Tuesday 22 June 2010

Cry!

I just wrote a whole long post including a translation of a song I recently disovered and then my crummy internet destroyed it! D:

If at any point I can be bothered to re-do it I will, but now is sleepytime.

'Night.

Cheer! It wasn't lost after all

I have always been guilty of enjoying a bit of German rock and pop, much to the bewilderment of most Germans I know, who cannot stand the stuff. However, I discovered a band today who I previously hadn't heard of* and I have to say I am very impressed.

*of whom, previously, I had not heard

They call themselves the Wise Guys and are a German a Capella group. Now, often part of the fun I get with German music is just being able to understand the lyrics, but a Capella is good fun and these guys are good at it, so I think this is actually good German music. The first song I saw was called 'Denglisch' and is about the (occasional mis-)use of English words in everyday German and how it is ruining the language (a sour point for German linguists). Another one I really liked was 'Nur fuer dich' or 'Just for you', an Anti-love song.

If you know any German, the video should be almost understandable, but also, because I feel I haven't translated any german in a while, I shall attempt a translation (but not to fit the tune) of the lyrics here:

Ich bin nur fur dich mit dir in Bridget Jones gegangen.

Just for you I went with you to Bridget Jones.

Ich hab' nur fur dich mit dem Joggen angefangen.

Just for you I started jogging.

Ich lief nur fur dich stundenlang durch diesen Park.

Just for you I ran for hours through this park.

Ich ass nur fur dich fettreduzierten Fruchtequark.

Just for you I ate reduced-fat Fruit-quark.

Ich trug nur fur dich im Sommer Birkenstock-Sandalen,

Just for you, in summer I wore Birkenstock sandals

Wirklich nur fur dich. Ich musste die auch noch bezahlen!

Really, just for you. I also still have to pay for them.

Ich hab nur fur dich behauptet, Heidi Klum zu hassen...

Just for you I claimed to hate Heidi Klum

nur fur dich! Und trotzdem hast Du mich verlassen.

Just for you! And despite this you left me.



Nur fur dich, das hab' ich nur fur dich getan.

Just for You, I did that just for you

Nur fur dich. Du warfst mich vollig aus der Bahn,

Just for you. You drove me fully off the rails

Nur fur dich war ich treuer als Olli Kahn!

Just for you I was more faithful than Olli Kahn (unfaithful German footballer)!

Nur fur dich. Das nennt man wohl "Beziehungswahn".

Just for you. That's called "relationship-delusion" <---??possibly??

Ich bin nur fr dich auf dem Weihnachtsmarkt gewesen.
JFY I went to the Christmas Market.
Ich hab nur fr dich "Harry Potter" durchgelesen.
JFY I read through Harry Potter. I
ch hab nur fr dich jeden Tag das Klo geputzt.
JFY I cleaned the loo every day.
Nur fr dich. Und was hat mir das genutzt?
JFY. And what use has it been?

Ich hab' nur fr dich 'nen Alkoholverzicht verkuendet.
JFY I declared I was giving up alcohol.
Ich hab' nur fr dich meine Playboy-Sammlung angezuenndet.
JFY I burnt my Playboy collection.
Ich hab nur fr dich sogar ein Liebeslied geschrieben!
JFY I even wrote a lovesong!
Nur fr dich. Und trotzdem bist du nicht geblieben.
JFY. And despite this you didn't stay.

Nur fr dich, dieses Lied war frueher deins.
JFY this song used to be yours
Das ist es jetzt aber nich' mehr,
It's not so any more
denn ab heute ist es meins.
because from now on it's mine
ich hab's ein bisschen umgedichtet,
I re-wrote it a bit
und das macht mich froh!
And that makes me happy
Jetzt ist es nur fr mich und geht ungefaehr so:
now it is, just for me and goes a little like this:
Ich hab' nur fr dich gesagt, dein blaues Kleid sei nett.
JFY I said, your blue clothes were nice
Das war gelogen - dein Hintern wirkte ungewhnlich fett!
That was lies- your arse looked unusually fat
Im Einparken bist du die groesste Niete aller Zeiten.
For parking you're the biggest failure of all times
Wenn dein Computer abstuerzt, schau' halt in die gelben Seiten.
If your computer breaks, just look in the yellow pages
Man kann Zahnbuersten locker zwei, drei Jahre lang gebrauchen.
You can use toothbrushes for easily two, three years
"Sex and the City" kann man in der Pfeife rauchen.
You can shove "Sex and the City" where the sun doesn't shine.
Es trinken ausser dir echt nur alte Tanten Sherry.
Apart from you really only old Aunts drink sherry.
Die schoenste Frau der Welt ist eindeutig Halle Berry.
The most attractive woman in the world is clearly Halle Berry
Nur fr dich, dieses Lied war frher deins.
Das ist es jetzt aber nich' mehr, denn ab heute ist es meins.
Ich hab' auch die Melodie gendert und das macht mich froh.
I also changed the melody and that makes me happy
Ich sings noch einmal nur fr dich, denn jetzt klingt es so:
I sing it once more JFY, because now it sounds like this:

