Post 149 (1x4x9... those proportions familiar to anyone?)

[active_apathy]

Hello, all, and welcome to another exciting entry. Today we'll be talking about background music, pencups, old folk confused about their words and wasting time in arcades. Along the way, I'll probably find a few other things to say.

Firstly, background music. I was in *gasp* a shopping centre earlier today, run by the grammar-abusing Westfield chain. Their posters for this season are written

"
something
like
this
"

This is upsetting for all the obvious reasons. Of course, this is a secondary concern for this post - I am, after all, talking about background music. While I was there, there were 4 songs in rapid succession that appear on the lovely daphyncd, making me into an interesting blend of confused and squeeful.

I was shopping. I was after a few things - some blank CDs, a clock for my bedroom, and a pencup of some description. I ended up buying one of these objects, and even that is hacked from what it's designed to be. My new 'pencup' started out its life as a smoked glass and stainless steel toothbrush holder; minus its lid and with pens in, it's ready for a new life.

And that was the tricky bit. Easy things like CDs and a clock? Completely slipped my mind.

Typical.

Now, as you'd know, I catch buses to get about the place most of the time. This usually means some amount of waiting in bus stops; today was no exception. Today's incident saw me sitting next to an old couple, happily talking to each other. They came to be talking about crime. One said, and I quote, "They tried playing classic music at night for a bit. That seemed to help."

O Fortuna,
velut luna
satu variabilis
semper crescis
aut decrescis;
vita detestabilis
nunc obdurat
et tunc curat
lodu mentis aciem,
egestatem,
potestatem,
dissolvit ut glaciem.

Rolls off the tongue pretty well, but I can't think of more than 10 people I know with a chance of knowing what it actually says. One is me.

Classic music? Sounds like my kind of bus stop, really. "Waiting for the bus? We have nonstop classic rock hits for you!". My guess is that they were after the word classical. Generally speaking, it's also quite pleasant to listen to.

It's also harder to sing along with.

And now we get to my next rant about timekilling via arcades. I'm personally quite fond of pinball machines; they give me free games, and they tend to kill rather a lot of time. They've changed their whole one pinball machine again, to a LotR one. This isn't much of a problem, though. It's a fun little machine, even if it does play Concerning Hobbits over and over again (Baggins... Shire). It has all the usual things - loops, ramps, orbits, a minigame, flashing lights, and multiball.

Except it's more Multiballliekwhoa. Six little metal balls bouncing about a table is somewhat different, more than a little odd, somewhat confusing, and taxing on wrists and reflexes.

On a slightly different note, it's hard to concentrate on shooting loop combos with five balls while a pair of large brutish individuals stand behind you playing Point Blank, which has been magically set to its highest volume. Their dialogue roughly extended to:

Voice 1: Heh. You missed it mate.
Voice 2: Yeah. Have to try harder, hey, mate.
Voice 1: Yeah mate. Hey, look at that.
Voice 2: Top shooting, mate.

I infer from this that they're both named 'Mate'. I'm also taking great liberty with inserting commas into their speech - I have grave doubts about their ability to recognise, let alone use, these lovely bits of punctuation. I don't dare give them a semicolon; they might hurt themselves.

And that's about it for my Real Post for today.

Comments

[apetslife.livejournal.com]

Oh, I dunno. Though Latin isn't all that well known, Carmina Burana is pretty famous. And, if you think about it, it's generally performed by large choruses (150+ members) to get that marvelous booming wall of sound effect; just counting those of us who might've sung it once or twice, your odds will go up, I would think.

Good ol' Carl. Increasing Latin literacy one musical egghead at a time...

[active-apathy.livejournal.com]

Yay for Carl. *nods*

And for the 13th century writers of the original poems, too. They deserve a bit of a mention.

[riverchild.livejournal.com]

Clearly that toothbrush holder was gender-confused and coerced into its life as a toothbrush holder by society. Peer pressure is a teribble thing. Now it is either thanking you for liberating it, or entirely confused, because really, it never thought of itself as a pencup, either. Who knows if it didn't want to be a beautiful swan tip jar?

[active-apathy.livejournal.com]

*laughs!*

We'll see. Maybe it'll just be happy to have a job.

[riverchild.livejournal.com]

That's quite possible. At least it has found an equal opportunity employer.

(By the way, I can spell 'terrible' correctly. Better take away my semicolons, or I shall have to use the pointy little buggers to stab myself.)

[active-apathy.livejournal.com]

I'm not quite so sure about that. I'm not about to stick pens in a teapot.

*giggles* teribble. I got called wodnerful a few days back. Everyone typos sometmies.

[sing1118.livejournal.com]

I didn't know y'all had Westfields, too. In my home area, they built a new high school when I was in 16, and it was called Westfield, only everyone called it Westfields because of the stupid shopping centers. ::rolls eyes::

Rolls off the tongue pretty well, but I can't think of more than 10 people I know with a chance of knowing what it actually says. One is me.
While I do not know the exact translation, it is cursing fortune and a miserable fate. (I've sung it 3 times, once with the National Symphony Orchestra at Wolf Trap. That was one of the cooler things I've ever done, even though it was an outdoor concert in mid-July and I had to wear a tux shirt and skirt and there were lots of bugs flying around the stage.)

[active-apathy.livejournal.com]

Except the shopping centre chain is called Westfield. No, really.

And... that's close enough. :)

[sing1118.livejournal.com]

Actually, the golf course and all near the Mariott in Dulles and Clifton are called Westfields, and that's where WHS is. http://www.westfieldsgolf.com/

I love Carl Orff. I fangirl him like I fangirl Mozart, Monteverdi, Copland, and Gershwin. One of the other concerts I did with the NSO and the Washington Chorus was Monteverdi's Marian Vespers of 1610- that was amazing hard and really cool.

