Re: Nostalgia / Hotel California / Bellyring

[AnHai Doan <anhai@cs.washington.edu>]

On Mon, 21 Apr 1997, Thanh Dang Nguyen wrote:

> When I was a kid, it seemed to me that everything "cool" was related
> to the kind people of Soviet Union (Soviet food, Soviet movies,
> Soviet kitchenware and household appliances, Soviet color magazines,
> Soviet sports in general and soccer in particular, Soviet aerobics, and 
> so on). And of course, Russian language. Damn it, I can't speak a word 
> after maybe 10 years learning that wonderful language of Lenin :-)

Hey Thanh, surely you can still sing "chie^`u chie^`u ra ddu+'ng okno,
tha^'y mo^.t co^ na`ng khoroxo, kho^ng bie^'t la`m sao ma` liubit,
to^'i ve^` picat picmo ..." :-) .

> > Speaking of Russian songs, the two songs I like the best are "Moscow 
> > Night" and "Million Roses".
> 
> Talking about *typical* Russian melodies, I don't know! Maybe you meant
> Russian folklore music. I mostly identify Russian songs from their languages,
> not from the music. 

Russian music is beautiful, either "ca'ch ma.ng" songs, or folklore.
Who has heard the babalaika, and can forget? Have you watched "the fiddler
on the roof" (hengedus a hazteton)? A beautiful musical film; there is a
scence in the film where the Jewish folks and the Russian folks in the
same village sang and dance their seperate musics. That was awesome. Also,
the Lara theme in "Dr. Zhivago" is beyond description (I know, it was
supposed to sound Russian, but was composed by a French guy,
nevertheless...).

>I know "A milion roses" (who doesn't?), and I think
> "Moscow night", too, as far as it is the song called "Chieu Mac Tu Khoa"

It is "chie^`u Ma(.c Tu+ Khoa", but is called "Moscow Night" in
English. You can find this song in any Russian section of any big music
store in the US. Its first tune was played every half an hour in Moscow
(Russian?) radio, kind like time marking. Wonder if this is still the
case.

> listening to it many times when I was a kid. Must have been a very nice
> song, since it made its way from Russia to our little corner of the
> world. 

It is a world-famous song. Even my Japanese friend knows and likes it.

> > "Love Story". The music was cool. I was not impressed by the story.
> > Later I watched the film, and was impressed by the main actress, the one 
> > who played the sick girl.
> 
> The movie is a wonderful experience for almost anybody with a foolish heart,
> highly recommended for innocent people in love. Don't watch it twice! Keep
> your innocent, intimate first-time feelings instead (don't tell me that
> you didn't shed some heart-wrenching teardrops in secret at the end of the
> movie). Be a man to admit it :)

Boy oh boy, I must have run into a "Casablanca" fan :-). I'm sorry to say
that I was not impressed and moved to tears by the film, guess it was too
romantic for me. I was impressed with the main actress because she
appeared to be the kind of girl who looked quite normal at first sight,
but more and more pretty as you got to know her (in the film, that is).
Quiet magnet! Her performance was excellent.

You may have liked "An affairs to remember" (old one), "Sleepless in
Seattle" (new one, will find Meg Ryan fans on vnsa), "Bridge over the
Madison County" (about old folks, will also find fans on vnsa), just to
name a few.

Have you ever watched a French film called "The adventurers", starring
Alain Delon, Lino Ventura, and a cute girl whose name I forgot. The film
is about the trio's going into various adventures to find gold in a 
plane wreckage in the ocean; the love triangle, of course, shows its ugly
face; at the end of the film, the girl and Delon (who else?) died.
That was one of the most romantic French film I have ever seen.

> BTW, you seem to suffer from acute nostalgia, huh? Sounds like
> you're listening to the Beatles' "Yesterday" every single day. I would
> add one more to heighten your pain: Carpenters' "Yesterday Once More"!
> Cheer up anyway!

:-)
Mondjak ne kergesd a multat
Mindig a jovoben elsz
Megis eljon as alom
Es csak a multat idezz

( They said you shouldn't chase the past
  Live rather for the future
  However, when come the sleep, at last
  All you can dream is the past)

(Hotel California - The Hungarian version)
:-)

Just kidding. I can talk equally well about the present and the future, if
that is what you wish. In fact, I did talk about the present and asked you
about the Chinese films, but got no answer yet :-). 

How about us talking about blues? I heard that you like blues. Some people
(especially those just coming from VN) got the wrong impression that this
is an exclusively black music. I think that this (and jazz) is actually
the music of upper-middle-class America. What do you think? Also, if you
need to sum up your experience listening to blues in a bar (concert, etc)
in only several sentences, what would you say? What are the most memorable
things for you?

Or here is an equally fascinating topic: let's try to describe America!
Lets each of us (and other readers) try in our own way describe what
we think America is, and what it means for each of us. What we like, hate 
the most? What we think is the soul, the spirit of America?

> A personal question: when I was in Hungary, I'd overheard that you
> usually dressed like a heavy metal fan, is that correct? Leather stuffs,
> high-heeled boots, earrings, and so on. How do you look like now?

Hahaha...thanks for giving me a good laugh :-). You may have mistaken me
with Mr. Ha, alumni of the University of Economics in Budapest, good buddy
of Mr. Vu PatPong. Also, as a matter of fact, it is rather dangerous going
around with earrings these days in America, you can always have your ears
ripped off without your permission. So I have chosen to have bellyrings
instead. Thinking about having rings at some other places as well, but
need to ask for permission first. :-) 

> 
> P.S. If you have any of those old times music and wanna trade, please let
> me know!
> 

My collection is small, but we can talk about this in the summer, once I
have gotten more spare time.

Cheers, Hai.