A video jukebox is a fantastic idea, allowing one to inflict one’s music on others and yet requiring so very little effort! I begged and pleaded with Scarlet Blue to let me do this, and eventually she relented and even explained how to do it. I’m in the mood (i.e. still knackered) for doing this regularly, but I have to warn you that there'll be much music from Romania and other parts of Eastern Europe, you will see gypsies, and it will feature the ţambal as much as possible. Out of respect to Scarlet I’m going to start with something for the laydees – ladies, that is, who like their gypsies to use as much Brilliantine as is humanly possible. Here’s Fărâmiţă Lambru singing about a wedding ring. Even if you don’t like the music, take a look at the man’s microphone technique.
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Oh my! He does have a delicate grasp on his microphone doesn't he? If this doesn't lure Mrs P out of her hidey hole, then I don't know what will...
ReplyDeleteI liked this Gadj.
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My word, he's good! I can detect Arab influences in his ululating style. A pity he couldn't have sung it near a gypsy campfire surrounded by black-eyed dancing girls.
ReplyDeleteSort of Marx Brothers without the brothers. Even the bald guys in the orchestra are Brilliantined. But excellent singing, spoilt only by the incessant pizzicato. Is that as compulsory as the Brilliantine?
ReplyDeleteSynchronicity! I'd never heard of him until yesterday. A mate sent me a clip of Rona Hartner singing "Inel Inel de Aur", and I searched for more versions on YouTube. Up cropped Lambru.
ReplyDeleteThen I mosey over here and you're hosting a Fărâmiţăfest. Tell us more about this dreadful little man.
Hm, if I were Joe Pesci I'd be asking my grandmother some serious questions. I like my gypsies with horses and gold teeth, Lambru's a bit sophisticated for my taste. I sat next to Manitas de Plata once in his flamenco club in the south of France, I lent him my pen, he even gave it back. What a gent.
ReplyDelete"Dreadful little man", Boyo? By Romani standards, he's tall dark and handsome.
ReplyDeleteLike me.
I'm with Inky: the pizzicato's far too intrusive. Interesting singing and I loved the 'proper' violin-playing.
ReplyDeleteFantastic, a much more positive response all round than I was expecting!
ReplyDeleteScarlet, I'm beginning doubt the existence of Mrs Pouncer - are you sure her "column" is not written by a commitee of Berkshire bloggers during "working lunches"?
GB: Indeed, and there's been lots of that oriental-sounding style here, but unfortunately the genre morphed into something called "manele" - more likely to be sung from an SL-class Mercedes than around a campfire :-(
Welecome, Mr Inkspot! The pizzicato (or whatever it is) is not as compulsary as the Brilliantine, but they've got to do it so Lambru can appear as smooth as possible by comparison.
Synchronicity indeed, Boyo - what are the chances, eh?! I think Rona Hartner's recently been singing with the excellent band Mahala Rai Banda - who you're probably more likely to hear playing at Reading University than I am here.
Mrs Dilo and I have 3 gold teeth between us, Daffers, which should be worth enough to get us a decent burial wherever we drop dead in this country. Manitas de Plata, eh? I used to hang out in flamenco club too - you gotta tell me more!
He's dark and handsome, Gyppo, but there the similarity ceases as he was known for being scrawny; but he used that to his advantage - he raises more smiles than hackles.
I can you get you more of this, Kevin, with even more violins. In fact these lads can play anything - Strauss waltzes, The Lambada, you name it - so just send me a wad of readies and I'll see what I can do!
Reading has a university?
ReplyDeleteI'd love to meet the blogging committee that could create Mrs Pouncer. It would have to include Dorothy Parker, Marianne Faithfull, Prof Mary Beard and Fenella Fielding.
Ah, Fenella...
Oh Gadj, I can assure you that she does exist...
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P.S I think she might be posting tonight.
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Sorry to interrupt here, but I must upbraid Boyo for his suggestion that Mary Beard might be capable of contributing to Mrs Pouncer's blog. For all I know, Prof Beard is a fine classicist, but her blog is just not good enough, riddled as it is with careless philistine remarks about mathematics and mathematicians.
ReplyDeleteRight ho, thanks, over to you Gadjo.
(Fenella Fielding on the other hand... she would provoke strange feelings in at least one small boy.)
I absolutely loved this. Don't know if it's the large percentage of Eastern European blood in me (Czech) but I've always been drawn to this music.
ReplyDeletePearl
Hmm, disappointing. Tres. Gadjo is one of my oldest and most forgiving friends, and here he is shamelessly casting doubt on my very existence. Heartbreaking. I feel the thorns of cruelty.
ReplyDeleteI have just posted a glamorous new discourse on my scented page. Not that you'd be interested, I suppose.
Very dismayed.
I came here to tell you that she's back... but as usual she's beaten me to it... why am I always one step behind...
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Inky, Prof Beard would be there to provide the Latin and some tales of teenage adultery - nothing more. Marianne would then duff her up behind the bike sheds.
ReplyDeleteDearest Mrs Pouncer, and you - yes, you, whoever you are - are somebody that I hold very dear to me. The fact that the putative "Berkshire lunchtime blogging committee" probably does contain exactly the cultural architypes "Dorothy Parker", "Marianne Faithfull", "Prof Mary Beard" and "Fenella Fielding" is bye the bye and I shall not mention it again, for the time being. Please don't be dismayed - we can get beyond this.
ReplyDeleteDear Scarlet, I seem to be a bit hung up on this whole "reality" thing, don't I. I feel a post coming on. (Have you got any pictures of her though - did you make a drawing like I said?)
Your interruptions are appreciated, Mr Inkspot, and I'll endeavour to look soon at your website. (I've just seen Ms Beard's photo and she looks like she's been to a Romanian dentist. But Fennella Fielding, as we know, actually is yer actual ethnic Romanian).
