Langue et la musique!

Bienvenue! Willkommen! Fáilte! ようこそ！And otherwise, welcome! I trust everybody had a nice relaxing spring break this week. Unless of course you didn't have a break, in which case I trust that you had a week. This week is dedicated to awesome music that's not in English. Because you don't have to understand the lyrics to appreciate the song (not that anyone says that you do, but a lot of people don't seem to realize this fact). 

Case and point, who could ever forget this internet gem?

We watched it for the amusing antics of one brave (or...something) individual, but don't tell me the song wasn't fully ingrained in your brain for at least the rest of the day. We called it the Numa Numa song, but it's actually Dragostea din Tei by O-Zone (Moldovan band, Romanian lyrics), if you weren't already aware. 

Also, you already know my obsession with this particular anime theme song. I'm going to embed it here again, just because I love it that much. Don't recall if I said so before, but this is Parallel Hearts by FictionJunction (Japanese band and lyrics), from the anime "Pandora Hearts."

(we'll get back to Japan, I promise)

Then there are songs that are probably more amusing if you can roughly follow or understand the lyrics, but infinitely more so with helpful subtitles. But this song in particular is so bouncy  it'd be nice and catchy whether you could catch the story in the lyrics or not. This is Le Cafe by Oldelaf et Monsieur D (French band and lyrics):

And that, kids, is why coffee is just for grownups and should never be abused.

Moving further westward, we get to the Emerald Isle, home of all that Celtic wonderfulness (Riverdance, anybody?). Despite the domineering Englishness in Britain, some pockets still speak Gaelic (among other things, I'm sure, but I only have Gaelic songs, so deal with it). So this here is Dulaman by Celtic Woman (brought to you by the same people who gave you Riverdance, so go be grateful!). I'm pretty sure it's about a girl trying to decide between suitors, or something along those lines.

Bear in mind that this particular song didn't incorporate Celtic Woman's super-excellent violinist, who is arguably my favorite part of the group. But alas, as classical music isn't technically a language, that will be another post for another day, I suppose. 

Jumping back to Japan for a Tokyo minute, I wanted to make a point that there is great J-pop that isn't tied to an anime. Then I looked through the songs I had, and according to Wikipedia, all were used for an anime. So instead I'll give you one that I never heard attached to a show, because then it will count...kind of. Anyway, this one is Rolling Star by Yui (Japanese band and lyrics). It was used at some point for Bleach, but I never really cared for that one, and so didn't hear it that way, so we'll pretend I didn't look it up....

If nothing else, this is an example of a good Japanese song that the anime incorporated, rather than a good song specially made FOR the anime, like Parallel Hearts was. 

And now we get to songs in other languages PLUS Latin, which is dead and therefore universal. The first is a German gothic/electronica...thing. I don't generally go for the goth-rock genre, but there's something about E Nomine and the way they incorporate the Latin and techno that just works for me. Also, it's great for keeping yourself awake for all those all-nighters/early morning adventures. This is Mitternacht (Midnight), and is probably one of the most well known E Nomine songs out there (and yeah, the whole album is about werewolves and vampires and things that go bump at midnight, if you were wondering. Also, yes, I do realize that whoever made this video doesn't know how to spell "German," but it's hard to find the right video, so shut up!):

Also, is it completely politically incorrect for me to suggest that if one were to listen to something particularly gothic, then German is the perfect language to accompany it? Yes? Too late, it's already been said. Make your complaints at the door. 

Finally, this last song mixes Russian AND Latin AND English AND is awesome. Yes, it's another song created for the sake of an anime (Ghost in the Shell), but try to deny that it's pretty wonderful. No, go ahead, try. Well, listen to it first, then try. It's Inner Universe, was composed by Yoko Kanno, sung by ORIGA, and like I said, is in English, Russian, and Latin. 

Ok, now try. You can't, because it's awesome. I particularly like the fact that Yoko used Latin as a breath of serenity in the midst of the fairly chaotic techno music, in contrast to E Nomine's use of the language to enhance their creepiness factor. Latin's pretty versatile for a dead language, it seems. 

Anyway, that's all I got for now. Come back next week and I'll either blow your mind with something awesome, or cop out again. Or something in between. Gotta keep things mysterious, after all.

Stuff and.....stuff....

*WARNING* This post may be composed of way less awesome than previous posts have been. For your own safety, lower all expectations now! *END WARNING*

'Sup. As you may or may not have noticed, I didn't post anything last week, my reasoning being that I had given you two posts the week before and you could just deal with my self-proclaimed vacation (well, one post and a half, but still....). Also, the last two weeks were when the Grad School Beast goes on it's bi-semesterly hunt, fattening itself up before it's mini-hibernation during Spring Break. Long story short, I haven't had the time to read, watch, or hear anything new and wonderful to write about, and I've already used up my current stash of potential topics for when I have no topics (yes, it was a pitifully small stash. Shut up). So I said to myself "Self: Spring Break is coming up. You'll finally have some time to sleep and think and get back on all your tracks. Woo!" 