Na na na na na Na na na na na na! Pfrrr!

For some reason, I can't get the embed code to copy, here's a link instead: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SGm4kOURwc&feature=related


I think my favourite bit is the angry guitar playing bit, all done by voice of course. These guys are pretty fab. I'll whack Denglisch in here as well because I do love a bit of the Denglisch myself, but I'm not going to translate it, you guys can work it out...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKg_oxYGht4

Oh lord, please gib mir meine language back...

Love it.

Monday 14 June 2010

Last one for this evening, honest.
Just to clear a few things up (as much for my memory as for your benefit) about the blog.

Background
I hope the coffee beans are self-explanatory: I love coffee.

Gigantor
This is a nick-name I picked up Saturday night at the pub playing pool with a man half my size. I am a bit of a Gigantor and proud of it. I just liked the way they came out with it to be honest, especially as they'd just made a point of asking me my name and then they just chose their own name for me anyway. Hoo-Har.

Wouldbephilosopher?
I am a philosophy fan, love reading books on it, but don't think I'll ever come up with anything particularly insightful myself (but keep reading the blogs and I might at some point accidentally join up some words to make some sort of sensible sentence revealing a deep philosophical truth about people, life and the universe and if I do you can be like- 'that is so true and relevant and life-changing').

This and That
To be honest, I have no idea what I'm going to be blogging about so it will be a bit of This and a bit of That.

Not wholly uninteresting
At least, I hope not.

Autobiographical
I imagine a lot of what I'll be writing will be about me and what I've been up to, not in a narcissistic kind of 'Ooooh look at me' way but more in a sort of 'This is what I did, this is what I thought of it, I felt compelled to write it down, read it if you will' kind of way.

Make Sense?

So help me Rhonda...

Hello again Possums (is it rude to steal someone else's greeting?)

Last Friday night our humble Chipping Norton Theatre was graced by the Genius that is Neil Innes. I know what you're thinking- who?- that's what I thought when my Dad said I could have the tickets. Turns out he is a big deal however, he even worked with the Pythons to do a lot of their music (he can be thanked for Brave Sir Robin). Basically my Dad gave me two tickets to see him because he couldn't go so I invited Davina along and he greatly amused us, I mean laugh-until-you-cry amusement! Definitely recommend it, the man really is a legend.

What particularly impressed me was his new social movement, Ego-Warriors, defending self-esteem and individualism. To join the movement just take seven minutes from your life to watch the little video which I shall hopefully manage to fix on to this blog in some way. Obviously it's much better live and perhaps a little more in context but I'm sure you'll get it. Also, I love the way that although he is very talented he isn't at all pompous and big-headed. Met him after the show and got him to sign something and he seems like a perfectly charming old (65 apparently) fellow.



See you soon chaps/chapettes

Sunday 13 June 2010

Allow me to introduce myself...

If you don't know who I am, I'm Rooney (in fact, even if you know who I am, I'm still Rooney). This is my second attempted blog after one I started on myspac but only ever blogged once.

Insomnia
As I've said on many occasions, sleep is for the weak. Sometimes when I'm in bed my brain just won't shut up so I figured it might be a wise idea to start generously smuttering my brain across a web-page to share with whichever whos who care to read it, if only to try and squeeze out all the half-thunken thoughts and half-baked ideas from my head. The idea is that I post about anything which pops into my brain and then you (my devoted fan(s)) can sew together the scrambled mess into some sort of intelligible string of characters and someone will learn a serious message, in a fun way, and everyone will live happily ever after, blossoming into solicitors, lawyers and cheese sandwiches at will and never (not even once) eating all their children in a wild fit of rage. Thus Justice will prevail.

Anyway, this is what I will call Post 0: An Introduction and post one might come later tonight (if you're very lucky).