[tears-of-nienna.livejournal.com]

You know, I actually got most of that quotation...and I haven't even gone for the dictionary yet. ;D

And I would love to find a LotR pinball game somewhere around here. *begins searching local bars*

[palmer-kun.livejournal.com]

Am I the only geek who spots a square progression?

6 ball multiball rocks.

[active-apathy.livejournal.com]

They are indeed the first three perfect squares. There's another geeky touch of significance, though.

[sarekofvulcan.livejournal.com]

C.

G.

C.

E-Eb!

[active-apathy.livejournal.com]

It took me a moment more than it should've to figure out just what that was.

The geekiness is strong with this one.

[palmer-kun.livejournal.com]

The other significance, I must say, currently eludes me.

[active-apathy.livejournal.com]

Think 2001. I don't know if it's mentioned in the film, but the book definitely makes note of it.

[palmer-kun.livejournal.com]

Having neither read nor seen that, I definately had no chance of catching that reference, alas.

[liadlaith.livejournal.com]

Oh Fortune (you bitch)
You're like the moon
In your variableness
Always waxing
and waning
And whoring yourself
Out to beer companies
For advertising
I hate you
And I'm going to fuck your shit up.

[active-apathy.livejournal.com]

It could've been worse. At least it's not some Latin equivalent of
Oh Fortune
Are you ready to rock?

[ryttu3k.livejournal.com]

I know it!

It's a big ad
For Carlton Draught...

Nah XD But seriously, I grew up listening to classical music with my Mum... she loves Carmina Burana, and O Fortuna has been my favourite classical piece since forEVER, something that intensified when GUD used it to open their 2004 show. *cough*

[active-apathy.livejournal.com]

It's a slice of musical loveliness.

What did they do to it for their show?

[ryttu3k.livejournal.com]

Nothing bad! Just to open it - all the lights go out, even the stage lights. Then you hear the strains of O Fortuna... as the volume increases, the stage lights flash, you see torches from the back (this is especially suited to the Supper Room - a long thin room with a central aisle), GUD come strolling down the aisle hand in hand, with Cam in a tuxedo and Paul in a lovely wedding dress, hugging random audience members, and as it finishes they leap on stage and go straight into their first song. SUCH A COOL OPENING!!

[ianthefira.livejournal.com]

Ooooh, Carmina Burana... I guess I understand it pretty well--but I'm both familiar with classical music to an extent thanks to my father, and I took four years of Latin in high school. Mmmmm O Fortuna...

Try Olim lacus colueram. It's delightfully messed up. <3

[active-apathy.livejournal.com]

I'll have a look for it later. Or you could just post it here, if it's short enough to fit into an lj-comment.

[ianthefira.livejournal.com]

Olim lacus colueram,
olim pulcher exstiteram,
dum cygnus ego fueram.
Miser, miser!
modo niger
et ustus fortiter!

Girat, regirat garcifer;
me rogus urit fortiter;
propinat me nunc dapifer.
Miser, miser!
modo niger
et ustus fortiter!

Nunc in scutella iaceo,
et volitare nequeo;
dentes frendentes video.
Miser, miser!
modo niger
et ustus fortiter!

My favorite translation of this is:
Once I had dwelt on lakes, once I had been beautiful, when I was a swan. Poor wretch! Now black and well roasted!

The cook turns me back and forth; I am roasted to a turn on my pyre; now the waiter serves me. Poor wretch! Now black and well roasted!

Now I lie on the dish, and I cannot fly; I see the gnashing teeth. Poor wretch! Now black and well roasted!

Basically, as for context... it's either a song about a swan being roasted, or about a man who's so drunk he thinks he's a roasted swan. The latter makes more sense in context of the other songs in that section, but the former is probably more sensible out of context. Either works, really.

[ianthefira.livejournal.com]

Oh yes! I forgot. The real treat is to listen to it. It's delightfully painful. It's usually sung by a tenor an octave too high! It ends up sounding like someone in pain.

[active-apathy.livejournal.com]

*laughs some* My history lectures never mentioned that they had crack, let alone were on it.

[maggiebloome.livejournal.com]

I got topld that it doesn't actually mean anything, someone just made it up cos it sounded latinish.

[active-apathy.livejournal.com]

The entire Carmina Burana comes from a set of 13th century Latin poems. It's all perfectly meaningful.

[maggiebloome.livejournal.com]

Oh, well somebody was wrong then :P

[active-apathy.livejournal.com]

Very wrong. They made it up to sound like Latin because they liked poetry and knew Latin. :)

[silmaril.livejournal.com]

*raises hand* I also know what that snippet means, not because I know Latin but because we sang that with my high school choir and I looked up the lyrics. I know quite a bit of Carmina Burana, actually.

[active-apathy.livejournal.com]

You make... *scrolls back, counts* 8. If I get two more, that makes me right. :)

[maggiebloome.livejournal.com]

...AND ANOTHER THING! :P just procrastinating and re-reading stuff, and I realised my local Westfield does the quotes thing too! (I will be extremely embarrassed if it turns out that we have the same local westfield :P) How annoying is it? I mean, damn, that's just defeating the entire purpose of quotation marks! It's like they're just there cos they look pretty!

And to top it all off they have ads titled "Arise, African Queen" with blonde chicks in them. Now that's irony.

[active-apathy.livejournal.com]

Except they don't look pretty; the way they're using them, they upset and imbalance the composition. Raar!

[maggiebloome.livejournal.com]

I know, whenever I look at them I have the urge to twist my head sideways.