The Romanians got their chance in the previous video jukebox, so now it’s time give the Hungarians a go. (The Hungarians already had a go, they’ll tell me, and Fărâmiţă Lambru was %100 gyppo and nothing to do with us; why don’t you put on something by that nice Julio Iglesias, now he’s a Romanian) The Hungarians of course used to run this town, and although Ceauşescu ensured that their community is now reduced to an embittered rump their well-dressed presence here still leavens the dough a little. They may seem cold and to have one pint of blood less in ‘em than the rest of humanity (other than of course their distant cousins the Finns... and I mean distant - have you ever tried having a conversation with one of those people??), and a silly language, but they are at least modern people. They understand irony, and for that and for their comparatively spicy cuisine I thank them. Here’s the fine Hungarian/gypsy ensemble Besh O Drom with both a tribute to and pastiche of communist-era Top Of The Pops.
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They fancy themselves as footballing connoisseurs, don't they? I once met a Hungarian academic who said he'd been tortured after participating in the failed uprising of 1956. He watched a football match on TV impassively for half-an-hour and then said "Shit!" very loudly.
ReplyDeleteLots of technical tonguing going on here! I'm impressed.
ReplyDeleteSx
I had a brief glimpse of a better world, a world in which teens go crazy over brass-tastic Rrom music. And then the mocking words Lily Allen echo in at least two of my ears...
ReplyDelete"the Finns... and I mean distant - have you ever tried having a conversation with one of those people??"
ReplyDeleteActually, yes – mostly in the sauna, with copious quantities of local beer and makkara (the Finnish national vegetable). Finns are not as taciturn as many make them out to be. You just need to engage with them in their universe.
This I like! Shake your booty around Eastern Europe - when you get to Poland can I suggest some klezmer, Kroke or simla. Hungary has the most handsome waiters, although unfortunately you have to eat an awful lot of paprika to get a close look at them.
ReplyDeleteAs John Peel often said, I think I played that at the wrong speed. Is there a way to slow it down to the proper tempo?
ReplyDeleteNow pizzicato would have improved that one. Well, I can't be certain as I couldn't stick it beyond the first 30 seconds, for all Scarlet's technical tonguing. (Sorry darling; in other circumstances....?)
ReplyDeleteIt's bloody hard to do that much staccato, Mr Inky...
ReplyDeleteBut I will forgive you.
Sx
GB: I believe they invented modern European football with their 1950s team led by Ferenc Whiskas, or whatever his name was.
ReplyDeleteGreat, Scarlet, I'm impressed by their musicianship too. Thanks for your expert opinion, which explains it.
Lily Allen is a new name on me, Boyo, but I'll take it from you that she doesn't quite cut the mustard. I can post even more brass-heavy stuff if you'd like me to!
Welcome, Dr Sedgemore. (I'd like to call to you "Francis" but that would somehow seem the wrong way round). Yes, I debase the Finns in an pathetic attempt at comedy. I knew a couple of very nice ones in Copenhagen, and did find that they're more talkative during the warmer months.
Daffers, hurray, glad you like it!! I like klezmer too, but I confess that I don't know either Kroke or simla and will have to go and seek them out.
I reckon John Peel should have played a lot more of his records at 78 rpm, Baz, though I've great appreciation for the opportunities he gave to novice punks, etc.
Hi Inkspot, oh well, I can't please everybody, thanks for being honest. I just love music as quick as this and I think the video is magic. Make a request and I'll see if I can play it!
Scarlet, isn't that you in the blond wig in this video? Oh please tell me it is!
Sziasztok
ReplyDeleteA Finn enters a bar in Helsinki. There's a moustachioed man in denim nursing a beer and monkey-juice at the bar, and another lying flat on his face on the floor. Finn orders a beer and monkey-juice, nods at moustache and drinks in silence. The process is repeated five times.
ReplyDeleteAn hour later the Finn nods towards the man on the floor and says "he dead?"
"You come to drink or to mouth off?" grunts moustache.
Servus, bade! Hagy vagy?
ReplyDeleteFinns! You have to love 'em though, 'cos they know that's funny.
ReplyDeleteHyvää huomenta, Dr Dilo!
ReplyDelete"...they're more talkative during the warmer months."
Actually, no, the Finns - bless their sensible winter hats - tend to be more talkative in the colder months. Only not in the bars.
Picture Sodankylä in January. It's -30 degrees outside the sauna hut, out of which scamper a bevy of very red-looking Finns, bollocks to the wind, who then proceed to leap into a snow bank while jabbering away merrily.
And yes, I have myself partaken of this quaint national ritual.
finom
ReplyDelete...ez a krumpli.
ReplyDeleteMornington Crescent!
Boyo, we are playing Morn. Cres. at Daph's at the moment; I am winning.
ReplyDeleteDr Sedgemore: I envy you, I always fancied doing that suana/snow thing. We used to go to one on the Danish coast in winter and then rush into the bollock-freezing sea afterwards, but it's not the same if you can't beat each other with birch branches!
ReplyDeleteWVC: minden jót!
Boyo: tisztelt utasok... Vörösmarty Tér.
Mrs P: kezét csókolom. Not for long my dear: in the version you're playing the Deák Ferenc ammendments are invoked, and you've just crossed the parallel.
Esztergom (Cathedral Close)
ReplyDeleteFabulosa, Gadj!
ReplyDeleteBTW stop dissing the Finns - Wendy might weave her way over here and she'll be offended. And you don't want to offend Wendums, believe me. Fireworks.
Rather despite myself I loved this. Great video, too.
ReplyDeleteThe great man was Ferenc Puškas.
"And so Ferenc Puškas to you, to you!
And so Ferenc Puškas to you.
With knobs on."
(Half Man Half Biscuit, "All I Want for Christmas is a Dukla Prague Away Kit")
Boyo, Kolozsvár (but only under Hapsburg rules)
ReplyDeleteIs Wendy Finnish, Mrs Boyo? Or is just her spelling that looks Finnish? (Ooh catty.)
Half Man Half Biscuit, Yesss!! Boyo's already mentioned that %99 of Gargoyles look like Bob Todd. All I have to add is that, oh no, wait, F**kin' 'Ell it's Fred Titmus!
All I want for Christmas is a Dukla Prague away kit ... yes I can see why you E.European wallahs might like HMHB.
ReplyDeleteHave you got Mingi de foc, Gadjo?
I thought the Biscuits wrote the best opening lines of any song ever. I heard the beginning of "I Hate Nerys Hughes" as:
ReplyDelete"Well, the bikers came to my town
And visited the cemetery."
Understated menace. And that "Well" took it to another level.
However, I gather that it begins "St Francis came to my town..."
Disappointing.
Daphne: I haven't, but I know a lady who has.
ReplyDeleteBoyo: Certainly the best song titles ever written - I confess that I never got much beyond the titles so cannot comment further. How did "I Hate Nerys Hughes (From The Heart)" go down in Wales, though?
Nerys was considered a traitor to the Red Book of Hergest, Black Book of Carmarthen and, possibly, the White Book of Eifionydd for insisting on portraying a Scouser in a positive light in the Liver Bairds. She redeemed herself by doing Welsh-language insurance ads for the over-60s on daytime TV, and for being eminently doable despite her advancing years.
ReplyDeleteWe are nothing if not a relaxed and forgiving nation.
Can't find a video example of her linguistic largesse, but here she is grappling with a big fish:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ult-jO3vEuE&feature=related