Re: The YouTube thread [2]

[chris63]

WOW, this kid ain't bad either.

[halfwise]

Both kids strike me as having very adult mannerisms.

I've always loved balalaika music. Not sure why only Russians ever play it. Everyone plays Irish music, Tango music, etc. Indian music is too deep and alien for westerners to attempt, but why not Russian music?

[chris63]

This girl is good.

[chris63]

Bloody hell, what are they feeding these Russians? There brilliant.

[chris63]

Could watch this all day.

[chris63]

[halfwise]

Damn kids. What's the world coming to?

And if that's not enough they have to use these little stools 'cause their feet can't even reach the ground. Rub it in, why don't you?

[chris63]

[chris63]

[halfwise]

[azriel]

Fabulous kids ! My god ! She is like a little china doll, so dainty yet powerful little hands. He seems quite mature for his age. I think we should enjoy the magic these kids can bring before puberty kicks in & the beer & fags turn up.

[halfwise]

I don't so much mind being reminded of how little I've accomplished in life by a teenager; but by a 5-year-old is taking things too far!

[chris63]

Love this clip. Good music and good dancing.

[azriel]

That was good fun

[halfwise]

I don't think I've ever laughed so hard at a youtube video. It picks up a few minutes in when they pick up their passengers.

[chris63]

Jim Carrey. Very good impersonation of Jack Nicholson. Hard to tell the difference.

[azriel]

He was bloody good !

[chris63]

I love these reactions videos. This is one of the best.

[halfwise]

Kinda slow start, getting bored. I wish he wouldn't stop so often.

[Forest Shepherd]

Yeah I can't stand reaction videos in which they pause what they're watching.

Anyway I was wasting time reading about some morbidly obese cat who is being put through a weight-loss regimen and someone posted this in the thread. It's so dumb but I got a great laugh out of it.

[azriel]

{{ I like Pacific Rim }}

[azriel]

https://www.facebook.com/9gag/videos/429402481098455/

[Forest Shepherd]

Both kids strike me as having very adult mannerisms.  

I've always loved balalaika music. Not sure why only Russians ever play it.  Everyone plays Irish music, Tango music, etc.  Indian music is too deep and alien for westerners to attempt, but why not Russian music?

pfft, too deep and alien. Okay, fetishizing Indian music a bit much there.

[halfwise]

It's the typical western conception.  I love the stuff, and their music theory is like from another planet.  Very cool.  But it would take years for a westerner to learn how to do it - it's a totally different approach.  Improvisation within a framework for each raga that has to be passed from master to student, as the rules have never been notated.

A rough example (only somewhat made up): for a certain raga if you plan to pass from C to E you have to first touch on F then bounce on D twice, but the durations and emphasis are up to you.  If descending from E to C, you do it via D C#, with a longer hold on the C#.  

And that's about 3% of what you have to learn in order to perform this particular raga.  Masters may only know 20-40 ragas; novices take several years to learn a handful. I once found a tome in which the author had attempted to come up with a notation based on western notation, but with emphasis denoted by larger notes, glissandos, etc. But it could only be a memory device once you know a raga, you'd never pick up the character from the written description.

A few westerners have learned Japanese music; some very fine shakahachi players out there.  Pentatonic scale....well, almost.  The 2nd and 5th can float in microtones, from which much of the emotion of a performance comes from.

I think the reason easterners can learn western music is because the theory is easier to lay out.  Nice clear rules even if chromatacism complicates things. And the music is fully notated, even if it still needs interpretation.  Harder to go from west to east, even if both are equally deep and alien to the other.

[chris63]