A "Journey" of Musical Discovery

One of my classmates recently posted a blog entry about how she discovered some of her favorite music by checking out some CDs from her local library. This reminded me of how I discovered some of my favorite music accidentally, so I figured I'd tell you a little bit about that.

Journey is one of many bands that I discovered in an unconventional way. I grew up listening to songs like "Don't Stop Believin'" and "Open Arms" on the radio, and I knew those songs were attributed to a group called Journey. I always liked these songs, but I never took the time to find out who Journey was. That changed in 2001 during an airplane trip to Florida. The plane had an individual TV at every seat, and while I was flipping through the channels, a broadcast of a recent Journey concert caught my eye. As I watched it, I realized that I was already familiar with several of Journey's songs, and I also liked the ones I wasn't familiar with. As soon as I got home, I did some internet research to learn more about this great band. To make a long story short, I now own all of their albums and have attended eight Journey concerts, including one in Spain. My flight to Florida was indeed the start of quite a journey!

Vocabulary

Unconventional (adjective) - out of the ordinary

Attributed (verb) - related to a certain source

Flip through the channels (verbal idiom) - to quickly cycle through the television channels in order to find something of interest

Broadcast (noun, can also be a verb) - a program on the radio or television

Caught my eye (verbal idiom) - attracted my attention

Album (noun) - in music, a CD with several songs on it

Vocabulary Practice

1. This painting has been _________ to Van Gogh.

2. This evening, many people are watching the _________ of the Yankee game.

3. While I was walking my dogs, a strange flashing light _________.

4. Eating dessert before dinner is quite _________, don't you think?

5. Journey's newest _________ contains 11 songs.

6. There is nothing interesting on TV. I'm going to _________ to find something to watch.

Grammar Point

As you know, some English words can have more than one meaning. When a word is used in a way that suggests more than one meaning, we call it a pun. Puns are often used for humor in written and spoken English. In this entry, I used a pun in the last sentence: the word journey refers to my trip, but it also refers to the fact that Journey is the name of the band I discovered during that trip.

Grammar Practice

 Write three sentences containing puns and write a brief explanation of each one. If you are having trouble coming up with your own puns, go to http://www.webenglishteacher.com/puns.html for some ideas.