Rocking My World Pt. 1

A lot of music festivals are happening these days.  Tomorrow I'm headed to Beijing for the Strawberry Music Festival, where one of my favorite Chinese bands, Miserable Faith, is playing.  So excited.  This past weekend, Dalian had its own little festival with local acts including Wang Wen, Doc Talk Shock, Which Park? (who I still haven't seen!), and Spiral Cow.



Image: Dan Jones.  See his blog for more great pics!

I only saw Doc Talk Shock (fun Sonic Youth-influenced alt rock) and Spiral Cow (synthy math rock) this time, and I had seen both of them previously, but they put on a really good show!   The best part was that I brought two of my former 5th year students, Michael and Louis, along.  For both of them, it was their first time ever seeing live music.  I was so happy to be able to give them that experience.

Michael and Louis are in the postgraduate English program, but they made no attempt to practice their English with me.  (Whew! Breath of fresh air!)  I'm not convinced that Louis can actually speak English at all.  He barely passed my class last semester.  Michael, on the other hand, did a final presentation on the "History of Rock n Roll" (the delivery was so-so, but the content was excellent!).  I remember turning around to the class and saying, "Do you guys listen to rock music?"  A lot of them said no.  They like pop music and "light music."  That was how I found out Michael was a person worth knowing, and since then, I have referred to him as "Rockin Michael" to distinguish him from my other Michaels (all of whom are named after Michael Jackson, of course.) 

Last semester I had wanted to become friends with my 5th years, seeing as how we're the same age, but I was maybe too careful about maintaining appropriate teacher-student distance.  Now I don't teach them anymore, so I am making every attempt to bring Rockin Michael and any interested cohorts out the Dalian music scene!