collections was enormous, representing thousands of pounds (not to mention thousands of lost hours spent rummaging in the bargain bins of various record shops). Now I have more music that that stored on a device that fits neatly into my pocket. More importantly, I didn't have to sell my soul or work for the next 60 years to pay for them.

So that's where Gutenberg comes into the equation; before the advent of the printing press books were expensive commodities, owning one was equivalent to owning a laptop in todays terms. Then within a 100 years they came an affordable luxury and then an everyday commodity. The same has happened to music, but instead of taking centuries it has taken a mere decade.

So this is my blast from the past that is rocking my world.

Laibach - Life is Life
Bad Brains - I against I
Big Black - Jordan
The jam - Going Underground
The Waterboys - The Return of Jimi Hendrix
Public Enemy - Don't Believe the Hype
Conflict - The Ungovernable Force
The Left Banke - Pretty Ballerina
The Smashing Pumpkins - Today
Walk on By - Isaac Hayes