I just got back to Paris from Budapest & since that means a dedicated DSL line again I feel at home*. (whew!)
What did I do in Budapest?….. Why, I performed live in front of my adoring fans of course:
You MUST HAVE QUICKTIME 7 to Play the Movie
90 sec small video version (2.8MB)
90 sec big video version (8.6MB)
(looong download – but worth it)
Well actually, my cousin (the cameraman & Mr. never-done-karaoke-before!) & I stumbled into a “Hungarian Idol”-type night at a local club & after much hemming & hawing, I went for it. Unfortunately, the contest was over before they let me on, & much of the audience had left, but dammit – someone needed to bring the funk to Budapest!…. so I pressed on…. and lest the video fools you, there were more Hungarians there than the footage shows….
Can anyone figure out what the announcer is saying at the end? Near as I can tell from my 3 day immersion course in Hungarian, it is something like “and his hovercraft is full of eels.”**
‘deep
writing from Paris…
* The other thing that made Budapest feel alien was the fact that you can spend hours upon hours with nary a latin root as far as the eye can see! These people should have been conquered by the Romans better or something. The only respite lay in words like, my favorite, “szandvics” (sound it out). Makes Paris & French feel downright homey.
** bonus points if you know the reference
The Magyars came after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, one of the many steppe peoples that make the Dark Ages dark.
Weirdly, the language closest to Magyar is Finnish.
Obscure Linguistic Fact Boy
Some say the reason they’re so smart is because their language is so obscure and difficult. So Deep you don’t need to take it personally.