Pearl, delightful to have you with us! I'm great admirer of the Czech people - such intectualism they've shown in the face of adversity. They've made some good music too.
"Marianne would then duff (Prof Beard) up behind the bike sheds..." Boyo, Fennella would lick the pair of them... and I think you know what I'm saying. (Mmmm, there's another post coming on me.)
Fenella Fielding Romanian?! I did not know that, but it makes my feelings even stranger.
ReplyDeleteBoyo, I apologize. I should have realized that you had everything carefully planned. BTW, more ace typesetting by both you and Gadjo; how did you get those diacritical marks in there?
Inky, we are twin souls and no mistake! One of the very first things I ever asked Gadjo - or it might've been Boyo, or one of those men who I've subsequently dropped because of their salacious emails to mrspouncer@hotmail.com - was "how do you do diacritics?" On receiving the answer, I immediately zoned out and have never bothered since. I only want umlauts, anyway. Crabtree isn't arsed.
ReplyDeleteSomeone put the poor fellow out of his misery! Is anyone still commenting on Mr Dilio's post, or have we all gone stark staring mad?
ReplyDeleteInkspot, as I told Mrs Pouncer - yes it was me, as if you didn't remember perfectly clearly - I just copy mine from the Internet: e.g. put "Faramita Lambru" into Google and you'll find a site somewhere which has all the correct diacritics.
ReplyDeleteCrabtree isn't arsed today Mrs P, but he'll be back. I'm going to visit your website soon and see if you and me have made up.
We are indeed all stark staring mad, Mr Can Bass, but we are The People, and apart from the fact that we pay your salary our culture is as valid as yours. Even Bartók Béla (diacritics coutesy of Wikipedia, Inky) is with me on this one, so there. :-)
What I meant was that Crabtree is NEVER arsed about diacritics. As long as he gets a steady stream of Daumal and/or Fabre from me he's happy. If only it were that easy with the other members of my restless entourage who plague me with gratuitous blandishments at mrspouncer@hotmail.com even though I do nothing, NOTHING, to encourage or expedite it. Bizarre.
ReplyDeleteCan Bass, you're focussing on inessentials. The core issue is Brilliantine. And typesetting.
ReplyDeleteAh yes, Inky, I remember when you'd see pots of Shrdlu, the gentleman's pomade on the shelves of the barbers in between the Vitalis and something for the weekend.
ReplyDeleteMrs Pouncer, dear, I've just sent a charming email to mrspouncer@yahoo.com It hasn't come back yet... maybe it will maybe it won't.... the very quiddity of our relationship is in the balance, and the whole world holds it's breath.
ReplyDeleteMr Inkspot, you're spot on. I've never seen Can Bass's hair but I'm sure it could use brilling up a bit.
Strewth, Kev, have you, me and Inky all been on the same university courses??? Or are we just blocks in the same blocksworld? ELIZA was the ladies' equivalent of Shrdlu, as I recall.
Gadj, I have just taken the trouble to listen to your Jukebox, and I love this man. I see him seated opposite me, maybe at Rules of Maiden Lane, maybe at Chez Zanzan, Rennes, maybe at the Square Deal Cafe, Knowl Hill. It wouldn't matter. I think we might be twin souls.
ReplyDeletePS Your unsolicited billets doux should go to hotmail.com, not yahoo. Really, do you vex me.
ReplyDeleteErm... Is there any vaseline here?
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Monty Shrdlu was the Lieutenant Kijé figure of the news presses way back when, ready to cop the blame for anything that outraged vicars in Barnet.
ReplyDeleteMrs Pouncer, yes, of course, hotmail is so much more you. And thank you for your charming reply, from which I see that you've given yourself another name, and a rather classy one too if I may say so (are you sure have written historical bodice-ripping novels under that name?).
ReplyDeleteYes there is, Scarlet, and I'm warming it up right now.
Oh, I seem to have been reading from an entirely different page there, Kev! Was he a Private Eye creation?
Gadjerooni! That's my REAL name, or at least my married name. Isn't it glam? And so much nicer than my maiden name, which was too yekke for words.
ReplyDeleteYour married name, eh? Well, it's a lovely name but I still don't believe a word of it so I'm sticking it through my computer to see what it can be decyphered as. Here we go, here come the answers on a piece of tickertape:
ReplyDelete"boyo and gyppo down the tethered goat" (yeah, that's a possible decoding)
"a retired scottish boxer called frankie" (another of our blogging number thought of that one, and shall remain nameless, though it was actually M C Ward)
"pouncer, mrs" (no, that's merely tautolagous)
"mr s pouncer" (must be your husband)
"carol vordermann" (ah, now, that one I like)
Well, very interesting, I'll have a think about these and get back to you.
Gadj, your continued cynicism upsets me.
ReplyDeleteI am just back from a tearful parting at Heathrow (filthy, incidentally, nowhere to sit anymore and nowhere to deposit litter - more cowtowing to the terrorists, natch, but oh! Quid gurgustum) and feel very fragile and quavery, and you are not helping. I thought you were my friend. Scarlet, the sal volatile, please.
I'm sorry to hear that, Mrs Pouncer, parting is often a sweet sorrow, as somebody once said. You are my friend, but I'm just curious to know who you actually are my dear :-) Scarlet assures me that you are real, but is Scarlet real? You all know Reading very well, which seems an odd coincidence. But is Reading real? Of course if you'd come to Bontida (real?) like you said you would we'd have none of this doubt! I'll see you on a layby in Berkshire with Daphne on December 23rd, how about that?! Or just tell me that you're Carol Vordermann, that would do fine.
ReplyDeleteThis is unbelievably good shit. By the way, I have a semi-serious question. Do you wear a leather jacket?
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