And then Spring Break came along (that's right, it's right now for those of you keeping score at home), and I came to the horrifying realization that I still had nothing to say, mostly due to the same reason stated above, which hadn't yet had a chance to rectify itself. 

So instead, I could just tell you about my Spring Break Adventures in Catsitting. Except that, as mature cats and therefore no longer adorably rambunctious kittens, they don't generally do much but eat and demand to be scratched. Then there's this, which pretty much exactly happened this morning:

except I'm not a dude, the room's not quite that messy, and it was the horrifying sound of something fragile falling from a high place instead of a baseball bat to the face. Same effect though.

-PS- I looked all over the room, and couldn't find anything that looked shattered, so the good news is that nothing seems to be broken. The bad news is apparently I'm hearing things now.

I could also tell you about my new venture into Dungeons and Dragons. It was the "Dragons" part that won me over. And also that I could make a character who was a dragon-person (don't ask, I don't know either), complete with working dragon wings, who radiates dragon magic, breathes dragon fire and is on a quest to learn about dragon heritage type things! DRAGONS! Otherwise, I've learned that D&D in it's entirety is apparently far more complicated than I care to know at the moment (or possibly ever, but definitely at the moment). 

Or I could just continue making blandly lame excuses about why I didn't sit and wrack my brain grapes for a better post idea.

Yeah, I'll go with that last thing. 

So. How 'bout that daylight savings thing again? It keeps happening, just like clockwork..hehhehhehee...

Ok, ok, I'm done. See you next week with what will hopefully be a much more post-like post!

In Response to Birdsong

Dear little songbirds,

Yes, we are all very excited that spring is here, and we can share in your jubilation that you have made it home safely after your winter-long visit down south. We understand that you must have a lot of catching up to do with the neighboring birds whom you haven't seen all winter. However, beyond your trees are windows, and beyond those windows reside various inhabitants who would be very much obliged if you would quell your vocalizations until a more a reasonable hour. Three-thirty in the morning, for example, is not reasonable. You see, we humans tend to associate birdsong with daylight, particularly in the early morning. You could then imagine our confusion when, while sleeping fitfully for fear of waking up late, we are suddenly startled awake in the middle of the night upon hearing your many warbles and believing it to be much later than it is. Therefore, in the interest of everyone's sanity, we hope that we can all come to the agreement that all birdsong should be postponed until dawn is actually breaking. In other words, we would all appreciate it if you would please find it within yourselves to SHUT THE HECK UP!!

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Some Concerned Citizens, otherwise known as "The Humans Contemplating Getting Cats Just to Hunt You Down"

Why teaching assistants need to sleep before grading lab reports

[It helps if you read it like this. And yeah, we parodied the parody. Deal with it. And when I say 'we,' I'm referring to another TA, Ashley, who is responsible for most of the first half.]



Book of Lab Rubrics. Chapter one. Verses 6 through 37, and verses 42 through 50.


And thus did Freshman the Slightly Dimwitted lifteth his plea to the TA: 
"Oh TA, bless this thy lab report, that with it thou will give high grades to thy subjects, in thy mercy." 

And the TA did grin. And the students did suffer with the conicals, and test tubes, and spectrophotometers, and reagents, and trials, and Lugols, and supplements, and standard curves, and pipettes, [...]


And thus the TA spake, "First thou shalt take out thy holy pen. And with it thou shalt write yon procedure which containeth three replicates, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thy shalt run, and the number of trials of replicate shall be three. Four thou shalt not have time for, neither shalt thou run two, unless immediately proceeding onto the third. Five is right out. Once the third trial, being the third replicate, hath been run, writest then thou thy holy lab report without thy group members, lest ye be deemed naughty in my sight, and thus snuffed to Academic Honesty, where there is much wailing and gnashing of teeth."


[...]


And so quoth Freshman in yon lab report: "Thus the amylase spake unto the yeast: 'And ye shall ferment thyself unto alcohol; as alcohol, ye shall be ferment. After fermentation, alcohol shall ye be.' So it was written, so it was done. And it was good."


Yea verily didst Freshman offer up yon lab report as a sacrifice unto the TA. But it was not pleasing unto the TA, and a foul stench it didst create in the nostrils of the TA. Freshman didst spew such falsities upon the foundations of Science that the TA didst cringe to call him "bio-major."....


Amen. 




[yeah, so, that's not so entirely far off. Between the two of us, we've got bio majors claiming that enzyme reactions can be stopped with sufficient amounts of water, DNA is made of amino acids, yeast turns into alcohol, and a liquid stain will absorb all the water in a test tube. If you're not a sciency person, that's all so wrong it hurts. It's akin to a lit major trying to tell you that Hemingway wrote Othello.]