I had my teacher-student showdown this morning and it turned out to be, pretty tame actually. She just wanted to see where she went wrong and was a bit worried about her overall mark and so I tried to bestow her with some wordly wisdom, including some tales of my own academic failings, both recent and of times gone by. She also admitted that she couldn't be mad at me because I was too nice. And so, therein is the explanation that I have long sought in regard to mystery of the non-complaining students. If you bombard them, and people in general, with "niceness", including jokes and incessant smiling, then, when it comes to difficult "moments", they will recognize that you're not out to get them. Yes. Thus, in the future, the niceness will be increased!

A quick comment too about my latests Travplay band, Athlete. It's good shit, and hadrly original. I must also add, that having explored Snow Patrol in more depth, I really enjoy that too. So, all this thinking about British bands with a penchant for melody, and the seeming lack of something similar from the States has led me to ask that age old question: why? At the moment, the best answer that I could come up with is as follows.

British music, or at least the rock variety, and a small sample of that too, "seems" to be more melodic and melancholy: Conversely, American music seems to have more energy, is more upbeat, and little less melodic. My theory - and I must admit that it may come across as a bit, well, "out there", but it basically revolves around the current stage which the two powers seem to be at in their respective histories. On the one hand, the British - and I'm sorry to all those British readers out there if this offends you -are past their prime living in a age when the "Pax Britannica" is but a memory. On the other hand, the Americans, despite their recent rows with various nations and their looming economic disaster, are still very much the dominant force in the world. They are still confident and optimistic: the world is still their oyster and see nothing but bags of gold at the end of the rainbow ahead. Despite a few hiccups, they, and we are still living during the age of the "Pax Americana". They haven't really experienced the "enemies at the gates" stage. The British have: during world war 2 the Brits saw their nation pounded by German bombers and watched their power slip away with the Suez Canal crisis. If anything, they've slipped into the role that the so-called "Byzantine Empire" did when the west "was lost to the barbarians" in the fifth century. Both British musicians and American musicians are influenced by the culture that they are a part of. And, I think that this is reflected in their music.

So, twenty, fifty, or even hundred years from now when the Americans really start to feel the pinch of rising powers like Cana...er, I mean China and India, can we expect the same sorts of things to emerge from their great country? Hard to say. But, and this all depends on how long it takes for the fall to happen, I would be curious to find out.